CIMMYT’s 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.
Natural enemies of stem borer – a major maize pest in southern Ethiopia – are more abundant in landscapes with more trees and forest patches. In this picture, Yodit Kebede, Ph.D. researcher co-supervised by Wageningen University and CIMMYT, checks insects in a yellow-pan trap. Photo: Frédéric Baudron
“The prosperous still have a strong carbon footprint. And, the world’s billions at the bottom of the development ladder are seeking space to grow,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his opening speech at the COP21 climate talks in Paris, where world leaders recently gathered to come to an agreement that will slow and eventually stop global emissions of greenhouse gases that threaten the survivability of our planet.
Reconciliation of the right to develop and environmental protection must move beyond global dialogue, and be put into practice in every community struggling with the effects of environmental degradation and poverty.
Seventy percent of the “billions at the bottom” Modi refers to live in rural areas. A majority of these people suffer from land degradation – the long-term loss of an ecosystem’s services – due to climate change in combination with unsustainable crop and livestock management practices.
Like the INDCs, landscape approaches may offer a compromise to achieve food production, natural resource conservation, and livelihood security goals, according to the report’s chapter. “Landscape configurations exist not only to minimize tradeoffs between conservation and food security and nutrition, but also to create synergies between these two goals,” argue Baudron and his fellow authors.
“Cultivated fields are not green deserts but may be part of the habitat of several species of importance for conservation,” says Baudron. “In many human-dominated ecosystems, some species can be dependent on agricultural practices such as extensive grazing in Europe or shifting cultivation in tropical forests. Conversely, biodiversity may contribute to crop and livestock productivity through the ecosystem services it provides, such as pollination or pest control.”
According to recent research conducted by CIMMYT and its partners in southern Ethiopia, diets of rural families living in diverse landscapes where trees are retained tend to be more diverse than diets of rural families living in simplified landscapes dominated by annual crops. Photo: Frédéric Baudron
“Ongoing research conducted by CIMMYT and its partners in southern Ethiopia’s maize- and wheat-based farming systems suggests that maintaining trees and forest patches in production landscapes is not only good for the environment and biodiversity, but contributes to the maintenance of farming system productivity and resilience,” according to Baudron. “Farms embedded in diverse landscape mosaics also produce much more diverse and nutritious food.”
Landscape approaches are also closely associated with the concept of food sovereignty, which promotes the right of people to define their own food production and consumption at the local, national, and global level. Community level engagement with local food and agricultural systems also creates an ideal setting to engage communities for more sustainable management of food and agricultural systems.
“Ultimately, this is about acknowledging diversity as a fundamental property in the design of more sustainable farming systems,” says Baudron. “The question is: what configurations are optimal in different contexts? Answering this question will require a much higher level of partnership between conservation organizations and agricultural agencies.”
A service provider in Lemo, Ethiopia. Photo: Frédéric Baudron
Agronomic practices that can close the wheat yield gap in the Ethiopian highlands are well known: row planting, precise fertilizer application, timely planting, etc. But their implementation generally increases the demand for human labor and animal draft power. And the availability of farm power in the Ethiopian highlands is stagnating, or even declining. The cost of maintaining a pair of oxen is becoming prohibitive for most farmers. Also, the rural population is aging as a result of young people migrating to the fast-growing cities of Ethiopia in search of more rewarding livelihood opportunities than farming.
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – As the global community marks World Soil Day, African smallholder farmers are contending with low yields due to low-fertility soils prevalent in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This situation has affected the food security of over 300 million people in the region who depend on maize as their staple food.
For the majority of these smallholder farmers, access to inputs like fertilizers to boost soil productivity has been restricted due to their high cost. The reality is that in Africa fertilizers cost up to six times more than in any other continent.
As a result, nearly three quarters (about 70 percent) of eastern and southern Africa’s maize is grown without fertilizers. As the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners work to give farmers a partial solution to this enor
mous challenge, efforts must be intensified to protect and maintain soil resources for sustainable development in Africa and the globe.
The Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) Project addresses the problem of low nitrogen in soils. Smallholder farmers can expect to harvest up to 25 percent more from new maize varieties developed by the IMAS project.
These varieties are nitrogen use efficient (NUE), which means they utilize more efficiently the small amount of fertilizer that farmers can afford to apply (typically less than 20 kilograms per hectare) compared to varieties currently on the market. The IMAS project is a public-private partnership involving CIMMYT, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council and DuPont Pioneer.
In two years – between 2014 and 2015 – 21 NUE hybrids were successfully released in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In addition, IMAS helped to increase seed production and distribution of three existing NUE varieties. According to Michael Olsen, IMAS Project Leader, these varieties are expected to reach approximately 84,000 farmers.
“Giving smallholder farmers practical solutions within their environmental conditions is a sustainable means to not only preserve soil resources but address key challenges in maize farming, which is a major livelihood for millions in Africa,” Olsen said.
Many of the released NUE hybrids carry additional traits that are important in the region, such as tolerance to drought and maize lethal necrosis, a devastating viral disease that is new in the region. Donasiana Limo, a farmer from Olkalili village in northern Tanzania, attests to the good performance of HB513, a drought-tolerant and NUE variety he planted during the main cropping season between January and March 2015.
