Imtiaz Muhammad sharing his views on the importance of follow-up surveys for improved Pakistani agricultural productivity. CIMMYT/Amina Nasim Khan
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) — Development and agricultural professionals attending a planning meeting in Islamabad in March discussed the importance of follow-up surveys for project evaluation and intervention impact, particularly in relation to the Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP).
“This is the right time to assess AIP’s performance, and we need to focus on the demands of the farmers, their challenges and work out a way forward for them to improve their agricultural productivity,” said Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative in Pakistan.
Nazim Ali, AIP activity manager, explained the importance of follow-up surveys and their significance in project evaluation and impact assessment. AIP primary partners shared lessons learned from baseline surveys and presented a work plan for follow-up surveys.
Akhter Ali, CIMMYT agricultural economist, spoke about the methodology used in follow-up surveys, sampling techniques, geographic spread and data analysis techniques.
Participants reached consensus on the following points:
Follow-up survey questionnaires must be aligned with indicators, which AIP is currently reporting to USAID
Follow-up survey questionnaires will be refined internally
Women enumerators should collect sex-disaggregated data sets
For all AIP interventions, samples need to be representative
Agreed time frame for completion of the follow up surveys is tentatively December
For all interventions, AIP partners agreed on documentation of impact through follow up surveys.
These joint efforts will enable smallholder farmers to improve agricultural productivity and livelihoods across different agro-ecological regions of Pakistan.
P.K. Malaker, BARI senior wheat pathologist (2nd from left) and other BARI scientists showing blast affected wheat to Martin Kropff in Jessore district. Malaker first identified the emergence of wheat blast in Bangladesh. Photo credit: CIMMYT/Bangladesh
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) — On a recent visit to Bangladesh, Martin Kropff , director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) held discussions with partners and government officials on combating wheat blast disease and other aspects of maintaining food security in the country.
Meetings were held with Bangladesh’s agriculture minister and member of Parliament Begum Matia Chowdhury and Secretary of Agriculture Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah, where CIMMYT’s activities in Bangladesh were also discussed. Wheat blast is one of the most feared and intractable wheat diseases.
A new, severe outbreak of the disease in Bangladesh validated the prediction of the spread of the disease beyond its origins in Latin America to Africa and South Asia. 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.
Martin Kropff and Nynke Kropff-Nammensma with CIMMYT-Bangladesh staff. CIMMYT/Utam Barman
During a two day field visit, Kropff saw the impacts of wheat blast in the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute’s (BARI) research station in Jessore and farmers’ fields. He also spent the visit meeting Bangladeshi farmers, observing mechanization scaling efforts and visiting a range of CIMMYT varietal and agronomic research trials and demonstrations funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research in Jessore and Dinajpur districts. In addition he held discussions with scientists from BARI and visited the organization’s headquarters in Gazipur and
Martin Kropff (L) meets with Bangladesh’s agriculture minister and Member of Parliament Begum Matia Chowdhury (2nd from left) to address the spread of wheat blast in the country, along with (from L-R) Nynke Kropff – Nammensma, CIMMYT-Bangladesh Country Representative TP Tiwari and Secretary of Agriculture Mohammad Moinuddin Abdullah. CIMMYT/Zia Ahmed
the Wheat Research Centre in Dinajpur district. Kropff also learned how irrigation management advisory with satellite technology is being developed with BARI, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) and other core partners to release mobile applications for farming.
Kropff also held discussions with partners, including BARI Director General Rafiqul Islam Mondal and Abul Kalam Azad, executive director of BARC. Mondal lauded CIMMYT for its continuous support of BARI’s promotion of maize and wheat for food security in Bangladesh.
Conservation agriculture (field at right) protects wheat from damage due to water stagnation experienced in a conventional field, visible in the blackening of the wheat (left field). CIMMYT/Tek Sapkota
Julianna White is program manager for low emissions agriculture at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. Tek Sapkota is a scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvment Center and lead author of the study. Any opinions expressed are their own.
Research shows conservation agriculture increases the income of farmers, moderates canopy temperatures, improves irrigation productivity and reduces greenhouse gas emissions in cereal systems in the Indo-Gangetic plains.
In an August 2015 article in the Journal of Integrative Agriculture, researchers report that a comprehensive literature review and evidence collected from on-farm trials showed that conservation agriculture – defined as minimal soil disturbance and permanent soil cover combined with appropriate rotations – improved farmers’ income, helped crops sustain or adapt to heat and water stresses, and reduced agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions in cereal systems in South Asia.
