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For development expert Paula Kantor, gender equality was crucial

Written by on June 10, 2015. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Paula Kantor had an exceptionally sharp, analytical mind and a deep understanding of how change can empower men and women to give them greater control over their own lives, helping them shape their future direction, said a former colleague.

Kantor, a gender and development specialist working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), died tragically on May 13 at age 46, in the aftermath of a Taliban attack on the hotel where she was staying in Kabul, Afghanistan.

At the time, she was working on a new CIMMYT research project focused on understanding the role of gender in the livelihoods of people in major wheat-growing areas of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

The aim of the three-year project, supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is to find out how wheat research-and-development can contribute to gender equality in conservative contexts so that, in turn, gender equality can contribute more to overall development.

“Paula’s research was targeting a very large populace facing serious threats to both food security and gender equality,” said Lone Badstue, gender specialist at CIMMYT, an international research organization, which works to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat to ensure global food security, improve livelihoods and reduce poverty.

“Paula had vast experience – she spent most of her working life in these contexts – in very patriarchal societies – and had a great love for the people living in these regions. She also had a deep understanding of what she felt needed to change so that both men and women could have a better chance to influence their own lives and choose their own path.”

Kantor, a U.S. citizen, was no stranger to Afghanistan. Several years before joining CIMMYT, she had been based in Kabul where she worked as director and manager of the gender and livelihoods research portfolios at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), an independent research agency, from 2008 to 2010.

The project Kantor was working on at the time of her death builds on the idea that research and development interventions should be informed by a socio-cultural understanding of context and local experience, Badstue said.

Ultimately, this approach lays the groundwork for a more effective, equitable development process with positive benefits for all, she added.

WHEAT AND GENDER

Globally, wheat is vital to food security, providing 20 percent of calories and protein consumed, research shows. In Afghanistan, wheat provides more than half of the food supply, based on a daily caloric intake of 2,500 calories, while in Pakistan wheat provides more than a third of food supply, and in Ethiopia it provides about 13 percent of calories, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Global Food Security Index. These data do not reflect gender disparity with regard to food access.

In Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan, the central role of wheat in providing food security makes it an important part of political stability. Overall, gender inequality and social disparities have a negative impact on general economic growth, development, food security and nutrition in much of the developing world, but particularly in these three countries, Badstue said.

Women make up between 32 to 45 percent of economically active people in agriculture in the three countries, which are classified by the U.N. Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index in the “low human development” category.

Although women play a crucial role in farming and food production, they often face greater constraints in agricultural production than men, Badstue added.

Additionally, rural women are less likely than men to own land or livestock, adopt new technologies, access credit, financial services, or receive education or extension advice, according to the 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.

“Addressing gender disparities between women and men farmers in the developing world offers significant development potential,” Badstue said.

“Improvements in gender equality often lead to enhanced economic efficiency and such other beneficial development outcomes as improved access to food, nutrition, and education in families.”

METICULOUS RESEARCHER

Paula was brilliant,” Badstue said. “She had a clear edge. She was someone who insisted on excellence methodologically and analytically. She was very well equipped to research issues in this context because of her extensive experience in Afghanistan, as well as her considerate and respectful manner.”

Kantor’s involvement in “Gennovate,” a collaborative, comparative research initiative by gender researchers from a series of international agricultural research centers, was also critical, Badstue said.

The group focuses on understanding gender norms and how they influence the ability of people to access, try out, adopt or adapt new agricultural technology. Kantor provided key analytical and theoretical guidance, inspiring the group to take action and ensure that Gennovate took hold.

Kantor’s work went beyond a focus on solving practical problems to explore underlying power differences within the family or at a local level.

“Agricultural technology that makes day-to-day work in the field easier is crucial, but if it doesn’t change your overall position, if it doesn’t give you a voice, then it changes an aspect of your life without addressing underlying power dynamics,” Badstue said.

“Paula was trying to facilitate lasting change – she wasn’t banging a particular agenda, trying to force people into a particular mind-set. She was really interested in finding the space for manoeuver and the agency of every individual to decide what direction to take in their own life. She was a humanist and highly respected throughout the gender-research community.”

Before joining CIMMYT, Kantor served as a senior gender scientist with the CGIAR’s WorldFish organization for three years from 2012. She also worked at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in Washington, D.C., developing intervention research programs in the area of gender and rural livelihoods, including a focus on gender and agricultural value chains.

A funeral mass will be held for Paula Kantor at 11 a.m. on June 11, 2015 at St Leo the Great Catholic Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina.

CIMMYT will hold a memorial service for Paula Kantor on Friday, June 12, 2015 at 12:30 p.m. at its El Batan headquarters near Mexico City.

SUPER WOMAN: Paula Kantor engages men to support gender progress

Written by Mike Listman on May 29, 2015. Posted in Features.

FOCUS ON WOMEN CAN INADVERTENTLY END UP ALIENATING MEN

Gender research and outreach should engage men more effectively, according to Paula Kantor, CIMMYT gender and development specialist who is leading an ambitious new project to empower and improve the livelihoods of women, men and youth in wheat-growing areas of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

“We tend to focus on women in our work and can inadvertently end up alienating men, when they could be supporters if we explained what we’re doing and that, in the end, the aim is for everyone to progress and benefit.”

Participants in the global project will carry out 140 case studies in 29 countries; WHEAT and MAIZE together will conduct 70 studies in 13 countries.

Kantor and Lone Badstue, strategic leader for gender research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, are members of the executive committee coordinating the global initiative, along with Gordon Prain of CIP-led Roots, Tubers and Bananas Program, and Amare Tegbaru of the IITA-led Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics.

“The cross-CRP gender research initiative is of unprecedented scope,” said Kantor. “For WHEAT, CIMMYT, and partners, understanding more clearly how gendered expectations affect agricultural innovation outcomes and opportunities can give all of our research more ‘ooomph’, helping social and biophysical scientists to work together better to design and conduct socially and technically robust agricultural R4D, and in the end achieve greater adoption and impact.”

“The increase in de facto female-headed households in South Asia, for example, would imply that there are more opportunities for women in agriculture,” she explained, “but there is resistance, and particularly from institutions like extension services and banks which have not evolved in ways that support and foster the empowerment of those women.”