“I did not do much to prepare my land because the rains came very late and ended early. With no fertilizer and failed rains, I did not expect to harvest the seven bags of 50 kilograms from eight kilograms of HB513 seed,” Donasiana said.
“If I had time to prepare my land and added fertilizer, the harvest would have been so much more.”
Many more farmers from this remote village have benefited immensely from HB513, including Valeria Pantaleo.
Sustainable solutions for African farmers need to be addressed during World Soil Day deliberations. Efforts to facilitate smallholders’ access to inputs like fertilizers are critical. In addition, to help arrest further soil deterioration emphasis must be placed on adopting correct agronomic practices and appropriate crop varieties available on the market that are well suited to different soil management systems.
Policymakers must formulate strategies for adopting universal practices that maintain soil resources and are adapted to farming environments across Africa. Kenya has already set the pace for maize breeding in Africa by including performance in low-nitrogen soils as a special prerequisite for maize variety release, a step that will help enhance healthy soils in Africa if adopted by other regulatory agencies.
Valeria and her daughters and part of their bountiful maize harvest from ‘ngamia’ seed. B. Wawa/CIMMYT
About her last maize harvest in August 2015, Valeria Pantaleo, a 47-year-old wife and mother of four from Olkalili village, northern Tanzania, waxes lyrical: “I finally managed to buy a calf to replace my two oxen that died at the beginning of the year due to a strange disease.” Valeria relies on the oxen to plow her two-acre land.
Valeria beams as she looks at her newly acquired calf. From her joy, one would be forgiven for assuming that the village enjoyed a good season. More so since Valeria had a handsome harvest that gave her a surplus four 50-kilogram bags of maize which she sold to buy the calf.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Farmers from her village suffered from exceptionally low rains during the main planting season in January–February 2015. To make matters worse, the rains were very late and poorly distributed. And as Olkalili is semi-arid, scanty rains are the biggest challenge for farming. “The rains came in late February, fell for just one day and only came back towards end of March for a few days,” laments Valeria.
For this reason, many farmers did not anticipate any substantial harvest even from an improved new maize variety – HB513 – introduced to them by Anthony Mwega, a community leader. The variety is locally known as ngamia, Kiswahili for ‘camel’, a testimonial moniker coined by ngamia suppliers, Meru Agro Tours and Consultant Limited, to symbolize the variety’s proven resilience during drought, compared to other varieties.
A boon in drought
“We heard about this new seed from Mwega who also sells hybrid seeds. But since it was my first time to use it, and given that the rains were really low, I did not expect much,” explains Valeria. “This of course was a big worry for me and my family,” she adds.
However, despite the patchy rains, Valeria managed to harvest 10 bags of 50 kilograms each from the one acre on which she planted 10 kilograms of HB513 seed – half of her farm. “I got so much harvest and yet I planted this seed very late, and with no fertilizer,” exclaims Valeria. What is special about HB513 seed is that it is both drought-tolerant and nitrogen-use efficient (see Kenya equivalent). So, compared to other varieties, it not only yields more during moderate drought, but also utilizes what little nitrogen there is in the soil more efficiently. HB513 is one of the 16 hybrid varieties developed for Tanzania by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Project. Besides giving farmers the benefit of nearly 49 percent more grain during moderate drought, this hybrid seed offers them an opportunity to make best use of what little fertilizer they can afford to apply.
More enriching than just meat, and reaching more
For Valeria, it means that her family has enough maize to last them until February 2016. And a ‘meaty’ more: at sowing and growing time, since Valeria did not anticipate such a good harvest given the devastation drought portends, she resolved to work extra-hard in her small grocery business to raise enough money for the calf. “Even then, it would have taken me at least nine months to raise enough money for the calf,” she recalls. “But thanks to my unexpected bonus maize harvest, I got the calf within five months! This was such a huge relief and a blessing to me. Now I will have the much-needed help to plow my land in the next planting season.”
Through partnership with the Improved Maize for Africa Project, in 2015 alone, Meru Agro produced and sold 427 tons of ngamia seed. The result? Approximately 65,000 smallholder farmers across major maize-growing areas in northern, southern highland, central and northwest regions of Tanzania including Valeria’s village have benefited from this variety. And the good news is that the plan is to reach even more farmers in the coming years with the ‘gospel’ of ngamia.
What is the bigger picture for Tanzanian maize farmers? Meru Agro has committed to increase production of ngamia seed in 2016. “We foresee a much higher demand for ngamia because farmers are now more aware of this seed. Our plan is to produce more than 1,000 tons,” says Chacha Watanga, Meru Agro Managing Director.
Meru Agro will not be working alone. CIMMYT, through its Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) Project, will continue to partner with Meru Agro and other small- and medium-scale seed companies to increase production of improved maize varieties such as ngamia to reach 2.5 million people in seven target countries across eastern and southern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia). “Within its three-year lifespan, DTMASS will support production of about 12,000 metric tons of certified seed to reach smallholders who need this seed to overcome the big challenge of drought,” adds Tsedeke Abate, DTMASS Project Leader. Watch this space!
