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Participants at a February 2020 maize working group meeting of the Pakistan Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) with seed of maize parental lines shared by CIMMYT. (Photo: Awais Yaqub)

International program ushers in a new era of maize farming in Pakistan

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

A unique consortium of global and Pakistan scientists has helped to drive the country’s recent growth in annual maize output to 6.3 million tons — nearly double the 2010 output — and energized the domestic production of affordable, quality seed of more nutritious and climate-resilient maize varieties.

With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), support from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and other national experts, and coordination by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the seven-year Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan has contributed to the dramatic growth in national maize productivity that began in the early 2000’s, when more farmers adopted hybrid seed and better management practices.

“A key AIP focus has been to reach smallholder and marginal farmers with affordable maize seed from domestic suppliers, thus reducing maize seed imports that cost Pakistan nearly $80 million in 2018-19,” said AbduRahman Beshir, CIMMYT maize seed system specialist for South Asia. “As part of this, the program has provided dozens of private companies with market-ready maize products and parental seed, as well as training in product marketing and business management and supporting the production and distribution of 175 tons of maize seed for on-farm demonstrations and promotion.”

“The testing of diversified maize products and release of new varieties represent encouraging progress,” said AbduRahman Beshir (foreground), CIMMYT maize seed system specialist, speaking during a traveling seminar, “but only advances in quality seed production and a competitive seed business at scale, with a strong case for investment by the private sector, will allow farmers to benefit.” (Photo: Waheed Anwar/CIMMYT)
“The testing of diversified maize products and release of new varieties represent encouraging progress,” said AbduRahman Beshir (foreground), CIMMYT maize seed system specialist, speaking during a traveling seminar, “but only advances in quality seed production and a competitive seed business at scale, with a strong case for investment by the private sector, will allow farmers to benefit.” (Photo: Waheed Anwar/CIMMYT)

Products from AIP have included more nutritious, diversified maize lines and varieties with tolerance to drought, infertile soils and insect pests, reducing the risk of smallholder farm families for whom losing a crop is catastrophic, according to Syed Khadem Jan, a farmer from Bajaur District of the tribal areas of Pakistan.

“Our area is very fragmented and maize yields have averaged less than 2 tons per hectare, due to the lack of improved varieties and management practices,” Jan said. “The new maize seed with drought-tolerance is what farmers are looking for and will help to secure our food and livelihoods.”

Pakistan farmers sow maize on 1.3 million hectares in diverse ecologies ranging from 30 meters above sea level on the arid plains of Sindh Province to nearly 3,000 meters in the Karakoram mountain range of Gilgit Baltistan Province and as part of complex, irrigated cropping rotations in Punjab Province and small-scale, rain-watered farms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Yellow maize is used widely in poultry feed and white maize for various foods including unleavened roti. Despite rising domestic demand for maize, production in Pakistan faces challenges that include a lack of maize varieties for various uses and ecologies, a weak seed delivery system, high seed prices, and unpredictable weather.

Since 2014, AIP has supported the testing by public and private partners in Pakistan of more than 3,000 maize products from breeding programs of CIMMYT and partners such as the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The extensive testing resulted in the identification of 60 new maize hybrids and varieties which CIMMYT handed over, together with their parental lines and breeder seed, to 16 public and private partners, according to Beshir.

“The maize seed distributed through AIP is enough to sow some 9,000 hectares, potentially benefitting nearly 110,000 families,” he said. “Similarly, CIMMYT has shared over 150 elite maize lines that have various preferred traits to foster variety registration, on-farm demonstrations, high-volume seed production, and intensive marketing. These contributions have broadened the genetic diversity and resilience of Pakistan’s maize and, through fast-track testing, saved partners at least eight years and considerable money, over having to develop them on their own from scratch and to pass them through conventional adaptation trials.”

Syed Khadam Jan, maize farmer from Bajaur District, Pakistan, holds a box of seed of a new climate-resilient maize variety from CIMMYT and the Pakistan Maize and Millet Research Institute. (Photo: Khashif Syed/CIMMYT)
Syed Khadam Jan, maize farmer from Bajaur District, Pakistan, holds a box of seed of a new climate-resilient maize variety from CIMMYT and the Pakistan Maize and Millet Research Institute. (Photo: Khashif Syed/CIMMYT)

Biofortified varieties provide better nutrition

Through AIP and national partners such as the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, farmers are testing pro-vitamin-A-enriched maize hybrids that are also remarkably high-yielding, helping to address one of the country’s chronic nutritional deficiencies. With the same aim, in 2017 the national variety evaluation committee approved the release of two “quality protein maize” hybrids, whose grain has enhanced levels of the amino-acid building blocks for protein in humans and other monogastric animals.

Thanking USAID and the government of Pakistan, as well as 22 public and private partners across the maize value chain, Muhammed Imtiaz, CIMMYT country representative for Pakistan and AIP project leader, underscored the importance of specialty maize products for vulnerable communities.

“Strengthening ‘Agriculture-to-Nutrition Pathways’ is a centerpiece of AIP and part of CIMMYT efforts to provide nutritious food for the needy,” Imtiaz said. “The introduction and evaluation of quality protein, Provitamin A and zinc enriched maize products represent a significant contribution both for the maize seed sector and Pakistan’s agricultural transformation.”

Addressing a 2020 AIP meeting, Muhammad Azeem Khan, PARC Chairman, urged stakeholders to use the new maize varieties. “I want to reiterate the importance of collaboration among public and private stakeholders to produce seed at scale, so that the diverse maize varieties can make it to the farmers’ fields as quickly as possible,” he said.

Maize seed producers acknowledge the value of AIP training and support in new business models. “We are grateful to CIMMYT for reviving and helping the crawling maize seed industry to walk,” said Aslam Yousuf, Managing Director of HiSell Seeds Private Ltd. Company. “Now we need to learn to run.”

Dating back to the 1960s, the research partnership between Pakistan and CIMMYT has played a vital role in improving food security for Pakistanis and for the global spread of improved crop varieties and farming practices. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace laureate and first director of CIMMYT wheat research, kept a close relationship with the nation’s researchers and policymakers.

