funder_partner: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

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A farmer buys seed at a Meru seed shop in Arusha, Tanzania. (Photo: KipenzFilms/CIMMYT)

The missing seed market

Written by on February 27, 2019. Posted in News.

*Workers at Mgommera seed firm in Malawi sort out seed. (Photo: KipenzFilms/CIMMYT)*

In Ethiopia, a World Bank study found that female farm managers produce 23 percent less yield per hectare compared to their male counterparts. This difference is explained partly by unequal access to information on improved seed varieties and what best agricultural practices to use. Despite half the farming workforce being women, the seed companies do not typically adapt their seed marketing strategy according to gender.

The “Gender-Responsive Approaches for the Promotion of Improved Maize Seed in Africa” guidebook, developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is filling this gap. Designed for seed companies, extension workers and development organizations, it explains how best to package information about improved seed and farming technologies for men and women, with the goal of increasing adoption rates.

“Since seeing is believing, the field demonstrations approach allows farmers to witness firsthand how well improved seed varieties perform on their farms right from planting to harvesting, compared to old or other varieties,” said Rahma Adam, gender and development specialist at CIMMYT. “But too often, not enough care is given in the selection of women as lead farmers. This minimizes opportunities for reaching out to more women.”

Based on research, the guidebook recommends that half of the demonstration plots should be managed by women. In fact, the panel of lead farmers should be diverse, representing different age, socioeconomic status and ethnic groups, among others. Indeed, an understanding and importance of the various agronomic practices from the time of planting, weed control or fertilizer application would vary across gender, age and socioeconomic groups.

“Given the turnover of seed varieties due to genetic improvements, men and women extension workers need to keep abreast not only of new technologies, but also of new ways of fostering awareness and encouraging adoption, for instance using digital platforms for faster and cheaper outreach,” the guidebook concludes.

Tools for field days and budgeting

A complementary handbook, “Gender-responsive tools for demos and field days data collection”, is under preparation. It will guide seed companies and extension workers on how to consider the diversity of the public attending farmer field days.

Another toolkit, “Gender-Responsive Budgeting Tool for the Promotion of Improved Maize Seed in Africa”, proposes how to efficiently allocate resources to reach out to targeted farmers to promote new varieties and farming practices. If, for instance, women farmers do not know as much as men farmers about certain improved maize varieties, then the best approach would be to direct the resources towards promoting the seed varieties among the women. Better still, since women are involved in making decisions about purchasing improved seeds in both male-headed and female-headed households, it is logical to allocate more resources targeting women farmers. An effective strategy would be to allocate a portion of the budget to field days, farm demonstrations, distribution of small seed packs, informational leaflets, showcase videos and disseminate radio messages, among others. “In fact, local radio is quite effective in informing farmers about upcoming field days or farm demonstration days,” said Simon Kiio, a field officer at Dryland Seed Ltd, a Kenyan seed company which distributes drought-tolerant SAWA and VIGA maize hybrids, among others, across Kenya.

“Whenever we make announcements on local radio to inform farmers about dates and locations for demo farm activities, we usually get more women attending than men. These women act as good marketing ambassadors for our products within their networks or groups,” Kiio explained.

Ultimately, by building gender-sensitive and cost-effective seed promotion programs, seed companies would generate more seed sales of improved maize varieties: seeds that are more tolerant to major stresses, better adapted to poor soils, and yielding more than the local, older varieties on the market.

The Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project seeks to develop maize cultivars with tolerance and resistance to multiple stresses for farmers, and support local seed companies to produce seed of these cultivars on a large scale. STMA aims to develop a new generation of over 70 improved stress tolerant maize varieties, and facilitate production and use of over 54,000 metric tons of certified seed.

The STMA project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID.

Tara Miah, a farmer from Rajguru in Rahamanbari union, Barisal, Bangladesh. (Photo: Ranak Martin/CIMMYT)

Assessing the effectiveness of a “wheat holiday” for preventing blast in the lower Gangetic plains

Written by Marcia MacNeil on February 22, 2019. Posted in News.

Wheat blast — one of the world’s most devastating wheat diseases — is moving swiftly into new territory in South Asia.

In an attempt to curb the spread of this disease, policymakers in the region are considering a “wheat holiday” policy: banning wheat cultivation for a few years in targeted areas. Since wheat blast’s Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT) fungus can survive on seeds for up to 22 months, the idea is to replace wheat with other crops, temporarily, to cause the spores to die. In India, which shares a border of more than 4,000 km with Bangladesh, the West Bengal state government has already instituted a two-year ban on wheat cultivation in two districts, as well as all border areas. In Bangladesh, the government is implementing the policy indirectly by discouraging wheat cultivation in the severely blast affected districts.

CIMMYT researchers recently published in two ex-ante studies to identify economically feasible alternative crops in Bangladesh and the bordering Indian state of West Bengal.

Alternative crops

The first step to ensuring that a ban does not threaten the food security and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, the authors assert, is to supply farmers with economically feasible alternative crops.

In Bangladesh, the authors examined the economic feasibility of seven crops as an alternative to wheat, first in the entire country, then in 42 districts vulnerable to blast, and finally in ten districts affected by wheat blast. Considering the cost of production and revenue per hectare, the study ruled out boro rice, chickpeas and potatoes as feasible alternatives to wheat due to their negative net return. In contrast, they found that cultivation of maize, lentils, onions, and garlic could be profitable.

The study in India looked at ten crops grown under similar conditions as wheat in the state of West Bengal, examining the economic viability of each. The authors conclude that growing maize, lentils, legumes such as chickpeas and urad bean, rapeseed, mustard and potatoes in place of wheat appears to be profitable, although they warn that more rigorous research and data are needed to confirm and support this transition.

Selecting alternative crops is no easy task. Crops offered to farmers to replace wheat must be appropriate for the agroecological zone and should not require additional investments for irrigation, inputs or storage facilities. Also, the extra production of labor-intensive and export-oriented crops, such as maize in India and potatoes in Bangladesh, may add costs or require new markets for export.

There is also the added worry that the MoT fungus could survive on one of these alternative crops, thus completely negating any benefit of the “wheat holiday.” The authors point out that the fungus has been reported to survive on maize.

A short-term solution?

*The grain in this blast-blighted wheat head has been turned to chaff. (Photo: CKnight/DGGW/ Cornell University)*

In both studies, the authors discourage a “wheat holiday” policy as a holistic solution. However, they leave room for governments to pursue it on an interim and short-term basis.

In the case of Bangladesh, CIMMYT agricultural economist and lead author Khondoker Mottaleb asserts that a “wheat holiday” would increase the country’s reliance on imports, especially in the face of rapidly increasing wheat demand and urbanization. A policy that results in complete dependence on wheat imports, he and his co-authors point out, may not be politically attractive or feasible. Also, the policy would be logistically challenging to implement. Finally, since the disease can potentially survive on other host plants, such as weeds and maize, it may not even work in the long run.

