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Scientists tackle deadly fall armyworm infestation devastating maize in southern Africa

Written by on February 23, 2017. Posted in News.

A stakeholders consultation meeting co-organized by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, The FAO Subregional Office for Southern Africa and CIMMYT on the Fall Armyworm in Africa will be held April 27 and 28, 2017 in Nairobi, Kenya. Delegates will discuss status and strategy for effective management.

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – Smallholder farmers in eastern and southern Africa are facing a new threat as a plague of intrepid fall armyworms creeps across the region, so far damaging an estimated 287,000 hectares of maize.

Since mid-2016, scientists with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and national agricultural research partners have been monitoring reports of sightings of the fall armyworm in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Surveys conducted in farmers’ fields last year confirmed its presence in Kenya. The threat of the pest spreading into other eastern Africa countries is a significant risk due to similar planting seasons across the region.

To date, Zambia has confirmed reports that almost 90,000 hectares of maize have been affected, Malawi reports some 17,000 hectares have been hit, Zimbabwe reports a potential 130,000 hectares affected, while in Namibia, approximately 50,000 hectares of maize and millet have been damaged, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.

FAO hosted an emergency meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, last week to determine the best possible ways to manage the pest, which is native to the Americas and was first reported in Africa in January 2016.

In consultation and closely aligned with national partners in eastern and southern Africa, CIMMYT advises that Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is the best possible solution to effectively tackle the pest in both the short and long term.

A range of measures, including host plant resistance, chemical control, pheromone traps, biological control, habitat management, intercropping with legumes and diversification of farming systems can be effective. Fall armyworm infestations have been reduced by 20 to 30 percent on maize intercropped with beans compared to maize alone, research shows.

Maize plants damaged by fall armyworm in a farmer's field in southern Malawi in Balaka District. CIMMYT/Christian Thierfelder — Maize plants damaged by fall armyworm in a farmer’s field in southern Malawi in Balaka District. CIMMYT/Christian Thierfelder

“Urgent collaborative efforts from CGIAR centers, national research partners and other research and development institutions in Africa must be deployed to design and develop an integrated pest management strategy, which can provide sustainable solutions to effectively tackle the adverse effects of the fall armyworm,” said Martin Kropff, CIMMYT’s director general. “The strategy should also include early warning systems that track the movements of the pest.”

“Scientists at CIMMYT are currently researching available breeding resources characterized with potential resistance to fall armyworm and screening elite maize germplasm to identify possible sources of resistance,” said B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE. “Maize lines with partial resistance to fall armyworm were developed in the past, but the work was not scaled-up given the need to focus breeding programs on other high priority traits, including drought tolerance, heat tolerance, and resistance to major diseases, such as maize lethal necrosis (MLN).”

“Breeding for fall armyworm resistant elite maize hybrids adapted to sub-Saharan Africa would require intensive germplasm screening and collaborative work with public and private sector partners,” Prasanna added, explaining that CIMMYT can mobilize its vast germplasm resources as well as modern breeding tools to speed up the breeding process, in a similar manner to the efforts being undertaken to tackle the menace of MLN in eastern Africa.

ArmywormImage — Graphic designed by Gerardo Mejia/CIMMYT

Why is the Fall Armyworm so destructive?

The fall armyworm – Spodoptera frugiperda – was first reported on the African continent in Nigeria. It subsequently appeared across parts of West and Central Africa, before extensively invading farmers’ fields in southern Africa in December 2016. The destructive activities of the fall armyworm have only served to add to devastation caused by the native African armyworm (Spodoptera exempta) and severe drought caused by an El Nino weather system in 2015-2016.

The larvae of the pest proliferate mainly due to wind dispersal and on host plants from eggs laid by moths. The pest can cause crop losses of up to 73 percent and once it is at an advanced larval development stage can become difficult to control with pesticides.

In the United States, the fall armyworm ranks second among seven of the most damaging agricultural pests leading to significant economic losses both on crops and wild plant species. A study estimates that total losses in the United States range from $39 million to $297 million annually and that related annual maize yield loss is 2 percent.

How the pest was introduced in Africa from its native habitat in the Americas is unclear. However, such invasive pests as the fall armyworm are known to cross continents either through infested commercial grain or through jet streams across oceans. Many fall armyworm moths have been collected in the Gulf of Mexico as far as 250 km from land, indicating the possibility of seasonal trans-Gulf migration between the United States and the tropics.

“We need to understand better the behavioral ecology of the fall armyworm in the Africa context. How it breeds, travels and feeds on crops, as this is critical for effectively managing the devastation this pest can cause and its major risk to food security,” Martin Kropff cautioned.

It is particularly hard to control, as the moths are strong flyers, breed at an exponential rate, and the larvae can feed on a wide variety of plant species. In addition, it can quickly develop resistance to pesticides if they are not used judiciously. The larvae burrow into the growing point of the maize plants and destroy the growth potential of plants or clip the leaves. They also burrow into the ear and feed on kernels.

CIMMYT scientists respond to some Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding fall armyworm:

Q: Is the presence of fall armyworm confirmed in Kenya?

A: Yes. A survey carried out from June to August 2016 in Embu and Kisii counties showed fall armyworm infestation. Although the infestation is still low in comparison to other parts of the region, the situation could change. Scientists from the University of Nairobi also reported sightings of fall armyworm maize damage in Machakos County. Anani Bruce, CIMMYT Maize Entomologist, Nairobi, Kenya

Q: Does CIMMYT have fall armyworm-resistant maize varieties?

A: We do have a few CIMMYT maize inbred lines that can potentially offer partial resistance to the fall armyworm, but intensive breeding efforts are needed to identify more sources of resistance and to develop Africa-adapted improved maize hybrids with resistance to fall armyworm, including other relevant traits required by smallholders in the continent. B.M Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program & CGIAR Research Program MAIZE.

Q: There are reports of transgenic maize with resistance to fall armyworm; has this been confirmed?

