Location: Zimbabwe

For more information, contact CIMMYT’s Zimbabwe office.

Drought- and heat-tolerant maize tackles climate change in southern Africa

Written by on November 16, 2016. Posted in Features.

Appollonia Marutsvaka and Alice Chipato of Zaka District in Zimbabwe. If widely adopted, drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties could help farmers cope with drought and heat stresses. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT — Appollonia Marutsvaka (left) and Alice Chipato of Zaka District in Zimbabwe. If widely adopted, drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties could help farmers cope with drought and heat stresses. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

HARARE (CIMMYT) — “We are no longer sure when to prepare the land for planting or when to start planting. It’s pretty much gambling with nature,” complains 62-year old Appollonia Marutsvaka of Zaka district, Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. “Most of the time the rains are not enough for crop production. If the situation persists, then most of us who have small farms will sink deeper into poverty, because we depend on agriculture for our livelihoods.”

Most farmers in Zaka argue that they only get one good harvest every five to six years. Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for smallholder farmers.

It is estimated that maize yields in Zimbabwe and South Africa’s Limpopo Province will decrease by approximately 20-50 percent between now and 2045. This predicted decline will pose a major problem, as maize is the region’s main staple food. Low yields in this region are largely associated with drought stress, low soil fertility, weeds, pests, diseases, low input availability, low input use, and inappropriate seeds.

After years of work on maize improvements projects, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), made a bigger commitment to researching, supporting and getting drought-tolerant maize into the hands of smallholder farmers. To date, with substantial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, drought-tolerant varieties have been delivered to three million farmers across Africa.

“Given the accumulating evidence of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa, there is an urgent need to develop more climate resilient maize systems. Adaptation strategies to climate change in maize systems in sub-Saharan Africa are likely to include improved seeds with tolerance to drought and heat stress and improved management practices,” says Jill Cairns, CIMMYT senior maize physiologist.

Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT senior maize breeder, with new experimental hybrid maize on display at the Chiredzi Research Station, Zimbabwe. Scientists here have developed new heat- and drought-tolerant maize varieties. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

CIMMYT, together with partners under the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), developed drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties through its breeding program in sub-Saharan Africa.

Heat tolerance was not previously a trait in African breeding programs. CGIAR Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)’s work highlighted the importance of heat tolerance in future climates, and in 2011 CIMMYT started breeding for this trait. During the past year, the El Niño induced drought has demonstrated the need for maize which is also heat-tolerant. If CIMMYT had not started working on these varieties in 2011, it would have taken until 2021 to have a drought and heat tolerant maize variety.

A recent media tour of Zaka and Chiredzi districts in Zimbabwe, where CIMMYT conducted regional on-farm variety trials for the new climate-proof seed varieties, revealed that the new drought- and heat-tolerant maize is an important way of combating climate-change induced food shortages. Research carried out by CIMMYT revealed that under experimental conditions, the new varieties doubled maize yields when compared to the yields of commercial varieties.

Smallholder farmer Marutsvaka, who participated in the on-farm variety trials, says: “In the past, I harvested nothing as my crops were literally burnt by the scorching heat. During the 2015-2016 growing season, I realized almost 200 kilograms of white grain.” One of the challenges of these new maize varieties is the time taken between testing and seed availability on the market. For example, some of these new maize varieties would only be on the market during the 2018-2019 agricultural season.

The 2014 African Agriculture Status Report states that the vital food producers face a risk of being overwhelmed by the pace and severity of climate change. The authors called for the adoption of climate-smart agriculture that will help make crops more resilient to future extreme weather events.

Appollonia Marutsvaka shows off her drought- and heat-tolerant maize cobs harvested through a CIMMYT project. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

“For our farmers to be productive and ensure food security, we need to build resilience to help them mitigate the onset of climate change,” observed Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT senior maize breeder. “We are talking about a situation when the rain does not come at the right time or the length of the [growing] season is shortened as a result of drought and other stresses, such as heat.”

He added that helping small-scale farmers adopt climate-smart farming techniques would “prepare them for even more serious challenges in the future… this means we need both to adapt agriculture to climate change and to mitigate climate change itself.’’

However, getting a new strain of maize out of the research station is not the same as getting it to the fields. Creating a distribution chain in Africa has been a bigger challenge than inventing the product itself.

Gabriel Chiduku, a sales and marketing representative for Klein Karoo, a private seed company which introduced the CIMMYT developed seed of drought-tolerant varieties to Zaka farmers, told the farmers that the seed is readily available.

With the drought- and heat-tolerant maize varieties, Zaka farmers are producing three tons per hectare of maize, up from less than a ton.

Promoting drought tolerant maize seed in southern Africa

Written by on November 2, 2016. Posted in Features.

The orange maize was showcased at a seed fair in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. In addition to high yielding, disease resistant and drought-tolerant, the maize variety reduces farmers’ vulnerability to the effects of drought and other stresses, such as heat. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.

HARARE (CIMMYT) — In its continuing efforts to increase the productivity of maize systems in southern Africa, CIMMYT held seed fairs in two districts of Zimbabwe in September to promote the sharing of information and knowledge about new seed options for farmers and to encourage farmer-to-farmer information exchange.

At the seed fairs, which are like trade fairs, farmers, seed companies, government agencies and non-governmental organizations displayed seed and technological products. The idea of the seed fairs arose out of the problem of suitable dryland crop varieties for the climate in most parts of Zimbabwe.

The main aim of the seed fairs, held in Mutoko and Murewa districts in Mashonaland East Province, was to help smallholder farmers access information that would help them make informed decisions in coping with drought and climate change adaptation. This included awareness on various drought tolerant seeds, and a new variety of nutritious pro-vitamin A maize seed available on the market. Another focus of the seed fairs was to promote good agricultural practices, including sustainable intensification practices such as conservation agriculture.

Funded by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the seed fairs were attended by more than 1,400 smallholder farmers from the two districts, eight seed companies, traditional leaders, local government officials, non-governmental organizations and policy makers, as well as CIMMYT’s regional partners from Malawi, South Africa and Zambia. Regional participation is an important component of CIMMYT’s information exchange initiative.

The seed fairs helped establish linkages among farmers, seed companies, researchers, extension agents and agro-dealers. In addition, the seed fairs provided an important avenue for stakeholders to share critical information for informed decision-making at different levels. This has boosted the farmers’ confidence and increased the sense of ownership of their own activities.

“By bringing multiple stakeholders together, the fairs helped stimulate information sharing networks that are beneficial to all stakeholders,” said Peter Setimela, CIMMYT senior seed systems specialist. He added: “Planting wrong seeds lowers harvests and threatens food and nutritional security of the smallholder farmers. In our breeding for stress tolerance, we have tested and evaluated maize varieties from different areas of Zimbabwe under local conditions, incorporated various desirable traits and developed suitable varieties for local climatic conditions.”

Mutoko and Murewa districts were selected as the first beneficiaries of this information dissemination initiative. The fairs sought to build on progress achieved in the CIMMYT on-farm trials conducted in the two districts under a different project – Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa.

Although the main focus was drought tolerant and pro-vitamin A maize, other crop seeds such as finger millet, pearl millet, sorghum, beans, Bambara nuts, pumpkin and ground nut, were also exhibited by farmers.

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) research officer Irenie Chakoma (extreme right) and CIMMYT research associate Angeline Mujeyi are inundated by requests for information from smallholder farmers at the Mutoko seed fair. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.

The farmers were given space to exhibit their own seeds. This was critical in providing an avenue for farmers to exchange seeds that are not marketed through the formal systems but which farmers like. The objective of these demonstrations was to revive local seed varieties, share information on them and acknowledge that these crops thrive in local conditions, and that they could contribute to food and nutritional security.

Mutoko smallholder farmer Anna Chirere, who actively participated in the seed fair, said: “We now know that knowledge is power. So we are going to copy this knowledge from our fellow farmers and seed houses here present.”

CIMMYT plans to make the seed fairs an annual event. This would help the farmers to continue learning from one another and enhance cooperation among the community members. Maize seed on exhibition was drought-tolerant and also included the newly released pro-vitamin A maize that is orange in color, hence the name ‘orange maize’.

In Zimbabwe, nearly one in five children under the age of five is vitamin A deficient. This deficiency can lead to lower IQ, stunting, blindness, increased susceptibility to diseases and higher health risks to mothers – and their infants – during childbirth. According to the World Bank, malnourished children are more likely to drop out of school, and have lower incomes as adults, reducing overall economic growth.

