funder_partner: Mexico's Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER)

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SAGARPA and CIMMYT aligning agendas for a great new vision on sustainable maize and wheat systems for improved livelihoods

Written by on June 12, 2015. Posted in News.

Texcoco, Mexico, 11 June 2015.- Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) discussed today their continued commitment to Mexico’s food security and pledged to work together to raise Mexico’s self-sufficiency of cereal production to 75 percent by 2018. Enrique Martínez y Martínez, head of SAGARPA, and Martin Kropff, newly appointed director general at CIMMYT, held a meeting to discuss research and development priorities in the framework of their strategic collaboration. As an example of the collaboration the MasAgro project aims to boost maize productivity by promoting use of improved seeds and sustainable farming practices among Mexico’s smallholder farmers and how these past efforts can be improved for more impact that responds to real needs.

Secretary Martínez y Martínez acknowledged CIMMYT’s efforts in increasing maize and wheat productivity in Mexico and in the world but requested the non-profit international research organization to come up with new ideas to tackle food security challenges in Mexico within the new global context. President Peña Nieto pledged to increase spending in research to 1 percent of Mexico’s GDP. Current investment stands at 0.35 percent and SAGARPA counts on CIMMYT to help increase investment in agricultural research for development, Martínez said.

During the meeting, Martin Kropff restated CIMMYT’s commitment to Mexico’s development. “We strongly believe in public – private partnerships and want to help Mexico further strengthen its links with international research networks,” said Kropff who was Rector of Wageningen University, a world class agricultural higher education institution in the Netherlands, before recently joining CIMMYT. Research, however, should not be done for the sake of research but garantee impact and respond to demand-driven needs, agreed both leaders.

SAGARPA and CIMMYT agreed to work together to develop a yellow maize integrated seed sector in Mexico. The country is self-sufficient in white maize production but imports between 8 to 10 million tons of yellow maize to meet industry and livestock demand for yellow grain. Also a plan for a public-private investment platform in the wheat sector could jointly be developed through a bilateral working agenda.

SUPER WOMAN: Evangelina Villegas developed transformative quality-protein maize

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

DIETARY DEPENDENCE ON MAIZE PUTS SOME PEOPLE AT RISK FOR MALNUTRITION

For International Women’s Day I would like to honor Dr. Evangelina Villegas, one of CIMMYT’s original “superwomen,” not only for the breakthroughs she made in her field, but for the positive impact she made on the world.

Villegas was born in Mexico City in 1924 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry and biology at the National Polytechnic Institute at a time when higher education for women was still a novelty.

In 1950, she began her career as a chemist and researcher at Mexico’s National Institute of Nutrition and at the Special Studies Office, an initiative funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture and Livestock (SAGARPA) that would later become the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

She returned to the center in 1967 after having earned a Master of Science degree in cereal technology from Kansas State University and a 1967 doctoral degree in cereal chemistry and breeding from North Dakota State University.

Villegas was both a maize and wheat superwoman, working in both the industrial wheat quality and maize nutritional and protein quality labs.

While in charge of the lab investigating protein quality she formed a fruitful partnership with Surinder Vasal, a CIMMYT maize breeder, in an attempt to develop a variety of maize with higher levels of two key amino acids.

A staple food in many developing countries, maize is deficient in the amino acids lysine and tryptophan, which are key protein building blocks. This means that people whose diets depend heavily on maize, without access to more varied food, are at risk for malnutrition.

After countless hours in the laboratory testing samples, sometimes up to 25,000 a year, their hard work culminated in the creation of quality protein maize (QPM). Grain of QPM features enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan and the kernels have the texture and flavor that consumers like.

As an ingredient in pig and poultry feeds, QPM has been shown to enhance animal growth and health. QPM has shown to be particularly effective in improving the nutritional status of young children.

A 2002 study in Ethiopia found that children fed a QPM diet had a 15 percent increase in the rate of weight growth over those who consumed conventional maize, and a 2005 study found that QPM consumption in children led to a growth rate in height 15 percent greater than children fed conventional maize. Villegas and Vasal thus created a product that offers better nutrition for millions of consumers.

They received the World Food Prize in 2000 for their work developing QPM, making Villegas the first woman to receive the prestigious award. She was also named “Woman of the Year” in Mexico that year for her accomplishments.

In addition to her work improving lives and livelihoods around the world, Villegas changed the lives of many local “bird boys,” young men hired by CIMMYT to prevent birds from eating experimental crops, by helping to create a scholarship fund that allowed many of them to complete their education and go on to accomplish great things.

Without “Eva,” the world would be a hungrier and poorer place, and her hard work and dedication should be remembered by all.

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

SUPER WOMAN: Dolores Robles González spurs farmers to adopt conservation agriculture

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

NEW FARMING TECHNIQUES IN MEXICO LOWER COSTS AND INCREASE PRODUCTION

International Women’s Day on March 8, offers an opportunity to recognize the achievements of women worldwide. This year, CIMMYT asked readers to submit stories about women they admire for their selfless dedication to either maize or wheat. In the following story, Julio Cesar Gonzalez Marquez writes about his Super Woman of Maize, Dolores Robles González, a farmer in Mexico.

Nestled in the Morones mountain range, at about 230 kilometers southwest of the city of Zacatecas, within the community known as La Lobera and the municipality called Teul de Gonzalez Ortega, lies the 8-hectare property known as El Ranchito.

El Ranchito is the home of Mrs Dolores Robles Gonzalez, who uses the property to produce native maize in temporal conditions.

Gonzalez, who has spent her entire lifetime farming, and who recently adopted conservation agriculture techniques, said:

“With the implementation of this technology we risk becoming lazier, now that we don’t need to till the soil. Although we start to work later than we would in conventional agriculture, we finish more quickly.