Cover photo: Participants at a February 2020 maize working group meeting of the Pakistan Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) with seed of maize parental lines shared by CIMMYT. (Photo: Awais Yaqub)

Breaking Ground: Lennart Woltering is a catalyst for achieving sustainable impact at scale

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Features.

In Lennart Woltering’s first job working on agricultural water management with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Niger, he observed a phenomenon that would influence his career path. Although drip irrigation involved huge benefits in terms of yields and productivity, adoption was low all across Africa. This fact made Woltering frustrated and interested.

In his second job at the biggest management consulting firm of Germany focused on international development, he was awarded a contract by the German development agency GIZ to lead a team on a demand-supply match for innovations from the CGIAR. Here he found that uptake of many innovations that showed superior performance over alternatives was limited and largely confined to the pilot project environment. When a few years later GIZ and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) advertised a Scaling Advisor position, Woltering knew this was the job for him.

Scaling is the process of expanding beneficial technologies and practices over geographies, and across institutions and levels to impact large numbers of people. This sounds very abstract, and Woltering is now supporting colleagues to make sense of the what, why and how of scaling in their specific contexts. The GIZ and CIMMYT contract modality does not force him to work on one project alone, but allows him to support a broad range of projects and programs to achieve more sustainable impact, within and beyond CIMMYT.

Changing mindsets

There is a modus operandi of doing projects in the most efficient way to meet targets, then moving on to the next project. Success is often measured by the number of beneficiaries reached at the last day of that project. However, this is often at the expense of important “systems work” such as building lasting relationships, developing organizational capacities and improving the enabling environment rather than finding holes in it. CIMMYT’s mission and vision are focused on social impact, hence the outcomes of our work are more important than our outputs. We cannot assume that adoption of an innovation leads directly to positive impacts — we have the responsibility to abide by the principles of “do no harm” and “leave no one behind.” Scaling is a process that should be part of the design of projects from the beginning.

Woltering keeps asking himself, “What happens when the project stops tomorrow? Do local actors have the capacities and desire to take responsibility of the scaling process once the project is over? What models of collaboration can survive the project?” He observes a strong underestimation of the importance of context for an innovation to be successful. Woltering’s guiding principle is “10% is the innovation and 90% is the context.”

Lennart Woltering discusses scaling strategies during a workshop at CIMMYT. (Photo: Maria Boa Alvarado/CIMMYT)

The Scaling Scan

The first thing Woltering did at CIMMYT was visit the country offices and projects in Africa and Asia, to understand how colleagues give meaning to scaling and to identify opportunities and challenges. He saw that in every context there was a different bottleneck to scaling — government policies, the value chain, but hardly ever the technology. The common denominator among these situations was that there was always a weakest link. If that problem was solved, teams would encounter the next weakest link. He identified a need to think strategically about project elements from the beginning of the project.

Woltering came across a paper by PPPLab that mentioned ten scaling ingredients, or ten conditions for scaling to be successful. He got in touch with them to see how this could be useful for CIMMYT and the CGIAR. “How can we make this fluffy concept of scaling that people don’t understand into something meaningful?”

This idea became the Scaling Scan, developed by PPPLab and CIMMYT. The tool helps practitioners to analyze what they want to scale, while trying to keep the process as simple as possible. The Scaling Scan helps teams to come up with a realistic ambition and identify bottlenecks from the start. It highlights what project teams need to pay attention to on the journey to reach scale.

“One thing that immediately becomes clear is that impact at scale requires a much broader range of skills and disciplines than what any one organization can bring. The Scaling Scan and an associated partnership tool we developed helps teams to recognize what type of collaborations are necessary along the way. It is very encouraging to get emails from organizations like Catholic Relief Services and ILRI that they are using the Scaling Scan on their own,” says Woltering.

Participants in the scaling workshop stand for a group photo with the trainers. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Progress towards impact

For many decades, CGIAR focused only on research, but in the last 20 years, it expanded to focus on what actually happens with those research outputs.

CIMMYT has always been working on things we now call scaling, in the sense of having a positive impact and changing people’s lives for the better. However, how that happened in that specific context has never been integrated systematically in the design, implementation nor the learning. “Scaling is finally getting recognized as a science but also as an art, and it is great to work on both fronts with scientists and project managers,” says Woltering.

There is a global community of practice on scaling with donors, implementers and practitioners. Five years ago, there were ten members and now the agriculture working group has members of more than sixty different organizations (including USAID, IFAD, CGIAR, CRS). CIMMYT is not only leading this community, but also set up a CGIAR-wide task force and a CIMMYT internal task force on scaling.

The COVID-19 crisis has shown that we need sustainable change at scale, and short term and one-off solutions will not do. This has only accelerated a trend of funders and implementers shifting to a more systemic approach. “CIMMYT is at the forefront of this wave which makes it a very exciting time to be working on this,” said Woltering.

Demonstration of a minitiller, Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: CIMMYT)

African small-scale mechanization project winds down after strong results

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Features.

Smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia have embraced small-scale mechanization thanks to an innovative CIMMYT-led project, which is now drawing to a close. Since 2013, the Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project has helped farmers access and use two-wheel tractors that significantly reduce the time and labor needed to grow, harvest and process their crops. To ensure long-term sustainability, the project and its partners helped support and develop local enterprises which could supply, service and operate the machines, and encouraged the development of supportive government policies. The project was funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), as well as the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat.

“Mechanization is a system not a technology”

From its inception, FACASI went beyond simply providing machinery to farmers, and instead envisioned mechanization as a way out of poverty. “Mechanization is a system, not only a technology,” said Bisrat Getnet, the project’s national coordinator in Ethiopia and director of the Agricultural Engineering Research Department at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research. “Mechanization needs infrastructure such as roads, fuel stations, spare part dealerships, maintenance centers, training centers and appropriate policies. This project assessed which measures are needed to sustain a new technology and addressed these with direct interventions,” he explained.

