Two hybrid wheat varieties that are resistant to stem rust disease are set to be released to Kenyan farmers later this year. Mandeep Randham, wheat breeder and geneticist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center said that the two varieties, ‘Kenya Jacana’ and ‘Kenya Kasuku’ have high yields and resistant to stem rust disease known as U99. Read more here.
At the African Green Revolution Forum 2019, global and African leaders come together to develop actionable plans that will move African agriculture forward. This year, the forum is taking place in Ghana on the week of September 3, 2019, under the theme âGrow digital: Leveraging digital transformation to drive sustainable food systems in Africa.â Participants will explore the practical application of the emerging elements of the digital era such as big data, blockchain, digital IDs, drones, machine learning, robotics, and sensors.
CIMMYT’s work in this area is showcased in a new leaflet entitled âData-driven solutions for Africa: Using smart tools to combat climate change.â The leaflet highlights innovations such as crowdsourced crop disease tracking and response systems in Ethiopia, low-cost imaging tools to speed up the development of hardier varieties, and combining geospatial data with crop models to predict climate change and deliver personalized recommendations to farmers.
Speaking at the conference attended by 2,000 delegates and high-level dignitaries, CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff will give the keynote remarks during the session âDigital innovations to strengthen resilience for smallholders in African food systemsâ on September 3. This panel discussion will focus on how the data revolution can support African smallholder farmers to adapt quickly challenges like recurrent droughts or emerging pests, including the invasive fall armyworm. The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), CABI, and the Minister of Agriculture of Burkina Faso will be among the other panelists in the session.
The same day, CIMMYT will also participate to an important âAgronomy at scale through data for goodâ panel discussion with speakers from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, research organizations and private companies. The session will highlight how digital agriculture could help deliver better targeted, site-specific agronomic advice to small farmers.
During the forum, the CIMMYT delegation will seek collaborations in other important drivers of change like gender transformation of food systems and smallholder mechanization.
They will join public sector leaders, researchers, agri-preneurs, business leaders and farmers in outlining how to leverage the growth in digital technologies to transform food systems and agricultural livelihoods in Africa.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) sadly notes the passing of Maximino AlcalĂĄ de Stefano, former head of the centerâs Wheat International Nurseries service, on August 27. He was 80 years old.
Fondly known as âMaxâ by friends and colleagues, AlcalĂĄ worked at CIMMYT from 1967 to 1992, coordinating wheat international nurseries during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The job included organizing nursery shipments to over 100 partners worldwide each year and collating, analyzing, and sharing results from the nurseries grown.
The printed international nursery report featured an introductory section that described the nurseries, the locations, the statistical analyses used, and an overview of the performance of the breeding lines tested, which comprised the best CIMMYT materials but also germplasm from other sources. The report also carried tables with full data from each location as well as summary tables.
âMax was instrumental in preparing and distributing the printed nursery results, now made available online but which continue to provide crucial input for breeding by CIMMYT and partners,â said Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program. âHe also helped start the international nursery database.â
A native of Mexico, AlcalĂĄ completed a bachelorâs in Science at the Universidad AutĂłnoma Agraria Antonio Narro in 1964 and a masterâs at Texas A&M University in 1967. AlcalĂĄ pursued doctoral studies in wheat breeding at Oregon State University under the guidance of renowned OSU researcher Warren E. Kronstad, finishing in 1974.
His professional experience prior to CIMMYT included appointments at Mexicoâs National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) and in the national extension services.
Later in his career, AlcalĂĄ supported wheat training at CIMMYT and helped coordinate visitors services at CIMMYTâs experimental station near Ciudad ObregĂłn, in Mexicoâs Sonora state.
The CIMMYT community sends its deepest sympathies and wishes for peace to the AlcalĂĄ family.
Rural areas in Africa are facing unprecedented challenges. From high levels of rural-urban migration to the need to maintain crop production and food security under the added stress of climate change, rural areas need investment and support. The recent Africa Food Security Leadership Dialogue brought together key regional actors to discuss the current situation as well as ways to catalyze actions and financing to help address Africaâs worsening food security crisis under climate change.
Heads of state, ministers of agriculture and finance, heads of international institutions and regional economic commissions, Nobel laureates, and eminent scientists took part in the dialogue in Kigali, Rwanda, on August 5 and 6, 2019.
This high-level meeting was convened by core partners including the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Bank.
The Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Martin Kropff, participated in a session entitled âLeveraging science to end hunger by 2025â, where he discussed the challenges to adapt Africaâs wheat sector to climate change, and what CIMMYT is doing to help. Demand for wheat is growing faster than any other commodity, and sub-Saharan Africa has tremendous potential to increase wheat production. People in Africa consume nearly 47 million tons of wheat a year. However, more than 80% of that â 39 million tonsâ is imported and used for human consumption, costing the countries billions of dollars. Kropff discussed the great strides CIMMYT has made in supporting wheat production on the continent despite biological challenges such as Ug99, a dangerous strain of wheat rust native to east Africa.
âThe potential for wheat production in Africa is tremendous; existing varieties already realize very high yields but poor agronomic practices often result in low yields,â Kropff said. âThe challenges we have to tackle together are as much in reshaping policies in favor of wheat and develop the wheat market and surrounding infrastructure. Africaâs environment is friendly for wheat production, but it needs the right supporting policies to develop a sustainable wheat market.â
Kropff highlighted Ethiopiaâs case. âEthiopia has decided to become self-sufficient in wheat by 2025. CIMMYT is already talking to the government and working with the national system to assure the best varieties and technologies will be used. We are ready to do this with every single African nation that is interested in producing quality wheat.â
Climate change is also posing dire threats to maize, a key staple crop in sub-Saharan Africa.
