Norman Borlaug (fourth right) in the field showing a plot of Sonora-64, one of the semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant varieties that was key to the Green Revolution, to a group of young international trainees near Ciudad ObregĂłn, Sonora, northern Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexicoâs Secretariat of Agriculture (SAGARPA) is displaying an exhibition honoring the life and legacy of Nobel Prize Laureate and CIMMYT scientist Norman Borlaug.
The exhibit, which opens from 25-27 May, includes photographs, personal items and awards that belonged to Borlaug and other CIMMYT scientists who made great strides in the centerâs fight against hunger.
In his speech at the inauguration of the exhibit, CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff emphasized the strong ties between Borlaug, CIMMYT and Mexico. âThe work that Borlaug did in wheat with the support of Mexican farmers and scientists saved a billion lives around the world,â he said, and thanked SAGARPA for honoring Borlaugâs legacy with the event. Â âToday, thanks to Borlaug, CIMMYT continues its work in Mexico to fight hunger around the world.â
A key part of this work is the MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture) project, a joint initiative between CIMMYT and SAGARPA that works to strengthen food security in Mexico. During his address, Kropff announced that the project has just developed 11 new varieties of wheat for Mexico, with genetic characteristics for high yield, pest resistance, and tolerance to climate change related stresses.
These wheat varieties are the result of 8 years of research and are the latest generation in a long line of cultivars generated from CIMMYTâs wheat breeding programs, dating from Borlaug himself to the present day. A recent wheat impact study found that 50 percent of the land used to grow wheat around the world is planted with CIMMYT or CIMMYT-derived varieties, feeding billions across the globe.
Calzada Rovirosa and Kropff signed an agreement between CIMMYT and SAGARPA to continue supporting MasAgroâs work and its contribution to Mexicoâs food security.
âWe are very proud here at CIMMYT to have the support of SAGARPA and Mexicoâs Agriculture Secretary for our work,â Kropff said. âWe are the only international organization based in Mexico, and truly have such a strong relationship with our host country.â
Julie Borlaug (center) presents her grandfather’s Order of the Aztec Eagle award to Calzada Rovirosa (right) and Kropff (left).
At the close of the inauguration, Julie Borlaug, granddaughter of Norman Borlaug and associate director for external relations at the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture at Texas A&M University, presented the Secretary of Agriculture with her grandfatherâs âOrder of the Aztec Eagleâ medal. The Aztec Eagle is the highest honor the government of Mexico awards to foreign citizens, and previous winners include Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Mandela. Norman Borlaug received the medal in 1970 upon winning the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded for agriculture, putting CIMMYT and Mexicoâs work to protect global food security in the international spotlight. The medal will be displayed at SAGARPA as part of the Borlaug exhibition. âThe order of the Aztec Eagle was one of my grandfatherâs greatest honors, and our family is happy to see it displayed here in Mexico for the first time,â she said. âWe know that CIMMYT in Mexico will produce the next Normanâor NormaâBorlaug that will help feed the world. Thank you SAGARPA for your continued support.â
Afghan and Indian researchers are collaborating to combat the wheat rust disease Karnal bunt. Photo: CIMMYT
DELHI, INDIA — Afghanistan is strategically located at the intersection of South, Central and West Asia, making it an incredibly geographically diverse country. Varying climates and terrains across the country have a direct impact on agriculture, including Afghanistanâs staple crop wheat, which is grown in in tropical climates in the east to cooler regions in the west.
However, various rust diseases affect wheat yields across the country. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, wheat rusts manifest as yellow, blackish or brown colored blisters that form on wheat leaves and stems, full of millions of spores. These spores, similar in appearance to rust, infect the plant tissues, hindering photosynthesis and decreasing the cropâs ability to produce grain.
While yellow rust is one of the most far-reaching diseases in Afghanistan and globally most devastating rust disease, Karnal bunt is another disease that while confined to the eastern part of Afghanistan, has proven challenging to combat with climate change creating more favorable conditions for the disease to spread in the region. In addition, the eastern province of Nangarhar is emerging as an important seed production hub in the country, raising concerns about Karnal bunt.
To counteract and contain Karnal bunt, CIMMYT and the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research jointly organized a three-day training program on Karnal bunt for Afghan researchers. Indu Sharma, former IIWBR director, stated this training is the beginning of a long collaboration between IIWBR and Afghanistanâs national agricultural research system. She also gave a detailed description of the Karnal bunt pathogen and its epidemiology, emphasizing the importance of detecting and how to combat Karnal bunt in Afghanistan.
During the workshop various principal scientists from IIWBR and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute discussed Indiaâs perspective and experience with wheat diseases, production strategies current research trends and genetic and biotechnological means for improving wheat. There was also a demonstration on preparing Karnal bunt-free seed samples for international shipping by IIWBR principal scientist M. S. Saharan.
In his address, IIWBR Director R. K. Gupta expressed his appreciation for the traineesâ active participation and looked forward to collaborating with them in the future. Sharma cited material exchange and screening of advanced lines for quality and disease resistance as opportunities for future collaboration.
A milling machine for preparing nixtamalized maize dough was presented to Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization by the Mexican embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. CIMMYT/Brenda Wawa
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) — Although maize is a staple food for millions of Kenyans it is usually consumed in one of five ways: roasted or boiled; mixed with beans, or in ugali (a dough-like dish made from maize flour, millet flour or sorghum flour) and porridge. This is nothing compared to over 600 dishes derived from maize in Mexico, about 300 of them made through a process called nixtamalization or lime-cooking.
The process includes cooking and steeping dried maize grain in water and food-grade lime (calcium hydroxide), rinsing the maize to remove the outer kernel cover (pericarp) and milling it to produce dough that can be consumed in different ways, according to Natalia Palacios, maize quality specialist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). This method, first developed in Mesoamerica where the crop was originally cultivated, has existed in the region for thousands of years.
If adapted, modern nixtamalization technology could increase maize uses and offer Kenyans invaluable benefits. Food-grade lime is rich in calcium, providing nutritional and health benefits. Nixtamalized food products such as tortillas (small circular-shaped flatbreads) are said to have same nutritional value as milk. About 94 percent of Mexicans eat tortillas, with 79 kilograms (174 pounds) per capita being consumed in rural areas and 57 kilograms per capita in urban areas every year.
