The Malawi Improved Seed Systems and Technologies (MISST) consortium project works to make elite, drought- and stress-resistant maize seed available to farmers in Malawi.
Funding Institutions: United States Agency for International Development, Government of Malawi
Principal Coordinator: Peter Setimela
The CIMMYT-Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) Screening Facility quarantine site is used to provide an MLN Phenotyping Service at cost to national agricultural research systems and seed companies in Africa.
KALRO and CIMMYT have been screening germplasm against MLN in Kenya since Nov 2012. The dedicated screening facility at KALRO Naivasha was established in 2013. This facility now represents a high quality phenotyping platform, permitting large-scale screening of germplasm from regional public and private partners.
To date, close to 90 percent of materials screened at Naivasha are susceptible under artificial inoculation. However, resistant and tolerant materials have been identified. Four first-generation MLN tolerant and resistant hybrids have been released in East Africa and a further 15-20 second generation hybrids are at advanced stages of testing.
Following the recent emergence and rapid spread of the fall armyworm pest in Africa, the Fall Armyworm Response project is bringing together expert partners to develop and disseminate science-based recommendations to manage the pest.
The Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project aims to diminish devastating constraints in maize production across sub-Saharan Africa. The project develops improved maize varieties with resistance and tolerance to drought, low soil fertility, heat, diseases such as Maize Lethal Necrosis and pests affecting maize production areas in the region.
STMA operates in eastern (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda), southern (Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe) and West Africa (Benin, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria). These countries account for nearly 72 percent of all maize area in sub-Saharan Africa and include more than 176 million people who depend on maize-based agriculture for their food security and economic well-being. Climate change effects like drought, a lack of access to resources like fertilizer and other stresses increase the risk of crop failure that negatively affects income, food security and nutrition of millions of smallholder farmers and their families.
The project will develop 70 new stress-tolerant varieties using innovative modern breeding technologies, and promote improved stress-tolerant varieties expected to increase maize productivity up to 50 percent. The project aims to produce estimated 54,000 tons of certified seed to put into the hands of more than 5.4 million smallholder farmer households by the end of 2019.
Objectives
The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project aims to mitigate drought and other constraints to maize production in sub-Saharan Africa, increasing maize yields by at least one ton per hectare under moderate drought and with a 20 to 30 percent increase over farmers’ current yields, benefiting up to 40 million people in 13 African countries. The project brings together farmers, research institutions, extension specialists, seed producers, farmer community organizations and non-governmental organizations. It is jointly implemented by CIMMYT and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, in close collaboration with national agricultural research systems in participating nations. Millions of farmers in the region are already benefiting from the outputs of this partnership, which includes support and training for African seed producers and promoting vibrant, competitive seed markets.
Achievements:
Principal coordinator
Tsedeke Abate
Intensive cereal cropping systems that include rice, wheat and/or maize are widespread throughout South Asia. These systems constitute the main economic activity in many rural areas and provide staple food for millions of people. The decrease in the rate of growth of cereal production, for both grain and residue, in South Asia is therefore of great concern. Simultaneously, issues of resource degradation, declining labor availability and climate variability pose steep challenges for achieving the goals of improving food security and rural livelihoods.
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) was established in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems.
The project’s aim is to enhance the productivity of cereal-based cropping systems, increase farm incomes and reduce the environmental footprint of production through sustainable intensification technologies and management practices.
Operating in rural “innovation hubs” in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, CSISA complements regional and national efforts and involves public, civil society and private sector partners in the development and dissemination of improved cropping systems, resource-conserving management technologies, policies and markets. CSISA supports women farmers by ensuring their access and exposure to modern and improved technological innovations, knowledge and entrepreneurial skills that can help them become informed and recognized decision makers in agriculture.
The project is led by CIMMYT with partners the International Rice Research Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Qu Dongyu, China’s Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and candidate for the position of Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), visited the global headquarters of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico on March 16, 2019. He had already visited CIMMYT in 2006.
Vice minister Qu was greeted by students and CIMMYT scientists from China, the director general, the deputy director general and members of the management team. Qu and his delegation learned about CIMMYT’s latest initiatives and toured the campus.