The FACASI project worked to introduce and develop new small-scale machines, including two-wheel tractors, small shellers and threshers, and small pumps, in African rural settings, collaborating with local engineers, farmers and manufacturers. This included adapting a range of attachments that could be used to mechanize on-farm tasks such as planting, harvesting, transporting and shelling. In parallel, the project developed local business opportunities around the supply, maintenance and use of the machines, to ensure that users could access affordable services and equipment in their communities.

The project initially worked in four countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Researchers saw significant potential for mechanization to reduce the labor intensity associated with smallholder farming, while encouraging application of conservation agriculture techniques and developing rural service provision businesses. In its second phase, which began in 2017, the project focused on strengthening its efforts in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

“In my view the most innovative aspect enabling FACASI’s success was the concept of combining engineering and business modelling, with an understanding of the political, legislative and policy situations in the four countries,” said Professor John Blackwell, an Adjunct Professor at Charles Sturt University who reviewed FACASI and also invented and helped commercialize several successful machines in South Asia, including the famous Happy Seeder.

“FACASI has proven that small mechanization is viable in smallholder settings,” said CIMMYT scientist and project coordinator Frédéric Baudron. “It has shown smallholders that they don’t have to consolidate their farms to benefit from conventional machines, but that machines can instead be adapted to their farm conditions. This, to me, defines the concept of ‘appropriate mechanization’,” he said.

Conservation agriculture planter manufacturing in Arusha, Tanzania. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Benefits to local communities

During its course, the project improved the efficiency and productivity of smallholder farming, reducing labor requirements and creating new pathways for rural women and youth.

The reduction in the labor and drudgery of farming tasks has opened many doors. Farmers can save the costs of hiring additional labor and reinvest that money into their enterprises or households. With a small double-cob sheller producing one ton of kernels in an hour compared to up to 12 days by hand, women can do something else valuable with their time and energy. Entrepreneurs offering mechanization services — often young people who embrace new technologies — can earn a good income while boosting the productivity of local farms.

Mechanization has shown to sustainably improve yields. In Ethiopia, farmers using two-wheel tractors were able to reduce the time needed to establish a wheat crop from about 100 hours per hectare to fewer than 10 hours. In trials, maize and wheat respectively yielded 29% and 22% more on average, compared with using conventional crop establishment methods.

Local female artisan, Hawassa, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Impacts now and into the future

According to its national partners, FACASI has laid the groundwork for cheap and practical two-wheel tractors to proliferate. In Ethiopia, there are currently 88 service providers whose skills has been directly developed through FACASI project interventions. “This has been a flagship project,” said Ethiopia national coordinator Bisrat Getnet. “It tested and validated the potential for small-scale mechanization and conservation agriculture, it proved that new business models could be profitable, and it opened new pathways for Ethiopian agriculture policy,” he said.

In Zimbabwe, the project has also set the wheels of change in motion. “FACASI demonstrated an opportunity for creating employment and business opportunities through small-scale mechanization,” said Tirivangani Koza, of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement. “With the right funding and policies, there is a very wide and promising scope to scale-up this initiative,” he said.

Read more:
Explore the FACASI Hello Tractor knowledge platform to learn more about conservation agriculture and small-scale mechanization

Cover photo: Demonstration of a minitiller, Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: CIMMYT)

 

Women harvest wheat in India. (Photo: J. Cumes/CIMMYT)

New publications: From working in the fields to taking control

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Publications. 1 Comment on New publications: From working in the fields to taking control

Using data from 12 communities across four Indian states, an international team of researchers has shed new light on how women are gradually innovating and influencing decision-making in wheat-based systems.

The study, published this month in The European Journal of Development Research, challenges stereotypes of men being the sole decision-makers in wheat-based systems and performing all the work. The authors, which include researchers from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT)-funded GENNOVATE initiative, show that women adopt specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods.

In parts of India, agriculture has become increasingly feminized in response to rising migration of men from rural areas to cities. An increasing proportion of women, relative to men, are working in the fields. However, little is known about whether these women are actually taking key decisions.

The authors distinguish between high gender gap communities — identified as economically vibrant and highly male-dominant — and low gender gap communities, which are also economically vibrant but where women have a stronger say and more room to maneuver.

The study highlights six strategies women adopt to participate actively in decision-making. These range from less openly challenging strategies that the authors term acquiescence, murmuring, and quiet co-performance (typical of high gender gap communities), to more assertive ones like active consultation, women managing, and finally, women deciding (low gender gap communities).

In acquiescence, for example, women are fully conscious that men do not expect them to take part in agricultural decision-making, but do not articulate any overt forms of resistance.

In quiet co-performance, some middle-income women in high gender gap communities begin to quietly support men’s ability to innovate, for example by helping to finance the innovation, and through carefully nuanced ‘suggestions’ or ‘advice.’ They don’t openly question that men take decisions in wheat production. Rather, they appear to use male agency to support their personal and household level goals.

In the final strategy, women take all decisions in relation to farming and innovation. Their husbands recognize this process is happening and support it.

A wheat farmer in India. (Photo: J. Cumes/CIMMYT)
A wheat farmer in India. (Photo: J. Cumes/CIMMYT)

“One important factor in stronger women’s decision-making capacity is male outmigration. This is a reality in several of the low gender gap villages studied—and it is a reality in many other communities in India. Another is education—many women and their daughters talked about how empowering this is,” said gender researcher and lead-author Cathy Farnworth.

In some communities, the study shows, women and men are adapting by promoting women’s “managerial” decision-making. However, the study also shows that in most locations the extension services have failed to recognize the new reality of male absence and women decision-makers. This seriously hampers women, and is restricting agricultural progress.

Progressive village heads are critical to progress, too. In some communities, they are inclusive of women but in others, they marginalize women. Input suppliers — including machinery providers — also have a vested interest in supporting women farm managers. Unsurprisingly, without the support of extension services, village heads, and other important local actors, women’s ability to take effective decisions is reduced.

“The co-authors, partners at Glasgow Caledonian University and in India, were very important to both obtaining the fieldwork data, and the development of the typology” said Lone Badstue, researcher at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and another co-author of the paper.

