Location: Africa

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.

WEMA releases record number of maize varieties in Africa

Written by on March 14, 2014. Posted in News.

By Wandera Ojanji/CIMMYT

The Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project is on-track to produce and distribute at least 25 drought-tolerant maize hybrids for farmers in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda during its second phase.

In 2013, the project commercially released 15 drought-tolerant maize hybrids, with 84 more nominated for national performance trials. “This is a rare feat,” said Sylvester Oikeh, WEMA project manager, during the project’s Sixth Annual Review and Planning meeting from 7 to13 February. “In the history of maize research in Africa, only one entity – WEMA – has released 15 hybrids in a single year.”

At its inception in 2008, WEMA promised to develop and deploy maize varieties that would not only tolerate moderate drought but also provide 20 to 35 percent more grain yield than currently available commercial hybrids. Buoyed by the success of the breeding pipelines in Phase I (2008-2013), the partnership set the 25-hybrid target in February 2013 for Phase II (2013-2017).

Also in 2013, WEMA helped smallholder farmers harvest the drought-tolerant maize variety WE1101, sold under the brand name DroughtTEGO™, said Denis Kyetere, executive director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF). The hybrid recorded impressive sales in Kenya, according to Gospel Omanya, AATF’s seed systems manager and WEMA deployment team leader. From September 2013 to January 2014, farmers purchased 42.5 tons of the 72 total tons of seed distributed to seed companies. Omanya expects additional sales and adoption of the hybrid, due to its outstanding performance – an average yield of 4.5 tons per hectare (t/ha) during the short rain season, compared to Kenya’s average maize yield of 1.8 t/ha. WE1101 is one of the hybrids developed using breeding lines from the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project. Natalie DiNicola, vice president for Europe and Africa for Monsanto, lauded WEMA partners for the achievement. “Thank you for making it happen, for getting the products into the hands of farmers,” DiNicola said.

Uganda Minister of State for Agriculture Nyiira Zerubabel also praised the progress. “Your effort in addressing maize production constraints and increasing productivity levels are highly commendable,” stated Nyiira in a speech read on his behalf by Okaasai Opolot, Uganda’s director of crop resources, during the official opening of the meeting. He urged the project partners to deliver a holistic package to the farmers. “Your work should ensure that the varieties you develop achieve the expected performance that delivers high quantities and qualities by addressing these issues: good crop and post-harvest management practices and productivity, access to markets for rural farmers, efficient seed systems to boost productivity, and value addition initiatives that will improve rural incomes.”

Participants experienced the best of WEMA breeding and testing in Uganda when they visited Namulonge Research Station, where confined field trials of MON810 and other WEMA conventional hybrids are under way. Lawrence Kent, senior program officer of agriculture, science and technology for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, urged WEMA partners to aim for higher impact over the next four years. “We must generate and reach more farmers with products. I am excited about the promising MON810 results so far and I urge you to seize the opportunity and forge ahead with commercializing it and making it available to needy farmers.”

(Seated from right) John MuMurdy, international research and biotechnology advisor, USAID; Natalie DiNicola, Monsanto’s vice president for Europe and Africa; Lawrence Kent, senior program officer, Agriculture, Science and Technology, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Okaasai Opolot, Uganda’s director of crop resources; and Denis Kyetere, executive director, the Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation. Speaking is B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program. Photos: Wandera Ojanji/CIMMYT

B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program, noted that maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease had serious consequences on seed production and delivery and crop production in 2013. “Seed shipments were restricted,” said Prasanna, “and maize cultivation was shut down in affected areas, limiting seed production and breeding activities.” At the same time, said Prasanna, the MLN threat is an opportunity to replace old varieties on the market with higher-yielding, resistant ones. More than 2,000 maize lines were screened under natural infections of MLN in two seasons in Kenya during 2013. “We found clear-cut responses and identified some very promising resistance,” Prasanna said.

