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‘The 50 PACT’ Conference: collaborate for better food security in South Asia

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The-50-PACTFarmers need to be more involved in developing and refining technology. This was one of the key conclusions of a technology working group comprised of leading Asian scientists, representatives of farmer groups and entrepreneurs who met during “The 50 Pact,” an international conference jointly organized by the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to celebrate 50 years of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s first visit to India. Held in New Delhi during 16-17 August, the event brought together more than 200 participants from agriculture institutions, the government, think tanks, industry, and civil society of various countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the United States.

South Asia is the most populous region in the world and several models predict that this region is going to be dramatically impacted by climate change. “We must devise new ways to feed more people with less land, less water and under more difficult climate change conditions,” said Thomas Lumpkin, Director General of CIMMYT, highlighting a significant challenge that requires critical innovations, collaborations and commitments to solve food insecurity and strengthen agriculture in South Asia. This sentiment was echoed by others in the opening session of the conference, including S. Ayyappan, director general of ICAR, government of India, R.S. Paroda, president of Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), R.B. Singh, president of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Swapan Datta, ICAR and Marianne Bänzinger of CIMMYT. Remembering their personal interactions with Dr. Borlaug, “the Nobel laureate with a heart for the poor,” and his association with CIMMYT and India, they also felt the need to make a pact to bring about a second green revolution in the South Asia region. M.S. Swaminathan, a legendary figure in Indian agriculture, paid tribute to Dr. Borlaug for his immense contribution in agriculture during the opening ceremony. “From Bengal famine to Right to Food Act of India, it has been a historic transition and Dr. Borlaug played a very important role in this transition through his work in the last 50 years,” Swaminathan said. Jeanie Laube Borlaug, chairperson of BGRI and the daughter of Dr. Norman Borlaug, presented Swaminathan with the Dr. Norman Borlaug Award.

The-50-PACT2Technology and innovations will play a key role
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka will have to work together to find regional solutions to food insecurity. Representatives from these countries talked about different agricultural developments during the post-green revolution period and emerging challenges and opportunities. They also highlighted how the BISA, with its mandate, furthers research on farming systems in addition to focusing on an eco-regional approach involving other CG centers. Utilizing all technologies, including molecular breeding, biotechnology, precision agronomy, and mobile-based decision making will be crucial. The session on technology highlighted this and also pushed for greater involvement of farmers at every step of new technology development. It is important to capture the process of adoption of innovation by farmers and use new technology to provide feedback to the researchers. The group advocated for increased political will and a better policy environment on the adoption of GM crops. Making agriculture profitable is important for producers and the entire agricultural value chain. Ramesh Chand of ICAR said that his recent analysis in India shows the real farm income is not declining, but the income gap between agricultural and non-agricultural income is widening. Agricultural infrastructure is not well developed, investments are low and land fragmentation is increasing. These are major concerns for this sector. The participants talked about a need for an enhanced cyber infrastructure for crop research, open access to agriculture database, and strengthening the value chain balancing the role of market, price, and technologies.

Greater regional synergy needed
More emphasis on synergy, partnerships, farmer’s welfare, productivity, profitability, and nutrition will be critical to address the problem of hidden hunger and food security in this region. Other areas to focus on include providing access to and the use of cutting edge research and new technologies that are not yet available in the region, ensuring commitments from governments and other donors for investments in agricultural research, advocating for a policy environment that embraces new technologies and invests in agricultural research, building a regional platform of collaboration with partners from all sectors, research centers, governments, the scientific world, and the farming community who share our mandate to transform farmers’ lives in the region.

Focus on heat stress resilient maize for Asia

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HTMA-meetingScientists from the Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project and representatives from collaborating public and private sector institutions from the region, Purdue University, and CIMMYT gathered together during 30-31 July 2013 in Kathmandu, Nepal, for the 1st HTMA Annual Progress Review and Planning Meeting. The meeting was jointly organized by the National Maize Research Program (NMRP) and CIMMYT to discuss progress to-date and future HTMA work plans. HTMA, supported by USAID under the Feed the Future initiative, is a public-private alliance targeting resource-poor people in South Asia who rely on growing maize for subsistence or income in rainfed conditions and whose welfare is directly dependent on maize yields and negatively affected by crop failures.

