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CIMMYT sends largest ever seed shipment to revitalize agriculture in Haiti

Written by on June 28, 2017. Posted in News.

Hugo Plus seed bags ready to be sealed and shipped. Photo: L. Eugene/CIMMYT — Hugo Plus seeds grown in Haiti in 2016. Photo: L. Eugene/CIMMYT

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) – The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has grown 150 tons of renewed, improved maize seed that will be sent to Haitian farmers to help jump-start the country’s seed sector, improve local food security and decrease malnutrition. This will be the largest seed shipment to any country in CIMMYT’s history.

In 1998, CIMMYT, together with the Organization for the Rehabilitation of the Environment, introduced a new quality protein maize variety in Haiti. Named “Hugo” for CIMMYT maize breeder Hugo Córdova, the variety grew well under the island’s agro-ecological conditions and can decrease malnutrition and stunting among children that consume it. The product of decades of maize research in Haiti and Latin America, Hugo quickly became a favorite among farmers, but over time lost its genetic purity due to a lack of certified seed production and yields began to drop.

Now, CIMMYT is working to help Haiti build their seed sector from the ground up, from developing improved seed to replace old varieties to providing capacity development at every level of the maize seed value chain, with incredible results.

Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the lowest maize yields in the continent, and roughly 50 percent of the population is undernourished. These conditions have been exacerbated by a crippling earthquake in 2010, what is emerging as a longstanding drought, and devastating Hurricane Matthew in 2016 that affected 2 million people. According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Haiti cannot achieve economic growth and national stability if food security is not addressed.

However, improving food security in Haiti is complicated by the fact that there are no formal seed companies, said Alberto Chassaigne, maize seed system specialist at CIMMYT.

“Farmers often sell their entire crop at harvest, leaving nothing for the next season, forcing them to plant simple maize grain that they buy from local markets rather than certified seed, drastically reducing yield over time,” said Chassaigne.

In 2015, CIMMYT launched the Mayi Plus initiative with the support of USAID-Haiti Feed the Future (FTF) to identify the most promising varieties for the future of maize farming in Haiti. The project would also work to produce a “renewed” Hugo to farmers in Haiti with greater genetic purity and yield, and provide capacity development to Haitians in the production and processing of seed of these improved varieties. This renewed Hugo, known as “Hugo Plus,” can produce up to seven tons per hectare, in comparison to traditional varieties currently planted in Haiti that produce on average less than one ton per hectare.

Through a systemic series of maize trials, scientists also found that new CIMMYT germplasm is already available that outperforms any other maize available in Haiti in both irrigated and rain-fed conditions. These resilient varieties, named “Mayi Plus I” and “Mayi Plus II” are currently under multiplication to be introduced to Haitian farmers as soon as possible.

Hugo Plus seed growing in Haiti. Photo: L. Eugene/CIMMYT

Four tons of renewed Hugo were produced in 2015, 2.7 tons of which were produced in Haiti.

In the winter cropping season of 2016-2017, CIMMYT produced 150 tons of renewed Hugo seed in Mexico to send to Haiti, 50 percent more than the 100 tons they had planned to send. “This is the largest seed shipment ever sent by CIMMYT,” said Arturo Silva Hinojosa, leader of the International Maize Improvement Consortium in Latin America. “An additional 15 tons of seed will be harvested in Haiti, up from 0-3 tons in previous years.”

20 of the 150 tons of renewed “Hugo Plus” have already arrived in Haiti, where they will be sold to farmers at affordable prices in “agricultural input boutiques” established by FTF and partners. The remaining 130 tons will be used by CIMMYT and FTF to develop a strategic seed reserve in Haiti that will serve as a backup in case of natural disasters so that the country has immediate availability of seed stock for re-planting. The CIMMYT team in Haiti is currently working to find the best locations to store the strategic maize seed reserve.

To ensure that the genetic purity of renewed Hugo and other improved maize varieties will be maintained, CIMMYT is providing capacity development to help start Haiti’s seed sector from scratch. Project partners identified entrepreneurs interested in establishing a seed enterprise, and CIMMYT has been providing these entrepreneurs with in-depth training in seed processing and marketing, guidance on the infrastructure for a seed processing plant, and contacts throughout the world of equipment appropriate for Haitian conditions.

In addition, CIMMYT established a two-week course in seed production and seed processing with a FTF partner to train 13 Haitian technicians, who will now be able to train other Haitians interested in working in the country’s maize seed sector. A training manual is being prepared in French and Creole, and replication workshops will be conducted in target food security corridors of USAID in Haiti.

“This improved seed, and a self-sustaining seed sector capable of producing and marketing it, can contribute towards improved foreign exchange savings and will create local employment,” said Huntington Hobbs, former leader of strategic planning and research coordination for CIMMYT’s MasAgro project. “Increased maize production will bolster Haiti’s economy by providing feed for emerging industries in poultry and egg production, as well as the main staple of Haitian food security.”

Hugo Plus on harvest day. Photo: L. Eugene/CIMMYT

CIMMYT researchers returned to Haiti in early June to advise seed companies on the installation of a seed processing plant, as well as to supervise trials and evaluations of new varieties and coordinate trainings in Haiti with trainers trained last February in Mexico.

In order to introduce local farmers to the new Hugo Plus maize variety and recognize CIMMYT’s contribution to Haiti’s food security through the Mayi Plus project, the USAID-Haiti Feed the Future Chanje Lavi Plante (CLP) project held a special event on June 21, 2016. The event was attended by farmers, agricultural input store managers and local partners, as well as staff from the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture and USAID who thanked CIMMYT for the recent 20 ton seed shipment.

“Hugo Plus is the result of many years of applied research work of CIMMYT in Haiti, and is a valuable alternative to the current varieties available in Haiti with such low yields,” said Micheal Wyzan, head of the office of economic growth and development at the Haiti mission of USAID. “We highly appreciate the fruitful collaboration between CIMMYT and the CLP project that allow farmers to increase their maize yields in the region.”

In his address to the audience, Alain Thermil, main liaison of Haiti’s Ministry of Agriculture with USAID, stated that, “CIMMYT is a very important organization in the world, and it is vital to Haiti that we establish and maintain a close relationship with CIMMYT.”

Jean Robert Estime, director of the CLP project in Haiti, agreed. “Through CIMMYT interventions, good quality seed is now available to farmers in Haiti. We are very grateful to CIMMYT, a great international organization with a mandate to do research on maize and wheat worldwide that is doing very important work in Haiti.”

Farmers in Pakistan benefit from new zinc-enriched high-yielding wheat

Written by Mike Listman on June 27, 2017. Posted in News.

Hans-Joachim Braun (left, white shirt), director of the global wheat program at CIMMYT, Maqsood Qamar (center), wheat breeder at Pakistan’s National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, and Muhammad Imtiaz (right), CIMMYT wheat improvement specialist and Pakistan country representative, discuss seed production of Zincol. Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT. — Hans-Joachim Braun (left, white shirt), director of the global wheat program at CIMMYT, Maqsood Qamar (center), wheat breeder at Pakistan’s National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, and Muhammad Imtiaz (right), CIMMYT wheat improvement specialist and Pakistan country representative, discussing seed production of Zincol. Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT.

ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Farmers in Pakistan are eagerly adopting a nutrient-enhanced wheat variety offering improved food security, higher incomes, health benefits and a delicious taste.

Known as Zincol and released to farmers in 2016, the variety provides harvests as abundant as those for other widely grown wheat varieties, but its grain contains 20 percent more zinc, a critical micronutrient missing in the diets of many poor people in South Asia.

Due to these benefits and its delicious taste, Zincol was one of the top choices among farmers testing 12 new wheat varieties in 2016.

“I would eat twice as many chappatis of Zincol as of other wheat varieties,” said Munib Khan, a farmer in Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi District, Punjab Province, Pakistan, referring to its delicious flavor.

Khan has been growing Zincol since its release. In 2017, he planted a large portion of his wheat fields with the seed, as did members of the Gujar Khan Seed Producer Group to which he belongs.

The group is one of 21 seed producer associations established to grow quality seed of new wheat varieties with assistance from the country’s National Rural Support Program (NRSP) in remote areas of Pakistan. The support program is a key partner in the Pakistan Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

“Over the 2016 and 2017 cropping seasons, 400 tons of seed of Zincol has been shared with farmers, seed companies and promotional partners,” said Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative in Pakistan and a wheat improvement specialist.

Zincol resulted from the CIMMYT’s “biofortification” breeding research, focused on enhancing nutrient levels in the grain of key food crops. Scientists develop biofortified crops using diverse genetic resources, including wheat landraces and wild relatives with the genetic potential to accumulate zinc in the grain.

Genes for enhanced grain zinc content from those sources are crossed into adapted, high-yielding varieties, over repeated cycles of selection involving many thousands of plants.

“One year after the release of Zincol, wheat farmers on more than 320 hectares are sowing the variety,” Imtiaz said.

He also noted that 15 tons of Zincol seed was shared free of charge for testing with 600 farm families in Sukkar District, Sindh Province, through an initiative of World Vision-Canada and HarvestPlus, a CGIAR research program dedicated to the study and delivery of biofortified foods.

Zincol harvests as high as other widely grown wheat varieties, but its grain contains 20 percent more zinc, a critical micronutrient missing in the diets of many poor people in South Asia. Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT — Zincol yields as much other widely grown wheat varieties, but its grain contains 20 percent more zinc, a critical micronutrient missing in the diets of many poor people in South Asia. Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT

Wheat: Vehicle for enhanced nutrition

Pakistan produces more than 25 million tons of wheat a year. The country has an annual per capita consumption averaging around 124 kilograms — among the highest in the world and providing over 60 percent of inhabitants’ daily caloric intake. The staple wheat-based foods are chappatis or a flat bread baked on the walls of large, cylindrical clay ovens.

Particularly in remote areas of Pakistan, human diets too often lack essential micronutrients such as zinc. 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.

Zinc deficiency is also known to cause diarrheal disease, lower respiratory tract infections, malaria, hypogonadism, impaired immune function, skin disorders, cognitive dysfunction and anorexia, according to the World Health Organization.

“Given its role as a key food staple, wheat with enhanced levels of zinc and other micronutrients can contribute to better nutrition,” said Velu Govindan, a CIMMYT wheat breeder who specializes in biofortification and helped develop Zincol.

“Zincol also carries the genetic background of NARC 2011, a popular, high-yielding Pakistan wheat variety that resists wheat stem rust, a deadly disease that threatens wheat worldwide,” Govindan added.

As part of AIP and HarvestPlus, as well as with numerous public and private partners and farmer seed production groups in Pakistan, CIMMYT is leading the extensive evaluation, distribution and seed production of Zincol, said Krishna Dev Joshi, a former CIMMYT wheat improvement specialist who worked on the project.

“With modest resources and limited amounts of seed, we tested and promoted Zincol over the last two years in Balochistan, Punjab, and Sindh, covering 15 districts and engaging nearly 700 farmers,” Joshi explained.

Joshi said farmer seed producers and private seed companies were able to provide another 100 tons of seed in 2016, enough to sow more than 2,500 hectares in 2017 and over half a million hectares in 2018.

“Zincol reached farmers nine years after the initial breeding cross in 2007, several years more quickly than is the norm in Pakistan, partly because it was tested simultaneously in national and provincial trials,” Joshi added. “Zincol is part of a suite of new, micronutrient-enhanced wheat varieties bred by CIMMYT and partners for use in South Asia, a region whose inhabitants consume 100 million tons of wheat each year.”

For India, Govindan and partners created a new biofortified wheat variety using synthetic parents crossed onto WH1105, a CIMMYT-derived high-yielding variety grown in India’s Northwestern Plain Zone. The new variety out-yields other popular varieties by as much as 8 percent and has a 20 percent higher zinc content, as well as good resistance to yellow rust disease. Another new Indian variety, Zinc Shakti, has a 40 percent greater grain zinc content and is being marketed by the private sector and spread via farmer-to-farmer seed sharing.

New planters promote environmentally-friendly farming in Pakistan

Written by on June 23, 2017. Posted in News.

Direct seeding of rice with a multicrop direct-seeding rice planter in Sheikhupura, Punjab. Photo: Abdul Khaliq — Direct seeding of rice with a multicrop direct-seeded rice planter in Sheikhupura, Punjab. Photo: Abdul Khaliq

ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Farmers and research partners are praising innovative, locally manufactured farm implements that support conservation agriculture, with costs savings and soil and water conservation benefits, in rice-wheat farming rotation that cover more than 2.2 million hectares in Pakistan.

In a meeting in May 2017 at the Rice Research Institute Kala Shah Kaku, Punjab Province, Pakistan, farmers expressed satisfaction with the performance of nearly 200 locally-produced implements they received to test during 2016-2017, which allow seed of rice, wheat and other crops to be sown directly into unplowed and unflooded fields, including the stubble and other residues from preceding crops.

In traditional practices, rice plantlets are transplanted by hand into puddled fields, after 4 to 6 weeks of being grown in nurseries on the borders of the paddies.

“This requires enormous amounts of water and labor, both of which are expensive and in short supply,” said Muhammad Akhter, Director of Pakistan’s Rice Research Institute. “Moreover, puddling every season degrades the soil structure and depletes fertility, and flooded rice fields emit significant amounts of methane, a major greenhouse gas.”

After rice harvest, farmers typically burn rice residues, generating large noxious clouds, and drive tractor-drawn plows repeated over fields to prepare seed bed. They then sow wheat through broadcasting of the seed.

Since the 1990s, public research programs in South Asia have been working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and advanced research institutes to test and promote a suite of innovative practices, including reduced or zero tillage, which allow rice-wheat farmers to save money, better steward soil and water resources, cut greenhouse gas emissions and stop the burning of crop residues.

Locally manufactures direct-seeded rice planter and zero-till Happy Seeder. Photo: Abdul Khaliq

Direct seeding of rice in unplowed, unpuddled fields can provide improved plant density and productivity of irrigation water, saving in the end a quarter of the water used in flooding rice crops.

In 2014, the CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), supported by the United States Agency for Development (USAID), imported a multicrop zero tillage planter for rice and several zero tillage “Happy Seeders” to Pakistan from India for wheat, to be tested on farmers’ fields in five districts of Punjab by experts from the Punjab Agriculture Research and Extension Department, Engro Fertilizer and machinery manufacturers.

