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. CIMMYTâs genebank in Mexico stores 27,000 maize and 170,000 wheat seed collections â 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.
Inadequate seed supply and delivery systems, sometimes also misaligned with user and market demand, mean that smallholders often recycle seed or use older varieties, leaving them more vulnerable to pests and diseases.⯠Small-scale farmers, especially women and other disadvantaged groups, are particularly vulnerable to climate-related challenges, such as more frequent and severe droughts and erratic rainfall. Additionally, farmers may not be well informed about varietal options available to them or may be reluctant to experiment with new varieties. These challenges threaten agricultural production and can compromise their ability to meet their own food, nutrition and income needs. Â
Improved varieties, innovations and approaches developed and promoted by CGIAR and partners could transform agrifood systems and reduce yield gaps, âhunger monthsâ and other disparities. However, limited access to and use of affordable, quality seed of well-adapted varieties with desired traits, means these bottlenecks remain.âŻ
This Initiative aims to support the delivery of seedâŻof improved, climate-resilient, market-preferred and nutritious varieties of priority crops, embodying a high rate of genetic gain to farmers, ensuring equitable access for women and other disadvantaged groups.
This objective will be achieved through:
Supporting demand-driven cereal seed systems for more effective delivery of genetic gains from One CGIAR cereal breeding, as well as improving government, private sector and farmer-based capacity to deliver productive, resilient and preferred varieties to smallholders.Â
Boosting legume seed through a demand-led approach that builds on growing demand for grain legumes. This multistakeholder approach will strengthen partnerships to provide efficient, more predictable and demand-led access to quality seed of new varieties.Â
Scaling and delivering vegetatively propagated crop seed through sustainable enhanced delivery pathways that efficiently target different market segments and farmer preferences.Â
Supporting partnerships (including with smallholders), capacity building and coordination to ensure uptake of public-bred varieties and other innovations by providing technical assistance for national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) and foundation seed organizations in early-generation seed production and on-farm demonstrations.Â
Developing and implementing policies for varietal turnover, seed quality assurance and trade in seeds by leveraging global expertise and experience to generate both the evidence and engagement necessary to advance efficient, sustainable, and inclusive seed markets that promote varietal turnover and wider adoption.Â
Scaling equitable access to quality seed and traits in order to reach the unreached and provide inclusive access while addressing gender and social constraints and the digital divide.Â
Engagement
This Initiative will work in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania as a priority, followed by other countries in Latin America, South and Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.Â
Outcomes
Proposed 3-year outcomes include:
Robust tools developed and used by funders, developers, researchers and extension staff to sustainably measure and monitor key seed system metrics.Â
Increase of 10% in the quantity of quality seed of improved âbest-fitâ and farmer-preferred varieties available to farmers in representative crops and geographies due to increased capacity of seed companies and other seed multipliers (including farm-based seed actors). Â
Public and private seed enterprises adopting innovative and transformative models for accessing, disseminating and multiplying quality early-generation seed, reducing cost and increasing output.Â
Reduction of 5% in weighted average varietal age for priority crops in selected countries.    Â
Government partners in policy design and implementation actively promote policy solutions to accelerate varietal turnover, adoption and quality seed use.Â
Resource-poor farmers in low-income and middle-income countries will hugely benefit from improved crop varieties that perform better in terms of nutritional quality, income generation, water and nutrient use, stability of yields under climate change, and the needs of both women and men as farmers and as consumers. Â
However, many smallholder farmers still grow old varieties, in part because they derive inadequate benefits from recent breeding efforts. To trigger timely adoption, new varieties must be widely available and affordable to farmers, and offer a step-change in performance through higher rates of genetic gain. A faster pace of varietal turnover is critical â to enable farmers to adapt and advance rapidly as climatic and market conditions change.Â
Breeding programs also need a greater focus on developing farmer- and consumer- preferred varieties adapted to distinct production environments, markets and end uses. This can be facilitated by smarter design of breeding programs; stronger partnerships between CGIAR, National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) and small and medium enterprises (SMEs); and strengthened organizational capacity.
