Brazil is moving towards self-sufficiency, reducing the need for imports and increasing its participation in the international wheat market. The development of adapted wheat varieties with stable yields disease resistance, and wheat strains from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) enabled the consolidation and expansion of cereal crops in the country.
Read the full story.
Este artĂculo tambiĂ©n estĂĄ disponible en español.
With the participation of more than 30 researchers from four CGIAR Centers located in the Americas, a planning workshop for a new CGIAR Research Initiative, AgriLAC Resiliente, was held on April 4â6, 2022. Its purpose was to define the implementation of activities to improve the livelihoods of producers in Latin America, with the support of national governments, the private sector, civil society, and CGIARâs regional and global funders, and partners.
âThis workshop is the first face-to-face planning meeting aimed at defining, in a joined-up manner and map in hand, how the teams across Centers in the region will complement each other, taking advantage of the path that each Center has taken in Latin America, but this time based on the advantage of reaching the territories not as four independent Centers, but as one CGIAR team,â says Deissy MartĂnez BarĂłn, leader of the Initiative from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.
AgriLAC Resiliente is an Initiative co-designed to transform food systems in Latin America and the Caribbean. It aims to increase resilience, ecosystem services and the competitiveness of agrifood innovation systems in the region. Through this Initiative, CGIAR is committed to providing a regional structure that enhances its effectiveness and responds better to national and regional priorities, needs and demands.
This Initiative is one of a number that the CGIAR has in Latin America and the Caribbean and consists of five research components:
The regional character of these CGIAR Initiatives and of the teams of researchers who make them a reality in the territories with the producers, was prominent in the minds of the leadership that also participated in this workshop. Martin Kropff, Global Director, Resilient Agrifood Systems, CGIAR; JoaquĂn Lozano, Regional Director, Latin America and the Caribbean, CGIAR; Ăscar Ortiz, Acting Director General of the International Potato Center; JesĂșs Quintana, Manager for the Americas of the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT; and Bram Govaerts, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), all stated the importance of CGIAR being central to every discussion in which the teams are co-constructing a greater consensus on what AgriLAC Resliente is, what it wants to achieve, the approach it will use, and the goals it aims to achieve through synergies among its five components.
Acting as an integrated organization is also an opportunity for CGIAR to leverage co-developed solutions and solve local challenges in the global South related to climate change and agrifood systems transformation. âBuilding the new CGIAR involves tons of collaboration and coordination. In this AgriLAC Resiliente workshop, we have had a dialogue full of energy focused on achieving real impactâ highlighted Bram Govaerts. He continued, âthis is an occasion to strengthen teamwork around this CGIAR Initiative in which the Integrated Agrifood System Initiative approach will be applied in the Latin American region, which is a very interconnected regionâ he pointed out.
One of the main results of this workshop is an opportunity to carry out the integration of the CGIAR teams in the implementation of the AgriLAC Resiliente Initiative, with applied science and the decisive role of the partners at each point of the region, as mechanisms for change.
In 2022, the research teams will begin to lay the groundwork for implementing the Initiativeâs integrative approach to strengthen the innovations to be co-developed with partners and collaborators in the Latin American region, that encompass the interconnected nature of the global South.
Learn more about the Initiative:
AgriLAC Resiliente: Resilient Agrifood Innovation Systems in Latin America and the Caribbean
This article, authored by the AgriLAC Resiliente team, was originally published on CGIAR.org.
As wheat blast continues to infect crops in countries around the world, researchers are seeking ways to stop its spread. The disease â caused by the Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum â can dramatically reduce crop yields, and hinder food and economic security in the regions in which it has taken hold.
Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other international institutions looked into the potential for wheat blast to spread, and surveys existing tactics used to combat it. According to them, a combination of methods â including using and promoting resistant varieties, using fungicides, and deploying strategic agricultural practices â has the best chance to stem the disease.
The disease was originally identified in Brazil in 1985. Since then, it has spread to several other countries in South America, including Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay. During the 1990s, wheat blast impacted as many as three million hectares in the region. It continues to pose a threat.
Through international grain trade, wheat blast was introduced to Bangladesh in 2016. The disease has impacted around 15,000 hectares of land in the country and reduced average yields by as much as 51% in infected fields.
Because the fungusâ spores can travel on the wind, it could spread to neighboring countries, such as China, India, Nepal and Pakistan â countries in which wheat provides food and jobs for billions of people. The disease can also spread to other locales via international trade, as was the case in Bangladesh.
âThe disease, in the first three decades, was spreading slowly, but in the last four or five years its pace has picked up and made two intercontinental jumps,â said Pawan Singh, CIMMYTâs head of wheat pathology, and one of the authors of the recent paper.
In the last four decades, wheat blast has appeared in South America, Asia an Africa. (Video: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
The good fight
Infected seeds are the most likely vector when it comes to the disease spreading over long distances, like onto other continents. As such, one of the key wheat blast mitigation strategies is in the hands of the worldâs governments. The paper recommends quarantining potentially infected grain and seeds before they enter a new jurisdiction.
Governments can also create wheat âholidaysâ, which functionally ban cultivation of wheat in farms near regions where the disease has taken hold. Ideally, this would keep infectable crops out of the reach of wheat blastâs airborne and wind-flung spores. In 2017, India banned wheat cultivation within five kilometers of Bangladeshâs border, for instance. The paper also recommends that other crops â such as legumes and oilseed â that cannot be infected by the wheat blast pathogen be grown in these areas instead, to protect the farmersâ livelihoods.
Other tactics involve partnerships between researchers and agricultural workers. For instance, early warning systems for wheat blast prediction have been developed and are being implemented in Bangladesh and Brazil. Using weather data, these systems alert farmers when the conditions are ideal for a wheat blast outbreak.
