The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project aims to mitigate drought and other constraints to maize production in sub-Saharan Africa, increasing maize yields by at least one ton per hectare under moderate drought and with a 20 to 30 percent increase over farmers’ current yields, benefiting up to 40 million people in 13 African countries. The project brings together farmers, research institutions, extension specialists, seed producers, farmer community organizations and non-governmental organizations. It is jointly implemented by CIMMYT and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, in close collaboration with national agricultural research systems in participating nations. Millions of farmers in the region are already benefiting from the outputs of this partnership, which includes support and training for African seed producers and promoting vibrant, competitive seed markets.
Achievements:
Between 2007 and 12, participants marketed or otherwise made available 60 drought tolerant hybrids and 57 open-pollinated varieties to smallholder farmers
In addition to drought tolerance, the new varieties and hybrids also possess such desirable traits as resistance to major diseases
Engage government officials in policy dialogue to help fast-track varietal releases and fosters competitive seed markets and more
widespread access to quality seed at affordable prices
Help ensure farmers’ access to the best possible products and services, coordinate various capacity-building events and
activities for maize breeders, technicians, seed producers, extension workers, non-government organizations and farmer groups
Provide technical and advisory support to 50 African undergraduate and 28 African graduate students
Expand smallholder farmers’ use of drought and other stress tolerant maize seed to benefit 30 to 40 million people and provide added grain worth $160-200 million each year in drought-affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa
Group photo during the IMIC-Africa inception workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, in May 2018. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Maize is the most important staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa, providing food security and a source of income to more than 200 million households. Nonetheless, maize yields in this region rank among the lowest worldwide.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) launched the International Maize Improvement Consortium for Africa (IMIC-Africa) in May 2018, to better engage with a committed set of partners from the public and private sector, and to achieve enhanced maize yields in Africa.
Members of IMIC-Africa share a vision: meeting the challenges of maize production by scaling out and fully exploiting the potential of improved climate-resilient and stress-tolerant varieties in sub-Saharan Africa.
Cultivated on over 35 million hectares of typically rainfed land across sub-Saharan Africa, maize is subject to the vagaries of climate, suffering occasional to frequent drought stress. Other regional challenges include poor soil quality, characterized by nitrogen deficiency, and the ongoing threat of transboundary pathogens and pests, such as the voracious fall armyworm. In addition, farmers generally have inadequate access to improved seed that could help them achieve higher yields.
Although the challenges are complex, the effective use of improved, climate-resilient and multiple-stress-tolerant maize varieties has achieved tangible results in this region. Elite drought-tolerant (DT) maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT have demonstrated at least 25-30 percent grain yield advantage over non-DT maize varieties in sub-Saharan Africa under drought stress. CIMMYT has also derived elite heat-tolerant maize hybrids for sub-Saharan Africa, and during the recent outbreak of maize lethal necrosis (MLN), the rapid development and deployment of elite MLN-resistant hybrids was instrumental in the containment of this threat to eastern Africa.
Modelled on its successful counterpart initiatives in Asia (IMIC-Asia) and Latin America (IMIC-LatAm), there is hope that IMIC-Africa will follow a similar pattern of success.
The consortium is comprised of a diverse array of member institutions, including seed companies, national programs and foundations.
Its key objective is to enhance members’ capacity for germplasm development in their own breeding programs through provision of early generation or advanced maize lines. The subsequent multi-location testing of elite pre-commercial maize hybrids throughout sub-Saharan Africa by members will serve to identify products that can advance to commercialization and deployment.
“IMIC-Africa has a growing membership aimed at formalizing the sharing of maize lines under development with public and private maize breeding programs,” said CIMMYT scientist and Africa regional representative Stephen Mugo. “The consortium will also support a vibrant germplasm testing network, offer opportunities for training and cross learning among members, and grant access to other special services offered by CIMMYT including MLN testing, doubled haploid development and molecular quality assurance/quality control.”
The work of the consortium will ultimately benefit the farming community through the targeted development of maize varieties that express traits jointly identified and prioritized by consortium members and that are specifically adapted to the suite of agro-ecologies in sub-Saharan Africa. Traits of relevance include tolerance to abiotic stresses, disease and insect-pest resistance and higher yielding hybrids.
“IMIC-Africa will contribute to food security in Africa by broadening access to and use of stress-tolerant improved maize germplasm as well as strengthening maize breeding programs, thus improving farmers’ access to improved maize varieties,” Mugo explained.
Membership of IMIC-Africa is open to all organized and registered private commercial seed companies, corporations, and organized and registered public agencies or organizations involved in maize crop research and improvement, hybrid seed production or maize seed marketing.
For further information about membership and eligibility, please contact B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize: b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org.
Research partners to develop new maize hybrid seed production system to help smallholder farmers access modern, high quality maize hybrid seed.
Pretoria, South Africa, 26 October 2018– An initiative launched in 2016 seeks to provide African smallholder farmers with better quality and high yielding hybrid maize seed. The Seed Production Technology for Africa (SPTA) initiative strives to improve seed production systems to ensure that high-quality hybrid maize seed is available to smallholder farmers, as well as to deliver new hybrids with a high yield potential adapted for low fertility areas common in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
SPTA will utilize a technology provided by Corteva Agriscience, and implemented by the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC) alongside the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the four-year initiative will cost US$ 6.4 million.