K.B. Koirala, National Maize Coordinator for Nepal, welcomed all participants and highlighted the importance of the public-private alliance through HTMA, especially for addressing such complex issues as developing and distributing heat stress resilient maize. CIMMYT Global Maize Program director B.M. Prasanna reiterated the need for and importance of maize breeding for heat-stress resilience in his opening remarks, while USAID’s Larry Beach stressed the project’s significance in addressing the emerging effects of climate change.

The first day was devoted to an annual progress review, which was initiated by senior maize physiologist and CIMMYT and HTMA project leader P.H. Zaidi, who presented updates on the project execution and status of progress during the project’s first year. The following session, chaired by Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) executive director D.B. Gurung, covered membrane lipid profiling in relation to heat stress; identifying quantitative trait loci (QTL) for heat-stress tolerance and component traits by joint linkage analysis; association mapping for heat tolerance; latest marker statistics on genotyping-by-sequencing; genomic selection for heat stress tolerance; and development of target populations for rapid-cycle genomic selection. The afternoon session was chaired by Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) chairman Iftikhar Ahmad and focused on phenotyping for heat-stress tolerance; crop modeling and the IMPACT model component; a road map for development and distribution of heat resilient maize; seed distribution systems; and seed companies’ perspectives on target markets.

During day two, participants discussed and developed a workplan and activities for the second year of the project for each collaborating institution. This was followed by a special session on “Exploring linkages & synergy among USAID-funded projects in South Asia.” Representatives from various ongoing projects in the region, including the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), and HTMA, as well as NARC and the Nepalese Ministry of Agriculture, joined in the lively discussion, which helped to identify opportunities for potential linkages among the region’s initiatives and a synergy between them. The linkages could offer a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

The meeting was concluded with an HTMA project steering committee meeting chaired by B.M. Prasanna. The committee members expressed their satisfaction with the strategy, ongoing activities, and the progress being made.

Research battles wheat spot blotch disease

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wheat-spot-blotch-diseaseAfter screening some 500 wheat lines and varieties at 6 sites in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, a group of scientists were able to identify 35 genotypes that resist spot blotch. This is the number-one disease of wheat in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, seriously damaging the crops of farmers—who are mostly smallholders—on some 9 million hectares.

The results were reported at a meeting of participants in two projects of WHEAT, the CGIAR Research Program on this crop, at Mohanpur Campus of IISER-Kolkata, India, on 24 June 2013. Funded through multi-year competitive grants from WHEAT, the two project are “Deciphering phytohormone signaling in modulation of resistance to spot blotch disease for identification of novel resistance components for wheat improvement,” led by Shree P. Pandey, IISER-Kolkata, and “Spot blotch of wheat: Delivering resistant wheat lines and diagnostic and molecular markers for resistance,” led by Ramesh Chand of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Among other things, participants discussed year-one outcomes and laid plans for the coming crop cycle.

Chand reported on the seedling stage resistance found in the wheat tested. In this type of resistance, the pathogen is present on wheat seedlings for up to 25 days without any infection, exhibiting responses such as lesion mimic and tissue necrosis, which appear to attenuate pathogen effects. The resistance gene Sr2 was also found in most of the resistant seed.

Exciting moments in the meeting were the discussions of biochemical and histo-pathological parameters and their possible integration in the resistance screening. Pandey and his team reported novel research to understand phytohormone signals that regulate wheat’s resistance against Bipolaris sorokiniana–the causal pathogen of spot blotch—and which are synthesized in response to the pathogen’s attack. The IISER group is assembling a dictionary of signaling genes that can serve as genomic tools for resistance breeding in wheat. “Expression of these DNA ‘words’ changes when plants are attacked by the spot blotch pathogen,” said Pandey. “Deciphering this word choice can elucidate the chain of command in plants in to the pathogen, helping breeders to design plants better-equipped with resistance genes.”

Finally, there was a report on the field performance of the 500 lines at two other locations, UBKV Coochbehar and RAU Pusa.

In addition to the scientists mentioned above, participants included WHEAT manager Victor Komerell; CIMMYT researcher Arun Joshi; Prof. V.K. Mishra, BHU, Varanasi; Prof. Apurba Chowdhury; Dr. P.M. Bhattacharya, UBKV; and Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar; as well as other wheat researchers from IISER-K.

“The partners here submitted separate proposals for the projects,” said Komerell. “This meeting furnishes an example of how WHEAT has encouraged them to collaborate.”