Thokhozile Ndhlela, CIMMYT maize breeder, said many people in rural Zimbabwe cannot afford expensive vitamin A-rich foods such as yellow, orange and red pigmented fruits, dark leafy vegetables, or animal products such as milk, eggs, liver and cheese.

Pro-vitamin A maize, when eaten as a staple, could provide half of the average daily requirement of vitamin A for women and children. In addition to its nutritional benefits, pro-vitamin A maize is bred to yield higher than conventional varieties and is disease resistant and drought tolerant.

Ndhlela said there were 11 varieties of the pro-vitamin A maize in southern African, six of which were already in commercial production in Zambia after a successful launch of an initial three hybrids in 2012.

About The Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). The organization also works with a wide network of ACP-EU public and private sector bodies as well as international organizations around the world. CTA’s mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and support sound natural resource management through information, communication and knowledge management, multi-stakeholder engagement, capacity-building and empowerment of agricultural and rural development organizations and networks in ACP countries.

Growing more with less: Improving productivity, resilience and sustainability in Africa

Written by on October 24, 2016. Posted in Features.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) – “Rain patterns have changed tremendously,” says Dyless Kasawala, a smallholder farmer in Kasungu district, Malawi. “It’s different from the old days when you would be sure of a great harvest after the rains.”

For more than three decades now, life has not been easy for Kasawala and thousands of other smallholder farmers in this harsh, dry environment. Kasawala’s story is common throughout eastern and southern Africa. Observations by smallholder farmers confirm scientific evidence that shows climate change is occurring at an alarming rate, and could leave 50 million people in the region hungry by 2050.

CIMMYT technician Herbert Chipara inspects maize devastated by drought in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT — CIMMYT technician Herbert Chipara inspects maize devastated by drought in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/P. Lowe

From 1900 to 2013, droughts killed close to one million people in Africa, with economic damages of about $3 billion affecting over 360 million people. Such droughts are a clear sign of the high yield variability that impedes escape from poverty and hunger for millions of Africans. Climate change could also result in a 40 percent increase in the number of malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, according to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa must become resilient to climate change effects like variable and severe drought and rainfall to ensure future food security. Practicing sustainable farming techniques can help small-scale farmers adapt to these challenges.

Across the world, more farmers are beginning to practice sustainable intensification (SI), which offers the potential to simultaneously adapt farming systems to climate change, sustainably manage land, soil, nutrient and water resources, improve food and nutrition security, and ultimately reduce rural poverty.

In practice, SI involves such conservation agriculture (CA) practices as minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and the use of crop rotation to simultaneously maintain and boost yields, increase profits and protect the environment. It contributes to improved soil function and quality, which can improve resilience to climate variability. The cropping systems CIMMYT promotes can be labelled as climate-resilient, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Husband and wife farmers Elphas Chinyanga (right) and Rita Gatsi tend their conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Pindukai village, Shamva district, Zimbabwe. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT — Husband and wife farmers Elphas Chinyanga (right) and Rita Gatsi tend their conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Pindukai village, Shamva district, Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/P. Lowe

“We received little rain this year, but we’ll still have enough food,” says Kasawala, who is participating in a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which aims to increase farm-level food security and productivity through SI.

Kasawala was one of the first farmers to practice sustainable intensification in her district in 2010. She has managed to improve soil fertility in her fields, increase her maize yield and improve her household food security.

“Farmers have a number of technological options, but ultimately they have to make informed decisions on which technologies to adopt,” said Eric Craswell, co-chair of CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project steering committee. Such farmers as Kasawala who practice CA through SIMLESA participate in on-farm trials, which compare CA to conventional farming practices, test different levels of herbicide use and maize-legume crop rotations.

Maize farmers participating in SIMLESA are increasing yields and profits through sustainable intensification by increasing rotating and intercropping their maize with legumes. Above, smallholder farmer Lughano Mwangonde and sustainable intensification farmer in her conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Balaka district, Malawi. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT — Maize farmers participating in SIMLESA are increasing yields and profits through sustainable intensification by increasing rotating and intercropping their maize with legumes. Above, smallholder farmer Lughano Mwangonde and sustainable intensification farmer in her conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Balaka district, Malawi. CIMMYT/J. Siamachira

According to SIMLESA’s project leader Mulugetta Mekuria, there is evidence that shows new drought-tolerant maize varieties when coupled with SI bring even greater benefits to farmers. For example, combining elite drought-tolerant maize with direct seeding systems can improve the performance of maize by more than 80 percent. Now, nearly 650 maize and legume varieties, approved by farmers and selected by over 40 local seed companies, are being commercially distributed in the five SIMLESA countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania).

Zero tillage – a CA practice that directly sows seeds into unplowed soil and the residues of previous crops – has helped farmers cut planting time in half, allowing them to engage in other economic activities.

“Sustainable intensification is the only option to feed the extra two billion people by 2050, when resources are limited,” said John Dixon, principal advisor/research and program manager for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)’s Cropping Systems and Economics program. ‘’Now is the time to scale-up by taking our research to farmers through extension, non-governmental organizations and farmers’ associations.”

Through 2018, CIMMYT will focus on bringing sustainable intensification to even more farmers throughout eastern and southern Africa. Collaborative work with farmers, extension agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and agribusiness is expected to improve maize and legume productivity by 30 percent and reduce expected yield risk by 30 percent in about 650,000 rural households over a period of 10 years.

CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) with strong collaboration from National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and a wide range of private, university, public sector and non-governmental organizations. It aims at increasing farm-level food security and productivity in the context of climate risk and change.

Biofortification to fight “hidden hunger” in Zimbabwe

Written by on October 14, 2016. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT and partners recently held a seed fair in Mutoko, Zimbabwe to validate CIMMYT’s drought-tolerant and nutritious seed varieties. Above, smallholder farmers showcase their indigenous seeds as part of an information and technology exchange among various stakeholders. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) – Annually, vitamin A deficiency affects between 250,000 and 500,000 vulnerable and malnourished young people with early-life blindness worldwide. Half of these people die, according to the World Health Organization. The goal of completely eradicating vitamin A deficiency – mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia – remains a big challenge.

“There is very good evidence that vitamin A deficiency leads to an impaired immune system and can even have an impact on brain development,” said Thokozile Ndhlela, a CIMMYT maize breeder in southern Africa, addressing about 1,400 people at a seed fair event in Mutoko and Murewa districts of Mashonaland East province in Zimbabwe.

“But effective science can make a huge difference by enriching staple crops such as maize with pro-vitamin A and providing subsistence farming households with nutritionally enhanced food, ” Ndhlela explained to the audience, which included smallholder farmers, private seed companies, non-governmental organization representatives, traditional leaders, members of parliament and government officials.

In Zimbabwe, nearly one in every five children under the age of 5 are Vitamin A deficient. While vitamin A is available from a variety of sources, such as yellow, orange and red pigmented fruits, dark leafy vegetables, or animal products such as milk, eggs, liver and cheese, these are often too expensive or unavailable in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, where 70 percent of the population live.

As part of efforts to address this nutritional challenge, CIMMYT and the CGIAR HarvestPlus research program are working with Zimbabwean researchers to develop maize varieties with high beta-carotene content.

“Beta-carotene, which is converted in the body to vitamin A is naturally found in maize,” said Ndhlela. Maize that is rich in beta-carotene is also orange in colour.

Since 2002, CIMMYT and CGIAR have been working on biofortification to enhance the micronutrient content of maize to support a fortification strategy launched by the Zimbabwe government in November 2015 through an agro-based initiative managed by farmers.

The improved orange maize varieties are bred to have some of the important traits such as high-yield potential, disease-resistance, and drought-tolerance, thereby reducing farmers’ vulnerability to effects of drought and other stresses, such as heat. This represents one promising strategy to enhance the availability of vitamins and minerals for people whose diets are dominated by micronutrient-poor staple food crops.

Grace Mhano, director of Afriseed Seed Company of Malawi. Her company is one of the institutions promoting provitamin A orange maize under the Malawi Improved Seed Systems and Technologies (MISST) project. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT — Grace Mhano, director of Afriseed Seed Company of Malawi. Her company is one of the institutions promoting pro-vitamin A orange maize under the Malawi Improved Seed Systems and Technologies (MISST) project. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT

Orange maize – when eaten as a porridge-like staple food known as sadza in Zimbabwe – could provide half of the average daily requirement of vitamin A for women and children. This maize is bred specifically for human consumption compared to yellow maize, which is mainly for animal feed.

