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Sowing seeds of change: CIMMYT leads crop diversification efforts in South Asia

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in Blogs.

Farmers participate in a training on improved seeds and technologies. (Photo: S. Mojumder Drik/CIMMYT)

Rapid urbanization, globalization, economic development, technological advancement, and changing agriculture production systems in South Asia are transforming food systems and the food environment.

India and Bangladesh, particularly, have seen a significant transformation since the advent of the Green Revolution as each became able to feed their population without having to import major crops.

However, that policy focus on food self-sufficiency and yield intensification has incurred significant health, environmental and fiscal costs, including a precipitous drop in crop diversification*.

This loss of crop diversification threatens economic and social development and environmental stability while weakening the crucial link between agriculture and community health, particularly in undernourished rural areas. To ensure sustainable food production and nutritional security, it is imperative to manage and conserve crop diversification.

To address these issues and ensure sustainable food production, there is an urgent need to transition from intensive to sustainable farming practices.

CIMMYT exploring crop diversification pathways

CIMMYT’s ongoing projects in South Asia, including the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) and Transforming Smallholder Food Systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (RUPANTAR) are conducting extensive on-site and on-farm trials, including socioeconomic dimensions of farmers to promote crop diversification.

“To effectively address the challenges of crop diversification, it is essential to integrate on-farm trials and participatory action research, involving farmers in the experimentation and adaptation process tailored to their unique regional needs,” said Ravi Nandi, innovation systems scientist at CIMMYT in Bangladesh. “This hands-on involvement provides valuable data to guide policymaking, ensuring relevance and applicability.”

In addition, TAFSSA and RUPANTAR are engaging in participatory action research to uncover the most viable options for crop and livelihood diversification, understand the socioeconomic factors impacting farmers, and identify the potential opportunities and challenges associated with the crop and livelihood diversification efforts among the farmers.

Researchers completed two comprehensive surveys, engaging with 2,500 farmers across the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India, Nepal and Bangladesh, yielding valuable data that will inform future strategies for crop diversification in the region.

Ongoing investigations into the political economy of policies for crop diversification in Bangladesh generate novel insights, further contributing to the development of efficient crop diversification projects and sustainable agricultural policies.

The rise of crop diversification in practices and policy

In recent years, crop diversification has gained traction as a promising strategy to boost agricultural productivity, reduce risks (production, market, climate, and environmental), enhance nutritional outcomes, and promote sustainable agriculture.

Following the inaugural National Conference of Chief Secretaries in Dharamshala, India, led by the Prime Minister of India, state governments introduced numerous policies and schemes to support crop diversification. Some of these initiatives, highlighted in Figure 1, were backed by substantial budget allocations aimed at motivating farmers to diversify their crop production from the current intensive production system.

Figure 1: Author’s compilation from various public sources.

Similar initiatives have been started in Bangladesh, Nepal and other South Asian countries to promote crop diversification. These policies and schemes are important steps towards addressing inadequacies that intensive farming has created in agriculture and food systems.

While policies promoting crop diversification in South Asia are a positive step, their effectiveness is contingent on evidence-based decision-making. The complexities of implementing diversification strategies vary significantly depending on local contexts, particularly in countries like India, Nepal and Bangladesh, where most farmers operate on less than one hectare of land and face diverse weather conditions.

Smallholder farmers, at risk of losing economic stability from abandoning profitable monocrops, face additional challenges because of limited access to advanced technologies and fragmented markets, making the transition to diversified farming a precarious endeavor.

A shift towards comprehensive multi-criteria assessments, including qualitative methods and stakeholder interactions, is necessary for creating practical and locally relevant indicators. Supporting infrastructure, accessible extension services and market development, along with empowering farmers through education on agronomic practices and crop management, will play a crucial role in successfully implementing and reaping the benefits of crop diversification.

*Crop diversification is a process that makes a simplified cropping systems more diverse in time and space by adding additional crops. 

CIMMYT-BISA-ICAR partnership brings huge benefits in South Asia

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in News.

A climate resilient agriculture program for the state of Bihar, India, launched in 2019 by the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and the state government, was operating in 190 villages and had by 2022 improved water, soil nutrient, energy, labor and time use efficiency by at least 20% with around 35% higher yields and a reduced environmental footprint, as well as helping rice-wheat farmers to diversify their production with crops such as maize, millet and mungbean, among others.

This is just one of the achievements cited in a recent 2023 end-of-year reflection involving members of the BISA Executive Committee in New Delhi, India, including Bram Govaerts, director general of CIMMYT and BISA, and Arun Kumar Joshi, managing director of BISA.

“BISA has achieved significant milestones and is progressing towards organizational goals,” said Joshi. “The long-standing and productive partnership with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and agricultural councils of other countries in South Asia became more robust, as strategies that focused on building capacities and improving seed systems for the whole of South Asia were implemented.”

Established jointly by CIMMYT and ICAR in 2011, BISA is a non-profit international research institute dedicated to food, nutrition, livelihood security and environmental rehabilitation in South Asia, home to more than 300 million undernourished people. Its work harnesses the latest genetic, digital, resource management technologies, and research-for-development approaches.

BISA’s flagship projects benefit millions of farmers and include the Atlas of Climate Adaptation in South Asian Agriculture (ACASA), the testing of experimental wheat that carries grass genes associated with the inhibition of nitrification in the soil near crop roots, a climate resilient agriculture program for South Asia, and implementation of the CGIAR Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets (FRESH) initiative.

