Second Class of National Science and Technology Award to Fan Xingming and his team
The prestigious Second Class of National Science and Technology Awards was presented to the âTropical and subtropical high-quality, highyield germplasm: innovation research and applicationâ maize project led by Fan Xingming, a CIMMYT partner from the Institute of Food Crops (IFC) at the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS), on 18 January 2013 in Beijing, China.
The project, coordinated by the national maize innovation team, has achieved great results in tropical and subtropical maize germplasm improvement, combining ability analysis and heterosis classification, establishing new methods to classify heterotic groups, and developing and registering 25 high-yielding maize hybrids, including Yunrui 8, Yunrui 1, and Yunyou 19. This has helped to resolve the long-lasting problem with the lack of tropical and subtropical superior maize hybrids in China. The hybrids have been planted on a cumulative area of 11 million hectares in the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou in southwestern China, and contributed to the provision of resources for poor farmers in the mountainous areas and among minority groups.
Ravi Singh, distinguished scientist and head of Bread Wheat Improvement and Rust Research, Global Wheat Program, received the 2012 China Tianshan Award for his contributions to the economic and social progress of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. The highest award given to foreign experts by the Government of Xinjiang Province was presented by Huang Wei, Executive Vice- Governor of the Province, on 27 September 2012 during a ceremony at Urumqi attended by over 150 officials and guests.
The first-ever 
The 11th International Gluten Workshop (IGW) jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), 
After a formal introduction, Zaidi gave an overview of the research program and priorities of the CIMMYT-Asia maize program, and the ongoing collaborations with various public and private institutions in the region, including the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC-Asia). He emphasized CIMMYTâs initiatives towards purposeful partnerships, which offer a big opportunity for pro-poor agricultural investment and innovations (such as IMIC-Asia and MAIZE), the global alliance for food security, and the livelihood of resource-poor in the developing world.
As indicated in Ren Wangâs speech, CIMMYT has the largest investment in China among CGIAR centers. Five collaborative research programs led by CIMMYT scientists stationed in China have been established at CAAS, Yunnan and Sichuan. This has created a new model for CGIAR-China collaboration and increased CIMMYTâs impact in China. CIMMYT is also the first international center to establish collaborative projects with the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Bed planting has produced significant impact in the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan, Shandong, and Henan, bringing among other benefits a 30% reduction in input use. Bed planting is particularly advantageous at saving water. Conservation agriculture techniques combined with new winter wheat varieties have been broadly extended in traditional spring wheat areas, allowing farmers to take advantage of climate change to increase yields and reduce input use.
One of the worst wheat diseases in China, stripe rust has appeared in yearly epidemics since 1950 and caused losses of more than 60 million tons. As China is among the worldâs main producers of wheat, the CIMMYT China office in Chengdu, in collaboration with the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS), organized a two-day workshop to address these issues.
Whilst Director General Thomas Lumpkin is in China meeting with the ex- and current Presidents of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Beijing, a delegation of six CAAS representatives took the opportunity to come to El BatĂĄn to discuss collaborations between CIMMYT and China and opportunities for future projects. Li Jinxiang, Vice President, Ye Zhihua, Director General of the Institute of Quality Standard and Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Chen Wanquan, Director Generation of the Institute of Plant Protection, Li Sijing, Vice President of the Graduate School, Niu Liping, Deputy Director General of the Logistic Service Center, and Wang Jing, Project Officer of the Department of International Cooperation of CAAS visited CIMMYT while in Mexico for the G20 meetings.
Erginbas is just beginning work on a project to screen wheat for resistance to a disease called crown rot. It is caused by a microscopic fungus in the soil called Fusarium culmorum (related to but not the same as the Fusarium fungus that causes head blight in wheat) and can cause farmers serious loss of yield. Her first tests have been with plants grown in a greenhouse on the station. Later she will expand her work to the field and as part of her program will spend some time in Australia with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Since there is some evidence that the fungus that causes crown rot can survive for up to two years in crop residues, there is a great interest in this work as more farmers adopt reduced tillage and stubble retention on their land.
These pathogens are especially damaging when wheat is grown under more marginal conditions, and so the work in Turkey that these two young students are doing may have its greatest impact where farmers struggle the most.
A USAID-funded study by Rutgers economist Carl Pray concludes that present and future impacts of the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET)âa forum that during 1998-2005 fostered the use of biotechnology to boost maize yields in Asia’s developing countriesâshould produce benefits that far exceed its cost.