Further reading:
Scorecard as a marathon maize project winds up after eight years
Improved Maize for African Soils Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa
About Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling
Belita Maleko, a farmer in Nkhotakota, central Malawi, sowed cowpea as an intercrop in one of her maize plots, grown under conservation agriculture principles. (Photo: T. Samson/CIMMYT)
The paper examines research to date on the interactions between conservation agriculture interventions – meaning minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation that can simultaneously boost yields, increase profits and protect the environment – and gender in East and Southern Africa and sets out a research agenda based on gaps observed. Given the increasing interest in conservation agriculture due to climate change impacts in the region, the authors also argue that greater attention to gender is needed in order to ensure successful interventions. The following Q&A with one of the study’s authors, Clare Stirling, CIMMYT Senior Scientist with the Sustainable Intensification Program based in Wales, UK, details the study’s findings and what is needed to ensure gender is included in future conservation agriculture interventions.
Q: How do conservation agriculture practices interact with gender?
A: There are many known and unknown ways in which conservation agriculture interacts with gender and the purpose of this paper is to review the evidence and identify gaps that exist. conservation agriculture is knowledge-intensive and can also be labor-intensive and, along with many soil improvement technologies, involves long-term investment with delayed returns. This clearly has important implications for women, as their ability to invest will depend on many factors such as entitlements, access to information, and their ability to act upon it.
If we take labor requirements as an example – many studies highlight labor shortages as a constraint to the adoption of conservation agriculture, particularly when zero tillage is not complemented by the application of herbicides. Without herbicide use, conservation agriculture techniques for land preparation increase weeding over and above plowing and ridging by as much as three times in maize production. In East and Southern Africa, this burden falls largely on women as weeding is largely a woman’s task. Studies conducted in several countries show that where (frequently subsidized) herbicides have been used, the release of women and children from weeding tasks results in multiple benefits, including more children attending school and more time for women to engage in income-generation activities.
Q: Why has gender been left out of many conservation agriculture studies to date?
A: I am not sure that this is a question that should be posed specifically in relation to conservation agriculture but could be asked of agronomic research in general. Things are improving, but I would suggest that the reason has been that gender is a challenging and complex issue that takes many of us out of our comfort zone both professionally and perhaps personally. It requires an interdisciplinary approach and a set of skills that many agricultural research centers simply have too limited a supply of and I include in this a critical mass of female research staff of sufficient seniority. Without this critical mass of gender expertise, agronomic research will continue to be designed and implemented according to the “male agronomist” norm.
Q: What impact has this had on conservation agriculture adoption in East and Southern Africa?
A: lncreased feminization of labor in smallholder agriculture has resulted in major changes in the roles and responsibilities of women in rural Africa, but still agricultural service suppliers and the wider policy environment in general remain locked into the conceptual norm of the primary farmer being male. This inevitably results in inappropriate targeting of research, extension services, and policy, and logic would tell us that it has also contributed to low adoption rates of conservation agriculture.
As the paper explains, the new norm of the “female primary farmer” has not resulted in their widespread recognition as such by external agencies or indeed within their communities. The ability of women-led households, or male-headed households with women as primary farmers, to adopt conservation agriculture may be compromised if government policies, extension systems, and other actors continue to design interventions around the conceptual norm of the male-headed household. This needs to change.
The paper summarizes the gender-related questions that remain to be addressed with regard to conservation agriculture, and there are many. There are overarching questions relating to intra-household decisions making, access to services, and labor. In addition, there are many more questions relating to specific aspects of conservation agriculture, such as the impacts of minimum tillage and weeding on labor; opportunity costs and how increased requirements are met; opportunities, constraints, and trade-offs of conservation agriculture-based crop diversification; and the tailoring of conservation agriculture-based information and training to women farmers.
Q: Moving forward, how can researchers address the gender gaps in conservation agriculture in their studies?
A: Gender-sensitive research needs to be mainstreamed into projects. In order to achieve this, we need more multidisciplinary teams including both male and female researchers of similar seniority. While there is a decent body of gender research on the socioeconomic aspects of agricultural technologies such as barriers to uptake and extension services, it seems that there is still a large gap in gender-sensitive agronomic research. What are the implications for gender of increased weeding, need for planting basins, crop diversification, and residue retention? All very basic questions that still need answering. So moving forward, we need more research that involves gender specialists working closely with agronomists on the design, implementation, evaluation, and scaling out of conservation agriculture-based practices.
Cheesman in a direct-seeded maize-soybean rotation in Chavakadzi village, Shamva District, Zimbabwe. Photo: Christian Thierfelder
A new study led by ETH Zürich graduate Stephanie Cheesman, along with CIMMYT senior agronomist Christian Thierfelder, Neal S. Eash from the University of Tennessee, Girma Tesfahun Kassie, ICARDA, and Emmanuel Frossard, professor at ETH Zürich, found limited increase in carbon sequestration under conservation agriculture (CA) after up to seven years of practice. In this interview, Cheesman tells us why carbon sequestration is such a complex issue in Southern Africa and what this study reveals about how it can improve.
Q: Why is increasing soil carbon important?
A: Besides the hype about sequestering carbon to contribute to climate change mitigation, carbon is an integral part of soil organic matter (also referred to as “humus”), which is possibly the most well-known fertility component of a soil. Soil carbon has strong influence on soil structure, water infiltration, as well as the capacity of the soil to retain water and nutrients that are required for plant growth. Degraded soil has only a little soil carbon and, hence, low fertility and nutrient- (and water) holding capacity.
Q: What were you hoping this study would reveal?
