KULUMSA, Ethiopia (CIMMYT) — An irrigation reservoir at the Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center in Ethiopia’s highlands captures water from a nearby beer distillery about 168 km (105 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.
Before the irrigation project was constructed, the industrial runoff poured into the nearby river and had a negative effect on the health of local residents. Now it nourishes crops growing in neighboring fields during the dry season or in periods of drought. It can store up to 38,195m3 of water.
“The irrigation project has been a key investment – it’s very instrumental for accelerating seed multiplication of improved high-yielding rust resistant varieties for local wheat projects,” said Bekele Abeyo, a senior scientist and wheat breeder working for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
“It allows us to advance wheat germplasm and seed multiplication of elite lines twice a year, which we couldn’t do previously. This cuts the time by half from the currently required eight to 10 years to four to five years for the development and release of new varieties through conventional breeding.
An additional pond with the capacity to capture 27,069m3 of natural water from the river, generates the capacity to irrigate more than 30 ha of land during the off season. The project resulted from the joint investment of the East Africa Agricultural Productivity Program, the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project and CIMMYT.
The construction of the ponds began in April 2012. Sprinkler irrigation was completed in 2014 and management of the project was handed over to the Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center.
Edward Mabaya is a Research Associate in the Department of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and a development practicioner. All views expressed are his own.
Se necesita maíz de grano blanco en las zonas marginadas de Paquistán
There are many crops that conjure up an image of the African continent – maize, sorghum, millet, turf, matoke and cassava. These staples form the basis of African’s daily diet and have been established over many years through close interaction between culture and agro-ecological conditions.
Yet there is one less talked about food that you will find in every African urban area. Bread.
In 2013, African countries spent about $12 billion dollars to import 40 million metric tons of wheat, equating to about a third of the continent’s food imports. This arises as a result of the fact that only 44% of Africa’s wheat demand is met by local production. The only country on the continent with a significant production base is South Africa with over 2 million metric tons per year.
As if the current deficit was not bad enough, the demand for wheat in Africa is growing at a faster rate than for any other crop. By 2050, wheat imports are anticipated to increase by a further 23.1 million metric tons. In the last 20 years wheat imports have increased fourfold from about $3 billion in 1989 and doubled from a rate of $5 billion in 2005 (see table below). This demand is being driven by population growth, urbanization, as well as from a growing female work force who prefer wheat products, like bread or pasta, because they are faster and easier to prepare than traditional foods.
What can African countries do to reduce their wheat imports?
A short-term measure is to mandate or promote the use of composite flours that mix wheat with locally abundant starches such as cassava and starchy bananas (matoke). This practice is already in place in some countries. Nigeria, for example, mandates flour millers to include five percent cassava flour in wheat flour. Tooke flour, developed by Uganda’s Presidential initiative on Banana Industrial Development (PIBID) shows some promise. However, composite flours are only a Band-Aid solution to the growing demand for wheat based products especially given the fact that you can only substitute up to 5% before quality diminishes significantly. The only viable long-term solution is for African countries to meet a large portion of domestic demand through local production.
Like most of my African colleagues, I have always unquestioningly assumed an agronomic basis for Africa’s wheat import, that wheat is a northern hemisphere crop that does not grow well in Africa. A 2012 joint study by CIMMYT and IFPRI exploring “The Potential for Wheat Production in Africa” was an eye opener for me. Based on an integrated biological and economic simulation-based model for 12 countries, the study concluded that Africa has great potential to produce wheat in an economically viable way. The limiting factors, it turns out, are more to do with policy, institutional and social-cultural environments than agro-ecological ones. One example of which is that the heavy subsidies on wheat imports by most African governments have crowded out potential investment in domestic wheat production.
The good news is that enabling policy and institutional environments are cheaper to fix and more environmentally sustainable than making agro-ecological adaptations. The not so good news is that decades of history will be difficult to change – importing wheat is a lucrative business with strong political ties. Boosting Africa’s wheat production will require a coordinated approach with a range of partners to build the requisite enabling environment. This will need more investment in research and development, improved research infrastructure, better agricultural extensions, effective farmer associations and farmer training, better storage and improved access to affordable high quality agro-inputs (seed, fertilizers, chemicals, and machinery).
This enabling environment for wheat production in Africa will not be achieved overnight. It will take years of coordinated strategic investments and policy transformation. Key policy makers on the continent are making the first steps. In 2012, the Joint African Ministers of Agriculture and Trade “endorsed wheat as one of Africa’s strategic commodities for achieving food and nutrition security” at a meeting held in Addis Ababa. A high level Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) meeting held in Accra in July 2013 developed a strategy for promoting African wheat production. It is especially encouraging that African governments have chosen a regional approach and multi-stakeholder approach to lower the continent’s wheat imports.
As the old African saying goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Wheat at sunset at CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Got a question about wheat? Whether you are a scientist, a researcher or simply interested in learning more about the vital staple crop that provides 20 percent of the world’s calories, the Wheat Atlas can help.
