News – Page 96

New Publications: Adopting climate-smart agricultural practices

Written by on April 19, 2018. Posted in Publications.

Farmers in a climate-smart village in Bihar use the leaf colour chart to judge the nitrogen content required for crops. Photo: V.Reddy, ViDocs, CCAFS.

Since the 1960s and the Green Revolution in India, agricultural production has been steadily increasing. Much of this increase is due to widespread adoption of high-yielding varieties, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation and mechanization. However, recently sustaining yield gains has become increasingly difficult as India faces a number of climate-related problems, which put pressure on sustaining the existing production system.

Many scientists have proposed that the best way to counter this stagnation in yield gains is through promotion and adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices. However, uptake of these practices in India is very low despite national and international promotion efforts.

A new study examines the factors behind the likelihood of adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices in the eastern Indian province of Bihar.

The authors found a number of confounding factors that limit adoption of new agricultural practices, such as perceived climate or market risk and limited access to extension services and training. They suggest that policy changes to strengthen extension services and market access would likely boost farmers willingness and ability to adopt these practices.

Check out the full article: Precision for Smallholder Farmers: Adoption of multiple climate-smart agricultural practices in the Gangetic plains of Bihar, India. 2018. J.P. Aryal, M.L. Jat, T.B. Sapkota, A. Khatri-Chhetri, M. Kassie, D.B. Rahut, S. Maharjan. Vol. 10, Issue: 3. pp.407-427. In: International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management and check out other recent publication by CIMMYT staff below:

1. Molecular introgression of leaf rust resistance gene Lr34 validates enhanced effect on resistance to spot blotch in spring wheat. 2017. Vasistha, N.K., Balasubramaniam, A., Vinod Kumar Mishra., Srinivasa, J., Chand, R., Joshi, A.K. In: Euphytica no. 213, 262.

2. Biology of B. sorokiniana (syn. Cochliobolus sativus) in genomics era. 2018. Pushpendra Kumar Gupta, Vasistha, N.K., Aggarwal, R., Joshi, A.K. In: Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology v.27, no. 2, p. 123–138.

3. Enhancing genetic gain in the era of molecular breeding. 2017. Yunbi Xu, Ping Li, Cheng Zou, Yanli Lu, Chuanxiao Xie, Zhang, X., Prasanna, B.M., Olsen, M. In: Journal of Experimental Botany v. 68, no. 11, p. 2641-2666.

4. Impact of improved maize adoption on household food security of maize producing smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. 2018. Jaleta Debello Moti, Kassie, M., Marenya, P., Yirga, C., Erenstein, O. In: Food security v. 10, no. 1, p. 81–93.

5. Land ownership and technology adoption revisited : improved maize varieties in Ethiopia. 2018. Zeng, D., Alwang, J.R., Norton, G.W., Jaleta Debello Moti, Shiferaw, B., Yirga, C. In: Land Use Policy v. 72, p. 270-279.

6. Integrating quantified risk in efficiency analysis : evidence from rice production in East and Southern Africa. 2017. Mujawamariya, G., Medagbe, F. M. K., Karimov, A. In: Agrekon v. 56, no. 4, p. 383-401.

7. Adoption and farm-level impact of conservation agriculture in Central Ethiopia. 2017. Tsegaye, W., LaRovere, R., Mwabu, G., Kassie, G.T. In: Environment, Development and Sustainability v. 19, no. 6, p. 2517–2533.

8. Yield effects of rust-resistant wheat varieties in Ethiopia. 2017. Abro, Z. A., Jaleta Debello Moti, Qaim, M. In: Food security v. 9, no. 6, p. 1343–1357.

9. Rapid cycling genomics selection in a multiparental tropical maize population. 2017. Zhang, X., Pérez-Rodríguez, P., Burgueño, J., Olsen, M., Buckler, E., Atlin, G.N., Prasanna, B.M., Vargas, M., San Vicente, F.M., Crossa, J. In: G3 : genes – genomes – genetics v. 7, no. 7, p. 2315-2326.

10. Genome-wide association analyses identify QTL hotspots for yield and component traits in durum wheat grown under yield potential, drought, and heat stress environments. 2018. Sukumaran, S., Reynolds, M.P., Sansaloni, C.P. In: Frontiers in Plant Science no. 9 : 81.

Breaking Ground: Terry Molnar uses native maize varieties to find novel traits for breeding

Written by on April 19, 2018. Posted in Features.

Increasingly erratic weather, poor soil health, and resource shortages brought on by climate change are challenging the ability of farmers in developing countries to harvest a surplus to sell or even to grow enough to feed their households. A healthy crop can mean the difference between poverty and prosperity, between hunger and food security.

Terry Molnar, a scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is helping farmers face these challenges by using the natural diversity of plants to unlock desirable genetic traits inside food crops.

Working at CIMMYT as a Maize Phenotyping and Breeding Specialist, Molnar studies the traits found in different maize varieties found in the CIMMYT seed collections that can be used to strengthen crops and produce healthy food and better livelihoods.

Growing up in New Mexico, in the United States of America, he had a unique opportunity to work with a conservation group preserving seed from Native American and Hispanic communities of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.

“Seeing all the diversity there was in the maize, beans, chilies really inspired me to go into genetics and breeding as a career,” Molnar said. Following that inspiration, he earned his bachelor degree at Colorado State University and continued his Masters and doctoral studies at North Carolina State University with a focus on plant breeding.

At CIMMYT, he studies native maize varieties called landraces to identify useful traits such as resistance to heat and drought, which can be used to breed new varieties that help farmers produce more food despite mounting challenges.

The high level of native maize diversity is due to its varied geography and culture in Latin America where it originated. As farmers selected the best maize for their specific environments and uses, it diverged into distinct races. At present, there are over 300 recorded unique races of maize in Latin America alone.

Molnar evaluates the landraces varieties in the field for a large set of characteristics, called the phenotype. Additionally, the landraces have been characterized genetically, called the genotype. Using the phenotype and genotype, Molnar can start to unravel the complexity of important traits such as drought and identify sources of resistance.

“Our projects are trait-targeted, so the first step is to make educated guesses as to which of the landraces might be good for that trait. There are over 25,000 maize landraces varieties in the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank and we don’t have the infrastructure or money to test them all.”

“We try to cast a wide net and evaluate as many landraces as we are able in the field under the conditions of interest. After this initial evaluation, I keep the best ones and start the breeding process,” Molnar said.

This involves crossing the landrace to elite maize lines that already have desirable traits like high yield, to develop new lines. The final step is to create hybrids from these new lines and evaluate them in yield trials. After several years of testing, anything that is better than the original lines for the trait of interest will be released to breeders and research scientists.

Climate change predictions suggest that in the coming decades, heat and drought will greatly increase in many important maize growing areas of the world. Molnar works to find tolerance traits for drought and heat within landrace maize plants. As well as becoming a growing problem in the future, drought and heat already affect farmers in any given year, he said.

