On the 14th of May, the RĂo Fuerte Sur Farmersâ Association (AsociaciĂłn de Agricultores del RĂo Fuerte Sur, or AARFS), whose membership includes 2,500 farmers from northern Sinaloa, granted Bram Govaerts the 2018 Tecnoagro Award.
Starting 27 years ago, this award has been granted to people who promote the development of science and technologies aimed at improving farmersâ productivity and their ability to overcome the challenges of Mexican agriculture.
Govaerts received the 2018 Tecnoagro Award in recognition of the efforts of CIMMYT and, in particular, of its Sustainable Intensification Program, for promoting the adoption of conservation agriculture in northern Sinaloa, where the MasAgro program has had great success thanks to its close collaboration with AARFS farmers.
âIt gave me great satisfaction to hear the words of Montiel Ibarra, an agricultural engineer who is Chairman of the Management Committee of the AARFS, indicating that MasAgro practices are the most appropriate alternative because they allow farmers to reduce costs, become more competitive, transform Sinaloaâs agriculture and make it more sustainable,â said Govaerts. âThe best award is the one farmers give,â added CIMMYTâs Regional Representative in the Americas.
Govaerts receives the 2018 Tecnoagro Award and gives a keynote speech at the AARFS offices in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Photo: Andrea Carbajal.
CIMMYTâs latest data indicate that Sinaloan farmers have saved, on average, $4,564 Mexican pesos and increased their productivity by 1.3 tons per hectare by implementing MasAgroâs sustainable intensification practices.
Additionally, conservation agriculture and the technologies that MasAgro promotes have made it possible for farmers to save up to 50% of the water used in their irrigation systems and reduce their pesticide applications by up to 66%, thanks to innovative integrated pest management practices.
Sinaloan farmers have also saved up to 170 kg of nitrogen fertilizer per hectare by applying optimal fertilizer doses estimated by remote sensors that very precisely determine the nutrient needs of maize or wheat crops.
Upon accepting the 2018 Tecnoagro Award, Govaerts joined AARFSâ call for farmers to adopt the sustainable intensification practices promoted by CIMMYT through MasAgro and reaffirmed his commitment to agricultural development both in Mexico and the world.
At a recent TEDx event in Johannesburg, South Africa, agricultural economist and development practitioner Ed Mabaya invited the audience to think of improved seed varieties as âtiny little robotsâ that can be deployed to remote African villages to deliver nutrition and improved livelihoods. During his talk, Mabaya showed the impact of Bazooka maize, a drought- and disease-resistant variety that scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) helped develop. Read the below conversation with Mabaya to learn about the importance of improved seed varieties and how to make their use more widespread.
Q: How did your experience growing up in Zimbabwe motivate your career choice?
A: I am one of 11 children born to smallholder farmers in rural Zimbabwe. My parents are among the first generation of smallholder farmers who shifted from producing âjust enough to feed the familyâ to âmaking the most from their land.â They were the early adopters of hybrid maize varieties in the 1980s, creating what was later referred to as Zimbabweâs Green Revolution.
In addition to keeping their families well nourished, farmers like my parents could take their surplus to nearby city markets, make money and invest it in education and health for their children. Farming beyond subsistence indeed opened new horizons for their children. I am where I am today in part because my parents used improved seed.
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Q: Why did you decide to focus on Bazooka maize and NABE 15 beans in your TEDx talk? Are there other crops with resistance to disease and drought that you consider âHunger Bustersâ?
A: To showcase the transformative power of improved seed to a general audience, I needed one cereal and one legume crop variety that offered easy-to-understand benefits. My key requirements where higher yields, disease resistance and climate change adaptation. These are key challenges facing smallholder farmers worldwide. Having these attributes in one variety is as close as one can get to a silver bullet for smallholder agriculture.
Most importantly, I wanted varieties that have been successfully commercialized â not just prototypes. I find it easier to use farmer testimonials to not only demonstrate the benefits, but also to show that these technologies are available and affordable to resource-poor farmers. Both Bazooka and NABE 15 met all of these criteria. Bonus features for NABE 15 were higher levels of micronutrients and shorter cooking times.