We talked to Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT researcher and project leader of the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project, who attended the dialogue, on what CIMMYT can do to better support farmers in Africaâs rural communities.
How can projects such as Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa contribute to protecting food security in Africa in the face of climate change?
Stress-tolerant maize varieties can contribute by cushioning farmers against total crop failures in case of drought and heat stress, among other stresses during the growing season. In addition, stress-tolerant varieties can also yield well under good growing conditions, therefore benefiting farmers both during difficult growing seasons as well as those seasons when conditions are favorable for maize growth.
What can be done to support rural areas and smallholder farmers in Africa to improve food security?
Rural areas and smallholder farmers need support with climate resilient crop varieties, supporting agronomic practices, environment conserving farming practices, labor and drudgery- reducing farm operations, access to affordable finance, and rewarding markets for their produce.
What role can international research organizations such as CIMMYT play in this?
International agricultural research can unlock the potential of small holder farmers through the generation of new appropriate technologies, testing and helping farmers adopt those technologies, refining and fine tuning of new technologies, as well as scaling up and out of farmer-demanded technologies. International agriculture research can influence policy across and within borders, political divide, religion, ecologies, and diversity of farmers.
What would it take for CIMMYT to effectively move science from the lab and package it into solutions that can be disseminated and adopted by majority of small family farms in Africa?
CIMMYT should keep and broaden its engagement with farmers, policy makers, and continue with capacity enhancement of partners to reach scale and bring new cutting-edge smallholder-farmer appropriate technologies to farmers’ fields in the shortest possible timeframe.
Despite the severe social and political unrest that constrain agriculture in Afghanistan, many farmers are growing high-yielding, disease resistant varieties developed through international, science-based breeding and made available to farmers as part of partnerships with national wheat experts and seed producers.
These and other findings have emerged from the first-ever large-scale use of DNA fingerprinting to assess Afghanistan farmersâ adoption of improved wheat varieties, which are replacing less productive local varieties and landraces, according to a paper published yesterday in the science journal BMC Genomics.
The study is part of an activity supported between 2003 and 2018 by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through which the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) introduced, tested, and released improved wheat varieties.
“As part of our study, we established an extensive ‘reference library’ of released varieties, elite breeding lines, and Afghan wheat landraces,” said Susanne Dreisigacker, wheat molecular breeder at CIMMYT and lead author of the new paper.
“We then compared wheat collected on farmersâ fields with the reference library. Of the 560 wheat samples collected in 4 provinces during 2015-16, farmers misidentified more than 40%, saying they were of a different variety from that which our DNA analyses later identified.”
Wheat is the most important staple crop in Afghanistan â more than 20 million of the countryâs rural inhabitants depend on it â but wheat production is unstable and Afghanistan has been importing between 2 and 3 million tons of grain each year to meet demand.
Over half of the population lives below the poverty line, with high rates of malnutrition. A key development aim in Afghanistan is to foster improved agronomic practices and the use of high quality seed of improved wheat varieties, which together can raise yields by over 50%.
“Fungal diseases, particularly yellow rust and stem rust, pose grave threats to wheat in the country,” said Eric Huttner, research program manager for crops at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and co-author of the present paper. “It’s crucial to know which wheat varieties are being grown where, in order to replace the susceptible ones with high-performing, disease resistant varieties.”
Varietal adoption studies typically rely on questionnaires completed by breeders, extension services, seed producers, seed suppliers, and farmers, but such surveys are complicated, expensive, and often inaccurate.
“DNA fingerprinting resolves uncertainties regarding adoption and improves related socioeconomic research and farm policies,” Huttner explained, adding that for plant breeding this technology has been used mostly to protect intellectual property, such as registered breeding lines and varieties in more developed economies.
This new study was commissioned by ACIAR as a response to a request from the Government of Afghanistan for assistance in characterizing the Afghan wheat gene bank, according to Huttner.
“This provided the reference library against which farmers’ samples could be compared,” he explained. “Accurately identifying the varieties that farmers grow is key evidence on the impact of introducing improved varieties and will shape our future research
Joint research and development efforts involving CIMMYT, ACIAR, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Centre of Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), French Cooperation, and Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and Agricultural Research Institute (ARIA) have introduced more than 400 modern, disease-resistant wheat varieties over the last two decades. Nearly 75% of the wheat grown in the areas surveyed for this study comes from these improved varieties.
“New sequencing technologies are increasingly affordable and their cost will continue to fall,” said Dreisigacker. “Expanded use of DNA fingerprinting can easily and accurately identify the wheat cultivars in farmers’ fields, thus helping to target breeding, agronomy, and development efforts for better food security and farmer livelihoods.”
For more information, or to arrange interviews with the researchers, please contact:
Marcia MacNeil, Wheat Communications Officer, CIMMYT
M.MacNeil@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004, ext. 2070
Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT
r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004, ext. 1167
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 CGIAR 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.
About ACIAR
As Australiaâs specialist international agricultural research for development agency, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) brokers and funds research partnerships between Australian scientists and their counterparts in developing countries. Since 1982, ACIAR has supported research projects in eastern and southern Africa, East Asia, South and West Asia and the Pacific, focusing on crops, agribusiness, horticulture, forestry, livestock, fisheries, water and climate, social sciences, and soil and land management. ACIAR has commissioned and managed more than 1,500 research projects in 36 countries, partnering with 150 institutions along with more than 50 Australian research organizations.
