Maize and wheat fields at the El Batán experimental station. (Photo: CIMMYT/Alfonso Cortés)
The first meetings of the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) wheat and maize science and technical steering committees — WSC and MSC, respectively — took place virtually on 25th and 28th September.
Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) sit on both committees. In the WSC they are joined by wheat experts from national agricultural research systems (NARS) in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, India, and Nepal; and from Angus Wheat Consultants, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), HarvestPlus, Kansas State University and the Roslin Institute.
Similarly, the MSC includes maize experts from NARS in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Zambia; and from Corteva, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), SeedCo, Syngenta, the University of Queensland, and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
During the meetings, attendees discussed scientific challenges and opportunities for AGG, and developed specific recommendations pertaining to key topics including breeding and testing scheme optimization, effective engagement with partners and capacity development in the time of COVID-19, and seed systems and gender intentionality.
Discussion groups noted, for example, the need to address family structure in yield trials, to strengthen collaboration with national partners, and to develop effective regional on-farm testing strategies. Interestingly, most of the recommendations are applicable and valuable for both crop teams, and this is a clear example of the synergies we expect from combining maize and wheat within the AGG project.
All the recommendations will be further analyzed by the AGG teams during coming months, and project activities will be adjusted or implemented as appropriate. A brief report will be submitted to the respective STSCs prior to the second meetings of these committees, likely in late March 2021.
India’s maize production area currently covers over 10 million hectares, with an annual production of about 25 million tons. Most of this crop is rainfed and therefore vulnerable to climatic shocks such as monsoon rains and associated abiotic and biotic constraints. Moisture availability is seldom adequate for rainfed maize, as the erratic or un-even distribution patterns of monsoon rains often causes intermittent drought, heat or excessive moisture/waterlogging at different crop growth stage(s). This is the main factor responsible for the relatively low productivity of rainfed maize – locally known as Kharif. Additionally, due to un-assured return, farmers often hesitate to invest in improved seed, fertilizers and inputs, which further contributes to poor yields.
In recent years the country’s tropical regions have experienced frequent and widespread drought, coupled with increased (day and night) temperatures during the main maize growing season, in addition to the scattered drought, heat and/or waterlogging that occur almost every year. The compound effects of multiple stresses during monsoon season is reflected in the low productivity of Kharif maize, which is usually less than half compared to irrigated (Rabi) maize.
In response to this, the “Improving rainfed (Kharif) maize productivity” project was established in collaboration with the All-India Coordinated Maize Improvement Program (AICMIP), with the aim of developing maize varieties with tolerance to drought, heat stress and waterlogging. This can play in important role in enhancing maize productivity in rainfed, stress-prone ecologies, and ultimately help boost national maize productivity and production.
Objectives:
Breed commercially viable, stress-resilient hybrids for rainfed cultivation in stress-prone, dry lowland ecologies;
Implement stress phenotyping for target traits at precision phenotyping sites and take forward selected best-bet, stress-resilient hybrids for large-scale evaluation in target environments through the AICMIP network;
Assess genomic diversity among AICMIP, CIMMYT, and ICAR-IIMR germplasm for abiotic stress tolerance;
Heterotic classification of AICMIP and ICAR-IIMR inbred lines through delineation of combining abilities.
There are decades when nothing happens and weeks when decades happen. So goes the old saw. In the social sciences, these “weeks” are often referred to as critical junctures. They are moments when the old rules of the game — the long-established ways of doings things — go out the window and new patterns begin to emerge. The breadbasket states of northwestern India seem to be having one of those weeks.
After years of research and advocacy that appeared to be making little headway, researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) are seeing a sudden and dramatic increase in the adoption of some of the technologies and techniques they have long argued are necessary in this region, including direct-seeding of rice, crop diversification and the adoption of Happy Seeder technology.
