Ispahani and AgBiTech are pleased to announce the formal registration of a biological control for Fall Armyworm in Bangladesh.
This rapid assessment and registration despite the ongoing lockdown due to Covid-19 is the result of months of collaborative hard work and support from members representing multiple organizations including USAID, CIMMYT, the Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Plant Protection Wing of Agricultural Extension, and the Fall Armyworm National Task Force.
The Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) program is managed by the UK Met Office, supported by the World Bank and the UKâs Department for International Development (DFID). The four-year program, which started in 2018, aims to strengthen weather forecasting systems across Asia. The program will deliver new technologies and innovative approaches to help vulnerable communities use weather warnings and forecasts to better prepare for climate-related shocks.
Since 2019, as part of ARRCC, CIMMYT has been working with the Met Office and Cambridge University to pilot an early warning system to deliver wheat rust and blast disease predictions directly to farmersâ phones in Bangladesh and Nepal.
The system was first developed in Ethiopia. It uses weather information from the Met Office, the UKâs national meteorological service, along with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge, to construct and deploy a near real-time early warning system.
Phase I: 12-Month Pilot Phase
Around 50,000 smallholder farmers are expected to receive improved disease warnings and appropriate management advisories in the first 12 months as part of a proof-of-concept modeling and pilot advisory extension phase focused on three critical diseases:
Wheat stripe rust in Nepal: extend and test the modelling framework developed in Ethiopia to smallholder farmers in Nepal as proof-of concept;
Wheat stem rust in Bangladesh and Nepal: while stem rust is currently not widely established in South Asia, models indicate that devastating incursion from neighboring regions is likely. This work will prepare for potential incursions of new rust strains in both countries;
Wheat blast in Bangladesh: this disease is now established in Bangladesh. This work will establish the feasibility of adapting the dispersal modelling framework to improve wheat blast predictability and deploy timely preventative management advisories to farmers.
Phase II: Scaling-out wheat rust early warning advisories, introducing wheat blast forecasting and refinement model refinement
Subject to funding approval the second year of the project will lead to validation of the wheat rust early warnings, in which researchers compare predictions with on-the-ground survey results, increasingly supplemented with farmer response on the usefulness of the warnings facilitated by national research and extension partners. Researchers shall continue to introduce and scale-out improved early warning systems for wheat blast. Concomitantly, increasing the reach of the advice to progressively larger numbers of farmers while refining the models in the light of results. We anticipate that with sufficient funding, Phase II activities could reach up to 300,000 more farmers in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Phase III: Demonstrating that climate services can increase farmersâ resilience to crop diseases
As experience is gained and more data is accumulated from validation and scaling-out, researchers will refine and improve the precision of model predictions. They will also place emphasis on efforts to train partners and operationalize efficient communication and advisory dissemination channels using information communication technologies (ICTs) for extension agents and smallholders. Experience from Ethiopia indicates that these activities are essential in achieving ongoing sustainability of early warning systems at scale. Where sufficient investment can be garnered to support the third phase of activities, it is expected that an additional 350,000 farmers will receive disease management warnings and advisories in Nepal and Bangladesh, totaling 1 million farmers over a three-year period.
Objectives
Review the feasibility of building resilience to wheat rust through meteorologically informed early warning systems.
Adapt and implement epidemiological forecasting protocols for wheat blast in South Asia.
Implement processes to institutionalize disease early warning systems in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Focusing on highly profitable but weather-risk prone mung bean production in coastal Bangladesh, the Climate and market-smart mung bean advisories (CAMASMA) project develops farmer friendly and demand-driven climate- and market-smart mung bean advisory dissemination systems.
Heavy rainfall events can cause significant damage to mung bean production, causing large yield and income losses for farmers in coastal Bangladesh. By integrating and disseminating weather-forecast information, climate-smart advisories for when and how to harvest mung bean help farmers to mitigate some of the climate risks associated with crop production.
Both mung bean farmers and traders can also benefit from real-time market price data. In addition to market intelligence on where large blocks of farmers have quality mung bean for sale, CAMASMA improves information flow to lower trading firmsâ transactions costs while speeding farm-gate purchase and income generation from farmers.
CAMASMA is a pilot project that demonstrates the power of climate services, agricultural advisories, and use of social network analysis and ICTs to speed information delivery and increase farmersâ resilience to extreme climatic events.
Objectives
Customize heavy and extreme rainfall event forecasts for coastal Bangladesh
Analyze social networks to assist extension agents in rapid deployment of crop management advice in remote and hard to reach areas
Set up interpretive algorithms and interactive voice response (IVR) mobile call systems for weather, mung bean management and market advisories appropriate to men and women smallholder farmers
Release and promote a smartphone app providing customized weather forecasts, mung bean agronomic advice, early warnings for potential crop damaging extreme weather events, and market information
Establish business models and strategies for sustaining the use of IVR and smartphone apps after project closure
An early warning system set to deliver wheat disease predictions directly to farmersâ phones is being piloted in Bangladesh and Nepal by interdisciplinary researchers.
Experts in crop disease, meteorology and computer science are crunching data from multiple countries to formulate models that anticipate the spread of the wheat rust and blast diseases in order to warn farmers of likely outbreaks, providing time for pre-emptive measures, said Dave Hodson, a principal scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) coordinating the pilot project.
Around 50,000 smallholder farmers are expected to receive improved disease warnings and appropriate management advisories through the one-year proof-of-concept project, as part of the UK Aid-funded Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) program.
Early action is critical to prevent crop diseases becoming endemic. The speed at which wind-dispersed fungal wheat diseases are spreading through Asia poses a constant threat to sustainable wheat production of the 130 million tons produced in the region each year.