About Afghanistanâs Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock
The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan works on the development and modernization of agriculture, livestock and horticulture. The ministry launches programs to support the farmers, manage natural resources, and strengthen agricultural economics. Its programs include the promotion and introduction of higher-value economic crops, strengthening traditional products, identifying and publishing farm-tailored land technologies, boosting cooperative programs, agricultural economics, and export with marketing.
Anani Bruce, maize entomologist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) since 2013, is intensively engaged in an expert partnership supporting African maize farmersâ stand against deadly insect pests, especially fall armyworm and stem borers.
A moth species native to the Americas, fall armyworm was detected in Nigeria in 2016 and in less than three years has overrun sub-Saharan Africaâs maize growing regions. At its larval stage, it feeds on leaves and ears, causing annual harvest losses whose value can exceed $6 billion.
Bruce and his colleagues are rushing to develop maize varieties that feature native genetic resistance to fall armyworm and to arm farmers with locally suited control measures. Finding and strengthening native resistance in maize against the pest is a key pillar of integrated pest management.
âThe fall armyworm is so challenging that thereâs no single, easy fix,â said Bruce, who earned a PhD in Entomology at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) and Kenyatta University, Kenya, in 2008. âWe are testing and promoting an integrated management approach which, along with host plant resistance, includes biological control, habitat management, good agronomic practices, safe chemicals, bio-pesticides, and botanical controls.â
âThe costs and complexities of such practices are daunting, but farmers can learn if you help them and there is little alternative right now, given that maize is sub-Saharan Africaâs number-one staple food,â Bruce explained.
According to the scientist, breeding is also laborious, because potentially resistant maize plants must be tested under controlled, heavy infestations of insects and this is allowed only in net houses.
âNet houses donât provide enough room to grow the large number of maize lines needed for rapid and effective breeding progress,â Bruce said. âEven so, we have promising leads on sources of moderate resistance from maize populations developed by CIMMYT in Mexico in the 1980s-90s.â
A case of switching environments and specialties
A native of Togo, a small West African country between Benin and Ghana, Bruce said he was first interested in studying mechanical engineering but did not get the opportunity at the University of LomĂ©, Togo, where he did his masterâs studies in agronomy. A mentor instead suggested he pursue entomology, and he followed this up at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Cotonou, Benin, where he undertook research on stem borers as a part of his masterâs thesis.
âSurprisingly, I found many parallels with mechanical engineering,â said Bruce, who is based at CIMMYTâs office in Kenya. âThere is a vast number and diversity of insect species and their roles and interactions in natural systems are incredibly complex, just as occurs between components in mechanical systems.â
When Bruce moved to ICIPE under the African Regional Postgraduate Program in Insect Science (ARPPIS), he needed to add English to his native French and local languages, but said his first major cultural shock was actually dietary.
âIn West Africa we usually eat our maize paste with a sauce,â he explained,â but when I sat down to eat in Kenya, I found that the maize paste called ugali was eaten only with milk or meat, a combination known as nyama choma.â
Despite that and other cultural differences, Bruce said he quickly acclimatized to his new work and study setting in eastern Africa.
Nursing maizeâs enemies
At CIMMYT, Bruce provides technical backstopping for national research partners to rear maize stem borers and the fall armyworm, as part of breeding improved maize varieties with insect-pest resistance and other relevant traits.
âSpecial expertise and conditions are required to raise, transport, and apply the eggs or young larvae properly on experimental maize plants, so that infestation levels are as uniform as possible and breeders can identify genetically resistant plants,â Bruce said.
He has also worked with gene constructs from the bacteria known as Bacillus thurigiensis (Bt). When inserted into maize, the constructs bestow the crop with resistance against stem borer species.
âWe have plans to deploy Bt maize in selected countries in eastern and southern Africa, but we are awaiting the resolution of regulatory hurdles,â he explained.
Bruce credits Fritz Schulthess, former IITA and ICIPE entomologist, with providing special inspiration and support for his studies and professional development.
âFritz believes in sharing his scientific experience with upcoming scientists and in speaking his thoughts in black and white,â Bruce said. âHe is a workaholic scientist who will review your paper even past midnight and expects your response before 6 am.â
Access to affordable quality seed is one of the prerequisites to increase agricultural production and improve the livelihoods of Nepali farmers. However, there are significant challenges to boost Nepalâs seed industry and help sustainably feed a growing population.
Six years ago, Nepal launched its National Seed Vision 2013-2025. This strategic plan aims at fostering vibrant, resilient, market-oriented and inclusive seed systems in public-private partnership modalities, to boost crop productivity and enhance food security.
The Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is supporting the government to enhance national policies and guidelines, and private seed companies to build competitive seed businesses and hybrid seed production.
Quality seed can increase crop yield by 15-20%. However, there are critical challenges hindering the growth of Nepalâs seed industry. Existing seed replacement rate for major cereals is low, around 15%. About 85% of Nepali farmers are unable to access recently developed improved seeds â instead, they are cultivating decades-old varieties with low yield and low profits. Some of the factors limiting the development of seed systems are the high cost of seed production and processing, the limited reach of mechanization, and the low use of conservation agriculture practices.
The demand for hybrid seeds in Nepal is soaring but research in variety development is limited. Most of the countryâs supply comes from imports.
In collaboration with the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), the NSAF project team is working with seed companies and cooperatives to scale hybrid seed production of maize, tomato and rice. Through this project, CIMMYT collaborated with the Seed Quality Control Center (SQCC) and national commodity programs of the NARC to draft the first hybrid seed production and certification guidelines for Nepal to help private seed companies produce and maintain standards of hybrid seeds.
Extension and promotion activities are essential to bring improved seed varieties to farmers. Standard labelling and packaging also needs to be strengthened.
