News – Page 97

Breaking Ground: Lorena Gonzalez fast-forwards action on hunger using technology

Written by Matthew O'Leary on May 17, 2018. Posted in Features.

Intrigued by the unique relationship our food crops have to their geographical environment, Lorena Gonzalez dedicated her passion for geomatic technology to collect site-specific farm data that is revolutionizing the way researchers and farmers tackle hunger.

Working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as a research assistant, Gonzalez is part of a seismic shift in agriculture, replacing time-consuming manual data collection with technology.

Instead of walking the fields taking measurements by hand, data is collected from a distance through remote sensing. Using cameras on board manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as on ground sensors, Gonzalez gathers information such as plant height, canopy temperature and relative biomass, and evaluates plant health and soil spatial variability in minutes rather than weeks.

Collaborating with farmers and colleagues from maize and wheat breeding programs Gonzalez uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to organize and analyze data and patterns related to specific farm locations, making it easier to relate information to growers’ specific needs.

“It is important to make sure that data is properly geo-referenced, this way we know exactly how each crop is impacted by the matrix of factors in its environment,” said Gonzalez. “Collecting crop management and field data such as fertilization rates, irrigations schemes or soil properties provides us with information to understand and improve plant growth.”

The tailored information is used to improve farmers’ decision-making, allowing for more precise agriculture to create sustainable farming systems that produce more food with fewer resources, she said.

Gonzalez’ love for all things data saw her delve into the world of geospatial science studying her bachelor in Geomatics Engineering in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. Her passion for helping farmers achieve food security led her to apply for a job at CIMMYT. Since working with the Sustainable Intensification Program she has developed skills to collect and visualize agricultural data in meaningful ways to inform different stakeholders.

“Farmers, researchers and politicians can make better decisions when we streamline field data using available technology. The path of data from field to farm decision-makers can be streamlined using the available technology creatively and collaboratively, if we dare to build the appropriate systems.”

A UAV is launched to collect data from a field in CIMMYT’s experiment station in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT/ Peter Lowe

With climate change already affecting crop production, GIS becomes an increasingly important tool farmers can use to adapt and maintain crop yields, Gonzalez said. According to PNAS, each degree Celsius increase in global mean temperature is estimated to reduce the average global yields of wheat and maize by up to seven percent. These crops are key to the survival of humanity, providing a major portion of our caloric intake.

Remote sensing and precision agriculture plays a fundamental role in the ongoing challenge to reduce and cope with the effects of climate change and maximize land efficiency. Using quality data presented in useful ways helps farmers improve decision making, she added.

Gonzalez believes providing open access to geospatial decision support tools will allow smallholder famers to gain the information needed to make site-specific decisions on the exact quantity, location and timely application of resources needed to optimize food production.

If the world is to eliminate world hunger and malnutrition by 2030 as set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, smallholder farmers – who produce 80 percent of the world’s food – must benefit from access to remote sensing and precision agriculture, she said. Nine out of ten of the world’s 570 million farms are managed by families, making the family farm the predominant form of agriculture, and consequently a potentially crucial agent of change in achieving sustainable food security and in eradicating hunger in the future, according to UN reports.

Currently, Gonzalez is collecting data for an innovative private-public partnership, Mexico COMPASS, to help Mexican smallholder farmers increase wheat and sugar cane production by identifying factors that cause the yield gap between crop potential and actual performance.

The project aims to improve crop productivity and smallholder farmer incomes while facilitating rural community economic development. The data collected by Gonzalez in Mexico’s Yaqui Valley and in the state of Tabasco contributes to a system that combines earth observation satellite data with captured farm data to create a site-specific decision support tool for farmers. The project will help farmers to make better use of natural resources while monitoring crop health.

Improving smallholder farmer capacity and ability to make informed farming decisions is key to ending hunger and improving livelihoods, said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez’s work with CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification Program on the Mexico COMPASS project is funded by the UK Space Agency and has as partners: Rezatec, The University of Nottingham, Booker Tate and Colegio de Postgraduados (COLPOS).

CIMMYT Board of Trustees: Out of the boardroom and into the field

Written by on May 16, 2018. Posted in News.

CIMMYT's Board of Trustees members met with stakeholders on a recent visit to Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT archives — CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees members met with stakeholders on a recent visit to Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT archives

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)’s Board of Trustees visits the Center’s headquarters in El Batán, Mexico once a year for its Spring meeting, to discuss progress, challenges and future directions.

On their last visit to Mexico, during the week of April 21-28, the Board had the opportunity to meet with a number of CIMMYT stakeholders to gain insight and feedback on the Center’s progress.

Wheat blast screening and surveillance training in Bangladesh

Written by Mike Listman on May 15, 2018. Posted in News.

