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Water-saving techniques salvage wheat in drought-stricken Kazakhstan

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Kazakhstan’s 2012 drought and high temperatures cut the country’s wheat harvests by more than half from 2011 output, but wheat under zero-tillage practices gave up to three times more grain than conventionally cultivated crops. Two million hectares are currently under zero tillage, making Kazakhstan one of the top-ten countries for conservation agriculture and helping to avoid severe wheat shortages.

“If no-till practices had not been used this period of drought, we would have gotten nothing. It would have been an absolute catastrophe,” says Valentin Dvurechenskii, Director General of the Kostanay Agricultural Research Institute in Kazakhstan, giving his verdict on the 2012 wheat crop.

After farmers planted their wheat in April, Kostanay—the country’s main wheat growing region—went two months without rain. Making matters worse, daily temperatures were several degrees above normal. At the time, farmer and Director General of the Agrofirm Dievskaya, Oleg Danilenko, echoed the view of peers: “I’ve been a farmer for 35 years, and I’ve never seen anything like this.” Danilenko said the harsh conditions pointed up the advantages of conservation agriculture, which involves reduced or zero tillage, keeping crop residues on the soil, and rotating crops. “No other results have been nearly as successful.”

Wheat on Kazakhstani farms using conventional agriculture has been severely affected by 2012's drought and high temperatures. According to farmer Idris Kozhebayev, wheat crops in Akmola Region normally average 42 grains per spike, but this year are producing only 2-4 grains per spike.
Wheat on Kazakhstani farms using conventional agriculture has been severely affected by 2012’s drought and high temperatures. According to farmer Idris Kozhebayev, wheat crops in Akmola Region normally average 42 grains per spike, but this year are producing only 2-4 grains per spike.

Lack of rain darkens crop outlook

In the village of Tonkeris, 45 km from the capital Astana in the Akmola region, farmers’ fields had received no rainfall between May and September. According to farmers in the area, drought conditions used to be rare but are becoming more frequent. “I’ve been a farmer for 30 years,” said Idris Kozhabayev. “There was drought like this in 2000 and 2010. In recent years, it’s getting worse.”

Cultivated using conventional practices, the fields of Akmola were expected to produce only enough wheat for next year’s seed. “The farmers’ fields I work with all look like this. Some are worse,” said Daniyar Andibayev, an agronomist in the region.

Meanwhile, in Kostanay, many farmers had adopted conservation agriculture techniques that protected them from drought’s worst effects. With these, farmers reported yields of 2 tons per hectare, while some farmers using conventional practices lost their entire crop.

Wheat grown under conservation agriculture in the Kostanay region of Kazakhstan has stayed healthy and is set to give a good yield despite the year's severe drought and high temperatures.
Wheat grown under conservation agriculture in the Kostanay region of Kazakhstan has stayed healthy and is set to give a good yield despite the year’s severe drought and high temperatures.

Conserving where it counts

Kazakhstan is the world’s sixth largest wheat exporter. More than 14 million of the country’s 15 million hectares of wheat is rainfed, meaning the crop relies on precipitation and is thus vulnerable to dry weather. Reports in January 2013 said the 2012 drought had shrunk the wheat crop 57% from 2011’s record harvests.

Farmers are initially attracted to zero tillage and conservation agriculture because the approaches dramatically cut costs: farming this way requires less labor, machinery use, fuel, water, or fertilizers. In rainfed cropping, conservation agriculture can also boost yields.

Research has shown that conservation agriculture increases soil moisture by as much as 24% on most fields. In Kazakhstan the practices capture snow on the surface and improve water retention under heavy snowfall and subzero temperatures. Zero tillage also augments soil organic matter and cuts erosion by 75-100%. All this has helped to nearly double average wheat yields, from 1.4 to 2.6 tons per hectare, according to Dvurechenskii. In December 2011 Dvurechenskii was awarded the “Gold Star” medal and the rank “Hero of Labor of Kazakhstan” by the country’s President, in recognition of his work to promote conservation agriculture.

The findings of a 2012 FAO-Investment Centre mission to Kazakhstan1 suggest that adoption of zero tillage and conservation agriculture had raised domestic wheat production by almost 2 million tons. According to the mission report, this represents some US$ 0.58 billion more income over 2010-12, enough grain to satisfy the annual cereal requirements of almost 5 million people, and the sequestering of about 1.8 million additional tons of CO2 per year.

Pushing out with better practices

With the support of CIMMYT, FAO, ICARDA, the World Bank, the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, and other international organizations and donors, Kazakhstan went from practically nothing under conservation agriculture in 2000 to 0.5 million hectares in 2007. In 2012, as a result of ongoing farmer engagement through demonstration plots, field days, and close work with farmer unions, conservation agriculture is now practiced on 2.0 million hectares—13% of the country’s wheat-growing area.”This amazing adoption is thanks to a few scientists who saw the potential, but more importantly to the pioneer farmers who perfected the techniques and put them into practice; farmers believe farmers,” says conservation agriculture expert Pat Wall, who, together with CIMMYT colleagues Alexei Morgounov and Muratbek Karabayev, initiated field trials with Kazakhstani scientists in the country’s northern steppes in 2000.

