DNA is often referred to as the blueprint for life. It contains codes to make the proteins, molecules and cells essential for an organism’s growth and development. Over the last decade, scientists have been figuring out how specific sections of DNA in maize and wheat are associated with physical and genetic traits, such as grain size and drought resistance.
Quantitative geneticist Huihui Li with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) helps link this new genetic knowledge with traditional crop breeding, to speed up the development of improved maize and wheat varieties. Li’s research uses cutting-edge genomics, computational biology and statistical tools to turn data into useful information for plant breeders.
“Breeders always accumulate big amounts of data, most of the time they need efficient tools to mine the stories from this data. That’s part of our job in the Biometrics and Statistics Unit,” she explained.
Her research helps breeders more quickly and accurately predict which maize and wheat varieties in the CIMMYT gene bank have the traits they seek to create improved varieties. For example, if a plant breeder wanted to develop a hybrid maize variety with high protein levels and pest resistance, Li could help by identifying which parental varieties would have these traits.
It takes about ten years for crop breeders to develop a new hybrid. Removing some of the guesswork during the early stages of their experiments could reduce this time significantly. With increasing environmental pressures from climate change and population growth, releasing better crop varieties more quickly will be vital to ensure there is enough food in the future.
Li says her family and experience growing up in China greatly influenced her career choice.
“Through my grandfather’s experience as the head of the Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry, I learned that there were many people in China suffering from hunger, poverty and malnutrition,” she said.
Li realized that these issues were prevalent throughout the developing world when her mother left China for two years to serve as a foreign aid doctor in Cameroon.
“As a ten-year-old girl, I told myself that I should make my contribution to reduce hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition in the future,” Li recalled. “I always ask myself, ‘What’s my value to humanity?”
She studied bio-mathematics and quantitative genetics at Beijing Normal University and Cornell University before joining CIMMYT in 2010 as a consultant.
“I wanted to join CIMMYT because it works throughout the developing world to improve livelihoods and foster more productive, sustainable maize and wheat farming,” Li explained. “Also, CIMMYT provided a platform where I could collaborate with scientists worldwide and receive academic and career-boosting trainings.”
She became staff in 2012 and is currently based out of the CIMMYT office in Beijing. In addition, Li is an adjunct associate professor with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). She helps CAAS scientists improve their experimental design and better incorporate genetic information into their crop breeding.
“I love doing research,” Li said. “I’m a curious person so if I can solve a problem, I feel very happy, but I really want my research to have value – not just for myself – but for the world.”
Huihui Li’s work contributes to Seeds of Discovery (SeeD), a multi-project initiative comprising: MasAgro Biodiversidad, a joint initiative of CIMMYT and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) through the MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture) project and the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize (MAIZE) and Wheat (WHEAT).
For the first time ever, a research team of more than 40 scientists has genetically characterized values of exotics in hexaploid wheat. CIMMYT scientists, together with partners in Demark, India, Mexico, Pakistan, and the UK, used next-generation sequencing and multi-environment phenotyping to study the contribution of exotic genomes to pre-breeding lines. Research required collaborative development, evaluation, and deployment of novel genetic resources to breeding programs addressing food security under climate change scenarios in India, Mexico, and Pakistan.
The team generated large-scale pre-breeding materials, which have been evaluated for important traits such as grain yield, quality, and disease resistance. Pre-breeding and haplotype-based approaches revealed useful genetic footprints of exotic lines in pre-breeding germplasm. Results of the study, recently published in Nature Scientific Reports, show that some DNA from exotic germplasm improved the biotic and abiotic stress tolerances of lines derived from crosses of exotics with CIMMYT’s best elite lines.
The practical successes of large-scale, impact-oriented breeding work will be useful to other wheat breeding programs around the world, and the information generated could be used to boost global wheat productivity.
Sukhwinder Singh, wheat lead on CIMMYT’s SeeD Project, explains that pre-breeding is in-demand and the resources developed through this study can serve as tools to address upcoming challenges in wheat production more efficiently, as desirable alleles from exotics have been mobilized into best elite genetic background. Breeding programs can now use this material to deliver outcomes in shorter timeframes by avoiding the lengthy process of searching for exotics first.
This research was conducted as part of the Seeds of Discovery and MasAgro projects in collaboration with the Borlaug Institute for South Asia, and was made possible by generous support from Mexico’s Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the Government of Punjab, and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.
Check out other recent publications by CIMMYT researchers below:
Applications of machine learning methods to genomic selection in breeding wheat for rust resistance. González-Camacho, J.M., Ornella, L., Perez-Rodriguez, P., Gianola, D., Dreisigacker, S., Crossa, J. In: Plant Genome v. 11, no. 2, art. 170104.
Bayesian functional regression as an alternative statistical analysis of high‑throughput phenotyping data of modern agriculture. Montesinos-López, A., Montesinos-López, O.A., De los Campos, G., Crossa, J., Burgueño, J., Luna-Vázquez, F.J. In: Plant Methods v. 14, art. 46.
Effect of ppd-a1 and ppd-b1 allelic variants on grain number and thousand-kernel weight of durum wheat and their impact on final grain yield. Arjona, J.M., Royo, C., Dreisigacker, S., Ammar, K., Villegas, D. In: Frontiers in Plant Science v. 9, art. 888.
Genomic-enabled prediction accuracies increased by modeling genotype × environment interaction in durum wheat. Sukumaran, S., Jarquín, D., Crossa, J., Reynolds, M.P. In: Plant Genome v. 11, no. 2, art. 170112.
Mexican tropical cream cheese yield using low-fat milk induced by trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid: effect of palmitic acid. Granados-Rivera, L.D., Hernández-Mendo, O., Burgueño, J., Gonzalez-Munoz, S.S., Mendoza-Martinez, G.D., Mora-Flores, J.S., Arriaga-Jordan, C.M. In: CyTA-Journal of Food v. 16, no. 1, p. 311-315.
EL BATAN, MEXICO – Cargill Mexico and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) announced the winners of the third Cargill-CIMMYT Food Security and Sustainability Award on July 24. The award ceremony took place at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in México.
