funder_partner: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

https://www.usaid.gov/

New project launched: Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia

Written by on February 11, 2013. Posted in News.

South Asian farm lands have been increasingly experiencing climate change related weather extremes. A report from the Asian Development Bank in 2009 warns that if the current trends persist until 2050, major crop yields and food production capacity of South Asia will significantly decrease — by 17% for maize, 12% for wheat, and 10% for rice — due to climate change induced heat and water stress. In response to this situation, USAID’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative has decided to support the “Heat stress resilient maize for South Asia through a public-private partnership” (Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia, HTMA) project to develop heat resilient maize for South Asia.

Global Maize Program meeting: The old and the new intersect in Kathmandu

Written by on February 5, 2013. Posted in News.

Lone Badstue (CIMMYT gender and monitoring and evaluation specialist; third from left, bottom) talks with four coordinators of community-based seed production groups in Nepal (top, from right). Also present are Katrine Danielsen, Senior Advisor, Social Development and Gender Equity of the Royal Tropical Institute of Denmark (far left), and Kamala Sapkota, intern working in the Hill Maize Research Project (second from left).

Applying advanced technologies and reconciling dramatic growth in funding, staffing, and complex partnerships with the need to speed farmers’ access to options for better food security and incomes were the themes of discussion among more than 60 specialists in maize breeding, agronomy, socioeconomics, and diverse related disciplines who met in Kathmandu, Nepal, during 28-31 January 2013. “This was a great opportunity for old and new staff to get acquainted and help launch the vibrant evolution of our Program to meet clients and stakeholders’ needs,” said GMP director B.M. Prasanna. “The participation of colleagues from other programs and organizations was crucial, allowing us to identify and address logjams and potential synergies and continue our journey toward being an institution, rather than a mere collection of isolated projects.”

Secretary of Agriculture backs CIMMYT’s initiative for sustainable crop intensification in Bangladesh

Written by on January 29, 2013. Posted in News.

bangladesh15 Bangladesh has a mosaic of distinct agricultural seasons, potentially allowing farmers to cultivate two and sometimes three crops on the same field. However, in the impoverished region of Southern Bangladesh, only 50% of farmers currently grow more than one rainy season rice crop per year, a situation highly problematic for the world’s most densely populated country, where agricultural land is shrinking by 1% per year as urbanization accelerates.

The main limitations to increased cropping intensity are the procurement of irrigation during the dry season, the high cost of agricultural labor, and delays in rice harvesting that set back timely planting of the subsequent dry season wheat, maize, or legume crop. As population, and thus future cereals demand, grows, overcoming these constraints is becoming an increasingly pressing issue. For these reasons, CIMMYT works closely with public and private sector partners, local agricultural service providers, and farmers to encourage efficient agricultural mechanization, irrigation, and conservation agriculture (CA).

To raise awareness of CIMMYT’s work on sustainable crop intensification in Southern Bangladesh, CIMMYT-Bangladesh, in association with International Development Enterprises (iDE), hosted a field day in Kramji Char, Barisal, on 17 January 2013. The visit showcased activities of the EU-funded Agriculture, Nutrition and Extension Project (ANEP), as well as the USAID-funded Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Bangladesh (CSISA). CIMMYT was honored by the presence of a number of high-level public and private sector dignitaries, including Monzur Hossain (Ministry of Agriculture Secretary), Paul Sabatine (USAID-Bangladesh deputy mission director), Nazmul Islam (Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation chairman), Wais Kabir (Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council executive chairman), Krishibid Mukul Chandra Roy (Department of Agricultural Extension director general), Ahsan Khan Chowdhury (PRAN-RFL Group deputy managing director), and Anar Khalilov (USAID-Bangladesh senior food security advisor).

CIMMYT’s work in Kramji Char and much of Southern Bangladesh focuses on the sustainable provision of low-cost, fuel-efficient surface water irrigation using Axial Flow Pump (AFP) technologies, which can provide up to 46% more water per drop of diesel fuel consumed by diesel pumping. CIMMYT also popularizes the use of agricultural machineries with CA such as seeder-fertilizer drills, bed planters, and reapers that can be attached to two-wheel hand tractors. These implements enable more efficient planting and irrigation water use, while reducing labor requirements and saving farmers costs. Working with iDE, CIMMYT is developing business models for private sector and local machinery service provider partners to ensure farmers’ access to CA services at low-cost. At the completion of the field day, the Secretary of Agriculture concluded that “the demonstration of these machineries opens the door to increased crop productivity and farmers’ income.”