Researchers take part in Wheat Blast screening and surveillance course in Bangladesh. (Photo: CIMMYT/Tim Krupnik)

Fourteen young wheat researchers from South Asia recently attended a screening and surveillance course to address wheat blast, the mysterious and deadly disease whose surprise 2016 outbreak in southwestern Bangladesh devastated that region’s wheat crop, diminished farmers’ food security and livelihoods, and augured blast’s inexorable spread in South Asia.

Held from 24 February to 4 March 2018 at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Jessore, as part of that facility’s precision phenotyping platform to develop resistant wheat varieties, the course emphasized hands-on practice for crucial and challenging aspects of disease control and resistance breeding, including scoring infections on plants and achieving optimal development of the disease on experimental wheat plots.

Cutting-edge approaches tested for the first time in South Asia included use of smartphone-attachable field microscopes together with artificial intelligence processing of images, allowing researchers identify blast lesions not visible to the naked eye.

Workshop participants learned how to use the latest in technology to identify and keep track of the deadly Wheat Blast disease. Photo: CIMMYT archives.

“A disease like wheat blast, which respects no borders, can only be addressed through international collaboration and strengthening South Asia’s human and institutional capacities,” said Hans-Joachim Braun, director of the global wheat program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), addressing participants and guests at the course opening ceremony. “Stable funding from CGIAR enabled CIMMYT and partners to react quickly to the 2016 outbreak, screening breeding lines in Bolivia and working with USDA-ARS, Fort Detrick, USA to identify resistance sources, resulting in the rapid release in 2017 of BARI Gom 33, Bangladesh’s first-ever blast resistant and zinc enriched wheat variety.”

Cooler and dryer weather during the 2017-18 wheat season has limited the incidence and severity of blast on Bangladesh’s latest wheat crop, but the disease remains a major threat for the country and its neighbors, according to P.K. Malaker, Chief Scientific Officer, Wheat Research Centre (WRC) of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI).

“We need to raise awareness of the danger and the need for effective management, through training courses, workshops, and mass media campaigns,” said Malaker, speaking during the course.

The course was organized by CIMMYT, a Mexico-based organization that has collaborated with Bangladeshi research organizations for decades, with support from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI).

Speaking at the closing ceremony, N.C.D. Barma, WRC Director, thanked the participants and the management team and distributed certificates. “The training was very effective. BMWRI and CIMMYT have to work together to mitigate the threat of wheat blast in Bangladesh.”

CIMMYT at DAWN Pakistan Agri Expo 2018

Written by on May 11, 2018. Posted in News.

The Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) set up a stall at the DAWN Pakistan Agri Expo in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan on 3-4 May, 2018. CIMMYT presented the successes in agricultural technologies and provided a platform for Pakistani farmers, government and other stakeholders to explore and connect to innovative technologies for improvement of major cereal crops of Pakistan and other linked products and services.

The main attractions were maize and wheat varieties introduced by CIMMYT through its programs across Pakistan (Zincol, Pakistan, Borlaug, Pirsabak and QPM – 200/300 & white), the Zero-Tillage Happy Seeder, the maize push row planter, hermetic bags for storage of wheat and the multi-crop direct-seeding of rice planter. The AIP also exhibited its two competitive grant academic partners from livestock and vegetable components which include value addition of camel milk (dries and fresh cheese) and seasonal vegetable kitchen gardening (chilies, okra, squash, bell pepper) focusing food security and nutrition significance.1

The expo was inaugurated by Governor of Punjab province, Rafique Rajwana accompanied by Mission Director of USAID Pakistan Mr. Jerry Bisson, and diplomates from different countries. AIP stall located at U.S. Government pavilion represented by USAID & USDA, also spellbound many visitors including farmers, policymakers, media, agriculture experts and scientists from both public- and private-sector organizations and students, opening new possibilities for AIP and CIMMYT to connect with target groups and explore agricultural prospects in Pakistan.

See all the photos from the event on Flickr, here.

The Agriculture Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP) is managed by a consortium of CGIAR Centers and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project aims to foster emergence of a dynamic, responsive, and competitive system of science and innovation in Pakistan. AIP seeks to catalyze equitable growth in agricultural production, productivity, and value.

A side view of pavilion. Photo: CIMMYT Pakistan.

Mexico and CIMMYT share a common vision for sustainable food production

Written by Jennifer Johnson on May 9, 2018. Posted in News.

Visiting the CIMMYT germplasm bank. Photo: C.Beaver/CIMMYT.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) is committed to provide Mexican farmers with the best possible seed and technical support, according to Baltazar Hinojosa Ochoa, Mexico’s secretary of agriculture, during his first visit to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) on May 6.

“My career in agriculture goes back 32 years, and I myself am a farmer,” Hinojosa said in his opening address. “With this great opportunity to visit CIMMYT also comes a great commitment to its work—I am here to work by your side, to learn, and to help make sure the projects you are working on become reality and continue the legacy of work you have upheld over many years.”