All tests were successful, and the following year CIMMYT worked with private machinery manufactures who produced the first locally-modified versions of both seeding implements.

Greenland Engineering Daska, a leading zero tillage drill manufacturer in Pakistan, collaborated with CIMMYT to adapt the rice planter’s inclined plate seeding system, offering an optimum planting density and thereby providing 10 percent higher rice yields than with the previous design.

Sharif Engineering, a zero tillage seed drill manufacturer of the Faisalabad region, modified the Happy Seeder so that farmers were able to sow wheat directly into heavy rice residue field and thus avoid burning the residues.

Sharif Engineering manufactured 13 Happy Seeders with AIP support; these were sold to farmers on 52:48 cost sharing basis in 2016, according to Mirza Ghazanfar, country representative for the company. Irfan Iqbal of Greenland Engineering said that company had produced and marketed 185 rice planters to farmers during 2016-17.

Akhter praised the efforts of USAID and CIMMYT to spread environmentally-friendly rice-wheat farming technologies to farmers of rice-wheat region.

Breaking Ground: AbduRahman Beshir is revitalizing Pakistan’s maize sector

Written by on June 9, 2017. Posted in Features.

Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – In Pakistan, maize is the third most important cereal crop after wheat and rice and it is the first in productivity among all the cereals. However, Pakistan imports about 90 percent of the hybrid seeds used to produce the crop, costing the country as much as $60 million annually. Furthermore, the genetic diversity of the currently available maize varieties is not diverse enough to adapt to the varied agro ecologies of Pakistan.

To address these issues, AbduRahman Beshir, maize improvement and seed systems specialist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and his team, working under the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan, are developing climate-resilient, biofortified and biotic stress-tolerant maize to enhance the maize seed sector.

“Pakistan can be considered as a new frontier for CIMMYT’s maize impacts,” Beshir said. “Except for some limited maize activities in the early 1980s, there were no coordinated research activities in the past 32 years. I am glad to revitalize and breathe new life into Pakistan’s maize sector.”

Almost half of children under age 5 are reportedly malnourished, Beshir said, adding that protein, vitamin A, and other micronutrient deficiencies in Pakistan are rampant, while the mortality rate is among the highest in South Asia.

Beshir’s work targets these underprivileged groups and in the foreseeable future, he hopes to see nutritional benefits improve significantly.

Throughout his life, Beshir has witnessed how small scale farmers are often unable to fulfill their basic needs as they struggle to get fair market prices for produce, in part due to middlemen and a lack of information in the market.

He grew up in Ethiopia, a country where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for 80 percent of employment, according to UNDP. The livelihoods of Beshir’s grandparents and most of his relatives were dependent on agriculture, but his parents switched to a sideline business selling agricultural and food related products.

“I was brought up observing my parents’ entrepreneurial skills and efforts, but they wanted their children to pursue a career in science,” Beshir said, explaining how his parents encouraged him to attend university. “My father used to call me ‘doctor’ when I was a fourth grade pupil to inspire me in my education.”

Earning an undergraduate degree in agriculture and plant sciences was a life changing experience for Beshir, serving as an eye opener to the dire need for educated agricultural professionals to transform the livelihoods of rural farmers.

“Since then, I developed a passion on how to increase profits for rural farmers through technology promotion and targeted intervention.”

Beshir earned a Ph.D. in plant breeding from the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, in South Africa, and was awarded a gold medal for his research project highlighting the severity of malnutrition in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the ways quality protein maize seeks to address the issue.

Before joining CIMMYT in 2013, Beshir was the national partner in Ethiopia for a CIMMYT-led project on quality protein maize development and drought-tolerant maize for Africa.

“My involvement in these projects gave me a good grasp of how CIMMYT’s impact-oriented interventions practically change the life of farmers and brought a maize revolution in my country, in partnership with local institutions,” he said.

His current work in Pakistan mainly involves extensive testing of various maize products sourced from CIMMYT breeding hubs in Colombia, Mexico, Zimbabwe and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Since 2014, more than 2,200 maize entries have been tested through the project.

Test samples consist of biofortified maize, as well as maize varieties that can tolerate major biotic and abiotic stresses, and they have been evaluated on more than 300 different sites in Pakistan. Such large scale testing is unprecedented in the history of maize in Pakistan.

Beshir’s led efforts resulted in the allocation of 49 market ready maize products (hybrids and OPVs) to partners in less than three years, a process that would otherwise have taken eight to 10 years to develop even a single product. The allocation of the new maize products has also given partners access to CIMMYT’s parental lines and breeder seeds, so that they can continue to lead sustainable seed businesses even after the project ends.

“Our intervention is the first program in Pakistan to introduce and identify biofortified maize, including pro-vitamin A, quality protein maize, and zinc-enriched hybrids/open pollinated varieties suitable for Pakistan,” Beshir said, adding that the research also led to the inauguration of the first maize stem borer mass rearing facility in Pakistan.

The facility will help national programs develop maize germplasm tolerant to maize stem borer attacks.

“As imported hybrid seeds are simply unaffordable to millions of small scale maize farmers, our research will enable local companies to provide affordable options to farmers,” he said.

Seed certification critical to quality seed production

Written by on June 8, 2017. Posted in Features.

A new variety in the market must have significant value to the farmer, such as higher tolerance to stresses, or added nutritional value. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – For over 50 years, CIMMYT has led the research and development of quality, improved seed, designed to help farmers mitigate the effects of climate change while improving livelihoods.

Every new variety released is driven by farmer needs and preferences, with desirable traits such as pest and disease resistance, drought and heat tolerance as well as water and nutrient use efficiency. With improved maize seed, farmers not only benefit from increased stress tolerance, they also enjoy higher yields, increased nutritional value and improved income from grain sales.

To ensure that quality seed standards are maintained, CIMMYT supports partners such as national agricultural research institutions and seed producers in acquisition and production of pure early generation seed, which is then tested by national quality assurance and certification agencies before certification and release.

Seed certification process

Seed certification is a rigorous process of testing new maize varieties before they are made available to farmers and follows an often lengthy three-step process.

The first step – value for cultivation and use, or national performance trials in some countries, – compares traits of the new variety to others already in the market to determine its value. For a new variety to enter the market it must have significant value to the farmer, such as higher tolerance to stress, or added nutritional value. It is at the end of this valuation process that a variety is registered, which takes about 2-3 years.

Next, a distinctiveness, uniformity and stability test (DUS) is performed on the seed sample provided to ensure that it is unique, uniform and will not deteriorate over time after its release. The DUS also helps to determine if an identical variety already exists and is registered, in order to avoid conflict among companies that are responsible for variety commercialization. The characteristics used to compare these materials are developed by breeders, and help distinguish different varieties. The length of time for DUS test varies by country, but on average the minimum is two planting seasons, about two years in most countries, or one year in others.

Finally, the government approves the variety for release and commercialization. In some countries, such as Tanzania, there is an extra classification of seed know as quality declared seed which is certified seed that has been through fewer steps of certification. It is perceived to be of a lower quality than regular certified seeds, and is therefore cheaper. Seed certification protects farmers from unscrupulous traders who would otherwise sell poor quality seed or grain packaged as seed.