âWheat rust and blast are caused by fungal pathogens, and like many fungi, they spread from plant to plant â and field to field â in tiny particles called spores,â said Hodson. âDisease strain mutations can overcome resistant varieties, leaving farmers few choices but to rely on expensive and environmentally-damaging fungicides to prevent crop loss.â
âThe early warning system combines climate data and epidemiology models to predict how spores will spread through the air and identifies environmental conditions where healthy crops are at risk of infection. This allows for more targeted and optimal use of fungicides.â
The system was first developed in Ethiopia. It uses weather information from the Met Office, the UKâs national meteorological service, along with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge, to construct and deploy a near real-time early warning system.
CIMMYT consultant Madan Bhatta conducts field surveys using Open Data Kit (ODK) in the mid-hills of Nepal. (Photo: D. Hodson/CIMMYT)
Initial efforts focused on adapting the wheat stripe and stem rust model from Ethiopia to Bangladesh and Nepal have been successful, with field surveillance data appearing to align with the weather-driven disease early warnings, but further analysis is ongoing, said Hodson.
âIn the current wheat season we are in the process of comparing our disease forecasting models with on-the-ground survey results in both countries,â the wheat expert said.
âNext season, after getting validation from national partners, we will pilot getting our predictions to farmers through text-based messaging systems.â
CIMMYTâs strong partnerships with governmental extension systems and farmer associations across South Asia are being utilized to develop efficient pathways to get disease predictions to farmers, said Tim Krupnik, a CIMMYT Senior Scientist based in Bangladesh.
âPartnerships are essential. Working with our colleagues, we can validate and test the deployment of model-derived advisories in real-world extension settings,â Krupnik said. âThe forecasting and early warning systems are designed to reduce unnecessary fungicide use, advising it only in the case where outbreaks are expected.â
Local partners are also key for data collection to support and develop future epidemiological modelling, the development of advisory graphics and the dissemination of information, he explained.
The second stage of the project concerns the adaptation of the framework and protocols for wheat blast disease to improve existing wheat blast early warning systems already pioneered in Bangladesh.
Example of weekly stripe rust spore deposition forecast in Nepal. Darker colors represent higher predicted number of spores deposited. The early warning system combines weather information from the Met Office with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge. (Graphic: University of Cambridge and Met Office)
Strong scientific partnership champions diversity to achieve common goals
The meteorological-driven wheat disease warning system is an example of effective international scientific partnership contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, said Sarah Millington, a scientific manager at Atmospheric Dispersion and Air Quality Group with the Met Office.
âDiverse expertise from the Met Office, the University of Cambridge and CIMMYT shows how combined fundamental research in epidemiology and meteorology modelling with field-based disease observation can produce a system that boosts smallholder farmers’ resilience to major agricultural challenges,â she said.
The atmospheric dispersion modeling was originally developed in response to the Chernobyl disaster and since then has evolved to be able to model the dispersion and deposition of a range of particles and gases, including biological particles such as wheat rust spores.
âThe framework together with the underpinning technologies are transferable to forecast fungal disease in other regions and can be readily adapted for other wind-dispersed pests and disease of major agricultural crops,â said Christopher Gilligan, head of the Epidemiology and Modelling Group at the University of Cambridge.
Fungal wheat diseases are an increasing threat to farmer livelihoods in Asia
Wheat leaf rust can be spotted on a wheat plant of a highly susceptible variety in Nepal. The symptoms of wheat rust are dusty, reddish-orange to reddish-brown fruiting bodies that appear on the leaf surface. These lesions produce numerous spores, which are spread by wind and splashing water. (Photo: D Hodson/CIMMYT)
While there has been a history of wheat rust disease epidemics in South Asia, new emerging strains and changes to climate pose an increased threat to farmersâ livelihoods. The pathogens that cause rust diseases are continually evolving and changing over time, making them difficult to control.
Stripe rust threatens farmers in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, typically in two out of five seasons, with an estimated 43 million hectares of wheat vulnerable. When weather conditions are conducive and susceptible cultivars are grown, farmers can experience losses exceeding 70%.
Populations of stem rust are building at alarming rates and previously unseen scales in neighboring regions. Stem rust spores can spread across regions on the wind; this also amplifies the threat of incursion into South Asia and the ARRCC programâs target countries, underscoring the very real risk that the disease could reemerge within the subcontinent.
The devastating wheat blast disease, originating in the Americas, suddenly appeared in Bangladesh in 2016, causing wheat crop losses as high as 30% on a large area, and continues to threaten South Asiaâs vast wheat lands.
In both cases, quick international responses through CIMMYT, the CGIAR research program on Wheat (WHEAT) and the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative have been able to monitor and characterize the diseases and, especially, to develop and deploy resistant wheat varieties.
The UK aid-funded ARRCC program is led by the Met Office and the World Bank and aims to strengthen weather forecasting systems across Asia. The program is delivering new technologies and innovative approaches to help vulnerable communities use weather warnings and forecasts to better prepare for climate-related shocks.
The early warning system uses data gathered from the online Rust Tracker tool, with additional fieldwork support from the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), funded by USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, both coordinated by CIMMYT.
Following the spread of fall armyworm, crowdsourced data is powering a web-based application to help farmers in Bangladesh stay ahead of the crop pest.
The Fall Armyworm Monitor collects population, incidence and severity data, and guides pest management decisions. The web tool relies on information gathered by farmers using smartphones in their fields.
It was developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in cooperation with Bangladeshâs Department of Agricultural Extension, through the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm project, supported by USAID and Michigan State University.
