Mathematical models could boost CIMMYT’s impact on Mexico, a leading scientist in the United States said last month. Carlos Castillo-Chavez, a Mexican-born scientist and professor at Arizona State University, visited El Batán from 21 to 23 August to meet with the staff of the MasAgro program and the Biometrics and Statistics Unit. His trip focused on learning about and giving input on CIMMYT programs as well as seeking opportunities for collaboration with ASU.
Castillo-Chavez is part of U.S. President Barack Obama’s Committee on the National Medal of Science, whose members help select medal candidates from among top U.S. scientists. Castillo-Chavez grew up in Mexico City with interests in theater and literature but thought he would be more successful pursuing math. He moved to the United States in 1974 and worked odd jobs before starting college in Wisconsin and later earning a PhD in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. He first visited CIMMYT about two decades ago and was the PhD adviser at Cornell University for Carlos Hernández, the head of CIMMYT’s Biometrics and Statistics Unit. Castillo-Chavez’s research focuses on the intersection between math, natural sciences, and social sciences. He studies disease evolution and social landscapes, including tuberculosis and SARS, the role of mass transit systems in the spread of influenza in Mexico, and “social diseases” such as drinking and drug use. Castillo- Chavez founded the Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center at ASU and has received various awards at the national level for his research, teaching, and mentorship of minority students.
Bringing research to the people it could benefit is often a complicated and political process, Castillo- Chavez said. Scientists have the responsibility to communicate their research to the public, but policymakers set the course for “trendy” research topics. It’s an issue that needs to change, he said. And it could change with more interdisciplinary programs that have direct ties to and benefits for society. “Most problems of interest to Mexico don’t always apply to what’s current or hot in international academia,” Castillo- Chavez said. “There is no reason why Mexico should not have its own research agenda that may or may not intersect with the U.S.” He said during the visit that his research on contagion and how information spreads applies to the work CIMMYT is doing. Mathematical models can be used to study and increase the impact CIMMYT’s research has on Mexico by assessing the culture and identifying obstacles, he said. By communicating the research to enough people, “a culture change takes place where farmers and politicians are in constant communication to implement CIMMYT research,” Castillo- Chavez said. ASU and CIMMYT’s Biometrics and Statistics Unit could collaborate on this research by mentoring and training young people who would work closely with both institutions, he said, adding that he’s interested in exploring those possibilities.
During his visit, Castillo-Chavez learned MasAgro is an example of a project that targets a local population, he said. But the challenge with all advancements is finding the right leaders to put them into place. “It’s clear the research could generate dramatic improvements if implemented,” he said. “Nationally, we would see incredible advances in sustainable agriculture.”
“My work in Africa is not finished,” Jeanie Borlaug quoted her father, Dr Norman Borlaug, during her opening statement for wheat seed system field day bringing together farmers, researchers, seed growers, and development enterprises experts to discuss improved seed system and end-use quality issues in Ethiopia. The field day was held at the Kulumsa Research Center (KRC), Ethiopia, on 15 November 2012 and was followed by an end-use quality workshop on 16 November. Both events were organized by KRC and CIMMYT and sponsored by Cornell University’s Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project (DRRW).
The first-ever Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Gene Stewardship Award was awarded to the Nepal wheat team for their performance in promoting durable wheat varieties and enhancing food security. The award was handed to the Nepal team at the BGRI Technical Workshop in Beijing, China, held during 1-4 September 2012. It was announced at a special ceremony by Ronnie Coffman (BGRI vice chair) and presented by Jeanie Borlaug Laube (BGRI chair).
The Stewardship Award recognizes a researcher or team of researchers serving a national breeding program or other nationally based institution. Award recipients demonstrate excellence in the development, multiplication, and/or release of rust resistant wheat varieties through appropriate means that encourage diversity and complexity of resistance, promote the durability of the materials, and help implement BGRI’s goal of responsible gene deployment and stewardship.
The Nepal team, led by Madan Raj Bhatta and consisting of Sarala Sharma, Dhruba Bahadur Thapa, Nutan Raj Gautam, and Deepak Bhandari, was nominated by Arun Joshi (CIMMYT senior wheat breeder). “The wheat research team of Nepal has contributed remarkably to bringing about the excellence in the development and release of rustresistant wheat varieties, seed multiplication of resistant varieties with diverse genetic backgrounds, disease surveillance, participatory research with farmers, and improvement of livelihoods of smallscale farmers to combat the problems of food security,” Joshi explained. “This shows what a small program can do to serve farmers and enhance productivity and sustainability.”