Researchers are also hunting for wheat varieties that are resistant to the disease. Currently, no varieties are fully immune, but a few do show promise and can partially resist the ailment depending upon the disease pressure. Many of these resistant varieties have the CIMMYT genotype Milan in their pedigree.
âBut the resistance is still limited. It is still quite narrow, basically one single gene,â Xinyao He, one of the co-authors of the paper said, adding that identifying new resistant genes and incorporating them into breeding programs could help reduce wheat blastâs impact.
The more the merrier
Other methods outlined in the paper directly involve farmers. However, some of these might be more economically or practically feasible than others, particularly for small-scale farmers in developing countries. Wheat blast thrives in warm, humid climates, so farmers can adjust their planting date so the wheat flowers when the weather is drier and cooler. This method is relatively easy and low-cost.
The research also recommends that farmers rotate crops, alternating between wheat and other plants wheat blast cannot infect, so the disease will not carry over from one year to the next. Farmers should also destroy or remove crop residues, which may contain wheat blast spores. Adding various minerals to the soil, such as silicon, magnesium, and calcium, can also help the plants fend off the fungus. Another option is induced resistance, applying chemicals to the plants such as jasmonic acid and ethylene that trigger its natural resistance, much like a vaccine, Singh said.
Currently, fungicide use, including the treatment of seeds with the compounds, is common practice to protect crops from wheat blast. While this has proven to be somewhat effective, it adds additional costs which can be hard for small-scale farmers to swallow. Furthermore, the pathogen evolves to survive these fungicides. As the fungus changes, it can also gain the ability to overcome resistant crop varieties. The paper notes that rotating fungicides or developing new ones â as well as identifying and deploying more resistant genes within the wheat â can help address this issue.
However, combining some of these efforts in tandem could have a marked benefit in the fight against wheat blast. For instance, according to Singh, using resistant wheat varieties, fungicides, and quarantine measures together could be a time-, labor-, and cost-effective way for small-scale farmers in developing nations to safeguard their crops and livelihoods.
âMultiple approaches need to be taken to manage wheat blast,â he said.
Every year, the spores of the wheat blast fungus lie in wait on farms in South America, Bangladesh, and beyond. In most years, the pathogen has only a small impact on the countriesâ wheat crops. But the disease spreads quickly, and when the conditions are right thereâs a risk of a large outbreak â which can pose a serious threat to the food security and livelihood of farmers in a specific year.
To minimize this risk, an international partnership of researchers and organizations have created the wheat blast Early Warning System (EWS), a digital platform that notifies farmers and officials when weather conditions are ideal for the fungus to spread. The team, which began its work in Bangladesh, is now introducing the technology to Brazil â the country where wheat blast was originally discovered in 1985.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Â Brazilâs University of Passo Fundo (UPF) and others developed the tool with support from USAID under the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project.
Although first developed with the help of Brazilian scientists for Bangladesh, the EWS has now come full circle and is endorsed and being used by agriculture workers in Brazil. The team hopes that the system will give farmers time to take preventative measures against the disease.
Outbreaks can massively reduce crop yields, if no preventative actions are taken.
âIt can be very severe. It can cause a lot of damage,â says MaurĂcio Fernandes, a plant epidemiologist with EMBRAPA.
Striking first
In order to expand into a full outbreak, wheat blast requires specific temperature and humidity conditions. So, Fernandes and his team developed a digital platform that runs weather data through an algorithm to determine the times and places in which outbreaks are likely to occur.
If the system sees a region is going to grow hot and humid enough for the fungus to thrive, it sends an automated message to the agriculture workers in the area. These messages â texts or emails â alert them to take preemptive measures against the disease.
More than 6,000 extension agents in Bangladesh have already signed up for disease early warnings.
In Brazil, Fernandes and his peers are connecting with farmer cooperatives. These groups, which count a majority of Brazilian farmers as members, can send weather data to help inform the EWS, and can spread alerts through their websites or in-house applications.
Wheat blast can attack a plant quickly, shriveling and deforming the grain in less than a week from the first symptoms. Advance warnings are essential to mitigate losses. The alerts sent out will recommend that farmers apply fungicide, which only works when applied before infection.
âIf the pathogen has already affected the plant, the fungicides will have no effect,â Fernandes says.
A blast from the past
Because wheat had not previously been exposed to Magnaporthe oryzae, most wheat cultivars at the time had no natural resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae, according to Fernandes.  Some newer varieties are moderately resistant to the disease, but the availability of sufficient seed for farmers remains limited.
The pathogen can spread through leftover infected seeds and crop residue. But its spores can also travel vast distances through the air.
If the fungus spreads and infects enough plants, it can wreak havoc over large areas. In the 1990s â shortly after its discovery â wheat blast impacted around three million hectares of wheat in South America. Back in 2016, the disease appeared in Bangladesh and South Asia for the first time, and the resulting outbreak covered around 15,000 hectares of land. CGIAR estimates that the disease has the potential to reduce the regionâs wheat production by 85 million tons.
In Brazil, wheat blast outbreaks can have a marked impact on the countryâs agricultural output. During a major outbreak in 2009, the disease affected as many as three million hectares of crops in South America. As such, the EWS is an invaluable tool to support food security and farmer livelihoods. Fernandes notes that affected regions can go multiple years between large outbreaks, but the threat remains.
âPeople forget about the disease, then you have an outbreak again,â he says.