The new typology will allow researchers and development partners to better understand empowerment dynamics and women’s agency in agriculture. The authors argue that development partners should support these strategies but must ultimately leave them in the hands of women themselves to manage.

“It’s an exciting study because the typology can be used by anyone to distinguish between the ways women (and men) express their ideas and get to where they want”, concluded Farnworth.

Read the full article in The European Journal of Development Research:
From Working in the Fields to Taking Control. Towards a Typology of Women’s Decision-Making in Wheat in India

Women harvest wheat in India. (Photo: J. Cumes/CIMMYT)
Women harvest wheat in India. (Photo: J. Cumes/CIMMYT)

See more recent publications from CIMMYT researchers:

  1. isqg: A Binary Framework for in Silico Quantitative Genetics. 2019. Toledo, F.H., Perez-Rodriguez, P., Crossa, J., Burgueño, J. In: G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics v. 9, no. 8, pag. 2425-2428
  2. Short-term impacts of conservation agriculture on soil physical properties and productivity in the midhills of Nepal. 2019. Laborde, J.P., Wortmann, C.S., Blanco-Canqui, H., McDonald, A., Baigorria, G.A., Lindquist, J.L. In: Agronomy Journal v.111, no. 4, pag. 2128-2139.
  3. Meloidogyne arenaria attacking eggplant in Souss region, Morocco. 2019. Mokrini, F., El Aimani, A., Abdellah Houari, Bouharroud, R., Ahmed Wifaya, Dababat, A.A. In: Australasian Plant Disease Notes v. 14, no. 1, art. 30.
  4. Differences in women’s and men’s conservation of cacao agroforests in coastal Ecuador. 2019. Blare, T., Useche, P. In: Environmental Conservation v. 46, no. 4, pag. 302-309.
  5. Assessment of the individual and combined effects of Rht8 and Ppd-D1a on plant height, time to heading and yield traits in common wheat. 2019. Kunpu Zhang, Junjun Wang, Huanju Qin, Zhiying Wei, Libo Hang, Pengwei Zhang, Reynolds, M.P., Daowen Wang In: The Crop Journal v. 7, no. 6, pag. 845-856.
  6. Quantifying carbon for agricultural soil management: from the current status toward a global soil information system. 2019. Paustian, K., Collier, S., Baldock, J., Burgess, R., Creque, J., DeLonge, M., Dungait, J., Ellert, B., Frank, S., Goddard, T., Govaerts, B., Grundy, M., Henning, M., Izaurralde, R.C., Madaras, M., McConkey, B., Porzig, E., Rice, C., Searle, R., Seavy, N., Skalsky, R., Mulhern, W., Jahn, M. In: Carbon Management v. 10, no. 6, pag. 567-587.
  7. Factors contributing to maize and bean yield gaps in Central America vary with site and agroecological conditions. 2019. Eash, L., Fonte, S.J., Sonder, K., Honsdorf, N., Schmidt, A., Govaerts, B., Verhulst, N. In: Journal of Agricultural Science v. 157, no. 4, pag. 300-317.
  8. Genome editing, gene drives, and synthetic biology: will they contribute to disease-resistance crops, and who will benefit?. 2019. Pixley, K.V., Falck-Zepeda, J.B., Giller, K.E., Glenna, L.L., Gould, F., Mallory-Smith, C., Stelly, D.M., Stewart Jr, C.N. In: Annual Review of Phytopathology v. 57, pag. 165-188.
  9. Rice mealybug (Brevennia rehi): a potential threat to rice in a long-term rice-based conservation agriculture system in the middle Indo-Gangetic Plain. 2019. Mishra, J. S., Poonia, S. P., Choudhary, J.S., Kumar, R., Monobrullah, M., Verma, M., Malik, R.K., Bhatt, B. P. In: Current Science v. 117, no. 4, 566-568.
  10. Trends in key soil parameters under conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification farming practices in the Eastern Ganga Alluvial Plains. 2019. Sinha, A.K., Ghosh, A., Dhar, T., Bhattacharya, P.M., Mitra, B., Rakesh, S., Paneru, P., Shrestha, R., Manandhar, S., Beura, K., Dutta, S.K., Pradhan, A.K., Rao, K.K., Hossain, A., Siddquie, N., Molla, M.S.H., Chaki, A.K., Gathala, M.K., Saiful Islam., Dalal, R.C., Gaydon, D.S., Laing, A.M., Menzies, N.W. In: Soil Research v. 57, no. 8, Pag. 883-893.
  11. Genetic contribution of synthetic hexaploid wheat to CIMMYT’s spring bread wheat breeding germplasm. 2019. Rosyara, U., Kishii, M., Payne, T.S., Sansaloni, C.P., Singh, R.P., Braun, HJ., Dreisigacker, S. In: Nature Scientific Reports v. 9, no. 1, art. 12355.
  12. Joint use of genome, pedigree, and their interaction with environment for predicting the performance of wheat lines in new environments. 2019. Howard, R., Gianola, D., Montesinos-Lopez, O.A., Juliana, P., Singh, R.P., Poland, J.A., Shrestha, S., Perez-Rodriguez, P., Crossa, J., Jarquín, D. In: G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics v. 9, no. 9 pag. 2925-2934.
  13. Deep kernel for genomic and near infrared predictions in multi-environment breeding trials. 2019. Cuevas, J., Montesinos-Lopez, O.A., Juliana, P., Guzman, C., Perez-Rodriguez, P., González-Bucio, J., Burgueño, J., Montesinos-Lopez, A., Crossa, J. In: G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics v. 9. No. 9, pag. 2913-2924.
  14. Multi-environment QTL analysis using an updated genetic map of a widely distributed Seri × Babax spring wheat population. 2019. Caiyun Liu, Khodaee, M., Lopes, M.S., Sansaloni, C.P., Dreisigacker, S., Sukumaran, S., Reynolds, M.P. In: Molecular Breeding v. 39, no. 9, art. 134.
  15. Characterization of Ethiopian wheat germplasm for resistance to four Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici races facilitated by single-race nurseries. 2019. Hundie, B., Girma, B., Tadesse, Z., Edae, E., Olivera, P., Hailu, E., Worku Denbel Bulbula, Abeyo Bekele Geleta, Badebo, A., Cisar, G., Brown-Guedira, G., Gale, S., Yue Jin, Rouse, M.N. In: Plant Disease v. 103, no. 9, pag. 2359-2366.
  16. Marker assisted transfer of stripe rust and stem rust resistance genes into four wheat cultivars. 2019. Randhawa, M.S., Bains, N., Sohu, V.S., Chhuneja Parveen, Trethowan, R.M., Bariana, H.S., Bansal, U. In: Agronomy v. 9, no. 9, art. 497.
  17. Design and experiment of anti-vibrating and anti-wrapping rotary components for subsoiler cum rotary tiller. 2019. Kan Zheng, McHugh, A., Hongwen Li, Qingjie Wang, Caiyun Lu, Hongnan Hu, Wenzheng Liu, Zhiqiang Zhang, Peng Liu, Jin He In: International Journal of Agricultural and Biological Engineering v. 14, no. 4, pag. 47-55.
  18. Hydrogen peroxide prompted lignification affects pathogenicity of hemi-bio-trophic pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana to wheat. 2019. Poudel, A., Sudhir Navathe, Chand, R., Vinod Kumar Mishra, Singh, P.K., Joshi, A.K. In: Plant Pathology Journal v. 35, no. 4, pag. 287-300.
  19. Population-dependent reproducible deviation from natural bread wheat genome in synthetic hexaploid wheat. 2019. Jighly, A., Joukhadar, R., Sehgal, D., Sukhwinder-Singh, Ogbonnaya, F.C., Daetwyler, H.D. In: Plant Journal v. 100, no, 4. Pag. 801-812.
  20. How do informal farmland rental markets affect smallholders’ well-being? Evidence from a matched tenant–landlord survey in Malawi. 2019. Ricker-Gilbert, J., Chamberlin, J., Kanyamuka, J., Jumbe, C.B.L., Lunduka, R., Kaiyatsa, S. In: Agricultural Economics v. 50, no. 5, pag. 595-613.
  21. Distribution and diversity of cyst nematode (Nematoda: Heteroderidae) populations in the Republic of Azerbaijan, and their molecular characterization using ITS-rDNA analysis. 2019. Dababat, A.A., Muminjanov, H., Erginbas-Orakci, G., Ahmadova Fakhraddin, G., Waeyenberge, L., Senol Yildiz, Duman, N., Imren, M. In: Nematropica v. 49, no. 1, pag. 18-30.
  22. Response of IITA maize inbred lines bred for Striga hermonthica resistance to Striga asiatica and associated resistance mechanisms in southern Africa. 2019. Gasura, E., Setimela, P.S., Mabasa, S., Rwafa, R., Kageler, S., Nyakurwa, C. S. In: Euphytica v. 215, no. 10, art. 151.
  23. QTL mapping and transcriptome analysis to identify differentially expressed genes induced by Septoria tritici blotch disease of wheat. 2019. Odilbekov, F., Xinyao He, Armoniené, R., Saripella, G.V., Henriksson, T., Singh, P.K., Chawade, A. In: Agronomy v. 9, no. 9, art. 510.
  24. Molecular diversity and selective sweeps in maize inbred lines adapted to African highlands. 2019. Dagne Wegary Gissa, Chere, A.T., Prasanna, B.M., Berhanu Tadesse Ertiro, Alachiotis, N., Negera, D., Awas, G., Abakemal, D., Ogugo, V., Gowda, M., Fentaye Kassa Semagn In: Nature Scientific Reports v. 9, art. 13490.
  25. The impact of salinity on paddy production and possible varietal portfolio transition: a Vietnamese case study. 2019. Dam, T.H.T., Amjath Babu, T.S., Bellingrath-Kimura, S., Zander, P. In: Paddy and Water Environment In: 17. No. 4, pag. 771-782.

