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40th Anniversary Celebration of the CGIAR – Program

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 Preston Auditorium, Wednesday, July 6, 2011, 9:15 a.m.
DRAFT AGENDA

Participants:

The Preston Auditorium is expected to be filled.  The audience will include CGIAR Consortium and Fund Council representatives, Directors General of Centers, agricultural research partners, IFPRI Center staff, past CGIAR chairs, World Bank staff, and other external guests.  In addition, the event will be webcast for the benefit of staff at all CGIAR Centers and other partners.

Mr. Zoellick, Ms. Andersen, Mr. Shah, and Mr. Castañeda, will be on stage in the Preston Auditorium, with the podium stage right. A backdrop will feature an image of the 40th anniversary of CGIAR.

Overall Objectives:

  • To celebrate CGIAR’s tremendous achievements in agricultural research over the past 40 years
  • To showcase, through the launch of a CGIAR Research Program (CRP), how the CGIAR has repositioned itself to continue to address emerging challenges for the next 40 years
  • To reiterate the World Bank’s and other donors’/partners’ support to the CGIAR in its drive to enhance food security

 

 

9:15 a.m. Roger V. Morier – Call to order and introduces Inger
9:15 a.m. Inger Andersen: Welcome remarks

  • Introduction of other platform personnel and introduction of each as they speak
  • Introduction of the short video preceding Mr. Zoellick’s remarks.
9:20 a.m. Video Presentation – The Story of the Start of the CGIAR, as told by Norman Borlaug and Robert McNamara
9:30 a.m. Inger Andersen: Invitation to Mr. Zoellick to make remarks (approximately 10 minutes)

  • Focus on state of food security, role of WB and challenge to CG
9:40 a.m. Rajiv Shah, Administrator, USAID invited to make remarks (TBC)

  • On behalf of developed country partners of the CG
  • USAID’s efforts re: food security
9:50 a.m. Mariano Ruiz-Funes, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Mexico, invited to make brief remarks

  • On behalf of the developing country partners of the CGIAR
  • Mexico’s commitment to combating food insecurity
9:55 a.m. Presentation by the CGIAR Fund Office to Mr. Zoellick, Mr. Shah, and Mr. Castañeda of a book produced for the 40th anniversary of the CGIAR
10:00 a.m. Mr. Zoellick’s departure from Preston Auditorium. Platform personnel change
Launch of MAIZE CRP
10:05 a.m. Introductory remarks by Inger Andersen, Chair, Fund Council

  • Will emphasize the role and responsibility of donors in new compact
10:15 a.m. Remarks by Carlos Perez del Castillo, Board Chair, Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers

  • Introduction of other platform personnel and introduction of each as they speak
  • Introduction of the exciting new CGIAR Research Program portfolio and makes the link to MAIZE
10:25 a.m. Video: African farmer and Asian farmer

  • Will emphasize perspective of farmers in developing countries in regard to food security issues
  • A view from the ground
10:35 a.m. Remarks by Ephraim Mukisira, Director, KARI

  • Will emphasize the need for cooperation to address complex challenges of food security
  • No one organization can do it alone
10:45 a.m. Launch of MAIZE Program, Tom Lumpkin, DG, CIMMYT

  • Will explain the composition of the plan including how it was developed, how it will be managed, and what the overall goals are
  • Will emphasize the need for cooperation and commitment over a long period of time
  • Will emphasize the immense challenge – but we can address it if we act now
10:55 a.m. Closing Remarks by Jonathan Wadsworth, Executive Secretary, Fund Council and Head of Fund Office

Brothers on the land

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 7, July 2007

Somewhere between the romance of the Silk Road and the land mines, CIMMYT works as part of the team that is rebuilding the shattered agriculture of Afghanistan.

It looked like a scene from a Tolstoy novel—four, weathered men with hand sickles working under the blazing, noonday sun to harvest a field of wheat. No combine harvester here, just the power of their backs and arms and hands. But Tolstoy wrote 140 years ago. This scene is today, 2007, in northern Afghanistan near the city of Mazur i Sharif, not far from the Uzbekistan border. Wheat is the most important food crop in this embattled country where 85% of the population depends on agriculture to sustain life. Yet wheat yields on its worn soils are notoriously low—only 2-2.5 tons per hectare, even on irrigated land. Unlike the republics of the former Soviet Union to the north, land holdings in this part of Afghanistan are small and do not lend themselves to large scale mechanization. You can understand what that really means when you talk to the farmers themselves.

jul06Faizal Ahmad and his brother Hayatt Mohammad are sharecroppers on this 8 hectare parcel of land. They pay the landowner a share and the crew that is harvesting gets a share, and with what is left, they try to feed their families, maybe sell a little.

“From the sharecropping we just survive,” Faizal says. “We are not going to get rich and we won’t make very much money.”

The crew working the field is part of a community harvesting system. They are paid in wheat seed rather than cash and get two meals for the day’s work. They too keep some land for wheat. In Afghanistan, no matter what else you grow, wheat comes first for family food security.

During the Taliban and warlord times, the brothers fled with their families to Pakistan but returned with the installation of the new government in 2004. And even though farming this irrigated land year round is tough, Hayatt, who is married with a son and daughter, says they are making a go of it. “Life is difficult, and we are struggling and hope things could improve.”

They are growing an improved but older wheat variety called Zardana Kunduzi which they get through an informal farmer-to-farmer seed system. Unhappily, their land is infested with wild oats. The weed reduces the wheat harvest, both by competing for space and by taking nutrients. No matter what the farmers try, the weeds come back every season. Of course herbicides are not an option for people with so little.

This is the milieu in which CIMMYT finds itself in Afghanistan—older varieties that are more susceptible to pests and diseases, a seed system that needs rebuilding from the ground up and agronomic practices that need improvement to give farmers like Faizal and Hayatt a real chance on the little land they have.

In partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock of Afghanistan (MAIL), CIMMYT has been testing potentially better wheats for conditions specific to different parts of the country. Already a new variety of durum wheat is available and not far from where Faizel, Hayatt and the crew are working another farmer is growing the durum for seed. His field is healthy and the crop looks excellent. He has been contracted by one of the new seed production companies that are part of a project sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Making that seed system sustainable, while providing seed at an affordable price is a great challenge.