“We’re adopting this conservation tillage technology out of necessity. This change is an example for people who think that if we sow directly, the seed will not germinate. We have already seen that this is not true. Additionally, by implementing these practices we save money because we don’t have to pay to turn the soil. However, assimilation and accommodation are difficult.

“In our case, even watching the practices in the field, we don’t dare to use new technologies as soon as we get them. Generally, these practices require less labor, which translates into more income for us as producers. Thanks to conservation agriculture, we have succeeded in lowering our costs and increasing our production.

“Previously, we had very poor systems with which to work the land, but thanks to the good technical assistance that we have received, we have been able to improve our soil, which is our primary resource.

“The challenge now is to keep increasing our returns at a low cost, and reduce the degradation of our ecosystem as much as possible.”

Dolores Robles Gonzales is an enthusiastic woman who receives support from the Programa Estratégico de Seguridad Alimentaria (PESA), SECAMPO-Zacatecas, SAGARPA and CIMMYT-MasAgro.

At first, the men decided to just be spectators, but thanks to her drive to “push more people to benefit,” and thanks to the good results of her plot, there are about thirty farmers from La Lobera and the rest of the Morones mountain range who participate in training courses.

Everyone wants to establish more innovation models, which gives Doña Lola, as she is known in the village, much satisfaction.

“You see, they said that they were not interested, and now they don’t want to leave.”

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

Celebrating CIMMYT: what will the next 50 years hold?

Written by on April 16, 2015. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT_Ceremony_1 — Photo credit: CIMMYT

A year of celebrations in honor of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s birth centennial was officially closed last Thursday 9 April in a ceremony at CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico.

“If he (my father) were here,” said Jeanie Borlaug Laube, who chairs the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, “he would remind you that it is your moral imperative to speak up and protest for the world’s right to science-based innovation.” She was addressing an audience of government representatives, private sector partners, researchers, CIMMYT trustees, and diplomats including the Australian and Belgian ambassadors to Mexico.

The occasion also marked the celebration of a double achievement for CIMMYT: the 2014 World Food Prize being awarded to Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, former global wheat program director, and the 2014 Borlaug Field Award to Dr. Bram Govaerts, leader of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project.

During his distinguished career, Rajaram led work that resulted in the release of more than “480 varieties of bread wheat in 51 countries, occupying more than 58 million hectares,” said Prof. John Snape, Chair of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees. “A feat unlikely to ever be surpassed by another wheat breeder.”

Rajaram’s merits were also recognized by Mexican government representatives at the World Food Prize ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, on 16 October 2014. Enrique Martínez y Martínez, head of Mexico’s Agriculture Secretariat (SAGARPA), congratulated him for developing varieties and technologies that have helped boost wheat productivity in Mexico and the rest of the world.

During the ceremony, Martínez y Martínez signed and renewed SAGARPA’s technical collaboration agreement with CIMMYT for the implementation of MasAgro, CIMMYT’s major project in Mexico. “MasAgro boosts a new model of agricultural extension based on sustainable technologies and capacity building activities that match Mexico’s Farmer’s Confederation’s development vision,” said Mexican Senator Manuel Cota, who is also President of the Farmer’s Confederation and of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

By the end of 2014, there were over 200,000 farmers linked to MasAgro on more than 440,000 hectares across Mexico. “To address farmer’s needs we must pursue scientific excellence as Norman Borlaug did,” stressed Dr. Bram Govaerts, MasAgro leader. “We must go out to the field and get our hands dirty; take risks and be bold in our research; let innovation flow and get rid of false illusions of control,” Govaerts added.

After the ceremony, Dr. Borlaug’s family, government officials and CIMMYT laureate scientists unveiled a statue of Dr. Borlaug at the Center facilities.

“Next year CIMMYT will celebrate its 50th anniversary,” said Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT director general. “For 50 years Mexico has been the cradle of CIMMYT’s global agricultural innovation. Our challenge now is to ask what the next 50 years will hold.”

Innovation key to wheat yield potential advances, says in-coming CIMMYT DG

Written by on April 13, 2015. Posted in Features.

Photos: Alfredo Sáenz/CIMMYT — Outgoing CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin, incoming CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff, Nynke Nammensma and Jeannie Laube Borlaug (L to R) chat during Visitors’ Week in Obregon, Mexico. CIMMYT/Alfredo Sáenz

CIUDAD OBREGON, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Martin Kropff, who will take the helm as director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in June, joined scientists, and other members of the global wheat community at the CIMMYT experimental research station near the town of Ciudad Obregon in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora for annual Visitors’ Week.

Following a tour of a wide range of research projects underway in the wheat fields of the Yaqui Valley made famous around the world by the work of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug, who died in 2009 at age 95, Kropff shared his views.

Borlaug led efforts to develop high-yielding, disease-resistant, semi-dwarf wheat varieties in the mid-20th century that are estimated to have helped save more than 1 billion lives in Pakistan, India and other areas of the developing world.

“I’m very impressed by what I’ve seen in Obregon,” said Kropff, who is currently chancellor and vice chairman of the executive board of Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands.

“From the gene bank in El Batan, the breeding and pre-breeding and the work with farmers on a huge scale, it’s extremely high quality and innovative,” added Kropff, who with his wife Nynke Nammensma also visited CIMMYT’s El Batan headquarters near Mexico City earlier in the week.

“The MasAgro program is very impressive because it takes the step of integrating scientific knowledge with farmers’ knowledge – it’s a novel way to aid farmers by getting new technology working on farms at a large scale. It is a co-innovation approach,” Kropff said.

The Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture, led by country’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and known locally as MasAgro, helps farmers understand how minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation can simultaneously boost yields and sustainably increase profits.

“The program is an example of how farmers, scientists and other stakeholders can think about and create innovations through appropriate fertilizer applications, seed technologies and also through such instruments as the post-harvesting machines,” Kropff said.

“This is fantastic. That’s what the CGIAR is all about.”

Left to right: Tom Lumpkin, John Snape and Martin Kropff. — Thomas Lumpkin, John Snape and Martin Kropff (L to R). CIMMYT/Alfredo Sáenz

“The HarvestPlus program, which adds more zinc and iron into the crop through breeding, also plays a key role in CIMMYT’s research portfolio,” Kropff said.

Zinc deficiency is attributed to 800,000 deaths each year and affects about one-third of the world’s population, according to the World Health Organization. Enhancing the micronutrient content in wheat through biofortification is seen as an important tool to help improve the diets of the most vulnerable sectors of society.

The climate change adaptation work he observed, which is focused on drought and heat stress resilience is of paramount importance, Kropff said.

Findings in a report released last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change state it is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer throughout the 21st Century and that rainfall will be more unpredictable.

Mean surface temperatures could potentially rise by between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius or more, the report said.

“To safeguard food security for the 9 billion people we’re expecting will populate the planet by 2050, we need innovations based on breeding, and solid agronomy based on precision farming,” Kropff said.

“There’s no other organization in the world that is so well designed as the CGIAR to do this type of work. CIMMYT is the crown jewel of the CGIAR together with the gene banks. No other organization can do this.”

“We’ve done a lot of work in getting higher yields, but not much through increased yield potential, and that’s what we have to work on now,” he added.

“If you raise the yield through agronomy, you still need to enhance yield potential and there’s very good fundamental work going on here.”

“The partnerships here are excellent – scientists that are here from universities are as proud as CIMMYT itself about all the work that is being done. I’m really honored that from 1 June, I have the opportunity to be the director general of this institution. I cannot wait to get started working with the team at CIMMYT and I’m extremely grateful for the warm welcome I’ve received – a smooth transition is already underway.”

Follow Martin Kropff on Twitter @KropffMartin

Race for Food Security by 2050 Can be Won, Mexico Agriculture Secretary Says

Written by on April 10, 2015. Posted in Press releases.

EL BATÁN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Mexico will need to more than double food production by 2050 to feed its growing population, the country’s agriculture secretary said on Thursday, citing statistics that project it will grow 22 percent to an estimated 150 million people.

Investing in research to improve small-farm technology and boost sustainable development in collaboration with such organizations as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which runs Mexico’s Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program, is key to increasing food supplies, said Enrique Martínez y Martínez, head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA).

“Those eating once a day will eat three times a day,” he said, adding that Mexico, with a current population of 122 million people, will produce 70 to 80 percent more food by 2050.”

In Mexico, 80 percent of farmers have less than 5 hectares (12 acres) of land and farm on hilly, difficult terrain, which means tractors and farm machinery are often too big and cumbersome to function properly, reducing the potential for profits and productivity, Martínez y Martínez said.

The country’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, has made research a priority and aims to increase national investment in research to 1 percent of GDP, Martínez y Martínez added. Mexico’s GDP was $1.26 trillion in 2013, according to the World Bank. By that measure, Mexico ranks as the world’s 15th biggest economy.

What we need to do is to make sure financial resources reach CIMMYT and INIFAP, Martínez y Martínez said, referring to Mexico’s research institute for agriculture, livestock and forests.

The agriculture secretary was at CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City to celebrate the unveiling of a statue of scientist Norman Borlaug and to preside over the annual renewal of the MasAgro agreement. MasAgro helps farmers implement techniques favoring minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation to sustainably boost yields and increase profits.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Borlaug, who died in 2009 at age 95, led efforts that began in Mexico to develop high-yielding, disease-resistant, semi-dwarf wheat varieties in the mid-20th century that are estimated to have helped save more than 1 billion lives in Pakistan, India and other parts of the developing world.

CLEAR GOALS

Despite surpluses of maize in the states of Sinaloa and Guerrero, — the latter produced 2 million tons of white-grain maize, Mexico’s main food staple in 2014 — the country is importing between 7- to 10-million tons of yellow maize a year, Martínez y Martínez said.
“We need to be self-sufficient and I’m completely convinced that we can be, but we have to find the right mechanisms. We’re self-sufficient by far and have a surplus of white maize, but we’re at a deficit in yellow maize,” he said.

In Mexico, where maize originated, the white variety is important to the human diet, while the yellow variety is used primarily to feed livestock.

“Together with SAGARPA we’ve made a great impact, but we mustn’t forget that the job is not yet done,” said Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT’s outgoing director general, noting that almost 23 percent of Mexicans, some 27.4 million people, still suffer from food shortages and insecurity.

“When you visit farmers in the state of Chiapas – farmers on the hillsides – there are no young people because they left when they grew up, they couldn’t make enough money,” he said. We’ve got to be able to improve incomes, to keep that work alive is the key.

“It’s clear that the agriculture secretary is committed to sustainable agriculture and agricultural research,” said Bram Govaerts, associate director of CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program who played a key role in the development of MasAgro.

“We need to continue innovative research, but it must be connected with farmer needs and integrated with the value chain,” said Govaerts, winner of the 2014 Borlaug Field Award from the World Food Prize Foundation, who spoke at the unveiling ceremony.

“We need to develop a platform that can generate public-private investment, where companies can reinvest in farmers and agricultural research once they reap the benefits. Smallholder farmers can provide big companies with grains produced under sustainable practices to meet their sustainability indicators.”