Q: In your talk, you discuss how the genius of these seeds is not enough to scale up their adoption. Can you provide specific examples of bottlenecks, and how policy reform, partnerships and strategic investments have helped to increase the use of this type of seeds?
A: We have made significant progress over the past two decades in overcoming many bottlenecks that limit adoption of improved varieties by smallholder farmers. A recent example is the proliferation of fake or counterfeit seed in many African countries. If a farmer purchases certified seed that turns out to be fake, they will experience low germination and poor performance that is often worse than their own recycled seed. Not only do they lose a key investment for that season, but also they are likely to âdis-adoptâ certified seed.
However, several countries are taking notable steps to address the challenge. The Seed Trade Association of Kenya (STAK), working closely with the government seed regulator, is leading the effort to have security labels inserted in each packet of seed. These labels, authenticated via SMS on mobile phones, demonstrate the power of public-private-partnerships to deliver solutions to rural development.
Q: How do the key bottlenecks vary from country to country?
A: I am the lead investigator of The African Seed Access Index (TASAI), a tool that identifies bottlenecks on the improved seed value chains, from breeding all the way to agro-dealers in rural areas. Based on recent studies conducted in 14 African countries, we know that the bottlenecks vary significantly by country and crop.
For example, access to foundation seed is a key challenge for beans in Malawi, seed inspectors are inadequate in Senegal, and the availability of seed in small packages is limited in South Africa. More importantly, seed systems are dynamic and the constraints can change from year to year. A summary of ten emerging findings from recent TASAI studies is available online.
Q: Was there anything you wish you could have included in the TEDx Talk but had to leave out due to time constraints?
A: I could have used more time to describe the pathway that improved seed takes from research and development all the way to the village. Seed systems in Africa are highly complex, often involving multiple institutions with different interests. This complexity is the main reason why you will find ice-cold Coca-Cola in many African rural stores, but you might not find good seed.
The fact that seed is a living organism also presents the challenge of maintaining viability along this long and complex system. To understand the challenges of seed access in Africa, the devil is often in the details.
Q: What was the general response from attendees at the TEDx event? Did anyone ask surprising or difficult questions afterwards?
A: Overall, the presentation was well received. The general response was along the lines of âWow! I had never thought of seed that way.â A few farmers in the audience wanted to know if and how they can get their hands on Bazooka and NABE 15 seed. However, there were several skeptics in the room who were mostly concerned about GMOs and the dominance of multinational seed companies.
I had anticipated these concerns and I tried my best to preemptively address them in my talk. While I find most these concerns to be misinformed, we would be remised to ignore them as they are shaping public perceptions of the formal seed sector. Unfortunately, it is hard to shift perceptions in just one talk.
Ed Mabaya is a scholar and a development practitioner with more than a decade of experience working with African seed systems. He is the Principal Investigator at The African Seed Access Index (TASAI), which monitors national indicators related to seed sector development. As a Senior Research Associate in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, he conducts research on food marketing and distribution, seed systems and the role of efficient agricultural markets in Africaâs economic development. He is also Assistant Director of the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD).
Mabaya was one of the speakers at the CIMMYT 50 celebrations in September 2016, and at TEDx MidAtlantic 2017. You can watch Mabaya’s talk at CIMMYT here and at TEDx MidAtlantic here.
Crop growth simulation models coupled with climate model projections are promoted and increasingly used for assessing impacts of climate change on crop yields and for informing crop-level adaptations. However, most reported studies are unclear regarding the choice of the global circulation models (GCMs) for climate projections and the corresponding uncertainty with these type of model simulations.In our study, we investigated to what extent far climate-change modeling can be used for identifying crop management adaptation options to climate change. We focused our analysis on a case study of maize production in southern Africa using the APSIM crop growth model (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) and projections from 17 individual climate models for the period 2017-2060 for the contrasting representative concentration pathways 2.6 and 8.5.
Our findings demonstrate that the identification of crop management-level adaptation options based on linked climate-crop simulation modelling is largely hindered by uncertainties in the projections of climate change impacts on crop yields. With uncertainties in future crop yield predictions of around 30 to 40% or more, many potential adaptation options to climate change are not identifiable or testable with crop-climate models.