Farmer Ram Shubagh Chaudhary in his wheat fields, in the village of Pokhar Binda, Maharajganj district, Uttar Pradesh, India. He alternates wheat and rice, and has achieved a bumper wheat crop by retaining crop residues and employing zero tillage. CIMMYT/Petr Kosina
Farmers reap economic benefits
Conservation agriculture recommends minimal soil disturbance, most commonly tillage. Farmers who practiced zero tillage saved 23 percent in production costs by avoiding preparatory tillage and reducing the number of times fields were irrigated, while reaping the same or slightly higher yields.
Minimizing heat stress
High temperatures during the maturity stage cause wheat to decrease grain size, lowering overall yields, a phenomenon known as “terminal heat effect.” Farmers who practice conservation agriculture avoid this heat stress because residues left on the surface of the field conserve soil moisture, enhancing transpiration and creating a cooling effect – thus avoiding reduced yields caused by terminal heat effect.
Efficient use of water resources
Researchers found multiple examples that the zero tillage component of conservation agriculture led to significant water savings in both rice and wheat systems. Water savings accrued across systems. In rice-wheat systems, retention of wheat residues reduces water use in rice, and retention of rice residues causes reduced water use in wheat. Non-requirement of preparatory tillage advances the planting times thereby increasing rainwater-use efficiency and utilizing residual moisture from the previous crop.
Decrease in greenhouse gas emissions
Minimizing soil disturbance allows for soil carbon to accumulate, causing a net soil carbon gain. Although scientists are still debating the extent of soil carbon sequestered through conservation agriculture, indirect emissions reductions are numerous: less power and fuel consumption due to decreased tillage in conservation agriculture, decreased labor from machines and humans, and slower depreciation of equipment.
Business-as-usual production practices such as conventional tillage and farmers’ nutrient and irrigation management systems are greenhouse gas-intensive, while zero tillage reduces energy consumption in land preparation and crop establishment and efficient use of water resources reduces energy needs from pumping. Leaving residues in the field increases soil health and fertility, thereby reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
Researchers found that, on average, farmers could save 36 liters of diesel per hectare, equivalent to a reduction in 93 kg CO2 emission per hectare per year by practicing zero tillage for land preparation and crop establishment in the rice-wheat system typical on the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Given that 13.5 million hectares are under rice-wheat system cultivation in the region, this represents a reduction of 12.6 megatons of CO2 equivalent.
New technologies increase uptake of conservation agriculture
Despite excellent productivity, economic gains and environmental benefits, adoption of conservation agriculture in South Asia is still relatively slow, most likely due to various technological and socio-economic factors. It takes years and ample evidence for farmers to change the entrenched habit of tillage with planting. And it is a process.
For example, some farmers have adopted zero-tillage in wheat production, primarily to facilitate early planting, lower production costs and increase yields (and therefore profitabilitiy). However, these same farmers still prefer to practice tillage and puddling (wet-tillage) in their rice crops for weed control and reduction in percolation loss of water/nutrient. Also, farmers tend to burn crop residues to facilitate planting with the zero-tillage drill. To realize the full potential of conservation agriculture, all crops in rotation have to be brought under zero tillage, and crop residues will have to be used as soil surface mulch.
Due to the recent development of the “Turbo Happy Seeder,” which can drill seed and fertilizer directly through loose and anchored crop residues, farmers are gradually moving towards zero tillage across the agriculture system.
Farmers who practice conservation agriculture also must adjust their nutrient management systems in order to maximize crop productivity decrease costs. Conventional fertilizer recommendations have been calibrated based on tillage-based systems are thus not necessarily appropriate for conservation agriculture systems, including nutrient stewardship (applying the right source of fertilizer at the right time in right place using right method).
Crop residue management is essential for continuous coil cover, an important component of conservation agriculture, but farmers are faced with competing uses of crop residue as livestock feed, fuel, mulch and compost. Local adaptive research is needed to address strategic residue and nutrient management, weed control and scale-appropriate machinery development.
Such a paradigm shift in crop management requires a mindset transition among farmers and other value chain actors, including researchers, extension agents, market players and other institutions. Though it is recognized that transition takes time, recent progress and development in weed control and nutrient management systems signal that practice of conservation agriculture is growing across the region, including among different socio-economic groups and farm typologies.
CCAFS and CIMMYT continue research and implementation of low emissions agriculture across the globe. See also the regional focus on conservation and climate-smart agriculture in South Asia.
Pollination of maize. Photo courtesy of aip.cimmyt.org.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director John Groarke presented new varieties of maize seed to Pakistani research organizations and private-sector seed companies on 17 February at the National Agricultural Research Center in Islamabad, according to a U.S. embassy press release.
These varieties were developed by the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), a joint effort led by CIMMYT and supported by USAID, to jump-start the production of quality hybrid maize seed in Pakistan. The varieties distributed are resistant to drought and heat, have enhanced nutritional quality and increased tolerance to insect attacks and low soil nitrogen.