The field day was jointly organized by CIMMYT’s Timothy J. Krupnik, Yusuf Ali, Samina Yasmin, TP Tiwari, and Andrew McDonald. The event’s success would not have been possible without the valuable coordination and contribution of CIMMYT’s iDE partners, notably Rajiv Pardhan (Bangladesh country director), Nurul Amin (operations manager), Afzal Hossain Bhuiyan (business development specialist), and Richard Rose (ANEP Project Manager).

Tropicalized maize haploid inducers for doubled haploid-based breeding

Written by on December 28, 2012. Posted in Features. 1 Comment on Tropicalized maize haploid inducers for doubled haploid-based breeding

tropicalized-maize-haploid The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

Generating DH lines involves four major steps: (1) In vivohaploid induction; (2) haploid seed identification using morphological markers; (3) chromosome doubling of putative haploids; and (4) generating D1 (DH) seed from D0 seedlings. In vivo haploid induction is achieved by crossing a specially developed maize genetic stock called an “inducer” (as male) with a source population (as female) from which homozygous DH lines are developed.

What are tropicalized haploid inducers?
Adoption of DH technology by public maize breeding programs and small- and mediumscale enterprise (SME) seed companies, especially in developing countries, is limited by the lack of inducers adapted to the tropical/subtropical conditions. The CIMMYT Global Maize Program, in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics of the University of Hohenheim (UHo) now has tropical haploid inducers for sharing with the interested institutions under the terms outlined below.

The tropically adapted inducer lines (TAILs) developed by CIMMYT and UHo showed high haploid induction capacity (~8-10%) and better agronomic performance than temperate inducers, in trials at two CIMMYT experiment stations in Mexico. A haploid inducer hybrid developed using these TAILs revealed heterosis for plant vigor and pollen production under tropical conditions, while maintaining similar haploid induction rates (~8-10%). CIMMYT and UHo decided to share the seed and grant authorization for use of one of the tropicalized haploid inducer lines (one of the parents of a hybrid inducer) and the hybrid inducer to interested applicants, after signing of the relevant material transfer agreement (MTA) and with restrictions to protect the intellectual property rights of both institutions for the inducer lines.

Process of indenting for the tropicalized haploid inducers
Interested applicants should send a letter of intent or an expression of interest in the tropicalized haploid inducers. CIMMYT may seek more information, if required, and will share the relevant MTA template for signing by applicants. The general guidelines to obtain inducers for research use and commercial use are as follows.

For research use by publicly-funded national agricultural research systems
Publicly-funded institutions interested in access to the haploid inducers for specific purposes (e.g., to develop DH lines for breeding programs) may send a letter of intent or expression of interest to CIMMYT. For eligible institutions, the haploid inducers will be provided free-of-charge by CIMMYT and UHo, after signing of a Research Use MTA. Commercial use of the inducers by institutions or others should be in accordance with a separate license agreement for commercial use (as given below).

For commercial use
Applicants may access the inducers for commercial use pursuant to signing of a Material Transfer and License Agreement with CIMMYT and UHo. Applicants shall pay UHo a one-time licence fee of USD 25,000 for provision of seed of two haploid inducers; these include one of the parents of a tropicalized haploid inducer hybrid and the haploid inducer hybrid itself. If applicants wish to access the other parent of the haploid inducer hybrid, an additional one-time licence fee of $10,000 will be payable to UHo.

Acknowledgments
Generous support for joint research on doubled haploids by CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim has come from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; SAGARPA, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.; USAID (US Agency for International Development); Dr. Dr. h. c. Herrmann Eiselen and the Foundation fiat panis, Ulm, Germany; the Tiberius Services AG, Stuttgart, Germany; Vilmorin Seed Company; DTMA (Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa) project.;MAIZE CGIAR Research Program; and the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) project under MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture).

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

Maize Doubled Haploid Facility for Africa (3.17 MB)

The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

Innovative public-private partnership to scale up conservation agriculture in Bangladesh

Written by on December 13, 2012. Posted in News.