Nepal wheat scientists receive government award

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NepalThe Government of Nepal and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) awarded Madan Raj Bhatta, Sarala Sharma, Deepak Bhandari, Dhruba Bahadur Thapa, and Nutan Raj Gautam — winners of the first-ever Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Gene Stewardship Award — for their outstanding contribution to food security through development and promotion of rust resistant wheat varieties in the country and for highlighting the country’s research globally. The award – one million Nepalese rupees (11,440 US$) and a plaque – was presented by the Minister of Agricultural Development Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti on 8 May 2013 on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of NARC in Khumaltar, Lalitpur.

On behalf of the awardees, Bhatta and Sharma thanked the Government of Nepal and NARC for recognizing their contributions and praised the role of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and BGRI in promoting agronomically superior rust-resistant wheat varieties crucial for food security in the region. “I am going to use 100,000 rupees of my prize money to establish a fund awarding two farmers or technicians every year for significant contributions towards wheat rust management,” said Sharma in her award acceptance speech. On behalf of CIMMYT, wheat breeder Arun Joshi congratulated the award-winning team and NARC for their remarkable contributions in bringing about excellence in development and release of rust-resistant wheat varieties, seed multiplication of resistant varieties with diverse genetic backgrounds, disease surveillance, participatory research with farmers, and improvement of livelihoods of small-scale farmers to combat the problems of food security.

“Wheat has played a great role in internal food supply in the country, a role equivalent to more than 26 billion rupees annually,” said B.B. Gurung, NARC executive director. “The new technologies and wheat varieties introduced by the team have brought a significant increment in wheat area and productivity in the last five years,” he added, referring to the increase in wheat area from 0.7 million hectares to 0.8 million, production from 1.4 million tons to 1.8 million, and productivity from 2.1 t/ha to 2.3 t/ha.

Nepalese wheat researchers trained on spot blotch disease in India

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Spot blotch is one of the major diseases in the wheat growing regions of Nepal and the knowledge allowing researchers to identify and understand the disease is thus crucial. A group of 12 wheat technical research staff from Nepal visited Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, India, during 18-21 March 2013 with that purpose exactly: to learn more about the spot blotch disease and participatory varietal selection. The training was coordinated by CIMMYT wheat breeder Arun Joshi under the CRP WHEAT Strategic Initiative 5: durable resistance and management of diseases and insect pests. The main resource persons for the training were Ramesh Chand, Vinod Kumar Mishra, and B. Arun; Naji Eisa (Yemen), Conformt Sankem (Nigeria), Chhavi Tiwari, and Punam Yadav (India), all PhD students from BHU, facilitated the program.

The training covered identification of spot blotch pathogen Bipolaris sorokiniana in the field and the lab; preparation of Bipolaris inoculum using colonized sorghum grain; understanding the spot blotch disease infection process; creating artificial epiphytotic in the polyhouse and the field; screening wheat genotypes under high humidity and temperature in the polyhouse; recording disease severity in field and polyhouse conditions; and increasing data reliability in research on spot blotch of wheat and barley.

Participants first visited the pathology laboratory in the Mycology and Plant Pathology department, where they learned to identify B. sorokiniana under the microscope and to prepare Bipolaris inoculums from colonized sorghum grain. The infection process was explained using different samples available in the lab, as was a new technique for evaluation of spot blotch resistance in barley and wheat using monoconidial culture of the most aggressive isolate of B. sorokiniana developed at BHU. Participants observed the collection of the blotched portions of infected leaves for the production of conidia by associated fungal hyphae. They were also trained in conidia collection for further multiplication and categorization into different classes based on the aggressiveness of isolates.

In-FieldOn the second day, participants visited the polyhouse and research station to learn about screening wheat genotypes
under high humidity and temperature. They recorded the disease severity a number of times and saw that if inoculation is done properly the susceptible genotypes burn. The variation among genotypes for resistance to spot blotch disease was explained with the help of repeated disease notes and developing area under disease progress curve. Participants also observed the CRP project on spot blotch carried out at BHU in collaboration with the Nepal Wheat Research Program. The visiting team fruitfully interacted with the BHU wheat researchers, especially with Chand and Mishra, as well as with master’s and doctoral students working on spot blotch. A planned one-hour question-and-answer session expanded to three hours due to the visitors’ enthusiasm and wide-ranging questions.