CIMMYT’s director general Martin Kropff explained the organization’s strategic focus on agri-food systems: “Our mandate is on maize and wheat but we think broadly. Our researchers use a systems approach and work on using these two crops to improve peoples’ livelihoods, which is our ultimate goal.”
Qu expressed his career-long efforts for integrating multi-disciplinary approaches to tackle global challenges and said that he was “happy to see CIMMYT combining breeding — for which CIMMYT is famous — with value-added approaches to bring together science, farmers and industry.”
With innovation and the end user playing key roles in the vice minister’s agenda, Qu enjoyed learning about the Excellence in Breeding Platform’s target product profiles work and two-way communication channels from innovation hubs in Mexico.
During the visit, Qu was also introduced to CIMMYT’s small-scale machinery, which is used around the world to sustainably intensify production. CIMMYT often sources machines, such as seed planters and harvesters, from China to provide effective and efficient solutions that add tangible value for smallholders at an appropriate price point.
Bringing together advanced technology and inexpensive tools, CIMMYT pioneered the GreenSeeker, a handheld tool to advise farmers on the appropriate amount of nitrogen fertilizer to add to their crops. This tool gives farmers the double benefit of increased profitability and reduced negative environmental impacts. The director of CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification program, Bruno Gérard, showed a machine-mountable version of this tool, which could connect to a two-wheel tractor and automatically add the appropriate amount of fertilizer.
Gérard also explained CIMMYT’s efforts to develop mechanization as a service, pointing to the manual on developing mechanization service providers, jointly developed by CIMMYT and FAO: “Mechanization has the potential to improve environmental sustainability, farm productivity and reduce labor drudgery. If mechanization is to be adopted at scale and sustainably, in most cases it has to be provided through service provision to smallholder farmers.”
At the end of the visit, to underline the shared commitment to collaboration that began in the 1970s, Kropff and Qu signed a memorandum of understanding for the establishment of a China-CIMMYT joint laboratory for maize and wheat improvement.
On World Water day, researchers show how India’s farmers can beat water shortages and grow rice and wheat with 40 percent less water
India’s northwest region is the most important production area for two staple cereals: rice and wheat. But a growing population and demand for food, inefficient flood-based irrigation, and climate change are putting enormous stress on the region’s groundwater supplies. Science has now confronted this challenge: a “breakthrough” study demonstrates how rice and wheat can be grown using 40 percent less water, through an innovative combination of existing irrigation and cropping techniques. The study’s authors, from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), Punjab Agricultural University and Thapar University, claim farmers can grow similar or better yields than conventional growing methods, and still make a profit.
The researchers tested a range of existing solutions to determine the optimal mix of approaches that will help farmers save water and money. They found that rice and wheat grown using a “sub-surface drip fertigation system” combined with conservation agriculture approaches used at least 40 percent less water and needed 20 percent less Nitrogen-based fertilizer, for the same amount of yields under flood irrigation, and still be cost-effective for farmers. Sub-surface drip fertigation systems involve belowground pipes that deliver precise doses of water and fertilizer directly to the plant’s root zone, avoiding evaporation from the soil. The proposed system can work for both rice and wheat crops without the need to adjust pipes between rotations, saving money and labor. But a transition to more efficient approaches will require new policies and incentives, say the authors.
Read the full story:
Innovative irrigation system could future-proof India’s major cereals. Thomsom Reuters Foundation News, 20 March 2019.
Read the study:
Sidhu HS, Jat ML, Singh Y, Sidhu RK, Gupta N, Singh P, Singh P, Jat HS, Gerard B. 2019. Sub-surface drip fertigation with conservation agriculture in a rice-wheat system: A breakthrough for addressing water and nitrogen use efficiency. Agricultural Water Management. 216:1 (273-283). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2019.02.019
The study received funding from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Government of Punjab. The authors acknowledge the contributions of the field staff at BISA and CIMMYT based at Ludhiana, Punjab state.