Infroma-photo-BD Developing public-private partnerships (PPPs) to expand conservation agriculture (CA) is one of the main goals of the USAID-funded Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Bangladesh (CSISA-BD). A key stakeholder in CSISA-BD, CIMMYT has partnered with International Development Enterprises (iDE) to develop business models to support Solar International, a leader in the agricultural machinery sector in Bangladesh. To kick-start the PPP, Solar International recently imported 54 seeder-fertilizer drills that can be attached to the ubiquitous two-wheel hand tractors found in Bangladesh, and used for the CA strip tillage technique. Using such machinery allows for rapid precision planting of wheat, reduces the turn-around time before the rice harvest, and responds to the problem of growing labor scarcity for planting in Bangladesh. The PPP prioritizes farmer and service provider training in better-bet agronomic practices, optimum use of the seeder-fertilizer drills, and the marketing of agricultural services to small and marginal farmers at reasonable prices.

In November 2012, supported by CIMMYT, Solar International and iDE completed in-depth training and certification of 108 leading agricultural service providers and their machine operators, who had purchased the seeder-fertilizer drill. To make this approach scalable and sustainable, Solar International embedded the cost of training in the market price of the equipment; emphasizing program sustainability by securing a training and funding source after CSISA-BD withdraws. In turn, CSISA-BD supplied a 50% cost-rebate to purchasing service providers upon successful completion of the training course. This PPP was brokered by CIMMYT’s Timothy J. Krupnik, Cropping Systems Agronomist in Bangladesh, Rajiv Pradhan (iDE), and Sohel Khan (Solar International). Trainings were facilitated by representatives of Solar International, Farhad Hossain (CIMMYT Agricultural Development Officer), Scott Justice (CIMMYT Machinery Consultant), and Shafiq Islam (CIMMYT-CSISA Training and Outreach Officer).

SIMLESA-Kenya: achievements and future goals

Written by on November 29, 2012. Posted in News.

The Kenya Annual Review and Planning Meeting (ARPM) was held during 5-6 November 2012 at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). The meeting was attended by 33 participants from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), KARI, Ministry of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Council (ARC-SA), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), Royal Tropical Institute, Resource Projects Kenya (local NGO), and FRESHCO Seeds (local private seed company). Present were also Stephen Njoka (KARI-Embu) and Francis Muyekho (KARI-Kakamega), who chaired some of the sessions.

Joseph Mureithi, KARI deputy director and SIMLESA program steering committee member for Kenya, welcomed all participants and informed them on the adoption of a new value chain innovation platform, bringing major stakeholders on board to address farmers’ constraints and promote commercialization of agriculture. Ephraim Mukisira then officially opened the meeting by summarizing the outcomes of the KARI Biannual Conference. He discussed the current needs of Kenyan farmers and stressed that “there is need to commercialize the farming business in Kenya in order to empower local farmers.” Besides commercialization, more effort needs to be invested in the SIMLESA initiative. Maize, as the foundation staple in the Kenyan diet, should be promoted together with legumes supplying proteins to the farmers’ families. While the population is rapidly increasing, farm sizes are declining; hence there is a pressing need to increase productivity levels while using the same land area. To realize the program’s impact within the current time constraints, the program aims to assist 50,000 farmers in both Eastern and Western Kenya.

Later on, Mekuria Mulugetta, SIMLESA program leader, provided a detailed background of SIMLESA objectives. He emphasized SIMLESA’s focus on building KARI’s organizational capacity, reminded the participants of the recently published baseline survey report for Kenya, and thanked AusAID for their continuing financial support of the SIMLESA-Ethiopia Expansion program for the next two years. As part of the meeting, the participants travelled to Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia to observe field experiments conducted by SIMLESA, ICRISAT, and national partners.

Global network to increase wheat yield, fight hunger

Written by on November 27, 2012. Posted in News.

To meet the global demand for wheat, wheat yield needs to be increased by 60% by 2050 or 1.6% per year. While scientific evidence suggests that the yield potential could be increased by 50% or more, the research needed is beyond the current capacity of individual institutions or national research programs. Therefore, the establishment of an international Wheat Yield Network (WYN) was proposed on 13 November 2012 during the Wheat Yield Funders’ Conference in Mexico City. The WYN follows on from a major three year effort by the Global Wheat Program and many international partners (who worked together as the Wheat Yield Consortium) with strong support from the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) through the MasAgro initiative.