First, the variation of climate predictions is high. Their accuracy is limited by fundamental, irreducible uncertainties that are the result of structural differences in the GCMs as well as different model parametrization and downscaling approaches. We found that different GCMs gave largely different results, without any clear pattern.
Second, there is also large uncertainty in simulating the responses of crops to changing climate because of the different structures, and input data and parameters of crop models. Besides, crop models often lack key processes (e.g., physiological plant responses to extreme temperatures) related to climate change impacts, as they were not built for this purpose. It is also evident that due to the limited capability of crop models in simulating effects of soil and crop management practices on crop yields, only a limited number of adaptation options could be informed.
A more successful approach for informing adaptation to climate change may be to begin with the decision-making context, assessing the existing capacities and vulnerabilities of farmers and their communities to climate change. This âcapacity approachâ does not require probability-based estimates of future climate, but rather a range of plausible representations that can help to better understand how the climate-related vulnerabilities can be addressed. Most of the decisions on crop management are made by the farmer in the context of his/her production objectives and farming opportunities and constraints. From there, farming options can be identified and proposed that are feasible and robust over a range of plausible climatic futures, without the need for detailed climate projections.
Furthermore, adaption to climate change is also entwined with socioeconomic drivers, such as globalization, economic and political priorities, and demographics. In fact, complexities in economic and social systems may outweigh climatic uncertainties in determining possible and feasible adaptation options. A general trend observed is that by diversifying their income sources, including off-farm income, farmers become less vulnerable to climate variability and change.
Whilst we argue that results from GCMs cannot be directly used for informing local-scale adaptation options, we do acknowledge that the use of ensembles of both climate and crop models in regionally- and globally-oriented impact studies can provide valuable information that can guide policy decision-making on agricultural adaptation to climate change at national and international scales.
Felipa Martinez shows off some of her family’s maize from last year’s harvest. Photo: Matthew O’Leary
Felipa Martinez, an indigenous Mexican grandmother, grins as she shows off a bag bulging with maize cobs saved from last harvest season. With her family, she managed to farm enough maize for the year despite the increasing pressure brought by climate change.
Felipaâs grin shows satisfaction. Her main concern is her family, the healthy harvest lets her feed them without worry and sell the little left over to cover utilities.
âWhen our crops produce a good harvest I am happy because we donât have to spend our money on food. We can make our own tortillas and tostadas,â she said.
Her family belongs to the Chatino indigenous community and lives in the small town of Santiago Yaitepec in humid southern Oaxaca. They are from one of eleven marginalized indigenous communities throughout the state involved in a participatory breeding project with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to naturally improve the quality and preserve the biodiversity of native maize.
These indigenous farmers are custodians of maize biodiversity, growing seeds passed down over generations. Their maize varieties represent a portion of the diversity found in the 59 native Mexican races of maize, or landraces, which first developed from wild grasses at the hands of their ancestors. These different types of maize diversified through generations of selective breeding, adapting to the environment, climate and cultural needs of the different communities.
In recent years, a good harvest has become increasingly unreliable, as the impacts of climate change, such as erratic rainfall and the proliferation of pests and disease, have begun to challenge native maize varieties. Rural poor and smallholder farmers, like Martinez and her family, are among the hardest hit by the mounting impacts of climate change, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
These farmers and their ancestors have thousands of years of experience selecting and breeding maize to meet their environment. However, climate change is at times outpacing their selection methods, said CIMMYT landrace improvement coordinator Martha Willcox, who works with the community and coordinates the participatory breeding project. Through the initiative, the indigenous communities work together with professional maize breeders to continuously improve and conserve their native maize.
Despite numerous challenges, farmers in the region are unwilling to give up their maize for other varieties. âThe native maize, my maize grows best here, it yields well in our environment. The maize is sweeter, it is heavier,â said Don Modesto Suarez, Felipaâs husband. âThis maize has been grown by our grandfathers and this is why I will not change it.â
Una mujer de la comunidad Chatino prepara tortillas muy grandes de maĂz criollo que son muy apreciadas en los mercados locales. Foto: Matthew OâLeary
This is because a communityâs native maize varieties are adapted to their specific microclimate, such as elevation and weather patterns, and therefore may perform better or be more resistant to local pests and diseases than other maize varieties. They may also have specific characteristics prized for local culinary traditions â for example, in Santiago Yaitepec the native maize varieties have a specific type of starch that allows for the creation of extra-large tortillas and tostadas that are in high demand in local markets.
