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Location: Americas

CIMMYT has several offices in the Americas, including global headquarters in Mexico and a regional office in Colombia. Activities are supported by an additional 140 hectares of stations in diverse agro-ecological zones of Mexico. CIMMYT’s genebank in Mexico stores 27,000 maize and 170,000 wheat seed collections – key to preserving the crop genetic diversity of the region. CIMMYT projects range from developing nutritionally enhanced maize to mapping regional climate change hot spots in Central America. The comprehensive MasAgro project aims to increase wheat production in Mexico by 9 million tons and maize production by 350,000 tons by 2030. CIMMYT promotes regional collaboration and facilitates capacity building for scientists, researchers and technicians.

Bolivia and CIMMYT partner to boost sustainable grain production

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By Ricardo Curiel/CIMMYT 

Nemesia Achacollo, Bolivia’s Minister of Rural Development and Land, joined CIMMYT Director General Dr. Thomas A. Lumpkin in the lobby of the Borlaug building during her visit earlier this year. The two signed a scientific collaboration agreement to strengthen food security in the Andean country last week in Bolivia.

Bolivia became the first  country in South America   to adopt the sustainable intensification strategy for agriculture that CIMMYT has used successfully in Mexico with the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture project (MasAgro), and in countries in Africa and Asia through similar projects. The project in Bolivia will develop new, high-yielding maize varieties adapted to the country’s growing conditions that will be commercialized by the local seed sector. The project also plans to develop and to transfer new technologies for sustainable farming practices based on conservation agriculture principles. “When combined, these factors account for higher and more stable yields, and contribute to mitigate agriculture’s impact on the environment,” said CIMMYT Director General Dr. Thomas A. Lumpkin.

The agreement was signed during the “Day of Collaborative Evaluation of Maize Research” organized by INIAF. Hans Mercado, INIAF Executive Director General, outlined the main activities planned for the three years of work that have been initially approved for the project. These include: analyses of  commercial and family agriculture  systems to improve their economic  and ecologic performance; breeding  of maize varieties adapted to  Bolivia’s growing conditions; advice  on the development of a seed  production system that includes  private and public players; and  capacity building and training of  human resources at different levels  of specialization.

The ceremony was hosted by Bolivia’s Minister of Rural Development and Land, Nemesia  Achacollo, who announced an  investment of US$ 350,000 per year  in the rural development project.  She noted that the agreement was reached following her visit to CIMMYT earlier this year, when she had an opportunity to see and learn about MasAgro achievements in Mexico. Achacollo also stressed that INIAF had already introduced two maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT that yield seven tons per hectare, double the average yield obtained in Bolivia.

“CIMMYT celebrates Bolivia’s vision and leadership in investing in research for rural development,” said Lumpkin. “We hope that more countries in the region will follow Bolivia’s example and adopt similar strategies to strengthen food and nutritional security while also protecting the environment.”

 

CIMMYT and the Canadian wheat alliance join forces to fight durum wheat diseases

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By Mike Listman/CIMMYT

CIMMYT and the Canadian Wheat Alliance (CWA) launched a collaboration on 9 June to apply genomics-assisted breeding to develop new durum wheat varieties that are more resistant to wheat rust, Fusarium head blight and other diseases. The work will benefit Canadian farmers and durum wheat producers in developing countries.

CIMMYT wheat breeder Karim Ammar

“The world uses more than 25 million tons of durum wheat each year, either for pasta or as a key food staple and source of livelihoods in North Africa and the Middle East. This collaboration will help to assure sufficient durum wheat production and quality to meet rising global demand,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.

The CWA is a project of the government of Saskatchewan, the National Research Council Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. It is focused on accelerating variety development, sustainable yields with variable climates, increased productivity and sustainable profitability.

“Our collaboration with CIMMYT, one of the world’s most reputable organizations in the field of wheat improvement, will allow Canadian wheat farmers to benefit from the Center’s world-class and extensive research,” said Roman Szumski, chair of the CWA Steering Committee.

AIP-maize establishes public-private variety evaluation network in Pakistan

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By AbduRahman Beshir Issa/CIMMYT

The maize component of the recently launched Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan has created a public-private network to evaluate CIMMYT international trials of white and yellow kernel hybrids and OPVs including conventionally developed bio-fortified maize.