KARNAKATA, India (CIMMYT) — The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore (UAS-Bangalore) have signed a collaboration agreement for establishing a maize doubled haploid (DH) facility at the Agricultural Research Station in Kunigal (ARS-Kunigal), Tumkur district, Karnataka state, India.
CIMMYT will establish and operate the maize DH facility, including field activities and the associated laboratory. Occupying 12 acres of land, the facility is estimated to produce at least 30,000 DH lines a year. CIMMYT hopes the facility to be operational by the last quarter of 2019.
The maize DH facility, funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), fulfills a very important requirement of the region. It has the potential to accelerate maize breeding and hybrid development and significantly increase genetic gains through maize breeding in Asia. During the 13th Asian Maize Conference in Ludhiana, India (October 8-10, 2018), several partners — including the Indian Institute of Maize Research (ICAR-IIMR) — emphasized the urgent need for a state-of-the-art maize DH facility that could serve breeding programs across Asia.
“This is indeed a major landmark for maize breeding, especially in the public sector, not only in India, but also in Asia,” said B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE). “The facility will provide maize DH development services, not only for the maize breeding programs of CIMMYT and UAS-B, but also for national agricultural research system institutions and small and medium-sized seed companies engaged in maize breeding and interested to pursue DH-based advanced maize breeding strategies in Asia. DH technology, in combination with molecular marker-assisted breeding, can significantly increase genetic gains in maize breeding.”
“The maize doubled haploid facility … will be the first of its kind in the public domain in Asia,” said S. Rajendra Prasad, Vice Chancellor of UAS-Bangalore. “The work done at this facility will certainly benefit the farmers of the state, country and the Asian region, by accelerating maize breeding and improving efficiencies.”
The signing of the collaboration agreement took place on February 18, 2019 at UAS-Bangalore’s campus in Bengaluru. CIMMYT was represented by B.M. Prasanna and BS Vivek, Senior Maize Breeder. UAS-Bangalore was represented by S. Rajendra Prasad; Mahabaleshwar Hegde, Registrar, and Y.G. Shadakshari, Director of Research.
The benefits of doubled haploid technology
DH maize lines are highly uniform, genetically pure and stable, and enable significant saving of time and resources in deriving parental lines, which are building blocks of improved maize hybrids.
Over the last 12 years, CIMMYT has worked intensively on optimizing DH technology for the tropics. Researchers released first-generation tropicalized haploid inducers in 2012, and second-generation tropicalized haploid inducers in 2017, in partnership with the University of Hohenheim, Germany. In 2017, CIMMYT developed more than 93,000 maize DH lines from 455 populations, and delivered them to maize breeders in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
B.M. Prasanna – Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE).
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE MEDIA TEAM:
Jennifer Johnson – Maize Communication Officer, CIMMYT. J.A.JOHNSON@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1036.
New research evidence could have significant implications for breeding approaches to combat harmful aflatoxin contamination in maize while simultaneously contributing to alleviate vitamin A deficiency. The study “Provitamin A Carotenoids in Grain Reduce Aflatoxin Contamination of Maize While Combating Vitamin A Deficiency” is the first published report to document how biofortification with provitamin A can contribute to reduce aflatoxin contamination in maize.
Aflatoxins are harmful compounds that are produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus, which can be found in the soil, plants and grain of a variety of legumes and cereals including maize. Toxic to humans and animals, aflatoxins are associated with liver and other types of cancer, as well as with weakened immune systems that result in increased burden of disease, micronutrient deficiencies, and stunting or underweight development in children.
Efforts to breed maize varieties with resistance to aflatoxin contamination have proven difficult and elusive. Contamination of maize grain and products with aflatoxin is especially prevalent in low- and middle-income countries where monitoring and safety standards are inconsistently implemented.
Biofortification also serves to address “hidden hunger,” or micronutrient deficiency. Over two billion people are affected globally — they consume a sufficient amount of calories but lack essential micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Vitamin A deficiency specifically compromises the health of millions of maize consumers around the world, including large parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
Provitamin A-enriched maize is developed by increasing the concentration of carotenoids — the precursors of vitamin A — and powerful antioxidants that play important roles in reducing the production of aflatoxin by the fungus Aspergillus flavus. The relative ease of breeding for increased concentrations of carotenoids as compared to breeding for aflatoxin resistance in maize make this finding especially significant as part of a solution to aflatoxin contamination problems.