As part of this work, Molnar also looks for landrace varieties with natural resistance to two prevalent maize diseases, tar spot complex (TSC) and maize lethal necrosis (MLN). TSC is an important disease in the southern half of Mexico, Central America and northern South America, and can decrease yields by 50 percent when it gets into fields early in a growing cycle. Most of the farmers in the affected areas are too poor to afford fungicides, so resistance built into varieties is very important. MLN is a large problem in eastern Africa.

“Like TSC, when MLN gets into fields early in the cycle the results can be devastating, with up to 100 percent potential yield loss,” said Molnar. “MLN is spread by insect vectors, and similar to the situation in Latin America, many farmers in east Africa are too poor or don’t have access to insecticides.”

The last trait Molnar looks for is pigmentation, specifically blue and red kernel color. This is part of an effort to develop new end-use markets in Mexico. Pigments in maize are due to increased concentrations of anthocyanin, an antioxidant, which has been connected to decreased cancer risk. Blue and red maize can be used for specialty food products or for industrial use such as the extraction of natural colors for use in other food products. In both cases, the pigmented maize commands a higher price for the farmer and gives them access to new markets.

Molnar finds great satisfaction in his work, both from the difference he makes in farmers’ lives, and from the process of finding the traits in the first place.

“I enjoy being out in the field, looking at maize, meeting and talking to farmers and working with my collaborators,” Molnar said. “I’m fascinated by the incredible variety that exists in maize and its ability to grow almost everywhere under most environmental conditions. Before the Europeans came, maize was already growing from Canada to Chile and from sea level to over 3000 meters in altitude and from the humid tropics to bone-dry desert. It’s an incredibly adaptable species.”

He is motivated by the passion to promote the rich variety of traits found in native maize varieties.

“I’m driven by the doubt of others. A lot of maize breeders working at the private seed companies don’t believe it is possible to derive anything commercially useful out of a landrace since modern hybrid maize has been bred for so long and is now so elite. I would like to prove them wrong,” he said.

Farmers in Ethiopia willing to pay more for quality protein maize

Written by on April 18, 2018. Posted in News.

A blindfolded woman panelist performing a triangular test to differentiate dabbo samples made from different maize varieties. Photo: CIMMYT

In Ethiopia, 44 percent of children under the age of five are stunted, or experience impaired growth due to poor nutrition, and 29 percent are underweight, according to the United States Agency for International Development. Quality protein maize (QPM) – a biofortified crop that increases lysine and tryptophan, two amino acids necessary for protein synthesis in humans – helps combat stunting and boosts nutrition in children who survive on a maize-dominated diet.

As maize is Ethiopia’s most consumed cereal, QPM could be especially beneficial to rural communities in the country, which consume more maize and suffer even higher rates of malnutrition than urban areas.

Until recently, farmers have been hesitant to adopt QPM over traditional varieties because the up-front cost is higher, and they have doubted the marketability due to the novelty of the variety. There is strong competition in productivity between QPM and conventional maize varieties and farmers tend to only plant newest or the best yielding varieties, where they feel sure they will get the highest return for their investment.

A study in Ethiopia found that farmers are willing to pay almost 50 percent more for quality protein maize (QPM) over conventionally grown maize, due to rising consumer preference for QPM varieties.

The major objective of the study was to know whether farmers as consumers have a preference for the QPM and if that would translate to a willingness to pay more for its attributes. As QPM is still a widely unknown variety, many farmers in the study had preconceived notions that it would be sour, would not taste good in traditional foods, or would be visually unappealing.

The study, conducted at CIMMYT as part of a MSc thesis, found that traditional food products made from QPM were correctly identified by most consumers, and were actually preferred over foods made from conventional maize. Farmers repeatedly expressed their preference for dabo, a local type of bread, made from QPM for its aroma, taste and texture. Mothers and children also consistently preferred genfo, a stiff maize-based porridge, made from QPM.

A slice of traditional bread called dabbo made from yellow QPM served for sensory evaluation. Photo: CIMMYT

Although traditional foods made from white grain/flour are usually preferred in Ethiopia, yellow QPM received higher preference than the white, signifying the trait responsible to its yellowness seems to contribute to its taste and functional property.

Based only on this taste difference, farmers were willing to pay as much as 48 percent more for QPM in some communities. On average, farmers were willing to pay 37 percent more for yellow QPM, but only five percent more for white QPM, due to the variability of sensory qualities between the white and yellow QPM varieties.

When given information about the increased nutritional benefit of QPM, farmer willingness to pay more for white QPM shot up to be roughly on par with yellow QPM, and reduced the amount that farmers said they would be willing to pay for conventional maize.

This suggests that the taste preference between white and yellow QPM is small and that education is a particularly powerful tool to increase its uptake among farmers.

Based on this study, QPM has an advantage in Ethiopia’s maize market not only because of its nutritional benefits but also aroma, taste, and texture, which is significant for women who are responsible for household diet.

QPM requires a special value chain that considers its nutritional advantage and taste, and strong extension communication is vital for the adoption of QPM as nutritional information reinforces the market share, specifically for white QPM. Extension agents could use the reported sensory preference for yellow QPM to begin large-market dissemination of QPM, alongside information about its nutritional advantages.

Consumer willingness to pay more for QPM grain should encourage maize farmers, seed suppliers and other stakeholders to invest in the variety. Market acceptability of QPM means more profits for stakeholders, facilitating adoption, and in this case, contributing to the fight against malnutrition.

Read the full study “Sensory acceptance of quality protein maize dishes and willingness to pay for its grain in districts around Gilgel Gibe hydro-electricity dam: Omo Nada district” here, and learn more about CIMMYT’s work with QPM here.

The Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia Project is funded by the Government of Canada.

New Publications: Precision agriculture for smallholder farmers

Written by on April 5, 2018. Posted in Publications.

Overview of the external components of the developed VRA-fertilizer kit, including (A) electric actuator piston; (B) control box; (C) 12V Battery; (D) Bluetooth transmitter; (E) magnetic calibration sensor; (F) N-sensor; (G) ON/OFF-switch.

A new study tests a stepping-stone for small-scale precision agriculture fertilizer application.

The authors of the study write that precision agriculture for smallholder farmers is often seen as a far-fetched idea, but that these farmers are the most vulnerable to climate-change-related issues and would benefit most from this technology.

Hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers feed one-third of the global population. According to the authors, addressing future food security and growing pressure on natural resources will require sustainable intensification, including precision agriculture.

Precision agriculture uses technologies in the attempt to apply nearly exact required inputs, such as fertilizer, to crops. This is a much more targeted approach than that of conventional farming, in which a constant amount of fertilizer is applied across all cultivated land, regardless of actual need.

Since nitrogen is often the limiting nutrient for plant growth and in particular grain yield, it is a key fertilization target. When applied in traditional methods, up to 70 percent of applied nitrogen is lost into the surrounding environment, resulting in pollution of air and water leading to algae blooms in nearby bodies of water.

