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Three major commercial maize seed exporting countries in southern Africa found free from maize lethal necrosis

Written by on November 25, 2016. Posted in News.

brenda_2 — Maimouna Abass, a plant health inspector at Zambia Agriculture Research Institute collects leave samples to test for MCMV in a practical session during the MLN surveillance and diagnostic workshop held in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photo: D. Hodson/CIMMYT

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – Three major commercial maize-growing and seed exporting countries in southern Africa were found to be so far free from the deadly maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease. MLN surveillance efforts undertaken by national plant protection organizations (NPPOs) in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2016 have so far revealed no incidence of MLN, including the most important causative agent, maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV).

The three countries export an estimated 7,000 metric tons of maize seed to Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Swaziland and Tanzania for commercial cultivation by millions of smallholder farmers whose households rely on maize as a staple food.

MLN surveys were conducted as part of ongoing efforts through a project on MLN Diagnostics and Management, funded by U.S. Department for International Development (USAID) East Africa Mission, to strengthen the capacity of NPPOs on surveillance and diagnostics. A total of 12 officers were equipped with knowledge on modern sampling and diagnostics techniques to test plants and seed lots for MLN causing viruses; this was done through a training workshop held in Harare, Zimbabwe on March 3 and 4, 2016 facilitated by scientists working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

The NPPO teams from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe then undertook surveys of farmers’ and commercial maize seed production fields, including testing (through MCMV immunostrips) for possible presence of the virus.

“When CIMMYT called the first stakeholders awareness meeting we realised we needed to do this surveillance as soon as possible to ascertain MLN status in the country – and so the training was very important and extremely useful,” said Maimouna Abass, a plant health inspector at Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI). “The fact that we went to the field and successfully conducted the surveys using the MLN diagnostics and sampling techniques learnt was great.”

Abass and three colleagues who participated in the training, trained 10 other inspectors who took part in the surveillance work.

The results from farmers’ fields, commercial seed production fields and agri-seed dealers, showed negative results for the presence of MCMV and MLN. The MLN surveillance techniques and protocols used across all the three countries were similar, making it possible to effectively compare the results.

“The harmonization of the protocols, across the teams from Malawi and Zambia, was important for me, since this meant that the three countries were able to do the same surveillance using the same protocols and applying the same design across all the countries,” said Nhamo Mudada, chief research officer from the Plant Quarantine Station in Zimbabwe.

Participants recieve instructions from L.M Suresh, a maize pathologist at CIMMYT, during the MLN surveillance and diagnostic workshop. Photo: D.Hodson/CIMMYT

Although the MLN disease has not been detected in the southern Africa region, the risk of incidence still remains high through various means, including insect vectors, contaminated seed, and cross-border grain transfers. Therefore, continued caution and stringent surveillance, monitoring and diagnostic measures are required to prevent the possible incidence and spread of MLN into the non-endemic countries.

Further surveillance work will be conducted in 2017, so that each team can cover other targeted areas within their respective countries. MLN surveillance using harmonized protocols will also be undertaken in the MLN-endemic countries, namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Through systematic surveillance efforts, NPPOs, seed companies and policymakers can clearly understand the prevalence of MLN in specific areas in an endemic country for targeted management. Also, seed companies will be able to target production of commercial seed in MLN-free areas.

As this work progresses, B. M. Prasanna, director of the CGIAR Research Program on MAIZE and CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program as well as Leader for the MLN Diagnostics and Management Project, emphasized the need to intensively deploy MLN-tolerant and resistant varieties, not only in the MLN-endemic countries in eastern Africa, but also in the non-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

“We have about 22 new, high-yielding, MLN-tolerant or resistant hybridsthat are presently under national performance trials in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. We actively encourage seed companies operating in southern Africa to take up promising pre-commercial hybrids with MLN tolerance or resistance from CIMMYT, for release, scale up and deployment to the farmers,” Prasanna said. “Diagnostics and surveillance have to go hand in hand with deployment of new improved varieties that can effectively respond to the MLN challenge.”

In the East African countries of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, seed companies have already released MLN-tolerant varieties. While one hybrid is already being commercialized in Uganda, three more are expected to reach farmers in Kenya and Tanzania from 2017.

“There is also now a very urgent need to deploy MLN resistant varieties in Rwanda and Ethiopia. We need to convey this message to the government and seed companies and work closely to get the seed of MLN resistant varieties to the farmers as soon as possible,” Prasanna added.

The MLN diagnostics and management project, which is funded by the U.S. Department for International Development (USAID), supports work aimed at preventing the spread of MCMV from MLN-endemic to non-endemic areas in sub-Saharan Africa. USAID also supports the commercial seed sector and phytosanitary systems in targeted countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe), in the production of MCMV-free commercial seed, and promotes the use of clean hybrid seed by the farmers.

Drought- and heat-tolerant maize tackles climate change in southern Africa

Written by on November 16, 2016. Posted in Features.

Appollonia Marutsvaka and Alice Chipato of Zaka District in Zimbabwe. If widely adopted, drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties could help farmers cope with drought and heat stresses. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT — Appollonia Marutsvaka (left) and Alice Chipato of Zaka District in Zimbabwe. If widely adopted, drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties could help farmers cope with drought and heat stresses. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

HARARE (CIMMYT) — “We are no longer sure when to prepare the land for planting or when to start planting. It’s pretty much gambling with nature,” complains 62-year old Appollonia Marutsvaka of Zaka district, Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. “Most of the time the rains are not enough for crop production. If the situation persists, then most of us who have small farms will sink deeper into poverty, because we depend on agriculture for our livelihoods.”

Most farmers in Zaka argue that they only get one good harvest every five to six years. Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for smallholder farmers.

It is estimated that maize yields in Zimbabwe and South Africa’s Limpopo Province will decrease by approximately 20-50 percent between now and 2045. This predicted decline will pose a major problem, as maize is the region’s main staple food. Low yields in this region are largely associated with drought stress, low soil fertility, weeds, pests, diseases, low input availability, low input use, and inappropriate seeds.

After years of work on maize improvements projects, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), made a bigger commitment to researching, supporting and getting drought-tolerant maize into the hands of smallholder farmers. To date, with substantial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, drought-tolerant varieties have been delivered to three million farmers across Africa.

“Given the accumulating evidence of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, there is an urgent need to develop more climate resilient maize systems. Adaptation strategies to climate change in maize systems in sub-Saharan Africa are likely to include improved seeds with tolerance to drought and heat stress and improved management practices,” says Jill Cairns, CIMMYT senior maize physiologist.

Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT senior maize breeder, with new experimental hybrid maize on display at the Chiredzi Research Station, Zimbabwe. Scientists here have developed new heat- and drought-tolerant maize varieties. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

CIMMYT, together with partners under the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), developed drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties through its breeding program in sub-Saharan Africa.

Heat tolerance was not previously a trait in African breeding programs. CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)’s work highlighted the importance of heat tolerance in future climates, and in 2011 CIMMYT started breeding for this trait. During the past year, the El Niño induced drought has demonstrated the need for maize which is also heat-tolerant. If CIMMYT had not started working on these varieties in 2011, it would have taken until 2021 to have a drought and heat tolerant maize variety.

A recent media tour of Zaka and Chiredzi districts in Zimbabwe, where CIMMYT conducted regional on-farm variety trials for the new climate-proof seed varieties, revealed that the new drought- and heat-tolerant maize is an important way of combating climate-change induced food shortages. Research carried out by CIMMYT revealed that under experimental conditions, the new varieties doubled maize yields when compared to the yields of commercial varieties.

