funder_partner: The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London

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Wheat at a CIMMYT field trial. (Photo: H. Hernandez Lira/CIMMYT)

Essential actions to mitigate the food crisis, stabilize supply and transition to greater agrifood system resilience

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on July 19, 2022. Posted in Press releases.

As the Russia-Ukraine war continues to degrade global food security, a new analysis lays out concrete actions that governments and investors must do now to mitigate near-term food security risks and stabilize wheat supplies, while transitioning toward long-term resilience.

The guidance, published in Nature Food by scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners, lays out short-, medium- and long-term steps to respond to the global food crisis and ultimately lead to a more resilient global agrifood system.

“The Russia-Ukraine war will impact global food security over months — if not years,” said CIMMYT Global Wheat Program Director and lead author Alison Bentley. “We now need to move beyond defining the problem to implementing practical actions to ensure stable supply, safeguard the livelihoods of millions of vulnerable people and bring resilience to our global agrifood system.”

The war in Ukraine and trade sanctions against Russia are triggering a level of volatility that could easily overwhelm existing mitigation mechanisms. More than 2.5 billion people worldwide consume wheat-based foods; those in lower- to middle-income countries dependent on imports from Russia and Ukraine are particularly affected. Some of the world’s poorest countries, such as Bangladesh, Sudan and Yemen, rely heavily on Russian and Ukrainian wheat. Given the highly interconnected nature of contemporary agrifood systems, few will remain unaffected by this new global food shock.

Mitigate the immediate crisis

The first priority, according to the authors, is to mitigate the immediate crisis by boosting wheat production in existing high- and low-productivity areas, ensuring grain access and blending wheat flour with other low-cost cereals. Bundled agronomic and breeding improvements and sustainable farming practices can reduce dependence on imported grain and fertilizer, while coordinated, multilateral policies can help conserve grain stocks for human consumption and avert trade restrictions.

Increase the resilience of wheat supply

In the medium term, the authors emphasized the need to increase the local, regional, and global resilience of the wheat supply. This can be done by expanding production within agro-ecological boundaries, supporting national wheat self-sufficiency and providing technical assistance, to increase the production of high-yielding disease-resistant wheat and to mainstream capacity for pest and disease monitoring.

Transition to system-level resilience

Finally, to reach crucially needed resilience in the world’s agrifood system, long-term measures must be taken that encompass agroecosystem diversity, address gender disparities in agriculture and rural communities and sustain increased investment in a holistic, agrifood transition.

“The current global food crisis underscores and compounds existing inequalities in our global food system,” Bentley said. “A transition to agrifood system resilience requires us to urgently balance global food supply needs with the multi-layered challenges of climate change, achieving gender equity, nutritional sufficiency and livelihood security.”

RELATED RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS:

Near- to long-term measures to stabilize global wheat supplies and food security

This research is supported by CGIAR Trust Fund Contributors.

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Alison Bentley – Director, Global Wheat Program, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT THE MEDIA TEAM:

Marcia MacNeil, Head of Communications, CIMMYT. m.macneil@cgiar.org, +52 5558042004 ext. 2019.

Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT. r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 5558042004 ext. 1167.

Ricardo Curiel, Communications Manager, CIMMYT. r.curiel@cgiar.org, +52 5558042004 ext. 1144.

ABOUT CIMMYT:

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis.

Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agrifood systems. CIMMYT’s research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.

CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.

For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.

Drone shot of wheat trials at CIMMYT global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Another food crisis?

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on March 23, 2022. Posted in Blogs.

Mature wheat spikes. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

The impacts of the Ukraine crisis are likely to reverberate over months, if not years, to come. If the reductions in wheat exports from Russia and Ukraine are as severe as anticipated, global supplies of wheat will be seriously constrained. If a major reduction in fertilizer exports comes to pass, the resulting drop in global productivity will tighten global markets for wheat, other grains and alternate food sources — leaving vulnerable people all over the world facing higher food prices, hunger and malnutrition.

These massive disruptions will erode modest progress made toward gender equality, biodiversity conservation and dietary diversification. The severe impact of this single shock shows the underlying fragility and complexity of our agri-food systems. Climate change will bring many more.

