funder_partner: Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

https://www.syngentafoundation.org/

Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Annual Meeting 2013

Written by on June 6, 2013. Posted in News.

5191222904_7cd74cf803_z “This project is a rare example of a public-private partnership capable of delivering products to farmers,” said Mike Robinson of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) at the Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Annual Meeting organized by CIMMYT-Asia at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) campus during 20-21 May 2013.

Twenty-seven participants from CIMMYT, Syngenta, and national partners from Indonesia and Vietnam were welcomed by B.M. Prasanna, CIMMYT Global Maize Program director, who elaborated CIMMYT-Asia senior maize breeder B.S. Vivek presented a graphical overview of the project covering its objectives and discussing the progress achieved in 2012. Syngenta’s Naveen Sharma, Srinivasu Bolisetty, and Pathayya Ravindra then reported on the progress made in product development and product testing under managed and targeted stress environments. Future breeding plans were also discussed. Ian Barker, SFSA, discussed plans for delivering AAA products to farmers, Prasanna explained issues related to germplasm export and remedial strategies, and Manuel Logrono of Syngenta elaborated on the plans for testing and seed production. At the end of the first day, Vivek provided an overview of the association mapping project, and CIMMYT-Asia senior maize physiologist P.H. Zaidi gave a talk on the progress in root phenotyping.

The second day began with a visit to the rhizotronics facility at ICRISAT, followed by detailed presentations on genotyping and genome-wide association study (GWAS) analysis by CIMMYT Asia maize molecular breeder Raman Babu, and the progress on Syngenta’s side by Aparna Padalkar. Vivek then took over the stage again to compare the gains made by markers viza- viz conventional approach when talking about CIMMYT’s progress with Marker Assisted Recurrent Selection (MARS) and Genome Wide Selection (GWS). Hu Hung from the Vietnamese National Maize Research Institute and Muhammad Azrai from the Indonesian Cereals Research Institute then reported on the progress made in Vietnam and Indonesia, respectively.

After comparing CIMMYT’s and Syngenta’s approaches to drought phenotyping and the merits and demerits of biparental versus multiparental approaches to GWS, CIMMYT-Asia maize breeder Kartik Krothapalli concluded the meeting with a summary of the action plans discussed during the meeting. Group

Body blow to grain borer

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 9, September 2007

sep04 The larger grain borer is taking a beating from CIMMYT breeders in Kenya as new African maize withstands the onslaught of one of the most damaging pests.

Scientists from CIMMYT, working with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), have developed maize with significantly increased resistance to attack in storage bins from a pest called the larger grain borer. In just six months this small beetle can destroy more than a third of the maize farmers have stored. The new maize varieties, which dramatically decrease the damage and increase the storability of the grain, will be nominated by KARI maize breeders to the Kenya national maize performance trials run by the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS). The same varieties will also be distributed for evaluation by interested parties in other countries through the CIMMYT international maize testing program in 2008.

“This is a major achievement and will be of great help to farmers in Kenya and more than 20 African countries, who have had few options to control this pest for nearly 30 years” says Stephen Mugo, the CIMMYT maize breeder who headed the CIMMYT-KARI collaboration, which has been funded in part by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

The larger grain borer, native to Central America, was first observed in Africa in Tanzania in the late 1970s and early 1980s. A particularly severe drought struck eastern Africa in 1979 and there was little local maize. The world responded with large shipments of maize as aid. The borer may well have been an uninvited guest in a food aid shipment.

sep06 Even in Latin America, where it has co-evolved with natural predators, losses are significant. In Africa, where there are no similar predators to control the insect, its spread has been most dramatic. Attempts to introduce some of those predators to Africa to control the borer (a technique called biological control) have met with limited success and regionally concerted action is essential if biological control is to be effective across borer-infested areas. Researchers also studied the habits of the borer, hoping to find ways to reduce the damage it does. They discovered that it needs a solid platform, such as that provided by maize kernels still on the cob, before it will bore into a kernel. Unfortunately African farmers often store maize on the cob, increasing the potential for borer damage. By shelling the maize and storing the kernels off the cob, the damage can be reduced by small amounts, but losses are still very high. This is what makes the development of new varieties, where the resistance lies in the seed, so exciting.

