News – Page 86

Philomena Muthoni Mwangi stands at the entrance of her agrodealer shop, Farm Care, in the village of Ngarariga. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)

Solving the “last mile” challenge of maize seeds

Written by Jérôme Bossuet on March 13, 2019. Posted in Features.

Agrodealers play a pivotal role in delivering the gains of the green revolution to millions of smallholders in Africa. Reaching even the most remote corners of the continent, they give farmers access to agricultural inputs and services.

So far, seed systems research has mainly focused on the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of or seed companies’ investment in new varieties. However, little is known about independent agrodealers, who play an important role in the “last mile” of seed systems, distributing improved maize seeds and fertilizers as well as giving agronomic advice. There is a gap of knowledge about who they are, their needs and constraints, and the ways in which they secure and develop their businesses.

Understanding how to better support agrodealers is important for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), to ensure that new varieties reach the largest possible number of farmers. Under the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project, CIMMYT has launched a new research effort to better understand agrodealers in Kenya, with a specific focus on maize seed marketing.

Researchers are now testing the tools and expect to begin field work in March 2019, during the next maize planting season. “We want to collect detailed quantitative and qualitative data about the way agrodealers outsource and choose their maize varieties, and how they market these seeds to farmers,” explained CIMMYT associate scientist Pieter Rutsaert, who leads the study. This research will help government agencies, NGOs and funders to design better interventions related to agrodealers, for greater and more sustainable impact.

*CIMMYT researchers Jason Donovan (left) and Pieter Rutsaert (right) discuss the research study questionnaire with consultant enumerator Victor Kitoto. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)*

The million-shilling question

The way questions are selected and phrased, and data collected, is critical. “Figuring out how to ask the right question to the right person is a hard business, especially when we ask agrodealers to evaluate their own performance,” recognized Rutsaert. For example, it could be challenging to estimate the importance of maize seed sales if owners are hesitant to provide details about their businesses to outsiders. Anticipating the challenges of collecting reliable and comparable data, Rutsaert’s team will use visual tools, like illustrated cards, to facilitate conversations with interviewees. They will also use innovative exercises, like the shop investment game, where owners are asked how they would invest one million Kenyan shillings (about US$10,000).

Standing behind the counter of her shop, selling bags of feeding supplements for dairy cattle and small pesticide bottles on dusty shelves, Philomena Muthoni Mwangi explained she had run out of maize seeds for sale. This small agrodealer in the village of Ngarariga, in central Kenya, will restock her maize seeds from a big agrovet shop nearby at the onset of the rainy season.

This is quite common, as agrodealers do not take risks when it comes to selling new varieties. Not knowing the future demand, leftover seed stock after the planting season would severely reduce Mwangi’s potential profit, as margins per bag are low. To address this issue, CIMMYT researchers will conduct an intercept farmer survey in the coming weeks, to better understand what farmers look for when buying maize seeds.

Agrodealers are not a homogeneous group. Ranging from large one-stop shops to small shacks, their business models, seed marketing strategy and type of clients may differ a lot. This study will provide useful insights to design targeted seed scaling strategies that consider all kinds of agrodealers, moving away from a one-size-fits-all approach.

The Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

*The 70-year-old owner of a farm input shop in Kikuyu town, Kiambu County, answers the questions of CIMMYT researchers. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)*

USAID launches partnership to combat crop-threatening fall armyworm in South Sudan

Written by Mary Donovan on March 13, 2019. Posted in In the media.

Maize ears from CIMMYT's collection, showing a wide variety of colors and shapes. CIMMYT's germplasm bank contains about 28,000 unique samples of cultivated maize and its wild relatives, teosinte and Tripsacum. These include about 26,000 samples of farmer landraces — traditional, locally-adapted varieties that are rich in diversity. The bank both conserves this diversity and makes it available as a resource for breeding. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)

The Molecular Maize Atlas encourages genetic diversity

Written by on March 13, 2019. Posted in Features.

Imagine walking through a grocery store, doing your weekly shopping. Everything seems normal, but as you pick up a can, there’s no label. There’s nothing to tell you what the product is, and now you can’t reliably choose anything to eat this week.

Now switch gears and imagine a germplasm bank. Without the right labeling on these different varieties, it’s difficult to tell what’s new and what’s already been discovered when working on new research projects.

That’s where the Molecular Maize Atlas steps into play.

About nine years ago, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) started an initiative called the Seeds of Discovery (SeeD). This initiative facilitates easier access to and use of maize and wheat genetic resources.

SeeD achieves impact through five main components: genotyping, phenotyping, software tools, pre-breeding and capacity building.

