CIMMYTâs work in Africa helps farmers access new maize and wheat systems-based technologies, information and markets, raising incomes and enhancing crop resilience to drought and climate change. CIMMYT sets priorities in consultation with ministries of agriculture, seed companies, farming communities and other stakeholders in the maize and wheat value chains. Our activities in Africa are wide ranging and include: breeding maize for drought tolerance and low-fertility soils, and for resistance to insect pests, foliar diseases and parasitic weeds; sustainably intensifying production in maize- and wheat-based systems; and investigating opportunities to reduce micronutrient and protein malnutrition among women and young children.
A maize farmer in southern Ethiopia. (Photo: S. Samuel/CCAFS)
Because of unpredictable climate conditions, agricultural production in Ethiopia faces uncertainties during both the growing and harvesting seasons. The risk and uncertainty are bigger for smallholder farmers, as they canât protect themselves from climate-related asset losses. Access to insurance schemes, climate information and other tools could help to minimize climate risks for smallholder farmers.
A new collaborative project launched in Ethiopia aims to reduce agricultural investment risk. The Capacitating African Stakeholders with Climate Advisories and Insurance Development (CASCAID-II) project builds on learnings from the CASCAID-I project in West Africa. It will target Ethiopia, Ghana and Senegal, focusing not only on smallholder farmers but on the food value chain as a whole. In a context of increasing integration of farmers into urban markets, the project will improve agricultural productivity, food security and profitability of agricultural enterprises.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) will partner with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the University of Florida, with the support of the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
Kindie Tesfaye, CIMMYT, presents an overview of climate services in Ethiopia. (Photo: Simret Yasabu /CIMMYT)
Physical and digital tools across the value chain
In October 2019, thirty partners gathered for the CASCAID-II project launch and meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They agreed on the project goals, a set of priority research questions and a schedule of activities for the next two years.
Partners also reviewed the tools that could be used to deliver climate advisories and agricultural insurance products, ensuring that all the actors in the value chain are engaged from the start. Team members aim to embed services in existing physical and digital (âphygitalâ) data infrastructures and to collect user feedback, so performance can be improved. Users will be segmented according to advanced socioeconomic and agro-ecological factors, so they can be targeted more efficiently with appropriate services and climate-smart agriculture options. The project will draw on real-time and multi-scale yield forecasting for better preparedness and decision-making.
Project partners agreed to start with the CCAFS Regional Agricultural Forecasting Tool (CRAFT) for sub-national yield forecasting in Ethiopia and to develop climate advisories and insurance services in line with the needs of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Participants of the launch of the digital agro-climate advisory platform gather for a group photo. (Photo: Semu Yemane/EIAR)
Precise data from scientists to farmers
In a related development, Ethiopia recently launched a digital agro-climate advisory platform, which offers great potential to improve farmersâ management of climate-induced risks, facilitate technology adoption and improve livelihoods.
Speaking at the platformâs launch ceremony, Eyasu Abraha, advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, thanked development partners for supporting the establishment of the platform in the timely move towards digitalization and use of precise data.
The platform incorporates location-specific climate information, as well as soil- and crop-specific best-bet agronomic management recommendations for farmers, development agents and extension officers. It automates crop-climate modeling and uses technologies such as text messaging, interactive voice response (IVRS) and smartphone apps for dissemination.
Nancy Wawira strolls through a small plot of maize at Kithimu, in Kenyaâs Embu County. She is charmed by the attributes of a maize variety that can yield 2,700kg per acre or more. The variety can endure drought-like conditions, matures in less than 120 days and has potential for double-cobbing.
Wawira is visiting a demonstration farm to witness the performance of several high yielding, early to medium maturing, drought-tolerant maize varieties.
By coming to this demonstration farm, Wawira hoped to identify a newer maize variety she could plant on her quarter-acre of land to get higher yield. The plot she stood on was the exact replica of what she was looking for. âOccasions such as this field day are very important for me and I always endeavor to attend them, as there is always something new to see or learn,â she says.
On her farm, she has been planting one of the old but popular commercial varieties suitable for this mid-altitude ecology. She normally harvests 4 bags of maize, of 90kg each, every season. However, if there is not enough rain or if there are pests or diseases, which is often the case, she harvests just 2 bags or less. This is hardly enough to meet her familyâs food requirements for the year.
Switching to the maize variety she was interested in, and applying recommended farming practices, she could harvest 6 bags per season or more.
âToday, I have learnt how to improve my farming,â says Wawira. âEven when I access the variety that is high yielding, drought-tolerant and can mature in about three and a half months, as I witnessed on one of the plots, I still need to pay attention to proper crop husbandry related to spacing, timing of the planting, seed, fertilizer and pesticide application besides weed control,â she says.