“Having the solution in the seed itself makes adoption much easier for farmers,” says Marianne Banziger, the director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program. “There is no added workload or expense to the farmer, no longstanding practices or habits to change.” But Banziger cautions that resistant maize is not a silver bullet solution to the grain borer problem. “We strongly encourage the use of the new varieties in combination with other measures,” she says. “The varieties are more resistant but as time progresses there will still be some damage, though much less than before.”

sep05 CIMMYT researchers found resistance to the borer in the Center’s germplasm bank, in maize seed originally from the Caribbean. The bank holds 25,000 unique collections of native maize races. By using conventional plant breeding techniques, crossing those plants with maize already adapted to the conditions found in eastern Africa, Mugo and the breeding team were able to combine the resistance of the Caribbean maize with the key traits valued by Kenyan maize farmers. The maize was tested for resistance at the KARI research station in Kiboko, Kenya. Larger grain borers were placed in glass jars with a known weight of maize. Weight changes to the maize and a visual assessment of damage were recorded, allowing researchers to select the best lines. The result is new maize varieties that will benefit farmers in Kenya and help reduce Kenya’s dependence on imported maize for national food security.

Testing by Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services and by national seed authorities in other countries is expected to take 1-3 years, after which seed of the new maize hybrids and open pollinated varieties will be available to seed companies for seed production and sale to farmers.

For more information: Stephen Mugo, Maize breeder (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

Blind to borers

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in News.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 7, July 2006

jul01 Convincing risk-averse, resource-poor farmers to adopt a good technology is hard enough when they can see the enemy, but what if the enemy hides from view?

Maize farmers in Africa struggle every day to protect their crop from pests. Some are obvious and relatively easy to control. After all, you can throw stones at a baboon that comes in for a meal and scarecrows and slingshots can stop birds.

One of the most damaging pests though does everything by stealth, virtually invisible to farmers. The moths that are parents to a class of pests called stem borers lay their eggs at night, on the underside of the emerging leaves of young maize plants. The caterpillars that hatch from the eggs soon make their way into the stalk itself, safe from all predators, including farmers.

“Many farmers in Kenya don’t even know their maize fields have a stem borer problem, yet these insects cost them some 400,000 tons in lost harvest each year,” says CIMMYT maize breeder Stephen Mugo.

He says the stealthy biology is one reason stem borers are sometimes thought to be less important than other quite visible maize pests like cutworms, armyworms, earworms and beetles. Storage pests like beetles and weevils, together with fungi are also rated high in importance, because their effects can be easily seen. “Farmers routinely attribute the damage to their crops to these pests, and not their ‘invisible’ enemy, the stem borer,” Says Mugo.

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Chemical pesticides could control the two main species of stem borer found in eastern and southern Africa, says entomologist Dr. Macharia Gethi, the Director of the Embu Center of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). “Eggs are laid soon after the maize seedling emerges, around a fortnight after planting, and this is when stem borer control should be applied.” But this rarely happens. “Even farmers who know about stem borers only notice the damage after it’s too late for chemical control. A seed-based technology is what we need,” says Mugo.

In Muconoke village of Embu, located in the dry mid-altitude zone of eastern Kenya, farmers do know about borers and try to fight back. Elizabeth Njura has to apportion her meager budget to buy maize seed, fertilizer, and insecticide. She explains, “If I want a good maize harvest I have no choice but to buy all three.” Smallholder farmers like Njura have little cash for the inputs they need and lack reliable information about pesticide usage. As a result, the hidden borers happily grow in the maize stalk, starving the growing plant of nutrients. Mary Ngare says she is also disappointed with her maize harvest, even though she used the only pesticide she had to try to stop the borers. Unfortunately, what she had was intended for seed treatment and even then she applied it too late. The borers had already penetrated into her maize stalks.

Mugo is convinced that by embedding resistance technology into the maize seed itself, either by conventional breeding or biotechnology, farmers will have access to varieties that show far less borer damage.

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With funding from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and the Rockefeller Foundation, CIMMYT is collaborating with the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to develop maize varieties that are resistant to the two most important stem borers in Kenya, Chilo partellus and Busseola fusca, using both conventional breeding and biotechnology. The work, coordinated by Mugo, is part of the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project.