The online resource developed by the Global Wheat Program (GWP) at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) provides statistics on wheat production and trade, wheat varieties, production challenges and international wheat nurseries, which evaluate the suitability of wheat to diverse environments.
“Although the primary users are wheat scientists, we know from anecdotal evidence that donors and policymakers are also using it,” said Petr Kosina, who led the development and recent revamp of the interactive website.
The Wheat Atlas was the brainchild of Hans Braun, GWP director, he explained, adding that the project evolved into a collaboration involving Kosina, web master Paul Moncada, senior scientist David Hodson and Tom Payne, head of the Wheat Germplasm Bank, which stores seeds. CIMMYT’s Geographic Information Services team created maps.
Improvements include a redesign of site structure and navigation based on user trends observed in data provided by Google Analytics and a 2013 survey. The website now features daily wheat news on the homepage.
“The work is ongoing,” Kosina said. “We’re in continuous ‘beta mode’, improving the functionality of the site and user experience. For example, we’re developing an online submission form for users to input data on newly released wheat varieties and a wheat scientists’ ‘hall of fame’. Before the end of the year we’ll also improve data visualizations.”
The website provides up-to-date information on new wheat varieties being released worldwide, as well as data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the World Bank and the U.N. Development Programme.
Since the official launch of the Wheat Atlas in 2009, web traffic has increased to an average of 2,200 unique visitors a month, said Kosina, who works closely with webmaster Moncada.
“We’re very happy with recent access statistics, which have improved since the Search Engine Optimization we did earlier this year, but we need secure funding for bigger plans and development,” he said. “We need a new source of funding.”
The Wheat Atlas was supported until 2013 by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, which aims to reduce the devastating impact of stem rust disease on wheat, led by Cornell University.
The CIMMYT library has a large historic database of scientific publications with descriptions of new wheat varieties compiled over a 15-year time span, Kosina said.
“My dream is to consolidate this database with the Wheat Atlas and GRIS, the world’s largest database of wheat germplasm, with more than 160,000 accessions, and make it available online in the Wheat Atlas – this would be absolutely unique and smashing,” he added.
Every two years, the site managers gather information to provide a snapshot of the most important wheat varieties grown by farmers in developing countries, including acreage estimates. Mina Lantican in CIMMYT’s socio-economics program is conducting the 2014 review as part of an impact assessment study.
Farmer and social entrepreneur Amaha Abraham in a wheat field in Bishoftu, Ethiopia. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins
BISHOFTU, Ethiopia (CMMYT) — Farmer and social entrepreneur Amaha Abraham sets his sights high.
The 45-year-old aims to become as wealthy as Saudi Arabian-Ethiopian Mohammed Al Amoudi, who in March 2014 was estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $15.3 billion.
In an effort to achieve that goal Abraham is backing big reforms in Ethiopia’s agriculture sector.
He is at the forefront of a new grassroots seed marketing and distribution program supported by the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and the Ministry of Agriculture to improve the country’s wheat crop through the marketing of improved seed by multiple producers and agents.
Under the program, government-subsidized farmer-run cooperatives produce high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat seed, accelerating distribution and helping smallholder farmers grow healthy crops to bolster national food security.
About 50 farmers belong to each cooperative, planting about 100 hectares (250 acres) of government-certified seed, which produce improved wheat varieties they then multiply and sell to smallholder farmers. Seed sales garner a 15 to 20 percent price premium over wheat-grain sales, providing a significant financial incentive.
“I’ve reached so many farmers, so that their land will be covered by proper improved seeds,” Abraham said.
“When I take the seeds to them I give training and advice, which attracts more farmers to get involved. The government visits and organizes training on my land – they recognize my efforts and they’re pushing other farmers to do the same thing.”
STREAMLINED SYSTEMS
The Direct Seed Marketing (DSM) program is part of Ethiopia’s “Wheat Productivity Increase Initiative,” which aims to end the country’s reliance on wheat imports – equal to 1.1 million metric tons (1.2 million tons) or about 24 percent of domestic demand, which is 4.6 million metric tons in 2014, according to the Wheat Atlas, citing statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Previously, the process of getting new wheat seed varieties to farmers was allocation based, with limited producers and agents and a limited choice of varieties, said Sinshaw Alemu, wheat and barley chain program analyst at ATA.
“It was a seed distribution system, not a seed marketing system,” Alemu explained. “DSM is based on the concept that the producers of the seed should be able to market and then sell it at the primary level and farmers will have their choice of seed.”
Farmers can now collect seeds from a certified agent – either a primary cooperative or a private outlet where a direct channel is established with seed producers, leading to timely deliveries and better estimates of potential demand. They can buy government-allocated seed as they did under the other system or the agent can now contact the seed enterprise and purchase additional wheat varieties at a farmer’s request with no fixed allocations in DSM.
“One of the issues in the previous system was that due to delays on demand estimations from woredas (district councils), the unions and primary cooperatives had little or no control over the kind and quality of seed allocated to them,” Alemu said.
“Primary cooperatives had to take it and seed remained unsold at the end of the planting season because either the variety or quality wasn’t what they were looking for – the primary cooperative was left with hundreds of quintals of seed and they had no use for it.”