A: A transgenic maize trial (under Confined Field Trials) was attacked by the fall armyworm in Namulonge and Kassesse (Uganda) during the first and second cropping seasons in 2016. The MON810 Bt maize entries showed resistance to the fall armyworm compared to non-transgenic maize materials. This however, needs to be further confirmed through additional experiments. Anani Bruce, CIMMYT Maize Entomologist

(Editing by Julie Mollins)

Scientists in Afghanistan set new program to raise wheat harvests

Written by on February 17, 2017. Posted in News.

KABUL (CIMMYT) – Inadequate access to new disease-resistant varieties and short supplies of certified seed are holding back wheat output and contributing to rising food insecurity in Afghanistan, according to more than 50 national and international wheat experts.

Wheat scientists and policymakers discussed challenges to the country’s most-produced crop during a two-day meeting at Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) headquarters in Kabul, as part of the 5^th Annual Wheat Researchers’ Workshop in November 2016. They took stock of constraints to the 2017 winter wheat crop, including dry autumn weather and rapidly-evolving strains of the deadly wheat disease known as yellow rust.

“Old wheat varieties are falling prey to new races of rust,” said Qudrat Soofizada, director for Adaptive Research at ARIA, pointing out that the country’s 2016 wheat harvest had remained below 5 million tons for the second year in a row, after a record harvest of more than 5.3 million tons in 2014.

The workshop was attended by 51 participants belonging to several ARIA research stations and experts from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and World Bank’s Afghanistan Agriculture Input Project (AAIP).

Afghanistan has been importing around 2.5 million tons of cereal grain — mainly wheat — in the last two years, with most of that coming from Kazakhstan and Pakistan, according to recent reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

“Most wheat farmers save grain from prior harvests and use that as seed, rather than sowing certified seed of newer, high-yielding and disease resistant varieties,” said Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT senior scientist and representative at the center’s office in Afghanistan. “This is holding back the country’s wheat productivity potential.”

Sharma explained that CIMMYT has been supporting efforts of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) to boost supplies of certified seed of improved varieties and of critical inputs like fertilizer.

“CIMMYT has worked with Afghanistan wheat scientists for decades and more than 90 percent of the country’s certified wheat varieties contain genetic contributions from our global breeding efforts,” Sharma explained.

Since 2012, the center has organised more than 1,700 wheat variety demonstrations on farmers’ fields and trained over 1,000 farmers. CIMMYT scientists are also conducting field and DNA analyses of Afghan wheats, which will allow faster and more effective breeding.

The FAO reports showed that the government, FAO and diverse non-governmental organizations had distributed some 10,000 tons of certified seed of improved wheat varieties for the current planting season. With that amount of seed farmers can sow around 67,000 hectares, but this is only some 3 percent of the country’s approximately 2.5 million-hectare wheat area.

“We have been informing the National Seed Board about older varieties that are susceptible to the rusts,” said Ghiasudin Ghanizada, head of wheat pathology at MAIL/ARIA, Kabul, adding that efforts were being made to take such varieties out of the seed supply chain.

After discussions, Ghanizada and MAIL/ARIA associates M. Hashim Azmatyar and Abdul Latif Rasekh presented the technical program for breeding, pathology and agronomy activities to end 2016 and start off 2017.

Zubair Omid, hub coordinator, CIMMYT-Afghanistan, presented results of wheat farmer field demonstrations, informing that grain yields in the demonstrations ranged from 2.8 to 7.6 tons per hectare.

T.S. Pakbin, former director of ARIA, inaugurated the meeting and highlighted CIMMYT contributions to Afghanistan’s wheat improvement work. M.Q. Obaidi, director of ARIA, thanked participants for traveling long distances to attend, despite security concerns. Nabi Hashimi, research officer, CIMMYT-Afghanistan, welcomed participants on behalf of CIMMYT and wished them good luck for the 2016-17 season.

Wheat breeding trial results were presented by Zamarai Ahmadzada from Darulaman Research Station, Kabul; Aziz Osmani from Urad Khan Research Station, Herat; Shakib Attaye from Shisham Bagh Research Station, Nangarhar; Abdul Manan from Bolan Research Station, Helmand; Said Bahram from Central Farm, Kunduz; Najibullah Jahid from Kohkaran Research Station, Kandahar; and Sarwar Aryan from Mulla Ghulam Research Station, Bamyan.

Agronomy results from the research stations of Badakhshan, Herat, Kabul, Kunduz, Helmand and Bamyan were also presented and summarized by Abdul Latif Rasikh, head of Wheat Agronomy, ARIA headquarters, Badam Bagh, Kabul

Breaking Ground: Caixia Lan on identifying building blocks for rust resistant wheat

Written by on February 8, 2017. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT scientist Caixia Lan. Photo: Courtesy of Caixia Lan

Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Support for research into breeding crops resistant to wheat rust is essential to manage the spread of the deadly disease, which has caused billions of dollars of yield losses globally in recent years, said Caixia Lan, a wheat rust expert at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Rust disease has historically been a menace to wheat production worldwide. Although agricultural scientists manage the disease by breeding wheat varieties with rust resistant traits, the emergence of new races hinders progress and demands continued research, said the scientist.

With outbreaks of new strands reported in Europe, Africa and Central Asia, wheat rust presents an intensifying threat to the over 1 billion people in the developing world who rely on the crop as a source of food and for their livelihoods.

One of the most recent rust races, Ug99, was detected in 1998 and has since spread across 13 countries, alone causing crop losses of $3 billion in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, said Lan.

Working with CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program Lan is identifying and mapping adult-plant resistance genes to different races of rust (leaf, stripe, and stem) in bread and durum wheat and transferring them into new varieties that help secure farmer’s production.

Growing up in an area dependent on agriculture in rural China, Lan knows all too well the impact crop disease and natural disaster has on family food security and livelihoods. The struggles of smallholder farmers to feed and support their families motivated her to pursue a career in agriculture for development, but it was not until university that she became inspired by the improvements made to crop yield through genetic manipulation and breeding, she said.

After completing her doctoral degree at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and working as a wheat molecular breeding lecturer at Huazhong Agricultural University, Lan was named the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative Women in Technology Early Career Winner in 2011. Lan joined CIMMYT in a post-doctoral position and currently works as a scientist to improve wheat’s resistance to rust.