Breeding of provitamin A-enriched maize varieties is ongoing at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), with the support of HarvestPlus. Several varieties trialed in sub-Saharan Africa have demonstrated their potential to benefit vitamin-deficient maize consumers.
The researchers highlight the potential in breeding maize with enhanced levels of carotenoids to yield the dual health benefits of reduced aflatoxin concentration in maize and reduced rates of vitamin A deficiency. This result is especially significant for countries where the health burdens of exposure to aflatoxin and prevalence of vitamin A deficiency converge with high rates of maize consumption.
Read the full study here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.00030/full
Financial support for this study was partially provided by HarvestPlus, a global alliance of agriculture and nutrition research institutions working to increase the micronutrient density of staple food crops through biofortification. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of HarvestPlus. The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) also supported this research.
This research builds on the Ph.D. dissertation of Dr. Pattama Hannok at University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States (Hannok, 2015).
Self-help groups in Bihar, India, are putting thousands of rural women in touch with agricultural innovations, including mechanization and sustainable intensification, that save time, money, and critical resources such as soil and water, benefiting households and the environment.
The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, locally known as Jeevika, has partnered with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), to train women’s self-help groups and other stakeholders in practices such as zero tillage, early sowing of wheat, direct-seeded rice and community nurseries.
Through their efforts to date, more than 35,000 households are planting wheat earlier than was customary, with the advantage that the crop fully fills its grain before the hot weather of late spring. In addition, some 18,000 households are using zero tillage, in which they sow wheat directly into unplowed fields and residues, a practice that improves soil quality and saves water, among other benefits. As many as 5,000 households have tested non-flooded, direct-seeded rice cultivation during 2018-19, which also saves water and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
An autonomous body under the Bihar Department of Rural Development, Jeevika is also helping women to obtain specialized equipment for zero tillage and for the mechanized transplanting of rice seedlings into paddies, which reduces women’s hard labor of hand transplanting.
“Mechanization is helping us manage our costs and judiciously use our time in farming,” says Rekha Devi, a woman farmer member of Jeevika Gulab self-help group of Beniwal Village, Jamui District. “We have learned many new techniques through our self-help group.”
With more than 100 million inhabitants and over 1,000 persons per square kilometer, Bihar is India’s most densely-populated state. Nearly 90 percent of its people live in rural areas and agriculture is the main occupation. Women in Bihar play key roles in agriculture, weeding, harvesting, threshing, and milling crops, in addition to their household chores and bearing and caring for children, but they often lack access to training, vital information, or strategic technology.
Like all farmers in South Asia, they also face risks from rising temperatures, variable rainfall, resource degradation, and financial constraints.
Jeevika has formed more than 700,000 self-help groups in Bihar, mobilizing nearly 8.4 million poor households, 25,000 village organizations, and 318 cluster-level federations in all 38 districts of Bihar.
The organization also fosters access for women to “custom-hiring” businesses, which own the specialized implement for practices such as zero tillage and will sow or perform other mechanized services for farmers at a cost. “Custom hiring centers help farmers save time in sowing, harvesting and threshing,” said Anil Kumar, Program Manager, Jeevika.
The staff training, knowledge and tools shared by CSISA have been immensely helpful in strengthening the capacity of women farmers, according to D. Balamurugan, CEO of Jeevika. “We aim to further strengthen our partnership with CSISA and accelerate our work with women farmers, improving their productivity while saving their time and costs,” Balamurugan said.
CSISA is implemented jointly by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Despite great innovations in African agriculture in recent years, much of the continent still struggles to feed itself. With the population growing at an unprecedented rate, avoiding fatal food insecurity lies in the ability to maximize agricultural capacity.
Sociologist Rahma Adam believes there is one vital resource that remains untapped. One which, when unleashed, will not only increase food security but also boost livelihoods: the human capital of Africa’s women and youth.