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

Men’s roles and attitudes are key to gender progress, says CIMMYT gender specialist

Written by Mike Listman on March 4, 2015. Posted in Features.

Gender research and outreach should engage men more effectively, according to Paula Kantor, CIMMYT gender and development specialist who is leading an ambitious new project to empower and improve the livelihoods of women, men and youth in wheat-based systems of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

“Farming takes place in socially complex environments, involving individual women and men who are embedded in households, local culture and communities, and value chains — all of which are colored by expectations of women’s and men’s appropriate behaviors,” said Kantor, who gave a brownbag presentation on the project to an audience of more than 100 scientists and other staff and visitors at El Batán on 20 February. “We tend to focus on women in our work and can inadvertently end up alienating men, when they could be supporters if we explained what we’re doing and that, in the end, the aim is for everyone to progress and benefit.”

Funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the new project will include 14 village case studies across the three countries. It is part of a global initiative involving 13 CGIAR research programs (CRPs), including the CIMMYT-led MAIZE and WHEAT. Participants in the global project will carry out 140 case studies in 29 countries; WHEAT and MAIZE together will conduct 70 studies in 13 countries. Kantor and Lone Badstue, CIMMYT’s strategic leader for gender research, are members of the Executive Committee coordinating the global initiative, along with Gordon Prain of CIP-led Roots, Tubers and Bananas Program, and Amare Tegbaru of the IITA-led Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics.

To that end, outcomes will include joint interpretation of results with CRP colleagues and national stakeholders, scientific papers, policy engagement and guidelines for integrating gender in wheat research-for-development, according to Kantor. “The research itself is important, but can’t sit on a shelf,” she explained. “We will devise ways to communicate it effectively to partners in CGIAR and elsewhere.”

Another, longer-term goal is to question and unlock gender constraints to agricultural innovation, in partnership with communities. Kantor said that male migration and urbanization are driving fundamental, global changes in gender dynamics, but institutional structures and policies must keep pace. “The increase in de facto female-headed households in South Asia, for example, would imply that there are more opportunities for women in agriculture,” she explained, “but there is resistance, and particularly from institutions like extension services and banks which have not evolved in ways that support and foster the empowerment of those women.”

“To reach a tipping point on this, CGIAR and the CGIAR Research Programs need to work with unusual partners — individuals and groups with a presence in communities and policy circles and expertise in fostering social change,” said Kantor. “Hopefully, the case studies in the global project will help us identify openings and partners to facilitate some of that change.”

Kantor has more than 15 years of experience in research on gender relations and empowerment in economic development, microcredit, rural and urban livelihoods, and informal labor markets, often in challenging settings. She served four years as Director and Manager of the gender and livelihoods research portfolios at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) in Kabul. “AREU has influenced policy, for example, through its work on governance structures at the provincial and district levels,” Kantor said. “They will be a partner in the Afghan study.”

She added that working well in challenging contexts requires a complex combination of openness about study aims and content in communities, sensitivity and respect for relationships and protocol, careful arrangements for logistics and safety, diverse and well-trained study teams and being flexible and responsive. “Reflections on doing gender research in these contexts will likely be an output of the study.”

After her first month at CIMMYT, Kantor, who will be based in Islamabad, Pakistan, said she felt welcome and happy. “My impression is that people here are very committed to what they do and that research is really a priority. I also sense real movement and buy-in on the gender front. An example is the fact that, of all the proposals that could’ve been put forward for funding from BMZ, the organization chose one on gender. That’s big.”

Agronomists learn precision-conservation agriculture

Written by on January 14, 2014. Posted in News.

By M.L. Jat and Tripti Agarwal /CIMMYT

Wheat agronomists in India learned about precision-conservation agriculture and received the tools to continue their education at a workshop in November.

Nearly 40 participants attended “Precision-Conservation Agriculture for Improving Wheat Productivity in South Asia,” which was organized by CIMMYT, the Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR) and the International Plant Nutrition Institute – South Asia Program (IPNI), with support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). The workshop was held 26 to 27 November at the DWR in Karnal, India.

Agronomists receive GreenSeeker training at a DWR field. Photo: RK Sharma, DWR

Attendees represented nine of the All India Coordinated Research Centres on Wheat and Barley Improvement (AICRCW&BI) located in different state agricultural universities as well as CIMMYT, IPNI, three Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) institutes, the State Department of Agriculture in Karnal and the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK). The goal of the workshop was to train scientists in blending precision and conservation agriculture, an important strategic initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), said M.L. Jat, senior cropping systems agronomist for CIMMYT.

The event aimed to raise awareness about Nutrient Expert, a software tool that helps determine fertilizer requirements, and GreenSeeker, an optical sensor that measures Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), an indicator of crop development and health. In 2009, IPNI and CIMMYT started working with the Nutrient Expert Decision support tool in close collaboration with national agricultural research and extension systems. The tool gained wide acceptance after private organization and corporations began providing it to farmers.

Targeting widespread adoption of both technologies, each coordinated research center received a GreenSeeker tool and Nutrient Expert software. Participants were engaged and motivated to learn about and implement the tools in farmers’ fields. Kaushik Majumdar, director of IPNI in South Asia, applauded the workshop collaboration and continuous efforts on implementing site-specific nutrient management. Etienne Duveiller, director of research for CIMMYT-South Asia, urged a multidisciplinary approach to address yield potential in germplasm and agronomy.

CA-lern-pres2

Partners should expand their innovation and training efforts and construct an action plan to reach farmers, said DWR Project Director Indu Sharma. She also proposed discussion of technology adoption and said training scientists is one way to move forward on agricultural issues. She cited a report on farmers who said they obtained 7 to 9 ton per hectare grain yield with higher nutrient applications.

In addition, she mentioned the need to bridge the production gaps of 15 to 20 percent in high productive zones and up to 35 percent in low productive zones through best-bet agronomic management practices. Regarding training, she emphasized the dissemination of knowledge. “Learning from the best farmers who are harvesting with higher productivity is required to ensure sustainable development,” she said. Participants said they appreciated the knowledge they gained during the workshop. CIMMYT, DWR and IPNI extended their support to participating institutes for future precision conservation agriculture endeavors.