The meeting was officially opened by Francisco Javier Mayorga Castañeda, SAGARPA Secretary. Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT director general, welcomed all participants on behalf of CIMMYT. Hans Braun, CIMMYT Global Wheat Program director, then provided an overview of the global wheat crisis, stating that increasing wheat yield is currently one of the biggest challenges to food security. However, investments in wheat research are low compared to other major crops, although wheat is currently second to rice as the main calorie source and the most important source of plant protein in human food. To achieve the goals of the proposed WYN – increasing the photosynthetic capacity of wheat, achieving high and stable harvest index and lodging resistance, and establishment of a state-of-the-art breeding platform to deliver new wheat lines from this work to the world – it is necessary not only to connect leading public and private research teams, but also to establish more research platforms in developing countries, such as the Campo Experimental Norman E. Borlaug (CENEB) near Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico.

During his presentation on the origins of the Wheat Yield Consortium, Lumpkin discussed the importance of wheat for achieving food security and raised the question whether wheat will be able to compete with other crops without increased research funding. “We need to supercharge wheat and make it competitive with maize,” he said. Helene Lucas, Wheat Initiative and INRA international coordinator, offered a global perspective on wheat programs and purpose of Wheat Initiative. Steve Visscher (BBSRC deputy chief executive and chief operating officer) and Saharah Moon Chapotin (division chief for agricultural research, USAID) outlined the public sector position, and John Bloomer (JMB Consulting (Pleshey) Ltd. director) summarized the perspective of the private sector.

Prior to the closed session, a discussion was held to cover possible future steps. It was reiterated by participants that the question is not whether a global platform to support wheat research is needed; the question is how to do it. A communiqué with results of the conference is currently being prepared.

Why invest in wheat research?

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on November 14, 2012. Posted in Videos.

Wheat is the most important food crop worldwide and a principal source of nutrients in some of the poorest countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. But wheat, like all living organisms, is unimaginably complex.

CIMMYT scientist Matthew Reynolds believes that for this reason we need a whole consortium of scientists to improve its yield. This video highlights work that has already been done to increase the productivity of wheat through research in spike photosynthesis, roots and breeding. Because when it comes down to it, crop yields cannot be improved overnight, certainly not sustainably. It takes time and investment, and by planning ahead we are actually trying to preempt a disaster, with research and with partnership.

Australia and CIMMYT continue support for wheat and maize research in Afghanistan

Written by on November 12, 2012. Posted in News.

After a decade of successful work in Afghanistan, CIMMYT has begun a new phase of a project supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The four-year phase entitled “Sustainable Wheat & Maize Production in Afghanistan” began in October 2012 and builds upon research and development and capacity building activities of the previous phases with a greater emphasis on rainfed wheat and hybrid maize.

The livelihoods of approximately 80% of the Afghan population depend on agriculture and related activities. The central crop in Afghanistan is wheat, providing about 60% of daily calorie intake for an average Afghan. Afghanistan’s annual per capita wheat consumption of 180 kilograms places the country among the top wheat consumers worldwide. While wheat constitutes the most important grain crop in Afghanistan, occupying about 80% of all cereals area, maize is a grossly underutilized food and feed option in the country. It ranks third in importance as far as area and production are concerned, but the current production levels are low at about 0.3 million tons (a considerable decrease from about 0.7 million tons in the 1960s and 1970s). This is expected to change with the Government of Afghanistan’s recently renewed emphasis on maize. CIMMYT, with support from AusAID and ACIAR, has been working towards sustainable growth in wheat and maize production and productivity in the war-torn country.

Agriculture in Afghanistan generally faces various constraints and challenges, including severe droughts and great agro-climatic diversity. However, following a decade of concerted efforts on part of researchers, seed producers, and the farming community, wheat production and productivity is now showing a positive trend. Furthermore, the 10 wheat and 4 maize CIMMYT genotypes that were released in Afghanistan in the past 10 years have contributed to the growth of a public-private partnership within the seed industry, which is expected to produce up to 12% of Afghanistan’s wheat certified demand. Nevertheless, serious issues remain, including the absence of an in-country wheat breeding program and the stark fact that more than 80% of certified seed produced in the country is still Ug99 susceptible. There is also a need to initiate agro-climatic zonespecific varietal testing and to reach out to farmers with zone-specific crop management knowledge.