He added that the resistance would be speedily incorporated into breeding lines and populations through screening at the MLN facility in Naivasha and use of the doubled haploid facility in Kiboko, both inaugurated in March 2013. Partners are also following protocols circulated by CIMMYT to ensure the pathogen-free production and exchange of maize breeding materials. The WEMA advisory board has recommended that the project intensify the breeding of conventional maize varieties for Mozambique and Tanzania, engage large seed companies to use WEMA products, develop exclusive licensing for current products and encourage governments to facilitate trials of transgenic maize.

WEMA Phase II is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Howard G. Buffett Foundation.

Seed systems team strategizes and plans for Africa

Written by on March 10, 2014. Posted in News.

By Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT

The CIMMYT-Africa seed systems team met in Nairobi, Kenya, on 7 February to take stock of progress in 2013, identify challenges and brainstorm on turning those challenges into opportunities. Global Maize Program (GMP) Director B.M. Prasanna and members of the breeding, communications and socioeconomics teams also attended.

Development officer promotes SIMLESA Project

Written by on March 10, 2014. Posted in News.

By Isaiah Nyagumbo/CIMMYT

Starting a personal conservation agriculture plot and providing training via group theater are some of the tactics an extension development officer in Malawi is using to reach farmers.

Fredrerick Lukhere, the local extension development officer for the Mtuthama Extension Planning Area, has led by example as part of the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project, which is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. A SIMLESA team visited fields in the Kasungu district on 12 February. The team was led by Isaiah Nyagumbo, SIMLESA Southern Africa objective 2 coordinator, and included Gift Mashango, program manager; Jefias Mataruse, research assistant; Cyprian Mwale, national coordinator; Donwell Kamalongo, national objective 2 coordinator; Keneth Chaula, assistant chief agricultural extension officer; and others from the local district office.

Fredrick Lukhere takes the time to explain maize-soybean rotations to farmers in Kasungu. Photo by Jefias Mataruse

More than 60 farmers, including 42 men and 20 women, participated in the tour. Initiated in 2010, SIMLESA activities in Malawi’s Kasungu District are in their fourth season. The project aims to improve the food security and incomes of 650,000 households in eastern and southern Africa within 10 years. Activities also aim to increase productivity by 30 percent and reduce downside risk by 30 percent through use of improved maize and legume varieties and conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification technologies.

Lukhere has promoted SIMLESA activities using innovative techniques. He reinforces innovation platforms and partnerships founded on the Area Stakeholder Panel, a local community-based institution. He strengthens partnerships with local NGOs such as CADECOM and Total Land Care, subcontracted by SIMLESA to scale out sustainable intensification technologies. He has single-handedly trained NGO staff on how to set up and implement outscaling activities using SIMLESA’s outscaling model involving maizelegume (soybean) rotations.

Exploratory trials involving maize and soybeans are testimony to Fredrerick Lukhere’s efforts in Kasungu, Malawi. Photo by Isaiah Nyagumbo

Lukhere has also ensured the success of core exploratory trials, which were established in 2010 with six farmers in the area. The trials provide a learning platform and are also a source of research data. To increase farmer confidence in the technologies tested, Lukhere set up his own conservation agriculture plot planted with maize in 2012 and has increased the area to 0.5 hectares. The healthy and well-managed maize crop stands as a testimony to Luhkere’s efforts. He also runs a small drama group that trains farmers on SIMLESA technologies and performs to visitors and farmers during field days.

As a result of Luhkere’s efforts, at least 37 farmers are hosting outscaling trials; 84 follower or volunteer farmers are using these technologies without any support; and another 140 farmers are working through CADECOM in the surrounding extension planning areas. Total LandCare also supports farmers by providing herbicides and loans and hosts SIMLESA trials in neighboring extension planning areas.

Growing more: sustainable intensification in southern Africa

Written by on March 4, 2014. Posted in Features.

By Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT

The “double-up legume system” improves food security in Malawi by increasing yield and farmers’ incomes. Photos: Christian Thierfelder

Gently undulating plains and green maize fields dominate the landscape of central Malawi as far as the eye can see. The ridges, furrows and bare soil in between, resulting from traditional land preparation, are common. Heavy rainfalls and accelerated soil erosion turn the Chia Lagoon, connected to Lake Malawi, brown and murky. The continued loss of soil fertility and the need to adapt to climate variability led CIMMYT and its partners to introduce conservation agriculture (CA) in Malawi in 2005.

The Nkhotakota district, where conservation agriculture systems have been widely adopted, shows changes in the landscape, such as residue-covered soil surfaces along the roadsides. Farmers are embracing the new CA concepts and are successfully growing maize directly planted with a pointed stick. CIMMYT and partner organizations including Total LandCare and the Ministry of Agriculture, funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, support these efforts. The impacts of CA in Malawi are obvious. More than 30,000 farmers in the central part of the country have been informed about the practices and now use them on their own fields, which is a direct result of CIMMYT science and the concerted efforts of private, governmental extension and national research organizations.

Farmer Christopher Helima shows a new drought-tolerant maize variety grown using conservation agriculture.

Farmer Belemoti Sikelo, from the Mwansambo Extension Planning Area, has participated in the program for more than eight years. “I used to be a farmer that always ran out of maize grain in February or March and had to work for other farmers in the area to enable my family and me to survive,” Sikelo said. “Since I started using conservation agriculture practices, we have always had enough food during the critical months. I have expanded the land area under conservation agriculture on my farm and I have also tried conservation agriculture without expensive herbicides; I believe it is possible to apply conservation agriculture techniques without chemical weed control, but it needs good management and residue cover to reduce the weed pressure. Farmers around me come and visit my demonstration plots and ask me about my secrets for a good-looking maize crop. They admire the fields where I have planted groundnuts and maize under conservation agriculture.”

Disease pressure on traditionally monocropped maize has forced farmers to rotate maize with cowpeas, groundnuts and pigeonpea. Through diversified crop rotations, they have managed to control the parasitic weed striga (Striga asiatica L.), fungal diseases and damage from white grubs, the larvae of the black maize beetle (Phyllophaga ssp. and Heteronychus spp.). As an added advantage, they have improved family nutrition and have surplus produce to sell in local markets.

A team of researchers from Brazil, Malawi, Mexico and Zimbabwe visited longterm on-station and on-farm CA trials and demonstrations in central Malawi during 4-8 February to monitor progress and impact, in their quest to sustainably intensify smallholder farming systems.

The use of conservation agriculture multiplies these benefits. Legumes such as groundnuts, cowpeas and soybeans can be grown on flat soil with half the row spacing, which is not possible under the conventional ridge and furrow system. The increased plant population has more than doubled grain yield, provides better ground cover and reduces soil erosion. The need to grow more food on the same land area has spurred innovation. To increase legume production, farmers have started to adopt the “double-up legume system.” Growing legumes with different growth habits side-byside – for example pigeon pea with cowpea or groundnuts – increases farmers’ yields and incomes even more, while also improving food security.

Lastly, drought-tolerant maize varieties provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project were recently introduced and are being tested under different crop management systems. With the new stress-tolerant maize cultivars, farmers can now overcome seasonal dry spells and to grow longer season varieties. The risk of crop failure is reduced under conservation agriculture due to better moisture retention on residue-covered fields. This important benefit will be key in the coming years, as temperatures will likely increase and rainfalls become more erratic.

Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security: wheat research roundup

Written by on February 14, 2014. Posted in Features.

By Brenna Goth/CIMMYT

What do you know about wheat?

The crop is the focus of the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security, an event CIMMYT is hosting in March to celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Dr. Norman Borlaug. Topics of the summit range from the history of wheat, to the work of Dr. Borlaug, to climate change and world grain policy.

Here are a few things you might not know about wheat and wheat research. Take a look and then test your knowledge by taking our wheat quiz!