Partnerships lead to measurable impacts for Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa

Written by on October 22, 2013. Posted in Features.

The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project is an outgrowth of more than a decade of maize physiology research. It builds on more than 10 years of promoting the inclusion of selection for drought tolerance in maize breeding programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and the widespread development and regional testing of stress-tolerant varieties. DTMA is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with past support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, USAID, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Eiselen Foundation. This blog post was originally published by CGIAR.

By Philippe Ellul/CGIAR

Smallholder farmer prepares maize plot for planting with CIMMYT improved varieties, Embu, Kenya. Photo: CIMMYT

Currently, maize production supports the livelihoods of approximately 300 million people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Climate change variability and the prevalence of extreme events, especially droughts, are a harsh reality for smallholder farmers in Africa who depend on rainfed agriculture. Maize production in Africa is almost completely rainfed and droughts plague approximately a quarter of the maize crop, resulting in losses as high as half the harvest. Extended periods of droughts therefore, adversely affect not only crop yields but also the livelihoods of African farmers. Economic analyses suggest that, if widely adopted, drought-tolerant maize seed can help African farmers cope with such impediments.

On a recent visit to the annual meeting of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) initiative held in Nairobi, I was privy to some evidence of research impact in this area, which I found to be quite significant. The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project (launched in 2006) seeks to mitigate drought and other barriers to production in the region.

Tanzanian farmer on drought tolerant maize demonstration plot. Photo: Anne Wangalachi/CIMMYT.

Here are some highlights of key data on the measurable impacts of the DTMA project and a snapshot of some lessons learned during my time there. Not only will this information be useful for future partnerships but it can also be used to inform our processes during the 2nd call for proposals for the CGIAR Research Programs.
The DTMA project started in 2006. Here are the targets that the project has achieved thus far (in 2013) in terms of measurable impact:
◦140 new DTMA varieties released,
◦30,000 tons of seed (17,000 T from new varieties) produced last year in 13 African countries (Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe)
◦An impact efficiency study (presented during the meeting) which indicated that several countries were able to reach their objectives in terms of seed production; Zimbabwe and Kenya were able to double their previous expected figures
◦ 110 African seed companies (72 small-national, 18 regional, 12 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and 8 international enterprises) have adopted, produced and spread the new DTM varieties to local farmers,
◦ 1,230, 000 hectares planted with these new varieties, and
◦3 million households and 20 million people in total benefited and reached.

DTMA partners made certain that complete accountability was applied to the partnership network in order to ensure that the impact of research outcomes could be quantified. Thanks to this well-designed management model, researchers involved in the DTMA initiative were able to not only produce high quality research outputs but also ensure that research outcomes were adopted and scaled up. In addition, local facilities for Doubled Haploid (DH) production from tropical and sub-tropical maize germplasm have also been set up at the KARI (Kenyan Agriculture Research Institute) Kiboko Station.

Read the full post on CGIAR’s website here.

ICAR-CIMMYT organize training in molecular tools in wheat

Written by on September 23, 2013. Posted in News.

By Arun Joshi, CIMMYT

Twenty young scientists from India and Nepal learned about existing and up-and-coming wheat breeding tools during a training program last month. Continuing earlier training programs initiated during the last few wheat crop cycles in India, the Global Wheat Program in South Asia organized the three-day “ICAR-CIMMYT Molecular Breeding Course in Wheat” from 25 to 27 August. It took place at the Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in Karnal.

ICAR-CIMMYT The training was for young scientists from different wheat research stations of India involved in a BMZ-funded project to increase the productivity of wheat under rising temperatures and water scarcity in South Asia. The training program attendees’ enhanced understanding of existing molecular tools for wheat breeding as well as emerging tools such as genomic selection. “Molecular tools will play an increasing role in wheat breeding to meet challenges in coming decades,” said Indu Sharma, director of DWR in Karnal. The program covered both theory and practice on the use of molecular makers in wheat breeding, especially those related to vernalization, photoperiodism and earliness per se, which could be used to enhance early heat tolerance. Practical sessions in the molecular laboratory of DWR focused on extraction of DNA, quantification and quality control of DNA, polymerase chain reaction polymerase chain reaction amplification and electrophoresis.

During various sessions, the instructors explained the steps of molecular tools to be used for such work. The participants tested their new scoring skills during an exercise which involved scoring the bands and cross-verifying results. Laboratory procedures on safety were also explained. CIMMYT wheat breeder Arun Joshi and Vinod Tiwari, principal scientist and principal investigator of crop improvement for DWR in Karnal, coordinated the training under the WHEAT CRP Strategic Initiative 6 (enhanced heat and drought tolerance). Indian resource participants included Ratan Tiwari, P.K. Gupta, Vinod Tiwari and a team of molecular scientists including Rajender Singh, Rekha Malik, Sonia Sheoran and Pradeep Sharma from DWR, Karnal. The CIMMYT scientists involved were Susanne Dreisigacker and Arun Joshi while the practical lessons were organized and led by Tiwari and Dreisigacker. A laboratory manual “ICAR-CIMMYT molecular breeding course in wheat” was also developed for the course, which was later released in the All India Wheat and Barley Workers meeting.

CIMMYT mourns the passing of Twumasi-Afriyie, creator of the quality protein maize Obatanpa

Written by on January 14, 2013. Posted in Features.

Dr-Twumasi On 03 January 2013, 63-year-old Ghanaian-born maize breeder Strafford Twumasi-Afriyie succumbed to cancer, leaving a substantive legacy that includes the creation of the world’s most widely-sown quality protein maize (QPM) variety, Obatanpa. His demise represents a huge loss to family, friends, hundreds of colleagues and collaborators, and many thousands of farmers. A highly-committed and knowledgeable scientist, Twumasi is remembered by all for his kind, gentle demeanor and modesty, as well as for building strong partnerships.