In the interim, the government of Bangladesh may still need to rely on the “wheat holiday” policy in the severely blast-affected districts. In these areas, they should encourage farmers to cultivate lentils, onions and garlic. In addition, in the short term, the government should make generic fungicides widely available at affordable prices and provide an early warning system as well as adequate information to help farmers effectively combat the disease and minimize its consequences.

In the case of West Bengal, India, similar implications apply, although the authors conclude that the “wheat holiday” policy could only work if Bangladesh has the same policy in its blast-affected border districts, which would involve potentially difficult and costly inter-country collaboration, coordination and logistics.

Actions for long-term success

The CIMMYT researchers urge the governments of India and Bangladesh, their counterparts in the region and international stakeholders to pursue long-term solutions, including developing a convenient diagnostic tool for wheat blast surveillance and a platform for open data and science to combat the fungus.

A promising development is the blast-resistant (and zinc-enriched) wheat variety BARI Gom 33 which the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) released in 2017 with support from CIMMYT. However, it will take at least three to five years before it will be available to farmers throughout Bangladesh. The authors urged international donor agencies to speed up the multiplication process of this variety.

CIMMYT scientists in both studies close with an urgent plea for international financial and technical support for collaborative research on disease epidemiology and forecasting, and the development and dissemination of new wheat blast-tolerant and resistant varieties and complementary management practices — crucial steps to ensuring food security for more than a billion people in South Asia.

Wheat blast impacts

First officially reported in Brazil in 1985, where it eventually spread to 3 million hectares in South America and became the primary reason for limited wheat production in the region, wheat blast moved to Bangladesh in 2016. There it affected nearly 15,000 hectares of land in eight districts, reducing yield by as much as 51 percent in the affected fields.

Blast is devilish: directly striking the wheat ear, it can shrivel and deform the grain in less than a week from the first symptoms, leaving farmers no time to act. There are no widely available resistant varieties, and fungicides are expensive and provide only a partial defense. The disease, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT), can spread through infected seeds as well as by spores that can travel long distances in the air.

South Asia has a long tradition of wheat consumption, especially in northwest India and Pakistan, and demand has been increasing rapidly across South Asia. It is the second major staple in Bangladesh and India and the principal staple food in Pakistan. Research indicates 17 percent of wheat area in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan — representing nearly 7 million hectares – is vulnerable to the disease, threatening the food security of more than a billion people.

CIMMYT and its partners work to mitigate wheat blast through projects supported by U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat and the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture.

Read the full articles:

Averting Wheat Blast by Implementing a ‘Wheat Holiday’: In Search of Alternative Crops in West Bengal, India by Khondoker A. Mottaleb, Pawan K. Singh, Kai Sonder, Gideon Kruseman, Olaf Erenstein (PLOS One, February 2019)

Alternative use of wheat land to implement a potential wheat holiday as wheat blast control: In search of feasible crops in Bangladesh by Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb, Pawan Kumar Singh, Xinyao He, Akbar Hossain, Gideon Kruseman, Olaf Erenstein (Land Use Policy, March 2019)

New infographics illustrate impact of wheat blast

Written by Marcia MacNeil on February 18, 2019. Posted in Infographics.

Wheat blast is a fast-acting and devastating fungal disease that threatens food safety and security in the Americas and South Asia.

First officially identified in Brazil in 1984, the disease is widespread in South American wheat fields, affecting as much as 3 million hectares in the early 1990s.

In 2016, it crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and Bangladesh suffered a severe outbreak. Bangladesh released a blast-resistant wheat variety — developed with breeding lines from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) — in 2017, but the country and region remain extremely vulnerable.

The continued spread of blast in South Asia — where more than 100 million tons of wheat are consumed each year — could be devastating.

Researchers with the CIMMYT-led and USAID-supported Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) projects partner with national researchers and meteorological agencies on ways to work towards solutions to mitigate the threat of wheat blast and increase the resilience of smallholder farmers in the region. These include agronomic methods and early warning systems so farmers can prepare for and reduce the impact of wheat blast.

This series of infographics shows how wheat blast spreads, its potential effect on wheat production in South Asia and ways farmers can manage it.

This work is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. CSISA partners include CIMMYT, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

CIMMYT and its partners work to mitigate wheat blast through projects supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), the CGIAR Research Program on WHEAT and the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture.

Learn more about wheat blast.

This article was originally published on the website of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.

Maize farmer Raham Dil stands for a portrait with his push row planter. (Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT)

Precision planters boost maize yields in Pakistan

Written by on February 13, 2019. Posted in Features.

*A farmer uses a tractor-operated precision maize planter. (Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT)*

In the northwestern province of Pakistan, near the Afghan border, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is helping connect farmers with precision planters to support higher maize yields and incomes. Maize is one of the most important cereals in Pakistan, but in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa yields are significantly lower than the national average. The majority of maize farmers in this province have less than five acres of land and limited access to resources, including high-quality maize seed and mechanization.

Under the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan, CIMMYT introduced push row planters in 2016 to help farmers to get a uniform crop stand and save labor costs and time as compared to traditional planting practices. CIMMYT has since then partnered with Greenland Engineering to import tractor-operated precision maize planters. These precision planters allow farmers to plant two rows of maize in one pass and evenly distribute both seeds and fertilizer.

“Optimum planting density in combination with nutrient supply is key to getting the maximum maize yield,” says Muhammad Asim, a senior researcher with the Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI). “The precision planter helps farmers achieve this while also getting a uniform crop stand and uniform cobs.”

*Maize farmer Jalees Ahmed (right) operates his push row planter. (Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT)*

Jalees Ahmed, a smallholder maize farmer from the Nowshera district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, received a push row planter through CIMMYT’s AIP program. He used to hire six laborers to plant one acre of maize, but with the push row planter, Jalees only needs to hire one laborer and benefits from a more uniform crop.

Raham Dil, another farmer in the Mardan district, recently purchased a push row planter for his farm which he also rents to fellow farmers in the area.

Both Ahmed and Dil say these planters have made it easier to support their families financially. Interest in precision planters continues to grow.

Last fall, more than 80 farmers attended a field day in the Nowshera district where CIMMYT researchers demonstrated how to use the precision planter to sow maize. CIMMYT’s country representative for Pakistan, Imtiaz Muhammad, highlighted the importance of mechanized maize planting for farmers and CIMMYT’s commitment to improve maize-based system productivity in less developed regions of the country.

*Farmers in Nowshera district attend a demonstration on how to use the tractor-operated precision maize planter. (Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT)*

The Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan is led by CIMMYT and funded by USAID. This project seeks to increase productivity and incomes by testing and promoting modern practices for agriculture’s major sub-sectors in the country.

A farmer in the Ara district, in India's Bihar state, applies NPK fertilizer, composed primarily of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)

Experts identify policy gaps in fertilizer application in India

Written by on December 21, 2018. Posted in News.