“Our focus is on hidden hunger, caused by insufficient mineral and vitamins in the diet – that is the major hunger problem Zimbabwe faces today,‘’ says Tendayi Mutimukuru-Maravanyika,’’ HarvestPlus Zimbabwe country manager.

CIMMYT together with HarvestPlus, Zimbabwe’s Department of Research and Specialist Services, and other partners have released the ZS242 maize variety in Zimbabwe. An additional three hybrids are expected to be released in the country by end of October 2016. Regionally, six varieties have been released in Zambia, and four in Malawi.

Farming households have benefited from the orange maize in 13 districts: Mutare, Makoni, Mutasa, Mount Darwin, Guruve, Shurugwi, Gokwe South, Kwekwe, Mutoko, Murewa, Zaka, Bikita and Marondera. The intention is to have the production and consumption of these crops scaled up to the national level through collaboration with the private sector. In the 2015-2016 cropping season, 73 tons of orange maize seed was distributed to eight districts and about 30,000 households benefited. Out of the 13 districts, CIMMYT set up demonstration plots in five districts, of which seed fairs were held in two districts.

Demonstrations and field days are organized in various districts to create awareness, educate and train farmers on how to produce the crop and showcase good agricultural practices. “We also train partners to ensure that the product gets to the intended beneficiary, the consumer, in a way that contributes to their health,’’ said Lister Katsvairo, HarvestPlus southern Africa regional manager.

Due to a general preference for white maize, encouraging the acceptance of the orange maize variety remains a challenge often overcome when consumers taste it, according to Katsvairo. Consumers prefer the orange variety once they understand the benefits of vitamin A in their diets. In addition, people believe that yellow and orange maize are the same, but the two breeds are different in taste and colour. “They both have the same nutritional value, but orange maize contains more vitamin A compared to yellow maize, ‘’ Katsvairo said.

Douglas Makuvire, Murewa district agricultural extension officer, says most children in his area suffer from vitamin A deficiency, alluding to consumer fear of eating orange maize as a result of negative previous experiences with yellow maize, but said that efforts involve reassuring people of the nutritional benefit.

Murewa smallholder farmer, Donald Kure, 62, said he had a bad experience with yellow maize during the devastating 1992 drought when the government fed millions of people with it to avert mass starvation. “The taste was pathetic, ‘’ he recalls. Though Kure had mixed feelings about the orange maize he remained optimistic. “Maybe this orange maize variety would be different,’’ he said after tasting sadza prepared with orange maize meal at the field day.

New high-yielding maize aids smallholder farmers, helps hungry in drought-hit Africa

Written by on September 27, 2016. Posted in News.

dtmaize — Margaret holds a tiny ear of SC513 maize (R), the most popular commercial variety in southern Africa, and an improved ear of CZH13208 (L), a new CIMMYT drought-tolerant hybrid. Margaret’s grandmother participated in an on-farm trial with scientist Peter Setimela in Murewa district, 75 kilometers northeast of Zimbabwe’s capital Harare. CIMMYT/Jill Cairns

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Bigger and healthier maize is helping to counter the effects of severe drought caused by the warming effects of an El Nino weather system that has swept across southern Africa making more than 30 million people in the region dependent on food aid.

New varieties of the most important staple food crop in southern Africa, developed by scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), not only flourish in drought, but can produce bumper crops in ideal growing conditions.

“We’re targeting low-yield commercial hybrid maize varieties that smallholder farmers have relied on for more than 20 years in areas where farming is a struggle even in the good years,” said Peter Setimela, a maize seed system specialist based at CIMMYT in Harare, Zimbabwe. “Another major challenge is making farmers aware of these new high-yielding, drought-tolerant varieties and giving them the confidence to switch.”

Developing the varieties can take about six or seven years, said Setimela. “From there, you have to start promoting them.”

CIMMYT scientists demonstrate the competitive results of maize trial plantings to seed companies and non-governmental organizations throughout the region, which then sell the seed to smallholders. One of the many benefits of the drought tolerant hybrid and open–pollinated varieties, which can be recycled over several seasons, is that they also reduce what farmers spend on fertilizer and other costly inputs.

The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project started in the mid-1990s, led by Marianne Bänziger, now CIMMYT’s deputy director general.

Martin Kropff, CIMMYT’s director general, was on hand in Harare at the 50th anniversary celebrations of the organization, when some of the new varieties were launched.

“We can make a real dent in hunger with this maize, which offers a wholesome alternative to the old, scrawny commercial hybrid varieties,” Kropff said at 50th anniversary celebrations at CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City. “Once farmers see the economic and nutritional benefits of CIMMYT drought-tolerant maize, they never look back.”

Maize makes up 30 to 50 percent of low-income household expenditures in eastern and southern Africa.

Are cows the next development boom for smallholder farmers?

Written by on September 2, 2016. Posted in Blogs.

HARARE, Zimbabwe- Smallholder livestock farmers in Zimbabwe are beginning to flip every notion about the country’s industry on its head.

Dairy and beef livestock production play an important economic and nutritional role in the lives of many Zimbabwean farm households. However, rearing livestock has traditionally been expensive as livestock take a lot of space and suck up a lot of money for feed and maintenance, leaving poor farmers to rarely see a significant return on investment in these animals, let alone compete with larger livestock producers in the country.

Zimbabwe’s small-scale livestock producers face a wide range of challenges but key among these is the lack of adequate supplementary feed, particularly during the dry winter months when natural grazing pastures are dry. As a result, productivity of the animals is often very poor, and livestock producers miss out on the prospects of increasing their incomes from beef and dairy cattle production.

In addition, increasing human populations associated with expansion in arable land area continues to put pressure on pastures which continue to dwindle in both quality and area leading to insufficient grazing to sustain livestock throughout the year. Because of this and a decreasing natural resource base, farming systems are under greater pressure to provide sufficient food and to sustain farmers’ livelihoods.

In Zimbabwe’s sub-humid Mashonaland East Province, groups of innovative farmers, extension workers and experts in crop-livestock integration are making livestock sustainable and lucrative for more than 5,000 farmers who are now beginning to increase their profits – for some up to 70 percent – thanks to new efforts led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other partners. This initiative seeks to integrate crops and livestock technologies with a major focus on food, feed and soil.

Joyce Chigama, working in her mucuna field, feeds her six livestock on legume diets. Her animals gained an average of nearly one kilogram (kg) per day for 60 days, allowing her to later sell five of these livestock for USD 3,000. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT.

Together, this consortium is working with the smallholder farmers to introduce forage legumes such as mucuna and lablab using conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification practices.

With this approach, maize productivity for food security is improved through forage and pulse legume rotations under conservation agriculture while livestock benefit from feeding on increased biomass output and conserved supplementary feed prepared from the forage legumes.

Maintaining the availability of adequate feed for livestock is crucial to rural smallholders in Zimbabwe. Most smallholders could not afford to buy commercial supplements for their natural pastures, especially during the long dry winter season when livestock usually run short of feed. Also, they did not know how to produce cost-effective home-grown feeds. Thanks to this agribusiness, the farmers learned to improve on-farm fodder production.

Conservation agriculture is a cropping system based on the principles of reduced tillage, keeping crop residues retention on the soil surface, and diversification through rotation or intercropping maize with other crops. The immediate benefits of conservation agriculture are: labor and cost savings, improved soil structure and fertility, increased infiltration and water retention, less erosion and water run-off–thus contributing to adaptation to the negative effects of climate variability and change. Through improved management and use of conservation agriculture techniques maize yields were increased from the local average of 0.8 tons per hectare to over 2.5 tons per hectare depending on rainfall and initial soil fertility status.

Mucuna (also known as velvet bean), is well-adapted to the weather conditions in Zimbabwe and can grow with an annual rainfall of 300 mm over four to six months. Growing this cover crop is an agroecological practice that helps farmers address many problems such as poor access to inputs, soil erosion and vulnerability to climate change.

Ben Makono (left) has fed his cattle a legume-based diet and seen their selling price rise by an average of USD 200 per cow. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT.

In addition, mucuna’s high biomass yield also smothers weeds so farmers do not have to spend time weeding. Mucuna also improves soil by fixing up to 170 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare and producing up to 200 kilograms of nitrogen from its residues. Moreover, the biomass produced effectively controls wind and water erosion.

Under the conservation agriculture systems employed here, cattle are used for reduced tillage using an animal drawn direct seeder or rippers in the cereal-legume production systems. Cattle manure is also used for fertilization. In turn, cattle benefit from the system through fattening on home formulated mucuna-based diets and feeding on crop residues.