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff discussed CIMMYT’s longstanding partnership with Mexico and SAGARPA, and the Center’s work to help farmers in Mexico and around the world improve their productivity and sustainability. “Mexico is our home, our ally, and the cradle of the green revolution. The technologies and seeds that we develop here in Mexico are used in Africa, Asia, Latin America—practically all over the world,” he said.

Bram Govaerts, the Latin America regional representative at CIMMYT, presented in detail the positive impact that the seeds, technologies and sustainable intensification practices of the MasAgro project, a partnership between CIMMYT and SAGARPA, has had in Mexico.

Tour of CIMMYT campus. Photo: S.Rico, CIMMYT. — Tour of CIMMYT campus. Photo: C.Beaver/CIMMYT.

He cited a study by Mexico’s University of Chapingo that found that extension agents trained in the MasAgro method were 10 times more effective at (reaching) farmers.

Another study found that farmers who implemented MasAgro’s innovative sustainable intensification techniques were able to increase their maize yields under raid-fed agriculture by nearly a ton per hectare in several Mexican states.

The secretary of agriculture expressed particular interest in sustainable intensification practices that prevent soil erosion and promote efficient water use, citing the prime importance of conserving these resources that are crucial to protecting agriculture and food security.

“You have a clear vision of what needs to be done, and we are committed to that vision with you,” Hinojosa said. “We must begin to work today on issues such as water use and soil erosion rather than wait until our resources are already degraded.”

The secretary was then given a tour of CIMMYT’s seed bank, home to the largest collection of maize and wheat genetic diversity in the world, followed by presentations from CIMMYT researchers on their work with maize, wheat and sustainable intensification. Other visitors included Jorge Luis Zertuche, subsecretary of agriculture; Eduardo Mansilla, delegate of SAGARPA in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas; Sergio Martínez, advisor to the secretary of agriculture; as well as members of the CIMMYT management committee and researchers from the MasAgro project.

Participatory experimental field in Beernarayana climate-smart village. (Photo: CIMMYT)

“Layering” climate smart rice-wheat farming practices in India boosts benefits

Written by on May 8, 2018. Posted in News.

Farmers confront a daunting range of options for potentially achieving high crop yields in India’s western Indo-Gangetic Plains, where rice and wheat crops are planted in rotation to meet high demand for dietary food staples.

Since 1965, rotational crop planting has been deployed in the area to intensify production in a limited growing area, initially yielding positive food security results. Over time, agricultural practices have led to troubling consequences for the landscape, leading to unreliable or lower yields for farmers.

Now, new scientific research into “layering” climate smart agriculture techniques shows promise, demonstrating the potential for crop adaptability to climate change. Experiments reveal the possibilities for high productivity, benefits for water and energy supplies resulting in a smaller environmental footprint.

Throughout Southeast Asia, but particularly in the Indo-Gangetic Plains area, natural resources are three to five times more stressed due to agricultural intensification, urbanization, population growth, increasing climate change risks, and land degradation difficulties.

“Land is degraded in the region because over the past 50 years crop production increased quickly leading to inefficient use and mismanagement of resources,” said M.L. Jat, a Principal Scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), who works with a team of scientists on sustainable intensification and climate smart agriculture.

The scientists conducted a study to determine the most effective methods to grow rice and wheat in constrained conditions where horizontal expansion of crop growing areas is no longer a viable option for increasing yields.

Before embarking on their research, scientists were already aware that due to overpopulation, to meet rising food demand in the Indo-Gangetic Plains area, the only option for farmers is to increase yields on land already under agricultural production. Land shortages are exacerbated by reduced availability of water and energy.

By 2050, variability in growing conditions due to climate change is projected to lower crop yields by 10 to 40 percent and total crop failure will become more common.

Additionally, over the same time period, more than half the current wheat growing area in the Indo-Gangetic Plains will likely become unsuitable for production due to heat stress. Over pumping of ground water for rice production is simultaneously depleting the water table.

“Adaptation to climate change is no longer an option, but essential for minimizing crop losses that will occur as a result of the adverse impact of climate change,” Jat said, adding that the key to future food security is to use agricultural technologies that promote sustainable intensification and adapt to emerging climatic variability.

“Farmers face an enormous challenge – to be successful they must now rely on sustainable intensification management practices and adapt to emerging climate variability while playing a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon to keep global warming in check,” he said.

The key will be to boost the use climate smart agriculture techniques, which have the potential to address these challenges, maintain environmental equilibrium and produce high crop yields simultaneously.

The strategy opens the door to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and farmer income, adapt to and develop the capacity to resist climate change, and reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.

After experimental fieldwork, the scientists learned that strategically combining climate smart agricultural technologies already used selectively as a result of years of CIMMYT-designed trials in the region are most likely to lead to high crop yields and food security.

WINNING TECHNIQUES

Their findings are reported in a new research paper published in Agricultural Water Management journal.