LIVING LEGACY

The World Food Prize was created by Borlaug to recognize people who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Almost 30 years later in 2014, the prize was awarded to Sanjaya Rajaram, his former student, a wheat breeder for many years at CIMMYT, who released more than 480 varieties of bread wheat sown on more than 58 million hectares in 51 countries.

“It’s a feat unlikely to ever be surpassed by another wheat breeder,” said John Snape, chair of CIMMYT’s board of trustees.

Rajaram was honored with a miniature replica statue of the Borlaug life-size sculpture at the unveiling, which attracted government officials, diplomats and members of the international agricultural community.

The bronze sculpture, which depicts Borlaug taking field notes, is based on an emblematic photograph, said artist Katharine McDevitt, who teaches sculpture at the Chapingo Autonomous University of agriculture in the city of Texcoco near CIMMYT.

McDevitt began her artistic career in New Hampshire, but has lived in Mexico for almost 40 years.

“While I’ve done a lot of portrait sculpture, this is the most inspiring figure I’ve ever had the privilege of doing,” McDevitt said. “This project has been the greatest honor of my career.”

Borlaug’s daughter, Jeanie Borlaug Laube, unveiled the sculpture.

“My dad was competitive, determined and aware of the need for teamwork,” she said.

“He was a man with a message and he took it to the farmer like no other person in history, before or since. With your help he saved a billion lives, and now it falls on all of you to sustain that salvation.”

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Julie Mollins
Wheat Communications Officer
Global Wheat Program
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
j.mollins@cgiar.org

Ricardo Curiel
Gerente de Comunicación en México
Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT)
r.curiel@cgiar.org

ABOUT CIMMYT

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), headquartered in El Batán, Mexico, is the global leader in research for development in wheat and maize and wheat- and maize-based farming systems. CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems to improve food security and livelihoods.

CIMMYT is a member of the 15-member CGIAR Consortium and leads the Consortium Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.

CIMMYT wheat research: http://staging.cimmyt.org/en/what-we-do/wheat-research

CGIAR: http://www.cgiar.org

Mexico meeting outlines scientific roadmap for increasing wheat yields

Written by on March 29, 2015. Posted in Features.

International scientists attending a meeting in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, plotted out how current and potential research projects around the world could boost wheat yields to meet population and climate pressures. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins

CIUDAD OBREGON, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Mexico aims to boost domestic wheat production 9 percent to 3.6 million metric tons by 2018, said a government official speaking on Tuesday at a conference in the town of Ciudad Obregon in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

Productivity will increase as a result of growing investment in infrastructure, machinery, equipment and technological innovations, said Sergio Ibarra, Sonora delegate of the country’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA).

“The strategic vision of the Mexican government is to promote an agricultural landscape that supports a productive, competitive, profitable, sustainable and fair agri-food sector to ensure food security,” Ibarra said, addressing 75 international scientists and wheat breeders attending the International Wheat Yield Potential Workshop hosted by CIMMYT.

The Mexican government has a long and storied tradition of working alongside CIMMYT, which developed improved varieties of wheat under the leadership of the late Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug, helping the country become self-sufficient in grain production in the 1960s. Currently, demand for wheat in Mexico outstrips the domestic supply produced.

One collaborative project, the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture, led by SAGARPA and known locally as MasAgro, helps farmers understand how minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation can simultaneously boost yields and sustainably increase profits.

ENVIRONMENTAL PRESSURES

Delegates at the Wheat Yield Potential Workshop, held from 24 to 26 March, plotted out how current and potential global research projects could dovetail under the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), a public-private partnership focused on developing new high-yielding varieties of wheat.

Findings in a report released last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state it is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer throughout the 21st century and rainfall will be more unpredictable. Mean surface temperatures could rise by between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius or more, the report said. Current crop models show scenarios of the impact of rising temperatures on wheat varieties, which provide 20 percent of calories and protein consumed worldwide.

“Models indicate that a 2 degree increase in temperature would lead to a 20 percent reduction in wheat yield; a 6 degree increase would lead to a 60 percent reduction,” said Hans Braun, head of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research Research Program on Wheat. “The consequences would be dramatic if we had a 40 percent yield reduction because we already know wheat production has to increase by 60 percent to keep up with population projections,” Braun said. “If we add modeled climate risks, the challenge is compounded, and we’ll need to double the yield capacity of our current varieties.”

“CIMMYT has demonstrated that the rate of improvement in yield gain has slowed to the point that, if it carries on the present rate, we’ll have a large gap between the amount of available wheat and what we need to feed the population,” said Steve Visscher, international deputy chief executive at Britain’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). The Council is the largest financial contributor to IWYP, which has so far secured 50 percent of the $100 million in funding it seeks to develop higher yielding wheat varieties.

“The sooner we act, the greater the chances are that we can close the gap between forecast demand and the availability of wheat,” Visscher said. “The scale of that challenge means that we need an international community effort, and the work on wheat yield that CIMMYT has initiated has now been taken forward through IWYP. I pay tribute to the role of SAGARPA and the Mexican government for backing CIMMYT and providing funding in recent years.”

Rothamsted Research in the UK is trying to meet the wheat food security challenge through a program to increase the yield of wheat to 20 metric tons per hectare within the next 20 years.

“Given that the UK record yield is currently 14.3 tons, that’s a big, big target,” said associate director Martin Parry, whose work aims to boost wheat photosynthesis, leading to increased yields.

“There are big risks both in terms of food security and political stability– it’s critical that the world’s population has enough food to eat– we need to work in a collegial, collaborative way, and IWYP offers an ideal opportunity to do that,” Parry said.

CIMMYT formally welcomes four local workshops to the machinery and equipment innovation group

Written by on February 17, 2015. Posted in News.