“The main achievement of CIMMYT in Kazakhstan has been the changing of the minds of farmers and scientists,” observes Bayan Alimgazinova, head of the Crop Production Department of KazAgroInnovation, a specialized organization created by the Ministry of Agriculture to increase the competitiveness of the country’s agricultural sector. Based on the positive results of research trials and tests in farmers’ fields, Kazakhstan’s current state policy calls for every province to pursue zero tillage.

“Kazakhstan has a wheat growing area of 15 million hectares presently and can increase it up to 20 million hectares,” added Murat Karabayev, CIMMYT representative in Kazakhstan. “This is extremely important for the food security of the country, the Central Asian region, and globally. There is a real opportunity to double yields using new advanced technologies and improved varieties. We’ve already seen this through conservation agriculture.”

For more information: Muratbek Karabayev, CIMMYT Representative in Kazakhstan (m.karabayev@cgiar.org)
CIMMYT’s conservation agriculture activities in Kazakhstan have been funded by the different sources, including from CIMMYT’s own resources and the comprehensive World Bank Agriculture Competitiveness Project (ACP). CIMMYT received two grants between 2008 and 2010 from the World Bank’s ACP to promote conservation agriculture practices in Kazakhstan.

Muratbek Karabayev, CIMMYT Representative in Kazakhstan (left) and Auyezkhan K. Darinov, President–Chairman, Republic Public Union of Farmers of Kazakhstan.
Muratbek Karabayev, CIMMYT Representative in Kazakhstan (left) and Auyezkhan K. Darinov, President–Chairman, Republic Public Union of Farmers of Kazakhstan.

Interview: Auyezkhan K. Darinov, 2012

Auyezkhan K. Darinov has been a farmer since 1993, and represents two million of his fellows as President-Chairman of the”Kazakhstan Farmers Union”. He works to unite and provide a voice to small and medium-scale farmers in Kazakhstan and to promote pro-farmer policies with the Ministry of Agriculture.

What are the main activities of the Kazakhstan Farmers Union?
We work with farmers to influence the government and to push for policies that can benefit farmers. The government sometimes doesn’t understand the issues farmers are facing. We meet with the Prime Minister, ministers, other officials every week to push for ideas for farmers. We organize events, meetings, and seminars and this has been our best strategy for getting conservation agriculture to farmers.

What strategies do you use to introduce conservation agriculture to farmers?
The Farmers Union was established in 2000. Since 2002, we have been working with farmers to introduce them to the merits of conservation agriculture. Now, we are working with farmers in all of the provinces and districts. Through our representatives, we have established a network of farmers who work on spreading the technology of conservation agriculture throughout the country. We are the largest NGO in Kazakhstan and we represent the interests of farmers in all levels of the social-economic and political spheres of the country. We are working with the government to develop policies for next year and to draft programs.

What does this year’s drought mean for farmers?
There are estimates of expected yields for this year which are being reported. However since we know the stories of farmers and the real situation of farmers’ fields, we know that the official estimates are higher than the reality. We’re expecting up to 2 million tons of grain less than official estimates. This year, many farmers are in crucial situations and need assistance from the government.

Do you think more farmers will be convinced to start using conservation agriculture following the drought?
Conservation agriculture is still a challenge in some areas, like Southern Kazakhstan. However, on the whole, farmers are already convinced of the merits of conservation agriculture, but it’s a problem of resources. There have to be changes in the agriculture system to equip small and medium-sized farmers with equipment that they can’t afford. It’s an expensive venture to make the shift from traditional practices to new technologies. That’s why we’re working with farmers to form cooperatives so equipment can be shared and lent to farmers.

What role has CIMMYT played in Kazakhstan?
Kazakhstan is now the most experienced in conservation agriculture in Central Asia. We worked with pioneers of conservation agriculture technologies such as Ken Sayre and Pat Wall. CIMMYT was one of the first and the best in conservation agriculture. In all large projects, CIMMYT invites the Farmers’ Union and similarly, the Farmers’ Union invites CIMMYT.

What are some of the main challenges you see for agriculture in Kazakhstan in the future?
All irrigation water is coming from neighboring countries. We need to change the agriculture system to use less water and produce higher yields. There is also a need to develop new varieties which are drought tolerant. That’s where the work of CIMMYT comes in. That’s why the work of CIMMYT in Kazakhstan is so important.

Wheat seems to have a special importance to farmers here. Why is that?
Wheat
 it is our money. Basically, if farmers have wheat, they have money. We are a wheat and meat country. Other crops have importance, but not like wheat. Changing the volume of wheat changes the national economy. Farmers cannot imagine how they would survive without wheat. Farmers knew that this year would be dry. But nevertheless, they planted wheat. That’s how important wheat is in Kazakhstan.

1 Unpublished; see also a 2009 Investment Centre report on zero tillage in Kasakhstan.

Identifying wheat landraces in Turkey

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The International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP) in cooperation with FAO Central Asia held a workshop to summarize the results of wheat landraces inventory in Turkey and develop recommendations and a work plan for future activities. The workshop was held in Ankara, Turkey, on 09 January 2013, and was attended by 80 participants from research, academic, and farming communities, as well as local and central administration. While national in focus, its participant pool was truly international, as attendees included Hans-Joachim Braun (Global Wheat Program director), Kakoli Gosh (FAO), Calvin Qualset (UC Davis), and Nigel Maxted (University of Bristol).