These are some of the issues to be addressed by the new phase of the project. Additionally, the project will create information management hubs in the provinces of Nangarhar, Herat, Balkh, and Kabul. These hubs, led by the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) and engaging all stakeholders and partners, will undertake baseline and subsequent annual surveys to assess levels of technology adoption. They will also study factors affecting adoption, including the role of children and women in wheat- and maize-based cropping systems, and engage in technology assessment, demonstration, and dissemination.

The current phase aims to empower ARIA to assume a leadership role in all the spheres of technology development and dissemination. To realize this plan, annual workshops will be held to eventually hand over the leadership and coordination role to ARIA and national partners. Implementation of this project in Afghanistan will draw support from in-country partners including, but not limited to, ICARDA-Afghanistan, FAO, the French Agricultural Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency in Kabul, NGOs, seed organizations, farmers, and private sector to ensure sustainable gains.

USAID and CIMMYT visit the 1st community-managed maize seed company in the hills of Nepal

Written by on November 1, 2012. Posted in News.

PHOTO-NEPAL21 The community based seed production (CBSP) program is one of the most successful interventions of the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP) Phase IV in Nepal. Through this program, the project has significantly contributed to the increase in maize seed replacement rate, maize productivity, and income of smallholder and resource-poor farmers in the hills of the country. To observe the successes achieved so far, teams from USAID-Nepal, CIMMYT-Mexico, and HMRP visited a community-managed seed company in the Thumpahkar Village of Sindupalchowk district, located about 100 km north-east of Kathmandu, on 12 October 2012. The USAID team comprised of John Stamm (General Development Office director, USAID-Nepal), Luis Guzman (Feed the Future team leader, USAID-Nepal), Shanker Khagi (South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy country coordinator), and Lindsey Moore (USAID-Bangladesh). CIMMYT’s Thomas Short (deputy director general for Corporate Services), Nellooli P. Rajasekharan (International Human Resources director), G. Ortiz Ferrara (HMRP team leader), Nirmal Gadal (HMRP agronomist), and Dilli KC (HMRP seed value chain and marketing expert) were also present, along with about 35 seed growers, including the management team of the company.

The meeting was chaired by Gunda Bahadur Dhami, chairperson of Sindhu-Tuki Seed Production Cooperative Ltd. During a brief presentation, the company’s coordinator D.B. Bhandari summarized the institutional graduation of the farmers’ groups to a cooperative and later to a private seed company. Starting in 2005, the cooperative developed into a private seed company in 2010 with the technical support from HMRP. It currently works with 300 members organized in 14 CBSP groups. Bhandari also discussed the company’s current activities, future plan, operational model, membership policy, marketing activities, and approaches to gender and sustainability.

Stamm acknowledged the project team and congratulated farmers on the impact achieved so far. “USAID-Nepal considers HMRP a very successful project, and your seed company is a model for economic development of rural areas,” he said. Rajasekharan then thanked the HMRP team for organizing the field visit and expressed CIMMYT’s commitment to support the project staff in their work aiming to improve food security among Nepalese maize farmers. Short added: “I echo Raj’s words in congratulating the members of this seed company, but I also take the opportunity to thank the two donors of HMRP, USAID and SDC, for their financial and technical support given to the project.” Ortiz Ferrara stressed that “sustainability is the prime concern of HMRP, and the entire project activities are built on the clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the multiple stakeholders.

This small seed company is now operating on its own resources, and this is only one of the 195 CBSP groups coordinated by HMRP in 20 hill districts.” Responding to a question raised by Khagi regarding the competitiveness of improved maize seed, a female maize seed grower said: “The new maize varieties are high yielding, disease and lodging tolerant, have good taste, and the grain can be stored for a longer time.” Dhami followed: “We are just learning to walk and there is still a lot to do to help small farmers in our hill area to achieve food security and increase their income.” He thanked the guests for their valuable time and their continuing collaboration with the recently established seed company. At the end of the discussion, the team observed the seed processing plant, seed store house, and the community seed bank.

USAID supports CIMMYT-led partnership for heat resilient maize in South Asia

Written by on October 31, 2012. Posted in News.

PHOTO-NEPAL The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will support a partnership to develop heat resilient maize for South Asia, as part of the US government’s Feed the Future initiative. The partnership is led by CIMMYT and involves Purdue University, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and several private and national research partners in South Asia. The aim is to develop and deploy heat stress tolerant, high-yielding maize hybrids for vulnerable, maize-dependent areas of South Asia.