Rust is a fungal disease that uses wheat plants as a host, sucking vital nutrients and sugars from the plant leaving it to wither and die. Without intervention, wheat rust spreads due to the release of billions of spores, which travel by wind to other plants, crops, regions or countries. Spores have the potential to start new infection, ravage crops and threaten global food security.

The science behind building genetic resistance takes two forms known as major (or race-specific) genes and adult-plant resistance based on minor genes. Major resistance genes protect the wheat plants from infection by specific strains of rust. While adult plant resistance, Lan’s area of specialization, stunts the pathogen by reducing the infection frequency and limiting its nutrient intake from the host wheat plant. Some of the longer-lasting adult-plant resistance genes have been shown to provide protection against multiple diseases for decades and have not succumbed to a mutated strain of rust so far.

Replacing wheat crops for varieties bred with several rust-resistant genes acts as a safeguard for occasions when the pathogen mutates to overcome one resistant gene as the others continue the defense, Lan said.

Lan has identified a number of rust resistant genes in CIMMYT germplasm and developed molecular markers, which are fragments of DNA associated with a specific location in the genome. However, as new races of the disease emerge and old ones continue to spread, research identifying durable and multiple rust resistant genes and breeding them into crops is of high importance, she said.

Water-saving maize holds potential to boost farmer resilience to climate change in Pakistan

Written by on January 18, 2017. Posted in News.

Evaluating CIMMYT's white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT — Evaluating CIMMYT’s white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT

ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – New varieties of white maize in Pakistan have the potential to both quadruple savings of irrigation water and nearly double crop yields for farmers, thereby building food security and conserving badly needed water resources for the country.

Maize is the third most important cereal crop in Pakistan, which at a production rate of four tons per hectare, has one of the highest national yields in South Asia. Maize productivity in Pakistan has increased almost 75 percent from levels in the early 1990s due to the adoption and expansion of hybrid maize varieties. The crop is cultivated both in spring and autumn seasons and grows in all provinces throughout the country.

However, Pakistan is expected to be severely affected by climate change through increased flooding and drought, and is already one of the most water stressed countries in the world. If the country is to be able to meet future food demand, new maize varieties that can grow with less water under harsher conditions must be developed and adopted by farmers.

The Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI) in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – an area particularly reliant on white maize for food, unlike other parts of the country where yellow maize is predominantly used for animal feed – recently tested nine white maize varieties (hybrids and open-pollinated varieties) provided by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that demonstrated tolerance to water stress conditions.

Two of the early-maturing, open-pollinated varieties gave above average seed yields even though farmers irrigated the fields just twice, compared to the usual eight to ten times necessary with currently grown varieties. These varieties can also be harvested in less than 100 days and yield seven to 10 tons per hectare (ha) under good management practices – over twice the national average of four tons per ha – giving farmers time to grow another crop within the same season and produce nearly double the current national average yield.

Team of researchers evaluating CIMMYT's white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT — Team of researchers evaluating CIMMYT’s white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT

CCRI will distribute about 1000 kilograms of these seeds to about 100 farmers across the province in the coming autumn season, which farmers will be allowed to keep for subsequent seasons. These varieties will not only contribute to climate mitigation strategies but also help farmers adopt new, sustainable cropping systems. In addition to meeting food demand, these new varieties also can alleviate the scarcity of livestock feed in Pakistan, contributing to the country’s food and nutritional security.

The CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), which receives support from the United States Agency for International Development, is helping to bring affordable, climate resilient and water efficient maize options to market. Since the launch of the program in 2013, Pakistani researchers have identified more than 80 CIMMYT hybrids and open-pollinated varieties that are well adapted to the country’s diverse environments.

Learn more about how AIP is sustainably increasing agricultural productivity across Pakistan here.

Engaging youth: beyond the buzzword

Written by on December 20, 2016. Posted in News.

Researchers are seeking to re-engage rural youth who are increasingly abandoning agriculture to work in cities, raising the question who will grow our food in the future? Photo: P.Lowe/CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – More than 60 percent of the population in developing countries is below the age of 25, a demographic that is projected to grow. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, the number of young people is expected to triple by 2050.

Despite large numbers of youth, farmers worldwide are an average age of about 60 as young people are being pushed out of their rural homes, due to factors like lack of access to land or credit. This is causing a dangerous trend that could result in a shortage of farmers in the coming decades, just as global food demand is projected to increase 70 percent by 2050.

However, when given the opportunity and access to resources, young men and women often prefer to stay in their rural homes and have proven to be more likely to adopt the new technologies needed to sustainably increase agricultural productivity than older farmers.

In an effort to address this age disparity and encourage young people to get involved in farming, youth in agriculture experts are developing a new framework with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that aims to help boost interest in research on maize and wheat farming systems.

Youth in agriculture experts from the Institute of Development studies (IDS), the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) and the Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD) visited CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City to discuss prospects and implications for maize and wheat farming systems – building on efforts to produce a collaborative draft framing paper by IDS with the CGIAR Research Programs MAIZE and WHEAT to help think about how both programs want to engage with youth as part of their research agendas.

Jim Sumberg, agriculturalist and research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, discusses how we can support youth and build up rural society at large. Photo: G. Renard/CIMMYT

In some situations young people are resorting to occupations other than farming due to lack of land or employment options in rural areas, according to Jim Sumberg, research fellow at IDS and an agriculturalist with over 25 years’ experience working on small-scale farming systems and agricultural research policy.

The response of agricultural research should not just be simply to make youth another target group, Sumberg said.

“We want to develop a more nuanced story, particularly in relation to the interests of MAIZE and WHEAT, and how these align with the interests and capabilities of different groups of young people – men and women, rich and poor, better and less well educated,” Sumberg said.

However, Sumberg cautioned against youth becoming just another box for donors to tick.

“There is a real danger that if we identify young people as a separate target group, as has been done before with women,” Sumberg said. “For each new box you put people in, you are chopping up rural society into separate pieces, as if youth aren’t related to the adults, older people and kids. But in fact everyone is embedded in social relations and networks and are connected to each other.”

What young people do economically, what they’re able to do both in farming and other occupations, has a lot to do with the nature of those relationships.