For this study, scientists attached a small nitrogen sensor called the GreenSeeker® Handheld to conventional farming equipment in the attempt to create a real-time, informed fertilizer placement system that would be accessible to most farmers.

The GreenSeeker® sensor measures the greenness of a plant. This is determined by the production of chlorophyll, which is limited by nitrogen availability. Based on the color of the plant, scientists use an algorithm to determine how much nitrogen should be applied to return the plant to optimal health.

The authors found that while there was room for improvement in operational efficiency and responsiveness of the setup, this approach was promising. They said the kit used was meant to be a low-level investment farmers could add onto existing equipment to enable better control of daily operations. They say that if farmers invest in the equipment and fine-tune the distribution of fertilizer to their fields, they should be able to “transform themselves into precise high output agro-entrepreneurs.”

As usual many people are involved during the development of projects as these, and in this case a special mention to Louis Gabarra would like to be made by the authors for his contribution during his student internship in making the first prototype versions presented here come to reality.

Check out the full article: Precision for Smallholder Farmers: A Small-Scale-Tailored Variable Rate Fertilizer Application Kit. 2018. Van Loon, J. Speratti, A.B., Govaerts, B. In: Agriculture and check out other recent publication by CIMMYT staff below:

Volume and value of postharvest losses : the case of tomatoes in Nepal. Gautam, S., Acedo, A. L. Jr., Schreinemachers, P., Subedi, B. P. In: British Food Journal v. 119, no. 12, p. 2547-2558.
Prioritizing climate-smart agricultural land use options at a regional scale. Shirsath, P.B., Aggarwal, P.K., Thornton, P. K., Dunnett, A. In: Agricultural Systems v. 151, p. 174-183.
Soil processes and wheat cropping under emerging climate change scenarios in South Asia. Jat, M.L., Singh, B., Stirling, C., Jat, H. S., Tetarwal, J. P., Jat, R.K., Singh, R., Lopez-Ridaura, S., Shirsath, P.B. In: Advances in Agronomy v. 148, p. 111-171.
Evaluation of long-term conservation agriculture and crop intensification in rice-wheat rotation of Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia : carbon dynamics and productivity. Samal, S. K., Rao, K. K., Poonia, S. P., Kumar, R., Mishra, J. S., Prakash, V., Mondal, S., Dwivedi, S. K., Bhatt, B. P., Naik, S. K., Choubey, A. K., Kumar, V., Malik, R.K., McDonald, A. In: European Journal of Agronomy v. 90, p. 198-208.
Analyzing the variability and genotype x season interaction to assess the biological homeostasis in yellow maize (Zea Mays L.) germplasm using advanced biometrical inferences. Maqbool, M. A., Aslam, M., Issa, A.B., Khan, M. In: Pakistan Journal of Botany v. 49, no. 6, p. 2405-2418.
Exploring farmer perceptions of agricultural innovations for maize-legume intensification in the mid-hills region of Nepal. Alomia-Hinojosa, V., Speelman, E. N., Thapa, A., Hisiang-En Wei, McDonald, A., Tittonell, P., Groot, J. C. J. In: International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability v. 16, no. 1, p. 74-93
Evaluation of single cross yellow maize hybrids for agronomic and carotenoid traits. Maqbool, M. A., Aslam, M., Khan, M. S., Issa, A.B., Ahsan, M. In: International Journal of Agriculture and Biology v. 19, no. 5, p. 1087-1098.
Simulated bermudagrass production and nitrate leaching affected by El Niño Southern oscillation, soil and clipping frequency. Woli, P., Rouquette, F. M., Long, C. R., Gowda, P., Pequeño, D. N. L. In: Agronomy Journal v. 109, no. 6, p. 2649-2661.
Evolving food consumption patterns of rural and urban households in developing countries : a Bangladesh case. Mottaleb, K.A., Dil Bahadur Rahut, Kruseman, G., Erenstein, O. In: British Food Journal v. 120, no. 2, p. 392-408.
Patterns and determinants of private tutoring : the case of Bangladesh households. Pallegedara, A., Mottaleb, K.A. In: International Journal of Educational Development v. 59, p. 43-50.

End of eight-year project leaves farmers ready to tackle climate change in Africa

Written by on April 5, 2018. Posted in News.

Kemeriya Mohamed stacking harvested wheat, Kechema village, Dodola district,west Arsi zone Ethiopia. Photo: CIMMYT/P. Lowe — Kemeriya Mohamed stacking harvested wheat, Kechema village, Dodola district,west Arsi zone
Ethiopia. Photo: CIMMYT/P. Lowe

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (CIMMYT) – After eight years the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project concludes this June.

Led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the multi-regional project has helped over 235,000 farming households adopt more sustainable practices to cope with the effects of climate change and declining soil fertility.

“The work done by SIMLESA has yielded increasing farm-level food security and productivity, in the context of climate risk and change,” said Eyasu Abraha, Ethiopian Minister for Agriculture and Natural Resources, at the official opening of SIMLESA’s end of project external review and stakeholders’ meeting. The four-day event reflected on the project’s achievements, challenges and opportunities through an external project review and stakeholder discussions.

According to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Africa is the most vulnerable region to climate change, with erratic rainfall and increasing temperatures already causing crop failures. Small-scale family farmers, who provide the majority of food in Africa, are expected to be the worst affected.

In response, SIMLESA has facilitated the release of 40 improved maize and 64 legume varieties to smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania and spill over countries of Botswana, Rwanda and Uganda since 2010. The spillover countries are benefitting from ongoing SIMLESA research activities. Maize is a major staple crop and legumes provide nutrition, income and improve soil fertility in most of Africa, and both crops provide vital cash income to families across the region, says ACIAR.

The project focused primarily on improving maize-legume cropping systems by encouraging the adoption of intensification of agricultural practices that offer the potential to simultaneously address a number of pressing development objectives, unlocking agriculture’s potential to adapt farming systems to climate change and sustainably manage land, soil, nutrient and water resources, while improving food and nutrition.

The review also found that SIMLESA could have even greater impact by strengthening its livelihoods focus, such as promoting diversification in household food and nutrition.

“While taking stock on our achievements, we are aware that there are still major challenges to be overcome,” said Mulugetta Mekuria, CIMMYT senior scientist and SIMLESA project leader. “We now seek to extend our impact by learning from past and current work, case studies and trying new ideas, technologies and approaches.”

SIMLESA is currently consolidating cropping trials and training farmers in its final year, and laying the foundations for a follow-up project that would focus on researching sustainable intensification, diversification, smallholder mechanization and crop-livestock integration across Africa. Meeting attendees also proposed a one-year extension period of the project to help consolidate, synthesize, publish and disseminate current achievements, and draw lessons and insights from the last two SIMLESA phases.