When a foreign caterpillar first munched through Muhammad Hasan Aliâs maize field during the winter 2018-2019 season, he was stumped as to what it was or how to manage it. All he knew was his harvest and the investment he made in growing his crop was at risk.
âIâd never seen this type of insect in previous seasons, but I soon learned from government extension workers it was the fall armyworm,â explained Hasan Ali, a farmer from rural Chuadanga, in western Bangladesh. When poorly managed, fall armyworm can significantly reduce maize productivity.
Hasan Ali asked to join a training program, where he learned how to identify, monitor and control the spread of the invasive and voracious crop pest. The training, mainly tailored to extension staff, was facilitated by CIMMYT and Bangladeshâs Department of Agricultural Extension.
Participants of the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm trainings learning to collect field data through the Fall Armyworm Monitor web app in a farmer’s field in Chauadanga, Bangladesh. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT)
Participants of the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm trainings learning to collect field data through the Fall Armyworm Monitor web app in a farmer’s field in Chauadanga, Bangladesh. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT)
Participants and instructors of the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm trainings participate in a field session to work with the Fall Armyworm Monitor web app in Chauadanga, Bangladesh. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT)
Equipped to fight the pest
Extension staff and farmers gained valuable insights into different methods of control, including management of small and large patches of insect attack.
âI learned to identify fall armyworms in my field â and how to use hand picking methods and appropriate application of insecticide for control,â said Hasan Ali.
Farmers also learned how to set up pheromone traps to monitor pest populations and to use smartphones to make data-driven integrated pest management decisions using a cloud-based monitoring platform.
Crowdsourced information on the movement of fall armyworm is essential for effectively monitoring its spread and is a pivotal step in its management, said CIMMYT Senior Scientist and Systems Agronomist Timothy Krupnik.
âFarmers in top maize growing regions are working with extension officers to monitor traps and report findings weekly by entering data into smartphones,â Krupnik said.
Pheromones are natural compounds emitted by female moths to attract males for mating. Synthetic compounds that mimic natural fall armyworm pheromones are placed in traps to lure and capture male moths, after which extension agents count moths, enter, and upload data in their districts. At the time of writing, 649 staff from the Department of Agricultural Extension are reporting weekly moth count and pest damage data.
âPest management practices are best when they are data-driven,â Krupnik explained. âHaving information on the geographical location, plant growth stage and severity of infestation provides an informed base from which appropriate decisions can be made, with the ultimate goal of reducing pesticide misuse.â
âWe are also excited as the data are open-access, and we are working to share them with FAO and other partners crucial in fall armyworm response,â he added.
The Fall Armyworm Monitor gives moth count and other data at the division, district and upazilla levels. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Data for better decisions
âThe website hosts real-time data and depicts them graphically and in maps depending on userâs preferences. This information â which was core to the training extension agents participated in â is key for integrated pest management strategies,â explained Mutasim Billah, CIMMYT Data Specialist and the lead developer of the application.
âThe department of extension services have employed 253 officers to visit fields with handheld smart devices in 25 districts to upload data,â said Billah. âThe online tool stores data entries in its server and calculates the aggregated value for division, district and sub-district level on a weekly basis, and shows the estimated values through charts and in tabular format.â
The Fall Armyworm Monitor has become an essential tool for government officials to aid farmers in managing the pest which so far has been successful, said Bijoy Krishna Halder, additional Deputy Director of Plant Protection with the Bangladesh government.
âCIMMYT’s web portal is a very efficient way to collect data from the field. Anyone can access the page to see the overall condition of infestation across the country,âsaid Krishna Halder. âI check the portal every week about the fall armyworm condition and now it shows that the infestation is low with the overall field conditions good.â
The pest native to the Americas has become a global menace as it has spread attacking crops through Africa, and Asia, threatening the food and economic security of smallholder farmers.
The Fall Armyworm Monitor was created as part of the new Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm in Bangladesh project is aligned with Michigan State Universityâs Borlaug Higher Education for Agricultural Research and Development (BHEARD) program, which supports the long-term training of agricultural researchers in USAIDâs Feed the Future priority countries.
Farmer receiving information from a phone-based service. (Photo: Michelle DeFreese/CIMMYT)
Agricultural research is entering a new age in Bangladesh. The days, months and years it takes to collect farm data with a clipboard, paper and pen are nearing their end.
Electronic smartphones and tablets are gaining ground, used by researchers, extension workers and farmers to revolutionize the efficiency of data collection and provide advice on best-bet practices to build resilient farming systems that stand up to climate change.
Digital data collection tools are crucial in todayâs âbig dataâ driven agricultural research world and are fundamentally shifting the speed and accuracy of agricultural research, said Timothy Krupnik, Senior Scientist and Systems Agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
âEasy-to-use data collection tools can be made available on electronic tablets for surveys. These allow extension workers to collect data from the farm and share it instantaneously with researchers,â he said.
âThese tools allow the regular and rapid collection of data from farmers, meaning that researchers and extension workers can get more information than they would alone in a much quicker time frame.â
âThis provides a better picture of the challenges farmers have, and once data are analyzed, we can more easily develop tailored solutions to farmersâ problems,â Krupnik explained.
It is the first time extension workers have been involved in data collection in the country. Since the pilot began in late 2019, extension workers have collected data from over 5,000 farmers, with detailed information on climate responses, including the management of soil, water and variety use to understand what drives productivity. The DAE is enthused about learning from the data, and plans to collect information from 7,000 more farmers in 2020.