The landrace inventory discussed at the workshop began in 2009 and identified around 160 landraces still grown in 41 provinces of Turkey. Although the total area where they are grown is small, these landraces are very important to small farmers in remote mountainous regions. Even the farmers who have access to modern cultivars still grow these landraces because of their unique adaptation and suitability for homemade products. Furthermore, the landraces represent a huge reservoir of genetic diversity that can be utilized in breeding. As a result of the workshop, several recommendations were developed addressing in-situ conservation of landraces and their improvement and utilization in development of modern varieties.

Integrating gender into WHEAT and MAIZE CRPs: A leap forward

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Addressing the gender disparities between women and men farmers in the developing world represents a significant development potential in itself. The FAO 2011 State of Food and Agriculture report estimates that if women had the same access to production resources as men, they could increase yields on their fields by 20-30%. According to FAO, this alone would raise total agricultural output in developing countries by 2.5-4%, which, in turn, could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17% or 100-150 million people.

The 16 CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) are developing strategies to integrate gender into research. Among the first CRPs to undertake a gender audit of their activities, WHEAT and MAIZE organized a workshop about how to implement the gender audits on 10-11 December 2012, facilitated by gender specialists Chris Hunter and Katrine Danielsen, both from the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), a research partner to MAIZE and WHEAT CRPs based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

“A gender audit is an assessment by which organizations can identify how they are addressing gender within their research programs and organization. It implies that the organization will assess their performance against some standards,” explains Chris Hunter, Senior Advisor on Social Development and Gender Equity. “Many organizations, such as CIMMYT, don’t currently have a gender policy, so the gender audit assesses performance against best practice, meaning that what we are doing should be positive towards both men and women.”

Challenges of gender mainstreaming were first discussed at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. During this conference it was recognized that just having a few add-ons for women did not work. “In a subsequent conference (Beijing +5,) it became clear that it still wasn’t always working, so gender audits were, in part, a response to that,” adds Hunter, “it is about what we have been doing and identifying where we are getting stuck.”
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How is a gender audit conducted?

A gender audit usually comprises surveys and focus group discussions involving organizations and partners, and those who are ‘watching what the organization does.’ For MAIZE and WHEAT, it should provide a baseline for assessing progress on integrating gender into the CRPs and help prioritize  “We really want to collaborate closely with CIMMYT, ICARDA, and IITA to institutionalize gender awareness within the CRPs and to support the empowerment of women farmers and those working along maize and wheat value-chains,” emphasized Dave Watson, MAIZE CRP manager. “Interventions can reinforce or alter gender relations. At the moment, by ignoring gender realities, we could do harm and get poor results,” he adds. “The ultimate goal is to make our research programs more gender transformative and address both the causes and consequences of gender inequalities following KIT’s findings.”

Addressing gender inequality can be arduous and require great resourcefulness. “One of the areas that Chris and Katrine emphasized in our inception meeting for the gender audit is that getting to gender equality in development outcomes means that in our work we must consider things like participatory decision-making and transparency in project design, in addition to what it might take to see gender-equal uptake of our research products,” remarks Jenny Nelson, workshop participant and program manager of the Global Wheat Program. “This is an important, maybe even revolutionary, change in the way agriculture-for-development has worked.”

Hunter and Danielsen will now assess how gender is currently addressed in projects across the CRPs and how it can be strengthened. The gender audit will take place between January and May 2013 and will include assessments of gender knowledge, attitudes and awareness of research staff and managers of the lead centers and key partners. This will lead to a detailed gender action plan.

For further reading:

Honoring the memory of former maize director, Rip Paliwal

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We are sad to inform readers that on 05 January 2013, at the age of 84, Ripusudan L. Paliwal, a CIMMYT employee for 17 years who served as director of the maize program, passed away in the presence of his family near New Delhi, India. Rip, as he was respectfully and affectionately known by colleagues, came to CIMMYT as associate director of the maize program in 1976, after serving as dean of the college of agriculture of GP Pant University, Pantnagar, India. Former colleague and retired CIMMYT maize director Ron Cantrell called Paliwal a major factor in the success of the maize program. “I have nothing but fond memories of my time at CIMMYT and one of the principal reasons was the support and friendship of Rip,” says Cantrell. “He was an invaluable source of information about tropical maize and the national programs throughout the world.” His activities after retirement from CIMMYT in 1993 included authoring books such as the 2000 FAO publication “Tropical maize: Improvement and production.” The CIMMYT family extends its sincere sympathy and prayers to the Paliwal family, including children Nirupama, Nivedita, Muktesh, and Sarvesh, who worked as a CIMMYT maize scientist in the early 2000s.

Mainstreaming gender in maize improvement research

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DSC02358“Women are a key part of the mainstream in agriculture, yet they face formidable obstacles,” said CIMMYT gender and development specialist Vongai Kandiwa during a recent seminar in Nairobi, Kenya. Vongai was speaking on the importance of having a strategy to put men and women’s concerns and experiences at the centre of research design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. This involves looking at the socioeconomic settings of men and women to ensure that they benefit equally – often referred to as “gender mainstreaming.” The seminar was attended by colleagues working on various aspects of maize technology development, production, and dissemination. “By closing the gap in access to technology between men and women, we could increase productivity by 30%,” said Vongai, referring to the State of Food and Agriculture report (2010-2011) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). According to Vongai, this would contribute to child survival and nutrition, as “women are key to household food security.”