In 2014, the work of The Machinery and Equipment Innovation Group began activities after signing of four contracts with four Mexican workshops. The local entrepreneurs will partner with the Farmer component of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture program that CIMMYT develops in collaboration with Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA). This platform aims to establish a space for technological collaboration where CIMMYT and small and medium local manufacturers will improve or refine prototypes, and develop new ones to respond to the needs of Mexican farmers more effectively.

This objective will be met by transferring technology, giving access to existing machinery and equipment prototypes for improvement, and by offering technical support for the development of new models to the small and medium local workshops that join The Machinery and Equipment Innovation Group. The new Platform will operate across the country with the support of MasAgro’s hubs.

This innovation platform will develop multipurpose and multi-cropping machinery and equipment to reduce tillage, the cost of adopting the new technology, fuel consumption and manual labor.

MasAgro widens research platforms and innovation networks in Mexico

Written by on February 13, 2015. Posted in News.

In 2014, the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program expanded its rural development and innovation networks to 10 Mexican regions through 50 research platforms and 233 demonstration modules of MasAgro technologies and sustainable agronomic practices.

The project developed by the Mexican Secretary of Agriculture (SAGARPA) and CIMMYT provides a framework that can be replicated to take advantage of research and innovation achievements and which secures returns on investments.

In 2014, SAGARPA invested nearly US $40 million in its partnership with CIMMYT to offer better opportunities to Mexican farmers. Six thousand Mexican farmers participated in over 170 training events across the country. MasAgro also offered more than 40 workshops on the adoption of different technologies and conservation agriculture practices to more than 1,300 farmers actively engaged in the program.

These workshops are adapted to the capacity building needs detected through hubs and cover subjects that include adoption of improved maize, wheat and barley varieties, fertilization diagnosis tools, precision machinery, access to new markets and postharvest technologies.

MasAgro also develops basic maize seed and pre-commercial hybrids. So far the program has delivered more than 15 tons of basic seed to Mexican seed companies. Once multiplied and marketed, this seed will be enough to sow two million hectares.

Bram Govaerts, MasAgro leader, explained that in 2014 the initiative established 21 postharvest trials across Chiapas, the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Oaxaca and Tlaxcala. These trials were designed to offer local solutions to farmers, including accessible options to store harvested grain and to prevent losses that in some cases can exceed 30 percent of their annual harvest.

He added that MasAgro adapts machinery to the needs of the communities where the program operates and operates and develops multiuse-multicrop implements to reduce production and storage costs for farmers. Last year four “smart” machinery protoypes were developed.

“MasAgro works with farmers who have one or two hectares of land, where they can im-prove their efficiency by using manual seeder-fertilizers, but also with farmers who own larger plots who need precision technology to estimate optimal nitrogen fertilizer doses,” Govaerts explained.

In addition, MasAgro successfully developed 44 integral fertility research protocols to improve soil quality in different production zones, in line with the United Nations Organiza-tion for Food and Agriculture (FAO) Year of Soil for 2015.

The program uses remote sensors to estimate exact doses of nitrogen fertilizer for maize and wheat on some 8,000 hectares throughout Mexico.

The arm that strengthens MasAgro is its conservation agriculture agronomy technicians certified by CIMMYT. Finally, by late 2014, MasAgro-Móvil information service had more than 2,700 users who receive weather and agronomic recommendations from technical experts.

MasAgro Móvil brings key crop Information to farmers’ mobile phones in Guanajuato

Written by on August 25, 2014. Posted in News.

As of April, farmers in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato are now receiving localized agriculture updates and decision-making advice on their mobile telephones thanks to a service launched by MasAgro Móvil. This new development in MasAgro Móvil’s service is part of Guanajuato’s plan to modernize agriculture with CIMMYT-developed technologies. MasAgro Móvil, a project of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program, along with other MasAgro tools, received an investment of 10.4 million pesos (US$ 804,000) thanks to the support of Miguel Márquez Márquez, governor of Guanajuato, who seeks to promote sustainable agriculture in his state.

The head of CIMMYT's GIS unit, Kai Sonder, demonstrating the use of GPS. — The head of CIMMYT’s GIS unit, Kai Sonder, demonstrating the use of GPS.

Javier Usabiaga Arroyo, Guanajuato’s secretary of agricultural development, announced on 31 May that approximately 755,000 farmers in Guanajuato will eventually have access to vital information through e-MasAgro, a virtual ecosystem that connects various agriculture-related information tools on one site, including MasAgro Móvil. Farmers “will receive technical information, recommendations, response to agricultural plagues and diseases and anything else they might need to improve their production,” he told the El Heraldo newspaper.

The regionalized service offered by MasAgro Móvil in Guanajuato has the potential to be a game-changer for smallholder and medium-scale farmers. After registering for the service, farmers receive short, simple, timely and free agricultural information on the most innovative and profitable conservation agriculture practices. Each message is compatible with the region´s agricultural cycle and provides information that is difficult for an average farmer to find. In the past few months, MasAgro Móvil has sent various messages specific to Guanajuato, focusing on fertilization and monitoring for diseases. It also began sending weekly weather forecasts, regionalized news and invitations to local events.

Photo: Guanajuato Communication Department

In the future, the service will add price alerts, crop health advice and more market-segmented information. The developers are also experimenting with messages that interact with the users, help retrieve user information and facilitate feedback. Abraham Menaldo, a consultant for MasAgro Móvil, said the feedback has been positive so far and farmers are eager to participate and interact. MasAgro Móvil’s goal is to expand this model to the rest of the country, which would replace the current service that sends information to each of MasAgro’s innovation centers, known as hubs.