Essential partnerships
The EWS has its roots in Brazil. In 2017 Fernandes and his peers published a piece of research proposing the model. After that, Tim Krupnik, a senior scientist and country representative with CIMMYT in Bangladesh, along with a group of researchers and organizations, launched a pilot project in Bangladesh.
There, agriculture extension officers received an automated email or text message when weather conditions were ideal for wheat blast to thrive and spread. The team used this proof of concept to bring it back to Brazil.
According to Krupnik, the Brazil platform is something of a âhomecomingâ for this work. He also notes that cooperation between the researchers, organizations and agriculture workers in Brazil and Bangladesh was instrumental in creating the system.
âFrom this, we’re able to have a partnership that I think will have a significant outcome in Brazil, from a relatively small investment in research supplied in Bangladesh. That shows you the power of partnerships and how solutions can be found to pressing agricultural problems through collaborative science, across continents,â he says.
Read more: Towards an early warning system for wheat blast: epidemiological basis and model development
Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been harnessing the power of drones and other remote sensing tools to accelerate crop improvement, monitor harmful crop pests and diseases, and automate the detection of land boundaries for farmers.
A crucial step in crop improvement is phenotyping, which traditionally involves breeders walking through plots and visually assessing each plant for desired traits. However, ground-based measurements can be time-consuming and labor-intensive.
This is where remote sensing comes in. By analyzing imagery taken using tools like drones, scientists can quickly and accurately assess small crop plots from large trials, making crop improvement more scalable and cost-effective. These plant traits assessed at plot trials can also be scaled out to farmers’ fields using satellite imagery data and integrated into decision support systems for scientists, farmers and decision-makers.
Here are some of the latest developments from our team of remote sensing experts.
Measuring plant height with high-powered drones
A recent study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science validated the use of drones to estimate the plant height of wheat crops at different growth stages.
The research team, which included scientists from CIMMYT, the Federal University of Viçosa and KWS Momont Recherche, measured and compared wheat crops at four growth stages using ground-based measurements and drone-based estimates.
The team found that plant height estimates from drones were similar in accuracy to measurements made from the ground. They also found that by using drones with real-time kinematic (RTK) systems onboard, users could eliminate the need for ground control points, increasing the dronesâ mapping capability.
Recent work on maize has shown that drone-based plant height assessment is also accurate enough to be used in maize improvement and results are expected to be published next year.
Advancing assessment of pests and diseases
CIMMYT scientists and their research partners have advanced the assessment of Tar Spot Complex â a major maize disease found in Central and South America â and Maize Streak Virus (MSV) disease, found in sub-Saharan Africa, using drone-based imaging approach. By analyzing drone imagery, scientists can make more objective disease severity assessments and accelerate the development of improved, disease-resistant maize varieties. Digital imaging has also shown great potential for evaluating damage to maize cobs by fall armyworm.
Scientists have had similar success with other common foliar wheat diseases, Septoria and Spot Blotch with remote sensing experiments undertaken at experimental stations across Mexico. The results of these experiments will be published later this year. Meanwhile, in collaboration with the Federal University of Technology, based in Parana, Brazil, CIMMYT scientists have been testing deep learning algorithms â computer algorithms that adjust to, or âlearnâ from new data and perform better over time â to automate the assessment of leaf disease severity. While still in the experimental stages, the technology is showing promising results so far.
Improving forecasts for crop disease early warning systems
CIMMYT scientists, in collaboration with Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain), Cambridge University and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), are currently exploring remote sensing solutions to improve forecast models used in early warning systems for wheat rusts. Wheat rusts are fungal diseases that can destroy healthy wheat plants in just a few weeks, causing devastating losses to farmers.
Early detection is crucial to combatting disease epidemics and CIMMYT researchers and partners have been working to develop a world-leading wheat rust forecasting service for a national early warning system in Ethiopia. The forecasting service predicts the potential occurrence of the airborne disease and the environmental suitability for the disease, however the susceptibility of the host plant to the disease is currently not provided.
CIMMYT remote sensing experts are now testing the use of drones and high-resolution satellite imagery to detect wheat rusts and monitor the progression of the disease in both controlled field trial experiments and in farmersâ fields. The researchers have collaborated with the expert remote sensing lab at UCLouvain, Belgium, to explore the capability of using European Space Agency satellite data for mapping crop type distributions in Ethiopia. The results will be also published later this year.
Delivering expert irrigation and sowing advice to farmers phones
Through an initiative funded by the UK Space Agency, CIMMYT scientists and partners have integrated crop models with satellite and in-situ field data to deliver valuable irrigation scheduling information and optimum sowing dates direct to farmers in northern Mexico through a smartphone app called COMPASS â already available to iOS and Android systems. The app also allows farmers to record their own crop management activities and check their fields with weekly NDVI images.
The project has now ended, with the team delivering a webinar to farmers last October to demonstrate the app and its features. Another webinar is planned for October 2021, aiming to engage wheat and maize farmers based in the Yaqui Valley in Mexico.
Detecting field boundaries using high-resolution satellite imagery
In Bangladesh, CIMMYT scientists have collaborated with the University of Buffalo, USA, to explore how high-resolution satellite imagery can be used to automatically create field boundaries.
Many low and middle-income countries around the world donât have an official land administration or cadastre system. This makes it difficult for farmers to obtain affordable credit to buy farm supplies because they have no land titles to use as collateral. Another issue is that without knowing the exact size of their fields, farmers may not be applying to the right amount of fertilizer to their land.
Using state of the art machine learning algorithms, researchers from CIMMYT and the University of Buffalo were able to detect the boundaries of agricultural fields based on high-resolution satellite images. The study, published last year, was conducted in the delta region of Bangladesh where the average field size is only about 0.1 hectare.