The project is working to improve maize and legume productivity by 30 percent and to reduce the expected downside yield risk by 30 percent for approximately 650,000 small farming households by 2023. There is high possibility for a third phase of the project although this has not been confirmed yet.

Global maize experts discuss biofortification for nutrition and health

Written by Jennifer Johnson on April 5, 2018. Posted in News.

Over two billion people across the world suffer from hidden hunger, the consumption of a sufficient number of calories, but still lacking essential nutrients such as vitamin A, iron or zinc. This can cause severe damage to health, blindness, or even death.

At the 4^th annual Latin American Cereals Conference (LACC) in Mexico City from 11 to 14 March, presenters discussed global malnutrition and how biofortification of staple crops can be used to improve nutrition for farming families and consumers.

Wolfgang Pfeiffer of HarvestPlus presents on malnutrition and stunting. Photo: Jennifer Johnson/CIMMYT.

“A stunted child will never live up to its full potential,” said Wolfgang Pfeiffer, director of research and development at HarvestPlus, as he showed a slide comparing the brain of a healthy infant versus a stunted one.

Hidden hunger and stunting, or impaired development, are typically associated with poverty and diets high in staple crops such as rice or maize. Biofortification of essential nutrients into these staple crops has the potential to reduce malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies around the world.

“Maize is a staple crop for over 900 million poor consumers, including 120-140 million poor families. Around 73% of farmland dedicated to maize production worldwide is located in the developing world,” said B.M. Prasanna, director of the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) at LACC.

The important role of maize in global diets and the rich genetic diversity of the crop has allowed for important breakthroughs in biofortifcation. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has over 40 years of experience in maize breeding for biofortification, beginning with quality protein maize (QPM), which has enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan, essential amino acids, which can help reduce malnutrition in children.

B.M. Prasanna discusses the history of maize biofortification at the LACC conference. Photo: Mike Listman/CIMMYT.

“Over 50 QPM varieties have been adopted in Latin America and the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa, and three new QPM hybrids were released in India in 2017 using marker assisted breeding,” said Prasanna.

In more recent years, CIMMYT has worked with MAIZE and HarvestPlus to develop provitamin A maize to reduce vitamin A deficiency, the leading cause of preventable blindness in children, affecting 5.2 million preschool-age children globally, according to the World Health Organization. This partnership launched their first zinc-enriched maize varieties in Honduras in 2017 and Colombia in 2018, with releases of new varieties planned in Guatemala and Nicaragua later this year. Zinc deficiency can lead to impaired growth and development, respiratory infections, diarrheal disease and a general weakening of the immune system.

“There is a huge deficiency of vitamin A, iron and zinc around the world,” said Natalia Palacios, maize nutritional quality specialist at CIMMYT. “The beauty of maize is its huge genetic diversity that has allowed us to develop these biofortified varieties using conventional breeding methods. The best way to take advantage of maize nutritional benefits is through biofortification, processing and functional food,” she said.

Natalia Palacios discusses the development of biofortified varieties such as provitamin A and zinc-enriched maize. Photo: Mike Listman/CIMMYT.

The effects of these varieties are already beginning to show. Recent studies have shown that vitamin A maize improves vitamin A status and night vision of 4-8 year old rural children in Zambia.

“Biofortified crops are in testing in over 60 countries, 7.5 million households are growing biofortified crops, and over 35 million household members are consuming them,” said Pfeiffer. “It is critical to involve farmers in the development of biofortified crop varieties before they are released, through participatory variety selection.”

Overall, the conference presenters agreed that ending hidden hunger will require cooperation and partnerships from multiple sectors and disciplines. “Partnerships with seed companies are crucial for biofortified maize to make an impact. This is not just about technological advances and developing new products, this is about enabling policies, stimulating demand, and increasing awareness about the benefits of these varieties,” said Prasanna.

Young women scientists who will galvanize global wheat research

Written by Mike Listman on March 28, 2018. Posted in News.

CIUDAD OBREGÓN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – As more than 200 wheat science and food specialists from 34 countries gathered in northwestern Mexico to address threats to global nutrition and food security, 9 outstanding young women wheat scientists among them showed that this effort will be strengthened by diversity.

Winners of the Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Early Career Award pose in front of the statue of the late Nobel Peace laureate, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug. Included in the photo are Amor Yahyaoui, CIMMYT wheat training coordinator (far left), Jeanie Borlaug Laube (center, blue blouse), and Maricelis Acevedo, Associate Director for Science, the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat Project (to the left of Jeanie Borlaug Laube). Photo: CIMMYT/Mike Listman — Winners of the Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Early Career Award pose in front of the statue of the late Nobel Peace laureate, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug. Included in the photo are Amor Yahyaoui, CIMMYT wheat training coordinator (far left), Jeanie Borlaug Laube (center, blue blouse), and Maricelis Acevedo, Associate Director for Science, the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat Project (to the right of Jeanie Borlaug Laube). Photo: CIMMYT/Mike Listman

Winners of the Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Early Career Award joined during 21-23 March an on-going wheat research training course organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

“As my father used to say, you are the future,” said Jeanie Borlaug Laube, daughter of the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, and mentor of many young agricultural scientists. Speaking to the WIT recipients, she said, “You are ahead of the game compared to other scientists your age.”

Established in 2010 as part of the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project led by Cornell University, the WIT program has provided professional development opportunities for 44 young women researchers in wheat from more than 20 countries.

The award is given annually to as many as five early science-career women, ranging from advanced undergraduates to recent doctoral graduates and postdoctoral fellows. Selection is based on a scientific abstract and statement of intent, along with evidence of commitment to agricultural development and leadership potential.

Women who will change their professions and the world

Weizhen Liu, a 2017 WIT recipient and postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University, is applying genome-wide association mapping and DNA marker technology to enhance genetic resistance in tetraploid and bread wheat to stripe rust, a major global disease of wheat that is spreading quickly and becoming more virulent.

“I am eager to join and devote myself to improving wheat yields by fighting wheat rusts,” said Liu, who received her bachelors in biotechnology from Nanjing Agricultural University, China, in 2011, and a doctorate from Washington State University in 2016. “Through WIT, I can share my research with other scientists, receive professional feedback, and build international collaboration.”

Mitaly Bansal, a 2016 WIT award winner, currently works as a Research Associate at Punjab Agricultural University, India. She did her PhD research in a collaborative project involving Punjab Agricultural University and the John Innes Centre, UK, to deploy stripe and leaf rust resistance genes from non-progenitor wild wheat in commercial cultivars.

“I would like to work someday in a position of public policy in India,” said Bansal, who received the Monsanto Beachell-Borlaug scholarship in 2013. “That is where I could have the influence to change things that needed changing.”

Networking in the cradle of wheat’s “Green Revolution”

In addition to joining CIMMYT training for a week, WIT recipients will attend the annual Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) technical workshop, to be held this year in Marrakech, Morocco, from 14 to 17 April, and where the 2018 WIT winners will be announced.