Smallholder farmer Marutsvaka, who participated in the on-farm variety trials, says: “In the past, I harvested nothing as my crops were literally burnt by the scorching heat. During the 2015-2016 growing season, I realized almost 200 kilograms of white grain.” One of the challenges of these new maize varieties is the time taken between testing and seed availability on the market. For example, some of these new maize varieties would only be on the market during the 2018-2019 agricultural season.

The 2014 African Agriculture Status Report states that the vital food producers face a risk of being overwhelmed by the pace and severity of climate change. The authors called for the adoption of climate-smart agriculture that will help make crops more resilient to future extreme weather events.

Appollonia Marutsvaka shows off her drought- and heat-tolerant maize cobs harvested through a CIMMYT project. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

“For our farmers to be productive and ensure food security, we need to build resilience to help them mitigate the onset of climate change,” observed Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT senior maize breeder. “We are talking about a situation when the rain does not come at the right time or the length of the [growing] season is shortened as a result of drought and other stresses, such as heat.”

He added that helping small-scale farmers adopt climate-smart farming techniques would “prepare them for even more serious challenges in the future… this means we need both to adapt agriculture to climate change and to mitigate climate change itself.’’

However, getting a new strain of maize out of the research station is not the same as getting it to the fields. Creating a distribution chain in Africa has been a bigger challenge than inventing the product itself.

Gabriel Chiduku, a sales and marketing representative for Klein Karoo, a private seed company which introduced the CIMMYT developed seed of drought-tolerant varieties to Zaka farmers, told the farmers that the seed is readily available.

With the drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties, Zaka farmers are producing three tons per hectare of maize, up from less than a ton.

Strategizing for the future: adapting to a changing agricultural landscape

Written by on October 21, 2016. Posted in Director General's corner.

Forging major change is never simple, but one of my top priorities upon taking the helm at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as director general last year was to develop a new five-year institutional strategy. CIMMYT must continuously change in order to adapt to an increasingly complex world and address urgent agricultural challenges. Not only do almost 800 million go to bed hungry each night, but to cite just a few examples, this year severe drought in southern Africa exacerbated by an El Niño weather system took its toll on crops, deadly wheat blast disease emerged in South Asia for the first time and scientists ratcheted up the fight against virulent maize lethal necrosis disease.

To learn more about the CIMMYT work environment, I sent an email to our key donors and partners seeking answers to some simple questions: What is CIMMYT doing well? What can CIMMYT do better? What new areas of research or collaboration should we explore? I met with staff at headquarters near Mexico City and visited regional offices to get a well-rounded set of responses. The answers I received have become the basis for the new CIMMYT Strategic Plan 2017-2022: “Improving Livelihoods through Maize and Wheat Science.”

From crops to agri-food systems

The new strategy marks a shift in thinking of maize and wheat simply as crops, recognizing that they play a major role in agri-food systems in which they operate. Modern agriculture is increasingly diverse, complex and unpredictable and we need to look beyond science alone to understand the ecological, economic and social forces that are driving change in farming systems. The shift from commodity-based research to an integrated approach centering on agri-food systems is a critical change allowing our community to work more effectively to strengthen food security, reduce poverty and enhance human nutrition.

Contributing to international development goals

Simultaneously, as CIMMYT has been undergoing changes, the CGIAR system of agricultural research centers is also going through a transition. The aim is to improve efficiency, benefiting relationships with our global network of donors and partners. These changes build on past successes, articulating an ambitious new direction known as the “CGIAR Strategy and Results Framework 2016-2030” We have gone through a process of refining our strategy to ensure alignment with the CGIAR strategy and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals. The strategies emphasize the need to assign higher priority to reducing malnutrition, empowering female farmers, developing new public-private partnerships and sharing knowledge with partners and farmers.

A new strategic direction

The new strategy identifies four interlinked areas of work, each highlighting CIMMYT’s strengths: scientific excellence; impact through partnerships; capacity building and the “ONE CIMMYT” concept, which reflects efforts to synthesize both internal and external activities. To achieve scientific excellence we will further develop our practice of conducting research of the highest quality and create innovations that farmers can readily put to use. CIMMYT will steadily improve the scope and quality of partnerships to accelerate the adoption of technology. CIMMYT’s leadership of the CGIAR Research Programs on MAIZE and WHEAT and the Excellence in Breeding Platform, which will help modernize breeding programs in the developing world by providing access to cutting-edge tools, services, best practices, application-oriented training and practical advice.

These initiatives will form a key part of a new partnership strategy. By creating agricultural knowledge communities, CIMMYT develops capacity and empowers collaborators to help farmers advance to a more food-secure, sustainable future. Finally, “ONE CIMMYT” values have far reaching implications on the way we work, unifying teams and building a common understanding across regions.

Launching this strategy marks the beginning of an evolutionary way of working, which will continue over the next five years to 2022. Its successful implementation requires collaboration across disciplines and the involvement of our vast network of partners. As we move forward, I will continue to consult with key stakeholders to gather insights and assessments about how we can continue to create even more impact in farmers’ fields.

I hope that you will join us.

CIMMYT and Cargill Mexico announce second food security and sustainability awards

Written by on September 29, 2016. Posted in News.

For a second year in a row, $25,000 will be awarded to projects contributing to food security and sustainability in Mexico’s agricultural sector.
Cargill will also be sponsoring a study to improve sustainability and responsible sourcing practices in Mexico’s maize and wheat markets.

MEXICO CITY – The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Cargill Mexico announced today the second Cargill-CIMMYT Food Security and Sustainability Award during CIMMYT’s 50^th anniversary celebration.

A prize of $25,000 will be awarded to projects that promote sustainable food security solutions in Mexico and are implemented by farmers, researchers and opinion leaders.

“Ultimately, Cargill and CIMMYT want to develop an operational strategy that can be replicated in other parts of Mexico and beyond,” said Cargill Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility, Michelle Grogg.

Effective sustainable intensification strategies in Mexico, or anywhere else, only achieve significant and sustainable yield increases when innovative leaders in the links forming the agri-business chain collaborate with each other, said CIMMYT’s director general, Martin Kropff. “CIMMYT is proud to partner with Cargill to identify and contribute to the great work that farmers, researchers and opinion leaders are doing in different links of Mexico’s maize and wheat value chains.”

The farmer association representative invested their $10,000 award in a conservation project that helped renew machinery and equipment.
The researchers category $10,000 award went to technological developments aimed at reducing consumption of fertilizers and herbicides in agriculture soybeans.
And, the opinion leader category winner used their $5,000 award to purchase a rainwater conservation system to help boost maize farmers’ productivity in the state of Hidalgo.

Cargill is also sponsoring a study to evaluate and outline a sustainable and responsible sourcing plan for the Mexican maize and wheat markets. A task force, including Cargill and CIMMYT experts, will evaluate pilot areas and approaches, including different ways to implement more sustainable and responsible sourcing practices in the local supply chain.

About Cargill

Cargill provides food, agricultural and industrial products and financial services to the world. Along with producers, customers, governments and communities, we support people to prosper together applying our knowledge and our 150 years of experience. We have 150,000 employees in 70 countries that are committed to feeding the world responsibly, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities in which we live and work. For more information, visit Cargill.com, and our News Center.

About Cargill Mexico

Cargill Mexico aims to contribute in improving agricultural productivity, satisfying and fulfilling the expectations of the domestic industry. In addition to adding value to human and animal nutrition and thus encourage economic development, Cargill Mexico reinvests its profits in several new businesses in the country. Cargill has 9 business units that have operations in Mexico, it employs more than 1,750 people in 13 states and has a total of 30 facilities, including a corporate office in Mexico City. For more information, visit Cargill.com.mx, and our News Center.