“Out of a total of approximately six million hectares of hybrid maize grown in South Asia, nearly a million hectares are highly vulnerable to high temperature stress,” said BM Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program. “Nearly 80 percent of the maize in this region is rainfed and highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, including drought and high temperatures. At the same time, spring maize has become an important option for intensifying and diversifying cropping systems in South Asia, especially in the upper and middle Indo-Gangetic plains, but the crop is prone to severe heat stress as well.”

The project will be funded for five years (2012-17) and USAID contributions will be matched with in-kind support from the public-private alliance. Work will build on the elite, abiotic stress tolerant maize germplasm from CIMMYT; the technical expertise of key resource partners (CIMMYT, Purdue University, and Pioneer Hi-Bred); the maize breeding and phenotyping locations and strengths of the national research programs of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan; and the seed production capacity, farmer linkages, and market reach of private partners (Pioneer Hi-Bred, Vibha AgriTech, Ajeet Seeds, and Kaveri Seeds).

Training to build maize breeding capacity in Africa

Written by on October 30, 2012. Posted in News.

CursoAfrica2 Thirty-six senior maize breeders from fifteen African countries participated in a course in Nairobi, Kenya, from 1 to 4 October 2012. The course attracted participants from national agricultural research systems, private seed companies, and universities collaborating within the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Initiative, Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) Project, Sustainable Intensification of Maize- Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) initiative, Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for the Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA), Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), and a USAID-funded project on heat stress in maize.

Throughout the course, breeders were introduced to new germplasm, recent advances in maize breeding for biotic and abiotic stresses, breeding informatics tools (e.g. IMIS-Fieldbook and IB-Fieldbook developed by the Generation Challenge Program), approaches to improving quality of phenotyping, molecular breeding tools, and the use of doubled haploid technologies in maize breeding. They also visited fields in Kiboko to assess breeding nurseries and yield trials and to interact with CIMMYT breeders.

The course participants had the opportunity to attend presentations by a private-sector representative. Walter Trevisan from WEMA/ Monsanto covered the origin of maize and importance of the heterotic pools in maize breeding around the world. “We learn from the partnership that we can work as a team and, most of the time, reach goals ahead of time,” said Trevisan, stating that he is looking forward to the future projects such as WEMA II. “We really enjoy working with CIMMYT and the national agricultural research systems,” he added.

According to Ntji Coulibaly from Mali, training for breeders helps to build capacity within African countries. “Mali has only five seed companies serving the country, thus it is imperative to build the skill base in breeding,” he explained. Coulibaly then praised CIMMYT for its leadership role in breeding in Africa: “It has raised the bar for private institutions to improve and develop better products in the region.” Bhola Verma from ZAMSEED, a private seed company operating in Zambia, also appreciated the training initiative. “We need to train more people,” he said, reiterating the importance of training the next generation of breeders to ensure the continent does not lag behind. Zubeda Mduruma, Tanzanian maize breeder from Aminata Quality Seed, was excited about -her newly gained knowledge on doubled haploid breeding technology. “It is very handy and will shorten our time for breeding,” said Mduruma. Doubled haploid technology enables breeders to save time and labor costs associated with conventional breeding, while allowing them to get varieties benefiting farmers within a shorter period of time.

Simon Gichuki, Kenya Agriculture Research Institute (KARI) Biotechnology Program coordinator, urged participants to explore and use the technological tools, and to train breeders working with them. Gichuki said that the key challenges facing African agriculture include diseases, pests, and climate change. “We feel that we can contribute to mitigating these [challenges] by engaging in science,” said Gichuki, adding that this could be achieved by ensuring that breeders regularly update their knowledge. “In crop science things move very fast,” he explained. Sylvester Oikeh, WEMA project manager at the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, urged participants to embrace mentorship and share their knowledge and skills with young breeders. Oikeh also appreciated the opportunity to see what DTMA is doing in relation to WEMA’s breeding work.

Shehu Ado from the Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru, Nigeria, said the training would benefit his students. “I will encourage my students to apply it in their own work,” said Ado about Fieldbook, “my students are going to gain a lot as analysis will be simplified.” Thokozile Ndlela, Zimbabwean Ministry of Agriculture, expressed her excitement about the developments made in Fieldbook, as well as the new advancements in maize breeding.