Nancy Wawira examines maize in one of the demo plots. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Made-to-order
Wawira was one of the more than 400 farmers from nearby Manyatta sub-county visiting the demonstration farm on February 7, 2020. They were able to see varieties and learn about their traits, invited by the Seed Trade Association of Kenya (STAK) with the support of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
The demonstration is a continuation of the work started under the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) project and later under the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project.
Officials from Embu County, led by its minister in charge of agriculture Jamleck Muturi, were present during the farmersâ visit. Ten seed firms, some of which use CIMMYTâs germplasm for seed propagation and marketing, participated as well.
âSeveral of our member seed companies are showcasing the varieties developed through CIMMYTâs breeding pipeline,â said Duncan Ochiengâ, the chief executive officer of STAK. âThe maize varieties showcased on these demo farms were designed to be drought-tolerant, high yielding and range from early to medium maturing. These varieties are juxta-posted with other commercial varieties suitable for this region.â
During visits to demonstration farms, farmers give feedback on their variety preferences. Seed companies can then align their breeding, germplasm-access requests, seed production or marketing plans with farmersâ expectations.
Some of the farmers who participated in the field day in Embu County, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Jackline Wanja in one of the demo plots of the variety she liked. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
A seed company representative shows seeds to a farmer during the visit to the demonstration farm. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
STAK chief executive officer Duncan Ochieng’ examines a maize cob in one of the demo plots. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Dire traits
Farming stresses such as pests, diseases, heat and drought have made targeted breeding a critical necessity.
Young farmers are increasingly choosing varieties that can mature faster, typically in less than three months. They also favor varieties that offer higher yield than the popular commercial varieties, many of which have been on the market for at least a decade. Other sought-after traits are good performance in low or erratic rains, tolerance to maize lethal necrosis, reduced lodging, and efficiency in nitrogen use.
Jackline Wanja, 25, relies on her one-acre farm for survival. âOn average, I harvest about 25 bags per acre. On the demo farm, I got to know of a variety than can yield at least 30 bags per acre. I also learnt that the variety is not only drought-resilient but can also mature in about three and a half months. This is the variety that I plan to plant my farm next season,â Wanja said.
For John Njiru, 52, a higher-yielding variety with a lot of foliage, which remains green even after the maize cob has dried, is what he came looking for. For this farmer with 12 acres of land, the green maize foliage is a significant source of income when sold to livestock keepers. Njiru feeds his own livestock with it, making substantial savings on animal feed expenditure. âIf this variety is as high yielding as I have been made to understand and can offer me at least 30 bags per acre, I would be a happy farmer. My farming would be very profitable,” he says.
John Njiru on a demo plot of the variety he liked. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
When asked to picture a food made of whole grains, your first thought might be a loaf of brown, whole-wheat bread. But wholegrain dishes come in all forms.
Take a virtual journey around the world to see the popular or surprising ways in which whole grains are eaten from Mexico to Bangladesh.
Popcorn, a wholegrain food and source of high-quality carbohydrates eaten across the world. (Photo: Alfonso Cortes/CIMMYT)
Roasted and boiled maize ears on sale in Xochimilco, in the south of Mexico City.
(Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
Women play a crucial role in Ethiopian agriculture. A significant portion of their time is spent in the field helping their male counterparts with land preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting. Despite this, women face barriers in accessing productive resources and gaining financial benefits.
In 2015 and 2016, there was a 9.8% gap in farming plot productivity between woman- and man- managed farms in Ethiopia, which translated to a $203.5 million loss in the countryâs GDP. Access to mechanization services though service provision could contribute to decreasing this gap.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the German development agency GIZ have been testing service provision models in different areas of Ethiopia to expand small-scale agricultural mechanization that would benefit both men and women.
Zewdu Tesfaye, a smallholder farmer and mother of two, lives in the Amba Alaje district of the Tigray region. Two years ago, she paid $8 to become a member of the Dellet Agricultural Mechanization Youth Association (DAMYA), established to provide agricultural mechanization services in the area.
Zewdu Tesfaye drives a two-wheel tractor to the irrigation area. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Along with other members, Tesfaye provides various services to farmers in her area that need assistance. âI take part in every assignment the group is tasked with. I drive the two-wheel tractor and I support during threshing and irrigation,â she says.
Tesfaye has now secured a job providing these services and has started earning income. In November 2019, she received $72 from the associationâs threshing services, which she saved in the bank. If women are given equal opportunities and equal access to resources, she says, they have the capacity to do anything that will empower themselves and change their familiesâ lives.