*A farmer in Ara district, Bihar state, applies NPK fertilizer, composed primarily of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)*

NEW DELHI (CIMMYT) — Imbalanced application of different plant nutrients through fertilizers is a widespread problem in India. The major reasons are lack of adequate knowledge among farmers about the nutritional requirement of crops, poor access to proper guidelines on the right use of plant nutrients, inadequate policy support through government regulations, and distorted and poorly targeted subsidies.

This context makes it necessary to foster innovation in the fertilizer industry, and also to find innovative ways to target farmers, provide extension services and communicate messages.

A dialogue on “Innovations for promoting balanced application of macro and micro nutrient fertilizers in Indian agriculture” facilitated discussion on this issue. Representatives from key fertilizer industries, state governments, research institutions and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research gathered in New Delhi, India, on December 12, 2018. This dialogue was part of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and was organized by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI).

CIMMYT scientist and CSISA project leader Andrew McDonald presents the new Soil Intelligence System for India, which employs innovative and rapid approaches to soil health assessments. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)

The Director General of the Fertilizer Association of India (FAI), Shri Satish Chander, pointed out that new-product approvals in India take approximately 800 days. However, he explained, this delay is not the biggest problem facing the sector: other barriers include existing price controls that are highly contingent on political myths.

IFPRI researcher Avinash Kishore presented evidence contradicting the myth that farmers are highly sensitive to any price change. He presented data demonstrating that farmers’ demand for Urea and DAP remained highly price inelastic during periods of steep price increases, in 2011 and 2012.

Sheetal Sharma, soil scientist for nutrient management at IRRI, co-chaired a session on field evidences on the soil health card scheme and farmers incentives for change. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)

The Director of the South Asia Program at IPNI, T. Satyanarayana, highlighted the importance of micronutrients in promoting balanced fertilization of soils and innovative methods for determining soil health.

Andrew McDonald, from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), presented the new Soil Intelligence System for India, which employs innovative approaches to soil health assessments.

Farmers’ representative Ajay Vir Jakhar elaborated on the failure of underfunded extension systems to reach and disseminate relevant, factual and timely messages to vast numbers of farmers.

Other representatives from the fertilizer industry touched upon the need to identify farmer requirements for risk mitigation, labor shortages and site-specific nutrient management needs for custom fertilizer blends. Participants also discussed field evidence related to India’s soil health card scheme. Ultimately, discussions held at the roundtable helped identify relevant policy gaps, which will be summarized into a policy brief.

The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in partnership with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). It is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Bangladesh farmer Raju Sarder sits on his recently acquired reaper. (Photo: CIMMYT/Md. Ikram Hossain)

The saving grace of a hefty investment

Written by on December 18, 2018. Posted in Features.

A man in his early 20s walked the winding roads of Sajiara village, Dumuria upazila, Khulna District in Bangladesh. His head hanging low, he noticed darkness slowly descending and then looked up to see an old farmer wrapping up his own daily activities. With traditional tools in hand, the farmer looked exhausted. The young man, Raju Sarder, considered that there had to be a better way to farm to alleviate his drudgery and that of others in the community.

Determined to act, Raju set out to meet Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) officials the very next day. They informed him about the Mechanization and Irrigation project of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA MI). They also introduced him to the project’s most popular technologies, namely the power tiller operated seeder, reaper and axial flow pumps, all of which reduce labor costs and increase farming efficiency.

Raju found the reaper to be the most interesting and relevant for his work, and contacted a CSISA representative to acquire one.

The first challenge he encountered was the cost — the equivalent of $1,970 — which as a small-scale farmer he could not afford. CSISA MI field staff assured him that his ambitions were not nipped in the bud and guided him in obtaining a government subsidy and a loan of $1,070 from TMSS, one of CSISA MI’s micro financing partners. Following operator and maintenance training from CSISA MI, Raju began providing reaping services to local smallholder rice and wheat farmers.

He noticed immediately that he did not have to exert himself as much as before but actually gained time for leisure and his production costs dwindled. Most remarkably, for reaping 24 hectares Raju generated a profit of $1,806; a staggering 15 times greater than what he could obtain using traditional, manual methods and enough to pay back his loan in the first season.

“There was a time when I was unsure whether I would be able to afford my next meal,” said Raju, “but it’s all different now because profits are pouring in thanks to the reaper.”

As a result of the project and farmers’ interest, field labor in Raju’s community is also being transformed. Gone are the days when farmers toiled from dawn to dusk bending and squatting to cut the rice and wheat with rustic sickles. Laborious traditional methods are being replaced by modern and effective mechanization. Through projects such as CSISA MI, CIMMYT is helping farmers like Raju to become young entrepreneurs with a bright future. Once poor laborers disaffected and treated badly in their own society, these youths now walk with dignity and pride as significant contributors to local economic development.

CSISA MI is a partnership involving the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and iDE, a non-governmental organization that fosters farmers’ entrepreneurial development, with funding from USAID under the Feed the Future initiative.

Pakistan wheat seed makeover

Written by on December 13, 2018. Posted in News.

Munfiat, a farmer from Nowshera district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, is happy to sow and share seed of the high-yielding, disease resistant Faisalabad-08 wheat variety. (Photo: CIMMYT/Ansaar Ahmad)

Nearly 3,000 smallholder wheat farmers throughout Pakistan will begin to sow seed of newer, high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat varieties and spread the seed among their peers in 2019, through a dynamic initiative that is revitalizing the contribution of science-based innovation for national agriculture.

Some 73 tons of seed of 15 improved wheat varieties recently went out to farmers in the provinces of Baluchistan, Gilgit Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh, as part of the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), an initiative led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Our main goal is to help farmers replace outdated, disease-susceptible wheat varieties,” said Muhammad Imtiaz, CIMMYT scientist and country representative for Pakistan who leads the AIP. “Studies have shown that some Pakistan farmers grow the same variety for as long as 10 years, meaning they lose out on the superior qualities of newer varieties and their crops may fall victim to virulent, rapidly evolving wheat diseases.”

With support from CIMMYT and partners, participating farmers will not only enjoy as much as 20 percent higher harvests, but have agreed to produce and share surplus seed with neighbors, thus multiplying the new varieties’ reach and benefits, according to Imtiaz.

He said the new seed is part of AIP’s holistic focus on better cropping systems, including training farmers in improved management practices for wheat.

Wheat is Pakistan’s number-one food crop. Farmers there produce over 25 million tons of wheat each year — nearly as much as the entire annual wheat output of Africa or South America.

Annual per capita wheat consumption in Pakistan averages over 120 kilograms, among the highest in the world and providing over 60 percent of Pakistanis’ daily caloric intake.

The seed distributed includes varieties that offer enhanced levels of grain zinc content. The varieties were developed by CIMMYT in partnership with HarvestPlus, a CGIAR research program to study and deliver biofortified foods.

According to a 2011 nutrition survey, 39 percent of children in Pakistan and 48 percent of pregnant women suffer from zinc deficiency, leading to child stunting rates of more than 40 percent and high infant mortality.