By removing the pericarp, the technology contributes to reduce aflatoxin fungal contamination levels in maize kernels by 30 to 60 percent. Due to aflatoxins, Kenya has suffered maize production losses and, more importantly, a loss of human lives. In 2004, 124 people died due to aflatoxin contamination, and 155,000 90-kilogram bags of maize had to be discarded, according to government reports. Nixtamalization technology may therefore also contribute to increasing food safety for Kenyan consumers, who, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, are not fully aware of the harvest, drying and storage techniques necessary to prevent mycotoxin growth and contamination.
Participants prepare tortillas from nixtamalized dough. Photo: CIMMYT/Brenda Wawa
The benefits of nixtamalization will soon become a reality for Kenyans following the official presentation of nixtamalized maize mills to the Cabinet Secretary of Kenyaâs Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries by Mexicoâs ambassador to Kenya, Erasmo MartĂnez, which took place on 4 April 2016 in Nairobi. This event marked the official launch of a new project titled âExpanding maize utilization as food and enhancing nutrition improved health and development in Kenya through processing technologies from Mexico,â which will contribute to disseminating new technology across the country. The three-year project will be led by the Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organisation (KALRO).
The launch was followed by a week of training of 27 trainers from the public and private sectors led by CIMMYT and its collaborators from the tortilla industry in Mexico City and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The training focused on building the capacity of partners who will be the major drivers of the commercialization of nixtamalized products.
âGeographically Mexico is very far from Kenya, but we want to bring a technology that is benefiting millions of people in Mexico every day, and itâs my hope that this will go beyond Kenya,â MartĂnez said, lauding this milestone.  The Mexican embassy and the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development played a crucial role in bringing the technology to Kenya.
âThis technology is important because of its value addition to our food sector through reduction of aflatoxin exposure, increased market and income opportunities for youth and women, which will attract and improve their involvement in agribusiness,â said Sicily Kariuki, Cabinet Secretary for Public Service and Youth, who played a key role in the initial discussion on transferring this technology to Kenya.
KALRO will support raising awareness of the technology among small- and medium-sized companies, increasing their investment opportunities. KALRO is the custodian of the equipment donated by the Mexican government that is being used for training. CIMMYT will support this work by providing technical and capacity building expertise.
âWe will help to evaluate and monitor grain quality besides developing resilient maize to ensure we have improved materials that fit the purpose of an efficient nixtamalization,â Palacios said. CIMMYT will also continue to collaborate with its partners on research aimed at finding further scientific evidence of the use of nixtamalization as a way of decreasing aflatoxin exposure.
M. Sadeeq Tahir, the first QPM farmer in Pakistan who tested the newly introduced QPM hybrids in his field. Photo: M. Ashraf
ISLAMABAD â The maize sector in Pakistan is benefiting from an upsurge in investments leading to new varieties from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that have the potential to increase production, enhance nutrition and strengthen national industry.
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, the lack of a strong national seed system has caused Pakistan to import more than 85 percent of its hybrid maize seed at a cost averaged about $50 million annually since 2011. When coupled with other factors including a limited source of seed providers and non-relaxation of duties on imported seed, this causes the unit price of hybrid maize seed to be the most expensive in South Asia.
PROJECTÂ BOOSTSÂ SEED
A project launched in 2013, CIMMYTâs Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), led to a large-scale evaluation of maize varieties, which have since resulted in more than 1,000 diverse genotypes tested for favorable traits across Pakistan. Currently, 20 public- and private-sector companies are partnering with CIMMYT to test new varieties and deploy locally-adapted products.
USAID Mission Director John Groarke (center) during the launching ceremony of the first QPM hybrids in Pakistan. Photo: Awais Yaqub
In just two years since the launch of this initiative, more than 80 CIMMYT-derived hybrids and open pollinated varieties of maize have been identified and adapted to diverse ecologies in Pakistan. In the first phase, CIMMYT allocated 49 maize products for registration, commercial release, further seed scale-up and delivery in the target geographies in Pakistan. This maize germplasm was sourced from CIMMYTâs regional maize breeding hubs mainly from Colombia, Mexico and Zimbabwe. With the help of national partners, these improved varieties are being put in the hands smallholder farmers throughout the country.
Seed businesses in Pakistan now have the leverage to run a competitive domestic market for maize seed, thanks to these new varieties. Diverse new lines are also more nutritious, mature earlier and are more tolerant to drought. They can also be delivered at an affordable price which is a huge step forward compared to the limited options smallholder farmers had before AIP started.
Biofortification, or the enhancement of the nutritional value of a crop, has been a cornerstone of CIMMYTâs work in developing improved varieties. Quality Protein Maize (QPM) was the first new hybrid product to reach farmers in Pakistan. Â Demonstration seeds from the first two biofortified maize hybrids in Pakistan were officially distributed to farmers this February by the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), one of the national partners to AIP. The two QPM hybrids, originally from CIMMYT-Colombia, will reach about 300 farmers this season and further distribution is expected by 2017.
M. Hashim Popalzai (center) handing over samples of maize parental lines. At the left Mr. Faisal Hayat from the seed company Jullundur Private Ltd. receiving the seed and at the right Nadeem Amjad, PARC Chairman. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar
âWe know how precious (CIMMYTâs) parental seeds are,â said Muhammad Hashim Popalzai from Pakistanâs Ministry of National Food Secuirity and Research. Â âAt times it will take up to eight years to develop inbred lines and another 3-4 years to constitute hybrid seeds, however, we are getting them easily under the AIP program.â
Although developing new seeds takes time, the benefits could make a huge contribution to Pakistanâs economy, health and livelihoods for farmers across the country.
âThese parental seeds will help us to produce the seed locally,â said Faiysal Hayat, deputy manager of seed company Jullundur Private Ltd., adding that they will also âenable us to provide quality seed at an affordable price to farmers.â
In reviewing the progress of AIP maize activities, Abdu Rahman Beshir, CIMMYTâs maize improvement and seed systems specialist said: âThe overwhelming interest and collaborations from public-private stakeholders of Pakistanâs maize sector are the main thrust for CIMMYTâs maize varietal deployment drive in Pakistan.â
Subsequent activities in quality seed production and enhanced product positioning will further reinforce the encouraging gains of AIP which aims to have a vibrant maize seed system in Pakistan, according to Beshir.
Climate change is likely to have a huge impact on cereal farmers in India. CIMMYT/Emma Quilligan
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Developing cereal crops that can withstand the effects of climate change will require global, integrated efforts across crops and disciplines, according to a recent research paper published in the journal “Global Food Security.”
