Skip to main content

funder_partner: CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT)

Joining advanced science with field-level research and extension in lower- and middle-income countries, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) works with public and private organizations worldwide to raise the productivity, production and affordable availability of wheat for 2.5 billion resource-poor producers and consumers who depend on the crop as a staple food.

WHEAT is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) as a primary research partner.

Funding for WHEAT comes from CGIAR and national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies, in particular the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

https://wheat.org/

Breaking Ground: Mandeep Randhawa fights wheat diseases using genetic resistance tools

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Features.

With new pathogens of crop diseases continuously emerging and threatening food production and security, wheat breeder and wheat rust pathologist Mandeep Randhawa and his colleagues at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agricultural and Research Organization (KALRO) are working tirelessly to identify new sources of rust resistance through gene mapping tools and rigorous field testing.

With wheat accounting for around 20% of the world’s calories and protein, outbreaks of disease can pose a major threat to global food security and farmer livelihoods. The most common and prevalent diseases are wheat rusts — fungal diseases that can be dispersed by wind over long distances, which can quickly cause devastating epidemics and dramatically reduce wheat yields.

To tackle the problem, Randhawa and his colleagues work on developing improved wheat varieties by combining disease-resistant traits with high yielding ones, to ensure that farmers can get the best wheat yields possible while evading diseases.

Screening for disease

A native of the Punjab state of India, Randhawa joined CIMMYT as a Post-doctoral Fellow in Wheat Rust Resistance Genetics in 2015. He now works as a CIMMYT scientist and manages the Stem Rust Screening Platform in Njoro, Kenya, which supports screening against stem rust of up to 50,000 wheat lines per year from as many as 20 countries. Over the last 10 years about 650,000 wheat lines have been evaluated for stem rust resistance at the facility.

“The platform’s main focus is on evaluation of wheat lines against the stem rust race Ug99 and its derivative races prevalent in Eastern to Southern Africa, the Middle East and Iran,” explains Randhawa. Ug99 is a highly virulent race of stem rust, first discovered two decades ago in Uganda. The race caused major epidemics in Kenya in 2002 and 2004.

“East African highlands are also a hotspot for stripe wheat rust so, at the same time, we evaluate wheat lines for this disease,” adds Randhawa.

The facility supports a shuttle breeding scheme between CIMMYT Mexico and Kenya, which allows breeders to plant at two locations, select for stem rust (Ug99) resistance and speed up the development of disease-resistant wheat lines.

“Wheat rusts in general are very fast evolving and new strains are continuously emerging. Previously developed rust-resistant wheat varieties can succumb to new virulent strains, making the varieties susceptible. If the farmers grow susceptible varieties, rust will take on those varieties, resulting in huge yield losses if no control measures are adopted,” explains Randhawa.

Helping and sharing

For Randhawa, helping farmers is the main goal. “Our focus is on resource-poor farmers from developing countries. They don’t have enough resources to buy the fungicide. Using chemicals to control diseases is expensive and harmful to the environment. So in that case we provide them solutions in the form of wheat varieties which are high yielding but they have long-lasting resistance to different diseases as well.”

Under the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, Randhawa and his team collaborate with KALRO to facilitate the transfer of promising wheat lines with high yield potential and rust resistance to a national pipeline for soon-to-be-released wheat varieties.

When he is not screening for wheat rusts diseases, Randhawa  also organizes annual trainings on stem rust diagnosis and germplasm evaluation for young wheat breeders and pathologists from developing countries. More than 220 wheat researchers have been trained over the last decade.

Mandeep Randhawa (left) talks to the participants of the 11th annual training on stem rust notetaking and germplasm evaluation. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
Mandeep Randhawa (left) talks to the participants of the 11th annual training on stem rust notetaking and germplasm evaluation. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)

A farmer at heart

Randhawa always had an interest in agricultural science. “Initially, my parents wanted me to be a medical doctor, but I was more interested in teaching science to school students,” he says. “Since my childhood, I used to hear of wheat and diseases affecting wheat crops, especially yellow rust — which is called peeli kungi in my local language.” This childhood interest led him to study wheat genetics at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, India.

His mentors encouraged him to pursue a doctorate from the Plant Breeding Institute (PBI) Cobbitty at the University of Sydney in Australia, which Randhawa describes as “the mecca of wheat rust research.” He characterized two new stripe rust resistance genes formally named as Yr51 and Yr57 from a wheat landrace. He also contributed to the mapping of a new adult plant stem rust resistance gene Sr56.

Coming from India, his move to Australia was a pivotal moment for him in his career and his identity — he now considers himself Indian-Australian.

If he had not become a scientist, Randhawa would be a farmer, he says. “Farming is my passion, as I like to grow crops and to have rich harvest using my scientific knowledge and modern technologies.”

At CIMMYT, Randhawa has a constant stream of work identifying and characterizing new sources of rust resistance. “Dealing with different types of challenges in the wheat field is what keeps me on my toes. New races of diseases are continuously emerging. As pests and pathogens have no boundaries, we must work hand-in-hand to develop tools and technologies to fight fast evolving pests and pathogens,” says Randhawa.

He credits his mentor Ravi Singh, Scientist and Head of Global Wheat Improvement at CIMMYT, for motivating him to continue his work. “Tireless efforts and energetic thoughts of my professional guru Dr. Ravi Singh inspire and drive me to achieve research objectives.”

CIMMYT's multi-crop, multi-use zero-tillage seeder at work on a long-term conservation agriculture trial plot at the center's global headquarters in Mexico. Maize crop residues are visible in the foreground. (Photo: CIMMYT)

New publications: Durum wheat selection under zero tillage increases early vigor and is neutral to yield

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Publications.

CIMMYT's multi-crop, multi-use zero-tillage seeder at work on a long-term conservation agriculture trial plot at the center's global headquarters in Mexico. Maize crop residues are visible in the foreground. (Photo: CIMMYT)
CIMMYT’s multi-crop, multi-use zero-tillage seeder at work on a long-term conservation agriculture trial plot at the center’s global headquarters in Mexico. Maize crop residues are visible in the foreground. (Photo: CIMMYT)

New research published in Field Crops Research by scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) responds to the question of whether wheat varieties need to be adapted to zero tillage conditions.

With 33% of global soils already degraded, agricultural techniques like zero tillage — growing crops without disturbing the soil with activities like plowing — in combination with crop residue retention, are being considered to help protect soils and prevent further degradation. Research has shown that zero tillage with crop residue retention can reduce soil erosion and improve soil structure and water retention, leading to increased water use efficiency of the system. Zero tillage has also been shown to be the most environmentally friendly among different tillage techniques.

While CIMMYT promotes conservation agriculture, of which zero tillage is a component, many farmers who use CIMMYT wheat varieties still use some form of tillage. As farmers adopt conservation agriculture principles in their production systems, we need to be sure that the improved varieties breeders develop and release to farmers can perform equally well in zero tillage as in conventional tillage environments.

The aim of the study was to find out whether breeding wheat lines in a conservation agriculture environment had an effect on their adaptability to one tillage system or another, and whether separate breading streams would be required for each tillage system.

The scientists conducted parallel early generation selection in sixteen populations from the breeding program. The best plants were selected in parallel under conventional and zero-till conditions, until 234 and 250 fixed lines were obtained. They then grew all 484 wheat lines over the course of three seasons near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico, under three different environments — zero tillage, conventional tillage, and conventional tillage with reduced irrigation — and tested them for yield and growth traits.

The authors found that yields were better under zero tillage than conventional tillage for all wheat lines, regardless of how they had been bred and selected, as this condition provided longer water availability between irrigations and mitigated inter-irrigation water stress.

The main result was that selection environment, zero-till versus conventional till, did not produce lines with specific adaptation to either conditions, nor did it negatively impact the results of the breeding program for traits such as plant height, tolerance to lodging and earliness.

One trait which was slightly affected by selection under zero-till was early vigor — the speed at which crops grow during the earliest stage of growth. Early vigor is a useful adaptive trait in conservation agriculture because it allows the crop to cope with high crop residue loads — materials left on the ground such as leaves, stems and seed pods — and can improve yield through rapid development of maximum leaf area in dry environments. Results showed that varieties selected under zero tillage showed slightly increased early vigor which means that selection under zero tillage may drive a breeding program towards the generalization of this useful attribute.