The Cargill-CIMMYT Award supports initiatives that tackle food security challenges in Mexico through long-term solutions. Winners have successfully increased the production of nutrient-rich food and made it available to people.
This year, the jury selected the most innovative projects in three categories:
Farmers: Carlos Barragán, for the project ‘De la milpa a tu plato’ (‘From the field to your plate’). Based in the state of Oaxaca, this initiative promotes food security and sustainability in small-scale farming systems.
Opinion Leaders: Fundación Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural, for the project Educampo. This project supports poor maize smallholders who live in marginalized communities to make their farming more productive and profitable.
Researchers: Mario López, for the project ‘Technology for bean production.’ This initiative incremented production from 2 to 9 tons per hectare, disseminated agricultural technologies and increased the use of improved seed.
Winners were awarded a total of $25,000. The Farmers and Researchers categories received $10,000 each and the Opinion Leaders category was supported with $5,000.
A panel of experts from the agricultural and food sectors selected the winners from a shortlist of 30 projects across the country. The jury included representatives from Cargill Mexico, CIMMYT, Grupo Bimbo, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, Mexico’s Agriculture Council and Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.
About Cargill
Cargill’s 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive.
We combine 153 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.
About Cargill Mexico
Cargill Mexico aims to contribute in improving agricultural productivity, satisfying and fulfilling the expectations of the domestic industry. In addition to adding value to human and animal nutrition and thus encourage economic development, Cargill Mexico reinvests its profits in several new businesses in the country. Cargill has 9 business units that have operations in Mexico, it employs more than 1,750 people in 13 states and has a total of 30 facilities, including a corporate office in Mexico City. For more information, visit Cargill.com.mx, and our News Center.
About CIMMYT
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. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.
Photos available (click on the image to download the high-resolution JPG file)
Carlos Barragán (center) receives the Cargill-CIMMYT Award, in the Farmers category. Behind him are representatives from the organizations in the jury (from left to right): Bosco de la Vega, President of Mexico’s National Agriculture Council; David Hernández, Global Chief Procurement Officer of Grupo Bimbo; Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT; Jorge Zertuche, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Agriculture; Marcelo Martins, President of Cargill Mexico; and José Sáenz, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Economy. (Photo: CIMMYT)From left to right: Marcelo Martins, President of Cargill Mexico; Carlos Barragán, Farmers category winner; Citlali Fuentes, from Fundación Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural, Opinion Leaders category winner; Mario López, Researchers category winner; and Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Felipa Martinez shows off some of her family’s maize from last year’s harvest. Photo: Matthew O’Leary
Felipa Martinez, an indigenous Mexican grandmother, grins as she shows off a bag bulging with maize cobs saved from last harvest season. With her family, she managed to farm enough maize for the year despite the increasing pressure brought by climate change.
Felipa’s grin shows satisfaction. Her main concern is her family, the healthy harvest lets her feed them without worry and sell the little left over to cover utilities.
“When our crops produce a good harvest I am happy because we don’t have to spend our money on food. We can make our own tortillas and tostadas,” she said.
Her family belongs to the Chatino indigenous community and lives in the small town of Santiago Yaitepec in humid southern Oaxaca. They are from one of eleven marginalized indigenous communities throughout the state involved in a participatory breeding project with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to naturally improve the quality and preserve the biodiversity of native maize.
These indigenous farmers are custodians of maize biodiversity, growing seeds passed down over generations. Their maize varieties represent a portion of the diversity found in the 59 native Mexican races of maize, or landraces, which first developed from wild grasses at the hands of their ancestors. These different types of maize diversified through generations of selective breeding, adapting to the environment, climate and cultural needs of the different communities.
In recent years, a good harvest has become increasingly unreliable, as the impacts of climate change, such as erratic rainfall and the proliferation of pests and disease, have begun to challenge native maize varieties. Rural poor and smallholder farmers, like Martinez and her family, are among the hardest hit by the mounting impacts of climate change, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
These farmers and their ancestors have thousands of years of experience selecting and breeding maize to meet their environment. However, climate change is at times outpacing their selection methods, said CIMMYT landrace improvement coordinator Martha Willcox, who works with the community and coordinates the participatory breeding project. Through the initiative, the indigenous communities work together with professional maize breeders to continuously improve and conserve their native maize.
Despite numerous challenges, farmers in the region are unwilling to give up their maize for other varieties. “The native maize, my maize grows best here, it yields well in our environment. The maize is sweeter, it is heavier,” said Don Modesto Suarez, Felipa’s husband. “This maize has been grown by our grandfathers and this is why I will not change it.”
Una mujer de la comunidad Chatino prepara tortillas muy grandes de maíz criollo que son muy apreciadas en los mercados locales. Foto: Matthew O’Leary
This is because a community’s native maize varieties are adapted to their specific microclimate, such as elevation and weather patterns, and therefore may perform better or be more resistant to local pests and diseases than other maize varieties. They may also have specific characteristics prized for local culinary traditions — for example, in Santiago Yaitepec the native maize varieties have a specific type of starch that allows for the creation of extra-large tortillas and tostadas that are in high demand in local markets.
Other varieties may not meet farmers’ specific needs or climate, and many families do not want to give up their cultural attachment to native maize, said Flavio Aragon, a genetic resources researcher at the Mexican National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research (INIFAP) who collaborates with Willcox.
CIMMYT and INIFAP launched the four-year participatory plant breeding project to understand marginalized communities’ unique makeup and needs – including maize type, local climates, farming practices, diseases and culture – and include farmers in breeding maize to suit these needs.
“Our aim is to get the most out of the unique traits in the native maize found in the farmer’s fields. To preserve and use it to build resistance and strength without losing the authenticity,” said Aragon.
“When we involve farmers in the process of selection, they are watching what we are doing and they are learning techniques,” he said. “Not only about the process of genetic selection in breeding but also sustainable farming practices and this makes it easier for farmers to adopt the maize that they have worked alongside breeders to improve through the project.”
Suarez said he appreciates the help, “We are learning how to improve our maize and identify diseases. I hope more farmers in the community join in and grow with us,” he said.