AIP for Pakistan is working to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes in the agricultural sector through the promotion and dissemination of modern technologies/practices in the livestock, horticulture (fruits and vegetables) and cereals (wheat, maize and rice) sector. The $30 million initiative also collaborates with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the University of California – Davis and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC).
New hybrid helps farmers beat drought in Tanzania. With seed of a maize hybrid developed by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project and marketed by the company Meru Agro Tours and Consultant Limited, Valeria Pantaleo, a 47-year-old farmer and mother of four from Olkalili village, northern Tanzania, harvested enough grain from a 0.5-hectare plot in 2015 to feed her family and, with the surplus, to purchase an ox calf for plowing, despite the very poor rains that season. “I got so much harvest and yet I planted this seed very late and with no fertilizer,” said Pantaleo, who was happy and surprised. “I finally managed to buy a calf to replace my two oxen that died at the beginning of the year due to a strange disease.” In 2015 Meru Agro sold 427 tons of seed of the hybrid, HB513, known locally as “ngamia,” Kiswahili for “camel,” in recognition of its resilience under dry conditions. The company plans to put more than 1,000 tons of seed on the market in 2016. Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT
This story is one of a series of features written during CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary year to highlight significant advancements in maize and wheat research between 1966 and 2016.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — In the early 1990s, before climate change caught popular attention, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided funding for an international team of scientists in Mexico to find a better way to breed resilient maize for farmers in drought-prone tropical areas.
Fast forward several decades and that scientific concept is now reality. By early 2016 more than 2 million farmers were acquiring and growing drought-tolerant varieties from that early research in 13 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, a region where maize, the number-one food crop, frequently fails under erratic rainfall and lethal droughts.
Survival of the fittest
The core methodology, developed at CIMMYT, was to genetically select maize lines that survive and yield grain under controlled drought or low soil nitrogen on experimental plots. This imparts tolerance in maize to both dry conditions during flowering and grain-filling, when the plant is particularly sensitive to stress, and to the nitrogen-depleted soils typical of small-scale farms in the tropics.
Maize plants are designed with male flowers, called tassels, at the top, and female flowers, known as silks, which emerge later from young ears and catch pollen. Research in the 1970s had shown that, under drought, maize plants whose silks appear soonest after tassels also produce more grain, according to Greg Edmeades, a retired maize physiologist who led development of CIMMYT’s drought breeding system in the 1980s-90s.
“We used that trait, known as anthesis-silking interval, as a key yardstick to select maize lines and populations that did well under drought,” he explained, citing important contributions from his post-doctoral fellows Marianne Bänziger, Jorge Bolaños, Scott Chapman, Anne Elings, Renee Lafitte, and Stephen Mugo. “We discovered that earlier silking meant plants were sending more carbohydrates to the ear.”
Ground-truthing the science
In their studies, Edmeades and his team subjected many thousands of maize lines to stress testing on desert and mid-altitude fields in Mexico, dosing out water drop by drop. Reported in a series of journal papers and at two international conferences on maize stress breeding, their results outlined a new approach to create climate-resilient maize.
“The idea was to replicate the two most common and challenging nemeses of resource-poor farming systems, drought and low nitrogen stress, in a controlled way on breeding stations, and to use this to select tolerant varieties,” said Bänziger, now Deputy Director General for Research and Partnerships at CIMMYT. “After eight cycles of selection for reduced anthesis-silking interval under controlled drought stress, Greg’s model maize population gave 30 percent more grain than conventional varieties, in moderate-to-severe drought conditions.”
But could the approach be implemented in developing country breeding programs, where researchers typically tested and showcased high-yielding, optimally-watered maize?
Capitalizing on several years’ experience in Edmeades’ team, in 1996 Bänziger aimed to find out, moving to CIMMYT’s office in Zimbabwe and beginning work with breeders in the region to develop Africa-adapted, stress tolerant maize.
“African farmers grow maize by choice,” she explained. “If you give them access to varieties that better withstand their harsh conditions and reduce their risk, they may invest in inputs like fertilizer or diversify crop production, improving their incomes and food security.”
The efforts started by Bänziger and several other CIMMYT scientists in sub-Saharan Africa involved large, long-running projects in the region’s major maize-growing areas, with co-leadership of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), extensive and generous donor support, and the critical participation of regional associations, national research programs, private seed companies, and non-governmental organizations. Partners also pioneered innovative ways for farmers to take part in testing and selecting varieties and worked to foster high-quality, competitive seed markets.
The most recent initiative, Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), has been responsible for the development and release of more than 200 drought tolerant varieties. A new phase aims by 2019 to attain an annual production of as much as 68,000 tons of certified seed of resilient maize, for use by approximately 5.8 million households and benefitting more than 30 million people in the region.