A joint effort
CIMMYT and its partners organized a two-day workshop to review the progress of the National Seed Vision. The event attracted 111 participants from government institutions, private companies and development organizations engaged in crop variety development, seed research, seed production and dissemination activities.
In the opening remarks, Yubak Dhoj G.C., Secretary of Nepalâs Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, addressed the seed sector scenario and its challenges. He stressed the importance of collaboration among seed stakeholders to meet the targets of the National Seed Vision in the next six years.
During the technical sessions, Madan Thapa, Chief of the SQCC, analyzed the current status of the National Seed Vision and highlighted the challenges as well as the opportunities to realize it.
Laxmi Kant Dhakal, Chairperson of the Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (SEAN) emphasized the importance of private sector engagement and other support areas to strengthen seed production and marketing of open-pollinated varieties and hybrids.
Tara Bahadur Ghimire, Principal Scientist at NARC, gave an overview of the status of NARC varieties, source seed and resource allocation.
Dila Ram Bhandari, former Chief of SQCC, led a discussion around the assumptions and expectations that arose while developing the National Seed Vision.
Technical leads of maize, rice, wheat and vegetables presented a road map on hybrid variety development and seed production in line with the National Seed Visionâs targets for each crop.
âA large quantity of hybrid seeds, worth millions of dollars, is being imported into Nepal each year,â explained AbduRahman Beshir, Seed Systems Lead of CIMMYTâs NSAF project. âHowever, if stakeholders work together and strengthen the local seed system, there is a huge potential in Nepal not only to become self-sufficient but also to export good quality hybrid seeds in the foreseeable future. Under the NSAF project we are witnessing a few seed companies that have initiated hybrid seed production of maize and tomato.â
In one of the exercises, workshop participants were divided in groups and examined different topics related to the realization of the National Seed Vision. They looked at genetic resources, hybrid and open-pollinated variety development, source seed production and supply, private sector engagement and marketing, seed extension and varietal adoption by farmers, seed quality control services, and roles of research partners and other stakeholders. The groups presented some of the major challenges and opportunities related to these topics, as well as recommendations, which will be documented and shared.
The outcomes of this mid-term review workshop will inform policy and guide the discussions at the upcoming International Seed Conference to be held in early September 2019.
Regulating hybrid seed production
At the workshop, participants thoroughly discussed the draft hybrid seed production and certification guidelines, developed under the NSAF project.
The guidelines are the first of their kind in Nepal and essential to achieve the targets of the National Seed Vision, by engaging the private sector in hybrid seed production.
Hari Kumar Shrestha, CIMMYTâs Seed Systems Officer, and other seed experts from the SQCC presented the main features and regulatory implications of the guidelines.
After the workshop, the guidelines were sent to the National Seed Board for approval.
By 2012, young Bangladeshi mechanic Md Ole Ullah was working with the USAID funded Agricultural Mechanization and Irrigation Project, implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and International Development Enterprises (iDE Bangladesh). The new collaboration helped Ole develop the market for his locally-manufactured machines. Read more here.
A diverse group of agriculture, food security, environment and science journalists gathered in Saskatoon, Canada recently for an intensive course in innovative wheat research, interviews with top international scientists and networking with peers.
The occasion was the International Wheat Congress (IWC), which convened more than 900 wheat scientists and researchers in Saskatoon, in Canadaâs biggest wheat-growing province, Saskatchewan, to discuss their latest work to boost wheat productivity, resilience and nutrition.
The seven journalists were part of a group of 11 who won a competitive sponsorship offered by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT). Seven journalists attended the conference, while another four followed the proceedings and activities from home. The ten-day immersive training included multiple daily press briefings with top scientists in climate change modeling and resilience testing, innovative breeding techniques, analysis and protection of wheat diversity and many more topics, on top of a full schedule of scientific presentations.
âThe scientists were so eager to talk to us, and patient with our many questions,â said Nkechi Isaac, from the Leadership newspaper group in Nigeria. âEven the director general of [the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center] CIMMYT spoke with us for almost an hour.â
âIt was a pleasant surprise for me.â
The journalists, who come from regions as diverse as sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, offered support and encouragement from their travel preparations though their time in Saskatoon and beyond â sharing story ideas, interview and site visit opportunities, news clips and photos through a WhatsApp group.
âIt is really helpful to be connected to colleagues around the world,â said Amit Bhattacharya of the Times of India. âI know we will continue to be a resource and network for each other through our careers.â
The week wasnât all interviews and note-taking. The journalists were able to experience Saskatchewan culture, from a tour of a wheat quality lab and a First Nations dance performance to a visit to a local wheat farm, and even an opportunity to see Saskatoonâs newest modern art gallery.
The media sponsorship at IWC aimed to encourage informed coverage of the importance of wheat research, especially for farmers and consumers in the Global South, where wheat is the main source of protein and a critical source of life for 2.5 billion people who live on less than $2 a day.
The group also spoke with members of the many coalitions that facilitate the collaboration that makes innovative wheat research possible, including the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) and the G20-organized Wheat Initiative.
âThis is the first time weâve invested this heavily in journalist training,â said WHEAT program director Hans Braun. âWe think the benefits â for the journalists, who gained a greater understanding of wheat research issues, and for developing country audiences, who will be more aware of the importance of improving wheat ââ are worth it.â
A roundtable discussion with peers from Canadian news organizations and seasoned science communications professionals and a networking breakfast with CIMMYT scientists provided platforms for a candid exchange on the challenges and opportunities in communicating wheat science in the media.