Faisal Hayat, R&D manager of Jullundur Private Ltd. (right), and AbduRahman Beshir Issa during a maize evaluation at JPL. Photos: AbduRahman Beshir

Seven types of maize trials consisting of different maturity groups, various tolerances to water stress and enhanced levels of protein quality were introduced from CIMMYT Colombia, Mexico and Zimbabwe and distributed to five private seed companies, six public research institutes and two universities for evaluation during the spring season (February-June). The preliminary evaluation during seed setting showed good performance of introduced materials, and a number of entries are showing strong selection potential.

The testing will continue in the summer season (July-November) with additional varieties and partners to check seasonal variations on the performance of the varieties. The AIP is funded by the USAID Feed the Future Initiative and collaborators receive grants to conduct variety evaluation and other project activities. This approach will strengthen the public-private partnership and ensure accelerated diffusion of improved maize cultivars to the smallholders at an affordable price. In addition, partners will enrich their gene pool and enhance their breeding program through the acquisition of CIMMYT maize germplasm.

Maize evaluation at MMRI.

AIP maize trials distributed to public and private partners in Pakistan (Spring 2014)

Partner institution/center No. of trials

  • Maize and Millet Research Institute (MMRI): 4
  • Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI): 5
  • National Agricultural Research Institute (NARC): 7
  • Jullundur Private Ltd (JPL): 3
  • Four Brothers Seed company (4B group): 3
  • Ali Akbar Group: 2
  • ICI Pakistan Ltd: 2
  • Petal Seed Company (PSC): 1
  • Agricultural Research Institute – Balochistan/Quetta: 1
  • Agricultural Research Institute- Tandojam (ARIT)-Sindh: 1
  • Agricultural Research Institute- Gilgit Biltistan: 1
  • University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF): 1
  • University of Agriculture Peshawar (UAP): 1

CIMMYT, Oak Ridge scientists collaborate on food security challenges

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Carissa Wodehouse/CIMMYT

On 20-22 May, CIMMYT hosted a summit with researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a U.S. Department of Energy facility that is the largest multipurpose science laboratory in the U.S. and a committed member of the Knowledge Systems for Sustainability community of practice.

CIMMYT and ORNL began interacting in 2011, with CIMMYT leadership visiting ORNL in 2013. This summit was the formal realization of the commitment between the two groups. Bram Govaerts, associate director of CIMMYT’S Global Conservation Agriculture Program, gave an overview of the necessity for collaboration by referring to a recent National Geographic article, “Feeding 9 Billion,” that offered a five-step plan to sustainably increase the global food supply:

1. Freeze agriculture’s footprint

2. Grow more on the farms we already have

3. Use resources more efficiently

4. Shift diets

5. Reduce waste

Photos: AC Staff

The first four suggestions, Govaerts pointed out, were being directly addressed at the summit. Technology developed at ORNL will play a major role, through the improved use of big data, assessment tools, sensors and controls. One example described by Jay Gulledge, director of ORNL’s Environmental Services Division, is a laser-based infrared computed tomography spectroscopy tool that can read the greenhouse gas emissions of an area.

Virginia Dale, ORNL Corporate Fellow in the Environmental Services Division, addressed how farmers, data specialists and others are having different conversations around the same topics. “When people talk about food security, they mean different things; there’s no agreement in the world.” To create a common starting point, Dale described ORNL’s efforts to determine specific environmental and socioeconomic sustainability indicators that add value to the entire community.

Photos: AC Staff

On the second day, the morning was dedicated to creative, collaborative brainstorming to specify work for each of the five task areas. Stan Wood, senior program officer in the Agricultural Policy and Global Development Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, noted a recurring tension among all task groups between focusing on external audiences versus serving internal scientists’ needs. He described how the science community tends to ask for a model, while visitors to the Gates Foundation will ask “so what difference does it make?” Wood suggested focusing both on the practitioners (will it actually be helpful in the field?) and the beneficiaries (are they front and center?) to create a strong human narrative.

Molly Jahn, professor in the Laboratory of Genetics and Department of Agronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reviewed the partnership potential including commercial and media groups, common resources and a focus on near-term rather than hypothetical goals. “We’re on the edge, and not everything we commit to or try works,” she said. “Challenges happen, and that is part of the experiment. Those challenges themselves are deeply informative.”

CIMMYT Director General Tom Lumpkin closed the summit, describing Jahn as “a living matrix maker … she gets us out of our silos.” He continued, “so much could be done if we had all of the data, all of the research projects that have disappeared into paper recycling and digital trash cans.” Acknowledging the senior CIMMYT staff present, Lumpkin emphasized that they are people who have spent time “on the ground, in the villages, who have looked farmers in the face. They can bring a lot to the discussion.”