Maize stress breeding goes global
Selecting for tolerance under controlled moisture stress has proven so successful that it is now a standard component of maize breeding programmes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, according to Edmeades.
“The long pursuit of drought tolerance in maize shows how successful research-for-development demands doggedness and enduring donor support,” said Edmeades, who credits former CIMMYT scientists P.R. Goldsworthy, Ken Fischer, and Elmer Johnson with laying the groundwork for his studies. “And, as can be seen, many donors and partners have helped greatly to amplify the impact of UNDP’s initial investment.”
Over the years, generous funding for this work has also been provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (GTZ); the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA); the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); the UK Department for International Development (DFID); and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
This short history of drought tolerance breeding for tropical maize was developed in collaboration with UNDP, as part of CIMMYT and UNDP’s 50th anniversary celebrations, which coincide in 2016. To read the version published by UNDP,click here.
Grandmother harvests drought-tolerant maize in Lobu village, Koromo, Hawassa Zuria district, Ethiopia. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – El Niño drought-related stress is triggering hunger and food insecurity that will endanger food security for 40 million people in southern Africa, according to the World Food Programme. While not as tangible as humanitarian aid, long-term scientific research is key to addressing the major drought threatening parts of Central America, Africa and Asia. Government fiscal tightening makes it hard to defend investments in research against projects where the results may be immediate and obvious – but long-term investment equals long-term impact.
Ethiopia is experiencing the worst drought in decades, with more people requiring food assistance in 2016 than at any point since 2005, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. In the central and eastern part of the countries crop production is down by 25 to 70% after the lowest rains in more than 50 years.
The El Niño related drought is not limited to Africa. India is set to harvest its smallest wheat crop in six years, with production down by five percent, following two successive poor monsoon seasons. But the biggest concern is that the region could experience major drought episodes like the Horn of Africa drought 1981- 1984 and the South Africa drought 1992, causing massive social disruption and human suffering.
Drought tolerant crops are an insurance against hunger and crop failure.
Given the severity of drought, scientific researchers are faced with the challenge to devise seed and farming practices that offer farmers greater resilience under this stress. Ongoing work to develop drought tolerant varieties has proved successful but needs renewed support and expansion.
Various maize landraces and wild relatives of wheat have withstood harsh conditions for thousands of years. Exploiting the drought-tolerances they possess and involving the use of molecular markers to better understand the genetic basis of drought tolerance has helped breeders select for better drought tolerance. This is not a quick fix. It can cost up to $600,000 and take seven years to produce a single maize hybrid. Hybrids tend to be more drought tolerant because they are more robust, implying deeper roots that allows the plant to capture more water.
Crop conditions at a glance as of January 28. (Source: Geoglam Global Agricultural Monitoring)
CIMMYT is working with national partners in Ethiopia to rapidly get drought tolerant maize and wheat seed to farmers as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Emergency Seed Response in Ethiopia project. The USAID and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project has brought 184 distinct varieties to farmers, mostly hybrids that yield on average 49% more grain than open-pollinated varieties, and yield higher than or equal to currently available varieties on the market.
A single seed can make the difference between hunger and prosperity, but seed alone is not enough. Imagine a Ferrari that is designed to travel at high speed on a freshly paved highway, driving along a dirt road. It will either break down or drive badly. The same thing happens with seed that is planted without smart farming practices designed to increase efficiency. There are many factors that need to be considered, including: right planting date, water conserving tillage methods, and fertilizer. If you can establish the plant well, it is more likely to perform well when drought stress really hits.
Plant a seed today
Massive investments are required today in order for farmers to benefit from effective technologies in the future given that benefits from agricultural research tend to come to fruition after a considerable time lag. Today, parts of Central America, Africa and Asia desperately need food assistance – but the need for investment in agricultural research for development will only intensify as more countries face drought and other climate-related stress. As the proverb asks: “When is the best time to plant a tree?” Twenty years ago. “The second-best time?” Today.
Participants see a demonstration of artificial inoculation at MLN screening site. Photo: K. Kaimenyi/CIMMYT
NAIROBI — Since maize lethal necrosis (MLN) was first reported in Kenya in 2011, CIMMYT and its partners, including Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), have been intensively engaged in breeding for resistance to the disease, which was later confirmed to be present in D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
KALRO and CIMMYT invited public and private sector partners in eastern Africa to a MLN field day at the screening facility at KALRO-Naivasha on 20 January 2016. KALRO Director General Eliud Kireger officially opened the field day, which was attended by about 70 participants from national agricultural research organizations, multinational, regional and national seed companies, national plant protection agencies, international institutions, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and CIMMYT.
The field day demonstrated 21,074 maize germplasm entries from 16 institutions, including public and private sector partners. Several promising inbred lines and pre-commercial hybrids with tolerance/ resistance to MLN were on display in the field blocks. These included MLN tolerant/resistant hybrids that are currently undergoing national performance trials (NPTs) in eastern Africa.