The findings demonstrate that CIMMYT’s durum wheat lines, traditionally bred for wide adaptation, can be grown, bred, and selected under either tillage conditions without negatively affecting yield performance. This is yet another clear demonstration that breeding for wide adaptation, a decades-long tradition within CIMMYT’s wheat improvement effort, is a suitable strategy to produce varieties that are competitive in a wide range of production systems. The findings represent a major result for wheat breeders at CIMMYT and beyond, with the authors concluding that it is not necessary to have separate breeding programs to address the varietal needs of either tillage systems.

This work was implemented by CIMMYT as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT).

Read the full study:
Durum wheat selection under zero tillage increases early vigor and is neutral to yield.

What is wheat blast?

Written by Matthew O'Leary on . Posted in Explainers. 7 Comments on What is wheat blast?

What is wheat blast disease?

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.
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 15,000 hectares 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.
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 — 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 (Vetenskapsrådet). Some of the partners who collaborate include the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), Bolivia’s Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF), Kansas State University and the Agricultural Research Service of the US (USDA-ARS).

Agricultural solutions to tackle humanity’s climate crisis

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

More than 11,000 scientists signed on to a recent report showing that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency and the United Nations warned that the world is on course for a 3.2 degree spike by 2100, even if 2015 Paris Agreement commitments are met.

Agriculture, forestry, and land-use change are implicated in roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture also offers opportunities to mitigate climate change and to help farmers — particularly smallholders in developing and emerging economies who have been hardest hit by hot weather and reduced, more erratic rainfall.

Most of CIMMYT’s work relates to climate change, helping farmers adapt to shocks while meeting the rising demand for food and, where possible, reducing emissions.

Family farmer Geofrey Kurgat (center) with his mother Elice Tole (left) and his nephew Ronny Kiprotich in their 1-acre field of Korongo wheat near Belbur, Nukuru, Kenya. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Family farmer Geofrey Kurgat (center) with his mother Elice Tole (left) and his nephew Ronny Kiprotich in their 1-acre field of Korongo wheat near Belbur, Nukuru, Kenya. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Climate-resilient crops and farming practices

53 million people are benefiting from drought-tolerant maize. Drought-tolerant maize varieties developed using conventional breeding provide at least 25% more grain than other varieties in dry conditions in sub-Saharan Africa — this represents as much as 1 ton per hectare more grain on average. These varieties are now grown on nearly 2.5 million hectares, benefiting an estimated 6 million households or 53 million people in the continent. One study shows that drought-tolerant maize can provide farming families in Zimbabwe an extra 9 months of food at no additional cost. The greatest productivity results when these varieties are used with reduced or zero tillage and keeping crop residues on the soil, as was demonstrated in southern Africa during the 2015-16 El Niño drought. Finally, tolerance in maize to high temperatures in combination with drought tolerance has a benefit at least twice that of either trait alone.

Wheat yields rise in difficult environments. Nearly two decades of data from 740 locations in more than 60 countries shows that CIMMYT breeding is pushing up wheat yields by almost 2% each year — that’s some 38 kilograms per hectare more annually over almost 20 years — under dry or otherwise challenging conditions. This is partly through use of drought-tolerant lines and crosses with wild grasses that boost wheat’s resilience. An international consortium is applying cutting-edge science to develop climate-resilient wheat. Three widely-adopted heat and drought-tolerant wheat lines from this work are helping farmers in Pakistan, a wheat powerhouse facing rising temperatures and drier conditions; the most popular was grown on an estimated 40,000 hectares in 2018.

Climate-smart soil and fertilizer management. Rice-wheat rotations are the predominant farming system on more than 13 million hectares in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, providing food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions. If farmers in India alone fine-tuned crop fertilizer dosages using available technologies such as cellphones and photosynthesis sensors, each year they could produce nearly 14 million tons more grain, save 1.4 million tons of fertilizer, and cut CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 million tons. Scientists have been studying and widely promoting such practices, as well as the use of direct seeding without tillage and keeping crop residues on the soil, farming methods that help capture and hold carbon and can save up to a ton of CO2 emissions per hectare, each crop cycle. Informed by CIMMYT researchers, India state officials seeking to reduce seasonal pollution in New Delhi and other cities have implemented policy measures to curb the burning of rice straw in northern India through widespread use of zero tillage.

Farmers going home for breakfast in Motoko district, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Farmers going home for breakfast in Motoko district, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Measuring climate change impacts and savings

In a landmark study involving CIMMYT wheat physiologists and underlining nutritional impacts of climate change, it was found that increased atmospheric CO2 reduces wheat grain protein content. Given wheat’s role as a key source of protein in the diets of millions of the poor, the results show the need for breeding and other measures to address this effect.

CIMMYT scientists are devising approaches to gauge organic carbon stocks in soils. The stored carbon improves soil resilience and fertility and reduces its emissions of greenhouse gases. Their research also provides the basis for a new global soil information system and to assess the effectiveness of resource-conserving crop management practices.

CIMMYT scientist Francisco Pinto operates a drone over wheat plots at CIMMYT's experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT scientist Francisco Pinto operates a drone over wheat plots at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Managing pests and diseases

Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation are causing the emergence and spread of deadly new crop diseases and insect pests. Research partners worldwide are helping farmers to gain an upper hand by monitoring and sharing information about pathogen and pest movements, by spreading control measures and fostering timely access to fungicides and pesticides, and by developing maize and wheat varieties that feature genetic resistance to these organisms.

Viruses and moth larvae assail maize. Rapid and coordinated action among public and private institutions across sub-Saharan Africa has averted a food security disaster by containing the spread of maize lethal necrosis, a viral disease which appeared in Kenya in 2011 and quickly moved to maize fields regionwide. Measures have included capacity development with seed companies, extension workers, and farmers the development of new disease-resilient maize hybrids.

The insect known as fall armyworm hit Africa in 2016, quickly ranged across nearly all the continent’s maize lands and is now spreading in Asia. Regional and international consortia are combating the pest with guidance on integrated pest management, organized trainings and videos to support smallholder farmers, and breeding maize varieties that can at least partly resist fall armyworm.

New fungal diseases threaten world wheat harvests. The Ug99 race of wheat stem rust emerged in eastern Africa in the late 1990s and spawned 13 new strains that eventually appeared in 13 countries of Africa and beyond. Adding to wheat’s adversity, a devastating malady from the Americas known as “wheat blast” suddenly appeared in Bangladesh in 2016, causing wheat crop losses as high as 30% on a large area and threatening to move quickly throughout South Asia’s vast wheat lands.

In both cases, quick international responses such as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, have been able to monitor and characterize the diseases and, especially, to develop and deploy resistant wheat varieties.

A community volunteer of an agricultural cooperative (left) uses the Plantix smartphone app to help a farmer diagnose pests in his maize field in Bardiya district, Nepal. (Photo: Bandana Pradhan/CIMMYT)
A community volunteer of an agricultural cooperative (left) uses the Plantix smartphone app to help a farmer diagnose pests in his maize field in Bardiya district, Nepal. (Photo: Bandana Pradhan/CIMMYT)

Partners and funders of CIMMYT’s climate research

A global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems, CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR and leads the South Asia Regional Program of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

CIMMYT receives support for research relating to climate change from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. Top funders include CGIAR Research Programs and Platforms, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Cornell University, the German aid agency GIZ, the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and CGIAR Trust Fund Contributors to Window 1 &2.

Local farmers test out the COMPASS smartphone app at the workshop in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora state, Mexico. (Photo: Alison Doody/CIMMYT)

New mobile technology to help farmers improve yields and stabilize incomes

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Features. 1 Comment on New mobile technology to help farmers improve yields and stabilize incomes

An international team of scientists is working with farmers in the Yaqui Valley, in Mexico’s Sonora state, to develop and test a new mobile technology that aims to improve wheat and sugarcane productivity by helping farmers manage factors that cause the yield gap between crop potential and actual field performance.

Scientists have been developing and testing a smartphone app where farmers can record their farming activities — including sowing date, crop type and irrigation — and receive local, precise crop management advice in return.