A: Although the study trials had been running for only seven years, I was hoping to show a clearer trend towards an increase in soil carbon under CA as compared to conventional practices (CP) in Southern Africa. We were surprised that, in most cases, the carbon under CA was at the same level as the conventional control treatment, with a few exceptions. Nevertheless, this is one of a very few studies where soil carbon stocks in CA systems have been analyzed across a wide range of Southern African agroecologies. I am now very happy to share this data with the wider research community.
Q: What factors limit carbon sequestration in Southern Africa?
A: There are a range of factors that limit carbon sequestration. Our findings suggest low productivity to be one of the main bottlenecks. Farmers have to decide if they should feed the crop residues to the soil or to their livestock. The long dry season from May to November and high temperatures further increase the mineralization of soil carbon, which can be twice as much as in temperate regions. Another factor that may limit carbon sequestration is the limited use of other strategies such as the integration of legumes or agroforestry species as intercrops in maize-based systems.
CA practitioners and Cheesman conduct bulk density sampling in Zidyana, Malawi, August 2011. Photo: Sign Phiri
Q: Given the findings of this study, how can we increase soil carbon in Southern Africa in the future? Is conservation agriculture necessarily the answer?
A: Unfortunately, our study lacks initial carbon stock measurements, as this was tested on a very large set of on-farm trials and we never had enough financial resources to continuously test this from the onset. We could compare the difference between CA and CP but not how carbon stocks changed over time in the respective systems. Although some of the trial sites were up to seven years old, this is a comparably short time to increase the level of carbon in such environments. From other long-term studies (mainly in the Americas), we know that tillage-based agricultural systems decrease carbon stocks. Thus, I would say that a system like CA where tillage is reduced and residues are “fed” to the soil will more likely maintain soil carbon and maybe gradually increase it in the longer term. Tillage-based agricultural systems also have much higher soil erosion loads which further decreases carbon, so CA is definitely an answer to reduce soil degradation.
CIMMYT’s mission is to “sustainably” increase the productivity of maize- and wheat-based systems to reduce poverty and hunger. By combining improved varieties with sustainable intensification practices, CIMMYT does its best to give smallholder farmers options to improve their productivity and livelihoods. Feeding the soil with residues is one strategy to maintain or gradually increase soil carbon but we should not forget the immediate needs of farmers.
Joseph Mulei on his farm in Machakos County, Kenya, where he planted several drought tolerant hybrid maize varieties including Drought Tego and Sawa (DSL H103). Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT.
About 100 partners from diverse institutions including CIMMYT, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), national agricultural research systems (NARS), the private sector, and donors gathered recently at a joint meeting of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) projects held in Addis Ababa on 14–17 September 2015. The participants came from 15 African countries, plus India, New Zealand, and USA.
This first joint meeting, opened by Fentahun Mengistu, Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, marked the end of the two projects, which will officially complete their work in December 2015 across 14 target countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The meeting reviewed the progress made in Africa through the projects over the last 5 and 8 years, respectively.
The two projects released 200 unique improved maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) with drought tolerance (DT) and nitrogen-use efficiency (NUE), which are traits favored by smallholder farmers. These varieties – some which combine both traits– not only yield much more under moderate or severe drought stress, but also utilize more efficiently the small amounts of fertilizers most farmers can afford to apply to their maize.
Speaking on the importance of maize breeding work in Africa, B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on MAIZE, said, “Solutions to the world’s food challenges need the benefit of improved maize varieties that yield well for farmers both in ‘good’ and ‘bad’ years, withstanding the crippling effects of climatic changes and other stresses.”
DTMA efforts to commercialize DT varieties have enabled 43 million people to access and benefit from these varieties. This, coupled with efforts to promote the new improved DT varieties by small- and medium-scale seed companies, has been instrumental in DTMA’s success. As John McMurdy, from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said, “It is very important to create awareness of these improved varieties, particularly the fact that they are excellent even during normal rains. Farmers need to know these key characteristics so they can appreciate and benefit from the seed. I am glad that the next phase of CIMMYT’s work is geared towards reaching out to farmers; this is essential in maize work.”
Influencing policies to support the adoption of improved varieties within partner institutions
Eliamani Saitati, a farmer in Olkolili village in northern Tanzania, shows her harvest from HB513, a variety that is both nitrogen-use efficient and drought tolerant. Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT
Both DTMA and IMAS targeted policy makers within partner institutions to facilitate adoption of new improved varieties. A policy issue highlighted at the meeting was replacing old and obsolete varieties with the new improved varieties, viewed as critical for adapting to climate change and improving smallholders’ livelihoods.
Meeting participants were divided into two groups and visited major maize seed companies in Ethiopia, where they observed the performance of various DT varieties and learned about ongoing variety replacement. The sites visited included Ethio VegFru Company, Ano Agro Industry, Meki-Batu Cooperative Seed Company, Shalo Farm, and Bako Agricultural Research Centre, which is Ethiopia’s national center of excellence for maize research. At the Centre, they were hosted by, among others, Tolera Keno, who is EIAR’s National Maize Research Coordinator.
An old variety, BH660, which has been on the market for the last quarter century, is now gradually being replaced by BH661, an improved DT hybrid. According to Fekadu Berhane, Production Manager at Ethio VegFru Company, farmers were most concerned about BH660’s late maturity of about 160 days. “Their numerous complaints obviously led to a drastic decline in the market,” explained Fekadu. “The switch to BH661 has taken two years. In 2015, we produced and distributed 60 tons of BH661 seed in the west, south, and southwest of the Oromia Region, and farmers are getting a minimum of 8 tons per hectare.”