Kireger expressed his appreciation for the work being done at the facility and pointed out, “Last year there were very few germplasm entries offering promise against MLN at the screening site. Today we have seen materials that have potential to be released in the next two years or less.”
“Within the next few years, we can reach out to the farmers in eastern Africa with seed of MLN resistant varieties. We can now confidently tell farmers and the ministries of agriculture that there is a strong ray of hope,” he added.
Using molecular marker assisted breeding, CIMMYT is currently working on more than 25 elite inbred lines that are susceptible to MLN but are parental lines of several prominent commercial maize hybrids in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Our vision of replacing a large set of commercial MLN-susceptible varieties with MLN-resistant hybrids is well on track. Within three or four years we hope to have at least 20 to 25 MLN-resistant hybrids released, scaled up and delivered to farmers in eastern Africa with the help of our seed company partners,” stated B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE.
Collaborative work at the MLN facility will continue to help partners identify MLN-resistant germplasm, including inbred lines and hybrids. “The work being done at the MLN screening facility is critical in successfully responding to the MLN epidemic in eastern Africa,” said L.M. Suresh , CIMMYT maize pathologist and manager of the MLN screening facility.
Participants also visited a seed treatment trial, where seed care treatments from Syngenta and Bayer are being evaluated for their effectiveness on a selected set of six hybrids. “Today we have not only seen excellent work on breeding for MLN resistance, but also very good research work being done on seed treatments. This is very important for seed companies,” said Maarten van Ginkel, consultant breeder, SeedCo. “From the trials we have seen today, we are assured that in the near future we will have MLN resistance introgressed in all our hybrids, enabling seed companies to improve the quality of seed delivered to the market.”
A farmer uses a mini-tiller in the midwestern region of Nepal. Photo credit: CIMMYT/CSISA
The recent 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal on 25 April, followed by a 7.3 magnitude aftershock on 12 May and several hundred additional aftershocks, has had huge negative impacts on the country’s agriculture and food security. Around two-thirds of Nepal’s population rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, and agriculture contributes 33% of Nepal’s GDP. It is estimated that about 8 million people have been affected by the earthquakes, with smallholders in hilly regions being the hardest hit.
The earthquakes damaged or destroyed agricultural assets, undermining the longer-term food production capacity of farm families and disrupting critical input supply, trade, and processing networks. Farmers lost grain and seed stocks, livestock, agricultural tools and other inputs, and are facing significant labor shortages. Widespread damage to seed and grain storage facilities has affected smallholder farmers’ ability to secure their harvested crops during the rainy season.
In response to the devastation, USAID-Nepal has provided US$1 million to the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Nepal (CSISA-NP) for earthquake relief and recovery. The Earthquake Recovery Support Program will be implemented for a period of 13 months in close coordination with the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD), Department of Agriculture, Department of Livestock Services, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, and District Disaster Relief Committee. The districts that will receive support include Dolkha, Kavre, Khotang, Makwanpur, Nuwakot, Ramechap, Sindhupalchowk, and Solukhumbu, which suffered particularly high levels of damage.
According to Andrew McDonald, CIMMYT Principal Scientist and CSISA Project Leader, “Even if seed is available, farmers’ ability to plant and harvest crops has been severely diminished due to the loss of draft animals and the exacerbation of labor shortages.” To aid them, the earthquake recovery program will provide more than 33,000 farming households with 50,000 grain storage bags, 30 cocoons for community grain storage, 400 mini-tillers and other modern agriculture power tools (e.g., seeders, reapers, and maize shellers), 800 sets of small agricultural hand tools, and 20,000 posters on better-bet agronomic practices for rice and maize.
“First we will focus on getting horse-powered mini-tillers into affected communities, and subsequently broadening the utility of these machines to power a host of essential agricultural activities including seeding, reaping, threshing, and shelling, as well as driving small pumps for irrigation,” said Scott Justice, Agricultural Mechanization Specialist, CSISA-NP.
CIMMYT scientists train farmers on how to use a power tiller in Dadeldhura, Nepal. Photo credit: Lokendra Khadka/CSISA-Nepal
At the program’s inception workshop on 28 August, Beth Dunford, USAID-Nepal Mission Director, remarked that USAID-Nepal has arranged for a special fund to help earthquake-affected people. Beyond the devastation of houses and public infrastructure such as roads, the earthquake has seriously disrupted agriculture and the rural economy in the impacted districts. Re-establishing vital agricultural markets and services is key to how quickly these communities will recover from the earthquake, underlined Dunford.
To coordinate and monitor program activities effectively, management committees at the central, district, and local levels have been formed with the purpose of identifying the earthquake-affected areas within a district and ensuring efficient and transparent distribution of aid items.