About CIMMYT

Headquartered in Mexico, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly funded research for development for wheat and maize and for wheat- and maize-based farming systems. CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners, belongs to CGIAR and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from CGIAR Fund Donors, national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. staging.cimmyt.org

Mexico, funding, sustainability key to meeting agricultural challenges, “CIMMYT 50” delegates say

Written by on September 28, 2016. Posted in News.

kropff50 — Martin Kropff (R), CIMMYT director general and Mexico’s agriculture secretary Jose Calzada Rovirosa, speak with members of the press at “CIMMYT 50,” CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary conference in El Batan Mexico, near Mexico City. CIMMYT/Alfonso Cortez

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Although increasing food supply to meet future demand must involve pushing the boundaries on technological innovation, sustainability must always be first and foremost, said Martin Kropff, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), at a conference to mark the 50^th anniversary of the organization, which has attracted almost a thousand delegates from Mexico and around the world, including agriculture ministers, scientists, policy makers and farmers.

“We can’t afford to be complacent because the need is so immense, but we must be cautious in our application of research to consider farmer needs and the environment,” Kropff said, as he set out a strategic plan for CIMMYT until 2022. “It’s not just about food security, we must achieve nutritional security as well.”

Kropff detailed plans to take a broader view of maize and wheat as components of agrifood systems, rather than strictly as commodities, taking into consideration the activities and relationships that determine how food is produced, processed, distributed and consumed, together with the human and biological systems that shape those activities.

“Already, at least 900 million people go to bed hungry at night – an unacceptable number now, which will continue to grow in tandem with population growth if we don’t ratchet up our efforts to improve maize and wheat yields,” he said, adding that the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals provide a roadmap for ensuring food security.

He also announced that CIMMYT would engage in more public-private partnerships and increase its focus on training and capacity building.

Just as a Mexican delegation, including agriculture secretary Jose Calzada Rovirosa, arrived at CIMMYT’s main research station in El Batan outside Mexico City, the skies opened and rain poured down, fortunately clearing in time for mid-day tours of the crops, wheat quality laboratory and the gene bank.

Mexico plays a major role in the improvement of maize and wheat crops by hosting five CIMMYT research stations throughout the country and providing funding for such programs as MasAgro, a project that not only works to develop improved maize and wheat varieties but also supports conservation agriculture techniques that help increase yields and improve environmental sustainability of farming.

“CIMMYT’s achievements are indisputable,” Calzada Rovirosa said. “’CIMMYT 50’ calls on all of our consciences. The world needs to increase yields without hurting the environment.”

He affirmed his continued support for the longstanding partnership between CIMMYT and Mexico.

“The Mexican government is committed to continuing the promise we made 50 years ago to support CIMMYT and agricultural research in Mexico,” said Calzada Rovirosa, who also delivered a message of congratulations from Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto.

Farmers in Mexico were represented at the conference by Rodolfo Rodriguez Flores, president of Patronato, the farmers’ organization in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora.

Later in the day, agriculture ministers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kenya and Pakistan, countries where CIMMYT has also played a key role supporting national agricultural programs, spoke, detailing achievements and future plans.

CIMMYT needs long-term, secure funding to achieve its goals, said Derek Byerlee, a former World Bank economist and adviser who delivered the keynote address at the conference.

“Although the first drought-tolerant maize varieties were made in the 1980s, we’re just now achieving widespread distribution of drought-tolerant maize seed in Africa,” said Byerlee who has had a long association with CIMMYT. “The CIMMYT maize program works with 200 local and global seed companies and it’s crucial to get these varieties to farmers.”

Byerlee’s history of CIMMYT, titled “The Birth of CIMMYT – Pioneering the idea and ideals of international agricultural research” was published this month. It details the challenges global agricultural research faces.

Today, global, publicly-funded networks which combine the talent and resources of scientists and institutions across borders to foster more productive, profitable agricultural systems seem logical, but at their inception after World War Two, they were remarkably innovative, Byerlee said.

Developing countries will need to take much larger responsibility and participation in their own agricultural development, but the principles that underlie the origins of CIMMYT and the CGIAR remain valid.

At the same time, many countries where CIMMYT works are embroiled in conflict, making research and development activities difficult and at times dangerous.

Other highlights of the day included speeches by Sanjaya Rajaram, a prolific wheat breeder known as the Sultan of Wheat who worked for many years at CIMMYT as director of the Global Wheat Program and won the 2014 World Food Prize.

“New wheats are better able to produce under high temperatures, but more needs to be done to address climate change,” Rajaram said, adding that disease resistance has been a critical achievement in protecting yield.

“More prosperous emerging countries like India or Mexico need to provide long-term funding for CIMMYT and other CGIAR centers and programs,” he said. “CIMMYT scientists based in our target countries and global partnerships are key to success. It’s a shared global enterprise with national systems and the private sector.”

Julie Borlaug, the granddaughter of the late 1970 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, the key wheat breeder known internationally as the father of the Green Revolution, spoke enthusiastically of CIMMYT’s work and compassionately about rural poverty and smallholder farmers.

“Mexico is a leader and should continue its legacy worldwide,” said Julie Borlaug, who is now associate director of external relations at the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A & M University.

Reporting by Ricardo Curiel, Jennifer Johnson, Mike Listman, Katelyn Roett and Miriam Shindler.

Mexico, funding, sustainability key to meeting agricultural challenges, “CIMMYT 50” delegates say

Written by on September 28, 2016. Posted in News.

He also announced that CIMMYT would engage in more public-private partnerships and increase its focus on training and capacity building.

“CIMMYT’s achievements are indisputable,” Calzada Rovirosa said. “’CIMMYT 50’ calls on all of our consciences. The world needs to increase yields without hurting the environment.”

He affirmed his continued support for the longstanding partnership between CIMMYT and Mexico.

Farmers in Mexico were represented at the conference by Rodolfo Rodriguez Flores, president of Patronato, the farmers’ organization in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora.

CIMMYT needs long-term, secure funding to achieve its goals, said Derek Byerlee, a former World Bank economist and adviser who delivered the keynote address at the conference.

At the same time, many countries where CIMMYT works are embroiled in conflict, making research and development activities difficult and at times dangerous.

Reporting by Ricardo Curiel, Jennifer Johnson, Mike Listman, Katelyn Roett and Miriam Shindler.

Gene bank crowdfunding campaign gains traction with commercial seed industry

Written by on September 27, 2016. Posted in News.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – A pledge of $10,000 by international plant breeding company KWS has given a big boost to an online crowdfunding initiative aiming to help maintain the world’s largest maize and wheat germplasm bank.

The campaign was launched by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week, to help meet its $2.3 million annual running cost.

The Save a Seed campaign, hosted on a caused-based crowdfunding platform, is attracting new donations to fill a reduction in funds from traditional donors, said Kevin Pixley, director for genetic resources at CIMMYT where the bank is located.

“The germplasm bank is a global public treasure that belongs to all of us; everyone should have the opportunity to help care for it,” he said. “A small donation now makes a big difference to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.”

Germany-based KWS is joining African and Latin American seed producers and members of the general public who have donated to the bank. Contributions keep collections stocked, curated and freely available to researchers who study the genetic diversity to identify traits to improve maize and wheat.

“I hope that many others will follow us to support the CIMMYT Save a Seed crowdfunding initiative generously,” said Léon Broers, executive board member of KWS. “Conserving and extending the world’s most important seed bank for maize and wheat is crucial especially for developing countries in times of accelerating climate change and a growing world population.”