Seed certification and commercialization can take 6-11 years, depending on how efficient a country’s system is. This lengthy and costly process can sometimes create backlogs, slowing release and commercialization of new varieties. This can discourage some seed companies from producing improved varieties, thus sticking to tried, tested and profitable varieties no matter how old they are. Commercializing a new variety is a huge investment in terms of cost, expertise, promotion and labor, so the longer certification process draws out, the more costs a company incurs. Farmers in turn continue to purchase the varieties that are always available, keeping them in demand.

Expecting seed companies to replace an old variety for an improved one is somewhat complicated, since this is a purely business decision where profits are priority. In some cases, dropping a popular variety to promote a new one could jeopardize a company’s market share, brand recognition and potentially put them out of business. This is why old varieties like Matuba in Mozambique, SC513 in Zimbabwe and H614 D in Kenya remain popular, despite being decades old.

Older seed dominating the market causes both farmers and seed companies to miss out on potential benefits and profits higher-performing seed can bring. Several strategies to retire old maize varieties and build demand for improved ones can be used, including demonstrating old and new varieties side by side in areas where target markets exist. This way, farmers themselves drive the process and start the switch to new varieties. Seed producers can emphasize a specific characteristic in the variety that will benefit the farmer. For instance, farmers in an area prone to maize lethal necrosis (MLN) are more likely to adopt a resistant variety, and eventually make a permanent switch once this characteristic is proven to be true.

Government policies can also encourage the retirement of old varieties, for instance through subsidies on seed production with requirements to only include new materials. CIMMYT, through its various projects, gives competitive financial grants only to companies that produce improved maize seed. An extreme and potentially detrimental option would be to cut off funding and other support to seed companies that refuse to phase out old varieties.

The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) project works in six countries in eastern and southern Africa to produce and deploy affordable drought tolerant, stress resilient, and high-yielding maize varieties for smallholder farmers. DTMASS employs innovative and impactful strategies to promote uptake and adoption of these improved seed varieties, as well as sharing agronomy and other agricultural information directly with farmers to improve crop management.

Led by CIMMYT and funded by the United States Agency for International Development, DTMASS is implemented through strategic partnerships with national agricultural research systems, as well as public and private seed producers.

Tanzanian start-up rises to profitable maize business

Written by on May 29, 2017. Posted in News.

AgriSeed Director Ambonesigwe Mbwaga visits AgriSeed's production farm in Mbozi, southern Tanzania. This field features AgriSeed H12, the first hybrid the company sold. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT — AgriSeed Director Ambonesigwe Mbwaga visits AgriSeed’s production farm in Mbozi, southern Tanzania. This field features AgriSeed H12, the first hybrid the company sold. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT

MBEYA, Tanzania (CIMMYT) – To achieve its objective of sustainably increasing the availability of new drought tolerant maize varieties in eastern and southern Africa, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) supports seed company partners in enhancing their capacity to produce foundation and certified seed.

AgriSeed began as a small seed company in Tanzania in 2010, producing seed using donor grants to get established, and selling seed through a government subsidy program. When the program closed in 2013, collapse of the business was a real threat. However, in 2015 AgriSeed received its first grant from the CIMMYT-led Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) project to produce early generation seed of a new hybrid called WE2112, and are now on their way to sustainability.

“When the African Agricultural Technology Foundation announced licensing of this variety, we jumped at the opportunity,” said Ambonesigwe Mbwaga, Director of AgriSeed. “We wanted something we could call our own, since all our other products are public and can be produced by another company.”

WE2112, marketed as AgriSeed H12, is the first hybrid sold by the company, with CIMMYT supporting the transition from open pollinated varieties to improved hybrids. Profitable sales of improved maize varieties are key to sustained and scaled production by the private sector to ensure access in the long run. Being among the few seed companies producing this particular hybrid gives AgriSeed an edge in the market.

“With AgriSeed, we started from scratch: increasing the parents, increasing the inbred lines, single crosses, and so on,” said James Gethi, maize breeder and DTMASS technical lead for Tanzania. “My main excitement this year is to see the product of that support coming to fruition. They now have a certified crop, from zero, and have something to sell.”

According to Mbwaga, the product is “flying off the shelves.” While only three tons of AgriSeed H12 were produced and sold in 2016, AgriSeed expects this figure to rise to over 50 tons in 2017 due to increased production capacity, and the huge demand created from the minimal sales. Also of note is the AgriSeed H12 packaging, whose smallest pack is five kilograms, much larger than the one and two kilogram bags often sold of new products to smallholder farmers. This is a strong indicator of demand and confidence in the product, since it costs more to purchase the bigger bag.

To promote sales, the company has set up over 100 demonstration plots for 2017 with DTMASS support, most of them in the southern Tanzania towns of Mbeya, Mbozi and Mlonge. Unlike the traditional highway setups, AgriSeed is concentrating demos along roads in villages, increasing access to farmers away from major roads. This aims to boost sales but also helps the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the project’s funder, reach its Feed the Future goals to reach remote smallholder farmers.

Through technical and financial support and capacity building initiatives, DTMASS works closely with AgriSeed and other partners in eastern and southern Africa to bring affordable, improved maize seed to 2.5 million people. With funding from the USAID, DTMASS aims to meet demand and improve access to good-quality maize through production of improved drought-tolerant, stress-resilient, and high yielding maize varieties for smallholder farmers.

Sales boost seed sector growth in Nepal

Written by on May 18, 2017. Posted in News.

Sweeping "Aditya," an improved wheat variety, into the floor duct of a seed cleaning machine at Unique Seed Co. Pvt. Ltd near Dhangadhi, Kailali, Nepal. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT — Sweeping “Aditya,” an improved wheat variety, into the floor duct of a seed cleaning machine at Unique Seed Co. Pvt. Ltd near Dhangadhi, Kailali, Nepal. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT

KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) – Four Nepalese seed companies are showing signs of significant growth, with seed sales increasing nearly 60 percent since 2014.

About 70 percent of Nepal’s population is employed in the agriculture and forestry sector, accounting for 34 percent of the country’s gross national product. While farmers still face many challenges in accessing new technology, market opportunities and other inputs, Nepal’s seed industry is beginning to grow thanks to new investments in seed company operations and facilities. There are currently 20 locally registered seed companies that provide about 50 % of the nation’s formal seed supply system.

The four companies – New Shreeram, Lumbini Seed Company, GATE Nepal Pvt. Ltd. and Unique – are part of a group of 10 Nepalese companies that have worked with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) since 2014 to improve their marketing and sales strategies, business development, product range and quality.

This growth is notable in Nepal’s emerging cereal seed industry, which is composed primarily of small- to medium-scale enterprises that often lack business plans, have relatively low operating capital and have limited processing and storage facilities. These companies produce open-pollinated crop varieties, which are then released and registered by Nepal’s National Seed Board.

Half of the companies working with CIMMYT have so far been able to secure financial resources of up to $200,000 each from Nepal’s Ministry of Agricultural Development.

“These additional funds have allowed the seed companies to expand their facilities to include seed storage buildings, processing plants and laboratories,” said Upadhaya. “They have also included newly released iron- and zinc-rich varieties in their product lines.”

Some companies have also introduced innovative incentives for their producers by bearing the transportation costs of seed from the farmers’ fields to the company stores as a way to boost sales, according to Upadhaya.