The new agriculture master plan for Afghanistan prepared by MAIL praises CIMMYT for “considerable training of Afghans (that) sets a desirable standard.” In fact more than 50 Afghan researchers have had training at CIMMYT and more than 70 technicians, farmers and NGO workers have taken technical training at workshops in Afghanistan. Much of CIMMYT’s work in Afghanistan is supported by Australia through both the Australian overseas aid program, AusAID and the Australian Council for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

jul07At least three more varieties developed from materials originally from CIMMYT (some via the winter wheat breeding program in Turkey) are in the new varietal release pipeline that Afghanistan has implemented. They have already demonstrated in farmers’ fields that they are well-suited to local conditions and can provide more wheat per hectare than farmers currently harvest with yields in on-farm trials of almost 5 tons per hectare, double what most farmers get. These wheats can be seen in trials at the Dehdadi Research Farm near Mazur, almost within sight of the sharecropping brothers.

 

Nevertheless, Mahmoud Osmanzai, the CIMMYT country coordinator in Afghanistan says there are still real challenges to close the gap between the yields that can be achieved in well-managed demonstration plots and the yields poor sharecroppers like Faizel and Hayatt actually achieve. “We have good varieties that will make good bread,” he says. “Now we have to find a way that let’s resource-poor farmers get the most from them.”

For the sharecropping brothers, a little more income from their small piece of borrowed land could go a long way. “Yes if we could save, we could have a second business.” says Faizal. “We would probably get a shop as well or buy a car, run a taxi, build something to produce more.”

For more information: Mahmood Osmanzai, Afghanistan country coordinator (m.osmanzai@cgiar.org)

New boost for maize-legume cropping in eastern and southern Africa

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maize-esaCIMMYT has entered into a collaborative research program to increase household and regional food security and incomes, as well as economic development, in eastern and southern Africa, through improved productivity from more resilient and sustainable maize-legume farming systems. Known as “Sustainable intensification of maize-legume cropping systems for food security in eastern and southern Africa” (SIMLESA), the program aims to increase productivity by 30% and reduce downside risk by 30% within a decade for at least 0.5 million farm households in those countries, with spill-over benefits throughout the region. In addition to CIMMYT, the program involves the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the national agricultural research systems of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, as well as the International Center for Research for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa, the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation Queensland, and Murdoch University in Western Australia. “The demand for maize in the region is expected to increase by at least 40% over the next ten years; and the demand for legumes by 50%,” says CIMMYT socioeconomist, Mulugetta Mekuria, who is leading the center’s efforts under the program. “Seasonal variability causes wide swings in food crop yields, including maize and legumes. This program will play a crucial role in reducing farmers’ risk and the vulnerability of farm households.” Work is being funded with Aus$ 20 million from the Australian Government, and forms part of the Government’s new, four-year Food Security through Rural Development Initiative.

For more information: Mulugetta Mekuria, socioeconomist (m.mekuria@cgiar.org)
For interviews and media support: Mike Listman, corporate communications (m.listman@cgiar.org)

See also official announcements from ACIAR and AusAid

A place called Njoro

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 4 no. 2, February 2007

feb06At an agricultural research station in Kenya, ingenuity, improvised tools, and a small group of talented, dedicated researchers and technicians using good science, are on the front line of the battle to prevent a potential multi-billion dollar crop disaster for the world.

Peter Njau has a look of concern on his face and a sense of urgency in his voice. “Be very gentle,” he says. “You don’t have to separate each seedling from the others.” Njau, KARI-Njoro’s wheat breeder, is teaching technicians at the Njoro Agriculture Research Centre of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) to transplant thousands of extremely delicate winter wheat seedlings. The seedlings have been kept in a cool environment to simulate a temperate winter and now they are ready for what they will interpret as springtime.

feb08
The technicians are using a new transplanting method for the very first time. It should be more efficient but the team only has one chance to get it right. All day they have been preparing the plot, wetting it down and cooling the soil using a new sprinkler irrigation system; making small furrows in the damp soil and putting in beads of fertilizer; carefully marking and labeling the location for each plant. The transplanting has to take place just before sunset so the seedlings will have cool soil and a cool night to start establishing their young root systems. Any mistake and they will die and the opportunity to test them for resistance to the new stem rust will be lost until the next season.

Speed and precision are vital since the airborne fungus that was discovered in Uganda in 1999 has now spread beyond the African continent. It is following a path that will take it to the great wheat growing areas of south Asia where farmers grow wheat eaten by a billion people. In the last great stem rust outbreak in North America in 1954, the fungus destroyed as much as 40% of the spring wheat crop.

The Njoro station is in the Great Rift Valley of Kenya, not far from the city of Nakuru and very close to the Equator. The new stem rust spores have been present in the air at the station for at least three years, making it the perfect location for testing wheat to see if it can resist the fungus. Called Ug99, the new stem rust is such a large threat to wheat around the world that scientists dare not transport the spores themselves to other test locations. Instead as part of the CIMMYT-ICARDA Global Rust Initiative, which also includes national partners like KARI and the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture Research (EIAR), the world’s wheat comes to East Africa. Similar work is being conducted at several sites in Ethiopia by EIAR. “We are committed to work with international partners to fight the looming threat of stem rust,” says Dr. Bedada Girma, leader of EIAR’s Stem Rust Task Force.