When disease strikes
Chatino men stand in a maize field in Santiago Yaitepec, Oaxaca, Mexico. Tar spot complex threatened harvests, but work in participatory breeding with CIMMYT has helped local communities to improve their native maize without loosing preferred traits. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary)
Changes in weather patterns due to climate change are making it hard for farmers to know when to plant their crops to avoid serious disease. Now, a fungal disease known as tar spot complex, or TSC, is increasingly taking hold of maize crops, destroying harvests and threatening local food security, said Willcox. TSC resistance is one key trait farmers want to include in the participatory breeding.
Named for the black spots that cover infected plants, TSC causes leaves to die prematurely, weakening the plant and preventing the ears from developing fully, cutting yields by up to 50 percent or more in extreme cases.
Caused by a combination of three fungal infections, the disease occurs most often in cool and humid areas across southern Mexico, Central America and into South America. The disease is beginning to spread, possibly due to climate change, evolving pathogens and introduction of susceptible maize varieties.
“Our maize used to grow very well here, but then this disease came and now our maize doesn’t grow as well,” said Suarez. “For this reason we started to look for maize that we could exchange with our neighbors.”
A traditional breeding method for indigenous farmers is to see what works in fields of neighboring farmers and test it in their own, Willcox said.
Taking the search to the next level, Willcox turned to the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank, which holds over 7000 native maize seed types collected from indigenous farmers. She tested nearly a thousand accessions in search of TSC resistance. A tedious task that saw her rate the different varieties on how they handled the disease in the field. However, the effort paid off with her team discovering two varieties that stood up to the disease. One variety, Oaxaca 280, originated from just a few hours north of where the Suarez family lives.
Farmer Modesto Suarez (left) and neighbors were originally cautious to plant Oaxaca 280 in their fields, but were pleased with the results. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary)
After testing Oaxaca 280 in their fields the farmers were impressed with the results and have now begun to include the variety in their breeding.
“Oaxaca 280 is a landrace – something from Mexico – and crossing this with the community’s maize gives 100 percent unimproved material that is from Oaxaca very close to their own,” said Willcox. “It is really a farmer to farmer exchange of resistance from another area of Oaxaca to this landrace here.”
“The goal is to make it as close as it can be to what the farmer currently has and to conserve the characteristics valued by farmers while improving specific problems that the farmers request help with, so that it is still similar to their native varieties and they accept it,” Aragon said.
Expanding for impact
Willcox and colleagues throughout Mexico seek to expand the participatory breeding project nationwide in a bid to preserve maize biodiversity and support rural communities.
“If you take away their native maize you take away a huge portion of the culture that holds these communities together,” said Willcox. Participatory breeding in marginalized communities preserves maize diversity and builds rural opportunities in areas that are hotbeds for migration to the United States.
“A lack of opportunities leads to migration out of Mexico to find work in other places, a strong agricultural sector means strong rural opportunities,” she said.
To further economic opportunities in the communities, these researchers have been connecting farmers with restaurant owners in Mexico City and the United States to export surplus grain and support livelihoods. A taste for high-quality Mexican food has created a small but growing market for the native maize varieties.
The next generation: The granddaughter of Felipa Martinez and Modesto Suarez stands in her grandparent’s maize field. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary)
Native maize hold the building blocks for climate-smart crops
Native maize varieties show remarkable diversity and climate resilience that grow in a range from arid to humid environments, said Willcox. The genetic traits found in this diversity are the building blocks that can be used to develop varieties suitable for the changing crop environments predicted for 2050.
“There is a lot of reasoning that goes into the way that these farmers farm the land, the way they decide on what they select for,” said Willcox. “This has been going on for years and has been passed down through generations. For this reason, they have maize of such high quality with resistance to local challenges, genetic traits that now can be used to create strong varieties to help farmers in Mexico and around the world.”
It is key to analyze the genetic variability of native maize, and support the family farmers who conserve it in their fields, she added. This biodiversity still sown and selected throughout diverse microclimates of Mexico holds the traits we need to protect our food supplies.
To watch a video on CIMMYT’s work in this community, please click here.
This work has been conducted as part of the CIMMYT-led MasAgro project in collaboration with INIFAP, and supported by Mexico’s Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE.
“My career in agriculture goes back 32 years, and I myself am a farmer,” Hinojosa said in his opening address. “With this great opportunity to visit CIMMYT also comes a great commitment to its work—I am here to work by your side, to learn, and to help make sure the projects you are working on become reality and continue the legacy of work you have upheld over many years.”
CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff discussed CIMMYT’s longstanding partnership with Mexico and SAGARPA, and the Center’s work to help farmers in Mexico and around the world improve their productivity and sustainability. “Mexico is our home, our ally, and the cradle of the green revolution. The technologies and seeds that we develop here in Mexico are used in Africa, Asia, Latin America—practically all over the world,” he said.
Bram Govaerts, the Latin America regional representative at CIMMYT, presented in detail the positive impact that the seeds, technologies and sustainable intensification practices of the MasAgro project, a partnership between CIMMYT and SAGARPA, has had in Mexico.
Tour of CIMMYT campus. Photo: C.Beaver/CIMMYT.
He cited a study by Mexico’s University of Chapingo that found that extension agents trained in the MasAgro method were 10 times more effective at (reaching) farmers.
Another study found that farmers who implemented MasAgro’s innovative sustainable intensification techniques were able to increase their maize yields under raid-fed agriculture by nearly a ton per hectare in several Mexican states.
The secretary of agriculture expressed particular interest in sustainable intensification practices that prevent soil erosion and promote efficient water use, citing the prime importance of conserving these resources that are crucial to protecting agriculture and food security.
“You have a clear vision of what needs to be done, and we are committed to that vision with you,” Hinojosa said. “We must begin to work today on issues such as water use and soil erosion rather than wait until our resources are already degraded.”
The secretary was then given a tour of CIMMYT’s seed bank, home to the largest collection of maize and wheat genetic diversity in the world, followed by presentations from CIMMYT researchers on their work with maize, wheat and sustainable intensification. Other visitors included Jorge Luis Zertuche, subsecretary of agriculture; Eduardo Mansilla, delegate of SAGARPA in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas; Sergio Martínez, advisor to the secretary of agriculture; as well as members of the CIMMYT management committee and researchers from the MasAgro project.