The authors of âAn integrated approach to maintaining cereal productivity under climate changeâ argue that cropping systems could become more resilient in the face of climate change through better coordination. Needs include characterizing target agro-ecosystems, Â standardization of experimental protocols, comparative biology across cereals (and possibly other crops)Â and data sharing.
Better integration of research effort across the major cereal crops â including wheat, rice, maize, pearl millet and sorghum â is expected to boost productivity under heat and drought stress, thus helping to increase food security for people in less developed countries, many of which will be severely affected by climate change.
âMost of the big challenges in crop improvement are transnational, therefore a better globally integrated research effort is a triple win scenario,â according to  Matthew Reynolds, head of wheat physiology at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and lead author of the paper. âItâs more efficient since duplication of effort is reduced, itâs synergistic since we learn simultaneously from multiple crops and environments [or cropping systems], and itâs faster to achieve impacts because outputs are disseminated more broadly.â
The paper itself is the result of a workshop held in New Delhi in November 2013, which was the first of its kind to bring together researchers from leading universities, CGIAR agricultural research centers, national agricultural research systems and the private sector â working across the five crops â to discuss areas of common interest and potential collaboration.
Wheat, rice, maize, pearl millet, and sorghum make up nearly 45 percent of calories consumed per capita worldwide and about 55 percent in least developed countries, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Cereal production is under threat from climate change, which subjects crops to heat and drought stress. Diminishing water supplies, increasing populations, urbanization, shifting diets and increasing demand for fodder and fuel is also putting pressure on cereal production. Taking all these factors into account, researchers project that yield growth rates of 1.2 percent to – 1.7 percent will be required to meet global demand and reduce malnutrition.
The authors of the paper, including representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, identified priority traits for heat and drought tolerance across the cereal crops, and also called for more effective collaborations so that these traits can be modelled, tested at common phenotyping platforms and the resulting data shared with other researchers worldwide as global public goods.
âThis paper has provided a baseline about what needs to be done,â said O.P. Yadav, director of the Central Arid Zone Research Institute at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. âIt has also shown what is achievable, once various institutes decide to work together with a common goal and become collaborative stakeholders in increasing the resilience of diverse cropping systems.â
First place winner of the photo contest âMujeres innovando,” Photo: Yashim Victoria Reyes C.
OAXACA – In agriculture, extension agents are change agents: they intervene to bring about change in order to help improve the lives of farmers and their families. Â They are critical to any extension program succeeding.
MasAgroâs annual PacĂfico Sur Hub photo contest âA look at agriculture in Oaxacaâ has documented the work of extension agents in the area since 2014. These photos show the field environment where extension agents work every day, by showcasing the agentsâ daily work and life, as well as record farmersâ adoption of innovations, from their point of view.
Extension agents working in different regions of Oaxaca have sent in their photos to participate in the following categories: The Oaxacan landscape, The farmer and his/her community, The innovating farmer, and The innovative plot. Out of sixty selected photos that were presented at a 2015 hub meeting, the winning image was chosen to be on the cover of EnlACe magazineâs June 2016 issue. 12 of the top-rated photos on Facebook will also be included in the same issue.
The winners include:
âMujeres innovandoâ, by Yashim Victoria Reyes C.
âLa fuerza de las alturasâ, by Jacinto Rafael Valor
âCultivo de maĂz en ĂĄrea de impactoâ, by Oscar Noel MejĂa DomĂnguez
âSiembra de maĂz en mĂłdulo de ACâ, by Oscar Noel MejĂa DomĂnguez
âLa organizaciĂłn que se niega a desaparecerâ, by Jacinto Rafael Valor
âSiembra tradicional en Piedra Azulâ, by JeremĂas GarcĂa Orozco
 âLa familiaâ, de Xel Reyes
âCosecha de cacahuateâ, by Yashim Victoria Reyes Castañón
âOciendo el suelo de mi parcelaâ, by Yashim Victoria Reyes Castañón
Congratulations to the extension agents who took part in the contest and who are aware of the important role that communications play in their activities!
New hybrid helps farmers beat drought in Tanzania. With seed of a maize hybrid developed by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project and marketed by the company Meru Agro Tours and Consultant Limited, Valeria Pantaleo, a 47-year-old farmer and mother of four from Olkalili village, northern Tanzania, harvested enough grain from a 0.5-hectare plot in 2015 to feed her family and, with the surplus, to purchase an ox calf for plowing, despite the very poor rains that season. âI got so much harvest and yet I planted this seed very late and with no fertilizer,â said Pantaleo, who was happy and surprised. âI finally managed to buy a calf to replace my two oxen that died at the beginning of the year due to a strange disease.â In 2015 Meru Agro sold 427 tons of seed of the hybrid, HB513, known locally as ângamia,â Kiswahili for âcamel,â in recognition of its resilience under dry conditions. The company plans to put more than 1,000 tons of seed on the market in 2016. Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT
This story is one of a series of features written during CIMMYTâs 50th anniversary year to highlight significant advancements in maize and wheat research between 1966 and 2016.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — In the early 1990s, before climate change caught popular attention, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided funding for an international team of scientists in Mexico to find a better way to breed resilient maize for farmers in drought-prone tropical areas.
Fast forward several decades and that scientific concept is now reality. By early 2016 more than 2 million farmers were acquiring and growing drought-tolerant varieties from that early research in 13 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, a region where maize, the number-one food crop, frequently fails under erratic rainfall and lethal droughts.
Survival of the fittest
The core methodology, developed at CIMMYT, was to genetically select maize lines that survive and yield grain under controlled drought or low soil nitrogen on experimental plots. This imparts tolerance in maize to both dry conditions during flowering and grain-filling, when the plant is particularly sensitive to stress, and to the nitrogen-depleted soils typical of small-scale farms in the tropics.
Maize plants are designed with male flowers, called tassels, at the top, and female flowers, known as silks, which emerge later from young ears and catch pollen. Research in the 1970s had shown that, under drought, maize plants whose silks appear soonest after tassels also produce more grain, according to Greg Edmeades, a retired maize physiologist who led development of CIMMYTâs drought breeding system in the 1980s-90s.