MoAD Joint Secretary Rajendra Adhikari highlighted that the Ministry feels a real sense of ownership over this program and is committed to implementing program activities through its network. The farm machinery support program will be a perfect platform for MoAD to expand its farm mechanization program into other areas of the country. The Earthquake Recovery Support Program also aligns with the Nepalese Government’s agricultural development strategies, which focus on community-wide inclusive development.
Over 100,000 packets of nearly 1,200 hybrids and varieties developed by CIMMYT-Zimbabwe and partners were distributed to national agricultural research systems and private seed companies throughout eastern and southern Africa. Regional trial requests are in high demand from emerging seed companies across the region as well as Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and other countries in Asia and Latin America. Photo: Amsal Tarekegne/CIMMYT.
The year 2015 marked 30 years of CIMMYT’s Southern Africa Regional Office (CIMMYT-SARO) developing new maize varieties adapted to smallholder farmer needs in Zimbabwe and across sub-Saharan Africa.
“Multiple stress tolerant and nutritious maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT-SARO have been released by partners throughout eastern and southern Africa,” said Amsal Tarekegne, CIMMYT-SARO Senior Maize Breeder.
CIMMYT-SARO and partners have also produced new maize varieties that yield 20-30% more than currently available widely grown commercial varieties under drought and low nitrogen stress conditions.
Farmers in eastern and southern Africa need maize varieties that are climate resilient, high-yielding and nutritious.
CIMMYT wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds describes the technology used for conducting research into heat and drought resilient wheat varieties in Ciudad Obregon in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora in March 2015. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Scientists involved in a major global initiative aimed at increasing wheat yields as much as 60 percent by 2050 got a recent boost when the U.S. government announced $3.4 million in new research funds.
Researchers affiliated with the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), focused on developing new high-yielding varieties of wheat to meet demand that will be generated by a projected 33 percent increase in population growth from 7.3 billion people today to 9.5 billion by 2050, will be eligible to apply for the grant money.
“This opens up new opportunities for scientists in the United States to provide invaluable input to the overall project of increasing yields, improving our potential to tackle this vital work to achieve global food security,” said Matthew Reynolds, wheat physiologist at the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), one of the founding members of IWYP.
“Wheat is one of the world’s most important staple crops, providing a significant amount of daily calories and protein throughout the world,” Vilsack said.
“By 2050, the demand for wheat as part of a reliable, affordable, and nutritious diet will grow alongside the world population, and continued wheat research will play an important role in ensuring its continued availability.”
IWYP, which targets partner investments of up to $100 million, supports the G20 Wheat Initiative in its efforts to enhance the genetic component of wheat yield and develop new wheat varieties adaptable to different geographical regions and environments.
CLIMATE RISKS
Wheat yields face threats from global warming. Findings in a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) state that it is very likely that heat waves will occur more often and last longer throughout the 21st century and rainfall will be more unpredictable.
Mean surface temperatures could potentially rise by between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius or more, the report said.
“Wheat currently provides 20 percent of calories and protein consumed worldwide and current models show that a 2 degree increase in temperature would lead to 20 percent reduction in wheat yield and that a 6 degree increase would lead to a 60 percent reduction,” Reynolds said.
“If we have a 40 percent yield reduction due to climate change, the risks to food security will be increased because wheat production has to increase by 60 percent just to keep up with population projections.”
In addition to CIMMYT, IWYP members include Britain’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Grains Research and Development Corporation of Australia (GRDC), the Department of Biotechnology of India (DBT), Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) in France and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) in Switzerland.
Applications are due May 3, 2016 and more information is available via the NIFA-IWYP request for applications.
To introduce modern agricultural machines to farmers of Jhenaidah, Bangladesh, a farmers’ field day (FFD) was held on 17 November 2015 at the M.K. High School, Kulfadanga, Maharajpur, Jhenaidah. The FFD was jointly organized by CIMMYT and IRRI under the USAID funded projects Cereal System Initiative for South AsiaMechanization and Irrigation (CSISA-MI) and Rice Value Chain (RVC).
Sk. Nazim Uddin, Mechanization Project Director at Bangladesh’s Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), said that farmers need modern agricultural machinery and proper training, which is being provided by CIMMYT.
While addressing farmers, chief guest Hamidur Rahman, DAE Director General, pointed out that USAID funded agricultural projects are playing a vital role in introducing agricultural mechanization in Bangladesh and said, “Our population is increasing, whereas the cultivable land is decreasing day by day; we need to adopt complete mechanized systems in agriculture to meet the challenge of producing more food from less land. In this context, CIMMYT and IRRI are doing a great job that everybody should know about.” He also expressed his satisfaction with the public-private partnership initiated by CIMMYT’s CSISA-MI project. William J. Collis, CSISA-MI Senior Project Leader, expressed his hope that mechanization will push forward the agriculture of Bangladesh within the next 10 years and thanked the private sector for its continuous support of the country’s agricultural machinery sector.