The road to better food security and nutrition seems straighter for farmer Munsif Ullah and his family, with seed of a high-yielding, zinc-enhanced wheat variety. (Photo: CIMMYT/Ansaar Ahmad)

“I am very excited to be part of Zincol-16 seed distribution, because its rich ingredients of nutrition will have a good impact on the health of my family,” said Munsif Ullah, a farmer from Swabi District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Other seed distributed includes that of the Pakistan-13 variety for rainfed areas of Punjab, Shahkar-13 for the mountainous Gilgit-Baltistan, Ehsan-16 for rainfed areas in general, and the Umeed-14 and Zardana varieties for Baluchistan.

All varieties feature improved resistance to wheat rust diseases caused by fungi whose strains are mutating and spreading quickly in South Asia.

CIMMYT and partners are training farmers in quality seed production and setting up demonstration plots in farmers’ fields to create awareness about new varieties and production technologies, as well as collecting data to monitor the varieties’ performance.

They are also promoting resource-conserving practices such as balanced applications of fertilizer based on infrared sensor readings, ridge planting, and zero tillage. These innovations can save water, fertilizer, and land preparation costs, not to mention increasing yields.

“CIMMYT’s main focus in Pakistan is work with national wheat researchers to develop and spread better wheat production systems,” Imtiaz explained. “This includes improved farming practices and wheat lines that offer higher yields, disease resistance, and resilience under higher temperatures and dry conditions, as well as good end-use quality.”

CIMMYT’s partners in AIP include the National Rural Support Program (NRSP), the Lok Sanjh Foundation, the Village Friends Organization (VFO), the Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP), the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) Wheat Program, the Wheat Research Institute (WRI) Faisalabad and Sakrand centers, AZRI-Umarkot, Kashmala Agro Seed Company, ARI-Quetta, BARDC-Quetta, and Model Farm Services Center, KP.

Delegates of the 3-year review conference pose for a group photograph at the ICRAF Campus in Nairobi. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)

International coalition keeps devastating maize disease at bay, but risks still linger

Written by Jérôme Bossuet on December 10, 2018. Posted in Features.

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) — When maize lethal necrosis (MLN) was first reported in Bomet County, Kenya, in September 2011 and spread rapidly to several countries in eastern Africa, agricultural experts feared this emerging maize disease would severely impact regional food security. However, a strong partnership across eight countries between maize research, plant health organizations and the private seed sector has, so far, managed to contain this devastating viral disease, which can wipe out entire maize fields. As another emerging pest, the fall armyworm, is making headlines in Africa, African countries could learn a lot from the initiatives to combat MLN on how to rapidly respond to emerging crop pests and diseases.

On November 19-20, 2018, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), national research and plant protection agencies and seed companies met in Nairobi to review the third year’s progress of the MLN Diagnostics and Management Project, supported by USAID. All participants agreed that preventing any spread of the disease into southern Africa was a great success.

“The fact that we all responded rapidly and productively to this crisis serves as a testament of the success of our collective efforts,” said CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program Director, B.M. Prasanna, while addressing delegates from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. “That no new country has reported the MLN outbreak since Ethiopia last reported it in the 2014-2015 period, and that we have managed to keep it at bay from southern Africa and west Africa is no mean feat. It would have been a major food security disaster if the disease had spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa.”

However, the MLN Community of Practice warned that risks of severe outbreaks remain, with new cases of MLN reported during the MLN 2018 survey in several parts of Uganda.

Delegates from Rwanda discuss the country's workplan at the 3-year MLN project review. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT) — *Delegates from Rwanda discuss the country’s workplan at the 3-year MLN project review. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)*

Rapid response to a food security threat

MLN is caused by the combination of the maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and other common cereal viruses mostly from the potyviridae family — a set of viruses that encompasses over 30 percent of known plant viruses — like the sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV). This viral disease can result in up to 100 percent yield loss and has devastated the incomes and food security situation of many smallholder farmers in the region.

CIMMYT, in collaboration with national agricultural research institutions, national plant protection agencies and seed sector partners, developed a multi-layered response system including real-time intensive surveillance, screening, and fast-tracking of the MLN resistance breeding program. Thanks to the MLN Screening Facility in Naivasha, Kenya, maize breeders rapidly discovered that most popular maize varieties were susceptible, which could expose poor farmers to the risk of losing their entire maize crops.

Using its global collection of maize lines and numerous crop improvement innovations, CIMMYT was able to develop and release at least 15 MLN-resistant maize varieties in just 2 to 3 years.

One important step was to understand how the disease spread. Epidemiologists quickly pointed out the necessity to work with the seed companies and farmers, as the virus could be transmitted through seeds. The project helped put in place the protocols for seed firms to adhere to for their products to be MLN-free. Affordable and simple seed treatment procedures yielded promising results. The project also created awareness on better farming methods for effective disease control.

National Plant Protection Organizations were mobilized to create intensive awareness. They were also equipped and trained on low-cost innovative field diagnostic tools like MLN immunostrips and the deployment of GPS-based mobile surveillance and reporting systems.

“For the first time, Rwanda was able to conduct a comprehensive survey on MLN in farmers’ fields, commercial seed fields and at agro-dealers. We are glad that through MLN management and awareness programs within the project, MLN incidences have declined,” said Fidele Nizeyimana, maize breeder and pathologist at the Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB) and the MLN Surveillance team lead in Rwanda.

“Equally important is that the commercial seed sector took the responsibility of testing their seed production fields, made sure that seed exchange is done in a responsible manner and implemented voluntary monitoring and surveillance within their fields,” remarked Francis Mwatuni, MLN project manager at CIMMYT.

“I am happy that Malawi has maintained its MLN-free status as per the intensive MLN surveillance activities we conducted in the country over the last three years,” noted Johnny Masangwa, senior research officer and MLN Surveillance team lead in Malawi. “We are now able to monitor both seed and grain movement through our borders for MLN traces, courtesy of the lab equipment, reagents and training on laboratory analysis we received through the project”.

B.M. Prasanna, director of the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), discusses what the CGIAR offers in rapid response preparedness to newly emerging pests, diseases and crises.

The maize sector should remain vigilant

Daniel Bomet, maize breeder at Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), warned that with new infections reported in the northern parts of his country, the maize sector needs to remain alert to the threat of MLN. “We need to step up MLN awareness and management programs, and require seed companies to follow the right procedures to produce MLN-free seeds to arrest this trend,” he said.

Tanzania Seed Association Executive Director, Bob Shuma, also warned that MLN could be spreading to the southern highlands of the country as the virus was detected in some seed shipments from three seed companies operating in that region. A comprehensive MLN survey in Tanzania will hopefully soon give an idea of the countrywide status of the disease in the country.

Conference speakers and participants noted that inefficient regulatory processes in maize seed variety release and deployment still stand in the way of rapid release of MLN resistant varieties to farmers across the region.