On their final day, the team visited three participatory varietal selection sites where Harikirtan Singh, the lead farmer, demonstrated the performance of the most popular and newly developed lines under different seeding conditions (surface seeding, zero tillage, and conventional tillage) and multiplication of a number of agronomically superior zinc-rich wheat lines selected from the HarvestPlus project.

The training also allowed participants to visit other research experiments and trials associated with the Cereal System Initiative South Asia (CSISA) and HarvestPlus projects, and to learn to identify agronomically superior biotic and abiotic resistant varieties.

The Nepalese team regarded the visit highly successful as it provided an excellent opportunity to work with the most recent tools and techniques in spot blotch and other wheat researches and to enrich their experience on proper data recording and conduct of participatory varietal selection trials.

New project launched: Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia

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South Asian farm lands have been increasingly experiencing climate change related weather extremes. A report from the Asian Development Bank in 2009 warns that if the current trends persist until 2050, major crop yields and food production capacity of South Asia will significantly decrease — by 17% for maize, 12% for wheat, and 10% for rice — due to climate change induced heat and water stress. In response to this situation, USAID’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative has decided to support the “Heat stress resilient maize for South Asia through a public-private partnership” (Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia, HTMA) project to develop heat resilient maize for South Asia.

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Global Maize Program meeting: The old and the new intersect in Kathmandu

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Lone Badstue (CIMMYT gender and monitoring and evaluation specialist; third from left, bottom) talks with four coordinators of community-based seed production groups in Nepal (top, from right). Also present are Katrine Danielsen, Senior Advisor, Social Development and Gender Equity of the Royal Tropical Institute of Denmark (far left), and Kamala Sapkota, intern working in the Hill Maize Research Project (second from left).

 

Applying advanced technologies and reconciling dramatic growth in funding, staffing, and complex partnerships with the need to speed farmers’ access to options for better food security and incomes were the themes of discussion among more than 60 specialists in maize breeding, agronomy, socioeconomics, and diverse related disciplines who met in Kathmandu, Nepal, during 28-31 January 2013. “This was a great opportunity for old and new staff to get acquainted and help launch the vibrant evolution of our Program to meet clients and stakeholders’ needs,” said GMP director B.M. Prasanna. “The participation of colleagues from other programs and organizations was crucial, allowing us to identify and address logjams and potential synergies and continue our journey toward being an institution, rather than a mere collection of isolated projects.”

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USAID and CIMMYT visit the 1st community-managed maize seed company in the hills of Nepal

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PHOTO-NEPAL21The community based seed production (CBSP) program is one of the most successful interventions of the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP) Phase IV in Nepal. Through this program, the project has significantly contributed to the increase in maize seed replacement rate, maize productivity, and income of smallholder and resource-poor farmers in the hills of the country. To observe the successes achieved so far, teams from USAID-Nepal, CIMMYT-Mexico, and HMRP visited a community-managed seed company in the Thumpahkar Village of Sindupalchowk district, located about 100 km north-east of Kathmandu, on 12 October 2012. The USAID team comprised of John Stamm (General Development Office director, USAID-Nepal), Luis Guzman (Feed the Future team leader, USAID-Nepal), Shanker Khagi (South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy country coordinator), and Lindsey Moore (USAID-Bangladesh). CIMMYT’s Thomas Short (deputy director general for Corporate Services), Nellooli P. Rajasekharan (International Human Resources director), G. Ortiz Ferrara (HMRP team leader), Nirmal Gadal (HMRP agronomist), and Dilli KC (HMRP seed value chain and marketing expert) were also present, along with about 35 seed growers, including the management team of the company.

The meeting was chaired by Gunda Bahadur Dhami, chairperson of Sindhu-Tuki Seed Production Cooperative Ltd. During a brief presentation, the company’s coordinator D.B. Bhandari summarized the institutional graduation of the farmers’ groups to a cooperative and later to a private seed company. Starting in 2005, the cooperative developed into a private seed company in 2010 with the technical support from HMRP. It currently works with 300 members organized in 14 CBSP groups. Bhandari also discussed the company’s current activities, future plan, operational model, membership policy, marketing activities, and approaches to gender and sustainability.