CIMMYT partners to combat parasite

Written by on February 13, 2014. Posted in News.

By Brenna Goth/CIMMYT

A partnership launched on 3 February by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation and led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) will help CIMMYT and other partners to fight a parasitic plant affecting maize production.

Known locally as “witchweed,” the parasitic plant Striga spp. casts no spells but uses needle-like tendrils to suck nutrients from maize roots. The weed is prevalent in Nyanza and Western Provinces of Kenya, where it grows on some 200,000 hectares and causes crop damage worth an estimated US$ 80 million per year. Photo: CIMMYT

The three-year, performancebased grant of US$ 3 million is the largest grant awarded by Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation to date, according to an AATF press release. Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation supports projects increasing the productivity of smallholder farmers while AATF promotes sustainable agricultural technology for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The funding will help improve maize production in east Africa by “upscaling the commercialization of StrigAway^TM – an herbicidetolerant seed and treatment that controls the infestation of Striga – a parasitic weed that often results in total crop loss and even abandonment of arable land,” the press release said. Striga – commonly known as witchweed – can cause 20 to 80 percent crop loss in maize and affects 1.4 million hectares in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, according to the release.

CIMMYT helped develop the StrigAway^TM technology package along with partners including the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. An herbicide-tolerant maize variety is coated with an herbicide that kills Striga when the seed is sown and sprouts.

Other partners, including the agrochemical company BASF and six local seed companies, will promote the project in the three target countries. The project aims to create 4,000 demonstration plots and sell 1,000 metric tons of seed to 20,000 smallholder farmers. Partners will also offer technical support on how to use the seed and launch campaigns and promotion of StrigAway^TM.

Nutrient management tool wins award

Written by Sam Storr on February 12, 2014. Posted in News.

A tool developed by CIMMYT and the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) offering site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) advice to help farmers achieve higher yields more efficiently recently won an innovation award.

Nutrient Expert^TM decision support tools received the best innovation award in the information and communications technology category at the Bihar Innovation Forum II, which recognizes innovations to improve rural livelihoods in India. These tools were in development by CIMMYT and IPNI for five years and were launched in June 2013.

In South Asia, 90 percent of smallholder farmers do not have access to soil testing. The computer-based support tools aim to provide them with simple advice on how to get the most from fertilizer inputs. An IPNI study funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE CRP) Competitive Grant Initiative (CGI) found that farming practices and the resources available to farmers vary hugely in east India.

The cutting-edge value of Nutrient Expert^TM is that it offers specific information at the farm level, where it can provide the greatest benefits. Nutrient Expert^TM is especially relevant because it was developed through dialogue and participation with stakeholders, which also raises awareness and eventual adoption by users.

It is now used by the Indian National Agricultural Research System and is a key intervention used by the CRP on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) in its Climate Smart Villages. The Nutrient Expert^TM approach is also being applied to maize and wheat in other areas of Southeast Asia, China, Kenya and Zimbabwe.

Farmers tell donors they want quality protein maize

Written by on January 28, 2014. Posted in News.

By Adefris Teklewold/CIMMYT

Farmers spoke of their success with new quality protein maize (QPM) varieties to senior officials from the Canadian embassy in Ethiopia during recent visits to CIMMYT-Ethiopia sites. The visits focused on the status of the Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia project (NuME), which is funded by Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFTAD). NuME aims to reduce malnutrition and promote food security in Ethiopia through the adoption of QPM, whose grain contains almost twice the lysine and tryptophan as non-QPM maize grain.

Abebech Assefa leads a discussion after the field day and collects feedback from farmers, project partner representatives and government officials. (Photo by Adefris Teklewold/CIMMYT)

Jennifer Bloom, DFATD’s NuME project team leader and the second secretary (development) at the Embassy of Canada, and Abebech Assefa, the embassy’s team leader for Food Security and Agricultural Growth, visited farmers and learned about their feelings toward the adoption and promotion of QPM. The farmers also discussed their perspectives on the opportunities and constraints of project implementation with the Canadian representatives. Assefa, accompanied by three other embassy staff members, participated in a field day in the Meskan District of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Region of Ethiopia.