New facility opens in Agua Fría, Mexico

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Nemesia Achacollo, Bolivia’s Minister of Land and Rural Development, and B.M. Prasanna (center left front with tan hat), director of the Global Maize Program, inaugurate a new facility. Photo: Guillermina Sosa Mendoza

By Guillermina Sosa Mendoza/CIMMYT

A new building at the Ernest W. Sprague Experimental Station in Agua Fría, Puebla, was inaugurated on 8 April during a visit from Nemesia Achacollo, Bolivia’s Minister of Land and Rural Development.

With the new facilities, CIMMYT scientists will be able to generate and evaluate maize germplasm as well as expand offerings in doubled haploid (DH) services, seed production and training courses. Ciro Sánchez, the station superintendent, welcomed the group and explained how the station is managed. Achacollo cut the ribbon to inaugurate the building and start the tour.

Vijay Chaikam, CIMMYT DH specialist, explained the benefits of DH seed and the production-to-planting process. “The quality of the parents is most important and can ensure the type of seed that will be obtained,” he said. Achacollo toured the test plots to see the growth and performance of the DH program as well as work by the low tropics team and the hybrid seed production process. She was accompanied by B.M. Prasanna, director of the Global Maize Program, CIMMYT scientists and members of the Bolivian and Ecuadorian governments.

Representatives from Bolivia, Ecuador and CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program visit the Ernest W. Sprague station in Agua Fría, Mexico. Photo: Guillermina Sosa Mendoza

Visitors exchanged viewpoints on the struggles of farmers in their respective countries and how the technology could improve sustainable production in Latin America. Arturo Silva, leader of MasAgro-Maize, and Achacollo agreed on the importance of increasing collaboration for improving maize productivity.

Angola: shifting from landraces to improved maize varieties

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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. “After the war, they started shifting from the landraces to open-pollinated varieties (OPVs),” explained Peter Setimela, CIMMYT seed systems specialist. “Five years ago, there were no improved maize seeds in Angola. Now, we have some good OPVs and hybrids.”

Pivot irrigation at a seed production farm in Angola. Both Kambondo and Matogrosso farms use pivot irrigation; this frees the farms from dependence on rain for seed production.
Pivot irrigation at a seed production farm in Angola. Both Kambondo and Matogrosso farms use pivot irrigation; this frees the farms from dependence on rain for seed production.

The country has been importing improved maize varieties from Brazil and France, though not without problems. “They discovered that some of these varieties were hampered by diseases such as gray leaf spot, maize streak virus and northern leaf blight,” 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 (“do everything on time” in Portuguese). The farmer’s 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.

Participants stand in front of 50 hectares of the CIMMYT hybrid CZH03030 and a rainbow at Kambondo farm in Kwanza Sul, Angola.

The team visited smallholder farmer Dominga Ngueve, who planted varieties for demonstration on her farm near the Chianga station. “I prefer ZM309 because it matures early and I am able to get [maize for] food earlier,” Ngueve said. “When improved seed is unavailable, I buy local varieties from other farmers.” 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. “Our food crop is maize; if you sell it, you create hunger,” said Ngueve, explaining the importance of maize in her community.

CIMMYT is helping Angola improve this important crop. “Angola has great potential for advancing agriculture,” Abate said, citing the country’s 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.

Visitors at the DTMA stand during the SEDIAC field day in Kwanza Sul, Angola.

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. “It is an opportunity for researchers from the national agriculture research system to network with all the agricultural stakeholders in Angola,” 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, “farmers can increase their food security and livelihoods by taking up droughttolerant varieties,” said CIMMYT socioeconomist Rodney Lunduka.

President Obama honors Norman Borlaug’s work and vision

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Julie Borlaug, associate director for external relations for the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, and granddaughter of the late Dr. Borlaug, has shared with CIMMYT this letter from U.S. President Barack Obama honoring Borlaug’s life and work and endorsing the pursuit of training and advanced technology to help farmers face critical challenges such as climate change. Read more about the letter in this article from Agri-Pulse.