Njau works for KARI and manages both his KARI assigned research as well as the GRI wheat nurseries (plots of different wheat plants) at the station. In one area the team grows three different kinds of wheat that are known to be easily infected with Ug99. The three wheats mature at different times so there is always a source of infection to challenge the wheat being tested. An adjacent field has over 3,000 samples of spring wheat in nurseries designed to confirm what appears to be resistances found in previous seasons. Those nurseries also include CIMMYT and KARI breeding populations from which breeders hope to extract high performance, Ug99 varieties for Kenya and the world.

feb09

Not far from the plots, inside a small building, sheets of polyethylene shroud a makeshift innoculum chamber. Plastic garbage bags act as blinds to keep the room dark. On the floor are two old plastic spray bottles for water to keep the leaves of the host wheat plants damp. It is here where the fungus is grown and multiplied for use later on test plants. “We improvise a lot here,” says Miriam Kinyua, the Director of the station and overall coordinator of Kenya wheat research, including GRI activities. “The world needs this work to be done.” She also expresses gratitude to the Canadian International Development Agency for providing funding that let the station put in a good irrigation system. “We can now grow wheat in the off season and ensure that if the rains fail, our testing won’t,” she says. She is also pleased that the research station is now connected to the rest of the world via a satellite dish and the internet, another result of the CIDA contribution. New contributions from USAID are adding to the support for GRI work in both Kenya and Ethiopia.

feb07

Back at the transplant plot each group of seedlings is hand watered. Early the next morning the team will put small tree branches in the ground around the plot as stakes to hold up some old canvas sheets. The canvas will shade the fragile seedlings from the hot equatorial sun for another three days. Perhaps under the flapping canvas is a seedling that holds the key to durable resistance to the Ug99 fungus.

For more information Rick Ward, Coordinator, Global Rust Initiative (r.w.ward@cgiar.org)

Nepal-CIMMYT partnerships reach the unreached

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nov1More than two decades of joint efforts between researchers from Nepal and CIMMYT have helped boost the country’s maize yields 36% and those of wheat by 85%, according to a report compiled to mark the 25th anniversary of the partnership. As a result, farmers even in the country’s remote, mid hill mountain areas have more food and brighter futures.

Anywhere else, peaks above 3,000 meters would be called “mountains,” but a nation whose collective psyche has been shaped by the towering Himalayas refers to its rugged heartland as merely the “mid-hills.” Comprising deep river valleys and high ridge tops, peppered toward the north with sloping farm terraces, the mid-hills account for more than four-tenths of Nepal’s total land area. They are home to isolated villages whose inhabitants’ lives hold strongly to tradition.

One such villager is Bishnu Maya Nepali, 45 from, Belhara village of Dhankuta district. She is a farmer and a single mother of three. Maya is a “dalit,” one of the poorest castes in the Nepal’s traditional caste hierarchical system.

Up until a few years ago, Maya maintained a hardscrabble existence by planting maize, the region’s main food crop. Like many area farmers, it wasn’t enough. Her farm–which is roughly the size of a soccer field–didn’t produce enough food to feed her family.

Maya’s life began to change in 2006 when she was approached by members of the HMRP. Maya was asked to test maize varieties bred for the mid-hills by the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) with CIMMYT as one of the partners. She agreed and eventually decided to plant a type of maize, called Manakamana 3, which produced two large ears per plant and which had a shorter, sturdier stalk. To her delight, the new plant thrived. Maya’s maize harvests grew 20-50%. She also discovered the plant stayed green as it matured, providing better forage for her livestock. The project advised Maya to plant vegetables in addition to maize. These intercrops also did well, bringing Maya additional food and income. Maya grew enough food to feed her three children all year long. “Now I have enough food and can sell some surplus to pay for my children’s education,” she said. Maya’s additional income allowed her to put her children into school and even make modest improvements to her homestead.

Support for an agrarian way of life
Nepal is a nation of incredible diversity that depends heavily on agriculture. Of the Nepalese population, 84% live in rural areas and, during the growing season, four of every five adults of the rural population are engaged in agriculture.

In September 2010, Nepal and CIMMYT celebrated 25 years of partnership in developing and spreading improved maize and wheat varieties and cropping practices in benefit of Nepalese farmers and researchers. Given the country’s reliance on agriculture and its financial constraints, the partnership has been invaluable. “Maya’s case is just one example of this,” says Guillermo OrtĂ­z-Ferrara, researcher and liaison officer for CIMMYT’s office in Nepal. The joint efforts have helped raise maize yields 36% and those of wheat by 85%, while 170 Nepali researchers have benefited from CIMMYT training and joint research or fellowships. “The partnership that CIMMYT has maintained over the past 25 years with our research and development institutions in Nepal has been very useful and of significant value to increase maize and wheat production,” says Dr. K.K. Lal, one of the very first CIMMYT maize trainees and former Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of Nepal. “This partnership should continue and be strengthened.”

Fig. 1 Major shift in food security in HMRP collaborating households
Fig. 1 Major shift in food security in HMRP collaborating households

An internal report on HMRP outcomes for 2008-10 by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation showed significant improvements in food security for the more than 21,000 households taking part in the project, with particular focus on women and disadvantaged groups like dalits: the proportion of the population in the groups having food sufficiency throughout most or all of the year (first two sets of bars) grew, while the proportion of the food-insecure—those with enough food for less than six months of the year (last set of bars)—fell.

The Hill Maize Research Program
Begun in 1999 with the cooperation of the National Maize Research Program (NMRP) of the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC), the Hill Maize Research Program (HMRP) promotes the development and adoption of new technologies (improved varieties and crop management) in the hills of Nepal. Funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the HMRP works with government, non-government organizations, farmers groups and cooperatives and the private sector to develop and disseminate maize technologies that benefit poor farmers in the Nepali hills. With HMRP-CIMMYT support, NMRP has developed 12 improved maize varieties for commercial production and identified more than 15 promising inbred lines, including 4 QPM lines. These 12 improved maize varieties were released by National Seed Board (NSB) of Government of Nepal. By 2009, 174 farmers groups had produced 664 tons of improved maize seed, increasing maize productivity by at least 30%. A new 2010-14 phase of the HMRP continues the focus on improving the food security and incomes of Nepal hill farm families, especially the poor and disadvantaged. Partners include the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), the Department of Agriculture (DoA), more than 26 NGOs/CBOs, and thousands of poor farmers. The new phase is jointly funded by SDC and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Winning with wheat
Along with maize, the importance of wheat as a food and cash crop has grown in Nepal. As a result of high-yielding Mexican varieties introduced through CIMMYT during the mid-1960s and intensive research and development efforts by the national partners, Nepal’s wheat area has increased 7-fold, its production 14-fold, and its productivity 2-fold. Overall, yield gains from the release of new varieties in Nepal have averaged 3.5% per year since 1985, which equals or exceeds the yield gains seen in neighboring countries where the Green Revolution began.

nov07During 1997-2008, Nepal’s National Wheat Research Program (NWRP) worked in partnership with CIMMYT, involving farmers in varietal selection and distributing regional nurseries—sets of experimental wheat lines sent out for widespread testing and possible use in breeding programs. Two wheat varieties distributed this way, and bred by the NWRP, have been released in Bangladesh, and a significant number of other Nepali breeding lines have been used in research programs of Nepal and in eastern India.