“As Africa faces significant challenges of low maize yields, climatic extremes and variability, costly farm inputs, threats due to pests and diseases, and growing demand for food, it is critical to provide smallholder farmers with access to high quality and stress resilient modern maize hybrids to allow them to increase yields and incomes,” said Kingstone Mashingaidze, Senior Research Manager at ARC.
The SPTA process will address pressing seed production concerns in the region that include insufficient genetic purity due to pollen contamination resulting from improper or incomplete detasseling practices. As a result, small and medium seed companies are expected to produce greater volume of hybrid maize seed at lower cost. Partner seed companies in the region will access the technology royalty free.
Maize productivity in Africa lags behind other maize producing regions, and through SPTA more smallholders will improve their yield. Average maize yield in much of Africa is approximately 2 metric tons per hectare, which is less than 20 percent of the yield level in more productive parts of the world. Farmers cannot access or afford high quality seed. Only 57 percent of the SSA maize growing area is planted with recently purchased seed; a lot of hybrids grown in the region are obsolete – 15 years or older compared to an average of less than 5 years in highly productive regions. In many situations, seeds of these older varieties are no longer suited for the climate and cropping environments that exist today.
Hybrid maize seed delivered through SPTA will have higher yield in low fertility environments. This will enable resource-constrained farmers to harvest more despite limited inputs like fertilizer. This means stronger livelihoods coupled with improved professionalism in the maize seed value chain for farmers, seed companies, consumers, and governments to deliver a more food-secure future.
SPTA originated from the Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project that concluded in 2015. IMAS focused on developing maize hybrids that could use nitrogen fertilizer more efficiently to deliver higher yields under low fertility conditions prevalent in Africa. The IMAS project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together with the United States Agency for International Development.
Issued by Agricultural Research Council
For more information contact:
Agricultural Research Council (South Africa)
Mary James
Tel: +27 (0) 18 299 6100, Cell: +27 84 817 2376, Email: JamesM@arc.agric.za
Corteva Agriscience (South Africa)
Barbra Muzata
Tel: +27-11-218-8600, Email: barbra.Muzata@pioneer.com
Notes to editors:
The Agricultural Research Council (ARC), a schedule 3A public entity, is a premier science institution that conducts research with partners, develops human capital and fosters innovation in support of the agricultural sector. The Agricultural Research Council provides diagnostic, laboratory, analytical, agricultural engineering services, post-harvest technology development, agrochemical evaluation, consultation and advisory services, food processing technology services as well as various surveys and training interventions. ARC has successfully collaborated with international partners in the WEMA project. ARC has successful partnerships with local seed companies for deployment of its products to smallholder farmers. For more information, visit the website at www.arc.agric.za
Corteva Agriscience™, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont (NYSE: DWDP), is intended to become an independent, publicly traded company when the spinoff is complete by June 2019. The division combines the strengths of DuPont Pioneer, DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences. Corteva Agriscience™ provides growers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the industry — including some of the most recognized brands in agriculture: Pioneer®, Encirca®, the newly launched Brevant™ Seeds, as well as award-winning Crop Protection products — while bringing new products to market through our solid pipeline of active chemistry and technologies. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat, and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.
Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) is a corporate body created under the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Act of 2013 to establish suitable legal and institutional framework for coordination of agricultural research in Kenya with the following goals: Promote, streamline, co-ordinate and regulate research in crops, livestock, genetic resources and biotechnology in Kenya, and expedite equitable access to research information, resources and technology and promote the application of research findings and technology in the field of agriculture.
DES MOINES (Iowa) — At the plenary of the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue, a global panel of experts gave an overview of the origins of the fall armyworm, how it is spreading around the world, and how governments, farmers and researchers are fighting against this pest.
Pedro Sanchez, research professor in tropical soils at the University of Florida and 2002 World Food Prize Laureate, shared background information on the history of the fall armyworm and the early attempts to neutralize it, decades ago. He pointed out that once-resistant varieties were eventually affected by this pest.
The Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Martin Kropff, shared the most recent developments and explained how organizations are working together to respond to this pest. “We want to have science-based, evidence-based solutions,” Kropff said. “We have to solve the problem based on science, and then to develop and validate and deploy integrated pest management technologies.”
The director general of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture, Mandefro Nigussie, reminded that in addition to affecting people and the environment, fall armyworm “is also affecting the future generation,” as children were pulled out of school to pick larvae.
The response against fall armyworm cannot be done by governments alone, panelists agreed. It requires the support of multiple actors: financing the research, producing research, promoting the results of the research and implementing appropriate measures.
Rob Bertram, chief scientist at USAID’s Bureau for Food Security predicted the fall armyworm will continue to be a “serious problem” as it moves and migrates.
The director general and CEO of the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization, Eluid Kireger, emphasized the importance of global collaboration. “We need to borrow the technologies that are already working”.
The fall armyworm was also discussed during the Corteva Agriscience Forum side event, on a session on “Crop security for food security”. The Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize, B.M. Prasanna, was optimistic about the efforts to tackle this voracious pest. “I’m 100 percent confident that the pest will be overcome, but it requires very solid synergistic and coordinated actions at the national level, at the regional level and at the continental level.”