“Maize that resists stem borer damage would take the guesswork out of stem borer pesticide usage by eliminating it altogether,” says Mugo. He is excited that six of IRMA’s conventionally bred varieties are now in the national variety performance trials in Kenya, and is hopeful that some of these will reach smallholder farmers in the near future.

For more information contact Stephen Mugo (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

Kenya Plants Transgenic Maize to Help Farmers Rid Insect

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

May, 2005

kenya01 Kenya broke historic agricultural ground in a protected field on May 27 when it sowed its first transgenic maize seeds into local soil. Supported by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture and the Rockefeller Foundation, this experiment is the first of its kind in the region. The Bt maize plants that sprout will be resistant to stem borer, an insect that drills into the maize stalk and causes significant losses to Kenyan harvests.

“Stem borers destroy some 400,000 tons of maize in Kenya each year, nearly equal to the nation’s annual imports of the crop,” says Dr. Romano Kiome, Director of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). By growing the Bt maize plants, farmers won’t have to worry about the pest or have to apply pesticide to counteract the destruction. “This is part of an innovative approach to help Kenyan farmers fight the insect pests, and it translates into increased food security and incomes,” Kiome says.

The field trials are being undertaken as part of the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) Project, a joint research project of KARI and CIMMYT. The goal is to verify the results from trials held at a biosafety greenhouse, which was officially opened in June of 2004. Researchers will now be checking to see how the transgenic maize holds up under field conditions

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The trials will serve two purposes, according to IRMA Project Manager and CIMMYT maize breeder Stephen Mugo. First, they will be used to determine the effectiveness of various transgenic Bt genes against common Kenyan stem borers. Second, the plants will be crossed with Kenyan maize lines as part of a breeding process that will produce Bt maize varieties adapted to Kenyan growing conditions. The project is also developing stem borer resistant varieties using conventional breeding.

These trials are conducted in strict accordance with the terms proscribed by the Kenyan plant health regulatory body KEPHIS and the KARI and National Biosafety Committees, Mugo stresses. The open quarantine site where the confined trials are being held was built to their specifications and includes many biosafety and security measures to ensure that pollen, seed, or plant materials do not escape the trial area or cross inadvertently with maize not included in the experiment.

For further information, contact Stephen Mugo (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

Bug Havens Keep Maize Pest-Proof

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 2 no. 12, December 2005

bugHavens African maize farmers who will grow transgenic maize varieties resistant to one of the crop’s most damaging pests—the maize stem borer—learn that to keep borers at bay, some must survive.

Maize stem borers destroy approximately 12% of Kenya’s maize crop annually—losses valued at more than US$ 50 million. Under the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), CIMMYT, and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture have worked in partnership since 1999 to offer farmers maize varieties that resist borers. They are drawing this resistance from several sources, including maize landraces and experimental varieties and even a common soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The latter produces its own, natural insecticide: a protein that perforates borer larvae’s stomach lining, causing them to starve. There are several types of this protein and each is very selective, affecting certain species of borers but no other animals. Researchers have taken the gene responsible for the protein and put it into maize, thereby obtaining a plant that borers of the targeted species cannot safely eat.

The resistance from Bt is effective until, through a chance mutation, an individual borer emerges that can beat it. Borer offspring with the same mutation will eventually become more numerous than other borers, making the Bt-based resistance useless.

A safe haven for borers

Farmers in developed countries who grow Bt maize usually protect its effectiveness through use of “refugia”—fodders or cereal crops that foster the survival and reproduction of Bt-susceptible borers. IRMA recently sponsored a two-day workshop on refugia at KARI’s Kitale center. The 50 participants—19 researchers, and 17 extension staff, and 14 farmers from 9 districts of North Rift Valley and 2 neighboring districts—learned about the progress in the development of insect resistant maize and the importance of refugia.

“It’s not hard to find refugia for stem borers; the challenge is to find refugia that both work and are acceptable to farmers,” says KARI entomologist Dr. Margaret Mulaa, who organized the Kitale workshop, and leads the insect resistance management (IRM) component of the IRMA project. “The refugia species have to fit in with the farmers’ cropping systems.”

All workshop participants took to the field to evaluate and score potential crops and varieties that could be used as stem-borer refugia on farms. They ranked the top 5 each from among 15 sorghum and 18 grass varieties, and 4 maize varieties for their attractiveness as food, fodder, or refugia for stem borers.