The world must take essential actions to mitigate food shocks, stabilize local wheat supplies and transition toward agri-food system resilience, from the current efficiency-driven model. We call for large and sustained agricultural research investments as a foundational element of any viable, food-secure future.

From chronic challenges to food crisis conditions

Global wheat production for export is geographically concentrated, placing inherent vulnerabilities on the global system. Dominance of the wheat export trade by a relatively small number of countries makes sense under an efficiency paradigm, but it opens the door to price spikes and food-related crises. At the same time, biophysical vulnerability of major global breadbaskets is on the rise as drought and other weather extremes increase volatility in cereal yields, exports and prices.

Russia and Ukraine produce 28% of the world’s total wheat exports and Russia is a globally important source of fuel and fertilizer. With over 2.5 billion people worldwide consuming wheat-based products and wheat futures at their highest levels since 2012, disrupted exports from Russia and Ukraine would usher in substantial new pressures on global wheat markets and tremendous risks for vulnerable populations around the world.

Dependence on wheat imports from Russia and Ukraine imperils food security in lower- and middle-income countries in North Africa and the Middle East (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Yemen), the Mediterranean (Azerbaijan, Turkey), sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria, Sudan), Southern Asia (Bangladesh, Pakistan) and throughout Southeast Asia. Globally elevated food prices will hit hardest in those countries already struggling with food insecurity.

Layered onto the existing concentration of wheat-exporting countries and the climate-induced vulnerabilities in essential global breadbaskets, the crisis in Ukraine and trade sanctions on Russia are triggering a level of volatility that could easily overwhelm existing mitigation mechanisms. We may well see a range of negative effects over the short, medium and long term, including:

Severe food insecurity and economic impacts due to reduced global wheat supplies and price increases affecting all wheat-importing countries and humanitarian agencies.
Diminished global grain productivity due to fertilizer supply limitations and price escalation, especially in low-income, fertilizer-import-dependent countries.
Higher food prices and expanded global hunger and malnutrition as a result of tighter fuel supplies driving up costs of agricultural production.
Pressure on household budgets negatively affecting nutrition, health, education and gender equity.

The employee of an Ethiopian seed association smiles as bags of wheat seed are ready to be distributed. (Photo: Gerardo Mejía/CIMMYT)

Stabilize while building resilience

With these multi-layered challenges in view, we propose essential actions to mitigate near-term food security crises, to stabilize wheat supply and to concurrently transition toward agri-food system resilience.

Without doubt, the world’s top priority must be to mitigate food security crises at our doorstep. This will involve boosting wheat production through expanded acreage (e.g. in high-performing systems in the Global North) and closing yield gaps (e.g. improved management and value chains of rainfed, wheat-based systems in the Global South) using policy incentives such as price guarantees and subsidized agricultural inputs. Short-term food insecurity can also be addressed through demand-side management (e.g. market controls to conserve grain stocks for human consumption; use of lower-cost flour blends) and de-risking alternative sourcing (e.g. trade agreements).

As these actions are taken, a range of strategies can simultaneously drive toward more resilient wheat supply at local to global scales. Well-functioning seed systems, demand-driven agronomic support and other elements of wheat self-reliance can be encouraged through shifts in local policy, regulatory and sectoral contexts. Enhanced monitoring capacity can track spatial patterns in wheat cropping, including expansion into areas where comparative advantage for wheat production (e.g. agro-ecological suitability; supporting infrastructure) has been identified in rural development frameworks and national plans (e.g. as a double crop in Ethiopian midlands). In addition to enabling yield forecasts, surveillance systems are critical to phytosanitary control of geographically restricted pathogens under altered wheat trade routes.

Yet, these steps to mitigate food shocks and stabilize local wheat supplies will not adequately protect the world from climate-related biophysical risks to food and nutritional security. In parallel, a transition toward agri-food system resilience requires transformative investments in agricultural diversification, sustainable natural resource management and low-greenhouse-gas agroecosystems, as well as meaningful actions toward achieving gender equality, nutritional sufficiency and livelihood security.

Sustained research & development for a food-secure future

None of the critical actions described above are guaranteed given the oscillating global investment in agricultural research. Enabled by decades of agricultural research, the world has managed to constrain the number and severity of food security crises through major gains in agricultural productivity.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the global international wheat research Center of the CGIAR, has been working tirelessly to maintain wheat harvests around the world in the face of mounting disease pressures and climate challenges. The estimated benefit-cost ratio for wheat improvement research ranges from 73:1 to 103:1. Yet, research funding only rises when food crises occur, revealing the globalized risks of our highly interconnected agri-food systems, and then tapers as memories fade.