This Initiative aims to develop better-performing, farmer-preferred crop varieties and to decrease the average age of varieties in farmersâ fields, providing real-time adaptation to climate change, evolving markets and production systems.Â
The objective will be achieved through:
Re-focusing breeding teams and objectives on farmersâ needs, in particular the needs of women, through achievable product profiles and breeding pipelines targeting prioritized regions and market segments.Â
ReorganizingâŻbreeding teams to drive efficiency gains through the coordinated engagement of specialists and processes using a common organizational framework, stage gates, key performance indicators and handover criteria.Â
TransformingâŻtowards inclusive, impactful CGIAR-NARES-SME breeding networks with empowered partners, along with customized capacity building, standardized key performance indicators, and by dividing labor and resources across partners according to comparative advantage and aligned with national priorities.Â
Discovering optimum traits and deployments through agile, demand-driven and effective trait discovery and deployment pipelines, and development of elite donor lines with novel and highly valuable traits.Â
AcceleratingâŻpopulation improvement and variety identification through optimizing breeding pipelines (trailing, parent selection, cycle time, use of Breeding Resources tools and services, etc.), with the goal of assuring all programs deliver market-demanded varieties that deliver greater rates of genetic gain per dollar invested.Â
Engagement
This Initiative will work with breeding programs serving countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia, along with Asia and Latin America. Priority countries for the Initiative include Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa, and Bangladesh and India in South Asia.Â
Outcomes
Proposed 3-year outcomes include:
At least 75%âŻof breeding pipelines are oriented towards specific market segments, enabling greater focus on farmersâ needs, drivers of adoption, distinct impact areas and the strategic allocation of resources.Â
At least 70%âŻof breeding pipelines use a revised organizational framework that provides operational clarity and effectiveness for specialized teams pursuing breeding outputs.Â
At least 80%âŻof the breeding networks have implemented documented steps toward stronger partnership models where NARES and SMEs have increased breeding capacity, and make greater scientific, operational and decision-making contributions to the breeding process.Â
At least 50%âŻof breeding pipelines are supported by a dedicated trait discovery and deployment program that delivers high-impact traits in the form of elite parental lines.Â
At leastâŻ70%âŻof breeding pipelines have increased the rate of genetic gain in the form of farmer-preferred varieties, with at least 50% providing significantly improved varieties delivered to seed system recipients.   Â
Decisions on how to invest scarce resources in CGIAR-NARES genetic innovation systems have been predominantly supply-driven and therefore potentially out-of-sync with the demands of smallholders, consumers and agro-industry. The turnover of improved crop varieties developed by CGIAR and its NARES partners (National Agricultural Research and Extension Services) has been slow. Small-scale seed businesses lack incentives to actively promote new varieties given weak demand. Little is known about the drivers of varietal replacement and product substitution, and the role of downstream market actors such as traders, processors and consumers in this process.âŻÂ
There is a clear need for demand- and data-driven processes to guide genetic innovation systems, but efforts to advance this remain incomplete and fragmented within CGIAR. Current product profile design is strongly biased towards agronomic and stress-tolerance traits, with little systematic identification and integration of traits that contribute to wider social impact.Â
This Initiative aims to maximize CGIAR and partnersâ returns on investment in breeding, seed systems and other Initiatives based on reliable and timely market intelligence that enables stronger demand orientation and strengthens co-ownership and co-implementation by CGIAR and partners.
This objective will be achieved through:
Gathering market intelligence by collecting data to map global and regional challenges across CGIARâs five impact areas, translating them into regional market segments and priorities for genetic innovation by identifying drivers of demand as well as variation by gender, age and social group.