As part of the efforts of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program aimed at improving food security based on maize landraces in marginal areas of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, a workshop on trial design was held from 19-21 February to improve the precision of data on improved maize landraces in smallholder farmers’ fields. Attending the workshop were partners from the National Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP) and the Southern Regional University Center of the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh).
The objective was to continue to have positive impacts on the marginalized communities of Oaxaca, by adapting to the hillside conditions and poor, uneven and broken up soils that often characterize the plots of farmers who grow maize landraces. The very varied trial designs in farmers’ fields, plus the varied population structure of maize landraces make it difficult for scientists to create efficient designs.
The training workshop was led by Dr. Martha Willcox, CIMMYT Maize Landrace program, and designed by Dr. Juan Burgueño and Mr. Claudio Ayala, who sought to facilitate breeding research in smallholder farmers’ fields and to continue to work for the benefit of more than 400 Oaxacan farmers. The project’s multi-disciplinary base includes genetic improvement, agronomic management and biostatistics in order to generate greater value and scientifically confirm the benefits that are being achieved in the fields of the country’s poorest farmers.
It should be noted that during the four years that MasAgro has worked on participatory breeding (2014-2017), INIFAP, UACh and CIMMYT have found that in marginalized communities, maize landraces with the characteristics mentioned above not only yield more, but also generate higher returns on investments, which benefits farmers. Smallholder farmers grow maize in many ecological niches outside the areas most favorable for intensive commercial agriculture and in areas where hybrid improvement programs have not been introduced or worked due to the extreme conditions, including fog, drought and disease. Maize landraces are better adapted to those areas and have the culinary qualities needed to make every-day and festive local dishes.
In addition, not only has maize production for home consumption improved, but farmers are now linked to gastronomic markets. During project years and with its help, maize began to be exported, with 10,000 kilograms exported in 2014 and more than 900,000 kg exported in 2017.
CIMMYT and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council are set to hold a seminar on women and youth in wheat-based farming systems on March 8. Photo: CIMMYT archives
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CIMMYT) – As part of activities around 2018 International Women’s Day, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) will hold a seminar on women and youth in wheat-based farming systems: How do women and youth contribute? What are their problems and concerns? How can their issues be addressed to increase farm productivity and benefit all household members?
The event will draw some 70 participants from public, private, and academic organizations, including high-level wheat sector officials, social scientists from all Pakistan provinces, and scientists from CIMMYT, the global leader in publicly-funded research on maize and wheat and related farming systems.
Among other topics, speakers will share and discuss Pakistan-specific findings from GENNOVATE, a large-scale qualitative study by CGIAR during 2014-16, based on focus groups and interviews involving more than 7,500 rural men and women in 26 developing countries.
The event, which takes place in the Inspire Meeting Hall, Agricultural Economics Research Institute (AERI), NARC Premises, Park Road, Islamabad, on Thursday, 8 March from 8:45 to 11:30 a.m., will feature presentations followed by question and answer sessions and discussions and will be chaired by Ghulam Muhammad Ali, Director General, NARC, and Dr. Imtiaz Muhammad, Country Representative, CIMMYT Pakistan.
The program includes Muhammad Khair and Zarmina Achakzi from Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS), who will highlight the role of women in farming in Balochistan and factors that limit their income and social status. Sidra Majeed and Nusrat Habib of the Agricultural Economics Research Institute (AERI), NARC, will present on gender roles and responsibilities in Pakistan.
From CIMMYT, Mulunesh Tsegaye, a research associate, will describe GENNOVATE findings on women and youth’s roles in wheat-based agriculture in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan provinces. Consultant Sidra Minhas will share gender-related results from 14 agricultural program evaluations in Pakistan and how better to address gender dynamics in project design, programming, monitoring, and evaluation. Kristie Drucza, gender and social development research manager, will introduce results of three quantitative surveys that highlight the need for greater participation of women in agriculture research to raise the sector’s productivity and profitability.
The theme of 2018 International Women’s Day is #PressforProgress, and encourages global momentum in striving for gender parity.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), women make up 43 percent of the agricultural workforce in developing countries, but for many access to resources and services is severely restricted and they are often left out of decisions regarding use of income—even that which they earn.
GENNOVATE is supported by generous funding from the World Bank; the CGIAR Gender & Agricultural Research Network; the government of Mexico through MasAgro; Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); numerous CGIAR Research Programs; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Farmers walk through a field that has been cleared by slash and burn agriculture in the Yucatan peninsula. Photo: Maria Boa/ CIMMYT
MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) — The Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has been hard hit by drought and extreme weather events related to climate change in recent years, exacerbating local poverty and food insecurity. In addition, slash-and-burn agriculture techniques have led to environmental degradation and contribute to climate change. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is working to help indigenous Mayan farming families in the Yucatan peninsula adapt to and mitigate climate change, increasing maize yields and food security while minimizing negative environmental impact. This comes as world leaders mull a crucial decision on agriculture at the UN Climate talks in Bonn, a decision that could support farmers everywhere to take similar actions.
Maize is the backbone of diets in the Yucatan Peninsula, and has sustained indigenous Mayan families for millennia. It is grown as part of the “milpa,” a pre-hispanic intercropping system that revolves around the symbiotic relationship of maize, beans and squash.
Traditionally, the milpa system has involved clearing new land for farming using the slash and burn method. However, after two to three years, the soils begin to deteriorate and new land must be cleared. These practices have contributed to deforestation, increased CO2 emissions, and loss of invaluable local biodiversity.
In the Yucatan Peninsula, climate change has begun to threaten milpa agriculture. The rains have been later and shorter every year, reducing maize yields. As it has become more difficult to make a living from agriculture, young people have been forced to migrate to find work. Farmers have also lost seeds of their traditional maize varieties when they have been unable to harvest after severe drought.
A new CIMMYT project, Milpa Sustentable Yucatan Peninsula, is helping farming families increase their maize yields through sustainable, inclusive solutions. The Project, which means “sustainable milpa” in Spanish, is working to help farming families identify the best soils in their communal land and incorporate sustainable intensification and conservation agriculture (CA) practices to improve soils in order to prevent deforestation and mitigate climate change.