Project leaders are developing collaborations to create parallel services in the states of Tlaxcala and Hidalgo. A communications campaign planned for autumn 2014 will encourage more farmers to use the system. Extension agents will identify places where farmers congregate, and visit in person to help them register on-site. The campaign will include a study of the target group’s perceptions of MasAgro, their livelihood and the future of farming. MasAgro Móvil’s website offers detailed information about services, future projects, program activities and CIMMYT’s partner-led mobile development projects around the world.

The site will eventually offer an online registration service to minimize some of the technological problems farmers have encountered, such as autocorrect mistakenly changing the spelling of a key word. MasAgro Móvil was recognized by the Inter-American Development Bank as an ideal tool to integrate farmers into the agricultural value chain in its report “The Next Global Breadbasket: How Latin America Can Feed the World: A Call to Action for Addressing Challenges & Developing Solutions.”

World Food Prize winner Rajaram: Farmers and training are critical for wheat yields

Written by Mike Listman on July 22, 2014. Posted in News.

Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, center, joined Nuria Urquía Fernández, left, representative in Mexico of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and Raúl Urteaga Trani, coordinator of international affairs of Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), for a news conference on 15 July.

Better research and policies are not enough to ensure that wheat productivity rises to meet the expanding demand of the world population in coming decades, according to Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, 2014 World Food Prize winner and retired CIMMYT distinguished scientist.

“If we want to make a change, research won’t do it alone; we need to work directly with farmers and to train young agronomists, ensuring they have a broad vision to be able to address the problems in farmers’ fields,” said Rajaram, speaking at a news conference in Mexico City on 15 July.

Rajaram shared the conference table with Nuria Urquía Fernández, representative in Mexico of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and with Raúl Urteaga Trani, coordinator of international affairs of Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA). “Dr. Rajaram’s work on the genetic improvement of wheat has helped productivity to increase beyond population and demand growth,” said Urquía, who along with Urteaga introduced Rajaram at the event.

During 33 years as a CIMMYT wheat scientist, Rajaram worked directly with Nobel Peace laureate and World Food Prize founder Dr. Norman Borlaug. As leader of bread wheat breeding and later director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, Rajaram personally oversaw the development of more than 480 high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties sown on 58 million hectares in developing countries.

Speaking to representatives of leading national and global media outlets, Rajaram thanked CIMMYT for the freedom to conduct his groundbreaking wheat breeding research. He also acknowledged the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), where he worked for several years before his retirement in 2008, for its efforts to breed and spread improved legumes and other crops that foster diverse farming and diets. “Finally, I want to thank Mexico and farmers in agricultural states like Sonora, Estado de México, Jalisco and Guanajuato. As a foreigner, when I first arrived at CIMMYT I had to show that I could do the best for Mexico,” explained Rajaram, who was born and raised in India but is also a naturalized citizen of Mexico, a country he said opened its arms to him and his family.

Outcomes of the conference included positive reports by leading Mexican newspapers and Notimex, the Mexican wire service whose postings are run by many other national media outlets.

New agreement with Mexican government will allow MasAgro to continue its groundbreaking work

Written by on June 19, 2014. Posted in Features.

Photo: Conservation Agriculture Program staff

Dr. Thomas Lumpkin/CIMMYT Director General Mexico is seen by many as one of the strongest emerging economies, with a high GDP and strong purchasing power parity. Yet a commonly overlooked fact is that nearly 23 percent of Mexicans, some 27.4 million citizens, still suffer from food shortages and insecurity1. In late 2010, CIMMYT and the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) launched the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture project (MasAgro) to raise farm community living standards and foster sustainable food security through research, development, training and the transfer of technology —ultimately to make a difference to the lives of these millions.

From an initial budget of US$ 3 million to a budget of nearly US$ 20 million in 2014, MasAgro has been seen as a success and was described by the G20 Mexico Agriculture Group as “an experience that could serve as a model for coordinating research and development, innovation, transfer of technology, as well as public-private links in the agri-food sector.” Nonetheless, since the 2012 elections and change of government, as is typical, there has been a shift in priorities within SAGARPA with an increased focus on impact and downstream research. These changes also resulted in a changing vision for MasAgro, including new administrative rules. As a result, after months of extended negotiations, the technical annex between CIMMYT and the new SAGARPA administration was agreed upon by both parties, and signed last week.

For many across CIMMYT, the past few months have been a period of uncertainty, and I am grateful to all our staff for their patience during this difficult process. We are now entering a new phase of MasAgro with a broader vision and broader host of donors. MasAgro’s work, scientific research and innovation are integrated into CIMMYT’s strategy. MasAgro is an instrument to achieve a goal — to raise maize and wheat production in a sustainable manner in Mexico and perhaps other countries within Latin America — and this goal will remain beyond the parameters of a project’s lifespan.

CIMMYT’s mission — to increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems for global food security and reduce poverty — means that we must develop capacities across the entire value chain. Our challenge remains to accelerate the delivery of results but also to convince taxpayers, development agencies and policymakers that it is essential to invest in research. New crop varieties, good agronomic technologies and efficient value chains are the key drivers of growth in agricultural productivity.

Looking beyond the CIMMYT-SAGARPA relationship, CIMMYT is expanding MasAgro’s innovation and partnership model directly to Mexican state governments and to other Latin American countries.

For example, the Mexican state of Guanajuato has committed MX 10 million pesos (US$ 760,000) for 2014 to the Take It to the Farmer initiative, and there have been requests from the governments of Guatemala and Bolivia to replicate parts of the MasAgro model. Key innovations — ICT in agriculture, precision agriculture, post-harvest management, maize landrace improvement and conservation agriculture — are readily available for transfer to other countries. MasAgro and its many partners have achieved impressive results in just three short years (see box on page 2). Knowledge and insight gained from this pioneering project are serving as a blueprint for other CIMMYT projects and indeed other countries.