Currently, the wheat research team works to release Ug99 resistant varieties of wheat and disseminate the new varieties to resource poor farmers. The Ug99 resistant seed is expected to cover around 5.4% of the area under cultivation for wheat in Nepal by the end of the current cycle (2011-2012). The team has also increased awareness about resistant varieties and pre-release seed multiplication among farmers, seed industry, planners, and national agriculture system. The resistant high-yielding varieties have been developed through collaboration between NARC and international research centers: CIMMYT, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and BGRI. According to Madan Raj Bhatta (Nepal Agriculture Research Center, NARC), “the new technologies and wheat varieties introduced by the team have brought a significant increment in area and productivity of wheat during the last five years.” The wheat area increased from 0.7 mha to 0.8 mha, production from 1.4 metric tons to 1.7 metric tons, and productivity from 2.1 tons per hectare to 2.3 tons per hectare.
In addition to its work in Nepal, the wheat team has maintained strong international collaborations by actively working with internationally recognized institutions, such as CIMMYT, BGRI, Cornell University, University of Sydney, University of Minnesota, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute. During the ceremony, NARC representatives praised the impressive performance of wheat varieties developed by the head of CIMMYT Global Wheat Breeding program Ravi Singh. Dil Bahadur Gurung (NARC executive director) expressed happiness with the wheat team’s achievements and highlighted its importance for Nepal.
Prices for irrigation, fertilizers, fuel, and labor are rising. Fresh water supplies are decreasing, and many farmers find it increasingly difficult to plant their crop on time to assure good yields and return on their investments. The CIMMYT team in Bangladesh created an inspiring video showing how farmers in South Asia are innovating to overcome these problems by using small-scale appropriate machinery and crop management practices that reduce tillage to save time, soil moisture, and money. The video, “Save More, Grow More, Earn More”, has been released in English and Bangla and features the work of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Bangladesh (CSISA-BD).
The video shows case studies from two distinct environments in Bangladesh. In the coastal region, soil salinity and insufficient irrigation present serious constraints keeping farmers from growing a dry season crop. However, by using simple machinery that reduces tillage to allow earlier planting and keeping crop residues on the soil surface to conserve soil moisture and reduce salinity, a group of women in southern Bangladesh managed to forgo the fallow and grow a profitable maize crop. In central Bangladesh, where the cost of irrigation and farm labor is skyrocketing, farmers and local service providers teamed up to demonstrate the benefits of planting wheat, maize, and legumes on raised beds to reduce labor and irrigation requirements. The crop management principles used by both groups of farmers can be applied anywhere –it is possible to grow more, while saving time, water, and money!
“Save More, Grow More, Earn More” is being shown in villages across Bangladesh through traveling outdoor roadshows led by CIMMYT’s partner Agricultural Advisory Services (AAS). Thousands of DVDs have been produced, and the film will be featured on national television in Bangladesh. Furthermore, “Save More, Grow More, Earn More” has been re-released on a CSISA-BD training DVD entitled “Strengthening Cereal Systems in Bangladesh”, which also features four films on rice seed health.
“Save More, Grow More, Earn More” was developed in partnership with the Regional Wheat Research Consortium of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and with the guidance of Timothy J. Krupnik, CIMMYT Cropping Systems Agronomist, and Agro-Insight. Funding for video development and field activities was supplied by the Feed the Future Initiative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Cornell University’s Food for Progress Project funded by the Unites States Department of Agriculture.
Work by CIMMYT with researchers, extension workers, policymakers, and farmers in Bangladesh for nearly four decades has helped establish wheat and maize among the country’s major cereal crops, made farming systems more productive and sustainable, improved food security and livelihoods, and won ringing praise from national decision makers in agriculture, according to a recent report published by CIMMYT.
“CIMMYT is one of the leading centers of the CGIAR …working in Bangladesh since the early 70s…initiating multi-dimensional work for varietal improvement, improved crop management, conservation of natural resources, and human resource development,” says Dr. Md. Nur-E-Elahi, Director General, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, citing the center’s contributions to the development of high-yielding maize and wheat varieties, wheat-rice and maize-rice systems, whole-family training, small-scale farm mechanization for conservation agriculture, and triticale (a wheat-rye hybrid) for fodder. “CIMMYT’s contributions to agricultural research and development in Bangladesh are highly recognized.”