Developing climate-resilient wheat
CIMMYTâs wheat physiology team has been evaluating, validating and implementing remote sensing platforms for high-throughput phenotyping of physiological traits ranging from canopy temperature to chlorophyll content (a plantâs greenness) for over a decade. Put simply, high-throughput phenotyping involves phenotyping a large number of genotypes or plots quickly and accurately.
Recently, the team has engaged in the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) to implement new high-throughput phenotyping approaches that can assist in the identification and evaluation of new adaptive traits in wheat for heat and drought.
The team has also been collaborating with the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project, providing remote sensing data to improve genomic selection models.
Cover photo: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV drone) in flight over CIMMYT’s experimental research station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: Alfredo Saenz/CIMMYT)
Genomics is a wide theme of interest for geneticists. As part of the efforts to advance on this subject, Fernando H. Toledo, associated scientist in agricultural statistics at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is working on the research of genomic selection models to increase accuracy. His research considers several complex traits and environmental conditions under climate change scenarios.
The research in which Toledo works is multidisciplinary â it involves genetics and breeding knowledge, as well as statistics and computer science. âThis work is fundamental for the breeding and farming community. Our aim is to allow breeders to pursue precise selection of new genetic materials with good performance and ensuring food security in the field under varying environmental conditions.â
Fernando H. Toledo was born in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil, but grew up in Curitiba, ParanĂĄ, one of the biggest agricultural states in the country. He obtained his engineering degree, with a major in crop science, at ParanĂĄ Federal University.
He got his masterâs degree in genetics and plant breeding at Lavras Federal University, under the supervision of Magno Ramalho, one of the most prestigious breeders in Brazil. During his Ph.D. in quantitative genetics at the Agricultural College of the University of SĂŁo Paulo, Fernando was advised by Roland Vencovsky, known as the father of quantitative genetics in the country. âThe main lesson I took from both of them was that biometrics science must try to answer the breedersâ questions.â
Toledo got a scholarship from the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) to spend a season at CIMMYT in 2013, where he developed part of his thesis about the use of selection indices under the supervision of José Crossa.
CIMMYTâs work is highly relevant to breeding activities in Brazil. It dates back to the 1950s when Brazilian breeders and geneticists took maize populations and varieties to be important resources of their current germplasm. âThe public and private sectors in Brazil recognize the importance of CIMMYT, which awoke my interest in working in a relevant institute for agriculture in developing countries.â
In 2015, Toledo applied for a postdoctoral position at the Biometrics and Statistics Unit of the Genetic Recourses Program at CIMMYT. He started working as an associate scientist in 2017.
As part of this unit, Toledo is currently involved in the planning and analysis of field trials comprising phenotypic and genomic data. He is developing new models and methods for these analysis as well as plant breeding simulations. âGenomic selection has been used over CIMMYTâs breeding programs before but there are still a lot of improvements to implement, so new models of analysis can be tested under simulated scenarios, which results in better recommendations for breeders.â
On top of that, he is implementing new open-source high-performance software products to facilitate the use of cutting-edge methods for data analysis. âI really like the connection we can build at CIMMYT in terms of practical work for breeders and the development of new statistical methods, models, tools and software we release to attend their requirements, with the main aim of improving precision during the selection of the best genetic materials.â
Led by Juan Burgueño, senior biometrician and head of the Biometrics and Statistics Unit, Toledo is training students, scientists and partners regarding statistical concepts and data analysis. âThese trainings courses are a great opportunity to share our work with others and to learn the scientistsâ needs in order to improve our capabilities.â
Toledoâs main inspiration to continue his work at CIMMYT is having the opportunity to generate knowledge for others in developing countries. âOur work is driven by the breedersâ needs and that usually helps them to improve their understanding by using what we developed for them and making it a forward-backward relation, which is fascinating.â
As the world heats up and water grows scarce, threatening the productivity of humankindâs preferred crops, breeder Marcela Carvalho Andrade and her colleagues at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are working to toughen maize, drawing resilience traits from landraces, the forerunners of modern maize.
For decades, scientists have sought to utilize the hardiness of maize landraces, which evolved over millennia of farmer selection for adaptation to diverse and sometimes harsh local settings in Mexico, Central and South America.
But crossing elite varieties with landraces brings along wild traits that are difficult and costly to purge, including lower grain yields, excessive tallness or a tendency to fall over in strong winds. For this and for their genetic complexity, landraces are seldom used directly in breeding programs, according to Andrade.
Crosses that home in on genetically complex traits
âOur strategy is to cross selected landraces with elite maize lines, thus developing improved lines that can be directly incorporated and recycled in breeding programs,â explained Andrade, who joined CIMMYT in 2016.
The traits sought include better resilience under high temperatures, drought conditions or the attacks of rapidly-evolving crop diseases. âAll these features will be critical for the future productivity of maize,â said Andrade.
One of the worldâs three most important crops, maize contributes over 20% of the calories in human diets in 21 low-income countries, as well as being used in industry, biofuels, and feed for livestock and poultry.
Andrade and the maize breeding team develop new lines that carry a 75 percent genetic contribution from the elite source and 25 percent from a landrace. The aim she said is to get the good components from both sides, while broadening maizeâs genetic diversity for use by breeders and ultimately farmers.
The resulting lines and hybrids are tested for yield, resilience and overall agronomic performance, under both normal growing conditions and âstressedâ environments; for example, in plots grown at sites with high temperatures or reduced water availability.
âWe can thus identify landraces that offer traits of interest, as well as generating improved breeding lines to strengthen the resilience of elite maize without reducing its yield,â said Andrade, noting that the research employs conventional cross-pollination and selection.