As severe weather and evolving crop diseases threaten our most important staple foods, the bank’s ability to offer scientists novel DNA tools and data management tools to unearth high-value traits from vast maize and wheat seed collections for use in breeding climate-resilient varieties is greater than ever, said Pixley.

CIMMYT’s germplasm is a genetic treasure chest with over 175,000 maize and wheat seed collections, any of which could prove to be the crucial ingredient that breeders need to combat these challenges, he said. In 2015, the bank sent more than 700,000 seed shipments free of charge to researchers in over 80 countries who work to fight disease and improve crops.

As staple foods, maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to one-quarter of the world’s daily energy intake and contributing 27 percent of the total calories in the diets of people living in developing countries, according to FAO. The two crops are essential to agricultural scientists who are looking for ways to increase food production by 70%, the projected need to feed a global population exceeding 9 billion by 2050.

ABOUT CIMMYT

Headquartered in Mexico, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded research for development for wheat and maize and for wheat- and maize-based farming systems. CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners, belongs to the 15-member CGIAR System, and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.staging.cimmyt.org

ABOUT KWS

KWS is one of the world’s leading plant breeding companies. In fiscal 2014/15, 4,700 employees in 70 countries generated net sales of 986 million euros and earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 113 million euros. A company with a tradition of family ownership, KWS has operated independently for some 160 years. It focuses on plant breeding and the production and sale of seed for corn, sugarbeet, cereals, rapeseed and sunflowers. KWS uses leading-edge plant breeding methods to continuously improve yield and resistance to diseases, pests and abiotic stress. To that end, the company invested 174 million euros last fiscal year in research and development, 17.7 percent of its net sales. For more information: www.kws.com. Follow us on Twitter® at https://twitter.com/KWS_Group.

*All figures exclude the joint ventures AGRELIANT GENETICS LLC., AGRELIANT GENETICS INC. and KENFENG – KWS SEEDS CO.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Genevieve Renard

Email: g.renard@cgiar.org

Telephone: +52 1 595 114 9880

Twitter: @genevrenard

A Chat With: IPNI Director Shamie Zingore — boosting smallholder agriculture in Africa

Written by on September 4, 2016. Posted in News.

IPNI sub-Saharan Director Shamie Zingore — IPNI sub-Sahara Africa Director Shamie Zingore

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Effective partnerships involving research, public and private sector institutions are key to unlocking the potential of smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, said Shamie Zingore, a director at the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), who oversees the region.

Cross-sector partnerships that deliver the results of agricultural research to smallholder farmers, who produce 80 percent of food consumed in the developing world, improve productivity and are essential to providing food security in Africa, said Zingore who will speak at a conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in September.

IPNI is a non-for-profit, science-based organization dedicated to the responsible management of plant nutrition.

Zingore said partnerships that bring together national governments, agricultural research institutes and industry underpin his organizations’ work to support sustainable crop production intensification in the region.

IPNI’s cross-sector efforts to encourage fertilizer use within integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), which involves the use of locally adapted agricultural practices that can maximize the efficiency of nutrient and water use and improve agricultural productivity, shows the power of partnership combined with the development and dissemination of technologies that have increased yields and protected soil fertility, he said. The role of the private sector in addressing challenges that smallholder farmers face in accessing inputs at affordable prices and the knowledge for their appropriate use must be encouraged, he added.

Zingore will participate in a panel discussion during a session titled “Technical Innovations into Context to Achieve Greater Impact” at the CIMMYT 50^th anniversary conference which will be held from Sept. 27 to Sept. 29 in Mexico City.

He shared some views on the future of agriculture in the following interview.

Q: What do you hope to contribute to the CIMMYT conference?

The theme of the conference is relevant and timely in the context of the increasingly urgent need to translate agricultural science into practice to support agricultural development and poverty alleviation in the developing world. I’m honored to participate at the conference to share knowledge and insights on the critical role of soil fertility management research in sustainable crop production intensification in sub-Saharan Africa — as well as the processes to achieve impact by adapting agronomic technologies to highly variable and complex conditions on smallholder farms. Effective partnerships between research, public and private sector institutions will be the key to unlock the potential of smallholder agriculture. Representing IPNI, as a fertilizer industry science-based research organization, I also hope to highlight the role of the private sector in addressing the challenges that smallholder farmers face in accessing inputs at affordable prices and the knowledge for their appropriate use.

Q: What is significant about CIMMYT? What role has CIMMYT played in your area of work?

CIMMYT has for many decades conducted innovative and transformational research to improve maize and wheat productivity through the plant breeding, agronomy, farming systems and conservation agriculture and socioeconomic programs. My institution has effectively collaborated with CIMMYT in several initiatives including the CGIAR program on MAIZE and Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale (TAMASA) initiative that have supported wide-scale dissemination of site-specific nutrient management in both conventional and conservation agriculture maize production systems. CIMMYT has played a key role in building effective research and extension partnerships and capacity for delivering agronomic solutions to smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Q: What are the key challenges the world faces into the future?

The overarching challenge is the question of how agricultural productivity can be increased to meet the food requirements by a rapidly increasing world population that will reach over 7 billion by 2050. Developing countries that are food insecure, including those in sub-Saharan Africa, will contribute most to the increasing population. Technological innovations will need to be increasingly robust to sustainably increase crop productivity and nutrient quality of food produced in the face of land degradation and climate change challenges.

Q: How does your area of specialization address these challenges?

Poor soil fertility, low fertilizer use and inappropriate fertilizer management practices are some of the key factors limiting crop productivity in sub-Saharan Africa. Yields have remained low despite advances made in developing high yielding crop varieties adapted to growing conditions in the region. Strong partnerships on developing ISFM are focusing on the development and dissemination of technologies that contribute not only to increased yields but also pay attention to maintenance of soil organic matter and soil fertility in the long-term. Our research results have shown that appropriate ISFM technologies enhance nutrient and water use efficiency, increasing crop productivity and resilience to moisture stress. We are addressing the issue of balanced nutrient management, with a focus on micronutrient fertilization, to increase productivity in vast agricultural soils that are deficient in micronutrients. Balanced fertilizer, focusing on the applying the right types of fertilizer at the right rate, time and place will be the basis of increasing yield in an economically viable manner and improving the nutrient contents of food produced by smallholder farmers.

TAMASA is a CIMMYT led project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

5th International master class on soil born pathogens of wheat

Written by on July 27, 2016. Posted in News.

ESKISEHIR, Turkey — The 5th International Master Class on Soil Borne Pathogens of Wheat held at the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute (TZARI), Eskisehir, Turkey, on 11-23 July 2016, brought together 45 participants from 16 countries of Central and West Asia and North Africa.

During the opening ceremony, participants were welcomed by Yusuf Aslan, head of Field Crop Research, Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (MFAL), Suat Kaymak, Plant Health Department head, MFAL, Sabri Cakir, TZARI director, and Amer Dababat, leader, Soil Borne Pathogens Program, CIMMYT-Turkey.

This intensive residential master class built on the success of previous Crawford Fund Master Classes on SBP (Turkey 2000 and 2010; China 2005; and Tunisia 2008). Its key objectives were to: (1) expand the existing soil borne pathogen (SBP) capacity of researchers from Central and West Asia and North Africa to help them better understand and work with SBP of cereals; (2) help these politically and food insecure regions — in particular, Syria, Iraq, North Africa, and Afghanistan — to re-build SBP capacity; and (3) refine and publish the existing Master Class Theoretical Manual for this Master Class and create an electronic version to be used in future training activities.