The project has a strong social inclusion component and works to make sure that women and youth are included and prioritized in capacity development opportunities and decision-making processes. “As milpa is a family system, women and youth must be included in order to attain impact,” said Carolina Camacho, principal researcher on social inclusion at CIMMYT. “Complex challenges such as climate change require social change and inclusion of traditionally marginalized groups such women and youth in order for mitigation to be successful.”
Farming families are taught CA techniques such as zero tillage that help prevent erosion and water runoff. This increases soil health and uses water more efficiently, which helps maize better survive drought and allows farmers to farm the same land for many years without resorting to deforestation or burning.
Native maize diversity in the Yucatan peninsula. Photo: Maria Boa/ CIMMYT
“Farmers used to harvest 500 kilograms of maize per hectare. Now, with techniques they have learned from CIMMYT, they are harvesting up to 2 tons per hectare,” said Vladimir May, technical leader of the Milpa Sustentable Yucatan Peninsula project. The project has also helped farmers increase yields by identifying natural inputs that can be integrated into an integrated pest and fertility management strategy This allows farming families to sustainably increase their maize yields despite limited inputs and resources.
The native maize grown by farmers in the Yucatan Peninsula adapted to its local environment over centuries of selection by farmers to perform well despite poor soils and other challenges. However, climate change has threatened the survival of this maize genetic diversity. Some farmers lost all of the seed of their traditional maize varieties when they were unable to harvest anything after extreme drought. Others have found that their traditional varieties do not perform as well as they had due to environmental stress related to climate change.
CIMMYT is working to help farmers replace stores of traditional maize seed they have lost due to drought and climate change. The CIMMYT maize seed bank safeguards over 28,000 maize varieties for the benefit of humanity, including seeds that are native to the Yucatan Peninsula. Milpa Sustentable Yucatan Peninsula has worked with the seed bank to find farmers original varieties, restoring a priceless component of many families’ food security, culture and biodiversity.
The project has also helped farmers increase their yields through participatory variety selection. By crossing farmers’ native varieties with other native maize varieties that are more resistant to drought or climate change, farmers can sustainably increase maize yields without losing the qualities they love about their traditional varieties. Women have played a key role in this participatory variety selection, because as they process and prepare all of the food grown by the family, they have intimate knowledge of the characteristics the maize must have to perform well and feed the family.
Farmers working with the CIMMYT project in Yucatan Peninsula. Photo: Maria Boa/ CIMMYT
Poverty and food insecurity in the region have meant that migration has been a necessity for many. With new technologies and support from CIMMYT, women and youth are beginning to see that they may have a future in farming, despite the challenge of climate change. “Now that they see how much maize and other cash crops can be produced with sustainable technologies, young people are deciding to stay,” said Maria Boa, a consultant working with the project. “As youth are sometimes more accepting of new technologies, young farmers in the Yucatan play a crucial role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Inclusion of women and youth is necessary to make a positive change in these communities.”
These and other farmers around the world will play an important role in fighting climate change, by reducing emissions from farming. While a majority of countries, including Mexico, have committed to reducing the climate footprint of agriculture, world leaders must now decide how to best support and finance these actions.
At this year’s UN Climate Talks, CIMMYT is highlighting innovations in wheat and maize that can help farmers overcome climate change. Click here to read more stories in this series and follow @CIMMYT on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.
MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) – A new book from Columbia University Press offers social sector organizations a how-to guide on applying new and creative methods to solve complex problems.
Design Thinking for the Greater Good tells 10 stories of the struggles and successes of organizations from across the world working in industries from healthcare to agriculture that have applied design thinking, a human-centered approach to problem solving, in order to truly understand the problems they wanted to solve, generate testable ideas and develop solutions for vulnerable groups who actually adopted them.
“Our path into the world of design thinking came originally through the for-profit world,” says Jeanne Liedtka, a professor at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business and co-author of the book, during her online course offered through Coursera. “For almost a decade now, we’ve been studying design thinking as a methodology for improving business innovation and growth and examining its successful use in global corporations like IBM, Toyota and 3M.”
According to Liedtka, design methods are even more powerful in the social sector, since these organizations have to frequently navigate complex bureaucracies, work with limited resources and juggle a large range of stakeholder expectations, among other challenges.
MasAgro is also cited as a textbook example of how to develop new practices and technologies by building on traditional knowledge through innovation networks, or “hubs,” which are able to “cut through communication barriers, allowing MasAgro and the farmers to combine the old and the new into best practices that serve local farmers and communities,” according to the authors.
The authors conclude that MasAgro made innovation safe by relying on respected community leaders and innovation networks that develop, test and adapt agricultural methods and innovations that visibly outperform alternative agricultural practices.
“MasAgro has been acknowledged as an innovation in the social sector by design thinking experts because risk averse smallholder farmers in Mexico, whose annual income depends on one agricultural cycle determined by nature, have embraced new sustainable farming practices to improve their livelihoods,” said Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT’s regional representative for the Americas.
Purchase Design Thinking for the Greater Good at Columbia University Press here and check out Jeanne Liedtka’s online course here.
MasAgro is a research for rural development project that promotes the sustainable intensification of maize and wheat production in Mexico, supported by SAGARPA and CIMMYT. Learn more about the project here.
Maize (also known as corn) seed samples in CIMMYT’s seed bank. CIMMYT/file
DES MOINES, Iowa (CIMMYT) – Scientist Kevin Pixley holds a large, clear plastic bottle up to the light to illuminate the yellow corn kernels inside. He is leading a project to catalogue 178,000 corn and wheat seeds at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) seed bank near Mexico City.
“The difficulty farmers and researchers face is that no matter how hard they look they can’t see inside a seed to predict its hardiness – they never know whether it will withstand the growing conditions it will experience,” said Pixley, who will speak at the 2017 Borlaug Dialogue symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 18.
CIMMYT’s mission is to apply maize and wheat science for improved livelihoods around the world.
“Our seed bank provides a sub-zero temperature refuge for the largest collection of maize and wheat seeds in the world,” explained Pixley, who leads CIMMYT’s Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) project. “Recent technological advances are accelerating our understanding of the inner workings of these seeds, making them ever more useful to researchers and farmers.