You need to consider questions like “Does a son or daughter receive land from a father or uncle? Does a wife lend money to her husband to start a business? If you only think in terms of isolate groups, you’re not getting the full picture,” he said.

Sumberg believes that we are early enough in youth involvement in agricultural research that we can avoid the mistake of making them a distinct and separate target. The real challenge is to work our way back to a more holistic image of rural society, which includes understanding the dynamic relationships between individuals and groups in each context in which we operate.

“It’s a great challenge, but the benefits are huge if we can pull this off,” Sumberg said.

The collaborative framing paper on youth for MAIZE and WHEAT will be published in 2017.

Agricultural biodiversity key to future crop improvement

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

The CGIAR is one of the biggest suppliers and conservers of crop genetic diversity. CIMMYT's genebank contains around 28,000 unique samples of maize seed—including more than 24,000 landraces; traditional, locally-adapted varieties that are rich in diversity—and 150,000 of wheat, including related species for both crops. Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT. — The CGIAR is one of the biggest suppliers and conservers of crop genetic diversity. CIMMYT’s genebank contains around 28,000 unique samples of maize seed—including more than 24,000 landraces; traditional, locally-adapted varieties that are rich in diversity—and 150,000 of wheat, including related species for both crops. Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT.

NEW DELHI — Conserving and using agricultural biodiversity to create better crops can help meet several sustainable development goals and stave off further species extinctions, according to scientists at the first International Agrobiodiversity Congress.

About 75 percent of plant genetic diversity worldwide has been lost since the beginning of the 20th century and 30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Meanwhile, humans only consume about 1.5 percent of edible plants and only three of these – rice, maize and wheat – contribute nearly 60 percent of calories and proteins obtained by humans from plants. This huge loss in biodiversity due to environmental degradation caused by humans – what many scientists refer to as earth’s “sixth extinction”– is detrimental to global food security and the environment.

“Just a 7-10 percent loss of any major food crop would result in prices quadrupling,” says Howarth Bouis, founder of HarvestPlus and 2016 World Food Prize winner. “Non-staple food prices in India have [already] risen by 50 percent over the past 30 years.” A lack of agricultural diversity puts the world’s entire food chain at risk if a shock – such as increased instances of drought or crop diseases due to rising temperatures from climate change – were to destroy a particular type of crop.

As part of a global response to these challenges, researchers in collaboration with farmers are gathering seed to conserve and protect in genebanks across the world for future generations. These banks are the foundation of agriculture, food security and dietary diversity.

“We don’t know what scientists will need in 30 years,” says Marie Haga, executive director of the Crop Trust. “We need to conserve the entire spectrum [of seeds]. If it’s not being used right now, that does not mean it won’t be critically important in the future.”

New advancements in DNA-sequencing and phenotyping technologies have also created an opportunity to actively use the genetic information of these seeds that did not exist just a few years ago. Crop breeders can now more rapidly and effectively identify seeds that have traits like enhanced nutritional qualities, drought or heat tolerance, or disease resistances to create better crops that withstand challenges related to malnutrition, climate change, disease and more.

For example, in 2012 approximately 23 percent of Kenya’s maize production was lost due to an outbreak of the disease Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN). Thanks to the efforts of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other partners, there are now 13 hybrid varieties with tolerance to MLN – created in just four years.

Delegates to the congress also tackled issues regarding the effective and efficient management of genebanks, biosafety and biosecurity, intellectual property rights, access to germplasm, benefit sharing from use of germplasm, and farmers’ role in conservation of genetic resources and other related themes.

The Congress culminated with the adoption of “The Delhi Declaration on Agrobiodiversity Management” that recommended harmonizing multiple legal systems across countries to facilitate the safe transfer of genetic resources, developing and implementing an Agrobiodiversity Index to help monitor the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity in breeding programs, promoting conservation strategies for crop wild relatives and other strategies to strengthen agricultural biodiversity’s role in agricultural development.

Improved drought tolerant maize varieties: a sustainable solution to climate change

Written by on November 8, 2016. Posted in News.

Rodney Lunduka speaking at the AFSC. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT — Rodney Lunduka, CIMMYT socioeconomist, speaking at the AFSC. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) — Is there too much talk and not enough action regarding food security in Africa? For two days, stakeholders in the agricultural sector met in Nairobi, Kenya, for the 4^th Africa Food Security Conference (AFSC), held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on 12 and 13 October 2016. Experts in crop production, nutrition, agricultural inputs, global development and even microfinance, chimed in on the seemingly endless task of making Africa food secure. Speakers at the event called for a lasting solution to this challenge, citing low crop productivity, food loss, and wastage from under-developed food value chains as some of the biggest impediments to food security. However, climate change and variability remain the most devastating occurrences to farmers across the globe, and sub-Sahara Africa in particular.

According to a FAO report on global food losses and food waste, the food currently lost in Africa could feed 300 million people. The report also mentions that food waste and losses in developing countries occur at early stages of the food value chain, where constraints in harvesting techniques, finances and technical know-how exist. Further, 40 percent of losses in developing countries occur at post-harvest and processing levels, translating into lost income for small farmers and higher prices for poor consumers.

While infrastructure investments in the food value chain can help reduce the amount of food lost or wasted, and in effect feed more people, achieving a truly food secure Africa means building resilience to climate change. To do so, it is critical that production technologies are developed to adapt to the changing climate, natural resources such as land and water are properly utilized, and the environment left intact.

In the last decade, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has responded swiftly to the ravages of climate change, developing responses that are accessible and affordable to smallholder farmers in sub-Sahara Africa, in whose farms the bulk of food consumed is grown.

In his presentation at the AFSC, Rodney Lunduka, socioeconomist at CIMMYT, shared that in addition to loss of yield in moderate drought, maize yield losses double when temperatures exceed 30°C, severely affecting farmers’ productivity.

The CIMMYT booth at AFSC. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT

“CIMMYT’s two major solutions to building farmers’ resilience to climate change are a combination of drought tolerant (DT) maize varieties, and good agronomic practices, which our studies show are being quickly adopted,” Lunduka says, adding: “this combined approach has the potential to double farmers’ yields, translating to more food and income at household level.”

