Kristie Drucza (left) and Rahma Adam (right) had a chance to share CIMMYTâs gender work with the former president of Mauritius, Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, at AWARDâs tenth anniversary event in Nairobi. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) gender team joined African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) to celebrate its ten years of empowering women with essential skills and knowledge.
The AWARD program advocates for a more gender-responsive agricultural research ecosystem. This is key in driving a more sustainable and inclusive agricultural growth in Africa.
The tenth anniversary event took place in Nairobi on November 29, 2018. Rahma Adam, Gender and Development Scientist, and Kristie Drucza, Gender and Social Inclusion Researcher, showcased the work that CIMMYTâs gender team has done on maize and wheat-based farming systems, not just in Africa, but globally.
âOur participation at AWARDâs anniversary celebrations was not an end in itself, but rather relevant for other organizations within and outside the CGIAR system to learn from CIMMYTâs gender strategic and inclusive research work and draw lessons from it,â Adam said. âWe especially appreciate the work done by AWARD, including the leadership trainings offered to promising young women at academic and research institutions, and at international organizations across Africa and beyond.â
Several researchers at CIMMYT have participated in AWARDâs initiatives, both getting mentorship or training and mentoring fellow scientists, thereby nurturing the next crop of researchers and leaders in agriculture.
âThese courses are useful in helping one to strike a balance between being a good researcher and a good leader at the workplace and beyond,â Adam said.
Drucza commented on the leadership training she participated in: âThey provide opportunities for leaders (some of whom are heads of research institutes across Africa) to understand common leadership challenges women face, engage in thought-provoking conversations and create lasting networks, among other issues.â
CIMMYT researchers Kristie Drucza (left) and Rahma Adam (second from left) showcased CIMMYTâs gender work at AWARDâs tenth anniversary event in Nairobi. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
In 2018, Drucza, mentored a gender unit director at the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR). âAs part of the AWARD program, my mentee attended a leadership development course as well as a scientific writing course. This improved her confidence and skills as a researcher and leader,â Drucza said.
As a beneficiary of the AWARD mentorship program in 2014-2015, Pauline Muindi, a research associate at CIMMYTâs gender unit, honed her communication and public speaking skills, which have proved useful for her work.
âThese skills have enabled me to train several seed companies in eastern and southern Africa on the integration of gender in the seed value chains as well as gender integration in the workplace,â she said. Her mentor was a previous AWARD fellow. The program also helped her set realistic yet attainable goals for her career growth. âAt CIMMYT, I have an opportunity to learn and gain new experiences, while at the same time build sustainable networks that are important in my professional life.â
The keynote speaker was Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, former president of Mauritius. âWomen have a special power to be advocates for themselves and each other. We must become aware of that power and unleash it. Ultimately, it will be for we women to open the doors so that others may live and prosper,â Gurib-Fakim concluded.
CIMMYT partners visit the Maize Lethal Necrosis screening facility in Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya, will begin its phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle of 2019 at the beginning of January 2019 and in other four intervals throughout the year. Interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for screening.
In 2013, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) jointly established the MLN screening facility at the KALRO Naivasha research station in Kenyaâs Rift Valley with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.
MLN was first discovered in Kenya in 2011 and quickly spread to other parts of eastern Africa; the disease causes premature plant death and unfilled, poorly formed maize cobs, and can lead to up to 100 percent yield loss in farmersâ fields.
CIMMYT and partners are dedicated to stopping the spread of this deadly maize disease by effectively managing the risk of MLN on maize production through screening and identifying MLN-resistant germplasm. The MLN screening facility supports countries in sub-Saharan Africa to screen maize germplasm (for hybrid, inbred and open pollinated varieties) against MLN in a quarantined environment.
This is the largest dedicated MLN screening facility in East Africa. Since its inception in 2013, the facility has evaluated more than 180,000 accessions (more than 270,000 rows of maize) from more than 15 multinational and national seed companies and national research programs.
Partners can now plan for annual MLN Phenotyping (Screening / Indexing) during 2019 with the schedule below. The improved and streamlined approach for MLN phenotyping should enable our partners to accelerate breeding programs to improve resistance for Maize MLN for sub-Saharan Africa.
TEXCOCO, Mexico (CIMMYT) â Food security is heavily dependent on seed security. Sustainable seed systems ensure that a variety of quality seeds are available to farming communities at affordable prices. In many developing countries, however, farmers still lack access to the right seeds at the right time.
In the past, governments played a major role in getting improved seed to poor farmers. These days, however, the private sector plays a leading role, often with strong support from governments and NGOs.
âInterventions in formal seed systems in maize have tended to focus on improving the capacity of seed producing companies, which are often locally owned small-scale operations, to produce and distribute quality germplasm,â says Jason Donovan, Senior Economist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). âThese local seed companies are expected to maintain, reproduce and sell seed to underserved farmers. Thatâs a pretty tall order, especially because private seed businesses themselves are a fairly new thing in many countries.â
Prior to the early 2000s, Donovan explains, many seed businesses were partially or wholly state-owned. In Mexico, for example, the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, AgrĂcolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) produced seed and supplied it to a market-oriented entity which was responsible for distribution. âWhat weâre seeing now is locally owned private seed businesses carving out their space in the maize seed market, sometimes in direct competition with multinational seed companies,â he says. In Mexico, around 80 locally owned maize seed producing businesses currently exist, most of which have been involved in CIMMYTâs MasAgro Maize project. These are mostly small businesses selling between 150,000 and 500,000 kg of hybrid maize per year.
In the following Q&A, Donovan discusses new directions in research on value chains, the challenges facing private seed companies, and how new studies could help understand their capacities and needs.
How does research on markets and value chains contribute to CIMMYTâs mission?