Twumasi worked at the Crops Research Institute (CRI), Ghana, through much of his career. Following the completion of his MSc at the University of Guelph, Canada, in 1981, he returned to Ghana to serve with former CIMMYT maize physiologist Greg Edmeades as Joint Coordinator of the Ghana Grains Development Project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It was during this period and under the aegis of the GGDP that he used CIMMYT germplasm during the early 1990s to develop Obatanpa, which by 2005 was sown on more than half of Ghana’s maize area. With support from Sasakawa-Global 2000, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and CIDA, Obatanpa has been released in numerous countries of Africa, including Uganda where as “Nalongo” it is among the most popular maize varieties.

Twumasi joined CIMMYT in 1997 to develop maize varieties for African highland areas in a project supported initially by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany and later the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), CIMMYT, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), and CIDA. Releases from that effort are still gaining popularity in high-altitude zones of Ethiopia.

As a breeder in CIDAfunded research in Ethiopia beginning in 2003, Twumasi worked with EIAR to develop a QPM version of the hybrid BH660, which accounts for some 60% of seed sales in Ethiopia. These and other superior varieties developed are being promoted through the new “Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia” project that Twumasi was leading. “The National Maize Program recognizes the relentless work of Dr. Twumasi for small-scale farmers of Ethiopia in particular and Africa in general,” says Berhanu Tadesse, Ethiopia’s National Maize Research Coordinator.

Edmeades remembers Twumasi as scrupulously honest, slow to judgment but always fair, and one of nature’s true gentlemen. “He was not afraid to take risks as a scientist and promote QPM when many others declared it a lost cause,” says Edmeades. “As my counterpart in Ghana I very much enjoyed working with him and came to appreciate his wry sense of humor and his lovely smile.”

Twumasi’s mentorship and tutelage helped several maize researchers from the region develop as strong breeders in their own right. His academic background included a BSc in agriculture from the University of Ghana (1975) and a PhD in plant breeding from the University of Missouri, USA (1989).

The CIMMYT family extends its sympathies to Twumasi’s beloved wife, Veronica, his daughters Mame and Truelove, and his son Kwaku in this difficult time.

Drought wars

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in News.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 6, June 2006

june02 In the war against drought each victory is very hard-fought. Stress tolerant maize will make a difference.

For years CIMMYT has been developing maize that is better suited to the harsher, drier weather conditions many Africans face today. Ever more drought-tolerant maize developed by CIMMYT and its partners is a major scientific success. The recent drought that affected Kenya and neighboring countries would seem to be the perfect crucible in which to test the capacity of this maize to make a difference in people’s lives.

That’s what the people of the Wikwatyo Self Help Group, a small farmer’s group in the village of Kaasuvi in Makueni, south-eastern Kenya, thought as well. The region has perennial food shortages which increasing drought has been making worse. The African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), an international NGO, provides emergency food relief on a regular basis in the region.

“They always give you less than you need so people still have to go out and work,” says Mrs. Musiawa Kiluva, the chairperson of the 14-member self help group referring to the fact that farmers still try to grow maize in the hostile land. “Furthermore people have wised up. Even if you receive relief food you can sell the maize you harvest and make some money.”

Working with researchers from CIMMYT and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) the group learned community-based seed production, specializing in newly-released, open-pollinated varieties (varieties that let farmers save seed from one season to the next without paying a penalty in yield). Mrs. Kiluva says the group decided to try seed production when the rains failed between 2003 and 2004, resulting in an acute seed shortage throughout the region. This was because farm families had to eat the seed they normally would have saved.

“You can’t save seed when you are hungry,” Wilson Muasya, a KARI maize breeder working with the CIMMYT Africa Maize Stress (AMS) project, points out.

The Wikwatyo group had been exposed to drought-tolerant maize varieties through CIMMYT-coordinated trials and demonstration plots, and the farmers had already decided they wanted to grow them. Muasya was eager to see these new varieties multiplied and in farmers’ fields.

“This shows the natural progression that improved varieties take,” says CIMMYT maize breeder Stephen Mugo, who coordinated the Rockefeller Foundation-funded seed component of the project. “Breeding, participatory evaluation, acceptance by farmers, and then seed production when the demand has been created is what we hope to see.”

Using their training, within four months of planting the Wikwatyo group had harvested, dried, shelled, treated, and bagged 4.2 tons of certified, quality seed of an extra-early, low-nitrogen-tolerant variety. They expected to sell the seed, emulating the success of a similar group in Uganda.

The Bakusekamajja Women’s Group in Uganda, trained by the seed project since 2001 is a great success. Now with a membership of 400 women and 53 men, from 16 members just 10 years ago, Bakusekamajja currently sells 430 tons of certified maize seed each year to a commercial seed company. In 2002 the group registered itself as a fully fledged agricultural NGO. “Our members’ incomes have increased; the women are financially independent,” says the group’s chairperson Grace Bakaira.

Unfortunately, the drought in Makueni region continued into 2006 leaving farmers with few resources at all. They were afraid to spend what little they had on the one technology that might make a huge difference next season. While demeaning, food aid was safer. The Wikwatyo group is going to have to wait a bit, but they know they have a winning technology. It is just a matter of time.

“If we could continue to produce this new seed, the farmers in Makueni would start harvesting maize within 3 months, and very soon people would no longer have to depend on relief food,” says Mrs. Kiluva. “Progressive farmers could lead by example.”

For more information contact Stephen Mugo (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

The Africa Maize Stress project is currently supported by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Rockefeller Foundation and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Millennium Village Celebrates Harvest

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 9, September 2005

millenium1 CIMMYT maize helps villagers quadruple their yields.

The excitement was palpable—and with good reason. “The last time we saw maize like this was in the 1970s!” said Euniah Akinyi Ogola, holding her freshly harvested maize cobs—each as long as her forearm—as the 5,000 residents of Bar Sauri village in western Kenya celebrated their maize harvest.

Euniah is a villager in the world’s first ‘millennium village’ of the UN’s Millennium Project. The village hopes to show that with modest investment and support, it is entirely possible to pull people out of hunger and poverty and set them on the road to prosperity. One of the first steps in the five-year process is to end hunger by improving the village’s agriculture.