DAMYA currently has 12 members â eight men and four women â and all responsibilities are shared, with benefits divided equally. âAgricultural mechanization is an area less accessible to women,â explains group chair Alemayehu Abreha. âThus, we highly encourage and motivate our women members to maximize their potential and invite other women to witness that everything is possible.â
Belay Tadesse, regional advisor for GIZâs Integrated Soil Fertility Management project, explained that the initiative aims to benefit both women and men as service providers and recipients. Various trainings are provided for women, so that they are well acquainted with the machinery, as well as with the business aspects of each model. Events and other activities are also helping spread awareness, to attract and encourage more women to get involved in similar jobs, adds Tadesse.
Belay Tadesse shows young women from Dellet how the water should flow. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
In the Gudiya Billa district, located about 220 kilometers away from Addis Ababa, the introduction of the two-wheel tractor has been a blessing for many farmers in the area, especially women. For Kidane Mengistu, farmer and mother of six, harvesting season used to bring an added strain to her already existing chores. Now everything has changed. Through the new service provision model, Mengistu is able to get help with her daily tasks from Habtamu, a farmer professionally trained in agricultural mechanization. âWe now hire Habtamu, a service provider, to get different services like threshing,â she says. âHe does the job in few hours with reasonable amount of payment. This has given me ample time to spend on other household chores.â
Kidane Mengistu is much happier with the threshing service she gets from the service provider. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Maize, sorghum and teff are the three main crops grown on Mengistuâs eight hectares of land. With the introduction of the two-wheel tractor and service provision model, she and Habtamu have been able to begin potato irrigation on two hectares â Mengistu provides the land while Habtamu provides and operates the water pump â and together they share costs and income. Mengistu says she and her family have seen firsthand the benefits of the two-wheel tractor and plan to purchase their own someday.
Getting a good maize harvest, or just enough to feed the family, has always been a challenge for maize small farmers in developing countries. Faced with variable rainfall, heat waves, insect attacks or diseases, they rarely yield more than two tons of maize per hectare, and sometimes lose their crops altogether. Climate change, invasive pests like fall armyworm or new diseases like maize lethal necrosis could jeopardize even further the livelihoods of maize farmers and trigger severe food crises.
In this scenario, the lives and income of maize farmers rely on good seeds: seeds that are climate-resilient, pest- and disease-resistant, and that grow and yield well under local conditions, often with minimum inputs.
âThat is where the maize improvement research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) plays a crucial role in this challenge of food security. You need to develop the right location-specific varieties that farmers want, that partner seed companies are willing to produce, in a cost- and time-efficient way,â says Aparna Das. She joined CIMMYTâs Global Maize research program in August 2018 as Technical Program Manager.
âMy role is to work with and guide the Breeding and Seed Systems team, so that our research is more client- and product-oriented, efficient, and so that there is a better coordination and monitoring, aligned with the available resources and skills within CIMMYT, and with our numerous public and private partners,â she explains.
Value-for-money farmer impact
An important activity Das coordinated recently is a series of collaborative product profiling workshops with CIMMYTâs partners. Integrating the priorities of the national agricultural research systems and partner seed companies, this exercise reviewed and redefined what maize traits and attributes research should focus on in years to come. After this consultation, partners not only pick up CIMMYT germplasm based on trial data, but they can also verify if it fits with their own profile, to make sure that the traits they want are there. It makes breeding much more targeted and efficient.
âProduct profiling has already influenced our research. For instance, all partners mentioned husk cover as a âmust-haveâ trait, because you have less insect attacks and grain spoilage,â Das explains. âAlthough it was considered a base trait, the breeders did not consider it systematically during their maize line selection and product advancement. Now it is integrated,â she notes.
âOur impact should not be limited to the number of varieties released or the number of papers published, but also how many varieties are picked up by partners, adopted by farmers and scaled up,â Das points out.
Breeders and seed systems specialists have worked together to estimate and track the costs of delivering products. Teams responsible for product profiles can now, through simulation, test different solutions and see what costs could be reduced or adjusted to develop the hybrid.
Das enjoys this type of collaboration. âManaging behavioral change is a key part of my role, being able to work with different teams and cultures, which makes my job so interesting,â she says.
Plates of boiled and roasted maize are displayed for tasting during a farmer participatory varietal selection exercise in Embu, Kenya, in August 2019. Flavors of varieties are very distinct and could explain why some old varieties are still preferably grown by farmers. (Photo: S. Palmas/CIMMYT)
An out-of-the-book thinker in a menâs world
Plant breeding is a male-dominated world but Das is used to fitting in as a minority. Originally from West Bengal, she grew up in Ludhiana, another Indian state and a different culture. She learned genetics and plant breeding at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana. Discovering the new field of molecular breeding, at its infancy twenty-five years ago, was an exciting challenge.