Weâre interested in the people, businesses and organizations that influence improved maize and wheat seed adoption, production, and the availability and quality of maize and wheat-based foods. This focus perfectly complements the efforts of those in CIMMYT and elsewhere working to improve seed quality and increase maize and wheat productivity in the developing world.
We are also interested in the nutrition and diets of urban and rural consumers. Much of the work around improved diets has centered on understanding fruit and vegetable consumption and options to stimulate greater consumption of these foods. While there are good reasons to include those food groups, the reality is that those arenât the segments of the food market that are immediately available to or able to feed the masses. Processed maize and wheat, however, are rapidly growing in popularity in both rural and urban areas because thatâs what people want and need to eat first. So the question becomes, how can governments, NGOs and others promote the consumption of healthier processed wheat and maize products in places where incomes are growing and tastes are changing?
This year, CIMMYT started a new area of research in collaboration with A4NH, looking at the availability of processed maize and wheat products in Mexico City â one of the worldâs largest cities. Weâre working in collaboration with researchers form the National Institute of Public Health to find out what types of wheat- and maize-based products the food industry is selling, to whom, and at what cost. At the end of the day, we want to better understand the variation in access to healthier wheat- and maize-based foods across differences in purchasing power. Part of that involves looking at what processed products are available in different neighborhoods and thinking about the dietary implications of that.
Your team has also recently started looking at formal seed systems in various locations. What direction is the research taking so far?
Our teamâs current priority is to advance learning around the private sectorâs role in scaling improved maize varieties. We are engaged with three large projects: MasAgro Maize in Mexico, Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) and the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project (NSFP). We are looking to shed light on the productive and marketing capacities of the privately owned seed producing businesses and their ability to get more seed to more farmers at a lower cost. This implies a better understanding of options to better link seed demand and supply, and the business models that link seed companies with agro-dealers, seed producing farmers, and seed consumers.
We are also looking at the role of agro-dealers â shops that sell agricultural inputs and services (including seed) to farmers â in scaling improved maize seed.
At the end of the day, we want to provide evidence-based recommendations for future interventions in seed sectors that achieve even more impact with fewer resources.
Farmers purchase seed from an agro-dealer in Machakos, Kenya. (Photo: Market Matters Inc.)
This research is still in its initial stages, but do you already have an idea of what some of the key limiting factors are?
I think one of the main challenges facing small-scale seed producing businesses is the considerable expense entailed in simultaneously building their productive capacities and their market share. Many businesses simply donât have a lot of capital. Thereâs also a lack of access to specialized business support.
In Mexico, for example, a lot of people in the industry are actually ex-breeders from government agencies, so theyâre very familiar with the seed production process, but less so with options for building viable businesses and growing markets for new varieties of seed.
This is a critical issue if we expect locally owned seed businesses to be the primary vehicle by which improved seeds are delivered to farmers at scale. Weâre currently in the assessment phase, examining what the challenges and capacities are, and hopefully this information will feed into new approaches to designing our interventions.
Is the study being replicated in other regions as well?
Yes, in East Africa, under the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project. Weâre working with seed producing businesses and agro-dealers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to understand their strategies, capacities, and needs in terms of providing improved seed to more farmers. Weâre using the same basic research design in Mexico, and there is also ongoing work in the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project. Given that we are a fairly small team within CIMMYT, comparable cross-regional research is one way to punch above our weight.
Why is this research timely or important?
The research is critical as CIMMYTâs impact relies, in part, on partnerships. In the case of improved maize seed, that revolves around viable seed businesses.
Although critical, no one else is actually engaged in this type of seed sector research. There have been a number of studies on seed production, seed systems and the adoption of improved seed by poor farmers. A few have focused on the emergence of the private sector in formal seed systems and the implications for seed systems development, but most have been pretty broad, examining the overall business environment in which these companies operate but not much beyond that. Weâre trying to deepen the discussion. While we donât expect to have all the answers at the end of this study, we hope we can shift the conversation about options for better support to seed companies and agro-dealers.
Jason Donovan joined CIMMYT in 2017 and leads CIMMYTâs research team on markets and value chains, based in Mexico. He has some 15 years of experience working and living in Latin America. Prior to joining CIMMYT he worked at the Peru office of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), where his research focused on business development, rural livelihoods, gender equity and certification. He has a PhD in development economics from the University of Londonâs School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) â Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa lose up to a third of their grain after harvest because they often use poor grain storage technologies and ineffective drying practices. Staples like maize stored on-farm are exposed to infestation by insects and fungi. These can lead to contamination with mycotoxins, in particular aflatoxins, poisonous food toxins produced by Aspergillus fungi.
At high doses, aflatoxins can kill. Prolonged exposure to aflatoxins can impact consumersâ health, suppressing immune systems, hindering child growth and even causing liver cancer. Kenya is a particular hotspot for aflatoxins, as regular studies show widespread contamination along the food chain, from maize grain to milk and meat.
Preliminary findings of a study by USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling (FPL) suggest that innovative low-cost grain drying and storage technologies such as hermetic bags and hygrometers could prevent post-harvest crop losses and harmful aflatoxin contamination.
The initial results were shared at a workshop in Nairobi on October 25, 2018, as part of the FPL project, which aims to develop and disseminate affordable and effective post-harvest technologies suited to the African smallholder farmer. This project is a collaboration between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and Purdue University.
A study conducted between May 2017 and May 2018 in Kiboko, Kenya, compared the performance of various hermetic storage containers and bags by different manufacturers with farmersâ usual storage practices. Researchers measured maize grain quality parameters such as grain damage, weight loss in storage, fungal growth and mycotoxins, food quality and seed germination. The results showed hermetic bags were highly effective in averting grain loss for up to one year.