With the drying up of state subsidies for small farmers in the 1980s and changes in agricultural programs in the 1990s, many Kenyan villages suffered a downward spiral in maize production. When the village project started in 2004, most farmers in Sauri were harvesting well under a ton of maize per hectare, insufficient to see a household from one crop to the next. The shortage of maize—the main staple food—coupled with malaria and HIV-Aids, effectively stymied Sauri villagers’ chances for a better life.

millenium2

To address the biting hunger Pedro Sanchez, co-chair of the UN Millennium Project Hunger Task Force, and his team introduced two maize hybrids to the village. Planted on all 300 hectares of village, both varieties were developed by CIMMYT’s Africa Maize Stress (AMS) project funded by IFAD, SIDA, BMZ, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

“We were looking for the best maize varieties available in Kenya,” says Sanchez, who did not want to take any chances when selecting the maize for the village. In addition to the new maize seed, the villagers received fertilizer and were shown the proper way to plant and tend their maize. Hard work and good rains completed the picture, leading to a bumper crop of four tons per hectare that astonished the villagers, project staff, and observers worldwide.

At the recent harvest festival, UNICEF Executive Director Anne Veneman and Professor Jeffry Sachs, UN Special Envoy on the millennium development goals (MDGs), both praised the success of the village. Sachs said the project would now work with the villagers to construct safe storage facilities for their current and future harvests and start planting more vegetables and other high-value crops.

Alpha Diallo, leader of the AMS project, says he was thrilled that the CIMMYT varieties met the MDG challenge: “The hybrids are high yielding, but are also able to resist diseases and other environmental stresses, thanks to our targeted, long-term breeding efforts,” he says.

For further information, contact Alpha Diallo (a.diallo@cgiar.org).

80,000 Data Points and Growing…

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in News.

November, 2004

cds_mwarburton In November CIMMYT unveiled a significant addition to the field of DNA fingerprinting for wheat and maize. Two databases, fashioned by molecular geneticist Marilyn Warburton and her team, are the largest public information sites of their kind.

Offered online via CIMMYT’s www page (see links below) and on CD-ROM, the new databases can be accessed or requested. Currently, over 80,000 data points are recorded, but the databases’ dynamic nature enables the constant incorporation of new information, so scientists worldwide can integrate information into the original studies. “This feature will perhaps be their greatest legacy,” says Warburton, “as people can add and compare their data with CIMMYT’s to address an infinite number of queries.” In fact, the size of these databases is expected to double within one year. Recorded in the databases are characterization information for CIMMYT varieties (pure lines and populations), breeding materials, and landraces, as well as materials from collaborating universities and national agriculture research programs in developing countries.

Of Widespread Interest

Like the diversity within the databases themselves, those who stand to reap the benefits from such a project are varied. “The more people who know how to use it and do, the more useful it becomes,” Warburton predicts. Breeders will utilize it to ascertain the success of a potential cross. Gene bank curators can steer clear of myopia and work with more complete or correct information regarding a strain’s pedigree or origin. When one encounters, for example, a wheat strain labeled as originating in the former USSR, ambiguity is difficult to overcome in such a vast area. Also standing to benefit from this affair is the relatively new field of association analysis, which determines the function of specific genes. A little bit like detective work, these databases bridge the gap between the physical traits of a variety and its DNA sequences.

Providing Access

“If you want something done, you have to do it yourself,” Warburton remarks, in reference to her newfound computer savvy skills. Because there was nothing on the market that suited the project’s needs, Warburton learned Microsoft Access™ and modified it to properly manage the deluge of data. In addition, in Access, CIMMYT’s software developers Carlos Lopez, Juan Carlos Alarcón, and Jesper Norgaard built three specific tools to manipulate the data, with more in the works as the project grows. Other scientists, students, and assistants helped build the database by carrying out individual laboratory studies, which are recorded in the final product. Reformatting data to meet the input needs for different analysis programs can be tedious, toilsome work, and nearly discouraged one postdoctoral scientist from finishing his program. The fingerprinting database has data translation tools to input and output data in multiple formats. Many supporters of the fingerprinting work have been around from the beginning, and funding came from a variety of sources including the European Commission, Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economics and Development (BMZ), and more recently, the CGIAR Generation Challenge Program.

Efficient storage of multiple data types is essential for understanding and applying the vast universe of genes to improve wheat and maize varieties, which provide developing countries with better options to feed their hungry. Empowering faster and more efficient crop improvement which targets the needs of farmers, databases of the different data types will allow scientists to search for ideal traits and find the varieties with the genes that control these traits. Like a giant toolbox filled with unknown gadgets, the genes are there, but it hasn’t always clear what they do or how plants use them. Warburton and her team have started the process that, together with other data types, will allow each tool to be examined and labeled, furnishing scientists with clues to improve maize and wheat varieties.

genet_diverTable Maize database: http://staging.cimmyt.org/english/docs/manual/dbases/contents_mz.htm

Wheat database: http://staging.cimmyt.org/english/docs/manual/dbases/contents_wh.htm

Global partnership protects Africa’s maize from parasitic plant

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 9, September 2008

sep01 Looks can deceive. Striga, a deadly parasitic plant, produces a lovely flower but sucks the life and yields out of crops across Africa and Asia. A new strain of improved maize seed is helping farmers reclaim their invaded crop lands.

Striga, which typically attacks cereal crops, launches its takeover from the ground up: its deadly seedlings attach to sprouting maize plants and begin siphoning off water and nutrients before either plant emerges from the soil. The parasite also poisons its host, further stifling crop development.

Worse, Striga seems to seek out the farmers least suited to control it.

“Striga thrives in low-fertility soils, which are typically owned by the poorest farmers,” says Fred Kanampiu, CIMMYT maize agronomist. National experts estimate 14% of the maize area in sub-Saharan Africa is infested with Striga, amounting to 3.64 million hectares.

Big benefits seen for Kenya

Work by a multilateral partnership has resulted in a promising Striga control measure that has recently started moving from the laboratory to farmers’ fields. The practice is based on a type of maize with a natural mutation that allows it to resist the chemical imidazolinone—active ingredient in many herbicides. Seeds of this imidazolinone-resistant (IR) maize are coated with a herbicide and, when sown, the coated seed kills sprouting Striga, allowing the crop to flourish.