Farmers lead the way scoring refugia

The farmers raced ahead of the other two groups, doing what comes most naturally to them: visually assessing the yield and disease resistance of the sorghum varieties; squeezing the sorghum grains between two fingers and tasting them to judge texture and flavor; splitting open maize and grass stalks to assess moisture content and borer damage; and examining fodder crops for yield, vigor, and traits like hairiness and moisture content—important indicators of palatability for livestock. “Bana grass yields well and is not too hairy, so my cows enjoy it,” said Philomen Berut, a farmer from South Nandi who has received two awards for the best livestock at the Kitale Agricultural show.

More than 26 different criteria were given for selecting the sorghum varieties, but the major ones were high yield, early maturity, tolerance to pests and diseases, short height (which helps plants resist lodging), and tolerance to bird damage.

And the winners?

All three groups ranked the ‘local brown’ and ‘local red’ sorghum varieties among the top five favorites. Four improved Napier varieties (Kakamega 1 & 2, Napier 16798 and 16837) were also ranked top by all three groups. The popular maize hybrid H614 was ranked among the best five refugia species for its stable yield, lush foliage, and good cobs.

Mulaa finds this type of information extremely important for developing an IRM strategy that farmers will actually use. “By understanding farmers’ choices and criteria early enough, the resistance management package that IRMA will introduce along with Bt maize will have the farmer’s hand in its design, making it more likely to succeed.”

For more information contact Stephen Mugo (s.mugo@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT-KARI Project Takes Historic Step in Kenyan Agriculture President Mwai Kibaki Opens First Biosafety Greenhouse in East Africa

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

August, 2004

biosafe2 The official opening on 23 June 2004 of a level-two biosafety greenhouse in Nairobi, Kenya was marked by happy fanfare, but more importantly, a serious commitment from the highest levels to use biotechnology to help solve Africa’s pressing agricultural problems.

The biosafety greenhouse, constructed as part of the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, is the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa. A biosafety greenhouse is very similar to a normal greenhouse except that it has special features to prevent the transfer of pollen, seed, and other plant material from transgenic plants to the outside environment.

The first order of business for the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute’s (KARI) new biosafety greenhouse will be the continued development of maize that resists stem borers and is environmentally friendly. This is the IRMA project’s primary objective. Stem borers typically inflict losses of about 15% annually to the Kenyan maize crop, and IRMA’s farmer surveys indicate that their control is a high priority for both small- and large-scale farmers.

biosafe The President of Kenya, his Excellency the Hon. Mwai Kibaki, officially launched the facility. He was joined by Masa Iwanaga, CIMMYT’s Director General; Romano Kiome, Director of KARI; Andrew Bennett, Executive Director of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, which provided funds for the new facility; Shivaji Pandey, Director of CIMMYT’s African Livelihoods Program (ALP); and the Hon. Kipruto Arap Kirwa, Minister of Agriculture.
“We must embrace and apply modern science and technology in farming,” President Kibaki said. “Indeed, there is evidence that countries that have embraced modern agricultural technologies have improved economic performance, reduced poverty, and ensured greater food security for their people.”
“In embracing biotechnology, I am fully aware of the ongoing debate on biotechnology and its products, particularly genetically modified organisms,” President Kibaki added. “We in Kenya have resolved to apply biotechnology in line with the existing biosafety frameworks, national statutes, and international obligations. The newly constructed Biosafety Greenhouse Complex symbolizes that effort and will provide the internationally required containment for genetically modified material at the experimental stage. This will facilitate high-tech research in support of current and future agricultural endeavors.”

Speaking to more than 500 dignitaries, scientists, and representatives of farmers’ and civic organizations, CIMMYT Director General Iwanaga clearly laid out the case for using high science to meet the needs of resource-poor farmers. “What we now need, as with the first Green Revolution, is technology that is well-suited to the economic and physical circumstances of the region’s farmers and the political will to support development of that technology and create conditions conducive to its adoption,” says Iwanaga. “With this greenhouse opening and the training of competent staff to manage it, Kenya and KARI have positioned themselves to be leaders in sub-Saharan Africa in using the tools of biotechnology to meet the rapidly growing need to increase food production.”