âIf these bags are sealed properly, oxygen cannot get in or out. This creates an anaerobic environment that suffocates grain-damaging insects and prevents fungi from growingâ says CIMMYT economist Hugo De Groote.
Making hermetic storage more accessible
The Africa Technical Research Center (ATRC) is involved in the development of some of the hermetic bags that were tested during the study. ATRC director Johnson Odera noted that most of the insect infestations start in the field. âWhen the farmer harvests and transports the maize home, the grain is already infested,â Odera explained. âThe damage can be extensive depending on the level of infestation. One of the ways to minimize the losses, while keeping the food safe for consumption is to use hermetic bagsâ.
These bags, however, remain largely unavailable to smallholder farmers, according to the study. This is mainly due to farmersâ low awareness levels and the high cost of hermetic bags. Unlike normal storage bags that cost about $0.7 each, hermetic bags retail for $2 to $2.5.
A second study, conducted with maize producers and traders in Kakamega, western Kenya, suggests that dropping prices by 20 percent had the potential to increase sales by 88 percent.
This study further suggested that farmers can benefit a lot from using low-cost hygrometers to accurately measure moisture content in maize. Grain is quickly spoiled by fungi contamination if it is not dry enough when stored. One or two percent lower moisture levels can make a big difference in reducing aflatoxin contamination.
âFarmers could put maize grain samples in a plastic bag and insert low-cost hygrometers to read moisture content after temperature is stabilized in 15 minutes,â says Purdue University professor Jacob Ricker-Gilbert. âThey then know if their grain is safe enough for storage or not. However, standard hygrometers cost around $100, which is out of reach for many small farmers.â
Purdue University, CIMMYT and KALRO conducted a market survey in 2017 among maize farmers and traders in Kenya to assess their willingness to buy low-cost hygrometers. The survey found that farmers were willing to pay an average price of $1.21 for a hygrometer, while traders said they would buy at $1.16 each. The project was able to get cheap and reliable hygrometers at less than one dollar, opening the door for possible commercialization. One company, Bell Industries, has started to market the devices as a pilot.
Raising farmers and policymakersâ awareness on appropriate storage and drying technologies is now a priority for scientists working on the FPL project, which will hopefully lead to less maize spoiled and better food safety.
NJORO, Kenya (CIMMYT) â The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in collaboration with Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and Cornell University, recently trained 29 scientists from 13 countries on wheat rust disease diagnosis and management techniques, as well as innovative wheat breeding practices. The training, part of the Delivering Genetic Gains in Wheat (DGGW) project, took place on October 1-9, 2018, at the KALRO research station in Njoro, Kenya, where CIMMYTâs wheat breeding and rust screening facility is located.
More than 200 scientists have increased their capacity at these annual trainings since CIMMYT started organizing them ten years ago. The trainings focus particularly on studying resistance to black (stem) rust, yellow (stripe) rust and brown (leaf) rust. Future wheat champions in national agricultural research systems (NARS) get new skills on innovative and cost-effective wheat breeding. These trainings are also a chance for CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program to establish new partnerships and to collaborate on emerging challenges related to wheat breeding in different farming regions.
âThe focus of this yearâs event was to train the scientists on how to identify and record notes for stem rust occurrences and how to evaluate wheat material in the field, to better understand how wheat rust pathogens keep evolving,â said Mandeep Randhawa, wheat breeder and wheat rust pathologist at CIMMYT.
Robert McIntosh from University of Sydney’s Plant Breeding Institute demonstrates stem rust inoculation using a syringe. (Photo: KALRO)
CIMMYT scientist Mandeep Randhawa indicates exact wheat plant stage for stem rust inoculation during the wheat stem rust training. (Photo: KALRO)
CIMMYT scientist Mandeep Randhawa explains trainees early booting stage for stem rust inoculation. (Photo: KALRO)
Participants of the wheat stem rust training pose for a group photograph. (Photo: KALRO)
Participants of CIMMYT’s annual wheat improvement training in Njoro, Kenya, attend a class session. (Photo: KALRO)
Despite its importance for global food security and nutrition, wheat remains susceptible to endemic and highly destructive rust diseases which can lead to 60-100 percent yield losses. Developing and distributing rust resistant wheat varieties is regarded as the most cost-effective and eco-friendly control measure, especially in developing countries, where the majority are resource-poor smallholder farmers with no access to fungicides to control the disease.
As a global leader in wheat and maize breeding systems, CIMMYT has sustained efforts to develop high-yielding, disease-resistant and stress-tolerant varieties. In partnership with KALRO, CIMMYT identified and released over 15 commercial wheat varieties since the establishment of the stem rust screening facility in Njoro in 2008. Despite the appearance of new devastating strains of stem rust over the period, most of these released wheat varieties are high-yielding with stem rust resistance, according to Randhawa.
âAdequate management practices, including timely planting and application of right fungicides, have kept some of the high-yielding varieties such as Kenya Korongo and Eagle10 in production,â Randhawa explained.
Several high-yielding rust resistant wheat lines are in pipeline for national evaluation to release as wheat varieties in Kenya, he said.
The development of a portable, real-time diagnostics tool for wheat yellow rust, namely the Mobile and Real-time Plant DisEase Diagnostics (MARPLE) was another breakthrough in identifying and combating wheat rust. This mobile plant health diagnosis tool helps identify rust strains in three days instead of months. This is a game changer for the wheat sector, as rust control measures could be deployed before new rust becomes a large-scale epidemic. Led by senior scientist David Hodson, MARPLE is the result of the collaboration between CIMMYT, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the John Innes Centre. There are plans to scale up this innovation in Ethiopia, where it is expected to provide five million wheat farmers a lifeline to control wheat yellow rust.