Researchers urged to use common gender keywords to improve data impact

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on . Posted in Features.

A common approach toward data structuring is needed to improve access to gender research across agriculture data repositories, a recent report by the CGIAR Platform on Big Data in Agriculture suggests.

Simply adding the keyword ‘gender’ in database descriptions will improve the findability of gender agricultural research, which currently is hard to find due to the inconsistent use of keywords and tagging, said the report’s author Marcelo Tyszler, a (gender) data expert with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) in the Netherlands.

“The data is there. We just can’t find it all! A lack of consistent keywords when tagging research is leading to holes in searches for gender research across CGIAR, the world’s largest network of agricultural researchers,” he says.

“A more systematic and sharper use of keywords when describing datasets will improve findability in searches,” Tyszler states.

As part of the Findability of Gender Datasets report, researchers used a range of keywords, including ‘gender’, ‘women’ and ‘female,’ to search repositories for gender-based data across CGIAR agricultural research centers and compared the search results with a reference list of gender datasets provided by scientists. The results showed that a number of the datasets in the reference list were not found using these search terms.

The results uncovered important inconsistencies in the description of gender research, especially in terms of how data is structured and the detail of documentation provided in CGIAR repositories, says co-author Ewen Le Borgne, a KIT gender researcher.

“Poor data management limits the impact of research to be found, read and incorporated into new research projects,” Le Borgne says, invoking the age old saying, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Ibu Rosalina arranging a Kacang Panjang bush. (Credit: Icaro Cooke Vieira/CIFOR)

The researchers used the findings to promote a standardized approach to tagging and describing their research.

“To improve findability and the impact of data, the gender community should develop a list of commonly agreed keywords that can be used to consistently describe gender research data sets,” Le Borgne explains.

Any dataset containing ‘sex-disaggregated’ data should indicate so in the keywords, said Tyszler.  This is also important for non-gender researchers, to broaden the scope of their impact.

“By facilitating the tagging, findability and accessibility of quantitative and qualitative gender data we hope to facilitate mixed methods research by providing opportunities for both qualitative and quantitative researchers to exchange insights and create a stronger dialogue,” he explains.