Stamm acknowledged the project team and congratulated farmers on the impact achieved so far. “USAID-Nepal considers HMRP a very successful project, and your seed company is a model for economic development of rural areas,” he said. Rajasekharan then thanked the HMRP team for organizing the field visit and expressed CIMMYT’s commitment to support the project staff in their work aiming to improve food security among Nepalese maize farmers. Short added: “I echo Raj’s words in congratulating the members of this seed company, but I also take the opportunity to thank the two donors of HMRP, USAID and SDC, for their financial and technical support given to the project.” Ortiz Ferrara stressed that “sustainability is the prime concern of HMRP, and the entire project activities are built on the clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the multiple stakeholders.

This small seed company is now operating on its own resources, and this is only one of the 195 CBSP groups coordinated by HMRP in 20 hill districts.” Responding to a question raised by Khagi regarding the competitiveness of improved maize seed, a female maize seed grower said: “The new maize varieties are high yielding, disease and lodging tolerant, have good taste, and the grain can be stored for a longer time.” Dhami followed: “We are just learning to walk and there is still a lot to do to help small farmers in our hill area to achieve food security and increase their income.” He thanked the guests for their valuable time and their continuing collaboration with the recently established seed company. At the end of the discussion, the team observed the seed processing plant, seed store house, and the community seed bank.

USAID supports CIMMYT-led partnership for heat resilient maize in South Asia

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PHOTO-NEPALThe U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will support a partnership to develop heat resilient maize for South Asia, as part of the US government’s Feed the Future initiative. The partnership is led by CIMMYT and involves Purdue University, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and several private and national research partners in South Asia. The aim is to develop and deploy heat stress tolerant, high-yielding maize hybrids for vulnerable, maize-dependent areas of South Asia.

“Out of a total of approximately six million hectares of hybrid maize grown in South Asia, nearly a million hectares are highly vulnerable to high temperature stress,” said BM Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program. “Nearly 80 percent of the maize in this region is rainfed and highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, including drought and high temperatures. At the same time, spring maize has become an important option for intensifying and diversifying cropping systems in South Asia, especially in the upper and middle Indo-Gangetic plains, but the crop is prone to severe heat stress as well.”

The project will be funded for five years (2012-17) and USAID contributions will be matched with in-kind support from the public-private alliance. Work will build on the elite, abiotic stress tolerant maize germplasm from CIMMYT; the technical expertise of key resource partners (CIMMYT, Purdue University, and Pioneer Hi-Bred); the maize breeding and phenotyping locations and strengths of the national research programs of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan; and the seed production capacity, farmer linkages, and market reach of private partners (Pioneer Hi-Bred, Vibha AgriTech, Ajeet Seeds, and Kaveri Seeds).

Maize traveling seminar for high-level officials in Nepal

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Picture1The Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP) led by CIMMYT, in close partnership with the the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and the Department of Agriculture (DoA) jointly organized a five-day Maize Traveling Seminar for high-level officials in the hills of Nepal during 2-6 September 2012. The purpose of the seminar was to offer policy makers firsthand information on the status of maize varietal development, seed multiplication, marketing, technology dissemination, and the HMRP’s efforts to improve food security and livelihoods of the resource-poor and disadvantaged farmers in the hills of the country. The seminar was attended by 25 officials from the National Planning Commission (NPC), Ministry of Agriculture and Development (MoAD), Ministry of Finance (MoF), NARC, National Seed Board (NSB), DoA, donors (SDC and USAID), NGOs, private sector, and the media.

At the beginning of the seminar, the newly-established Ganesh Himal community-managed seed company from the mid-hill District of Dhading was inaugurated. Yamuna Ghale, senior program officer and SDC representative stressed its importance for the region: “The more than four tons of improved seed this company is expected to produce and sell to neighboring districts will help to increase the seed replacement rate in the area with resulting increases in productivity this year. This approach needs to be replicated in other hill areas of the country.” The participants then visited the National Maize Research Program (NMRP) in Rampur, Chitwan, where they observed varietal improvement and maintenance and source seed production activities. NMRP coordinator K.B. Koirala presented on the current status, priorities, and challenges of maize research and seed production in Nepal. He highlighted that the area under maize source seed production and the quality of the seed have been significantly improved, and that NMRP and other HMRP partners had reached thousands of resource-poor farmers in their respective command areas.