“We tried the DSM in five woredas in 2014, and it was very successful – 97 percent of the seed delivered was sold and the remainder taken away – we’ve seen some very encouraging results in this area,” he added.
DISEASE THREAT
In recent years, Ethiopia’s wheat crop has been hit hard by stem and yellow rust epidemics, which at their worst can destroy entire crops. Rust infestation can lead to shriveled grain, yield losses and financial troubles for farmers, who must avoid susceptible wheat varieties.
The revamped seed marketing system can help get the new disease-resilient wheat varieties to farmers more efficiently, said David Hodson, a senior scientist based in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) who manages RustTracker.org, a global wheat rust monitoring system supported by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative.
Rust Tracker generates surveillance and monitoring information for emerging rust threats. The information provides an early warning system for disease and can help farmers prepare for epidemics, which could otherwise wipe out their crops.
CIMMYT, a non-profit research institute which works with partners worldwide to reduce poverty and hunger by increasing the sustainable productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, plays a key role in providing germplasm to be tested and improved by government-run national agricultural research systems before it is potentially released to farmers.
Additionally, CIMMYT provides smallholder farmer training and skills development on such topics as crop management and agricultural practices. In Ethiopia, these activities, along with seed multiplication and delivery are being supported by a new $5.75 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“CIMMYT supports Ethiopia’s agriculture research in a variety of ways including by training researchers, development agents and farmers skills on modern sciences and filling technical gaps by providing field and laboratory equipment, farm machinery, installing irrigation systems, modernizing breeding programs, improving quality of data, providing germplasm and project funds,” said Bekele Abeyo, a CIMMYT senior scientist and wheat breeder based in Addis Ababa.
“The government is now putting an emphasis on agriculture and the situation is far better and improving,” he said. “The structure and extension systems are there to help farmers – Direct Seed Marketing is making it easier to increase the availability of seeds and complements more traditional public seed.”
Adopting improved wheat varieties increases the number of food secure households by 2.7 percent and reduces the number of chronic and transitory food insecure households by 10 and 2 percent respectively, according to CIMMYT scientist Menale Kassie, one of the authors of “Adoption of improved wheat varieties and impacts on household food security in Ethiopia.”
Ethiopia’s wheat-growing area in 2013 was equivalent to 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres), and the country produced 2.45 metric tons of wheat per hectare, according to the country’s Central Statistical Agency.
VENTURE EVOLVES
In 2013, Abraham harvested about 250 quintals (25 metric tons) of the Digalu wheat seed variety near Bishoftu, a town formerly known as Debre Zeyit in the Oromia Region situated at an altitude of 1,900 meters (6,230 feet) 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa.
Abraham is optimistic. He expects he will soon be able to hire many employees, as he plans to expand his agricultural interests to include beekeeping, dairy cattle, poultry and livestock, he said.
“My main aim is not only to earn more money, but also to teach and share with others – that’s what I value most,” he said. “Regardless of money, there are certain people who have a far-sighted view and I want them to be involved. That’s what I value – I’m opening an opportunity for others and envisioning a far-sighted development plan.”
He still has a way to go before he catches up with Al Amoudi, ranked by Forbes as the 61st wealthiest person in the world.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), gestures toward an expansive field of green wheat shimmering in the hot sunlight outside his office.
“If we don’t prepare crops resilient to heat and drought, the effects of climate change will increase the risk of worldwide famine and conflict,” he explained. “That’s why CIMMYT is part of an international research program to develop new climate change-resistant varieties.”
As the global population grows from a current 7 billion to a projected 9.6 billion by 2050, wheat breeders involved in the battle to ensure food security face many challenges.
Already, U.N. food agencies estimate that at least 805 million people do not get enough food and that more than 2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiency, or “hidden hunger.”
Globally, wheat provides 20 percent of the world’s daily protein and calories, according to the Wheat Initiative. Wheat production must grow 60 percent over the next 35 years to keep pace with demand, statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations show – an achievable goal only if wheat yields increase from the current level of below 1 percent annually to at least 1.7 percent per year.
The scientists that Braun leads are on the front lines – tackling the climate change threat in laboratories and at wheat research stations throughout Mexico and in 13 other countries.
LIFE-SAVING GRAIN
Wheat is vital to global food security. In particular, since CIMMYT scientist Norman Borlaug, who died in 2009 at age 95, led efforts to develop semi-dwarf wheat varieties in the mid-20th century that helped save more than 1 billion lives in Pakistan, India and other areas of the developing world.
Borlaug started work on wheat improvement in the mid-1940s in Mexico – where CIMMYT is headquartered near Mexico City. The country became self-sufficient in wheat production in the early 1960s.
Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work, and in his acceptance speech paid tribute to the “army of hunger fighters” with whom he had worked.
However, in contemporary times, some critics have cast a shadow over his work, questioning the altruistic aims of the project that became widely known as the Green Revolution.
They argue that the modern high-yielding crop varieties did not help poor farmers, but caused environmental damage through overuse of fertilizers, water resources and the degradation of soils.