“Economic studies estimate that if a third of the Striga-infested area were planted with herbicide-coated seed, benefits to farmers in Kenya would be between USD 51 million and 102 million, after production costs,” says Kanampiu, who coordinates the Striga Management Project. “This would be topped off by a yield effect of similar magnitude, because the herbicide resistance comes in seed of improved, locally-adapted varieties.”

A complex, multilateral effort

The idea of using herbicide-resistant maize to control Striga was first proposed by the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel in the 1990s. CIMMYT worked with that organization, as well as the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), BASF, the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), non-governmental organizations, and seed companies including Pioneer to develop, evaluate, and spread the practice, particularly among small-scale farmers for whom other control methods, such as spraying, are expensive or impractical. A key part of the work involved developing high-yielding, locally-adapted maize varieties that were also herbicide tolerant. The coating method was fine-tuned by Weizmann and the company Hi-Cap Formulations.

Support for more recent tests and promotion came from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the Rockefeller Foundation. By 2006 CIMMYT and KARI scientists had provided almost 300 herbicide-tolerant maize varieties for regional testing. Studies in randomly-selected farmers’ fields showed that with 30 grams (a little more than 1 ounce) of imazapyr herbicide per hectare as a seed coat in heavily infested fields, Striga was reduced by 81% and farmers enjoyed a 63% net return.

sept02

Striga meets its match

“The IR-maize reduces the Striga seed bank in the soil, lessening the need for future Striga control measures,” says Gospel Omanya, a Stewardship Manager from AATF, which is leading region-wide public awareness campaigns, field testing, and risk assessment. In addition, smallholder farmers who have tested the new maize and seed-coating practice on their land have obtained as much as a five-fold increase in grain yield.

Positive results like these led to the release of five IR varieties to farmers in Kenya, and nine other varieties are in performance evaluations for eventual release in Tanzania and Uganda.

More than 50,000 packages of IR-maize seed were distributed to farmers at 140 locations in Kenya for comparison with other Striga control practices. AATF surveyed more than 5,000 farmers and found they overwhelming favored the IR-maize seed. At least 10 seed companies, including Western Seed Company in Kenya and Tanseed International in Tanzania, are using IR maize and 60 tons of certified seed were marketed during 2007-2008.

“It was years of intense research and collaboration between partners dedicated to a unified objective, in addition to a willingness to invest human and financial resources, that allowed this concept to become a reality,” says Kanampiu. “The practice offers real, life-changing benefits for subsistence farmers like many in western Kenya, who tend 1.5 hectare plots of mostly maize just to feed their families. Their crops are normally so decimated by Striga that they harvest barely enough.”

Meanwhile, CIMMYT is working with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a leader in the effort to identify and breed maize strains that contain genetic resistance to Striga. The aim is to offer farmers yet another way of controlling this lovely but lethal pest.

For more information, contact Fred Kanampiu (f.kanampiu@cgiar.org).

Moving uphill: Maize’s growing role in Ethiopia

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 1, January 2009

Fueled by high-yielding varieties and national initiatives to promote the crop in highland areas, maize’s popularity is mounting rapidly in Ethiopia. Because farmers can get more food and income with the new varieties, they are calling out for seed. Suppliers—both private and government supported—are clamoring to meet the demand

“Farmers have expressed strong feelings for maize,” says a translator. A group of villagers at Sororo, Ejere District, Oromia, stand in the intense, mid-morning glare of highland Ethiopia and speak to visitors about their experiences with the improved maize varieties they had received from Demissew Abakemal, maize breeder with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR). “It was a very dry year, and your maize is performing well,” the farmers say. “We have a surplus for food and even some for taking to the market—something we’d not seen in all our lives.” They have been harvesting and piling sheaves of wheat from the bottom of the hill, but take the visitors to maize fields up near their dwellings, and proudly show the large ears of the hybrid Arganne and a nearly-as-productive open-pollinated variety (OPV), Hora.

Partners for life: CIMMYT and maize researchers in eastern Africa

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 1, January 2008

jan02 CIMMYT’s partnerships on maize in eastern Africa hark back to the 1960s, when the center was launched. Formal networking since that time with researchers and extension workers, policy makers, non-government organizations, seed companies, millers, and farmers have culminated in successful breeding and dissemination teams and promising new varieties rated highly by farmers. Awards to teams in Tanzania and Ethiopia recently highlighted the value of these partnerships.

During a travel workshop, CIMMYT and national scientists observing maize breeding and dissemination activities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda jointly selected the recipients of the two awards, one for the best regional technology dissemination team, led by the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), Tanzania, and one for the best regional maize breeding team for drought tolerance: the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)-Melkassa Research Centre.

“The awards recognize the products of long-term collaboration and team-building in the region, oriented towards the rapid development, release, and scaling-up of locally adapted, stress tolerant, and nutritionally enhanced maize varieties,” says Wilfred Mwangi, leader of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, which was launched in 2006 and which sponsored the awards. “We hope the awards will encourage result-oriented team approaches, such as those we pursue in the DTMA project.”

Ethiopia’s outstanding breeders

Dr. Aberra Deressa, the Ethiopian State Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Guest of Honor, presented the special award to the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR) team in Melkassa for work that resulted in the release of five new drought tolerant maize varieties since 2000. In on-farm and on-station tests for yield and agronomic performance at 14 moisture-stressed locations, the new varieties out-yielded leading maize cultivars by more than 30%. Farmers particularly preferred one variety, Melkassa-2, for its white seed and intermediate maturity, so seed of the variety was multiplied on farmers’ fields and distributed to the community.

“The Melkassa team also produced and sold basic seed of the five varieties to Ethiopian maize seed producers, including the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise, which then produced certified seed,” says Alpha Diallo, CIMMYT regional maize breeder who collaborated with the Ethiopian team on the development and identification of these varieties. “The varieties have since been promoted through field demonstrations and field days.”

“We have enjoyed great support for capacity building from CIMMYT over many years,” said Dr. Aberra Deressa. “We consider CIMMYT to be part of our national maize program and recommend this model for adoption by other partners.”