CIMMYT is co-leading the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium. “Fall armyworm is not going to be the only threat now and forever; there will be more insects, pests and pathogens moving around,” Prasanna said. “Global connectedness is exacerbating this kind of problem, but the solution lies also in global connectedness.”
The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin its phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle of 2018 at the begining of January 2018 and in four other intervals. Interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for screening.
MLN was first discovered in Kenya in 2011 and quickly spread to other parts of eastern Africa; the disease causes premature plant death and unfilled, poorly formed maize cobs, and can lead to up to 100 percent yield loss in farmers’ fields.
CIMMYT and partners are dedicated to stopping the spread of this deadly maize disease by effectively managing the risk of MLN on maize production through screening and identifying MLN-resistant germplasm. The MLN screening facility supports countries in sub-Saharan Africa to screen maize germplasm (for hybrid, inbred and open pollinated varieties) against MLN in a quarantined environment.
This is the largest dedicated MLN screening facility in East Africa. Since its inception in 2013, the facility has evaluated more than 120,000 accessions (more than 210,000 rows of maize) from more than 15 multinational and national seed companies and national research programs.
Partners can now plan for annual MLN Phenotyping (screening/ indexing) during 2018 with the schedule listed below. The improved and streamlined approach for MLN phenotyping should enable our partners to accelerate breeding programs to improve resistance for Maize MLN for sub-Saharan Africa.
The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin its second screening cycle of 2017 at the end of October, interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for screening.
MLN was first discovered in Kenya in 2011 and quickly spread to other parts of eastern Africa; the disease causes premature plant death and unfilled, poorly formed maize cobs, and can lead to up to 100 percent yield loss in farmers’ fields.
CIMMYT and partners are dedicated to stopping the spread of this deadly maize disease by effectively managing the risk of MLN on maize production through screening and identifying MLN-resistant germplasm. The MLN screening facility supports countries in sub-Saharan Africa to screen maize germplasm (for hybrid, inbred and open pollinated varieties) against MLN in a quarantined environment.
This is the largest dedicated MLN screening facility in East Africa. Since its inception in 2013, the facility has evaluated more than 120,000 accessions from more than 15 multinational and national seed companies and national research programs.
More information about the disease and resources for farmers can be found on CIMMYT’s MLN portal.
Please note that it can take up to six weeks to process imports and clear shipments.
For assistance in obtaining import permits and necessary logistics for the upcoming screening, please contact:
L.M. Suresh
Tel: +254 20 7224600 (direct)
CIMMYT–Kenya, ICRAF House
United Nations Avenue, Gigiri
P.O. Box 1041–00621
Nairobi, Kenya.
A Kenyan man holds a harvest of a genetically engineered (GE) maize at the KALRO research station in Kiboko, Makueni County. Photo: Nation Media Group Kenya
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — A committee was recently assembled by the US National Academies to assess the benefits and risks of genetically engineered (GE) crops and accompanying technologies.
GE crops – also popularly referred to as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) – have been a controversial issue since the public continues to perceive GE crops as unsafe, even though there is scientific consensus about their safety. Opponents of GE crops point to potential environmental concerns, food safety and intellectual property law issues.
The authors focused on individual varieties and traits within GE crops to form individual conclusions, rather than make a blanket conclusion about the safety and benefits of GE crops. The committee was composed of 20 experts from diverse fields and the report reflects over 900 studies on GE crops.
The US National Academies requires all reports to seek input from individuals directly involved in the problem under consideration. The committee on GE crops felt this was especially important given that the public views GE crops as such a controversial issue. The authors held public meetings and webinars, heard from 80 speakers ranging across perspectives and received over 700 comments from their website.
In their 584-page report, the authors answer the questions they determined to be most pressing based on public and scientific input. The report has received criticism from pro- and anti- GE advocates for not overtly backing or condemning GE crops.
The committee said they realize an almost 600-page report is a lot, so they organized the report based on answering questions, this way the public can easily find where their most pressing concerns are addressed. The authors said they hope that the evidence in the report will deepen the level of public conversation around GE crops.
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Factors determining household use of clean and renewable energy sources for lighting in Sub-Saharan Africa. 2017. Dil Bahadur Rahut, Behera, B., Ali, A. In: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 73, p. 661-672.
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EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease is putting maize production at risk in eastern Africa, escalating food insecurity in the region.
First reported in Kenya in 2011, it has subsequently spread rapidly to neighboring countries and has now been confirmed in six eastern African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
The disease, caused by a combination of the maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV), causes irreversible damage that kills maize plants before they can grow and yield grain. If a maize field is infected early in the cropping cycle, total yield losses may occur.
Scientist L.M. Suresh of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) plays a central role in efforts to keep the disease in check. He contributes significantly to the screening of maize germplasm against MLN/MCMV, and to the identification of maize hybrids with tolerance/resistance to the disease.
In 2013, CIMMYT and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization established an MLN screening facility in Naivasha, Kenya, northwest of the capital Nairobi. The center serves as a centralized platform for screening maize germplasm under artificial inoculation from CIMMYT as well as public and private sector partners.