 

The art of seeding hope

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María Concepción Castro

Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca

In March, CIMMYT celebrated International Women’s Day and lauded the efforts of many. At CIMMYT, we are lucky to work with outstanding female colleagues. Perla Chávez Dulanto, associate scientist for the Global Wheat Program’s (GWP) physiology team, which is led by Matthew Reynolds, is one of those colleagues.

Chávez came to CIMMYT in 2012, inspired by the legacy of Dr. Norman Borlaug, who she describes as “a man who devoted his life and his science to help the poorest but was guided by his heart —a characteristic feature of great scientists and true human beings.” She was also motivated by the opportunity to be part of an interdisciplinary group working to improve food security and livelihoods. After earning a BSc in agricultural engineering at La Molina National Agricultural University in Lima, Peru, she worked for large-scale farm export enterprises and agribusiness, nongovernmental organizations and education-extension institutions. Yet Chávez, who is inspired by the landscapes she admired during her childhood, wanted to develop good crops for poor farmers.

“Though I was raised in Lima, my mother was from Chancay, a coastal city nearby and the largest provider of field crop commodities to Lima. From Chancay, you could see endless maize and potato crop fields with long rows almost reaching the beaches, listen to birds tweet and see whales or sea lions jumping into the water far beyond,” Chávez said. She knew she needed to learn about soil, physics, ecology, pathology and animal life. Chávez has had enough contact with farmers, both wealthy and poor, to realize there are large differences between their livelihoods. Peru produces wheat, barley and sorghum in mountainous areas. Wheat is important to smallholder and subsistence farmers but yields are only 2 to 3 tons per hectare due to the lack of improved materials and the prevalence of pests, disease damage and abiotic stresses like drought. Chávez said Peru and the Andean region could benefit from research, motivating her to continue with science.

She earned a master’s degree in entomology with complementary studies in integrated pest management and horticulture at La Molina and the Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU), The Netherlands. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, and conducted research for the International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru on a project using remote sensing to detect biotic and abiotic stresses in potatoes. Chávez worked at CIP for eight years, where she had the opportunity to travel across Peru.

Chávez brings this expertise to the wheat physiology group and she says she is lucky for the support of her GWP colleagues. During her tenure at CIMMYT she has organized two courses on plant physiology for national staff at Ciudad Obregón, and edited and coordinated the English-Spanish translation of the manuals Fitomejoramiento Fisiológico volumen I y volumen II. She has also supported Amor Yahyaoui and Pawan Singh during field days in Toluca and coordinated visits by students and children at Ciudad Obregón.

“I am happy to do collaborative research within GWP and CIMMYT as a whole, which involves breeders, pathologists, physiologists, conservation agriculture experts and more,” Chávez said. “If we all work together we can move faster to discover and select genotypes with a very good combination of characteristics. Those genotypes — after several steps — can be released for farmers. We can make an impact on people’s lives.” Chávez will soon start a new stage in her life when she becomes a mother in May. She looks forward to sharing some of her other talents, such as drawing, painting and sculpture, with her baby boy.

CIMMYT strengthens partnerships in South America

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By Sam Storr/CIMMYT

Representatives from the national agricultural systems in Bolivia and Ecuador visited CIMMYT at El Batán, Mexico, from 7-9 April to lay the framework for future collaboration to improve maize production.

The meeting was preceded by a visit from Colombian officials and will be followed by a visit of officials from Peru at the end of April, completing initial talks between CIMMYT and the four South American countries. “We are determining how CIMMYT can work more quickly and concretely to help feed populations in alliance with these countries. Bolivia is self-sufficient in maize, but it could become an exporter,” said Luis Narro, plant breeder for CIMMYT in Colombia. “Ecuador is importing more, but the government has decided to achieve self-sufficiency in two years. So they want to know how CIMMYT can be more involved in solving the problem of production in these countries, and we hope to improve the lives of producers.” Visitors included Nemesia Achacollo, Bolivian minister for land and rural development; Gabriel Hoyos, executive director general of the National Institute of Agrarian and Forestry Innovation (INIAF, Bolivia); and José Luis Zambrano, director of research at Ecuador’s Autonomous National Institute of Agrarian Research (INIAP).

A delegation from Bolivia and Ecuador visited CIMMYT on 7-9 April to discuss possible collaboration. (Photos: Xochiquezal Fonseca)

Presentations on advanced maize research at CIMMYT, including an introduction to MasAgro work in sustainable intensification were conducted for the delegation. After learning more about the extent of work undertaken by CIMMYT, Achacollo was impressed by the challenges facing Bolivia in establishing its own international quinoa center. The delegation members also visited the Agua Fría Experimental Station in Puebla, where Achacollo announced that the Bolivian government would create policies for young Bolivian researchers to train in similar facilities. “We must invest in future generations so that they can provide the foundation of agricultural knowledge,” she said. “We cannot be left behind.”