Ano Agro Industry began operating Ethiopia’s first private seed-producing commercial farm 23 years ago. Significantly, some of their early maize hybrids from that time are still in production. “We are partnering with CIMMYT to replace these old hybrids and demonstrate new varieties, including BH546 and BH547, which are both drought tolerant,” explained Tesfaye Kumsa, Managing Director at Ano Agro Industry. “We have now started producing basic seed. We also educate farmers on management of improved varieties, since management alone accounts for the greatest proportion of yield– sometimes by a factor of up to three or four times in terms of yield obtained.”
Continuous dialogue with policy makers at the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) bore fruit in 2014, when Kenya’s Variety Release Committee included performance in low-nitrogen soil as a special trait for maize variety release. This reaffirms the high premium KEPHIS accords to performance in poor soils, setting the pace for other regulatory bodies in SSA to recognize and address the challenge.
In addition, close collaboration with partners and donors, in particular USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), enabled IMAS to make concrete headway in addressing the maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease that has rapidly emerged as a major threat to maize farming in East Africa since 2011. The IMAS project rapidly identified diverse sources of MLN tolerance in its germplasm base and, currently, MLN-tolerant maize is being widely disseminated across East Africa, while newly identified sources of tolerance are being shared with other CIMMYT-Africa breeding projects. Gary Atlin, from BMGF, observed that “In the four years since MLN was discovered, we now have hybrids that have significantly better tolerance to MLN. IMAS is credited with a rapid response to MLN, which has affected breeding work in the region.”
To bring improved DT and NUE seeds to the farmers, collaboration with seed companies and NARS has been an important pillar of DTMA and IMAS work. Abebe Menkir, DTMA project leader at IITA, attributed this strength to “a clearly defined product development plan and harnessing the strengths of the right partners to deliver varieties and hybrids.”
In 2014 alone, production of certified DT and NUE maize seed across 14 target countries was 54,000 metric tons for the benefit of 40.2 million people. Production of these seeds was spearheaded by small- and medium-scale companies that accessed the improved seeds free of charge.
The adoption and uptake of these varieties varies from one country to another. Depending on the type of variety – hybrid or OPV – the adoption rate for DT maize ranges from 18 to 80%, with hybrids getting adopted much faster because of their yield advantage, estimated at 49% compared to improved OPVs currently on the market.
Participants in the joint DTMA and IMAS meeting held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo: CIMMYT
Farmers in countries such as Nigeria and Malawi are leading in the adoption of DT maize varieties, largely because of favorable government policies that have made access to the improved varieties much easier and more affordable. These farmers have reported higher yields from the DT varieties compared to non-DT varieties.
The next step for CIMMYT and its partners is to increase adoption of improved DT and NUE varieties and replace the old, obsolete, climate-vulnerable varieties with multiple stress tolerant improved maize varieties to effectively face current and emerging challenges.
Plans for this are already being implemented through various initiatives, including the project Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS). DTMASS will work closely with seed companies to produce 12,000 metric tons of certified DT seed in the next three years. The aim is to ensure seed availability to smallholders at affordable prices, and to sustain seed demand among these farmers.
Starting in 2016, IMAS conventional NUE breeding will begin a new phase by fusing with DTMA in a proposed new project dubbed “Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa.” This project aims to develop improved multiple-stress-tolerant varieties that can effectively face current and emerging challenges.
Given the increased threat of climate change and other stresses to African agriculture, collaborative efforts among major maize projects in Africa will be prioritized by CIMMYT in the coming years. This joint meeting paved the way for collaboration, as it included – for the first time – other maize projects such as Water Efficient Maize for Africa, SIMLESA and TAMASA to identify and create synergies with DTMA and IMAS in the next phase. These projects will continue to draw from one key resource – improved maize varieties, some which have been developed jointly– to maximize impact for Africa’s smallholder farmers.
Farmers selecting pigeon pea varieties at Msingisi village, Gairo district, through SIMLESA. Photo: CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes
On 16-31 October 2015, the Sustainable Intensification of Maize and Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project undertook a two-week long Mid-Term Review (MTR) of its agricultural research and development activities on station and on farm. SIMLESA undertook this review to assess project performance and recommend actions to refine activities. The last MTR was carried out in 2012.
To wrap up the review, a two-day meeting was held with the participation of 40 people, including representatives from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the national agricultural research systems (NARS) of Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania, and CIMMYT scientists from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.
Increasing wheat and maize yields in Arsi Negele (southern Ethiopia) is not enough to guarantee a nutritious diet, but maintaining a diverse landscape appears critical. Photo: F. Baudron
Arsi Negele, in southern Ethiopia, is a paradox: local farmers are blessed with good soils, good and reliable rainfall, relatively large farms, and good market connections, but the local hospital in Gambo admits, on average, one child per day suffering from acute malnutrition (kwashiorkor and marasmus). The main cause? A grain-based diet that lacks proteins, vitamins, and other micronutrients. Biofortified maize and wheat that include some of these missing elements could help. But diet diversification is probably the real answer.