This year’s master class was taught by a total of 15 specialists, including three renowned experts from abroad: Timothy Paulitz, Research Plant Pathologist, USDA-ARS, Pullman, WA; Grant Hollaway, cereal plant pathologist, Australia; and Ian Riley, nematologist, Australia. The quality of the scientific program and the participation of SBP specialists from various countries made it a highly successful course.

Among other things, class participants learned how to isolate, extract and identify SBP in order to properly diagnose their SBP problems, as well as use host resistance and other environmentally friendly control methods to control the pathogens. They also focused on how to incorporate SBP resistance breeding into a cereal breeding program and apply molecular biology to identify and breed SBP resistant germplasm.

The class helped to further develop participants’ research management, technical and personal capacities, and hone their proposal writing skills. Finally, it fostered the establishment of a regional network of pathologists (including key CGIAR pathologists) to work on SBPs.

Upon returning to their home countries, participants will become involved in researching SBPs, which will ultimately benefit farmers and the industry. This will also forge better linkages between the master class and other national institutes in the region and enable them to jointly combat SBPs, alleviate hunger and contribute to food security.

This latest course was organized and coordinated by Abdelfattah Dababat, SBP Specialist, CIMMYT-Turkey, as part of the ICARDA CIMMYT Wheat Improvement Program (ICWIP), and funded by CIMMYT, MFAL, Syngenta, The Crawford Fund, ACIAR, and GRDC.

For more information, please contact Abdelfattah A. Dababat at a.dababat@cgiar.org

Expanding for faster and wider deployment of heat-tolerant hybrids in South Asia

Written by on July 25, 2016. Posted in News.

Caption: Chetana Patil, Joint Director of Agriculture (left), discusses the strength of new heat-tolerant maize hybrids with farmers. Photo: UAS, Raichur

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) — Launched by CIMMYT in January 2013 in collaboration of five public sector institutions and three seed companies from four South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan), the Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project is a public-private partnership that targets resource-poor maize farmers in South Asia who face weather extremes and climate change effects.

Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Feed the Future (FTF) initiative, HTMA receives significant contributions from various partner institutions and companies. As a result of meticulously planned research on fast-track development and deployment of heat tolerant maize hybrids in South Asia, within three years the first 18 heat resilient hybrids were licensed to HTMA partners for deployment and scale-out. The project’s outputs attracted the attention of other players in the region, especially private seed companies, who expressed their interest in becoming a part of HTMA. A total of 12 new partners (five seed companies each from Bangladesh and Pakistan and two from Nepal) formally joined the project. They participated for the first time in the project’s annual review and planning meeting jointly organized by the Nepal Agricultural Research Program (NARC) and CIMMYT in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 25-26 July 2016.

Executive Director Yamraj Pandey, NARC, Nepal, chaired the inaugural session of the fourth annual review and planning meeting. In his opening remarks, Pandey emphasized the importance of stress resilient maize hybrids for coping with climate change effects and highlighted the remarkable progress HTMA has made in such a short period, giving farmers in stress-prone maize growing Asian environments much-needed heat tolerant hybrids. B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and of CRP-MAIZE, gave an overview of the new CGIAR research program on Maize Agri-food Systems, its focus and priorities, and highlighted the importance of stress-resilient maize for improving food security and livelihoods, especially in regions vulnerable to climate change, such as the Asian tropics.

Hailu Tefera, Agricultural Resource Specialist, Bureau for Food Security, USAID, gave an update on the FTF initiative and highlighted its priorities, which include reducing poverty and malnutrition in children in target countries through accelerated inclusive agricultural growth and a high-quality diet. He also informed meeting participants that on 7 July 2016, the US Congress passed the Global Food Security Act (GFSA), which will make FTF into law. Senior CIMMYT maize physiologist and HTMA project leader P.H. Zaidi shared the latest progress made under HTMA including the identification of genomic regions for key heat tolerant traits, development of improved heat tolerant populations using genomic selection, testing of new hybrid combinations, identification of promising hybrids, and the latest capacity development efforts.

At a series of technical sessions, project objective leaders, including Mitch Tuinstra, Purdue University professor, Sudha Nair, CIMMYT molecular maize breeder, and M.T. Vinayan, CIMMYT maize stress specialist for South Asia, presented the latest research results in each objective. HTMA leaders from public and private sector partners presented results of HTMA trials conducted at their locations/countries, and shared a list of top-ranking, best-bet heat-tolerant maize hybrids that will be subjected to large-scale testing and then deployed. They also described efforts aimed at disseminating HTMA hybrids through on-farm demonstrations and farmer-participatory selection of final products.. Most impressive was that each partner has identified a second batch of promising hybrids suitable for their target markets/agro-ecologies.

Caption: HTMA team at 4th annual review and planning meeting during 25-26 July, 2016 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo: CIMMYT — Caption: HTMA team at 4th annual review and planning meeting during 25-26 July, 2016 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo: UAS, Raichur

The project started a unique initiative aimed at developing hybrids using elite maize lines from Pioneer and HTMA. Kamal Pandey from Pioneer highlighted the performance of CIMMYT x Pioneer hybrids, which revealed the significant heterosis between CIMMYT and Pioneer maize germplasm, and should help identify promising joint hybrids suitable for stress-prone ecologies of South Asia. Zaidi and Tuinstra jointly presented HTMA’s progress on capacity development and provided updates on student research projects, including nine Ph.D. and six M.Sc. students, plus a total of 10 workshops/training courses organized so far on subjects such as precision phenotyping, molecular breeding, data management and seed systems. A total 303 participants have been trained, including researchers from public sector institutions and seed companies in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The meeting was attended by over 50 program leaders, scientists and representatives from collaborating institutions in South Asia, including BARI (Bangladesh), Nepal’s National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Pakistan’s Maize and Millet Research Institute, Bhutan’s national maize program, and two of India’s state agricultural universities. Also in attendance were partner seed companies in the region, including Pioneer Hi-Bred, Kaveri Seeds and Ajeet Seeds (India), and new seed company partners including Sean Seeds and Hariyali Community Seeds (Nepal); Jullundhar Pvt. Ltd., Kanzo Quality Seeds, CKD Seeds & Fertilizers, Hisell Seeds, and Zamindara Seeds (Pakistan); and Lalteer Seeds, Krishibid, BRAC, ACI Ltd., and Supreme Seeds (Bangladesh). International institutions such as Purdue University, USAID and CIMMYT also participated in the event.

The project’s progress and updates were critically reviewed by the project steering committee (PSC) headed by Prasanna, who expressed great satisfaction with its overall progress and achievements. Speaking for USAID, Hailu Tefera said they are highly impressed with HTMA’s progress and consider it a model public-private partnership. Other PSC members also expressed their satisfaction and agreed that the HTMA team deserves special appreciation for the remarkable progress they have achieved within just four years.

HarvestPlus World Food Prize laureates benefit more than 10 million people

Written by on June 30, 2016. Posted in News.

HarvestPlus director Howarth Bouis is one of four winners of the 2016 World Food Prize. Graphic design: Bose Zhou — HarvestPlus director Howarth Bouis is one of four 2016 World Food Prize laureates. Graphic design: Bose Zhou

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — HarvestPlus director Howarth Bouis is one of four winners of the 2016 World Food Prize, honored for international research leading to a substantial increase in the availability of nutritious biofortified crops for millions of poor people.

Bouis was recognized specifically for pioneering work that established a multi-institutional approach to biofortification as a global plant breeding strategy, World Food Prize organizers said in a statement on Tuesday. The interdisciplinary, collaborative HarvestPlus program was launched in 2003 and is now part of the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health program managed by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers.