Other varieties may not meet farmersâ specific needs or climate, and many families do not want to give up their cultural attachment to native maize, said Flavio Aragon, a genetic resources researcher at the Mexican National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research (INIFAP) who collaborates with Willcox.
CIMMYT and INIFAP launched the four-year participatory plant breeding project to understand marginalized communitiesâ unique makeup and needs â including maize type, local climates, farming practices, diseases and culture â and include farmers in breeding maize to suit these needs.
âOur aim is to get the most out of the unique traits in the native maize found in the farmerâs fields. To preserve and use it to build resistance and strength without losing the authenticity,â said Aragon.
âWhen we involve farmers in the process of selection, they are watching what we are doing and they are learning techniques,â he said. âNot only about the process of genetic selection in breeding but also sustainable farming practices and this makes it easier for farmers to adopt the maize that they have worked alongside breeders to improve through the project.â
Suarez said he appreciates the help, “We are learning how to improve our maize and identify diseases. I hope more farmers in the community join in and grow with us,â he said.
When disease strikes
Chatino men stand in a maize field in Santiago Yaitepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Tar spot complex threatened harvests, but work in participatory breeding with CIMMYT has helped local communities to improve their native maize without loosing preferred traits. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary)
Changes in weather patterns due to climate change are making it hard for farmers to know when to plant their crops to avoid serious disease. Now, a fungal disease known as tar spot complex, or TSC, is increasingly taking hold of maize crops, destroying harvests and threatening local food security, said Willcox. TSC resistance is one key trait farmers want to include in the participatory breeding.
Named for the black spots that cover infected plants, TSC causes leaves to die prematurely, weakening the plant and preventing the ears from developing fully, cutting yields by up to 50 percent or more in extreme cases.
Caused by a combination of three fungal infections, the disease occurs most often in cool and humid areas across southern Mexico, Central America and into South America. The disease is beginning to spread, possibly due to climate change, evolving pathogens and introduction of susceptible maize varieties.
âOur maize used to grow very well here, but then this disease came and now our maize doesnât grow as well,â said Suarez. âFor this reason we started to look for maize that we could exchange with our neighbors.â
A traditional breeding method for indigenous farmers is to see what works in fields of neighboring farmers and test it in their own, Willcox said.
Taking the search to the next level, Willcox turned to the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank, which holds over 7000 native maize seed types collected from indigenous farmers. She tested nearly a thousand accessions in search of TSC resistance. A tedious task that saw her rate the different varieties on how they handled the disease in the field. However, the effort paid off with her team discovering two varieties that stood up to the disease. One variety, Oaxaca 280, originated from just a few hours north of where the Suarez family lives.
Farmer Modesto Suarez (left) and neighbors were originally cautious to plant Oaxaca 280 in their fields, but were pleased with the results. (Photo: Matthew OâLeary)
After testing Oaxaca 280 in their fields the farmers were impressed with the results and have now begun to include the variety in their breeding.
âOaxaca 280 is a landrace â something from Mexico â and crossing this with the communityâs maize gives 100 percent unimproved material that is from Oaxaca very close to their own,â said Willcox. âIt is really a farmer to farmer exchange of resistance from another area of Oaxaca to this landrace here.â
âThe goal is to make it as close as it can be to what the farmer currently has and to conserve the characteristics valued by farmers while improving specific problems that the farmers request help with, so that it is still similar to their native varieties and they accept it,â Aragon said.
Expanding for impact
Willcox and colleagues throughout Mexico seek to expand the participatory breeding project nationwide in a bid to preserve maize biodiversity and support rural communities.
âIf you take away their native maize you take away a huge portion of the culture that holds these communities together,â said Willcox. Participatory breeding in marginalized communities preserves maize diversity and builds rural opportunities in areas that are hotbeds for migration to the United States.