Bangladeshâs DAE is directly benefiting through partnerships with expert national and international researchers developing systems to efficiently collect and analyze massive amounts of data to generate relevant climate-smart recommendations for farmers, said the department Director General Dr. M. Abdul Muyeed.
Workers spread maize crop for drying at a wholesale grain market. (Photo: Dreamstime.com)
For the first time widespread monitoring examines how farmers are coping with climate stresses, and agronomic data are being used to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from thousands of individual farmers. This research and extension partnership aims at identifying ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change, he explained.
âThis work will strengthen our ability to generate agriculturally relevant information and increase the climate resilience of smallholder farmers in Bangladesh,” Dr. Muyeed said.
Next-gen big data analysis produces best-bet agricultural practices
âBy obtaining big datasets such as these, we are now using innovative research methods and artificial intelligence (AI) to examine patterns in productivity, the climate resilience of cropping practices, and greenhouse gas emissions. Our aim is to develop and recommend improved agricultural practices that are proven to increase yields and profitability,â said Krupknik.
The surveys can also be used to evaluate on-farm tests of agricultural technologies, inform need-based training programs, serve local knowledge centers and support the marketing of locally relevant agricultural technologies, he explained.
âCollecting farm-specific data on greenhouse gas emissions caused by agriculture and recording its causes is a great step to develop strategies to reduce agricultureâs contribution to climate change,â added Krupnik.
Hundreds of agricultural professionals in Bangladesh were trained in the latest fall armyworm management strategies as part of a new project that will strengthen efforts against this threat to farmersâ income, food security, and health. The new project, Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm, is supported by USAID and the University of Michigan.
As part of the project, last November over 450 representatives from government, nonprofits and the private sector participated in three-day training to learn how to identify, monitor and apply integrated pest management approaches.
Fall armyworm presents an important threat to farmersâ income, food security and livelihoods as it continues to spread across the country, in addition to health risks if toxic insecticides are indiscriminately used, said Tim Krupnik, senior scientist and agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). It is anticipated the course participants will pass on knowledge about the pest and appropriate control practices to around 30,000 farmers in their respective localities.
âParticipants were selected for their ability to reliably extend the strategies that can be sustainably implemented by maize farmers across the country,â explained Krupnik. âThe immersive training saw participants on their hands and knees learning how to scout, monitor and collect data on fall armyworm,â he said. âThey were also trained in alternatives to toxic chemical pesticides, and how and when to make decisions on biological control with parasitoids, bio-pesticides, and low-toxicity chemical pesticide use.â
Following its ferocious spread across Africa from the Americas, fall armyworm first attacked farms in Bangladesh during the winter 2018-2019 season. Combined with highly apparent damage to leaves, its resilience to most chemical control methods has panicked farmers and led researchers to promote integrated pest management strategies.
In this context, the 22-month Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm project will build the capacity of the public and private sector for effective fall armyworm mitigation.
The hungry caterpillar feeds on more than 80 plant species, but its preferred host is maize â a crop whose acreage is expanding faster than any other cereal in Bangladesh. The pest presents a peculiar challenge as it can disperse over 200 kilometers during its adult stage, laying thousands of eggs along its way.
Once settled on a plant, larvae burrow inside maize whorls or hide under leaves, where they are partially protected from pesticides. In a bid to limit fall armyworm damage, farmersâ indiscriminate application of highly toxic and inappropriate insecticides can encourage the pest to develop resistance, while also presenting important risks to beneficial insects, farmers, and the environment.
Reaching every corner of the country
Participants of the Fighting Back against Fall Armyworm trainings visit farmersâ fields in Chauadanga, Bangladesh. (Photo: Tim Krupnik/CIMMYT)
As part of the project, CIMMYT researchers supported Bangladeshâs national Fall Armyworm Task Force to develop an online resource to map the spread of fall armyworm. Scientists are working with the Ministry of Agriculture to digitally collect real-time incidents of its spread to build evidence and gain further insight into the pest.
âWorking with farmers and agricultural agencies to collect information on pest population and incidence will assist agricultural development planners, extension agents, and farmers to make informed management decisions,â said Krupnik, who is leading the project.
A key objective is to support national partners to develop educational strategies to facilitate sustainable pest control while also addressing institutional issues needed for efficient response.
âIn particular, the Government of Bangladesh has been extremely responsive about the fall armyworm infestation and outbreak. It developed and distributed two fact sheets â the first of which was done before fall armyworm arrived â in addition to arranging workshops throughout the country. Initiatives have been taken for quick registration of microbial pesticides and seed treatments,â commented Syed Nurul Alam, Entomologist and Senior Consultant with CIMMYT.
âIt is imperative that governmental extension agents are educated on sustainable ways to control the pest. In general, it is important to advise against the indiscriminate use of pesticides without first implementing alternative control measures, as this pest can build a resistance rendering many chemicals poorly effective,â Krupnik pointed out.
To this end, the project also consciously engages members of the private sector â including pesticide and seed companies as well as agricultural dealers â to ensure they are able to best advise farmers on the nature of the pest and suggest sustainable and long-term solutions. To date, the project has advised over 755 agricultural dealers operating in impacted areas of Bangladesh, with another 1,000 being trained in January 2020.
Project researchers are also working alongside the private sector to trial seed treatment and biologically-based methods of pest control. Biocontrol sees researchers identify, release, and manage natural predators and parasitoids to the fall armyworm, while targeted and biologically-based pesticides are significantly less of a health risk for farmers, while also being effective.
The 22-month project, funded by USAID, has 6 key objectives:
Develop educational materials to aid in reaching audiences with information to improve understanding and management of fall armyworm.