Limagrain and CIMMYT collaborate on maize doubled haploid technology

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By Vijay Chaikam/CIMMYT

CIMMYT’s intensive efforts in developing and deploying tropicalized haploid inducers and their potential impact on doubled haploid (DH) line development in tropical genetic backgrounds were recently praised by Thierry Rosin, global maize research head of Limagrain.

Limagrain and CIMMYT scientists observe the treated haploid plants in a D0 nursery. Photo: Vijay Chaikam

His comments came during a DH project review meeting organized by Limagrain on 4 February at Limagrain’s DH facility in Santiago de Chile, Chile. Vijay Chaikam, CIMMYT maize DH specialist, and B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program represented CIMMYT. Limagrain, an international agricultural co-operative group based in France and the world’s fourth largest seed company, has supported CIMMYT’s maize DH technology efforts since 2012, with particular emphasis on improving protocols to enhance efficiency for the benefit of the international scientific community. DH technology expedites the development and release of homozygous maize lines.

The meeting was chaired by Rosin. Participants from Limagrain included Regis Brassart, maize DH project manager, and Dominique Marc, corn research production manager, along with colleagues from Limagrain-Chile. The meeting was also attended by Gorden Mabuyaye, maize program lead of the southern Africa SeedCo company. Brassart presented Limagrain’s DH program organization and its scope of operations on different continents. Prasanna highlighted the present initiatives and impact of CIMMYT-improved maize germplasm in the tropics and the role of public-private partnerships in developing and deploying modern tools and strategies for enhancing breeding efficiency. Chaikam presented the progress achieved under a Limagrain-funded project on maize DH technology at CIMMYT-Mexico and future research plans.

Chaikam, Prasanna and the Limagrain scientists also visited Limagrain’s DH facilities, which showcased haploid induction, haploid seed germination, chromosome doubling and haploid nursery management. The lab and field visits also provided opportunities for detailed discussion on protocols at both institutions and possible improvements. On behalf of CIMMYT, Prasanna thanked Limagrain management for sharing the knowledge and technical processes associated with the maize DH technology, and expressed his hope for a stronger collaboration between the two institutions in various areas of mutual interest in global maize research for development.

 

The Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security: speaker spotlight

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By Brenna Goth/CIMMYT

Rachel Laudan learns how to use a grindstone (a Mexican metate). Photo courtesy of Rachel Laudan.

Food historian Rachel Laudan will explain wheat’s impact on world history at the Borlaug Summit on Wheat for Food Security. The Summit, which will be held in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, in March, will feature Laudan’s lecture “Wheat: The Grain at the Center of Civilization.”

Wheat, used in many of the most popular dishes across the globe, has changed the world, according to Laudan.

“No one would have predicted this of the hard-to-process seeds of this finicky, low- yielding grass,” she writes in a preview to her talk. “Nor would they have predicted that processing wheat would have encouraged new forms of economic organization, expressed political and social status and symbolized moral and religious beliefs.”

She recently released the book Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History, a story of how food is interconnected with economies, beliefs, social structures and politics throughout time and across the world. The book is a finalist for the International Association of Culinary Professionals 2014 Food Writing Awards.  Laudan describes her inspiration on her blog.

Here, Laudan has provided us with an excerpt of the book focused on the difficulties of grinding wheat:

When I was a little girl, my father decided to make some flour from the wheat we had grown on the farm. He tried pounding it with a pestle and mortar but all he got was broken grains, not flour. He put it through the hand mincer screwed to the edge of the table with the same result. Finally, he attacked it with a hammer on the flagstone floor. After he gave up, defeated, my mother cleared up the mess. It was sobering to realize that if the commercial millers vanished, we could have starved even with barns full of sacks of wheat.

