funder_partner: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Senior management and center scientists welcomed Chris Elias, the new President of Global Development of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to CIMMYT headquarters on 30 March 2012, providing among other things an introduction to major programs. Elias’ background includes experience in the global non-profit health sector and most recently as CEO of PATH, a nongovernmental organization whose portfolio includes solutions for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. David Bergvinson, Senior Program Officer for Science & Technology, for the Foundation accompanied Elias to CIMMYT.

The Foundation is among the center’s major donors and directly funds the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) projects. CIMMYT is also partner to other Foundation recipients for important work like that of developing and deploying wheat that resists the deadly Ug99 strain of stem rust and projects to develop micronutrient rich maize and wheat varieties. In addition to its funding, the Foundation has provided valuable support and guidance to CIMMYT on research management, policy engagement, and in fundraising. Through DTMA, 25,000-30,000 tons of drought tolerant maize is being deployed annually to smallholder farmers across Africa.

The visitors toured the long-term conservation agriculture field experiment, new areas of construction at El Batán, and the germplasm bank. CIMMYT presenters particularly highlighted global food security concerns. “We’ve been able to attract excellent new staff in recent years and combine that with the knowledge and experience of current scientists,” said Marianne Bänziger, deputy director general for research and partnerships. “We have a tremendous team, but if we look at the challenges we are deeply concerned with future food security. The food price peaks we saw in 2008 and 2011 are just a beginning. There is a close alignment of food prices with social unrest. This why we have a very clear strategy.”

Lumpkin voiced CIMMYT’s gratitude for Foundation support. “The improvements happening here are because of donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, major efforts by the government of Mexico, and the hard work of staff,” he said.

Elias thanked his hosts. “It’s been a great learning experience for me,” he said. “I’m sure this won’t be my last visit to CIMMYT.”

Earlier today, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, spoke at IFAD’s Governing Council Meeting in Rome on “Sustainable smallholder agriculture: Feeding the world, protecting the planet.” He called on the international scientific community to unite around a common global target for fighting hunger and reducing poverty, through sustainable productivity growth. “If you care about the poorest, you care about agriculture,” he said. “Investments in agriculture are the best weapons against hunger and poverty, and they have made life better for billions of people. The international agriculture community needs to be more innovative, coordinated and focused to really be effective in helping poor farmers grow more. If we can do that, we can dramatically reduce suffering, and build self-sufficiency.”

To further these sentiments, Gates announced a further USD 200 million in grants from the Foundation’s agriculture program, bringing their total investment in smallholder farmers to more than USD 2 billion, since the program began in 2006. One of the seven projects to receive grants is phase III of CIMMYT’s Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) initiative, which will receive USD 33 million over four years. CIMMYT is coordinating the project in collaboration with IITA and national partners from 13 African countries. The project has made great strides toward its ten-year goal of increasing average maize productivity under smallholder farmer conditions by 20-30% on adopting farms. The new funding should enable delivery of enough drought tolerant maize seed to benefit 30-40 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, adding grain worth an annual average of USD 160-200 million in drought-affected areas. “In this phase, our focus will be on developing varieties with  both heat and drought tolerance, and getting the seed of these varieties into farmers’ hands as widely, timely and affordably as possible,” said Wilfred  Mwangi, DTMA Project Leader.

The Yaqui Valley is one of Mexico’s main bread baskets and supplies seeds and grain globally. It was the birthplace of the Green Revolution and, as the home of CIMMYT’s primary field station, Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB), it has been a hub of agronomic research for decades, with a wealth of accumulated knowledge, field research, and survey data. However, the region is not without its problems. It faces environmental, resource, economic, and social challenges related to water resources, air and water pollution, policy changes, human health concerns, biodiversity conservation, and climate change.

Twenty years ago, a multidisciplinary team of experts set out to address the issue of how to maintain livelihoods and increase food production, whilst protecting the environment. Led by biogeochemist Pamela Matson, economist Roz Naylor, and CIMMYT agronomist Iván Ortiz-Monasterio, their approach allowed for the investigation of a wide range of variables, and it soon became apparent that they were all connected in some way. Matson described Ortiz-Monasterio as a “lynchpin…serving both as research co-leader and a critical boundary-spanning individual, linking the research community with the farmers and decision makers of the valley.” Together, the team investigated the possibility of win-win-win solutions for economics, agronomics, and the environment in the wheat fields of the Yaqui Valley, and what would be needed to make these a reality.

Seeds of Sustainability is the product of these 15 years of research, analysis, and evaluation in the Yaqui Valley. Edited by renowned scientist and Dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, Pamela Matson, with contributions from experts worldwide, all of whom participated in research in the Valley, this book forms an invaluable resource for researchers, policymakers, and students, as it examines new approaches in agriculture that make sense for people and the environment. The development of the Yaqui Valley as a comprehensive case study has already had implications for understanding and managing humanenvironment systems extending well beyond the valley margins. In his comments (published on the book’s back cover), Prabhu Pingali, Deputy Director of the Agricultural Development Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation noted, “Seeds of Sustainability illustrates the kind of integrative research that will be needed to address the challenges our food systems face, now and in the future.”