A case of unintended consequences
In March 2020 the Indian government decreed a national lockdown in response to the COVID-19 crisis. This triggered the largest internal migration since partition, as millions of migrant workers and day laborers scrambled to return to their home villages. Estimates suggest that up to 1 million workers left the northwestern states of Haryana and Punjab alone.
Agriculture in the region is dominated by the labor- and input-intensive production of rice and wheat in rotation. This system is the most productive per hectare in India, but it is also extremely sensitive to external shocks. The success of both the rice and wheat crop depend on the timely transplantation of rice in mid-June.
As the results of a recently published study demonstrate, delays in this schedule can have devastating downstream effects not only on rice and wheat yields, but on regional air quality too. Models of the worst-case delay scenario predicted a total economic loss of nearly $1.5 billion. Moreover, they predicted that, if no action were taken, up to 80% of rice residue would be burned later in the autumn, when cooler conditions contribute to seasonally poor air quality.
Such an exacerbation of the region’s air pollution would be dire under normal conditions. During a global pandemic of a primarily respiratory illness, it could be devastating.
Fortunately, solutions and technologies that CIMMYT researchers had been studying for decades, along with ICAR, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and other national partners, promised to help ward off the worst effects of the crisis. The adoption of direct-seeding technology could help reduce the labor-intensiveness of rice production, crop diversification could minimize the economic impacts of the crisis, and the use of Happy Seeder technology could alleviate the practice of residue burning.
A farmer burns rice residues after harvest to prepare the land for wheat planting around Sangrur, Punjab, India. (Photo: Neil Palmer/CIAT)
Decades of work pay off
The study, co-authored by researchers at CIMMYT, ICAR and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), relied on a sophisticated ex ante model of four different rice-transplanting delay scenarios. It is published in the November 2020 issue of Agricultural Systems.
However, given the time-sensitivity and high-stakes of the issue, the lead researchers did not wait for the articles publication to press their case. Earlier this year they circulated their initial findings and recommendations to policymakers via their national partners. Notably, after receiving a one-pager summarizing these, the Chief Minister of Punjab released a video address echoing their points.
“Policymakers realized the need for these kinds of solutions,” says Balwinder Singh, a CIMMYT scientist and lead author of the paper. They then moved quickly to incentivize their adoption through various mechanisms, such as subsidizing direct-seeding drills and ensuring the timely availability of machines and other inputs.
Singh and Jat have been carrying out a multi-year survey to assess farmer willingness to adopt Happy Seeder technology and have documented a drastic increase in farmer interest in the technology during 2020. For Jat, this highlights the power of partnerships. “If you don’t include your partners from the beginning, they will not own what you say,” he argues.
Such changes are to be celebrated not only as an important response to the current labor shortage, but also as key to ensuring the long-term sustainability of agricultural production in the region, having important implications for the stewardship of water resources, air pollution and soil health.
“Policies encouraging farming practices that save resources and protect the environment will improve long-term productivity and sustainability of the nation,” says S. K. Chaudhari, deputy director general for Natural Resource Management at ICAR.
A farmer in India uses a tractor fitted with a Happy Seeder. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)
Warding off catastrophe
Although the agricultural cycle is not yet over, and early data are still partial, Singh and Jat estimate that thanks to the dramatic adoption of alternative agricultural practices this year, their worst-case estimates have been avoided. Given the rapid response from both policymakers and farmers, the real-world effects of the COVID-19 labor crisis are likely closer to the mid-range severity scenarios of their analysis. Indeed, early estimates predict no rice yield losses and minor-to-no wheat yield losses over baseline. For the researchers, the relief is palpable and the lessons couldn’t be clearer.
“These technologies were there for decades, but they were never appreciated because everything was normal,” says Jat. “This clearly indicates a need for investment in the technology and the research. You may encounter a problem at any time, but you cannot generate the technology overnight.”
Agriculture contributes significantly to greenhouse gases (GHGs), so can farmers be incentivized to cultivate in a less earth-warming manner, with tradable carbon credits giving them an additional source of income?