The CIMMYT training sessions took place at the Norman Borlaug Experiment Station (CENEB), an irrigated desert location in Sonora State, northwestern Mexico, and coincided with CIMMYT’s 2018 “Visitors’ Week,” which took place from 19 to 23 March.

An annual gathering organized by the CIMMYT global wheat program at CENEB, Visitors’ Week typically draws hundreds of experts from the worldwide wheat research and development community. Participants share innovations and news on critical issues, such as the rising threat of the rust diseases or changing climates in key wheat farmlands.

Through her interaction with Visitors’ Week peers, Liu said she was impressed by the extensive partnering among experts from so many countries. “I realized that one of the most important things to fight world hunger is collaboration; no one can solve food insecurity, malnutrition, and climate change issues all by himself.”

A strong proponent and practitioner of collaboration, Norman E. Borlaug worked with Sonora farmers in the 1940-50s as part of a joint Rockefeller Foundation-Mexican government program that, among other outputs, generated high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat varieties. After bringing wheat self-sufficiency to Mexico, the varieties were adopted in South Asia and beyond in the 1960-70s, dramatically boosting yields and allowing famine-prone countries to feed their rapidly-expanding populations.

This became known as the Green Revolution and, in 1970, Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his contributions. Borlaug subsequently led CIMMYT wheat research until his retirement in 1979 and served afterwards as a special consultant to the Center.

When a new, highly virulent race of wheat stem rust, Ug99, emerged in eastern Africa in the early 2000s, Borlaug sounded the alarm and championed a global response that grew into the BGRI and associated initiatives such as DGGW.

“This is just a beginning for you, but it doesn’t end here,” said Maricelis Acevedo, a former WIT recipient who went on to become the leader of DGGW. Speaking during the training course, she observed that many WIT awardees come from settings where women often lack access to higher education or the freedom to pursue a career.

“Through WIT activities, including training courses like this and events such as Visitors’ Week and the BGRI workshop,” Acevedo added, “you’ll gain essential knowledge and skills but you’ll also learn leadership and the personal confidence to speak out, as well as the ability to interact one-on-one with leaders in your fields and to ask the right questions.”

CIMMYT is a 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 generous support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) under UK aid, the DGGW project aims to strengthen the delivery pipeline for new, disease resistant, climate-resilient wheat varieties and to increase the yields of smallholder wheat farmers.

Scientists seek key to boost yields, ensure future food supply

Written by on March 23, 2018. Posted in Features.

We must improve the productivity of our key crops if we are to feed the world's growing population, say scientists. — Reducing the length of time it takes to naturally breed more productive crop varieties is key to feed the world’s growing population, say scientists. Photo: CIMMYT archives

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Crop genetic gains remain too low, and international scientists are making a concerted effort to determine how best to increase yields to ensure there is enough food to feed everyone on the planet by 2050.

The complex task of increasing genetic gains – the amount of increase in performance achieved per unit time through artificial selection – involves considering many variables, including genotypes and phenotypes – selecting crop varieties with desired gene traits and considering how well they perform in a given environment.

Two new research papers by scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners at Australia’s University of Queensland and Spain’s University of Barcelona published in “Trends in Plant Science” highlight some of the best available tools and strategies for meeting the challenge.

Currently, crop breeding methods and agronomic management put annual productivity increases at 1.2 percent a year, but to ensure food security for future generations, productivity should be at 2.4 percent a year.

By 2050, the United Nations projects that the current global population of 7.6 billion will grow to more than 9.8 billion, making yield increases vital.

The results of grain yield increases each year are a function of the length of the breeding process, the accuracy of which breeders can estimate the potential of new germplasm, the size of the breeding program, the intensity of selection, and the genetic variation for the trait of interest.

“Reducing the length of the breeding process is the fastest way for breeders to increase their gains in grain yield per year,” said HuiHui Li, quantitative geneticist based at CIMMYT Beijing.

Speed breeding and other new techniques have the potential to double gains made by breeders some crops. Speed breeding protocols enable six generations of crops to be generated within a single year, compared to just two generations using traditional protocols.

Pioneered by scientist Lee Hickey at University of Queensland, speed breeding relies on continuous light to trick plants into growing faster, which means speed breeding can only be undertaken in a controlled environment.

Tapping into larger populations increases the probability of identifying superior offspring, but breeding is an expensive and time consuming process due to the variables involved.

One challenge scientists face is high-throughput field phenotyping, which involves characterising hundreds of plants a day to identify the best genetic variation for making new varieties. New phenotyping tools can estimate key traits such as senescence, reducing the time of data collection from a day or more to less than an hour.

“If breeders could reduce the cost of phenotyping, they can reallocate resources towards growing larger populations,” said Mainassara Zaman-Allah, a senior scientist at CIMMYT-Zimbabwe and a key contributor to the paper “Translating High Throughput Phenotyping into Genetic Gain.”

“Limitations on phenotyping efficiency are considered a key constraint to genetic advance in breeding programs,” said Mike Olsen, maize upstream trait pipeline coordinator with CIMMYT, based in Nairobi. “New phenotyping tools to more efficiently measure required traits will play an important role in increasing gains.”

New tools and techniques can only help contribute to food security if they are easily available and adopted. The CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform, launched in 2017, will play a pivotal role in ensuring these new tools reach breeding programs targeting the developing world.

Translating high-throughput phenotyping into genetic gain

Fast-forwarding genetic gain

Field trial design workshop for smallholder farmers who grow maize landraces

Written by on March 20, 2018. Posted in News.

As part of the efforts of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program aimed at improving food security based on maize landraces in marginal areas of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, a workshop on trial design was held from 19-21 February to improve the precision of data on improved maize landraces in smallholder farmers’ fields. Attending the workshop were partners from the National Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP) and the Southern Regional University Center of the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh).

The objective was to continue to have positive impacts on the marginalized communities of Oaxaca, by adapting to the hillside conditions and poor, uneven and broken up soils that often characterize the plots of farmers who grow maize landraces. The very varied trial designs in farmers’ fields, plus the varied population structure of maize landraces make it difficult for scientists to create efficient designs.

The training workshop was led by Dr. Martha Willcox, CIMMYT Maize Landrace program, and designed by Dr. Juan Burgueño and Mr. Claudio Ayala, who sought to facilitate breeding research in smallholder farmers’ fields and to continue to work for the benefit of more than 400 Oaxacan farmers. The project’s multi-disciplinary base includes genetic improvement, agronomic management and biostatistics in order to generate greater value and scientifically confirm the benefits that are being achieved in the fields of the country’s poorest farmers.

It should be noted that during the four years that MasAgro has worked on participatory breeding (2014-2017), INIFAP, UACh and CIMMYT have found that in marginalized communities, maize landraces with the characteristics mentioned above not only yield more, but also generate higher returns on investments, which benefits farmers. Smallholder farmers grow maize in many ecological niches outside the areas most favorable for intensive commercial agriculture and in areas where hybrid improvement programs have not been introduced or worked due to the extreme conditions, including fog, drought and disease. Maize landraces are better adapted to those areas and have the culinary qualities needed to make every-day and festive local dishes.