At the training, participants such as Zafar Ziyaev from Uzbekistan, were glad to gain deeper understanding on how to use modern tools for rust surveillance and the control measures. Others acknowledged the importance of sensitizing and supporting farmers to grow rust-resistant wheat varieties.
Emeritus Professor Robert McIntosh, one of the trainers from the Plant Breeding Institute at the University of Sydney, acknowledged the need for wheat scientists to remain vigilant on rust outbreaks globally and the evolving nature of the pathogens.
âAs rust pathogens spread from country to country and region to region, such trainings allow national scientists to learn about the need for constant awareness, the basic principles of epidemiology and genetics that provide the basis of breeding for durable resistance, and what the Njoro rust testing platform can offer to the NARS,â McIntosh said.
On October 22, David Campbell, CEO of Mediae, and his team presented their TV and digital education and development programs to International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) staff in Nairobi, Kenya. Mediae is a media company producing the iconic Shamba Shape Up, a weekly farming education TV series watched in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
The purpose of the meeting was to explore the possibility of partnership between CIMMYT and Mediae. Farmer education programs like Shamba Shape Up can showcase CIMMYT’s innovations to millions of farmers. Better awareness could lead to increased adoption of innovations and enhance household incomes, as well as food and nutritional security.
Other education and extension programs include Shamba Chef, which targets women with information about nutrition and family finance, and iShamba, an information service that provides over 350,000 farmers with information on market prices, the weather forecast and tips on crop and animal production.
Since 2013, Shamba Shape Up has run weekly episodes in English and Swahili on Kenya’s Citizen TV, reaching an estimated at 3.5 million people, 70 percent of whom live in rural areas. This “edutainment” program highlights challenges smallholders face in their farming activities. Farm advisories range from crop production, animal husbandry and soil fertility, to seeds, pests and diseases, and climate change adaptation strategies. Usually, highlighted farmers narrate the issues on their farm to a TV presenter while an expert from the private or non-profit sector offers advice on remedial measures. This helps the farmer to improve their productivity and livelihood. Campbell believes that “a mix of entertainment and research elements have enabled the program to remain relevant and sustainably serve large, diverse audiences.”
A farmer measures his crop. (Image: Shamba Shape Up)
In April 2014, CIMMYT and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) were featured in a Shamba Shape Up episode. The broadcast showcased a maize farmer whose crop production had been devastated by striga, a parasitic weed that had infested over 300,000 hectares of maize in western Kenya. Farmers were advised to plant IR maize, a new herbicide-coated seed variety that is immune to striga and can kill it, and this helped to stop the spread of striga in the region. A more recent episode featuring CIMMYT’s efforts to instill sustainable intensification practices among farmers was aired in February 2018.
Campbell and his team have observed that while millions of farmers enjoy their education programs, many fail to continue applying expert advice on good agricultural practices, such as conservation farming, on their own farms. One particular challenge and area with scope for collaboration is to conduct proper impact evaluation of education programs on farming practices changes and livelihoods.
Maize is currently grown on 35 million hectares of land in Africa and is easily the most important staple food crop in the continent, feeding more than 200-300 million people and providing income security to millions of smallholder farmers. Nonetheless, African maize growers face many challenges, including lower than average yields, crop susceptibility to pests and diseases, and abiotic stresses such as droughts. They generally lack access to high yielding improved seed and other farming innovations that could help them overcome those challenges.
SIMLESA is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). It is implemented by national agricultural research systems, agribusinesses and farmers in partner countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
A new video highlights the outcomes and achievements of the SIMLESA project and it features interviews with farmers and scientists.
Among the outstanding achievements of the SIMLESA project are the release of 40 new maize varieties, the selection of more than 50 legume varieties for official release in partner countries, yield increases of 10 to 30 percent and enhanced adoption of innovative technologies that will aid sustainable intensification of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa. Over 230,000 farmers have adopted sustainable intensification technologies and the project has helped nurture future scientists by supporting more than 40 students pursuing MSc degrees and more than 20 PhD students.
âThe SIMLESA project has successfully adapted and disseminated many scalable technologies to smallholder farmers that will help them achieve higher yields with reduced resource use,â said CIMMYT scientist Paswel Marenya, the coordinator of the project. âWe have also sought to understand and improve the entire farming system so that farmers are supported through enabling policies, markets and institutional frameworks.â
The SIMLESA project will be coming to an end in 2019. âThe lessons learned from SIMLESA can be used by national and international decision makers to help guide their policy, programming and investment priorities in support of achieving sustainable and resilient agricultural systems in Africa,â Marenya said.
To watch a playlist of SIMLESA videos, click here.
Research partners to develop new maize hybrid seed production system to help smallholder farmers access modern, high quality maize hybrid seed.
Pretoria, South Africa, 26 October 2018â An initiative launched in 2016 seeks to provide African smallholder farmers with better quality and high yielding hybrid maize seed. The Seed Production Technology for Africa (SPTA) initiative strives to improve seed production systems to ensure that high-quality hybrid maize seed is available to smallholder farmers, as well as to deliver new hybrids with a high yield potential adapted for low fertility areas common in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
SPTA will utilize a technology provided by Corteva Agriscience, and implemented by the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC) alongside the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the four-year initiative will cost US$ 6.4 million.
âAs Africa faces significant challenges of low maize yields, climatic extremes and variability, costly farm inputs, threats due to pests and diseases, and growing demand for food, it is critical to provide smallholder farmers with access to high quality and stress resilient modern maize hybrids to allow them to increase yields and incomes,â said Kingstone Mashingaidze, Senior Research Manager at ARC.
The SPTA process will address pressing seed production concerns in the region that include insufficient genetic purity due to pollen contamination resulting from improper or incomplete detasseling practices. As a result, small and medium seed companies are expected to produce greater volume of hybrid maize seed at lower cost. Partner seed companies in the region will access the technology royalty free.