Designing new-generation, gender-intentional target product profiles for each market segment using market intelligence.Â
Generating behavioral intelligence based on what drives farmers, consumers and private-sector decisions to adopt new varieties and supporting other Initiatives in identifying cost-effective inclusive strategies for accelerating varietal uptake.Â
Developing pipeline investment cases by estimating the potential impact and return on investment across CGIARâs five impact areas of the portfolio of breeding pipelines serving the market segments and developing recommendations for the portfolio optimization and prioritization.Â
Developing institutional scaling and monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact assessment (MELIA) by establishing a collaboration hub across Genetic Innovation Initiatives and partners to develop scaling mechanisms for the adoption of institutional standards and processes in market segmentation and gender-intentional product profile design, and to conduct rigorous MELIA of the portfolio.Â
Engagement
This Initiative has a global and regional focus, with countries being prioritized as a result of the Initiativeâs work.Â
Outcomes
Proposed 3-year outcomes include:
At least three transdisciplinary teams across CGIAR and partners in prioritized regions are empowered in co-implementation of market and behavioral intelligence and co-design of product profiles.Â
At least 10 CGIAR partners in prioritized regions adopt institutional standards and processes for market segmentation and product profile design, sharing of market and behavioral intelligence and monitoring of outcomes.Â
At least five seed suppliers, food companies and NGOs in prioritized regions use market and behavioral intelligence from the Initiative in strategic decision-making.Â
At least three research leaders and investors make investment decisions using pipeline investment cases and the Initiativeâs investor dashboard and the increased availability of information and transparent, holistic analyses of high-impact opportunities attract increased investments in underinvested and new-opportunity market segments.
Participants at the roundtable discussion on the IDB report Competing in Agribusiness: Corporate Strategies and Public Policies for the Challenges of the 21st Century. (Photo: CIMMYT)
According to representatives from both institutions, strengthening Latin Americaâs agrifood systems would allow the region to consolidate its position as a leader in agricultural exports and make a significant contribution to the development and prosperity of its societies.
In his opening address to more than 130 event participants who followed the roundtable webcasting from CIMMYT HQ in Mexico, the CGIARâs Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, JoaquĂn Lozano, praised the quality of the report and highlighted that it provides new perspectives on issues very closely related to the CGIARâs mandate and work, such as innovation in agriculture, the importance of public goods, and the climate challenges affecting agrifood systems.
Lozano emphasized that, although agrifood systems have not traditionally been considered a suitable area for investment in innovation, this perception is changing thanks to science-based and precision agriculture. He further affirmed that the work of institutions dedicated to agricultural innovation and research, such as the CGIAR, make critical contributions to developing these areas.
âThese forms of agriculture not only contribute to the development of agribusiness, but they could also be key to closing the technological, economic and social gap between modern and traditional agriculture,â he asserted. âFor this to happen, there must be strong partnerships between scientific institutions, public authorities and development banks such as the IDB.â
Ernesto Stein, IDB Group representative in Mexico and coordinator of the team that prepared the report, also emphasized the key role that agriculture can play in the development and economic well-being of Latin American and Caribbean societies.
Ernesto Stein explaining the reportâs main conclusions. (Photo: CIMMYT)
âHistorically, it was thought that industrialization was the quickest path to development. However, this model has its limits. Moreover, agriculture has demonstrated that it can be not only a subsistence economic activity, but also an advanced production method,â he affirmed.
Stein warned that the success of this âalternative development strategyâ is not automatic. The agrifood market requires higher and higher quality, sustainability and information standards, and meeting these requirements âdepends on the development of new capacities.â
In this context, the IDB report describes 30 cases of agrifood companies, located in 12Â Latin American countries, that have become successfully inserted into the market, and it analyzes the factors that have contributed to building these success stories.
These factors are related to value-addition strategies for agricultural products (meeting requirements of external markets; obtaining certifications; processing products with qualities that are especially valued by consumers; taking advantage of low-supply periods thanks to genetic innovation; developing by-products to optimize fresh produce that cannot reach markets; or creating a differentiated brand identity) and also to the model of productive organization (which the report divides into three: vertical integration companies [large-scale production companies with total control of all factors in the production process]; tractor companies [medium- or large-scale companies that contract production from small-scale producers]; and horizontal associative companies [such as cooperatives]).
The objective of the report is both descriptive and prospective, as the identification of these factors aims to inspire other companies and actors involved in defining rural development policiesâespecially governmentsâto help create conditions that will facilitate the replication or scaling-up of the models featured in the report.