A common refrain was the importance of building relationships between scientists and media professionals â because wheat science offers dramatic stories for news audiences, and an informed and interested public can in turn lead to greater public investment in wheat science. The journalists and scientists in Saskatoon have laid a solid foundation for these relationships.
The sponsored journalists are:
Amit Bhattacharya: Senior Editor at The Times of India, New Delhi, and a member of the team that produces the front page of India’s largest English daily. He writes on Indian agriculture, climate change, the monsoon, weather, wildlife and science. A 26-year professional journalist in India, he is a Jefferson Fellow on climate change at the East-West Center, Hawaii.
Emmanuelle Landais: Freelance journalist based in Dakar, Senegal, currently reporting for Deutsche Welleâs radio service in English and French on the environment, technology, development and youth in Africa. A former line producer for France 24 in Paris and senior environment reporter for the daily national English newspaper Gulf News in Dubai, she also reports on current affairs for the Africalink news program, contributes to Radio France Internationalâs (RFI) English service, and serves as news producer for the Dakar-based West Africa Democracy Radio.
Julien Chongwang: Deputy Editor, SciDev.Net French edition. He is based in Douala, Cameroon, where he has been a journalist since 2002. Formerly the editor of the The Daily Economy, he worked on the French edition of Voice of America and Morocco economic daily LES ECO, and writes for Forbes Africa, the French edition of Forbes in the United States.
Lominda Afedraru: Science correspondent at the Daily Monitor newspaper, Uganda, part of the Nation Media Group. A journalist since 2004, she also freelances for publications in the United States, UK, Kenya and Nigeria among others and has received fellowships at the World Federation of Science Journalists, Biosciences for Farming in Africa courtesy of University of Cambridge UK and Environmental Journalism Reporting at Sauti University, Tanzania.
Muhammad Amin Ahmed: Senior Correspondent, Daily Dawn in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has been a journalist for more than 40 years. Past experience includes working at the United Nations in New York and Pakistan Press International. He received a UN-21 Award from former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (2003).
Muhammad Irtaza: Special Correspondent with Pakistan’s English daily The Nation at Multan. A 10-year veteran journalist and an alumnus of the Reuters Foundation, he also worked as a reporter with the Evansville Courier and Press in Indiana, United States. He is an ICFJ-WHO Safety 2018 Fellow (Bangkok), Asia Europe Foundation Fellow (Brussels), and a U.S.-Pakistan Professional Partnership in Journalism Program Fellow (Washington). He teaches mass communications at Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan.
Nkechi Isaac: Deputy Editor, Leadership Friday in Nigeria. She is also the head, Science and Technology Desk of the Leadership Group Limited, publishers of LEADERSHIP newspapers headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. She is a Fellow of Cornell Universityâs Alliance for Science.
Reaz Ahmad: Executive Editor of the Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh’s national English newspaper. A journalist for 30 years, he is a Cochran Fellow of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an adjunct professor of University of Dhaka (DU) and Independent University, Bangladesh.
Rehab Abdalmohsen: Freelance science journalist based in Cairo, Egypt who has covered science, health and environment for 10 years for such websites as the Arabic version of Scientific American, SciDev.net, and The Niles.
Tan Yihong: Executive Deputy Editor-in-Chief, High-Tech & Commercialization Magazine, China. Since 2008, she has written about science particularly agriculture innovation and wheat science. She has attended several Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Technical Workshops. In Beijing, she helped organize a BGRI communication workshop and media outreach.
Tony Iyare: Senior Correspondent, Nigerian Democratic Report. For more than 30 years, he has covered environment, international relations, gender, media and public communication. He has worked as a stringer for The New York Times since 1992, and freelanced for the Paris-based magazine, The African Report and the U.N. Development Programme publication Choices. He was columnist at The Punch and co-authored a book: The 11-Day Siege: Gains and Challenges of Womenâs Non-Violent Struggles in Niger Delta.
The CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) as a primary research partner. Funding comes from CGIAR, national governments, foundations, development banks and other agencies, including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
âKnowing which strain you have is critical information that can be incorporated into early warning systems and results in more effective control of disease outbreaks in farmerâs fieldsâ said Dr. Dave Hodson, a rust pathologist at CIMMYT in Ethiopia and co-author of the paper âMARPLE, a point-of-care, strain-level disease diagnostics and surveillance tool for complex fungal pathogens.â Read more here.
Energy is vital for modern farming. âDisruption in energy supply to the farm sector can hold back efforts to achieve poverty, hunger, health and education and energy-related SDGs  in the rural farming areas,â said Akhter Ali, corresponding author of the study and agricultural economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. Read more here.
To mitigate the food security and economic risks of South Asiaâs frequent and intense droughts, scientists and policymakers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) recently joined forces to launch an innovative decision support and agricultural planning system that combines remote sensing and  climate data analysis for drought monitoring and early warning.
The Regional Drought Monitoring and Outlook System application was unveiled during a workshop to train experts and policymakers in its use at relevant regional and national institutes in Islamabad, Pakistan, from July 29 to August 1, 2019. The Regional Drought Monitoring and Outlook System is the product of an ICIMOD-CIMMYT partnership through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supported SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) programme, in collaboration with Climate Service for Resilient Development (CSRD), led by ICIMOD and CIMMYT, respectively.
âCommonly associated with epic flooding, particularly in the enormous breadbasket region known as the Indo-Gangetic Plains that extends across Pakistan, India, southern Nepal, and Bangladesh, the region also faces droughts driven by rising temperatures and erratic rainfall and which threaten crops, food security, and livelihoods,â said Faisal Mueen Qamer, Remote Sensing Specialist of ICIMOD, which helped develop the system and organize the workshop.