Suresh joined CIMMYT in 2015 as maize pathologist for sub-Saharan Africa. He is also manager of the MLN screening facility. As almost all of the commercial maize varieties currently grown in eastern Africa are susceptible to MLN, it is crucial to identify and develop germplasm with tolerance/resistance to the disease.
His work involves identifying sources of resistance to MLN and its component viruses MCMV and SCMV, and he works closely with other scientists on the genetic basis of MLN resistance. In addition, he contributes to the identification of elite maize hybrids that offer tolerance/resistance to MLN.
The use of advanced phenotyping technology makes it possible to quickly make physical observations of the plants on a large scale without painstaking manual scoring.
Another major component of Suresh’s work focuses on epidemiological factors related to MLN disease transmission, particularly seed transmission of MLN-causing viruses.
While focusing on MLN, he also works on other foliar – or leaf – diseases that are a threat to maize. As manager of the MLN screening facility, Suresh is responsible for the screening and indexing of about 84,000 rows of maize trials each year in three to four planting cycles at the Naivasha facility.
As of 2016, nearly 100,000 germplasm entries have been screened against MLN. To date, nine first generation MLN-tolerant elite maize hybrids have been released in East Africa. Several second-generation, CIMMYT-derived, MLN-resistant hybrids are currently being tested under national performance trials in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
Born in Madasuru-Lingadahalli, a rural village in southern India, Suresh grew up on a farm where he worked in the fields during school holidays helping with weeding, picking areca nuts and harvesting.
In the 1970s and 1980s, his father was recognized by the State Department of Agriculture as a “progressive farmer” for undertaking various innovative approaches to increase rice paddy yields. However, the family continued to face several challenges, including low yielding varieties, diseases, pests, water scarcity and volatile prices.
To try and overcome some of these hardships, Suresh decided to further his education in agriculture.
“I believe that a deeper knowledge of science might offer alternatives, and that we should explore these options to help smallholder farmers like my father get better yields without increasing costs,” Suresh said. “My family always supported me to pursue higher education in the field of agriculture.”
Before joining CIMMYT, Suresh worked for 19 years at seed companies, including 14 years for Monsanto in India, where he led a team of plant health scientists focusing on diseases in vegetables. Additionally, he supported teams working on maize and cotton to harmonize various disease screening protocols.
“Working in agriculture gives me the best opportunity to contribute to efforts to help smallholder farmers improve their livelihoods,” Suresh said. “CIMMYT is a place full of scientific rigor and experts who work collaboratively with partners and thus bring impact. A major disease like MLN brings researchers from various organizations and institutions from different parts of the world together to accelerate efforts to not only understand the disease and establish effective surveillance, but also to engage stakeholders to commercially scale up disease-resistant hybrids developed by CIMMYT.”
The MLN web information portal, to which Suresh contributes, provides comprehensive information on various initiatives to tackle the MLN challenge. This website and information management system was developed with the objective of providing a one-stop resource for all the relevant information on MLN to interested stakeholders.
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – Researchers from across the globe assembled in Nairobi for a 10-day training course on increasing genetic gains in maize by integrating novel technologies in breeding.
The main focus of the course was to train maize breeders in developing high-yielding, more nutritious varieties that are resistant to various biotic and abiotic stresses in a resource and time efficient manner using novel technologies. The course involved presentations by scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and experts from the University of Hohenheim, AgReliant Genetics, Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) and the University of Nairobi. The participants included 29 researchers from national agricultural research organizations, universities and private companies based in Africa and Asia.
Maize is the most widely produced crop in the world, providing about one-third of the calorie intake in Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa. However, the expansion of new diseases and pests like maize lethal necrosis (MLN), fall armyworm and climate change effects like drought and heat stress are expected to reduce yields in maize growing areas. Developing climate-resilient maize resistant to multiple stresses is crucial to feed maize-dependent populations.
Despite these challenges, research has shown that new technologies like doubled haploids and marker assisted selection – DNA screening methods and high throughput phenotyping that speeds up the breeding process – can increase efficiency in breeding.
The course covered various aspects of maize breeding such as improving nutritional quality by breeding for increased levels of provitamin-A and quality protein, boosting climate resilience by improving tolerance to stresses like drought, heat and poor soils and improving tolerance to insect pests and diseases.
The course also included four intensive workshops. The first workshop covered various aspects of doubled haploid technology and its use in maize breeding programs to increase efficiency. The second workshop included various topics on using molecular marker technologies to increase the selection intensity and increasing genetic gains. The third workshop trained participants on field data analysis and how to use a field book. The fourth workshop elaborated on various concepts under the demand-driven variety development module, and was conducted by colleagues from BECA and University of Nairobi.
The course also included two field days. During the visit to the CIMMYT-Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) experimental station at Kiboko, participants experienced all the processes involved in maize doubled haploid line production and the development of high-yielding maize varieties with tolerance to drought and low nitrogen. A field tour to the MLN facility in Naivasha showcased advanced inbred lines and commercial hybrids that are tolerant to MLN versus susceptible commercial checks.
Participants stated these new technologies and methods will help them improve their own breeding programs, and put improved varieties into farmers’ fields faster than ever.