The miller’s tale: Better nutrition and more cash

The award-winning multidisciplinary team from Tanzania comprised breeders, agronomists, socio-economists, seed producers (including farmers), and millers, and was led by the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) in Arusha. Maize flour in eastern Africa is used mostly to make the starchy staple food known as ugali, and maize provides the bulk of inhabitants’ energy and protein in Tanzania. Three new varieties for which the Tanzanian research team received the Technology Dissemination Award are quality protein maize (QPM) varieties, which looks and performs like normal maize, but whose grain provides higher levels of lysine and tryptophan—amino acids essential for growth in humans and farm animals.

Tanzania’s promotion of QPM for milling is helping to increase the demand for QPM seed among farmers. Two millers, Nyirefami Limited and the Grain and Flour Enterprise, are producing QPM ugali flour. They hope eventually to replace conventional maize flour to satisfy the country’s growing appetite for QPM ugali and improve its nutritional well-being. “The Dissemination Team Award recognizes efforts that bring all the necessary players together—from breeders to NGOs to seed companies, and even millers, involving farmers along the way, to get the (QPM) technology to consumers,” says Dennis Friesen, CIMMYT maize agronomist for eastern Africa.

Farmers: From on-lookers to leaders

CIMMYT has supported partners in applying participatory approaches to evaluate new cultivars systematically and cost-effectively under resource-poor farmers’ conditions, as well as giving farmers a voice in determining whether any maize cultivar will become available on the market. In the case of the three QPM varieties in Tanzania, farmers particularly liked one for its superior yields, good tip cover, and greater resistance to the regionally-serious disease, maize streak virus.

Dr. Jeremiah Haki, Tanzania’s Director of Research and Training, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, has commended CIMMYT for promoting farmer participation. “The farmer is often left out in both variety development and dissemination; no wonder they do not find the resultant varieties as being appropriate to them and worth adopting,” says Haki. “Through our partnership with CIMMYT, seed companies, NGOs and farmer groups, we have placed strong emphasis on working with farmers. The result is good varieties which have a strong farmer acceptance.”

Support that enables research collaboration to lead to impact in farmers’ fields

Research and development activities that enabled these teams to succeed and bring new maize varieties to farmers have taken place via multiple projects, most recently supported by agencies including CIDA-Canada, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Rockefeller Foundation, BMZ-Germany, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. This and other work in the region has been executed by CIMMYT in collaboration with the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), as well as public, private, NGO and CBO partners, according to Friesen. “The projects are mutually supportive,” he says. “They share complementary outputs and activities integrated in a consolidated framework, to develop and promote new varieties that tolerate drought and low soil fertility, resist pests and diseases, and offer better nutritional quality.”

And the final word

Isaka Mashauri from TanSeed, one of the recipients of the Tanzania team award, calls the success of these partnerships “of paramount importance.”

“Thank you very much for the award,” he says. “It greatly excited and motivated us to register more new and better maize varieties and hybrids in coming years, and to reach more farmers with new maize technologies.”

For more information: Wilfred Mwangi, project leader, DTMA (w.mwangi@cgiar.org), or Dennis Friesen, maize agronomist (d.friesen@cgiar.org)

New maize hybrid in western Kenya: The farmers speak

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no.11, November 2007

nov03 Two years after its release by Western Seed Company, WH502, a hybrid maize variety derived from research by CIMMYT and partners in eastern Africa, was being grown by nearly a fifth of the farmers surveyed in western Kenya for its high yields, resistance to lodging, tolerance to low nitrogen soils, and other good qualities.

Socioeconomist Beatrice Salasya, of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), had heard talk that farmers liked the hybrid WH 502, released by Kenya’s Western Seed Company. So she led a survey in the hybrid’s target region, western Kenya, to assess actual levels of adoption and to help breeders better understand the factors that influence a farmer’s choice to use a new variety or not.

Of the 504 households surveyed, 86—or 17%—had adopted the hybrid, which was derived from experimental maize developed as part of CIMMYT’s Africa Maize Stress (AMS) Project.¹ “We found that farmers were growing it; although they were fewer than the talk had suggested,” says Salasya, who published her results in a joint KARI-CIMMYT report.²

According to the report, the households adopting the hybrid were characterized by higher levels of education than those that did not; had larger farm sizes and areas under maize, and had more cattle and land under cash crops, such as sugarcane or coffee. “These results are as expected, because more educated farmers have greater exposure to information about technology and better chances of learning about new varieties,” says Salasya. “Similarly, larger farm size and cattle are proxies for wealth, so that wealthier farmers are able to purchase farm inputs, including seed of improved varieties.”

The survey was conducted in an approximately 100,000-hectare area dominated by smallholder, low-input maize cropping. “In the region where the study was done, most farmers have less than two hectares of land,” says Salasya. Maize yields are very low on average, and harvests typically provide enough grain to meet household needs for no more than six months; thereafter, families must purchase more maize or substitutes. Most farmers grow local varieties and recycle their own seed. Few follow practices to replenish soil nutrients.

WH 502 selling points: More than just yield

The adopters liked the high yields of WH 502, according to the survey, and farmers also felt the hybrid was relatively early maturing, although it is not considered early by the breeders who developed it. “High yield, early maturity, and good storability are the three most commonly mentioned characteristics that households look for in a variety,” Salasya says. The study showed that the hybrid’s perceived advantages include resistance to lodging—that is, falling over in high winds—and tolerance to low nitrogen soil conditions. Finally, though the farmers did not mention these traits, WH 502 is resistant to maize streak virus, one of the most common and damaging diseases of the crop in sub-Saharan Africa, and also tolerates the parasitic weed Striga, which can destroy entire crop stands in western Kenya.

Notwithstanding these valuable traits of the hybrid, there is still more work for breeders, particularly on aspects that farmers identified as needing improvement. “The main characteristics of WH 502 that households did not like were poor storability and poor husk cover,” explains Salasya. Poor storability was mentioned as a weakness by 78% of surveyed farmers, and describes the susceptibility of the hybrid, which has a dent-type kernel, to maize weevil, a major pest of stored grain. The most popular local hybrid, H614, for example, features a harder, flint kernel type that better resists such pests. Poor husk cover was cited by 32% of the respondents, and means that the maize ears will be more prone to rotting, if there are heavy rains just before harvest time.