During the field day, the visiting delegation observed the performance of two QPM hybrid varieties, BHQY-545 and AMH-760Q, adapted to the area. Farmers carrying out the field demonstrations shared their reactions to the newly-introduced QPM varieties. Farmer Genet Assefa noted that her plots have showed impressive results with the QPM varieties she planted compared to other plots in the area. “All the proper agronomic activities were employed on my plot based on advice from experts,” she said, adding that “QPM should be promoted and made accessible to all farmers so that we can all ensure food and nutritional security and increase our incomes.”

Jennifer Bloom compares food prepared from QPM varieties with food prepared from conventional varieties.

Abebech Assefa led a discussion after the field day and showed appreciation for the farmers who participated in the field demonstrations. She said she was grateful for their willingness to test new QPM varieties on their farm plots and to experience the benefits of QPM in improving food and nutritional security in Ethiopia. Bloom visited several demonstration sites and tested QPM food products during a field day organized in Bure District, Amhara Regional State. She requested the farmers’ opinions about QPM technology. The majority responded that they were satisfied and specifically asked for the seed of BHQY-545 to be made available to everyone in need. Farmers said they favor BHQY-545 because it provides up to four or five cobs and matures early, and they value the BHQ-760 variety for its long cobs.

The farmers said their “most critical concern” regarding the adoption of QPM varieties was that abundant quantities of the quality seed be available at the right time. Local administration and bureau of agriculture officials, who accompanied the DFTAD delegation, expressed their commitment to providing the seed. Bloom ended her visit by thanking the officials for attending the field demonstrations and the farmers for their participation and courage in discussing the advantages of QPM varieties and their concerns about them.

Pocket sensors for precision agriculture to reach Ethiopian farmers

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

By Hae Koo Kim/CIMMYT

A new pocket-sized sensor could bring precision agriculture within reach of smallholder farmers in Ethiopia. Precision agriculture uses data from high-tech observations to assess and address crop variability and help farmers to employ their resources more effectively.

Haekoo-Kim

Crop performance readings from satellite or sensor-based technologies are used to “do the right thing, at the right place, at the right time.” Marketed by Trimble since August 2012, the GreenSeeker handheld crop sensor reads near-infrared and red light reflected from plants to measure photosynthesis rates and crop vigor. When used with the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), the readings can help farmers decide exactly how much nitrogen fertilizer to apply to get the best yields.

This is especially important in Ethiopia whose soils – like those in many parts of Africa – typically lack nitrogen, a highly mobile element whose availability is affected by rainfall and soil characteristics. At a cost of about US $500, the sensor could make precision agriculture affordable for farmers in Ethiopia. It does not have the accuracy of bigger sensors, but is less expensive and better adapted to smallholder circumstances.

Because most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa import fertilizer, this input is relatively expensive. On average, farmers in the region apply only 9 kg/ha of nitrogen fertilizer, compared to an average 100 kg/ha in South Asia or more than 70 kg/ha in Latin America. This greatly limits their crop yields. When farmers do apply fertilizer, most follow broadly-targeted application rates recommended by extension agents, rather than site- or season-specific rates that would make the best use of this costly input to raise crop yields. CIMMYT agronomists with the Nutritious Maize for Africa (NuME) project, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD, formerly CIDA) of Canada, have introduced handheld sensors in Ethiopia and are testing them with agronomists Tesfa Bogale and Feyera Merga, from the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), and Ph.D. student Tolera Abera.

Australian ambassador visits program in Ethiopia

Written by on December 10, 2013. Posted in News.

By Dagne Wegary/CIMMYT

The Australian Ambassador to Ethiopia paid her first visit to a CIMMYT program this month and commended efforts to improve livelihoods in resource-poor rural households.

On her 7 November visit, Ambassador Lisa Filipetto learned about activities under the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program, which have been implemented in different parts of Ethiopia since 2010. She visited SIMLESA sites in northwest Ethiopia, where work is conducted by the Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI). Maize-based farming in the region is characterized by unsustainable production systems, including monocropping, repeated tillage and residue removal. SIMLESA promotes new crop varieties and production practices such as intercropping, maize-legume rotations, reduced tillage and year-round residue coverage. Farmers who have traditionally monocropped maize appreciate the new practices, which help them increase harvests while replenishing soil fertility.

Australian-Ambassador-to-Ethiopia-briefed-on-the-peformances-of-SIMLESA-activties

Filipetto was accompanied by scientists from CIMMYT-Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), SIMLESA partners. Dr. Biru Yitaferu, director general of ARARI, and Likawent Yeheyis, director of livestock research for ARARI, welcomed the visiting team. Yitaferu highlighted ARARI’s managerial structure, mandates, missions and resource capacities while Yiheyis presented an overview of SIMLESA work in the region.

Presentations showcased the program’s extensive research and development activities including conservation agriculture-based exploratory trials; farmer participatory variety selection (PVS) for maize, grain legumes and forage and fodder varieties; and technology implementation in South Achefer and Jabitenan districts, which is aided by ARARI researchers and district agricultural offices.
Ambassador-Lisa-Filipetto-and-SIMLESA

Filipetto visited a SIMLESA site hub in South Achefer and saw activities of the Abchikli Farmers’ Training Center on conservation agriculture-based intercropping, as well as PVS trials with hybrid and open-pollinated maize and varieties of sweet lupine – a multi-purpose legume crop traditional in Ethiopia. Four of the sweet lupine varieties in the trials are under the final stage of evaluation for future commercial release. Yeheyis said Amhara’s agriculture bureau will include conservation agriculture, maize-legume intercropping and maize-fodder/forage relay cropping in its regular extension program. This will contribute significantly to adoption of the technologies by a wider range of farming communities in the region, according to Yeheyis.

At the end of her visit, Filipetto expressed great interest in partnering with CIMMYT to improve livelihoods in the region. SIMLESA in Ethiopia is funded by Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

Seed technologists benefit from production training

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

By Adefris Teklewold and Dagne Wegary

Developing Ethiopia’s seed sector can help bring quality protein maize (QPM) to people at risk of protein deficiencies, participants in a seed production training course learned last month. To enhance the skills of public and private seed company agronomists and seed quality inspectors, the Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project hosted a QPM seed production training course from 30 October to 1 November. With funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD) of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), NuME aims to bring QPM to farmers in the major maize-growing areas of Ethiopia. Seed sector capacity building is a key component of the project, along with advancing and sharing QPM technology.

Fikre Markos, plant health and regulatory director of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, said the seed system in Ethiopia remains underdeveloped. “The country’s seed companies are inefficient due to capacity limitations and can benefit from training for seed technologists,” he said. Nearly 40 participants – including five women – attended the training. Seed agronomists represented seven private seed companies, four public seed enterprises, and one farmer cooperative union, while seed quality inspectors were drawn from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, three regional bureaus of agriculture and three zonal seed quality laboratories. Four agricultural research institutes producing breeder, pre-basic and basic QPM seed varieties were also represented.

Jennifer Bloom, second secretary for food security and agricultural growth for DFATD, addresses the trainees.

Jennifer Bloom, second secretary for food security and agricultural growth for DFATD, opened the workshop and commended CIMMYT for bringing relevant partners to help implement NuME.

NuME Project Leader Adefris Teklewold said the project is aligned with the government of Ethiopia’s growth and transformation plan and millennium development goals. The NuME project focuses on gender parity in achieving these goals. Women are targeted in the project’s education and communication efforts to identify ways they can benefit from QPM. “The project addresses the issues of food and nutritional security and also focuses on promoting and ensuring gender balance and opportunities for women,” Teklewold said. “Through disseminating QPM technology, the project aims to support stakeholders’ efforts to challenge intra-household power imbalances.”