During the rest of the traveling seminar, participants visited HMRP partners’ activities in the hill districts of Palpa, Syangja, and Kaski, including participatory variety selection (PVS), community-based seed production (CBSP), maize-vegetables inter-cropping, and on-farm trials and demonstrations activities conducted by CBSP groups and cooperatives. In the Manakamana Women Farmers Group of Syangja district, about 45 women members gathered to welcome the participants of the seminar. During interactions with the farmers, they learnt about farmers’ constraints and needs for marketing the seed, improving yields, storage facilities, credits, inputs, training etc. Amy Prevatt, USAID-Nepal representative, expressed her satisfaction with the accomplishments of HMRP and its partners regarding reducing poverty and food insecurity in the hills of Nepal. “I am sure the project will continue supporting you to overcome the marketing constraints and to make your CBSP group stronger and sustainable,” she said. The team and the farmers carried a walk around the village to observe crop conditions in CBSP, PVS, and intercropping trials. The team then headed for the Palpa district to visit the Radha Krishna Women farmers groups and Shiva Sakti maize seed producers group in Chatiwan, which has recently graduated into a cooperative with technical assistance from HMRP and its partners.

The seminar was concluded with a business meeting co-chaired by Tek Bahadur Gurung (NARC director of livestock and fisheries) and Dharma Dutta Baral (deputy director general at DoA under MoAD). During the meeting, participants assessed the effectiveness of the seminar; most of them expressed their satisfaction over its achievements, shared recommendations for further improvement, and suggested that the seminar be conducted annually during the main maize season. “The seminar provided good information that can only be appreciated by observing it at the field level,” said Baral. Gurung summed up the meeting by thanking the seminar organizers and stating that “the NARC and the MoAD are proud of the close partnership we have maintained with CIMMYT over the past 27 years. Events like the traveling seminar give us the opportunity to witness some of the fruitful results of this partnership.”

Workshop on precision phenotyping in Asia

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To keep pace with the unprecedented increase in maize demand in Asia, maize programs in the region are increasingly using new tools and techniques for maize improvement to achieve long-term food security. One of such tools is precision phenotyping, the theme of a training workshop organized by CIMMYT-Asia at Hyderabad, India, during 29 August-1 September 2012. The workshop was attended by 31 scientists, including maize breeders, agronomists, and physiologists from Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, collaborating with CIMMYT in various Asian regional projects: MAIZE, Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize, Abiotic Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (ATMA); Asian Maize Drought Tolerance (AMDROUT), International Maize Improvement Center-Asia (IMIC-Asia); and collaborators from seed companies.

The participants were lucky to attend lectures by Vincent Vadez (crop physiologist and acting program director of Dryland Cereals, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), P.H. Zaidi (senior maize physiologist/ breeder), L. Krishnamurthy (CIMMYT-Hyderabad consultant), B.S. Vivek (senior maize breeder), Zerka Rashid (CIMMYT project scientist), Raman Babu (CIMMYT maize molecular breeder), and MT Vinayan (post-doctoral fellow at CIMMYT-Hyderabad). Topics covered ranged from the importance of precision phenotyping for crop improvement, maize phenology and physiology, drought stress management, to root phenotyping techniques using mini-rhizotrons and molecular breeding.

The participants also received hands-on training in identifying maize growth stages and useful soil types for abiotic stress experiments and trials, and data analysis and management. During one of his lectures, Zaidi discussed the importance of heat and combined heat and drought stress in tropical maize and CIMMYT’s initiative in this newly emerging issue brought by climate change.

The course was well-received and highly appreciated by the participants, especially for its handson practical part and well-planned lectures.

phenotyping-wkshpZaidi

 

Nepal team receives the 1st BGRI Gene Stewardship Award

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Nepal-TeamThe first-ever Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Gene Stewardship Award was awarded to the Nepal wheat team for their performance in promoting durable wheat varieties and enhancing food security. The award was handed to the Nepal team at the BGRI Technical Workshop in Beijing, China, held during 1-4 September 2012. It was announced at a special ceremony by Ronnie Coffman (BGRI vice chair) and presented by Jeanie Borlaug Laube (BGRI chair).

The Stewardship Award recognizes a researcher or team of researchers serving a national breeding program or other nationally based institution. Award recipients demonstrate excellence in the development, multiplication, and/or release of rust resistant wheat varieties through appropriate means that encourage diversity and complexity of resistance, promote the durability of the materials, and help implement BGRI’s goal of responsible gene deployment and stewardship.