In addition to constructing the biosafety greenhouse, the IRMA project is a pioneer in several other respects. To date, the project has focused on using Bt genes produced by the public sector and on using “clean genes” by removing antibiotic and herbicide resistant marker genes from the final products. Considerable effort has gone into collecting and characterizing the organisms typically found in maize fields in order to assess possible environmental impacts from the Bt maize. They have conducted extensive farmer and field surveys, which enable scientists to develop strategies that smallholders can employ to prevent the Bt resistance buildup by stem borers.

“We’ve set high goals for ourselves in terms of environmental safety, public awareness, farmer and stakeholder participation, developing human capacities where needed, and in developing effective products for farmers,” says IRMA coordinator Stephen Mugo. “It’s not often you see an international agriculture project moving forward successfully on so many fronts at one time.”

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For more information: Dr. Stephen Mugo

Weighing Pros and Cons of Genetically Modified Crops in Africa

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

September, 2004

Should Africa embrace genetically modified crops to help feed its hungry people? That question is explored by a recent paper entitled “Debunking the Myths of GM Crops for Africa: The Case of Bt Maize in Kenya.” The paper compares the benefits of genetically modified crops to information available on the risks, and finds that most objections are not backed by evidence. Hugo De Groote, Stephen Mugo, and David Bergvinson from CIMMYT, along with Ben Odhiambo of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, conducted the study, which argues for a discussion based on scientific evidence and evaluation of potential benefits against concerns.

Genetically modified crops have been successful in many countries, including Canada and the US, where they have increased yields, lowered labor and cultivation costs, and reduced the use of chemical inputs. Genetic engineering has the potential to enhance food security and nutritional quality in ways not possible with conventional technology. Because the technology is contained in the seed, it is easy to distribute to farmers. This is particularly important in Africa, where extension services have largely collapsed and transport infrastructure is poor.

Concerns about deploying genetically modified crops in Africa include food safety, ethics, environmental risk, loss of landrace biodiversity, and the lack of appropriate biosafety regulations. Although long-term effects need to be analyzed, current studies by national and international organizations reveal no demonstrated toxic or nutritionally harmful effects of foods derived from genetically modified crops.

Sounding Out Public Opinion

The study by de Groote and his colleagues focused on Kenya, where maize, the main food crop, is planted on 30% of arable lands. It drew on a variety of data sources, including participatory rural appraisals and farmer and consumer surveys. De Groote thinks it is important to make research results understandable to the general public so everyone can participate in the debate.

To gauge awareness and attitudes about genetically modified crops, the researchers interviewed 604 consumers, only half of whom were aware of them. Many appreciated the benefits but worried about potential negative effects on health and the environment, especially on local plant varieties. De Groote says consumers are increasingly aware of genetically modified food and generally accept it, but their concerns about environmental safety and biodiversity have to be addressed.

Several seed companies in Kenya have expressed interest in producing and distributing Bt maize seed, which offers an effective and practical method for reducing stem borer damage in maize. Genetically engineered Bt maize contains a gene from the soil-dwelling bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, which produces a toxin that helps control certain pests but is not harmful to humans or livestock. The Bt gene was first introduced into the commercial maize market in 1996. It has provided control for many pests and could help decrease pesticide use.

“The major surprise was that, contrary to the usual claims, Bt maize is very likely to benefit poor farmers and small seed companies,” says de Groote. “Stem borers are a real concern for farmers, especially in low-potential coastal and dry areas.”

Farmers in Kenya lose 400,000 tons, or about 14%, of their maize to stem borers. That is roughly the amount the country imports each year. De Groote says Bt maize alone will not solve this problem, but could help reduce losses and increase food security.

The IRMA Project

In 1999, the Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project was launched in Kenya to develop borer resistant varieties using both conventional breeding and biotechnology. Kenya already had experience with genetically modified crops and had biosafety policies in place. IRMA, a collaborative project between CIMMYT and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, receives financial support from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

Before initiating the project, all parties involved agreed that transformed plants would carry only the gene of interest, without marker genes; that transgenic crops would only be developed for countries with appropriate biosafety regulations; and that only genes in the public domain would be used. They also agreed that the project would work under the highest scientific standards. When the project ends, other countries in Africa will be able to evaluate results from Kenya’s experience and decide for themselves which path to follow.