“Smallholder production and livelihoods are stifled by the unequal access woman and youth have to farming information and resources, compared to men,” said Adam. “Limited access to land and technical services inhibits their agricultural productivity and holds back the food security of all.”
As a gender and development specialist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Adam adds a social inclusion lens to Africa’s development dialogue. Her research asks questions as to why women and youth are overrepresented among the poor and how to improve their access to agricultural training and markets.
The interaction between biology and anthropology has fascinated Adam since she was an undergraduate student at Macalester College. However, it was not until researching women and men in the local food markets of her native Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — as part of an exercise for her master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvard University — that she realized how social equity could improve the livelihoods of all African farmers.
“Working alongside farming women, I saw first-hand the disproportionate number of challenges they face to overcome poverty, gather finance for inputs, produce enough food to sustain a family and improve their livelihoods. However, I also saw their potential,” Adam explained.
Inspired to tackle these complex issues, she got her doctoral degree in rural sociology, with a focus on agriculture, gender and international development, from Pennsylvania State University. Following an early career with nonprofits and the World Bank, she joined CIMMYT as a gender and development specialist in 2015.
Since then, Adam has led research on how best to lift the agricultural productivity of women and youth to its full potential. Working with the Sustainable Intensification for Maize-Legumes Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project, she analyzed the role of gender and social inclusion in maize and legume value chains in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania. She also identified intervention points to achieve gender and age equity across various nodes from field to plate, for example among producers, agrodealers, traders, processors and breeders.
“Promoting women and youth participation in agricultural value chains improves food security and livelihoods,” she explained. “Allowing these groups to have a voice and encouraging their leadership in farmer groups promotes their participation in agriculture.”
Partnerships for social inclusion
In eastern and southern Africa’s maize and legume farming systems, research shows that in most cases men have the final decision over maize crop production. Women have increased decision-making power regarding certain legumes, such as cowpeas and groundnuts, as they are mostly only for household consumption.
Adam’s work with SIMLESA found that promoting women’s participation in the production of legumes as cash crops is an opportunity to empower them, increase their household income and their food security.
Connecting women and youth to value chains through Agricultural Innovation Platforms improves their access to markets, credit, farming information and capacity development, she said. These platforms bring together farmers with extension workers, researchers, agrodealers, and NGO practitioners, so they can work together to improve maize and legume conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification.
“It is important policy and development decision makers see that research demonstrates entry points to encourage women and youth to take an active role in value chains and improve productivity,” Adam said.
“You don’t want your research to sit on a shelf. This is why science policy dialogues — like the SIMLESA local, national and regional policy forums taking place this year — are important to ensure that research is introduced into the political landscape.”
An inclusive approach to research
Research must be designed and implemented in a way that women and men, including youth, can participate in and benefit from, Adam explained. They need to be considered in the research process, so they can increase their control of productive assets, participate in decision making, and decrease their labor burdens.
Adam has recently joined CIMMYT’s Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project to unpack gender issues in the formal maize seed sector. She will examine the relationship between gender and adoption of drought-tolerant and other improved varieties of maize. Adam will also analyze and categorize the differences in maize trait preferences between male and female farmers, and she will develop materials to integrate gender considerations in formal maize seed sector development.
“This information will be used by breeders to develop new maize varieties which are valuable to farmers and therefore have an increased chance of adoption,” the sociologist explained. “It will also help stakeholders get an idea of the rate men and women adopt improved varieties, and how they contribute to the evolution and performance of the seed sector in eastern and southern Africa.”
Providing training and consultation to her peers on gender and social inclusion is another important component of Adam’s work at CIMMYT. In June she will deliver a webinar on gender in research for CGIAR centers. At the end of the year she will participate in a regional seed sector workshop with other CGIAR experts, seed companies and NGOs, to ensure that partners use gender and social inclusion research.
Funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the SIMLESA project was led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with the Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB), CGIAR centers and national agricultural research institutes in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda. Other regional and international partners include the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at the University of Queensland, Australia, and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA).
STMA is implemented by CIMMYT and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United States of Agency for International Development (USAID).