Since 2012, smallholder farmers have received training and technical assistance on improved agricultural and animal husbandry practices for animal breeding, animal health and nutrition, fodder production and herd management. For example, farmers have learned to prepare nutritious feed rations for their livestock using locally available resources such as molasses and maize residues. As a result of these newly acquired skills, farmers have been better able to adapt to the severe drought currently affecting much of southern Africa.

As part of strengthening the project’s multi-stakeholder platform, a workshop was recently held at CIMMYT’s southern Africa regional office in Harare, Zimbabwe. The meeting brought together 40 participants including farmers and personnel from non-governmental organizations, the government and the private sector. The workshop sought to further enhance crop-livestock integration through facilitating agribusiness deals between the private sector and farmers. Farmers clinched a contract farming agribusiness deal with Capstone Seed Company to supply lablab seed. This means farmers have a guaranteed market for their lablab seed.

Makera Cattle Company also offered opportunities to farmers to improve their cattle breeds through crossing their local breeds with pedigree bulls. They agreed to supply bulls as breeding stock to interested farmers on a loan scheme.

Theresa Gandazha is a smallholder dairy farmer whose first cow produced about 12 liters of milk per dayThe high cost of feed resulted in her barely breaking even when she sold the milk she produced. However, after adopting a legume-based diet for her cow, she has witnessed a dramatic increase in her income due to significantly reduced feed costs. The cow’s milk has increased its yield to 16 liters per day, earning Gandazha nearly USD 130 per month. Photo: Lovemore Gwiriri/ILRI — Theresa Gandazha is a smallholder dairy farmer whose first cow produced about 12 liters of milk per day. After adopting a legume-based diet for her cow, she has witnessed a dramatic increase in her income due to significantly reduced feed costs. The cow’s milk has increased its yield to 16 liters per day, earning Gandazha nearly $130 per month. Photo: Lovemore Gwiriri/ILRI

Thanks to the spread of the crop-livestock project, Zimbabwean farmers are now able to engage in new market opportunities and improve their incomes by increasing crop and livestock productivity at a sustainable, affordable rate.

By focusing on a commercial approach, the project is ensuring long-term sustainability of the dramatic income increases and other benefits that the farmers have already witnessed. Helping farmers improve their productivity and living standards is an important first step, but the project also has to make sure the farmers have access to reliable markets.

CIMMYT’s Integrating Crops and Livestock for Improved Food Security and Livelihoods in Rural Zimbabwe (ZimCLIFs) project is working with more than 5,000 smallholder farmers to introduce fodder production. ZimCLIFs is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) as the lead agency, in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Ecosystem Sciences, the University of Queensland, the Community Technology Development Organization (CTDO), the Cluster Agricultural Development Services (CADS) and the government of Zimbabwe. It seeks to strengthen potential synergies offered by crop-livestock integrated farming systems.

Building a sustainable future: A history of conservation agriculture in southern Africa

Written by on June 23, 2016. Posted in News.

This story is one of a series of features written during CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary year to highlight significant advancements in maize and wheat research between 1966 and 2016.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) — When practiced unsustainably, agriculture has led to environmental degradation and famine, which have plagued civilizations through the centuries. Innovations such as irrigation or the plow (since circa 6,000 and 3,000 BC) increased productivity, but often deteriorated long-term soil fertility through erosion and other forms of degradation.

We are now facing historically unprecedented challenges to food security. We must increase food production by 70 percent to feed nine billion people by 2050, without damaging our finite and often already degraded natural resource base. In addition, farmers face more frequent drought and water scarcity, which makes it increasingly difficult to grow crops, and extreme weather events such as the 2015-2016 El Niño, which has already caused large-scale crop failures and soaring maize prices in southern Africa.

Conservation agriculture (CA) practices based on the principles of minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation are helping farmers combat growing environmental challenges by maintaining and boosting yields, while protecting the environment and increasing profits for smallholders globally. When CA practices are coupled with water-use efficient and drought tolerant varieties, the benefits are even greater.

Drought is increasingly common in Malawi, leaving an estimated three million people in need of urgent humanitarian food assistance this year alone. However, a fortunate few will escape hunger, including more than 400 farmers and their families in Balaka, southern Malawi, who have been practicing CA over the last 12 years. "Few farmers have livestock in Balaka, so crop residues can be kept on the fields instead of feeding them to cattle," according to Thierfelder, who says Malawi presents a good case for conservation agriculture. CIMMYT and its strategic development partner Total LandCare have helped more than 65,000 farmers adopt CA systems throughout the entire country. Above, SIMLESA lead farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize ears on her farm in Tembwe, Salima District, Malawi. Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT — Drought is increasingly common in Malawi, leaving an estimated 3 million people in need of urgent humanitarian food assistance this year alone. However, more than 400 farmers and their families in Balaka, southern Malawi, who have been practicing CA over the last 12 years will escape hunger. CIMMYT and its partner Total LandCare have helped more than 65,000 farmers adopt CA systems throughout the entire country. Above, SIMLESA lead farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize ears on her farm in Tembwe, Salima District, Malawi. Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT

“CA approaches can mean the difference between farmers being able to feed their families or having to starve,” says Christian Thierfelder, senior cropping systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), regarding the recent El Niño – the strongest on record – in southern Africa. To date, approximately 10 million people in southern Africa are dependent on food aid and an estimated 50 million people are projected to be affected, pushing them to the brink of starvation.

Sustainable intensification of agricultural systems and practices such as CA have become a necessity for farmers in Africa, where a combination of climate change and unsustainable agricultural practices are undermining land and water resources. This, coupled with an exploding population, makes increasing productivity while conserving the environment absolutely urgent.

Based on its experience in Latin America, which began in the early 1990s, CIMMYT started its first CA project in Africa in 2004, targeting Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. This initial work focused on understanding CA systems in the context of farmers and their environmental conditions and was funded by the German government and the International Fund for Agriculture Development. Its aim was to facilitate the adoption of CA systems by smallholder farmers. This culminated in the establishment in 2009 of a large PAN-African project on Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA).

Farmers in Shamva District, Zimbabwe, are introduced to an animal traction direct seeder which allows seeding and fertilizing directly into crop residues with minimum soil disturbance. Labor-saving sowing systems are a key benefit for labor-constrained farmers and provide an entry point for CA adoption and outscaling. Photo: Thierfelder/CIMMYT — Farmers in Shamva District, Zimbabwe, are introduced to an animal traction direct seeder which allows seeding and fertilizing directly into crop residues with minimum soil disturbance. Photo: Thierfelder/CIMMYT

Since then, CIMMYT has leveraged its large network of partners to scale out CA. Between 2010 and 2015, CIMMYT, supported by a large group of donors including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the United States Agency for International Development and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, helped over 173,000 farming households in the region adopt sustainable intensification practices.

Today, CA research at CIMMYT in Africa is increasingly focused on adaptation to the changing climate, which is leading to more erratic rainfall, increased heat stress and seasonal dry spells, in an effort to increase the use of climate-resilient cropping systems. CIMMYT’s work on CA in the region has shown that the practice can significantly increase farmers’ resilience to climate variability and change. Combining sustainable intensification practices with improved varieties has proved to increase productivity by 30-60 percent and income by 40-100 percent under drought conditions.

Despite CA’s successes, many smallholder farmers in developing countries still lack knowledge and understanding of sustainable agricultural practices and often revert to traditional farming practices that are labor-intensive and environmentally damaging. Also, CA systems are difficult to scale out if favorable policies and markets are not in place.

Araujo Njambo (right), a smallholder maize farmer in Mozambique, was used to the traditional way of farming that his family has practiced for generations, which required clearing a plot of land and burning all plant residues remaining on the soil to get a clean seedbed. However, as demand for land increases, this fuels deforestation and depletes soil nutrients. CIMMYT has been working with farmers like Njambo since 2006 to adapt sustainable intensification practices like CA to his circumstances. In remote areas of Mozambique, where Njambo’s farm is located, CA systems provide significant benefits during dry spells because farmers have no access to irrigation and depend only on rainfall. In the 2013-2014 cropping season, Njambo harvested his best maize yield in the last six years thanks to CA. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT — Araujo Njambo (right), a smallholder maize farmer in Mozambique, was used to the traditional way of farming that his family has practiced for generations, which required clearing a plot of land and burning all plant residues remaining on the soil to get a clean seedbed. However, as demand for land increases, this fuels deforestation and depletes soil nutrients. CIMMYT has been working with farmers like Njambo since 2006 to adapt sustainable intensification practices like CA to his circumstances. In the 2013-2014 cropping season, Njambo harvested his best maize yield in the last six years thanks to CA. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT

Mineral fertilizer, for example, is a basic agricultural input, but its adoption and use remain limited in sub-Saharan Africa. Farmers apply less than 10 kilograms per hectare on average due mainly to poor distribution networks (especially in rural areas) and high prices that are 3-5 times those in Europe. Lack of knowledge and training on how to use mineral fertilizer and other agricultural inputs renders them ineffective.