At the field day, participating farmers learned about modern agro-machinery and mechanized cropping systems that help reduce tillage to conserve soil health, while saving time, labor, and expenses, and maximizing profit. Detailed discussions were held on how to make tillage options accessible at a lower price, and increase the use of machines through local service providers (LSP). A significant number of farmers expressed their willingness to become LSPs and earn extra income. They also requested subsidies for purchasing the agro-machines and starting their own business.
Farmers and guests later visited field plots where they witnessed demonstrations of several machines, such as a rice transplanter and reaper, a new planter called the hand crank spreader, and the power tiller operated seeder. These demonstrations were presented by private sector companies RFL, Metal, ACI, and Janata Engineering as part of their agro-machinery promoting activities. Afterward, a feedback session was conducted where farmers and LSPs expressed their opinions of the machines, their use and profitability.
Other special guests at the field day were Muhammad Nuruzzaman, Project Management-Coordinator, Economic Growth, USAID Bangladesh; Md. Sirajul Islam, Chief Scientific Officer, RARS, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Jessore; Subrata Kumar Chakrabarty, Project Manager, CSISA-MI, CIMMYT; and Kevin Robbins, Deputy Project Manager, CSISA-MI, iDE-Bangladesh. The program was chaired by Khairul Abrar, Additional Director, DAE, Jessore. Also present were Deputy Directors of DAE from Jessore, Magura, Jhenaidah, Chuadanga, Meherpur and Kushtia districts; the Chairman and members of Kulfadanga Union Parishad, local elites, school teachers, and large numbers of farmers.
Pakistan imports more than 85% of its hybrid maize seed, which costs the country about US$ 60 million each year. Due to importation and other factors, the price of hybrid maize seed ranges from US$ 6-8 per kg, the highest in south Asia.
During a NARC-CIMMYT maize field day held on 25 November 2015, Muhammad Azeem Khan, Director General of Pakistan’s National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), said, “We are seeing valuable and precious contributions from the AIP [Agricultural Innovation Program] maize program which will help to lessen the dependency on imported hybrid maize seeds.” In his welcoming address to about 200 participants, the NARC DG mentioned the importance of reopening the CIMMYT office and reviving its activities after a gap of more than two decades.
CIMMYT’s maize activities in Pakistan are being implemented more widely under the recently launched AIP. M. Imtiaz, CIMMYT’s Country Representative and AIP project leader, welcomed the delegates and urged stakeholders to make an all-out effort to deliver maize varieties and hybrids particularly to resource-poor farmers.
Seerat Asghar, Federal Secretary for National Food Security and Research, reminded participants about the role CIMMYT played in helping Pakistan to become self-sufficient in wheat, and described the collaboration between Norman Borlaug and Pakistani scientists. He stressed that this type of collaboration must continue in order to achieve similar results in maize. The Federal Secretary also highlighted AIP’s maize activities, which have introduced a wide range of maize germplasm to Pakistan including vitamin A enriched, biofortified maize hybrids and stem borer resistant open-pollinated varieties (OPVs), among others.
Under the AIP maize program, which started its field evaluation work in February 2014, CIMMYT has evaluated about 100 set of trials consisting of more than 1000 maize hybrids and OPVs in all provinces and regions of Pakistan. In less than two years, the national agricultural research system has identified about 50 hybrids and OPVs suitable for further validation and commercial production. “Pakistan can be taken as CIMMYT’s new frontier for maize where positive impacts can be achieved sustainably,” said AbduRahman Beshir, CIMMYT’s maize improvement and seed systems specialist. “Such fast results are not happening inadvertently; rather, they are creating strong collaborations, and developing confidence and trust in national partners will result in meeting set targets effectively.”
AIP maize is a multi-stakeholder platform consisting of 20 public and private partners who are directly involved in Pakistan’s maize evaluation and validation network. The number of stakeholders is expected to increase as the program further expands product testing and deployment in different parts of the country. During the field visit, Umar Sardar, R&D manager at Four Brothers Seed Company, noted the performance of different maize hybrids and expressed his company’s interest in marketing white kernel varieties in KPK provinces. Similarly, Jan Masood, Director of the Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI), asked CIMMYT to allocate some of the entries for the benefit particularly of small-scale farmers in the mountain areas of Pakistan.
During the field day, CIMMYT principles for allocating products to partners were also announced. Ten private and public institutions have submitted applications to CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program to obtain CIMMYT maize germplasm for further validation and commercialization in Pakistan; those requests are now being reviewed by a panel of maize experts working with CIMMYT in Asia.