To turn wheat into flour, you have to shear, not pound, the hard grains, which requires a grindstone, as the people of Lake Kinneret had discovered. A friend in Mexico, where hand grinding still goes on, showed me how it worked. She knelt at the upper end of a grindstone, called a metate – a saddle-shaped platform on three inverted pyramidal legs, hewn from a single piece of volcanic rock. She mounded a handful of barley, took the mano, a stone shaped like a squared-off rolling pin, in both hands with her thumbs facing back to nudge the grain into place, and, using the whole weight of her upper body, sheared the mano over the grain. After half a dozen passes, she had broken the grains, which now clustered at the bottom end of the metate. Carefully scraping them up with her fingertips, she moved them back to the top, and started shearing again, this time producing white streaks of flour. By the time she had sheared the grain from top to bottom five or six times, she had produced a handful of flour.

Grinding may look easy, and it is, for the first ten minutes. To grind a quantity of grain, though, as I found out when I tried, takes skill, control, physical strength, and time. I was quickly panting, sweaty, and dizzy, my hair in my eyes, and the mano slipping at awkward angles. Grinding is hard on the knees, hips, back, shoulders, and elbows, causing arthritis and bone damage. Grinding is lonely, too exhausting to allow for chatter. Kneeling to grind with the breasts swinging can be seen as submissive, demeaning, and sexually provocative, as lascivious eighteenth- and nineteenth-century illustrations of Mexican women grinding make clear. The heavy labor was relegated to women, convicts, and slaves, called “grinding slaves” in the technical language of seventh-century English court documents. Even today Mexican women in remote villages grind five hours daily to prepare enough maize for a family of five or six. For generation upon generation of grinders in the bread-eating parts of the world, the author of Genesis (3:19) had it nailed. “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

You can purchase the book through the University of California Press or Amazon. For more thoughts from Rachel Laudan, check out her website and read her blog.

See all of the Summit speakers here.

CIMMYT strengthens ties with Mexico’s Science Council

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Research center directors from throughout Mexico met to identify possible collaborations on 25 November at CIMMYT-El Batán. Visitors, all from National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) centers, included Lorenzo Felipe Sanchez Teyer, director general of the Yucatán Scientific Research Center A.C. (CICY); Pablo Wong-González, director general of the Center for Food Research and Development A.C. (CIAD); Mayra de la Torre, who is in charge of strategic programs for CIAD; and Martín Aluja Schuneman Hofer, director general of the Ecology Institute A.C. (INECOL).

Aluja received the 2013 National Award for Science and Arts in the technology, innovation and design category. This important award recognizes his invaluable contribution to promoting agriculture and strengthening the marketing of Mexican avocados, among other work to improve science and technology in Mexico. Congratulations Dr. Aluja! During the visit and meetings with CIMMYT researchers, attendees identified potential areas of collaboration with each CONACYT research center. They agreed on possible areas of focus, including impact modeling on long-term agricultural practices, social inclusion research, technological innovation, value chain and market research, nutritional quality and climate change.

Other CONACYT research centers participated in the first analysis and planning meeting for a national postgraduate program in plant genetic resources, held at CIMMYT on 13-14 November. The initiative is led by MasAgro- Biodiversity. Participation at the workshop included 21 national universities and research centers as well as the Northwest Center for Biological Research (CIBNOR), El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR) and INECOL.

Left to right: Carlos Moisés Hernández, Denise Costich, Lorenzo Felipe Sanchez Teyer, Kevin Pixley, Mayra de la Torre, Martín Aluja Schuneman Hofer, Pablo Wong-González, Natalia Palacios, Sara Hearne, Isabel Peña, Carolina Saint-Pierre, Francelino Rodrigues, Carlos Guzmán and Gilberto Salinas. Photo: Xochiquezatl Fonseca/CIMMYT
Left to right: Carlos Moisés Hernández, Denise Costich, Lorenzo Felipe Sanchez Teyer, Kevin Pixley, Mayra de la Torre, Martín Aluja Schuneman Hofer, Pablo Wong-González, Natalia Palacios, Sara Hearne, Isabel Peña, Carolina Saint-Pierre,
Francelino Rodrigues, Carlos Guzmán and Gilberto Salinas. Photo: Xochiquezatl Fonseca/CIMMYT

The CONACYT system includes 27 research institutes that focus on science and technology. Research areas and objectives include natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities, technological development and innovation and financial support for postgraduate studies. Inocencio Higuera, deputy director general of CONACYT’s public centers who visited CIMMYT in August 2013, said CONACYT is extremely important to Mexico. CIMMYT has signed academic and scientific collaboration agreements with CONACYT centers including ECOSUR, CIAD, INECOL, CICY and the Social Anthropology Research and Study Center (CIESAS). These five-year agreements establish collaboration and cooperation terms and conditions for the development and implementation of specific research projects as well as academic exchange and training.