The global presentation of the report was followed by the analysis of more specific questions. Speaking of the need for innovation in agriculture, Gustavo Crespi, from the IDBâs Competitiveness, Technology and Innovation Division, highlighted that âthe innovation economy has always considered agriculture to be a sector of limited innovation. However, throughout the decades, agriculture has undertaken very significant productive and organizational transformations that have been underestimated.â
In fact, according to Crespi, agriculture is currently undergoing a complex transformation process, especially in the pre-cultivation, pre-harvest and post-harvest stages, that is successfully reducing the uncertainty associated with agriculture and greatly improving its efficiency.
Romina Ordoñez, from the IDBâs Rural Development, Environment and Disaster Risk Management Division, examined the environmental challenges affecting agricultural value chains and highlighted that these challenges also present opportunities, such as the fact that the environmental certification of an agricultural product allows it to generate additional income.
However, she warned that âthe transition to more sustainable agriculture has an up-front cost that not everyone can afford.â Therefore, this transition requires the support of strong institutions âmainly public authorities, international organizations and development banks.
Subsequently, CGIAR commentators offered their perspectives from different angles. Valeria Piñeiro, from the Office for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Food Policies Research Institute (IFPRI), also underscored the âkey role that public goods must play in optimizing agricultural production systems.â According to Piñeiro, technological transformations must be accompanied by institutional and policy transformations.
Hugo Campos, Deputy Director General of Research at the International Potato Center (CIP, for its Spanish acronym), asserted that the event âcould be a watershed in the way that we use innovation to generate value in agriculture.â
Deissy MartĂnez, Leader of the AgriLAC Resiliente Initiative. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Likewise, Deissy Martinez, Leader of the CGIARâs AgriLAC Resiliente Initiative, emphasized that âin agriculture, it is possible to generate value from sustainability,â and that this fact, âwhich today is exceptional, should be the norm.â
Govaerts highlighted that the challenge is to âconnect innovation systems with agricultural value-addition models, ensuring that they have an impact in the fight against poverty and that they foster inclusion.â He also underscored that Latin America needs to think about where it would like to be in 2100 and work together to meet its objectives and determine âthe when, the how and the where of its effortsâ to transform its agrifood systems.
The roundtable discussion sparked discussions throughout and after the event. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The presentersâ and publicâs diverse interventions confirmed the validity and relevance of the initial intuition that guided the IDB report and the event: strengthening agrifoods systems in Latin America and the Caribbean can make a decisive contribution to the development of the region and its societies. It was also clear that this objective can only be achieved through broad alliances that include the private and public sectors, large- and small-scale producers, investors, and national and international actors.
A team of women researchers that are part of the Latin American Maize Network participated in the training given by CIMMYT in the framework of the TechMaiz project. (Photo: Francisco AlarcĂłn and Fernando Garcilazo/CIMMYT)
Female scientists from four different Latin American countries have come together to work on TechMaiz, a project supported by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and continue the organizationâs commitment to inclusivity and inclusion.
The scientists spent four days in November at CIMMYTâs headquarters in Mexico to contribute to the training plan, which focused on genetic improvement, soil conservation, seed storage, analysis of the nutritional quality of grain and innovation management in the hub model of maize cultivation.
This training allowed the researchers from Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala and Peru to discuss the use of new technological tools for sustainable intensification of production systems of small and medium farmers, as well as the challenges on the road to moving from efficiency to resilience.
The scientists involved in this training within the framework of the TechMaiz project were:
Liliana Atencio S. – A Colombian who works at the Colombian Agricultural Research Corporation (AGROSAVIA). She is an agricultural engineer with a masterâs degree in agronomic science. This includes an emphasis on plant physiology and she has additional experience in transient and forage crop improvement programs.
Ana Pincay – An Ecuadorian working at the Santa Catalina Experimental Station of the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIAP) as an agricultural researcher. Sheâs also a biotechnology engineer.
Alicia Medina –Â A Peruvian who is based at the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation (INIA) as a researcher. She is an agricultural engineer and has a masterâs degree in development planning.
MarĂa Gabriela AlbĂĄn – She has several responsibilities, including co-investigator, coordinates the academic-financial part and is a professor of the agronomy engineering career at the San Francisco de Quito University (USFQ) in Ecuador. She is an agribusiness engineer with a masterâs degree in agricultural sciences with an emphasis on agricultural business development. AlbĂĄn also has a diploma in design, management, and evaluation of development projects.