“One of the aims of Seeds of Discovery was to best characterize germplasm,” says Sarah Hearne, a molecular geneticist and maize lead of SeeD. “At CIMMYT, our international germplasm bank holds in trust one of the largest and most diverse publicly available maize collections in the world.”

However, Hearne says this germplasm bank used to look like a grocery store without any labels or without labels that would allow someone to select a can of value. To combat this, SeeD decided to work on a labeling process for the germplasm bank: the Molecular Maize Atlas.

The Molecular Maize Atlas is an information platform that brings genotypic data resources and associated tools together. This genotypic data provides unifying information across landraces and acts as a common backbone, which other valuable information, like phenotypic data, can be added to.

Read the full article on SeedWorld.

In Odisha and Bihar, CSISA has leveraged the social capital of women's self-help groups formed by the government and other civil society partners and which offer entry points for training and social mobilization, as well as access to credit. (Photo: CSISA)

Support groups open women’s access to farm technologies in northeast India

Written by on March 12, 2019. Posted in Features.

Self-help groups in Bihar, India, are putting thousands of rural women in touch with agricultural innovations, including mechanization and sustainable intensification, that save time, money, and critical resources such as soil and water, benefiting households and the environment.

The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, locally known as Jeevika, has partnered with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), to train women’s self-help groups and other stakeholders in practices such as zero tillage, early sowing of wheat, direct-seeded rice and community nurseries.

Through their efforts to date, more than 35,000 households are planting wheat earlier than was customary, with the advantage that the crop fully fills its grain before the hot weather of late spring. In addition, some 18,000 households are using zero tillage, in which they sow wheat directly into unplowed fields and residues, a practice that improves soil quality and saves water, among other benefits. As many as 5,000 households have tested non-flooded, direct-seeded rice cultivation during 2018-19, which also saves water and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

An autonomous body under the Bihar Department of Rural Development, Jeevika is also helping women to obtain specialized equipment for zero tillage and for the mechanized transplanting of rice seedlings into paddies, which reduces women’s hard labor of hand transplanting.

“Mechanization is helping us manage our costs and judiciously use our time in farming,” says Rekha Devi, a woman farmer member of Jeevika Gulab self-help group of Beniwal Village, Jamui District. “We have learned many new techniques through our self-help group.”

With more than 100 million inhabitants and over 1,000 persons per square kilometer, Bihar is India’s most densely-populated state. Nearly 90 percent of its people live in rural areas and agriculture is the main occupation. Women in Bihar play key roles in agriculture, weeding, harvesting, threshing, and milling crops, in addition to their household chores and bearing and caring for children, but they often lack access to training, vital information, or strategic technology.

Like all farmers in South Asia, they also face risks from rising temperatures, variable rainfall, resource degradation, and financial constraints.

Jeevika has formed more than 700,000 self-help groups in Bihar, mobilizing nearly 8.4 million poor households, 25,000 village organizations, and 318 cluster-level federations in all 38 districts of Bihar.

The organization also fosters access for women to “custom-hiring” businesses, which own the specialized implement for practices such as zero tillage and will sow or perform other mechanized services for farmers at a cost. “Custom hiring centers help farmers save time in sowing, harvesting and threshing,” said Anil Kumar, Program Manager, Jeevika.

The staff training, knowledge and tools shared by CSISA have been immensely helpful in strengthening the capacity of women farmers, according to D. Balamurugan, CEO of Jeevika. “We aim to further strengthen our partnership with CSISA and accelerate our work with women farmers, improving their productivity while saving their time and costs,” Balamurugan said.

CSISA is implemented jointly by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Mainassara Zaman-Allah conducts a demonstration of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at the Chiredzi research station in Zimbabwe.

Digital imaging tools make maize breeding much more efficient

Written by Shiela Chikulo on March 11, 2019. Posted in News.

To keep up with growing maize demand, breeders aim at optimizing annual yield gain under various stress conditions, like drought or low fertility soils. To that end, they identify the genetic merit of each individual plant, so they can select the best ones for breeding.

To improve that process, researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are looking at cost-effective ways to assess a larger number of maize plants and to collect more accurate data related to key plant characteristics. Plant phenotyping looks at the interaction between the genetic make-up of a plant with the environment, which produces certain characteristics or traits. In maize, for example, this may manifest in different leaf angles or ear heights.

Recent innovations in digital imagery and sensors save money and time in the collection of data related to phenotyping. These technologies, known as high-throughput phenotyping platforms, replace lengthy paper-based visual observations of crop trials.