Farming systems for a tough future
The Nepal-CIMMYT partnership has addressed important farming concerns with research and recommendations on varieties for timely and late sown conditions, appropriate weed management, balanced application of fertilizers, irrigation schedules, and resource-conserving practices such as surface seeding, zero and minimum tillage, and bed planting. The best results have included reduced costs for cropping, greater efficiency of input use, and increases of a ton or more per hectare in grain yields.

“South Asia will suffer particularly harsh effects from climate change, according to experts,” says Mr. Kamal Aryal, Agriculture/Climate Change Researcher, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal. “More input-efficient cropping systems will help farmers face the challenges expected.”

For more information: Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara, cereal breeder (g.ortiz-ferrara@cgiar.org)

Sweet Success:

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 4, April 2006

2Maize Transforms Landscapes and Livelihoods in Bangladesh

Nurul Islam could hardly believe his eyes. Eleven resource-poor farmers had just entered his office in Sherpur, Bangladesh, carrying two kilos of sweets and a pile of cash. “We were amazed when they came in with the sweets and money,” says Islam. “We thought we were taking a very big risk when we made the loans, but they paid back on-time, with interest and gave us the sweets to express their appreciation.” Nurul Islam is a Director of Unnayan Sangha, a non-government organization founded in 1980 to help the region’s poor, mostly through micro-credit schemes. The group had been very active in promoting backyard fish farms and had been extremely successful with 6,000 working fish-ponds on members’ land. They had not, however, thought about maize and the income it might bring to help lift members out of poverty.

The government of Bangladesh has tried to promote maize in the area. It is well-suited to the climate, the availability of water, and farmers’ needs, but most attempts had not worked well. Nevertheless, farmers in the region are growing less and less wheat as a second crop after rice, because the popular wheat variety is susceptible to leaf blight, a regionally common disease that can cut yields more than 15%. CIMMYT, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has been working with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to study the potential of maize in the region, particularly for animal feed.

Maize’s first foothold becomes a large footprint

Resource-poor farmers tend the maize seed plot. The investment is worth it.

The beginnings of a mini-maize revolution in Jamalpur and Sherpur began with a single farmer, Mahbubur Rahman, who is also a mechanic. He approached CIMMYT partner, Mahfuzul Hoque, of BARI. Hoque had grown up in the area and understood the soil and the climate. Rahamn asked if his land was suitable for maize as a second crop. The answer from Hoque was a resounding ‘yes.’ Rahman realized that in order for farmers like him to adopt maize they would need shellers. He got the plans and manufactured one power sheller and 48 hand shellers. He also enlisted his younger brother Masudur and another farmer to promote the technology. Soon the group had grown to 16 families and planted 5.5 hectares the first season.

It was members of that group who approached Unnayan Sangha for the loan to get started. They were successful and soon the technology and the crop spread. There was little maize seed available locally and imported seed was often of low quality. Leaders of the NGO realized there was a market for quality hybrid maize seed, and so began community-based production of hybrid seed using two CIMMYT maize lines (CML 283 F and CML 287 M) as parent material. This is their first season and they intend to sell the seed from their half hectare to small-scale farmers who are members of their organization. Some of these farmers give their time and labor to manage the seed plot.

Half a Hectare: a Full First Step Out of Poverty

M Kazal in his roadside tea stand. 'I feel better as a landowner.

M Kazal, one of the first sixteen maize producers, was a landless sharecropper. He paid the landowner with about 12% of his harvest. He also had a roadside tea stand near his land on a dusty road in the Sherpur district of Bangladesh. The tea stand made a little money: enough to buy fertilizer for the land he rented.

He, his wife, and two children attended a CIMMYT-sponsored, whole-family-training event on maize production. He sowed little maize the first season, but netted about US$ 175 from his harvest—enough to buy six calves. He fed them maize the following season to fatten them and sold them for US$ 900, earning an additional US$ 600 on the rest of his maize. With the combined profit he decided to make the biggest move of his life: the purchase of a half hectare of land. In two seasons of maize growing he had gone from landless to landowner. “I feel better as a landowner,” he says. “My status in the community has changed.”

Kazal says his first hope is to provide his children the education he never had. His father, sitting beside him in the tea stall, grins with pride. “I find it hard to find the words
 I want him to improve.”

Food or Feed?

Kazal’s father is proud of his son’s achievement 'I find it hard to find the words.

Any maize in Bangladesh will easily sell as animal feed, but Unnayan Sangha staff are also interested in meeting human consumption needs. They say that 20-25% of their maize farmers are now using maize meal to make chapatti, the standard flat bread in south Asia.

Has maize made a difference in the region? “Definitely ‘yes’,” says Hoque. “Farmers who grow maize now have greater purchasing power and you can see more tin sheds, more new machinery.” And to think—it all began with two kilos of sweets to celebrate success.

For more information contact Steve Waddington (s.waddington@cgiar.org)

AMBIONET: A Model for Strengthening National Agricultural Research Systems

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 6, June 2006

june03A USAID-funded study by Rutgers economist Carl Pray concludes that present and future impacts of the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET)—a forum that during 1998-2005 fostered the use of biotechnology to boost maize yields in Asia’s developing countries—should produce benefits that far exceed its cost.

Organized by CIMMYT and funded chiefly by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), AMBIONET included public maize research institutions in China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. “Despite the small investment—about US$ 2.4 million from ADB and US$ 1.3 million from CIMMYT—the network was successful in increasing research capacity, increasing research output, and initiating the development of technology that should benefit small farmers and consumers,” Pray says.