The Seed Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal (SEAN) – the seed companies’ umbrella organization – has increased its membership from 600 in 2014 to 1,000 in 2016, formed three regional chapters and contributed a unified voice to discussions around agricultural policies of interest to the seed industry, said Laxmi Kanta Dhakal, SEAN Chairman.

As a result of these new technologies and investments, seed sold by these companies increased significantly and reached marginal areas of the country through new development networks and private sector traders.

New contractual agreements have since been signed between seed companies, informal groups and cooperatives for the production of seed. As outlined in Nepal’s Agricultural Development Strategy (2015-2025), these initiatives will help promote inclusive growth and an effective seed sector in Nepal.

CIMMYT launched the CSISA in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems. CIMMYT operates rural “innovation hubs” in Bangladesh, India and Nepal to increase the adoption of various resource-conserving and climate-resilient technologies, and to improve farmer access to market information and enterprise development. Learn more about CSISA’s impact here.

USAID delegation tours sustainable agriculture activities in Bangladesh

Written by on May 4, 2017. Posted in News.

Inside Ayla Traders, an agricultural input dealer who now advises farmers on integrated weed management. Photo: CIMMYT

DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) – A delegation of USAID representatives recently visited southern Bangladesh to learn about sustainable agriculture activities in the area and emerging challenges to wheat production.

Agriculture employs nearly two-thirds of Bangladesh’s population, with a majority of farmers owning land of less than half an acre, putting intense pressure on farmland while having to adapt to various environmental challenges from flooding and rising temperatures due to climate change, to increasing labor scarcity and production costs.

Despite these challenges, Bangladesh has successfully adopted sustainable technologies that conserve natural resources, improve productivity and increase profits, particularly with the two-wheeled tractor that is used by around 80 percent of farmers due to its versatility and ability to be fitted with a variety of additional equipment for planting, threshing and irrigation.

Challenges to widespread adoption of these innovations, however, remain a challenge.

USAID delegation learns about the symptoms and effect of wheat blast disease. Photo: CIMMYT

“Much of this innovation has not reached farmers at scale because commercialization has been impeded by the lack of standardization,” according to Andrew McDonald, cropping systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and project leader of the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). “Most workshops create a unique machine every time a new piece is fabricated, which drives up costs to both manufacture and repair the machinery. Quality control is also an issue.”

From March 16-19, the USAID delegation visited farmers and agricultural machinery service providers in the Barisal, Jessore and Jhenaidah districts of Bangladesh, seeing firsthand how CIMMYT is working with NGOs, public and private sector partners to ensure that machinery is scaled, available and affordable to the most marginalized farmers.

The delegation, comprising USAID Senior Program Analyst Charisse Adamson, Water and Irrigation Advisor Biniam Iyob and Food Security Advisor Christopher Chibwana, also learned about various sustainable technologies from axial flow pumps that irrigate crops at reduced cost, to two-wheeled tractors developed by Janata Engineering; a small-scale but rapidly growing agricultural machinery manufacturer, importer and dealer that has been working closely with CSISA over the past seven years.

CIMMYT through CSISA partners with local manufacturing companies to put . Photo: CIMMYT — CIMMYT through CSISA partners with local manufacturing companies to ensure more farmers have access to sustainable machinery. Photo: CIMMYT

The visitors also observed how farmers are growing healthy rice seedlings for higher yields in community based seedbeds. Farmer-friendly learning videos are jointly produced by the project with the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and shown by the Agricultural Advisory Society, with over 35,000 farmers learning about healthy rice seedlings between November 2016 and January this year.

The USAID team then visited the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute in Jessore to learn about wheat blast mitigation efforts in the region, which emerged in early 2016. The spread of wheat blast could be devastating to South Asia, which is home to 300 million undernourished people and whose inhabitants consume over 100 million tons of wheat each year.

“I have learned so much…I think you are doing a great job in making research outputs sustainable through strategic value chain pathways,” said Iyob at the end of the visit.

Breaking Ground: Hands on experience gives Carolina Camacho insight into farming best practices

Written by on April 26, 2017. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Tending her own crops gives Carolina Camacho insights into the challenges farmers face that she could never have learned in a classroom.

Growing up in the metropolis of Mexico City, the historical and political importance of agriculture was never lost on Camacho, who works as a principal researcher at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

“As a teenager, I would debate my sister over the most pressing issue that faced our country, Mexico. For me it was always in agriculture,” Camacho said. “I strongly believe if we are to improve our country, we must improve the lives of our campesinos (smallholder farmers).”

With no knowledge of farming, but with a passion to bring about change, she took to the field, studying crop science at Chapingo University, on the outskirts of the city in the State of Mexico. Having to brave early morning starts, she learned the basics of agriculture, and a love for the genetic diversity of maize.

Mexico, considered the birthplace of maize, is home to a rich diversity of varieties that has evolved over years of domestication by farmers. Camacho was introduced to this diversity firsthand, interning at CIMMYT’s maize germplasm bank as an undergraduate.

Interested in discovering how conserving maize diversity played out in farmers’ fields she gravitated towards an on-farm conservation project in rural Mexico. Working with indigenous farmers, Camacho learned how traditional knowledge and practices relate to environmental management, agricultural production and the diversity of native maize varieties.

After earning a master’s degree in the conservation and utilization of genetic resources, Camacho felt that crop science was isolated from the daily life of farmers. Thus, in a move to study the relationship between humans and plants, she embarked on a multidisciplinary doctoral in the sociology of rural development at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

While conducting her research, Camacho lived with indigenous farmers in Mexico’s Lacandon rainforest in the state of Chiapas. Alongside local Mayan farmers she cultivated her own milpa – a farming system used by indigenous farmers in Latin America, which typically involves intercropping maize, beans and squash. Her hands-on fieldwork allowed her to study cultivation practices outside the scope of purely agronomic activities, but also as political, social and cultural actions.

“Farming alongside the Tzeltal people, I saw how my own cultivation practices were interwoven with everyday life,” said Camacho. “Farming was influenced by religious ceremonies, health and family affairs as well as political struggles for land. It had to cope, adapt and overcome these challenges.”

Today, these lessons learned guide Camacho as she investigates how agricultural innovations, including drought-tolerant crops, fertilizer and land management approaches can be farmer inclusive and tailored to local contexts as part of CIMMYT’s sustainable intensification strategy for Latin America.

Sustainable intensification aims to enhance the productivity of labor, land and capital. They offer the potential to simultaneously address a number of pressing development objectives, including unlocking the agricultural potential to adapt production systems to climate change, sustainably manage land, soil, nutrient and water resources, improved food and nutrition security, and ultimately reduce rural poverty.

CIMMYT principal researcher Carolina Camacho studies how innovations are promoted and adopted in different regions to aid their smooth delivery to farmers and community members from different genders, ethnicities and ages. — CIMMYT principal researcher Carolina Camacho studies how agricultural innovations are promoted and adopted in different regions to aid their smooth delivery to farmers and community members from different genders, ethnicities and ages. Photo: CIMMYT/ Courtesy of Carolina Camacho

Smallholder farmers, who manage small plots of land and handle limited amounts of productive resources, produce 80 percent of the world’s food. The United Nations calls on these farmers to adopt agricultural innovations in order to sustainably increase food production and help achieve the “Zero Hunger” U.N. Sustainable Development Goal. However, these farmers seldom benefit from new techniques to shore up efforts to meet the goal.