Vongai emphasized the importance of considering gender in our work. She explained that gender shapes patterns of power relations, asset and wealth distribution and control, labor allocations, as well as preferences and aspirations within households. Mainstreaming gender is encouraged by most donors, she said, citing an example from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which encourages moving from neutrality to awareness and finally to gender transformative program design and implementation.

Many organizations may be considered gender “aware”— that is, they are able to generate gender disaggregated data on the stakeholders that benefit from their development work — but transformation lies in using that information to improve the products and services delivered, paying specific attention to women’s preferences. “The woman is the custodian of food in most African societies,” said Vongai. As the ultimate consumers of our maize products, women ought to be involved in the research for development activities. “We have to make it convenient for women to attend activities and pay attention to the composition of groups we convene,” said Vongai. “This could be done by working with women’s groups and using female technicians,” she said. By making a deliberate effort to accommodate women’s needs and voices in the selection of maize varieties, we make it possible to meet their needs.

DSC023331Paying particular attention to research innovations that would reduce the drudgery of farm work for women is also important, highlighted the global maize program director B.M. Prasanna. Prasanna pointed to quality protein maize (QPM) as a product developed with the nutrition needs of end users—and particularly women— in mind. QPM has increased amounts of lysine and tryptophan, important amino acids which improve nutrition. Prasanna also pointed out the promise of pesticide resistant maize that would reduce the burden of weeding for women who often provide most of the farm labor.

“When we take the stance that gender matters, we can start to satisfy the needs of our clients, both male and female,” argued Vongai picturing the scenario when gender considerations will be made in all aspects of our work; breeding, seed systems, impact assessment, and communication.

Australia and CIMMYT continue support for wheat and maize research in Afghanistan

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After a decade of successful work in Afghanistan, CIMMYT has begun a new phase of a project supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The four-year phase entitled “Sustainable Wheat & Maize Production in Afghanistan” began in October 2012 and builds upon research and development and capacity building activities of the previous phases with a greater emphasis on rainfed wheat and hybrid maize.

The livelihoods of approximately 80% of the Afghan population depend on agriculture and related activities. The central crop in Afghanistan is wheat, providing about 60% of daily calorie intake for an average Afghan. Afghanistan’s annual per capita wheat consumption of 180 kilograms places the country among the top wheat consumers worldwide. While wheat constitutes the most important grain crop in Afghanistan, occupying about 80% of all cereals area, maize is a grossly underutilized food and feed option in the country. It ranks third in importance as far as area and production are concerned, but the current production levels are low at about 0.3 million tons (a considerable decrease from about 0.7 million tons in the 1960s and 1970s). This is expected to change with the Government of Afghanistan’s recently renewed emphasis on maize. CIMMYT, with support from AusAID and ACIAR, has been working towards sustainable growth in wheat and maize production and productivity in the war-torn country.

Agriculture in Afghanistan generally faces various constraints and challenges, including severe droughts and great agro-climatic diversity. However, following a decade of concerted efforts on part of researchers, seed producers, and the farming community, wheat production and productivity is now showing a positive trend. Furthermore, the 10 wheat and 4 maize CIMMYT genotypes that were released in Afghanistan in the past 10 years have contributed to the growth of a public-private partnership within the seed industry, which is expected to produce up to 12% of Afghanistan’s wheat certified demand. Nevertheless, serious issues remain, including the absence of an in-country wheat breeding program and the stark fact that more than 80% of certified seed produced in the country is still Ug99 susceptible. There is also a need to initiate agro-climatic zonespecific varietal testing and to reach out to farmers with zone-specific crop management knowledge.

These are some of the issues to be addressed by the new phase of the project. Additionally, the project will create information management hubs in the provinces of Nangarhar, Herat, Balkh, and Kabul. These hubs, led by the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) and engaging all stakeholders and partners, will undertake baseline and subsequent annual surveys to assess levels of technology adoption. They will also study factors affecting adoption, including the role of children and women in wheat- and maize-based cropping systems, and engage in technology assessment, demonstration, and dissemination.

The current phase aims to empower ARIA to assume a leadership role in all the spheres of technology development and dissemination. To realize this plan, annual workshops will be held to eventually hand over the leadership and coordination role to ARIA and national partners. Implementation of this project in Afghanistan will draw support from in-country partners including, but not limited to, ICARDA-Afghanistan, FAO, the French Agricultural Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency in Kabul, NGOs, seed organizations, farmers, and private sector to ensure sustainable gains.

Phenotyping, plant breeding and precision agriculture in Peru

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The National Agricultural Innovation Institute, through the Vista Florida Experiment Station in Chiclayo, Peru, in collaboration with CIMMYT, organized the workshop “Phenotyping in plant breeding and precision agriculture” during 27-29 August 2012. The objective was to demonstrate and discuss innovative agricultural technologies and platforms that can contribute to making agriculture more modern and profitable.