Assist the Department of Agricultural Extension in deploying awareness raising and training campaigns.
Prepare the private sector for appropriate fall armyworm response.
Standing task force supported.
Generate data and evidence to guide integrated fall armyworm management.
The Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm in Bangladesh project is aligned with Michigan State Universityâs Borlaug Higher Education for Agricultural Research and Development (BHEARD) program, which supports the long-term training of agricultural researchers in USAIDâs Feed the Future priority countries.
To achieve synergies and scale, the project will also be supported in part by in-kind staff time and activities, through linkages to the third phase of the USAID-supported Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT). CSISA and CIMMYT staff work very closely with Bangladeshâs Department of Agricultural Extension and the Bangladesh Maize and Wheat Research Institute (BWMRI) in addition to other partners under the Ministry of Agriculture.
Wheat blast is a fast-acting and devastating fungal disease that threatens food safety and security in tropical areas in South America and South Asia. Directly striking the wheat ear, wheat blast can shrivel and deform the grain in less than a week from the first symptoms, leaving farmers no time to act.
The disease, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT), can spread through infected seeds and survives on crop residues, as well as by spores that can travel long distances in the air.
Magnaporthe oryzae can infect many grasses, including barley, lolium, rice, and wheat, but specific isolates of this pathogen generally infect limited species; that is, wheat isolates infect preferably wheat plants but can use several more cereal and grass species as alternate hosts. The Bangladesh wheat blast isolate is being studied to determine its host range. The Magnaporthe oryzae genome is well-studied but major gaps remain in knowledge about its epidemiology.
The pathogen can infect all aerial wheat plant parts, but maximum damage is done when it infects the wheat ear. It can shrivel and deform the grain in less than a week from first symptoms, leaving farmers no time to act.
Where is wheat blast found?
First officially identified in Brazil in 1985, the disease is widespread in South American wheat fields, affecting as much as 3 million hectares in the early 1990s. It continues to seriously threaten the potential for wheat cropping in the region.
In 2016, wheat blast spread to Bangladesh, which suffered a severe outbreak. It has impacted around 15,000âhectares of land in eight districts, reducing yield on average by as much as 51% in the affected fields.
Wheat-producing countries and presence of wheat blast.
How does blast infect a wheat crop?
Wheat blast spreads through infected seeds, crop residues as well as by spores that can travel long distances in the air.
Blast appears sporadically on wheat and grows well on numerous other plants and crops, so rotations do not control it. The irregular frequency of outbreaks also makes it hard to understand or predict the precise conditions for disease development, or to methodically select resistant wheat lines.
At present blast requires concurrent heat and humidity to develop and is confined to areas with those conditions. However, crop fungi are known to mutate and adapt to new conditions, which should be considered in management efforts.
How can farmers prevent and manage wheat blast?
There are no widely available resistant varieties, and fungicides are expensive and provide only a partial defense. They are also often hard to obtain or use in the regions where blast occurs, and must be applied well before any symptoms appear â a prohibitive expense for many farmers.
The Magnaporthe oryzae fungus is physiologically and genetically complex, so even after more than three decades, scientists do not fully understand how it interacts with wheat or which genes in wheat confer durable resistance.
Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are partnering with national researchers and meteorological agencies on ways to work towards solutions to mitigate the threat of wheat blast and increase the resilience of smallholder farmers in the region. Through the USAID-supported Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) projects, CIMMYT and its partners are developing agronomic methods and early warning systems so farmers can prepare for and reduce the impact of wheat blast.
CIMMYT works in a global collaboration to mitigate the threat of wheat blast, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Swedish Research Council (VetenskapsrĂ„det). Some of the partners who collaborate include the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), Boliviaâs Instituto Nacional de InnovaciĂłn Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF), Kansas State University and the Agricultural Research Service of the US (USDA-ARS).
Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) is a global partnership that connects climate and environmental science with data streams to generate decision support tools and training for decision-makers in developing countries. Translating complex climate information into easy to understand actionable formats to spread awareness in the form of climate services is core to CSRDâs mission. CSRD works across South Asia (with emphasis on Bangladesh), the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia), and in South America (Colombia) to generate and provide timely and useful climate information, decision tools and services. In South Asia, CSRD focusses the development, supply and adaptation of agricultural climate services to reduce vulnerability by increasing resiliency in smallholder farming systems. These goals are strategically aligned with the Global Framework for Climate Services.
Project description
CSRD in South Asia aims to have the impact by increasing climate resilient farm management, indicated by increased use of climate services and climate information to inform farmers on how to better manage their production systems. CSRD also aims to develop and validate models for agricultural climate services that can be replicated in other regions with similar farming systems and climate risks, while also fine-tuning weather and climate advisories to be most useful to farmersâ decision-making. A series of sustained contributions to CSRDâs Action and Learning Framework Pillars 1-4, detailed below, are envisioned as major project outcomes:
Pillar 1: Create the solution space: CSRD works to establish a problem-focus, to engage key stakeholders, to create a platform for sustained communication and collaboration, and to build synergies among relevant programs.
Pillar 2: Utilize quality data, products, and tools CSRD provides access to useful and available information and technology, and to develop tailored products and services responsive to problem-specific needs.
Pillar 3: Build capacities and platforms CSRD supports the use of targeted products and services, and to promote sustainability, scalability, and replicability.
Pillar 4: Build knowledge A key goal of CSRDâs work is to identify and promote good practices among the global climate services community and to support research efforts and innovation that increase the effectiveness of climate services.
Outputs
CSRD in South Asia will ultimately generate the following broad outputs and services:
A strengthened enabling environment for the generation, uptake, and use of weather and climate services to support resilient agricultural development.