Building capacity among scientists and farm families
More than 140 Bangladeshi wheat and maize scientists and extensionists have taken part in courses at CIMMYT-Mexico or come as visiting scientists in crop breeding, agronomy, pathology, cereal technology, experiment station management, seed production, economics, heat stress, and resource conserving practices. Dozens of scientists from Bangladesh have also attended conferences or international workshops organized by the center and partners. Finally, joint efforts in crop, soil, and water management research over the last 20 years have added to expertise in Bangladesh.More often than not, women and children contribute substantively to farm activities, so CIMMYT and the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) developed and refined a whole-family-training approach that has boosted adoption of improved cropping practices. “We’ve reached over 27,000 women and men farmers on maize and wheat production, and around 700 small-scale dairy farmers,” says Anton Prokash Adhikari, CIMMYT-Bangladesh Administrator. Follow-up studies in 1996 among a randomly-selected subset of families who attended training sessions showed a 90-100% adoption of improved practices. After training, maize farmers adopted a range of improved production practices, planting the crop on more land and raising grain yields by 0.8 tons per hectare. “This type of training has raised the quality of farming in Bangladesh,” says Adhikari.
With an average of over 1,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, Bangladesh is among the world’s most densely-populated countries, and nearly two-thirds of its people work in agriculture. The country furnishes a case study for the future of farming in developing countries: as a result of intensive cropping rotations, every square centimeter of arable land is used 1.8 times a year, and resources are stretched beyond what is normally considered “sustainable.” A recent report on CIMMYT efforts in Bangladesh gives an interesting account of how, through broad partnerships and sustained research for farmers, an international agricultural center can help improve farmers and consumers’ lives.
Joint work brings food and windfalls
“The last quarter century of work by a small team of dedicated CIMMYT staff and their colleagues in Bangladesh national programs has brought improvements in local and national income, food security, human nutrition, and well-being,” says agronomist Stephen Waddington, who worked for CIMMYT in Bangladesh during 2005-2007. “This is easily seen by any visitor to Bangladesh, where nowadays many otherwise poor people regularly have wheat chapattis for their breakfast, a glass of milk from triticale fodder-fed cows for their lunch, and maize-fed chicken, eggs, or fish for their dinner.”
Bangladesh emerged on the map of significant wheat-growing countries in the 1980s, according to Waddington. “Wheat became the second major cereal after rice, contributing to food security and human nutrition, and improving the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers and urban consumers,” he says. “Nineteen of the twenty-four wheat varieties released in Bangladesh carry CIMMYT lines in their backgrounds.” Much crop management and soil research for wheat was conducted in joint Bangladesh Wheat Research Center (WRC)-CIMMYT programs.
With climate change, enter maize and alternative crops
After playing a crucial role in Bangladesh agriculture, wheat production has declined in recent years, due chiefly to higher temperatures that hamper grain filling and incubate wheat diseases. But maize has become increasingly popular, partly in response to rising demand from the poultry sector for feed. “Last year farmers produced 1.3 million tons of maize, and output and interest are growing ,” says Enamul Haque, Senior Program Officer for CIMMYT-Bangladesh. “Maize fits well in Bangladesh’s climate, soils, and intensive farming systems.”
Again, CIMMYT has helped in a big way, providing improved maize lines adapted to local conditions, offering expertise in hybrid-based maize breeding and crop management research, helping to promote dialogue on enabling policies that foster productivity and effective markets. “Six out of the seven maize hybrids released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, in recent years contain CIMMYT maize lines, and there is significant use of CIMMYT maize by emerging private breeding companies,” says Haque.
Finally, in recent years, triticale has become a source of high-quality green fodder for small-scale dairy producers during the cool, dry, winter season. “Dual-purpose fodder and grain triticale can produce 7 to 12 tons per hectare of fresh fodder, and as much as 2 tons per hectare of grain for poultry feed or for chapattis,” says Haque. All triticale varieties sown in Bangladesh come from CIMMYT.
Mechanization and resource-conserving practices
Within the last decade or so, agriculture in Bangladesh has become highly-mechanized: 8 of 10 farmers use two-wheel tractors, which are more apt for their small and scattered land holdings than the four-wheel variety. Since 1995, Haque has worked with the WRC and local organizations to promote a varied set of implements for reduced, more efficient tillage and seeding. One key aim has been to enable farmers to sow wheat or other crops directly after rice harvest in a single day—instead of after two weeks of back-breaking, fuel-hungry plowing—thus saving money and allowing the new crop to mature before the pre-monsoon heat shrivels the grain.