Authors of a recent review study on high-throughput phenotyping tools observe that obtaining accurate and inexpensive estimates of genetic value of individuals is central to breeding. Mainassara Zaman-Allah, an abiotic stress phenotyping specialist at CIMMYT in Zimbabwe and one of the co-authors, emphasizes the importance of improving existing tools and developing new ones. “Plant breeding is a continuously evolving field where new tools and methods are used to develop new varieties more precisely and rapidly, sometimes at reduced financial resources than before,” he said. “All this happens to improve efficiency in breeding, in order to address the need for faster genetic gain and reduction of the cost of breeding.”

“Under the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project, we are working on implementing the use of drone-based sensing, among other breeding innovations, to reduce time and cost of phenotyping, so that the development of new varieties costs less,’’ said Zaman-Allah. “The use of drones cuts time and cost of data collection by 25 to 75 percent compared to conventional methods, because it enables to collect data on several traits simultaneously — for example canopy senescence and plant count,” he explained.

Another great innovation developed under this CIMMYT project is what Zaman-Allah calls the ear analyzer. This low-cost digital imaging app allows to collect maize ear and kernel trait data 90 percent faster. This implies higher productivity and rigor, as more time is dedicated to data analysis rather than time spent on data collection. Using digital image processing, the ear analyzer gives simultaneous data of more than eight traits, including ear size and number, kernel number, size and weight.

*Measuring maize attributes such as ear size, kernel number and kernel weight is becoming faster and simpler through digital imaging technologies.*

Some national agricultural research systems and NGOs have adopted this digital imagery tool to better assess maize yields in farmers’ fields. For instance, CIMMYT and GOAL have used this tool to assess the extent of fall armyworm impact on maize crops yield in eastern Zimbabwe.

Scientists are exploring the use of different sensors for phenotyping, such as Red, Green and Blue (RGB) digital imaging or Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) devices. Infrared thermal and spectral cameras could lead to further progress towards faster maize breeding.

Such sensors can help collect numerous proxy data relating to important plant physiological traits or the plant environment, like plant height and architecture, soil moisture and root characteristics. This data can be used to assess the maize crop yield potential and stress tolerance.

Such breeding innovations are also making maize research more responsive to climate change and emerging pests and diseases.

Breaking Ground: Rahma Adam unleashes the agricultural productivity of Africa’s women and youth

Written by Jérôme Bossuet on March 11, 2019. Posted in Features.

Despite great innovations in African agriculture in recent years, much of the continent still struggles to feed itself. With the population growing at an unprecedented rate, avoiding fatal food insecurity lies in the ability to maximize agricultural capacity.

Sociologist Rahma Adam believes there is one vital resource that remains untapped. One which, when unleashed, will not only increase food security but also boost livelihoods: the human capital of Africa’s women and youth.

“Smallholder production and livelihoods are stifled by the unequal access woman and youth have to farming information and resources, compared to men,” said Adam. “Limited access to land and technical services inhibits their agricultural productivity and holds back the food security of all.”

As a gender and development specialist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Adam adds a social inclusion lens to Africa’s development dialogue. Her research asks questions as to why women and youth are overrepresented among the poor and how to improve their access to agricultural training and markets.

The interaction between biology and anthropology has fascinated Adam since she was an undergraduate student at Macalester College. However, it was not until researching women and men in the local food markets of her native Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — as part of an exercise for her master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvard University — that she realized how social equity could improve the livelihoods of all African farmers.

“Working alongside farming women, I saw first-hand the disproportionate number of challenges they face to overcome poverty, gather finance for inputs, produce enough food to sustain a family and improve their livelihoods. However, I also saw their potential,” Adam explained.

Inspired to tackle these complex issues, she got her doctoral degree in rural sociology, with a focus on agriculture, gender and international development, from Pennsylvania State University. Following an early career with nonprofits and the World Bank, she joined CIMMYT as a gender and development specialist in 2015.

Since then, Adam has led research on how best to lift the agricultural productivity of women and youth to its full potential. Working with the Sustainable Intensification for Maize-Legumes Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project, she analyzed the role of gender and social inclusion in maize and legume value chains in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. She also identified intervention points to achieve gender and age equity across various nodes from field to plate, for example among producers, agrodealers, traders, processors and breeders.

“Promoting women and youth participation in agricultural value chains improves food security and livelihoods,” she explained. “Allowing these groups to have a voice and encouraging their leadership in farmer groups promotes their participation in agriculture.”

Partnerships for social inclusion

In eastern and southern Africa’s maize and legume farming systems, research shows that in most cases men have the final decision over maize crop production. Women have increased decision-making power regarding certain legumes, such as cowpeas and groundnuts, as they are mostly only for household consumption.

Adam’s work with SIMLESA found that promoting women’s participation in the production of legumes as cash crops is an opportunity to empower them, increase their household income and their food security.