Maize productivity in Africa lags behind other maize producing regions, and through SPTA more smallholders will improve their yield. Average maize yield in much of Africa is approximately 2 metric tons per hectare, which is less than 20 percent of the yield level in more productive parts of the world. Farmers cannot access or afford high quality seed. Only 57 percent of the SSA maize growing area is planted with recently purchased seed; a lot of hybrids grown in the region are obsolete – 15 years or older compared to an average of less than 5 years in highly productive regions. In many situations, seeds of these older varieties are no longer suited for the climate and cropping environments that exist today.
Hybrid maize seed delivered through SPTA will have higher yield in low fertility environments. This will enable resource-constrained farmers to harvest more despite limited inputs like fertilizer. This means stronger livelihoods coupled with improved professionalism in the maize seed value chain for farmers, seed companies, consumers, and governments to deliver a more food-secure future.
SPTA originated from the Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project that concluded in 2015. IMAS focused on developing maize hybrids that could use nitrogen fertilizer more efficiently to deliver higher yields under low fertility conditions prevalent in Africa. The IMAS project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together with the United States Agency for International Development.
Issued by Agricultural Research Council
For more information contact:
Agricultural Research Council (South Africa)
Mary James
Tel: +27 (0) 18 299 6100, Cell: +27 84Â 817 2376, Email: JamesM@arc.agric.za
Corteva Agriscience (South Africa)
Barbra Muzata
Tel: +27-11-218-8600, Email: barbra.Muzata@pioneer.com
Notes to editors:
The Agricultural Research Council (ARC), a schedule 3A public entity, is a premier science institution that conducts research with partners, develops human capital and fosters innovation in support of the agricultural sector. The Agricultural Research Council provides diagnostic, laboratory, analytical, agricultural engineering services, post-harvest technology development, agrochemical evaluation, consultation and advisory services, food processing technology services as well as various surveys and training interventions. ARC has successfully collaborated with international partners in the WEMA project. ARC has successful partnerships with local seed companies for deployment of its products to smallholder farmers. For more information, visit the website at www.arc.agric.za
Corteva Agriscienceâą, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont (NYSE: DWDP), is intended to become an independent, publicly traded company when the spinoff is complete by June 2019. The division combines the strengths of DuPont Pioneer, DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences. Corteva Agriscienceâą provides growers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the industry â including some of the most recognized brands in agriculture: PioneerÂź, EncircaÂź, the newly launched Brevantâą Seeds, as well as award-winning Crop Protection products â while bringing new products to market through our solid pipeline of active chemistry and technologies. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat, and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.
Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) is a corporate body created under the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Act of 2013 to establish suitable legal and institutional framework for coordination of agricultural research in Kenya with the following goals: Promote, streamline, co-ordinate and regulate research in crops, livestock, genetic resources and biotechnology in Kenya, and expedite equitable access to research information, resources and technology and promote the application of research findings and technology in the field of agriculture.
This month’s report from the United Nations’ scientific panel on climate change highlights worsening food shortages as one of the key impacts of global warming.
Tackling the monumental challenges set out in the report may seem like a mountain to climb, given the policy changes and rapid government action required. Yet, on her 4-acre farm on the foothills of Mount Kenya in Embu county, 65-year-old Purity Gachanga proves it is possible to fight eroding soils, enrich farmland, and increase and diversify food production.
Whatâs more, she shares her methods with 60 women making up a “merry-go-round” group that meet regularly in her front garden. They each contribute a small sum of money which forms their communal savings system. “Many have put the money towards their farms but we also use it for other things we want like blankets, utensils or chairs,” explains Gachanga.
The group also helps the women share new methods, she adds. “I have learnt many techniques from scientists during training days and I am always one of the first to try these out on my farm. So when we get together for the merry-go-round meetings, I show the others what I am doing and how well it works. They then want to try on their own farms.”
Gachanga points to neat rows of fodder plants on the edges of her farm. “Before I would lose all this topsoil when it rained heavily. I learnt that planting certain varieties of fodder plants with deep roots holds the soil together. The plants also add fertility to the soil and give me good feed for my goats.”
Her goats are very precious as besides providing milk and meat, they helped her pay the school fees for nine of her children. The animals are an essential part of her sustainable farming system as they provide fertilizer for her fields.
The farm is flourishing with beans, kale, amaranth, tomatoes and pumpkins. Gachanga rotates the crops so the soil is never left exposed. “I get a profit from each patch so it makes sense to plan how to use it. I make money, keep my soil and animals in good health and we have a varied diet ourselves.”
The training she has received is part of an initiative called the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA), whose goal is to scale up proven soil conservation and food production techniques. Its demonstration sessions bring researchers, extension agents, the private sector, and farmers together to discuss and share expertise, and Gachanga is a keen learner.
Richer soils, more food
Continual farming and mono-cropping of maize along with minimal fertilizer and manure use has rapidly depleted African soil nutrients and resulting yields. Farmers are also used to feeding their livestock with crop remnants from their fields which leaves the soils exposed, further worsening erosion and soil fertility. To address this, farmers are encouraged to leave either all or some crop residues on the field and add nitrogen-fixing legume crops in rotations with cereal crops and forages.
SIMLESA is on target to achieve its overall goal of reaching 650,000 farmers and increasing farm productivity in Eastern and Southern Africa by 30 percent by 2023.
Rahma Adam, gender specialist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) which is leading SIMLESA, said rural women can access better opportunities by being part of a farming innovation group.
The Liganwa women farmers group in Siaya County in Kenyaâs Nyanza Province, started in 2007 to help widows in the community get capital to start micro-businesses, and also uses the rotating âmerry-go-roundâ credit and savings system.