New discoveries in agriculture and breeding must be adaptable and transferable to smallholder farmers. This means improving physical distribution of technologies, training, knowledge and information sharing, credit availability and creating enabling environments for growth.

Just before passing away in September 2009, world-renowned agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug famously implored the world to “take it to the farmer” – a call to action we must follow if we are to sustainably feed the world by 2050. Without a basic understanding of good agricultural practices, most smallholder farmers will not be able to grow enough crops to move past subsistence farming.

Grain yield from a conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Zomba District, Malawi, is measured precisely as part of CIMMYT’s research on the combined benefits of drought tolerant maize and CA. Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT

Some of the thousands of samples that make up the maize collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center at CIMMYT's global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)

From A to Z: Developing nutritious maize and wheat at CIMMYT for 50 years

Written by on June 5, 2016. Posted in Features.

This story is one of a series of features written during CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary year to highlight significant advancements in maize and wheat research between 1966 and 2016.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Maize and wheat biofortification can help reduce malnutrition in regions where nutritional options are unavailable, limited or unaffordable, but must be combined with education to be most effective, particularly as climate change jeopardizes food security, according to researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Climate change could kill more than half a million adults in 2050 due to changes in diets and bodyweight from reduced crop productivity, a new report from the University of Oxford states. Projected improvement in food availability for a growing population could be cut by about a third, leading to average per-person reductions in food availability of 3.2 percent, reductions in fruit and vegetable intake of 4 percent and red meat consumption of .07 percent, according to the report.

Over the past 50 years since CIMMYT was founded in 1966, various research activities have been undertaken to boost protein quality and micronutrient levels in maize and wheat to help improve nutrition in poor communities, which the Oxford report estimates will be hardest hit by climate change. As one measure of CIMMYT’s success, scientists Evangelina Villegas and Surinder Vasal were recognized with the prestigious World Food Prize in 2000 for their work developing quality protein maize (QPM).

“We’ve got a lot of balls in the air to tackle the ongoing food security crisis and anticipate future needs as the population grows and the climate changes unpredictably,” said Natalia Palacios, head of maize quality, adding that a key component of current research is the strategic use of genetic resources held in the CIMMYT gene bank.

“CIMMYT’s contribution to boosting the nutritional value of maize and wheat is hugely significant for people who have access to these grains, but very little dietary diversity otherwise. Undernourishment is epidemic in parts of the world and it’s vital that we tackle the problem by biofortifying crops and including nutrition in sustainable intensification interventions.”

Undernourishment affects some 795 million people worldwide – meaning that more than one out of every nine people do not get enough food to lead a healthy, active lifestyle, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). By 2050, reduced fruit and vegetable intake could cause twice as many deaths as under-nutrition, according to the Oxford report, which was produced by the university’s Future of Food Programme.

As staple foods, maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to one-quarter of the world’s daily energy intake, and contributing 27 percent of the total calories in the diets of people living in developing countries, according to FAO.

“Nutrition is very complex and in addition to deploying scientific methods such as biofortification to develop nutritious crops, we try and serve an educational role, helping people understand how best to prepare certain foods to gain the most value,” Palacios said. “Sometimes communities have access to nutritious food but they don’t know how to prepare it without killing the nutrients.”

The value of biofortified crops is high in rural areas where people have vegetables for a few months, but must rely solely on maize for the rest of the year, she added, explaining that fortified flour and food may be more easily accessed in urban areas where there are more dietary options.

PROMOTING PROTEIN QUALITY

Conventional maize varieties cannot provide an adequate balance of amino acids for people with diets dominated by the grain and with no adequate alternative source of protein. Since the breakthrough findings of Villegas and Vasal, in some areas scientists now develop QPM, which offers an inexpensive alternative for smallholder farmers.

CIMMYT scientists also develop QPM and other nutritious conventionally bred maize varieties for the Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project funded by the government of Canada. NuME, which also helps farmers improve agricultural techniques by encouraging the deployment of improved agronomic practices, builds on a former seven-year collaborative QPM effort with partners in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

In Ethiopia, where average life expectancy is 56 years of age, the food security situation is critical due in part to drought caused by a recent El Nino climate system, according to the U.N. World Food Programme. More than 8 million people out of a population of 90 million people are in need of food assistance. Almost 30 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line, 40 percent of children under the age of 5 are stunted, 9 percent are acutely malnourished and 25 percent are underweight, according to the 2014 Ethiopia Mini Demographic and Health Survey. The NuMe project is helping to shore up sustainable food supplies and boost nutrition in the country, where the vast majority of people live in rural areas and are engaged in rain-fed subsistence agriculture.

INCREASING MICRONUTRIENTS

CIMMYT maize and wheat scientists tackle micronutrient deficiency, or “hidden hunger,” through the interdisciplinary, collaborative program HarvestPlus, which was launched in 2003 and is now part of the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health program managed by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers.

Some 2 billion people around the world suffer from micronutrient deficiency, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Micronutrient deficiency occurs when food does not provide enough vitamins and minerals. South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are most affected by hidden hunger, which is characterized by iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin A and zinc deficiency.

Work at CIMMYT to combat micronutrient deficiency is aligned with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) — in particular Goal 2, which aims to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030. The SDG also aims to meet internationally agreed targets on stunting and wasting in children under 5 years of age, and to address the nutritional needs of adolescent girls, older people, pregnant and lactating women by 2025.

WHOLESOME WHEAT

The wheat component of the HarvestPlus program involves developing and distributing wheat varieties with high zinc levels by introducing genetic diversity from wild species and landraces into adapted wheat.

Zinc deficiency affects about one-third of the world’s population, causing lower respiratory tract infections, malaria, diarrheal disease, hypogonadism, impaired immune function, skin disorders, cognitive dysfunction, and anorexia, according to the WHO, which attributes about 800,000 deaths worldwide each year to zinc deficiency. Additionally, worldwide, approximately 165 million children under five years of age are stunted due to zinc deficiency.

A project to develop superior wheat lines combining higher yield and high zinc concentrations in collaboration with national agriculture program partners in South Asia has led to new biofortified varieties 20 to 40 percent superior in grain zinc concentration.

“We’re playing a vital role in this area,” said CIMMYT wheat breeder Velu Govindan. “Our research has led to new varieties agronomically equal to, or superior to, other popular wheat cultivars with grain yield potential at par or — in some cases – even superior to popular wheat varieties adopted by smallholder farmers in South Asia where we’ve been focused.”

Scientists are studying the potential impact of climate-change related warmer temperatures and erratic rainfall on the nutritional value of wheat. An evaluation of the effect of water and heat stress with a particular focus on grain protein content, zinc and iron concentrations revealed that protein and zinc concentrations increased in water and heat-stressed environments, while zinc and iron yield was higher in non-stressed conditions.

“The results of our study suggest that genetic gains in yield potential of modern wheat varieties have tended to reduce grain zinc levels,” Govindan said. “In some instances, environmental variability might influence the extent to which this effect manifests itself, a key finding as we work toward finding solutions to the potential impact of climate change on food and nutrition security.”

Additionally, a recent HarvestPlus study revealed that modern genomic tools such as genomic selection hold great potential for biofortification breeding to enhance zinc concentrations in wheat.

IMPROVING MAIZE

Scientists working with HarvestPlus have developed vitamin A-enriched “orange” maize. Orange maize is conventionally bred to provide higher levels of pro-vitamin A carotenoids, a natural plant pigment found in such orange foods as mangoes, carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, dark leafy greens and meat, converted into vitamin A by the body.

Vitamin A is essential for good eyesight, growth and boosting immunity. Almost 200 million children under the age of 5 and 19 million pregnant women are vitamin A deficient, and increasing levels through maize kernels is an effective means of boosting it in the diet.

Maize breeders, who are currently working on developing varieties with 50 percent more pro-vitamin A than the first commercialized varieties released, identified germplasm with the highest amounts of carotenoids to develop the varieties. In Zambia, Zimbawe and Malawi, 12 varieties, which are agronomically competititve and have about 8ppm provitamin A, have been released.