Craig Meisner (left), a CIMMYT wheat agronomist during 1990-2005, contributed significantly to CIMMYT’s presence, partnerships, and achievements in Bangladesh.
“To date thousands of farmers have adopted a small, two-wheel tractor-driven implement that tills, seeds, and covers the seed in a single pass,” says Haque. “This reduces turn-around between crops by 50%, cuts costs 15-20%, saves 30% in irrigation water and 25% in seed, and improves fertilizer efficiency—all this, as well as increasing yields by 20%, for wheat.” Owners of the single-pass seeding implement often hire out their services, earning USD 1,000-2,000 a year and each helping 20-100 other farmers to obtain the above-mentioned benefits. In addition, the reduced tillage implement and practices help address labor shortages that constrain farm operations at peak times, and are opening lucrative opportunities for machinery manufacturing and repair businesses.
For the future, CIMMYT staff are testing and promoting with researchers and farmers the use of permanent, raised beds and straw retention systems that can increase yields as much as 50% in intensive, wheat-maize-rice cropping sequences. Future activities of CIMMYT-Bangladesh will also focus on strengthening wheat and maize breeding programs, system-based research and resource-conserving practices, and the use of maize as food, fodder, and feed. “We’d also like to do more capacity building, study soil health and nutrition, and better disseminate useful technologies to farmers and extension agents,” Haque says, “but much depends on the resources available.”
Extensive partnerships key to past and future success
“CIMMYT has worked with national programs, NGOs, the private sector, farmers, donors, and policy planners,” says Md. Harun-ur-Rashid, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, and Director General, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute. “These joint programs have accumulated an impressive array of achievements and benefits.”
CIMMYT’s Ravi Singh is named outstanding CGIAR scientist for 2005.
Ravi Singh is a skilled researcher who has dedicated his career to improving the lives of wheat farmers in the developing world. That dedication, commitment, and skill were rewarded by the members of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) when they named him the outstanding scientist in the system for 2005. CIMMYT is one of the CGIAR’s 15 research centers.
Ravi Singh joined CIMMYT as a post-doctoral fellow in 1983. He has specialized in rusts—fungal pathogens that since the beginning of agriculture have plagued wheat crops. Carried on the wind, rust spores respect no political boundaries. Resource-poor wheat farmers, who have no access to chemical controls, are at the highest risk. One solution is to find a genetic characteristic that will prevent the pathogen from causing damage and incorporate it into wheat varieties farmers will grow. Traditionally this host plant resistance has come from a single, major gene. The problem is that the pathogens mutate and can overcome the resistance provided by a single gene in a relatively short time.
Singh’s great contribution has been the development of the underlying theory of genetic resistance mechanisms in wheat. He has been able to breed durable resistance to both leaf rust and yellow rust by combining several minor resistance genes into a single cultivar to give the plant a resistance to the pathogen that will survive many generations, many growing seasons.
Rust resistance has been one of the most important thrusts of CIMMYT’s wheat breeding work. One study documenting the impact of almost 40 years of breeding for leaf rust at CIMMYT estimated that for every dollar (based on 1990 values) CIMMYT invested, the return to farmers growing spring wheat alone was US$27, for a total of more than US$5.3 billion.
“I’m thrilled for Ravi and thrilled for CIMMYT,” said Dr. Masa Iwanaga, CIMMYT’s Director General. “This award shows once again that scientific excellence combined with a commitment to people in the developing world is a winning combination.”
This is the second time in three years that a CIMMYT researcher has been named the CGIAR’s outstanding scientist. Last year the CIMMYT-convened Rice Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains won the coveted King Baudouin Award for excellence in agricultural science.
Today Ravi Singh has taken on perhaps the biggest challenge of his career: to find durable resistance for a new, virulent strain of stem rust, the most dreaded of all the wheat diseases. If not contained or controlled, the new stem rust strain could cause billions of dollars of damage every year to wheat crops and immense suffering for resource-poor wheat farmers in the developing world.