Preliminary results from a household survey on the impact of DT maize in southern Africa reveal that a simple switch from non-DT maize varieties to DT maize varieties can increase farmers’ total maize production by 0.7 tons per hectare (ha) on average. The study spanned 4,700 households in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe between 2013 and 2015. In Zimbabwe, farmers would produce 0.6 tons more yield/ha with DT maize, where the average is about 0.8 to one ton per hectare (t/ha) with non-DT maize. In Malawi, farmers were able to produce one ton more per ha – on average 1.3 to 1.5 t/ha – when DT varieties and good agronomic practices were combined.

“Good farm practices such as residue retention and intercropping with legumes are popular, the former for its simplicity, and the latter for its income potential,” says Lunduka on adopting good agronomic practices. “It is common to see maize intercropped with soya beans, cow peas, groundnuts, or pigeon peas, which most farmers can afford and have the skills to plant.”

While uptake of DT maize varieties is gradually increasing in sub-Sahara Africa, there still exist some barriers to total adoption, notably unfavorable government policies, and production and purchase of old varieties by seed producers and farmers respectively. Government policies can encourage replacement of old varieties, for instance, by offering subsidies on seed production to companies that produce improved varieties.

Read Lunduka’s presentation at the AFSC here.

Unpacking our biases for better gender research

Written by on October 7, 2016. Posted in News.

said Shelley Feldman, the recently retired director of feminist, gender and sexuality studies at the Polson Institute for Global Development at Cornell University, gives a keynote speech on gender balance in agriculture at CIMMYT's 50th anniversary conference. CIMMYT/Alfonso Arredondo. — Shelley Feldman, recently retired professor at Cornell University, gives a keynote speech on gender balance in agriculture at CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary conference. CIMMYT/Alfonso Arredondo.

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) — Women play a crucial role in agricultural production throughout the world, yet they often face barriers to accessing improved seeds, new agricultural techniques and technologies that could increase their productivity and livelihoods. If women had access to the same productive resources as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20 to 30 percent, raise the total agricultural output of developing countries from between 2.5 to 4 percent and reduce the number of malnourished people in the world by 100 to 150 million (FAO).

In order to improve women’s access to productive resources and global food security as a whole, the first step is to learn to seek out and listen to women’s needs and realities without bias, said Shelley Feldman, the recently retired director of feminist, gender and sexuality studies and the Polson Institute for Global Development at Cornell University. Feldman, who was speaking at a conference in Mexico City to mark the 50^th anniversary of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), also served as an international professor of development sociology at Cornell from 1984 to 2016, was a former director of the South Asia and the gender and global change programs, president of the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, and fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. She has published widely in area studies and social science journals on gender and rural development, feminist methodologies, patriarchy, religion, honor and normativity, as well as on displacement and ownership rights.

Feldman began conducting gender research in Bangladesh in the 1970s, where she was struck by how many of the rural women she worked with occupied crucial yet often unrecognized roles at all levels of the agricultural value chain, from food production to farming and post-harvest work. A passion for research in gender and agriculture was born.

At the CIMMYT conference in Mexico City on September 29, Feldman challenged the audience to really think about, unpack, and change their assumptions about female farmers and gender in a keynote speech titled, “What does gender-balanced agriculture look like?”

She shared some of her views on women and agriculture after her speech.

Q: What can we be doing here at CIMMYT to help improve gender balance in agriculture?

Allow yourself to hear what women really want. I feel that many of us still don’t know. It’s not just a question of listening. They speak to us and we translate it through our own language, our own personal experience and understanding. For example, when I first started doing research in Bangladesh, every single woman in a village reported on a survey that they were married. I wondered how this was possible—the country had just endured a terrible famine, surely some women had lost their husbands. So I went back to the village to ask the women to explain. It turns out that this particular village happened to be Hindu, and in their tradition, once a woman is married she is always married, even if her husband dies or abandons her. Because I had translated their responses in terms of my own personal understanding of marriage, I ran the risk of overlooking these women’s actual status, situation and needs. We need to change the way we think about our survey instruments. We’ve learned a lot about what women do, but not why or how—why they do or don’t take risks, adopt technologies or change eating habits. There is such a push for quantitative data, but qualitative information is so important if you are to truly understand the realities that people are facing.

We also really need to think about the structure of our research process. “Taking it to the farmer,” in the words of Norman Borlaug (the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former wheat breeder at CIMMYT, known internationally as the father of the Green Revolution), is absolutely crucial, but we really need to think about “Who is the farmer?” “What do they want?” and “How are we convincing them?”

Farmers are not just one homogenous group—women farmers are not one homogenous group. Interventions will only work if we truly listen to what they want and need, and understand where they are coming from, to develop solutions that are appropriately adapted to their situation.

Q: What advice do you have for researchers?

When I first started conducting gender research in the field in Bangladesh in the 1970s I saw how many donors and other organizations often threw “blanket” fixes at people who needed specific solutions. These people were genuinely trying to help, but either because they were not listening to women, or because they were interpreting the women’s responses through their own understanding of the world, they weren’t helping the situation.

Don’t reproduce the assumed meaning of things, take it to the field, and use it as evidence you have actual data. In order to create any sort of positive change you need to be reflexive—always question, think about your assumptions, unsettle them. Demand self-reflection, even when it hurts, and it will truly change your research analysis. This will allow you to appreciate when your subjects say something you never thought of.

Q: What are your thoughts on CIMMYT’s approach to gender work?

I really appreciate CIMMYT’s work with the GENNOVATE initiative through the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) on Maize and Wheat. GENNOVATE is a cross-CRP global comparative research initiative which addresses the question of how gender norms and agency influence men, women and youth to adopt innovation in agriculture and natural resource management. I think it’s great that the initiative includes both qualitative and quantitative research—and most importantly, comparative research.

We need to realize that “women farmers are not women farmers are not women farmers”—women in any two different locations or social groups will not have the same realities or constraints. That’s why it’s so important that the project is looking at 125 rural communities in 26 countries. The work that CIMMYT gender specialist Lone Badstue and her colleagues are doing on GENNOVATE is incredible, in that they are working to pattern out broad trends without flattening out key differences. Not looking at women as a homogenous group ensures that you’ll get better results.