“Of the top 10 bread wheat varieties in India, 6 are derived from the ICAR-CIMMYT-BISA collaboration,” Joshi explained.

“BISA has grown tremendously in the last few years,” said Govaerts. “The diverse arena of projects shows the capabilities and potential that BISA holds today. The flagship programs are undoubtedly creating a huge impact and would contribute to solving tomorrow’s problems today.”

BISA has renewed and diversified its research projects each year, according to T.R. Sharma, deputy director general of Crops, ICAR. “BISA’s impact on genetic innovation in wheat through ICAR-CIMMYT-BISA collaboration is indeed praiseworthy,” he said. Govaerts also attended an interactive session with CIMMYT-BISA India staff, presenting an analysis of the CIMMYT 2030 strategy and encouraging everyone’s contributions towards the goals.

Planting seeds for bringing youth into agriculture

Written by Richa Sharma Puri on . Posted in Blogs.

When it comes time to consider career plans, very few young people even consider agriculture as an option. Many young people believe urban areas offer more profitable jobs with less physical labor. However, agriculture in India is evolving every single day. New digital innovations and cutting-edge technologies are making farming more profitable and smarter.

To deliberate on young people’s challenges and solutions to address them, a parallel session was held during the CGIAR GENDER conference, From Research to Impact: Towards Just and Resilient Agri-food Systems, October 9–12, 2023, in New Delhi, India.

In the four-day conference, gender researchers and practitioners from 68 countries shared their perspectives, knowledge and skills about improving gender inclusion in food systems. The conference served as a platform where policymakers, practitioners and private sector actors came together to share the goal of equitable food-systems transformation. They aimed to bridge the gap between research and practice and foster gender-equal and socially inclusive, resilient food systems.

Technology and combined efforts from academia, industry and the government will continue to play critical roles in collectively attracting young people toward these new, innovative ideas in agriculture. Agricultural education can, therefore, play a profound role in shaping the future of sustainable agriculture in India.

Panelists L-R: Neerja Prabhakar, SKLTSHU, Hyderabad; Dorte Thorsen, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex; P.S. Pandey, RPCAU Samastipur, Bihar; R.C. Agrawal, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR); Ch. Srinivasa Rao, Director, ICAR-NAARM, Hyderabad; Laura Estelle Yeyinou Loko, Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Biosciences et Biotechnologies Appliquées (ENSBBA); Geethalakshmi Vellingiri, Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University; Seema Jaggi, ICAR.

How academia can enable opportunities for youth

S. Pandey, vice-chancellor of Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Bihar, shared his thoughts on addressing youth-centric issues in agriculture. He emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly vital because of its many applications and benefits and that it can help youth to use the power of big data and the internet.

“Use of AI can change the entire scenario: technology-driven agriculture is the need of the hour. New tools and techniques are important to address the current challenges where youth can be at center stage,” he said.

In addition, Geethalakshmi Vellingiri, vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) said, “Agriculture is looked at as manual, hard work, and not as a lucrative job, which makes it unattractive to youth. TNAU is starting One Student One Farm Family linkage for the first-year students. In this model, students will get to know about the issues being faced by the farmers in the field. They will then link the farmer to the scientist for probable solutions, thus bridging the gap.”

Government’s role in shaping policy

“Students are unaware of the different dimensions of agriculture; hence, their inclination towards agriculture education is not much,” said R. C. Agrawal, deputy director general of the Agricultural Education Division of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and moderator of the youth careers session. “ICAR is designing a new agriculture-based curriculum for primary, middle and secondary levels to attract more youth. ICAR has initiated its efforts towards integrating the agriculture world with this new education policy.”

Industry opening doors for youth in agriculture

Ch. Srinivasa Rao, director of ICAR’s National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad, spoke about the importance of industry. “The youth, both men and women, should be sensitized towards the agrifood sector. Start-ups can help to attract youths’ attention. We should characterize farms as an industry, farming as a business and the farmer as a businessperson. If this orientation doesn’t occur, livelihoods cannot be improved, and youth retention in agriculture won’t be achieved.”

Exposing the potential of agricultural mechanization in India and Bangladesh

Written by Nur-A-Mahajabin Khan on . Posted in Blogs.

As geographical neighbors, Bangladesh and India share many characteristics in terms of land, weather, and food production. Because of these similarities, the Feed the Future Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Mechanization Extension Activity (CSISA-MEA) organized a series of exposure visits to India for Bangladeshi farmers and other agricultural stakeholders to establish market linkages, provide access to financial and technical advice.

The CSISA-MEA, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) works to increase the usage of agricultural machinery to benefit farmers by increasing their productivity and efficiency. The Activity works with several stakeholders, including agriculture-based light engineering (ABLE) enterprises, dealers, and machinery solution providers (MSPs).

Over the course of the activity, a significant lesson learned is that both groups, the hosting party and the visiting party, benefit from exposure visits.

CSISA-MEA organized two international exposure visits to India in July 2023. A total of 34 participants in two cohorts visited India, 18 workers from Faridpur and Cox’s Bazar, and 16 from Bogura and Jashore.

The CSISA-MEA delegation from Bangladesh in Punjab, India visits the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) during the exposure visit. (Photo: Rowshon Anis, OMD, CSISA-MEA, iDE Bangladesh)

CSISA-MEA arranged the visits with the objective to familiarize Bangladesh ABLE enterprises with modern agri-machinery manufacturing and improve their working practices. The visits covered factories, ABLE workshops and foundries in Punjab, including Amargarh, Bamala, and Ludhiana, areas where India’s agriculture mechanization is most notable, and incorporated public and private sector companies, and academia including LANDFORCE, M/S Dasmesh Mechanical Works, Panesar Agriculture Works Pvt. Ltd., Sokhi Manufacturing Ltd., the Borlaug Institute for South Asia, and National Agro Industry.