CIMMYT recognizes the importance of exchanging scientific knowledge and strengthening research with institutes that have solid infrastructure and expertise in anthropology and social impact, biotechnology, ecological management, nanotechnology, nutrition and high-quality human resources development.

Programming language helps crop data analysis

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By Luis Narro/CIMMYT

The computer programming language “R” can help crop researchers with data analysis and interpretation, students learned during a course on the tool this month. Held at the National University of Cajamarca in Peru from 11 to 15 November, the course promoted the use of “R” in crop improvement. 

Data analysis is crucial for comparing the performance of maize hybrids and evaluating experiments. Free of charge and useful for analyzing diverse types of data, the “R” program has been around for about a decade but is relatively new and unknown in South America. It was developed by two statisticians in New Zealand. CIMMYT and the university’s College of Engineers organized the event, which drew some 70 participants from experiment stations from Peru’s National Institute for Technological Innovation (INIA), universities and governmental organizations with research programs. Teachers included Ramón Giraldo Henao from the National University of Colombia, Felipe de Mendiburu from the La Molina National Agrarian University in Lima, Carlos Urrea Florez from Nebraska State University and Luis Narro León from CIMMYT.

R-Peru2-DNA

Mendiburu, who developed the application Agricolae for R, taught the participants how to use the program. The application is specifically designed for the planning and analysis of agricultural and plant breeding experiments. Giraldo presented on the various uses of “R,” including its applications in statistics, types of variables and measurement scales, measures of location and shape variability, probability, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, regression, analysis of variance and contingency tables. Urrea described bean breeding with emphasis on the use of molecular markers to improve disease tolerance. Participants then used salt, detergent and alcohol to extract DNA from strawberries.

Luis Narro León explained maize breeding programs using conventional and unconventional methods. “The strategy of maize breeding program should be aimed at the production of hybrids as the ultimate goal,” Narro said. Carlos Tirado Soto from the National University of Cajamarca opened and closed the course, thanking CIMMYT and its collaborators offering the continued financial and logistical support of the university for similar events in the future. CIMMYT thanks Luis Alcantara, Héctor Cabrera, Alicia Medina, Miguel Angel Pots, Jorge Piedra and Víctor Sánche, from the College of Engineers, for their logistical support. Representing course participants, Vladimir Jara thanked the organizers for the opportunity and said he hoped that training would continue for researchers and teachers in Peru.

Training on mycotoxins supports Peruvian maize exports

Written by on . Posted in News.

By Sam Storr/CIMMYT

HENRY-NGUGITo bolster maize exports to the European Union (EU), Peru is taking measures to ensure its grain is free from mycotoxins, according to CIMMYT maize pathologist Henry Ngugi. “They wanted to establish a testing mechanism because they are trading maize, for which they have to meet strict European Union (EU) standards. They have a project with CIMMYT, which brings them to me” explained Ngugi, who at the request of SENASA, the Peruvian National Agrarian Health Service, led a training course on the subject in Mexico from 21 October to 1 November.

Toxic compounds released by fungal infections in common food grains, mycotoxins spoil 25 percent of global food production, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Beyond the economic losses they cause, mycotoxins are associated with cancer, stunted growth, birth defects and, on occasion, with mass casualties. Course participants were trained to set up an affordable laboratory with all necessary safety features, and on rapid and affordable methods of analysis for aflatoxins and fumonisins in food commodities. Aflatoxin B1 is the most potent carcinogen known in nature, and fumonisins have been linked to the neural tube defect in embryo formation.

The training emphasized the use of laboratory sessions to prepare trainees to perform the analyses themselves upon returning to their home countries. Although testing for mycotoxins is an established practice in the developed world, a lack of expertise can hinder the participation of other countries in trade. The World Bank believes that EU restrictions on mycotoxins cost Africa US $670 million in lost exports each year. The potential benefits to Peruvian maize farmers and exporters are clear, but Ngugi, an expert with more than 10 years of experience in Toxic compounds released by fungal infections in common food grains, mycotoxins spoil 25 percent of global food production, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Beyond the economic losses they cause, mycotoxins are associated with cancer, stunted growth, birth defects and, on occasion, with mass casualties. Course participants were trained to set up an affordable laboratory with all necessary safety features, and on rapid and affordable methods of analysis for aflatoxins and fumonisins in food commodities. Aflatoxin B1 is the most potent carcinogen known in nature, and fumonisins have been linked to the neural tube defect in embryo formation. The training emphasized the use of laboratory sessions to prepare trainees to perform the analyses themselves upon returning to their home countries.