What actually holds back adoption?

Differing from the weaknesses described above, the key reasons cited by survey respondents for not adopting WH 502 were lack of cash to buy seed (36%) and satisfaction with the variety they were growing or not yet being convinced about the advantages of the new hybrid (41%). Most farmers (69%) who knew about WH 502 had heard about the hybrid from neighbors; underlining the significance of farmer-farmer technology transfer. “It’s also important to note that the time between farmers hearing about WH 502 and adopting it is fairly short,” says Salasya. “For example, 52% of all households interviewed had heard about the hybrid in 2005, the year the survey started. It may be necessary to carry out another adoption study when the hybrid has been with farmers for a longer period.”

¹The AMS was begun in 1998 by CIMMYT and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) with researchers in the 21 main, maize-growing countries of West, Central, and eastern Africa to develop and deliver stress tolerant maize and related crop management practices. Work was co-supported by BMZ-Germany (2002–2005), IFAD (2004–present), the Rockefeller Foundation (2002-2005) , Sida-Sweden (1998–2001), and UNDP (1998–2001).

²Salasya, B., W. Mwangi, M. Odendo, D. Mwabu, A. Diallo, and O. Odongo. 2006. Factors influencing adoption of stress-tolerant hybrid maize (WH 502) in western Kenya. Nairobi: KARI and CIMMYT.

For more information: Alpha Diallo, Maize breeder (a.o.diallo@cgiar.org)

Stemming the loss of African soils’ life blood

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 2, February 2007

feb04 Farmer Hendrixious Zvamarima, of Shamva village, in Mashonaland Central Province, Zimbabwe, saw a neighbor who, instead of cultivating the soil, sowed his maize seed directly into unplowed soil and residues from last year’s crop. “I was wasting my time using the plow,” says Zvamarima, “so I decided to try the new methods.”

Several of Zvamarima’s neighbors had been taking part for as long as three years in demonstrations organized by CIMMYT, Zimbabwe’s Department of Agricultural Research and Extension (AREX), and local organizations like Development Aid from People to People (DAPP). Not wanting to be left out, Zvamarima set up his own “trials” comparing the effects of direct seeding, use of a rip tine to sow and, as a control, conventional plowing. Copying the approach of a university student who visits the area, he took detailed information on all the treatments and, above all, how much labor each entailed. When research team members recently came to Shamva to check progress on the “official” trials, Zvamarima proudly presented his experiment and the fine crop he obtained using direct seeding , keeping crop residues on the surface. As a bonus, it cost him less. “I really liked the labor savings,” he says.

More free time, less drudgery

Signs of farmer interest and adoption in Malawi
In Malawi, CIMMYT has been working with partners (the Department of Agricultural Research & Technical Services; the non-government organizations Total Land Care and the Livingstonia Synod, Soil Fertility Programme) at seven locations throughout the country, and results are encouraging, according to CIMMYT’s Mirjam Pulleman, a CIMMYT soil scientist who studies the soil quality effects of conservation agriculture in Mexico and Africa and recently visited Malawi: “In central Malawi, for example, we saw that the trials looked good and asked the extension workers if there was any adoption, and they said ‘yes!’ and took us on a tour. Every hundred meters or so there was a field where a farmer had followed conservation agriculture practices.” Referring to conservation agriculture practices he has tested, farmer Thompson Kazambe, of Nkhotakota village, said that: “If this technology came 50 years ago, Malawi would be somewhere else!”

With funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Water and Food Challenge Program and Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), CIMMYT and partners have been testing practices in line with the principles of conservation agriculture—in essence, eliminating plowing and keeping residues on the soil surface. Activities in sub-Saharan Africa focus on Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe; countries where small-scale, maize-based farming systems provide food and livelihoods for millions but, year by year, expose soils to severe erosion, degrade soil structure and extract more nutrients than they put back.

Conservation agriculture practices can address these concerns over the medium-to-long term, but the big selling point for most southern African farmers is the dramatic savings in labor and time, which they can then allocate to cash crops, off-farm employment, or other activities.

Other near-term benefits include erosion control and moisture retention: crop residues protect the soil surface from rain and sun; raindrops break down soil crumbs, which blocks pores, and the sun evaporates soil moisture. In a region where periodic, severe droughts can wilt maize plants and bring starvation, crops benefit from more water entering the soil through the pores and less being lost to evaporation.

Will cattle eat what conservation needs?

Challenges to widespread adoption of conservation agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa are many. In most places there is competition for residues: farmers typically feed maize stalks and husks to cattle or other farm animals. Zero-tillage systems also require careful weed control. Herbicides can play an important role, especially during the first few seasons, according to Christian Thierfelder, a postdoctoral fellow from the University of Hohenheim, Germany, seconded to CIMMYT in southern Africa. “But many farmers can’t afford or obtain inputs like herbicides, and they also need the right equipment and knowledge to apply them.”

The bottom line: Sustainable farming systems

In answer to the challenges, Pat Wall, CIMMYT agronomist in southern Africa and leader of the Center’s conservation agriculture work there, points out that smallholder maize systems in the region are currently extractive and unsustainable: “This means working with farmers, researchers, and extension agents to find ways to put the basic principles of conservation agriculture into practice in the community. It also means using our limited resources to catalyze activities among a wide range of stakeholders and partners.”

One such valued partner in the Zimuto Communal Area, southern Zimbabwe, is AREX extension supervisor Monica Runyowa, who serves 6,000 farm households. “The conservation agriculture project has been very useful, especially these on-farm trials. Rather than just telling farmers what to do, we let them try it, and the take-up has been much better.” Zimuto soils are poor and rainfall patchy. “This site has only had 150 millimeters of rainfall so far,” Runyowa says, pointing to nearly knee-high maize plants in a Zimuto field. “You can see that, on the plots with residues and direct seeding, crop germination was quite okay. On the plots sown with farmers’ traditional practice of ox-drawn moldboard plowing and hand seeding, crop establishment is not so good.”

For more information: Pat Wall, CIMMYT Agronomist, Zimbabwe (p.wall@cgiar.org).