Learnings from the exposure visit

The exposure visits have emphasized the importance of systematic line production for machinery and spare parts manufacturing to ensure efficiency and consistency in output. Quality control has been highlighted as a non-negotiable aspect, and the significance of delivering reliable and high-quality products. Using natural light and ventilation systems showcased the potential for environmentally friendly production facilities.

The visits also highlighted how maintaining proper occupational health and safety measures ensures the well-being of the workforce along with a gender inclusive environment in the agri-machinery factories. The factories have a significant female workforce, an eye-opening sight for the ABLE owners of Bangladesh.

These exposure visits have helped equip ABLE owners with invaluable insights and strategies for success in their agricultural machinery businesses, including building connections among themselves, such as that between two ABLEs from Jashore, Bangladesh to facilitate the production and supply of the fodder chopper–demonstrating the potential for cooperation to expand market reach.

Reflections from the visits

The trip to meet their Indian counterparts provided CSISA–MEA ABLE owners with invaluable insights and knowledge, with their unanimous feedback reflecting the profound impact of the visits, which they deemed truly eye-opening. Encouragingly, since their return, each ABLE enterprise has prepared action plans, taking proactive steps to implement the new techniques and business strategies they gained during their visit.

“I can’t express how thrilled I am to have unlocked the secrets behind the exceptional quality of Indian machines and spare parts. It’s not just a technical upgrade, it’s a commitment to quality products,” said Md. Ashraf Hosen, owner of M/S Ashraf Machinery & Akmol Engineering Workshop.

During the exposure visit, the CSISA-MEA team from Bangladesh visits the Sokhi Components in Ludhiana, Punjab, India. (Photo: Sokhi Components)

Another visitor, Md. Iqbal Hosen, proprietor of Titas Moulding & Engineering Works, said, “I found discovering new innovations very exciting, especially the core-making process, the mechanical mold-making process to reduce production costs, appropriate charge calculation techniques and induction furnaces. I’m determined to apply these things in my foundry, to improve the quality of the products and reduce production costs.”

Sarkar Agro-Engineering & Multiple Works in Bangladesh has displayed a commitment to implementing the key takeaways of the exposure visit to India. The owners have ensured natural light and ventilation in their production facilities, creating a more conducive and eco-friendlier working environment for staff. They have also installed a customized lathe machine, painting every part of a machine before assembling it, and manufacturing mini tractors, all because of their exposure visit.

CSISA–MEA staff have also taken something from the trips, including feedback to include demonstrations of forging machines in future visits to further extend the workforce’s technical knowledge. There are plans to visit local spare parts markets during the next expedition to provide participants with a broader understanding of market dynamics, while visits to solar power and battery-operated machinery companies would provide an opportunity to witness sustainable technologies in action.

India transforms wheat for the world

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in In the media.

In 2023, India reached a record wheat harvest of over 110 million tons. A partnership between CIMMYT and the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) now allows farmers to pre-order advanced wheat varieties, transforming the nation’s agriculture.

Read the full story.

India transforms wheat for the world

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

India can applaud a hallmark in national food production: in 2023, the harvest of wheat—India’s second most important food crop—will surpass 110 million tons for the first time.

This maintains India as the world’s number-two wheat producer after China, as has been the case since the early 2000s. It also extends the wheat productivity jumpstart that begun in the Green Revolution—the modernization of India’s agriculture during the 1960s-70s that allowed the country to put behind it the recurrent grain shortages and extreme hunger of preceding decades.

“Newer and superior wheat varieties in India continually provide higher yields and genetic resistance to the rusts and other deadly diseases,” said Distinguished Scientist Emeritus at CIMMYT, Ravi Singh. “More than 90 percent of spring bread wheat varieties released in South Asia in the last three decades carry CIMMYT breeding contributions for those or other valued traits, selected directly from the Center’s international yield trials and nurseries or developed locally using CIMMYT parents.”

Wheat grain yield in Indian farmers’ fields rose yearly by more than 1.8 percent—some 54 kilograms per hectare—in the last decade, a remarkable achievement and significantly above the global average of 1.3 percent. New and better wheat varieties also reach farmers much sooner, due to better policies and strategies that speed seed multiplication, along with greater involvement of private seed producers.

“The emergence of Ug99 stem rust disease from eastern Africa in the early 2000s and its ability to overcome the genetic resistance of older varieties drove major global and national initiatives to quickly spread the seed of newer, resistant wheat and to encourage farmers to grow it,” Singh explained. “This both protected their crops and delivered breeding gains for yield and climate resilience.”

CIMMYT has recently adopted an accelerated breeding approach that has reduced the breeding cycle to three years and is expected to fast-track genetic gains in breeding populations and hasten delivery of improvements to farmers. The scheme builds on strong field selection and testing in Mexico, integrates genomic selection, and features expanded yield assays with partner institutions. To stimulate adoption of newer varieties, the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR, of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, ICAR) operates a seed portal that offers farmers advanced booking for seed of recently released and other wheat varieties.

Private providers constitute another key seed source. In particular, small-scale seed producers linked to the IIWBR/ICAR network have found a profitable business in multiplying and marketing new wheat seed, thus supporting the replacement of older, less productive or disease susceptible varieties.