This project is a private-public partnership known as Mexican COMPASS, or Mexican Crop Observation, Management & Production Analysis Services System.

Research has shown that proper timing of irrigation is more important to yields than total water amounts. Earlier planting times have also been shown to improve wheat yields. Having optimum dates for both activities could help farmers improve yields and stabilize their incomes.

COMPASS smartphone app interface. (Photo: Saravana Gurusamy/Rezatec)
COMPASS smartphone app interface. (Photo: Saravana Gurusamy/Rezatec)

The COMPASS smartphone app uses earth observation satellite data and in-situ field data captured by farmers to provide information such as optimum sowing date and irrigation scheduling.

“Sowing and irrigation timing are well known drivers of yield potential in that region — these are two features of the app we’re about to validate during this next season,” explained Francelino Rodrigues, Precision Agriculture Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Sound data

Technological innovation for crop productivity is needed now more than ever with threats to food security increasing and natural resources becoming scarcer. Farmers are under increasing pressure to produce more with less, which means greater precision is needed in their agricultural practices.

The Yaqui Valley, Mexico’s biggest wheat producing area, is located in the semi-arid Sonoran Desert in the northern part of Mexico. Water security is a serious challenge and farmers must be very precise in their irrigation management.

The Mexican COMPASS consortium, which is made up of the geospatial data analytics company Rezatec, the University of Nottingham, Booker Tate, CIMMYT and the Colegio de Postgraduados (COLPOS) in Mexico, evolved as a way to help Mexican farmers improve their water use efficiency.

“Yaqui Valley farmers are very experienced farmers, however they can also benefit by using an app that is designed locally to inform and record their decisions,” Rodrigues explained.

The smartphone app will also allow farmers to record and schedule their crop management practices and will give them access to weekly time-series Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) maps, that will allow farmers to view their fields at any time from any location.

“All of this information is provided for free! That’s the exciting part of the project. The business model was designed so that farmers will not need to pay for access to the app and its features, in exchange for providing their crop field data. It’s a win-win situation,” said Rodrigues.

CIMMYT research assistant Lorena Gonzalez (center) helps local farmers try out the new COMPASS app during the workshop in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora state, Mexico. (Photo: Alison Doody/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT research assistant Lorena Gonzalez (center) helps local farmers try out the new COMPASS app during the workshop in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora state, Mexico. (Photo: Alison Doody/CIMMYT)

Farmer-centered design

The app is now in the validation stage and COMPASS partners are inviting farmers to test the technology on their own farms. A workshop on October 21 in Ciudad Obregon provided farmers with hands-on training for the app and allowed them to give their feedback.

Over 100 farmers attended the workshop, which featured presentations from Saravana Gurusamy, project manager at Rezatec, Iván Ortíz-Monasterio, principal scientist at CIMMYT, and representatives from local farmer groups Asociación de Organismos de Agricultores del Sur de Sonora (AOASS) and Distrito de Riego del Río Yaqui (DRRYAQUI). The workshop featured a step-by-step demonstration of the app and practical exercises for farmers to test it out for themselves.

“We need technology nowadays because we have to deal with many factors. The profit we get for wheat is getting smaller and smaller each year, so we have to be very productive. I hope that this app can help me to produce a better crop,” said one local wheat farmer who attended the workshop.

User feedback has played a key role in the development of the app. COMPASS interviewed dozens of farmers to see what design worked for them.

“Initially we came up with a really complicated design. However, when we gave it to farmers, they didn’t know how to use it,” explained Rezatec project manager, Saravana Gurusamy. The team went back to the drawing board and with the feedback they received from farmers, came up with a simple design that any farmer, regardless of their experience with technology or digital literacy, could use.

A farmer who attended the workshop talks about his experience and the potential benefits of the app. See full video on YouTube.

Sitting down with Gurusamy after the workshop, he outlined his vision for the future of the app.

“My vision is to see all the farmers in Sonora, working in wheat using the app. The first step is to prove the technology here, then roll it out to all of Mexico and eventually internationally.”

Mexican COMPASS is a four year project funded by the UK Space Agency’s International Partnership Programme (IPP-UKSA) and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT). It is a collaboration between Rezatec, the University of Nottingham and Booker Tate in the UK, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Colegio de Postgraduados (COLPOS) in Mexico.

Freshly baked rye bread is displayed next to wheat spikes and grains. (Photo: Marco Verch/Flickr)

Healthy diets feature both whole- and refined-grain foods, new study shows

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Press releases. 1 Comment on Healthy diets feature both whole- and refined-grain foods, new study shows

Freshly baked rye bread is displayed next to wheat spikes and grains. (Photo: Marco Verch/Flickr)
Freshly baked rye bread is displayed next to wheat spikes and grains. (Photo: Marco Verch/Flickr)

Grain-based foods — both whole-grain and refined, from which the bran has been removed — are a key part of healthy diets, according to a study published in the science journal Advances in Nutrition.

The study, co-authored by Julie Miller Jones of St. Catherine University, Carlos Guzman of the Universidad de Córdoba and Hans-Joachim Braun of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), reviewed findings of more than 100 research papers from nutrition and medical journals as well as national health recommendations. It presents evidence for positive health impacts from diverse diets that include not more than 50% carbohydrates and the right mix of grain-based foods.

“Epidemiological studies consistently show that eating three 30-gram portions of whole-grain foods — say, half a cup of oats — per day is associated with reduced chronic disease risk,” said Miller Jones, Professor Emerita at St. Catherine University and first author of the study. “But refined-grain foods — especially staple, enriched or fortified ones of the ‘non-indulgent’ type — also provide key vitamins and minerals that are otherwise lacking in people’s diets.”

“Cereal grains help feed the world by providing millions of calories per hectare and large amounts of plant-based protein,” said Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat. “They are affordable, shelf stable, portable, versatile, and popular, and will play a key role as the world transitions to plant-based diets to meet future food needs.”

Folate fortification of refined grains has helped reduce the incidence of spina bifida, anencephaly, and other birth defects, according to Miller Jones. “And despite contributing to high sugar intake, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals are typically consumed with nutritious foods such as milk, yogurt, and fruit,” she added.

All grain-based foods, refined and whole, are good sources of dietary fiber, which is essential for sound health but critically lacking in modern diets. “Only 4 percent of the U.S. population, for example, eats recommended levels of dietary fiber,” she said.

Obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and other illnesses from unbalanced diets and unhealthy habits are on the rise in countries such as the U.S., driving up health care expenditures. The annual medical costs of obesity alone there have been estimated at nearly $150 billion.

“Dietary choices are determined partly by lifestyle but also co-vary with daily habits and personal traits,” Miller Jones explained. “People who eat more whole-grain foods are more likely to exercise, not smoke, and have normal body weights, as well as attaining higher levels of education and socioeconomic status.”

According to the study, recommendations for grain-based foods need to encourage a healthy number of servings and replacing half of refined-grain foods with whole-grain products, as well as providing clearer and unbiased definitions of both types of grain-based foods.

RELATED RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS:

Perspective: Whole and Refined Grains and Health — Evidence Supporting “Make Half Your Grains Whole”

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Hans Braun – Director of the Global Wheat Program, CIMMYT

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT THE MEDIA TEAM:

Marcia MacNeil, Communications Officer, CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, CIMMYT.
m.macneil@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 2070.

Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT.
r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1167.

ABOUT CIMMYT:

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

This research is supported by CGIAR Fund Donors.

CIMMYT scientists Thomas Payne (left), Hans-Joachim Braun (third from left) and Alex Morgunov (right) celebrate their award with World Food Prize laureate and former CIMMYT wheat program director Sanjaya Rajaram. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)

CIMMYT wheat scientists receive top honors from US agricultural scientists

Written by Marcia MacNeil on . Posted in News. 2 Comments on CIMMYT wheat scientists receive top honors from US agricultural scientists

CIMMYT scientists Thomas Payne (left), Hans-Joachim Braun (third from left) and Alex Morgunov (right) celebrate their award with World Food Prize laureate and former CIMMYT wheat program director Sanjaya Rajaram. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT scientists Thomas Payne (left), Hans-Joachim Braun (third from left) and Alex Morgunov (right) celebrate their award with World Food Prize laureate and former CIMMYT wheat program director Sanjaya Rajaram. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)

Two scientists working in the world’s leading public wheat breeding program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been recognized with awards and fellowships this week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America.

Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, has been honored with the American Society of Agronomy’s International Agronomy Award.

Alexey Morgunov, CIMMYT principal scientist and head of the Turkey-based International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP) received the distinction of Fellow from the Crop Science Society of America. Braun was also distinguished with this fellowship.

Excellence in agronomy

The American Society of Agronomy’s International Agronomy Award recognizes outstanding contributions in research, teaching, extension, or administration made outside of the United States by a current agronomist. Braun received the distinction during an awards ceremony and lecture on November 12, 2019. The award committee made its selection based on criteria including degrees, professional positions, and contributions and service to the profession such as publications, patents, and efforts to develop or improve programs, practices, and products.

The award recognizes Braun’s achievements developing and promoting improved wheat varieties and cropping practices that have benefited hundreds of millions of farmers throughout Central Asia, South Asia and North Africa. Nearly half the world’s wheat lands overall — as well as 70 to 80% of all wheat varieties released in Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and North Africa — are derived from the research of CIMMYT and its partners.

“I am honored to be recognized by my fellow agronomists,” Braun said. “This award highlights the importance of international research collaboration, because the food security challenges we face do not stop at national borders.”

Braun began his 36-year CIMMYT career in Mexico in 1983. From 1985 to 2005, he led the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program in Turkey, implemented by CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). As director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program since 2004 and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat since 2014, he is responsible for the technical direction and implementation of a program that develops and distributes wheat germplasm to more than 200 collaborators in more than 100 countries, grown on over half the spring wheat area in developing countries.

Alex Morgunov (center) receives his Crop Science Society of America Fellow certificate. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)
Alex Morgunov (center) receives his Crop Science Society of America Fellow certificate. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)
Hans-Joachim Braun (center) receives the Crop Science Society of America Fellow certificate onstage. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)
Hans-Joachim Braun (center) receives the Crop Science Society of America Fellow certificate onstage. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)
Detail of the Crop Science Society of America Fellow certificate for Hans-Joachim Braun. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)
Hans-Joachim Braun (right) receives the International Agronomy Award from Gary Pierzynski, president of the American Society of Agronomy. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)
Hans-Joachim Braun (right) receives the International Agronomy Award from Gary Pierzynski, president of the American Society of Agronomy. (Photo: Johanna Franziska Braun/CIMMYT)

Crop fellows

Braun and Morgunov were also chosen as Fellows, the highest recognition bestowed by the Crop Science Society of America. Members of the society nominate worthy colleagues based on their professional achievements and meritorious service. Fellows are a select group: only three out of every 1,000 of the society’s more than 4,000 active and emeritus members receive the honor.

Morgunov joined CIMMYT in 1991 as a spring wheat breeder, working with former Global Wheat Program Director and World Food Prize laureate Sanjaya Rajaram. In 1994, he moved to Turkey to work as winter wheat breeder, and then to Kazakhstan, where he worked to develop and promote new wheat varieties for the Central Asia and the Caucasus region. He has led the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program in Turkey since 2006. In this role, he has been responsible for the release of more than 80 varieties in the region. He also completed a national inventory for wheat landraces in Turkey.

“I am pleased to be recognized as [a Crop Science Society of America] Fellow,” Morgunov said. “I hope this award brings more attention to the importance of finding, saving and using the vast diversity of crop varieties in the world, for resilient crops and healthy food for all.”

Braun and Morgunov were formally recognized as Fellows on November 13.

The annual meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America convenes around 4,000 scientists, professionals, educators, and students to share knowledge and recognition of achievements in the field. This year’s meeting was held in San Antonio, Texas.

The Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)

Thomas Payne honored at gathering of crop science peers

Written by Marcia MacNeil on . Posted in News. 1 Comment on Thomas Payne honored at gathering of crop science peers

The Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)
The Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)

Thomas Payne, head of the Wheat Germplasm Bank at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), was awarded the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources this morning at the annual meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America, held in San Antonio, Texas.

The Frank N. Meyer Medal recognizes contributions to plant germplasm collection and use, as well as dedication and service to humanity through the collection, evaluation or conservation of earth’s genetic resources. The award was presented by Clare Clarice Coyne, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) research geneticist.

As an award recipient, Payne delivered a lecture that touched on the philosophy, history and culture surrounding plant genetic diversity and its collectors, and CIMMYT’s important role in conserving and sharing crop diversity.

The scientist has focused his career on wheat improvement and conservation. In addition to leading CIMMYT’s Wellhausen-Anderson Wheat Genetic Resources Collection, one of the world’s largest collection of wheat and maize germplasm, he manages the CIMMYT International Wheat Improvement Network. He is the current Chair of the Article 15 Group of CGIAR Genebank Managers, and has served as Secretary to the CIMMYT Board of Trustees. His association with CIMMYT began immediately after obtaining a PhD at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln in 1988, and he has held positions for CIMMYT in Ethiopia, Mexico, Syria, Turkey and Zimbabwe.

Thomas Payne delivers a presentation at the Crop Science Society of America’s annual Genetic Resources breakfast, where he received the award. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)
Thomas Payne delivers a presentation at the Crop Science Society of America’s annual Genetic Resources breakfast, where he received the award. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)

“CIMMYT is the largest distributor of maize and wheat germplasm worldwide, with materials emanating from its research and breeding programs, as well as held in-trust in the germplasm bank. The Meyer Medal is a reflection of the impact CIMMYT makes in the international research community — and in farmers’ fields throughout the developing world,” Payne said.

Located at CIMMYT headquarters outside Mexico City, the CIMMYT Wheat Germplasm Bank contains nearly 150,000 collections of seed of wheat and related species from more than 100 countries. Collections preserve the diversity of unique native varieties and wild relatives of wheat and are held under long-term storage for the benefit of humanity, in accordance with the 2007 International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The collections are also studied and used as a source of diversity to breed for crucial traits such as heat and drought tolerance, resistance to crop diseases and pests, grain yield productivity, and grain quality. Seed is freely shared on request to researchers, students, and academic and development institutions worldwide.

In his remarks, Payne also highlighted the story of Frank N. Meyer, after whom the award is named. Meyer, an agricultural explorer for the USDA in the 1900s, spent a decade traveling under harsh conditions through China to collect new plant species suitable for production on the United States’s expanding farmland. Among more than 2,500 plants that he introduced to the U.S. — including varieties of soybeans, oats, wild pears, and asparagus — the Meyer lemon was named in his honor. As he pointed out, Meyer worked during a historical period of great scientific discoveries, including those by his contemporaries Marie Curie and the Wright brothers.

Among those attending the ceremony were Payne’s sister, Susan Payne, and CIMMYT colleagues Kevin Pixley, director of Genetic Resources; Denise Costich, head of the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank; and Alexey Morgunov, head of the Turkey-based International Winter Wheat Improvement Program.

The head of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program Hans-Joachim Braun and CIMMYT scientist Alexey Morgunov are also receiving honors or awards this week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America. The meeting convenes around 4,000 scientists, professionals, educators, and students to share knowledge and recognition of achievements in the field.

Thomas Payne (right) celebrates the award with his sister Susan Payne (center) and CIMMYT scientist Alexey Morgunov. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)
Thomas Payne (left) stands for a photo with CIMMYT’s Director of Genetic Resources Kevin Pixley.
Thomas Payne (left) stands for a photo with CIMMYT’s Director of Genetic Resources Kevin Pixley.
Thomas Payne (left) with Head of CIMMYT’s Maize Germplasm Bank Denise Costich. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)
Thomas Payne (left) with Head of CIMMYT’s Maize Germplasm Bank Denise Costich. (Photo: Kevin Pixley/CIMMYT)

Scientists develop an early warning system that delivers wheat rust predictions directly to farmers’ phones

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Press releases.