“We are unlikely to see big peaks in stubble burning unlike the previous years. The burning of paddy residue is likely to be more evenly distributed across a longer period,” said M.L. Jat, principal scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Farmer speaks on his mobile phone in Bihar, India. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
The Bihar Convergence Platform for agriculture, a synergistic partnership to innovate and initiate targeted interventions that help farmers to have informed choices with proven scientific recommendations, has been consistently working to accelerate interventions and improve the lives and capacity of small and marginal farmers since its establishment in October 2019.
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), in association with CABI and the Open Data Institute, hosted a six-day virtual interactive training in September for platform members on the theme “creating impact through wider data sharing.” The training aimed at strengthening technical expertise of the participants, creating an enabling environment to unlock the benefits of data sharing and developing space for participants to discuss, brainstorm and co-design initiatives to be implemented together by the platform in coming days.
The training ended with a common understanding about the challenges and constraints in agriculture because data is in silos. Furthermore, participants agreed on the need to look at the existing data with a broader lens to accelerate the pace of development in agriculture in the state. Participants expressed that sharing the data under set norms with standardized licensing could act as a catalyst to increase the benefits for smallholder farmers.
To constructively deal with the challenges in agriculture together, the platform members stressed the need to start analyzing existing data from a wider perspective and data sharing as the key for designing fact-based interventions for larger good and impact.
Platform members interact during virtual training. (Photo: Sugandha Munshi/CIMMYT)
The platform is chaired by the Vice Chancellor of Bihar Agriculture University, with key members from Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society known as Jeevika, Bihar Agriculture University, Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University, Agriculture Technology Application Resource Institute, ICAR-RCER, and the CSISA project, along with private groups like IFFCO, Bayer, and ITC.
Out of the many activities jointly implemented by the platform, the Data Ecosystem is the key arena where the platform works together in strengthening the impact of data and incorporating them in accelerating quality interventions for farmers.
This story was first published on the CSISA website.
Sashimoni Lohar, a fifty-three-year-old from Badbil village, in Odisha, is like any other woman you would encounter in India’s rural heartlands. Her life is mostly confined within the boundaries of her home and farm.
The COVID-19 lockdown has been hard on people across India, but particularly agonizing for families like Lohar’s. Both her sons lost their jobs as laborers, one in a town near home, and the other in a city in a different state. Her younger son Debodutta, a migrant laborer stuck in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru when the midnight lockdown was announced, managed to survive and returned home two months later, aggrieved and penniless. Her husband remained the only earning family member, though on a meager salary, and the family dreaded not only the virus but hunger, as the small reserve of income and rations they had was coming to an end.
Lohar was the only one who refused to give up hope. With support from her village self-help group (SHG), she cultivated two acres of hybrid maize this year. The income generated through selling the crop at a roadside stall next to her farm ensured the wellbeing of her family in this critical period. For a brief time, along with her husband’s small income, she became the provider for the family with seven mouths to feed during the lockdown.
Lohar did worry for her jobless sons’ futures but believed that as a successful maize farmer with the skills acquired in the last few years, she can do even better. “Maize farming has supported us during this low-income and very critical period. I shall continue maize cultivation and hope to increase our lease in land next year,” said a visibly triumphant Lohar.
Investing in maize
Today, along with her husband and a new-found entrepreneurial spirit, she hopes to keep Debodutta and her older son closer to home. After lockdown restriction were eased, she invested about Rs.12,000 (roughly US$165) into maize cultivation and set up two stalls by the national highway next to the farm to sell green maize cobs again alongside her family. They made back almost double their investment from less than one acre and she plans to keep the excess as dry grain for the poultry feed mill. A budding entrepreneur full of confidence, Lohar now plans to start a small grocery shop with a loan in the coming months.