At PAU, Das pursued crop improvement research, first in wheat and potato, and later in rice genetics. She received an award from Indiaâs Department of Science and Technology under the Young Scientist Program for her work on jumping genes in basmati rice, aimed at creating shorter and more productive basmati varieties while maintaining the basmati aroma.
Later she joined the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) to work on the development of Golden Rice, a provitamin A-rich variety, through genetic engineering.
âBeing a woman in plant breeding, especially as a breeder, is not that common. Women are not expected to do plant breeding fieldwork, away from the lab and offices. But I did not back off. I did my rice fieldwork in the paddy fields, at 40 degrees, all on my own. I believe that women bring a level of precision that is very important in breeding.â
Bridging public and private sectors
After ten years of public research, she moved to the private seed sector, to learn how seed companies integrate farmersâ needs to their research pipeline, and then channel this research to deliver to millions of farmers. âA big lesson from corporations is the value for money at each stage of their research, and that market research is instrumental to really understand farmersâ needs and guide breeding,â she notes.
After a decade in the private sector, Das was keen to move on and use her experience in the nonprofit sector. Then she joined CIMMYT. âThis opportunity of technical program manager was timely. I knew the strengths of CGIAR, having highly educated scientists and the great potential outreach of the research. I knew where crop research could be improved, in converting basic research into demand-driven research.â
âSince my time at IRRI a decade ago, I realized things had moved on in the CGIAR system. Seed systems, product profiling and value chain research are now fully integrated in the Global Maize program. It is a crucial time to be here at CIMMYT. With the CGIAR reform, with the climate emergency, and emerging pests and diseases, we have to be even more inventive and reactive to continue to deliver greater impact,â she concludes.
Sixteen years of consistent learning and practice of climate-smart agriculture, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), are paying off for Luganu Mwangonde. Together with her husband Kenson, she has established herself as a successful smallholder farmer in Malawiâs Balaka district. She enjoys the multiple benefits of high yields from diverse crops, surplus to sell at the markets and improved soil quality.
âI started practicing the farming that does not demand too much labor back in 2004,â she explains at her 2.5-acre farm. âOver the years the process has become easier, because I have a full understanding of the benefits of techniques introduced through the project.â
In Malawiâs family farms, women often carry the burden of land preparation and weeding  in the fields while juggling household responsibilities, contributing to widen gender differences already prevalent in the community.
Mwangonde observes that learning climate-smart techniques â such as minimum tillage, mulching and planting on flat land surfaces â has given her an advantage over other farmers practicing conventional agriculture.
Better off
At the beginning, like other farmers in the area, Mwangonde thought conservation agriculture and climate-smart techniques required a lot of work, or even hiring extra labor. As she tried this new approach, however, weed pressure in her plot decreased gradually, with the help of mulching and other techniques, and the labor required to maintain the fields reduced significantly. This allowed her to have extra time to add value to her products and sell them on the markets â and to rest.
The best gain for her is knowing that her family always has enough to eat. âI have enough grain to last until the next harvest,â she says. âMy husband and I can provide for our seven children and four grandchildren.â During the 2018/19 season, Mwangondeâs family harvested six bags of maize, two bags of pigeon pea and four bags of groundnuts. The surplus from the harvest is reserved for later, when prices are more competitive.
âI am an equal partner in the farming activities. That means I can make decisions about how we work on our plot, distribute crops and apply everything that I have learnt about conservation agriculture,â Mwangonde explains. She has participated in CIMMYT activities where she could share her experiences on climate-smart agriculture with other women. As a lead farmer, she notes, she can confidently inspire the next generation of smallholders because of the empowering knowledge she has acquired.
Out of the 3,538 smallholder farmers from Balaka, Machinga and Zomba districts, up to 2,218 are women smallholder farmers who have successfully adopted climate-smart technologies.
Mwangonde is one of the beneficiaries of the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project. She also benefitted from the support of the German Development Agency (GIZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Total Land Care (TLC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
When it comes to labor markets, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is one of the most gender unequal regions in the world. The male labor force participation rate in MENA is no different from other regions, at around 75%, but female labor force participation rates have remained stubbornly low, at around 20% .
Agriculture is the largest employer of women in the MENA region and the female share of the agricultural workforce increased from 30% in 1980 to almost 45% in 2010, exceeding 60% in Jordan, Libya, Syria and the occupied Palestinian Territory. However, women in the region still face significant challenges accessing land and benefitting from technologies and decent, equitable working conditions.