Participants of a recent maize breeding training course in Nairobi, Kenya, June 2017. Photo: B. Wawa/CIMMYT
Artificial inoculation of maize germplasm at the Naivasha MLN screening site, Kenya. (Photo: B.Wawa/CIMMYT)
The new maize lethal necrosis (MLN) online portal provides up-to-date information and surveillance tools to help researchers control and stop the spread of the deadly disease.
MLN was first reported in Kenya in 2011 and has since then been reported in several countries in eastern Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The disease kills plants before they can grow, and the pathogens are transmitted by insects or contaminated seed. Serious damage to the region’s maize production from MLN has impacted household food security.
The online portal, found at mln.cimmyt.org, details the spread of MLN, where the disease has been managed and controlled, and how to identify it in the field. It also provides key MLN publications, surveillance software, MLN incidence maps, information on the MLN Screening Facility, and MLN-tolerant hybrids that are either released or in pipeline.
One tool on the portal is the MLN surveillance and monitoring system that provides real-time data to identify the presence and spread of the disease across five endemic countries in eastern Africa, and three selected non-endemic countries in southern Africa. The system was developed by scientists collaborating with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
In 2016, MLN surveillance was successfully conducted in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe – three major seed producing countries in Africa – and the data is presented in the portal, detailing MLN’s status across 652 surveyed maize fields. Future data gathered in other affected countries will also be uploaded to the portal as surveillance teams conduct fieldwork using Global Positioning System online survey tools, to assess the spread and severity of the disease in these countries. Ongoing surveillance in endemic countries allows stakeholders to see real-time updates on the spread of MLN.
MLN susceptible hybrids compared to a CIMMYT-derived MLN-tolerant hybrid. Photo: CIMMYT
Since the disease was first reported, collaborative efforts have resulted in the establishment of a MLN Screening Facility at the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) center at Naivasha in 2013. The facility, managed by CIMMYT, has so far screened nearly 100,000 maize germplasm entries — 56 percent from CIMMYT — against MLN under artificial inoculation over the last four years.
Nine CIMMYT-derived MLN-tolerant hybrids have been already released in three countries – seven in Kenya, one in Uganda and one in Tanzania. Eleven second generation hybrids are currently in national performance trials in these countries. Intensive efforts are currently being made by seed companies in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda to expand the delivery of MLN-tolerant maize seed to the smallholders.
The MLN portal enables researchers to comprehensively assess the situation with regard to MLN, helps strengthen the national disease monitoring and diagnostic systems by providing faster and accurate data, and offers access to CIMMYT-offered MLN phenotyping services.
The quality assurance and control workshop was held from May 17 to 19, 2017. Photo: CIMMYT
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT)- Representatives from across the maize production and breeding sectors in eastern and southern Africa gathered to discuss how maize seed systems in Africa can be strengthened through quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) measures.
The workshop conducted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Nairobi, Kenya, from May 17 to 19, 2017, explored CIMMYT’s efforts to strengthen maize seed systems in Africa, with an emphasis on critical QA and QC basics such as maintaining parental inbred lines, maintaining seed free from pathogens, pests and implementing molecular marker based seed testing to achieve the highest seed quality at minimal cost.
QA and control are processes used to measure the quality of products, ensuring they meet consumer expectations. High quality seeds are genetically and physically pure, properly mature, free from insect-pests and pathogens, uniform in size, have high germination potential, optimum moisture content, viable and vigorous.
QA and QC also helps establish trait based purity, particularly in nutrient-enriched maize varieties such as quality protein maize and Provitamin A-enriched maize. Trait based purity ensures that the product delivered by breeders to seed companies and the product delivered by seed companies to farmers contain the required nutritional quality.
“The concept and effect of seed quality is a simple, yet hugely impactful one that cannot be ignored,” said Mosisa Worku, seed systems specialist at CIMMYT. “Production and supply of poor quality products means businesses collapse and farmer productivity plummets, often leading to food insecurity and compromised livelihoods when food shortages occur.”
B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program, stressed the need to adopt more modern and cost effective methods of analyzing the genetic purity and identity of breeders’ material. Thousands of inbred lines are available to maize breeders at any given time, so effectively distinguishing them on the basis of phenotypes alone is impossible.
“While the importance of phenotypic analysis in QA and QC cannot be undervalued, molecular markers which are robust and environmentally insensitive are more effective in determining genetic purity and identity of parental inbred lines and hybrid seed lots at a relatively low cost,” Prasanna said, explaining that the cost of genotyping is now significantly lower than growing and evaluating a row of sample seed in the field.
The workshop was designed for scientific and technical personnel involved in maize breeding, seed production and seed certification from both public and private sector institutes in eastern and southern Africa. A total of 38 participants learned about theoretical and practical sessions covering topics such as the importance of QA and QC for maize seed value chains, advanced QA and QC tools in maize breeding and commercial seed production, QA and QC of nutritional quality traits in seed and grain, molecular data analyses and interpretation for QA and QC and MLN-free commercial seed production.
Capacity building efforts like the workshop help ensure national seed certification agencies and that seed companies have the necessary skills to conduct molecular marker-based seed testing and phenotypic based methods for QA and QC in commercial maize seed value chains to build Africa’s seed systems.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) – As a child helping out on his family’s farm in rural India, Vijay Chaikam dreamed of helping farmers increase the hard won returns of their agricultural labor to improve their livelihoods. Today, he works as a scientist and manager at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) doubled haploid (DH) facility in Kiboko, Kenya.