A few years ago, many women from these tribal areas in Odisha did not even step out of their houses and villages. They were reluctant to go to the market or the bank – anywhere away from the familiarity of their home. Today, through the opportunities afforded by government economic development programs and collaborations such as the one with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project (CSISA), these women have established themselves as successful maize farmers and entrepreneurs.
Lohar is just one of many women in the rural villages of Odisha — particularly in Mayurbhanj district where COVID-19 has left many male family members jobless — who either individually or in groups erected about 27 small stalls adjacent to their maize fields to sell green cobs to travelers on the highway. Many are very confident and determined to support and lead their families through this difficult time.
Farmer and budding entrepreneur Sashimoni Lohar proudly shows off her new maize stall next to her farm. (Photo: Wasim Iftikar/CIMMYT)
Engaging tribal groups
Mayurbhanj is a district in Odisha where nearly 58.7 percent of the population are from tribal groups. During the kharif — autumn, monsoon and cultivation — season, thousands of hectares of upland are left fallow, due to lack of education and knowledge and tribal farmers’ low risk-bearing capacity. CSISA began working in the district in 2013, improving farming systems for higher yields and providing sustainable livelihood options for tribal farmers.
From 2013 to 2020, CSISA, in collaboration with the State Department of Agriculture, Department of Horticulture, NGO partners, private seed companies, women SHG federations and the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), helped develop maize cultivation as an important part of the tribal people’s livelihoods. Thousands of hectares of fallow lands are now being converted to cultivate maize, focusing on sustainable agriculture and livelihoods, predominantly involving women as most men were occupied or engaged in migrant jobs. This year alone, more than 100 tribal women from Badbil village have cultivated approximately 120 acres of commercial hybrid maize.
CSISA supports the farmers all the way from sowing to crop harvesting. To strengthen dry grain marketing and to avail the benefits of different schemes under the government of Odisha’s support for farmer producer groups (FPGs), CSISA has formed two women’s FPGs in Badbil alone. Some of the SHGs working with CSISA on maize cultivation in the region in the last four-five years include Maa Jagat Janani, Johar Jaher Aya, Biswa Jay Maa Tarini, Maa Saraswati, Subha Patni, and Maa Brundabati.
The women from the villages in Mayurbhanj have become well-known, both within and outside the district, for their good quality green cobs and marketing intelligence. These women had the courage to change their circumstances and lifted their families out of situations of uncertainty and hardship. The rows of industrious rural women selling maize by the national highway became national news, and many of the state’s media channels that come to cover this story hailed their determination and capacity for income generation, even in a pandemic, as symbols of women’s empowerment in the tribal community.
Cover photo: A womens’ group sells green cobs by the national highway next to their maize farm. (Photo: Wasim Iftikar/CIMMYT)
A study by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) pointed out that India has the potential to cut 18 percent of its annual greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and livestock sector.
“This is a very relevant approach in the Indian context also. Contingent plannings are prescription based and when the time comes the seeds are unavailable for the farmers. This approach will answer the questions like which seeds are made to be available where and in what quantity. As we have our own indigenous biodiversity, our farmers face monsoon delays and monsoon failures so Seed for Needs is the key to fight such problems and to maintain our biodiversity” said Dr M L Jat, Principal Scientist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
The process for breeding for grain yield in bread wheat at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) involves three-stage testing at an experimental station in the desert environment of Ciudad Obregón, in Mexico’s Yaqui Valley. Because the conditions in Obregón are extremely favorable, CIMMYT wheat breeders are able to replicate growing environments all over the world and test the yield potential and climate-resilience of wheat varieties for every major global wheat growing area. These replicated test areas in Obregón are known as selection environments (SEs).
This process has its roots in the innovative work of wheat breeder and Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug, more than 50 years ago. Wheat scientists at CIMMYT, led by wheat breeder Philomin Juliana, wanted to see if it remained effective.