Maize is a staple crop that requires a limited amount of water and inputs, and earns farmers a profit, thanks to its growing demand as food and feed for livestock. Adivasi women farmers in India’s Odisha state are increasing their yields by applying improved maize intensification technologies.
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is providing technical support to the Association for Development Initiatives, which implements the Odisha Primitive Tribal Group Empowerment and Livelihood Improvement Program (OPELIP) and the Odisha State Department of Agriculture at Gudugudia in Mayurbhanj.
“CSISA’s technical support to the women, focusing on improved maize cultivation techniques, helped the women improve their understanding, their capacity and their yields,” said Wasim Iftikar, Research Associate at CIMMYT. Improved maize hybrids, precision nutrient management techniques and improved weed management practices have helped the women increase their yields. This year the group harvested more than 3,300 kg from seven acres of land.
“We never thought we could earn money and support our families through maize cultivation. This is an eye-opener for us. We are planning to increase the area of cultivation for maize and will convince our family members and other women to join us,” says farmer Joubani Dehuri.
To view a photo essay recognizing these women and their work in honor of International Women’s Day 2019, please click here: https://adobe.ly/2ED9sns
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) is a regional initiative to sustainably increase the productivity of cereal-based cropping systems, thus improving food security and farmers’ livelihoods in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. CSISA works with public and private partners to support the widespread adoption of resource-conserving and climate-resilient farming technologies and practices. The initiative is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), implemented jointly with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Despite formal decentralization, agricultural services in Ethiopia are generally “top-down,” claim the authors of a recently published paper on gender and agricultural innovation. “Extension services,” they explain, “are supply-driven, with off-the-shelf technologies transferred to farmers without expectation of further adaptation.”
Drawing on GENNOVATE case studies from two wheat-growing communities in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, the authors examine how a small sample of women and men smallholders attempt to innovate with improved wheat seed, row planting, and the broad bed maker, introduced through the Ethiopian agricultural extension system. They also introduce the concept of tempered radicals, an analytic lens used to understand how individuals try to initiate change processes, and assess whether this can have validity in rural settings.
As the authors demonstrate through their literature review on cultural norms in the region, there are powerful institutional gender constraints to change processes, which can be punitive for women.
Ethiopian women smallholders are particularly disadvantaged because they have limited access to productive assets such as irrigation water, credit and extension services. Therefore, they find it harder to implement innovations. The study asserts that strategies to support innovators, and women innovators in particular, must be context-specific as well as gender-sensitive.
Read the full article “Gender and agricultural innovation in Oromia region, Ethiopia: from innovator to tempered radical” in Gender, Technology and Development.
Development of research methodology and data collection was supported by the CGIAR Gender and Agricultural Research Network, the World Bank, the Government of Mexico, the Government of Germany, and the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat. Data analysis was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Check out other recent publications by CIMMYT researchers below:
Wheat blast — one of the world’s most devastating wheat diseases — is moving swiftly into new territory in South Asia.
In an attempt to curb the spread of this disease, policymakers in the region are considering a “wheat holiday” policy: banning wheat cultivation for a few years in targeted areas. Since wheat blast’s Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT) fungus can survive on seeds for up to 22 months, the idea is to replace wheat with other crops, temporarily, to cause the spores to die. In India, which shares a border of more than 4,000 km with Bangladesh, the West Bengal state government has already instituted a two-year ban on wheat cultivation in two districts, as well as all border areas. In Bangladesh, the government is implementing the policy indirectly by discouraging wheat cultivation in the severely blast affected districts.
CIMMYT researchers recently published in two ex-ante studies to identify economically feasible alternative crops in Bangladesh and the bordering Indian state of West Bengal.
Alternative crops
The first step to ensuring that a ban does not threaten the food security and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, the authors assert, is to supply farmers with economically feasible alternative crops.
In Bangladesh, the authors examined the economic feasibility of seven crops as an alternative to wheat, first in the entire country, then in 42 districts vulnerable to blast, and finally in ten districts affected by wheat blast. Considering the cost of production and revenue per hectare, the study ruled out boro rice, chickpeas and potatoes as feasible alternatives to wheat due to their negative net return. In contrast, they found that cultivation of maize, lentils, onions, and garlic could be profitable.