âWe used that trait, known as anthesis-silking interval, as a key yardstick to select maize lines and populations that did well under drought,â he explained, citing important contributions from his post-doctoral fellows Marianne BĂ€nziger, Jorge Bolaños, Scott Chapman, Anne Elings, Renee Lafitte, and Stephen Mugo. âWe discovered that earlier silking meant plants were sending more carbohydrates to the ear.â
Ground-truthing the science
In their studies, Edmeades and his team subjected many thousands of maize lines to stress testing on desert and mid-altitude fields in Mexico, dosing out water drop by drop. Reported in a series of journal papers and at two international conferences on maize stress breeding, their results outlined a new approach to create climate-resilient maize.
âThe idea was to replicate the two most common and challenging nemeses of resource-poor farming systems, drought and low nitrogen stress, in a controlled way on breeding stations, and to use this to select tolerant varieties,â said BĂ€nziger, now Deputy Director General for Research and Partnerships at CIMMYT. âAfter eight cycles of selection for reduced anthesis-silking interval under controlled drought stress, Gregâs model maize population gave 30 percent more grain than conventional varieties, in moderate-to-severe drought conditions.â
But could the approach be implemented in developing country breeding programs, where researchers typically tested and showcased high-yielding, optimally-watered maize?
Capitalizing on several yearsâ experience in Edmeadesâ team, in 1996 BĂ€nziger aimed to find out, moving to CIMMYTâs office in Zimbabwe and beginning work with breeders in the region to develop Africa-adapted, stress tolerant maize.
âAfrican farmers grow maize by choice,â she explained. âIf you give them access to varieties that better withstand their harsh conditions and reduce their risk, they may invest in inputs like fertilizer or diversify crop production, improving their incomes and food security.â
The efforts started by BĂ€nziger and several other CIMMYT scientists in sub-Saharan Africa involved large, long-running projects in the regionâs major maize-growing areas, with co-leadership of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), extensive and generous donor support, and the critical participation of regional associations, national research programs, private seed companies, and non-governmental organizations. Partners also pioneered innovative ways for farmers to take part in testing and selecting varieties and worked to foster high-quality, competitive seed markets.
The most recent initiative, Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), has been responsible for the development and release of more than 200 drought tolerant varieties. A new phase aims by 2019 to attain an annual production of as much as 68,000 tons of certified seed of resilient maize, for use by approximately 5.8 million households and benefitting more than 30 million people in the region.Â
Maize stress breeding goes global
Selecting for tolerance under controlled moisture stress has proven so successful that it is now a standard component of maize breeding programmes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, according to Edmeades.
âThe long pursuit of drought tolerance in maize shows how successful research-for-development demands doggedness and enduring donor support,â said Edmeades, who credits former CIMMYT scientists P.R. Goldsworthy, Ken Fischer, and Elmer Johnson with laying the groundwork for his studies. âAnd, as can be seen, many donors and partners have helped greatly to amplify the impact of UNDPâs initial investment.â
Over the years, generous funding for this work has also been provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (GTZ); the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA); the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); the UK Department for International Development (DFID); and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
This short history of drought tolerance breeding for tropical maize was developed in collaboration with UNDP, as part of CIMMYT and UNDPâs 50th anniversary celebrations, which coincide in 2016. To read the version published by UNDP, click here.
This story is one in a series of features written during CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary year to highlight significant advancements in maize and wheat research between 1966 and 2016.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) â The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) stepped onto the global stage during the âSwinging Sixties.â The decade was defined by social upheaval dominated by left-right political tensions provoked in large measure by Cold War rivalries between the United States and the former Soviet Union.
It was 1966 when Mexicoâs Office of Special Studies, formed in the 1940s as an agency of the countryâs Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation to improve bean, maize, potatoes and wheat crops, became CIMMYT.
That same year, civil war exploded in Chad, Chinaâs cultural revolution began, Indira Gandhi became Indiaâs first woman prime minister and musician John Lennon met his future wife Yoko Ono. In the United States, the feminist National Organization for Women (NOW) was formed. Throughout the decade, as the Vietnam War rumbled and more than 30 countries declared independence in Africa, women in many developing countries struggled to gain basic human rights, including the chance to vote.
In wealthy western nations, the âWomenâs Liberation Movement,â ultimately known as second-wave feminism, emerged, supplanting womenâs suffrage movements and deepening debates over womenâs rights.
At CIMMYT, efforts to meet agricultural needs of women farmers and those in charge of nutritional wellbeing within the household to bolster global food security took shape.
Women make up 43 percent of the agricultural labor force in developing countries, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). However, rural women suffer systematic discrimination with regard to their ability to access resources for agricultural production and socio-economic development.
Now referred to as âgender issuesâ and âgender relations,â debates over how to address inequity on farms and in the workplace are ongoing at CIMMYT. Rather than focusing specifically on womenâs rights, gender studies focus on how notions of women or men are determined through characteristics societies attribute to each sex. Gender relations consider how a given society defines rights, responsibilities, identities and relationships between men and women.
As staple foods, maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to one-quarter of the worldâs daily energy intake, and contributing 27 percent of the total calories in the diets of people living in developing countries, according to FAO.
Globally, if women had the same access to agricultural production resources as men, they could increase crop yields by up to 30 percent, which would raise total agricultural output in developing countries by as much as 4 percent, reducing the number of hungry people by up to 150 million or 17 percent, FAO statistics show.
SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS
From the outset, women scientists played a key role as maize and wheat researchers at CIMMYT.
Evangelina Villegas, who in 2000 became the first woman to win the World Food Prize, joined CIMMYT in 1967. She shared the prestigious award with CIMMYT colleague Surinder Vasal for efforts and achievements in breeding and advancing quality protein maize to improve productivity and nutrition in malnourished and impoverished areas worldwide.
Maize scientist Marianne BĂ€nziger joined CIMMYT in 1992. When she was transferred to Zimbabwe in 1996 to lead the Southern African Drought and Low Soil Fertility Project (SADLF), she became the first woman scientist at CIMMYT posted to a regional office.
âIn the good old days, women scientists were considered an oddity â women were considered something special, even though a scientist like Eva Villegas was very well integrated into CIMMYT,â said BĂ€nziger, who now serves as CIMMYTâs deputy director general.
BĂ€nzigerâs work was centered on eastern and southern Africa, where the livelihoods of about 25 million people depend directly on agriculture and maize is the staple crop of choice. Drought and poor soil quality often erode food security and increase socio-economic pressures in the region.
BĂ€nziger became known as âMama Mahindi,â Swahili for âMother Maize,â for her work developing stress-tolerant maize and for fostering the widespread access of seed producers and farmers to improved drought-tolerant maize now grown by at least 2 million households.