Bouis, who works with the CGIAR International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), has directed initiatives that have led to the release or testing of such crops as iron- and zinc-fortified beans, rice, wheat and pearl millet, along with vitamin A-enriched cassava, maize and the orange-fleshed sweet potato in more than 40 countries.

The three other laureates, Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga and Jan Low of the CGIAR International Potato Center (CIP) are being recognized for work leading to the development of the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato. Andrade and Mwanga, plant scientists in Mozambique and Uganda, bred the Vitamin A-enriched potato using genetic material from CIP and other sources, while Low structured the nutrition studies and programs that convinced almost two million households in 10 separate African countries to plant, purchase and consume the nutritionally fortified food, the statement said.

Although orange-colored sweet potatoes are common in some parts of the world, in parts of Africa white sweet potatoes have historically been more typical. Breeding potatoes so they can synthesize more vitamin A means they can be grown in poor areas to benefit consumers and smallholder farmers who cannot afford to buy or grow food high in micronutrients.

Due to the combined efforts of the four World Food Prize laureates, more than 10 million people are now gaining nutritional benefits from biofortified crops, and the potential exists to benefit several hundred million more people in the coming decades, the statement said.

“The impact of the work of all four winners will be felt around the globe, but particularly in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Kenneth Quinn, president of the World Food Prize. “It is particularly poignant that among our 2016 recipients are two African scientists who are working on solutions to tackle malnutrition in Africa, for Africa.”

Some 2 billion people around the world suffer from micronutrient deficiency, which occurs when food does not provide enough vitamins and minerals, according to the World Health Organization. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are most affected by hidden hunger.

Andrade, Mwanga, Low and Bouis will receive the World Food Prize at a ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 13, the main event during the annual Borlaug Dialogue symposium. The late Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Norman Borlaug, a wheat breeder at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), established the World Food Prize 30 years ago.

CIMMYT scientists have won the prestigious award twice. Evangelina Villegas and Surinder Vasal received it in 2000 for their work developing quality protein maize with an adequate balance of amino acids using biofortification techniques. They provided nutritional options for people with diets dominated by maize and with no adequate alternative source of protein.

Wheat breeder Sanjaya Rajaram, who worked with both CIMMYT and the CGIAR International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), won in 2014 for producing a remarkable 480 wheat varieties, which produce yields that are estimated to feed more than 1 billion people a year.

HARVESTPLUS MAIZE AND WHEAT

While the orange sweet potato is a highlight, biofortified wheat and maize are part of the overall HarvestPlus success story, benefiting thousands of resource-poor farmers and consumers.

“This news shows that it is vital to keep up the fight and serves as encouragement for partners, collaborators and donors to pursue biofortification more vigorously to achieve greater global impact on food and nutritional security,” said CIMMYT wheat breeder Velu Govindan.

CIMMYT maize and wheat scientists tackle micronutrient deficiency, or “hidden hunger,” through HarvestPlus to help improve nutrition in poor communities where nutritional options are unavailable, limited or unaffordable. Micronutrient deficiency is characterized by iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin A and zinc deficiency.

The wheat component of the HarvestPlus program involves developing and distributing wheat varieties with high zinc levels.

“Breeding these varieties involves the use of diverse genetic resources, including wheat landraces, ancestors and wild relatives, with high genetic potential to accumulate zinc in the grain, which are combined with adapted wheat to obtain high-yielding varieties with high zinc grain concentration,” said Carlos Guzman, head of the Wheat Chemistry and Quality Laboratory at CIMMYT, adding that such varieties have been shown to have higher iron values in grain than conventional varieties.

A project to develop superior wheat lines combining higher yield and high zinc concentrations in collaboration with national agriculture program partners in South Asia has led to new biofortified varieties 20 to 40 percent superior in grain zinc concentration, which are already available for farmers in India and Pakistan. Other national partners, such as Bolivia, are also close to releasing biofortified wheat varieties developed through collaboration with CIMMYT.

Additionally, a recent HarvestPlus study revealed that modern genomic tools such as genomic selection hold great potential for biofortification breeding to enhance zinc concentrations in wheat.

Scientists working with HarvestPlus have developed vitamin A-enriched “orange” maize. Orange maize is conventionally bred to provide higher levels of pro-vitamin A carotenoids, a natural plant pigment found in such orange foods as mangoes, carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens and meat, converted into vitamin A by the body.

Vitamin A is essential for good eyesight, growth and boosting immunity. Almost 200 million children under the age of 5 and 19 million pregnant women are vitamin A deficient, and increasing levels through maize kernels is an effective means of boosting it in the diet.

Maize breeders are currently working on developing varieties with 50 percent more pro-vitamin A than the first commercialized varieties released. In Zambia, Zimbawe and Malawi, 12 varieties, which are agronomically competititve and have about 8ppm provitamin A, have been released.

Provitamin A from maize is efficiently absorbed and converted into vitamin A in the body. Stores of Vitamin A in 5 to 7 year old children improved when they ate orange maize, according to HarvestPlus research. The study also shows preliminary data demonstrating that children who ate orange maize for six months experienced an improved capacity of the eye to adjust to dim light. The findings indicate an improvement in night vision.

Researchers are also developing maize varieties high in zinc. Scientists expect the first high zinc hybrids and varieties will be released in 2017. Further efforts are starting in such countries as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Results from the first nutrition studies in young rural Zambian children indicate that biofortified maize can meet zinc requirements and provide an effective dietary alternative to regular maize for the vulnerable population.

Smallholders in Rwanda and Zambia to enhance wheat productivity through new project

Written by on June 28, 2016. Posted in Features.

A contractor operating his Combine harvester in wheat field Boru Lencha village, Hetosa district in Ethiopia. Photo: P.Lowe/CIMMYT — A contractor operating his combine harvester in a wheat field in Hetosa district, Ethiopia. Photo: P.Lowe/CIMMYT

KIGALI, Rwanda (CIMMYT) – The recent designation of wheat as a strategic crop for Africa by the African Union in 2013 reflects the rising importance of wheat production on the continent. Since then, efforts have intensified to incorporate wheat production into existing farm systems and to help smallholders grow it to meet rising demand and reduce the economic impact of the high cost of imports.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is contributing to these efforts through a project launched this month in Kigali, Rwanda. The four-year Enhancing Smallholder Wheat Productivity through Sustainable Intensification of Wheat-based Farming Systems in Rwanda and Zambia (SWPSI) project aims to enhance the potential of wheat produced by smallholder farmers to bolster food security.

“Given the increasing opportunities in wheat research, CIMMYT is happy to work with partners to help farmers adopt improved technologies, establish innovation platforms and strengthen wheat value chains in the two countries,” said Bekele Abeyo, Ethiopia country representative and wheat breeder at CIMMYT.

Zambia and Rwanda rank 46th and 59^th respectively in the list of wheat-producing nations, topped by China. Production in Zambia, where wheat grows on more than 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres), is largely undertaken by medium and largescale commercial operations in irrigated conditions with very little smallholder production. On the other hand, in Rwanda wheat is grown on about 35,000 hectares in rainfed conditions mainly by smallholder farmers.

“The contrast between the two countries will help generate wider lessons on variations and give an opportunity to test whether wheat is still a potential crop to produce profitably under smallholder systems,” said Moti Jaleta, CIMMYT SWPSI project leader.

The new project will target 4,000 smallholder farmers in the two countries, with a focus on increasing wheat productivity from the current 2.1 tons per hectare to an average of 4.5 tons per hectare.

Smallholders will also benefit from improved technologies, which include rust-resistant and high-yielding wheat varieties, such good agronomic practices as row planting, precise fertilizer application, plant density and planting dates. Additionally, threshing technologies to enhance grain quality and efforts to link farmers with established traders and millers to help them secure markets for their wheat surplus will be undertaken.