In the fall of 2019, a group of experts, including London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) professor of Gender and Development Naila Kabeer, came together to discuss the persistent limited access to labor market opportunities for women in South Asia and MENA, despite an increase in womenâs education and access to fertility planning. The workshop organized by LSE discussed barriers, opportunities and policy challenges.
We share some of the expert panelâs key recommendations for the MENA region, which featured research funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.
1. Recognize women as workers not helpers
According to the World Bank, agriculture employs 36% of women and 22% of men in Egypt. However, research shows that women who work in agriculture are widely categorized as âhelpersâ to male workers rather than workers in their own right. Whatâs more, women are listed as âhousewivesâ on their national ID cards, while men are listed as âagricultural workers.â As a result, these women are unable to even access opportunities to bargain for better wages and working conditions.
Legally and socially recognizing these women as workers is a first step to introducing equal pay legislation for men and women in agriculture. It would also justify their inclusion in agricultural extension services and strengthen social protection measures.
2. Change perceptions of property ownership
The MENA region has the lowest level of womenâs landownership in the world, at just 5%. Our research findings indicate completely different perceptions of ownership among women and men.
Research in Egypt shows that women tend to identify land officially owned solely by themselves as belonging to themselves and their husbands. Men, on the other hand, are less likely to consider their wives as co-owners, identifying male relatives instead.
In the New Lands â lands irrigated after the building of the High Aswan Dam in Egypt â there are land distribution quotas to encourage more land ownership among women. This has enabled some women to gain significant economic, social and political power. Despite this, these women still prefer to bequeath their land to their sons rather than their daughters due to social pressure and the expectation that their sons will provide for them in their old age.
To mitigate these low levels of womenâs land ownership, policy change on its own is not enough. Changing perceptions of land and property ownership needs to go hand in hand with changes at a policy level.
3. Enforce legislation for equal pay and zero tolerance for sexual harassment
In Morocco, female employment in agriculture has jumped from 29% in 1980 to 48% in 2010. However, womenâs wages, working conditions and bargaining power have not risen with it.
Research shows that women are designated lower paid and more time-consuming tasks, and are systemically paid less than men, even for the same tasks. Women agricultural workers also face high levels of sexual harassment and have limited bargaining power.
Moroccan legislation already stipulates equal pay and zero tolerance for sexual harassment. However, enforcement remains extremely weak. Enforcing existing pro-active legislation is an essential step towards equality for women in agriculture.
4. Revitalize agriculture as a valuable and necessary occupation in society
Much of the world sees agriculture as an occupation of last resort. When surveyed, men and women in Morocco both complained about agricultural work being an unstable and unreliable way of making a living. Women were found to be hired more easily but only because they were paid less than men.
To shift how agriculture is viewed and rebrand it as an important and respected occupation, it needs to be reformed as a safer, more equal and respectful space for both women and men.
Building resilience for smallholder farmers in marginal drylands. (Photo: ICARDA)
A key overall take-away message from the expert panel is that supportive policies alone are not enough. Rather, in order to tackle the institutionalization of harmful gender norms and stimulate actual change in practice at all levels, policy interventions need to go hand in hand with strong consciousness-raising, critical reflection and behavior change initiatives.
The locust invasion is the biggest in Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years, and the biggest in Kenya in 70 years, according to the FAO. Photo: Ben Curtis/AP
East African countries are battling the worst desert locust invasion in decades. The locusts are devouring crops and pasture leaving in their wake a region that is staring at a potential food crisis. The swarms have swept across Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with some of these countries reporting the worst outbreak in 70 years.
Experts have warned of a second round of the flare-up, as the eggs laid along the locust path hatch. Both aerial and ground spraying with insecticides continue but such interventions have not yielded much success.
Stephen Njoka, Director of the Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA) and Hugo De Groote, Agricultural Economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) share some insights on the outbreak, effective control measures and what can be done to mitigate the damage currently and in potential future outbreaks.
Q: What is your opinion on the locust invasion across the eastern Africa region?
A: The current locust invasion in the eastern Africa region is one of the most serious occurrences in decades. For Ethiopia and Kenya, this is the worst outbreak in over 25 years and 70 years respectively. The locusts have caused significant damage in pastoral regions, where they have devoured pasture and tree leaves. They are now reaching some of the major maize growing areas where they are likely to cause a lot of damage to the crops.
Q: Why are they called desert locusts?
A: They breed in the wet desert sands. In west Africa for instance, they would breed in the border areas between the Sahel and the Sahara Desert. They go through six stages; five of which are the non-flying phases. Once they reach adult stage, they start flying, mating and laying eggs, and the cycle continues.