“Through conservation, characterization and use of natural biodiversity, we’re not just helping to improve livelihoods for smallholder farmers in the present, but we’re building our capacity to thwart future threats to food security,” Pixley said. “Every year we ship some 300,000 maize and wheat seed samples to farmers and researchers.”
Through the SeeD partnership between CIMMYT, Mexico’s ministry of agriculture (SAGARPA) and the MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture) project, scientists are developing the capacity for farmers to prepare for specific or as yet unanticipated needs.
“Seeds of Discovery offers the next generation of Mexican scientists the training and technologies they need to support food security,” said Jorge Armando Narvaez Narvaez, Mexico’s sub-secretary of agriculture.
“In some ways our work has only just begun, but we’re leaps and bounds ahead of where we would be thanks to applying new technologies to secure the food and nutrition needs of our growing population,” Pixley said.
Harvester operator Sergio Araujo and truck driver Antonio Mejia harvest wheat for farmer Pedro Mejia near Popocatépetl volcano in Juchitepec, Estado de México. Photo: CIMMYT/P. Lowe
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Anew study examines how networks help spread new technologies and innovations in agriculture.
Current population trends and current climate change projections suggest that food insecurity is likely to rise. Farmer responsiveness to new practices and technologies will play a crucial role in determining if there will be adequate food production.
The study found that farmers mainly learn about new practices from each other through internal networks, but that depending on the type of information, may look beyond their close groups for input from research institutions and other external resources. In CA, producers mainly learn about machinery, crop rotation, minimum tillage and weeding from each other, but rely on research institutions for information about biofertilizers and pests. When information is obtained from external networks, producers tend to adopt new practices on a step by step basis, rather than as a collective uptake.
The majority of farmers in the study area adopted two to four CA practices, with only 21.5 percent of producers adopting an array of five or more CA practices, and less than ten percent adopting one or no practices. The most commonly adopted CA practices are those which reduce labor costs, increase yields and improve soil fertility such as weed management, use of quality seed and minimum tillage practices. The authors noted that many more farmers were willing to adopt a comprehensive CA package, but were hindered by a lack of resources and access to specialized machinery.
The results show that innovation diffusion must happen along several dimensions, through the first stage of innovation to adoption and adapting innovations to meet needs. These dimensions dynamically interact, and determine the dissemination of new ideas.
Producers rely on key actors within their internal networks to identify useful innovations, and on their entire internal network to spread the message. The study’s authors stated that there is an urgent need to establish networks that focus on creating pathways for sharing knowledge, information and practices among actors at different levels.
Impact of conservation agriculture on growth and development of rice-wheat and maize-wheat cropping system in western Indo-Gangetic plains. 2016. Choudhary, K.M., Nandal, D.P., Jat, M.L., Hooda, J.S., Verma, K.C. In: Annals of biology, vol.32, no.2 p.174-177.
Impact of informal groundwater markets on efficiency of irrigated farms in India: a bootstrap data envelopment analysis approach. 2016. Manjunatha, A.V., Speelman, S. Aravindakshan, S., Amjath-Babu, T.S., Puran Mal In: Irrigation Science, vol.34, p.41-52.
Implications of high temperature and elevated CO2 on flowering time in plants. 2016. Jagadish, K.S.V., Bahuguna, R.N. Djanaguiraman, M. Gamuyao, R. Prasad, V.P.V. Craufurd, P. In: Frontiers in Plant Science, vol.7, no. 913.
Irrigation water saving through adoption of direct rice sowing technology in the Indo-Gangetic Plains: empirical evidence from Pakistan. 2016. Ali, A., Dil Bahadur Rahut, Erenstein, O. In: Water Practice and Technology, vol. 11, no. 3, p. 610-620.
Identification and validation of single nucleotide polymorphic markers linked to Ug99 stem rust resistance in spring wheat. 2017. Long-Xi Yu, Shiaoman Chao Singh, R.P. Sorrells, M.E. In: PLoS One, v.12, no.2: e0171963.
Identification of heat tolerant wheat lines showing genetic variation in leaf respiration and other physiological traits. 2017. Suzuky Pinto, R., Molero, G., Reynolds, M.P. In: Euphytica, v. 213, no. 76, p.1-15.
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EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Tending her own crops gives Carolina Camacho insights into the challenges farmers face that she could never have learned in a classroom.
Growing up in the metropolis of Mexico City, the historical and political importance of agriculture was never lost on Camacho, who works as a principal researcher at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
“As a teenager, I would debate my sister over the most pressing issue that faced our country, Mexico. For me it was always in agriculture,” Camacho said. “I strongly believe if we are to improve our country, we must improve the lives of our campesinos (smallholder farmers).”
With no knowledge of farming, but with a passion to bring about change, she took to the field, studying crop science at Chapingo University, on the outskirts of the city in the State of Mexico. Having to brave early morning starts, she learned the basics of agriculture, and a love for the genetic diversity of maize.
Mexico, considered the birthplace of maize, is home to a rich diversity of varieties that has evolved over years of domestication by farmers. Camacho was introduced to this diversity firsthand, interning at CIMMYT’s maize germplasm bank as an undergraduate.
Interested in discovering how conserving maize diversity played out in farmers’ fields she gravitated towards an on-farm conservation project in rural Mexico. Working with indigenous farmers, Camacho learned how traditional knowledge and practices relate to environmental management, agricultural production and the diversity of native maize varieties.
After earning a master’s degree in the conservation and utilization of genetic resources, Camacho felt that crop science was isolated from the daily life of farmers. Thus, in a move to study the relationship between humans and plants, she embarked on a multidisciplinary doctoral in the sociology of rural development at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
While conducting her research, Camacho lived with indigenous farmers in Mexico’s Lacandon rainforest in the state of Chiapas. Alongside local Mayan farmers she cultivated her own milpa – a farming system used by indigenous farmers in Latin America, which typically involves intercropping maize, beans and squash. Her hands-on fieldwork allowed her to study cultivation practices outside the scope of purely agronomic activities, but also as political, social and cultural actions.
“Farming alongside the Tzeltal people, I saw how my own cultivation practices were interwoven with everyday life,” said Camacho. “Farming was influenced by religious ceremonies, health and family affairs as well as political struggles for land. It had to cope, adapt and overcome these challenges.”