Other condemnations include claims that food scarcity is a mere political construct, that food provision has helped governments suppress disgruntled masses and that vast wheat mono-croplands compromise agricultural and wild biodiversity.
However, a 2003 report in “Science” magazine analyzed the overall impact of the Green Revolution in the 20th Century. The authors, economists from Yale University and Williams College, found that without the long-term increase in food crop productivity and lower food prices resulting from the Green Revolution, the world would have experienced “a human welfare crisis.”
“Caloric intake per capita in the developing world would have been 13.3 to 14.4 percent lower and the proportion of children malnourished would have been from 6.1 to 7.9 percent higher,” authors Robert Evanson and Douglas Gollen wrote.
“Put in perspective, this suggests that the Green Revolution succeeded in raising the health status of 32 to 42 million preschool children. Infant and child mortality would have been considerably higher in developing countries as well.”
Braun acknowledges certain points made by critics of the Green Revolution, but asks how else developing countries would have met the food demands of their rapidly-expanding populations with less environmental impact.
“It’s very easy to look back 50 years and criticize,” Braun said. “People forget that at the time, new farm technologies were an incredible success. We have to put it into context – saving hundreds of millions of lives from starvation was the priority and the Green Revolution did just that.”
CLIMATE-RESILIENT WHEAT
Fast-forward and today much of CIMMYT’s current work remains steadily focused on improving wheat yields, but now with an emphasis on ensuring sustainable productivity and reducing agriculture’s environmental footprint.
Scientists are engaged in an international five-year project to develop climate-resilient wheat. They estimate that in tropical and sub-tropical regions, wheat yields will decrease by 10 percent for each 1-degree rise in minimum night-time temperature, which means that production levels could decline by 30 percent in South Asia. About 20 percent of the world’s wheat is produced in the region.
CIMMYT is collaborating with Kansas State University, Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the project, which is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative.
According to Braun, one of the biggest challenges over the next 30 years is to develop better production systems in addition to resource-efficient crops.
For example, a great deal of water is used in food production and demand can and should be cut in half, he said. “We need to focus on sustainable intensification in ways that won’t overuse natural resources.”
To aid in these efforts, CIMMYT has developed international research programs on conservation and precision agriculture.
In conservation agriculture, farmers reduce or stop tilling the soil, leaving crop residues on the surface of the field and rotate crops to sustainably increase productivity. Precision agriculture involves such technologies as light sensors to determine crop vigor and gauge nitrogen fertilizer dosages to determine exactly what plants need.
“This reduces nitrate runoff into waterways and greenhouse gas emissions,” Braun explained. CIMMYT and its partners are also breeding wheat lines that are better at taking up and using fertilizer.
“Wheat in developing countries currently uses only 30 percent of the fertilizer applied,” he said. “There are promising options to double that rate, but developing and deploying them require significant investments.”
“I’m very optimistic that we can produce 60 to 70 percent more wheat to meet demand – society is beginning to recognize that food production is one of humanity’s biggest challenges – today and in the future,” Braun summarized.
“We have or can develop the technologies needed, but politicians must recognize that investment in agriculture is not a problem, it’s a solution – the longer we wait the bigger the potential problems and challenges we face.”
Braun continued, “We also need policymakers to reach agreement that global climate change is a big problem that absolutely must be addressed so that we can gain access to sufficient resources and more fully develop appropriate technologies.”
By Arun Joshi, Ravi Singh, R. Valluru and Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT
Wheat researchers in India learned about CIMMYT’s newest advanced wheat lines during field days this spring at each of the locations of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) —Jabalpur, Pusa-Bihar and Ladowal-Ludhiana. The events were designed to link Indian wheat breeders and pathologists with a new Feed the Future-USAID project that uses genomic selection to rapidly develop climate-resilient wheat varieties for South Asia.
Demonstration of the use of IRT at BISA Jabalpur. Photos: Arun Joshi
At each event, participants saw the advanced wheat lines planted at the BISA locations as part of the USAID project and learned how they are different from the present CIMMYT lines distributed across India and around the world. In fact, these lines will become part of CIMMYT trials and nurseries in the next crop cycle. The participants selected the best wheat lines according to the requirements of their breeding program, and each participating center will be given enough seed from those lines to develop replicated trials in the coming cycle.
The field days were organized by CIMMYT in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s (ICAR) Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR). More than 70 wheat breeders and pathologists from 22 wheat research centers in India, including ICAR institutes and universities, attended. Dr. Indu Sharma, DWR director, took a very active role in the events, encouraging wheat centers from India to participate. Four GWP scientists from CIMMYT —Ravi Singh, Arun Joshi, Ravi Valluru and Uttam Kumar— also played important roles. The events were facilitated by CIMMYT colleagues based at BISA locations, notably H.S. Sidhu, Raj Kumar Jat and Nikhil Singh. Other field day activities included:
• Characterizing various lines based on their morpho-physiological traits and resistance to diseases, such as yellow rust at Ladowal-Ludhiana and spot blotch at Pusa-Bihar.
The BISA-Jabalpur field is one site for the genomic selection project.