Moreover, across the CGIAR there is a wealth of gender specific qualitative data collected through focus groups, interviews and other participatory research. As CGIAR continues to advance gender research efforts, big data is unearthing exciting opportunities for understanding and acting on the relationships among gender, agriculture, and rapidly digitizing economies and societies. However, varied approaches to data management is restricting access, thus limiting the impact data can have when other researchers aim to reuse results to gain deeper insights.

Moving beyond the ‘gender’ tag

Lubuk Beringin villagers cut off palm nut fruits at Lubuk Beringin village, Bungo district, Jambi province, Indonesia. (Credit: Tri Saputro/CIFOR)

Not surprisingly, ‘gender’ was the most common keyword used to describe data found in the study. Although it is essential for researchers to add the ‘gender’ keyword to research descriptions they must also go further in describing what the dataset represents, the researchers indicated.

“‘Gender’ is not precise enough a keyword to find all relevant gender-focused datasets. However, our search shows very few details as to what, about gender, is studied in each project,” says Tyszler.

Studies in other fields, for example nutrition, seem to have much more granularity in the description, with keywords including, nutrient intake, nutrition policy, micronutrient deficiencies, etc. We need a movement like this in gender research, he explained.

Better keywords should be a minimum, but it is also possible to consider the identification of a set of smart ‘gender metadata fields’. These would be input elements that need to be filled in that could ensure all CGIAR datasets properly assess gender dimensions, which would boost the visibility of gender research.

Working as part of the CGIAR Socio-Economic Data Community of Practice, the gender researchers support the exchange of gender-focused data collection tools, with standardized focus groups and interview questions, to improve the potential for comparing different datasets.

Since 2018, the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture and CGIAR Collaborative Platform for Gender Research have been collaborating out of mutual interest, to identify ways to unlock the big data potential of gender research.

Together they aim to take a much more active role in shaping up how gender data can be better analysed and reveal new insights, said Gideon Kruseman, the lead of the CGIAR Socio-Economic Data Community of Practice.

“We are promoting a standardized approach by bringing together gender data experts with other socio-economic and even biophysical scientists that may not know how to best engage with gender research and data,” Kruseman explains.

Access the full Findability of Gender Datasets report, which was funded through a 2018 grant to KIT Royal Tropical Institute, by the Community of Practice on Socio-Economic Data with co-funding by the CGIAR Gender Platform.

Cover photo: A woman helps to install a drip irrigation pipe on a farm in Gujarat, India. (Credit: Hamish John Appleby, IWMI)

A farmer in Hetosa district, Ethiopia, harvests his wheat crop manually, a time- and labor-intensive approach. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Reaping the benefits of innovation

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Features.

Post-harvest losses — which can range between 10-20% in major cereals — cause not only the loss of economic value of the food produced, but also the waste of scarce resources such as labor, land, and water, as well as non-renewable resources such as fertilizer and energy.

“High postharvest losses imply reduced grain yield, but with the same total greenhouse gas emission,” says Rabé Yahaya, a CIM/GIZ Integrated Expert working at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “Reducing these losses reduces the yield-scaled global warming potential — total greenhouse gas emission per kilogram of grain — and contributes to climate change mitigation, as well as food security.”

A significant proportion of these losses are caused by late harvest due to labor shortages, with crops languishing in the field before farmers can retrieve them. Small and medium-sized machinery may seem like the answer, but many one or two-axe machines are often unable to reach the inner sections of rice and wheat fields because of limited road access, or the fact that they are simply too heavy to carry.

“As mechanized land preparation works outwards, inner fields get ready for harvest first, but without any applicated technical solution,” he explains.

Could motorized scythes be the answer? Yahaya thinks so.

The other scythe

Motorized scythes are hand-operated tools used for mowing grass or reaping crops. Though largely replaced by horse-drawn and tractor-mounted implements, they are still commonly used in some areas of Asia and Europe.

Models specifically adapted for harvesting rice and wheat have been commercially available in Africa for over two decades and currently sell for $150-350, presenting the lowest initial investment cost of all engine-driven solutions on the market. The motor scythe also boasts the lowest harvest cost per hectare and is portable enough to reach inner fields.

Despite its relative affordability, uptake in much of West Africa has been slow, as many farmers have found the 10kg machinery too heavy for sustained use.

“Studies carried out in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali show that this rapid fatigue is caused by incorrect handling of the machinery, including flawed posture,” Yahaya explains. “This is simply because most operators have never undertaken official training for operating the tool.”

In a bid to address this challenge, Yahaya has been collaborating with Elliott Dossou, Sali Atanga Ndindeng and Ernst Zippel — all scientists at AfricaRice — to design and test potential solutions. Their proposal for the development of a Service Provider Harvest (SPH) model has been shortlisted for the GIZ Innovation Fund 2020 award, from a GIZ/BMZ-supported Innovation Fund.

Ernst Zippel, CIM/GIZ Integrated Expert at AfricaRice, presents on the reduction of postharvest losses through correct usage of motor scythes. (Video: AfricaRice)

Cut for service

The approach focuses heavily on capacity development, with an initial nucleus group of trainers taking the lead on activities such as recruiting and contracting service providers, providing training on harvesting and threshing, supporting aftersales services such as machine maintenance and repair, and helping to determine the optimum harvest time.

Under the proposed model, each trainer will be responsible for a group of around 50 service providers, who will receive guidance on understanding their role, finance, creating a network of client farmers, machine maintenance and use.

In addition to the financial rewards and aftersales services, the training opportunities will make this technology accessible to young entrepreneurs in rural areas. Earning up to $18 a day for harvesting and weeding services, those using the tool can expect to see a return on their initial investment in one to two months.

“Young people are the main prospective clients for this initiative,” says Yahaya. “With the motor scythe and related training, they can start earning serious money.” He stresses, however, that all farmers – regardless of age or gender – will be able to benefit from the job creation opportunities this initiative provides.

The initiative has been shortlisted for the GIZ Innovation Fund 2020. If selected, funding from the accelerator program would support testing, the integration of GPS sensors into the tools, creation of a platform for bank security and Carbon Credit earning, other technical activities.