Karen Agreda – An agronomist engineer in agri-production systems. She has a postgraduate degree in alternative fruit and vegetable production and works as a specialized researcher in the validation and technology of transference program at the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (ICTA) in Guatemala.
Visiting a research plot under the guidance of Nele Verhulst, Cropping Systems Agronomist with CIMMYT’s Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program. (Photo: Francisco AlarcĂłn and Fernando Garcilazo/CIMMYT)
Weaving bonds of trust to generate changes
Following a period of continuous interaction, the researchers identified not only a number of shared challenges in their respective countries, but also how much complementary and concrete opportunities for teamwork are created when bonds of trust and teamwork are strengthened.
âIn addition to strengthening knowledge, thereâs also the relationship between researchers and institutions, understanding the role of each member of the team is important and allows us to make greater progress,” said Atencio. “For example, Alicia works on improvement, Ana on the use of bio-inputs, and Karen on transfers and linking. We all see that there are opportunities in agriculture for innovation by using tools such as e-agrology. The result of this is that generational change is becoming more and more urgent.â
Proposing more ambitious projects, but also clearer and more precise ones, is part of the learning the researchers plan to take with them. The scientists are determined to share this information with their teams and colleagues, along with integrative approaches that are designed to strengthen the human talent of each institution.
âIn Ecuador, we practice the agriculture of conservation, but we didnât know the concept of not removing the soil,â Picay said. âIt is always a good decision to invest in training, as it refreshes the thought, opens the mind and triggers actions.â
The TechMaĂz project will continue in 2023 with its third year of implementation, promoting national meetings to promote and disseminate the use of sustainable technologies for maize production. CIMMYT training for members of the Latin American Maize Network is also expected to continue.
Bram Govaerts, director general of CIMMYT, said the collaboration with China can be regarded as one of the mutually beneficial examples of working together to safeguard the world’s food security.
“CIMMYT and China together can be partners,” said Govaerts. “CIMMYT can work with China for new wheat varieties that can fight climate change, for new maize varieties that can sustain new diseases.”
“Crossing elite lines with exotic material has its challenges,” said Matthew Reynolds, co-author of the study and leader of Wheat Physiology at CIMMYT. “There’s a well-recognized risk of bringing in more undesirable than desirable traits, so this result represents a significant breakthrough in overcoming that barrier and the continued utilization of genetic resources to boost climate resilience.”
These results can be used to improve crop resilience and food security in the face of the challenges posed by climate change, as well as emphasizing the importance of genetic diversity in key crops where selective breeding has reduced adaptability.
The vital tasks for each country to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and limited carbon outputs are daunting, especially with 2030 deadlines imposed by the Paris Climate Agreement only eight years away. National stakeholders would benefit greatly from roadmaps that identify realistic and achievable milestones to point the way forward.
Researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have provided just such a road map. Using easily available data, they developed rapid assessment methods and adoption costs for mitigation related to crops, livestock, and forestry to identify priority locations and actions. Their article, âQuantification of economically feasible mitigation potential from agriculture, forestry and other land uses in Mexicoâ, was published in Carbon Management.
Applying these methods for Mexico, researchers found a national mitigation potential of 87.88 million metric tons (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalents per year.
âFaced with such an overwhelming issue like climate change, it can be difficult for an individual, an organization, and especially an entire nation to know where to start. We developed a rapid assessment framework, tested in India, Bangladesh, and Mexico, but we believe other nations can use our methods as well,â said Tek Sapkota, the project leader and first author of the paper.
The research specifically focused on climate change mitigation in agriculture, forestry, and other land uses (AFOLU). Agriculture and related land use change contributed about 23% of the worldâs anthropogenic GHG emissions in 2016, and that number is expected to increase as more food needs to be produced for the worldâs growing population.