After visiting demonstration plots and trials, the chief guest, Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan applauded CIMMYT’s efforts to foster the production and delivery of affordable quality seed. In his concluding remarks, the Minister said, “The country is importing a huge amount of hybrid maize seed, which contributes to the high input price for maize farmers, particularly those with limited resources. We need to strengthen our local capacity especially in hybrid maize seed production in order to enhance availability, accessibility, and affordability of quality seeds to our farmers.” Minister Bosan also noted the role of PARC, CIMMYT, and USAID under AIP.
PARC Chairman Nadeem Amjad expressed his gratitude to all the stakeholders and organizers of this national event. Former PARC Chairman Iftikhar Ahmad and Shahid Masood, former member of PARC’s plant science division, received awards from the chief guest in recognition of their contributions under the AIP program.
Representatives of local and multinational seed companies, public research institutes, relevant government institutions, and USAID, as well as progressive farmers and policymakers attended the field day.
A service provider in Lemo, Ethiopia. Photo: Frédéric Baudron
Agronomic practices that can close the wheat yield gap in the Ethiopian highlands are well known: row planting, precise fertilizer application, timely planting, etc. But their implementation generally increases the demand for human labor and animal draft power. And the availability of farm power in the Ethiopian highlands is stagnating, or even declining. The cost of maintaining a pair of oxen is becoming prohibitive for most farmers. Also, the rural population is aging as a result of young people migrating to the fast-growing cities of Ethiopia in search of more rewarding livelihood opportunities than farming.
From 23 – 26 August, 2015, CIMMYT’s Director General Martin Kropff visited Pakistan to attend the Agricultural Innovation Program’s (AIP) annual conference in Islamabad. Following the conference Kropff met with the CIMMYT team to talk about his observations, suggestions and way forward for continued impact in Pakistan.
Q: Is there room for improvement in the agricultural sector in Pakistan?
A: With an average wheat yield of nearly three tons per hectare, Pakistan’s agricultural sector is in a good position but there are still many opportunities to grow. As highlighted by the Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, technologies such as precision agriculture and hand-held technologies for soil testing, to increase yields present new opportunities. Many farmers’ I met at this year’s AIP conference are not using these improved technologies, and AIP can help ensure they have access.
Q: What is the role of public-private partnerships in agricultural development?
Kropff talking to CIMMYT-Pakistan team. Photo: Awais Yaqub/ CIMMYT
A: The private sector is essential for scaling up new technologies. CIMMYT, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and heads of international and national companies in Pakistan and other AIP partners are discussing opportunities for future collaborations. This won’t be just a project on maize or wheat – but a full systems approach incorporating the entire value chain.
Q: How can we improve the seed industry’s capacity?
A: When I was Director at Wageningen University, we established an African Agribusiness Academy. Ambassadors from the university would organize groups of young entrepreneurs from across Africa to innovate and learn from our scientists, and vice versa. This type of partnership and co-learning could help AIP improve the industry and farmers’ lives as well as build relationships with the private sector.
Q: What has been your experience with Pakistani scientists and how can they continue to grow?
CIMMYT-Pakistan team photo with CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff and former CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin (front row, fourth and fifth from the left, respectively). Photo: Awais Yaqub/ CIMMYT
A: Pakistani CIMMYT scientists are at a really good level. At CIMMYT we are not just conducting research but also applying it in the field, and we need to keep innovating with Pakistan’s national centers and scientists. We also need to continue training and mentoring Pakistan’s future scientists – students from national universities that are an incredible asset to future development.
Woman farmer receiving wheat seed at the festival. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan
Farmers, students, scientists, and researchers showed keen interest in new agricultural technologies and practices offered by CIMMYT at the women farmers’ festival organized by Lok Sanjh Foundation at the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan, on 11 November 2015.
At the festival, CIMMYT showcased high yielding wheat varieties that are resistant to rust, especially Ug99, as well as biofortified and normal yellow and white maize varieties, and information on conservation agriculture.
CIMMYT encourages farmers young and old, men and women, to grow their own wheat for a food secure world. As part of CIMMYT’s mandate to ensure food security, 2,500 smallholder farmers received seed of Faisalabad-08, Punjab-11, Pakistan-13, and NARC-11, wheat varieties that are resistant to rust, including Ug99, at the festival. Seerat Asghar, Federal Secretary, Ministry of National Food Security and Research, Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative, and Nazim Ali, USAID Pakistan representative, distributed the seed.
The team collected farmer information for future follow-up on the wheat varieties’ performance and yield improvement. More than 60% of the recipients were women farmers from the Pothwar region of Punjab province, including Chakwal, Fateh Jang, Gujar Khan, and Rawalpindi, Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and Islamabad.
Seed distribution ceremony during the women farmers’ festival. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan.