Temam Mama’s family eats healthy and nutritious food produced through irrigation. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

Farmers diversify crops in their fields and food on their plates

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Features.

Farmers in the Bale area, in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, mainly produce wheat and barley. Temam Mama was no different — but some six years ago, the introduction of the two-wheel tractor offered him additional opportunities. This was part of an initiative of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Africa RISING project.

Selected as one of the two farmers in the region to test the technology, Temam took a five-day training course to understand the technology and the basics behind operating calibrating and maintaining the equipment.

The two-wheel tractor is multipurpose. By attaching various implements to a single engine, farmers can use it for ploughing, planting, water pumping, transportation, harvesting and threshing. For Temam, who had always relied on a rainfed agricultural system, the technology has high importance — he will be able to use the nearby river as a source of water for irrigation purposes.

To start off, Temam allocated 0.25 hectare from his four hectares of land for irrigation and planted potatoes for the first time. He was delighted with his harvest and the income he collected afterwards.

“From the first harvest, I was able to collect 112 quintals of potato and made roughly $1,529 in total,” said Temam.

Temam Mama checks his crops. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Temam Mama checks his crops. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

Eternal returns

His productive journey had just started. This income allowed Temam to keep growing his business. He bought a horse and cart for $550 and taking the advice from the project team, he constructed a Diffused Light Storage (DLS) system to store his potatoes for longer.

To diversify his income, Temam occasionally provides transport services to other farmers. Over time, Temam’s financial capital has continued to grow, bringing new ideas and a desire to change. He went from a wooden fence to a corrugated iron sheet, to an additional three rooms by the side of his house for rentals.

He is fortunate for having access to the river and the road, he explains. He also sees new opportunities emerging as the demand for potato in the market continues to grow. The price for one quintal of potato sometimes reaches $76 and matching the demand is unthinkable without the two-wheel tractor, he says.

In addition to the two-wheel tractor, he has also bought a water pump to enable him to increase the area that he can grow irrigated potato, garlic and pepper on. His target is to have two hectares irrigated soon.

Temam Mama drives a two-wheel tractor to the irrigation area. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Temam Mama drives a two-wheel tractor to the irrigation area. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

The future is bright

With his wife and four children, Temam is now living a well-deserved, healthy and exemplary life. Tomato, chilli and onion now grow on his farm ensuring a healthy diet, as well as diversified and nutritious food for the family. His economic status is also enabling him to support his community in times of need. “As part of my social responsibility, I have contributed around $152 for road and school constructions in our area,” noted Temam.

Under the Africa RISING project, Temam has proven that irrigation of high-value crops using two-wheel tractor pumping really works, and that it increases production and the profitability of farming. He has now stepped into a new journey with a bright future ahead of him.

“I plan to sell my indigenous cows to buy improved breeds and, in two to three years’ time, if I am called for refreshment training in Addis Ababa, I will arrive driving my own car,” concluded Temam.

Cover photo: Temam Mama’s family eats healthy and nutritious food produced through irrigation. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)

Improved heat-resistant wheat varieties are identified

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in In the media.

Wheat, in its own right, is one of the most important foods in the world. It is a staple food for more than 2.5 billion people, it provides 20% of the protein consumed worldwide and, according to the FAO, supplies more calories than any other grain. Its long-term productivity, however, is threatened by rising temperatures, among other factors. Stress from heat, an increasing trend due to climate change, affects its performance, a fact that requires urgent solutions bearing in mind that, according to some estimates, the world’s population will reach 9 billion by the year 2050.

Read more here: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-heat-resistant-wheat-varieties.html

A member of a women farmers group serves a platter of mung bean dishes in Suklaphanta, Nepal. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)

Small but mighty

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Features.

Nearly 65,000 farmers in Nepal, 40% of which were women, have benefited from the Agronomy and Seed Systems Scaling project, according to a comprehensive new report. This project is part of the Cereals Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and supported by USAID.

One of the project’s most recent successes has been in accelerating the adoption of the nutritious and stress-tolerant mung bean in rice-wheat farming systems.

Farmer Chhalu Bhattarai harvests her mung bean crop in Manikapur, Surkhet, Nepal. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
Farmer Chhalu Bhattarai harvests her mung bean crop in Manikapur, Surkhet, Nepal. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)

Rice-wheat is the dominant cropping system in the lowland region of Nepal. Farmers typically harvest wheat in March and transplant rice in July, leaving land fallow for up to 100 days. A growing body of evidence shows, however, that planting mung bean during this fallow period can assist in improving farmers’ farming systems and livelihoods.

“The mung bean has multiple benefits for farmers,” says Narayan Khanal, a researcher at CIMMYT. “The first benefit is nutrition: mung beans are very rich in iron, protein and are easily digestible. The second benefit is income: farmers can sell mung beans on the market for a higher price than most other legumes. The third benefit is improved soil health: mung beans fix the nitrogen from the atmosphere into the soil as well as improve soil organic content.”

Commonly used in dishes like dahl, soups and sprout, mung beans are a common ingredient in Asian cuisine. However, prior to the project, most farmers in Nepal had never seen the crop before and had no idea how to eat it. Encouraging them to grow the crop was not going to be an easy task.

Thanks to dedicated efforts by CIMMYT researchers, more than 8,000 farmers in Nepal are now cultivating mung bean on land that would otherwise be left fallow, producing over $1.75 million of mung bean per year.

The newfound enthusiasm for growing mung bean could not have been achieved without the help of local women’s farming groups, said Timothy J. Krupnik, CIMMYT senior scientist and CSISA project leader.

Employees select and clean mung beans at Poshan Foods in Butwal, Nepal. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)
Employees select and clean mung beans at Poshan Foods in Butwal, Nepal. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)
An employee selects mung beans at Poshan Foods, in Butwal, Nepal. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)
An employee selects mung beans at Poshan Foods, in Butwal, Nepal. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)
After mung bean is toasted, employees at Poshan Foods select the beans. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)
After mung bean is toasted, employees at Poshan Foods select the beans. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)
Poshan Foods uses mung bean for a wide range of products but has been particularly successful with baby food, which includes important nutrition advice for parents. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)
Poshan Foods uses mung bean for a wide range of products but has been particularly successful with baby food, which includes important nutrition advice for parents. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)

Bringing research and innovations to farmers’ fields

Introducing the mung bean crop to farmers’ fields was just one of the successes of Agronomy and Seed Systems Scaling, which was an added investment by USAID in the wider CSISA project, which began in 2014. The project aims to move agronomic and crop varietal research into real-world impact. It has helped farmers get better access to improved seeds and machinery and strengthened partnerships with the private sector, according to Khanal.