They are usually solitary in nature, but occasionally move into their gregarious state, in which they alter their behavior and physical appearance, form swarms and migrate over long distances following the winds. This is what differentiates locusts from grasshoppers. When they land at a particular location, they cause a lot of damage in that specific area. Apart from that local destruction, however, they may not cause much harm on a national scale.
Q: How serious of a problem is this invasion to the food security status of countries like South Sudan that are just recovering from decades of conflict and a recent drought?
A: The invasion could pose a serious food security challenge in some areas as these insects consume their own weight in a day (one insect weighs 2 grams and a swarm can contain over 50 million insects).
For countries like South Sudan and Somalia where conflicts can hamper locust control efforts, the food insecurity situation gets compounded. Pastures are the worst hit as locusts tend to prefer hotter climates where livestock keeping is the main source of livelihood.
Q: In your experience, what is the best way to deal with such an invasion? What are the most effective control measures?
A: The best way to deal with such an invasion is to conduct aerial spraying using Ultra Low Volume (ULV) chemical or biological pesticides at the early stages for effective control. It is important to identify the egg-laying sites early on so that the emerging hoppers are sprayed before they can fly.
Q: We understand that this is the worst invasion in Kenya in about 70 years and the worst in 25 years in some neighboring countries such as Ethiopia. Should we expect another infestation a few years from now?
A: It is unlikely that we can expect another invasion of this magnitude in the near future. The current invasion may have been driven by climatic changes in the breeding areas of the Red Sea coast, war-torn Yemen and Somalia.
Q: How can we be better prepared given that such invasions are cyclical in nature and may happen again after some years or decades?
A: Continued monitoring and forecasting of the locust population in the traditional breeding sites should be a priority. Countries in the invasion areas should establish Locust Control Units under the appropriate ministries. These units should frequently get updates from the FAO Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS) in Rome and take precautionary steps as advised.
As the eastern Africa region, member countries of DLCO-EA should step up their support for the organization by acquiring modern aircrafts, which can conduct aerial spraying more effectively and efficiently.
Q: What monitoring measures are in place for the surveillance and recommended remedial measures, especially in periods of low densities just before they become gregarious? Who does the monitoring and how frequently is the monitoring done?
A: Locust scouting teams in the breeding areas are charged with monitoring and surveillance of these pests. The exercise is continuous and largely supported by FAO DLIS using appropriate equipment like elOCUST 3, a data recording and transmission system for crop pest monitoring, currently used as a detection and early warning tool for desert locusts.
Q: Are mitigation measures such as compensation for affected farmers an option?
A: Where farmers are seriously hit, government, intergovernmental agencies or non-governmental organizations may consider easing the farmersâ losses by offering food and/or financial support.
Q: We have seen efforts such as aerial or ground spraying of the pests. How effective are these interventions? What implications does this control measure have on the environment and peopleâs health?
A: The safe use of pesticides remains the best choice for control of insects occurring in such big numbers. It is important to use environmentally safe products which cause minimum harm to non-targets. Spray teams should be well trained on how to handle the pesticides.
People living in the invaded areas should also be alerted on keeping themselves and their livestock safe by not getting into the sprayed areas as advised. One effective biological control is the use of the Metarhizium, which the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) developed out of the locust skin fungus.
Nevertheless, some chemicals may cause more harm to the environment, especially when aerial spraying is applied on swarms in flight. The pesticides can contaminate the environment, water, crops and can cause skin rashes or respiratory, neurological or eye problems. They can also cause harm to animals and aquatic species.
In times of locust outbreaks, like now, there is a tendency to procure large quantities of pesticides. However, once the locusts are gone, stockpiles of the unused pesticides remain. This brings about a new challenge of destroying or safely disposing of the old or obsolete pesticide stock.
Q: Can the locusts be eaten?Â
A: Many communities in the world eat locusts and other insects. It is, however, important to caution against eating sprayed locusts. Additionally, locust swarms can contain billions of locusts, so catching them for food may not have a significant effect in reducing their population.
A new study by researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) assesses how three large projects have scaled service provision models for agricultural mechanization in Bangladesh, Mexico and Zimbabwe. In what is possibly the first cross-continental assessment of these issues to date, the study gauges the extent to which each initiative fits with the needs of its environment to enable sustained machinery use by farmers at a large scale, while acknowledging the influence of project design on outcomes.
Each of the projects has made considerable progress towards increasing the adoption of agricultural machinery in their target area. In Bangladesh and Mexico, mechanization service providers and machinery dealers have been able to strengthen their business cases because the projects use geospatial and market data to provide targeted information on client segmentation and appropriate cropping systems. In Zimbabwe, CIMMYT and partners have worked to strengthen the market for two-wheeled tractors by creating demand among smallholders, developing the capacity of existing vocational training centers, and spurring private sector demand.