According to Andrade, CIMMYT has carried out large-scale molecular analysis of its maize seed collections, which number around 28,000 and comprise landraces from 70 countries.
âOver the past years, CIMMYT has used genetic diversity analyses of its maize collections to select landraces for use in drought tolerance breeding or for finding lines that are resistant to newly important diseases such as Maize Lethal Necrosis or Tar Spot,â she explained. âGenetic diversity analysis allows us to narrow the number of candidate landrace sources that we need to cross and assess in the field.â
The viral disease Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) has devastated crops in eastern Africa since its appearance there in 2011.
The researchers have also found landrace sources of resilience against Tar Spot Complex, a maize disease of the Americas that can cause 50 percent or greater yield losses in infected crops.
Benefiting breeding and farmers
Andrade said the breeding team expects to release a first wave of landrace-derived, improved maize lines in 2019, some featuring enhanced drought tolerance and others that provide better resistance to Tar Spot.
âThe lines we offer will be freely available to breeders worldwide and must yield well and show superior resilience,â Andrade explained. âThey will have reasonable agronomicsâear and plant height and standability, for example. The lines will not be perfect, but breeders wonât hesitate to use them because weâve ensured that they are superior for at least one crucial trait and reasonably competitive for most other traits.â
From Brazil to the world
Growing up in a small town and having direct contact with her fatherâs dairy farm in Minas Gerais, a mainly rural state in Brazil, Andrade finds her CIMMYT work enormously satisfying. âMy dad and a few uncles were farmers and complained some years that their crops didnât yield well,â she says. âI knew I wanted to help them somehow.â
Andrade obtained Bachelor and Masterâs degrees in agronomy/plant science from the Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA), one of Brazilâs premier institutions of higher education. She later completed a Doctorate in Genetics and Plant Breeding at UFLA, in partnership with Ohio State University.
She credits CIMMYT maize scientist Terry Molnar, her supervisor and mentor, with teaching her the complex ins and outs of maize breeding. âI am a plant breeder and worked previously with vegetables, but I learned the practical aspects of maize breeding from Terry.â
Looking ahead, Andrade sees herself continuing as a plant breeder. âI donât see myself working in anything else. I would eventually like to lead my own program but, at this point in my career, Iâm happy to help transfer landrace traits to modern maize varieties.â
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — When Francelino Rodrigues started at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in 2013, the majority of the maize and wheat trials were still being carried out by walking through the field and taking measurements manually.
Through a collaborative work initiative with colleagues from maize and wheat breeding programs, and with support from senior scientists, Rodrigues brought a whole new world of digital mapping and proximal high-resolution soil sensing to the centerâs trials thanks to his background in precision agriculture.
Precision agriculture makes use of technologies and farmers’ knowledge to determine the quantity, location and time resources need to be applied to grow crops. The information gained allows farmers to farm more sustainably; using less while maintaining and improving yields.
âI first discovered precision agriculture during an agricultural engineering undergraduate in Brazil,â explained Rodrigues. âI was fascinated by the idea of joining technology and agriculture, so I ended up going on to complete a master’s and a doctorate in precision agriculture applying it to coffee, sugarcane, and cereals crops.â
After completing his doctorate with an internship at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), an Australian government agency for scientific research, Rodrigues realized the importance of agricultural research for development and took on his post-doctoral position at CIMMYT within the biometrics team in remote sensing and precision agriculture.
âRemote sensing can provide information at different scales and for a range of applications, from crop management to high-throughput phenotyping and landscape assessment,â said Rodrigues, whose research focuses on the analysis and interpretation of spatial and temporal agricultural data sets built up by the use of proximal and remote sensing technologies, then seeing how it can be applied across CIMMYTâs work.
Remote sensing devices make it possible to observe the dynamics from single plants up to entire landscapes and continents as they change over time by capturing radiation from across the electromagnetic spectrum.
âPrecision agriculture and remote sensing technologies are used by CIMMYT to develop tools and practices to help farmers manage their crops more efficiently, to speed up the breeding process by rapidly assessing plant traits and to better characterize agricultural landscapes as a  whole,â he said.
According to Rodrigues, one of the greatest challenges is making precision agriculture accessible to smallholder farmers who donât have the means to access new and expensive technology.  He is currently working on a public-private project using remote sensing data assimilation and crop modeling to build an online platform that farmers can use freely in their fields to make crop management decisions.
âSince I arrived at CIMMYT I have been exposed to a global network of world-class scientists,â said Rodrigues. âIt encourages me to pursue my passions and allowed me to do what I love; good science that improves lives.â
Rodrigues is excited about the long-term impact of CIMMYTâs research and positive about the future. âI love to work with a team of scientists from different disciplines and see that knowledge and results we generate contribute to a wider agenda,â he said.
El BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) â International scientists are on high alert as they develop tactics to fight a deadly wheat disease that has emerged in Bangladesh, affecting a large portion of the countryâs wheat growing area.
Wheat blast, first identified in Brazil in 1985 and widespread throughout South America, deforms grain, causing it to bleach, shrivel and shrink. At its worst, the fast-moving disease can decimate a crop, leading to the urgent need for a multi-pronged approach to fight it.
The recent appearance of the disease, which is caused by the plant fungus pathogen Magnaporthe oryzae, in six districts in southern Bangladesh is estimated to have affected 15 percent of the countryâs total wheat growing area of 436,000 hectares (1.08 million acres).
âWe need to fight this disease on various fronts â both in the short and long term,â said Etienne Duveiller, principal scientist and wheat pathologist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), adding that strategies include preventing the distribution of infected seed, sowing seed at designated optimal times, introducing foliar spray of triazole fungicides and developing disease-resilient seed.