The Nepal team, led by Madan Raj Bhatta and consisting of Sarala Sharma, Dhruba Bahadur Thapa, Nutan Raj Gautam, and Deepak Bhandari, was nominated by Arun Joshi (CIMMYT senior wheat breeder). “The wheat research team of Nepal has contributed remarkably to bringing about the excellence in the development and release of rustresistant wheat varieties, seed multiplication of resistant varieties with diverse genetic backgrounds, disease surveillance, participatory research with farmers, and improvement of livelihoods of smallscale farmers to combat the problems of food security,” Joshi explained. “This shows what a small program can do to serve farmers and enhance productivity and sustainability.”

Currently, the wheat research team works to release Ug99 resistant varieties of wheat and disseminate the new varieties to resource poor farmers. The Ug99 resistant seed is expected to cover around 5.4% of the area under cultivation for wheat in Nepal by the end of the current cycle (2011-2012). The team has also increased awareness about resistant varieties and pre-release seed multiplication among farmers, seed industry, planners, and national agriculture system. The resistant high-yielding varieties have been developed through collaboration between NARC and international research centers: CIMMYT, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and BGRI. According to Madan Raj Bhatta (Nepal Agriculture Research Center, NARC), “the new technologies and wheat varieties introduced by the team have brought a significant increment in area and productivity of wheat during the last five years.” The wheat area increased from 0.7 mha to 0.8 mha, production from 1.4 metric tons to 1.7 metric tons, and productivity from 2.1 tons per hectare to 2.3 tons per hectare.

In addition to its work in Nepal, the wheat team has maintained strong international collaborations by actively working with internationally recognized institutions, such as CIMMYT, BGRI, Cornell University, University of Sydney, University of Minnesota, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute. During the ceremony, NARC representatives praised the impressive performance of wheat varieties developed by the head of CIMMYT Global Wheat Breeding program Ravi Singh. Dil Bahadur Gurung (NARC executive director) expressed happiness with the wheat team’s achievements and highlighted its importance for Nepal.

Nepal farmers like rust resistant wheat

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DSC02555On 14 May 2012, at Tikathali, Changathali Village Development Committee Centre (VDC) in Lalitpur, around 30 participants from MoA, NARC, seed companies, and CIMMYT were joined by 61 farmers (43 female, 18 male) and several graduate students and technicians. The event also saw active participation from senior district agriculture development officers from Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, and Kathmandu as well as the Crop Development Directorate of Nepal and the Seed Quality Control Center.

After a brief introduction, the farmers were led on a field tour by Maiya Maharjan Saligram, the head of the Loktantrik Integrated Pest Management Group in Changathali. Here they were shown the wheat plots and given detailed information about the characteristics of each variety, such as maturity class, yield potential, and disease resistance.They were split into four groups and asked to evaluate six varieties and two checks, which they then ranked one to eight according to individual performance.

Back at the VDC, NARC’s senior plant pathologist Sarala Sharma said that with active awareness among farmers, wheat breeders, and pathologists, Nepal is fully prepared to face the possible arrival of the stem rust race Ug99 because resistant varieties are already in farmers’ fields. She also described how positive the PVS approach has been over recent years; not only has there been a rapid increase in adoption rates of new varieties, but there has also been a remarkable reduction in yellow rust. Madan Bhatta, chief of NARC’s germplasm division, also endorsed the PVS approach, while Dilaram Bhandari from Seed Quality Control suggested that small-scale farmers should work together to develop an effective seed producers organization. The farmers were further encouraged by Suroj Pokhrel, director of the Crop Development Directorate, and Yubak Dhoj G.C. from the Plant Protection Directorate, who assured them that their suggestions are extremely important.

The farmers themselves were very happy with the event, saying that by sharing experiences with each other, they were building confidence in their own ability to manage wheat diseases, seed production, and profitability. They were particularly enthusiastic about strengthening their groups to share new technology and seed varieties, with the female farmers especially motivated. Through PVS, farmers have widened the coverage of rust resistant varieties, tested new options, and gradually replaced older, lower-yielding varieties, thus increasing production and productivity. With the new varieties, the farmers expected a 10% yield increase.

Other participants included Hira Kaji Manandhar from the plant pathology division at the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) of NARC, NARC scientist D.B. Thapa; NARC crops and horticulture director Yagya Prasad Giri; CIMMYT’s regional wheat breeder Arun Joshi; and lead farmer Dhana Maharjan.