Today, these lessons learned guide Camacho as she investigates how agricultural innovations, including drought-tolerant crops, fertilizer and land management approaches can be farmer inclusive and tailored to local contexts as part of CIMMYT’s sustainable intensification strategy for Latin America.
Sustainable intensification aims to enhance the productivity of labor, land and capital. They offer the potential to simultaneously address a number of pressing development objectives, including unlocking the agricultural potential to adapt production systems to climate change, sustainably manage land, soil, nutrient and water resources, improved food and nutrition security, and ultimately reduce rural poverty.
CIMMYT principal researcher Carolina Camacho studies how agricultural innovations are promoted and adopted in different regions to aid their smooth delivery to farmers and community members from different genders, ethnicities and ages. Photo: CIMMYT/ Courtesy of Carolina Camacho
Smallholder farmers, who manage small plots of land and handle limited amounts of productive resources, produce 80 percent of the world’s food. The United Nations calls on these farmers to adopt agricultural innovations in order to sustainably increase food production and help achieve the “Zero Hunger” U.N. Sustainable Development Goal. However, these farmers seldom benefit from new techniques to shore up efforts to meet the goal.
“An agricultural scientist can tell a farmer when and how to plant for optimal results, but they do not farm in a bubble, their practice is affected by the ups and downs of daily life – not only by climate and agronomy but also by social and cultural complexities,” Camacho said.
“One of the biggest challenge is to recognize the heterogeneity of farmers and leave behind the idea of one size solution to their diverse problems and needs,” said Camacho. By understanding a farmer’s lifestyle, including access to resources and information, levels of decision making in the community and the role of agriculture in their livelihood strategy, researchers can best identify complementary farming practices and techniques that not only boost productivity but also improve livelihoods.
“It’s important to think about agricultural innovations as social processes for change in which technologies, like improved seeds or agronomic practices, are only one element,” said Camacho. “It is key that we recognize that changes will not only occur in the farmer’s field but also in the behavior of other actors in the value chain, such as input suppliers, traders, government officials and even researchers.”
Camacho studies how innovations are promoted and adopted in different regions to aid their smooth delivery to farmers and community members from different genders, ethnicities and ages.
When working with indigenous communities, she ensures cultural values of the milpa system are taken into account, thus promoting the agricultural tools and techniques that do not detract from the importance of the traditions associated with the milpa practice.
“The milpa system is a clear example of how agriculture in general and maize in particular contribute to the construction of the cultural identities of indigenous people. We should be aware of the consequences that innovations will have not only for environmental sustainability but also for the sustainability of the Mayan Culture,” she said.
“Let’s not forget, we can’t separate culture from agriculture,” Camacho finished.
Camacho studies the process in which researchers promote agricultural innovations and how farmers adopt them through the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project, supported by Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA). Together with other researchers, Camacho has documented how MasAgro is promoting innovations in different regions of Mexico by responding to specific regional challenges and opportunities. Currently she is supporting scaling efforts for these innovations by ensuring that they will be sustainable and inclusive.
In the same line of inclusiveness, Camacho is working with two projects in the milpa system. The first one is the Buena Milpa project funded by U.S. Agency for International Development’sFeed the Future program and in collaboration with the Guatemala Agricultural Science and Technology Institute. The second one is the Milpa de Yucatan project sponsored by a private Mexican foundation in Yucatan Peninsula. Both projects promote sustainable intensification innovations in the milpa systems.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Access to genetic data can revolutionize research partnerships and lead to major benefits for crop breeders aiming to help smallholder farmers boost yields, according to Argentinian geneticist Cesar Petroli.
Hailing from Reconquista in Santa Fe Province, Petroli now works for the MasAgro program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and is funded by Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA). He first became curious about genetics in the mid-1990s when it was a relatively new field in Argentina and the National University of Misiones offered the only bachelor’s degree in the country. Petroli initially focused on cattle and sheep genetics, which gave him his first introduction to molecular markers, which shed light on characteristics of the organism.
His interest in data and plant genetics took root while he was a student. While completing his doctoral degree at the University of Brasilia in partnership with EMBRAPA, Brazil’s agricultural research body, Petroli began to work on the eucalyptus tree with Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT), an Australian enterprise specializing in developing technologies for whole genome profiling.
At that time, CIMMYT wanted to create what was subsequently to become the Genetic Analysis Service for Agriculture (SAGA) using a platform based on the DArT method. Petroli was the perfect fit. Not only did he bring expertise in sequencing and low-cost DNA fingerprinting, he also brought experience of application of large amounts of data in research; in particular, his experience in eucalyptus.
At the heart of operations at the SAGA laboratory is the Illumina HiSeq 2500 sequencing system, one of only three in Mexico, where CIMMYT is headquartered. Petroli and his team have the capacity to determine the genetic make-up up to 2,500 maize samples per week for both CIMMYT and its partners, generating vast quantities of data in the process.
“We determine the genetic make-up maize and wheat varieties and collections,” Petroli said. “This can help maize breeders to identify patterns in the DNA which are associated with characteristics such as drought and heat tolerance. These patterns or molecular signposts can then be used to help select the best materials for breeding,” he added, explaining that heat and drought resistant maize and wheat varieties not only help present-day farmers, but could also mitigate potential future risks to global food security from the impacts of climate change.
The data generated when fingerprinting thousands of maize and wheat samples provide opportunities for scientific exploration and synergies; while one team may be exploring heat and drought tolerance, another team can use the same DNA fingerprint data to explore other characteristics such as disease tolerance.
“Sharing data for use by interested breeders broadens collaboration and maximizes benefits to smallholder farmers,” Petroli said, describing his enthusiasm for making data publicly available. “Accessible data increases the impact of our research and allows the global public to benefit from the wealth of knowledge we generate.”
In the first six years of the MasAgro program, more than 2 billion genotypic data have been made available in the Germinate and Dataverse platforms. Petroli’s work forms part of bigger efforts at CIMMYT to study and characterize genetic diversity for use in breeding programs.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Scientists have unlocked evolutionary secrets of landraces through an unprecedented study of allelic diversity, revealing more about the genetic basis of flowering time and how maize adapts to variable environments, according to new research published in Nature Genetics journal. The discovery opens up opportunities to explore and use landrace diversity in new ways to help breeders adapt crops to climate change and other emerging challenges to crop production.