Currently, farmers are using such climate smart water and energy saving techniques as direct seeded rice, zero tillage, laser land leveling, alternate wetting and drying, weather forecast based irrigation, precision nutrient management. Other climate smart techniques include retention of crop residues on the fields to store carbon and prevent emissions and unhealthy smog levels that result from residue burning.

“Climate smart agriculture practices in isolation may not fulfill their full potential in adapting to climate risks and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in rice-wheat production systems,” Jat said.

“However, layering of these practices and services in optimal combinations may help to adapt and build resilience under diverse production systems and ecologies to ensure future food security.”

The scientists studied six scenarios in three different climate smart villages in India’s sub-tropical state of Haryana in the Indo-Gangetic Plains.

The first scenario was based solely on observing the normal practices of a farmer, the second and third scenarios were layered with different technologies used for tillage, crop establishment, residue and nutrient management, and designated as “improved farmers’ practices.”

The other three scenarios were based on climate smart agriculture practices combined with the available range of technologies deployed to enhance tillage, crop establishment, laser land leveling; residue, water and nutrient management; improved crop varieties, information and communication technology and crop insurance.

Scientists set out to determine the best combination of practices and found that layering of climate smart agriculture practices improved rice-wheat system productivity from 6 to 19 percent depending on techniques used.

Layering also led to savings of more than 20 percent irrigation water. Global warming potential was reduced by 40 percent.

“The research leaves us feeling optimistic that the work we’ve been conducting throughout South Asia is leading to strong results,” Jat said. “Our aim now is to continue to work through various real life scenarios to see how far we can go in sustainably intensifying the entire region so that food supply can keep apace with population growth under emerging climate change challenges.”

The project was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Q+A with Iván Ortíz-Monasterio on nitrogen application and consequences

Written by on May 7, 2018. Posted in News.

Iván Ortíz-Monasterio, expert on sustainable intensification and wheat crop management at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), recently took part in a study detailing the detriments of excess fertilizer use and the benefits of more precise dosages.

In the following interview, he discusses the overuse of nitrogen fertilizer and related consequences, his experience with farmers, and his outlook for the future. According to Ortíz-Monasterio and study co-authors, research on wheat in the Yaqui Valley, state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico, and home to CIMMYT’s Norman E. Borlaug Experiment Station (CENEB), has direct implications for wheat crop management worldwide.

“The Yaqui Valley is agro-climatically representative of areas where 40 percent of the world’s wheat is grown, including places like the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India and Pakistan, the Nile Delta in Egypt, and the wheat lands of China,” said Ortíz-Monasterio.

Q: A key finding of the new publication was that, after a certain point, applying more nitrogen fertilizer does not increase yields, making excessive applications essentially a drain on farmers’ resources. Why then do farmers continue to apply more fertilizer than the crop needs?

A: Well there is a risk, if you under-apply N fertilizer, your yield goes down. Farmers are afraid that the yield will be lower and that their profit will be lower. The cost of under-applying for them is greater than the cost of over-applying, because they’re not paying all the costs of over applying. Those costs include the environmental impacts associated with greenhouse gas emissions, at a regional scale in the case of the Yaqui Valley because of nitrification of the Sea of Cortez, and at a local level due to contamination of the water table. All these costs are passed on to society. If we passed them on to farmers, then they would be more concerned about over-applying nitrogen fertilizers.

Q: Do you think farmers becoming more concerned is something that could happen?

A: Well there are starting to be more regulations in Europe. In the UK, farmers cannot apply any nitrogen before or at sowing; they can apply fertilizer only once the plant is about 15 centimeters tall. In other parts of Europe, like Germany, farmers cannot apply more than 150 kilograms of nitrogen on wheat, so it’s happening in other parts of the world. The government of Mexico and others are making commitments to reduce nitrous oxide emissions by 20 percent by 2030 and, in the case of agriculture, the main source of nitrous oxide is nitrogen fertilizer. To meet such commitments, governments will have to take policy action so, yes; I think there’s a good chance something will happen.

Q: There are technologies that can help farmers know precisely when to apply fertilizer and how much, for optimal crop yield and nitrogen use. Do many farmers use them? Why or why not?

NDVI map. Photo: CIMMYT. — NDVI (normalized difference vegetative index) map. Photo: CIMMYT archives

A: Something interesting to me is what’s happening right now. For the last 10 years, we’ve been working with Yaqui Valley farmers to test and promote hand-held sensors and hiring farm advisors paid with government money who provide this service free to farmers, and adoption was high. Then the government removed the subsidy, expecting farmers to begin covering the cost, but

farmers didn’t want to pay for it.