• Training in the use of infrared thermometers to measure canopy temperature in wheat plots.
• Visits to other trials and facilities at BISA locations.
• An interactive session where participants could ask questions and exchange views on the genomic selection project and other activities in the region.
The USAID project, which is a partnership of Kansas State University, Cornell University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and CIMMYT, will use genomic selection in the new wheat lines to track genetic variances for heat tolerance, with a goal of reducing the breeding cycle in the future. The genomic data collected will be used to manage the genetic diversity and the retention of favorable alleles in the population, safeguarding prospects for long-term genetic gains.
By Pankaj Singh, H.S. Sidhu and Parvinder Singh/CIMMYT
It was a memorable day for Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) staff when Alok Sikka, deputy director general of natural resource management for the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, visited the BISA research station at Ludhiana.
Visitors at the long-term conservation agriculture trials. Photo: Mandeep Singh
H.S. Sidhu, senior research engineer, and Pankaj Singh, BISA farm manager, welcomed Sikka and described farm development activities. The guests visited the genomic selection trial, a five-year project started in November 2013 that is funded by USAID-Feed the Future, Cornell University and Kansas State University. CIMMYT’s Ravi Valluru described efforts to rapidly develop climate-resilient wheat varieties for South Asia using genomic selection. Through this approach, researchers can predict the best wheat lines, even at the early seedling stages.
The early prediction of important traits and wheat lines can be used to accelerate breeding, leading to the rapid identification and release of high-yielding, heat-tolerant candidate wheat varieties for South Asia with annual genetic gains superior to those obtained through conventional breeding. Later, the visitors saw international nurseries, wheat hybrid trials and the long term conservation agriculture (CA) trial being conducted on the farm. M.L. Jat emphasized that depleted freshwater resources due to rising demand from an increasing population is a serious concern. There is a need for alternative cropping systems with high yields, low irrigation water requirements and high water productivity compared to rice-wheat systems.
Visitors listen to discussion on mechanization.
Sidhu pointed out that relay cropping of wheat in standing cotton is beneficial for farmers. Some progressive farmers are ready to start the relay cropping of wheat in standing cotton, after visiting the long-term CA trial. Jat and Parvinder Singh described trials started in 2013 to test different cultivars with different establishment environments and in different ecologies.
The same trial is being conducted at the three BISA farms, located in different ecologies with six common and four regional varieties. Early results show the need to focus on site-specific recommendations, instead of blanket recommendations for an entire region. Sidhu and Jat described the objectives of the precision water management trial supported by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project (CSISA) that started in spring 2013. The trials showed impressive results and continued with a maize-maize-pea rotation. Jat said farmers are interested in spring maize due to its high yield potential, but the crop requires more water.
Technology is needed to save water while retaining yields. Finally, Sidhu described second generation CA machinery and emphasized that it can be useful for small landholders.
Today’s sessions at the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security recognized Dr. Norman Borlaug’s legacy and the roles of wheat and wheat farmers around the world in the fight for global food security.
Participants packed the auditorium at the Universidad de La Salle Noreste in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, for a day focusing on the successes and shortcomings of the Green Revolution and the challenges in producing enough food for today’s world and in the future. Keynote speakers included Sir Gordon Conway, professor at Imperial College London, and Howard G. Buffett, chairman and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.
Howard G. Buffett answers questions from Sir Gordon Conway about the “Brown Revolution.” (Photo: Brenna Goth)
Speakers addressed past and current successes in agricultural research while stressing that problems persist.
“We live in a world of chronic crises,” Conway said during his talk on lessons learned from the Green Revolution, adding that, oftentimes, when one crisis is solved, another arises.
Not all of the poor benefitted from the Green Revolution; it passed by much of Africa and it led to increased reliance on synthetic fertilizers. At the same time, rising food prices, a need to increase food production, rising meat consumption and stressors including climate change challenge food security.
Sustainable intensification – through ecological and genetic approaches – can help, Conway said, as well as making sure people get the inputs they need.
More than 700 people attended the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security (Photo: Brenna Goth)
“We’ve got to intensify production,” he said. “We’ve got to get yields up.”
Buffett also stressed sustainability with his call for a “Brown Revolution,” or a focus on saving soil and the world’s ecosystem. Much of his philanthropic work focuses on farming and agriculture.
Farming is the most important profession in the world, Buffett said, yet he has met farmers who cannot feed their families.
“I said ‘This is wrong,’” Buffett commented. “We have to figure out how to do this better.”
He called on world leaders to support agriculture and said he remains a “pessimistic optimist” in facing global challenges.
Participants enjoyed the campus of La Salle University (Photo: Brenna Goth)
Dr. Borlaug took action when witnessing these challenges and didn’t back down to opposition, according to Summit speakers. Several presentations focused on their personal relationships with Dr. Borlaug and the impact he made on wheat research.