The project mandate includes a scoping study on the potential for smallholder wheat production in Madagascar, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the consortium of agricultural researchers, the CGIAR Research Program on WHEAT, SWPSI will be implemented under the leadership of CIMMYT in close collaboration with the Center for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA), the Rwanda Agriculture Board and the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute.

Speaking during the launch, the acting executive director of CCARDESA, Simon Mwale, noted the rising demand for wheat, particularly in southern Africa, which also has a very conducive climate for wheat farming.

“Inclusion of Rwanda in the project is a unique opportunity for CCARDESA, and it will facilitate strong collaboration and new learning opportunities, being a new country to be covered by CCARDESA,” he said.

Experts hope SWPSI will contribute to the broader focus of the strategy to promote African wheat production and markets.

Some 30 key stakeholders met at a side event organized by CIMMYT at the recent 7th Africa Agricultural Science Week (AASW) to discuss how best to implement the region’s wheat strategy. The AASW and FARA General Assembly is the principal forum for all stakeholders in African agriculture science, technology and innovation to share solutions to some of the most pressing challenges the continent faces. CIMMYT’s SWPSI project is key to supporting the wheat for Africa strategy whose goal is to increase agricultural productivity and food security throughout the region.

Action needed to adapt maize breeding to climate change, report shows

Written by Matthew O'Leary on June 20, 2016. Posted in News.

Listen to a podcast of CIMMYT maize breeder Biswanath Das discussing the importance of adapting maize breeding and seed systems to climate change here.

Investment in speeding up the adaptation maize breeding and seed systems to climate change is needed, report finds. Photo: Peter Lowe/ CIMMYT — Investment in accelerating the adaptation of maize breeding and seed systems to climate change is needed a new report finds. Photo: Peter Lowe/ CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Breeding and seed systems must be adapted to survive projected climate change if major loss of maize yields is to be avoided, a new report shows.

Tools that forecast the response of crops to different weather and climate conditions, coupled with crop yield modeling have enabled agricultural scientists to predict and formulate plans for potential future climate change.

“Responding better to changes in climate by improving efficiency of the breeding cycle and reducing the amount of time it takes to get improved maize into the hands of farmers is key to ensuring a food secure future,” said International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) maize breeder and co-author of the study Biswanath Das.

Projections for Africa demonstrate climate-change related increases in temperature will negatively impact on-farm yields as heat and drought stress shorten crop production time, the length of time between maize planting and harvesting, Das said.

Shorter and hotter growing seasons are expected to become a reality over the next 15 years, which could mean that maize varieties currently being developed may struggle to adapt, particularly since current breeding and commercialization cycles to improve maize in Africa can take several decades.

The report published in Nature Climate Change, led by Andy Challinor from the University of Leeds in collaboration with the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and CIMMYT, calls for an acceleration of breeding, delivery and adoption processes. The authors suggest that all stages could be sped up using a variety of techniques, requiring elaborate planning and coordination involving numerous actors and interest groups.

“Current warming will reduce yields unless maize breeding and seed systems adapt immediately,” Das said. “Increased collaboration among different breeding institutes and public-private collaborations are needed so that we share information, technologies and germplasm to make the best germplasm and technology available to the widest number of scientists as possible.”

“Seed systems could be working with regulators to reduce the amount of time it takes for varieties to become available to farmers and developing new ways of producing seed more cheaply and efficiently while maintaining quality.”

Public seed systems should continue working closely with the private sector to encourage the latest genetic advances to become available to farmers in the shortest time possible, Das added.

CIMMYT has undertaken other work in this area. An intensive breeding effort through the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project developed a large phenotyping network and breeding pipeline to produce new maize varieties with heat and drought tolerance. In collaboration with over 100 national seed companies, the project supported the production of 54,000 tons of drought-tolerant maize in 2014 alone, benefiting an estimated 5.4 million households – or 43 million people – across 13 countries in Africa.

In 2015, a new project was started to expand the success of DTMA so that more smallholder farmers in Africa would have access to affordable improved maize varieties through a network of national seed companies.

Despite the considerable efforts being made to adapt maize farming to changing climates, Das warned that they must be sustained and encouraged on a larger scale in order for breeding programs to produce climate-ready maize varieties for the future.

This study was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change (CCAFS) and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE CRP).

This research is carried out with support from CGIAR Fund Donors, CCAFS Donors, MAIZE CRP Donors and through bilateral funding agreements. Funding for this project came from: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Ireland Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs; New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade; Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Thailand; UK Department of International Development; The United States Agency for International Development and the European Union. The Program is carried out with technical support from The International Fund for Agricultural Development.

DTMA was funded by the United States Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Read the paper (subscription required)

Current warming will reduce yields unless maize breeding and seed systems adapt immediately

A. J. Challinor, A.-K. Koehler, J. Ramirez-Villegas, S. Whitfield & B. Das

http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3061

Some of the thousands of samples that make up the maize collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center at CIMMYT's global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)

From A to Z: Developing nutritious maize and wheat at CIMMYT for 50 years

Written by on June 5, 2016. Posted in Features.

This story is one of a series of features written during CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary year to highlight significant advancements in maize and wheat research between 1966 and 2016.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Maize and wheat biofortification can help reduce malnutrition in regions where nutritional options are unavailable, limited or unaffordable, but must be combined with education to be most effective, particularly as climate change jeopardizes food security, according to researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Climate change could kill more than half a million adults in 2050 due to changes in diets and bodyweight from reduced crop productivity, a new report from the University of Oxford states. Projected improvement in food availability for a growing population could be cut by about a third, leading to average per-person reductions in food availability of 3.2 percent, reductions in fruit and vegetable intake of 4 percent and red meat consumption of .07 percent, according to the report.

Over the past 50 years since CIMMYT was founded in 1966, various research activities have been undertaken to boost protein quality and micronutrient levels in maize and wheat to help improve nutrition in poor communities, which the Oxford report estimates will be hardest hit by climate change. As one measure of CIMMYT’s success, scientists Evangelina Villegas and Surinder Vasal were recognized with the prestigious World Food Prize in 2000 for their work developing quality protein maize (QPM).

“We’ve got a lot of balls in the air to tackle the ongoing food security crisis and anticipate future needs as the population grows and the climate changes unpredictably,” said Natalia Palacios, head of maize quality, adding that a key component of current research is the strategic use of genetic resources held in the CIMMYT gene bank.

“CIMMYT’s contribution to boosting the nutritional value of maize and wheat is hugely significant for people who have access to these grains, but very little dietary diversity otherwise. Undernourishment is epidemic in parts of the world and it’s vital that we tackle the problem by biofortifying crops and including nutrition in sustainable intensification interventions.”

Undernourishment affects some 795 million people worldwide – meaning that more than one out of every nine people do not get enough food to lead a healthy, active lifestyle, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). By 2050, reduced fruit and vegetable intake could cause twice as many deaths as under-nutrition, according to the Oxford report, which was produced by the university’s Future of Food Programme.

As staple foods, maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to one-quarter of the world’s daily energy intake, and contributing 27 percent of the total calories in the diets of people living in developing countries, according to FAO.

“Nutrition is very complex and in addition to deploying scientific methods such as biofortification to develop nutritious crops, we try and serve an educational role, helping people understand how best to prepare certain foods to gain the most value,” Palacios said. “Sometimes communities have access to nutritious food but they don’t know how to prepare it without killing the nutrients.”