One of the researchers behind the study, Yoseph Alemayehu, carries out a field survey in Ethiopia by mobile phone. (Photo Dave Hodson/CIMMYT)
One of the researchers behind the study, Yoseph Alemayehu, carries out a field survey in Ethiopia by mobile phone. (Photo Dave Hodson/CIMMYT)

TEXCOCO, Mexico — Using field and mobile phone surveillance data together with forecasts for spore dispersal and environmental suitability for disease, an international team of scientists has developed an early warning system which can predict wheat rust diseases in Ethiopia. The cross-disciplinary project draws on expertise from biology, meteorology, agronomy, computer science and telecommunications.

Reported this week in Environmental Research Letters, the new early warning system, the first of its kind to be implemented in a developing country, will allow policy makers and farmers all over Ethiopia to gauge the current situation and forecast wheat rust up to a week in advance.

The system was developed by the University of Cambridge, the UK Met Office, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). It works by taking near real-time information from wheat rust surveys carried out by EIAR, regional research centers and CIMMYT using a smartphone app called Open Data Kit (ODK).

This is complemented by crowd-sourced information from the ATA-managed Farmers’ Hotline. The University of Cambridge and the UK Met Office then provide automated 7-day advance forecast models for wheat rust spore dispersal and environmental suitability based on disease presence.

All of this information is fed into an early warning unit that receives updates automatically on a daily basis. An advisory report is sent out every week to development agents and national authorities. The information also gets passed on to researchers and farmers.

Example of weekly stripe rust spore deposition based on dispersal forecasts. Darker colors represent higher predicted number of spores deposited. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)
Example of weekly stripe rust spore deposition based on dispersal forecasts. Darker colors represent higher predicted number of spores deposited. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)

Timely alerts

“If there’s a high risk of wheat rust developing, farmers will get a targeted SMS text alert from the Farmers’ Hotline. This gives the farmer about three weeks to take action,” explained Dave Hodson, principal scientist with CIMMYT and co-author of the research study. The Farmers’ Hotline now has over four million registered farmers and extension agents, enabling rapid information dissemination throughout Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is the largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa but the country still spends in excess of $600 million annually on wheat imports. More can be grown at home and the Ethiopian government has targeted to achieve wheat self-sufficiency by 2023.

“Rust diseases are a grave threat to wheat production in Ethiopia. The timely information from this new system will help us protect farmers’ yields, and reach our goal of wheat self-sufficiency,” said EIAR Director Mandefro Nigussie.

Wheat rusts are fungal diseases that can be dispersed by wind over long distances, quickly causing devastating epidemics which can dramatically reduce wheat yields. Just one outbreak in 2010 affected 30% of Ethiopia’s wheat growing area and reduced production by 15-20%.

The pathogens that cause rust diseases are continually evolving and changing over time, making them difficult to control. “New strains of wheat rust are appearing all the time — a bit like the flu virus,” explained Hodson.

In the absence of resistant varieties, one solution to wheat rust is to apply fungicide, but the Ethiopian government has limited supplies. The early warning system will help to prioritize areas at highest risk of the disease, so that the allocation of fungicides can be optimized.

Example of weekly stripe rust environmental suitability forecast. Yellow to Brown show the areas predicted to be most suitable for stripe rust infection. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)
Example of weekly stripe rust environmental suitability forecast. Yellow to Brown show the areas predicted to be most suitable for stripe rust infection. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)

The cream of the crop

The early warning system puts Ethiopia at the forefront of early warning systems for wheat rust. “Nowhere else in the world really has this type of system. It’s fantastic that Ethiopia is leading the way on this,” said Hodson. “It’s world-class science from the UK being applied to real-world problems.”

“This is an ideal example of how it is possible to integrate fundamental research in modelling from epidemiology and meteorology with field-based observation of disease to produce an early warning system for a major crop,” said Christopher Gilligan, head of the Epidemiology and Modelling Group at the University of Cambridge and a co-author of the paper, adding that the approach could be adopted in other countries and for other crops.

“The development of the early warning system was successful because of the great collaborative spirit between all the project partners,” said article co-author Clare Sader-Allen, currently a regional climate modeller at the British Antarctic Survey.

“Clear communication was vital for bringing together the expertise from a diversity of subjects to deliver a common goal: to produce a wheat rust forecast relevant for both policy makers and farmers alike.”

RELATED PUBLICATIONS:

An early warning system to predict and mitigate wheat rust diseases in Ethiopia
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab4034

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Dave Hodson, Senior Scientist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT:

Marcia MacNeil, Communications Officer, CIMMYT. m.macneil@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 2070.

Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT. r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1167.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

This study was made possible through the support provided by the BBSRC GCRF Foundation Awards for Global Agriculture and Food Systems Research, which brings top class UK science to developing countries, the Delivering Genetic Gains in Wheat (DGGW) Project managed by Cornell University and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The Government of Ethiopia also provided direct support into the early warning system. This research is supported by CGIAR Fund Donors.

ABOUT CIMMYT:

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

ABOUT THE ETHIOPIAN INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH (EIAR):

The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) is one of the oldest and largest agricultural research institutes in Africa, with roots in the Ethiopian Agricultural Research System (EARS), founded in the late 1940s. EIAR’s objectives are: (1) to generate, develop and adapt agricultural technologies that focus on the needs of the overall agricultural development and its beneficiaries; (2) to coordinate technically the research activities of Ethiopian Agricultural Research System; (3) build up a research capacity and establish a system that will make agricultural research efficient, effective and based on development needs; and (4) popularize agricultural research results. EIAR’s vision is to see improved livelihood of all Ethiopians engaged in agriculture, agro-pastoralism and pastoralism through market competitive agricultural technologies.

It’s time to change the system, not just the technology

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in News.

Society faces enormous challenges in the transition to sustainable rural development. We are unlikely to make this transition unless we move away from the 20th-century paradigm that sees the world as a logical, linear system focused on “scaling up” the use of technologies to reach hundreds of millions of smallholders.

In a new article published this week on NextBillion, Lennart Woltering of CIMMYT contends that “farming communities are unlikely to continue using a new practice or technology if the surrounding system remains unchanged, since it is this very system that shaped their conventional way of farming.”

Woltering calls on the research for development community to work towards producing deeper system change and offers some key considerations for moving in the right direction.


Read the full article:
‘Pilots Never Fail, Pilots Never Scale’: Why the Global Development Community Needs a More Realistic Approach to Reaching Billions

Download the infographic:
Sustainable systems change at scale: Not “scaling up” but getting “down to earth”

Wheat grains prepared for placement in a Thousand Grain Weight machine. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

A fresh look at the genes behind grain weight in spring bread wheat

Written by Marcia MacNeil on . Posted in News.

Guillermo Garcia Barrios, a co-author of the study and student at Colegio de Postgraduados in Montecillo, Mexico, with a PHERAstar machine used to validate genetic markers. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)
Guillermo Garcia Barrios, a co-author of the study and student at Colegio de Postgraduados in Montecillo, Mexico, with a PHERAstar machine used to validate genetic markers. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

To meet the demand for wheat from a rising and quickly urbanizing population, wheat yields in farmers’ fields must increase by an estimated 1.5% each year through 2030.

Of all the factors that influence yield, grain weight is the trait that is most stable and heritable for use in breeding improved wheat varieties. Breeders measure this by thousand grain weight (TGW).

Over the years, molecular scientists have made efforts to identify genes related to increased TGW, in order to speed up breeding through marker-assisted selection (MAS). Using MAS, breeders can select parents that contain genes related to the traits they are looking for, increasing the likelihood they will be passed on and incorporated in a new variety.

There have been some limited successes in these efforts: in the past years, a few genes related to increased TGW have been cloned, and a set of genetic markers have been determined to be used for MAS. However, the effects of most of these candidate genes have not yet been validated in diverse sets of wheat germplasm throughout the world that represent the full range of global wheat growing environments.

A group of wheat geneticists and molecular breeders from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has recently conducted a thorough study to confirm the effects of the favorable alleles reported for these genes on TGW in CIMMYT wheat, and to identify new genetic determinants of this desired trait.

They found some good news and some bad news.