M.S. Swaminathan, known as the father of the Green Revolution in India, spoke about Dr. Borlaug’s impact on India through a video message. In another video message, Jeanie Borlaug-Laube, Dr. Borlaug’s daughter, said her father worked for everything he had and would tell young people to continue the fight to feed the world. Wheat breeder Sanjaya Rajaram, who started his career with Dr. Borlaug, recounted early mornings in the field and Dr. Borlaug’s kindness to Mexican staff.
Though Dr. Borlaug focused much of his career on fighting wheat stem rust, new factors threaten wheat production. Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, spoke about the need to breed varieties resistant to climate change and revisit triticale, a crop full of potential and Dr. Borlaug’s “unfinished business.”
Scientists today can learn from Dr. Borlaug’s communication skills, said Ronnie Coffman, professor at Cornell University and chair of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative. Researchers must advocate for biotechnology to fight hunger, he said.
Regarding Dr. Borlaug’s response to opposition to the Green Revolution, Coffman said, “Borlaug did not waver before the naysayers and policymakers. We must draw on his conviction and share it with the world.”
The day ended with policy recommendations and a panel discussion on what Dr. Borlaug might do today. The Summit continues tomorrow with a focus on why wheat matters to the world. Follow @CIMMYT on Twitter from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. MST for live updates.
More than 25 speakers will gather with nearly 700 participants in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, next week for the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security, an event celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Norman Borlaug. Top wheat scientists, policy analysts, scholars and authors will address topics ranging from the history of wheat to current agricultural innovations. Take a look at what some of our speakers have been up to and see the whole list here.
Wheat scientist Graham Farquhar was recently honored with the U.K.’s Rank Prize for his work developing a technique that led to the “emergence of new commercial wheat varieties.”
A former CIMMYT scientist recently returned to South Asia to share his expertise in conservation agriculture.
Peter Hobbs worked for CIMMYT as a regional agronomist from 1988 to 2002 and co-led the creation and management of the Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC) for the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Hobbs now works at Cornell University, most recently as associate director of International Programs. The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project invited Hobbs to Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the Terai region of Nepal from 18 to 24 January, where he offered perspectives on South Asia’s progress in the last decade in ricewheat systems research, and heard comments from colleagues.
Former CIMMYT scientist Peter Hobbs. Andrew McDonald/CIMMYT
“Peter Hobbs is the pioneer of zero tillage wheat in South Asia – one of CIMMYT’s best contributions in this region after Norman Borlaug,” said R.K. Malik, a member of CSISA’s senior management team who accompanied Hobbs through India. Malik was a core member of the RWC during Hobb’s time and a champion of zero tillage (ZT) for sowing wheat in rice-wheat rotations. Malik recalled CIMMYT’s early efforts to introduce conservation agriculture in India. Hobbs was integral, bringing the first ZT machine to India from New Zealand in 1989 -the Aitchison drill which was later modified, improved and widely adopted in India.
He said that Hobbs applied innovative and multi-disciplinary approaches that united the efforts of the national research programs with an array of public and private stakeholders. “This technology was dependent on identifying champions in the areas where we worked to engage innovative farmers, energize the scientists involved and link them with local machinery manufacturers and farmers, Hobbs said. Hobbs shared observations on his travels through the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains. “After seeing the fields in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, there is no question that ZT and reduced-tillage technologies do work and do provide benefits as long as they are done properly and the enabling factors are in place,” he said.
He stressed that farmers must have access to machinery, inputs and related expertise, perhaps through a network of service providers. “That means we have to look at the way research can help farmers – having a more participatory approach and providing incentives to scientists and extension workers based on accountability and performance is critical for success,” Hobbs stated. “The RWC and legacy of pioneering scientists like Peter Hobbs, Raj Gupta and R.K. Malik established the foundation for CIMMYT’s ongoing work and impact with farmers in the region through projects like CSISA,” said Andrew McDonald, CSISA project leader. “It was a true pleasure to have Peter’s insights into where we are succeeding and where we can do better. South Asia is changing quickly, but the core lessons from where we’ve come still resonate.”
Hobbs is optimistic about the potential of these technologies in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. “It was very rewarding to see that interest in resource- conserving technologies has grown and continues to thrive in this region, and specifically in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains, where there is great potential to benefit farmers and also contribute to food security in a more environmentally friendly way.”
By Ravi Valluru, Arun Joshi and Ravi P. Singh/CIMMYT
Innovative approaches to plant genotyping are helping CIMMYT researchers and partners to develop high-yielding, climate-resilient wheat in South Asia.
Researchers sow wheat trials. Photo: Arun Joshi
The genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach offers significant benefits over traditional plant breeding. Conventional breeding relies on scoring phenotypes, which is often laborious and inexact, to determine the estimated breeding value (EBV). This approach delays the verification of breeding results. Plant selection through genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (GS), however, is a variant of marker-assisted selection (MAS) that enables crop breeders to rank best parents accurately and cost-effectively.
Researchers Jesse Poland, a geneticist with Kansas State University, and Ravi P. Singh, head of CIMMYT’s bread wheat improvement program, are developing GBS-assisted wheat with support from Cornell University. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is funding the $5 million, five-year project under the Feed the Future initiative. “This genotyping project signifies a new era of big science for international wheat development,” Poland said.