The value of biofortified crops is high in rural areas where people have vegetables for a few months, but must rely solely on maize for the rest of the year, she added, explaining that fortified flour and food may be more easily accessed in urban areas where there are more dietary options.

PROMOTING PROTEIN QUALITY

Conventional maize varieties cannot provide an adequate balance of amino acids for people with diets dominated by the grain and with no adequate alternative source of protein. Since the breakthrough findings of Villegas and Vasal, in some areas scientists now develop QPM, which offers an inexpensive alternative for smallholder farmers.

CIMMYT scientists also develop QPM and other nutritious conventionally bred maize varieties for the Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project funded by the government of Canada. NuME, which also helps farmers improve agricultural techniques by encouraging the deployment of improved agronomic practices, builds on a former seven-year collaborative QPM effort with partners in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

In Ethiopia, where average life expectancy is 56 years of age, the food security situation is critical due in part to drought caused by a recent El Nino climate system, according to the U.N. World Food Programme. More than 8 million people out of a population of 90 million people are in need of food assistance. Almost 30 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line, 40 percent of children under the age of 5 are stunted, 9 percent are acutely malnourished and 25 percent are underweight, according to the 2014 Ethiopia Mini Demographic and Health Survey. The NuMe project is helping to shore up sustainable food supplies and boost nutrition in the country, where the vast majority of people live in rural areas and are engaged in rain-fed subsistence agriculture.

INCREASING MICRONUTRIENTS

CIMMYT maize and wheat scientists tackle micronutrient deficiency, or “hidden hunger,” through the interdisciplinary, collaborative program HarvestPlus, which was launched in 2003 and is now part of the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health program managed by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers.

Some 2 billion people around the world suffer from micronutrient deficiency, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Micronutrient deficiency occurs when food does not provide enough vitamins and minerals. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are most affected by hidden hunger, which is characterized by iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin A and zinc deficiency.

Work at CIMMYT to combat micronutrient deficiency is aligned with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — in particular Goal 2, which aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030. The SDG also aims to meet internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and to address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, older people, pregnant and lactating women by 2025.

WHOLESOME WHEAT

The wheat component of the HarvestPlus program involves developing and distributing wheat varieties with high zinc levels by introducing genetic diversity from wild species and landraces into adapted wheat.

Zinc deficiency affects about one-third of the world’s population, causing lower respiratory tract infections, malaria, diarrheal disease, hypogonadism, impaired immune function, skin disorders, cognitive dysfunction, and anorexia, according to the WHO, which attributes about 800,000 deaths worldwide each year to zinc deficiency. Additionally, worldwide, approximately 165 million children under five years of age are stunted due to zinc deficiency.

“We’re playing a vital role in this area,” said CIMMYT wheat breeder Velu Govindan. “Our research has led to new varieties agronomically equal to, or superior to, other popular wheat cultivars with grain yield potential at par or — in some cases – even superior to popular wheat varieties adopted by smallholder farmers in South Asia where we’ve been focused.”

Scientists are studying the potential impact of climate-change related warmer temperatures and erratic rainfall on the nutritional value of wheat. An evaluation of the effect of water and heat stress with a particular focus on grain protein content, zinc and iron concentrations revealed that protein and zinc concentrations increased in water and heat-stressed environments, while zinc and iron yield was higher in non-stressed conditions.

“The results of our study suggest that genetic gains in yield potential of modern wheat varieties have tended to reduce grain zinc levels,” Govindan said. “In some instances, environmental variability might influence the extent to which this effect manifests itself, a key finding as we work toward finding solutions to the potential impact of climate change on food and nutrition security.”

Additionally, a recent HarvestPlus study revealed that modern genomic tools such as genomic selection hold great potential for biofortification breeding to enhance zinc concentrations in wheat.

IMPROVING MAIZE

Maize breeders, who are currently working on developing varieties with 50 percent more pro-vitamin A than the first commercialized varieties released, identified germplasm with the highest amounts of carotenoids to develop the varieties. In Zambia, Zimbawe and Malawi, 12 varieties, which are agronomically competititve and have about 8ppm provitamin A, have been released.

Researchers are also developing maize varieties high in zinc.

Efforts on this front have been a major focus in Latin America, especially in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Colombia. Scientists expect the first wave of high zinc hybrids and varieties will be released in 2017. Further efforts are starting in such countries as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Results from the first nutrition studies in young rural Zambian children indicate that biofortified maize can meet zinc requirements and provide an effective dietary alternative to regular maize for the vulnerable population.

Bayer collaboration promises new innovations for South Asia farms

Written by on May 12, 2016. Posted in News.

Farmer Ram Shubagh Chaudhary in his wheat fields, in the village of Pokhar Binda, Maharajganj district, Uttar Pradesh, India. He alternates wheat and rice, and has achieved a bumper wheat crop by retaining crop residues and employing zero tillage. Photo: Petr Kosina / CIMMYT — Farmer Ram Shubagh Chaudhary in his wheat fields, in Uttar Pradesh, India. CIMMYT/Petr Kosina

NEW DELHI (CIMMYT) — Rice-wheat rotation is practiced by farmers on over 13 million hectares of farmland in South Asia, providing the primary source of food security in the region. However, climate change is projected to have a huge impact and reduce agricultural production 10 to 50 percent by 2050. Complex and local impacts from climate change and other challenges require solutions to risks that can be readily-adapted. Representatives from Bayer Crop Science recently visited the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) offices in India to discuss the potential for developing jointly managed sustainable approaches and technologies to address such challenges.

Sustainable intensification, which involves such conservation agriculture practices as minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and the use of crop rotation to increase profits, protect the environment, maintain and boost yields, is a potential solution that has worked to address the impact of climate change in South Asia. Such practices contribute to improved soil function and quality, which can improve resilience to climate variability.

“Systems research with conservation agriculture practices like direct seeded rice, no-till wheat and recycling crop residues have shown tremendous potential to address the challenges of water and labor scarcity, conserve natural resources and lower the environmental footprint of South Asia’s food bowl,” said M.L. Jat, CIMMYT senior cropping systems agronomist and the South Asia coordinator for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, collaboratively managed by the CGIAR consortium of international agricultural researchers.

During the Bayer meeting, challenges and opportunities were identified for direct seeded rice — which requires less labor and tends to mature faster than transplanted crops — and sustainable intensification programs throughout South Asia, particularly in India. Discussions were based on the success of other CIMMYT-Bayer collaborations across South Asia that aim to address agricultural challenges through sustainable intensification — including direct seeded rice — quantifying mitigation potential of conservation agriculture-based management in rice-wheat rotation and smart farm mechanization to make farm management more efficient and productive.

Moving forward, CIMMYT and Bayer will focus on agricultural systems research to ensure even more effective interventions with higher yields, collaborate to develop new sustainable technology and increase uptake throughout the region. Sustainable intensification practices are expected to continue to grow in the region thanks to these and other collaborations, along with the advent of technological advancements and increased adoption.

CIMMYT and Bayer’s Crop Science team are looking for practical solutions to future challenges in South Asian agriculture. Photo: Deepak, CIMMYT — CIMMYT and the Bayer Crop Science team are looking for practical solutions to future challenges in South Asian agriculture. CIMMYT/Deepak

Bayer representatives at the meeting included: Hartmut van Lengerich, head of cereals and fungicides; Juergen Echle, global segment manager of rice herbicides; Christian Zupanc, global segment manager of rice fungicides; Mahesh Girdhar, global crop manager of rice and Rajvir Rathi, vice president of public and government affairs. CIMMYT representatives included: Tek Sapkota, mitigation specialist; Balwinder Singh, crop modeling specialist and Alwin Keil, senior economist.