Download the report summarizing CSRD activities, achievements, and challenges during the first year (from November 2016 through December 2017).
The CSRD consortium in South Asia is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in partnership with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), University de Passo Fundo (UPF), and the University of Rhode Island (URI). This consortium provides strength and technical expertise to develop relevant climate products that can assist farmers and other stakeholders with relevant information to improve decision making, with the ultimate goal of increasing resilience to climate-related risks. The CSRD consortium also works to assure that climate information can be conveyed in ways that are decision-relevant to farmers and other agricultural stakeholders.
In 2016, the emergence of wheat blast, a devastating seed- and wind-borne pathogen, threatened an already precarious food security situation in Bangladesh and South Asia.
In a bid to limit the diseaseâs impact in the region, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) collaborated with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and researchers from nearly a dozen institutions worldwide to quickly develop a long-term, sustainable solution.
The result is BARI Gom 33, a new blast-resistant, high-yielding, zinc-fortified wheat variety, which Bangladeshâs national seed board approved for dissemination in 2017. In the 2017-18 season, the Bangladesh Wheat Research Council provided seed for multiplication and the countryâs Department of Agricultural Extension established on-farm demonstrations in blast prone districts.
However, the process of providing improved seed for all farmers can be a long one. In a normal release scenario, it can take up to five years for a new wheat variety to reach those who need it, as nucleus and breeder seeds are produced, multiplied and certified before being disseminated by extension agencies. Given the severity of the threat to farmer productivity and the economic and nutritional benefits of the seed, scientists at CIMMYT argue that additional funding should be secured to expedite this process.
According a new study on the economic benefits of BARI Gom 33, 58 percent of Bangladeshâs wheat growing areas are vulnerable to wheat blast. The rapid dissemination of seed can help resource-poor farmers better cope with emerging threats and changing agro-climatic conditions, and would play a significant role in combatting malnutrition through its increased zinc content. It could also have a positive effect on neighboring countries such as India, which is alarmingly vulnerable to wheat blast.
âOur simulation exercise shows that the benefits of disseminating BARI Gom 33 far exceed the seed multiplication and dissemination costs, which are estimated at around $800 per hectare,â explains Khondoker Mottaleb, CIMMYT socioeconomist and lead author of the study. Even in areas unaffected by wheat blast, scaling out BARI Gom 33 could generate a net gain of $8 million for farmers due to its 5 percent higher average yield than other available varieties. These benefits would nearly double in the case of an outbreak in blast-affected or blast-vulnerable districts.
More than 50 percent of Bangladeshâs wheat growing areas are vulnerable to wheat blast. (Source: Mottaleb et al.)
Based on these findings, the authors urge international development organizations and donor agencies to continue their support for BARI Gom 33, particularly for government efforts to promote the blast-resistant variety. The minimum seed requirement to begin the adoption and diffusion process in the 2019-20 wheat season will be 160 metric tons, which will require an initial investment of nearly $1 million for seed multiplication.
This study was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on wheat agri-food systems (CRP WHEAT), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (CRP-A4NH), and the HarvestPlus challenge program (partly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).
Researchers, policymakers and other agricultural partners participated in the workshop on fall armyworm. (Photo: Uttam/CIMMYT)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), organized a training on fall armyworm on April 25, 2019 at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC). Experts discussed the present outbreak status, progress on strategic research, and effective ways to control this destructive pest.
The event featured Dan McGrath, Entomologist and Professor Emeritus at Oregon State University, and Joseph Huesing, Senior Biotechnology Advisor and Program Area Lead for Advanced Approaches to Combating Pests and Diseases at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Also attending were senior officials from Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Department of Agricultural Extension, BARC, BWMRI and CIMMYT.
âFall armyworm cannot be eradicated. It is endemic and farmers have to learn to manage it,â said Huesing in his overview of the fall armyworm infestation in Africa. He also mentioned that fall armyworm is generally followed by southern armyworm, so Bangladesh will need a strategy for managing multiple pests.
âFall armyworm cannot be eradicated. It is endemic and farmers have to learn to manage it.â
— Joseph Huesing, USAID
Huesing explained that an effective approach for controlling fall armyworm and other pests is âknowledge, tools and policy.â
According to Huesing, Bangladeshi farmers have adequate knowledge about the pest and how to control it, especially compared to African farmers. The next step is securing the necessary tools to control fall armyworm, like spraying their fields with necessary insecticides by authorized personnel. Huesing emphasized the importance of appropriate policy implementation, particularly to ensure the registration of the right kind of insecticides assigned to effectively control fall armyworm.
Fall armyworm is a fast-reproducing species that can attack crops and cause devastation almost overnight. Even though the level of infestation in Bangladesh is still relatively light, more than 80 varieties of crops have already been attacked in 22 districts within just a few months.
Huesing indicated that safer options included handpicking of the pest, treating seeds, pheromone traps, flood irrigation and crop rotation. Currently, to help farmers learn more about the pest, the Department of Agricultural Extension is distributing factsheets and conducting awareness-raising workshops in different villages.
McGrath focused on the long-term management of fall armyworm and how Bangladesh can learn from the experience of Africa in order to avoid the same errors. McGrath suggested that weather forecasts were an important tool for helping determine when and where outbreaks might occur. Training relevant personnel is also a crucial aspect of reining in this plague. âTraining the trainers has to be hands on. We need to put more emphasis on the field than on the classroom,â McGrath said.
This workshop was part of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA).