Farm innovations for changing climates and resource scarcities

Following findings from longstanding CIMMYT and national studies, more Indian wheat farmers are sowing their crops weeks earlier so that the plants mature before the extreme high temperatures that precede the monsoon season, thus ensuring better yields.

New varieties DBW187, DBW303, DBW327, DBW332 and WH1270 can be planted as early as the last half of October, in the northwestern plain zone. Recent research by Indian and CIMMYT scientists has identified well-adapted wheat lines for use in breeding additional varieties for early sowing.

Resource-conserving practices promoted by CIMMYT and partners, such as planting wheat seed directly into the unplowed fields and residues from a preceding rice crop, shave off as much as two weeks of laborious plowing and planking.

Weeds in zero-tillage wheat in India. (Photo: Petr Kosina/CIMMYT)

“This ‘zero tillage’ and other forms of reduced tillage, as well as straw management systems, save the time, labor, irrigation water and fuel needed to plant wheat, which in traditional plowing and sowing requires many tractor passes,” said Arun Joshi, CIMMYT wheat breeder and regional representative for Asia and managing director of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA). “Also, letting rice residues decompose on the surface, rather than burning them, enriches the soil and reduces seasonal air pollution that harms human health in farm communities and cities such as New Delhi.”

Sustainable practices include precision levelling of farmland for more efficient irrigation and the precise use of nitrogen fertilizer to save money and the environment.

Science and policies ensure future wheat harvests and better nutrition

Joshi mentioned that increased use of combines has sped up wheat harvesting and cut post-harvest grain losses from untimely rains caused by climate change. “Added to this, policies such as guaranteed purchase prices for grain and subsidies for fertilizers have boosted productivity, and recent high market prices for wheat are convincing farmers to invest in their operations and adopt improved practices.”

To safeguard India’s wheat crops from the fearsome disease wheat blast, native to the Americas but which struck Bangladesh’s wheat fields in 2016, CIMMYT and partners from Bangladesh and Bolivia have quickly identified and cross-bred resistance genes into wheat and launched wheat disease monitoring and early warning systems in South Asia.

“More than a dozen wheat blast resistant varieties have been deployed in eastern India to block the disease’s entry and farmers in areas adjoining Bangladesh have temporarily stopped growing wheat,” said Pawan Singh, head of wheat pathology at CIMMYT.

Building on wheat’s use in many Indian foods, under the HarvestPlus program CIMMYT and Indian researchers applied cross-breeding and specialized selection to develop improved wheats featuring grain with enhanced levels of zinc, a micronutrient whose lack in Indian diets can stunt the growth of young children and make them more vulnerable to diarrhea and pneumonia.

“At least 10 such ‘biofortified’ wheat varieties have been released and are grown on over 2 million hectares in India,” said Velu Govindan, CIMMYT breeder who leads the Center’s wheat biofortification research. “It is now standard practice to label all new varieties for biofortified traits to raise awareness and adoption, and CIMMYT has included high grain zinc content among its primary breeding objectives, so we expect that nearly all wheat lines distributed by CIMMYT in the next 5-8 years will have this trait.”

A rigorous study published in 2018 showed that, when vulnerable young children in India ate foods prepared with such zinc-biofortified wheat, they experienced significantly fewer days of pneumonia and vomiting than would normally be the case.

Celebrating joint achievements and committing for continued success

The April-June 2018 edition of the “ICAR Reporter” newsletter called the five-decade ICAR-CIMMYT partnership in agricultural research “…one of the longest and most productive in the world…” and mentioned mutually beneficial research in the development and delivery of stress resilient and nutritionally enriched wheat, impact-oriented sustainable and climate-smart farming practices, socioeconomic analyses, and policy recommendations.

Speaking during an August 2022 visit to India by CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts,  Himanshu Pathak, secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) of India’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Director General of ICAR, “reaffirmed the commitment to closely work with CIMMYT and BISA to address the current challenges in the field of agricultural research, education and extension in the country.”

“The ICAR-CIMMYT collaboration is revolutionizing wheat research and technology deployment for global food security,” said Gyanendra Singh, director, ICAR-IIWBR. “This in turn advances global peace and prosperity.”

India and CIMMYT wheat transformers meet in India in February, 2023. From left to right: Two students from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI); Arun Joshi, CIMMYT regional representative for Asia; Rajbir Yadav, former Head of Genetics, IARI; Gyanendra Singh, Director General, Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR); Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT director general; Harikrishna, Senior Scientist, IARI. (Photo: CIMMYT)

According to Govaerts, CIMMYT has concentrated on strategies that foster collaboration to deliver greater value for the communities both ICAR and the Center serve. “The way forward to the next milestone — say, harvesting 125 million tons of wheat from the same or less land area — is through our jointly developing and making available new, cost effective, sustainable technologies for smallholder farmers,” he said.

Wheat research and development results to date, challenges, and future initiatives occupied the table at the 28th All India Wheat & Barley Research Workers’ Meeting, which took place in Udaipur, state of Rajasthan, August 28-30, 2023, and which ICAR and CIMMYT wheat scientists attended.

Generous funding from various agencies, including the following, have supported the work described: The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ), the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of UK’s Government (FCDO), the Foundation for Food & Agricultural Research (FFAR), HarvestPlus, ICAR, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), funders of the One CGIAR Accelerated Breeding Initiative (ABI), and the Plant Health Initiative (PHI).