The scientists conducted a large quantitative genetics study comparing the grain yield performance of lines in the Obregón SEs with that of lines in target growing sites throughout the world. They based their comparison on data from two major wheat trials: the South Asia Bread Wheat Genomic Prediction Yield Trials in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh initiated by the U.S. Agency for International Development Feed the Future initiative and the global testing environments of the Elite Spring Wheat Yield Trials.
The authors found higher average heritabilities, or trait variations due to genetic differences, for grain yield in the Obregón SEs than in the target sites (44.2 and 92.3% higher for the South Asia and global trials, respectively), indicating greater precision in the SE trials than those in the target sites. They also observed significant genetic correlations between one or more SEs in Obregón and all five South Asian sites, as well as with the majority (65.1%) of the Elite Spring Wheat Yield Trial sites. Lastly, they found a high ratio of selection response by selecting for grain yield in the SEs of Obregón than directly in the target sites.
“The results of this study make it evident that the rigorous multi-year yield testing in Obregón environments has helped to develop wheat lines that have wide-adaptability across diverse geographical locations and resilience to environmental variations,” said Philomin Juliana, CIMMYT associate scientist and lead author of the article.
“This is particularly important for smallholder farmers in developing countries growing wheat on less than 2 hectares who cannot afford crop losses due to year-to-year environmental changes.”
In addition to these comparisons, the scientists conducted genomic prediction for grain yield in the target sites, based on the performance of the same lines in the SEs of Obregón. They found high year-to-year variations in grain yield predictabilities, highlighting the importance of multi-environment testing across time and space to stave off the environment-induced uncertainties in wheat yields.
“While our results demonstrate the challenges involved in genomic prediction of grain yield in future unknown environments, it also opens up new horizons for further exciting research on designing genomic selection-driven breeding for wheat grain yield,” said Juliana.
This type of quantitative genetics analysis using multi-year and multi-site grain yield data is one of the first steps to assessing the effectiveness of CIMMYT’s current grain yield testing and making recommendations for improvement—a key objective of the new Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project, which aims to accelerate the breeding progress by optimizing current breeding schemes.
This work was made possible by the generous support of the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and managed by Cornell University; the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Feed the Future initiative; and several collaborating national partners who generated the grain yield data.
This article by Sakshi Saini and Paresh B Shirsath was originally published on the CCAFS website.
Rice farmer in Punjab, India. (Photo: N. Palmer/CIAT)
Farming has often been quoted as one of the noblest professions, shouldering the responsibility of feeding the world; yet it has been globally identified as one of the most perilous industries associated with a high vulnerability rate. Crop insurance has been established worldwide to provide social protection to farmers and reduce their vulnerability. While the emergence of crop insurance schemes around the world indicates commitment to secure the livelihoods of farmers, they often lack accurate seasonal crop growth monitoring and timely yield loss estimation, making the authentication of crop insurance claims more challenging.
Crop loss assessments are often done via crop cutting experiments (CCEs). However, these can suffer from human error and moral hazard. The experiments also require significant capital and human resources, and need to be carried out simultaneously, in a limited period of time. This often leads to inadequate and delayed claim payment, high premium rates, and poor execution of crop insurance schemes.
With technological advancements and availability, crop growth monitoring and productivity assessment can not only be more accurate and efficient but also less resource-intensive. Readily available data and technology, such as detailed weather data, remote sensing, modeling and big data analytics can be instrumental in further improving crop insurance mechanisms. The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) has developed a Crop-loss Assessment Monitor (CAM) tool as an integrated solution that uses technologies to improve loss assessment and make crop insurance more efficient.
The Crop-loss Assessment Monitor (CAM) tool
The CAM tool integrates multiple input data and methods for crop loss assessment at multiple times in the season. It uses different models for loss assessment depending on the time or stage in the season. To ensure user-friendliness, the tool was developed with a simple, easy-to-use interface and produces outputs customized for policy and risk management agencies. It uses freely available R libraries and does not require specific software installations and high-power processing engines, which in general are a prerequisite to process large gridded satellite data.