In addition, not only has maize production for home consumption improved, but farmers are now linked to gastronomic markets. During project years and with its help, maize began to be exported, with 10,000 kilograms exported in 2014 and more than 900,000 kg exported in 2017.

New publications: The importance of wheat in the global food supply to a growing population

Written by on March 15, 2018. Posted in Publications.

Wheat surrounds the border of the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Photo: F. Baudron/CIMMYT

A series of publications, titled the “CIMMYT Series on Carbohydrates”, aims to address the importance of carbohydrates and grain in relation to good health. One publication of this series focuses on wheat-based foods and their importance to regional food supplies, nutrition and health.

The paper describes how wheat-based foods make up a major portion of total global calories, proteins and micronutrients that support growth and development. It argues that both whole- and refined-grain wheat products contribute to healthy nutrition globally.

Wheat is grown in nearly every region of the world and represents a main source of food and income for millions of smallholder farmers. The authors say wheat-based foods are therefore critical for food security and nutritional security worldwide.

The authors draw attention to the predicted upcoming food crisis, as populations in developing countries expand rapidly, especially in Africa and South Asia. They note that population growth is likely to outpace yield gains in wheat and call for larger investments in wheat and other cereal crops to keep pace with future demand.

The task of feeding 9.2 billion people by 2050 is daunting, but breeding has met this challenge before, during the green revolution. Hans Braun, head of the global wheat program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is calling for a “new green revolution” to meet this new challenge.

Braun described a required 1.2 percent yield gain per year and said this is higher than the recent global average. However, promising programs, such as the durum wheat program at CIMMYT have achieved this goal consistently over the last several decades. The CIMMYT durum wheat program has achieved 3.4 percent yield gain per year over the last 43 years, over double the required gain over the next 30 years.

Check out the full article: CIMMYT Series on Carbohydrates, Wheat, Grains, and Health: Wheat-Based Foods: Their Global and Regional Importance in the Food Supply, Nutrition, and Health. 2017. Peña-Bautista, R. J., Hernandez-Espinosa, N., Jones, J. M., Guzman, C., Braun, H. J., in Cereal Foods World and check out other recent publication by CIMMYT staff below:

A ladder within a ladder : understanding the factors influencing a household’s domestic use of electricity in four African countries. 2017. Dil Bahadur Rahut, Behera, B., Ali, A., Marenya, P. In: Energy Economics v. 66, p. 167-181.
Conservation agriculture in the indogenetic plains of India : past, present and future. 2017. Hobbs, P., Gupta, R.K., Jat, R.K., Malik, R.K. In: Experimental Agriculture v. 10, no. 11:14, p. 1-19.
Gene action controlling normalized difference vegetation index in crosses of elite maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines. 2017. Adebayo, M. A., Menkir, A., Hearne, S., Kolawole, A. O. In: Cereal Research Communications v. 45, no. 4, p. 675–686.
Genetic gains in grain yield of a maize population improved through marker assisted recurrent selection under stress and non-stress conditions in West Africa. 2017. Abdulmalik, R.O., Menkir, A., Meseka, S., Unachukwu, N., Ado, S., Olarewaju, J.D., Aba, D.A., Hearne, S., Crossa, J., Gedil, M. In: Frontiers in Plant Science no. 8:841.
Heat stress and yield stability of wheat genotypes under different sowing dates across agro-ecosystems in India. Jat, R.K., Singh, P., Jat, M.L., Dia, M., Sidhu, H.S., Jat, S.L., Bijarniya, D., Jat, H. S., Parihar, C.M., Kumar, U., Lopez-Ridaura, S. In: Field Crops Research v. 218, p. 33-50.
Influence of crop establishment methods on yield, economics and water productivity of rice cultivars under upland and lowland production ecologies of Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains. 2017. Rishi Raj, Kumar, A., Solanki, I.S., Dhar, S., Dass, A., Kumar Gupta, A., Kumar, V., Singh, C.B., Jat, R.K., Pandey, U.C. In: Paddy and Water Environment v. 15, no. 4, p. 861–877.
The goat grass genome’s role in wheat improvement. 2018. Rasheed, A., Ogbonnaya, F.C., Lagudah, E.S., Appels, R., He Zhonghu. In: Nature Plants v. 4, p. 56-58.
Use of remote sensing in the assessment of resistance of maize to tar spot complex. (2017). Rodrigues Jr, F.A., Defourny, P., Gérard, B., San Vicente, F., Loladze, A. In: Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Precision Agriculture, Advances in Animal Bioscience 8(2) pp. 259-263.
Using satellite data to identify the causes of and potential solutions for yield gaps in India’s Wheat Belt. 2017. Meha Jain, Singh, B., Srivastava, A., Malik, R., McDonald, A., Lobell, D.B. In: Environmental Research Letters v. 12, no. 9, 094011.
Yield and yield attributes as affected by different sowing dates and different maturity classes cultivar on direct seeded rice. 2017. Dahiya, S., Punia, S.S., Singh, J., Kakraliya, S.K., Singh, B., Jat, H.S., Malik, R. In: Chemical Science Review and Letters v. 6, no. 21, p. 149-152.

Global grain research and food industry experts meet to address rising malnutrition

Written by Mike Listman on March 14, 2018. Posted in News.

Wheat fields at the Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. Photo: M. Ellis/CIMMYT.

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) — Malnutrition is rising again and becoming more complex, according to the head of the world’s leading public maize and wheat research center.

“After declining for nearly a decade to around 770 million, the number of hungry people has increased in the last two years to more than 850 million,” said Martin Kropff, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in the opening address of the 4^th Latin American Cereals Conference.

“Those people suffer from calorie malnutrition and go to bed hungry at night, which is a terrible thing,” Kropff added. “But the diets of 2 billion persons worldwide lack essential micronutrients — Vitamin A, iron, or zinc — and this especially affects the health and development of children under 5 years old.”

Kropff noted that some 650 million people are obese, and the number is increasing. “All these nutrition issues are interconnected, and are driven by rising population, global conflicts, and — for obesity — increasing prosperity, in developed and emerging economies.”

“The solution? Good, healthy diets,” said Kropff, “which in turn depend on having enough food available, but also diverse crops and food types and consumer education on healthy eating.”

The world’s quickly-rising population needs not only more food but healthier, more nutritious food, according to Julie Miller Jones, Professor Emerita at St. Catherine University, and Carlos Guzmán, who leads wheat quality research at CIMMYT.

Held in Mexico City during 11-14 March and co-organized by CIMMYT and the International Association for Cereal Science and Technology (ICC), the 4^th Latin American Cereals Conference has drawn more than 220 participants from 46 countries, including professionals in agricultural science and production, the food industry, regulatory agencies, and trade associations.