CSISA support in business mentoring and capacity building of seed companies to popularize newly released, biofortified and stress-tolerant wheat varieties has led to seed sales volumes tripling between 2014 to 2019. The project also led to a 68% increase in the number of new improved wheat varieties since the inception of the project.

Nepal’s National Wheat Research Program was able to fast track the release of the early maturing variety BL 4341, by combining data generated by the project through seed companies and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) research station. Other varieties, including Borlaug 100 and NL 1327, are now in the pipeline.

Empowering women and facilitating women’s groups have been critical components of the project. Nepal has seen a mass exodus of young men farmers leaving the countryside for the city, leaving women to work the farms. CIMMYT worked with women farmer groups to expand and commercialize simple to use and affordable technologies, like precision seed and fertilizer spreaders.

Over 13,000 farmers have gained affordable access to and benefited from precision agriculture machinery such as two-wheel ‘hand tractors’ and ‘mini tillers.’ This is a major change for small and medium-scale farmers in South Asia who typically rely on low horsepower four-wheel tractors. The project also introduced an attachment for tractors for harvesting rice and wheat called the ‘reaper.’ This equipment helps to reduce the costs and drudgery of manual harvesting. In 2019, Nepal’s Terai region had almost 3,500 reapers, versus 22 in 2014.

To ensure the long-term success of the project, CSISA researchers have trained over 2,000 individuals from the private and public sector, and over 1,000 private organizations including machinery manufacturers and agricultural input dealers.

Researchers have trained project collaborators in both the public and private sector in seed systems, resilient varieties, better farming practices and appropriate agricultural mechanization business models. These partners have in turn passed this knowledge on to farmers, with considerable impact.

“The project’s outcomes demonstrates the importance of multi-year and integrated agricultural development efforts that are science-based, but which are designed in such a way to move research into impact and benefit farmers, by leveraging the skills and interests of Nepal’s public and private sector in unison,” said Krupnik.

“The outcomes from this project will continue to sustain, as the seed and market systems developed and nurtured by the project are anticipated to have long-lasting impact in Nepal,” he said.

Download the full report:
Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia: Agronomy and Seed Systems Scaling. Final report (2014-2019)

The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) is led by the International Maize and Wheat Center (CIMMYT), implemented jointly with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). CSISA is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Cover photo: A member of a women farmers group serves a platter of mung bean dishes in Suklaphanta, Nepal. (Photo: Merit Maharajan/Amuse Communication)

Investing in climate change-resistant crops

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in In the media.

Developing climate-resistant crops is attracting increasing attention as climate change-related events worsen.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is a non-profit research organization that develops improved varieties of wheat and corn able to withstand drought, heat and pests in order to increase food security. It says that over 90% of its work relates to climate change.

Read more: https://www.ingredientsnetwork.com/investing-in-climate-changeresistant-crops-news083794.html

Interdrought 2020 congress proceedings now online

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Press releases.

The critical global challenge of significantly increasing food production by 2050 is exacerbated by water limitations. Droughts and water scarcity affect crop production across the world and global climate warming is aggravating this effect. A central challenge for researchers and policymakers is to devise technologies that lend greater resilience to agricultural production in drier environments.

The Interdrought 2020 congress presents the latest developments to address this global challenge.

Interdrought 2020 was scheduled to be held in Mexico City in March 2020. As it was not possible to proceed with the congress as a face-to-face meeting due to the travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizing committee has delivered the scientific program of the congress online. Congress proceedings are available at interdrought2020.cimmyt.org.

Today the organizing committee extended the reach of the congress proceedings to the global community by providing free online access to 43 presentations, 75 abstracts and 35 posters. The complete book of abstracts can also be downloaded. To date over 10,000 members of the scientific community have been invited to watch presentations and read the proceedings online.

Internationally recognized keynote speakers participated in the seven main sessions, supported by nine symposia convened by global experts, on topics ranging from breeding and management approaches to the basic science of plant–water relations.

State-of-the-art research and technology

Interdrought 2020 is an opportunity for scientific leaders from across the world to share the latest research and technology developments to advance plant production in water-limited situations. Interdrought 2020 embraces the philosophy of presenting and integrating results of both applied and basic research towards the development of solutions for improving crop production under drought-prone conditions.

Interdrought 2020, also known as Interdrought VI (IDVI) is the sixth congress in the series. It builds on the success of previous congresses held in Montpellier in 1995, Rome in 2005, Shanghai in 2009, Perth in 2013, and Hyderabad in 2017.

The congress was organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the University of Queensland. The organizers share a strong history of collaboration in crop research and agronomy that seeks to increase wheat’s tolerance to drought and its yield potential in hot conditions, such as those seen in Queensland, Australia, and Sonora, Mexico.

The organizers and the congress committee would like to thank major sponsors Corteva, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), the University of Queensland, and supporting sponsors in silico Plants, the Journal of Experimental Botany, Illumina, Analitek, and LI-COR. Our sponsors’ belief in the value of the scientific content enabled us to deliver congress proceedings to not only delegates but the broader scientific community.

For more information, please contact

Professor Graeme Hammer
Chair of the Interdrought 2020 congress committee
g.hammer@uq.edu.au

About CIMMYT

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.

QAAFI at the University of Queensland

The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) is a research institute of the University of Queensland supported by the Queensland Government via the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. QAAFI is comprised of four inter-related research centres working across crops, horticulture, animals, and nutrition and food sciences, with a focus on addressing challenges in the tropical and subtropical systems. For more information visit www.qaafi.uq.edu.au/about.