CAM provides a form-based user-interface to carry out the analysis. The user can log in and undertake analysis using multiple methods for a specified region and time. The tool allows users to choose between area-based yield insurance and weather-based index insurance. For insurance analysis, scheme details like sum insured and calamity years can be specified for calculation of threshold yields, premiums and claims.
CAM also includes tabs that provide ‘deviation in the weather’ and ‘deviation in satellite vegetation indices’ to help monitor crop conditions every fortnight. The tool also allows users to identify the model agreement between the four different methods for loss assessment, which strengthens the confidence levels in loss assessments, and related insurance analytics.
A single integrated framework
The tool combines agro-meteorological statistical analysis, crop simulation modelling and optimization techniques, and employs near real-time monitoring by using publicly available satellite products. It is also equipped to capture yield variability.
Highlighting the importance of this tool Dr. Pramod Aggarwal, lead author of the paper and CCAFS Asia Program Leader, notes that “assimilating relevant technologies into a single integrated framework is a good way to determine crop losses. Its deployment can assist in multi-stage loss assessment and thus provide farmers with immediate relief for sowing failure, prevented sowing and mid-season adversity apart from final crop loss assessment.”
The tool addresses three major challenges faced by existing crop insurance schemes; more efficient weather indices, timely estimate of loss assessment and improved contract design. As the tool readily uses freely available technology and data, it requires less capital and human resource compared to crop cutting experiments for crop loss assessment. This tool offers a robust mechanism that further reduces the chances of human errors, and makes the process more transparent, robust and reliable. Therefore, it enables timely relief for farmers facing challenges such as sowing failure, prevented sowing and mid-season adversity.
“What you are now about to witness didn’t exist even a few years ago,” begins the first video in a series on zero tillage produced by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Zero tillage, an integral part of conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification, can save farmers time, money and irrigation water.
Through storytelling, the videos demonstrate the process to become a zero till farmer or service provider: from learning how to prepare a field for zero tillage to the safe use of herbicides.
All videos are available in Bengali, Hindi and English.
This videos were produced as part of the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (SRFSI) project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The videos were scripted with regional partners and filmed with communities in West Bengal, India.
Sudha Nair is inspired every day by her passion for biology and genetics. The senior scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) based in Hyderabad, India, works to define and practice the best strategies for applying genomics in agriculture.
“I always knew that science is what I would love to pursue,” said Sudha, an alumnus of both the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi and the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences in Japan.
Originally from Kerala, India, Sudha did not expect a career in agriculture. “I studied for engineering after my high school as I was selected for that course before I was selected for the biology stream. It didn’t take me even a single moment to decide to leave the course six months later when I was selected for the undergraduate program in agriculture,” Sudha said. “I can’t say that it is love for agriculture that forced me to choose the field I am in, but it is the fascination for biological science. I love genetics and I love research; as long as I get to do this as part of my job, I am happy.”
Sudha’s first experience working with CIMMYT involved her PhD dissertation at IARI, which was a part of research conducted for the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET), led by CIMMYT. “I had always looked at CIMMYT as an organization doing high quality applied science,” she said.
Starting in 2010 as a consultant for the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, Sudha then interviewed for the position of maize fine-mapping specialist in 2011 and was selected as a scientist. Her career at CIMMYT has now spanned close to a decade.
Her role involves implementation of molecular breeding in the maize breeding program in Asia. This includes discovery, validation and application of molecular markers for prioritized traits, genomic selection, and marker-based quality assurance and quality control in maize breeding – through current and past projects like Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA), Climate Resilient Maize for Asia (CRMA) and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE). Apart from this, she is currently involved in the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project for incorporating elite and stress tolerance genetics from Asia in the elite African maize germplasm.