To order your copy of Seeds of Sustainability visit the Island Press website and enter code 5SEEDS for a 30% discount.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is one of CIMMYT’s biggest supporters. Here we repost their blog about Bill’s annual letter, which highlights the issue of food security, and how we need innovation and investment in agriculture if we are to address these problems

My job is to learn about global health and development—and to travel to poor countries to meet farmers who can’t grow enough food, mothers who can’t keep children healthy, and heroes in the field who are doing something about those emergencies. Very few people can devote the time to really understand these complex problems. Even fewer can actually meet the people who are struggling to overcome them. That is why I write an annual letter every year.

I want people to know about the amazing progress we’ve made. I also want them to see how much more progress it will take before we live in a truly equitable world.

In this year’s letter, I focus on food and agriculture (though I also provide updates about all the global health and U.S. education work we do). When I was in high school, a popular book called The Population Bomb painted a nightmarish vision of mass starvation on a planet that has outgrown its carrying capacity. That prediction was wrong, in large part because researchers developed much more productive seeds and other tools that helped poor farmers in many parts of the world multiply their yields. As a result, the percentage of people in extreme poverty has been cut in half in my lifetime. That’s the amazing progress part of the story, and not enough people know it.

But there’s the progress-yet-to-come part, and people need to know that, too. There are still more than 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty. They are located primarily in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, and they live on the edge of starvation. There is an irony in this, because most of them are farmers. We can help these 1 billion achieve self-sufficiency, just like we helped billions before them, but we stopped trying. At a certain point, the sense of crisis around food dissipated, and the proportion of foreign aid dedicated to agriculture dropped from one-fifth to less than one-twentieth.

My hope for my annual letter is that it helps people connect to the choice we all have to make. Relatively small investments changed the future for hundreds of millions of small farm families. The choice now is this: Do we continue those investments so that the 1 billion people who remain poor benefit? Or do we tolerate a world in which one in seven people is undernourished, stunted, and in danger of starving to death?

In times of tight budgets, we have to pick our priorities. It’s clear that in this particular time, we’re in danger of deciding that aid to the poorest is not one of them. I am confident, however, that if people understand what their aid has already accomplished—and its potential to accomplish so much more—they’ll insist on doing more, not less. That is why I wrote my letter. I hope you’ll take the time to read it and share it with your friends and family.

I’ve invited students from around the world to write their own annual letters too. You can send your letter, or any questions you have for me, to annualletter@gatesfoundation.org. I’ll be answering and talking about the ideas in your letters in a live webcast on February 2 on my Facebook page.

Originally published on Impatient Optimists, blog of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

In Kenya today, the issues of food security and food quality have been under intense discussion following the outbreak of aflatoxin contamination in maize in recent years. At CIMMYT, the aflatoxin control project, which began in 2009, is headed by George Mahuku and Hugo de Groote, alongside Jon Hellin.

The Aflacontrol Project held a stakeholders’ conference on 13 January 2011 at the Southern Sun Hotel in Nairobi. The objective of the conference was to present the preliminary results of an aflatoxin analysis along the maize value chain—from the farmers’ fields to the table—and to inform and engage the many stakeholders who play a role in reducing the risk of Aflatoxin. In attendance were about 90 participants including agricultural scientists, government representatives, artisans, millers, animal nutrition producers and private sector practitioners, farmers, and the media. After the introduction and welcome by Steve Collins, the project’s Head of Communication and Advocacy at the ACDI-VOCA, Diana Grusczynski of the B&MGF, speaking on videophone from Seattle, gave a welcome address.

During the workshop, among the issues discussed were the incidence and prevalence of aflatoxin along the maize value chain and strategies to minimize contamination (e.g. use of biocontrol agents, agronomic practices, drying, storage and processing methods); methodologies for identifying contaminated samples (diagnostics); and alternatives for use of contaminated foodstuffs. In his presentation, KARI Director Ephraim Mukisira assured participants that the government of Kenya supports the Aflacontrol project and would like to see concrete solutions for managing and minimizing aflatoxin contamination. Considering maize consumption in Kenya is estimated at 98kg per person annually, “It is critical to find viable solutions and rapidly. We must work together to bring a positive impact to farmers,” he concluded.