âItâs paramount that infected seeds are identified and that seeds are sown at the best time to avoid rains at the sensitive stage when wheat plants develop the spike where grains form, but weâve also been working to identify resistant genetic materials â germplasm â for use in developing new varieties, a vital part of the longer term fight against the disease,â he said.
CIMMYT scientists are working with national agriculture programs on this work, setting up germplasm exchanges and testing genotypes in hot spot areas where the disease occurs, Duveiller said, adding that a smallholder farmer in one of the worst-hit areas said he expected to harvest 80 percent less wheat as a result of the disease. The problem compounds over time because farmers keep seed and replant it in subsequent years.
Scientists believe wheat blast spreads by various means, including airborne distribution, from crops planted in rotation with wheat and sexual hybridization.
âWeâre not sure what the potential scale of wheat blast spread might be because weâre still trying to understand how it survives from wheat crop to wheat crop, we urgently need investments to understand it,â said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program.
âIt takes only a few days from the first symptoms occurring until major damage is caused by the fungus,” he added. “This short window makes chemical interventions difficult and prophylactic application of fungicides is too expensive for smallholder farmers. Breeding resistant varieties is the best and possibly the only option to control the disease in the long term.â
For further information, please click here.
Three agriculturalists from the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA)âMozambique made a training visit to Brazil on 3-13 June 2015.
The objective of the visit was for the three researchers to acquire conservation agriculture (CA) skills, with a special focus on soil health and climate change. The training sessions were also expected to give participants the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with their Brazilian counterparts at Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) sites.
âBy visiting and interacting with farmers, observing trials and having discussions with CA advisors, researchers, policy makers and agriculture industry representatives, we gained new knowledge of CA technologies,â said team leader Domingos Dias, SIMLESA-Mozambique National Coordinator.
During the 11-day visit, participants were presented with real-life CA challenges so they could solve them interactively. Having learned the required theory and facts through demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions and multimedia presentations, they are now expected to apply these technologies in their respective countries.
Smallholder farmers in Mozambique are affected by the poor farming methods they practice, such as late weeding and inefficient residue application, and the lack of farm mechanization. The participants learned to use and maintain agro-machinery, such as direct seeders and rippers, as well as when to plant forage crops such as Brachiaria, which produces much biomass and whose deep root system plays a critical role in improving soil properties.
âWe learned very useful practices and will test some of them under our conditions. The training in Brazil presented alternative uses of residues and rotations based on soil properties suitable for Southern African countries,â said SIMLESA-Mozambique participant Custodio Jorge.
Both farmers and extension staff who participated in the first phase of SIMLESA (2010-2014) lacked basic skills and knowledge of CA farming systems. The second phase of the project (2014-2018) is focused on filling this gap through training.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Scientist Sanjaya Rajaram, originally from a small farm in Indiaâs state of Uttar Pradesh, is now widely recognized by the international agriculture sector for his prolific contributions to food security and poverty alleviation.
He is credited with producing a remarkable 480 wheat varieties, which have boosted worldwide yields by more than 180 million metric tons (200 million tons). These increased yields provide food to more than 1 billion people each year.
The varieties Rajaram developed during his 40-year career have been released in 51 countries on six continents.
They are used by farmers with both large and small land holdings who rely on disease-resistant wheat adaptable to a range of climate conditions.
For those feats and more Rajaram is the 2014 World Food Prize laureate, an honor awarded each year to the person who does the most to advance human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. Rajaram received the award at the World Food Prize ceremony on October 16 in Des Moines, Iowa.
âRajaram has made a massive contribution to food security â I doubt that one person will ever again be involved in the development of as many widely grown wheat varieties,â said Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), where Rajaram worked for 33 years.
âAs a former colleague once said: âItâs amazing what happens, when the âSultan of Wheatâ puts his magic hands on a wheat lineâ,â he added.
INTERESTS FLOURISH
Rajaram was born in 1943 on the 5-hectare (12 acre) farm in Raipur where his family eked out a living by producing wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane and millet.
His parents recognized Rajaram’s intellectual potential and sent him to school 5 kilometers (3 miles) from home, which at the time was unusual in an area where 96 percent of people had no formal education.
Rajaram excelled scholastically and became the top-ranked student in his district. A state scholarship gave him the opportunity to attend high school, which led to his acceptance at the College of Jaunpur in the University of Gorakhpur, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in agriculture in 1962.
Afterwards Rajaram attended the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, graduating with a Master of Science in 1964.
Subsequently, he earned a doctorate in plant breeding at Australiaâs University of Sydney where he first made contact with the superstars of what became known as the âGreen Revolutionâ â Norman Borlaug and Glenn Anderson, who were leading scientists at CIMMYT.
CIMMYT VARIETIES
Borlaug, who was from the United States, died in 2009 at age 95. He is known as the âFather of the Green Revolutionâ and he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Borlaug is credited with saving 1 billion lives in the developing world — particularly in South Asia — as a result of the disease-resistant, high-yield semi-dwarf wheat varieties he developed.
Borlaug had also introduced similar innovations throughout Mexico â where CIMMYT is headquartered â leading to the countryâs self-sufficiency in wheat.
Anderson, a Canadian who died in 1981 at 57, was recruited by Borlaug to lead the major âGreen Revolutionâ wheat improvement project in India. In 1971, Anderson became deputy director of the CIMMYT Wheat Program and then its director after Borlaug retired in 1979.
The two recruited Rajaram, who joined CIMMYT in 1969. He was appointed head of the wheat breeding team by Borlaug three years later. He set to work cross breeding select plant varieties, and the yield potential of his cultivars increased 20 to 25 percent.