Participants in the five-year workshop for the SRFSI project in Kathmandu in May 2019 stand for a group shot. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Over 50 stakeholders from the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (SRFSI) project engaged in three days of reflection and planning in Kathmandu, Nepal, in early May 2019. Partners from four countries focused on identifying key learnings across a range of topics including value chains, business models, agricultural extension, capacity building, innovation platforms and policy convergence. After almost five years of project activities, there was naturally plenty of vibrant discussion.
The cross-cutting themes of gender and climate change were considered within each topic, to capture project outputs beyond participation and farm level impact. Discussions around gender confirmed the benefits of targeted womenâs participation and ensuring that womenâs availability was accommodated. Working within the SRFSI project, researchers have identified new business opportunities for women, with benefits for individuals and community groups. In terms of business models, it was highlighted that promoting gender-inclusive strategies for all partners, including the private sector, is necessary. Ensuring a wide range of partnership institutions, such as NGOs with women-centric programs, is also beneficial for reaching more women.
In the five-year SRFSI workshop, participants discussed research outputs and planned the year ahead. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification techniques have been confirmed as contributing to climate-resilient farming systems, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation. Importantly, the project has demonstrated that these systems can be profitable, climate smart business models in the Eastern Gangetic Plains. They were also seen as fitting well with government plans and policies to address climate change, which was demonstrated by convergence with country and NGO programs that are focused on climate change adaptation.
In keeping with the recently approved no-cost extension of the SRFSI project until June 2020, the final sessions identified remaining research questions in each location and scaling component, and project partners nominated small research activities to fill these gaps. The final year of SRFSI is an excellent opportunity to capture valuable lessons and synthesise project outputs for maximum impact.
The Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification Project is a collaboration between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the project funder, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.
The Eastern Gangetic Plains region of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal is home to the greatest concentration of rural poor in the world. This region is projected to be one of the areas most affected by climate change. Local farmers are already experiencing the impact of climate change: erratic monsoon rains, floods and other extreme weather events have affected agricultural production for the past decade. The regionâs smallholder farming systems have low productivity, and yields are too variable to provide a solid foundation for food security. Inadequate access to irrigation, credit, inputs and extension systems limit capacity to adapt to climate change or invest in innovation. Furthermore, large-scale migration away from agricultural areas has led to labor shortages and increasing numbers of women in agriculture.
The Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) project aims to reduce poverty in the Eastern Gangetic Plains by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the environment and involving women. CIMMYT, project partners and farmers are exploring Conservation Agriculture-based Sustainable Intensification (CASI) and efficient water management as foundations for increasing crop productivity and resilience. Technological changes are being complemented by research into institutional innovations that strengthen adaptive capacity and link farmers to markets and support services, enabling both women and men farmers to adapt and thrive in the face of climate and economic change.
In its current phase, the project team is identifying and closing capacity gaps so that stakeholders can scale CASI practices beyond the project lifespan. Priorities include crop diversification and rotation, reduced tillage using machinery, efficient water management practices, and integrated weed management practices. Women farmers are specifically targeted in the scaling project: it is intended that a third of participants will be women and that at least 25% of the households involved will be led by women.
Understand farmer circumstances with respect to cropping systems, natural and economic resources base, livelihood strategies, and capacity to bear risk and undertake technological innovation
Develop with farmers more productive and sustainable technologies that are resilient to climate risks and profitable for smallholders
Catalyze, support and evaluate institutional and policy changes that establish an enabling environment for the adoption of high-impact technologies
Facilitate widespread adoption of sustainable, resilient and more profitable farming systems
Zero-tillage service provision is key to facilitating adoption.
Service provider Azgad Ali and farmer Samaru Das have a fruitful relationship based on technology promoted through CIMMYT’s SRSFI project.
Bablu Modak demonstrates his unpuddled mechanically transplanted rice.
CIMMYT’s SRFSI team and the community walk through the fields during a field visit in Cooch Behar.
In an attempt to curb the spread of this disease, policymakers in the region are considering a âwheat holidayâ policy: banning wheat cultivation for a few years in targeted areas. Since wheat blastâs Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT) fungus can survive on seeds for up to 22 months, the idea is to replace wheat with other crops, temporarily, to cause the spores to die. In India, which shares a border of more than 4,000 km with Bangladesh, the West Bengal state government has already instituted a two-year ban on wheat cultivation in two districts, as well as all border areas. In Bangladesh, the government is implementing the policy indirectly by discouraging wheat cultivation in the severely blast affected districts.
CIMMYT researchers recently published in two ex-ante studies to identify economically feasible alternative crops in Bangladesh and the bordering Indian state of West Bengal.
Alternative crops
The first step to ensuring that a ban does not threaten the food security and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, the authors assert, is to supply farmers with economically feasible alternative crops.
In Bangladesh, the authors examined the economic feasibility of seven crops as an alternative to wheat, first in the entire country, then in 42 districts vulnerable to blast, and finally in ten districts affected by wheat blast. Considering the cost of production and revenue per hectare, the study ruled out boro rice, chickpeas and potatoes as feasible alternatives to wheat due to their negative net return. In contrast, they found that cultivation of maize, lentils, onions, and garlic could be profitable.
The study in India looked at ten crops grown under similar conditions as wheat in the state of West Bengal, examining the economic viability of each. The authors conclude that growing maize, lentils, legumes such as chickpeas and urad bean, rapeseed, mustard and potatoes in place of wheat appears to be profitable, although they warn that more rigorous research and data are needed to confirm and support this transition.