Benefits already seen in the field, with more to come

Pray estimates that farmers in Thailand and Southern China are already gaining nearly US$ 200,000 a year by sowing downy-mildew-resistant hybrids from the project. Pray’s future projections are much more dramatic. An example is drought tolerant maize: if such varieties are adopted on just a third of Asia’s maize area and reduce crop losses by one-third, farmers stand to gain US$ 100 million a year. Furthermore, in India AMBIONET has improved knowledge, capacity, and partnerships with private companies; a 1% increase in yield growth from this improvement would provide US$ 10 million per year, according to Pray.

Emphasis on applied work pays off

AMBIONET’s applied approach stressed formal training and attracted Asian researchers to work on maize germplasm enhancement and breeding. This included graduate students, scientists who switched from an academic to an applied-research focus, and advanced-degree scientists with experience in DNA markers and mapping for maize. Many noted that the partnering of molecular geneticists with breeders strengthened their interactions and the exchange of expertise. The project also boosted funding for maize breeding research. Several AMBIONET labs used project money to leverage significant institutional and government grants. Major research programs emerged from AMBIONET in India and China.

In a 2003 interview, Shihuang Zhang, leader of a project team at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences’ (CAAS) Institute of Plant Breeding, said: “AMBIONET came along at the ideal time for us. We were able have some of our young people trained and start our lab. Then in 1998 and 1999, China changed the way research was funded. We
were able to get big projects for molecular breeding.” The CAAS group used the initial money, equipment, training, and advice from AMBIONET to start the fingerprinting, mapping, and a markers lab, as well as to hire leading national maize breeding and molecular genetics experts. According to Pray, this eventually converted the group into China’s major maize molecular breeding and enhancement program.

Region-wide sharing

Benefits were not confined just to individual labs, as groups shared knowledge and resources across borders. The Indonesian team, for example, sent two young scientists for extended training in the laboratory of B.M. Prasanna, at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. Veteran Indonesian maize breeder Firdaus Kasim reported this to be extremely useful: “Prasanna showed our scientists how to do downy mildew and genetic diversity research. He was a very good teacher. After they came back they made a lot of progress.” Prasanna also provided lines that the Indonesian trainees fingerprinted in diversity studies and 400 primers (markers) for downy mildew resistance.

Lines, data, and markers from AMBIONET are in use region-wide. For example, sugarcane mosaic virus was identified as a serious constraint in several countries, and partners are using resistant lines developed under AMBIONET. Based on information from diversity studies conducted under the project, Vietnamese researchers are developing hybrids that resist lodging and are drought tolerant.

A regional program that worked

Research projects provided the focal point for AMBIONET, with training activities, annually meetings, and the technical backstopping contributing to the programs’ success. “The combination of collaboration, cooperation, and competition
was impressive,” says Pray, in the study’s closing statement. “This is the way good, collaborative research is supposed to work.”

For more information contact Jonathan Crouch (j.crouch@cgiar.org)

Steady as she goes: Improved maize and wheat varieties actually lower farmers’ risks

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

jul04A USAID-funded study by Williams College economist Douglas Gollin shows that modern maize and wheat varieties not only increase maximum yields in developing countries, but add hundreds of millions of dollars each year to farmers’ incomes by guaranteeing more reliable yields than traditional varieties.

Modern crop varieties developed through scientific crop breeding clearly produce higher yields than farmers’ traditional varieties. But critics have long maintained that, in developing countries, yields of modern varieties vary more from season to season than the traditional varieties, thereby exposing producers and consumers to greater risk.

Gollin’s study analyzed changes in national-level yield stability for wheat and maize across developing countries and related them directly to the diffusion of modern varieties. “The outcomes strongly suggest that, over the past 40 years, there has actually been a decline in the relative variability of grain yields—that is, the absolute magnitude of deviations from the yield trend—for both wheat and, to a lesser extent, for maize in developing countries,” says Gollin. “This reduction in variability is statistically associated with the spread of modern cultivars, even after controlling for expanded use of irrigation and other inputs.”

 The value to farmers of reduced risk

Valuing these reductions in yield variability requires assumptions about society’s willingness to trade off risk against return. Using a standard analytic framework, the study finds that the reductions in variability are as valuable as small increases in average yield. Assuming a moderate level of risk aversion on farmers’ part and taking estimates for the magnitude of reductions in yield variability, the results suggest that the reductions in yield variability due to modern varieties are worth about 0.3% of annual production in the case of wheat and 0.8% of production in the case of maize. These appear to be small effects, but the sheer scale of wheat and maize production in the developing world means that the benefits from improved yield stability are large in absolute terms. At appropriate world prices, the benefits are about US$143 million for wheat and about US$149 million for maize, on an annual and recurring basis.

The study drew on country-level data for the diffusion of modern wheat and maize varieties compiled by Robert Evenson of Yale University, as well as aggregate data on production and yields from FAOSTAT, the global food information database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The analysis also made novel use of a mathematical tool called the Hodrick-Prescott filter to disentangle changes in long term trends from annual fluctuations. The filter is most often used in macroeconomics.

According to Gollin, the benefits are not attributable to any particular research theme or program. “They reflect longstanding efforts in breeding for disease and pest resistance, drought tolerance, and improved cropping systems, to name a few,” he says. “By reducing the fluctuations in maize and wheat grain yields, scientists have played a vital role in making modern crop technology attractive, accessible, and beneficial to farmers and consumers around the globe.”

For more information contact John Dixon (j.dixon@cgiar.org)

When papa said no

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

jul06A daring move by a young farmer in India has changed his life and his father’s.

Durgesh Kumar Singh shoulders a huge responsibility. When his father became too ill to work his small farm near Varanasi in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains, the 24- year-old student had little choice but to take on managing both the farm and his studies. His father was always there to give advice and share his farming knowledge, so when Durgesh decided to defy his father’s instructions, he was taking a big risk.

A team from the CIMMYT-convened Rice Wheat Consortium (RWC) for the Indo-Gangetic Plains had visited the villagers to enlist their cooperation in a demonstration of zero-till seeding technology. The team wanted village farmers to plant some of their wheat crop without plowing the soil first. Like people living on much of the vast plain below the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, the farmers of Durgesh’s village plant wheat in the dry season, after harvesting the rainy-season rice crop. Preparing the land takes time and labor and for every day of delay after the optimal planting time, farmers lose about 1% of their potential harvest. A ten-day advance in wheat seeding results in 10% higher harvests. Plowing means waiting until a crew with a tractor and plow is available.