However, despite these initial successes, it can often be difficult to gauge the sustained change and transformative nature of such interventions.
Applying a scaling perspective
To address this challenge, research teams held a series of workshops with project partners in each country, including regional government representatives, national and local private sector stakeholders, and direct project collaborators such as extension agents and site managers. Participants were asked to answer a series of targeted questions and prompts using the Scaling Scan, a user-friendly tool which facilitates timely, structured feedback from stakeholders on issues that matter in scaling. Responses given during this exercise allowed project designers to analyze, reflect on, and sharpen their scaling ambition and approach, focusing on ten scaling âingredientsâ that need to be considered to reach a desired outcome, such as knowledge and skills or public sector governance.
Local service provider uses a bed planter for crop production in Horinofolia, Bangladesh. (Photo: Ranak Martin)
âAlthough at first sight the case studies seem to successfully reach high numbers of end users, the assessment exposes issues around the sustainable and transformative nature of the project interventions,â says Lennart Woltering, a scaling advisor at CIMMYT.
The added value of this approach, explains Jelle Van Loon, lead author and CIMMYT mechanization specialist, is that lessons learned from project-focused interventions can be amplified to generate broader, actionable knowledge and implement thematic strategies worldwide. “This is especially important for CIMMYT as we do exactly that, but often face different constraints depending on the local context.”
The use of a scaling perspective on each of these projects exposed important lessons on minimizing project dependencies. For example, though each project has invested considerably in both capacity and business development training, in all three case studies the large-scale adoption of recommended service provision models has been limited by a lack of finance and insufficient collaboration among the value chain actors to strengthen and support mechanization service provider entrepreneurs.
âWhile provision of market and spatial information helps local businesses target their interventions, local stakeholders are still dependent on the projects in terms of transitioning from project to market finance, facilitating collaboration along the value chain, and provision of leadership and advocacy to address issues at governance level,â Woltering explains. This, Van Loon adds, demonstrates a need for the inclusion of properly planned exit strategies from projects, as well as a degree of flexibility during the project development phase.
In all three regions, the supply of appropriate mechanization services is struggling to meet demand and few solutions have been found to support the transition from project to market finance. Continued capacity development is required at all stages of the value chain to ensure the provision of high-quality services and it has been suggested that incentivizing potential clients to access mechanization services and linking service providers with machinery dealers and mechanics might produce more satisfying results than simply supporting equipment purchases.
Reduced response diversity does not negatively impact wheat climate resilience. 2019. Snowdon, R.J., Stahl, A., Wittkop, B., Friedt, W., Voss-Fels, K.P., Ordon, F., Frisch, M., Dreisigacker, S., Hearne, S., Bett, K.E., Cuthbert, R.D. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) v. 116, p. 10623-10624.
The Mutwales farm a small plot of land in the camp, growing primarily cassava and maize for food. They are also one of the 105 refugee farming families participating in an initiative during the 2019/2020 growing season to help them cultivate nutritious, vitamin A-biofortified orange maize, which was developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in partnership with HarvestPlus.
Tawanda Mashonganyika works with the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform.
Working under the Product Design and Product Management module, he helps CGIAR centers and national breeding programs in Africa to design market-oriented crop varieties. This involves linking multidisciplinary teams with breeders to define what different African markets are looking for in upcoming varieties.
Mashonganyika also covers the module’s biofortification and gender components, assessing how these fit into variety design for all value chain actors in African crop markets.
Any fifth grader is familiar with the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, which saw dinosaurs â and three quarters of all species alive at that time â disappear from Earth, probably after it was struck by a very large asteroid. However, few people are aware the planet is currently going through a similar event of an equally large magnitude: a recent report from the World Wide Fund for Nature highlighted a 60% decline in the populations of over 4,000 vertebrate species monitored globally since 1970. This time, the culprit is not an asteroid, but human beings. The biggest threat we represent to other species is also the way we meet one of our most fundamental needs: food production.
As a response, scientists, particularly ecologists, have looked for strategies to minimize trade-offs between agriculture and biodiversity. One such strategy is âland sparing,â also known as the âBorlaug effect.â It seeks to segregate production and conservation and to maximize yield on areas as small as possible, sparing land for nature. Another strategy is âland sharingâ or âwildlife-friendly farming,â which seeks to integrate production and conservation in the same land units and make farming as benign as possible to biodiversity. It minimizes the use of external inputs and retains unfarmed patches on farmland.