âWe expect the system to foster resilience in South Asian agriculture, while supporting future institutional frameworks and policies for farm compensation and adaptation, through decision makersâ access to timely and action-oriented information,â Qamar explained.
With a growing population of 1.6 billion people, South Asia hosts 40% of the worldâs poor and malnourished on just 2.4% of its land. A 2010 study found a linear drop of 7.5% in rainfall in South Asia from 1900 to 2005.
âShrinking glaciers, water scarcity, rising sea levels, shifting monsoon patterns, and heat waves place considerable stress on South Asian countries, whose primary employment sector remains agriculture,â said Mohammad Faisal, Director General for South Asia at Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the workshop opening.
Media reports in early 2019 documented displacement and hunger from Pakistanâs worst drought in years.
Raising awareness about drought and its mitigation
Twenty-three participants from six South Asia countries plus five expert instructors attended the workshop, which offered presentations and hands-on training on a suite of applications and associated data analysis tools, including the South Asian Land Data Assimilation System (SALDAS), the Regional Drought Explorer, and the National Drought Early Warning System.
Muhammad Azeem Khan, Member of the Food Security & Climate Change at the Planning Commission of Pakistan, said the scale of present and future climate challenges is clearly evident.
âIn Pakistan, we regularly see parts of the country in the grip of severe drought, while others have flash floods,â Khan commented during the workshop closing, while commending its organizers. âFrequent drought diminishes agricultural production and food security, especially for people in rural areas. Effectively managing the impacts of climate change requires a response that builds and sustains South Asiaâs social, economic, and environmental resilience, as well as our emergency response capacity.â
Through CSRD, a global partnership that connects climate and environmental science with data streams to generate decision support tools and training for decision-makers in developing countries, CIMMYT helped extend the Regional Drought Monitoring and Outlook System to Bangladesh, from its original coverage of Afghanistan, Nepal, and Pakistan.
âTranslating complex climate information into easy-to-understand and actionable formats is core to CSRDâs mission and helps spread awareness about climate challenges,â said Tim Krupnik, CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist based in Bangladesh. âThis consortium provides strength and technical expertise to develop relevant climate products, including decision-support information for farmers and other stakeholders, thus fostering resilience to climate-related risks.â
A research paper published in the worldâs leading scientific journal, Science Magazine, indicates that using the Happy Seeder agriculture technology to manage rice residue has the potential of generating 6,000-11,500 Indian rupees (about US$85-160) more profits per hectare for the average farmer. The Happy Seeder is a tractor-mounted machine that cuts and lifts rice straw, sows wheat into the soil, and deposits the straw over the sown area as mulch.
The paper âFields on fire: Alternatives to crop residue burning in Indiaâ evaluates the public and private costs and benefits of ten alternate farming practices to manage rice residue, including burn and non-burn options. Happy Seeder-based systems emerge as the most profitable and scalable residue management practice as they are, on average, 10%â20% more profitable than burning. This option also has the largest potential to reduce the environmental footprint of on-farm activities, as it would eliminate air pollution and would reduce greenhouse gas emissions per hectare by more than 78%, relative to all burning options.
This research aims to make the business case for why farmers should adopt no-burn alternative farming practices, discusses barriers to their uptake and solutions to increase their widespread adoption. This work was jointly undertaken by 29 Indian and international researchers from The Nature Conservancy, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), the University of Minnesota, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and other organizations.
Every year, some 23 million tonnes of rice residue is burnt in the states of Haryana, Punjab and Western Uttar Pradesh, contributing significantly to air pollution and short-lived climate pollutants. In Delhi NCR, about half the air pollution on some winter days can be attributed to agricultural fires, when air quality level is 20 times higher than the safe threshold defined by WHO. Residue burning has enormous impacts on human health, soil health, the economy and climate change.
âDespite its drawbacks, a key reason why burning continues in northwest India is the perception that profitable alternatives do not exist. Our analysis demonstrates that the Happy Seeder is a profitable solution that could be scaled up for adoption among the 2.5 million farmers involved in the rice-wheat cropping cycle in northwest India, thereby completely eliminating the need to burn. It can also lower agricultureâs contribution to Indiaâs greenhouse gas emissions, while adding to the goal of doubling farmers income,â says Priya Shyamsundar, Lead Economist at The Nature Conservancy and one of the lead authors of the paper.
âBetter practices can help farmers adapt to warmer winters and extreme, erratic weather events such as droughts and floods, which are having a terrible impact on agriculture and livelihoods. In addition, Indiaâs efforts to transition to more sustainable, less polluting farming practices can provide lessons for other countries facing similar risks and challenges,â explains M.L. Jat, CIMMYT cropping systems specialist and a co-author of the study.
âWithin one year of our dedicated action using about US$75 million under the Central Sector Scheme on âPromotion of agriculture mechanization for in-situ management of crop residue in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi,â we could reach 0.8 million hectares of adoption of Happy Seeder/zero tillage technology in the northwestern states of India,â said Trilochan Mohapatra, director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). âConsidering the findings of the Science article as well as reports from thousands of participatory validation trials, our efforts have resulted in an additional direct farmer benefit of US$131 million, compared to a burning option,â explained Mohapatra, who is also secretary of Indiaâs Department of Agricultural Research and Education.
The Government of India subsidy in 2018 for onsite rice residue management has partly addressed a major financial barrier for farmers, which has resulted in an increase in Happy Seeder use. However, other barriers still exist, such as lack of knowledge of profitable no-burn solutions and impacts of burning, uncertainty about new technologies and burning ban implementation, and constraints in the supply-chain and rental markets. The paper states that NGOs, research organizations and universities can support the government in addressing these barriers through farmer communication campaigns, social nudging through trusted networks and demonstration and training. The private sector also has a critical role to play in increasing manufacturing and machinery rentals.