Provitamin A from maize is efficiently absorbed and converted into vitamin A in the body. Stores of Vitamin A in 5 to 7 year old children improved when they ate orange maize, according to HarvestPlus research. The study also shows preliminary data demonstrating that children who ate orange maize for six months experienced an improved capacity of the eye to adjust to dim light. The findings indicate an improvement in night vision, a function dependent on adequate levels of vitamin A in the body.

Researchers are also developing maize varieties high in zinc.

Efforts on this front have been a major focus in Latin America, especially in Nicaragua, Guatemala and Colombia. Scientists expect the first wave of high zinc hybrids and varieties will be released in 2017. Further efforts are starting in such countries as Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Results from the first nutrition studies in young rural Zambian children indicate that biofortified maize can meet zinc requirements and provide an effective dietary alternative to regular maize for the vulnerable population.

African ambassadors to Zimbabwe support improved agriculture technologies

Written by on May 30, 2016. Posted in News.

HARARE — Several African nation ambassadors to Zimbabwe pledged to step up support for improved agriculture technologies during a visit to The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) Southern Africa Regional Office (CIMMYT-SARO) in Harare, Zimbabwe, in April.

The special field day and meeting, held as part of CIMMYT 50 celebrations, gave ambassadors from 12 African countries (Algeria, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Namibia, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia) the opportunity to learn about CIMMYT projects that are helping to strengthen food systems in sub-Saharan Africa and discuss future initiatives.

During the visit, the need to develop policies that promote smallholder farmers’ access to technologies that enable them to increase yields and improve crop resilience in the face of challenges such as droughts, as well as policies to address poverty, food security and economic growth surfaced as main priorities for the countries represented.

African ambassadors learned about CIMMYT-promoted agricultural technologies while visiting the CIMMYT-Southern Africa Regional Office (CIMMYT-SARO) in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT

In his welcome address, Mulugetta Mekuria, CIMMYT-SARO regional representative, pointed out, “Sub-Saharan Africa’s food security faces numerous challenges, but drought is the most devastating because our farmers rely on rainfed agriculture. As you will see, CIMMYT’s work has created high-level impacts. But a host of challenges still hamper socioeconomic growth, such as reduced funding of agricultural research.”

According to Mekuria, CIMMYT’s work in sub-Saharan Africa aims to ensure farmers can access improved maize seed with drought tolerance and other relevant traits that contribute to higher, more stable yields, as well as technologies such as optimal fertilizer application. He noted that farmers in sub-Saharan African countries lag behind other regions in fertilizer application, applying, on average, less than 10 kg per hectare, which is 10 percent of the world average.

Another issue brought up was the lack of funding of agricultural research for development by most bilateral agencies on which African governments depend. The diplomats pledged to advise their governments of the need to increase support for improved agricultural technologies. They agreed that funding agricultural research work in line with the 2006 Abuja Declaration to allocate at least 1 percent of the donor country’s gross domestic product to agricultural research is of the utmost importance. Enhancing access to markets, extension services and inputs and supporting women and youth in agriculture were also identified as fundamental policy issues that need to be urgently addressed. Strong partnerships and collaborative efforts between various African governments, CIMMYT and the private sector were also called for.

The ambassadors were briefed on CIMMYT’s achievements in the region, and how, in partnership with national agricultural research systems and private seed companies, they have released more than 200 drought-tolerant maize varieties that perform significantly better under moderate drought conditions than varieties already on the market, while yielding the same – or better – in a normal season. More than 6 million farmers in sub-Saharan Africa grow improved drought tolerant maize varieties developed by CIMMYT and partners.

A wide range of CIMMYT-SARO technologies were also showcased, including sustainable intensification strategies based on the principles of conservation agriculture. Compared to conventional cropping practices, conservation agriculture increases yields after two to five cropping seasons due to the combined benefits of minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotation. Conservation agriculture has been successfully promoted in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe for the past 10 years. For example, yield increases of 20-60 percent were recorded in trials in farmers’ fields in Malawi, while in Zambia and Zimbabwe, yields increased by almost 60% using animal traction innovation agriculture technologies.

Other technologies demonstrated were pro-vitamin A maize and quality protein maize. The diplomats learned that CIMMYT had released eight pro-vitamin A hybrids with 28% more vitamin A content in Zambia (4), Malawi (3) and Zimbabwe (1). On improved varieties, CIMMYT sent 823 seed shipments (1.3 million envelopes) to 835 institutions worldwide over the last four years.

“The success of our projects goes beyond the breeding work. Through the value chain approach, our work now is to ensure that seed companies and, ultimately, maize farmers benefit from the seed that is developed with their needs in mind. Getting drought-tolerant maize and other improved seeds to the markets and farmers is a critical next step,” said James Gethi, CIMMYT seed systems specialist.

Harnessing maize biodiversity for food security, improved livelihoods in Africa

Written by on May 20, 2016. Posted in Features.

HARARE (CIMMYT) — As CIMMYT joins the world in celebrating the International Day for Biological Diversity on 22 May, it can take pride in the diverse maize varieties it develops which have improved the livelihoods and health of smallholder farmers globally.

These varieties have brought tremendous benefits to smallholders in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Over 90 percent of agricultural production in SSA is rainfed, which puts farmers at risk for drought and heat in addition to the poor soil fertility, pests and diseases they face. Drought alone damages about 40 percent of all maize crops in SSA, endangering the livelihoods and food security of millions of smallholder farmers.

Stress tolerant maize not only reduces risks for farmers in the face of unpredictable environmental and biological conditions, it also allows more stable crop production. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) breeds high-yielding, locally-adapted maize varieties with farmer-preferred traits such as drought tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency, and disease and insect pest resistance. Many of these varieties also have increased nutritional traits such as high protein quality and increased provitamin A content, which help increase children’s weight and height growth rates and reduce childhood blindness.

“Since working with CIMMYT, we have unlocked our production potential, ‘’ said Sylvia Horemans, Marketing Director of Zambian-based Kamano Seeds. Since its establishment in 2012, Kamano Seeds has benefitted from CIMMYT to strengthen its work in maize breeding besides technical support on maize seed production and marketing. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT — “Since working with CIMMYT, we have unlocked our production potential,” says Sylvia Horemans, marketing director of Zambia-based Kamano Seeds. Since 2012 Kamano Seeds has benefitted from CIMMYT to strengthen its work in maize breeding, seed production and marketing. Photo: CIMMYT

“Increasing adoption of these stress tolerant maize varieties is helping African farmers cope with drought and climate change, improve yields at household level and thereby enhance the livelihoods and food security of tens of millions of farmers,” said Cosmos Magorokosho, CIMMYT-Southern Africa maize breeder.

These drought-tolerant varieties have proven resistant despite harsh conditions brought on in southern Africa by an intense El Niño, according to Magorokosho. “Significant impacts have been observed in plots of smallholder farmers who grow these varieties.”

In 2014, over 54,000 metric tons of certified seed of the stress tolerant maize varieties were produced and delivered by partner seed companies for planting by smallholders. By the end of that year, more than five million smallholders had planted the improved drought tolerant varieties on over two million hectares, benefiting more than 40 million people in 13 countries in SSA.

Today, there are more than 200 stress tolerant maize varieties that yield the same or more than commercial varieties under average rainfall, and more importantly, produce up to 30 percent more than commercial varieties under moderate drought conditions. Armed with these improved varieties, CIMMYT is assuming a greater role to ensure stress tolerant maize reaches nearly five and a half million smallholder households in SSA by the end of 2019.

“The rain is very little here, but even with a little rain, this seed does well,” says a smallholder farmer Philip Ngolania, in south-central Kenya, referring to a drought-tolerant maize variety he planted during the 2015 crop season. “Without this seed, I would have nothing. Nothing, like my neighbours who did not use the variety." Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT — “Even with a little rain, this seed does well,” says a smallholder farmer Philip Ngolania, in south-central Kenya, referring to a drought-tolerant maize variety he planted during the 2015 crop season. “Without this seed, I would have nothing. Nothing, like my neighbours who did not use the variety.” Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT

“In close collaboration with our partners, we were able to create excitement about what can be achieved with drought tolerant maize in Africa,” said Tsedeke Abate, leader of CIMMYT’s Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa project. CIMMYT is working with national agricultural research systems, international research centers, and other development programs to disseminate improved maize seed to smallholder farmers in SSA through small-and medium-sized seed companies.