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When the RWC team, which included Ramesh Chand and UP Singh from Banaras Hindu University, first visited the village, people laughed. “How can you expect the seed to germinate if you just throw it on the ground?” they joked. After two weeks of cajoling and pointing out that zero-tillage saves time, labor, and scarce water, the team convinced one farmer, Surindra Sharma Mayaran, to set aside a very small piece of his land for a trial. “If it works, OK, and if it doesn’t, OK,” he said. Even though the wheat germinated and grew, most villagers remained skeptical, especially Durgesh Singh’s father. He told Durgesh that he would die if his son tried to plant that way.

But seeing in that first trial a possibility for a brighter future, Durgesh decided to try zero-tillage for wheat on a small field that his father could not see from the house. He harvested at least as much as with the old methods, but gained something more precious. “We now have enough time to read,” he says. “My golden time is what I am saving.” This has not only let him continue his studies, but has reduced farm labor costs, making the family wheat crop more profitable. Now most of the villagers who were at first so skeptical are following his lead.

Even those who are nearly landless see benefits. Ram Dhari is what the village calls a “minimum landholder” with just a tenth of a hectare. He is extremely poor. He did not have the money to rent the zero-till seeding machinery, so the rest of the village let him use it for free and Banaras Hindu University provided seed. He had watched the others and wanted to follow. “I am looking forward to the profits,” he says.

This is one of countless stories of the success of a broad range of resource-conserving technologies on smallholder farms in India. RWC work, in India funded in large measure by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has won praise and awards. Recently the Minister of Agriculture for India, Sharad Pawar, said the use of such technologies, especially zero-tillage, was essential to the improvement of Indian agriculture.

Durgesh Singh, Ram Dhari and Surindra Mayaran see the impact in their village every day. At first Durgesh was a laughing stock. Now his zero-till fields have produced, and produced well. The father who said he would die if is son tried out such a foolish thing as planting without plowing now asks “Why didn’t you do the whole farm this way?”

For more information contact Raj Gupta (r.gupta@cgiar.org)

Simple Screening for a Complex Problem

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February, 2005

oldBlackMagicA CIMMYT research team is using an old but effective technique to get a head start on some very advanced crop science. Their aim is to breed high yielding maize that also resists infection by a dangerous fungus. As part of a USAID-funded project, the team uses ultraviolet or black light to identify maize that inhibits Aspergillus flavus, a fungus that produces potent toxins known as aflatoxins.

The fungus is particularly widespread in maize-growing regions of Africa, and the aflatoxins it produces can cause health problems in those who ingest it in high doses. By starting with elite maize varieties, those that already cope well in drought and high temperatures, and that resist damaging insects, the project hopes to produce a “package deal” for farmers: maize lines can survive these conditions and resist Aspergillus flavus.

No continent is immune from the Aspergillus problem. During 1988-1998, losses from aflatoxin damage in the US exceeded USD 1 billion. The United States has set an upper permissible aflatoxin level of 20 parts per billion in food, and the European Union has even stricter tolerances. A carcinogen, aflatoxin was recently linked with the deaths of more than 50 people who consumed contaminated grain in Kenya. A study in West Africa found a strong association between aflatoxin levels in children’s blood and stunted growth. “There is no easy quick-fix to this problem,” says Dan Jeffers, CIMMYT researcher overseeing the project, “but when a solution is found, everyone wins.”

By collaborating with scientists in the US, CIMMYT is better able to accomplish its goal of helping resource-poor farming households who consume their own maize. “We want to combine useful traits that will lessen the incidence of aflatoxin in the crop,” says Jeffers. “By crossing maize varieties that already are drought tolerant with those that resist Aspergillus, commercially viable and attractive lines should emerge.” This holistic approach will provide better varieties to collaborators and eventually to farmers.

The kernels vibrate as they shuffle down the tray of the light box. Healthy kernels appear faded under the black light, but the infected grain glows. Jeffers and his team will use the fluorescence data to choose the maize lines that show the least amount of fungal infection. “The most promising materials will then be used in further studies to look at aflatoxin levels,” Jeffers says.

Wheat and Water Win

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May, 2005

obregon01CIMMYT shows technology to enhance farmer income and reduce ocean pollution

Wheat farmers in the Yaqui Valley of Mexico’s Sonora State will be the first to gain from a new technology developed by CIMMYT researchers with partners from Oklahoma State and Stanford Universities. And while the farmers in Mexico will benefit, CIMMYT believes that farmers and the environment in many developing countries will reap rewards as well.

“I wish I had known about it this season,” said Ruben Luders when he saw the results. He farms 400 hectares of wheat in the Yaqui valley. “It will save me money.”

What Luders and more than twenty-five other farmers saw in a demonstration was an effective and accurate way to determine both the right time and correct amount of nitrogen fertilizer to apply to a growing wheat crop. Wheat needs nitrogen to grow properly, but until now there has been no easy way to know how to apply it in an optimum way. Traditionally farmers in the region fertilize before they plant their seed and then again at the first post-planting irrigation. The new approach, developed in conjunction with Oklahoma State University in the United States, uses an infrared sensor to measure the yield potential of wheat plants as they grow.

“I had been looking for something to determine nitrogen requirements for a long time,” says CIMMYT wheat agronomist, Dr. Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio. “This technology was already being used by CIMMYT scientists for other things, such as estimating the yield of different genotypes. It has taken time to calibrate it, but now we have a useful tool to determine the nitrogen a wheat plant needs.”

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The sensor is held above the young, growing wheat plants and measures how much light is reflected in two different colors—red and invisible infrared. In technical terms this is called measuring the Normalized Differential Vegetative Index (NVDI). After much testing, Ortiz-Monasterio and his colleagues from Oklahoma State found they could get a handheld computer to calculate the nitrogen requirement of the plants from the two readings.

The demonstration, conducted in the fields of four different farmer-volunteers, showed they could maintain their yields using far less fertilizer. That is because fertilizer residue from over-applications in past seasons can still be utilized by the new crop.

“We used to feed the soil first, before growing the wheat,” says Luders. “Now we know we should feed the wheat.” He and his friends calculated that with just 80 hectares of wheat the nitrogen sensor, which costs about US $400, could pay for itself in a single season.

The demonstration was made possible because farmers in the Yaqui Valley have consistently supported the research work of CIMMYT and of Mexico’s national agricultural research institute, INIFAP, in the area.

There is much more to this technology than a tool to maximize farm income. A recent Stanford University study published by the prestigious science journal Nature showed that each time farmers irrigate their fields, some of the excess nitrogen fertilizer washes into the nearby Sea of Cortez. The heavy load of nitrogen in the water results in blooms of algae which deplete the oxygen in the water. In other parts of the world such algae blooms can do serious damage to local fisheries. If widely adopted in the Yaqui Valley, the nitrogen-optimizing technology should result in less fertilizer washing into the sea.

Runoff of excess nitrogen fertilizer is a problem that will threaten many more sensitive bodies of water around the world, according to Ortiz-Monasterio. “As farming systems intensify to feed more people, we need to increase production but minimize impact on the environment,” he says. So while farmers in the State of Sonora may be the first to benefit, they certainly will not be the last. Just five days before the demonstration in Ciudad Obregon, the first infrared sensor, a result of a USAID linkage grant with CIMMYT and Oklahoma State, arrived in Pakistan. This way, a technology proven in the field in Mexico will go on to assist farmers in poorer parts of the world and help maintain the health of coastal waters at the same time.

For further information, contact Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio (i.ortiz-monasterio@cgiar.org).

Community seed promoters trained in sustainable maize seed production and marketing in Nepal

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Ensuring a market for maize seed produced using community based seed production (CBSP) in the value chain system, and enhancing management and marketing competencies of local partners are among the strategic activities in Phase IV of the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), supported by SDC and USAID. The HMRP, in collaboration with the National Maize Research Program (NMRP), completed a 20-day training course on maize seed production technologies (15 days) and seed business plan development and marketing (5 days). The course took place at NMRPRampur, Chitwan, from 27 March to 16 April 2012. A total of 31 participants (11 women) attended the course; they were selected from CBSP groups collaborating with HMRP and are expected to work as community seed promoters in their respective groups afterwards.

The first course component on maize seed production technologies covered diverse topics, such as agronomic practices in maize seed production, farmers’ practices in maize varietal development, source seed production technologies, crop management technology (including insect pest management), improved seed production through CBSP, quality control, and truthful labelling. The second component covered HMRP seed marketing strategies, agricultural marketing, seed production costs, maize seed value-chain analysis, seed business plan development, bookkeeping at the CBSP group level, potential sourcing of local state funds by CBSP groups, the importance of gender equity and social inclusion in the CBSP approach, an introduction to cooperatives and private companies, and the basic legal requirements to establish them.

Each trainee developed a comprehensive action plan and presented it on the last day of the course. Participants were evaluated before and after each course component and the first-ranked candidate was recognized. Speaking at the closing session, Dr. K.B. Koirala, NMRP National Coordinator, expressed his appreciation to the HMRP and emphasized the importance of this type of training for empowering local communities. Dr. G. Ortiz-Ferrara, HMRP Team Leader, thanked the course participants, training coordinator, and resource persons for their help and cooperation in making the course a success. Finally, Dr. Koirala and Dr. Ortiz-Ferrara jointly distributed certificates and training kits to all participants.

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SIMLESA: Celebrating two years of achievements, defining the future

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During 19-23 March 2012, over 200 researchers, policy makers, donors, seed specialists, and NGO representatives from Africa and Australia gathered in Arusha, Tanzania, for the second SIMLESA (Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa) Annual Regional Planning and Review Meeting. Representation from the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), which generously supports the work, included nine members of the organization’s Commission for International Agricultural Research.

Participants shared lessons from the last two years and discussed better ways to design and implement future activities. Ten sessions addressed issues including project implementation, Australian-African partnerships, program and partner progress and lessons, and communications and knowledge management.

SIMLESA

A key message was that SIMLESA had consolidated and strengthened activities across all objectives, maximizing gains from integration, innovation, information, and technology diffusion for greater impacts on livelihoods and agroecosystems. It was noted that the use of integrated systems can foster productive intensification of agriculture and, indeed, the Innovation Platform Framework, supported by science and partnerships, can contribute to productive, sustainable and resilient maize-legume systems. For even greater impact, the program should rely on stronger leadership from agribusiness, while supporting the public sector’s role, and ensure a farm-income focus to reduce poverty.

Another key message was to strengthen Australian-African partnerships through better delivery of research products, capacity building under any of ACIAR’s four thematic areas, bridging research and extension, strengthening policy and socioeconomic research, and building individual and institutional capacity.

SIMLESA25Speaking at the SIMLESA’s second “birthday party,” Joana Hewitt, chairperson of the ACIAR Commission for International Agricultural Research, reiterated the Australian government’s commitment to long-term partnerships with African governments. Participants also heard of the new SIMLESA Program in Zimbabwe, focusing on crop-livestock interactions. During the dinner, Kenya and Mozambique were recognized for their efforts in promoting and strengthening local innovation platforms.

In addition to SIMLESA’s program steering committee and the mid-term review team, the event drew representatives from USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program, from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa. SIMLESA is centered in five countries— Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique—with spillovers benefiting Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia. Representatives from all those countries interacted at the meeting.

A SIMLESA “village” and poster presentations allowed partner representatives and researchers to showcase achievements, and visits to Karatu and Mbulu—Tanzanian sites where SIMLESA is present— demonstrated how the project is transforming agriculture.

Farmers in the Charlands of Bangladesh benefit from new wheat and maize interventions

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CIMMYT-CSISA-Bangladesh organized a field day in collaboration with the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) and the Department of Agriculture and Extension (DAE). In all, 162 farmers from Mymensingh, Bangladesh, attended the field day, held on 21 March 2012. CSISA–BD is a collaborative venture funded by USAID that includes CIMMYT, IRRI, WorldFish, and relevant national research and development partners. Also participating in the field day were other partners who work with CSISA-BD, CIMMYT, and Mymensingh Hub, such as the Directorate of Agricultural Extension and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), and NGOs, such as CARE, ASPADA, POPI, and JABC.