“How quickly we scale up and deploy the elite MLN-resistant and stress-tolerant varieties to the farmer is the next most important phase of the project,” Prasanna said.

The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) General Manager, Phytosanitary Services, Isaac Macharia, said that with the support of the USAID Feed the Future program, the government agency has set up a team dedicated to assisting seed companies doing seed multiplication to fast-track the release of the MLN-resistant varieties to the market. Some Kenyan seed companies announced they will market MLN-resistant varieties for the next cropping season in March 2019.

As the project enters its last year, the MLN Community of Practice looks to ensure the fully functional pest surveillance and management system it has put in place is sustainable beyond the project’s life.

*CIMMYT researchers Dave Hodson (left) and Francis Mwatuni (center) discuss MLN issues with another delegate during the 3-year MLN project review workshop. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)*

Extension materials on best agronomic practices endorsed by government of Nepal

Written by on December 6, 2018. Posted in News.

*Agricultural extension materials on best management practices for rice (left) and cauliflower, developed by CIMMYT as part of the NSAF project.*

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) — Maintenance and enhancement of soil fertility are vital for food security and environmental sustainability. However, a baseline survey conducted through the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project shows that 95 percent of farmers have poor agronomic literacy. Most of them have little or no knowledge of proper seed and soil management practices, and do not apply fertilizer appropriately. Many farmers are also unaware of micronutrients and their specific role in crop production, so they spray micronutrient solutions as advised by agrovets. While quality seed and mineral fertilizer use are necessary to improve crop yields, use alone is not sufficient to maximize efficiency — how to use these tools is equally, if not more, important.

All these challenges indicate a need to educate farmers and help them adopt good agronomic practices that will maximize crop production and productivity.

As part of the NSAF project, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has developed locally appropriate agricultural extension materials to disseminate best management practices for maize, wheat and other crops. The government of Nepal has endorsed the project’s best management practices for rice, maize, wheat, tomato, cauliflower and onion.

These extension materials have information on integrated soil fertility management: a set of agricultural practices that integrates improved seed, mineral fertilizer use and soil organic matter management, all adapted to local conditions to improve agricultural productivity. They also serve to share information on the 4 Rs of fertilizer management stewardship: right source, right rate, right time and right placement.

CIMMYT and NSAF project partners are delivering these innovative extension materials to agrovets, cooperatives, extension agencies, development organizations and other intermediaries. They then use them to provide training to farmers in their working areas.

Training packages include pictorial aids, games, informative handouts, group activities, field guides, demonstrations, field visits and other physical learning tools. All the materials have been developed following an “active learning” framework. Training topics include the principles of integrated soil fertility management, soil pH and liming, crop-specific fertilizer application rates, planting methods, fertilizer splitting, methods of fertilizer placement, seed and fertilizer quality, handling considerations and postharvest practices.

“Training of extension workers and farmers on agricultural and plant nutrient related topics leads to an improvement in agronomic practices by farmers. Farmers that are trained and educated in best agronomic practices tend to realize high yields,” said Ramananda Gupta, Agronomist and Extension Specialist at the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC). CIMMYT is partnering with IFDC to implement the activities of the NSAF project related to fertilizer, including agricultural extension programs, policy support and market development.

All training materials have been field-tested with farmers, agro-dealers, government extension specialists and cooperatives. The training content has been reviewed by the Nepal Agricultural Research Center and Department of Agriculture. “The content of the best management practice materials are essential knowledge and skills farmers need to sustainably intensify production. Adoption of best management practices will significantly contribute in developing the rice sector as well as other related crops,” commented Ram Baran Yadaw, Rice Coordinator at the National Rice Research Program.

The NSAF project team is piloting the dissemination of improved technologies, skills and extension materials to farmers through local governments and private companies, using different tools and methods. The extension materials on best management practices will be publicly available, so improved seed and soil fertility technologies can be more accessible to farmers.

CIMMYT is also partnering with Viamo to adapt all the materials into an SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system to further scale up the program in the country, potentially reaching 12 million mobile phone subscribers.

The Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project promotes the use of improved seeds and integrated soil fertility management technologies along with effective and efficient extension programs across 21 “Zone of Influence” districts and in five earthquake-affected districts. The project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as part of the Feed the Future initiative. The project is led by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in collaboration with Nepal’s Ministry of Agricultural Development and partners including the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) and the Center for Environment and Agricultural Research, Extension and Development (CEAPRED).

New digital maps to support soil fertility management in Nepal

Written by on December 4, 2018. Posted in News.

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) — The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is working with Nepal’s Soil Management Directorate and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) to aggregate historic soil data and, for the first time in the country, produce digital soil maps. The maps include information on soil PH, organic matter, total nitrogen, clay content and boron content. Digital soil mapping gives farmers and natural resource managers easy access to location-specific information on soil properties and nutrients, so they can make efficient and localized management decisions.

As part of CIMMYT’s Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project, researchers used new satellite imagery that enabled the resolution of the maps to be increased from 1×1 km to 250×250 m. They have updated the web portal to make it more user friendly and interactive. When loaded onto a smartphone, the map can retrieve the soil properties information from the user’s exact location if the user is within areas with data coverage. The project team is planning to produce maps for the whole country by the end of 2019.

CIMMYT scientist David Guerena talks about the role of the new digital maps to combat soil fertility problems in Nepal.

At a World Soil Day event in Nepal, CIMMYT soil scientist David Guerena presented the new digital soil maps to scientists, academics, policymakers and other attendees. Guerena explained the role this tool can play in combatting soil fertility problems in Nepal.

These interactive digital maps are not simply visualizations. They house the data and analytics which can be used to inform site-specific integrated soil fertility management recommendations.

The first high-resolution digital soil maps for the Terai region have been produced with support from the data assets from the National Land Use Project, developed by Nepal’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development. These maps will be used to guide field programming of the NSAF project, drive the development of market-led fertilizer products, and inform and update soil management recommendations. The government of Nepal can use the same information to align policy with the needs of farmers and the capacity of local private seed and fertilizer companies.

In 2017, 16 scientists from Nepal’s Soil Management Directorate, NARC and other institutions attended an advanced digital soil mapping workshop where they learned how to use different geostatistical methods for creating soil maps. This year, as part of the NSAF project, four NARC scientists attended a soil spectroscopy training workshop and learned about digitizing soil data management and using advanced spectral methods to convert soil information into fertilizer recommendations.

Soil data matters

Soil properties have a significant influence on crop growth and the yield response to management inputs. For farmers, having access to soil information can make a big difference in the adoption of integrated soil fertility management.

Farmer motivation and decision-making relies heavily on the perceived likeliness of obtaining a profitable return at minimized risk. This largely depends on the yield response to management inputs, such as improved seeds and fertilizers, which depends to a large extent on site-specific soil properties and variation in agro-ecological conditions. Therefore, quantitative estimates of the yield response to inputs at a given location are essential for estimating the risks associated with these investments.