“I hope that the results will be accepted not only by the scientific community but also by the general population, in Africa as well as in the developed world,” says de Groote. “I also hope they will put to rest some of the major concerns about Bt maize for Africa.”

To make informed choices possible, the researchers contend that scientists in Africa need hands-on experience with the new technology. They need to test and adapt it using the appropriate regulatory framework and precautions. Further, the researchers believe that the technologies need to be developed in a participatory approach, since African farmers and consumers have the right to choose technologies based on the best knowledge available. They should not be denied the chance to improve their livelihoods as a result of an academic debate in which they are not included.

For more information: Hugo De Groote or Stephen Mugo

Revised IRMA II Project Plan Stresses Regulatory Issues and New Management Structure

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

November, 2004

The Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project was launched in 1999 with the primary goal of increasing maize production and food security for African farmers through the development and deployment of improved maize varieties that provide high resistance to insects, particularly stem borers. To achieve this goal, KARI and CIMMYT scientists will identify conventional and novel sources of stem borer resistance and incorporate them into maize varieties that are well suited to Kenyan growing conditions and to farmer and consumer preferences. Major funding for the project is provided by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

A revised project plan for IRMA II, geared to better address regulatory issues related to Bt maize and to enhance project management, was released in October 2004, the culmination of months of intensive planning meetings and workshops. “In the course of implementation of IRMA II it became clear that the regulatory issues were not exhaustively covered in the original project plan,” explains IRMA Project Manager Stephen Mugo. The need to more thoroughly address regulatory issues (through the assembly of regulatory dossiers) emerged full force as field testing and eventual release of Bt maize in Kenya became more imminent.

In June 2004, consultant Willy De Greef provided IRMA parties with an overview of regulatory issues related to transgenic crops. At that special IRMA Steering Committee meeting, a working group was established to formulate and oversee IRMA II strategies for fulfilling regulatory regimens. Appointed to the group were B. Odhiambo (KARI), S. Mugo (CIMMYT), J.K. Ng’eno (MOA), and F. Nang’ayo (Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service [KEPHIS]). Dr. Simon Gichuki (KARI) was appointed to be the IRMA Project Internal Regulator.

mmulaa To get the ball rolling, five scientists were designated to attend an intensive two-week course on regulatory issues and processes, conducted in August at Ghent University, Belgium. The scientists were involved in either IRMA II or regulatory processes: A. Pellegrineschi and S. Mugo (CIMMYT), M. Mulaa and S. Gichuki (KARI), and R. Onamu (KEPHIS). On the heels of the regulatory workshop, a two-day workshop to develop, plan and incorporate regulatory activities in the IRMA II project plan was held in Nairobi in September 2004. Twenty-one participants from seven institutions attended the workshop: KARI, CIMMYT, KEPHIS, National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), and International Biotech Regulatory Services. The objectives of the meeting were to (1) update the status of Bt maize in IRMA project; (2) identify information needed for a dossier on Bt genes to be deployed by the project;(3) determine sources of the needed information and identify gaps to be filled through research; (4) determine activities needed to fill the gaps, including resources and assigning responsibilities; and (5) update the IRMA II project plan, specifically on regulatory issues. After agreeing on the components of a regulatory package, the team split up into working groups and identified the required information, and developed activities over time, including budgets and responsibilities. Subsequently, a small task group incorporated the regulatory strategies into the project plan and created a revised structure for IRMA II. Ten themes were recommended:

Bt maize event, development of Bt source line, and human health safety assessment
Development of conventional and Bt products and compositional analysis
Environmental impact assessment
Insect resistance management and contingency plans
Regulatory issues and requirements
IPR/licensing
Seed production
Market assessment and analysis
Economic impact assessment
Communication/promotion (public awareness, media relations, extension)

Each theme is interdisciplinary and involves a team of entomologists, biotechnologists, breeders, economists, communications experts, IP counsels, extension officers, policymakers, regulatory officials, and most importantly, Kenyan farmers. The first testing of Bt maize source lines will be in the biosafety greenhouse complex in 2004 and in the field in 2005. OPVs will be pre-released in 2010, with large-scale release in 2011. Hybrids will follow a year behind OPVs. In developing the project plan, probabilities of success and risks, and contingency measures were identified. Milestones were set, against which progress will be measured. These fall in four broad categories: (1) facilities and permits; (2) breeding; (3) environmental safety assessments; and (4) socioeconomic impacts. Dispersal of funds by Syngenta Foundation will take these milestones into account.