Attending the workshop were 76 representatives from national institutions such as INIA, Peru’s agrarian universities, seed companies and agribusinesses, regional organizations, the International Potato Center (CIP) and FAO. The workshop consisted of lectures and field practices on the use of tools such as GPS, SPAD, and GreenSeeker. One of its strengths was the high level of interaction between instructors and participants, and the feedback given by farmers and seed company staff.

Course instructors were JosĂ© Luis Araus of the Plant Biology Department of the University of Barcelona, Spain; Llorenc Cabrera-Bosquet of the Plant Ecophysiology Laboratory for Environmental Stress, Montpellier, France; Argemiro Moreno Berrocal of the Plant Breeding Department, National Coffee Research Center, Colombia, and Luis Narro from CIMMYT’s regional office in Colombia.

During the workshop, instructors stressed the importance of technologies and tools that support precision agriculture, such as remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS). They also emphasized land-based and hand-held sensors such as SPAD-502 and GreenSeekerTM, which, among other things, can be used to improve nitrogen use efficiency in maize.

Course instructors indicated the usefulness of GIS not only for storing, organizing, and analyzing spatial data, but also for relating and geo-referencing information from different sources in support of decision making. They also showed that GPS can be used to layout plots, determine distances, and estimate plot area.

Also highlighted was the need to develop new phenotyping methodologies to improve maize tolerance to drought and other biotic stresses. A topic of discussion was the use of stable oxygen and carbon isotopes to evaluate yield potential and drought tolerance. As for phenotyping under controlled conditions, phenotyping platforms were described, particularly the PhenoArch platform located at INRA, Montpellier, France.

INIA Agricultural Research Director Enrique La Hoz and Miguel Monsalve Aita, Director of the Vista Florida Experiment Station, indicated the importance of this type of event for updating both researchers and farmers on new tools that can help make agriculture more modern and profitable. Carlos Zañartu Otoya, President of the Lambayeque Seed Producers’ Association, mentioned the Association’s intention to promote the information provided during the event and offered to help organize future workshops.

Curso-Peru

Wheat community meets in Afghanistan for 2nd ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop

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Bringing together Afghanistan’s wheat stakeholders, the second ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop was held during 01-03 September 2012 on the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) campus. This year the workshop focused on strengthening agronomy and technology delivery. It was attended by a total of 50 participants from organizations including the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA); the MAIL Department of Extension and Agricultural Development; the MAIL Improving Agricultural Inputs Delivery System (IAIDS) project; the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and NGOs Joint Development Associates International (JDA), SolidaritĂ©s International (SI), Norwegian Project Office/Rural Rehabilitation Association for Afghanistan (NPO/ RRAA), and the Afghan Women’s Resource Center (AWRC). R.P. Singh, former Principal Investigator in Agronomy with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s All India Coordinated Wheat Improvement Project, served as the resource person for the event.

The workshop was inaugurated by Noor Ahmad Popal, national wheat sector coordinator, on behalf of the director general of planning, MAIL. Popal stressed the need to give more emphasis to crop production management in general and to that of rainfed wheat in particular, suggesting that the country’s annual wheat needs would be around seven million tons by 2020. Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT country liaison officer for Afghanistan, welcomed the participants and noted that this workshop would indeed look at crop production management more critically. He also emphasized the need for an efficient varietal release process, as new release proposals had been delayed in the recent past.

Over the three days, the workshop included presentations of wheat research results by researchers from all of Afghanistan’s wheat research stations. Abdul Latif Rasekh (ARIA head of agronomy) presented the current status of understanding on wheat agronomy in Afghanistan, followed by a presentation from R.P. Singh on imperatives in wheat agronomic research. A joint presentation on demonstration of technologies in farmers’ fields was given by CIMMYT and the NGOs (JDA, SI, NPO/RRAA, and AWRC). On the third day, Singh gave a second talk on “Gains of Green Revolution: Problems and Opportunities”, which attracted a large audience. This final day also saw presentations on the technical program for the 2012- 13 season for the disciplines of crop improvement, agronomy, plant pathology, and technology demonstrations. Qudratulla Soofizada (technical change management specialist, ARIA, MAIL), who recently returned from participation in the 51st All India Wheat & Barley Research Workers’ Meeting proposed a model based on the Indian program that could be adopted in Afghanistan to coordinate wheat research. The workshop made several recommendations, such as initiating varietal evaluation trials by zone from the 2012-13 season onwards. Mohammad Qasem Obaidi, Director of ARIA, expressed great satisfaction on the outcomes of the workshop and hoped to initiate similar workshops for more crops.

Afghanistan’s wheat crop has shown recent signs of revival with a total harvest of slightly over five million tons in the 2011-12 season. Irrigated wheat productivity was comparable to the global average at around 3 tons per hectare, but the lower yield of rainfed wheat, 1.1 tons per hectare, brought the national average yield to around 1.9 tons per hectare. Afghanistan’s import needs are set to fall this year, to around half a million tons for the current marketing season. The country’s community of wheat researchers is now geared up to move further in enabling Afghanistan to harvest enough wheat to achieve selfsufficiency.Group-photo-2nd-wheat-workshop

Gender integration in CGIAR Research Programs

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The move to integrate gender in the organizational and research agenda of the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and Centers is gaining speed, also due to the formation of the ‘CGIAR Gender and Agriculture Research Network’ earlier this year. The network consists of Lead Gender Specialists from each of the 15 CRPs, as well as other social and biological scientists committed to the integration of gender in agricultural research for development.