The digital soil maps can be accessed at https://nsafmap.github.io/.

The Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is a flagship project in Nepal. The objective of the NSAF is to build competitive and synergistic seed and fertilizer systems for inclusive and sustainable growth in agricultural productivity, business development and income generation in Nepal.

Affordable grain drying and storage technologies cut down aflatoxins

Written by Jérôme Bossuet on November 9, 2018. Posted in News.

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) — Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa lose up to a third of their grain after harvest because they often use poor grain storage technologies and ineffective drying practices. Staples like maize stored on-farm are exposed to infestation by insects and fungi. These can lead to contamination with mycotoxins, in particular aflatoxins, poisonous food toxins produced by Aspergillus fungi.

At high doses, aflatoxins can kill. Prolonged exposure to aflatoxins can impact consumers’ health, suppressing immune systems, hindering child growth and even causing liver cancer. Kenya is a particular hotspot for aflatoxins, as regular studies show widespread contamination along the food chain, from maize grain to milk and meat.

Preliminary findings of a study by USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling (FPL) suggest that innovative low-cost grain drying and storage technologies such as hermetic bags and hygrometers could prevent post-harvest crop losses and harmful aflatoxin contamination.

The initial results were shared at a workshop in Nairobi on October 25, 2018, as part of the FPL project, which aims to develop and disseminate affordable and effective post-harvest technologies suited to the African smallholder farmer. This project is a collaboration between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and Purdue University.

A study conducted between May 2017 and May 2018 in Kiboko, Kenya, compared the performance of various hermetic storage containers and bags by different manufacturers with farmers’ usual storage practices. Researchers measured maize grain quality parameters such as grain damage, weight loss in storage, fungal growth and mycotoxins, food quality and seed germination. The results showed hermetic bags were highly effective in averting grain loss for up to one year.

“If these bags are sealed properly, oxygen cannot get in or out. This creates an anaerobic environment that suffocates grain-damaging insects and prevents fungi from growing” says CIMMYT economist Hugo De Groote.

Making hermetic storage more accessible

The Africa Technical Research Center (ATRC) is involved in the development of some of the hermetic bags that were tested during the study. ATRC director Johnson Odera noted that most of the insect infestations start in the field. “When the farmer harvests and transports the maize home, the grain is already infested,” Odera explained. “The damage can be extensive depending on the level of infestation. One of the ways to minimize the losses, while keeping the food safe for consumption is to use hermetic bags”.

These bags, however, remain largely unavailable to smallholder farmers, according to the study. This is mainly due to farmers’ low awareness levels and the high cost of hermetic bags. Unlike normal storage bags that cost about $0.7 each, hermetic bags retail for $2 to $2.5.

A second study, conducted with maize producers and traders in Kakamega, western Kenya, suggests that dropping prices by 20 percent had the potential to increase sales by 88 percent.

This study further suggested that farmers can benefit a lot from using low-cost hygrometers to accurately measure moisture content in maize. Grain is quickly spoiled by fungi contamination if it is not dry enough when stored. One or two percent lower moisture levels can make a big difference in reducing aflatoxin contamination.

“Farmers could put maize grain samples in a plastic bag and insert low-cost hygrometers to read moisture content after temperature is stabilized in 15 minutes,” says Purdue University professor Jacob Ricker-Gilbert. “They then know if their grain is safe enough for storage or not. However, standard hygrometers cost around $100, which is out of reach for many small farmers.”

Purdue University, CIMMYT and KALRO conducted a market survey in 2017 among maize farmers and traders in Kenya to assess their willingness to buy low-cost hygrometers. The survey found that farmers were willing to pay an average price of $1.21 for a hygrometer, while traders said they would buy at $1.16 each. The project was able to get cheap and reliable hygrometers at less than one dollar, opening the door for possible commercialization. One company, Bell Industries, has started to market the devices as a pilot.

Raising farmers and policymakers’ awareness on appropriate storage and drying technologies is now a priority for scientists working on the FPL project, which will hopefully lead to less maize spoiled and better food safety.

The conference organized by the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium attracted the interest of a large group of participants. (Photo: African Union Commission)

International research-for-development coalition against fall armyworm, the not-so-nice, very hungry caterpillar

Written by Jérôme Bossuet on November 8, 2018. Posted in Features.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (CIMMYT) — African farmers have lost millions of dollars in earnings since 2016 due to the loss of crops to the voracious fall armyworm.

Since the initial shock, farmers, researchers, extension officers, agribusinesses, governments and donors have reacted quickly to fight the invasive pest in various ways, including with pesticides, agroecological approaches and new seeds.

Yet the situation is far from under control. A more coordinated research-for-development (R4D) action plan is urgently needed to ensure that effective and affordable solutions reach smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa so they can sustainably combat the devastating pest.

Smallholder farm socioeconomics are highly complex, which makes adoption of any new technology or practice a challenge. “We must look at the big picture to design safer, accessible, effective and sustainable solutions against fall armyworm,” said Martin Kropff, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which jointly coordinated “Fall Armyworm Research for Development: Status and priorities for Africa,” an international conference held from Oct. 29 to 31 at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Hosted by the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium, the conference was aimed at drawing a science-based roadmap to combat the hungry caterpillar. The partners organizing the conference were the African Union Commission (AUC), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), CIMMYT, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Vulnerable smallholder farmers

African leaders consider the invasive fall armyworm “a big threat for African food security,” said Amira Elfadil, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, at the opening of the conference.

The caterpillar has munched through thousands of hectares of maize, sorghum and a few other commercial crops across Africa and is causing severe concerns among food and agriculture experts and policymakers. Since it was first detected in Nigeria and São Tomé, the moth has spread across more than 40 African countries and has been seen in India since July 2018. It could also invade Europe and other continents.

“Fall armyworm has been the fastest pest to expand across the continent,” said Eyasu Abraha, Ethiopia’s state minister for agriculture development.

The pest is a familiar foe to agricultural experts and farmers in the Americas who have fought against it for several decades. However, the pest has found an ideal environment to flourish in Africa, with diverse agro-ecologies and a warmer climate all year round amplifying its persistent threat.

It has a host range of more than 80 plant species, including maize, a staple food on which millions of people throughout sub-Saharan Africa depend for food and income security. It can cause total crop losses, and at advanced larval development stages can be difficult to control even with synthetic pesticides. The female fall armyworm can lay up to a thousand eggs at a time and produce multiple generations very quickly without pause in tropical environments. The moth can fly 100 km (62 miles) a night, and some moth populations have even been reported to fly distances of up to 1,600 kilometers in 30 hours, according to experts.

Entomologists are trying to fill a knowledge gap on how the fall armyworm behaves and migrates throughout Africa.

Solutions that may work to combat the pest in Brazil or North America may not be applicable for the agricultural context in Africa where most farmers are low-resource smallholders, struggling to access new knowledge and technologies.