Participants in the SIMLESA high level policy forum in Entebbe, Uganda. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT
East and Southern African countries need to formulate and implement appropriate policies to help smallholder farmers access technologies that will enable them to increase farm yields and improve crop resilience and nutrition to address poverty, food security, and economic growth, renowned Zimbabwean agricultural economist and academic Mandivamba Rukuni told a high-level policy forum.
Delivering the keynote address at the SIMLESA policy forum co-organized by CIMMYT and the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) in Entebbe, Uganda, on 27–28 October, Rukuni said this can only be achieved through a dramatic shift to help smallholder farmers produce sufficient food for themselves, plus generate income. “Such technologies include improved seed varieties and fertilizers, and better infrastructure, such as roads and small-scale irrigation,’’ said Rukuni. SIMLESA is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and implemented by CIMMYT.
Kennedy Lweya, Seed Business Development Specialist for East and Southern Africa, receives an award on behalf of CIMMYT during the Seed Trade Association of Malawi Congress and Expo. Photo: CIMMYT
CIMMYT recently received an award in recognition of its efforts and contributions towards developing and strengthening Malawi’s maize seed system. Kennedy Lweya, Seed Business Development Specialist for East and Southern Africa, received the award on behalf of CIMMYT, during the Seed Trade Association of Malawi Congress and Expo––the first of its kind––held on 22–23 October 2015 at the Bingu International Conference Centre in Lilongwe.
Many of these accomplishments have been achieved through the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, which has helped farmers withstand the effects of a drought that continues to affect millions of smallholders who depend on maize as their staple food.
Upon receiving the award, Lweya noted, “This signifies recognition of tremendous work undertaken by CIMMYT scientists globally and in Malawi, in particular, to improve maize systems. More importantly, the award is an endorsement of the value that public-private partnerships bring in improving livelihoods and food security in the developing world.”
Sicily Kariuki presses a perfect tortilla. Photo: Sam Storr/CIMMYT
On Thursday, 5 November, a delegation of Kenyan scientists and government officials visited CIMMYT, concluding a fact-finding mission to see if Mexico can help Kenya to find new, and safer, ways to eat maize.
Leading the delegation was Sicily Kariuki, principal secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries. “Our objective is to meet with experts who face common challenges in the area of agriculture, in particular, maize, safety, and specifically nixtamalization,” she said.
CIMMYT and INIFAP have been developing a project to improve the traditional process of maize nixtamalization and show that it can dramatically reduce contamination by harmful aflatoxins. At the invitation of Mexico’s Ambassador to Kenya, Erasmo R. Martínez, CIMMYT and Kenya are now exploring the potential for Mexican technologies to improve food security in Kenya.
Maize is the main staple food in Kenya, but the supply chain remains vulnerable to aflatoxin contamination caused by fungal infections. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 25% of global food production is affected by mycotoxins (aflatoxin is a type of mycotoxin), and this contamination is thought to cost Africa US $670 million in lost exports to the European Union alone.
From L-R: Yabesh Monari, Natalia Palacios, Peter Mwangi Njugana, Kevin Pixley, Johnson Irungu, Charles Bett, Martin Kropff, Hans Braun, Sicily Kariuki and Ana Laura Ayala. Photo: CIMMYT
Sicily Kariuki was joined by CIMMYT’s Natalia Palacios and representatives from the Unga Ltd & Chairman Millers Association in Kenya, the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Mexico’s National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP), and the Mexican Agency for Development Cooperation (AMEXCID).
The visiting delegation observed the process of nixtamalization at an INIFAP experiment station, visited a tortilla maker, and even tried their hands at making tortillas themselves.
Charles Bett, senior research officer at KALRO Katumani, believes that Mexican methods of eating maize could soon catch on in Kenya. “Right now wheat chapattis are very popular, but as they are expensive they are only for celebrations,” he explained. The next big thing could well be a Mexican taco.
Trainees observe fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases of wheat in quarantine fields. Photo: Terefe Fitta
Ethiopia’s loose quarantine system permits the introduction of foreign pests, which attack crops and hurt yields and farmer incomes, making understanding how to identify new pests vital; strengthening the national quarantine system is thus key to protecting crops.
To address these challenges, CIMMYT-Ethiopia hosted a training session on the quarantine of wheat pests in Ethiopia from 13-15 October at Holetta Agricultural Research Center, where seeds of the most commonly introduced germplasm are inspected before they are planted and further evaluated for foreign pests at isolation sites throughout the country. Attending the session were 13 trainees from Holetta and six other research centers, including Sinana, Kulumsa, Adet, Mekele, Werer, and Ambo.
Temesgen Desalegn, Holetta Agricultural Research Center Director, welcomed participants and delivered an orientation session about the center, staff, and the crop and livestock research conducted at the site. The center is the oldest quarantine site to receive and inspect seeds of introduced germplasm for foreign pests by further planting and evaluating at isolated sites, Desalegn said, explaining that his aims for the training included exploring various aspects of regulatory issues.
Bekele Abeyo, wheat breeder and country representative at CIMMYT’s Ethiopia office, highlighted the role of wheat in the Ethiopian economy, describing major growing regions and production trends. He also described the challenge of recurrent rust epidemics that cause significant yield losses, and how such losses affect the country’s growth and transformation plan aimed at achieving food security. Due to the significant yield losses caused by the rust epidemics, CIMMYT and its national counterparts, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and Regional Agricultural Research Institutes (RARIs), developed a project, now in its first year, titled “Seed Multiplication and Delivery of High Yielding Rust Resistant Bread and Durum Wheat Varieties to Ethiopian Farmers.”