This network of highly energetic women and men reunited at a workshop hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation during 25-27 July 2012 in Seattle, USA. The objective was to discuss how CGIAR research can contribute to closing the gender gap in agriculture and to explore opportunities for collaboration in gender-responsive research across CRPs. Lone Badstue, CIMMYT Gender Specialist, represented the MAIZE and WHEAT CRPs, and CIMMYT Socioeconomist Tina Beuchelt also participated.

NetworkGroupPhoto“The workshop was a great opportunity to share ideas and lessons learned, to exchange concepts of different gender strategies, as well as to discuss the latest gender-related research methods,” said Beuchelt. The workshop identified four themes for cross-program research on gender and agriculture: (1) engendering agricultural value chains; (2) gender-transformative approaches; (3) gender and technology adoption and diffusion; and (4) gender and nutrition. The participants also agreed upon a shared set of gender-responsive research outcomes that can be jointly monitored to assess progress towards CGIAR System Level Outcomes. Furthermore, they discussed how to measure these outcomes and agreed to continue collaboration on the development and measurement of a shared set of genderresponsive indicators.

An inspiring presentation by Eve Crowley, Deputy Director of the Food and Agriculture OrganizationÂŽs Gender, Equity and Rural Development Division, provided valuable insights on critical success factors for mainstreaming gender in the CRPs and identified good practices that promote mainstreaming.

Topics to work on were many and time flew by in the workshop. As a follow-up to the workshop, a set of joint CRP concept papers on the integration of gender in the CGIAR research agenda will be developed. The group parted sharing the spirit of working together on this topic highly relevant to all CRPs.

DTMA building capacity for maize research in the Kingdom of Swaziland

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DTMA19 During 25 – 30 June 2012, CRP MAIZE and FAO-Swaziland supported the participation of 32 maize researchers and technicians in a maize training course in Mbabane, Swaziland. The course attracted agricultural researchers and extension staff from the Department of Agricultural Research and Special Services (DARSS), NGOs, and seed companies. MAIZE supported participants from Botswana and Lesotho. Course objectives included a refresher for researchers and technical staff on implementing field trials, seed production, and use of Fieldbook software. The training combined theory and field practicals on experimental design, data analysis, and identification of maize pests and diseases. The training was officially opened by the FAO representative in Swaziland, Michael Connelly, who emphasized the importance of trial management and variety testing in Swaziland.

The course gave researchers and technicians insights into variety testing. This was particularly relevant for Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland, as they don’t have breeding programs and depend on CIMMYT’s regional trials to identify maize germplasm adapted to their countries. The participants were very eager to learn how to design, implement, and analyze mother-baby trials, which evaluate new maize varieties with farming communities. The mother trial is grown in the center of the community and contains 12-20 new and old varieties, and farmers grow subsets of four varieties each in baby trials in their own fields, using their own management practices. At harvest, they provide feedback about the new varieties, referring to traits that are important to them such as yield, taste, or storage pest resistance.

“I wish to thank CIMMYT for conducting the course,” said Similo Mavimbela, a senior research officer from the DARSS. “It is my feeling that the participants benefited from the expertise of CIMMYT and gained better understanding of the experimental designs. We are now going to employ the most relevant design for different experiments and save time and space. We also have better understanding of the MBTs approach to implement on-farm trials. With support from FAO, we will be implementing the on-farm trial this season so skills obtained from this course will be put to good use.” Mavimbela added that they had also learnt how to use Fieldbook software to prepare seed, produce seed labels, design trials, and analyze data.

CIMMYT thanks the course organizers and resource persons Cinisani Tfwala, Abraham Cutter Dlamini, Hanson Hlophe, Thembinkosi Gumedze, and Similo Mavimbela from the DARSS, Michael Connelly of FAO-Swaziland, and CIMMYT’s Peter Setimela, Cosmos Magorokosho, Jill Cairns, Sebastian Mawere, and Simba Chisoro.
DTMA21

Training on statistical analysis in agricultural research in Kabul, Afghanistan

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The agricultural research network in Afghanistan has been increasing in size and strength ever since reconstruction activities in the country began. Major disciplines such as crop improvement and agronomy have been developing new crop varieties and production management techniques that help Afghan farmers increase their harvests. Agricultural statistics and, in particular, the statistical analysis of crop research results are areas that have yet to see major infrastructure establishment or capacity building. Research data generated every year need to be properly analyzed and interpreted in order to formulate technical recommendations.

CIMMYT-Afghanistan organized a two-day training course on “Statistical Analysis in Agricultural Research” on June 25-26, 2012, at the CIMMYT office in Kabul under the ACIAR-sponsored project “Sustainable Wheat and Maize Production in Afghanistan.” The course was conducted by Dr. Girish Chandra Mishra, Professor of Agricultural Statistics, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. It was attended by eight researchers from ARIA (Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan), two from FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), and one from JDA (Joint Development Associates), an NGO engaged in agricultural research and extension in northern Afghanistan.