This research was supported by the Susan and Craig McCaw Foundation, the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The Happy Seeder was originally developed through a project from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
For more information, or to arrange interviews with the researchers, please contact:
Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT
r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1167
Sonali Nandrajog, Communications Consultant, The Nature Conservancy â India
sonalinandrajog@gmail.com, +98 9871948044
Spokespersons:
M.L. Jat, Cropping Systems Agronomist, CIMMYT, India
M.Jat@cgiar.org
Priya Shyamsundar, Lead Economist, The Nature Conservancy
priya.shyamsundar@tnc.org
Seema Paul, Managing Director, The Nature Conservancy â India
seema.paul@tnc.org
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.
About The Nature Conservancy â India
We are a science-led global conservation organisation that works to protect ecologically important lands and water for nature and people. We have been working in India since 2015 to support Indiaâs efforts to âdevelop without destructionâ. We work closely with the Indian government, research institutions, NGOs, private sector organisations and local communities to develop science-based, on-the-ground, scalable solutions for some of the countryâs most pressing environmental challenges. Our projects are aligned with Indiaâs national priorities of conserving rivers and wetlands, address air pollution from crop residue burning, sustainable advancing renewable energy and reforestation goals, and building health, sustainable and smart cities.
As many regions worldwide baked under some of the most persistent heatwaves on record, scientists at a major conference in Canada shared data on the impact of spiraling temperatures on wheat.
In the Sonora desert in northwestern Mexico, nighttime temperatures varied 4.4 degrees Celsius between 1981 and 2018, research from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) shows. Across the world in Siberia, nighttime temperatures rose 2 degrees Celsius between 1988 and 2015, according to Vladimir Shamanin, a professor at Russiaâs Omsk State Agrarian University who conducts research with the Kazakhstan-Siberia Network on Spring Wheat Improvement.
âAlthough field trials across some of the hottest wheat growing environments worldwide have demonstrated that yield losses are in general associated with an increase in average temperatures, minimum temperatures at night â not maximum temperatures â are actually determining the yield loss,â said Gemma Molero, the wheat physiologist at CIMMYT who conducted the research in Sonora, in collaboration with colleague Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio.
âOf the water taken up by the roots, 95% is lost from leaves via transpiration and from this, an average of 12% of the water is lost during the night. One focus of genetic improvement for yield and water-use efficiency for the plant should be to identify traits for adaptation to higher night temperatures,â Molero said, adding that nocturnal transpiration may lead to reductions of up to 50% of available soil moisture in some regions.
Climate challenge
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in October that temperatures may become an average of 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer in the next 11 years. A new IPCC analysis on climate change and land use due for release this week, urges a shift toward reducing meat in diets to help reduce agriculture-related emissions from livestock. Diets could be built around coarse grains, pulses, nuts and seeds instead.
Scientists attending the International Wheat Congress in Saskatoon, the city at the heart of Canadaâs western wheat growing province of Saskatchewan, agreed that a major challenge is to develop more nutritious wheat varieties that can produce bigger yields in hotter temperatures.
As a staple crop, wheat provides 20% of all human calories consumed worldwide. It is the main source of protein for 2.5 billion people in the Global South. Crop system modeler Senthold Asseng, a professor at the University of Florida and a member of the International Wheat Yield Partnership, was involved in an extensive study  in China, India, France, Russia and the United States, which demonstrated that for each degree Celsius in temperature increase, yields decline by 6%, putting food security at risk.
Wheat yields in South Asia could be cut in half due to chronically high temperatures, Molero said. Research conducted by the University of New South Wales, published in Environmental Research Letters also demonstrates that changes in climate accounted for 20 to 49% of yield fluctuations in various crops, including spring wheat. Hot and cold temperature extremes, drought and heavy precipitation accounted for 18 to 4% of the variations.
At CIMMYT, wheat breeders advocate a comprehensive approach that combines conventional, physiological and molecular breeding techniques, as well as good crop management practices that can ameliorate heat shocks. New breeding technologies are making use of wheat landraces and wild grass relatives to add stress adaptive traits into modern wheat â innovative approaches that have led to new heat tolerant varieties being grown by farmers in warmer regions of Pakistan, for example.
Collaborative effort
Matthew Reynolds, a distinguished scientist at CIMMYT, is joint founder of the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC), a coalition of hundreds of scientists and stakeholders from over 30 countries.
âHeDWIC is a pre-breeding program that aims to deliver genetically diverse advanced lines through use of shared germplasm and other technologies,â Reynolds said in Saskatoon. âItâs a knowledge-sharing and training mechanism, and a platform to deliver proofs of concept related to new technologies for adapting wheat to a range of heat and drought stress profiles.â
Aims include reaching agreement across borders and institutions on the most promising research areas to achieve climate resilience, arranging trait research into a rational framework, facilitating translational research and developing a bioinformatics cyber-infrastructure, he said, adding that attracting multi-year funding for international collaborations remains a challenge.
Nitrogen traits
Another area of climate research at CIMMYT involves the development of an affordable alternative to the use of nitrogen fertilizers to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. In certain plants, a trait known as biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) allows them to suppress the loss of nitrogen from the soil, improving the efficiency of nitrogen uptake and use by themselves and other plants.
Scientists with the BNI research consortium, which includes Japanâs International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), propose transferring the BNI trait from those plants to critical food and feed crops, such as wheat, sorghum and Brachiaria range grasses.