âA lack of opportunities leads to migration out of Mexico to find work in other places, a strong agricultural sector means strong rural opportunities,â she said.
To further economic opportunities in the communities, these researchers have been connecting farmers with restaurant owners in Mexico City and the United States to export surplus grain and support livelihoods. A taste for high-quality Mexican food has created a small but growing market for the native maize varieties.
The next generation: The granddaughter of Felipa Martinez and Modesto Suarez stands in her grandparent’s maize field. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary)
Native maize hold the building blocks for climate-smart crops
Native maize varieties show remarkable diversity and climate resilience that grow in a range from arid to humid environments, said Willcox. The genetic traits found in this diversity are the building blocks that can be used to develop varieties suitable for the changing crop environments predicted for 2050.
âThere is a lot of reasoning that goes into the way that these farmers farm the land, the way they decide on what they select for,â said Willcox. âThis has been going on for years and has been passed down through generations. For this reason, they have maize of such high quality with resistance to local challenges, genetic traits that now can be used to create strong varieties to help farmers in Mexico and around the world.â
It is key to analyze the genetic variability of native maize, and support the family farmers who conserve it in their fields, she added. This biodiversity still sown and selected throughout diverse microclimates of Mexico holds the traits we need to protect our food supplies.
To watch a video on CIMMYT’s work in this community, please click here.
This work has been conducted as part of the CIMMYT-led MasAgro project in collaboration with INIFAP, and supported by Mexicoâs Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE.Â
Tortillas made of zinc-enriched biofortified maize. Photo: HarvestPlus.
The first zinc-enriched maize varieties developed specifically for farmers in Guatemala were released this month as part of efforts to improve food and nutrition security in a country where over 46 percent of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition.
More than 40 percent of Guatemalaâs rural population have been found to be deficient in zinc, an essential micronutrient that plays a crucial role in pre-natal and post-natal development, and is key to maintaining a healthy immune system.
Felix San Vicente, second from left, at the launch event. Photo: HarvestPlus.
âThere are not many countries working with zinc maize right now, and that makes us pioneers in this area,â said Felix San Vicente, CIMMYT maize breeder. âGuatemala is the first country to release a zinc maize hybrid and Colombia will be the second. This means that we can also breed high zinc maize hybrids for producers who prefer hybrids over open pollinated varieties.â
These biofortified varieties were developed using conventional breeding methods. Farmers expressed interest in the varieties due to their high yield quality protein content, high zinc levels, early maturity and large kernel size.
Maize is a staple crop in Guatemala, and the base of many traditional foods such as tortillas, tamales, fresh roasted maize ears and other products. Tortillas made with ICTA B-15 contain up to 60 percent more zinc than regular tortillas. ICTA HB-18, a zinc maize hybrid, contains 15 percent more zinc compared to commercial maize. Just 100 grams of tortilla made of these varieties can provide 2.5 milligrams of zinc, 50 percent of the daily recommended zinc intake for children, making zinc-enriched biofortified maize an excellent tool in the fight against malnutrition and hidden hunger.
One hundred and thirteen tons of seed will be produced and delivered to producers by the end of 2018.
A new science brief, written by scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partner organizations details the use of naturally occurring diversity in maize to breed higher levels of Vitamin A into the crop.
Diets high in cereal crops are often lacking in vitamins and minerals, leading to malnutrition. However, maize, which is eaten widely in developing countries, and provides nearly one third of total calories to over 4.5 billion people globally, can be bred to naturally produce nutritionally adequate levels of VA.
Vitamin A (VA) deficiency is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness and nearly one third of children under the age of five are at risk of developing VA deficiency. ProVA maize has been shown to be effective at increasing VA status in at-risk children, reducing the likelihood that they will suffer from complications such as blindness.
The science brief details the use of the naturally occurring genetic diversity, found in the nearly 30,000 maize cultivars held between the germplasm banks at CIMMYT and at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), to breed higher levels of VA into maize which is more suited for the tropical environments where VA deficiencies are more common.
This initiative to increase VA in maize is part of a larger CGIAR-wide initiative for biofortification with HarvestPlus and Crop Trust. This article is part of a series on biofortification by Crop Trust, find the rest of the series here.