Chickpeas planted on wheat residue under conservation agriculture. (Photo: Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio/CIMMYT)
The researchers’ starting point was to quantify baseline emissions and analyze the major sources of emissions. Mexicoâs AFOLU sector is responsible for 14.5% of its total national GHG emissions. In Mexicoâs agricultural sector, methane and nitrous oxide emissions arise from livestock activities (enteric fermentation and fertilizers), as well as from agricultural activities (soil management and field burning of crop residues). For land use, carbon dioxide emissions and removals result from changes in forest lands, pastures, agricultural land, wetlands, and settlements.
Activities identified for GHG mitigation in crop production included avoiding fertilizer subsidies, since those tend reward inefficient nitrogen use. Subsidies could be of use, however, in encouraging farmers to adopt more efficient nitrogen management. Precision levelling of crop fields can help to lower GHG emissions by reducing cultivation time and improving the efficiency of fertilizer and irrigation water and adoption of conservation agriculture practices, such as zero tillage.
âAdoptions of these practices will not only reduce GHG emissions, but they will also help increase productivity,â said Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio, co-author and Mexico coordinator of the study.
In the livestock sector, mitigation possibilities identified are the creation of official programs, financial support, and capacity building on composting and biodigester. In FOLU sector, researchers identified options such as zero deforestation and C offset in the C market.
In addition to mapping out the mitigation benefits of specific activities, researchers also considered the costs associated with implementing those activities. âLooking at these efforts together with the cost of their implementation provide a complete picture to the implementing bodies to identify and prioritize their mitigation efforts consistent with their development goals,â said Sapkota. For example, some efforts, like increasing nitrogen use efficiency, do not provide the most climate benefits but are relatively inexpensive to realize, while establishing and maintaining carbon capture markets provides large reductions in GHG, they can be expensive to implement.
Researchers examined publicly available AFLOU spatial data for each Mexican state. At the state level, AFOLU mitigation potentials were highest in Chiapas (13 Mt CO2eq) followed by Campeche (8Mt CO2eq), indicating these states can be considered the highest priority for alleviation efforts. They identified an additional 11 states (Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Jalisco, Sonora, Veracruz, Durango, Chihuahua, Puebla, MichoacĂĄn, and Guerrero) as medium priorities with mitigation potentials of 2.5 to 6.5 Mt CO2eq.
âOur data driven, and evidence-based results can help the government of Mexico refine its national GHG inventory and its Nationally Determined Contributions target and monitor progress,â said Eva Wollenberg, the overall coordinator of the study and research professor of University of Vermont, USA. âThis analysis further provides an example of a methodology and results to help inform future efforts in other countries in addition to Mexico.â
Cover photo: Low nitrogen (at the front) and high nitrogen (at the back) maize planted to address nitrogen use efficiency. (Photo: Ivan Ortiz-Monasterio/CIMMYT)
His research focuses on science, technology and innovations studies. It focuses on technological innovation processes in agriculture. More specifically, he is interested in the emergence of new technologies or the decline of problematic technologies, and in the roles played by public policies, agricultural research, input industries and farmers in these processes. Recently, his work has focused on the emergence of biological alternatives to chemical pesticides.
Jeannette SĂĄnchez is the administrative assistant of the Program Director Sieglinde Snapp, in the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program at CIMMYT.
In an interview, Bram Govaerts, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), highlights the challenges facing crop cultivation management and agricultural product trade in Mexico and the rest of the world.
“At present, one of the most pressing challenges [in Mexico] is water scarcity exacerbated by la Niñaâs occurrence,” explains Govaerts. “The global average of freshwater consumption for food production is 70 percent. However, Mexico ranks 24 in a global Water Stress Index facing high levels of stress by consuming between 40 and 80 percent of water supplies available in any given year.”
The article explores successful local sustainable grain sourcing projects in Mexico, research into sustainable global agricultural development, genetically-modified crops and their connection to biodiversity, and soil health.
Thanks to the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE, in Spanish), the National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP, in Spanish) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), these courses contributed to the development of a biosafety project, supported by GEF and UNEP, to complete the implementation process of the Cartagena Protocol through an innovative approach that promotes a strong link between biotechnology and biodiversity. In addition, it sought to strengthen capacities in the performance and interpretation of molecular analyses and promote the generational change that is gradually taking place in this Central American country.