The project builds on the established heat tolerance and yield potential framework established by CIMMYT scientists. About 1,000 advanced wheat lines developed in Mexico by CIMMYT were planted at Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) locations as well as in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and six environments in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, to characterize them for heat tolerance.
Researchers acquire “greenness” data using a hand-held NDVI sensor. Photo: Ravi Valluru
Through rigorous testing of wheat lines for various traits – including yield – the GS project will promote the best varietal options for testing and release by national programs and the private sector in South Asia. “Incorporating genomic selection criteria into CIMMYT’s bread wheat breeding pipeline will significantly expedite wheat genetic gains,” Singh said. Wheat varieties developed by the GS project will have enhanced climate resilience. Their heat tolerance and maximized yield potential could reduce heat-induced yield losses by 20 to 30 percent. “Efforts will be initiated to incorporate the genomic selection strategy into conventional breeding programs in South Asia,” said CIMMYT wheat breeder Arun Joshi, adding that genomic information, genomic models and optimized strategies generated through the GS project will benefit cultivar selection worldwide.
Though MAS improves breeding decisions, GS has several additional benefits. “Being a hypothesis-independent approach, the beauty of GS is that it tracks genetic variance for a trait in a population and reduces the breeding cycle significantly,” Singh said. Additionally, the genomic data collected will be useful to manage the genetic diversity and the retention of favorable alleles in the population, safeguarding prospects for long-term genetic gains.
Crucial to implementing the approach are adequate and affordable genotyping platforms, simplified breeding schemes to capture additive genetic effects, models for estimating long-term marker effects and a close collaboration between science and industry.
“If GS-assisted crop breeding, by encompassing other possible biological – for example metabolic – markers, lives up to its promise, it will certainly change the face of crop breeding, productivity and food security,” said CIMMYT wheat physiologist Ravi Valluru, interim coordinator of the GS project at BISA.
CIMMYT’s wheat physiology unit has grown from a small team led by one scientist in Mexico to a group that now includes specialists in crop modeling, crop physiology, molecular genetics and remote sensing. Matthew Reynolds, who leads the team, has seen a significant increase in the application of plant physiology since coming to CIMMYT nearly 25 years ago. “When I first started,” he said, “we worked to convince skeptical plant breeders that physiology could be useful to them.” Today, the team is widely recognized for its contributions and has produced germplasm that is being used by national agricultural research systems.
Last month, Reynolds became a 2013 fellow for the Crop Science Society of America, which is the highest recognition given by the organization. He was also invited to speak at a Bayer’s 150th anniversary science symposium, which featured a wide range of disciplines from medicine to crop research.
A United Kingdom native, Reynolds comes from a botany and crop physiology background. He first came to CIMMYT after earning a Ph.D. at Cornell University in New York. Though he had more experience working with potatoes than wheat, Reynolds said he was enticed by the opportunity that CIMMYT provided to work on “the real and tangible problem of food security.” He sees wheat as an exciting crop to work on not only for its importance worldwide as a food source, but also because it is so widely adapted. “It is the best suited of any major staple food crop to drier conditions,” Reynolds said. “That makes it an important pillar for food security as we face the uncertainties of climate change.”
Reynolds splits his time between CIMMYT’s headquarters in El Batán, Mexico, in the Central Mexican Highlands, and Ciudad Obregón, Sonora state. In Ciudad Obregón, an irrigated desert research station in northern Mexico, Reynolds and his team conduct most of their research and advise visiting scientists and Ph.D. students. He also travels frequently to interact with partners worldwide. Collaboration and sharing knowledge are crucial to his work. Field guides and manuals on physiological breeding edited by Reynolds and colleagues have been translated into Chinese, Russian and Spanish. Reynolds also compiled and edited the book Climate Change and Crop Production.
Another recent endeavor has been to establish the Wheat Yield Network, which unites institutions worldwide working on raising the yield potential of wheat. The work is demanding and the problems aren’t getting any less, Reynolds said. But he sees the job as not only intellectually stimulating but a privilege.
“It’s extremely satisfying,” he said, “to help solve real-life problems for people who really need it, through a combination of science, training, and global collaboration.”
A long-time colleague of CIMMYT received the inaugural 2013 World Agriculture Prize from the Global Confederation of Higher Education Associations for the Agricultural and Life Sciences (GCHERA), which recognizes contributions to the field by a university faculty member. Ronnie Coffman, international professor of plant breeding at Cornell University and director of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, was awarded the prize for his leadership in crop improvement, the prize committee said. He received the award on 20 October during GCHERA’s annual meeting in China.
“The world’s farmers need access to the best science that the many great institutions of GCHERA can deliver in order to produce crops that are nutritionally adequate and best-adapted to future challenges,” Coffman said during his acceptance speech, according to GCHERA. Coffman spent a year as a visiting scientist with CIMMYT’s wheat program in 1970 and has continually collaborated with the organization since then. Norman Borlaug, the late CIMMYT wheat scientist and Nobel Peace Laureate, supervised Coffman when he was a graduate student, and the two worked together to address the stem rust disease race Ug99 and other wheat diseases.