The course was inaugurated by Mr. Abdul Latif Rasekh, Acting Director of ARIA, who expressed satisfaction with its timeliness, given that data generated by ARIA research stations need to be analyzed for formulating valid recommendations. Dr. Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT-Afghanistan CLO, recalled that at the first ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop, the need for such training was highlighted by most wheat researchers. He also talked about the need to apply relevant statistical principles not only in data analysis but also when designing experiments.

KABUL1Dr. Mishra began the course by reviewing basic statistical concepts and discussing the statistical tools and concepts needed to design and analyze field experiments that would lead to scientifically valid interpretations. He went on to describe how to choose experimental designs, lay out field experiments, and analyze and interpret the results. He had the participants do useful exercises as well as analyze data for hands-on experience. All the participants were keenly interested and excited to have the opportunity to analyze and interpret data from their own experiments. The general feeling at the end of the two-day event was that it should have lasted at least a week. Upon presenting certificates to course participants, Mr. Qasem Obaidi, ARIA Director, thanked Dr. Mishra and CIMMYT for the capacity building effort and expressed his wish that a follow-up course be held to help consolidate the gains and enable Afghan researchers to learn more about experimental design and analysis.

G20 agriculture report praises a Mexican program geared at raising maize and wheat production

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A report by the G20 Agriculture Group recognized that the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture program (MasAgro) is a Mexican initiative that could serve as a model for coordinating research and development, innovation, technology transfer, as well as public-private partnerships in the agri-food sector.

At a meeting where a specialized group of the B20 (Business 20, which includes the private sector) and representatives of the World Economic Forum (WEF) focused on Mexico, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, Francisco Mayorga Castañeda, explained that the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) has supported including food security as a priority while Mexico is chair of the G20. He  also pointed out that the MasAgro program is aimed at raising productivity based on small farms and emphasizing small-scale maize and wheat producers. He indicated that, as a first step, this model, which was initiated in Mexico in 2011 under a collaborative agreement with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), will be discussed at a meeting of eminent agricultural scientists to be held in September 2012, while Mexico is chairing the G20.

As recommended by the B20 task force on food security, the G20 should promote public and private investment to achieve a 50% increase in agricultural production and productivity by the year 2030. At a meeting chaired by Daniel Servtije, CEO of Grupo Bimbo and the person in charge of the G20 food security task force, Mayorga emphasized the benefits of publicprivate partnerships in the agrifood sector. He said that Mexico supports the Mexican Agribusiness Association for Sustainable Growth, in collaboration with the WEF, whose general objective is to improve the productivity, competitiveness, and sustainability of the agri-food sector.

The meeting where the B20 made recommendations to the G20 was also attended by Greg Page, from Cargill, who spoke on markets and trade; Eduardo Elsztain, from IRSA, on investments; Stefan Lippe, from Swiss Re, on risk management; Eduardo Tricio Haro, from Grupo Lala, on land rights; Jim Collins, from Dupont, on research and development; Shenggen Fan, from IFPRI, on public policy and capacities; BĂĄrbara Stocking, from Oxfam, on small-scale farmer development; JosĂ© Manuel Madero, from Monsanto, on sustainability and technology use; and Pedro Padierna, from PepsiCo, on Mexico’s experience with public/private partnerships.

Later, Secretary Mayorga, Daniel Servitje, and Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, took part in discussions between CEOs and government leaders on food security. Also participating were Yayi Boni, the President of Benin oand current representative of the African Union, and JosĂ© Graziano da Silva, Director General of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Women are the key to achieving food security: CIMMYT at the G(irls) 20 Summit

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G20From 28 to 30 May, Mexico City held the G(irls) 20 Summit, a meeting in which 20 outstanding youths aged 18 to 20 represented each of the G20 countries, the African Union, and the European Union. This year, the priority issues for discussion and analysis were the role of women in agriculture and gender-based violence. CIMMYT was represented by Karen García, executive director of MasAgro, who shared some of her thoughts with the delegates on the role that science and technology can play in the development of rural women’s productive capacity.

García spoke about agricultural policies to end discrimination and promote the access of women farmers to education, technology, productive inputs, extension services, and funding. She directed the delegates’ attention to FAO’s The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-2011 report, which predicts increases of between 2.5 and 4 per cent in agricultural production in developing countries that give women in rural areas access to the same opportunities and encouragement as men. The international organization also estimated that an increase of this nature would overcome hunger for between 100 to 150 million people.

For this reason, GarcĂ­a urged the future leaders to make more space in ministries, research centers, community governance structures, extension services, markets, and schools. In her conclusion, she highlighted the career of former CIMMYT researcher Evangelina Villegas, whose contribution to the development of quality protein maize earned her the first World Food Prize awarded to a woman, in the year 2000.

Following the presentations, delegates reconvened to discuss initiatives to develop the skills and productive potential of women worldwide. Their public policy recommendations will be presented to the G20 heads of state at the end-of-June Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. The G(irls) 20 Summit was inaugurated by the First Lady of Mexico, Margarita Zavala, and the Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Patricia Espinosa.

Pakistan and CIMMYT: The center says “Khush Aamdeed” (warm welcome) to a distinguished delegation

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Grupo-enmabada-Pakistan-sin-logoThe strength and breadth of the fruitful five-decade partnership between Pakistan and CIMMYT have grown significantly in recent years: this was one conclusion from the visit to CIMMYT on 29 May 2012 of a 12-member team of senior civil servants, ambassadors, and corporate executives from Pakistan.