The project, which targets 51 districts in four regions, has two sub-components, five specific objectives, and several activities under each objective. It supports small-scale farmers with an emphasis on women, encourages private sector partners, and links farmers with industries. It also aims to build the capacity of national programs by acquiring field and laboratory equipment and conducting various types of short-term trainings sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the CIMMYT/EIAR seed project.
Eshetu Derso, Deputy Director of crops research at EIAR, offered praise for such training and the long-lasting relationship and support CIMMYT has provided. He mentioned that CIMMYT staff are forging change by helping Ethiopia identify and bridge gaps. Eshetu detailed various components of phytosanitary/regulatory issues regarding quarantine and pests in Ethiopia, including recent phytosanitary proclamations in the country. Finally, he noted that awareness will be created and vigilant phytosanitary action taken to ensure no new foreign pests are introduced. All plant materials introduced into Ethiopia will be inspected by quarantine officials at international airports or seaports by establishing separate “plant quarantine counters” and a scanning system.
Training participants at Holetta Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of Bekele Abeyo
The government is trying to keep out quarantine diseases such as ergot, late potato blight, and Karnal bunt, Eshetu said, mentioning other risky diseases such as the wheat rusts, white rot in garlic, maize lethal necrosis, yellow mosaic virus in papaya, ginger bacterial leaf wilt, and fruit spot of citrus. All these diseases have either been introduced into Ethiopia or have the potential to be introduced, he said.
CIMMYT pathologist Monica Mezzalama conducted an introductory training course on seedborne diseases of wheat, including detection methods, diagnosis, epidemiology, and management of fungi, bacteria, and viruses. She coupled descriptions with hands-on practice observing fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases of wheat in quarantine fields; leaf sampling and sample preparation; and laboratory work on isolation techniques (leaf and seed). She also covered MLN, the major threat to maize production in recent years.
Mohammed Dawd, Head of quarantine at EIAR, and Bekele Kassa, plant pathologist at Holetta Agricultural Research Center, offered insights and conducted training on pests and quarantine diseases in Ethiopia.
Participants raised many concerns related to the skills gap that hinders proper handling of quarantine services, limited training opportunities, and the lack of guidance from senior scientists and management. They emphasized the importance of keeping up expertise on threats and risks posed by quarantine pests and concluded that current weak quarantine enforcement in Ethiopia should be bolstered by strictly implementing rules and regulations to prevent the introduction of unauthorized and uncertified germplasm.
Photo: Participants in the maize breeding course in Zambia. Photo: Cosmos Magorokosho/CIMMYT.
CIMMYT recently conducted an intensive three-week training course in Zambia for 38 young maize breeders–including 12 women–to provide them the knowledge and skills needed to apply modern maize breeding methods in their agricultural research and development programs. Participants from national programs and private seed companies from 12 African countries and Pakistan attended the course.
Moses Mwale of the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) officially opened the course, and said the training was critical as agriculture contributes over 40% of Zambia’s gross domestic product and provides 70% of all employment in Africa; up to 80% of the African population lives in rural areas and is heavily dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods.
According to Mwale, “Despite its immense potential, maize has underperformed in Africa in recent years. The major cause is lack of investment, reliance on rainfed agriculture, low usage of improved seed, and the lack of adequate agricultural research and development, resulting in low production, productivity, and high transaction costs in agribusiness ventures.”
For the first time, a significant part of the course was devoted to the subjects of crop management and gender mainstreaming in maize research and development.
CIMMYT agronomist Isaiah Nyagumbo presented the crop management practices recommended to boost yields, productivity, and income, and to conserve natural resources. He emphasized that investments in maize breeding pay off when crop management on farm is improved. Nyagumbo also demonstrated new land preparation equipment recommended for use with conservation agriculture, including jab planters, dibble sticks, Li seeder or planting hoe, and animal traction rippers.
Vongai Kandiwa, CIMMYT gender specialist, spoke about “Leveraging Gender Awareness in Maize Breeding and Seed Deployment.” Revealing existing evidence of gender gaps in technology awareness and adoption, she highlighted the importance of developing maize technologies that meet the needs of both men and women farmers. Kandiwa also shared insights on gender-responsive approaches for conducting on-farm trials and building awareness, especially of newly released varieties.
During the training course, CIMMYT physiologist Jill Cairns briefed participants on preparing and making effective presentations––a challenge for both distinguished and new scientists.
Several scientists highlighted recent developments in maize improvement such as the use in maize breeding of doubled haploids, molecular tools, transgenics, and precision phenotyping. Key themes included advanced phenotyping by CIMMYT physiologist Zaman Mainasarra, who demonstrated the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for digital imaging and fast, cost-effective, and accurate phenotyping data collection.
Other subjects included theoretical conventional breeding, breeding for abiotic stress in line with climate change, breeding for biotic stresses with emphasis on preventing the spread of maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease, and breeding for improved nutritional quality (quality protein maize and pro-vitamin A maize). Max Mbunji of HarvestPlus gave a presentation on Zambia’s progress on developing and delivering pro-vitamin A maize over the past seven years.