Transformative research provides pathways for including gender and socially marginalized groups

Written by Nima Chodon on . Posted in Publications.

Intention, collaboration and commitment are critical to bridging the research and practice gap. Gender development practitioners and researchers from CGIAR centers, universities, national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES), civil society, and donor representatives this week shared insights from their research and work at the gender conference in New Delhi, India.

The discussion and exchange promises to create collaborations and opportunities devoted to improving the conditions and agency of women, youth and Indigenous communities in the Global South. “Transformative research can lead to meaningful impact,” said Angela Meentzen, senior gender researcher at CIMMYT. “We have been looking forward to this conference because coming together as researchers, scientists and development practitioners, we can discuss and share insights from each other’s practices and experiences from the field.”

Angela Meentzen (third from left) with CIMMYT colleagues from Asia and Africa at the CGIAR Gender 2023 conference in New Delhi. (Photo: Nima Chodon/CIMMYT)

Leading researchers and scientists from CIMMYT Asia and Africa presented their research and enriched the gender discussions at the conference. Meentzen said that CIMMYT is proud to support gender research that contributes meaningfully to transformative change and impact.

Below are highlights of four research poster presentations by our researchers (of the six presented by CIMMYT) at the conference:

Increased participation in agricultural processes does not mean more decision-making power for women farmers

Scientist Vijayalaxmi Khed examined how women manage excess workload (working inside and outside the house), a clear trade-off between productive and leisure time without change in domestic responsibilities. Due to domestic workload, she found that women’s time away from farms does not translate into leisure. Another important finding was that women with more agency had less time for leisure, unlike for men.

In her poster presentation, she concluded that rural women’s nexus of time poverty and decision-making has “clear implications for the development and diffusion of laborsaving technologies in agriculture.”

Working on the same study with Khed, Vijesh Krishna explored the relationship between women’s involvement in agricultural activities and decision-making. His presentation, ‘Farm managers or unpaid laborers?’, from the study covering 347 wheat-farming households across two years, concludes that “despite playing a crucial role in wheat farming in central India, most women lacked the ability to influence decisions.”

Gender-intentional maize breeding for better adoption and productivity in sub-Saharan Africa

Michael Euler, agriculture and resource economist, in his poster presentation explained how an on-farm trial to improve gender-intentional breeding and varietal adoption in maize was designed by CIMMYT breeders and researchers.

The study hypothesized that gender dynamics in household labor allocation and decision-making in maize systems influence trait preferences and farmers’ adoption of varieties. So, researchers conducted on-farm trials and household surveys with individual women and men household members to capture differences in their trait preferences in maize cultivation—production systems, seed demand and seed access—with 800 smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Euler emphasized the influence of socioeconomic and agroecological factors, including biotic–abiotic stress, in the household decisions on maize varietal adoption.

He concluded that the study results will help “guide the product development of regional maize breeding programs and strengthen communities’ adaptation to the changing environmental conditions for maize cultivation.”

Adoption of a weeding technology may lead to labor displacement of marginalized women laborers

Presenting a poster for the same session as Euler, Maxwell Mkondiwa—in a study coauthored with colleagues Khed and Krishna—highlighted how rapid diffusion of a laborsaving technology like herbicides could exclude the marginalized further. The study occurred in India’s state of Bihar, looking at nonfarming rural poor, primarily women, from socially marginalized groups.

From data on chemical weeding, the study analyzed the technology’s impact on inequality— highlighting how marginalized women laborers who work on manual weeding are then replaced by men who apply herbicides.

He stressed that not enough research is devoted to understanding whether farmer adoption of laborsaving technologies worsens economic inequalities or reinstates labor into better tasks. “We hope the evidence we generated will help researchers and policymakers develop relevant actions toward more inclusive innovations, and support laborers with new skills for the transitions,” said Mkondiwa.

Maxwell Mkondiwa presents his poster under the session Gender Dynamics in Agri-Food System Innovation at the CGIAR Gender 2023 conference. (Photo: M Mkondiwa/CIMMYT)

Women exhibit limited technical knowledge and experience social benefits differently in male-headed households of CASI technology adoption

Emma Karki, in her poster, explained that there is limited knowledge of the impact of technology adoption on women in a male-headed household in South Asia—with decision powers generally resting with male household members. The research tried to understand the gendered differences in the evaluation of technology adoption in male-headed households using conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification (CASI) technology as a case study.

The study focused on identifying the commonalities and differences in the experiences and evaluation of CASI technology. Results indicated that “despite technology adoption, women had limited mechanistic understanding compared to men, with similar limitations on women’s time use and capacity development,” said Karki.

For future CASI promotion, Karki concluded: “Reducing information gaps and incorporating technological preferences of women needs prioritizing, including creating opportunities for them to access knowledge and engage both men and women in critical discussions surrounding gender norms.”

Similarly, Moti Jaleta’s research presentation highlighted the challenges of mechanization adoption for smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, primarily women. “Intentional research, whether in gender or social development, helps identify problems and opportunities for change,” endorsed Jaleta.

Meaningful research helps achieve gender and social inclusion goals

The ‘From Research to Impact: CGIAR GENDER Impact Platform and ICAR Conference 2023’, between October 9-12, 2023, in New Delhi, gathered researchers from 68 countries. In her inaugural address at the conference’s opening, the President of India Smt. Draupadi Murmu affirmed, “For ecologically sustainable, ethically desirable, economically affordable and socially justifiable production, we need research which can enable conditions to reach these goals.”