“The work we have undertaken on drought tolerant maize has created significant impacts. However, several challenges still remain,” cautioned B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE. One of these challenges is maize lethal necrosis (MLN), which emerged in Kenya in 2011 and has since devastated maize crops across East Africa. CIMMYT is working to generate improved stress tolerant maize varieties with resistance to MLN and other major diseases.

Maize production in Africa is growing rapidly, making maize the most widely cultivated crop on the continent, and the staple food of more than 300 million people. Providing farmers with diverse, improved seed choices will thus strengthen food security, health and livelihoods in SSA.

SIMLESA meeting reveals many successes, gears up for phase II

Written by on April 29, 2016. Posted in News.

Malawian smallholder farmer Dyless Kasawala, of Kasungu District, demonstrating her maize-legume rotations technologies. Through SIMLESA, she has managed to attain household food security in an area plagued by frequent droughts. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT. — Malawian smallholder farmer Dyless Kasawala of Kasungu District demonstrates her maize-legume rotation technologies. Through SIMLESA, she has managed to attain household food security in an area plagued by frequent droughts. CIMMYT/Johnson Siamachira

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) — A recent gathering of more than 60 researchers and representatives of donors, seed companies, national agricultural research systems (NARS), and non-governmental organizations from Africa and Australia, led to strategic discussions about the Sustainable Intensification of Maize and Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program.

Delegates gathered in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe, for the sixth SIMLESA annual review and planning meeting to discuss the project’s progress and achievements, share lessons learned over the past six years, and deliberate over potential improvements for implementing activities in the project’s final two years.

“The SIMLESA project has targeted increasing farm-level food security and productivity in the context of climate risk and change,” said Bright Kumwembe, principal secretary of Malawi’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, speaking on behalf of the minister. “The program has become a model to many regional and sub-regional collaborative projects that address agricultural intensification. In this respect, the challenge to NARS lies especially in developing technologies, information and knowledge that sustainably increase agricultural productivity and at the same time reduce down-side risks.”

As part of the meeting, participants visited three farmers in Kasungu District who are involved in on-farm trials assessing conventional farming practices, conservation agriculture with no herbicide application, conservation agriculture using herbicides and conservation agriculture including maize-legume crop rotations. Farmer Dyless Kasawala, was observed to have managed to improve soil fertility in her fields, increase her maize yield and improve food security in her household.

Farmers in the area are engaging in agro-processing activities, such as extracting oil from groundnuts, to add value to their farming enterprises.

Established in 2010 and funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), SIMLESA has as its primary objective to improve food security for 650,000 small farming households by increasing food production and incomes of vulnerable farmers with commercial viability by 2023. Ongoing SIMLESA Phase II activities will conclude in June 2018.

“The Program Steering Committee (PSC) recognizes the hard work of all participants and especially the dedicated scientists in the national programs. SIMLESA is on track to deliver significant impacts in the next two years, “said Eric Craswell, committee co-chair.

Delegates discussed the favorable Mid-Term Review (MTR) conducted last year. “SIMLESA I and II is a complex program with many partner countries, agencies, science disciplines, and objectives. Despite that complexity, the MTR found the program on the whole to be well-managed by CIMMYT, and the NARS partners had a strong sense of ownership of the program. It was very evident that the whole SIMLESA team is determined to meet the objectives of the program, to contribute and to work as a team,” Craswell said.

Mulugetta Mekuria, SIMLESA project leader, highlighted the 2015 MTR recommendations, which indicate that SIMLESA should rebalance plans and activities of all program objectives and various program-wide themes; ensure that the science which underpins the development of sustainable intensification packages and policy dialogue is completed and published in extension reports and peer-reviewed literature; and refocus its monitoring and evaluation processes, communication plans and gender activities.

To achieve these changes, each country and the program as a whole should prepare, within the approved budget, a revised work plan extending to the end of SIMLESA II. The program would then be able to make an informed decision on what to prioritize and what needs to be phased out, Mekuria said.

Participants discussed key issues in phase II, related to MTR recommendations, concluding that the goals should include:

consolidating activities during the 2016-2018 period, with no new activities implemented during the remaining life of the program
documenting scientific outputs for all the research conducted and synthesize the lessons learned
streamlining logframe activities and developing a revised work plan
scaling-out available technologies in collaboration with partners; and
redesigning the project’s livestock component to align it with SIMLESA objectives.

SIMLESA Program Steering Committee co-chair Eric Craswell told participants to refocus their work through scaling up activities. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT. — SIMLESA program steering committee co-chair Eric Craswell told participants to refocus their work through scaling up activities. CIMMYT/Johnson Siamachira

John Dixon, ACIAR principal advisor/research program manager, cropping systems and economics, said the 2015 SIMLESA review had highlighted the commitment to the program by national partners.

“This gives us the opportunity to rebalance plans, focus on areas that can be brought together and synthesize results,” Dixon said. “Now is the time to scale-up by taking our research to farmers through extension, non-governmental organizations and farmers’ associations – moving from doing, to handing over the research.”

CIMMYT kicks off 50th anniversary celebrations in southern Africa

Written by on April 26, 2016. Posted in News.

Celebrating “CIMMYT 50” in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT.

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) — Improved maize varieties, crop management practices and sustainable intensification characterize valuable contributions made by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) over the past 50 years, said a Zimbabwe government official at recent anniversary celebrations, calling for renewed investments in agricultural development in the country.

CIMMYT-Southern Africa maize breeder Cosmos Magorokosho, showcasing CIMMYT's work as part of CIMMYT50 commemorations. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT. — CIMMYT-Southern Africa maize breeder Cosmos Magorokosho, showcasing CIMMYT’s work as part of CIMMYT50 commemorations. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT.

Under the theme ‘’turning research into impact,’’ the April 11 celebrations at the CIMMYT-Southern Africa Regional Office in Harare were attended by more than 300 people, including members of CIMMYT’s board of trustees, donors, representatives from non-governmental organizations, research institutions, national agricultural research systems from eastern and southern Africa, the diplomatic community, farmer associations and seed companies.

“I’d like to highlight the long-standing partnership between CIMMYT and its African partners and the efforts being made to sustainably increase the productivity of maize-based systems to ensure food and nutritional security, increase household incomes and reduce poverty in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Joseph Made, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, during a speech.

During the “CIMMYT 50” event, the world’s leading research center on maize and wheat showcased its work by conducting an on-station tour, a field trip to observe crop-livestock integration activities and a visit to the maize lethal necrosis quarantine facility being established in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe's Minister of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development, addresses the CIMMYT50 commemoration in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT. — Zimbabwe’s Minister of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development, addresses the CIMMYT50 commemoration in Harare, Zimbabwe. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT.

Made acknowledged that CIMMYT’s research work has resulted in the development of hundreds of improved maize varieties and crop management practices and more recently, sustainable intensification options that are now spreading through the region.

However, Made also emphasized the need for continued investment “in view of the ever-growing population and the adverse effects of climate change and variability.”

“What is currently happening is that governments are preoccupied with short-term problems at the expense of long-term problems,” said Martin Kropff, CIMMYT’s director general, citing new challenges, such as climate change, that are shifting or shortening growing seasons, resulting in irregular rainfall and weather patterns.

“Such challenges can be overcome partly by giving farmers early warning, especially via mobile phone, of the coming season’s expected weather, and improved seed to withstand drought, heat, floods and short growing seasons,” Kropff said, adding that 40 percent of CIMMYT’s activities take place in Africa.

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff celebrating 50 years of CIMMYT at the organization’s Southern Africa Regional Office. Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT.

Extensive research activities take place in Harare, other substations and on-farm trials.

From 2007 to 2014, over 200 unique drought-tolerant and nutrient use-efficient maize varieties were released through more than 100 private sector companies in 14 African countries.

In 2014 alone, CIMMYT supported the production of nearly 52,000 tons of certified drought-tolerant maize seed, enough to plant over 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) and touch the lives of people in approximately 5.2 million households.

CIMMYT continues to make an impact in Africa by building the capacity of national institutions, enterprises, researchers and farmers, and ensuring that gender and culture are integrated in every intervention.

The main “CIMMYT 50” celebratory commemorative event will be held in Mexico City from September 27 to 29 2016.

Millions of smallholders in Africa benefit from climate resilient drought-tolerant maize

Written by on April 21, 2016. Posted in Features.

Traditional maize storage in Tete province in Mozambique, April 27, 2015. CIMMYT/Tsedeke Abate

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – At least 40 million smallholder farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa are profiting from more than 200 new drought-tolerant varieties of maize produced as part of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project, according to scientists at the Center for International Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT).