He produces DH maize lines, which are highly uniform, genetically pure and stable, making the maize breeding process more intuitive and efficient by simplifying logistics. The outcome of this work is that breeders can develop improved maize varieties faster than ever before so that they can be delivered to the smallholder farmers that need them the most.
“I grew up in a rural village in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where my family depended on agriculture for their livelihood,” Chaikam said. “During my childhood, I used to work in the fields, planting, weeding and harvesting alongside my family members to save labor costs. I realized that despite their backbreaking work, most farming families suffer economically. This inspired me to pursue a career in agriculture that would allow me to contribute to reduce the efforts of the farmers and increase their farm income.”
After receiving his doctorate in genetics at West Virginia University in the United States, Chaikam worked at Purdue University and then moved to CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico in 2011 as an associate scientist. His work involved conducting research on developing and implementing maize DH production technology for tropical breeding programs.
In 2016, he moved to CIMMYT’s office in Kenya to manage the Maize DH Facility at KALRO-Kiboko Center, where he assists maize scientists from CIMMYT and partner organizations in the development of DH lines. The efficiency of the DH procedure in maize cuts the time it takes to develop parental lines from six to eight seasons to just two or three seasons.
“My work allows farmers to receive improved maize varieties much quicker,” Chaikam said. “Time is of the essence for farmers planting improved maize varieties in regions affected by stresses such as drought or maize lethal necrosis (MLN). DH technology can drastically cut short the time it takes to derive parental lines in a hybrid maize breeding program.”
CIMMYT’s work on DH has greatly expanded in the past few years. Between 2012 and 2016, CIMMYT scientists produced over 100,000 DH lines, up from less than 5,000 in 2011. However, adoption of the technology is lagging behind in tropical maize breeding programs due to the lack of adapted haploid inducers with high haploid induction rates. The haploid inducers enable generations of haploids – maize varieties containing only one set of chromosomes instead of the usual two sets of chromosomes found in normal diploid maize – at a high frequency. These haploids are then detected using a color marker on the kernel, and the chromosome complement is doubled artificially using treatment with a chromosome doubling agent to derive doubled haploid plants, and consequently seed from those plants.
Chaikam’s current research is aimed at improving the adoption of DH technology in tropical maize breeding programs by developing improved haploid inducers for tropical maize breeding programs, developing novel methods of haploid identification and efficient protocols for chromosomal doubling, and optimizing the agronomic management for deriving doubled haploids. He works closely with breeders to develop ways of using DH lines more efficiently in maize breeding programs. This research could be valuable in the development and deployment of improved maize varieties that benefit smallholder farmers in the developing world. In addition to his work in the DH facility, Chaikam has published several journal articles and book chapters. He has also coordinated scientific training courses.
“I always wanted my work to be relevant to the needs of farmers,” he said, explaining the factors that drew him to work at CIMMYT. “CIMMYT offered such an incredible opportunity, where my day-to-day activities have a direct impact on the development and deployment of improved maize varieties needed by farming communities. I also enjoy working with, talking to and listening to my passionate colleagues who love the work they do to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.”
Monica Mezzalama, head of CIMMYT’s Seed Health Laboratory. Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) it all starts with a seed. Each year, the non-profit receives requests and sends more than 700,000 packets of seed to researchers, agricultural organizations and farmers around the world from its headquarters near Mexico City. These seeds stand up to climate change, produce higher yields with fewer resources and provide the nutrition a growing global population needs.
However, before each seed travels across an international border, it is essential to ensure that each one has a clean bill of health, free from virus, fungus and bacteria pathogens. Infected seeds must be controlled or there is a risk that plant pathogens will spread, affecting crop health and potentially threatening food security.
That is where plant pathology expert Monica Mezzalama, head of CIMMYT’s Seed Health Laboratory, gets involved.
“Seed movement around the world is regulated to limit the spread of pathogens across international borders,” said the senior scientist. “I coordinate and supervise seed health testing to ensure all seeds that pass through CIMMYT meet these international standards and do not pose a risk.”
Securing the health of seeds ensures that researchers, breeders and partner organizations don’t encounter infected seed and is essential to maintaining efficient agricultural research that has impact, she added.
Since taking the helm of the Seed Health Laboratory 15 years ago, all seed that has been inspected on its way out of CIMMYT must meet certification. If unhealthy seed is found it must be quarantined and destroyed under the law, explained Mezzalama.
Seeds arriving from partner organizations, researchers or farmers are also tested for disease and granted a “seed release” by Mezzalama and her team. Authorized seed then moves on to CIMMYT researchers to be studied for disease resistance, heat tolerance and micronutrient content and added into international breeding programs. Others are placed in the maize and wheat germplasm bank, where over 175,000 different varieties are preserved on behalf of humanity and are freely available to all upon request.
A curiosity for disease and a passion to cure led Mezzalama to a career as a plant pathologist. While studying for an undergraduate degree in agronomy in her hometown of Turin, Italy, she visited nearby vineyards to study plant pathogens for the first time.
“It was working in the vineyards where I first saw plant pathogens at work and where I saw the impact they have on farmers, and what it means for their livelihoods,” she said.