21st anniversary of NARC celebrated in Nepal

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On 07 May 2012, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) celebrated its 21st Anniversary in Kathmandu. Chief Guest, Barsha Man Pun, Ministerdesignate and representative of the Honorable Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, inaugurated the opening ceremony. Other Government authorities such as Dipendra Bahadur Kshetry, Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Nathu Prasad Chaudhary, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), and Dil Bahadur Gurung, NARC Executive Director, were also among the high level officials attending the celebration. CIMMYT-Nepal was represented by G. Ortiz-Ferrara, Country Liaison Officer, Arun K. Joshi, Head of Administration, and Nirmal Gadal, Agronomist.

NEPAL55The gathering brought together more than 275 scientists and development workers. “The Nepal Government is planning to raise the budget for agriculture significantly in the upcoming national budget plan” said Pun. “There is also a need to adopt enhanced technology to double agricultural production and to attract youth to the sector,” he added. Pun also mentioned that “the Prime Minister and his Government are committed to giving top priority to farming as it is the only way to alleviate poverty and ensure employment for a larger section of society”.

Kshetry stated that “in the next Governmental fiscal year, NARC and MoAC have plans to deploy large numbers of agricultural scientists and technicians in all 75 districts of the country to address farming and farmers’ problems.” Whilst Gurung highlighted that “the low seed replacement rate is one of the major factors affecting farm productivity and output. Similarly, around 70% of the farmland in the country is not irrigated and they depend on the mercy of the sky”.

On behalf of CIMMYT’s Director General, the Management, and of the CIMMYT colleagues who have worked in Nepal over the past 27 years, Ortiz-Ferrara congratulated NARC on its anniversary and thanked the Government of Nepal for their strong partnership and for hosting the South Asia regional office. He took the opportunity to brief the audience about the Nepal Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) concept discussed with the management of NARC by Director General Thomas Lumpkin, during his recent visit to Nepal. “The strategic objective of BISA in Nepal is to enable NARC, CIMMYT, and its partners to deliver greater impact toward food security and livelihoods in the country,” said Ortiz-Ferrara. He also highlighted the strong endorsement given to the BISA India by the Honorable Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and the Government of India.

In their closing remarks, Pun and Kshetry expressed the Government of Nepal’s strong interest and unconditional support for a BISA-Nepal. “Nepal is a poor country, but we have a good heart, we fully support this initiative” said Gurung. NARC and CIMMYT-Nepal scientists are currently having strategic meetings to develop a proposal and plan of action to make BISA-Nepal a reality.

Director General visits Nepal

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LumpkinNepal-NARI-KHUMALTAR1CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin visited Nepal during 01-03 May 2012. One of the main objectives of his visit was to discuss the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) launched last year in India, and the potential for Nepal to follow a similar model, with Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and CIMMYT scientists.

Lumpkin also had fruitful technical and administrative discussions with international and national CIMMYT staff based in Kathmandu. Together with several NARC directors—including Tek Bahadur Gurung (director of administration and interim executive director), B.N. Mahto (director of planning and coordination), and Neeranjan Adhikari (director of crops and horticulture)—he visited three potential sites at NARC’s Khumaltar research station, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, where the main Nepal BISA administrative building and research and training facilities could be located. From CIMMYT, the group also included Guillermo Ortiz Ferrara, country liaison officer (CLO) for Nepal, Nirmal Gadal and Dilli Bahadur K.C. of the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), and CIMMYT-Nepal office manager Surath Pradhan.

“CIMMYT is interested in expanding the crop improvement and crop management systems research and development activities being conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, NARC, and all the other partners who have been associated with CIMMYT in Nepal for more than 40 years,” said Lumpkin. “We look forward to a Nepal BISA that can enable CIMMYT and its partners to deliver greater impact toward the food security in the country.” On behalf of NARC, Tek Bahadur Gurung expressed NARC’s interest and unconditional support to make the Nepal BISA a reality. NARC management, the CIMMYT CLO, and other senior CIMMYT staff based in Nepal will soon meet to develop a strategy and start the process of designing and implementing BISA Nepal.

On the second day of his visit, Lumpkin was invited to deliver a lecture at the Nepal Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) on “Food security in South Asia: Opportunities and challenges for agro-eco-scientists”. More than 50 scientists from NARC and NARI attended the lecture, which generated a lot of interest and a lively discussion. Lumpkin was also asked to inaugurate a sports event at Khumaltar organized by NARC, making the first serve in a volleyball tournament. Colleagues observed: “Not a bad serve for a person who travels more than 200 days a year!”