Connecting women and youth to value chains through Agricultural Innovation Platforms improves their access to markets, credit, farming information and capacity development, she said. These platforms bring together farmers with extension workers, researchers, agrodealers, and NGO practitioners, so they can work together to improve maize and legume conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification.

“It is important policy and development decision makers see that research demonstrates entry points to encourage women and youth to take an active role in value chains and improve productivity,” Adam said.

“You don’t want your research to sit on a shelf. This is why science policy dialogues — like the SIMLESA local, national and regional policy forums taking place this year — are important to ensure that research is introduced into the political landscape.”

An inclusive approach to research

Research must be designed and implemented in a way that women and men, including youth, can participate in and benefit from, Adam explained. They need to be considered in the research process, so they can increase their control of productive assets, participate in decision making, and decrease their labor burdens.

Adam has recently joined CIMMYT’s Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project to unpack gender issues in the formal maize seed sector. She will examine the relationship between gender and adoption of drought-tolerant and other improved varieties of maize. Adam will also analyze and categorize the differences in maize trait preferences between male and female farmers, and she will develop materials to integrate gender considerations in formal maize seed sector development.

“This information will be used by breeders to develop new maize varieties which are valuable to farmers and therefore have an increased chance of adoption,” the sociologist explained. “It will also help stakeholders get an idea of the rate men and women adopt improved varieties, and how they contribute to the evolution and performance of the seed sector in eastern and southern Africa.”

Providing training and consultation to her peers on gender and social inclusion is another important component of Adam’s work at CIMMYT. In June she will deliver a webinar on gender in research for CGIAR centers. At the end of the year she will participate in a regional seed sector workshop with other CGIAR experts, seed companies and NGOs, to ensure that partners use gender and social inclusion research.

Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the SIMLESA project was led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with the Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), CGIAR centers and national agricultural research institutes in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. Other regional and international partners include the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland, Australia, and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA).

STMA is implemented by CIMMYT and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States of Agency for International Development (USAID).

Preparing for invasive pests before they arrive

Written by Mary Donovan on March 11, 2019. Posted in In the media.

Recent research in Southern Ethiopia found that agricultural areas with the highest tree cover also experienced the most productivity in crop, feed and fuel. (Photo: Mokhamad Edliadi/CIFOR)

Growing need for food is reason for more biodiversity

Written by on March 8, 2019. Posted in News.

Deep within southern Ethiopia’s agroforestry landscapes, where farmers grow grain and keep cattle, sheep, goats and donkeys, researchers counted more than 4,100 birds as part of an assessment on agricultural productivity and biodiversity.

The researchers also counted some 4,473 individual trees from 52 tree species in the same study, which they believe is the first to link key indicators of biodiversity to more than one indicator of agricultural productivity, considering three products people in rural communities value most: fodder, fuel and food.

This has led to two important new conclusions: that encouraging biodiversity on and around agricultural land likely increases its productivity, and that measurements of productivity must be broadened to include what matters for local livelihoods.

Too often, agricultural productivity is measured through a very narrow lens, such as “mere” crop yields alone. But, according to the study, that has “disregarded local perspectives of what is actually important to people in terms of ecosystem services.

Take, for instance, trees: in addition to potentially growing food, they also benefit crop yield by controlling erosion; capture nutrients for the soil through their roots; help regulate the climate; and provide habitats for animals and insects, including natural enemies of crop pests. The study found that in this region of Ethiopia, agricultural productivity was higher in areas with heavy tree cover than in landscapes where trees had been removed for more crop space.

“We need to understand what would be the best way to produce food with minimum negative consequences on biodiversity,” says lead researcher Frédéric Baudron, challenging the assumption of trading one for the other in faith that agricultural intensification and biodiversity conservation can be achieved at once.

This study comes amid concerns that a rising demand for food and fuel to serve the world’s growing population – projected to reach 9 billion by 2050 – will drive greater agricultural expansion and intensification.

The proliferation of both would likely cause real harm to landscapes and biodiversity, threatening the essential natural constituents of the world’s ability to feed itself, warns Baudron. “That has serious implications for the sustainability of our global food production system,” he says. “We need biodiversity as an essential input.”

He also raises the issue of justice. Biodiversity loss hits hardest the millions of small farmers in developing countries – who make up the majority of farmers worldwide – because they depend almost exclusively on ecosystem services, and not external inputs, for production. And the resulting edible output is crucial for everyone; family farms produce more than 80 percent of the world’s food in value terms, according to FAO statistics.

Baudron says the study’s findings play into how small family farms should be managed through policy and in major restoration efforts, given that tree placement and configuration have enormous implications for biodiversity and ecosystem services it provides.