A heated debate between proponents of land sparing and proponents of land sharing has taken place over the past 15 years. Most studies, however, have found land sparing to lead to better outcomes than land sharing, in a range of contexts. With collaborators from CIFOR, UBC and other organizations, I hypothesized that this belief was biased because researchers assessed farming through a narrow lens, only looking at calories or crop yield.
Many more people today suffer from hidden hunger, or lack of vitamins and minerals in their diets, than lack of calories. Several studies have found more diverse and nutritious diets consumed by people living in or near areas with greater tree cover as trees are a key component of biodiversity. However, most of these studies have not looked at mechanisms explaining this positive association.
Forests for food
Studying seven tropical landscapes in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Zambia, we found evidence that tree cover directly supports diets in four landscapes out of seven. This may be through the harvest of bushmeat, wild fruits, wild vegetables and other forest-sourced foods. The study further found evidence of an agroecological pathway â that forests and trees support diverse crop and livestock production through an array of ecosystem services, ultimately leading to improved diets â in five landscapes out of seven. These results clearly demonstrate that although land sparing may have the best outcomes for biodiversity, it would cut off rural households from forest products such as forest food, firewood and livestock feed. It would also cut off smallholder farms from ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, and smallholders in the tropics tend to depend more on ecosystem services than on external inputs.
In Ethiopia, previous research conducted by some of the same authors has demonstrated that multifunctional landscapes that do not qualify as land sparing nor as land sharing may host high biodiversity whilst being more productive than simpler landscapes. They are more sustainable and resilient, provide more diverse diets and produce cereals with higher nutritional content.
The debate on land sparing vs. sharing has largely remained confined to the circles of conservation ecologists and has seldom involved agricultural scientists. As a result, most studies on land sparing vs. sharing have focused on minimizing the negative impact of farming on biodiversity, instead of looking for the best compromises between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation.
To design landscapes that truly balance the needs of people and nature, it is urgent for agronomists, agricultural economists, rural sociologists and crop breeders to participate in the land sparing vs. sharing debate.
This study was made possible by funding from the UKâs Department for International Development (DFID), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the project Agrarian Change in Tropical Landscapes, and by the CGIAR Research Programs on MAIZE and WHEAT.
The Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) Gene Editing Project uses gene editing technology to transform four elite CIMMYT maize lines which are susceptible to a devastating maize disease known as MLN. The disease first appeared in Kenya in 2011, and by 2013 it had reduced maize yields across the country by an average of 22%, resulting in loss of production worth $180 million and forcing many smallholder farmers to abandon planting maize. By 2014 it had spread to D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, hence posing a major threat to the food security and livelihoods of millions of Africans.
CIMMYT and its partners have responded to the problem by successfully developing MLN-tolerant hybrids through conventional backcrossing, which takes approximately 4-5 years. On the other hand, with the use of a gene editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9, the breeding process can be accelerated, thereby reducing the time required to 2-3 years only, so that smallholders get faster access to improved maize varieties.
In partnership with Corteva Agriscience â which has significant expertise in the genome-editing field and who is the technology owner â and KALRO (Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization), CIMMYT scientists have been able to make a breakthrough via the CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The technology, Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) along with CRISPR-associated System (Cas) containing Protein 9, functions to replicate natural mutations in maize that will help strengthen its resistance to MLN. At the same time, this precisely targeted crop improvement process eliminates the transfer of many undesirable genes that would often accompany the desired ones as with the case in traditional backcrossing.
Under this project, four CIMMYT inbred lines, that are parents of two commercial hybrids in eastern Africa but susceptible to MLN, have been selected to undergo gene editing to become MLN-resistant. The edited, MLN-resistant lines will in turn be used to produce MLN-resistant hybrids which will still carry all the farmer-preferred agronomic traits including drought tolerance, similar to other elite maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT and released through partners.
CIMMYT is working in close collaboration with KALRO and other partners from the public and private sectors to increase the number of MLN-resistant Africa-adapted inbred lines and hybrids, as well as to make deployment efforts. By 2025, subject to compliance with regulatory procedures, commercial seeds of the gene-edited MLN-resistant elite maize hybrids will be available to up to 20,000 smallholder farmers for approximately 40,000 hectares of planting. In line with the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets and CIMMYTâs constant endeavor to treat its improved germplasm as international public good, the MLN-resistant hybrids will be available royalty-free and seed companies entering into commercialization/licensing agreements in connection with this project will not be allowed to charge smallholder farmers higher seed cost. In this way, more farmers in MLN-affected countries in eastern and Central Africa can eventually benefit from increased supply of high-yielding, MLN-resistant and affordable maize products.