High cost of ineffective collaboration

Hans Dreyer, director of FAO’s plant protection division, listed many collaborative initiatives, including national task forces and expert working groups, which contributed to document and inform the current state of knowledge.

There are still many knowledge and technical gaps. Some resourceful information platforms are already available for the farmers and extension workers, including the fall armyworm web portal created by CABI, the mobile farmer Q&A service PlantVillage, or Precision Agriculture for Development’s text messaging advisory service MoA-Info.

“The cost of not collaborating is pretty severe,” said Regina Eddy, who leads the Fall Armyworm Task Force at the USAID Bureau for Food Security. The real gamechanger will be that “all experts in the room agree on a common and concrete research-for-development agenda and how to organize ourselves to implement it effectively,” she added.

During the conference, the experts debated intensely on the technical gaps and the best ways to combat the pest through an integrated pest management strategy, including how to scout the caterpillar in the crop field, establish monitoring and surveillance systems, pest control innovations and appropriate policy support to accelerate introduction of relevant innovations.

Safe, sustainable, farmer-centered solutions

Short-term responses to the pest at present include synthetic pesticide use. However, there are public health and environment concerns over some of the toxic pesticides being used in Africa to control the fall armyworm.

Brian Sobel from Catholic Relief Services recalled witnessing a woman in Malawi who, in an effort to combat the pest, sprayed much more chemical pesticide on her maize than necessary.

The rapid increase of the pesticide market in Africa has led to the circulation of plenty of banned or counterfeit products, some very toxic for the farmer, said Steven Haggblade, a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University in the United States. Farmers are often not well trained in the use of such chemicals and do not protect themselves during application, he said.

Pesticide use has many negative trade-offs, said Paul Jepson, a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University. Natural enemies like parasitic wasps are also often far more vulnerable to pesticides than fall armyworm larvae, which are hard to reach and hide themselves in the maize whorls for instance.

Continental action plan

A key recommendation made by the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium is to develop common methodologies and research protocols to ensure data from various studies across the continent are better used and compared. For example, how best could the true impacts of the fall armyworm on food and seed security, public health and environment be measured? Collaborative research could include multilocation assessment of the relationship between observed crop damages and yield losses, which is key to determine the efficacy of a pest control innovation.

Conference participants also agreed to work on defining economic and action thresholds for fall armyworm interventions, to ensure better recommendations to the farming communities.

Because no one solution can fit all farmers and socioeconomic contexts, advice must include use of environmentally safer pesticides, low-cost agronomic practices and landscape management and fall armyworm-resistant varieties, among other integrated pest management tools.

Enhanced cooperation between countries to access new technologies and manage the transboundary pest is seen as a priority. Consortium experts also urge an integrated pest management approach, initiated based on farmers’ needs. Controlling the fall armyworm in the long run will require important investments into research-for-development for generating and sharing knowledge and addressing technical gaps with farmers.

For more information on fall armyworm, this conference and the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium, please contact B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and of the CGIAR Research Program on MAIZE, at b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org.

New publications: Does farm structure matter?

Written by Jérôme Bossuet on November 1, 2018. Posted in Publications.

Farmland distributions are rapidly evolving in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, as data from the World Bank’s Tanzanian Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys in Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) shows. Between 2009 and 2013, farms under 5 hectares have increased in absolute numbers – from 5.4 to 6.1 million – as smallholdings became increasingly fragmented due to demographic and land inheritance patterns. But farms greater than 5 hectares also grew in number, and their share in the rural landscape, in terms of land area, grew quickly. The share of total farmland held by “small” farms of less than 5 hectares declined from 62% to 56% over the period while the share of farmland under farms of 10 or more hectares grew by 6%. So, what are the implications of such rapid changes in farm structure and concentration of land under larger farms?

CIMMYT spatial economist Jordan Chamberlin is using household survey data in innovative ways to reveal how changing patterns of land access and farm size distributions are influencing farmers’ livelihoods. He is investigating whether medium- and large-scale farms generate benefits for nearby smallholder farmers. In a case study in Tanzania, Chamberlin and his colleague, T.S. Jayne, estimated how rural incomes are affected by land concentration measures, such as the Gini coefficient, after controlling for other household and geographical factors, including market access, population density, and rainfall.

Lushoto, Tanzania. Photo: Rod Waddington — *Lushoto, Tanzania. (Photo: Rod Waddington)*

Another important finding was the lack of evidence for positive impacts of farmland concentration when such concentration was measured as the share of land in farms of 10 or more hectares. The intuitive explanation of this result is that the larger the farm, the less likely it is to generate benefits for surrounding smallholders. This may be because medium-scale farms, relative to larger commercial farming enterprises, are more likely to employ labor from surrounding households, and may also provide services such as mechanized traction.

More research is needed to identify these spillover mechanisms, and to understand the conditions under which larger farms generate positive impacts for smaller neighbors. As the farmland landscape is evolving quickly in sub-Saharan Africa, understanding these mechanisms could be instrumental to drive more inclusive rural development. Such research could help to add nuance to the current debate in agricultural and land policy circles about whether the de facto expansion of medium-scale and larger farms are a boon or a threat to the smallholder majority within the region’s agrifood systems.

Jordan Chamberlin presented results from this study in a webinar on 6 November 2018 hosted by CGIAR’s Policies, Institutions, Markets Research Program.

This research was carried out in collaboration with T.S. Jayne, Michigan State University, with support from USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation Lab on Food Security Policy, the BMGF-funded Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Africa (GISAIAA) initiative, the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).

Check out other recent publications by CIMMYT researchers below:

BGGE: a new package for genomic-enabled prediction incorporating genotype × environment interaction models. 2018. Granato, I., Cuevas, J., Luna-Vazquez, F.J., Crossa, J., Montesinos-Lopez, O.A., Burgueño, J., Fritsche-Neto, R. In: G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics v. 8, no. 9, p. 3039-3047.
Carotenoid and tocochromanol profiles during kernel tevelopment make consumption of biofortified “fresh” maize an option to improve micronutrient nutrition. 2018. Cabrera-Soto, L., Pixley, K.V., Rosales-Nolasco, A., Galicia-Flores, L.A., Palacios-Rojas, N. In: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry v. 66, no. 36, p. 9391–9398.
Correction to: mapping adult plant stem rust resistance in barley accessions Hietpas-5 and GAW-79. 2018. Case, A.J., Bhavani, S., Macharia, G., Pretorius, Z.A., Coetzee, V., Kloppers, F.J., Tyagi, P., Brown-Guedira, G., Steffenson, B.J. In: Theoretical and Applied Genetics v.131, no. 10, p. 2267–2267.
Registration of spring wheat germplasm ND 735 combining tan spot, Leaf, and stem rusts. 2018. Mergoum, M., Frohberg, R.C., Ali, S., Singh, P.K., Rasmussen, J.B., Miller, J.D. In: Crop Science v. 46, no. 2, p. 1003-1004.

Fall armyworm session at 2018 Borlaug Dialogue.