With limited resources, scientists around the world are attacking the complex challenge of increasing agricultural yields and ensuring stable, equitable food supplies. Receiving only about 2% of international agricultural research funding over time, CIMMYT and the entire CGIAR have had limited ability to develop the long-term research capabilities that could mitigate or prevent short-term emergencies with medium- to long-term effects.

Responding to the mounting pressures on deeply complex agri-food systems requires integrative solutions that allow farmers and other agri-food stakeholders to mitigate and withstand shocks and to achieve viable livelihoods. Knowledge and technology needs are extensive across production systems (e.g. wheat-legume intercropping; cereals-focused agroecological interventions), value chains (e.g. context-appropriate seed systems; nutrition enhancement through flour blending), monitoring systems (e.g. genomics-based surveillance), and social dimensions (e.g. gender implications of new production and consumption strategies; policy interventions).

Generating such solutions depends on robust, multidisciplinary and transparent research capabilities that fuel the transition to agri-food system resilience. Robust international investment in resilient agricultural systems is an essential condition for national security, global peace and prosperity.

Read the full article (pre-print):
Another food crisis? The Ukraine conflict, global wheat supply and food security

Explore our coverage and analysis of the Russia-Ukraine war and its impact on global food security.

Beneficial bioactives

Written by Emma Orchardson on May 27, 2021. Posted in Publications.

Popular starchy staples maize and wheat provide more than simple dietary energy, but they are often found at the center of debates around the excessive consumption of carbohydrates.

While the nutrient contribution of whole grains is commonly emphasized in dietary guidelines, the milling and subsequent processing of cereal products tends to reduce or remove much of the important protein, fat, vitamin and mineral content, and in recent years there has been increasing concern about the ultra-processing of cereal-based food products containing noxious dietary components that exacerbate the occurrence of non-communicable diseases.

For these reasons — and because of the focus on energy content — maize and wheat are not often considered to be among the categories of “nutrient-rich” foods that can contribute to reducing micronutrient malnutrition. Consequently, it is unsurprising that a popular perception that cereals make a limited contribution to nutritious diets persists. This view has not been successfully challenged by a necessarily nuanced understanding of the complex role of cereals, and particularly the carbohydrate fractions, in human nutrition.

“In addition to the hidden micronutrients, there is sound scientific and popular awareness of the importance of some dietary components such as dietary fiber,” says Nigel Poole, Emeritus Professor of International Development at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

“Though there is as yet imperfect scientific understanding and public awareness of the carbohydrates which make up dietary fiber,” he explains, “biomedical research continues to highlight the importance of carbohydrates in health and well-being. Moreover, there is a need for further knowledge on the nature and roles of many other bioactive food components that are not usually considered to be nutrients.”

These bioactives are substances such as carotenoids, flavonoids, and polyphenols. Most of the beneficial effects of the consumption of whole grain cereals on non-communicable diseases are currently attributed to the bioactive components of dietary fiber and the wide variety of phytochemicals.

A growing body of evidence from cereal chemistry, food science and metabolic studies shows that the bioactives in cereals are important for nutrition, health and well-being. In a new working paper authored in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Poole demonstrates that there is considerable potential for plant breeding strategies to improve these elements of grain composition. This could be done through exploiting natural variation, genetic and genomic selection methods, and mutagenesis and transgenesis in order to modify cell wall polysaccharides, and specifically to improve the starch composition and structure in breeding material through natural and induced mutations.

Rebalancing the agri-nutrition research agenda, Poole argues, is necessary in order to explore, explain and exploit the contribution to diets of hitherto less-researched nutrient-dense crops and other foods. Nevertheless, because of the quantities in which cereals are consumed, the nutritional contribution of cereals in addition to energy complements the consumption of micronutrient-rich fruits, vegetables, nuts and pulses in diverse diets.

To leverage the bioactive content of cereals — including dietary fiber — as well as the macro- and micronutrient content, a comprehensive approach to food and nutrition systems from farm to metabolism is needed, spanning research disciplines and food systems’ stakeholders throughout the agri-food industries, and embracing policy makers, nutrition advocacy, and consumer education and behavior change.