“We are dedicated to spreading information about cereal science and technology, processing, and the health benefits of cereals,” said Hamit Köksel, president of the ICC and professor at Hacettepe University, Turkey, to open the event. “Regarding the latter, we should increase our whole grain consumption.”

Köksel added that ICC has more than 10,000 subscribers in 85 countries.

Breeding micronutrient-dense cereals

One way to improve the nutrition and health of the poor who cannot afford dietary supplements or diverse foods is through “biofortification” of the staple crops that comprise much of their diets.

Drawing upon landraces and diverse other sources in maize and wheat’s genetic pools and applying innovative breeding, CIMMYT has developed high-yielding maize and wheat lines and varieties that feature enhanced levels of grain zinc and are being used in breeding programs worldwide.

“In the last four years, the national research programs of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan have released six zinc-biofortified wheat varieties derived from CIMMYT research,” said Hans Braun, director of the center’s global wheat program. “Zinc-Shakthi, an early-maturing wheat variety released in India in 2014 whose grain features 40 percent more zinc than conventional varieties, is already grown by more than 50,000 smallholder farmers in the Northeastern Gangetic Plains of India.”

New zinc biofortified maize variety BIO-MZN01, recently released in Colombia. Photo: CIMMYT archives

CIMMYT is focusing on enhancing the levels of provitamin A and zinc in the maize germplasm adapted to sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Improved quality protein maize (QPM) varieties, whose grain features enhanced levels of two essential amino acids, lysine and tryptophan, is another major biofortified maize that is grown worldwide, according to Prasanna Boddupalli, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program.

“Quality protein maize varieties are grown by farmers on 1.2 million hectares in Africa, Asia, and Latin America,” said Prasanna, in his presentation, adding that provitamin-A-enriched maize varieties have also been released in several countries in Africa, besides Asia.

A major partner in these efforts is HarvestPlus, part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), which supports the development and promotion of the biofortified crop varieties and related research.

“Biofortified crops have been released in 60 countries,” said Wolfgang Pfeiffer, HarvestPlus global director for product development and commercialization, speaking at the conference. “The pressing need now is to ‘mainstream’ biofortification, making it a standard component of breeding programs and food systems.”

Whole grains are good for you

A central issue on the conference agenda is promoting awareness about the importance of healthy diets and the role of whole grains.

“Participants will discuss the large body of published studies showing that whole grain foods, including processed ones, are associated with a significantly reduced risk of chronic diseases and obesity,” said Carlos Guzmán, who leads wheat quality research at CIMMYT and helped organize the conference. “There is a global movement to promote the consumption of whole grains and the food industry worldwide is responding to rising consumer demand for whole grain products.”

Guzmán also thanked the conference sponsors: Bimbo, Bastak Instruments, Brabender, Foss, Chopin Technologies, Perten, Stable Micro Systems Scientific Instruments, Cereal Partners Worldwide Nestlé and General Mills, Stern Ingredients-Mexico, World Grain, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, and Megazyme.

To learn more about the Latin American Cereals Conference and the International Gluten Workshop, click here.

Breaking ground: Mike Olsen uses new technology to improve farmer’s yields

Written by Jennifer Johnson on March 12, 2018. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Global challenges to agriculture such as climate change, crop diseases and pests mean that the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is constantly working to develop new, improved, resistant varieties for farmers.

However, crop breeding is expensive, time-consuming work, meaning that it takes several years for farmers to get seed solutions to the challenges they are facing today.

Mike Olsen, upstream research coordinator for CIMMYT maize program, works with scientists to use new technologies to increase breeding program efficiency and genetic gain — developing improved maize varieties with the traits smallholder farmers’ need, such as disease resistance or drought tolerance, using less time and resources than ever before.

“Our whole team is trying to improve genetic gain for various traits, and to deliver more genetic gain with fewer resources, through the application of phenotyping innovation, genomics and molecular markers for crop improvement,” Olsen said. “Our work at CIMMYT assists our breeding teams to be more effective in developing improved products for farmers.”

Originally from the United States, Olsen grew up on a small farm in Wisconsin and would go on to study plant breeding and genetics at the University of Minnesota. “During my undergrad years I had the chance to visit South Africa and saw rural poverty for the first time. At the time, I was taking classes in plant biology and genetics and I was inspired by the idea of using agricultural improvement as a method for poverty eradication—it’s a big part of why I went into plant breeding,” he said. “As a graduate student, I became very interested in the mission of CIMMYT. I was studying at Norman Borlaug’s alma mater — working in Borlaug Hall, in fact — which inspired me to pursue a career at a CGIAR center. CIMMYT was a perfect fit that allowed me to do something I’ve wanted to do since I was 19 years old.”

The farmers he has met around the world inspire Olsen to come into work every day. “Knowing that the outcome of our work is providing income and food security to millions of vulnerable people is what’s so exciting about what we do. Being able to serve as a conduit for bringing advanced technology for crop improvement for resource poor farmers and consumers is incredible,” he said.

Beyond the day-to-day activities of conference calls, travel and airports, the big picture work of what Olsen does is to lead a global team of talented scientists, help with grant writing and project oversight, with a focus on breeding program optimization. “I have been very involved with the Genomics and Open Source Breeding informatics initiative (GOBii), which helps breeding programs efficiently use genetic information, and I’m currently working on a collaboration with DuPont Pioneer on seed production in Africa to deliver higher quality seed to smallholder farmers,” Olsen said. “What I most enjoy about my work is the people. I have to be honest, coming to CIMMYT I was moving out of a hands-on science role into working with people, and the collaborative nature of this job has been really energizing for me. I’ve had the opportunity to mentor some of our talented young scientists into greater leadership roles, and it has been really exciting seeing their professional growth. It’s the CIMMYT mission that gets us all out of bed in the morning, but I really enjoy the people I work and collaborate with.”

Large scale maize intensification in Odisha, India

Written by on March 9, 2018. Posted in News.

ASKIPAL, India (CIMMYT) – A recent meeting in India focused on the value of maize for unused land in India’s Odisha plateau during monsoon season and the importance of women in agriculture.

More than 2000 farmers participated in the experience sharing meeting organized by the Department of Agriculture in collaboration with CSISA. Photo: CIMMYT/V.Dakshinamurthy

Odisha lies on India’s east coast and is home to vast tracts of fertile paddy fields spread along the coastline and the district’s southern region. To the north, however, lies Odisha’s north-central plateau, an upland area dominated by red lateritic soils used for producing staple crops under rainfed conditions during the monsoon and usually left fallow, or unused, during the dry, winter season.

Upland fields are often left fallow in the rainy season as well, despite receiving around 1,400 mm rainfall on average. Rice in these areas is a risky proposition, but the soils are surprisingly well suited to maize production without irrigation during the monsoon. Indigenous tribes, who have been cultivating traditional maize varieties for generations, are the main inhabitants this plateau region.