“Ravi has been the intellectual linchpin in this research initiative,” says Dr. Ronnie Coffman, the Chair of the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics at Cornell University. “He is helping scientists in all the essential disciplines and geographies integrate their knowledge and abilities into an effort that I believe will successfully forestall a global stem rust epidemic.”
While the science itself presents a challenge, Singh always has in mind the people for whom he is doing the work. “The issue is how quickly we can put resistance into a cultivar which will be acceptable to farmers in developing countries,” he says. “You feel great when you see that people far away are growing something you developed
CIMMYT scientists Guillermo Ortiz Ferrara, Craig Meisner, and Mujeeb Kazi have recently been recognized for contributions they have made to agriculture and science over the years.
The government of the Mexican state of Coahuila awarded Dr. Guillermo Ortiz Ferrara with the Medal of Agronomic Merit in research in June 2004. This year the medals honored graduates of the Universidad Autonoma Agraria Antonio Narro in Coahuila, where Ortiz Ferrara studied from 1966 to 1971 and majored in agronomy. He was one of six agronomists selected by former university presidents and government representatives for carrying out work that produced significant developments in their respective fields. In July 2004, Ortiz Ferrara also received the Presea Saltillo award, which recognizes native citizens of the Mexican city of Saltillo who have distinguished careers. Ortiz Ferrara is a principal scientist in CIMMYT’s South Asia regional office and CIMMYT’s country representative in Nepal.
Dr. Craig Meisner accepted an international adjunct professorship with the International Agriculture Program at Cornell University in February 2004. This position recognizes Meisner’s collaboration with Cornell in Bangladesh, including work on their Soil Management CRSP with USAID, the Bangladesh Country Almanac, rickets research, arsenic in the environment, and virus-free transgenic papaya. “Together we have made and are continuing to make impacts in growers’ fields,” says Meisner, a Bangladesh-based agronomist in CIMMYT’s Intensive Agroecosystems Program.
Dr. Mujeeb Kazi was awarded the Kansas State University Gamma Sigma Delta Eta Chapter Outstanding Alumnus Award for 2004. The award recognizes Kazi’s contributions to science as an alumnus of KSU’s College of Agriculture, where he received a Ph.D. in plant breeding in 1970. Kazi, a principal scientist, began working at CIMMYT in 1979 and became head of the Wheat Wide Crosses Unit in 1980. His research in crossing wheat with its wild relatives has made a great impact and expanded the pool of genetic diversity available for wheat improvement. Kazi received the 2003 CGIAR Outstanding Scientist Award for this work.
Innovative techniques in wheat breeding are necessary to meet the increasing population demand and overcome environmental challenges, said CIMMYT Wheat Breeder, Ravi Singh, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) on 18 February 2012.
Wheat currently provides approximately 20% of the world’s calories, and 20% of the total protein intake in the developing world, but yields will need to increase by 1 ton per hectare by 2020 to keep pace with the growing global population, according to Singh. This is a great challenge, considering the anticipated negative effects of rising global temperatures and the risks posed by highly-virulent new pathogens such as Ug99.
A strain of the causal fungus of wheat stem rust disease that first appeared in Uganda in 1998, Ug99 has since been detected in several countries of eastern and southern Africa, overcoming previously resistant wheat varieties there, and researchers fear its spread to the major bread baskets of northern Africa, Asia, and Europe. In 2005, the world’s leading wheat researchers established the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project, administered by Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Science. Through this project, CIMMYT and a global cadre of researchers are developing new varieties of wheat that both resist Ug99 and also produce higher yields.
Through breeding sequentially at two diverse locations in Mexico and screening promising wheat lines at a Ug99 hot spot in Kenya, researchers have been able to develop more than 20 Ug99-resistant lines, now present in varieties released or in advanced trials in eight countries, including India and Pakistan. Singh’s symposium, entitled “Emerging Risks in the Global Food System,” focused on the progress and challenges to global food security presented by Ug99. “We have made great strides in identifying new varieties that will provide durable resistance to stem rusts and increase yields,” said Singh, “but there is still much work to be done because of the importance of wheat and the ever-changing pressures it faces globally.”
Over 23-24 January 2012, CIMMYT’s global maize program received an unprecedented gift: over 2 billion maize marker data points from 4,000 CIMMYT lines. “For each line, we are now able to detect over half a million markers,” said Gary Atlin, Associate Director of the program. “These ‘signposts’ give us great power to do genetic analysis; they are distributed more or less randomly across the 10 chromosomes of maize, so we are able to track very small pieces of chromosome,” he added.