Denise Costich manages the worldâs biggest maize gene bank at CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City. She joined CIMMYT to work closely with farmers. She now holds farmer field days to help improve seed distribution. Her aims include understanding how best to move genetic resources from gene bank to field through breeding, so they become products that help improve food security.
âI was always encouraged to go as far as I could,â Costich said. âThe way I prove that women can be scientists is by being a scientist. Let me get out there and do what I can do and not spend a lot of time talking about it.â
Wheat physiologist Gemma Molero spent two years inventing a hand-held tool for measuring spike photosynthesis, an important part of the strategy for developing a high-yielding plant ideotype. Now, Bayer Crop Science is interested in joining a collaborative project with CIMMYT, which will focus around use of the new technology.
Wheat scientist Carolina Saint Pierre has made important contributions towards obtaining the first permits for growing genetically modified wheat in open field trials in Mexico. The trials have allowed the identification of best-performing genetically modified wheat under water stress and helped understand the genetic control of physiological mechanisms related to drought.
WORKPLACE EQUITY
Despite a daycare at headquarters and other efforts to encourage gender equity, women scientists at CIMMYT continue to face different burdens than men in maintaining a work-life balance.
âWhether you are a western woman in a white-collar job worrying about a daycare or a woman farmer in a developing country worrying about her aging parents, women have a different level of responsibility,â said Jenny Nelson, manager of the Global Wheat Program.
A lot of women drop out of agricultural science after earning their doctoral degrees once they have a family, said Costich, acknowledging a challenge many women working in agricultural science face related to long hours and travel requirements.
âAs a young woman I have to work very hard â I have to work even harder than men in the field to demonstrate my abilities and gain respect,â Molero said.
Overall, economists concur that gender inequity and social disparities have a negative impact on economic growth, development, food security and nutrition.
Through various projects, CIMMYT aims to address the challenges of gender equity to improve development potential. For example, CIMMYT researchers are among the leaders of a global push to encode gender into agricultural research in tandem with other international research partnerships.
In more than 125 agricultural communities in 26 countries, a field study of gender norms and agricultural innovation, known as âGennovate,â is underway. The aim is to help spur a transformation in the way gender is included in agricultural research for development. Gennovate focuses on understanding how gender norms influence the ability of people to access, try out, adopt or adapt new agricultural technology.
When designing and implementing agricultural development projects, it is difficult to ensure that they are responsive to gender dynamics. For Mulunesh Tsegaye, a gender specialist attached to two projects working on the areas of nutrition and mechanization in Ethiopia, participatory approaches are the best way forward.
âI have lived and worked with communities. If you want to help a community, they know best how to do things for themselves. There are also issues of sustainability when you are not there forever. You need to make communities own what has been done in an effective participatory approach,â she said.
Maize dish prepared with QPM maize with cook Amina Ibrahim at NuME field day, Sayo village, Dano district. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT
Including both men and women
The CIMMYT-led Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project uses demonstrations, field days, cooking demonstrations and messaging to encourage farmers to adopt and use improved quality protein maize (QPM) varieties, bred to contain the essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan that are usually lacking in maize-based diets. The Ethiopian government adopted a plan to plant QPM on 200,000 hectares by 2015-2017.
NuMEâs project staff, and donor Canadaâs Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), are highly committed to gender-based approaches, meaning that Muluneshâs initial role was to finalize the gender equality strategy and support implementation with partners.
By involving partners in an action planning workshop, Mulunesh helped them to follow a less technical and more gender-aware approach, for example by taking womenâs time constraints into account when organizing events.
This involved introducing some challenging ideas. Due to menâs role as breadwinners and decision-makers in Ethiopian society, Mulunesh suggested inviting men to learn about better nutrition in the household in order to avoid perpetuating stereotypes about the gender division of labor.
âFor a project to be gender-sensitive, nutrition education should not focus only on women but also on men to be practical. Of course, there were times when the projectâs stakeholders resisted some of my ideas. They even questioned me: âHow can we even ask men farmers to cook?ââ
Now, men are always invited to nutrition education events, and are also presented in educational videos as active partners, even if they are not themselves cooking.
âNutrition is a community and public health issue,â said Mulunesh. âPublic involves both men and women, when you go down to the family level you have both husbands and wives. You cannot talk about nutrition separately from decision-making and access to resources.â
Faxuma Adam harvests green maize Sidameika Tura village, Arsi Negele Photo: Peter Lowe/ CIMMYT
Empowering men and women through mechanization
The Farm Power and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project is involved in researching new technologies that can be used to mechanize farming at smaller scales. Introducing mechanization will likely alter who performs different tasks or ultimately benefits, meaning that a gender-sensitive approach is crucial.
Again, Mulunesh takes the participation perspective. âOne of the issues of introducing mechanization is inclusiveness. You need to include women as co-designers from the beginning so that it will be easier for them to participate in their operation.â
âIn general, the farmers tell us that almost every agricultural task involves both men and women. Plowing is mostly done by oxen operated by men, but recently, especially where there are female-headed households, women are plowing and it is becoming more acceptable. There are even recent findings from Southern Ethiopia that women may be considered attractive if they plow!â
Women and men are both involved to some extent with land preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting or helping with threshing. However, women do not just help in farming, they also cook, transport the food long distances for the men working in the farm, and also take care of children and cattle.
A study by the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute, Gender Matters in Farm Power, has already drawn some conclusions about gender relations in farm power that are being used as indicators for the gender performance of the mechanization project.
These indicators are important to track how labor activities change with the introduction of mechanization. âMy main concern is that in most cases, when a job traditionally considered the role of women gets mechanized, becomes easier or highly paid, it is immediately taken over by men, which would imply a lot in terms of control over assets and income,â said Mulunesh.
In order to foster social change and identify the needs of women and vulnerable groups, Mulunesh initiated a community conversation program, based on lines first developed by the United Nations Development Programme. Pilots are ongoing in two districts in the south of Ethiopia; a total of four groups are involved, each of which may include 50-70 participants.
âYou need to start piece-by-piece, because there are lots of issues around gender stereotypes, culture and religious issues. It is not that men are not willing to participate; rather it is because they are also victims of the socio-cultural system in place.â
When asked about the situation of women in the community, many people claim that things have already changed; discussions and joint decisions are occurring in the household and women are getting empowered in terms of access to resources. Over the coming year, Mulunesh will compare how information diffuses differently in gender-segregated or gender mixed groups.