First, the good news: focusing on more than 4,000 lines of CIMMYT wheat germplasm they found 15 haplotype blocks significantly associated with TGW. Four haplotype blocks associated with TGW were also associated with grain yield — a grand prize for breeders, because in general the positive association of grain yield with TGW is less profound and sometimes even negative. However, of the 14 genes that had been previously reported to increase TGW, only one in CIMMYT’s 2015-2016 Elite Yield Trial and two in Wheat Associative Mapping Initiative panel were shown to have significant TGW associations.

Wheat grains prepared for placement in a Thousand Grain Weight machine. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)
Wheat grains prepared for placement in a Thousand Grain Weight machine. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

The scientists also found that the alleles — pairs of genes on a chromosome that determine heredity — that were supposedly favorable to TGW actually decreased it.  These candidate genes also appear to vary in their TGW effects with genetic background and/or environment.

Thus, these findings also provide a foundation for more detailed investigations, opening the door for more studies on the genetic background dependence and environment sensitivity of the known candidate genes for TGW.

“Our findings indicate that it will be challenging to use MAS based on these existing markers across individual breeding programs,” said Deepmala Sehgal, CIMMYT wheat geneticist and the primary author of the study.

However, efforts to identify new genetic determinants of TGW were promising. The authors’ study of CIMMYT germplasm found one locus on chromosome 6A that showed increases of up to 2.60 grams in TGW and up to 258 kilograms per hectare in grain yield.

Thousand Grain Weight is measured in this machine at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)
Thousand Grain Weight is measured in this machine at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

This discovery expands opportunities for developing diagnostic markers to assist in multi-gene pyramiding — a process that can derive new and complementary allele combinations for enhanced wheat TGW and grain yield.

Most of all, the study highlights the strong need for better and more validation of the genes related to this and other traits, so that breeders can be sure they are using material that is confirmed to increase wheat grain weight and genetic yield.

“Our findings are very promising for future efforts to efficiently develop more productive wheat in both grain weight and grain yield,” said Sehgal. “This ultimately means more bread on household tables throughout the world.”

“Validation of Candidate Gene-Based Markers and Identification of Novel Loci for Thousand-Grain Weight in Spring Bread Wheat” in Frontiers in Plant Science by Deepmala Sehgal, Suchismita Mondal, Carlos Guzman, Guillermo Garcia Barrios, Carolina Franco, Ravi Singh and Susanne Dreisigacker was supported by funding from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development (DFID), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics.

Read the full article here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2019.01189

Starting machinery to husk maize cobs at Green Farm near Kitale, Trans-Nzoia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Study proposes alternative to conventional technology adoption research in smallholder agriculture

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in News.

Starting machinery to husk maize cobs at Green Farm near Kitale, Trans-Nzoia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Starting machinery to husk maize cobs at Green Farm near Kitale, Trans-Nzoia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

The development community is introducing increasingly complex and systemic technological designs for sustainable improvements to agriculture. Yet, a systemic perspective is hard to find in “adoption-outcome” focused analyses of technological change processes. In order to improve development interventions, it is necessary not only to analyze both successes and failures, but also the process and impacts of technological change.

Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) recently published a paper on rethinking technological change in smallholder agriculture, arguing against the conventional approach to studying technology adoption.

The problem with the concept of technology adoption

While the adoption rate of newly introduced technologies is still used in the evaluation of agricultural research and development, the theory of technology adoption is an insufficient framework for understanding technological change. It is too linear, too binary, too focused on individual decisions and gives an inaccurate and misleading picture to researchers.

The theory of adoption treats technology like a “black box” that is transferred smoothly from one setting to another, following a linear progression of old and inferior tools and methods to new improved ones. This theory is too simplistic to align with the complex realities of the capabilities and agency of multiple actors. In addition, in cases of participatory technology development, where intended users are involved in the creation of innovations, adoption rates are often limited due to the relatively small scale of the project.

Using adoption rate as the only indicator of success or failure can lead researchers to ignore wider impacts of the introduction of a new technology. Adoption rates could go up, but use of a new technology could cause harm to social relations, the local environment, or its resilience. Low adoption rates could classify a program as a failure, while farmers benefited substantially in undetected ways, for example forming networks or acquiring new skills and knowledge. A singular focus on adoption rates thus limits our understanding of what happens in processes of technological change.

Farmer Kausila Chanara direct dry seeding rice in Ramghat, Surkhet, Nepal. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT).
Farmer Kausila Chanara direct dry seeding rice in Ramghat, Surkhet, Nepal. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

An alternative conceptual framework

In addition to the introduction of a new technology to small-scale farming systems, technological change involves the agency of many social actors. The agency of farmers, scientists, project managers and extension officers is key to understand whether a new technology is perceived to be useful, accessible or realistic, as well as how it is adjusted and changing social relations.

A new framework is needed to capture this reconfiguration of social and technological components that result from the introduction of a new technology to a community.

The authors of this paper propose an alternative conceptual framework with an agent-, practice- and process-oriented approach to better understand technological change. The framework is composed of four key components: propositions, encounters, dispositions and responses.

Propositions are composed of artefacts, methods, techniques and practices and a proposed mode of engagement in agricultural production. Encounters can be deliberately organized, for example a field day, or spontaneous, when a farmer sees a neighbor using a new tool. Intended users of technology may be disposed to respond in a variety of different ways, and dispositions may change over time. Finally, responses are a process or pathway that is likely to involve adjustment or recalibration to make the new technology work for the farmer.

Further work to operationalize this framework is needed. The authors suggest a next step of developing indicators to measure learning, experimentation and behavioral change as part of analyzing technological change processes.

Members of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) which focuses on translational research to boost wheat yields.

Bottlenecks between basic and applied plant science jeopardize life-saving crop improvements

Written by Marcia MacNeil on . Posted in News.

Visitors at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Obregon, Mexico, where elite wheat lines are tested for new traits.
Visitors at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Obregon, Mexico, where elite wheat lines are tested for new traits.

For a number of reasons, including limited interdisciplinary collaboration and a dearth of funding, revolutionary new plant research findings are not being used to improve crops.

“Translational research” — efforts to convert basic research knowledge about plants into practical applications in crop improvement — represents a necessary link between the world of fundamental discovery and farmers’ fields. This kind of research is often seen as more complicated and time consuming than basic research and less sexy than working at the “cutting edge” where research is typically divorced from agricultural realities in order to achieve faster and cleaner results; however, modern tools — such as genomics, marker-assisted breeding, high throughput phenotyping of crop traits using drones, and speed breeding techniques — are making it both faster and cost-effective.

In a new article in Crop Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics, wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and co-authors make the case for increasing not only funding for translational research, but the underlying prerequisites: international and interdisciplinary collaboration towards focused objectives and a visionary approach by funding organizations.

“It’s ironic,” said Reynolds. “Many breeding programs have invested in the exact technologies — such as phenomics, genomics and informatics — that can be powerful tools for translational research to make real improvements in yield and adaptation to climate, disease and pest stresses. But funding to integrate these tools in front-line breeding is quite scarce, so they aren’t reaching their potential value for crop improvement.”

Members of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) which focuses on translational research to boost wheat yields.
Members of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) which focuses on translational research to boost wheat yields.

Many research findings are tested for their implications for wheat improvement by the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) at the IWYP Hub, a centralized technical platform for evaluating innovations and building them into elite wheat varieties, co-managed by CIMMYT at its experimental station in Obregon, Mexico.

IWYP has its roots with the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), which in 2010 formalized the need to boost both wheat yield potential as well as its adaptation to heat and drought stress. The network specializes in translational research, harnessing scientific findings from around the world to boost genetic gains in wheat, and capitalizing on the research and pre-breeding outputs of WHEAT and the testing networks of the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN). These efforts also led to the establishment of the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC).

“We’ve made extraordinary advances in understanding the genetic basis of important traits,“ said IWYP’s Richard Flavell, a co-author of the article. “But if they aren’t translated into crop production, their societal value is lost.”

The authors, all of whom have proven track records in both science and practical crop improvement, offer examples where exactly this combination of factors led to the impactful application of innovative research findings.