Then a company that uses drones approached me and other researchers in the region and requested our help to convert wheat crop sensor data obtained using airborne drones to recommended fertilizer dosages. We agreed and, in their first year of operation, farmers growing wheat on 1,000 hectares paid for this service. I don’t know what it is—maybe seeing a colorful map is more sexy—but farmers seem to be willing to pay if you fly a drone to collect the data instead of having a farm advisor walk over the field. But it’s great! In the past we relied on the government to transfer the technology and now we have this great example of a private-public partnership, where a company is helping to transfer the technology and making a profit, so that will make it sustainable. I’m very excited about that!

Q: Does CIMMYT have a plan to increase adoption of these technologies?

A CIMMYT technician uses a hand-held sensor to measure NDVI (normalized difference vegetative index) in a wheat field at the center's CENEB experiment station near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, northern Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT. — A CIMMYT technician uses a hand-held sensor to measure NDVI (normalized difference vegetative index) in a wheat field at the center’s CENEB experiment station near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, northern Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT archives

A: We’re not married to one technology, but need to work with all of them. You know we started with Greekseeker, which is a ground-based sensor, and now we’re also working with drones, with manned airplanes mounted with cameras, and even satellite images. So, there are four different ways to collect the data, and we’ve seen that the Greenseeker results correlate well with all of them, so the technology we developed originally for Greenseeker can be used with all the other platforms.

Q: Are you optimistic that farmers can shift their perceptions in this area and significantly reduce their nitrogen use?

A: I think we’re moving in that direction, but slowly. We need policy help from the government. Officials need to give some type of incentive to farmers to use the technology, because when farmers do something different they see it as a risk. To compensate for that risk, give them a carrot, rather than a stick, and I think that will help us move the technology faster.

Moving ‘impact’ beyond a buzzword in international development

Written by on May 3, 2018. Posted in News.

Larry Cooley and his wife, Marina Fanning visiting the CIMMYT germplasm bank. Photo: CIMMYT.

In the arena of international development, impact is the name of the game. Researchers, practitioners and funders initiate projects with the intention of benefitting poor and vulnerable people around the world. Despite these good intentions, very few manage to achieve large-scale impact. Larry Cooley, president emeritus and senior advisor at Management Systems International (MSI), is trying to change that.

Cooley is considered one of the top three scaling experts in the world. He recently presented at a workshop on scaling at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) headquarters in El Batán, Mexico.

“You just have to look around you to know that things change, but most changes are the effect of something else,” he said. “I’m interested in how you can make things better on purpose.”

There are many formal definitions of scaling, but Cooley described it as the attempt to overcome a gap between the need for something and the extent to which that need is being met.

“That’s great if you’re helping 10,000 people,” he said, “but if it’s 10,000 out of a billion, that’s not nearly as impressive.”

That’s not to say the intervention is invalid, but Cooley emphasized that if large-scale impact is the goal, interveners need to find a way to align the magnitude of the response with the magnitude of the problem. Doing this successfully requires a different way of thinking.

In recent decades, the international development community has fixated on technological innovations and short-term pilot projects. Many project leaders and donors assume a good product, idea or behavior will scale on its own, but Cooley says scaling has more to do with the underlying political, cultural or other systems than the actual innovation.

During the workshop, Cooley presented the Non-pneumatic Anti-shock Garment (NASG) as an example. NASG is a first-aid device that can save a woman’s life when hemorrhaging from childbirth. Cooley saw this device in action several years ago in Africa.

“The lady looked dead. They put this garment on her, and a few minutes later, she was drinking from a cup,” said Cooley. “It was the closest I’ve come to a miracle in my life.”

When Cooley was presented with the challenge of scaling-up NASG in Nigeria, he thought it would be relatively easy. NASG is inexpensive and easy to use; the project had a willing donor and no competitors. But Cooley said he and his team quickly ran into complications.

Even though NASG can prevent hemorrhaging women from bleeding to death, they still need emergency medical treatment within 48 to 72 hours. Figuring out how to transport women to emergency care facilities, deciding who pays for the service, and creating a distribution network for the garments are just some of the logistical hurdles that have nothing to do with the actual innovation and everything to do with the system. Cooley says this is where governments and markets play a vital role.

Farmer Jhalak Bhandari uses a mini tiller to puddle his field for transplanting rice in Thulochaur, Sindhupalchok. Photo: CIMMYT/P. Lowe.

“The trick is to find a leverage point where the incentives will continue to push people to do the right thing,” said Cooley. “I’m not trying to malign people’s motives on this, but change is hard.”

Cooley said often the biggest obstacle to scaling is not opposition. It is the status quo and doubt.

“It’s much easier to keep doing what you’re doing until somebody creates a really compelling set of incentives to move,” he said. “If there’s a little uncertainty, they won’t move and inertia will win.”

A non-governmental organization or project leader does not have to do this alone. Often a third party with connections to the government or markets may need to intervene. Cooley said this backstory is rarely reported in the media or in the development sector. From smartphones to the Green Revolution, the story of innovation with large-scale impact tends to follow this narrative: we started small, we developed it and now it’s making an impact.