MasAgro’s Achievements and Impacts:

• 200,000 farmers are linked to MasAgro activities.

• 166 communities are engaged as part of the National Crusade Against Hunger.

• GreenSeekerTM technology has generated farmer savings in fertilizer application of US$ 1.7 million.

• 13 prototypes of agricultural machinery have been developed.

• 181 technicians have been certified in training on conservation agriculture.

• A network of more than 2,000 technicians is providing technical assistance to more than 60,000 farmers.

• Maize farmers applying MasAgro technologies have achieved an average yield increase of 25.4 percent. • More than 3,700 farmers are receiving agronomic and climate information via the MasAgro Móvil phone service.

• 40,000 ultra-high-density genetic profiles of wheat varieties and 20,000 of maize landraces have been generated.

• The largest search for heat and drought tolerance undertaken in any crop has been initiated, evaluating more than 70,000 wheat varieties for these traits.

• 4,000 landraces are being used to establish the relationship between genome-based information and traits such as drought tolerance and disease resistance. This is the most complete genome-wide association study (GWAS) in the history of maize research.

New Leadership for MasAgro

Dr. Bram Govaerts, Associate Director for the Global Conservation Agriculture Program, will assume the leadership of MasAgro, with responsibility for coordinating the evolution of related projects in Latin America. Bram joined CIMMYT in 2007 and since 2010 has been the leader for the MasAgro Take It to the Farmer initiative. Bram received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium in bioscience engineering and agricultural production systems.

Launch of Invest in LAC Agriculture campaign: strong support for CIMMYT work in Mexico

Written by on May 28, 2014. Posted in News.

By Ricardo Curiel

The Invest in LAC Agriculture campaign kicked off 13 May to encourage increased investment and unlock the grain production potential of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The region is home to more than one-third of the world’s freshwater resources and more than a quarter of its medium- to high-potential farmland.

Scaling up investments in agricultural development and research in LAC was one of the key policy recommendations of a groundbreaking report by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Global Harvest Initiative titled The Next Global Breadbasket: How Latin America Can Feed the World, released on 23 April (download the report here). This report illustrates the opportunities, obstacles and challenges that stand in the way of realizing LAC’s agricultural potential, and how the public and private sectors can and must move forward together.

CIMMYT was among more than 30 partner organizations that contributed compelling evidence for policy action action and investment. In particular, CIMMYT shared its experience in improving extension services in Mexico by developing MasAgro-Móvil, a mobile information service that offers technical advice, grain price information and weather updates to more than 3,500 farmers who participate in the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project.

Bernardo Guillamón, manager of the Office of Outreach and Partnerships, IDB, welcomes food security experts to the kickoff event for the Invest in LAC Agriculture Campaign. Photos: Ricardo Curiel

CIMMYT and the Mexican Agriculture Secretariat (SAGARPA) started MasAgro in 2010 to increase Mexico’s maize and wheat productivity by developing improved maize seeds for rain-fed zones and promoting conservation practices among resource-constrained farmers, explained Bram Govaerts, associate director of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program, who represented CIMMYT at the launch event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. MasAgro drew praise from the representatives of the partner institutions who spoke at the launch.

Ricardo Sánchez, sustainable food security director for Latin America of The Nature Conservancy, commended the collaboration for offering opportunities to young farmers who wish to earn their livelihood from agriculture. Philippe Villers, president of GrainPro Inc., said that Mexico and CIMMYT were at the forefront of the Green Revolution of the 1970s and that today their partnership is developing extension systems that effectively achieve yield increases and reduce post-harvest losses.

The LAC report was further discussed at an afternoon briefing attended by members of Congress and their staffs as well as representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Agency for International Development, NGOs, foundations and think tanks, plus researchers and academics working in and for LAC.

“A taste of the new CIMMYT”: DG shares vision with fund council

Written by on May 21, 2014. Posted in Features.

By Karen Willenbrecht/CIMMYT

Dr. Thomas A. Lumpkin, CIMMYT director general, welcomed members of the CGIAR Fund Council to the El Batán campus on 9 May by promising them “a taste of the new CIMMYT.”

The Fund Council, a representative body of donors and other stakeholders, is the decision-making body of the CGIAR Fund. Its first onsite meeting of 2014 was held 7-8 May in Mexico City, hosted by Mexico’s SAGARPA, and many of the members visited the El Batán campus the following day for a series of presentations and tours that gave them a first-hand look at CIMMYT’s work. Lumpkin opened the day with an overview of CIMMYT’s unique history and its value to the international community, reminding the council members that in some developing countries, up to 90 percent of wheat and maize crops are from CIMMYT-derived seeds.

He also outlined some of the challenges and achievements in the regions where CIMMYT operates:

Africa

The continent is spending US $18 billion per year on wheat imports, Lumpkin said, but it is capable of growing enough wheat to meet all its demand with the right farming methods, training and policy environment. High temperatures and droughts brought on by climate fluctuations pose a severe problem, as do epidemics of new diseases. However, the quick response to the appearance of maize lethal necrosis (MLN) provides a model for responding to future diseases —thanks to generous funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and ingenious work by CIMMYT scientists, we were able to begin releasing MLN-resistant germplasm in just two years.

Americas

MasAgro is an exciting initiative that has already posted impressive gains in Mexico’s national effort to increase grain production and reduce hunger. In the past year, CIMMYT has reorganized the program to align with the Mexican government’s National Crusade Against Hunger (Cruzada Nacional Contra el Hambre). In addition to ongoing work in Colombia, recent visits by government representatives of Bolivia and Ecuador mean that CIMMYT’s work in Latin America may expand.