Gene bank crowdfunding campaign gains traction with commercial seed industry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ABOUT CIMMYT

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

ABOUT KWS

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

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

FURTHER INFORMATION

Genevieve Renard

Email: g.renard@cgiar.org

Telephone: +52 1 595 114 9880

Twitter: @genevrenard

NuME: a key actor in agricultural innovation systems in Ethiopia

Written by on September 2, 2016. Posted in News.

A QPM field demonstration in East Wollega, Ethiopia, showing the performance of BHQPY545, a QPM variety with yellow grain. Photo: CIMMYT

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (CIMMYT) — The Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project was selected as a key actor in agricultural and rural innovation in Ethiopia by the Capacity Development for Agricultural Innovation Systems project (CDAIS).

Funded by the European Commission and implemented by AGRINATURA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), CDAIS is a global partnership on capacity development for agricultural innovation systems (AIS), or collaborative arrangements that bring together several organizations working toward technological, managerial, organizational and institutional change in agriculture. CDAIS aims to make AIS more efficient and sustainable in meeting the demands of farmers, agri-business and consumers.

CDAIS identified NuME as one of the most successful projects in Ethiopia in its scoping study, largely based on its ability to demonstrate how multi-sectoral networks facilitate and speed-up the dissemination of quality protein maize (QPM) technologies and strengthen innovation. The QPM technology promoted is a biofortified type of maize with improved protein quality due to its enhanced amino acid profile that makes it more useful in human and animal nutrition.

QPM technology is a biofortified type of maize with improved protein quality due to its enhanced amino acid profile that makes it more useful in human and animal nutrition. Photo: CIMMYT

NuME is founded on a network of key implementing partners from Ethiopian research institutions, national agricultural research and extension systems, international non-governmental organizations, universities and public and private seed companies and is implemented in 36 woredas (districts) of the four major maize producing and consuming regions of Ethiopia. Such multi-sectoral networking of actors has proved to be one of the most important factors that can bring remarkably high rates of adoption of technologies bya large number of farmers in different countries.

All partners work together to ensure QPM spreads to as many farmers as possible. For example, Farm Radio International (FRI) collaborated with local radio stations, designing an appropriate multilingual participatory radio campaign on nutrition, protein and QPM benefits. Universities and Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education Training (ATVETs) produce agricultural experts with technical knowledge and skills in the field of QPM production and management. Meanwhile private sector seed companies produce and market QPM to meet the growing demand for the technology across the country.

The project has also brought the issue of QPM to the attention of policy makers and national agricultural development planners. As a result, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR) and the Agricultural Transformation Council have included QPM as a priority commodity in the national agricultural development plan. In 2014, MoANR set the target to increase the QPM production area to 200,000 ha within three years (2015-17), an area that is approximately 10 percent of the total land area devoted to maize production in the country.

Learn more about what makes NuME a success here.

NuME is funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and implemented by CIMMYT-Ethiopia in collaboration with various stakeholders from agriculture, nutrition and health sectors. The project is designed to contribute to the reduction of malnutrition, especially among women and young children, and to increase food security for resource-poor smallholder farmers in Ethiopia through the widespread adoption, production and utilization of QPM varieties and crop management practices that increase farm productivity.

“Invisible women” hold key to food security – ex-WFP chief Catherine Bertini

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

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – In developing countries, 43 percent of income-earning farmworkers are women – a percentage that is even higher if unwaged farm work is included, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Despite the large numbers of women working on farms, their voices are not heard by international development policymakers and funders, which handicaps global efforts to achieve food security, said the 2003 World Food Prize laureate and former head of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

“When policymakers or grant-makers look at community needs, the dearth of women in leadership or spokesperson roles, prevents them from learning what is really required to best support the community,” Catherine Bertini wrote in a special issue of Daedalus, the journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

“Feedback comes from men, and it predictably centers on what men need,” she added, pointing out that the role of women in the fight for food security is vital not only because they are farmers, but also because they typically oversee nutrition and meal management in the household.

Women and men do not have the same access to agricultural inputs – to seeds and fertilizer, land and extension services, and FAO estimates that if they did, women’s agricultural production would increase up to 20 percent, said Bertini, who will speak at a conference on September 29 in Mexico City to mark the 50^th anniversary of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Additionally, financial resources controlled by women are more likely to be spent on household needs in contrast to financial resources controlled by men, which are more likely to be used outside the household, Bertini said.

In her essay titled “Invisible Women,” Bertini, currently a professor at Syracuse University, cites a gender-specific mix-up with hoes as an example of how things can go terribly wrong when women farmers are not consulted about their needs.

During her tenure at WFP, Bertini visited a rural area in Angola, which was recovering from more than a quarter century of civil war. Farmers said they could not work the fields because they had no farm implements, although there were about a hundred hoes leaning against a nearby fence.

It turned out that the non-governmental organization (NGO) that ordered them was unaware that hoes in Angola were gender differentiated.

“The NGO had not talked to the women,” Bertini said. “In that region of Angola, women were the only people who tilled the fields, but they did not use the long-poled hoes. Women’s hoes, it turned out, had shorter wooden handles and shovel-like spades at the end.”

Women squat to use their hoes because they usually have a baby strapped to their back and it is less cumbersome and causes less stress on the back, unlike the men who stand.

“For me, this story became a metaphor for the importance of always speaking with the people who know what their needs are, and that those who do not specifically seek out women in order to understand their needs may waste their entire contribution to the good they seek to accomplish,” Bertini said.

“It also reminds me that women are generally not in community leadership roles and are too often politically invisible.”

She says for women to be seen and heard, and for society to benefit from their knowledge, changes must occur, including:

Educating girls
Starting research with women’s needs in mind
Enhancing women’s health support
Supporting breastfeeding
Improving women’s literacy
Creating agricultural extension programs that include women
Expanding micro-bank loans and insurance
Creating legal rights for women to own and inherit land
Considering societal gender roles in all development thinking

HarvestPlus World Food Prize laureates benefit more than 10 million people

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HARVESTPLUS MAIZE AND WHEAT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Education, supportive policies key to making biotechnology work for Africa

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

NAIROBI, Kenya – Increasing public understanding of genetically modified crops and creating supportive policies were key recommendations made at a session on boosting Africa’s use of biotechnology at the 7th Africa Agricultural Science Week.