“An agricultural scientist can tell a farmer when and how to plant for optimal results, but they do not farm in a bubble, their practice is affected by the ups and downs of daily life – not only by climate and agronomy but also by social and cultural complexities,” Camacho said.

“One of the biggest challenge is to recognize the heterogeneity of farmers and leave behind the idea of one size solution to their diverse problems and needs,” said Camacho. By understanding a farmer’s lifestyle, including access to resources and information, levels of decision making in the community and the role of agriculture in their livelihood strategy, researchers can best identify complementary farming practices and techniques that not only boost productivity but also improve livelihoods.

“It’s important to think about agricultural innovations as social processes for change in which technologies, like improved seeds or agronomic practices, are only one element,” said Camacho. “It is key that we recognize that changes will not only occur in the farmer’s field but also in the behavior of other actors in the value chain, such as input suppliers, traders, government officials and even researchers.”

Camacho studies how innovations are promoted and adopted in different regions to aid their smooth delivery to farmers and community members from different genders, ethnicities and ages.

When working with indigenous communities, she ensures cultural values of the milpa system are taken into account, thus promoting the agricultural tools and techniques that do not detract from the importance of the traditions associated with the milpa practice.

“The milpa system is a clear example of how agriculture in general and maize in particular contribute to the construction of the cultural identities of indigenous people. We should be aware of the consequences that innovations will have not only for environmental sustainability but also for the sustainability of the Mayan Culture,” she said.

“Let’s not forget, we can’t separate culture from agriculture,” Camacho finished.

Camacho studies the process in which researchers promote agricultural innovations and how farmers adopt them through the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project, supported by Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA). Together with other researchers, Camacho has documented how MasAgro is promoting innovations in different regions of Mexico by responding to specific regional challenges and opportunities. Currently she is supporting scaling efforts for these innovations by ensuring that they will be sustainable and inclusive.

In the same line of inclusiveness, Camacho is working with two projects in the milpa system. The first one is the Buena Milpa project funded by U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future program and in collaboration with the Guatemala Agricultural Science and Technology Institute. The second one is the Milpa de Yucatan project sponsored by a private Mexican foundation in Yucatan Peninsula. Both projects promote sustainable intensification innovations in the milpa systems.

Breaking Ground: David Guerena transfers world-class science to smallholder farmers

Written by on April 12, 2017. Posted in Features.

Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – David Guerena is fascinated by what he learns from smallholder farmers about the interactions between agriculture and the environment.

He recently joined the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), where, as soil scientist-systems agronomist, he leads the soils/nutrient management activities for the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Feed the Future Program.

Guerena’s work involves the strategic planning and execution of multidisciplinary spatial agronomy programs across complex ecologies. In addition to strict biophysical work, which involves integrating chemistry, biology, and physics into agricultural systems, he also engages in socio-economic and market facilitation dynamics research.

“Humanity has been eking out a cultivated living from the earth for around 10,000 years,” Guerena said. “Smallholder farmers are the direct link to this collective knowledge, which has shaped and defined human history. I really enjoy witnessing farmers reap satisfying harvests from their own efforts, but via outputs from agronomic systems research of which I have been a part.”

“Agriculture is intensely satisfying. A seed, fertile soil, water and sunshine eventually turn into food. This is such a simple process, yet millions of people around the world don’t get enough to eat. I draw inspiration from being a part of positively changing this dynamic.”

Originally from Santa Barbara, California, Guerena has always been fascinated by the natural sciences and international travel. He decided to pursue a career in international agriculture by obtaining his Ph.D. from Cornell University, specializing in crop and soil science. Prior to joining CIMMYT, he worked as a soil scientist and agriculture innovations manager at One Acre Fund, served as an international research fellow with the World Agroforestry Center and a Borlaug Fellow in international food security.

CIMMYT provided a unique opportunity for Guerena to work on global food systems. “Together, maize and wheat make up a significant proportion of the global food supply – maize and wheat research is a globally important mandate,” he said. “CIMMYT has also left an indelible mark on human history through facilitating the Green Revolution.”

Currently, Guerena is working on spatial agronomy programs, focusing on questions such as how to move from blanketed to site-specific agronomic recommendations across complex agro-ecologies in the developing world. Guerena will also investigate how digital technologies like SMS, smartphones, image recognition, and remote sensing data can be used and integrated into agronomy programming for smallholder farmers living in poverty.

Precision agronomy, a farming management concept based on observing, measuring, and responding to inter- and intra-field variability in crops, is already transforming agricultural efficiency in the developed world, but these advancements have not yet reached the developing world.

This is of the utmost importance, as worldwide, the vast majority of farmers are smallholders producing most of the global food supply. CIMMYT is not only looking at ways to put its top-level science into the hands of farmers, but also at ways to use these technologies to turn farmers themselves into world-class agronomists. This approach may be a way to bypass cumbersome agricultural knowledge generation and dissemination systems and reach farmers directly, at scale.

The project receives support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

New selection method allows for rapid development of improved maize varieties

Written by on March 30, 2017. Posted in News.

Farmers Nuri Bekele, Tefera Tamirat & Melaka Bekele harvest drought tolerant maize in Ethiopia. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) – Marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) is helping maize breeders develop higher yielding and drought-tolerant improved varieties faster than ever before, according to a recent study from scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

“With conventional breeding, it often takes up to 7-8 years for varieties to reach farmers,” said Yoseph Beyene, a CIMMYT maize breeder working with the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) and one of the authors of the study. “With MARS, those varieties take only 5 years to reach farmers, and display greater genetic gain, even under drought conditions”

The study “Improving Maize Grain Yield under Drought Stress and Non-stress Environments in Sub-Saharan Africa using Marker-Assisted Recurrent Selection” found that by using MARS, breeders can develop new maize varieties farmers need faster and cheaper than conventional breeding methods by reducing the breeding cycle, showing scientists which varieties have desired traits at a quicker rate. This study focused on developing improved, drought-tolerant and high-yielding tropical maize varieties for areas such as sub-Saharan Africa that suffer from frequent drought and an unpredictable climate.

“Climate change is changing environments faster than agriculture can naturally adapt,” said Beyene. “It is crucial that farmers are able to access drought-resistant maize varieties as quickly as possible so that they can adapt to these new conditions,” he said.

MARS also dramatically cuts costs by using genotypic data to predict the best maize varieties before planting them. Previously, breeders would have to visually examine and select the best maize varieties every year.

The study found that MARS can be used to improve maize varieties in both drought and optimum environments throughout sub-Saharan Africa, where it is the most important staple food for over 300 million people. The study used MARS to estimate the genetic gain for 10 biparental tropical maize populations and found that overall, the grain yield for the 10 populations increased by 105 kilograms (kg) per hectare per year under well-watered and 51 kg per hectare per year under water-stressed conditions using MARS. The subsequent generations of test crosses were found to have significantly greater grain yields than their parents and commercial checks, suggesting that MARS has excellent potential for increasing genetic gain under both drought and optimum environments in sub-Saharan Africa.