Sudha has been a part of a number of global maize projects including the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project, which developed improved maize varieties tolerant to stresses such as drought and diseases, and HarvestPlus in maize, developing nutritionally enriched maize cultivars. She has also played a key role in developing CIMMYT’s second-generation tropicalized haploid inducers using marker-assisted breeding.
Sudha Nair speaking at a Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) annual review and planning meeting. (Photo: Sudha Nair/CIMMYT)
Bringing genetics and breeding together
Sudha is grateful for the role of CIMMYT in increasing acceptance and use of genomics in breeding programs. “When I started off as a graduate student, any work related to molecular genetics was called biotechnology, and we were considered as a different “breed”, who worked in silos to spend resources on “upstream research”, and whose results never saw any breeding applications. Breeding and molecular genetics were like parallel lines that would never meet,” she explained.
“In course of time, the research communities in applied breeding institutes like CIMMYT have brought about changes in strategies, goals, and more importantly, attitudes, and now all of us work towards one major goal of developing impactful products (varieties) for benefiting resource-constrained farming communities worldwide. All in all, I and my colleagues in the upstream research team in CIMMYT Global Maize Program have an important responsibility of providing core support to the breeding and seed systems teams in developing and delivering impactful products.”
When asked what the most enjoyable part of her work is, Sudha cited the practicality and applicability of her work. “Basically, my job responsibility is to design and implement the best strategies for applying genomics in maize breeding to achieve higher genetic gains,” she explained. “Being in an organization like CIMMYT, what is most satisfying about the role I am in is the translation of upstream research into tools for improving breeding efficiency and in turn into impactful maize varieties that the farming communities around the world cultivate.”
Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG), a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), brings together partners in the global science community and in national agricultural research and extension systems to accelerate the development of higher-yielding varieties of maize and wheat — two of the world’s most important staple crops.
Specifically focusing on supporting smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries, the project uses innovative methods that improve breeding efficiency and precision to produce varieties that are climate-resilient, pest- and disease-resistant, and highly nutritious, targeted to farmers’ specific needs.
The maize component of the project serves 13 target countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe in eastern and southern Africa; and Benin, Ghana, Mali, and Nigeria in West Africa. The wheat component of the project serves six countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan in South Asia; and Ethiopia and Kenya in sub-Saharan Africa.
This project builds on the impact of the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) and Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) projects.
Objectives
The project aims to accelerate the development and delivery of more productive, climate-resilient, gender-responsive, market-demanded, and nutritious maize and wheat varieties in support of sustainable agricultural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
To encourage adoption of new varieties, the project works to improve equitable access, especially by women, to seed and information, as well as capacity building in breeding, disease surveillance, and seed marketing.
Funders
Project funding is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the United States Agency for International Development and the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR).
Key partners
The primary partners for this project are the national agricultural research systems in the project target countries and, for the maize component, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and small and medium enterprise (SME) seed companies.
Scientific and technical steering committees
We are grateful to our excellent maize and wheat scientific and technical steering committees for their suggestions and thoughtful question on key issues for the success of AGG. Read about the recommendations from the maize steering committee here and the wheat steering committee here.
Year 1 Executive Summary
In its first year of operation, AGG has made great strides in collaboration with our national partners towards the project goals –despite the unprecedented challenges of working through a global pandemic. For specific milestones achieved, we invite you to review our AGG Year 1 Executive Summary and Impact Report (PDF).
Year 2 Executive Summary
AGG has made progress towards all outcomes. Our scientists are implementing substantial modifications to breeding targets and schemes. AGG is also in a continuous improvement process for the partnership modalities, pursuing co-ownership and co-implementation that builds the capacities of all involved. For specific milestones achieved, we invite you to review our AGG Year 2 Executive Summary and Impact Report (PDF).
Women in societies practicing wheat-based agriculture have started challenging the norm of men being sole decision-makers. They are transitioning from workers to innovators and managers, a recent study has found.
Women were adopting specific strategies to further their interests in the context of wheat-based livelihoods, the study found. The process, however, is far from straightforward.