The course facilitators were drawn from CIMMYT, Generation Challenge Program, and Monsanto. The course was coordinated by Cosmos Magorokosho and Stephen Mugo, CIMMYT maize breeders from Zimbabwe and Kenya, respectively.

CursoAfrica3

Maize traveling seminar for high-level officials in Nepal

Written by on October 3, 2012. Posted in News.

The Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP) led by CIMMYT, in close partnership with the the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and the Department of Agriculture (DoA) jointly organized a five-day Maize Traveling Seminar for high-level officials in the hills of Nepal during 2-6 September 2012. The purpose of the seminar was to offer policy makers firsthand information on the status of maize varietal development, seed multiplication, marketing, technology dissemination, and the HMRP’s efforts to improve food security and livelihoods of the resource-poor and disadvantaged farmers in the hills of the country. The seminar was attended by 25 officials from the National Planning Commission (NPC), Ministry of Agriculture and Development (MoAD), Ministry of Finance (MoF), NARC, National Seed Board (NSB), DoA, donors (SDC and USAID), NGOs, private sector, and the media.

At the beginning of the seminar, the newly-established Ganesh Himal community-managed seed company from the mid-hill District of Dhading was inaugurated. Yamuna Ghale, senior program officer and SDC representative stressed its importance for the region: “The more than four tons of improved seed this company is expected to produce and sell to neighboring districts will help to increase the seed replacement rate in the area with resulting increases in productivity this year. This approach needs to be replicated in other hill areas of the country.” The participants then visited the National Maize Research Program (NMRP) in Rampur, Chitwan, where they observed varietal improvement and maintenance and source seed production activities. NMRP coordinator K.B. Koirala presented on the current status, priorities, and challenges of maize research and seed production in Nepal. He highlighted that the area under maize source seed production and the quality of the seed have been significantly improved, and that NMRP and other HMRP partners had reached thousands of resource-poor farmers in their respective command areas.

During the rest of the traveling seminar, participants visited HMRP partners’ activities in the hill districts of Palpa, Syangja, and Kaski, including participatory variety selection (PVS), community-based seed production (CBSP), maize-vegetables inter-cropping, and on-farm trials and demonstrations activities conducted by CBSP groups and cooperatives. In the Manakamana Women Farmers Group of Syangja district, about 45 women members gathered to welcome the participants of the seminar. During interactions with the farmers, they learnt about farmers’ constraints and needs for marketing the seed, improving yields, storage facilities, credits, inputs, training etc. Amy Prevatt, USAID-Nepal representative, expressed her satisfaction with the accomplishments of HMRP and its partners regarding reducing poverty and food insecurity in the hills of Nepal. “I am sure the project will continue supporting you to overcome the marketing constraints and to make your CBSP group stronger and sustainable,” she said. The team and the farmers carried a walk around the village to observe crop conditions in CBSP, PVS, and intercropping trials. The team then headed for the Palpa district to visit the Radha Krishna Women farmers groups and Shiva Sakti maize seed producers group in Chatiwan, which has recently graduated into a cooperative with technical assistance from HMRP and its partners.

The seminar was concluded with a business meeting co-chaired by Tek Bahadur Gurung (NARC director of livestock and fisheries) and Dharma Dutta Baral (deputy director general at DoA under MoAD). During the meeting, participants assessed the effectiveness of the seminar; most of them expressed their satisfaction over its achievements, shared recommendations for further improvement, and suggested that the seminar be conducted annually during the main maize season. “The seminar provided good information that can only be appreciated by observing it at the field level,” said Baral. Gurung summed up the meeting by thanking the seminar organizers and stating that “the NARC and the MoAD are proud of the close partnership we have maintained with CIMMYT over the past 27 years. Events like the traveling seminar give us the opportunity to witness some of the fruitful results of this partnership.”

Wheat community meets in Afghanistan for 2nd ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop

Written by on September 26, 2012. Posted in News.

Bringing together Afghanistan’s wheat stakeholders, the second ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop was held during 01-03 September 2012 on the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) campus. This year the workshop focused on strengthening agronomy and technology delivery. It was attended by a total of 50 participants from organizations including the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA); the MAIL Department of Extension and Agricultural Development; the MAIL Improving Agricultural Inputs Delivery System (IAIDS) project; the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and NGOs Joint Development Associates International (JDA), Solidarités International (SI), Norwegian Project Office/Rural Rehabilitation Association for Afghanistan (NPO/ RRAA), and the Afghan Women’s Resource Center (AWRC). R.P. Singh, former Principal Investigator in Agronomy with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s All India Coordinated Wheat Improvement Project, served as the resource person for the event.

The workshop was inaugurated by Noor Ahmad Popal, national wheat sector coordinator, on behalf of the director general of planning, MAIL. Popal stressed the need to give more emphasis to crop production management in general and to that of rainfed wheat in particular, suggesting that the country’s annual wheat needs would be around seven million tons by 2020. Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT country liaison officer for Afghanistan, welcomed the participants and noted that this workshop would indeed look at crop production management more critically. He also emphasized the need for an efficient varietal release process, as new release proposals had been delayed in the recent past.

Over the three days, the workshop included presentations of wheat research results by researchers from all of Afghanistan’s wheat research stations. Abdul Latif Rasekh (ARIA head of agronomy) presented the current status of understanding on wheat agronomy in Afghanistan, followed by a presentation from R.P. Singh on imperatives in wheat agronomic research. A joint presentation on demonstration of technologies in farmers’ fields was given by CIMMYT and the NGOs (JDA, SI, NPO/RRAA, and AWRC). On the third day, Singh gave a second talk on “Gains of Green Revolution: Problems and Opportunities”, which attracted a large audience. This final day also saw presentations on the technical program for the 2012- 13 season for the disciplines of crop improvement, agronomy, plant pathology, and technology demonstrations. Qudratulla Soofizada (technical change management specialist, ARIA, MAIL), who recently returned from participation in the 51st All India Wheat & Barley Research Workers’ Meeting proposed a model based on the Indian program that could be adopted in Afghanistan to coordinate wheat research. The workshop made several recommendations, such as initiating varietal evaluation trials by zone from the 2012-13 season onwards. Mohammad Qasem Obaidi, Director of ARIA, expressed great satisfaction on the outcomes of the workshop and hoped to initiate similar workshops for more crops.

Afghanistan’s wheat crop has shown recent signs of revival with a total harvest of slightly over five million tons in the 2011-12 season. Irrigated wheat productivity was comparable to the global average at around 3 tons per hectare, but the lower yield of rainfed wheat, 1.1 tons per hectare, brought the national average yield to around 1.9 tons per hectare. Afghanistan’s import needs are set to fall this year, to around half a million tons for the current marketing season. The country’s community of wheat researchers is now geared up to move further in enabling Afghanistan to harvest enough wheat to achieve selfsufficiency. Group-photo-2nd-wheat-workshop

Feed the Future delegation visits CIMMYT-Bangladesh

Written by on September 25, 2012. Posted in News.

Bangladesh25 The CIMMYT team in Bangladesh hosted a highprofile field visit on September 1, 2012, for a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) delegation consisting of Paul Weisenfeld (USAID Assistant to the Administrator for Global Food Security), Deniese Rollins (Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the USAID Asia Bureau), and Richard Green (USAID Bangladesh Mission Director). The purpose of the visit was to rapidly assess the activities of Feed the Future, an initiative supported by the US government, across Southern Bangladesh.

The delegation visited Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Bangladesh (CSISA-BD) project activity locations and other USAID partners. During the visit to CSISA-BD (a collaboration between CIMMYT, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and World Fish Center), cropping system agronomists Timothy J. Krupnik and Abdul Momin led a presentation jointly developed with Andrew McDonald on CIMMYT’s priority activities in scale-appropriate mechanization to achieve sustainable intensification of cereal-based farming systems. The USAID team appreciated CIMMYT’s emphasis on expanding surface water irrigation to eliminate unproductive fallows in Southern Bangladesh using axial flow pump technology. Additional discussion ensued on improving rainwater productivity using strip-tillage and conservation agriculture; bed-planting to save irrigation costs and mitigate soil arsenic contamination; CIMMYT’s work on labor-saving multi-crop reapers; and CSISA-BD’s emphasis on private sector integration and the promotion of viable business models for agricultural and tillage service providers. Following the presentation, Scott Justice, machinery expert and CIMMYT consultant, led a hands-on demonstration on seederfertilizer drills for strip tillage and raised bed-planters that can be attached to two-wheeled tractors. CIMMYT’s work to increase farmer and service provider adoption of these tools will increase in the future with USAID’s continued support for the CSISA-BD project.