Farmers worldwide have been ingeniously adapting landrace maize varieties to their local environments for thousands of years. In this landmark study, over 4,000 landraces from across the Americas were analyzed and their DNA characterized using recent advances in genomics.
A unique experimental strategy was developed to study and learn more about the genes underlying maize adaptation by researchers with the MasAgro Biodiversidad program and the Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative.
Significantly, the study identified 100 genes, among the 40,000 that make up the maize genome, influencing adaptation to latitude, altitude, growing season and the point at which maize plants flower in the field.
Flowering time helps plants adapt to different environments. It is measured as the period between planting and the emergence of flowers, and is a basic mechanism through which plants integrate environmental information to balance when to make seeds instead of more leaves. The seeds form the next generation making flowering time a critically important feature in a plant’s life cycle.
Over the next century, increasingly erratic weather patterns and environmental changes projected to result from climate change mean that such crops as maize will need to adapt at an unprecedented rate to maintain stable production globally.
“This research offers a blueprint of how we can rapidly assess genetic resources for a highly variable crop species like maize, and identify, in landraces, those elements of the maize genome which may benefit breeders and farmers,” said molecular geneticist Sarah Hearne, who leads maize research within MAB/SeeD, a collaboration led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with strong scientific partnerships with Mexico’s research institute for agriculture, livestock and forests (INIFAP), the Antonio Narro Autonomous Agrarian University (UAAAN) in Mexico and Cornell University in the United States.
“This is the most extensive study, in terms of diversity, that has been conducted on maize flowering,” said Martha Willcox, maize landrace improvement coordinator at CIMMYT . “This was achieved using landraces, the evaluation of which is an extremely difficult and complex task.”
The groundbreaking study was supported by Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) through the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) initiative. Additional support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service, Cornell University and the National Science Foundation facilitated the completion of vast quantities of data analysis.
“The knowledge we have gained from this work gives us something similar to a manual of ‘how to go on a successful treasure hunt;’ within the extensive genetic diversity that exists for maize. This knowledge can accelerate and broaden our work on developing resilient varieties, building upon millennia of natural and farmer selection in landraces,” Hearne said.
CORRECT CITATION:
Romero-Navarro, J. A., Willcox, M., Burgueño, J. Romay M. Swarts, K., Trachsel, S., Preciado, E., Terron, A., Vallejo Delgado, H., Vidal, V., Ortega, A., Espinoza Banda, A., Gómez Montiel, N.O., Ortiz-Monasterio, I., San Vicente, F., Guadarrama Espinoza, A., Atlin, G., Wenzl, P., Hearne, S.*, Buckler, E*. A study of allelic diversity underlying flowering time adaptation in maize landraces. Nature Genetics. http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.3784.html
*Corresponding authors
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Carolina Sansaloni’s passion for genetics began when she was at Universidad de Misiones in Posadas, Misiones, Argentina, an interest that grew as she moved on to receive her master’s and doctoral degrees in molecular biology at Universidad de Brasilia in Brazil.
While completing her doctorate degree, Sansaloni travelled to Canberra, Australia to research the genomic structure of the eucalyptus tree at Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT), learning the ins and outs of sequencing technology.
In 2012, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) wanted to introduce the DArT genotyping technologies to Mexico to serve the needs of the Mexican maize and wheat research communities, and once Sansaloni finished her doctoral degree, she was an obvious choice to lead this initiative.
Working under the MasAgro Biodiversidad project in partnership with DArT, INIFAP and CIMMYT, Sansaloni helped to build the Genetic Analysis Service for Agriculture (SAGA in Spanish) from the ground up.
The service, managed by the CIMMYT-based Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative, brings cutting edge genotyping capacity and genetic analysis capability to Mexico. The facility provides unique insights into the genetic variation of wheat and maize at a “sequence level.” Use of the vast quantities of data generated help understand genetic control of characteristics evaluated at a plant or crop level for example, height variations among wheat varieties.
SAGA’s services are available for all CIMMYT scientists, universities, national agriculture research programs and private companies. Worldwide, few other platforms produce this kind of data and most are inaccessible to scientists working at publicly funded institutions because their economic or logistics difficulties.
“When it comes to genotyping technology, it doesn’t matter what type of organism you are working with. It could be wheat, eucalyptus or chicken – the machine will work the same way,” explained Sansaloni.
Sansaloni has also been focusing her time on the wheat Global Diversity Analysis, which characterizes and analyzes seeds in genebanks at both CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). Her team has characterized approximately 100,000 wheat accessions including 40 percent of the CIMMYT genebank and almost 100 percent of the ICARDA genebank wheat collection. This is an incredible and unique resource for wheat scientists providing a genetic framework to facilitate selection of the most relevant accessions for breeding.
“Currently only five to eight percent of materials in the genebank are being used in the breeding programs,” Sansaloni said. “The Global Diversity Analysis could have huge impacts on the future of wheat yields. It is like discovering the pieces of a puzzle, and then beginning to understand how these pieces can fit together to build excellent varieties of wheat.”
Sansaloni’s goal is to combine information from CIMMYT and ICARDA, making the information accessible to the entire wheat community and eventually enhancing breeding programs across the globe.
“Working at CIMMYT has been an invaluable experience,” Sansaloni said. “I’ve had the opportunity to work and collaborate with so many different people, and it’s brought me from the laboratory into the wheat fields, which really brings me closer to my work.”
SeeD is a joint initiative of CIMMYT and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture (SAGARPA) through the MasAgroproject. SeeD receives additional funding from the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize (MAIZE CRP) and Wheat (WHEAT CRP), and from the UK’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).
As part of the efforts of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program aimed at improving food security based on maize landraces in marginal areas of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, a workshop on trial design was held from 19-21 February to improve the precision of data on improved maize landraces in smallholder farmers’ fields. Attending the workshop were partners from the National Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research Institute (INIFAP) and the Southern Regional University Center of the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh).
One of the 10 stories in the book shows how the 