In other words, biodiversity shouldn’t be a bonus of productive landscapes. The study suggests, rather, that productive landscapes should be designed to make the most of all of the services provided by biodiversity.

The work was part of ‘The Agrarian Change Project’, with funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.

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Scientists say lethal maize disease contained in eastern Africa

Written by Mary Donovan on March 7, 2019. Posted in In the media.

New publications: Identifying common genetic bases for yield, biomass and radiation use efficiency in spring wheat

Written by Courtney Brantley on March 7, 2019. Posted in Publications.

For plant scientists, increasing wheat yield potential is one of the most prevalent challenges of their work. One key strategy for increasing yield is to improve the plant’s ability to produce biomass through optimizing the conversion of solar radiation into plant structures and grain, called radiation use efficiency (RUE). Currently, the process is 30-50% less efficient in wheat than in maize.

International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) wheat physiologist Gemma Molero, in collaboration with Ryan Joynson and Anthony Hall of the Earlham Institute, has been studying the association of RUE related traits with molecular markers to identify specific genes associated with this trait.

In December 2018, her team published their results in the article “Elucidating the genetic basis of biomass accumulation and radiation use efficiency in spring wheat and its role in yield potential,” shedding light on some of the genetic bases of biomass accumulation and RUE in a specially designed panel of lines that included material with diverse expression of RUE over the wheat crop cycle.

Over the course of two years, Molero and fellow researchers evaluated a panel of 150 elite spring wheat genotypes for 31 traits, looking for marker traits associated with yield and other “sink”-related traits, such as, grain number, grain weight and harvest index, along with ‘’source’’-related traits, such as RUE and biomass at various growth stages. Many of the elite wheat lines that were tested encompass “exotic” material in their pedigree such as ancient wheat landraces and wheat wild relatives.

The scientists found that increases in both net rate of photosynthesis and RUE have the potential to make a large impact on wheat biomass, demonstrating that the use of exotic material is a valuable resource to help increase yield potential. This is the first time that a panel of elite wheat lines has been assembled using different sources of yield potential traits, and an important output from a large global endeavor to increase wheat yield, the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP).

“We identified common genetic bases for yield, biomass and RUE for the first time. This has important implications for wheat researchers, breeders, geneticists, plant scientists and biologists,” says Molero.

The identification of molecular markers associated with the studied traits is a valuable tool for wheat improvement. Broadly speaking, the study opens the door for a series of important biological questions about the role of RUE in yield potential and in the ability to increase grain biomass.

In order to accommodate worldwide population increases and shifts in diet, wheat yield needs to double by 2050 — and genetic gains in wheat, specifically, must increase at a rate of 2.4 percent annually. Increasing biomass through the optimization of RUE along the wheat crop cycle can be an important piece in the puzzle to help meet this demand.

Read the full study here.

Check out other recent publications by CIMMYT researchers below:

A loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for the rapid detection of toxigenic Fusarium temperatum in maize stalks and kernels. 2019. Liuying Shan, Hafiz Abdul Haseeb, Jun Zhang, Dandan Zhang, Jeffers, D.P., Xiaofeng Dai, Wei Guo. In: International Journal of Food Microbiology v. 291, p. 72-78.
Adoption of drought tolerant maize varieties under rainfall stress in Malawi. 2019. Katengeza, S.P., Holden, S.T., Lunduka, R. In: Journal of Agricultural Economics v. 70, no. 1, p. 198-214.
Alternative use of wheat land to implement a potential wheat holiday as wheat blast control : in search of feasible crops in Bangladesh. 2019. Mottaleb, K.A., Singh, P.K., Xinyao He, Akbar Hossain, Kruseman, G., Erenstein, O. In: Land Use Policy v. 82, p. 1-12.
Business models of SMEs as a mechanism for scaling climate smart technologies : the case of Punjab, India. 2019. Groot, A.E., Bolt, J.S., Jat, H.S., Jat, M.L., Kumar, M., Agarwal, T., Blok, V. In: Journal of Cleaner Production v. 210, p. 1109-1119.
Climate change impact and adaptation for wheat protein. 2019. Asseng, S., Martre, P., Maiorano, A., Rotter, R., O’Leary, G.J., Fitzgerald, G., Girousse, C., Motzo, R., Giunta, F., M. Ali Babar, Reynolds, M.P., Kheir, A.M.S., Thorburn, P.J., Waha, K., Ruane, A.C., Aggarwal, P.K., Mukhtar Ahmed, Balkovic, J., Basso, B., Biernath, C., Bindi, M., Cammarano, D., Challinor, A.J., De Sanctis, G., Dumont, B., Eyshi Rezaei, E., Fereres, E., Ferrise, R., Garcia-Vila, M., Gayler, S., Yujing Gao, Horan, H., Hoogenboom, G., Izaurralde, R.C., Jabloun, M., Jones, C.D., Kassie, B.T., Kersebaum, K.C., Klein, C., Koehler, A.K., Bing Liu, Minoli, S., Montesino San Martin, M., Muller, C., Soora Naresh Kumar, Nendel, C., Olesen, J.E., Palosuo, T., Porter, J.R., Priesack, E., Ripoche, D., Semenov, M.A., Stockle, C., Stratonovitch, P., Streck, T., Supit, I., Fulu Tao, Van der Velde, M., Wallach, D., Wang, E., Webber, H., Wolf, J., Liujun Xiao, Zhao Zhang, Zhigan Zhao, Yan Zhu, Ewert, F. In: Global Change Biology v. 25, no. 1, p. 155-173.
Corrigendum to “greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural food production to supply Indian diets : implications for climate change mitigation” [agric. ecosyst. environ. 237 (2017) 234–241]. 2019. Vetter, S.H., Sapkota, T.B., Hillier, J., Stirling, C., Macdiarmid, J.I., Aleksandrowicz, L., Green, R., Joy, E.J.M., Dangour, A.D., Smith, P. In: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment v. 272, p. 83-85.
Cost-effective opportunities for climate change mitigation in Indian agriculture. 2019. Sapkota, T.B., Vetter, S.H., Jat, M.L., Smita P.S. Sirohi, Shirsath, P.B., Singh, R., Jat, H.S., Smith, P., Hillier, J., Stirling, C. In: Science of the Total Environment v. 655, p. 1342-1354.
Crop season planning tool : adjusting sowing decisions to reduce the risk of extreme weather events. 2019. Perondi, D., Fraisse, C.W., Staub, C.G., Cerbaro, V.A., Barreto, D.D., Pequeño, D.N.L., Mulvaney, M.J., Troy, P., Pavan, W.O. In: Computers and Electronics in Agriculture v. 156, p. 62-70.
Microsatellite analysis and urediniospore dispersal simulations support the movement of Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici from Southern Africa to Australia. 2019. Visser, B., Meyer, M., Park, R.F., Gilligan, C.A., Burgin, L., Hort, M.C., Hodson, D.P., Pretorius, Z.A. In: Phytopathology v. 109, no. 1, p. 133-144.
Opportunities for wheat cultivars with superior straw quality traits targeting the semi-arid tropics. 2019. Joshi, A.K., Barma, N.C.D., Abdul Hakim, M., Kalappanavar, I.K., Vaishali Rudra Naik, Suma S. Biradar., Prasad, S.V.S., Singh, R.P., Blummel, M. Field Crops Research v. 231, p. 51-56.
Spider community shift in response to farming practices in a sub-humid agroecosystem of southern Africa. 2019. Mashavakure, N., Mashingaidze, A.B., Musundire, R., Nhamo, N., Gandiwa, E., Thierfelder, C., Muposhi, V.K. In: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment v. 272, p. 237-245.

From left to right: Fabrice DeClerck, Science Director at the EAT Foundation; Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, Mexico’s Undersecretary for Prevention and Promotion of Health; Teresa Shamah Levy, Deputy Director General for Evaluation and Surveys Research at Mexico’s Public Health Institute; Jorge Alcocer Varela, Mexico’s Secretary of Health; Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture; Bram Govaerts, Director of Innovative Business Strategies at CIMMYT; Rut Krüger Giverin, Norway’s Ambassador to Mexico; Juan Ángel Rivera Dommarco, Director General of Mexico’s Public Health Institute; and Olav Kjørven, Chief Strategic Officer at the EAT Foundation. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Farmers key to realizing EAT-Lancet report recommendations in Mexico, CIMMYT highlights

Written by Ricardo Curiel on March 7, 2019. Posted in News.

CIMMYT's director of innovative business strategies, Bram Govaerts (left), explained that three changes are needed to reduce the environmental impact of food systems in Mexico: innovation in production practices, reduction of food waste, and change of diets. (Photo: CIMMYT) — CIMMYT’s director of innovative business strategies, Bram Govaerts (left), explained that three changes are needed to reduce the environmental impact of food systems in Mexico: innovation in production practices, reduction of food waste, and change of diets. (Photo: CIMMYT)

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) — The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) was invited to discuss the findings of the EAT-Lancet Commission report and its implications for Mexico, during a launch event hosted by Mexico’s Health Department on March 4, 2019.