ICTA seed production leaders and CIMMYT course facilitators. (Photo: CIMMYT)
At the same time, Alberto Chassaigne, curator of the Maize Collection of CIMMYTâs germplasm bank, participated in the course on Genetic Resources and Management of Germplasm Banks. He explained the management of CIMMYTâs germplasm bank, the processes that are carried out and the partnerships with ICTA on work with community seed banks and the plans of both institutions for 2023. Also, as a specialist in Seed Systems, Chassaigne and Ubaldo Marcos, research assistant in CIMMYTâs Maize Seed Systems area, gave a course on Maize Seed Production. This course was aimed at staff in charge of the production of basic and certified seed at ICTA. This course concluded with a field day at the Regional Research Center of the South (CISUR, in Spanish), Cuyuta, Escuintla, where participants asked the specialists questions while visiting a maize seed production plot.
Through examples from Egypt, Malaysia and Mexico, the authors explain the benefits of “co-culture”, such as when different crop species are grown together.
This innovation centers on co-design, combining farmer-centric models and new measurement tools that allow scientific advances to benefit a variety of smallholder production systems.
Higher levels of potential carbon mineralization (Cmin) in soil indicate that the soil is healthier. Many reports indicate that Cmin in agricultural soils increases with reductions in soil disturbance through tillage, but the mechanisms driving these increases are not well understood.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has established a network of research platforms in Mexico, where collaborating scientists evaluate conservation agriculture and other sustainable technologies to generate data on how to improve local production systems. This network of research trials, many of which have over five years in operation, allowed us to participate with Mexican sites in the North American Project to Evaluate Soil Health Measurements (NAPESHM). This project aimed to identify widely applicable soil health indicators and evaluate the effects of sustainable practices on soil health in 124 long-term experiments across Canada, the United States of America, and Mexico.
Experienced field teams from CIMMYT sampled the soils from 16 experiments in Mexico, which were then analyzed by the Soil Health Institute for this study. Potential carbon mineralization, 16S rRNA sequences, and soil characterization data were collected, with results demonstrating that microbial (archaeal and bacterial) sensitivity to physical disturbance is influenced by cropping system, the intensity of the disturbance, and soil pH.
A subset of 28 percent of amplicon sequence variants were enriched in soils managed with minimal disturbance. These enriched sequences, which were important in modeling Cmin, were connected to organisms that produce extracellular polymeric substances and contain metabolic strategies suited for tolerating environmental stressors.
The unique sampling design of this study â analyzing across a variety of agricultural soils and climate â allows to evaluate management impacts on standardized measures of soil microbial activity. Additionally, understanding the microbial drivers of soil health indicators like Cmin can help with the interpretation of those indicators and ultimately the understanding of how to better manage soils.
The workshop, attended by 33 participants from 14 countries, was held at CIMMYT headquarters and highlighted topics such as the analysis of genotypic data derived from the DArTseq platform and the analysis of gaps in germplasm collections.
“It was very gratifying to be able to form this Latin American network of germplasm banks together with our colleagues from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT,”said Carolina Sansaloni, Wheat Germplasm Bank Curator & Genotyping Specialist. “Training and knowledge exchange among germplasm banks is essential for better conservation, exploration and utilization of genetic resources in each country.”
Some of the participants shared the following comments and feedback:
“Excellent initiative, it is a fundamental support for the strengthening of plant genetic resources conservation systems and the creation of international collaborative networks. Thanks to CIMMYT and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT for the invitation.” Mexico’s National Institute for Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Research (INIFAP)
“Excellent workshop, a very important space for the exchange of knowledge and experiences, it also allows the formation of collaborative work networks between institutions and professionals from different countries with related research.” Escuela de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional Costa Rica
“This workshop has allowed me to get in contact with colleagues from Latin America and to open the possibility of working together to advance in the characterization and contribute to the conservation of the collections we manage.” Instituto Nacional de TecnologĂa Agropecuaria, Argentina
“This has been a very profitable week for me as curator of the germplasm bank in Brazil. I learnt new concepts and tools that will generate advances in my work.” Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA)