Coffman is vice chair of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, which was established to respond to wheat disease threats. He worked in the Philippines as a rice breeder for the International Rice Research Institute in the 1970s, where he developed new varieties, before joining the Cornell faculty in 1981. More recently, he has focused on fighting wheat diseases and mentoring students. Coffman has served on the board of various CGIAR centers, including the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics. (ICRISAT) Coffman is also a confirmed speaker for the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security, a Borlaug 100 event that CIMMYT will host in March 2014. For more information about the event, visit www.borlaug100.org.
For the fifth consecutive year, scientists from around the world met at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) facility in Njoro for training on “Standardization of Stem Rust Note-taking and Evaluation of Germplasm.” The course, conducted 22 September to 2 October, attracted 30 scientists from 15 countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, United States, Yemen and Zambia). The course created increased awareness about the threat of rusts (especially Ug99) on wheat production. The wheat research scientists were trained on new approaches in fighting the rust diseases (including genetics, pathology, breeding and molecular genetics) and taught common approaches in identifying, scoring and evaluating rust diseases both in the field and in experimental plots.
Practical demonstrations focused on rust methodologies and handson experience in recording disease scales both in the greenhouse and field, according to Sridhar Bhavani, CIMMYT wheat pathologist/ breeder and course coordinator. Participants had the opportunity to work with the East African component of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) and Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) projects in Kenya. These are designed to monitor further migration of Ug99 and its variants; facilitate field screening of international germplasm; identify new sources of resistance; understand the genetic basis of resistance; develop durable, targeted breeding programs; and enhance the capacity of national programs. Participants had the opportunity to interact with international scientists, and trainers learned of emerging problems from the participants.
Attendees also visited the KARI breeding program and farmers’ fields to inspect the new varieties. Members of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees and Management Committee as well as KARI dignitaries also visited the screening site at KARI Njoro on 26 September and interacted with Oliver Nightingale from Menangai Farms, a progressive farmer who demonstrated one of the new varieties (“Kenya Robin”) which was planted on 1,000 acres of his farm near Njoro. “Wheat farmers in Kenya have benefited greatly with the new varieties developed by CIMMYT and released by KARI. These varieties are not only resistant to rust but generate yields 10 to 15 percent higher than the local varieties and are resistant to stem rust,” Nightingale told the group. Two varieties – “Kenya Robin” and “Kenya Eagle” – are CIMMYT introductions which have become very popular with farmers and currently occupy 25 to 30 percent of the wheat area in Kenya. “Kenya Robin has bold grains, good straw strength, still stands after three hail storms and yields between 6.8-7 tons per acre, whereas the older variety ‘Kwale’ lodged flat in farmers’ fields in similar conditions,” added Nightingale.
Photo: CIMMYT
He thanked CIMMYT and KARI for introducing high-yielding varieties in Kenya. The 2013 main season screening nursery has more than 25,000 wheat accessions from 15 countries and research institutions to be evaluated for resistance to Ug99 and close to 50,000 accessions are tested every year. According to Bhavani, more than 300,000 lines have been tested at KARI-Njoro since 2006 and eight varieties have been released since 2008 in Kenya and more than 40 Ug99-resistant varieties/advanced lines have been released globally. “Every year as a part of CIMMYT-Kenya shuttle breeding nearly 1,000 F3 and F4 populations are selected under high disease pressure for two generations at KARI-Njoro and several high-yielding lines with good levels of Ug99 resistance have been identified,” added Ravi Singh, CIMMYT distinguished scientist.
The KARI-CIMMYT screening nursery has produced global benefits that go beyond Kenya’s borders – with spillover effects reaching neighboring countries including Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. “Commitment to the cause through global partnership, free exchange of germplasm, scientific expertise and donor funding have been the key features leading to the success of this project,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program. He continued, stating, “CIMMYT Board members were impressed with the progress in the fight against Ug99, the logistics that go into operating this global rust screening platform in Njoro and the impact that has been achieved through release and adoption by farmers of rust-resistant varieties around the globe.” The annual course is part of the wider BGRI/DRRW project in Kenya, an initiative of Cornell University that is being implemented by CIMMYT and KARI in collaboration with 16 other research institutions worldwide. The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development. To date, more than 100 pathologists, breeders and geneticists have been trained at KARI-Njoro. Scientists from Australia, Kenya, the United States and CIMMYT lectured on several aspects of wheat rust research. As Zambian participant Lutangu Makweti said: “It time for us to utilize the knowledge gained in the training course and implement better surveys and breeding activities in our countries.” Participants thanked CIMMYT and KARI for the opportunity to learn about rusts, the practical, handson training and the opportunity to interact with the global rust community. The long-term partnership between CIMMYT and KARI is achieving numerous milestones in the fight against the Ug99 race group and producing outcomes that benefit the entire global wheat community. For more information contact Dr. Sridhar Bhavani, wheat breeder/ coordinator DRRW-screening for stem rust in East Africa, CIMMYT-Kenya at S.Bhavani@cgiar.org.