Over 1,000 improved maize lines, including 352 doubled-haploid lines, have been developed from each cycle of the 10 biparental populations used in this study, and tested in multi-location trials. Several hybrids were derived using lines developed through MARS and pedigree methods. The best hybrids from each population are currently under national performance trials and are expected to be released soon for commercialization in sub-Saharan Africa. CIMMYT is one of the first research organizations to apply this technology to maize breeding specifically for the needs of smallholder farmers.

This study was implemented under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project, supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffet Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Read the study “Performance and grain yield stability of maize populations developed using marker-assisted recurrent selection and pedigree selection procedures” published in Euphytica (2016) 208:285–297 for more information.

CIMMYT launches new program to promote gender equity in agricultural research

Written by on March 7, 2017. Posted in News.

CIMMYT set to implement a series of training courses to sharpen gender skills in agricultural research for development. Photo: CIMMYT/P. Lowe — CIMMYT is set to implement a series of training courses to sharpen skills in gender and agricultural research for development. Photo: CIMMYT/P. Lowe

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – In a move to bolster gender equity in agriculture, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) will launch a series of training courses promoting the integration of gender awareness and analysis in research for development.

“Gender is a defining factor in farming and influences many areas, for example, resource ownership and adoption of new technologies,” said Marion Büttner, a gender specialist at CIMMYT. “These courses will help researchers understand the importance of gender roles, relations and norms in agriculture and integrate gender analysis into their work, strengthening agricultural research for development outcomes.”

Although women account for 43 percent of the agricultural labor force in developing countries, they are 30 percent less productive than men, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This is due mainly to unequal access to extension services and resources, such as land and improved seed.

Despite such trends, agricultural research often fails to include gender analysis in projects, opting instead for a gender-unaware approach that neglects women’s and men’s important roles and their different needs and opportunities in agriculture, Büttner said. “The trainings are an important step to address this gap,” she said.

The Gender Capacity Strengthening Program was developed in partnership with the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT in its Dutch acronym) gender training team and Cultural Practice, LLC. The sessions will be rolled out from April for researchers and support staff at CIMMYT offices in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The main focus of agriculture for development is to research the biophysical aspects of introducing new agriculture technologies and management practices. This often diverts attention from the social analysis that reveals the human context in which new technologies and practices are introduced, said Franz Wong, a senior gender advisor at KIT who will be one of the training facilitators.

Failing to understand gender issues in a specific local context may cause contrary results to what researchers set out to accomplish, Büttner said. For example, the mechanization of an agricultural activity may lead to reduced drudgery for women. However, the same process may also result in men taking over these now successful activities, which could shift power dynamics between men and women and potentially increase already existing inequalities between genders.

“To gain the most knowledge and impact from agriculture for development initiatives, researchers should consider what impact interventions will have on both men and women,” Büttner said. “The concept of gender is often confused with simply adding women to strategy development, but it’s not that straightforward. It’s about addressing the needs and constraints of both men and women and changing relations to improve the situation for all.”

Büttner refers to gender-responsive research, which is designed to ensure that both women and men benefit from research interventions. It analyzes and takes into account how gender relations influence men and women’s ability to access and adopt improved agricultural technologies, including new knowledge and practices, as well as how policies and other interventions affect women and men differently.

Large donors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID) and German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ, for its acronyms in German) require gender-responsive research, which is part of the reason why gender analysis must become a standard process for researchers, Büttner added.

The program aims to position gender analysis as a routine process at all stages of the research cycle. Different training modules offer insight into gender-responsive research, including developing and implementing projects with gender integration and setting indicators to measure gender outcomes.

“Raising awareness of the benefits gender analysis has on the impact of agriculture for development projects is the best promoter of its inclusion in research,” said Maitrayee Mukhopadhyay, a senior gender advisor at KIT who aided in the development of the program.

“Many agriculture for development researchers do not see the relevance of gender for their work because they lack adequate training and exposure to gender analysis and knowledge,” she added.

Pilot workshops of the program were delivered last October at CIMMYT’s headquarters and gained strong reviews, with participants reporting increased gender awareness and knowledge of practical methods to integrate gender into projects.

Researchers are keen to integrate gender once they become aware of how gender-responsive research helps to make an assessment of how agriculture is organized in a community, and how it aids the design and delivery of relevant agricultural technologies that complement gender roles or transform them to increase equality, Wong added.

Both Büttner and Wong said the gender training was purposely designed to be practical and interactive so that participants could apply methods to their areas of expertise.

The program will begin in April in Ethiopia, followed by sessions in other CIMMYT offices in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Mexico.

Büttner is one of five experts working at CIMMYT as part of the GIZ sponsored CIM Integrated Experts program. The CIM program aims to strategically place managers and technical experts in public and private organizations in the developing world to pass on their professional knowledge and contribute to capacity building.

Small machinery provides affordable options for women farmers in Nepal

Written by on March 2, 2017. Posted in Features.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Small-scale mechanization is becoming more important on smallholder farms in Nepal as young people, particularly men, migrate away from rural areas in large numbers, leaving women to take on even bigger responsibilities.

Some 13 million people – about 50 percent of Nepal’s population – live in the hills and mountains where most subsistence farming takes place. Women traditionally contribute more agricultural labor than men in these rural areas, typically undertaking time-consuming tasks such as weeding, harvesting, threshing and milling in addition to household chores. Two-thirds of women in Nepal are self-employed or engaged in unpaid family labor.

Nepal has the lowest ratio of men to women in all of South Asia and the proportion of rural households headed by women jumped from 15 to 25 percent between 2001 and 2011. As a result, rural women face many challenges, their potential curtailed in part due to the difficulty accessing credit. Despite a 2002 amendment to the country’s Land Act, the practice of male succession means that women only own property in a fifth of rural households.

“Almost everywhere there are changes, but maybe particularly so in the mountains,” said Scott Justice, a rural mechanization specialist with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project in Nepal (CSISA-NP), who works with smallholders as part of efforts to help improve livelihoods. “Tasks like the upkeep of terraces, plowing or service hiring are getting delayed or passed on to women, at the same time as the prices of hiring are going up.”

Following the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, CSISA-NP was contracted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help affected farming communities recover by providing grain storage tools, farm machinery and training, reaching 33,150 earthquake-affected households.

CSISA-NP, a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with the International Rice Research Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute and funded by USAID, aims to address the gender imbalance by increasing access to affordable machinery options to increase farm income while reducing drudgery for women.

An as yet unpublished study on the spread of mini-tillers has shown approximately 7,000 mini-tillers sold in hill districts, Justice said.

“A key priority for the government and projects like ours is getting owners to use the [mini-tiller] engine to power other machinery like wheat and rice threshers, mini-maize shellers, pumps and maybe even reapers and planter-seeder attachments,” said Justice.

“A small cadre of machinery importers who, along with CIMMYT’s market development efforts, are increasingly attuned to small farmers’ needs, bringing in a new generation of small and inexpensive machinery ideas and products emerging from China,” he said. “These qualities make it easier for women and their households to access and use such technologies.”

One of the technologies identified by CSISA-NP is a small, lightweight, precision hand cranked fertilizer spreader, which is growing in popularity because it can increase rice and wheat yields by 5 to 10 percent while cutting labor by half or more. CSISA has trained 150 service providers to use the fertilizer spreader, while cooperating private sector partners have imported over 500 of these spreaders in advance of the 2016-2017 wheat season.