To actualize the milestones and objectives, a new project management structure was developed. Under the new scheme, an Executive Committee (EC) composed of KARI, CIMMYT, Syngenta Foundation, MOA, and The Rockefeller Foundation directors, and CIMMYT African Livelihoods Program director was established with overall responsibility for the project. The position of Project Manager was instituted and given overall responsibility for the projects day-to-day activities and oversight, and reporting to the EC. An advisory board of experts from the public and private sectors will be appointed by the EC to provide expertise in their respective areas and to monitor progress on the project plan. A project management team, composed of the 10 project theme leaders, will hold quarterly meetings and report monthly to the project manager.

The five-year budget for the project is approximately USD 6,670,000. Although the Syngenta Foundation will be the principal development partner, The Rockefeller Foundation will provide support for seed issues. Other potential donors will be approached to provide support for one or more of the specific outputs of the project. Collectively, these development partners, together with those involved with IRMA I, and especially the farmers of Kenya, will work to ensure that the products needed by the farmers of the nation and sub-Saharan Africa actually reach them.

Annual meeting of the Affordable, Accessible, Asian Drought Tolerant Maize Project

Written by on April 23, 2012. Posted in News.

The Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Project, a Syngenta/ CIMMYT partnership, held its annual meeting at the ICRISAT-Patancheru campus in Hyderabad, India, on 15 March 2012. Funded by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), the five-year project aims to help smallholder farmers in Asia grow more food and better provide for their families through the development of improved maize varieties. It supports smallholder farmers who lack access to irrigation by developing affordable and accessible drought tolerant maize in partnership with other National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in Asia.

AAA-Group

The meeting was attended by 30 representatives of Syngenta, national agricultural research programs, and CIMMYT. BM Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program, began the meeting, M Robinson of SFSA gave an overview on public/ private partnerships in the seed development and distribution industry, and BS Vivek, CIMMYT senior maize breeder, outlined the progress made in the first year of this project. P Zaidi, CIMMYT senior maize physiologist, reported on progress in root phenotyping, and Girish Kumar, CIMMYT maize molecular breeder, summarized advances in genotyping. Other presentations highlighted progress made by Syngenta (RP Singh, AAA lead for Syngenta and M Longrono, Asia corn breeding lead), national program of Vietnam (Van Vang, Vice Director, NMRI), and national programs of Indonesia (M Azrai, maize breeder, ICeRI). The meeting concluded with a visit to the drought trials at ICRISAT.

During this first year, the AAA project and the International Maize Improvement Consortium for Asia (IMIC-Asia) jointly conducted the course “Phenotyping for Drought Tolerance in Maize” held at ICRISAT on 19 December 2011. The course was attended by 70 breeders and technicians from 26 seed companies; PH Zaidi and BS Vivek served as resource persons. Training on all aspects of how to achieve adequate stress in drought trials was included, as well as data recording, analysis, and interpretation.

Writing for impact in Kenya

Written by on July 22, 2011. Posted in News.

On 10-16 July in Nakuru, Kenya, students gathered for “Writing Week”, a workshop focused on improving the composition of participants’ scientific papers for publication. Presentations were given by CIMMYT’s Dr. Hugo De Groote and Dr. Stephen Mugo, and Dr. Kiarie Njoroge from the Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection at the University of Nairobi. The workshop enabled sixteen students and advanced researchers to work collectively on improving their papers, which covered a range of agricultural topics.

This course was the second such workshop organized as part of the Insect Resistance Maize for Africa (IRMA) project, a collaborative initiative of CIMMYT and the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), which was launched in 1999. A grant from the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture funded the workshop.

Although the 16 participants are all associated with IRMA, they came from a range of institutions: CIMMYT, KART, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Kenya), University of Nairobi, Makerere University (Uganda), and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research.

The aim of Writing Week was to provide students with the time and mentorship in order to complete the writing of their papers in preparation for publication. The workshop was designed in part to fill the gaps often left by university training courses in regard to developing writing skills. Coursework regularly focuses on writing for academic audiences, with the principles of readability being neglected. In the short-term, Writing Week aimed to impart the skills necessary to produce papers of a standard equal to that of the research conducted. The long-term goal is that students will use this knowledge to improve their academic record and increase their opportunities for PhD or postdoctoral research. Following the first Writing Week in September 2010, 13 of the participants’ papers were published.