Preliminary results were given by Pippa Trench, from IFPRI, and CIMMYT’s George Mahuku. Key in the findings were the incomplete knowledge by farmers, concerns on storage practices, the potential use of mills as an avenue of information, need for rapid testing, and the complexity of trade. Mahuku presented preliminary results from the work of CIMMYT and KARI, identifying critical contamination points along the maize value chain. The preliminary results revealed that contamination starts at field level and increases under poor storage. Therefore, strategies aimed at minimizing infection by the aflatoxin producing fungi, Aspergillus flavus, and adoption of proper harvesting and post-harvest technologies are likely to have the greatest impact to minimize aflatoxin contamination.

“Some farmers believe that contamination comes from other countries and national maize is free of aflatoxin. They are exposed to aflatoxin poisoning under this mistaken sense of security,” said Mahuku. “Information dissemination, awareness creation and education of farmers are crucial to combat the aflatoxin problem in Kenya,” added Mahuku. “This information should be packaged in a format and language that is easily understood by the farmers and consumers.” Control strategies should focus on minimizing contamination in the field, rather than post-contamination. It is also important to note that aflatoxin is invisible, and can be present in apparently clean looking maize.

The Aflacontrol Project is facilitated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF), and CIMMYT is one of its seven partners. Others are the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Agricultural Cooperative Development international/Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance (ACDI/VOCA), International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), University of Pittsburgh, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUSH) and Institut d’Economie Rurale (IER).

For more information, visit the project website, http://programs.ifpri.org/afla/afla.asp.

The race is on to replace existing varieties amid concerns that climate change is likely to intensify droughts and significantly depress maize harvests in sub-Saharan Africa.

As climate change intensifies drought conditions in Africa and sparks fears of a new cycle of crippling food shortages, a study released today finds widespread adoption of recently developed drought-tolerant varieties of maize could boost harvests in 13 African countries by 10 to 34 percent and generate up to US$1.5 billion in benefits for producers and consumers.

“We need to move deliberately, but with urgency, to get these new varieties from the breeders to the farmers, because their potential to avert crises is considerable,” said Roberto La Rovere, a socio-economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (known by its Spanish acronym CIMMYT) and lead author of the study, which was produced in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

“Our analysis shows that with high rates of adoption, more than four million producers and consumers would see their poverty level drop significantly by 2016,” he added.

The study was conducted as part of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Initiative (DTMA) implemented by CIMMYT and IITA with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. CIMMYT and IITA have worked with national agriculture research centers in Africa to develop over 50 new maize varieties that in drought conditions can produce yields that are 20 to 50 percent higher than existing varieties.

The CIMMYT-IITA analysis of the benefits of conventional drought-tolerant maize for Africa, or DTMA, examined the potential impact in Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The researchers found that under “conservative yield” improvements, the new varieties would provide farmers and consumers with food and income worth US$537 million, while under more “optimistic yield improvements,” their value would increase to US$876 million.

Moreover, the researchers estimate that if drought-tolerant maize completely replaced existing varieties in the countries studied, the benefits could reach US$1.5 billion.

Farmers and consumers in Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe would see the greatest benefits, the authors note, because maize dominates local diets and livelihoods, and farmers in these countries have a history of rapidly adopting improved maize varieties.

“The goal now is to make drought-tolerant maize easily available to millions of smallholder growers in countries where droughts, which always lurk as a perennial threat to food production, are expected to become more common and more severe,” said Hartmann, director general of IITA. “Maize is life for 300 million in Africa, and as climatic conditions deteriorate, it is up to researchers in cooperation with governments, seed companies and farmers to ensure that maize production does not collapse.”

For example, a peer-reviewed study published last year by Stanford University and the Global Crop Diversity Trust warned that by 2050, growing conditions in most African countries will be hotter than any year on record and that many varieties of maize now under cultivation will no longer be viable. Another study from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) warned that a failure to transition to drought-tolerant maize could diminish yields across the region by up to one ton per hectare.

Some of the new drought-tolerant maize seed is already reaching farmers’ fields. This year alone, four new varieties developed by breeders with IITA and the Government of Ghana that are both drought-tolerant and resistant to the parasitic weed Striga were officially released.

The CIMMYT-IITA study examined past trends in adoption of improved maize varieties and cautioned that there could be wide variations in the rate at which farmers’ transition to drought-tolerant maize. For example, adoption rates are projected to be as high as 85 percent in Kenya and Zambia, but only 20 percent in Benin, 30 percent in Mali, and 27 percent in Mozambique.

“It is very important for everyone at all points in the value chain to coordinate their efforts so that we address the challenges that in the past have made it very difficult for many African farmers to obtain seed of improved crop varieties,” said Wilfred Mwangi, associate director of CIMMYT’s global maize program and leader of the DTMA project.

According to Mwangi, farmers will adopt a new crop variety if it offers distinct advantages. But they still face barriers to obtaining improved seeds.