CIMMYT is currently working with USDA maize geneticist Dr. Ed Buckler at Cornell University’s Institute for Genomic Diversity, whose team produced this data for CIMMYT using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) technology. As the operation increases, CIMMYT is partnering with Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd (DArT P/L) to establish a self-sustaining genetic-analysis service in Mexico, which will be based on GBS (“Servicio de Análisis Genético para la Agricultura” or SAGA in Spanish). SAGA will genotype large numbers of genebank accessions for the Seeds of Discovery project, whilst also serving the needs of breeding programs, both at CIMMYT and in Mexican partner organizations.
Using both these data and phenotypic information, researchers will learn how to select lines which perform well under drought, or low soil nitrogen levels, or possess resistance to a particular disease. Previously, CIMMYT was using SSR genotyping, at a cost of around $1 per data point. SSRs span several hundred base pairs, essentially allowing them to detect more alleles and therefore provide four or five times more information than the Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) currently being used. However, there are fewer SSR loci and SSR visualization technologies are more expensive; in fact, whilst the current data set cost less than $160,000 to obtain, in 2005, using SSRs, it would have cost around $400,000,000. “It’s a new ballgame,” states Atlin. “GBS genotyping costs us about $40 per line, and will likely drop to around $20 next year. This is about the same cost as evaluating the line for yield in a single field plot. At this price, we can genotype all CIMMYT maize breeding lines entering replicated field testing, and build powerful models to predict performance in the field for traits that are difficult and expensive to measure.” He notes that it will also speed up the breeding cycle, resulting in greater yield gains per year.
Getting the two billion marker data points is just the beginning; next steps include analyzing and converting the data to information. The team plans to generate at least this much data annually henceforth. “It’s a huge job,” says Atlin, “but already a significant achievement.”
As genotyping technologies advance, so do their applications. Genomic selection through genotyping by sequencing can be used for breeding: marker data is produced, missing data is filled in across the genome, and models are run on the data to identify genotypes that express desirable traits and thus should go forward in breeding programs. Combined with field observations, genomic selection can provide a powerful lens for choosing good breeding lines.
Many CIMMYT staff from different areas are working on genomic selection, in partnership with scientists from Cornell University, Diversity Arrays Technology Pty Ltd (DArT P/L; Australia), the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and Kansas State University. On 24 October 2011, a meeting coordinated Ky Mathews, CIMMYT Biometrician, with assistance from Geneticist/Molecular Breeder Susanne Dreisigacker, brought to El Batán 24 specialists from CIMMYT and partner institutes to enhance communication, share experiences, and identify challenges associated with genomic selection.
A key concern is managing and sharing the huge volumes of data that the approach is expected to generate. “The datasets will grow and grow as the technologies progress,” says Mathews. “CIMMYT and other organizations will need infrastructure and resources to store, analyze, and interpret results. Communication will also be vital, with maize and wheat researchers receiving data for analysis at slightly different times, and with a turn-around time shorter and faster than anything we’ve dealt with before.” Genotyping by sequencing can produce many markers across the genome (order of thousands to millions), but still as much as 70% of marker scores may be missing, so scientists are applying a technique known as “imputation” to fill in the rest. The technique involves estimating what the values might have been using information available in the dataset. José Crossa and his team have been working on developing imputation methods for genotyping by sequencing. He warns that the methods are still in development, and their accuracy and feasibility for imputing biological missing data are as yet unknown.
For now, CIMMYT researchers are running an initial, testing cycle of genomic selection that should conclude in about eight weeks. Further meetings at that time will look at results, analyze mistakes, and identify learning points on all aspects, including imputation.