CIMMYT breeder Jumbo Bright evaluates a maize ear at the Kiboko Research Station in Kenya. CIMMYT applies modern breeding technologies to develop improved varieties that are tolerant and/or resistant to various stresses. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT

With the population of sub-Saharan Africa projected to reach between 1.5 and 2 billion by 2050 and agriculture struggling to adapt to climate change, the pressure to meet the increasing demand for staple foods, including maize and wheat, has raised interest in biotechnology’s ability to boost yields.

Despite a recent U.S. National Academy of Science study concluding that genetically engineered crops are safe to grow and eat, and growing support for the use of genetically modified (GM) crops, there continues to be controversy around biotechnology.

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) hosted a session on “Taking GM crops to market in sub-Saharan Africa: Special focus on policy and regulatory environment,” to discuss policy challenges to biotechnology in Africa.

Participants recommended raising public understanding of biotechnology through farmer and consumer education while enhancing functional policy and regulatory systems to facilitate testing and uptake of demand-driven GM products. The recommendations were to be presented to policymakers in the region.

At the session, Stephen Mugo, CIMMYT principal breeder and regional representative for Africa, spoke on biotechnology’s ability to improve conventional breeding.

“Genetic modification can be used in specific cases, for example, when a trait is very difficult to improve by conventional breeding methods or when it will take a very long time to introduce and/or improve such trait in the crop using conventional breeding methods,” said Mugo. “The use of biotechnology can maximize yield gains in ways that are compatible with human and environmental safety.” Hence, farmers should be given a chance to benefit from GM crops because they could increase their opportunities, productivity and efficiency.

Although GM crops have been grown across the globe for the last 20 years, only three African countries — Burkina Faso, South Africa and Sudan — currently grow them. This is largely due to the controversy and ambivalence surrounding biotechnology policies, with most countries taking a precautionary approach towards adopting biotechnology.

As Francis Nang’ayo, AATF head of Regulatory Affairs said, “Most African countries have taken a precautionary policy position on GM technology borrowed largely from the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, which many countries signed, and which was primarily adopted to ensure environmental conservation.”

This, alongside other factors, such as their commitment to abide by other international conventions and the debate on GM technology, are keeping most African countries from adopting policies that support biotechnology. Nang’ayo added that most countries have adopted stringent regulatory frameworks governing different GM processes and that this apparent overregulation has inhibited advancement of GM technology into the hands of farmers.

However, there has been notable progress in countries such as Kenya, which recently approved the environmental release of genetically transformed maize that carries genes from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) following an application submitted to the National Biosafety Authority by AATF and the Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa project. This is expected to serve as a litmus test for many African countries that are already conducting confined field trials of GM crops.

Still, most African smallholder farmers have no knowledge of or access to biotechnology. According to Gilbert Bor, a farmer from Kapseret in northwest Kenya, “Many farmers know and understand that seeds in our fields are from science and research, so new and innovative technologies including biotechnology need to trickle down to farmers once proven safe. If such a technology promises farmers improved productivity, income and livelihood, and the likelihood of reducing use of pesticide and insecticide, then it’s important that farmers and consumers are educated and informed.”

Building a sustainable future: A history of conservation agriculture in southern Africa

Written by on June 23, 2016. Posted in News.

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

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) — When practiced unsustainably, agriculture has led to environmental degradation and famine, which have plagued civilizations through the centuries. Innovations such as irrigation or the plow (since circa 6,000 and 3,000 BC) increased productivity, but often deteriorated long-term soil fertility through erosion and other forms of degradation.

We are now facing historically unprecedented challenges to food security. We must increase food production by 70 percent to feed nine billion people by 2050, without damaging our finite and often already degraded natural resource base. In addition, farmers face more frequent drought and water scarcity, which makes it increasingly difficult to grow crops, and extreme weather events such as the 2015-2016 El Niño, which has already caused large-scale crop failures and soaring maize prices in southern Africa.

Conservation agriculture (CA) practices based on the principles of minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation are helping farmers combat growing environmental challenges by maintaining and boosting yields, while protecting the environment and increasing profits for smallholders globally. When CA practices are coupled with water-use efficient and drought tolerant varieties, the benefits are even greater.

Drought is increasingly common in Malawi, leaving an estimated three million people in need of urgent humanitarian food assistance this year alone. However, a fortunate few will escape hunger, including more than 400 farmers and their families in Balaka, southern Malawi, who have been practicing CA over the last 12 years. "Few farmers have livestock in Balaka, so crop residues can be kept on the fields instead of feeding them to cattle," according to Thierfelder, who says Malawi presents a good case for conservation agriculture. CIMMYT and its strategic development partner Total LandCare have helped more than 65,000 farmers adopt CA systems throughout the entire country. Above, SIMLESA lead farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize ears on her farm in Tembwe, Salima District, Malawi. Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT — Drought is increasingly common in Malawi, leaving an estimated 3 million people in need of urgent humanitarian food assistance this year alone. However, more than 400 farmers and their families in Balaka, southern Malawi, who have been practicing CA over the last 12 years will escape hunger. CIMMYT and its partner Total LandCare have helped more than 65,000 farmers adopt CA systems throughout the entire country. Above, SIMLESA lead farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize ears on her farm in Tembwe, Salima District, Malawi. Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT

“CA approaches can mean the difference between farmers being able to feed their families or having to starve,” says Christian Thierfelder, senior cropping systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), regarding the recent El Niño – the strongest on record – in southern Africa. To date, approximately 10 million people in southern Africa are dependent on food aid and an estimated 50 million people are projected to be affected, pushing them to the brink of starvation.

Sustainable intensification of agricultural systems and practices such as CA have become a necessity for farmers in Africa, where a combination of climate change and unsustainable agricultural practices are undermining land and water resources. This, coupled with an exploding population, makes increasing productivity while conserving the environment absolutely urgent.