Presentation topics included clarifying the difference between QPM and non-QPM germplasm; QPM variety development and promotion; identification and maintenance of true-to-type varieties and parental lines; effective planning of QPM seed production; field management of seed production; post-harvest handling and marketing and principles of seed quality control and inspection. QPM contains higher levels of essential amino acids than normal maize. The QPM trait is recessive, meaning seed production requires careful quality control so the trait is not lost.

The trainers–experts drawn from CIMMYT, the Agricultural Transformation Agency of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Sasakawa Global 2000 and Ethiopian seed Enterprise – brought a wealth of information and knowledge to improve the skills of seed technologist and quality inspectors.

Participants said the training would benefit their personal careers as well as help them meet NuME’s high-quality seed production objectives. The training not only enhanced their knowledge of QPM seed technology but gave them insight into its role in food and nutrition security, they said.

Markos presented certificates to the participants and closed the training by saying the private sector is crucial for varietal development, seed production and dissemination and asked participants to use the training to improve QPM seed production and quality control in Ethiopia.

Demonstration sites showcase conservation agriculture in Ethiopia

Written by on November 28, 2013. Posted in News.

By Moti Jaleta/CIMMYT

Farmers discuss their experiences with conservation agriculture technologies. Photo: Moti Jaleta

Farmers showcased the benefits of conservation agriculture in retaining soil moisture, reducing erosion and improving organic matter during field demonstrations in Ethiopia last week. The demonstrations were hosted by the Conservation Agriculture and Smallholder Farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa (CASFESA) project in Jabitehnan and South Achefer Districts.

The project, which is funded by the European Union International Fund for Agricultural Development, aims in part to show that conservation agriculture is sustainable and profitable, through demonstrations in randomly-selected villages in several African countries. Each conservation agriculture demonstration plot in 28 villages was visited by neighboring farmers in the last two months, raising awareness about the technology. The farmers’ field day and endof- season field evaluation were held during 9-10 November for farmers hosting conservation agriculture demonstrations, as well as extension and development agents in the demonstration villages and researchers from CIMMYT and the Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute. Other attending included delegates from the Amhara Region Bureau of Agriculture, Amhara Seed Enterprise, Merkeb Multipurpose Marketing Cooperative Union, the Jabitehnan and South Achefer District Office of Agriculture and the West Gojjam Zone Administration and Agriculture Office.

Participants visit and evaluate conservation agriculture demonstration plots at Ato Hunegnaw’s farm in the Care-Gurach village of the South Achefer District, Ethiopia. Photo: Moti Jaleta

Farmers hosting demonstration plots said they saw conservation agriculture as a productivity-enhancing, labor-saving technology. Maize planted on conservation agriculture plots germinated three-to-four days earlier than that planted on conventional tillage plots. It was better anchored to the soil and resisted the wind without lodging. Intercropping cowpea with maize as a forage crop was introduced this season to reduce the pressure on the use of maize residue as livestock feed. Apart from its feed value, cowpea and maize intercropping suppressed weed germination and growth both on conventional and conservation agriculture plots.

Maize plants on both types of plots with cowpea intercropping were less dry than those on plots with only maize. Though farmers pledged to expand conservation agriculture technologies on their farms during the coming production season, they voiced concerns about the challenges of crop residue retention due to the local practice of free communal grazing on stubble after harvest. District and zonal administrators asked farmers to put community-based bylaws and enforcement mechanisms in place that restrict free grazing and livestock movements in farm plots after harvest. Participants brainstormed other solutions to facilitate the use of conservation agriculture in the region.

Trees keep Ethiopia’s wheat cool and productive

Written by on November 21, 2013. Posted in News.