Second day of the 2010 Technical workshop started with Session 4 on ‘Molecular Studies of Rust Pathogens chaired by Solomon Assefa (DG of Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research):
Sophien Kamoun (The Sanisbury Laboratory, John Innes Center, UK) focused on Exploiting Pathogen Effectors in Breeding and Deployment of Disease Resistance (N/A)
‘How sweet is Parasitic Life?’ asked Ralf Voegele (Hohenheim University, Germany) in his presentation describing nutrient uptake in rust fungi
One of few women scientists in the workshop, Cristina Cuomo (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA), presented Comparative Genomics of Rust Fungi
To the session 5 on ‘Pathogen Evolution’ chaired by M. Yaqub Mujahid (National Agricultural Research Center, Pakistan) included:
During the special luncheon ‘Jeanie Borlaug Laube’s Women in Triticum Award’ was presented to the first 5 awardees – Hale Ann Tufan (Turkey); Jemanesh Kifetew Haile (Ethiopia); Esraa Alwan (ICARDA), Jessica Rutkoski (USA) and Maricelis Acevedo (USA), followed by special presentation by Eija Pehu (The World Bank) on ‘Gender equity in agricultural research and extension’
Thomas Lumpkin (DG of CIMMYT, Mexico) chaired the session 6 focused on ‘Advancing Rust Resistance Breeding: Germplasm and Tools’:
The last session (7) was panel discussion on ‘Delivering Rust Resistant Wheat to Farmers’ chaired by Arun Joshi (CIMMYT, Nepal). Panelists included Peter Njau (KARI, Kenya), Girma Bedada (EIAR, Ethiopia), Mahmood Osmanzai (CIMMYT, Afghanistan) and M. Azab (ARC, Egypt).
The 2010 BGRI technical workshop was closed by pithy and acerbic summarizing presentation of Bob McIntosh (PBI, Uni of Sydney, Australia)
From 12–16 October 2009 the Eastern Africa Regional Program and Research Network for Biotechnology, Biosafety and Biotechnology Policy Development (BIO-EARN); the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) hub; and CIMMYT jointly conducted a molecular marker assisted breeding and data analyses training workshop. Kassa Semagn, CIMMYT maize molecular breeder, played a major role in organizing and providing the technical components of the training. This included defining the course syllabus and selecting resource materials and software for data analyses. The workshop was opened by Segenet Kelemu, BecA hub director.
Twenty breeders from Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, attended the training, which was conducted at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus in Nairobi, Kenya. Participants received hands-on experience in plant tissue sampling, molecular data scoring, and various data analysis techniques.
Other resource persons included Jagger Harvey and Etienne deVilliers, scientists based at BecA, Nairobi; Eric Bongcam Rudloff of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; and Michael Kovach, Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, USA. The participants were impressed with the organization of the training workshop, describing the relevance of the course content to their work as “excellent,” and “an eye opener in planning the integration of molecular markers in our breeding programs.” The five-day training was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
The success of the course was summed up by a participant who said: “Before the training workshop, I was very pessimistic in believing that molecular markers are useful in breeding programs.” He went on to add that the training clarified how and when to use markers in breeding programs, the requirements, and the pros and the cons.
During the years 2005-08 there were several two and three-month comprehensive wheat improvement/pathology training programs at El Batán, Toluca, and the Ciudad Obregón research stations, with more than 40 participants from Asia and Africa. And this year CIMMYT’s headquarters hosted another long-term, in-service training course. Seventeen participants from 10 countries, including two women, attended the course “Wheat Improvement Course 2009,” which ran from 03 August to 02 October.
“I’m very happy to see you all here and that the training program at CIMMYT has been restarted,” said DG Tom Lumpkin at the course’s closing ceremony. “I hope we can continue to strengthen this type of training, make it longer and more intensive, and involve more participants in the coming years.”
The course focused on wheat breeding and taught participants how to run a wheat breeding program, apply new forms of wheat technology, and confidently participate in joint interdisciplinary¡ research. “The fields are the classroom…and are where we illustrate the application of theory,” said Reynaldo Villareal, coordinator of the course and adjunct professor of plant breeding and international agriculture at Cornell University. Nearly 55% of the course involved fieldwork at the El Batán and Toluca research stations. As a former CIMMYT wheat breeder, Villareal was able to arrange a diverse and demanding course schedule that, in addition to breeding, included pathology, physiology, molecular biology, industrial quality, bioinformatics, statistics, conservation agriculture, and geographic information systems.
“I’m very grateful to CIMMYT and everyone who helped with this course,” said Vinod Kumar Mishra, course participant and professor of genetics and wheat breeding at Banaras Hindu University, India (pictured second from right). “Wheat is the second largest crop in India, and India is the second largest wheat producer after China, so training for wheat breeders is extremely important for our country,” he said. Other countries represented included Pakistan, Yemen, Egypt, Bangladesh, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, China, and Sudan.
“Wheat improvement is an interdisciplinary collaboration,” Villareal said. “I hope CIMMYT can sustain similar training.”