Based on its experience in Latin America, which began in the early 1990s, CIMMYT started its first CA project in Africa in 2004, targeting Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This initial work focused on understanding CA systems in the context of farmers and their environmental conditions and was funded by the German government and the International Fund for Agriculture Development. Its aim was to facilitate the adoption of CA systems by smallholder farmers. This culminated in the establishment in 2009 of a large PAN-African project on Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA).

Farmers in Shamva District, Zimbabwe, are introduced to an animal traction direct seeder which allows seeding and fertilizing directly into crop residues with minimum soil disturbance. Labor-saving sowing systems are a key benefit for labor-constrained farmers and provide an entry point for CA adoption and outscaling. Photo: Thierfelder/CIMMYT — Farmers in Shamva District, Zimbabwe, are introduced to an animal traction direct seeder which allows seeding and fertilizing directly into crop residues with minimum soil disturbance. Photo: Thierfelder/CIMMYT

Since then, CIMMYT has leveraged its large network of partners to scale out CA. Between 2010 and 2015, CIMMYT, supported by a large group of donors including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United States Agency for International Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, helped over 173,000 farming households in the region adopt sustainable intensification practices.

Today, CA research at CIMMYT in Africa is increasingly focused on adaptation to the changing climate, which is leading to more erratic rainfall, increased heat stress and seasonal dry spells, in an effort to increase the use of climate-resilient cropping systems. CIMMYT’s work on CA in the region has shown that the practice can significantly increase farmers’ resilience to climate variability and change. Combining sustainable intensification practices with improved varieties has proved to increase productivity by 30-60 percent and income by 40-100 percent under drought conditions.

Despite CA’s successes, many smallholder farmers in developing countries still lack knowledge and understanding of sustainable agricultural practices and often revert to traditional farming practices that are labor-intensive and environmentally damaging. Also, CA systems are difficult to scale out if favorable policies and markets are not in place.

Araujo Njambo (right), a smallholder maize farmer in Mozambique, was used to the traditional way of farming that his family has practiced for generations, which required clearing a plot of land and burning all plant residues remaining on the soil to get a clean seedbed. However, as demand for land increases, this fuels deforestation and depletes soil nutrients. CIMMYT has been working with farmers like Njambo since 2006 to adapt sustainable intensification practices like CA to his circumstances. In remote areas of Mozambique, where Njambo’s farm is located, CA systems provide significant benefits during dry spells because farmers have no access to irrigation and depend only on rainfall. In the 2013-2014 cropping season, Njambo harvested his best maize yield in the last six years thanks to CA. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT — Araujo Njambo (right), a smallholder maize farmer in Mozambique, was used to the traditional way of farming that his family has practiced for generations, which required clearing a plot of land and burning all plant residues remaining on the soil to get a clean seedbed. However, as demand for land increases, this fuels deforestation and depletes soil nutrients. CIMMYT has been working with farmers like Njambo since 2006 to adapt sustainable intensification practices like CA to his circumstances. In the 2013-2014 cropping season, Njambo harvested his best maize yield in the last six years thanks to CA. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT

Mineral fertilizer, for example, is a basic agricultural input, but its adoption and use remain limited in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers apply less than 10 kilograms per hectare on average due mainly to poor distribution networks (especially in rural areas) and high prices that are 3-5 times those in Europe. Lack of knowledge and training on how to use mineral fertilizer and other agricultural inputs renders them ineffective.

New discoveries in agriculture and breeding must be adaptable and transferable to smallholder farmers. This means improving physical distribution of technologies, training, knowledge and information sharing, credit availability and creating enabling environments for growth.

Just before passing away in September 2009, world-renowned agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug famously implored the world to “take it to the farmer” – a call to action we must follow if we are to sustainably feed the world by 2050. Without a basic understanding of good agricultural practices, most smallholder farmers will not be able to grow enough crops to move past subsistence farming.

Grain yield from a conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Zomba District, Malawi, is measured precisely as part of CIMMYT’s research on the combined benefits of drought tolerant maize and CA. Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT

Pakistan maize stakeholders discuss progress

Written by on June 8, 2016. Posted in News.

NARC’s maize team receiving a certificate of appreciation. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar/CIMMYT — NARC’s maize team receiving a certificate of appreciation from AIP. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar/CIMMYT

ISLAMABAD — CIMMYT’s Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) held its annual maize working group meeting on 10-11 May with over 20 representatives from public and private seed companies and higher learning institutions in attendance. The working group evaluated AIP partners’ progress in deploying CIMMYT-derived maize hybrids and varieties to farmers.

Maize productivity in Pakistan has increased almost 75 percent since the early 1990s thanks to the adoption and expansion of hybrid maize varieties. However, the seed that spurred this growth is largely imported at an annual cost of $50 million. Since AIP’s launch in 2013, however, more than 80 CIMMYT-derived maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties have been adapted to Pakistan’s diverse ecologies. Currently, 21 public- and private-sector companies are testing and deploying these locally-adapted cultivars to smallholder farmers across the country.

In his opening statement, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) Chairman Nadeem Amjad cited AIP as the best example of sustainable development projects and said that one of its invaluable contributions is “sharing of valuable parental lines and breeder seeds.” He added that CIMMYT hybrids can help “resource-poor maize farmers have affordable maize seeds at their doorstep.”

Participants in AIP’s annual maize working group meeting, 10-11 May 2016, Islamabad, Pakistan. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan/CIMMYT

At the meeting, partners reported on their progress producing parental seed and described how they planned to deliver quality seeds to farmers. They also identified key challenges in Pakistan’s maize seed value chain and recommended potential solutions during the group discussion.

In his concluding remarks, Pakistan’s National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) Director General Muhammad Azeem Khan said that it was only thanks to AIP innovations and interventions that NARC was able to start producing seed of biofortified hybrid maize, a first in the history of Pakistan.

Certificates of appreciation were presented by AIP to NARC for jump-starting hybrid seed production in Pakistan and hosting various national maize events in 2015, as well as to Tara Crop Sciences (Pvt.) Ltd. for conducting the best maize trials evaluated by AIP maize partners during the 2015 traveling maize seminar.

Read about AIP in the media below: