Location: India

During 21 January-05 February, a delegation consisting of Director General Thomas Lumpkin, Global Wheat Program Associate Director and Head of Pathology, Etienne Duveiller, Board member Andy Barr, and Development Officer Cheraé Robinson travelled from El Batán to visit the three sites of the newly established Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA). They were accompanied by Ajai Kumar and Raj Gupta, from CIMMYT’s New Delhi office.

Duveiller, who will be relocating from Mexico to India as the Head of Research for BISA stated “it is amazing what has been done in such a short span of time. But there is still a great deal of work to do and very exciting opportunities for research in a fast changing environment —not only economically in India, but also considering global change and climate change.”

The visit offered an opportunity not only for the delegation to gain an understanding of the new institute, but also to speak with local farmers about their concerns and specific challenges they are experiencing in their region. The group met with agricultural producers, students of the local agricultural universities, and state agricultural research institutes to develop ties with local stakeholders and understand the challenges and needs currently facing communities surrounding the BISA sites.

Towards the end of the visit, Lumpkin also participated in a gathering in Bihar, which brought together over 1,000 farmers from India’s poorest state to address current shortcomings and needs of agricultural producers in the region. The event gathered not only local producers, but also government officials and representatives including Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar and Mangala Rai, Agriculture Advisor to the Chief Minister of Bihar.
BISA was officially launched on 05 October 2011. In less than four months, the three BISA sites have begun research activities, a process which has included demarcating the boundaries of the properties and preparing the land and seeding. The official groundbreaking ceremony for the sites will be held later this year.

A recent study co-authored by CIMMYT agronomist Iván Ortiz- Monasterio has demonstrated how temperatures greater than 34°C can significantly cut wheat yields. Using nine years of satellite data for wheat grown in northern India, the team showed how previous models had underestimated the effects of high temperatures on senescence and yield. The onset of senescence seriously limits grain filling, and senescence is hastened by high temperatures. In South Asia, if wheat is not sown early enough, the crop reaches grainfilling stage during pre-Monsoon hot spells. Existing models may have underestimated grain losses by as much as 50%, for some sowing dates. “This study shows how innovative research tools like remote sensing can provide important information in the area of agriculture and climate change,” said Ortiz-Monasterio.

The study was led by Stanford University scientist David Lobell, who has recently published several important works on climate change and crop yields. The results are particularly significant because India and Mexico are among the countries expected to be most sorely affected by climate change. The Indo-Gangetic Plains are the bread basket of South Asia, providing food and incomes for hundreds of millions.

Since being published in Nature Climate Change on 29 January 2012, the study has received coverage in New Scientist, SciDev.Net, and Reuters, amongst others. CIMMYT breeders are already selecting for wheat lines with more extensive roots, allowing them to find and take up moisture and reduce the effects of heat on the plant. The center has also begun investigating varieties that can be sown earlier and harvested before spring heat.

The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) received another boost this week when the Bihar government pledged to provide 200 acres to the center, at a price of just 1 Rupee (0.02 USD) per acre. This center will be located in Pusa, Samastipur district, with a further two centers in Ludhiana, Punjab, and Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.

You can read more about these recent developments in The Bihar Times.

M.T. Vinayan has been working with P.H. Zaidi at CIMMYT-Asia, Hyderabad, and was recently awarded the 2011 gold medal for the ‘Best PhD student in Plant Breeding and Genetics’ from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), India. During the ceremony on 23 November 2011, Vinayan was also presented with the ‘Dr. R. Appadurai, Dr. R Rathinasamy, and Dr. S. Kannaiyan Award’ by the Governor of Tamil Nadu, K. Rosaiah. Vinayan conducted his thesis on “Genetic architecture of spotted stem borer resistance in sorghum as inferred from QTL mapping and synteny with the maize genome” under the guidance of C.T. Hash (Principal Scientist, ICRISAT) and K. Mohanasundaram (TNAU).

At the 11th Asian Maize Conference, Jewel Jameeta Noor, a CSISA PhD student, won a ‘Best Paper’ award for her submission on “Morpho-physiological traits associated with heat stress tolerance in tropical maize (Zea mays L.), co-authored by P.H. Zaidi, Shahid Umar, M.T. Vinayan, and Pooja Devi. Noor is currently studying at Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, under P.H. Zaidi, Senior Maize Physiologist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT.

Congratulations to everyone involved for all their efforts!

The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) was officially launched on Wednesday, 5 October 2011, at the A.P. Shinde Symposium Hall, NASC Complex in New Delhi, India.

The event commenced with a welcome by the Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr. S. Ayyappan. The Agriculture Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Ramkrishna Kusmaria; Punjab Agriculture Minister, S. Sucha Singh Langah; and the Union Minister for Agriculture and Food Processing Industry, Sharad Pawar, accompanied by Pratibha Pawar, delivered speeches at the event. Also in attendance was Mr. Rajiv Mehrishi, Secretary of ICAR.

The three agricultural ministers of the states that will be hosting BISA facilities delivered speeches in recognition of the important role which BISA will play in improving food security not only in their own states, but throughout the whole of South Asia. Mr. Pawar highlighted the concerns of population growth both globally and especially in South Asia, in addition to rising food prices and unrest caused by food insecurity. He stated that “it would not be an overstatement to say that Norman Borlaug is a household name in India.” On a personal level, he also recalled his interaction with Dr. Borlaug in India in the 1960s.

BISA will have centers in Ludhiana in Punjab, Pusa in Bihar, and Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh. Each of the states contains varied agro-ecological zones allowing for testing a variety of maize and wheat cultivars suited to the equally varied environments of South Asia.

Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT Director General, delivered the closing remarks, reminding the audience of the challenges of global food security as well as the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. He also highlighted the support of the Mexican government and CIMMYT’s role in facilitating and promoting cooperation through its centers in India, Mexico, and Africa. Dr. Lumpkin concluded his speech stating that “CIMMYT has been in India for 50 years. It’s time we laid down some roots.”

The official opening ceremony was marked by a cultural event featuring classical Indian dancing including choreographical styles from all three states. In addition to CIMMYT-India staff and speakers, also present at the launching ceremony were the management committee of CIMMYT and its Board of Trustees. The launching ceremony was attended by representatives from CIMMYT’s sister institutions ILRI, IRRI, ICARDA, and Bioversity, as well as by the Allan Mustard Institute of the US Dept. of Agriculture and the private sector. The event was closed by a dinner and a speech by the Board of Trustees Chair, Sara Boettiger.

BISA was officially approved by India’s Union Cabinet, based on a proposal by the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agricultural Research and Education on 30 September. In a press release issued by the government of India, the approval of BISA is described as follows: “The establishment of BISA in India will enable India to harness the best of international science, in meeting food security challenges. India would be able to rapidly and effectively absorb the research output of BISA thus benefiting farmers of the country.”

The Borlaug Institute of South Asia was conferred international status as detailed in clause 3 of the United Nations (Privileges and Immunities) Act of 1947. The Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), on behalf of the government of India, will be authorized in all matters regarding the establishment of the institute.

Precision or site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) is a science-based approach by which crops receive nutrients as and when needed, according to specific field conditions in a given cropping season. To apply it, farmers and their technical support need to know local crop yields, tillage systems, residue management, fertilizer use, external inputs, and the nutrient supplying capacity of the soil.

Adoption of such complex, knowledge-intensive approaches is slow, so the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), a not-for-profit, science-based organization headquartered at Norcross, Georgia, USA, has developed simple delivery systems entitled “Nutrient Expert” both for wheat and for hybrid maize, in consultation with scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), several state agricultural universities, and CIMMYT. The Nutrient Expert systems are suited to diverse soils and management scenarios in India.

On 10 August, 55 agricultural experts from India’s public and private sectors gathered in New Delhi for a one day workshop on “Nutrient decision support systems for cereals and their dissemination strategies using ICTs” to discuss these systems and how to share them more widely by way of information and communication technologies such as cell phone services and CIMMYT-Agriplex.

Participants highlighted the need for more information on nutrient requirements under varied growing  conditions in complex agroecologies and for Nutrient Expert to encompass those scenarios, as well as to adopt a “situation-specific” (rather than site-specific) approach and consider nutrient addition or mining effects from previous crops. A version of Nutrient Expert is also required for rice and for rice-wheat, rice-maize and maize-wheat cropping systems.

Like all models, Nutrient Expert requires validation for specific circumstances. The workshop discussed ways to do this, including comparison with Soil Test Crop Response (STCR), State Recommendation (SR) and Farmers Fertilizer Practice (FFP) based recommendations.

Nutrient Expert recommendations focus on the major nutrients―nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium―but also needs to give specific rates for secondary and micronutrients (currently the systems include only a “Yes/No” decision for those nutrients). The All India Crops Research Program (AICRP) on micronutrients should be able to provide the required data.

The group appointed a multiorganization/stakeholder team to help plan the addition of Nutrient Expert to policy guidelines for making fertilizer recommendations. DCM Shriram Consolidated Limited (DSCL) requested a partnership with private industry and offered to validate Nutrient Expert in their Hariyali Kisan Bazar (HKB) farmer service centers.

Jointly organized by IPNI and CIMMYT, the workshop was attended by Dr PS Minhas, ADG (Soil and Water Management), ICAR directors and officers, vice chancellors and other officers from state agricultural universities, the State Department of Agriculture, the private sector, and nongovernment organizations, as well as scientists from IPNI (Adrian Johnston, Kaushik Majumdar, T Satyanarayana, Mira), CIMMYT (Pat Wall, Raj Gupta, ML Jat, Ajai Kumar), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; YS Saharawat), and hubs of the Cropping Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA; HS Sidhu, BR Kamboj, Kanwar Singh).

The promotion of conservation agriculture (CA) in different agricultural systems of Tamilnadu, India, was the focus of a consultation organized with the Agriculture Commissioner, Sandeep Saxena, and officers of the State Department of Agriculture on 12 August at the Commisionerate of Agriculture, Chepauk, Chennai, Tamilnadu. Over 50 people attended, including Agricultural Officers from all 32 districts of Tamilnadu.

The issues facing the farmers of Tamilnadu – water, labor and energy shortages, soil health, climate change, farm profitability and food and livelihood security – were addressed in a presentation by ML Jat, Senior Cropping Systems Agronomist, CIMMYT. He highlighted how the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), managed by CIMMYT and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in conjunction with national agricultural research and extension systems, is evaluating and disseminating CA-based crop management technologies, such as laser leveling, direct dry seeded rice, zero till mechanical transplanted rice, zero till maize, intercropping with raised bed technology and multi-crop planters, in the region. He also said that Tom Lumpkin, Director General, CIMMYT, and Robert Ziegler, Director General, IRRI, have both visited Tamilnadu to gain feedback from the farmers on the use of CA technologies, and found that they were being well received.

ML recommended that the Government of Tamilnadu prioritize investments on the CA technologies. Currently a significant investment is being made in 2-Wheel Tractors (2WT), but they are not fitted with the seeder attachments associated with CA methods. It was suggested that in order to maximize the government investments, the 2WTs and seeder attachments should be promoted together. The officers of the Department of Agriculture were particularly interested in the 2WT-based machinery, and Saxena pledged to include CA in future government investments and priorities, with proven and location-specific technologies being outlined for dissemination by the Department of Agriculture.

In order to increase understanding, capacity building and awareness among the officers and field staff of the state department of agriculture, it was suggested that the field trials of CA-based crop management technologies and machinery should be demonstrated in a block approach, to communicate the knowledge to a larger number of farmers. Innovative SMS technology (CIMMYT Agriplex) will also help in transmitting real time, location specific and needs-based information to the farmers. It is hoped that within one month, the Department of Agriculture  will formulate an action plan for these developments, before reporting back to the CIMMYT/CSISA team for further discussion and implementation of the proposed plans.

On 03 August 2011, the research leadership team of DuPont Pioneer visited CIMMYT at Hyderabad, India, for an overview of the CIMMYT-Asia maize program. Lead by John Sopper, Senior Vice-President for Crop Genetics & Development, the DuPont delegation also included Hans Bhardwaj (Senior Research Director), Peter Coaldrake (Director of Operations), Scott Naig (Director of Finance), Jennifer Gribble (Senior HR Manager), Jane Bachmann (Communications Manager–Research), and R.S. Mahala (Research Coordinator at Pioneer India).

P.H. Zaidi, senior maize physiologist/breeder at CIMMYT-Hyderabad, welcomed the group to Hyperabad and outlined the ongoing research priorities of the maize program. He spoke of the existing collaborations with public and private institutions, and CIMMYT initiatives towards purposeful partnerships, offering big opportunities for pro-poor agricultural investment and innovations. The group discussed the newly-launched International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC-Asia), MAIZE, the global alliance for food security and the livelihoods of the resource-poor in the developing world, and the collaboration in the highland maize program between Pioneer and CIMMYT-Mexico, as well as the opportunities for further future partnerships with the CIMMYT-Asia maize program.

The government of Bihar, a state in eastern India, celebrated its 99th anniversary of independence last month, March 2011. To celebrate, the Bihar government invited CIMMYT, Rajendra Agricultural University (RAU), Bihar and the Directorate of Maize Research, New Delhi to perform a live demonstration of a tortilla-making machine that uses quality protein maize (QPM) grains. The demonstration took place during a 3-day exhibition during 22-24 March in Patna, Bihar, with the goal of popularizing QPM roti among the masses. Roti, common to South Asia, is a regional bread made from stone-ground wholemeal flour.

Raj Kumar, cropping system agronomist, and Raj Gupta, South Asia Coordinator, represented CIMMYT at the Bihar Day celebrations while Head of RAU’s Maize Program Mrityunjya Kumar coordinated the efforts on QPM roti making. Agriculture production commissioner AK Sinha provided space for the installation of the tortilla machine at Gandhi Grounds in Patna, Bihar, and also arranged the logistics for making maize breads and serving them to visitors during the Bihar Day celebrations. Sale of the QPM makka roti by women self-help group volunteers at Bihar Day.

The tortilla machine, which was imported from Mexico and given to RAU for roti making, was used to prepare QPM tortillas from nearly two tons of QPM. The tortillas were then packaged and sold for INR 10. More than 20,000 packages of QPM tortillas were sold to the public. In addition to general sales, refreshments were provided to visiting Members of Parliament, the Bihar Legislative Assembly, and Senior Officials for Home Consumption. A self-help group of women entrepreneurs, led by Rajkumari, supplied the pickles and helped to package and market the QPM breads.

‘QPM maize rotis with pickle’ received much attention and the demonstration and sales counter attracted a constant, large crowd throughout the day. In fact, the crowd was so large that having only one tortilla machine proved insufficient for meeting the large makka roti demand. Public interest in QPM breads (makka rotis) surprised most consumers, as they said they didn’t expect QPM makka roti to be so tasty. The three-day Bihar celebration allowed CIMMYT and partners to reach close to one million people at the Agriculture Pavilion, raising awareness about the accessibility and benefits of QPM. Narendra Singh, Bihar’s Minister of Agriculture, expressed much interest in the tortilla machine by interacting with scientists, technicians, and the general public to elicit their responses as to determine QPM’s potential in Bihar. As several media outlets covered the event, Mrityunjya Kumar, Usha Singh, and Raj Kumar were interviewed on subjects ranging from QPM makka roti production to consumption, the dietary importance of QPM, QPM hybrid seed production, seed availability, economics of QPM roti, shelf-life of QPM makka roti, and the possibilities of introducing QPM roti into schools.