NuME is funded by DFATD and managed by CIMMYT in collaboration with Ethiopian research institutions, international non-governmental organizations, universities and public and private seed companies in Ethiopia.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) â Scientific change requires innovation and the best solutions emerge when a wide range of perspectives have been considered, if you donât have representation from half of the population the scope for innovation is narrowed, said a leading molecular geneticist on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
âWomen often look at problems from a different angle from men â not better, just different â and like men we have a different gender perspective â all perspectives are valid and of value,â said Sarah Hearne, who leads the maize component of the Seeds of Discovery project at the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement.
Her passion for science began in girlhood, stemming from a curiosity about how things work.
âI loved experimenting and figuring out how and why things happen; I used to dissect my grandmaâs fish when they died to try to work out why they were floating in the tank â I was six at the time,â she said. âThankfully my parents werenât horrified by this and over the years my requests for microscopes, chemistry sets and supplies of organs to dissect were realized by Santa and the village butcher.â
Not all girls receive such encouragement. A study conducted in 14 countries found the probability for female students graduating with a bachelorâs, masterâs or doctoral degree in a science-related field are 19, 8 and 2 percent respectively, while the percentages of male students are 37, 18 and 6, according to the United Nations.
In response, in December, U.N. member states adopted a resolution to establish an annual international day to mark the crucial role women and girls play in science and technological communities celebrated for the first time on Feb. 11 this year. The aim is to further the access of women and girls and their participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, training and research activities.
She kicked off her career in adulthood by earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Plant Science at the University of Manchester and a doctoral degree at the University of Sheffield where she focused on work based across the University of Sheffield, the John Innes Center and Syngenta. Since graduating she has worked at two CGIAR centers in Latin America and East and West Africa.
She currently works with CIMMYT in the Seeds of Discovery project where she develops and applies tools to identify and enable the use of the valuable genetic variation present in genebanks for the benefit of farmers and consumers around the world.
She shared her views on women and girls in science in the following interview.
Q: Why is it important to have an increased number of woman and girls studying as well as working in scientific fields?
Girls rock!
Half the population is female but in science careers we are underrepresented, this imbalance becomes increasingly acute as you move up in career structures towards positions of more decision making.
Gender-balanced companies tend to have higher profitability and rank higher in terms of institutional health. This translates to the non-profit sector â impact instead of profitability is the measure of success. More women are needed in scientific research and development at all levels of organizations. This ideal requires a gender-balanced pool of potential applicants â something that is hard to obtain when women are underrepresented in sciences from school to university.
Q: What inspired you to follow a career in science and agriculture?
I grew up in Yorkshire, a rural area in the UK, my dad was an agricultural engineer and my mum still runs her own shop. Farming was an integral part of our community and our lives.
I loved science at school and was one of the few who studied chemistry and physics. Indeed, I was the only girl who studied the four sciences on offer. I enjoyed studying biology and environmental science the most, and after leaving school I deliberated whether to study genetics or plant science at university, eventually deciding to do a degree in applied plant science.
I spent my third year at university working with Zeneca â now Syngenta. My fellow interns and I were plunged into the deep end of applied research with very limited supervision; I LOVED IT! I got to research design, test, evaluate and develop tools and resources that mattered to the company and to farmers; my boss was very supportive and he encouraged me to try out some of my more âwackyâ ideasâŠI was allowed to fail and learn from failure, developing better methods as a result. After earning my B.Sc. I applied for Ph.Ds., all the Ph.Ds. I applied for were focused on different aspects of crop improvement â I wanted to work with plant science that had an impact on peopleâs lives. The Ph.D. I chose was on maize molecular genetics and physiology working on Striga (a parasitic weed endemic to Africa) and drought. My Ph.D. experiences importantly gave me first-hand experience of the hard reality of the precariousness of food and nutritional security across vast swathes of the human population. When completing my Ph.D. I decided I wanted to be able to contribute to food security through research but I didnât want to do this within a university setting- I thought that was too far from farmers. I came to know CIMMYT through my doctoral research and I have been working in the CGIAR system of agricultural researchers ever since completing my Ph.D.
Q: What challenges do women and girls face with regard to science today?
Perceptions: Women can face direct sexism related to their choice of class/degree/career not being considered gender appropriate, this often has cultural influence so while a girl may be more or less accepted in one culture she is not in another. Role models also pose a challenge. There are few female role models in many areas; those that exist have often sacrificed much personal life to be where they are. This gives a skewed picture to girls in an image-obsessed world where people are expected to be perfect in all aspects of life. Science is still very male dominated, especially agricultural science. Overt and unintentional sexism is rife in many organizations – women can be made to feel like a âtokenâ staff member..
Being assertive and focused is often viewed very negatively when women display this behavior with gender-specific terms being used. I have been called âbossy, bitchy, emotional, aggressive, ice queen, scary, etc.â, my male colleagues exhibiting the same behavior are âdriven, focused, tough, go-getters, etc.â I have never heard them being called bossyâŠ.
Inequality at home results in inequality in science. Women still tend to bear the brunt of home and childcare activities and this creates real or perceived impacts. Institutions and national governments donât always help – shared maternity/paternity leave would be a good starting point.
Q: What is your advice to young aspiring female scientists?
Wow, there are lots of wisdom picked up and passed on I could share, here are a few I have found the most useful:
Personal: Check your own prejudice and ensure you treat others in an equal way. I get tired of hearing statements like âmen canât multi-taskâ⊠it is as offensive as âwomen canât read mapsâ. If we want equality we have to ensure we model it ourselves.
Work on self-confidence, self-esteem and develop a good, self-depreciating sense of humor. Build a support network to help maintain these things and give you honest feedback. Donât be afraid to ask questions; ask lots of questions.
Donât stress about titles, positions or detailed career paths â career paths donât usually follow a straight or planned path and you discover more fulfilling things on the journey. Give yourself time to explore and discover an area of science you love and are inspired by; believe me it is worth every second invested. Happiness is more important that a title on a business card.
Pick your partners carefully, life is full of surprises and striving for equality shouldnât stop in the classroom or workplace.