Photo: Thomas Lumpkin/CIMMYT
Photo: Thomas Lumpkin/CIMMYT

Although testing for mycotoxins is an established practice in the developed world, a lack of expertise can hinder the participation of other countries in trade. The World Bank believes that EU restrictions on mycotoxins cost Africa US $670 million in lost exports each year. The potential benefits to Peruvian maize farmers and exporters are clear, but Ngugi, an expert with more than 10 years of experience in consuming contaminated grains in the last few years,” Ngugi said. “Because of that, this issue does not draw as much attention, but in the long run it could have a lot of consequences.”

Many Latin American staples – such as maize, nuts, chili peppers and beans – are vulnerable to mycotoxin contamination. A 2004 study conducted by the United States Department of Health (USDA) in Guatemala found that half of maize samples collected from local markets would exceed World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for fumonisin consumption if eaten regularly. “We know the problem exists,” Ngugi said. “But we cannot attract donor funding because if you ask people, they don’t have data.”

Behind the science: ‘Smart machines’ for Mexico’s smallholder farmers

Written by on . Posted in Features.

By Brenna Goth/CIMMYT

Jelle Van Loon shows a prototype of tool used to re-shape and fertilize. His team is working to develop less expensive and more precise options. Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT
Jelle Van Loon shows a prototype of tool used to re-shape and fertilize. His
team is working to develop less expensive and more precise options. Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT

Jelle Van Loon’s workshop in the fields at El Batán is all about experimentation. The CIMMYT engineer from Belgium is making affordable and efficient tools for smallholder farmers in Mexico by innovating technology and adapting what is already available. Van Loon, leader of smart mechanization for the conservation agriculture program in Mexico, works within the Take it to the Farmer component of MasAgro, or the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture. MasAgro focuses on sustainable farming practices and new technology to help farmers increase their maize and wheat yields.

Van Loon and his team design and produce machinery specifically suited for conditions in Mexico. That might mean adding fertilizer and seed bins to a 2-wheel tractor, modifying hand planters from China and Brazil or adapting a machine to be able to plant seeds for large or small grains. “This is going to be awesome,” Van Loon said while looking at a prototype of a shovel with seed and fertilizer boxes attached. One of the other tools his team is working with – a hand planter that deposits fertilizer and seed – was featured, along with Van Loon, in a Voice of America news article last month.

Van Loon, who came to CIMMYT in October 2012, has a background in agriculture and engineering and has worked throughout Latin America. Development is “in his blood,” he said, because his grandfather was a farmer and his parents worked in the Congo. He first came to Latin America as a teenager when he studied in Honduras as part of an exchange program. “I stayed a lot longer than I was supposed to,” said Van Loon, who also researched in Peru while working on his master’s degree. The chance to return to his “Latin roots” motivated Van Loon to apply for the smart mechanization position at CIMMYT. He said he has driven tractors since he was 10 years old and fixed motorcycles since he was 16, which helped him learn quickly on the job.

Many of the machines Van Loon and his team adapt are already used elsewhere in the world, but small changes or additions can make them more effective in Mexico or useful for multiple crops. By adding a water pump to a tractor, for example, or offering a variety of discs for a plow, machines can be more efficient. New tools are first designed using SolidWorks, a 3D modeling computer program. Implements are then stress-tested in the field to see how useful they are in local conditions. The team works with local blacksmiths so machines can be made and repaired in the area.

Throughout the process, Van Loon is in touch with the farmers who could benefit from his team’s work. “We see what they want to achieve and make it align with conservation agriculture principles,” he said. His team produces information sheets on the tools as well as plans that anyone can download and print, with the goal of making the innovations readily available. Van Loon said he spends about half of his time in the office and the other half in the field. MasAgro has hubs throughout Mexico, sometimes allowing him to ride his motorcycle nearly 1,700 kilometers to Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. He also explains his work to visitors, who can see the improved machines on display at a hangar at El Batán.

It takes collaboration to help farmers improve their maize and wheat yields, Van Loon said. His team is focused on the latter two-thirds of the “good seeds, good tools and good practices” equation farmers need to succeed. “We want to create a smart smallholder farmer,” Van Loon said.