CSISA focuses on the creation of a sustainable private machinery and service sector that serves farmers’ needs. A core group of approximately 15 to 20 (mostly) small businesses are constantly traveling and scouring the markets in China for new machinery and new ideas. One challenge is to encourage them to look more broadly in Asia for innovative scale appropriate technologies that meet the needs of both women and men in Nepal.

“Our activities are based on more than two decades of CIMMYT experience of small-scale mechanization in Nepal’s Terai area – rather than joining farmers’ experiments, we join in small and mid-sized machinery importers’ marketing experiments,” explained Justice.

CSISA is led by CIMMYT with the International Rice Research Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute and funded by USAID. It was established in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems.

Pakistan releases first quality protein maize varieties

Written by on February 23, 2017. Posted in News.

Field evaluation of QPM hybrids by team of experts in Harappa, Punjab. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar

ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – For the first time, Pakistan will release quality protein maize (QPM) varieties for commercial consumption, which could help boost nutrition across the country where nearly half of all children are chronically malnourished.

In January 2017, Pakistan’s maize variety evaluation committee approved QPHM200 and QPHM300, two QPM hybrids, for large-scale cultivation in Pakistan. Developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Colombia and evaluated and selected in Pakistan by the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), these QPM hybrids can potentially yield up to 15 tons per hectare (ha) – over three times the national average – and can be provided to farmers for less than half the price of currently imported hybrid seeds.

Field evaluation of QPHM200 at Rawalakot, AJK, Pakistan. Photo: Muhammad Ashraf/NARC — Muhammad Hafiz (left) inside his QPHM300 field. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar

Maize is Pakistan’s third most important cereal following wheat and rice, producing one of the highest average grain yields in South Asia. While the majority of Pakistan’s maize is used for poultry feed, it is a major food source in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan and the territories of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). These areas experience some of the highest rates of child malnutrition.

Normal maize is deficient in essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan, key protein building blocks that can’t be synthesized by human body and must be acquired from food sources. As a result, when human diets are comprised mainly of maize, consumers face a risk of malnutrition, particularly those with high protein requirements like young children, pregnant or lactating women. Conventionally bred QPM grain, which has been shown to improve nutritional status, has enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan while the kernels have a favorable texture and flavor.

QPM was recently introduced to Pakistan through the CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) in collaboration with national partners with support from the United States Agency for International Development. The commercialization of the two QPM hybrids was aimed at boosting nutrition by alleviating protein deficiency, particularly for low income communities where affording protein rich diets is difficult.

In addition, providing low cost feed like QPM to the poultry industry can also enhance the nutritional status of the country, an industry that is growing 8 to 10 percent annually.

“The taste of the cob is unique, it’s good quality,” said Muhammad Hafiz, a QPM grower from Pindi Bhattain area in central Punjab who participated in pre-commercialization trials of the hybrids.

The QPM hybrids were primarily selected based on their yield advantage. Farmers were open to adopting them since they performed better in many locations than normal commercial hybrids. The added benefit of quality protein will also help promote the hybrids while combating malnutrition.

The continued production of quality seed through retention of protein quality complemented by effective delivery mechanisms to farmers are important steps to scale up use of the hybrids. An active role by NARC and other value chain actors in Pakistan can help make seeds more easily accessible and available.

Breaking Ground: Monica Mezzalama keeps vital check on seed health and biosafety

Written by on February 22, 2017. Posted in Features.

Monica Mezzalama, head of CIMMYT's Seed. Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT. — Monica Mezzalama, head of CIMMYT’s Seed Health Laboratory. Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT.

Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) it all starts with a seed. Each year, the non-profit receives requests and sends more than 700,000 packets of seed to researchers, agricultural organizations and farmers around the world from its headquarters near Mexico City. These seeds stand up to climate change, produce higher yields with fewer resources and provide the nutrition a growing global population needs.

However, before each seed travels across an international border, it is essential to ensure that each one has a clean bill of health, free from virus, fungus and bacteria pathogens. Infected seeds must be controlled or there is a risk that plant pathogens will spread, affecting crop health and potentially threatening food security.

That is where plant pathology expert Monica Mezzalama, head of CIMMYT’s Seed Health Laboratory, gets involved.

“Seed movement around the world is regulated to limit the spread of pathogens across international borders,” said the senior scientist. “I coordinate and supervise seed health testing to ensure all seeds that pass through CIMMYT meet these international standards and do not pose a risk.”

Securing the health of seeds ensures that researchers, breeders and partner organizations don’t encounter infected seed and is essential to maintaining efficient agricultural research that has impact, she added.

Since taking the helm of the Seed Health Laboratory 15 years ago, all seed that has been inspected on its way out of CIMMYT must meet certification. If unhealthy seed is found it must be quarantined and destroyed under the law, explained Mezzalama.

Seeds arriving from partner organizations, researchers or farmers are also tested for disease and granted a “seed release” by Mezzalama and her team. Authorized seed then moves on to CIMMYT researchers to be studied for disease resistance, heat tolerance and micronutrient content and added into international breeding programs. Others are placed in the maize and wheat germplasm bank, where over 175,000 different varieties are preserved on behalf of humanity and are freely available to all upon request.

A curiosity for disease and a passion to cure led Mezzalama to a career as a plant pathologist. While studying for an undergraduate degree in agronomy in her hometown of Turin, Italy, she visited nearby vineyards to study plant pathogens for the first time.

“It was working in the vineyards where I first saw plant pathogens at work and where I saw the impact they have on farmers, and what it means for their livelihoods,” she said.

After graduating in 1986, Mezzalama began her first job at CIMMYT working alongside virologist Peter Burnett on a project dedicated to barley yellow dwarf (BYD) virus, which effects barley, wheat, maize, rice and other grasses worldwide. The experience opened her mind to a new world where she learned the inner workings of plant pathogens and started to study for a doctoral degree in plant pathology in Italy.

Since returning to CIMMYT in 2001, Mezzalama has led the Seed Health Laboratory, set institutional biosafety protocols to protect against harmful incidents, which include regular reviews of the biosafety in laboratory settings, as well as well as guidelines to follow, and participated in several research projects. Most recently, she joined a project to control the spread of Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN), a devastating virus that poses a severe risk to food security in eastern Africa.

The complex disease results from the infection of two deadly viruses, maize chlorotic mottle virus and sugar cane mosaic virus. It spreads through infected maize seed and insect pests. Mezzalama’s skill in plant pathology detection was called upon to organize the opening of seed health laboratories in Kenya and Zimbabwe and also train staff on how to detect seed infected with MLN or the two associated viruses.

Currently, Mezzalama is in the final stages of developing a standard of detection protocol, providing the agriculture industry with knowledge of best practices and affordable tools to detect MLN infected maize seed.

“There are several products and methods that may be used for MLN detection in seed, these must be tested to see which obtain the most accurate results efficiently while taking into price into account,” she said.

Accuracy, time and cost are important factors when developing MLN detection protocols as common practice, implemented by partners in Kenya and other impacted countries, she explained.

Key donors to CIMMYT’s efforts in controlling MLN include the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA), the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), and the Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB), CGIAR Fund Donors and other generous contributors to CIMMYT maize research.