The project, underway between 2007 and 2015, led to the development of varieties with traits preferred by farmers that have successfully made smallholders in 13 countries more resilient to the erratic effects of climate change on growing conditions.

“Smallholder farmers in this region plant maize varieties that are obsolete and end up getting poor harvests, but that’s changing now thanks to the gallant efforts of the DTMA team that has released and commercialized a large number of modern varieties,” said Tsedeke Abate, the CIMMYT scientist who led the project. “Thanks to the new drought-tolerant varieties, many families have managed to overcome harsh growing conditions and boost yields substantially.”

In 2014 alone, more than 5 million smallholder farmer households planted the new varieties on 2.1 million hectares (5.2 million acres), an area roughly the size of El Salvador. Overall, 54,000 metric tons of high quality seed were produced in 2014 through the DTMA project, which received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Britain’s Department for International Development, the Howard G. Buffet Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

COMPLEX CHALLENGES

“The adoption of the improved drought tolerant seed varied from one country to another and each county had unique challenges that made it difficult for some farmers to take up the new varieties. Some farmers were not aware of the availability of the seed in their markets, for some the seed was not available or the price was high,” Abate said. “We worked with national seed companies in these countries to increase production of certified seed so that many more farmers can buy the seed at an affordable price as well as demonstrating the benefits of the new varieties.”

Anthony Mwega, a farmer and leader in Olkalili village, in Hai district a semi-arid area in northern Tanzania about 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the capital Dar es Salaam, beat the price constraint by mobilizing 66 farmers from his village and neighboring villages Makiwaru and Ngaikati to pool resources and buy 5 metric tons of HB513 – a drought-tolerant and nitrogen-use efficient variety – at a very affordable price from Meru Agro Tours and Consultant Seed Company.

“The overall purchasing price we bought the seed for was about 50 percent less than the market price because we bought it in bulk,” said Mwega. “I saw how good the maize performed in demonstrations organized by Meru Agro during the 2014 planting season with extremely low rains, and knew this is a variety that my people would definitely benefit from.”

Scientists project that millions more farmers will gain access to and plant the new varieties due to collaborations with more than 100 national seed companies, which continue to make a significant contribution to the improvement of seed systems in Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

“Collaboration with CIMMYT through the DTMA project has been extremely instrumental in facilitating me to release my own varieties,” said Zubeda Mduruma of Aminata Seed Company in Tanga, Tanzania who has collaborated with CIMMYT both in maize breeding and production work since 1976.

“I was able to get some of the best germplasm, evaluate them through on-farm and on-station trials, and successfully released three of the best drought tolerant varieties in the market, including one quality protein DT variety that is very popular among women because of its nutritional value. With the quality of maize we get from CIMMYT, it’s very possible to release new improved varieties every year with much better yield compared to popular commercial varieties in our shops.”

The story of this success is told through a series of pictures and profiles of DTMA target countries. Each country profile illustrates the context of national maize production and the changes underway thanks to released drought-tolerant varieties.

The DTMA project will continue, first as the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) initiative. Under the project, which is funded by USAID, CIMMYT scientists aim to facilitate the production of close to 12,000 metric tons of certified seed for use by about 2.5 million people, in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

In partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture who partnered with CIMMYT in DTMA work, the new Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa project will also carry forward the success and invaluable lessons from DTMA and CIMMYT’s Improved Maize for Africa Soils project, to develop new stress tolerant varieties to help farmers mitigate multiple stresses that occur concurrently in farmers’ fields.

Going further down the path to bolster Africa’s maize sector

Latest DT Maize Bulletin

Grandmother harvests drought-tolerant maize in Lobu village, Koromo, Hawassa Zuria district, Ethiopia. (Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)

Amidst intense drought, investment in scientific research is key

Written by on February 22, 2016. Posted in Director General's corner.

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – El Niño drought-related stress is triggering hunger and food insecurity that will endanger food security for 40 million people in southern Africa, according to the World Food Programme. While not as tangible as humanitarian aid, long-term scientific research is key to addressing the major drought threatening parts of Central America, Africa and Asia. Government fiscal tightening makes it hard to defend investments in research against projects where the results may be immediate and obvious – but long-term investment equals long-term impact.

Reduced harvests due to drought
South Africa, which is normally a regional exporter, will need to import 5 to 6 million tons of maize to mitigate the widespread crop failure. As the continent’s largest maize producer this is having a knock on effect on the region. Zimbabwe, which depends on food imports from South Africa, declared a state of disaster last month, due to drought. Malawi and Mozambique have also experienced soaring food prices. Millions in the region will need food assistance, which means massive imports. In much of southern Africa, 30 – 50 day delays in the onset of rains has caused curtailed planting, setting the scene for widespread crop failure.

Ethiopia is experiencing the worst drought in decades, with more people requiring food assistance in 2016 than at any point since 2005, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network. In the central and eastern part of the countries crop production is down by 25 to 70% after the lowest rains in more than 50 years.

The El Niño related drought is not limited to Africa. India is set to harvest its smallest wheat crop in six years, with production down by five percent, following two successive poor monsoon seasons. But the biggest concern is that the region could experience major drought episodes like the Horn of Africa drought 1981- 1984 and the South Africa drought 1992, causing massive social disruption and human suffering.

Drought tolerant crops are an insurance against hunger and crop failure.
Given the severity of drought, scientific researchers are faced with the challenge to devise seed and farming practices that offer farmers greater resilience under this stress. Ongoing work to develop drought tolerant varieties has proved successful but needs renewed support and expansion.
Various maize landraces and wild relatives of wheat have withstood harsh conditions for thousands of years. Exploiting the drought-tolerances they possess and involving the use of molecular markers to better understand the genetic basis of drought tolerance has helped breeders select for better drought tolerance. This is not a quick fix. It can cost up to $600,000 and take seven years to produce a single maize hybrid. Hybrids tend to be more drought tolerant because they are more robust, implying deeper roots that allows the plant to capture more water.

Crop conditions at a glance as of January 28. (Source: Geoglam Global Agricultural Monitoring)

CIMMYT is working with national partners in Ethiopia to rapidly get drought tolerant maize and wheat seed to farmers as part of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Emergency Seed Response in Ethiopia project. The USAID and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project has brought 184 distinct varieties to farmers, mostly hybrids that yield on average 49% more grain than open-pollinated varieties, and yield higher than or equal to currently available varieties on the market.

A single seed can make the difference between hunger and prosperity, but seed alone is not enough. Imagine a Ferrari that is designed to travel at high speed on a freshly paved highway, driving along a dirt road. It will either break down or drive badly. The same thing happens with seed that is planted without smart farming practices designed to increase efficiency. There are many factors that need to be considered, including: right planting date, water conserving tillage methods, and fertilizer. If you can establish the plant well, it is more likely to perform well when drought stress really hits.

Plant a seed today
Massive investments are required today in order for farmers to benefit from effective technologies in the future given that benefits from agricultural research tend to come to fruition after a considerable time lag. Today, parts of Central America, Africa and Asia desperately need food assistance – but the need for investment in agricultural research for development will only intensify as more countries face drought and other climate-related stress. As the proverb asks: “When is the best time to plant a tree?” Twenty years ago. “The second-best time?” Today.

Thirty years of supporting maize farmers in southern Africa

Written by on January 11, 2016. Posted in Features. 68 Comments on Thirty years of supporting maize farmers in southern Africa

Over 100,000 packets of nearly 1,200 hybrids and varieties developed by CIMMYT-Zimbabwe and partners were distributed to national agricultural research systems and private seed companies throughout eastern and southern Africa. Regional trial requests are in high demand from emerging seed companies across the region as well as Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan and other countries in Asia and Latin America. Photo: Amsal Tarekegne/CIMMYT.

The year 2015 marked 30 years of CIMMYT’s Southern Africa Regional Office (CIMMYT-SARO) developing new maize varieties adapted to smallholder farmer needs in Zimbabwe and across sub-Saharan Africa.

“Multiple stress tolerant and nutritious maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT-SARO have been released by partners throughout eastern and southern Africa,” said Amsal Tarekegne, CIMMYT-SARO Senior Maize Breeder.

CIMMYT-SARO and partners have also produced new maize varieties that yield 20-30% more than currently available widely grown commercial varieties under drought and low nitrogen stress conditions.

Farmers in eastern and southern Africa need maize varieties that are climate resilient, high-yielding and nutritious.