Variety release and registration, seed production, and seed business management in Africa were also featured during the course. Trainees learned how to scale up breeder seed to certified seed, maintain genetic purity and quality, and support upcoming seed companies, while complying with existing seed legislation, policies, and procedures in different countries.
Participants went on a field trip to HarvestPlus, where they learned more about pro-vitamin A analysis. They also visited ZARI’s Nanga Research Station to observe drought screening and seed production activities conducted by Zambia’s national maize breeding program.
At the end of the course, one of the participants, Annah Takombwa, acting technical affairs manager at Zimbabwe’s National Biotechnology Authority, said, “Many thanks for affording me the opportunity to take part in GMP’s New Maize Breeders Training. It was a great honor and privilege. I am already applying the skills and knowledge gained in my day-to-day activities.”
CIMMYT Global Maize Program (GMP) maize breeders Cosmos Magorokosho, Stephen Mugo, and Abebe Menkir of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) organized and coordinated the course. Participants were sponsored through various GMP projects, including Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa, Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scale-up, the Doubled Haploids project, Water Efficient Maize for Africa, Improved Maize for African Soils, USAID Heat project, MLN project, HarvestPlus, and private seed companies ZAMSEED and SEECDCO.
Children in a drought-stricken maize field in Gwanda District, southeast of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city. Drought is the most frequently occurring natural hazard in Zimbabwe, made worse by the clear trend, since 1980,of decline in rainfall that the country has received each year. Photo: Desmond Kwande/Practical Action.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations, nearly 1.5 million (16 percent) of Zimbabwe’s 14 million people are feared to go hungry at the height of the 2015–16 lean season – a 164 percent increase on the previous year (Hunger hits 1.5 million in Zimbabwe as maize production halves-WFP). This is due to a dramatic decrease in maize production. The lean season is the period after harvest when food stocks run low.
Maize is Zimbabwe’s staple. At 742,000 tonnes, production has dropped by 53 percent compared to the 2014–15 season, according to the Southern African Development Community, of which Zimbabwe is a member.
“The situation in Zimbabwe is more extreme than most countries in the region but it is not unique,” WFP spokesperson David Orr told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. An estimated 27 million people in the region are food-insecure as a result of drought and inappropriate farming practices.
Mary Gunge, 45, and her family of six, live in drought-prone Chivi District, Masvingo Province. For the past five years, life has been difficult for Gunge and other smallholder farmers in this harsh, semi-arid environment. “There are no good rains to talk about anymore,” Gunge told visiting journalists recently. The rains in her area were too little, too late. Smallholders need urgent food aid to carry them to the next harvest in May and June next year.
Parts of Zimbabwe are experiencing unpredictable weather. Zimbabwe’s Meteorological Services says the country is experiencing more hot days and fewer cold days.
“We’re no longer sure when to start preparing the land for planting or when to start planting. It’s pretty much gambling with nature,” says Gunge.
Climate change will have a significant impact on southern Africa’s fragile food security, environmental experts have warned. It already costs southern Africa five to 10 percent of its gross domestic product. This implies a loss of between USD 10 and 21 billion annually in a region where nearly half the population is living on less than one dollar a day.
Showcasing various maize varieties. CIMMYT-SARO maize breeder Thokozile Ndhlela at this year’s CIMMYT field day. Partners, including the Government of Zimbabwe, witnessed CIMMYT’s work in its efforts to reduce hunger and malnutrition in southern Africa. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT.
To address this all-too-familiar situation, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)’s southern Africa Regional Office (CIMMYT–SARO) and its partners are working to increase the productivity of maize-based farming systems to ensure food and nutritional security, increase household incomes and reduce poverty.
“Using conventional breeding, CIMMYT and partners have produced new varieties which yield 20 to 30 percent more than currently available local varieties under drought and low soil nitrogen,” says Mulugetta Mekuria, CIMMYT–SARO Representative. New maize varieties now account for 26 percent of maize hybrids grown in Zimbabwe.
By the end of this year, CIMMYT will establish a modern quarantine facility (Zimbabwe and CIMMYT to establish Maize Lethal Necrosis Quarantine Facility) to safely import maize breeding materials to southern Africa, and to enable local institutions to proactively breed for resistance against Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) disease.
More efficient use of the limited resources that smallholder farmers have is crucial for increasing food security. CIMMYT’s project on Sustainable Intensification of Maize–Legume Based Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) focuses on increasing food production from existing farmland while minimizing pressure on the environment.
SIMLESA has successfully used the principles of conservation agriculture in Malawi and Mozambique.
“Making use of the combined benefits of minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotation, conservation agriculture yields better when compared to conventional agricultural practices after two to five cropping seasons,” said Mekuria, who is also the SIMLESA Project Leader.
Trials in farmers’ fields in Malawi increased yields by 20 to 60 percent. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, yields increased by almost 60 percent using animal traction conservation agriculture. CIMMYT is also providing support to seed companies, including capacity building for technical and entrepreneurial skills, varietal release and registration, seed multiplication and commercialization.
Peter Setimela, CIMMYT–SARO Senior Seed System Specialist, says, “Developing drought-tolerant maize will increasingly become more critical especially now when most countries in the region continue to be affected by drought.”
In the past two years, 28 varieties have been released in southern Africa with greater tolerance to the main stresses in the region. These new varieties are expected to benefit almost 12 million people, helping to enhance food security, increase livelihoods and reduce poverty.