The report, published earlier this year, aims to offer an in-depth scientific analysis of the world’s food production systems and their impact on the planet and human health. It proposes a “planetary health diet” that balances nutrition with sustainable food production.

“Our first objective was to develop healthy diets for the 10 billion people who will inhabit the planet in 2050”, said Juan Ángel Rivera Dommarco, Director General of Mexico’s Public Health Institute and member of the EAT-Lancet Commission. According to Dommarco, the healthy diet recommended for Mexico had to increase the intake of fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains to avert chronic diseases and combat malnutrition and obesity.

The report also makes several recommendations to reduce the environmental impact of food production, taking into account planetary boundaries. “The world needs to sustainably intensify food production and to produce basic foodstuffs of higher nutritional value”, said Fabrice DeClerck, EAT’s Science Director.

“If anybody is able to manage the complex systems that will sustainably yield the volume of nutritious food that the world needs, that’s the farmer”, said Bram Govaerts, Director of Innovative Business Strategies at CIMMYT. “In Mexico, more than 500 thousand farmers already innovate every day and grow maize, wheat and related crops under sustainable intensification practices that CIMMYT and Mexico’s Agriculture Department promote with MasAgro”.

Víctor Villalobos Arámbula, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, said that the EAT-Lancet Commission report recommendations were very much in line with the strategic public policies that Mexico plans to implement in the coming years.

Sylvia Horemans (right) and a warehouse supervisor (left) inspect seeds at Kamano Seeds. (Photo: Lucy Maina/CIMMYT)

International Women’s Day 2019: Women in seed systems in Africa

Written by Jennifer Johnson on March 6, 2019. Posted in Features.

The maize seed sector in eastern and southern Africa is male-dominated. Most seed companies operating in the region are owned and run by men. Access to land and financial capital can often be a constraint for women who are keen on investing in agriculture and agribusiness. However, there are women working in this sector, breaking social barriers, making a contribution to improving household nutrition and livelihoods by providing jobs and improved seed varieties.

The Gender team within the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) Socioeconomics Program conducted interviews with women owners of seed companies in eastern and southern Africa. They shared information on their background, their motivation to start their businesses, what sets their companies apart from the competition, the innovative approaches they use to ensure smallholder farmers adopt improved seed varieties, the unique challenges they face as women in the seed sector and the potential for growth of their companies. The resulting stories will be published as a report in May 2019.

These women in leading roles serve as mentors and examples to both male and female employees. In honor of International Women’s Day, held March 8, 2019, CIMMYT would like to share some of their stories to recognize these women — and many others like them — and the important work they do in seed systems in Africa.

Sylvia Horemans

Sylvia Horemans started Kamano Seeds in April 2004 together with her late husband Desire Horemans. The company derives its name from a stream that runs through their farm in Mwinilinga, Zambia. Kamano means a stream that never dries, aptly describing the growth the company has enjoyed over the years, enabling it to capture 15 percent of the country’s seed market share. Sylvia became the company’s Chief Executive Officer in 2016.

“The initial business was only to sell commercial products but we realized there was a high demand for seed so we decided to start our own seed business,” says Sylvia. “We work with cooperatives which identify ideal farmers to participate in seed production.”

The company takes pride in the growth they have witnessed in their contract workers. “Most farmers we started with [now] have 20 to 40 hectares. Some are businessmen and have opened agrodealer shops where they sell agricultural inputs,” Sylvia announced.

Kamano prides itself in improving the lives of women smallholders and involving women in decision-making structures. “We empower a lot of women in agriculture through our out-grower scheme,” says Sylvia. She makes a deliberate effort to recruit women farmers, ensuring they receive payment for their seeds. “We pay the women who did the work and not their husbands.”

To read the full story, please click here.

Zubeda Mduruma

Zubeda Mduruma, 65, is a plant breeder. She took to agriculture from a young age, as she enjoyed helping her parents in the family farm. After high school, Zubeda obtained a bachelor’s degree in Agriculture. Then she joined Tanzania’s national agriculture research system, working at the Ilonga Agricultural Research Institute (ARI-Ilonga) station. She then pursued her master’s in Plant Breeding and Biometry from Cornell University in the United Stations and obtained a doctorate in Plant Breeding at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, while working and raising her family. “I wanted to be in research, so I could breed materials which would be superior than what farmers were using, because they were getting very low yields,” says Zubeda. In the 22 years she was at Ilonga, Zubeda was able to release 15 varieties.