In school/the workplace, do not accept gender loaded statements; âyou are bossyâ should be quickly but firmly rebuked with ânot bossy, simply assertiveâ. Speak out about gender bias âbe it female, male, bi -or trans gender â and enable and support others to speak out. If someone says something that makes you feel uncomfortable, articulate this to them. In addition, I would advise that you should never, ever accept sexual harassment of yourself or others in the workplace. Report it and if needed shout and scream about it. It is a good idea to build a financial/family safety net for yourself so that you have the freedom to leave situations where there is unwillingness of employers to deal with sexual harassment.
Learn to program Python and a bit of Java. Data is getting easier to capture and as a result the volume of data we are processing grows year on year. Having the skills to manipulate and analyze this is increasingly critical â off the shelf solutions no longer work. Being able to program is an increasingly valuable skill and one many girls are not encouraged to explore.
Try to understand the gender climate of the organization you are working for â or want to work for â and seek out allies to navigate and â hopefully â start to influence the climate to a more gender neutral workplace.
Donât view every decision as having gender bias – sometimes there really isnât any- you just donât like the decision.
Apply for jobs even when you donât meet all of the requirements – if you can do half of the things well and can learn the others then apply- nothing ventured nothing gained (and few candidates, male or female, tick all of the boxes).
Learn how to negotiate and try not to enter a situation in which you are unaware of the facts about what you are arguing for. Women often feel uncomfortable to negotiate salaries â you feel worse when you realize a male colleague doing the same job is being paid more.
Donât let anyone shout at you, and donât let anyone talk over you – calmly, quietly, and privately explain how you want to be treated – if the shouting continues walk away from the situation.
Consider family issues whether you have a family or not; do you need to send an urgent request to someone at 5pm on a Friday? -This helps all colleagues â men have families too and we all need work-life balance.
M.L. Jat shows resilient cropping system options for eastern Indo-Gangetic plains at BISA farm
CIMMYT Senior Scientist M.L. Jat has received Indiaâs National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) fellowship in Natural Resource Management for his âoutstanding contributions in developing and scalingâ conservation agriculture-based management technologies for predominant cereal-based cropping systems in South Asia.
Research such as M.L.âs is more important every day, as we learn to do more with less on a planet with finite resources and changing climate. Sustainable innovation, including climate-smart agriculture, is a major theme at the ongoing COP21 climate talks where global leaders are gathered to decide the future of our planet. M.L. tells us below how CA can play a part in climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the future of CA in South Asia.
What are the major threats global climate change poses to South Asian agriculture?
South Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change. With a growing population of 1.6 billion people, the region hosts 40% of the worldâs poor and malnourished on just 2.4% of the worldâs land. Agriculture makes up over half of the regionâs livelihoods, so warmer winters and extreme, erratic weather events such as droughts and floods have an even greater impact. Higher global temperatures will continue to add extreme pressure to finite land and other natural resources, threatening food security and livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the urban poor.
How does CA mitigate and help farmers adapt to climate change?
In South Asia, climate change is likely to reduce agricultural production 10â50% by 2050 and beyond, so adaptation measures are needed now. Climate change has complex and local impacts, requiring scalable solutions to likewise be locally-adapted.
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices such as CA not only minimize production costs and inputs, but also help farmers adapt to extreme weather events, reduce temporal variability in productivity, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, according to numerous data on CA management practices throughout the region.
What future developments are needed to help South Asian farmers adapt to climate change?
Targeting and access to CA sustainable intensification technologies, knowledge, and training – such as precision water and nutrient management or mechanized CA solutions specific to a farmerâs unique landscape – will be critical to cope with emerging risks of climate variability. Participatory and community-based approaches will be critical for scaled impact as well. For example, the climate smart village concept allows rural youth and women to be empowered not only by becoming CA practitioners but also by serving as knowledge providers to the local community, making them important actors in generating employment and scaling CA and other climate-smart practices.
Where do you see your research heading in the next 10-15 years?
Now that there are clear benefits of CA and CSA across a diversity of farms at a regional level, as well as increased awareness by stakeholders of potential challenges of resource degradation and food security in the face of climate change, scaling up CA and CSA interventions will be a priority. For example, the Government of Haryana in India has already initiated a program to introduce CSA in 500 climate smart villages. Thanks to this initiative, CA and CSA will benefit 10 million farms across the region in the next 10-15 years.
Climate-Smart Villages
Climate-Smart Villages are a community-based approach to adaptation and mitigation of climate change for villages in high-risk areas, which will likely suffer most from a changing climate. The project began in 2011 with 15 climate-smart villages in West Africa, East Africa and South Asia, and is expanding to Latin America and Southeast Asia. CIMMYT is leading the CCAFS-CSV project in South Asia.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses under the motto âNutritious seeds for a sustainable future.â Pulses, an annual leguminous crop yielding from one to 12 seeds (dry beans, kidney beans, dry peas, lentils and others), have been named by the FAO as essential in the fight for food security for their nutrient value and their key role in crop rotations through the ability to fix nitrogen.
When we plant the same species on the same land every year, we are engaging in what is called monoculture. Monoculture has unfavorable consequences for production, since it increases the incidence of weeds, pests and diseases, which become resistant to control methods.
To counteract this, one of the principles of Conservation Agriculture (CA) is crop rotation, which involves planting different crops in the same field in a specific order. Crop rotation reduces the incidence of pests and diseases by interrupting their life cycles; it also maintains weed control and promotes more appropriate nutrient distribution in the soil profile (crops that have deeper roots extract nutrients at a greater depth) and helps reduce the economic risk when an unforeseen event affects one of the crops. It also enables farmers to balance residue production because crops that produce few residues can be rotated with crops that produce a large amount.
Crop rotation should include pulses (leguminous crops) that make efficient use of water and provide soil nutrients (such as nitrogen) that are extracted by grains.
The year will be a unique opportunity to foster connections all along the food chain in order to benefit more from proteins derived from pulses, increase pulse production worldwide, make better use of crop rotation and face the challenges of commercializing pulses.
Bram Govaerts, Leader of CIMMYT’s program on Sustainable Intensification in Latin America, speaks at the Oxford Farming Conference. Photo: CIMMYT
âImagine a sports car designed to travel at high speed on paved highways, running on a gravel road. Itâs going to break down, isnât it? The same thing happens when agricultural technologies are applied without using smart agronomy to increase input use efficiency, protect the environment and ensure sustainability,â said Bram Govaerts, Leader of CIMMYTâs program on Sustainable Intensification in Latin America.