“What usually gets lost are the political and organizational details,” said Cooley. “How did you buy off the opposition? Who were the principal spokespeople and how did you get them to be spokespeople?”

The international development sector is beginning to recognize that a scaling perspective is needed to achieve large-scale impact. According to Cooley, interveners need to design for scale at the beginning of a project; they need to establish the pre-conditions for scale, and manage the scaling-up process. Not every project leader needs to be an expert in scaling, but working with people who are experts can significantly boost a project’s potential impact.

As part of a German Development Cooperation effort to aid the scaling up of agricultural innovations, Lennart Woltering joined CIMMYT’s sustainable intensification program last year. Woltering helps link CIMMYT’s research to specific development needs, increasing its relevance and impact.

“There is great momentum at CIMMYT to give more consistency to the term scaling,” said Woltering.

Woltering organized the workshop on scaling and invited Cooley to present at CIMMYT headquarters.

“I am a big fan of Larry Cooley,” said Woltering. “He approaches scaling from a management perspective – how to get things done.”

Fourth international workshop on farming system design in south Asia

Written by on May 3, 2018. Posted in News.

The fourth international workshop on “Science of Farming Systems: Moving from Prototyping to Model-Based Assessment and Designing of Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems in South Asia” took place in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India from 19 to 22 March this year. The workshop was jointly organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) – Indian Institute of Farming System Research (IIFSR) and was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat Agri-Food Systems (WHEAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security (CCAFS).

Twenty-five participants from 11 research centers across 13 Indian states and Nepal attended the workshop. Workshop objectives included mainstreaming science-based approaches to farming systems analysis and research for development programs in South Asia, as well as overview and training courses on farming systems and technologies, especially focusing on FarmDESIGN, modelling software developed by WUR. A number of talks around FarmDESIGN were given, including hands-on workshops by scientists from CIMMYT and WUR.

Group photo of participants at the fourth international workshop on farming system design in south Asia. Photo: CIMMYT.

South Asian farming systems are characterized by a large diversity of smallholder systems with diversified faming system households. Accordingly, the farming systems research has been central to the south Asian national agriculture research systems. ICAR-IIFSR has developed specific integrated farming systems (IFS) prototypes for different agro-ecological zones of India and implemented them in research stations and rural communities.

The growing complexity of climate, markets and income uncertainties, as well as large age divides within farming households limits the large-scale adoption these prototype farming systems weigh output performance on the one hand and tradeoffs such as income resilience, environmental footprints and markets on the flip-side. Therefore, designing farm systems with effective targeting of climate resilience, profitability and sustainability, requires suitable technologies, practices to understand and capture the diversity of farming systems, their main components, characteristics, interrelationships and flows.

Previous CIMMYT-ICAR-WUR collaborations have explored the use of farm level modeling tools to assess, with multiple criteria, the sustainability of such IFS, identify main trade-offs and synergies and provide guidelines for their improvement. Capacity development of farming system network researchers on the use and application of the FarmDESIGN model has been one important activity in such collaboration. For scaling the outputs of such exercise, the farming systems have to be evaluated in terms of relevant indicators for different farm household types and communities, allowing them to identify main potential leverages and obstacles for adoption of different intervention. In this regard, this workshop is being organized involving key stakeholders.

The workshop objectives were to mainstream science based approaches for farming systems analysis in research for development programs in South Asia; to share results of integrated assessments of farming systems’ performance in a range of agro-ecologies across South Asia and discuss main implications for the re-design of IFS; to select methods for improved prototyping and model-based analysis using on-station data for developing an out-scaling process that is tested in multiple environments for large scale application; to share and solve main technical barriers implementation; to share and discuss other modeling techniques and their potential complementarity; to provide an overview of the application ‘FarmDESIGN,’ which was created by WUR, discuss main issues for further development to cover the needs of South Asian farming systems and further steps for larger implementation; discuss future research activities and collaborations.

Santiago Lopez Rodaura, senior farming systems specialist, CIMMYT and Jeroen Groot, farming systems expert from WUR gave a hands-on session on debugging, analysis visualization and analyzing prototype implementations in FarmDESIGN. AK Prusty, scientist, ICAR-IIFSR and collaborators from WUR, elaborated on-farm diagnosis and analysis in FarmDESIGN. AS Panwar, director, ICAR-IIFSR, led a session with presentations of case studies from peer review articles in diverse ecologies to demonstrate improved efficiency, income and reducing footprints through optimizing resource allocation with science-based approach using FarmDESIGN and other modeling programs using at least 10 prototype farming systems cases.

The workshop concluding with a planning session facilitated by CIMMYT principal scientist ML Jat. Recommendations were made by all the participants and emphasized studies on ongoing interventions looking at 10-15 year scenarios in cropping systems. Participants suggested studying climate prediction data and crop simulations with alternate wet-dry techniques to consider variability in the water table, among a number of other follow-up suggestions.