After graduating in 1986, Mezzalama began her first job at CIMMYT working alongside virologist Peter Burnett on a project dedicated to barley yellow dwarf (BYD) virus, which effects barley, wheat, maize, rice and other grasses worldwide. The experience opened her mind to a new world where she learned the inner workings of plant pathogens and started to study for a doctoral degree in plant pathology in Italy.
Since returning to CIMMYT in 2001, Mezzalama has led the Seed Health Laboratory, set institutional biosafety protocols to protect against harmful incidents, which include regular reviews of the biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as well as guidelines to follow, and participated in several research projects. Most recently, she joined a project to control the spread of Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN), a devastating virus that poses a severe risk to food security in eastern Africa.
The complex disease results from the infection of two deadly viruses, maize chlorotic mottle virus and sugar cane mosaic virus. It spreads through infected maize seed and insect pests. Mezzalama’s skill in plant pathology detection was called upon to organize the opening of seed health laboratories in Kenya and Zimbabwe and also train staff on how to detect seed infected with MLN or the two associated viruses.
Currently, Mezzalama is in the final stages of developing a standard of detection protocol, providing the agriculture industry with knowledge of best practices and affordable tools to detect MLN infected maize seed.
“There are several products and methods that may be used for MLN detection in seed, these must be tested to see which obtain the most accurate results efficiently while taking into price into account,” she said.
Accuracy, time and cost are important factors when developing MLN detection protocols as common practice, implemented by partners in Kenya and other impacted countries, she explained.
Key donors to CIMMYT’s efforts in controlling MLN include the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), and the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), CGIAR Fund Donors and other generous contributors to CIMMYT maize research.
Anne Wangui, a seed health technician at CIMMYT demonstrate DAS–ELISA method used for detecting MLN-causing viruses. B.Wawa/CIMMYT
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease poses a major concern to researchers, seed companies and farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The impact of MLN is massive in the affected countries, especially at the household level for smallholder farmers who can experience up to 100 percent yield loss.
Concerted regional efforts through a project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) over the past year have helped in prioritizing and targeting efforts to stop the spread of the disease from the endemic to the non-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The project target countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda (currently MLN endemic), while Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are MLN non-endemic but important commercial maize seed producing countries where the project implemented extensive MLN surveillance efforts.
Determining exactly how the MLN causing viruses, which include maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and sugarcane mosaic virus, are transmitted in the field through insect-vectors, infected plants and seed lots, has made diagnosis a key element in the efforts to halt the spread of the disease. If the viruses, in particular MCMV, the major causative agent, are introduced into a new area through contaminated seed and infected plants and not diagnosed and destroyed immediately, MLN can spread rapidly. Insect vectors in the field can play a significant role in transmitting viruses to the neighboring healthy maize fields.
In order to manage MLN at a regional level, partners in the project are developing harmonized diagnostic protocols to test, detect and prevent its spread through available mitigation measures. These were highlighted during the MLN Diagnostics and Management Project Review and Planning Meeting held in October, 2016 in Nairobi.
Monica Mezzalama, head of the CIMMYT Seed Health Laboratory in Mexico and a plant pathologist, shared her views on MLN testing and diagnostic methods that can be adopted to test maize plants and seed lots in the following interview.
Q: What is the role of diagnostics in managing MLN in Africa?
A: The role of sensitive, reliable, reproducible, affordable and standardized diagnostic tools is fundamental to the management of MLN in Africa. Only with an appropriate diagnosis tool, we can effectively detect and prevent further dispersal of the disease to the non-endemic areas through seed.
Q: What is the progress for detecting MLN in seed lots?
A: At the moment, detection in seed lots is still a weak link in the MLN management chain, although detection methods are available, such as ELISA and several versions of PCR, which are serological and molecular based, respectively, for the detection of MLN viruses. Extracting the pathogen from seed is more difficult than extracting it from leaf tissue, making it more time consuming to obtain clear and reliable results. Additionally, scientists are on the verge of resolving the significant issue of “sampling intensity,” which refers to the proportion of the seed sampled from the presented seed lots.
Q: What are some of the practices CIMMYT has adopted to ensure MLN-free seed production across regional centers in Africa?
A: Since 2013, CIMMYT has implemented several effective measures to ensure healthy MLN-free seed production and exchange. An aggressive strategy against the disease has been adopted at the main maize breeding station at Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization in Kiboko, by introducing a maize-free period of two months annually on the station as well as in the surrounding areas in close interaction with the farming communities in the neighboring villages. All this was possible thanks to the great collaboration between KALRO staff, CIMMYT colleagues, and the local farmers. This action taken for two consecutive years reduced drastically the incidence of MLN infected plants. In addition, a very thoughtful sensitization campaign was carried out, explaining how to effectively apply insecticide to control vectors, how to avoid the spread of the pathogen from one field to another by advising workers to change their clothes and shoes after working in an infected field. Also, management of planting dates has been implemented to avoid peaks of vectors populations or physically avoiding the arrival of the insects by planting according to the wind stream direction. In Zimbabwe, CIMMYT has also invested significant resources by establishing an MLN Quarantine Facility at Mazowe, near Harare to enable safe exchange of MLN virus-free breeding materials in southern Africa.