Scientists from over 20 countries, many of whom are collaborators with the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), gathered in Kenya on 28 September for a two week international training course titled “Stem Rust Note Taking and Evaluation of Germplasm.” Until 7 October, they will participate in practical handson field activities, which is appropriate as more than 30,000 wheat lines from around the world are currently ready to be scored for stem rust resistance.
The Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) is hosting the event at their Njoro research station, despite being affected by recent dry weather. In addition to field work, there are several scheduled lectures from renowned wheat pathologists and breeders: Bob McIntosh (Australia), Zac Pretorius (South Africa), Gordon Cisar (USA), Harbans Bariana (Australia), Brian Steffenson (USA), Kumarse Nazari (ICARDA), Dave Hodson (FAO), and CIMMYT colleagues Ravi Singh, Davinder Singh, Shridhar Bhavani, Yann Manes, Tadesse Degu, and Karim Ammar.
By the end of the course all participants should be able to score stem rust consistent with an international scale standard. This skill will allow them to actively contribute to the global monitoring of the stem rust Ug99. CIMMYT, the Durable Rust Resistant Wheat Project, KARI, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) jointly organized the training course.
A mixture of cultures and crop specialists poured into Ciudad Obregon, Sonora state, Mexico, this week for a four-day conference on a deadly pathogen that, if left unchecked, could threaten global food security. Nearly 300 scientists, agronomists, and agricultural leaders from over 40 countries attended the event, determined to prevent this from happening.
The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), created in 2005 to combat wheat rusts, led the 17-20 March meeting. The focus was on Ug99, a particularly dangerous disease that attacks the stem of wheat plants and causes massive yield loss. This pathogen has already been identified in six countries, and threatens dozens more due to its wily ability to mutate and migrate.
“It is a roll of the dice of when it will arrive,” said CIMMYT’s DG Tom Lumpkin during the opening ceremony, referring to the near inevitable spread of Ug99. The disease has overcome previous resistant wheat strands, prompting Lumpkin and others to advocate ready-for-release stockpiles of new varieties that experts believe might stump the disease.
“Our scientists are making incredibly rapid progress, but we should have no illusions: a global food crisis is still a distinct possibility if governments and international institutions fail to support this rescue mission,” said Norman Borlaug, BGRI chair, 1970 Nobel laureate, and father of the Green Revolution.
Throughout the week participants attended lectures, exchanged information, and created new multilateral relationships. “There has never been such an international coordinated effort against rust diseases before. People are working together,” said Harbans Bariana, principal research fellow and associate professor at the University of Sydney’s Cereal Rust Control Program. Participants also visited the Obregon station where they saw Ug99-resistant wheat lines and enjoyed a traditional carne asada.
Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s wheat program, took the opportunity to recognize Dave Hodson, former head of the center’s Geographic Information Systems Laboratory, for his vital work on RustMapper, an interactive program used to track and predict the spread of Ug99. Hodson leaves CIMMYT to continue his work with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “If Dave and his family ever decide that tacos in Texcoco are better than pizza in Rome, they are more than welcome to come back,” Braun joked.
The BGRI consists of a powerful group of organizations including CIMMYT, the Syria-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Cornell University, the FAO, and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The importance and international implications of this year’s meeting attracted widespread media attention. Over 100 media outlets printed individual or wire (AP, Reuters, AFP) stories about the event.
The first-ever 
Work by CIMMYT with researchers, extension workers, policymakers, and farmers in Bangladesh for nearly four decades has helped establish wheat and maize among the country’s major cereal crops, made farming systems more productive and sustainable, improved food security and livelihoods, and won ringing praise from national decision makers in agriculture, according to a recent report published by CIMMYT.
CIMMYT’s Ravi Singh is named outstanding CGIAR scientist for 2005.
Innovative techniques in wheat breeding are necessary to meet the increasing population demand and overcome environmental challenges, said CIMMYT Wheat Breeder, Ravi Singh, at the annual meeting of the 
During the special luncheon ‘Jeanie Borlaug Laube’s Women in Triticum Award’ was presented to the first 5 awardees – Hale Ann Tufan (Turkey); Jemanesh Kifetew Haile (Ethiopia); Esraa Alwan (ICARDA), Jessica Rutkoski (USA) and Maricelis Acevedo (USA), followed by special presentation by Eija Pehu (The World Bank) on ‘Gender equity in agricultural research and extension’
The last session (7) was panel discussion on