Check out other recent publication by CIMMYT staff below:
Do mature innovation platforms make a difference in agricultural research for development? a meta-analysis of case studies. 2018. Schut, M., Cadilhon, J. J., Misiko, M., Dror, I. In: Experimental Agriculture v. 54, no. 1, p. 96-119.
Nematode management in rain-fed smallholder maize production systems under Conservation Agriculture in Zimbabwe. 2018. Madamombe, S.M., Nyagumbo, I., Mvumi, B.M., Nyamugafata, P., Wuta, M., Chinheya, C.C. In: Experimental Agriculture v. 54, no. 3, p. 452-466.
High-yielding winter synthetic hexaploid wheats resistant to multiple diseases and pests. 2018. Morgounov, A.I., Abugalieva, A.I., Akan, K., Akın, B., Baenziger, S., Bhatta, M.R., Dababat, A.A., Dutbayev, Y., Moustapha El Bouhssini, Erginbas-Orakci, G., Kishii, M., Keser, M., Koc, E., Kurespek, A., Mujeeb-Kazi, A., Yorgancılar, A., Ozdemir, F., Ozturk, I., Payne, T.S., Qadimaliyeva, G., Shamanin, V., Subasi, K., Suleymanova, G., Yakisir, E., Zelenskiy, Y., Demir, L. In: Plant Genetic Resources v. 16, no. 3, p. 273-278.
Measuring farm and market level economic impacts of improved maize production technologies in Ethiopia : evidence from Panel Data. 2018. Kassie, M., Marenya, P., Tessema, Y., Jaleta Debello Moti, Zeng, D., Erenstein, O., Dil Bahadur Rahut. In: Journal of Agricultural Economics v. 69, no. 1, p. 76â95.
Cereal cyst nematodes : importance, distribution, identification, quantification, and control. 2018. Toumi, F., Waeyenberge, L., Viaene, N., Dababat, A.A., Nicol, J.M., Moens, M., Ogbonnaya, F.C. In: European Journal of Plant Pathology v. 150, no. 1, p. 1-24.
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 growersâ specific needs.
âIt 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,â said Gonzalez. âCollecting crop management and field data such as fertilization rates, irrigations schemes or soil properties provides us with information to understand and improve plant growth.â
The tailored information is used to improve farmersâ decision-making, allowing for more precise agriculture to create sustainable farming systems that produce more food with fewer resources, she said.
Gonzalezâ 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.
âFarmers, 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.â
A UAV is launched to collect data from a field in CIMMYTâs experiment station in Ciudad ObregĂłn, 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 â who produce 80 percent of the worldâs food â 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 Mexicoâs 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.
Gonzalezâs work with CIMMYTâs 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’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 Centerâs headquarters in El BatĂĄn, 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 Centerâs progress.
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 regionâs wheat crop, diminished farmersâ food security and livelihoods, and augured blastâs 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 facilityâs 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.
âA disease like wheat blast, which respects no borders, can only be addressed through international collaboration and strengthening South Asiaâs human and institutional capacities,â 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. âStable 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, Bangladeshâs first-ever blast resistant and zinc enriched wheat variety.â
Cooler and dryer weather during the 2017-18 wheat season has limited the incidence and severity of blast on Bangladeshâs 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).
âWe need to raise awareness of the danger and the need for effective management, through training courses, workshops, and mass media campaigns,â 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. âThe training was very effective. BMWRI and CIMMYT have to work together to mitigate the threat of wheat blast in Bangladesh.â
The main attractions were maize and wheat varieties introduced by CIMMYT through its programs across Pakistan (Zincol, Pakistan, Borlaug, Pirsabak and QPM â 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.
âMy career in agriculture goes back 32 years, and I myself am a farmer,â Hinojosa said in his opening address. âWith this great opportunity to visit CIMMYT also comes a great commitment to its workâI 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.â
CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff discussed CIMMYTâs longstanding partnership with Mexico and SAGARPA, and the Centerâs work to help farmers in Mexico and around the world improve their productivity and sustainability. âMexico 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 Americaâpractically all over the world,â 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:Â C.Beaver/CIMMYT.