A “Virtual Task Force” was assigned to organize follow-ups on progress made based on meeting suggestions across locations and present a document to the Prime Minister of India’s office with suggestions for the Government of India’s initiative “Doubling farmer Income by 2022.”

Participants suggested creating a users guide for FarmDESIGN to be circulated to encourage wide-scale adoption, along with a manual for targeting typology interventions.

Panwar said, “seeing the progress across sites, I am convinced with the impact FarmDESIGN model has brought and will continue to with support from CIMMYT and WUR for changing face of cropping systems research”.

The program was able to achieve its target for improved understanding and capacity of key researchers on designing and implementing science based farming systems for improved efficiency and enhanced adoption in smallholder systems of South Asia.

The fourth international workshop on “Science of Farming Systems: Moving from Prototyping to Model-Based Assessment and Designing of Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems in South Asia” was jointly organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) – Indian Institute of Farming System Research (IIFSR) and was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat Agri-Food Systems (WHEAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security (CCAFS).

Farmers, environment, and carbon markets to profit from more precise fertilizer management, study shows

Written by on April 24, 2018. Posted in Press releases.

Seminal study on nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer in semi-arid, irrigated agriculture shows that reducing nitrogen fertilizer rates significantly cuts nitrous oxide emissions without reducing grain yield or quality.

Results are applicable to large-scale irrigated wheat cropping systems in China, India, Mexico, and Pakistan.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EL BATAN, MEXICO – Farmers of irrigated wheat can increase profits and radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by applying fertilizer in more precise dosages, according to a new study.

Published today in the journal Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, the study shows that farmers in the Yaqui Valley, a major breadbasket region in northwestern Mexico that covers over 1.5 times the area of the Mexico City, are applying significantly more nitrogen fertilizer than they need to maximize wheat yields.

Lower application of nitrogen fertilizer would cut the region’s yearly emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, by the equivalent of as much as 130,000 tons of carbon dioxide, equal to the emissions of 14 million gallons of gasoline, according to Neville Millar, a senior researcher at Michigan State University (MSU) and first author of the published paper.

“Our study is the first to isolate the effect of multiple nitrogen fertilizer rates on nitrous oxide emissions in wheat in the tropics or sub-tropics,” Millar said. “It shows that applying fertilizer to wheat at higher than optimal economic rates results in an exponential increase in nitrous oxide emissions.”

Yaqui Valley wheat farming conditions and practices are similar to those of huge wheat cropping expanses in China, India, and Pakistan, which together account for roughly half of worldwide nitrogen fertilizer use for wheat, according to study co-author Iván Ortíz-Monasterio, a wheat agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), whose Yaqui Valley experiment station was the site of the reported research.

“The recommendations are thus globally relevant and represent a potential triple win, in the form of reduced greenhouse gas emissions, higher income for farmers and continued high productivity for wheat cropping,” Ortíz-Monasterio said.

Measuring nitrous oxide after nitrogen fertilizer applications in spring durum wheat crops during two growing seasons, Millar and an international team of scientists found an exponential increase in emissions from plots fertilized at greater than economically-optimal rates—that is, when the extra nitrogen applied no longer boosts grain yield.

They also found that grain quality at the economically optimal N rates was not impacted and exceeded that required by local farmer associations for sale to the market. They examined five different nitrogen fertilizer dosages ranging from 0 to 280 kilograms per hectare.

“In our study, the highest dosage to get optimum wheat yields was 145 kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer per hectare in the 2014 crop,” said Millar. “Yaqui Valley farmers typically apply around 300 kilograms. The wheat crop takes up and uses only about a third of that nitrogen; the remainder may be lost to the atmosphere as gases, including nitrous oxide, and to groundwater as nitrate.”

Promoting profitable, climate-friendly fertilizer use

Farmers’ excessive use of fertilizer is driven largely by risk aversion and economic concerns, according to Ortíz-Monasterio. “Because crops in high-yielding years will require more nitrogen than in low-yielding years, farmers tend to be optimistic and fertilize for high-yielding years,” said Ortíz-Monasterio. “At the same time, since farmers don’t have data about available nitrogen in their fields, they tend to over-apply fertilizer because this is less costly than growing a crop that lacks the nitrogen to develop and yield near to full potential.”

Ortíz-Monasterio and his partners have been studying and promoting management practices to help farmers use fertilizer more efficiently and include available soil nitrogen and weather in their calculations. This technology, including Greenseeker, a handheld device that assesses plant nitrogen needs, was tested in a separate study for its ability to advise farmers on optimal rates of fertilizer use.

“Sensing devices similar to Greenseeker but mounted on drones are providing recommendations to Yaqui Valley farmers for wheat crops grown on more than 1,000 acres in 2017 and 2018,” Ortiz-Monasterio noted.