Over the past couple of years, improved maize cultivation, including with hybrids, has emerged as a potential income-generating activity for tribal populations, especially women farmers, in the Odisha plateau.

In February the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), in partnership with Odisha’s Department of Agriculture of Odisha (DOA) organized a meeting in the village of Askipal, Odisha in eastern India. The meeting was discussed improved maize cultivation during monsoon season and how to improve on what was done in 2017 to prepare for the upcoming 2018 Kharif season.

“Our population is increasing but not our land,” said Mangal Singh Modi, a member of the legislative assembly of Jashipur constituency in Mayurbhanj, Odisha. “We have to increase our productivity to ensure there is food for all. In Mayurbhanj, farmers should choose the right crops and varieties according to their type of land to get better productivity.”

The event allowed farmers to discuss their experiences planting improved maize, sell seed to poultry feed millers and discuss benefits gained by tribal and women farmers and planning for the 2018 monsoon season, which will begin around mid-April.

Over 500 participants attended the meeting, including farmers, extension agents, scientists, service providers and representatives from seed companies. Participating organizations included the Odisha Livelihood Mission, local government departments of Odisha, the Reliance Foundation, DuPont Pioneer seeds and the Integrated Tribal Development Agency of Odisha.

Wheat is popular in northern India, rice is popular in eastern India, especially the coastal belt and maize is popular in the tribal-dominated plateau belt. Discussions at the meeting focused on the importance of planting improved maize varieties to ensure productivity and strengthening market linkage with poultry feed millers.

“The Agriculture Department of Odisha will support farmers to impart required scientific knowledge,” said Damodar Sethi, Deputy Director of Agriculture in Mayurbhanj. “Farmers should adopt best agronomic practices as recommended to increase productivity.”

He said the Department of Agriculture would like to popularize maize during monsoon season as a way to increase productivity.

“Women farmers should come forward to bring changes in agriculture, and more importantly, in our society,” Sethi continued.

Debasish Marndi, Chairman of Special Development Council for the Government of Odisha also focused on the importance of including women in the expansion of agriculture in Mayurbhanj.

“Tribal development and empowerment of women farmers are our prime concerns and we are glad to see Mayurbhanj is becoming a lead commercial maize production center,” Marndi said. “The hard work of tribal community members and women self-help groups need a special appreciation.”

Science can reverse “new normal” of climate change-related disasters

Written by on March 9, 2018. Posted in News.

Naivasha, Kenya 2017. Photo: CIMMYT/ P.Lowe

In the last decade, the climate of Africa has been changing in dramatic ways. Many regions face unpredictable levels of rainfall, which can lead both droughts and severe flooding. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world with over 30 percent of children under five facing stunting – severe malnutrition, and is the only region where the rate of undernourished people has consistently increased.

The Sustainable Intensiﬁcation of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program, launched in 2010, works to improve maize and legume productivity and reduce yield risk for over 650,000 farm households in sub-Saharan Africa.

Maize is a vital staple cash and sustenance crop in most of Africa, and legumes provide nutrition, income and improve soil fertility. However, farmers’ yields are suffering due to declining soil fertility, drought and poor access to improved technologies.

Over the last eight years, SIMLESA has developed productive, resilient and sustainable smallholder maize-legume cropping systems. SIMLESA focuses on improving maize-legume cropping systems by encouraging the adoption of sustainable agriculture systems through conservation agriculture practices such as crop residue retention, crop rotation and intercropping practices to simultaneously maintain and boost yields, increase proﬁts and protect the environment.

Recently, Elliud Kireger, director general of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Mulugetta Mekuria Asfaw, SIMLESA project leader and Daniel Rodriguez, associate professor, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) The University of Queensland, wrote a joint opinion piece “Africa: Science Can Reverse ‘New Normal’ of Hunger and Climate Disaster” in All Africa on the impacts of SIMLESA, read it here.

The Sustainable Intensiﬁcation of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Building small scale mechanization capacity of service providers in Ethiopia

Written by on March 9, 2018. Posted in News.

The project, titled “Appropriate Mechanization for Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farming in Ethiopia,” aims to increase soil fertility through direct row planting of major crops in Ethiopia, such as maize, wheat and teff. However, they identified in their pilot phase that the necessary infrastructure and supply chains were not in place to ensure project sustainability and that the involvement of the private sector would be necessary.

Therefore, the project in its second phase focused on these critical activities, especially increasing capacity of service providers to deliver services and manage their businesses, and mechanics who closely support service providers in their daily business. Mechanics work with the local spare parts representatives identified by AMIO Engineering Plc, a local private sector partner in manufacturing and dealer of small scale agriculture technologies and machinery, to ensure that the fast moving and critical parts are always available in stock at their local warehouses.

In October 2017, two trainings were conducted at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) in Melkassa.

The first training was organized for selected mechanics by AMIO and CIMMYT with funding from the Integrated Soil Fertility Management program (ISFM), part of the German Cooperation for International Development Agency (GIZ). The one-week training covered the use and function as well as maintenance, repair and spare parts of the two-wheel tractor (2WT).

The second training, intended for service providers (SPs), focused on capacity building and quality development of small-scale mechanization services. The 44 SPs in attendance were encouraged to exchange individual experiences and expertise about service provision businesses, technical challenges in the field and the extent of potential business opportunities.

These trainings specifically focused on the use, operation, maintenance and safety of the 2WT and its ancillaries, as with correct aggregation almost all farming tasks can be accomplished with a single machine. The use of a 2WT for these tasks reduces both the time required to establish a crop and the chore of the task, by increasing productivity of both labor and crops.

Economic assessments show that mechanized planting using a 2WT is an economically viable and attractive option for both farmers and SPs. This is especially true when services offered include full use of 2WT and attachments; as these services are useful 365 days a year.

After farmers see these technologies, they are often interested in purchasing the services associated with the equipment and service providers frequently asked to procure additional equipment.

In order to achieve the aim of increased soil fertility through direct row planting of major crops in Ethiopia, the project selected six micro-watersheds in January 2016 that corresponded to ISFM intervention sites to test the delivery of small mechanization through service provision. The sites are located in the regions of Amhara, Oromia and Tigray.

The project imported six equipment packages from China for mechanized crop establishment, harvesting of small grain cereals and water pumping. These machines were loaned to individual service providers in Oromia and Tigray, and to a farmers group in Amhara. In addition, EIAR locally manufactured six trailers and three threshers which have been be dispatched to service providers.

Furthermore, in this second phase, the GIZ-ISFM through CIMMYT with Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR) dispatched 100 units of 2WT with plows, and an additional 15 trailers and 18 direct row planters that can be attached.

Based on encouraging results, the second phase of the project will focus on establishing viable, private sector-based input delivery mechanisms (maintenance and repair services, spare parts, and new equipment) and generating sufficient demand for self-sustained scaling-out processes.