He cited a study by Mexicoâs 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 MasAgroâs 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.
âYou have a clear vision of what needs to be done, and we are committed to that vision with you,â Hinojosa said. âWe must begin to work today on issues such as water use and soil erosion rather than wait until our resources are already degraded.â
The secretary was then given a tour of CIMMYTâs 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 MartĂnez, advisor to the secretary of agriculture; as well as members of the CIMMYT management committee and researchers from the MasAgro project.
Farmers confront a daunting range of options for potentially achieving high crop yields in Indiaâs 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 âlayeringâ 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.
âLand is degraded in the region because over the past 50 years crop production increased quickly leading to inefficient use and mismanagement of resources,â 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.
âAdaptation 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,â 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.
âFarmers face an enormous challenge â 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,â 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.
Participatory experimental field in Beernarayana climate-smart village. (Photo: CIMMYT)
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.
âClimate 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,â Jat said.
âHowever, 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.â
The scientists studied six scenarios in three different climate smart villages in Indiaâs 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 âimproved farmersâ practices.â
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.
âThe research leaves us feeling optimistic that the work weâve been conducting throughout South Asia is leading to strong results,â Jat said. âOur 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.â
IvĂĄn OrtĂz-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 fertilizeruse 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 OrtĂz-Monasterio and study co-authors, research on wheat in the Yaqui Valley, state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico, and home to CIMMYTâs Norman E. Borlaug Experiment Station (CENEB), has direct implications for wheat crop management worldwide.
âThe Yaqui Valley is agro-climatically representative of areas where 40 percent of the worldâs 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,â said OrtĂz-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 farmersâ 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 theyâre 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 itâs 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 thereâs 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?
A: Something interesting to me is whatâs happening right now. For the last 10 years, weâve 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 didnât 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 donât 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 itâs 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. Iâm very excited about that!
Q:Â 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 ObregĂłn, Sonora, northern Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT archives
A: Weâre 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 weâre 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 weâve 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 weâre 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.
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 Centerâs (CIMMYT) headquarters in El BatĂĄn, Mexico.
âYou just have to look around you to know that things change, but most changes are the effect of something else,â he said. âIâm interested in how you can make things better on purpose.â
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.
âThatâs great if you’re helping 10,000 people,â he said, âbut if itâs 10,000 out of a billion, that’s not nearly as impressive.â
Thatâs 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 womanâs life when hemorrhaging from childbirth. Cooley saw this device in action several years ago in Africa.
âThe lady looked dead. They put this garment on her, and a few minutes later, she was drinking from a cup,â said Cooley. âIt was the closest Iâve come to a miracle in my life.â
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.
âThe trick is to find a leverage point where the incentives will continue to push people to do the right thing,â said Cooley. âIâm not trying to malign peopleâs motives on this, but change is hard.â
Cooley said often the biggest obstacle to scaling is not opposition. It is the status quo and doubt.
âItâs much easier to keep doing what youâre doing until somebody creates a really compelling set of incentives to move,â he said. âIf thereâs a little uncertainty, they wonât move and inertia will win.â
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 itâs making an impact.
âWhat usually gets lost are the political and organizational details,â said Cooley. âHow did you buy off the opposition? Who were the principal spokespeople and how did you get them to be spokespeople?â
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 projectâs potential impact.
As part of a German Development Cooperation effort to aid the scaling up of agricultural innovations, Lennart Woltering joined CIMMYTâs sustainable intensification program last year. Woltering helps link CIMMYTâs research to specific development needs, increasing its relevance and impact.
âThere is great momentum at CIMMYT to give more consistency to the term scaling,â said Woltering.
Woltering organized the workshop on scaling and invited Cooley to present at CIMMYT headquarters.
âI am a big fan of Larry Cooley,â said Woltering. âHe approaches scaling from a management perspective â how to get things done.â
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 systemsâ 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 âFarmDESIGN,â 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 âVirtual Task Forceâ was assigned to organize follow-ups on progress made based on meeting suggestions across locations and present a document to the Prime Minister of Indiaâs office with suggestions for the Government of Indiaâs initiative âDoubling farmer Income by 2022.â
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, âseeing 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 researchâ.
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.