CIMMYT-organized training, such as the Writing Week workshop, not only allows participants to gain new skills, but also to interact with other researchers in their field. “Writing Week is a very good environment to focus on improving the writing of our work, to share our results with the rest of the scientific community, and to obtain honest feedback on our work” says participant Zachary Gitonga.

De Groote also hopes that the Writing Week has a more lasting effect: “the larger goal is always to have the results of their research have an impact beyond the scientific community. To that end, we focus on preparing researchers to publish papers in journals with an impact factor.” Gitonga, who completed an MSc in Applied Economics to Agriculture, and now works with De Groote on performing impact assessments of CIMMYT’s Effective Grain Storage Project, intends for his own research to have a direct effect on the livelihoods of farmers. “Although we are writing our publications generally speaking for the scientific community, my hope is that the findings of the research will influence policy-makers and transfer to a larger audience,” says Gitonga.

All the students who participated in the workshop are passionate not only about research, but how it can benefit the farmers it focuses on. Writing Week recognizes that it is not only valuable to train emerging professionals and researchers from a scientific perspective, but also to enable them to connect with their audiences. “If you help people with science and not with writing and publishing, then you stop before the goal is reached” said De Groote.

This week’s distinguished visitors

Written by on September 1, 2009. Posted in News.

Jerry Glover, agroecologist from The Land Institute, interacted with scientists and directors at El Batán during 25-28 August. The Institute is a non-profit organization located in Kansas, USA, that works to develop perennial versions of food crops like wheat and maize. Among other things, Glover gave a seminar entitled “Perennial solutions to farming’s annual problem,” and discussed ways and research areas in which CIMMYT and the Institute can work together.

Additionally a distinguished delegation of representatives from Syngenta visited CIMMYT headquarters during 26-28 August to talk about broadening the company’s research collaborations with the center. Members of the group were Drs. John Atkin, chief operating officer, Crop Protection; Rob Neill, global head, Marketing Crop Protection; John Bloomer, general business manager, Cereals; Rollie Sears, AGRIPRO senior development manager; Karsten Neuffer, head of Strategy & Planning; and Marcelo Valentín, director general, Mexico Office. They arrived the same day that the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) announced a two-year partnership between Syngenta, CIMMYT, and SFSA to identify and map genetic markers for use in wheat resistance breeding against Ug99 stem rust (see media release on the front page of the CIMMYT web portal).

On 21 August 2009, Hans Van de Water, of the Flemish Interuniversity Council, Department of Development Cooperation, Belgium, spent the day at El Batán to learn more about CIMMYT, with and eye to promoting the center in Belgium as an international organization eligible for development support and other forms of partnership with that country, especially support for graduate student work. “I received a four-year PhD scholarship from them during my stay at CIMMYT as a student, prior to accepting my current appointment,” says Bram Govaerts, cropping systems expert in the Conservation Agriculture Program.

Updating Kenyan stakeholders on progress

Written by on November 9, 2007. Posted in News.

This past Thursday, CIMMYT’s Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA) project organized a well-attended meeting to update its stakeholders, project participants, and journalists on the past year’s progress. Held at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) National Agricultural Research Laboratories, in Nairobi, the event drew more than 100 stakeholders, project participants, and journalists, who followed the presentations keenly and contributed to the lively discussions. The IRMA project is a joint initiative of KARI, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Speaking at the event, Kenya’s Agricultural Secretary, Wilson Songa, lauded the IRMA partnership for its significant contribution to improving national food security and livelihoods, through development of maize varieties with increased borer resistance. Other notable speakers were Marianne Bänziger, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program, Jost Frei of Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, KARI’s Director Ephraim Mukisira and IRMA Project Manager, Stephen Mugo. Through their remarks, the speakers highlighted the momentous strides made by IRMA in the development of capacity, technology, and policy – notably the Biosafety Bill – as well as raising awareness on biotechnology and related biosafety aspects. All stakeholders were in agreement that IRMA had set the pace for similar initiatives in the region and that they should all strive to move the IRMA agenda forward in their individual capacities.