At the end of the four-day conference—with 60 research presentations and six plenary sessions—the organizers and participants reflected on their resolve ‘From Research To Impact,’ and the promise to recognize and collectively address the gender and social inequities in agrifood systems development.

Millets: Climate-resilient crops for food and nutrition security, experts reveal

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in News.

A recent webinar organized by CIMMYT brought together three experts to discuss the importance of millets as key contributors to improving food and nutrition security and resilience to climate change. Offering a wealth of knowledge and insights, the panel discussion was moderated by Kevin Pixley, director of the Dryland Crops Program (DCP), who led a dynamic and engaging discussion highlighting CIMMYT’s work on dryland crops, the climate resiliency and versatility of millets, and biofortification initiatives.

“Millet improvement programs are central to regional dryland crop improvement networks”, stated Harish Gandhi, breeding lead for DCP. Providing a comprehensive overview of the program, Gandhi emphasized its significance in addressing food and nutrition security as well as climate resilience. “With partners, we are co-designing and co-implementing crop improvement strategies, catalyzing the development of effective and sustainable crop improvement networks”, he said. The dryland crop improvement networks bring together 17 National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems (NARES) in Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa working jointly to cultivate the potential and impacts of sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, cowpea, bean, pigeon pea and chickpea. The program is aligned with CGIAR and the CIMMYT 2030 Strategy to transform agrifood systems through a dense network of impactful partnerships for enhanced sustainability, productivity and profitability.

The climate resiliency and adaptability of millets to arid and semi-arid regions make them a staple for smallholder farmers in Africa. “Millet is a drought-tolerant, climate-resilient crop with profound nutritional benefits. It’s rich in iron, zinc and other essential nutrients, making it a promising food against malnutrition and diet-related diseases”, emphasized Maryam Dawud, project lead at the Lake Chad Research Institute in Nigeria. Highlighting the significance of millets in building resilient agricultural systems, Dawud also explored innovations in millet consumption in diverse food products, including gluten-free options.

Biofortified pearl millets from South Asia and West Africa. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Mahalingam Govindaraj, senior scientist at HarvestPlus-Alliance Bioversity and CIAT, gave insights into crop biofortification, underlining the pressing need for crop nutritional enhancement due to widespread deficiencies, especially in the Global South. He introduced the HarvestPlus developed Biofortification Priority Index (BPI) which enables decision makers to make informed decisions about crop selection, target nutrients and countries. Additionally, Govindaraj highlighted the success of biofortification in enhancing essential micronutrients, especially in pearl millet, and discussed the science, technology and innovations that help to drive the mainstreaming of biofortification within CGIAR and NARES breeding and testing programs.

During the Q&A session, the speakers addressed questions from the audience of more than 150 participants, clarifying misconceptions and expanding on their subjects. Questions from the engaging audience span a wide range of themes and included the significance of different millet types and why they are frequently grouped together; the correlation between zinc and iron content in pearl millets, particularly in relation to their high fiber content; and the strategic approach of dryland crops in supporting capacity building for the NARES, among many other topics.

As the webinar came to a close, it was evident that millets are more than just cereals; they offer a promising solution to a variety of global food system challenges. From their resilience in harsh climates to their rich nutritional value and potential for innovation in various food products, millets stand as a beacon of hope in developing climate-resilient agriculture for a sustainable future.

The webinar is also accessible in Spanish, French and Hindi.

Global Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization: efficiency, inclusiveness, and resilience

Written by Julian Bañuelos-Uribe on . Posted in Blogs.

CIMMYT participated in the inaugural Global Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from September 27-29, 2023. The gathering provided space for focused dialogues to prioritize actions and strengthen technical networks for sustainable development of agricultural mechanization.

Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT director general, presented a keynote address on September 27 regarding climate change and mechanization. As a global thought leader and change agent for climate resilient, sustainable and inclusive agricultural development, CIMMYT has many specific initiatives centered on mechanization for facilitating machine innovations and scaling-up improved farming practices for sustainability and farmer competitiveness.

Bram Govaerts delivered a keynote address. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Collaboration is a hallmark of CIMMYT’s endeavors in mechanization, including a strong partnership with local governments across Latin America, Africa and Asia, and international cooperation agencies, supporting the Green Innovations Centers installed by GIZ-BMZ and working on accelerated delivery models together with USAID, in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, to name only a few. Further, local value chain actor engagement is crucial and necessary in this work to connect farmers with viable solutions.

CIMMYT has a long history of leading projects aimed at mechanizing the agricultural efforts of smallholder farmers, including the successful MasAgro Productor in Mexico and FACASI (farm mechanization and conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification) in East and South Africa. At present, the Harnessing Appropriate-Scale Farm Mechanization in Zimbabwe (HAFIZ) project is working towards to improve access to mechanization and reduce labor drudgery while stimulating the adoption of climate-smart/sustainable intensification technologies. The project engages deeply with the private sector in Zimbabwe and South Africa to ensure long-term efficacy.

The Scaling Out Small Mechanization in the Ethiopian Highlands project was active from 2017 to 2022 and increased access for smallholder farmers to planting and harvesting machines. Farmers using two-wheel tractors furnished by the project reduced the time needed to establish a wheat crop from 100 hours per hectare to fewer than 10 hours. CIMMYT’s work was in partnership with the Africa-RISING program led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Ethiopia.

“At CIMMYT, we work knowing that mechanization is a system, not only a technology,” said Govaerts. “Sustainable mechanization efforts require infrastructure like delivery networks, spare parts and capacity development. Working with local partners is the best way to ensure that any mechanization effort reaches the right people with the right support.”

Read these stories about CIMMYT’s efforts to support equal access to agricultural mechanization and scaling up within local contexts.

One-minute science: Mechanization for agriculture

Mechanization is a process of introducing technology or farm equipment to increase field efficiency. CIMMYT’s mechanization work is context specific, to help farmers have access to the appropriate tools that are new, smart and ideal for their unique farming conditions.

New generation of farmers adopts mechanization, making farming more productive and profitable

Working with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), CIMMYT is leading mechanization efforts in Northern India. Combined with sustainable agriculture, the next generation of farmers now have access to tractors, seeders and other tools that are increasing yield and reducing back-breaking labor.

Gangesh Pathak with his father at the custom hiring center which provides custom hiring services to smallholder farmers in the region. (Photo: Vijay K. Srivastava/CIMMYT)

A promising partnership

The delivery of row seeders from India to Benin demonstrates a new path to sustainable South-South business relationships. Developed in India in an iterative design process with farmers, portable row seeders have been a great success. Working with GIC, CIMMYT facilitated a technology and materiel transfer of the portable row seeders to Benin.

A farmer pulls a row seeder in Benin, West Africa. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Solar powered dryers boost peanut production in Togo

Peanuts thrive as a crop in Togo and other West Africa countries, but post-harvest is threatened by aflatoxins, so the entire crop needs to dry. Traditionally, farmers, often women, have dried the peanuts in the open air, subject to weather and other pests. However, CIMMYT, working with GIC, has introduced solar-powered dryers, which speeds up the drying process by a factor of four.

Smallholding peanut farmers Aicha Gaba and Aïssetou Koura lay peanuts into a solar dryer in Koumonde, Togo. (Photo: Laré B. Penn/University of Lome)

A business model for mechanization is providing hope in Burkina Faso

Working with partners in Burkina Faso, CIMMYT is facilitating smallholder mechanization with a model of cascading effects: one farmer mechanizing can then use their skills and eqBMZuipment to help their neighbors, leading to community-wide benefits.

Pinnot Karwizi fills a mechanized sheller with dried maize cobs. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary/CIMMYT)

Visit our mechanization page to read stories about ongoing mechanization initiatives.

Conservation agriculture helps smallholder farmers to be more resource efficient

Written by Nima Chodon on . Posted in Features.

Millions of rural Indians, mostly farmers, are at the mercy of changing weather and climate change. Rising temperature and heat stress, unpredictable rainfall patterns, increasing drought-like situations, soil erosion and depleting water tables are leading to poorer yields and reduced income for farmers. While the agricultural sector and farmers are most affected by the adverse impacts of climate change, it is also one of the sectors significantly responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, contributing about 14% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

Farmer Rahul Rai prepares his field for wheat plantation with zero tillage – Buxar, Bihar (photo: Deepak K. Singh/CIMMYT)

Good agronomy and soil management through conservation agriculture practices such as no-till farming, crop rotation, and in-situ crop harvest residue management are resource efficient and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly. The intensification of these conservation agriculture practices by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA)—a regional project led by CIMMYT to sustainably enhance cereal crop productivity and improve smallholder farmers’ livelihoods in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal—and partners is helping smallholder farmers to improve their yield and income with less input costs.

Climate smart agriculture

Over 70% of Bihar’s population is engaged in agriculture production, with wheat and rice as the two major crops grown in the state. Bordering Uttar Pradesh, Buxar, is one of the many rural districts in Bihar, with over 108,000 hectares of land used for agriculture. The area is plain, fertile and has good irrigation facilities. The rice-wheat cropping system forms the dominant practice here, and pulses and other non-cereal crops are grown additionally during winters.

CSISA began promoting zero tillage in wheat cultivation in the area in 2010. Along with Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), and local agriculture departments, awareness and frontline demonstrations on different best management practices were conducted to inform farmers of alternative approaches to cultivating wheat and rice sustainably. Farmers were used to conventional farming methods, with more input costs and labor-intensive practices. In addition, as farmers were growing long-duration rice varieties, they typically sowed wheat in late November to early December, which meant harvesting in late April/May. Harvesting wheat this late caused yield losses due to terminal heat stress at the grain filling stage. With increasingly hot temperatures in recent years due to climate change, yield loss in wheat is imminent.

To help curb these yield losses, researchers and officials began promoting early sowing of wheat through a technology called zero tillage in the region, with sowing recommended before mid-November. As expected, this helped farmers to escape high temperature stress at the time of the dough stage, thus, saving grain shrinkage and yield loss at harvest. Zero tillage technology is a tested method with the potential to increase crop productivity through better time management and reduced input cost.

Deepak Kumar Singh, scientist at CSISA who has been supporting agri-extension efforts in the region for nearly a decade recalled how CSISA and partners were able to get more farmers on board with zero tillage and early wheat sowing:

“The best practices of zero till technology and early wheat sowing were encouraged widely through exposure visits, demonstration trials on progressive farmers’ fields, and providing support from local KVKs for machines and quality seeds, including the promotion of private service providers,” he said.

As more farmers were reached through field events, with visible on-field results during public harvest activities held at demonstration fields by CSISA and KVKs, the region gradually adopted early wheat sowing, zero tillage and direct seeded rice technologies. Currently, in the district, it is estimated that over 40% of wheat cultivation under the rice-wheat system is through zero till, helping farmers obtain better yield and profits.