A result of the research partnership between CIMMYT and MSU’s W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) Long-Term Ecological Research program to reduce greenhouse gas impacts of intensive farming, the present study also aimed to generate new emission factors for Mexican grain crops that accurately reflect nitrous oxide emissions and emission reductions and can be used in global carbon markets, according to Millar.

“The emission calculations from our work can be incorporated by carbon market organizations into carbon market protocols, to help compensate farmers for reducing their fertilizer use,” he said.

“This study shows that low emissions nitrogen management is possible in tropical cereal crop systems and provides important guidance on the optimal levels for large cropping areas of the world,” said Lini Wollenberg, an expert in low-emissions agriculture for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which helped fund the research. “With these improved emission factors, countries will be able to better plan and implement their commitments to reducing emissions.

To view the article

Millar, N., A. Urrea, K. Kahmark, I. Shcherbak, G. P. Robertson, and I. Ortiz-Monasterio. 2018. Nitrous oxide (N2O) flux responds exponentially to nitrogen fertilizer in irrigated wheat in the Yaqui Valley, Mexico. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2018.04.003.

KBS LTER

Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research (KBS LTER) Program studies the ecology of intensive field crop ecosystems as part of a national network of LTER sites established by the National Science Foundation. More information at http://lter.kbs.msu.edu

MSU AgBioResearch

MSU AgBioResearch engages in innovative, leading-edge research that combines scientific expertise with practical experience to help advance FOOD, ENERGY and the ENVIRONMENT. It encompasses the work of more than 300 scientists in seven MSU colleges — Agriculture and Natural Resources, Arts and Letters, Communication Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Natural Science, Social Science and Veterinary Medicine — and includes a network of 13 outlying research centers across Michigan.

CIMMYT

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

CCAFS

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), brings together some of the world’s best researchers in agricultural science, development research, climate science and earth system science to identify and address the most important interactions, synergies and tradeoffs between climate change, agriculture and food security. CCAFS is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. www.ccafs.cgiar.org

For more information or for interviews:

Holly Whetstone

Associate Director, ANR Communications & Marketing
Michigan State University
Tel: 517.884.3864
Email: whetst@msu.edu

Mike Listman
Communications officer, CGIAR Research Program on Wheat
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Tel (office): +52 (55) 5804 7537
cel: +52 (1595) 114 9743
Email: m.listman@cgiar.org
skype: mikeltexcoco

Photo available for use with proper accreditation:

Farmers family in Obregon, Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT/ Peter Lowe

Precision Nutrient Management: The Future of Nitrogen Use Efficiency

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

This March, the Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA) held an international workshop on enhancing Nitrogen use efficiency in wheat using the combined approach of breeding and precision agronomy in Ladhowal, Punjab. The objective of this workshop was to train young scientists and students on new opportunities for improving Nitrogen use efficiency in wheat. This initiative is a part of the project supported by the Rothamsted Research, U.K. known as the Indo-U.K. Centre. Eighteen young scientists and post-graduate students from organizations across India and the U.K. attended the event.

The workshop was kicked off by N.S. Bains, director of research, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), who emphasized the need to increase Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in wheat through breeding and agronomic adjustments. The workshop combined lectures and hands-on activities during field visits. In the lectures, participants received a global overview of fertilizer use and strategies for improving NUE in cereals with special reference to wheat. Lecturers used examples from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) germplasm bank to highlight the variability of genetic NUE in wheat, explored modeling approaches for improving NUE and soil-based approaches.

BISA organized field visits to provide a real-life learning platform for participants to see the precision nutrient management techniques used in the research trials. Coordinators provided hands-on training about in field root measurements and other physiological and agronomic traits. Coordinators defined NUE, discussed calculations and explained how root traits can affect Nitrogen use efficiency – extensive root systems allow plants to use Nitrogen more effectively. The group participated in using a handheld GreenSeeker Nitrogen sensor with the help of algorithms to find critical values nitrogen and fertilizer doses.

Concluding the workshop, Rajbir Singh, director, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI) at PAU, Ludhiana said “precision nutrient management is the new and futuristic research in the field of NUE.”

Feedback from participants shows an increased understanding of processes and procedures for improved NUE in wheat, genotype by environment interactions and recent advances in precision nutrient management. The site-specific knowledge and hands-on training supported better understanding on rate and timing effects of Nitrogen in conventionally and fertigation applied fertilizer. The knowledge exchange of experts from multi-disciplinary fields enhanced the understanding of principles of precision nutrient management and provided guidance for organizing the precision nutrition platform.

The Borlaug Institute for South Asia is a non-profit international research institute dedicated to food, nutrition and livelihood security as well as environmental rehabilitation in South Asia, which is home to more than 300 million undernourished people. BISA is a collaborative effort involving the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research. The objective of BISA is to harness the latest technology in agriculture to improve farm productivity and sustainably meet the demands of the future.

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.