âHis technique was to cross winter and spring wheat varieties, which were distinct gene pools, leading to the development of higher yield plants that can be grown in a wide range of environments around the world,â Braun said, adding that Rajaramâs varieties were disease- and stress-resistant.
âThe varieties he developed were eventually grown on a larger area than those developed by Borlaug.â
His varieties could be planted in areas previously uninhabitable for wheat in China, India and in Brazilâs acidic soils, for which he developed aluminum-tolerant wheat. Rajaram also developed wheat cultivars now grown on millions of hectares worldwide with durable resistance to rust diseases, which can devastate crops.
Rajaram spent eight years working for the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). At ICARDA, first as director of the Integrated Gene Management Program, then as special scientific advisor, he oversaw the promotion of new technologies to help farmers in the Central and West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region.
He developed wheat improvement strategies to tackle some of the challenges facing wheat in dry areas, including stripe rust disease, which can spread quickly and have a devastating effect on wheat.
MENTOR TO MANY
âRajaramâs research not only led to enhanced productivity, but farmers also saw big increases in profits due to higher yields and disease resistance â they no longer had to buy expensive fungicides to protect their plots,â said Ravi Singh, current head of wheat breeding at CIMMYT, one among many breeders Rajaram mentored.
Now a Mexican citizen and still a firm believer in the value of education, Rajaram continues his affiliation with CIMMYT, recently attending a âtrainee wheat boot campâ for students from major wheat-growing nations.
âWe know we need to double food production to feed the more than 9 billion people weâre expecting by 2050,â Rajaram said.
âGlobal objectives for food security can most definitely be met. However, we must be able to rely on guaranteed research funding from both the public and private sectors to address the many challenges we face, including decreasing land availability and erratic environmental changes related to climate change.â
Wheat currently provides 20 percent of overall daily protein and calories consumed throughout the world. Production must grow 70 percent over the current amount by 2050, according to the international Wheat Initiative â an achievable goal if annual wheat yields are increased from a current level of below 1 percent to at least 1.7 percent.
Researchers at CIMMYT are aiming to develop resilient wheat varieties tolerant to the drought, heat, extreme wet and cold conditions anticipated by scientists to grow more extreme as mean annual temperatures continue to increase and weather patterns become more volatile.
Rajaramâs great legacy was to give opportunities to newly graduated doctoral students, Singh said.
âHe put us in charge of different parts of the breeding program each season, so we had to learn all aspects of the process for ourselves â we worked many long hours with him in the field developing confidence, which was very important for our professional careers.â
Rajaram intends to put a portion of his World Food Prize winnings, valued at $250,000, into training and education programs.
By Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT
CIMMYT, in partnership with the Instituto de Investigação Agronómica (IIA), the Angolan national agricultural research institute, is helping the country shift from using maize landraces to locally adapted materials.
Angola is rebuilding its infrastructure after a prolonged civil war that slowed down agricultural production. During the war, farmers could not access improved maize seed and relied on landraces. âAfter the war, they started shifting from the landraces to open-pollinated varieties (OPVs),â explained Peter Setimela, CIMMYT seed systems specialist. âFive years ago, there were no improved maize seeds in Angola. Now, we have some good OPVs and hybrids.â
The country has been importing improved maize varieties from Brazil and France, though not without problems. âThey discovered that some of these varieties were hampered by diseases such as gray leaf spot, maize streak virus and northern leaf blight,â said CIMMYT breeder Cosmos Magorokosho. Working in partnership with IIA breeders, CIMMYT scientists have been testing materials that are locally adapted, some of which are now being produced by local seed companies. Last month, a multidisciplinary team from CIMMYT and IIA, led by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project Leader Tsedeke Abate, went on a field tour in Angola.
The team visited seed production farms in Kwanza Sul, demonstrations and on-farm and on-station trials at the IIA Chianga experimental station in Huambo to evaluate drought-tolerant maize varieties being grown and tested in the country. The team, including CIMMYT and IIA breeding, communications, seed systems and socioeconomics staff, visited a community seed production farm managed by Cooperativa Faca Tudo Pelo Tempo (âdo everything on timeâ in Portuguese). The farmerâs cooperative produces rain-fed basic seed for the OPV maize varieties ZM309, ZM521 and ZM523, with technical support from IIA breeder Dibanzilua Nginamau. The cooperative is an umbrella body for 30 farmer groups with 1,250 members, including 600 women, according to Nginamau.
The team visited smallholder farmer Dominga Ngueve, who planted varieties for demonstration on her farm near the Chianga station. âI prefer ZM309 because it matures early and I am able to get [maize for] food earlier,â Ngueve said. âWhen improved seed is unavailable, I buy local varieties from other farmers.â The smallholder farmer practices the crop rotation of planting maize during the long season and beans during the low season. She also grows cassava and potatoes. âOur food crop is maize; if you sell it, you create hunger,â said Ngueve, explaining the importance of maize in her community.
CIMMYT is helping Angola improve this important crop. âAngola has great potential for advancing agriculture,â Abate said, citing the countryâs arable land and water resources. CIMMYT is using its germplasm resources to help public and private sector partners, such as SEDIAC, Matogrosso and Kambondo farms, that have recently ventured into seed production in Angola. CIMMYT is also contributing to capacity building by training breeders and technicians from the national program and seed companies.
Angola is producing ZM523 on 560 hectares at Kambondo and Matogrosso farms with technical support from DTMA. An expected 2,400 tons of certified seed will be available for use by local farmers in the coming season. These two companies are well-positioned to produce certified seed through irrigation, as they each have six units of pivot irrigation that enable them to continue production even when the rains are erratic.