By Frédéric Baudron/CIMMYT

Researchers with CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) in Ethiopia have found that use of agroforestry systems involving an indigenous tree could mitigate climate change effects in Ethiopian smallholder wheat systems. Specifically, their study showed that maximum temperatures under the canopy of Faidherbia albida, a nitrogen-fixing, acacia-like species found throughout African savannas, were constantly 4 to 5°C lower than temperatures outside the canopy.

Wheat grows under the canopy of F. albida around mid-October in Mojo area, Ethiopia.

By 2050, the maximum daily temperature in wheat-growing areas of Ethiopia is predicted to rise by 2 to 3°C. This could significantly reduce yields of wheat, a crop that accounts for 18 percent of Ethiopia’s cereal area and nearly a fifth of its cereal production. The crop is key to the food security and incomes of smallholder farmers who grow it. CIMMYT researchers are studying the effect of scattered trees that are currently common in farmers’ field.

Keeping trees in fields for the production of firewood and fencing materials is extremely common in Ethiopia. “But these trees have other functions and may positively affect the productivity of crops underneath,” said Frédéric Baudron, CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist based in Ethiopia. In addition to more wheat-friendly temperatures, the benefits of F. albida in wheat systems are manifold, according to Baudron. “Soil moisture increases greatly under the canopy, resulting in a greener wheat crop for a longer period of time,” Baudron said. “The presence of F. albida also fosters longer wheat leaf blades, a greater number of tillers per plant, longer spikes and a higher number of seeds per spike — all of which translates into higher stover and grain yields.” Moreover, the incidence of wheat diseases like fusarium wilt and head smut diminishes under the tree canopy. Trigo2

Under the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)-led project Trees4Food, funded by the Australian International Food Security Centre (AIFSC) and managed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), GCAP-Ethiopia studies interactions between food crops and various indigenous trees in wheat- and maize-based systems. In the case of F. albida, there are no tradeoffs between the provision of tree products and the crop yield underneath. Research aims to come up with management practices – such as proper fertilization rates, genotypes of crops, pruning management and tillage practices – that maximize the existing synergy.

With other tree species commonly found in Ethiopian fields (such as Acacia tortilis, Cordia africana, or Croton macrostachyus), these tradeoffs are often substantial. In that case, research aims to come up with management practices that minimize competition. The project is being implemented in Ethiopia as well as Rwanda.

Conservation agriculture demonstration plot opens in Ethiopia

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

The GCAP-Ethiopia team stands in the demonstration plot. From left to right: Yodit Kebede, Ph.D. candidate; Michael Misiko, innovation scientist; Tesfaye Shiferaw, Ph.D. candidate; Dereje Tirfessa, research assistant; Frédéric Baudron, system agronomist; Hae Koo Kim, crop physiologist; and Elias Berta, project manager. Photo: Antenane Abeiy Ejigayehu — The GCAP-Ethiopia team stands in the demonstration plot. From left to right: Yodit Kebede, Ph.D. candidate; Michael Misiko, innovation scientist; Tesfaye Shiferaw, Ph.D. candidate; Dereje Tirfessa, research assistant; Frédéric Baudron, system agronomist; Hae Koo Kim, crop physiologist;
and Elias Berta, project manager.
Photo: Antenane Abeiy Ejigayehu

By Frédéric Baudron/CIMMYT

Next time you are on the International Livestock Research Institute’s Addis Ababa campus, which hosts CIMMYT-Ethiopia, you can see the demonstration plot set up by the local Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) team.

The plot has four treatments for wheat and maize: conventional tillage and flat planting, conventional tillage and bed planting, conservation agriculture and flat planting and conservation agriculture and bed planting. A two-wheel tractor was used for tillage, bed shaping and planting. The plot will serve as a demonstration and training site for CIMMYT partners and visitors. The plot is the first demonstration site at the office since it was opened in 1987.

Visitors interested in seeing CIMMYT-promoted conservation agriculture technology in Ethiopia previously had to drive from Addis Ababa to the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) research stations at Ambo(120 km), Melkassa (106 km) or Debre Zeit (48 km).