  • Improving the Vitamin A content of maize: A variety of maize with high Vitamin A content has the potential to reduce a deficiency that can cause blindness and a compromised immune system. This development happened as a result of many translational research efforts, including marker-assisted selection for a favorable allele, using DNA extracted from seed of numerous segregating breeding crosses prior to planting, and even findings from gerbil, piglet and chicken models — as well as long-term, community-based, placebo-controlled trials with children — that helped establish that Vitamin A maize is bioavailable and bioefficacious.
  • Flood-tolerant rice: Weather variability due to climate change effects is predicted to include both droughts and floods. Developing rice varieties that can withstand submergence in water due to flooding is an important outcome of translational research which has resulted in important gains for rice agriculture. In this case, the genetic trait for flood tolerance was recognized, but it took a long time to incorporate the trait into elite germplasm breeding programs. In fact, the development of flooding tolerant rice based on a specific SUB 1A allele took over 50 years at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines (1960–2010), together with expert molecular analyses by others. The translation program to achieve efficient incorporation into elite high yielding cultivars also required detailed research using molecular marker technologies that were not available at the time when trait introgression started.

Other successes include new approaches for improving the yield potential of spring wheat and the discovery of traits that increase the climate resilience of maize and sorghum.

One way researchers apply academic research to field impact is through phenotyping. Involving the use of cutting edge technologies and tools to measure detailed and hard to recognize plant traits, this area of research has undergone a revolution in the past decade, thanks to more affordable digital measuring tools such as cameras and sensors and more powerful and accessible computing power and accessibility.

Scientists are now able to identify at a detailed scale plant traits that show how efficiently a plant is using the sun’s radiation for growth, how deep its roots are growing to collect water, and more — helping breeders select the best lines to cross and develop.

An Australian pine at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Texoco, Mexico, commemorates the 4th symposium of the International Plant Phenotyping Network.
An Australian pine at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Texoco, Mexico, commemorates the 4th symposium of the International Plant Phenotyping Network.

Phenotyping is key to understanding the physiological and genetic bases of plant growth and adaptation and has wide application in crop improvement programs. Recording trait data through sophisticated non-invasive imaging, spectroscopy, image analysis, robotics, high-performance computing facilities and phenomics databases allows scientists to collect information about traits such as plant development, architecture, plant photosynthesis, growth or biomass productivity from hundreds to thousands of plants in a single day. This revolution was the subject of discussion at a 2016 gathering of more than 200 participants at the International Plant Phenotyping Symposium hosted by CIMMYT in Mexico and documented in a special issue of Plant Science.

There is currently an explosion in plant science. Scientists have uncovered the genetic basis of many traits, identified genetic markers to track them and developed ways to measure them in breeding programs. But most of these new findings and ideas have yet to be tested and used in breeding programs, wasting their potentially enormous societal value.

Establishing systems for generating and testing new hypotheses in agriculturally relevant systems must become a priority, Reynolds states in the article. However, for success, this will require interdisciplinary, and often international, collaboration to enable established breeding programs to retool. Most importantly, scientists and funding organizations alike must factor in the long-term benefits as well as the risks of not taking timely action. Translating a research finding into an improved crop that can save lives takes time and commitment. With these two prerequisites, basic plant research can and should positively impact food security.

Authors would like to acknowledge the following funding organizations for their commitment to translational research.

The International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) is supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in the UK; the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the USA; and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) in Switzerland.

The Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) is supported by the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) Project by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) of the Government of Mexico; previous projects that underpinned HeDWIC were supported by Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

The Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in collaboration with The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) have provided long-term investment for the public sector sorghum pre-breeding program in Australia, including research on the stay-green trait. More recently, this translational research has been led by the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) within The University of Queensland.

ASI validation work and ASI translation and extension components with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, respectively.

Financial support for the maize proVA work was partially provided by HarvestPlus (www.HarvestPlus.org), a global alliance of agriculture and nutrition research institutions working to increase the micronutrient density of staple food crops through biofortification. The CGIAR Research Program MAIZE (CRP-MAIZE) also supported this research.

The CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) as a primary research partner. Funding comes from CGIAR, national governments, foundations, development banks and other agencies, including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Elite wheat varieties at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, in Mexico's Sonora state. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

Extensive use of wild grass-derived “synthetic hexaploid wheat” adds diversity and resilience to modern bread wheat

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Press releases.

Elite wheat varieties at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, in Mexico's Sonora state. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)
Elite wheat varieties at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, in Mexico’s Sonora state. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

In a new study, scientists have found that genome segments from a wild grass are present in more than one in five of elite bread wheat lines developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Scientists at CIMMYT and other research institutes have been crossing wild goat grass with durum wheat — the wheat used for pasta — since the 1980s, with the help of complex laboratory manipulations. The new variety, known as synthetic hexaploid wheat, boosts the genetic diversity and resilience of wheat, notoriously vulnerable due to its low genetic diversity, adding novel genes for disease resistance, nutritional quality and heat and drought tolerance.

The study, which aimed to measure the effect of these long-term efforts using state-of-the-art molecular technology, also found that 20% of CIMMYT modern wheat lines contain an average of 15% of the genome segments from the wild goat grass.

“We’ve estimated that one-fifth of the elite wheat breeding lines entered in international yield trials has at least some contribution from goat grass,” said Umesh Rosyara, genomic breeder at CIMMYT and first author of the paper, which was published in Nature Scientific Reports. “This is much higher than expected.”

Although the synthetic wheat process can help bring much-needed diversity to modern wheat, crossing with synthetic wheat is a complicated process that also introduces undesirable traits, which must later be eliminated during the breeding process.

“Many breeding programs hesitate to use wild relatives because undesirable genomic segments are transferred in addition to desirable segments,” said Rosyara. “The study results can help us devise an approach to quickly eliminate undesirable segments while maintaining desirable diversity.”

CIMMYT breeding contributions are present in nearly half the wheat sown worldwide, many of such successful cultivars have synthetic wheat in the background, so the real world the impact is remarkable, according to Rosyara.

“With this retrospective look at the development and use of synthetic wheat, we can now say with certainty that the best wheat lines selected over the past 30 years are benefiting from the genes of wheat’s wild relatives,” he explained. “Even more, using cutting-edge molecular marker technology, we should be able to target and capture the most useful genes from wild sources and better harness this rich source of diversity.”

Modern breeders tread in nature’s footsteps

The common bread wheat we know today arose when an ancient grain called emmer wheat naturally cross-bred with goat grass around 10,000 years ago. During this natural crossing, very few goat grass genes crossed over, and as a result, current bread wheat is low in diversity for the genome contributed by goat grass. Inedible and considered a weed, goat grass still has desirable traits including disease resistance and tolerance to climate stresses.

Scientists sought to broaden wheat’s genetic diversity by re-enacting the ancient, natural cross that gave rise to bread wheat, crossing improved durum wheat or primitive emmer with different variants of goat grass. The resulting synthetic wheats were crossed again with improved wheats to help remove undesirable wild genome segments.

Once synthetic wheat is developed, it can be readily crossed with any elite wheat lines thus serving as a bridge to transfer diversity from durum wheat and wild goat grass to bread wheat. This helps breeders develop high yielding varieties with desirable traits for quality varieties and broad adaption.

CIMMYT is the first to use wheat’s wild relatives on such a large scale, and the synthetic derivative lines have been used by breeding programs worldwide to develop popular and productive bread wheat varieties. One example, Chuanmai 42, released in China in 2003, stood as the leading wheat variety in the Sichuan Basin for over a decade. Other synthetic derivative lines such as Sokoll and Vorobey appear in the lineage of many successful wheat lines, contributing crucial yield stability — the ability to maintain high yields over time under varying conditions.

The successful, large-scale use of genes from wheat’s wild relatives has helped broaden the genetic diversity of modern, improved bread wheat nearly to the level of the crop’s heirloom varieties. This diversity is needed to combat future environmental, pest, and disease challenges to the production of a grain that provides 20% of the calories consumed by humans worldwide.

This work was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) and Seeds of Discovery (SeeD), a multi-project initiative comprising MasAgro Biodiversidad, a joint initiative of CIMMYT and the Ministry of agriculture and rural development (SADER) through the MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture) project; the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize (MAIZE) and Wheat (WHEAT); and a computation infrastructure and data analysis project supported by the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).  CIMMYT’s worldwide partners participated in the evaluation of CIMMYT international wheat yield trials.