âEvery year, nearly a fifth of the worldâs fertilizer is used to grow wheat, yet the crop only uses about 30% of the nitrogen applied, in terms of biomass and harvested grains,â said Victor Kommerell, program manager for the multi-partner CGIAR Research Programs (CRP) on Wheat and Maize led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
âBNI has the potential to turn wheat into a highly nitrogen-efficient crop: farmers could save money on fertilizers, and nitrous oxide emissions from wheat farming could be reduced by 30%.â
Excluding changes in land use such as deforestation, annual greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture each year are equivalent to 11% of all emissions from human activities. About 70% of nitrogen applied to crops in fertilizers is either washed away or becomes nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, according to Guntur Subbarao, a principal scientist with JIRCAS.
Although ruminant livestock are responsible for generating roughly half of all agricultural production emissions, BNI offers potential for reducing overall emissions, said Tim Searchinger, senior fellow at the World Resources Institute and technical director of a new report titled âCreating a Sustainable Food Future: A Menu of Solutions to Feed Nearly 10 Billion People by 2050.â
To exploit this roots-based characteristic, breeders would have to breed this trait into plants, said Searchinger, who presented key findings of the report in Saskatoon, adding that governments and research agencies should increase research funding.
Other climate change mitigation efforts must include revitalizing degraded soils, which affect about a quarter of the planetâs cropland, to help boost crop yields. Conservation agriculture techniques involve retaining crop residues on fields instead of burning and clearing. Direct seeding into soil-with-residue and agroforestry also can play a key role.
A new economic study in the journal Science shows that thousands of farmers in northern India could increase their profits if they stop burning their rice straw and adopt no-till practices to grow wheat. Alternative farming practices could also cut farmersâ greenhouse gas emissions from on-farm activities by as much as 78% and help lower air pollution in cities like New Delhi.
The new study compares the costs and benefits of 10 distinct land preparation and sowing practices for northern Indiaâs rice-wheat cropping rotations, which are spread across more than 4 million hectares. The direct seeding of wheat into unplowed soil and shredded rice residues was the best option â it raises farmersâ profits through higher yields and savings in labor, fuel, and machinery costs.
The study, conducted by a global team of eminent agriculture and environmental scientists, was led by researchers from The Nature Conservancy, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and the University of Minnesota.
A burning issue
To quickly and cheaply clear their fields to sow wheat each year, farmers in northern India burn an estimated 23 million tons of straw from their rice harvests. That enormous mass of straw, if packed into 20-kilogram 38-centimeter-high bales and piled on top of each other, would reach a height of over 430,000 kilometers â about 1.1 times the distance to the moon.
Regulations are in place in India to reduce agricultural fires but burning continues because of implementation challenges and lack of clarity about the profitability of alternate, no-burn farming.
Farmers have alternatives, the study shows. To sow wheat directly without plowing or burning rice straw, farmers need to purchase or rent a tractor-mounted implement known as the âHappy Seeder,â as well as attach straw shedders to their rice harvesters. Leaving straw on the soil as a mulch helps capture and retain moisture and also improves soil quality, according to M.L. Jat, CIMMYT Principal Scientist, cropping systems specialist and a co-author of the study.
Win-win
The Science study demonstrates that it is possible to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions in a way that is profitable to farmers and scalable.
The paper shows that Happy Seeder-based systems are on average 10%â20% more profitable than straw burning options.
âOur study dovetails with 2018 policies put in place by the government of India to stop farmers from burning, which includes a US$166 million subsidy to promote mechanization to manage crop residues within fields,â said Priya Shyamsundar, Lead Economist, Global Science, of The Nature Conservancy and first author of the study.
Shyamsundar noted that relatively few Indian farmers currently sow their wheat using the Happy Seeder but manufacturing of the Seeder had increased in recent years. âLess than a quarter of the total subsidy would pay for widespread adoption of the Happy Seeder, if aided by government and NGO support to build farmer awareness and impede burning.â
“With a rising population of 1.6 billion people, South Asia hosts 40% of the world’s poor and malnourished on just 2.4% of its land,â said Jat, who recently received Indiaâs prestigious Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award for outstanding and impact-oriented research contributions in natural resource management and agricultural engineering. âBetter practices can help farmers adapt to warmer winters and extreme, erratic weather events such as droughts and floods, which are having a terrible impact on agriculture and livelihoods. In addition, Indiaâs efforts to transition to more sustainable, less polluting farming practices can provide lessons for other countries facing similar risks and challenges.â
In November 2017, more than 4,000 schools closed in Delhi due to seasonal smog. This smog increases during October and November when fields are burned. It causes major transportation disruptions and poses health risks across northern India, including Delhi, a city of more than 18 million people.
Some of these problems can be resolved by the use of direct sowing technologies in northwestern India.
âWithin one year of our dedicated action using about US$75 million under the Central Sector Scheme on âPromotion of agriculture mechanization for in-situ management of crop residue in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi,â we could reach 0.8 million hectares of adoption of Happy Seeder/zero tillage technology in the northwestern states of India,â said Trilochan Mohapatra, director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). âConsidering the findings of the Science article as well as reports from thousands of participatory validation trials, our efforts have resulted in an additional direct farmer benefit of US$131 million, compared to a burning option,â explained Mohapatra, who is also secretary of Indiaâs Department of Agricultural Research and Education.
Read the full study in Science
This research was supported by the Susan and Craig McCaw Foundation, the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). The Happy Seeder was originally developed through a project from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
For more information, or to arrange interviews with the researchers, please contact:
Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT
r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 5558042004 ext. 1167