Fall armyworm on the agenda at the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on October 25, 2018. Posted in News.

DES MOINES (Iowa) — At the plenary of the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue, a global panel of experts gave an overview of the origins of the fall armyworm, how it is spreading around the world, and how governments, farmers and researchers are fighting against this pest.

Pedro Sanchez, research professor in tropical soils at the University of Florida and 2002 World Food Prize Laureate, shared background information on the history of the fall armyworm and the early attempts to neutralize it, decades ago. He pointed out that once-resistant varieties were eventually affected by this pest.

The Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Martin Kropff, shared the most recent developments and explained how organizations are working together to respond to this pest. “We want to have science-based, evidence-based solutions,” Kropff said. “We have to solve the problem based on science, and then to develop and validate and deploy integrated pest management technologies.”

The director general of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture, Mandefro Nigussie, reminded that in addition to affecting people and the environment, fall armyworm “is also affecting the future generation,” as children were pulled out of school to pick larvae.

The response against fall armyworm cannot be done by governments alone, panelists agreed. It requires the support of multiple actors: financing the research, producing research, promoting the results of the research and implementing appropriate measures.

Rob Bertram, chief scientist at USAID’s Bureau for Food Security predicted the fall armyworm will continue to be a “serious problem” as it moves and migrates.

The director general and CEO of the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization, Eluid Kireger, emphasized the importance of global collaboration. “We need to borrow the technologies that are already working”.

The fall armyworm was also discussed during the Corteva Agriscience Forum side event, on a session on “Crop security for food security”. The Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize, B.M. Prasanna, was optimistic about the efforts to tackle this voracious pest. “I’m 100 percent confident that the pest will be overcome, but it requires very solid synergistic and coordinated actions at the national level, at the regional level and at the continental level.”

CIMMYT is co-leading the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium. “Fall armyworm is not going to be the only threat now and forever; there will be more insects, pests and pathogens moving around,” Prasanna said. “Global connectedness is exacerbating this kind of problem, but the solution lies also in global connectedness.”

*See our coverage of the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue and the World Food Prize.*

Scaling up mechanization in Bangladesh through partnerships

Written by on October 17, 2018. Posted in Features.

Over the last two decades, a significant number of rural Bangladeshis – especially youth – have migrated to urban centers, looking for higher paying jobs and an escape from agricultural labor. Conor Riggs is the Global Director of Markets and Entrepreneurship at iDE. He says smallholder farmers in Southern Bangladesh are increasingly struggling to find and afford farm labor to help harvest crops and perform a variety of other on-farm activities.

Riggs says small-scale mechanization, such as two-wheeled tractors fitted with intensification machinery and surface irrigation pumps, can help farmers make up for this labor gap and increase productivity, while boosting the local economy by supporting micro- and small enterprises.

But as Riggs discussed at the recent Scale Up Conference at Purdue University, designing the perfect machine or technology is not enough to create sustainable, far-reaching impact. On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we’re following up with him to learn more about the role of markets and partnerships in bringing small-scale mechanization to rural Bangladesh.

Q: Five years ago, CIMMYT and iDE co-designed and began implementing the USAID Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia – Mechanization and Irrigation (CSISA-MI) project. What were the goals when you began?

Our goal was to establish a new industry for attachments in two-wheel tractors in agricultural mechanization, technologies like seeders, reapers and high-volume irrigation pumps for surface water. We wanted to help farmers access services through a fee-for-service model – small entrepreneurs buy machines and rent out those machines to farmers or directly provide that service themselves. There wasn’t really a market naturally growing for these machines in ways that included smallholders while being commercially viable, so we aimed to build it as best we could.

The results of this effort to date have been strong: 191,000 farmers can now access machinery services from a growing network of nearly 3,000 local microenterprise service providers, representing improved cultivation across 92,000 hectares in Southern Bangladesh. And we see abundant evidence that this market is scaling organically now that it’s established a model that works for both firms and farms.

Q: How did you create a market?

We incentivized several large conglomerates in the agri-business space to co-invest with us on several container-loads of these machines, which we imported from Thailand and China. We helped them find some early adopter dealers and local service providers who would actually buy them. Then we developed short-term smart subsidies to drive down the costs of supply chain development, accelerated customer adoption of the machines, and overall market growth.

An important aspect of our strategy is that we did not present these accelerating investments as typical subsidies; rather, we worked with our private partners to offer commercial discounts so that service providers and farmers would recognize the true value of the product and the short-term opportunity to adopt the technology in its initial commercialization phase.

We first implemented this strategy with two leading firms in the market who concurrently launched a very proactive marketing campaign. Then we started pulling back those discounts overtime, year by year, as the initial partner firms found the market opportunity, and redirected this acceleration process with an additional group of interested companies that also wanted to enter the market in an inclusive manner.

Q: So the companies were benefiting from the discount?

Yes, but we created a lot of conditions. Essentially, the more project investment that was committed by the project to discount the cost of the machinery, the more we expected to see both cash and in-kind investment from those companies. In the end, about a dozen companies come into the game with about five that have really driven a lot of heavy investment.

Partnerships have been key throughout this project. What were the different strengths iDE and CIMMYT brought to the table?

iDE is a market development organization. We focus on market-based solutions, technology commercialization, last mile distribution, and market access. Fundamentally, we see our job as de-risking the market for companies to invest in lower income areas and empower the farmer and their family as both consumers and suppliers in the formal economy. To do this, we employ a lot of supply chain development, product re-design and most importantly, we develop networks of micro-entrepreneurs to serve the ‘missing middle’ between the formal and informal economies.

CIMMYT brings leading capabilities in linking science and practice, with an un-paralleled strength in understanding the agronomic rationale and the agronomic and economic combinations of the technologies as they’re applied on the ground.

CIMMYT knew what technologies were needed on the ground in Southern Bangladesh to genuinely improve productivity and efficiency in the face of changing economic circumstances, and understood how to apply them to real world conditions in alignment with market-based diffusion mechanisms. CIMMYT was also instrumental in working closely with the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI) and extension services, key government partners that helped us ensure market development was in alignment with public and social policy.

It can be difficult finding a synergy between two different organizations. Did you run into any challenges?

CIMMYT and iDE have different specializations, and at the beginning, we had natural, friendly debates about how to best integrate them and achieve highly ambitious project objectives. But relatively quickly, we figured out how to learn from each other and synthesize our approaches for the best results. Both CIMMYT and iDE approached the partnership with a mission driven focus and a sense of constant, mutual respect for the value each partner brought to the table.

What do you see for the future?

As for iDE, we’re excited to expand this successful partnership with CIMMYT to figure out how we can further replicate this success in other countries where we both work. While some of the market conditions in Bangladesh have provided us with unique opportunities for technology scaling in mechanization, we’re highly optimistic that the underlying partnership principles and management systems of CSISA-MI can be replicated in other programs and country contexts – even in ostensibly more challenging market environments.

The CSISA-MI project is funded by USAID.