Read the full working paper: Food security, nutrition and health: Implications for maize and wheat research and development

Nigel Poole conducted research for this paper during a year-long Visiting Fellowship at CIMMYT, with support from scientists at the institution.

Global malnutrition: Why cereal grains could provide an answer

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on March 15, 2021. Posted in In the media.

Nigel Poole, Professor of International Development at SOAS, University of London, writes on The Conversation about the role of cereals in fighting malnutrition. Poole was a Visiting Fellow at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico for a year.

Hands hold wheat grain from harvest near Belbur, Nakuru, Kenya. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Against the grain: New paper reveals the overlooked health benefits of maize and wheat

Written by Mary Donovan on October 12, 2020. Posted in Press releases.

Cereal crops like maize and wheat deserve greater consideration as part of a healthy, nutritious diet, according to the authors of a new paper.

A review of agri-nutrition research and dietary guidance found that the potential health benefits provided by cereals were often overlooked or undervalued as part of nutritious diets, including their role in reducing non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.

The study identified two key explanations for the oversight. The first is that many cereal crops with varying nutritional qualities are indiscriminately grouped under the broad category of “staples.”

A second problem lies in the fact that cereals are usually considered to be a major source of dietary energy alone. However, reducing nutritional attributes to macro- and micro-nutrients misses other beneficial elements of cereals known as “bioactive food components.” These include carotenoids, flavonoids, and polyphenols, and compounds that comprise dietary fiber.

“Most whole grain cereals provide differing amounts of proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins, in addition to being important sources of dietary energy,” said Jason Donovan, a senior economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and co-author of the paper published in Food Policy.

“Only relative to other ‘nutrient-rich’ foodstuffs can cereals be described as ‘nutrient-poor’.”

In the paper, entitled Agri-nutrition research: Revisiting the contribution of maize and wheat to human nutrition and health, the authors called on researchers and policymakers to embrace the multiple dietary components of cereals in addressing under- and over-nutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and the growing global problem of non-communicable diseases.

“Through increasing the availability of, and access to, healthy foods derived from cereals, we can better address the growing triple burden of malnutrition that many countries are facing,” said Olaf Erenstein, co-author and director of CIMMYT’s Socioeconomics program.

“To feed the world within planetary boundaries, current intakes of whole grain foods should more than double and address tricky issues like the current over-processing, to make the most of the nutrition potential of maize and wheat.”

While some carbohydrates can create a glycemic response that has negative effects on diabetes and obesity, dietary fiber in cereals comprises carbohydrates that are fermented in the large intestine with largely positive metabolic and health effects.

In addition, the naturally-occurring compounds found in maize and wheat can be enhanced through conventional breeding, genomic selection and bio- and industrial-fortification to offer enriched levels of beneficial components.

For example, scientists at CIMMYT have worked on new maize and wheat varieties with additional levels of vitamin A and zinc to help address some of the nutritional deficiencies found worldwide. Researchers are also improving how cereals are produced, processed, and stored to increase productivity and improve food safety while maintaining their nutritional benefits.

One of challenges in maximizing the nutritional benefit of cereal-based foods in diets is that the processing of grains often causes substantial losses of essential vitamins and minerals. Meanwhile, manufacturing industries create ultra-processed foods that often contain noxious qualities and components, which contribute directly to the significant and increasing global health and economic costs of non-communicable diseases.

“If we are to end hunger by delivering healthy, diverse and nutritional diets in the next decade, we need a broader and more nuanced understanding of the nutritional and health-promoting value of diverse foods, including cereals,” added Nigel Poole, co-author and Professor of International Development at SOAS University, London.

“Cereals and so-called ‘nutrient-rich’ foods are complementary in agri-nutrition, both of which require additional research, resources and attention so that one does not replace the other.”

RELATED PUBLICATIONS:

Agri-nutrition research: Revisiting the contribution of maize and wheat to human nutrition and health

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR INTERVIEW REQUESTS:

Donna Bowater, Marchmont Communications, donna@marchmontcomms.com, +44 7929 212 534

ABOUT CIMMYT:

The International Maize and What 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 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