The study in India looked at ten crops grown under similar conditions as wheat in the state of West Bengal, examining the economic viability of each. The authors conclude that growing maize, lentils, legumes such as chickpeas and urad bean, rapeseed, mustard and potatoes in place of wheat appears to be profitable, although they warn that more rigorous research and data are needed to confirm and support this transition.
Selecting alternative crops is no easy task. Crops offered to farmers to replace wheat must be appropriate for the agroecological zone and should not require additional investments for irrigation, inputs or storage facilities. Also, the extra production of labor-intensive and export-oriented crops, such as maize in India and potatoes in Bangladesh, may add costs or require new markets for export.
There is also the added worry that the MoT fungus could survive on one of these alternative crops, thus completely negating any benefit of the “wheat holiday.” The authors point out that the fungus has been reported to survive on maize.
A short-term solution?
In both studies, the authors discourage a “wheat holiday” policy as a holistic solution. However, they leave room for governments to pursue it on an interim and short-term basis.
In the case of Bangladesh, CIMMYT agricultural economist and lead author Khondoker Mottaleb asserts that a “wheat holiday” would increase the country’s reliance on imports, especially in the face of rapidly increasing wheat demand and urbanization. A policy that results in complete dependence on wheat imports, he and his co-authors point out, may not be politically attractive or feasible. Also, the policy would be logistically challenging to implement. Finally, since the disease can potentially survive on other host plants, such as weeds and maize, it may not even work in the long run.
In the interim, the government of Bangladesh may still need to rely on the “wheat holiday” policy in the severely blast-affected districts. In these areas, they should encourage farmers to cultivate lentils, onions and garlic. In addition, in the short term, the government should make generic fungicides widely available at affordable prices and provide an early warning system as well as adequate information to help farmers effectively combat the disease and minimize its consequences.
In the case of West Bengal, India, similar implications apply, although the authors conclude that the “wheat holiday” policy could only work if Bangladesh has the same policy in its blast-affected border districts, which would involve potentially difficult and costly inter-country collaboration, coordination and logistics.
Actions for long-term success
The CIMMYT researchers urge the governments of India and Bangladesh, their counterparts in the region and international stakeholders to pursue long-term solutions, including developing a convenient diagnostic tool for wheat blast surveillance and a platform for open data and science to combat the fungus.
A promising development is the blast-resistant (and zinc-enriched) wheat variety BARI Gom 33 which the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) released in 2017 with support from CIMMYT. However, it will take at least three to five years before it will be available to farmers throughout Bangladesh. The authors urged international donor agencies to speed up the multiplication process of this variety.
CIMMYT scientists in both studies close with an urgent plea for international financial and technical support for collaborative research on disease epidemiology and forecasting, and the development and dissemination of new wheat blast-tolerant and resistant varieties and complementary management practices — crucial steps to ensuring food security for more than a billion people in South Asia.
| Wheat blast impacts
First officially reported in Brazil in 1985, where it eventually spread to 3 million hectares in South America and became the primary reason for limited wheat production in the region, wheat blast moved to Bangladesh in 2016. There it affected nearly 15,000 hectares of land in eight districts, reducing yield by as much as 51 percent in the affected fields. Blast is devilish: directly striking the wheat ear, it can shrivel and deform the grain in less than a week from the first symptoms, leaving farmers no time to act. There are no widely available resistant varieties, and fungicides are expensive and provide only a partial defense. The disease, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT), can spread through infected seeds as well as by spores that can travel long distances in the air. South Asia has a long tradition of wheat consumption, especially in northwest India and Pakistan, and demand has been increasing rapidly across South Asia. It is the second major staple in Bangladesh and India and the principal staple food in Pakistan. Research indicates 17 percent of wheat area in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan — representing nearly 7 million hectares – is vulnerable to the disease, threatening the food security of more than a billion people. |
CIMMYT and its partners work to mitigate wheat blast through projects supported by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat and the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture.
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