Q: Based on your experience with various diagnostic tools, what options would work for Africa’s seed companies and regulatory agencies to help detect MLN-causing viruses?
A: For detection of MLN viruses in green leaf tissue, I think immunostrips, ELISA and PCR techniques work very well and they can be adopted according to the level of specialization of the operator, infrastructure and financial resources available. As far as detection in dry seed is concerned, I think that at the moment the ELISA technique is the most reliable and affordable. PCR methods are available, but still some improvement needs to be done in the extraction of the viral RNA from the seed matrix.
Q: What factors do the relevant actors need to consider in the process of harmonizing diagnostic protocols across MLN-endemic and non-endemic countries?
A: Harmonization of protocols and procedures are needed not only for MLN, but also for effective design and implementation of phytosanitary aspects related to the exchange of commercial seed and vegetative material across borders. Unfortunately, it is not an easy task because of the number of actors involved, including national plant protection organizations, seed companies, seed traders, farmers, and policy makers. Nevertheless, the most important factors that, in my opinion, should be taken into consideration for consensus on harmonized protocols and where the efforts should focus on are: avoid the spread of the disease from country to country, and from the endemic to non-endemic areas within the same country; implement a well-coordinated and integrated package of practices for effective management of MLN in the endemic countries; reduce as much as possible economic losses due to the restriction on seed exchange; implement serious and effective seed testing and field inspections of the seed multiplication plots to prevent the incidence of MLN and for timely detection and elimination of infected plants.
The CIMMYT-led MLN Diagnostics and Management Project, funded by USAID East Africa Mission is coordinating the above work with objectives to: a) prevent the spread of MLN, especially Maize Chlorotic Mottle Virus (MCMV), from the MLN-endemic countries in eastern Africa to non-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa; b) support the commercial seed sector in the MLN-endemic countries in producing MCMV-free commercial seed and promote the use of clean hybrid seed by the farmers; and c) to establish and operate a MLN Phytosanitary Community of Practice in Africa, for sharing of learning, MLN diagnostic and surveillance protocols, and best management practices for MLN control in Africa.
A maize stem infested by the African stem borer that is predominant in the highlands. B.Wawa/CIMMYT
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – Life has become more difficult in Kenya for the intrepid stem borer. For the first time, transgenic maize hybrids that combine insect resistance and drought tolerance have been harvested from confined field trials, as part of a public-private partnership to combat the insect, which costs Kenya $90 million dollars in maize crop losses a year.
Conducted at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) centers in Kitale and Kiboko in April and May, the experiments were managed by the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project, a collaboration led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF). The test crop successfully weathered intense, researcher-controlled infestations of two highly-aggressive Kenyan insect pests— the spotted stem borer and African stem borer.
The maize is referred to as “stacked” because it carries more than one inserted gene for resilience; in this case, genes from the common soil microbe Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that confers resistance to certain species of stem borer, and another from Bacillus subtilis that enhances drought tolerance.
Bt hybrid maize showed better resistance to the stem borer compared to the conventional commercial maize. F. Maritim/KALRO
First time maize resists two-pest attack
WEMA partners from KALRO, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), U.S. seeds company Monsanto and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) hope that, given the successful results of this experiment, they will soon be able to test the new maize in national trials.
“This is the first planting season of the stacked materials and, from the initial data, there was a clear difference between the plants containing the stem borer resistance traits and the conventional commercial maize grown for comparison, which showed a lot of damage,” said Murenga Mwimali, WEMA coordinator at KALRO.
The maize in the Kiboko experiment was infested with the spotted stem borer (Chilo partellus, by its scientific name), a pest found mostly in the lowlands. At Kitale, the scientists besieged the crops with the African stem borer (Busseola fusca), the predominant maize pest in the highlands. This was the first time that Bt maize had been tested in the field against Busseola fusca, according to Stephen Mugo, regional representative for CIMMYT in Africa and leader of the center’s WEMA team.
“From our observations, this is the first time that stacked Bt genes provided control for both Chilo partellus and Busseola fusca in maize,” Mugo said, adding that stem borers annually chew their way through 13.5 percent of Kenya’s maize, representing a loss of 0.4 million tons of grain.
“Losses can reach 80 percent in drought years, when maize stands are weakened from a lack of water and insect infestation,” he explained. Although the impact of the stem borer in the field often goes unnoticed because the insects sometimes destroy the plant from the root, the loss is significant for a country that depends on maize for food.
The new maize was developed using lines from Monsanto and CIMMYT-led conventional breeding for drought tolerance.
A Bt hybrid maize with resistance to the African stem borer and tolerant to drought harvested at Kitale research center, Kenya. B.Wawa/CIMMYT
Seeking approval for widespread testing and use
Trial harvesting took place under close supervision by inspectors from the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) and the National Biosafety Authority (NBA), strictly in line with regulatory requirements for handling genetically modified crops in Kenya.
The NBA has given partial approval to KALRO and AATF for open cultivation of the stacked transgenic hybrid maize. Once full approval is given, the varieties can be grown in non-restricted field conditions like any other variety and the Bt maize can be tested in the official national performance trials organized by KEPHIS to test and certify varieties for eventual use by farmers.
“The data we are generating in this trial will support further applications for transgenic work in Kenya, particularly for open cultivation,” Mwimali said.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