Kambondo farm has already produced nine tons of CZH03030 and has planted 50 hectares of the same variety for grain production. Abate commended SEDIAC for hosting the field day. âIt is an opportunity for researchers from the national agriculture research system to network with all the agricultural stakeholders in Angola,â he said. The field day was also attended by three traditional leaders from the local community.
Through the collaborative work of IIA, CIMMYT, seed companies and cooperatives to strengthen seed systems in Angola, âfarmers can increase their food security and livelihoods by taking up droughttolerant varieties,â said CIMMYT socioeconomist Rodney Lunduka.
A team of scientists from CIMMYTâs socioeconomics program participated in the 28th triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE) in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, during 18-24 August 2012. ICAE, which is considered the key platform for the preservation of international agricultural and development economics research, brought together over 700 researchers and provided an opportunity to share new research ideas, methods, and tools.
The CIMMYT team presented more than 20 papers and posters and organized symposia in various sessions. Hugo de Groote and Bekele Shiferaw presented during a preconference workshop on âInnovations in Impact Assessment of Agricultural Research: Theory and Practiceâ organized by the CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment. Several externally reviewed papers contributed by the CIMMYT team were accepted for oral and poster presentations during the conference. The presenters included Bekele Shiferaw, Menale Kassie, Olaf Erenstein, Hugo De Groote, Zachary Gitonga, Asfaw Negassa, Moti Jaleta, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Mulugetta Mekuria, and Surabhi Mittal. CIMMYT PhD students also presented their work, which is supported by CIMMYT projects.
CIMMYT and partners organized symposia on the Impact Pathway of Modern ICT on Agricultural Growth in South Asia and Africa (Mittal); Challenges in Assessing and Developing Seed Systems in Emerging Markets (Erenstein); Experimental Methods for Propoor Value Chain Development (De Groote and Matty Demont of Africa Rice Centre); Understanding the Drivers of Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Agriculture (Mekuria); Challenges in Assessing and Valuing Drought Tolerance in Risk-prone Agricultural Systems (Erenstein); Bio-economic Modeling for Analysis of Food Security and Climate Change (Gbegbelegbe and Shiferaw); and Emerging Role of Grain Marketing Boards (GMBs) in Africa (Shiferaw with Michigan State University partners).
The conference also provided an opportunity to socialize and network with colleagues old and new. The current socioeconomics team enjoyed meeting with former directors Derek Byerlee, Prabhu Pingali, and John Dixon, and former colleague Greg Traxler, for some informative and enlightening discussions.
Wheat blast or âbrusoneâ is a new wheat disease caused by M. oryzae (Pyricularia oryzae). It is responsible for 5-100% of wheat yield loss in regions of South America, and has the potential to spread. To address this and other issues, a workshop titled âWheat blast: A potential threat to global wheat productionâ was held in Passo Fundo, Brazil, during 03-05 May 2010, followed by a field visit to the Brasilia region. It was organized by Embrapa Wheat, Embrapa Cerrados, and CIMMYT, and attended by representatives from 11 countries.
Wheat blast was identified for the first time in 1985 in the State of Parana in southern Brazil, from where it quickly spread to neighboring countries. Four years later, it caused serious damage (40-100%) in the wheat fields of Paraguay. In the lowlands of Bolivia, it was responsible for a loss of 90,000 hectares of wheat between 1997 and 2000. In 2007, the disease was seen in summer-sown experimental wheat trials in Chaco, Argentina, and although researchers in Uruguay have not observed the disease in wheat, they have found the fungus on barley. A 2009 outbreak cut Brazilian wheat production by up to 30%.
Of great concern is that chemical control of wheat blast may not be working. âThere are places where farmers are using four fungicide applications with no results, which suggests the current chemicals are not effective against the fungus, or are not properly applied,â says Etienne Duveiller, wheat pathologist and associate director of CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program. âTo date, there is a lack of cultivars resistant to wheat blast, and only limited tolerance can be found.â
Climate change is adding to the problem. âA more hot and humid climate favors fungal diseases such as wheat blast, which needs high temperatures of about 24- 28°C and long periods of rain to occur,â explains researcher Gisele Torres of Embrapa Wheat. CIMMYTâs Duviller echoes these concerns: âChanges in rainfall may create environmental conditions favorable to wheat blast in other parts of the world such as South Asia or Africa. This was the main reason for inviting researchers from different wheat-producing countries in several continents to discuss wheat blast in Brazil.â
The most important diseases that affect wheat production worldwide are leaf rust (5 million ha), tan spot (4.5 million ha), and fusarium (4 million ha). âSo far, new diseases like wheat blast in South America has been limited to a few countries,â says Man Mohan Kohli, ex-CIMMYT researcher once posted in South America. âSimilarly the distribution of the stem rust Ug99 in Africa has been limited, but has been the object of studies by several research institutes around the world.â Efforts to improve wheat resistance to Ug99 and to reduce the risk of its spread to other countries show how international collaborative research and investment facilitates scientific response to new virulent pathotypes, or races of pathogens, that could become potentially devastating.
Researchers from the following institutions participated in the workshop, which was supported by EMBRAPA and BMZ (Germany): Göttingen University (Germany), Kansas State University (United States), CIRAD (France), CIAT (Bolivia), INTA (Argentina), INIA (Uruguay), CIMMYT (Mexico), USDA/ARS (United States), MAG/ DIA (Paraguay), and Wageningen University (Netherlands), as well as Brazil Embrapa Cerrados, Embrapa Wheat, Labex Europa, OR, BIOTRIGO, COODETEC, FUNDACEP, UPF, UNESP, and Fapa/Agråria.