The event was one leg of a foreign study tour by the group, as part of the 96th National Management Course given by the government of Pakistan’s National Management College. Designed to sensitize participants in public policy formulation and implementation, diplomacy, and external and bilateral relations, the tour’s stop at El Batán gave the visitors a broadbrush overview of Pakistan and CIMMYT’s shared history, of global challenges to food security, and how our current and future partnerships address them.

As emerged in the CIMMYT presentations, Pakistani policymakers, researchers, and farmers played a key role in the Green Revolution. In 1961 as part of his work with Norman Borlaug, Pakistani FAO trainee Manzoor Bajwa (later Director General of Pakistan’s AYUB Agricultural Research Institute) selected Mexipak, a high-yielding wheat that would eventually become the country’s most popular variety. In 1966, Pakistan imported 41,000 tons of Mexipak seed from Mexico and, only two years later, harvested 7 million tons of wheat, making it the first country in Asia to achieve self sufficiency for the crop. Sixty percent of the wheat seed to be sown in Pakistan this year comes from direct CIMMYT selections, and at least half the improved maize varieties grown are derived from joint Pakistan-CIMMYT breeding research. In the late 1990s-early 2000s, with CIMMYT support, Pakistan researchers helped launch conservation agriculture in South Asia.

From our shared history, the discussions moved to challenges to food security for humanity and for individual nations like Pakistan, as well as solutions. On the latter, the visitors learned of the global alliances MAIZE and WHEAT and—as examples of country and regional initiatives— the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture with Mexico, including the Wheat Yield Consortium and Seeds of Discovery project, and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA). Despite having arrived in Mexico the previous day after more than 30 hours of travel, the visitors were attentive and inquisitive, with questions about CIMMYT’s policies on intellectual property, about genetically-modified crops, about small-scale farmers’ access to improved seed and the role of transnational seed companies, and about the rationale for research on wheat photosynthesis, to name a few topics.

There was an excellent presentation on legal aspects of the Pakistan-CIMMYT partnership and on the germplasm bank. Four Norman Borlaug Fellows (a program funded by USDA) from Pakistan accompanied the visitors for lunch, where talk touched upon how to improve practical aspects of the Pakistan-CIMMYT partnership. “We came here to learn,” said Ahmed Yar Khan, Director General of the National School of Public Policy, “and we have learned many things. We’ll certainly take back the messages we’ve heard to our colleagues in Pakistan.” CIMMYT also took the opportunity to thank the Embassy of Pakistan in Mexico for its typically excellent assistance in organizing the visit and arranging visas.

CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin, who was traveling in South Asia at the time, was pleased to hear the visit went well and thanked everyone involved: “I am sure that Dr. Borlaug would be smiling, knowing that we are making good progress to rebuild a relationship with a country that was so important to him.”

CIMMYT team wins CCAFS recognition

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On 29 April, CIMMYT had a double reason to celebrate, picking up the award for “Best gender paper” and “Best science paper” (along with Bioversity), at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Science Conference in Copenhagen. The conference was part of a series of CCAFS meetings held from 29 April – 02 May, and was attended by various CIMMYT staff.

The best gender paper, titled ‘Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Kenya: How Does Gender Matter?’ and co-authored by Simon Wagura Ndiritu, Menale Kassie and Bekele Shiferaw, highlighted the differences between technologies adopted on female- and male-managed farm plots in Kenya. They found that whilst there were gender differences in the adoption of technologies such as the use of animal manure, soil and water conservation, other differences in the use of chemical fertilizers and improved seed may stem from the varying levels of access to resources for men and women, rather than gender itself. “This recognition inspires me to put more effort to produce more quality research that will bring excellent distinction to CIMMYT and myself,” said Kassie, while Ndiritu said “it is an encouragement to a young scientist,” adding that he is looking forward to having the paper published.

The winning science paper, ‘Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change’, was authored by David Hodson (FAO), and Mauricio Bellon (Bioversity) and Jonathan Hellin from CIMMYT. With climate change models predicting significant impacts in Mexico and Central America, particularly during the maize growing season (May – October), the paper assessed the capacity of traditional maize seed systems to provide farmers with appropriate genetic material, under the anticipated agro-ecological conditions. Their results indicated that whilst most farmers will have easy access to appropriate seed in the future, those in the highlands will be more vulnerable to climate change and are likely to have to source seed from outside their traditional supplies, entailing significant additional costs and changes to the traditional supply chain.

DSC_1848To share the good news, the Socioeconomics program hosted a get-together with the team in Nairobi, Kenya. During the cake cutting ceremony, the best gender paper award was dedicated to women farmers from Embu and Kakamega in Kenya’s Eastern and Western Provinces, where the data was collected. The Nairobi team also took the opportunity to initiate monthly seminars in order to share research findings hosted by the Global Maize Program and the Socioeconomics program and promote regular interaction among the team. The program directors, Bekele Shiferaw and B. M. Prasanna nominated Dan Makumbi, Hugo De Groote, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Fred Kanampiu, and Sarah Kibera, to form the organizing committee for the seminars.