Aminata Quality Seeds is a family business that was registered in 2008, owned by Zubeda, her husband and their four daughters. Aminata entered the seed market as an out-grower, producing seed for local companies for two years. The company started its own seed production in 2010, and the following year it was marketing improved varieties. “I decided to start a company along the Coast and impart my knowledge on improved technologies, so farmers can get quality crops for increased incomes,” says Zubeda.

Zubeda encourages more women to venture into the seed business. “To do any business, you have to have guts. It is not the money; it is the interest. When you have the interest, you will always look for ways on how to start your seed business.”

To read the full story, please click here.

Grace Malindi

Grace Malindi, 67, started Mgom’mera in Malawi in 2014 with her sister Florence Kahumbe, who had experience in running agrodealer shops. Florence was key in setting up the business, particularly through engagement with agro-dealers, while Grace’s background in extension was valuable in understanding their market. Grace has a doctoral degree in Human and Community Development with a double minor in Gender and International Development and Agriculture Extension and Advisory from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the United States. Mgom’mera is a family-owned enterprise. Grace’s three children are involved in the business, serving as directors.

Mgom’mera distinguishes itself from other seed companies because of its focus on maize varieties that have additional nutritive value. The company uses the tagline “Creating seed demand from the table to the soil.” It educates farmers not only on how to plant the seed they sell, but also on how to prepare nutritious dishes with their harvest. The company stocks ZM623, a drought-tolerant open-pollinated variety, and Chitedze 2, a quality protein maize. In the 2019 maize season it will also sell MH39, a pro-vitamin A variety. In addition, they are looking forward to beginning quality protein maize hybrid production in the near future, having started the process of acquiring materials from CIMMYT.

Grace observes that women entrepreneurs are late entrants in seed business. “You need agility, flexibility and experience to run a seed business and with time you will improve,” says Grace, advising women who may be interested in venturing into this male-dominated business.

To read the full story, please click here.

Monica Mezzalama (center) receives a plaque from CIMMYT's director general Martin Kropff (left) in recognition for her accomplishments and leadership. (Photo: CIMMYT)

A new beginning for CIMMYT’s Seed Health Unit

Written by Courtney Brantley on March 6, 2019. Posted in News.

Monica Mezzalama (center) receives a plaque from CIMMYT's director general Martin Kropff (left) recognizing her accomplishments. (Photo: CIMMYT) — Monica Mezzalama (center) receives a plaque from CIMMYT’s director general Martin Kropff (left) recognizing her accomplishments. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Twenty years flew by for Monica Mezzalama, now former Pathologist and Head of the Seed Health Unit at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). At the end of January 2019, she made her way back to her hometown of Turin, Italy. Looking back at her tenure, Monica told us she felt “overwhelmed” by the opportunities that CIMMYT has given her.

Founded in 1988, the CIMMYT Seed Health lab began with five employees, eventually expanding to eight people. With Mezzalama at the helm since 2001, the unit has become a crucial part of CIMMYT’s operation in conducting global and national germplasm exchanges. Some would say that seed distribution is the “lifeblood” of CIMMYT.

Around the world, CIMMYT is known as a reliable distributor of seeds. According to Mezzalama, this is crucial not only for farmers but for other researchers. Without proper regulatory precautions, one can jeopardize the work of others when handling pathogens that can affect seeds.

CIMMYT distributes seed in collaboration with more than 100 countries worldwide, many of which don’t receive support or seed from any other institution. According to Mezzalama, “CIMMYT’s reputation is on the line,” if healthy, quality seed is not delivered. Under Mezzalama’s watch there were never such problems with CIMMYT seeds.

Seeds are judged on appearances and must be good-looking as well as healthy. “Presentation standards are key because genetics aren’t immediately seen when the seeds are delivered,” Mezzalama states. If unattractive seed is discarded, then money is metaphorically being thrown away. Beyond saving money, quality seed control conducted by the Seed Health Unit helps keep data fresh and research up to date.

Good seed health depends on leadership like that from Mezzalama. Among the accomplishments of her two-decade tenure at CIMMYT, she formed and led a team that has responded quickly and effectively to emerging maize and wheat disease epidemics. In the midst of finding solutions to phytosanitary and biosafety challenges, she also took time to mentor young scientists and colleagues.

Monica Mezzalama will be moving on to the University of Turin in Italy to take on a new challenge in the academic world as a professor of Phytopathology. She expressed sadness at leaving CIMMYT, but gratitude at the opportunities CIMMYT has given her to grow professionally and the freedom to explore and experiment within her laboratory.

Mezzalama’s work and the team she leaves behind provide a strong base for continued safeguarding of CIMMYT’s international seed distribution efforts under her successor’s leadership. Down the road, Mezzalama hopes to maintain collaboration with CIMMYT in sustainable agricultural efforts.