For more information, or to arrange interviews with the researchers, please contact:

Marcia MacNeil, Wheat Communications Officer, CIMMYT
M.MacNeil@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004, ext. 2070

Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT
r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004, ext. 1167

About the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat
The CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) as a primary research partner. Funding comes from CGIAR, national governments, foundations, development banks and other agencies, including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR),  the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

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

WHEAT-sponsored journalists stand for a group photo with farmer Merle Rugg (top row, third from left), in Elstow, Saskatchewan. (Photo: Amit Bhattacharya)

Global group of journalists find wheat research, comradery in Canada

Written by Marcia MacNeil on . Posted in Features.

A diverse group of agriculture, food security, environment and science journalists gathered in Saskatoon, Canada recently for an intensive course in innovative wheat research, interviews with top international scientists and networking with peers.

The occasion was the International Wheat Congress (IWC), which convened more than 900 wheat scientists and researchers in Saskatoon, in Canada’s biggest wheat-growing province, Saskatchewan, to discuss their latest work to boost wheat productivity, resilience and nutrition.

Martin Kropff (right), Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), speaks to the press at the International Wheat Congress. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)
Martin Kropff (right), Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), speaks to the press at the International Wheat Congress. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

The seven journalists were part of a group of 11 who won a competitive sponsorship offered by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT). Seven journalists attended the conference, while another four followed the proceedings and activities from home. The ten-day immersive training included multiple daily press briefings with top scientists in climate change modeling and resilience testing, innovative breeding techniques, analysis and protection of wheat diversity and many more topics, on top of a full schedule of scientific presentations.

“The scientists were so eager to talk to us, and patient with our many questions,” said Nkechi Isaac, from the Leadership newspaper group in Nigeria. “Even the director general of [the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center] CIMMYT spoke with us for almost an hour.”

“It was a pleasant surprise for me.”

The journalists, who come from regions as diverse as sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, offered support and encouragement from their travel preparations though their time in Saskatoon and beyond — sharing story ideas, interview and site visit opportunities, news clips and photos through a WhatsApp group.

Linda McCandless (center) of Cornell University and David Hodson (left) of CIMMYT were among the panelists sharing tips on wheat news coverage at the journalist roundtable. (Photo: Matt Hayes/Cornell)
Linda McCandless (center) of Cornell University and David Hodson (left) of CIMMYT were among the panelists sharing tips on wheat news coverage at the journalist roundtable. (Photo: Matt Hayes/Cornell)

“It is really helpful to be connected to colleagues around the world,” said Amit Bhattacharya of the Times of India. “I know we will continue to be a resource and network for each other through our careers.”

The week wasn’t all interviews and note-taking. The journalists were able to experience Saskatchewan culture, from a tour of a wheat quality lab and a First Nations dance performance to a visit to a local wheat farm, and even an opportunity to see Saskatoon’s newest modern art gallery.

The media sponsorship at IWC aimed to encourage informed coverage of the importance of wheat research, especially for farmers and consumers in the Global South, where wheat is the main source of protein and a critical source of life for 2.5 billion people who live on less than $2 a day.

The group also spoke with members of the many coalitions that facilitate the collaboration that makes innovative wheat research possible, including the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) and the G20-organized Wheat Initiative.

“This is the first time we’ve invested this heavily in journalist training,” said WHEAT program director Hans Braun. “We think the benefits – for the journalists, who gained a greater understanding of wheat research issues, and for developing country audiences, who will be more aware of the importance of improving wheat –– are worth it.”

Lominda Afedraru (center) from Uganda’s Daily Monitor shares her experience covering science with participants at the journalist roundtable. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)
Lominda Afedraru (center) from Uganda’s Daily Monitor shares her experience covering science with participants at the journalist roundtable. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

A roundtable discussion with peers from Canadian news organizations and seasoned science communications professionals and a networking breakfast with CIMMYT scientists provided platforms for a candid exchange on the challenges and opportunities in communicating wheat science in the media.

A common refrain was the importance of building relationships between scientists and media professionals – because wheat science offers dramatic stories for news audiences, and an informed and interested public can in turn lead to greater public investment in wheat science. The journalists and scientists in Saskatoon have laid a solid foundation for these relationships.

The sponsored journalists are:

Amit Bhattacharya: Senior Editor at The Times of India, New Delhi, and a member of the team that produces the front page of India’s largest English daily. He writes on Indian agriculture, climate change, the monsoon, weather, wildlife and science. A 26-year professional journalist in India, he is a Jefferson Fellow on climate change at the East-West Center, Hawaii.

Emmanuelle Landais: Freelance journalist based in Dakar, Senegal, currently reporting for Deutsche Welle’s radio service in English and French on the environment, technology, development and youth in Africa. A former line producer for France 24 in Paris and senior environment reporter for the daily national English newspaper Gulf News in Dubai, she also reports on current affairs for the Africalink news program, contributes to Radio France International’s (RFI) English service, and serves as news producer for the Dakar-based West Africa Democracy Radio.

Julien Chongwang: Deputy Editor, SciDev.Net French edition. He is based in Douala, Cameroon, where he has been a journalist since 2002. Formerly the editor of the The Daily Economy, he worked on the French edition of Voice of America and Morocco economic daily LES ECO, and writes for Forbes Africa, the French edition of Forbes in the United States.

Lominda Afedraru: Science correspondent at the Daily Monitor newspaper, Uganda, part of the Nation Media Group. A journalist since 2004, she also freelances for publications in the United States, UK, Kenya and Nigeria among others and has received fellowships at the World Federation of Science Journalists, Biosciences for Farming in Africa courtesy of University of Cambridge UK and Environmental Journalism Reporting at Sauti University, Tanzania.

Muhammad Amin Ahmed: Senior Correspondent, Daily Dawn in Islamabad, Pakistan. He has been a journalist for more than 40 years. Past experience includes working at the United Nations in New York and Pakistan Press International. He received a UN-21 Award from former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (2003).

Muhammad Irtaza: Special Correspondent with Pakistan’s English daily The Nation at Multan. A 10-year veteran journalist and an alumnus of the Reuters Foundation, he also worked as a reporter with the Evansville Courier and Press in Indiana, United States. He is an ICFJ-WHO Safety 2018 Fellow (Bangkok), Asia Europe Foundation Fellow (Brussels), and a U.S.-Pakistan Professional Partnership in Journalism Program Fellow (Washington). He teaches mass communications at Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan.

Nkechi Isaac: Deputy Editor, Leadership Friday in Nigeria. She is also the head, Science and Technology Desk of the Leadership Group Limited, publishers of LEADERSHIP newspapers headquartered in Abuja, Nigeria. She is a Fellow of Cornell University’s Alliance for Science.

Reaz Ahmad: Executive Editor of the Dhaka Tribune, Bangladesh’s national English newspaper. A journalist for 30 years, he is a Cochran Fellow of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an adjunct professor of University of Dhaka (DU) and Independent University, Bangladesh.

Rehab Abdalmohsen: Freelance science journalist based in Cairo, Egypt who has covered science, health and environment for 10 years for such websites as the Arabic version of Scientific American, SciDev.net, and The Niles.

Tan Yihong: Executive Deputy Editor-in-Chief, High-Tech & Commercialization Magazine, China. Since 2008, she has written about science particularly agriculture innovation and wheat science. She has attended several Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Technical Workshops. In Beijing, she helped organize a BGRI communication workshop and media outreach.

Tony Iyare: Senior Correspondent, Nigerian Democratic Report. For more than 30 years, he has covered environment, international relations, gender, media and public communication. He has worked as a stringer for The New York Times since 1992, and freelanced for the Paris-based magazine, The African Report and the U.N. Development Programme publication Choices. He was columnist at The Punch and co-authored a book: The 11-Day Siege: Gains and Challenges of Women’s Non-Violent Struggles in Niger Delta.

Nigerian journalist Nkechi Isaac (center) tours a Saskatchewan wheat farm. (Photo: Julie Mollins)
Nigerian journalist Nkechi Isaac (center) tours a Saskatchewan wheat farm. (Photo: Julie Mollins)

The CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) as a primary research partner. Funding comes from CGIAR, national governments, foundations, development banks and other agencies, including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR),  the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).