After initial challenges in raising capital, as some members were unable to pay their contribution, they joined SIMLESA as part of an agriculture innovation platform. “By experimenting with the demonstrated conservation agriculture techniques, the Liganwa women have since transformed their farming and incomes,” says Adams.
The platform has also enabled women as a group to negotiate better prices to buy inputs and sell produce. Better yields and markets mean members bring money to the group from the surplus maize they sell. So, the merry-go-round now turns with 3 to 5 times more borrowing capacity and 100 percent repayment rates.
One priority of the United Nations’ International Day of Rural Women on October 15 each year is to foster womenâs empowerment through climate-resilient agriculture, as with Gachanga and the merry-go-round farmers groups. The challenge is making sure governments put policies and systems in place to ensure other farmers can, and want to, follow suit.
This article was originally published by Thomson Reuters Foundation here.
Sustainable IntensiïŹcation of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) is an eight-year food security program supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).Â
Launched in 2010, SIMLESA is managed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and implemented by national agricultural research systems in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. In Kenya, CIMMYT is working closely with the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO).
NAIROBI (Kenya) â More than 20 representatives of eastern and southern African seed companies and regulatory agencies recently took part in the demonstration of a new seed certification application that can help get quality seed to market more quickly and curb sales of counterfeit seed.
As part of an event organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Program (CIMMYT) at the Kiboko research station of the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) on September 17, 2018, participants field-tested a beta version of SeedAssure, a digital platform that gives automatic feedback on compliance and seed production management, along with remedy options.
SeedAssure was developed by Cellsoft, a supply chain management software company, with input from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Qualibasic Seed Company, the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) and CIMMYT.
âThis is very useful for companies like ours, spread as we are over different countries, to manage at a distance our seed growers,â said Andy Watt of QualiBasic Seed Company, who has been testing SeedAssure on the companyâs farms. âThe applicationâs dashboard will point out which farms to visit quickly for corrections.â
Mobile innovations enhance quality and speed
For over a decade, the regionâs seed sector has sought fast, cost-effective and transparent seed quality control and certification approaches for use across the value chain and the region. Seed companies often rely on under-staffed national certification agencies that may miss critical inspections or give inaccurate reports. Registration of new varieties can take many years, discouraging investment in improved seed and impeding regional trade.
The seed sector has sought mobile innovations such as tablet-based field inspections whose data load to centralized, cloud-based dashboards.
With SeedAssureâs âtraffic lightâ system, field inspection results for factors such as plant population will score green (complied â good quality), amber (needs improvement) or red (reject) and be readily visible to key actors in the seed certification and supply chain, according to David Laurence-Brown, SeedAssure co-developer.
âThis quality assurance system can help seed companies get licenses faster, speeding product to market and greatly reducing the financial risk of getting new varieties to farmers,â said Laurence-Brown. âThe vision is that all actors have access to timely and accurate data on products, licensing and trade movements, with quality control checks along the value chain.â
He said that SeedAssure features 260 critical questions in 13 seed production checklists. âPutting the right questions in the right order is crucial to determine how sustainable your seed production is,â Laurence-Brown explained.
Partners test the SeedAssure app on a tablet during a field visit in Kiboko, Kenya. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
Fixing the bugs
Participants emphasized that national and regional regulatory bodies needed to be on board.
âAdvocacy has to be done at different levels, from COMESA, national plant protection organizations, big and small seed companies, and research institutes and donors,â said Kinyua Mbijjewe, a well-known figure in the African seed industry and co-creator of SeedAssure, adding that this has been underway for a year now with a positive response, and public engagement is now ramping up with partners like AGRA and USAID.
Participants also suggested simplifying SeedAssure by reducing the number of questions and the subjectivity of certain data fields. For example, they observed that a more objective method was needed for scoring pest infestations, rather than SeedAssure’s current approach of rating infestations as low, moderate or intense via visual estimation.
âThis will not be adopted if itâs too complex,â said Nicolai Rodeyns, NASECO seed company, Uganda.
Developers are addressing these issues, as well as comments that the application should not mix compliance and seed production management features.
CIMMYT announced that it would offer members of the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) a one-year trial subscription to SeedAssure.
Finally, AFSTA, AGRA, CIMMYT, COMESA, USAID, and other partners are forming a SeedAssure Alliance to support testing and rollout with companies and public organizations in eastern and southern Africa.
NAIROBI (Kenya) â Members of the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) and other partners had a chance to go on a field visit to the Kiboko and Naivasha research stations in Kenya on September 18 and 19, 2018. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agriculture & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) held their annual partner field days to share the latest developments in maize and wheat research.
On the first day, CIMMYT invited IMIC researchers to evaluate Material Under Development at the Kiboko site. These maize lines are not publicly released yet but are available to IMIC partners, so they can select the most promising ones for their research and crop improvement work.
Each seed company was looking for certain traits to develop new hybrid varieties. For instance, Samit Fayek, from Fine Seeds Egypt was looking for âerect typeâ maize, as he wants higher crop density and grains that look big. Christopher Volbrecht, from Lake Agriculture in South Africa, was looking for âcobs that stick out as this is what farmers want.â Josephine Okot, from Victoria Seeds in Uganda, said that âseed companies often look at drought tolerance only, but we need now to integrate resistance to Maize Lethal Necrosis.â
Using Doubled Haploid breeding in Kiboko
Some of the workers at Kiboko station sorting out maize seed varieties. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Next on the tour to Kiboko, partners visited various stress-tolerant breeding materials, sustainable intensification cropping demonstrations and the Doubled Haploid facility. Vijaya Chaikam, Maize Doubled Haploid Scientist, explained how CIMMYT uses this methodology to cut down breeding time from six to two cycles, which drastically reduces costs.
