Nepal’s National Maize Research Program (NMRP)

funder_partner: Nepal’s National Maize Research Program (NMRP)

Refresher webinar on fall armyworm management in South Asia

Written by Alison Doody on October 14, 2022. Posted in News.

The fall armyworm is a destructive polyphagous pest that feeds on more than 300 crop species, with a particular appetite for maize. The pest was first reported in Asia in 2018 and has been spreading in the region since then, especially in maize-producing countries of South Asia.

Several campaigns on identifying and managing fall armyworm have been conducted in South Asia, yet the challenge to control the pest remains. The damage caused by fall armyworm to farmers’ fields was reported widely during the 2022 spring maize season in Pakistan and Nepal’s Terai region. Many maize farmers complained about the current economic downturn, price hike of agricultural commodities and the unavailability of safe pesticides to reduce crop losses.

On 21 July 2022, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) initiated a refresher webinar to share the latest scientific advances and best practices for identifying and managing fall armyworm in South Asia. The platform extended an opportunity for the participants to understand and learn about effective integrated pest management (IPM) approaches being practiced in the region. It also addressed the importance of enabling policies that are crucial to foster innovations to reduce crop yield loss and save the environment from hazardous effects of toxic pesticides.

The Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project (NSAF) team, supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by CIMMYT, organized the virtual event in collaboration with Nepal’s Plant Quarantine and Pesticide Management Center, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Nepal’s National Maize Research Program, the Maize and Millet Research Institute in Pakistan, the University of Agriculture Faisalabad and CGIAR’s Plant Health Initiative.

Govinda Prasad Sharma, Secretary of Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development and Jason Seuc, director of the Economic Growth Office at USAID Nepal, delivered their opening remarks during the inaugural session. The Secretary emphasized the use of safer methods, including but not limited to mass rearing and releasing of natural enemies of fall armyworm and the deployment of fall armyworm tolerant maize varieties.

“USAID will continue working with partners to advocate and promote IPM practices till the pest becomes of non-economic importance,” said Seuc.

BM Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and OneCGIAR Plant Health Initiative lead emphasized the importance of IPM practices to manage the pest. Prasanna discussed the global efforts to control the pest and shared the progress of fall armyworm tolerant maize seeds which are being released and deployed by CIMMYT partners to help resource poor farmers, especially in Africa.

AbduRahman Beshir, NSAF’s seed systems lead, emphasized the importance of the event and acknowledged the participation of approximately 525 attendees from public and private research institutions, academicians, civil society, private sector, policy decision-makers, CGIAR centers and USAID Nepal. The webinar gathered attendees from 15 countries, including Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and China.

Experts from South Asia presented on a range of topics including the status of fall armyworm and its management in Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Pacific Region, IPM practices and experience of using safe pesticides, breeding for native genetic resistance to fall armyworm, and biological control and push-pull strategies. The experts emphasized on the need for collective efforts to strengthen national and international coordination, favorable policies, deployment of fall armyworm tolerant maize varieties, and best response interventions to help farmers battle the fall armyworm and limit its spread.

Efforts to mitigate the impact of fall armyworm attacks are still ongoing. CIMMYT is continuously working to alert farmers and stakeholders on the IPM practices of fall armyworm in the region.

Lumbini Seeds staff sorts cobs of hybrid seed. (Photo: Lumbini Seeds)

A major step toward seed self-sufficiency

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on November 22, 2019. Posted in News.

In an historical first, during the 2018-19 season Nepal’s National Maize Research Program (NMRP) coordinated the production of 4 tons of seed of a leading maize hybrid, as part of national efforts to boost maize production and meet rising demand for the crop.

NMRP oversaw production of Rampur Hybrid-10 seed, in collaboration with the Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project funded by the USAID Feed the Future Initiative and led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project, and local seed companies and farmer cooperatives.

“Producing hybrid maize seed and getting quality seed to farmers at a reasonable price involves multiple stakeholders,” said P.H. Zaidi, CIMMYT maize physiologist and HTMA leader. “NMRP is pursuing a public-private partnership model to have key value chain components in place for this. The success this year may encourage other companies to switch from producing seed of open-pollinated maize varieties to that of hybrids, which are higher yielding.”

Lumbini Seed Company alone harvested 2.5 tons of hybrid seed from one hectare of land, helping to debunk the common myth that production of maize hybrid seed was impossible in Nepal, according to Zaidi.

“Lumbini did good groundwork to identify a suitable season and site for seed production, helping them to achieve a good hybrid seed harvest in their first-ever attempt,” said Zaidi. “The NMRP and other seed companies contributed valuable knowledge and advice to improve and scale up hybrid maize seed production.”

Maize is a critical food, feed and fodder crop in Nepal, providing nearly 20% of people’s food energy and accounting for around 33% of all cereal production in the high hills regions, 39% in the mid-hills region, and 9% in the Terai. Over two-thirds of hill-region maize is eaten directly as food on farm homesteads, whereas 80% of maize in the Terai and neighboring regions is used as feed.

Demand for feed maize is skyrocketing, as consumers switch from starch-based foods to animal protein and dairy products. Current national maize production satisfies less than a third of feed industry demand, requiring maize grain imports that reached 4.8 million tons in 2017-18.

Against this backdrop, many smallholder farmers still grow local or open-pollinated maize varieties, which are usually low yielding.

Scientists from CIMMYT and Nepal’s National Maize Research Program (NMRP) talk to Lumbini Seeds staff at their hybrid seed production plot in Bairawah, Nepal. (Photo: Lumbini Seeds)

Based in Rampur, Chitwan, and established in 1972, the NMRP has developed and released 29 open-pollinated and 5 hybrid maize varieties, including Rampur Hybrid-10, with technical support from CIMMYT. Multinational companies have registered 54 other maize hybrids for marketing in Nepal. To date, nearly all hybrid seed is imported.

Other partners in efforts to produce hybrid seed in Nepal include the farmer cooperatives Namuna Sahakari and Jhapa, as well as the companies SEAN Seed in Kathmandu and Unique Seed Company in Dhangadi. NMRP is also developing and registering new high-yielding hybrids. Some nucleus and breeders seed is being produced by the Agricultural Research Station (ARS) and Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) of the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC).

The NMRP and participating seed companies expect to meet half of Nepal’s hybrid maize seed requirements through such domestic seed production within five years, with the objective to achieve complete seed self-sufficiency later on.