South Asia

Constraints to germplasm exchange are a major challenge in the region, and the impact of climate change, population growth and water shortages is most acute here. CIMMYT’s expertise can help farmers make the necessary shift from water-intensive rice to cotton and maize. The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) is a bright spot in the region, already hosting field days that draw thousands of farmers. Lumpkin then shared some of the recent successes of the CRPs. From MAIZE, he singled out the Striga weed management program; the increase in maize seed fortified with essential nutrients; and small farm mechanization, with a particular focus on developing equipment that women farmers can comfortably use. Highlights from the WHEAT program include the adoption of zero-tillage in Kazakhstan and the wheat boom in Ethiopia, where yields have doubled in a decade.

From there, Lumpkin moved on to the future of CIMMYT, which will continue to undergo rapid growth and change. Exciting new programs and technologies will shape the way we fulfill our mission:

BISA

Launched in 2011 in collaboration with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the institute now has full UN privileges and is working to improve the region’s agricultural practices. An example of the way BISA is helping Indian farmers is a technique that allows them to seed wheat into standing cotton, saving them a month of growing time. The president of Pakistan has agreed to co-fund the institute in his country, Lumpkin said, and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan will fund new facilities and a farm.

International Wheat Yield Project (IWYP)

CIMMYT is part of a new international consortium that seeks to improve wheat yield by 50 percent within 20 years. The type of project that IWYP may fund is an effort to increase the photosynthetic efficiency of wheat from 1 percent to 1.5 percent. While the amount of change may seem insignificant, such a breakthrough would have enormous impact, allowing farmers to grow more wheat on the same amount of land using no more water, fertilizer or labor. Seed funding by MasAgro helped begin the funding pledges, which are currently at US $50 million.

Technology

Lumpkin singled out several technologies in use or in the pipeline that will increase yields and help mitigate the effects of climate change, water shortages and disease epidemics: • Doubled haploid maize inducer lines developed for the tropics.

• Use of helicopter- and blimp-mounted drone sensors to take quick, accurate measurements in the fields.

• The GreenSeeker system, which is already saving participating Mexican farmers US $100/hectare.

• Hybrid wheat – The quest for hybrid wheat varieties is so important to the world food supply that big companies have teamed up with CIMMYT to achieve that goal while still looking out for the developing world.

The past and future changes at CIMMYT can perhaps best be summarized by the evolving attitude toward our gene bank, which houses more than 175,000 accessions and is the largest in the world. In the past, Lumpkin said, the gene bank was regarded as a museum. But today, as through projects like Seeds of Discovery, CIMMYT scientists carefully analyze the small variations among the accessions, aware that those might lead to big discoveries. “The gene bank,” Lumpkin said, “is not a museum.”

Remote sensing prepares for liftoff

Written by on January 31, 2014. Posted in News.

By Sam Storr/CIMMYT

Remote sensing experts, breeders, agronomists and policymakers discussed turning their research and experiences into tools to benefit farmers and increase food production while safeguarding the environment during CIMMYT’s workshop “Remote Sensing: Beyond Images” from 14-15 December 2013.

The "Sky Walker” advances phenotyping in Zimbabwe. Photo: J.L. Araus, University of Barcelona/CIMMYT — The “Sky Walker” advances phenotyping in Zimbabwe. Photo: J.L. Araus, University of Barcelona/CIMMYT

The event was sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) as well as the CGIAR Research Program on Maize and the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA).

Remote sensing devices make it possible to observe the dynamics of anything from single plants up to entire landscapes and continents as they change over time by capturing radiation from across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. For example, images taken by cameras in the thermal-to-visible end of the spectrum can reveal a broad range of plant characteristics, such as biomass, water use and photosynthesis efficiency, disease spread and nutrient content. Radar or light radar (LiDAR) imaging can be used to create detailed imaging of plant physical structure from the canopy down to the roots. When mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), these sensors can rapidly survey much greater areas of land than is possible from the ground, particularly in inaccessible areas. It is hoped that such research will complement highthroughput phenotyping, opening the way for plant breeders to design larger and more efficient crop improvement experiments.

For agronomy research, remote sensing can provide new information about weather, crop performance, resource use and the improved genetic traits sought by crop breeders. It may also help global agriculture meet the challenge of achieving more with fewer resources and include more farmers in innovation. If methods can be found to share and connect this data, farmers will also benefit from greater transparency and more informed policymaking.

Opening the workshop, Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT director general, reminded participants of the urgency of meeting the growing demand for staple crops while overcoming crop diseases, resource scarcity and climate change-induced stresses. The advance of technologies and data processing tools allows researchers to see the potential contribution of remote sensing. “For thirty years, the remote sensing community has been on the cusp of doing something wonderful, and now we believe it can,” said Stanley Wood, senior program officer for BMGF. “What excites us is the amount of energy and enthusiasm and the knowledge that their work is important.” Several presentations showcased how remote sensing can be used to benefit smallholder farmers. For example, the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project is looking at using rainfall data to target its interventions for the greatest impact.

Bruno Gérard, director of CIMMYT’s Conservation Agriculture Program, spoke about the challenges of CIMMYT’s work in helping smallholder farmers to practice “more precise agriculture.” The spread of mobile phones and information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the developing world shows the potential for CIMMYT to bring recommendations derived from remote sensing to farmers and allows them to provide their own input. The workshop ended with a panel discussion on how to develop remote sensing services that will be adopted by intended users. Participants expect the workshop and similar activities will provide the strategic direction to drive a new generation of remote sensing applications that can bring real benefits to farmers.

For more information on the program, abstracts, participants and presentations, visit the MAIZE website.