According to B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYTâs Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE, doubled haploid breeding is possibly the biggest innovation to speed up genetic gain since the inception of hybrid technology a century ago. âIn the next 4 or 5 years, CIMMYT aims at 80 percent use of double haploid lines for new hybrid development; breeding will be faster and much cheaper that way,â Prasanna said. âFor now, breeders and seed companies need to know how to use double haploid lines to cost-efficiently crossbreed with their varieties for high-quality hybrids.â
At the end of the visit to Kiboko, CIMMYT officially opened a new maize seed storage cold room. This facility will serve to keep seeds in good condition and to better manage inventory. At the opening were the director of KALROâs Food Crops Research Institute, Joyce Malinga, CIMMYTâs Africa Regional Representative, Stephen Mugo, and CIMMYTâs Technical Lead for the Global Maize Program, Aparna Das.
Fighting Maize Lethal Necrosis and rust in Naivasha
A worker at the Naivasha MLN research station conducts a mock inoculation (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
On the second day, partners visited the Naivasha research station. There, CIMMYT presented the latest efforts to contain Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN), a devastating maize viral disease first reported in Kenya in 2011 which caused severe crop losses across Eastern Africa, causing severe crop losses. The Naivasha research station is home to a world-class facility to screen for Maize Lethal Necrosis, jointly managed by CIMMYT and KALRO.
At the facility, maize lines are evaluated for MLN resistance. The best lines and varieties are nominated for further development and shared with partners. National Agriculture Research partners can request MLN screening at no cost, while private seed companies are charged for the service. In the last four years, more than 150,000 germplasm have been screened.
CIMMYT wheat scientist Mandeep Randhawa explained how to recognize the different types of wheat rust diseases: stem, stripe and leaf rusts. He emphasized the Ug99 black stem rust strain, which appeared in Uganda in 1998 and has since severely impacted wheat production in the region and globally. Randhawa explained how CIMMYT develops varieties resistant to stem rust using a phenotyping platform and marker-assisted selection.
These two field days were a great opportunity to showcase progress in developing more resilient maize varieties in a fast and cost-effective way. This responsiveness is crucial as pests and diseases continue to threaten the livelihoods of African smallholders. Such impact could not happen without the strong collaboration between CIMMYT and KALRO.
The director of KALRO’s Food Crops Research Institute, Joyce Malinga (left), the director of CIMMYT Global Maize Program, B.M. Prasanna (center), and CIMMYT’s Regional Representative, Stephen Mugo, open the maize seed cold room in Kiboko (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
The Doubled Haploid Facility in Kiboko and the Maize Lethal Necrosis screening facilty in Naivasha were opened in 2013 with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation.
The International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) is a public-private partnership initiative launched in May 2018 as part of CIMMYTâs mission to ramp up seed breeding and production innovations.
A Maasai woman holding a baby (center) attends the plenary session of the GLF Nairobi 2018. (Photo: Global Landscapes Forum)
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) â The latest event of the Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) took place on August 29-30 in Nairobi, Kenya, under the topic of forest and landscape restoration in Africa. To tackle the urgent issue of deforestation and land degradation, the sessions and panels covered topics as diverse as community-led restoration, how to address social inclusion in land management, or how to work with supply chain actors to achieve sustainable landscapes and better livelihoods for local communities.
Landscape degradation directly affects 1.5 billion people. Local communities are usually the first ones to experience the negative effects of this problem on their livelihoods, access to water and loss of topsoil and farm productivity.
Sustainable landscapes play a role in CIMMYTâs work. In Ethiopia, CIMMYTâs research in collaboration with CIFOR showed that a landscape approach can improve the nutrition and resilience of farming families. The transfer of organic matter and nutrients from forest patches to farmersâ fields, through livestock manure and fuelwood, enriches the soils and increases the zinc and protein content of wheat grain.
While agronomy tends to look at the fieldâs scale, a landscape perspective may also be important for more efficient pest control, as CIMMYTâs research with Wageningen University found. A useful learning as agriculture experts look at ways to combat emerging pests like the fall armyworm.
Voices of the Landscape Plenary at the GLF Nairobi 2018. (Photo: Global Landscapes Forum)
Better soil and rights
Participants in GLF Nairobi 2018 called for concrete collective action to restore degraded landscapes.
Having real-time accurate dashboards of land degradation could help governments and development organizations build coherent policies and restoration programs. Mark Schauer from the Economics of Land Degradation Initiative explained why soil is important and how monetizing the costs and benefits of sustainable soil management practices could help decision-makers build more sustainable food systems. Sharing data in transboundary contexts is a challenge but can be overcome, as the Eastern Africa Forest Observatory (OFESA) has shown.
Asking uncomfortable questions is necessary to support the people who depend the most on landscapesâ health. Milagre Nuvunga from the MICAIA Foundation in Mozambique recommended to put womenâs rights at the center of landscape restoration programs. Several testimonies reminded that women living in patriarchal societies often do not have land rights, so land will go back to the husbandâs family in case of death or divorce. Even if they know the benefits of landscape restoration, âwhy would women careâ to invest time and energy on it if their rights are not secured, she asked.
Matthew Rouse, a researcher with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), has been named the winner of the 2018 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. Rouse is recognized for his essential leadership efforts to contain and reduce the impact of Ug99, a devastating new race of the stem rust pathogen that poses a serious threat to the worldâs wheat crops and food security.
The Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application is presented annually to a young extension worker, research scientist or development professional who best emulates the dedication, perseverance, and innovation demonstrated by Norman Borlaug while working in the field with Mexican farmers in the 1940s and ’50s.