Selecting alternative crops is no easy task. Crops offered to farmers to replace wheat must be appropriate for the agroecological zone and should not require additional investments for irrigation, inputs or storage facilities. Also, the extra production of labor-intensive and export-oriented crops, such as maize in India and potatoes in Bangladesh, may add costs or require new markets for export.
There is also the added worry that the MoT fungus could survive on one of these alternative crops, thus completely negating any benefit of the âwheat holiday.â The authors point out that the fungus has been reported to survive on maize.
A short-term solution?
The grain in this blast-blighted wheat head has been turned to chaff. (Photo: CKnight/DGGW/ Cornell University)
In both studies, the authors discourage a âwheat holidayâ policy as a holistic solution. However, they leave room for governments to pursue it on an interim and short-term basis.
In the case of Bangladesh, CIMMYT agricultural economist and lead author Khondoker Mottaleb asserts that a âwheat holidayâ would increase the countryâs reliance on imports, especially in the face of rapidly increasing wheat demand and urbanization. A policy that results in complete dependence on wheat imports, he and his co-authors point out, may not be politically attractive or feasible. Also, the policy would be logistically challenging to implement. Finally, since the disease can potentially survive on other host plants, such as weeds and maize, it may not even work in the long run.
In the interim, the government of Bangladesh may still need to rely on the âwheat holidayâ policy in the severely blast-affected districts. In these areas, they should encourage farmers to cultivate lentils, onions and garlic. In addition, in the short term, the government should make generic fungicides widely available at affordable prices and provide an early warning system as well as adequate information to help farmers effectively combat the disease and minimize its consequences.
In the case of West Bengal, India, similar implications apply, although the authors conclude that the âwheat holidayâ policy could only work if Bangladesh has the same policy in its blast-affected border districts, which would involve potentially difficult and costly inter-country collaboration, coordination and logistics.
Actions for long-term success
The CIMMYT researchers urge the governments of India and Bangladesh, their counterparts in the region and international stakeholders to pursue long-term solutions, including developing a convenient diagnostic tool for wheat blast surveillance and a platform for open data and science to combat the fungus.
A promising development is the blast-resistant (and zinc-enriched) wheat variety BARI Gom 33 which the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) released in 2017 with support from CIMMYT. However, it will take at least three to five years before it will be available to farmers throughout Bangladesh. The authors urged international donor agencies to speed up the multiplication process of this variety.
CIMMYT scientists in both studies close with an urgent plea for international financial and technical support for collaborative research on disease epidemiology and forecasting, and the development and dissemination of new wheat blast-tolerant and resistant varieties and complementary management practices â crucial steps to ensuring food security for more than a billion people in South Asia.
Wheat blast impacts
First officially reported in Brazil in 1985, where it eventually spread to 3 million hectares in South America and became the primary reason for limited wheat production in the region, wheat blast moved to Bangladesh in 2016. There it affected nearly 15,000âhectares of land in eight districts, reducing yield by as much as 51 percent in the affected fields.
Blast is devilish: directly striking the wheat ear, it can shrivel and deform the grain in less than a week from the first symptoms, leaving farmers no time to act. There are no widely available resistant varieties, and fungicides are expensive and provide only a partial defense. The disease, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT), can spread through infected seeds as well as by spores that can travel long distances in the air.
South Asia has a long tradition of wheat consumption, especially in northwest India and Pakistan, and demand has been increasing rapidly across South Asia. It is the second major staple in Bangladesh and India and the principal staple food in Pakistan. Research indicates 17 percent of wheat area in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan — representing nearly 7 million hectares â is vulnerable to the disease, threatening the food security of more than a billion people.
Suraya Parvin (left), Senior Scientific Officer of BARC, discussing with the facilitator in the training. Photo: Jitendra Raj Bajracharya/ICIMOD.
The training strengthened the remote sensing capabilities of professionals from BARC and BARI in using satellite-based remote sensing tools and crop mapping to monitor drought risks. During the training, participants were exposed to a number of remote sensing and geographic information systems tools including SPIRITS, QGIS, ArcMap, GeoCLIM as well as a foundation course to Google Earth Engine. Additionally, open source platform to perform online and offline data collection using mobile application training was provided.This learning exchange took place in order to address the risks for agricultural drought in portions of north-western Bangladesh where farmers may lack access to, or cannot afford irrigation. This leads to bottlenecks in crop productivity and can impair the livelihoods of smallholder farmers reliant on variable and unpredictable precipitation. Access to quality drought monitoring and forecasting could assist farmers in adapting to these climactic risks. Meteorological and agricultural research institutions play a crucial role in providing improved information flow and drought risks advisories to farmers.
Mir Matin, theme leader of Geospatial Solutions, ICIMOD, organized the training on behalf of CSRD and ICIMOD, alongside Rajesh Bahadur Thapa, capacity building specialist, ICIMOD. ICIMODâs Bhoj Raj also facilitated sessions on application of these tools.
âBangladesh, especially the northern region, is most susceptible to drought and it is difficult to grow year-round crops here,â said Suraya Parvin, senior scientific officer of BARC. âTo increase the cropping intensity in this region, drought monitoring is very essential. I think this training was extremely useful to prepare us for this challenge.â
The CSRD partnership and ICIMOD are working together to establish user-oriented platforms for the provision of easily accessible, timely and decision relevant scientific information, in the form of climate services. âThis training, and the applied science products that will come from it, will be a crucial part of efforts to increase the resilience of Bangladeshâs smallholder farmers to climatic risks,â said Timothy J. Krupnik, systems agronomist, CIMMYT and CSRD project leader. âWorking with the graduates of the training on a day-to-day basis, we expect to deepen BARC and BARIâs contributions to applied climate services in Bangladesh.â