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Although cropping intensity in the region is 212%, just one crop (black gram) is grown in the charlands of the Brahmaputra River. Charlands are formed through the sedimentation, over time, of huge amounts of sand, silt, and clay carried by rivers. Growing the preferred crop (Boro rice) in these lands is not feasible for lack of surface water.

CSISA–CIMMYT identified the charlands as a potential area for new wheat and maize hybrids, and organized demonstrations and on-farm participatory research on Ug99 tolerant wheat varieties BARI Gom 26 and BARI Gom 27 (Francolin) and hybrid maize. Farmers were happy to see both wheat and maize growing in demonstrations with limited irrigation. They said this was the first time in history that maize and wheat could be grown in charland areas with this level of success, and expressed an interest in significantly expanding the area sown to these materials next year. It has been estimated that such technologies could impact hundreds of hectares in this region and thousands of hectares across Bangladesh.

During the demonstrations, Dr. DB Pandit, cropping systems agronomist for CSISA-CIMMYT, gave an overview of CSISA-BD activities in the charlands. DAE Adjunct Director Dr. ASM Affazuddin and WRC Director Dr Jalal Uddin Ahmed spoke very highly of these efforts and assured farmers they would establish more wheat and mungbean demonstrations next year. Dr. TP Tiwari, CIMMYT-BD cropping systems agronomist, asked farmers to share the knowledge and skills they have gained so far from CSISA-BD interventions with their neighbors and relatives. He also initiated discussions on improved maize production technologies. All NGO participants expressed their determination to support the implementation of CIMMYT-CSISA activities aimed at achieving sustainable food security and improving the livelihoods of charland farmers. M. Islam, administrative coordinator of the Mymensingh Hub who led the organization of the field day, ended the program by thanking all participants.

Stress tolerant maize seed on the way in southern Africa

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Low soil fertility: Problems and progress

TungaSilvar-12 Tunga Silvar grows maize to feed his wife and fourgrandchildren on about 0.5 hectares of land in Mawanga, Zimbabwe, a hilly area some 45 kilometers northeast of Harare. Like otherfarmers in the region, he is acutely aware of the value of nitrogen fertilizer, continually juggles his limited household financesto get it, and is poorer and hungrier when he can’t. “We used to sell maize, but in the last five years we haven’t been able to do so,” saysSilvar. “I had to pay school fees for my grandchildren, so I couldn’t buy fertilizer. Fertilizer is very important, especially in our type of soil. If you don’t apply it, youcan barely harvest anything.”

After water, nitrogen is the single most important input for maize production. In sub-Saharan Africa where fertilizer use is negligible, improved maize with tolerance to low nitrogen (N) conditions could give maize farmers more abundant harvests, greatly improving their food security and livelihoods.

Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID and conducted jointly with the KenyanAgricultural Research Institute (KARI), South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC), and the DuPont Company Pioneer Hi-Bred, aims to overcome theseproblems by developing hybrids with 25-50 % more yield than current commercial seed in low-N soils. The second annual IMAS meeting in Harare in lateFebruary 2012 drew more than 40 scientists from these organizations and CIMMYT to review progress and develop shared work plans for the following year.

Accomplishments to date include establishment of a low N phenotyping network across eastern and Southern Africa and application of cutting-edgemolecular breeding techniques for low N tolerance. Several recently-identified, low-N tolerant inbred lines from diverse genetic backgrounds are being used in new hybrid combinations and to initiate pedigree breeding. New and existing elite hybrid combinations and synthetics are being evaluated inthe regional low N phenotyping network, which now has access to more than 60,000 rows in N-depleted plots of experiment stations region-wide. Over thepast year CIMMYT maize breeders Bish Das and Amsal Tarekegne have engaged several additional seed companies in work on low-N tolerant maize.As part of this, representatives from 11 companies in eastern and southern Africa attended a field day in Harare to showcase the latest products and highlightnew support from the Foundation to scale-up seed production for existing commercial or advanced hybrids and OPVs that perform well in low N fields.

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Strengthening Malawi’s seed sector

Seed companies provide the vital link to get improved maize varieties into farmers’ hands. A major focus of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project has been to strengthen small- and intermediate-scale seed enterprises and thereby speed delivery of drought tolerant varieties. The project has provided training and help to develop business plans (“road maps” for seed delivery), improved drought tolerant hybrids, and assistancein seed production. As one example of the benefits of this approach, three years of support in seed production and business planning have helped theseed company Demeter in Malawi go from strength to strength. The company now produces over 2,000 tons of seed, and its portfolio includes the open pollinated varieties ZM309, ZM523, and ZM721 developed under DTMA.

New companies are also appearing on the scene. One example is Funwe Farm, a company that is starting to grow with support from CIMMYT and the Programme for Africa’s Seeds Systems of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA-PASS). John MacRobert, seed systems specialist for sub-Saharan Africa, andAmsal Tarekegne visited Funwe’s seed production fields to smooth out initial teething problems in the production of foundation seed of a CIMMYT hybridreleased by the Malawi government as MH26. “By supporting companies like Demeter and Funwe we are helping to ensure farmers get access to improvedvarieties,” said MacRobert. “Our partnerships with seed companies are really starting to pay off.”

On-farm performance: the definitive challenge of breeding

Sailas-Ruswa Late and erratic rainfall in Zimbabwe has many farmers facing the prospect of poor harvests. The current hardships from drought though may furnish some hopefor farmers. New drought tolerant varieties are being tested in on-farm trials under farmer management. Many of the trials are experiencing drought stress—aperfect opportunity to identify the best varieties for such harsh conditions. A recent visit to on-farm trials in the Murewa District of Zimbabwe showed many new drought tolerant products performing well. Local farmer Sailas Ruswa is growing a trial and was enthusiastic about what he saw: some varieties showedsigns of severe drought stress, but a few were holding up well and were expected to produce good yields.