Govaerts presented at a keynote speech titled âEnding hunger: Can we achieve humanityâs elusive goal by 2050?â at the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) of the University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, on 5-7 January. The conference has been held in Oxford for more than 70 years with the aim of contributing to the improvement and welfare of British agriculture. Farmers, researchers, politicians and economists from across the world attend the event. This year, the main theme was âDaring Agriculture,â including such subjects as global agriculture, innovation, sustainable intensification, technology and agribusiness.
As evidenced during the event, there are many challenges in agriculture. We need to produce more food with fewer resources and less environmental impact while reducing world hunger and poverty. In his speech, Govaerts highlighted the main challenges to achieving food security for a world population that is projected to reach nearly ten billion by 2050. These challenges include the growing demand for food, demographic changes and the impacts on agriculture of weather events such as El Niño. Govaerts also mentioned CIMMYTâs efforts aimed at fighting world hunger and how initiatives such as MasAgro are taking science to the farm.
âIt was very exciting to talk about the sustainable strategies weâre working on with farmers, technicians, scientists, institutions and partners to be able to produce more with fewer resources and, especially, to produce intelligently by adapting technologies to the needs of farmers, by developing machine prototypes and by using appropriate varieties and post-harvest practices,â said Govaerts.
Ancestors of modern wheat (R) in comparison with an ear of modern cultivated wheat (L). Photo: Thomas Lumpkin/CIMMYT.
In a world where the population is expected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050, grain production must increase to meet rising demand. This is especially true for bread wheat, which provides one-fifth of the total calories consumed by the worldâs population. However, climate change threatens to derail global food security, as instances of extreme weather events and high temperatures reduce agricultural productivity and are increasing faster than agriculture can naturally adapt, leaving our future ability to feed the global population uncertain. How can we ensure crop production and food security for generations to come?
In order to continue feeding the planet, it is imperative that we identify crop varieties that display adaptive and quality traits such as drought and heat stress tolerance that will allow them to survive and flourish despite environmental stresses. For this reason, a recent study by Sehgal et al., âExploring and mobilizing the gene bank biodiversity for wheat improvement,â was conducted to characterize wheat seed samples in the CIMMYT germplasm bank to identify useful variations for use in wheat breeding.
The study analyzed the genetic diversity of 1,423 bread wheat seed samples that represent major wheat production environments around the world, particularly regions that experience significant heat and drought. The tested samples included synthetic wheat varieties, which are novel bread wheat varieties created by making crosses between the progenitors of modern bread wheat, durum wheat and wild grassy ancestors; landraces, which are local varieties developed through centuries of farmer selection; and elite lines that have been selectively bred and adapted. The samples were analyzed through genotyping-by-sequencing, a rapid and cost-effective approach that allows for an in-depth, reliable estimate of genetic diversity.
The results of the study suggested that many of the tested landraces and synthetics have untapped, useful genetic variation that could be used to improve modern wheat varieties. When combined with elite wheat germplasm, this genetic variation will increase stress adaptation and quality traits as well as heat and drought tolerance, thus leading to new wheat varieties that can better survive under climate change. The study also found new genetic variation for vernalization, in which flowering is induced by exposure to cold, and for glutenin, a major wheat protein responsible for dough strength and elasticity. Based on the information generated by the study, over 200 of the diverse seed samples tested have been selected for use in breeding, since they contain new specific forms of genes conferring drought and heat stress tolerance. This new genetic diversity will help bread wheat breeding programs around the world create new varieties to feed the worldâs growing population in a changing environment.
This research is part of CIMMYTâs ongoing Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) project, which is funded by the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) through the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project, as well as the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT). SeeD works to unlock the genetic potential of maize and wheat genetic resources by providing breeders with a toolkit that enables their more targeted use in the development of better varieties that address future challenges, including those from climate change and a growing population.
Sehgal D, Vikram P, Sansaloni CP, Ortiz C, Pierre CS, Payne T, et al. (2015) Exploring and Mobilizing the Gene Bank Biodiversity for Wheat Improvement. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0132112. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0132112
WHAT: Bram Govaerts, strategic leader for Sustainable Intensification in Latin America and Latin America representative at the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), will make keynote speech entitled âEnding hunger: Can we achieve humanityâs elusive goal by 2050?â at the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC) at the University of Oxford, in Oxford, UK.
WHEN: Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: South School, Examination Schools, University of Oxford, 75-81 High Street, Oxford, UK, OX1 4AS
ABOUT OFC: The Oxford Farming Conference has been held in Oxford for more than 70 years, attracting strong debate and exceptional speakers.
OTHER DETAILS: Bram Govaerts, who will be available for media interviews, will deliver the keynote Frank Parkinson Lecture sponsored by the Frank Parkinson Agricultural Trust, which aims to contribute to the improvement and welfare of British agriculture. The lecture will examine key challenges for achieving food security for a global population of 9.7 billion, which the U.N. projects will have grown 33 percent from a current 7.3 billion people by 2050. Demand for food, driven by population, demographic changes and increasing global wealth will rise more than 60 percent, according to a recent report from the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience. Govaerts will discuss such risks to agricultural production as:
The need for funding and political will to support technological innovations to improve farming techniques for small landholders in the global south
How mobile technology could benefit agricultural research, development and relaying innovations to farmers
Machinery prototypes, which can help transform agricultural practices
How minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation can boost yields, increase profit and protect the environment
Climate change: carbon sequestration debate; soil does not sequester the carbon needed to mitigate the impact of climate change as some policy makers suggest
Climate change: How CIMMYT is working to produce drought and heat tolerant varieties of maize and wheat
Why women are less likely than men to uptake conservation agricultural practices in developing countries
How CIMMYT connects smallholder maize farmers in Mexico with top restaurants and chefs in New York City
The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: A recipe for success in achieving food security
MasAgro: Mexicoâs Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture project involving more than 100 organizations, offering training, technical support, seeds
Dangerous diseases: How CIMMYT is producing varieties resistant to Maize Lethal Necrosis and Tar Spot Complex
MORE INFORMATION:
Julie Mollins, CIMMYT communications, by email at j.mollins@cgiar.org or by mobile at +52 1 595 106 9307 or by Twitter @jmollins or by Skype at juliemollins
CIMMYT, headquartered in El Batan, Mexico, is the global leader in research for development in wheat and maize and wheat- and maize-based farming systems. CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems to improve food security and livelihoods. CIMMYT is a member of the 15-member CGIAR Consortium and leads the Consortium Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.