Rice-wheat cropping systems, resilient and sustainable in increasingly changing climate

Rajapur, a small village in Buxar district, boasts 100% adoption of zero tillage in wheat cropping. We met farmer Rahul Rai whose family has been involved in farming for generations. The family owns over thirty acres of land with agriculture as the primary source of income. His father and his siblings were used to conventional farming methods. The produce from their farm was sufficient for household consumption and with the little extra left, they sold and made some income. On the significance of agriculture and farming for his family, Rahul Rai says, “this farmland has been feeding and supporting 17 members in our joint household.”

When young Rahul Rai got down to work in the family fields in the early 2000s, he was keen to explore possibilities to improve the income generated from the farm. Initially, like many others, he was engaged in intensive farming. According to Rai, “with the input costs rising daily, including scarce labor and soil health deterioration, bringing in some extra income seemed unsustainable”.

He first met researchers from the CSISA project and local KVK scientists in early 2011 in the neighboring village. The team was there to inform farmers about conservation agriculture practices and how to better manage yield and maintain soil health. Rai soon became more curious about the benefits of adopting these new methods over conventional practices. He started with a few acres with zero tillage and began sowing wheat by early November, as recommended by the scientists. In Rabi 2022-23, his wheat fields were sown by November 11, compared to the early years when the sowing date was around December.

Wheat yield data gathered meticulously over a decade from Rahul Rai’s fields (Data: CSISA MEL team)

With more participation and engagement with CSISA, in 2017, he joined other farmers from the region on an exposure visit to Patna organized by the CSISA-KVK network. In Patna, at the Indian Council of Agri Research – Research Complex for Eastern Region (ICAR-RCER), Rai and the visiting farmers were introduced to conservation agri-technologies for rice-wheat and other cropping systems. During the visit, they were informed about crop rotation and diversification, new seed varieties that are resilient and adaptable to changing climates, efficient use of plant protection chemicals and fertilizer and various subsidies from the center/state government to farmers. He later accompanied other progressive farmers on a CSISA-led travel seminar to Gorakhpur in 2017, where he observed acres and acres of wheat fields cultivated through zero tillage and early sowing that had yielded 6-7 tons per hectare (t/ha) on average.

At present, Rai’s family cultivates only zero till wheat in their fields and direct seeded rice on a few acres where irrigation facilities are well established. Rai asserts that until 2014, the wheat yield was about 10-15 quintals per acre (3.5-4 t/ha), rising to around 20-25 quintals per acre on average (5.5 t/ha in 2023) in recent years, thanks to conservation agriculture practices.

Today, the CSISA team has system optimization and demonstration trials on fields owned by Rai’s family where they conduct trials to demonstrate the importance and feasibility of different agri-practices and compare yields at harvest. Rai, a champion farmer who has been involved with CSISA for nearly a decade, said, “I am a collaborator with CSISA now. The data gathered from my fields on the compounding benefits of conservation agriculture technologies is used to promote the best practices and technology adoption across our district and state.”

One village at a time

Presently, Rajapur village has 100% zero tillage adoption. Despite most farmers being smallholders, this level of zero tillage adoption in wheat is impressive. Zero-till-based crop establishment, with appropriate diversification in crops grown, is economically beneficial and improves soil health. All these practices and technologies ensure lower greenhouse emissions and support climate change mitigation efforts. Above all, smallholder farmers are food secure and contributing in their small way to national and global food security.

To scale the adoption of conservation agriculture practices, CSISA and partners are collaborating with farmers in the district/state – many of whom are already 50-80% in zero tillage adoption. The team on the ground are conducting system optimization trials on farmers’ fields to generate data and evidence to support and strengthen policies and assist in integrating market intelligence to support access and availability of technology to all smallholders. Every year steadily, through a smallholder farmer, a village, a district, the effort is to slowly expand the area under conservation agriculture across the state and region and ensure increased system productivity and sustainability of agriculture.

Dilshad Gani

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Dilshad Gani is the Financial Analyst in the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program at CIMMYT in Patna, India.

 

Harshit Rajan

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Harshit Rajan is the GIS Specialist in the SAS program at CIMMYT. His role revolves around geospatial activities, primarily centered around his roles within CSISA and SIS. Within the confines of CIMMYT, his professional pursuits are firmly directed toward two critical areas: Drainage class mapping and Digital Soil Mapping, both of which are augmented by cutting-edge machine-learning techniques.

 

 

Moben Ignatius

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Moben Ignatius is the Agriculture Research Associate in the SAS program at CIMMYT. His role revolves around fostering sustainable agricultural practices and innovative technologies and methods that cater to Rice-Wheat cropping systems.

His previous work role extended to forging alliances with diverse organizations and governmental bodies to advocate for the expansion of these beneficial agricultural techniques. Employing meticulous monitoring, evaluation, and data-driven surveys, ensuring the successful execution and scalability of projects.

Bhavani Pinjarla

Written by mcallejas on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Dr. Bhavani P is the Geospatial Analyst in the Sustainable Agrifood Systems program at CIMMYT. She obtained a Ph.D. degree from the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad on the research topic “Spatio-temporal Assessment of Agricultural Performance and its Drought Vulnerability using Long-term Satellite and Climate Data”.

Dr. Bhavani P. provides solutions to farmers (at various scales – farmers to policy level) using remote sensing and geoprocessing. She acquired contemporary professional knowledge, climate data processing, machine learning techniques for image processing, R, and Google Earth Engine (GEE) with programming proficiency in JavaScript, and Python.