âWhen I learned that I was selected for the Borlaug Field Award, I was humbled by both the legacy of Norman Borlaug and by the fact that any impact I made was a part of collaborations with talented and hard-working individuals at USDA-ARS, the University of Minnesota, CIMMYT, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, and other national programs,â Rouse said.
Rouse has been an essential collaborator for a wide range of crucial projects to protect the worldâs wheat crops. His research supports more than 20 breeding programs in the U.S. and 15 wheat genetics programs around the world, including those at CIMMYT. As the coordinator of ARSâs spring wheat nursery project in Ethiopia and Kenya, he has provided Ug99 resistance genes to breeders worldwide, accelerating the process for incorporating enhanced stem rust protection into wheat varieties.
Rouse also collaborated with CIMMYT in 2013, when a race of stem rust unrelated to Ug99 caused an epidemic in Ethiopia. He rapidly assembled a team of scientists from CIMMYT, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and USDA-ARS, and developed a research plan to establish four stem rust screening nurseries. This led to the selection of promising new wheat breeding lines by Ethiopian and CIMMYT scientists and the rapid 2015 release of the variety âKingbirdâ in Ethiopia, which was shown to be resistant to four of the most dangerous races of stem rust in addition to Ug99.
In the last decade, the climate of Africa has been changing in dramatic ways. Many regions face unpredictable levels of rainfall, which can lead both droughts and severe flooding. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world with over 30 percent of children under five facing stunting â severe malnutrition, and is the only region where the rate of undernourished people has consistently increased.
Maize is a vital staple cash and sustenance crop in most of Africa, and legumes provide nutrition, income and improve soil fertility. However, farmersâ yields are suffering due to declining soil fertility, drought and poor access to improved technologies.
Over the last eight years, SIMLESA has developed productive, resilient and sustainable smallholder maize-legume cropping systems. SIMLESA focuses on improving maize-legume cropping systems by encouraging the adoption of sustainable agriculture systems through conservation agriculture practices such as crop residue retention, crop rotation and intercropping practices to simultaneously maintain and boost yields, increase proïŹts and protect the environment.
Recently, Elliud Kireger, director general of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Mulugetta Mekuria Asfaw, SIMLESA project leader and Daniel Rodriguez, associate professor, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) The University of Queensland, wrote a joint opinion piece âAfrica: Science Can Reverse ‘New Normal’ of Hunger and Climate Disasterâ in All Africa on the impacts of SIMLESA, read it here.
The Sustainable IntensiïŹcation of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) programis funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
Index insurance is one of the top 10 innovations for climate-proof farming. Photo: P. Lowe/ CIMMYT
What stands between a smallholder farmer and a bag of climate-adapted seeds? In many cases, itâs the hesitation to take a risk. Farmers may want to use improved varieties, invest in new tools, or diversify what they grow, but they need reassurance that their investments and hard work will not be squandered.
Climate change already threatens crops and livestock; one unfortunately-timed dry spell or flash flood can mean losing everything. Today, innovative insurance products are tipping the balance in farmersâ favor. Thatâs why insurance is featured as one of 10 innovations for climate action in agriculture, in a new report released ahead of next weekâs UN Climate Talks. These innovations are drawn from decades of agricultural research for development by CGIAR and its partners and showcase an array of integrated solutions that can transform the food system.
Index insurance is making a difference to farmers at the frontlines of climate change. It is an essential building block for adapting our global food system and helping farmers thrive in a changing climate. Taken together with other innovations like stress-tolerant crop varieties, climate-informed advisories for farmers, and creative business and financial models, index insurance shows tremendous promise.
The concept is simple. To start with, farmers who are covered can recoup their losses if (for example) rainfall or average yield falls above or below a pre-specified threshold or âindexâ. This is a leap forward compared to the costly and slow process of manually verifying the damage and loss in each farmerâs field. In India, scientists from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), have worked out the water level thresholds that could spell disaster for rice farmers if exceeded. Combining 35 years of observed rainfall and other data, with high-resolution satellite images of actual flooding, scientists and insurers can accurately gauge the extent of flooding and crop loss to quickly determine who gets payouts.
The core feature of index insurance is to offer a lifeline to farmers, so they can shield themselves from the very worst effects of climate change. But thatâs not all. Together with my team, weâre investigating how insurance can help farmers adopt new and improved varieties. Scientists are very good at developing technologies but farmers are not always willing to make the leap. This is one of the most important challenges that we grapple with. What weâve found has amazed us: buying insurance can help farmers overcome uncertainty and give them the confidence to invest in new innovations and approaches. This is critical for climate change adaptation. Weâre also finding that creditors are more willing to lend to insured farmers and that insurance can stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation. Ultimately, insurance can help break poverty traps, by encouraging a transformation in farming.
Insurers at the cutting edge are making it easy for farmers to get coverage. In Kenya, insurance is being bundled into bags of maize seeds, in a scheme led by ACRE Africa. Farmers pay a small premium when buying the seeds and each bag contains a scratch card with a code, which farmers text to ACRE at the time of planting. This initiates coverage against drought for the next 21 days; participating farms are monitored using satellite imagery. If there are enough days without rain, a farmer gets paid instantly via their mobile phone.
ACRE makes it easy for Kenyan farmers to get insurance. Source
Farmers everywhere are businesspeople who seek to increase yields and profits while minimizing risk and losses. As such, insurance has widespread appeal. Weâve seen successful initiatives grow rapidly in India, China, Zambia, Kenya and Mexico, which points to significant potential in other countries and contexts. The farmers most likely to benefit from index insurance are emergent and commercial farmers, as they are more likely than subsistence smallholder farmers to purchase insurance on a continual basis.
Itâs time for more investment in index insurance and other innovations that can help farmers adapt to climate change. Countries have overwhelmingly prioritized climate actions in the agriculture sector, and sustained support is now needed to help them meet the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement.