“Over the years, many farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have continued to grow old, low-yielding, and unsuitable maize varieties, despite the availability of newer and better-performing ones,” said Mwangi. “This is partly because they don’t know about the new varieties or can’t get credit to buy seed. Many farmers are discouraged from buying seed because they can’t sell their surplus grain at attractive prices; others live beyond the reach of commercial seed companies.”

Feeding farm families in dry areas of Malawi

In Malawi, the impact of the DTMA project is already becoming evident in farmers’ fields and finances. For example, Bamusi Stambuli estimated he will save US$330 over 12 months by growing a drought-tolerant maize variety developed by CIMMYT and breeders from Malawi’s Chitedze Research Station. This year, Stambuli’s maize yields of this variety were nearly twice those of other popular local varieties. “I will now be able to feed my family for 12 months,” said Stambuli, who has seven children and five grandchildren.

“The climate is changing, rainfall is decreasing, and the weather is now dictating which varieties farmers grow and in turn what varieties seed companies produce,” said Dellings Phiri, Managing Director of Seed Co. Malawi, a leading seed company in the southern African region.

Two varieties released in Malawi in 2009—ZM 309 and ZM 523—are suited specifically for drought-prone areas where soils are infertile. Introduced by local extension agents to farmers in the Balaka area, the new varieties have produced good yields in demonstration plots. Farmers are saying that ZM 309 and ZM 523 yield more corn, mature earlier, and are better for pounding into flour than other popular commercial varieties.

Locally, ZM 523 is known as “Mwayi”—the Chichewa term for “fortunate.” ZM 309 is called “Msunga banja,” or “that which takes care of or feeds the family.” In September 2009, the Malawi government decided to include ZM 309 in a government initiative that offers farmers discounts on purchases of improved maize seeds.

Related stories

Study says drought tolerant maize will greatly profit African farmers

Maize farmers and seed businesses changing with the times in Malawi

Drought: Grim Reaper of harvests and lives

To better understand variety release procedures for improved maize seed in sub-Saharan Africa, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and CIMMYT conducted a study of 13 countries during 2007-08. Findings from this study, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, were recently published in a report titled Variety Testing and Release Approaches in DTMA Project Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the report’s major findings is that efficient and timely variety release is hindered by variable, inconsistent, and misunderstood seed laws and procedures. Such constraints deny farmers access to and benefits from improved germplasm and damage SSA seed marketing.

Of the 13 countries surveyed, only 7 have published guidelines on how testing for distinctness, uniformity, and stability (DUS) should be conducted, and what traits are to be recorded. Such tests are important because they ensure that the varieties being released are unique and differ from all known varieties in at least one characteristic. It was also found that among polled countries expenses for DUS testing ranged from no cost at all to US $600.

The two organizations that are responsible for deciding if maize varieties are suitable for release are the National Seed Authority (NSA) and the National Variety Release Committee (NVRC). The study shows that NVRCs vary widely among SSA countries; some are dominated by the private sector while others are controlled mainly by the public sector, and the frequency of NVRC meetings differ by country. Additionally, the number of new varieties annually released varies, with South Africa releasing more than 60 while other countries may fail to release any.

This convoluted system is costly and duplicative, as the same variety must be tested in all countries where it is being targeted for marketing. This results in a low number of variety releases and delays profits expected by seed companies while they wait for their new varieties to be registered from one country to the next.

The report contains several recommendations on how to improve the rate of varietal release, and thus have more seed of improved varieties available in the market. They include regional harmonization of seed laws; promoting the use of data from other countries; simplification of variety testing; and regular NVRC meetings.

Who is CIMMYT? Our center would not be the successful institution it is today without the dedication, expertise, and remarkable perseverance of our diverse staff. This year, the Informa will feature members of the global CIMMYT community in a special section titled: “Behind the science.” Email suggestions or profiles to c.castro@cgiar.org or l.yates@cgiar.org.

Meet David Ndung’u, a visiting scientist at CIMMYT who is currently working as a plant breeder with the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project.

“I have always lived on a farm, in the highlands of central Kenya, surrounded by tea plantations. My interest in plant breeding is rooted from this, which formed my earliest experiences. I wanted to learn more about what makes plants tick.”

And learn he did. After an undergraduate study of botany and zoology, Ndung’u joined CIMMYT in 1992, initially as a research assistant. His remarkable diligence did not go unrewarded—CIMMYT awarded him a scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Agronomy at University of Nairobi. This was followed by a Ph.D. scholarship— financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) through the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)—for a doctorate in Plant Breeding, at the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

It would be several years, but eventually Ndung’u returned to CIMMYT. Now he can often be found out in the field collecting data from experimental plots, setting up experiments, and managing experimental trials. Ndung’u also analyses DTMA data and writes scientific papers.

An optimist by nature, and a jovial one to boot, Ndung’u sees a bright future in seed systems and believes this is the next frontier in food security