As a fast growing region with increasing challenges for smallholder farmers, Asia is a key target region for CIMMYT. CIMMYT’s work stretches from Central Asia to southern China and incorporates system-wide approaches to improve wheat and maize productivity and deliver quality seed to areas with high rates of child malnutrition. Activities involve national and regional local organizations to facilitate greater adoption of new technologies by farmers and benefit from close partnerships with farmer associations and agricultural extension agents.
Maize ears of the newly released set of CIMMYT maize lines. (Photo: CIMMYT)
CIMMYT is pleased to announce the release of a set of 32 new CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs). These maize lines have been developed by CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program by a multi-disciplinary team of scientists in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The lines have diverse trait combinations and are suitable for the tropical/subtropical maize production environments targeted by CIMMYT and partner institutions.
CMLs are freely available to both public and private sector breeders worldwide under the standard material transfer agreement (SMTA).
CIMMYT seeks to develop improved maize inbred lines for different product profiles, with superior yield performance, multiple stress tolerance, and enhanced nutritional quality. CMLs are released after intensive evaluation in hybrid combinations under various abiotic and biotic stresses, besides optimum (non-stress) conditions in the target population of environments. Suitability as either female (seed) or male (pollen) parent is also evaluated. As done in the last announcement of CMLs in 2021, to increase the utilization of the CMLs in the maize breeding programs of the partner institutions, all the new CMLs are tested for their heterotic behavior and assigned to specific heterotic groups of CIMMYT: A and B.
The release of a CML does not guarantee high combining ability or per se performance in all the environments; rather, it indicates that the line is promising or useful as a parent for pedigree breeding or as a potential parent of hybrid combinations for specific mega-environments. The description of the lines includes heterotic group classification, along with information on their specific strengths and their general combining ability with some of the widely used CMLs or CIMMYT coded lines under different environments.
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The primary focus of this project is on regenerative agriculture practices, including circular economy principles, co-identified and digital decision-support tools co-designed for at least two priority production systems (one upland and lowland rice-fish production system and another upland system), enabled by policymakers, and used by scaling partners in at least three Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states.
The project aims to align with the Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 5 – Gender Equality; SDG 13 – Climate Action; SGD 17 – Partnerships for the Goals.
Balancing the application of fertilizers based on the characteristics of soil leads to increased crop productivity, income, and fertilizer use efficiency unlike former “one size fits all” recommendations, said Bedu Ram Bhushal, Nepal’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) during a press briefing earlier this month in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
Participants from the press release (Photo: Deepa Woli/CIMMYT)
“I congratulate NARC for this historical work on updating the fertilizer recommendations after 46 years,” Bhushal said. “Now, we should support the large-scale adoption of these new recommendations by farmers for sustainable soil fertility management.”
Earlier recommendations developed by the Agricultural Chemistry and Soil Science Service Section under the Department of Agriculture (DoA) in 1976 did not take into account soil diversity, biophysical conditions, and agronomic management. Nutrients recommended for a particular crop were the same for terai lowlands, hills, and mountains.
In general, soil fertility changes over time due to deployment of continuous intensive cropping systems. The new recommendations consider the indigenous nutrient supply of soils, target yields, and the amount of nutrients removed by crops at harvest.
Senior officials and dignitaries endorsed new fertilizer recommendation (Photo: Deepa Woli/CIMMYT)
It took six years for NSSRC of NARC in partnership with NSAF, to update the recommendations through nutrient omission and optimum nutrient rate trials in various locations. By using advanced analytical methods and machine learning tools for extrapolating data across different agroecological zones and domains, they were able to make them site-specific.
Other factors considered, included attainable yield at a particular farm, soil fertility status, agro-climate, crop management practices, and the amount of nutrients to be supplied to fill the gap between crop nutrient removal and soil nutrient supply of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Micronutrients and organic inputs were also considered.
These recommendations were presented to leading soil scientists and agronomists from NARC and MoALD and were validated at national meetings in July and October 2022.
The Honorable Minister of MoALD, Bedu Ram Bhusal reviewed the press release (Photo: Deepa Woli/CIMMYT)
The new recommendations were included in the DoA’s agriculture extension guidelines in 2023, to achieve potential yield at the farm level and to link with the extension system through the three-tier of governments for its extensive use throughout the country. The new approach is part of CIMMYT’s efforts to support the NARC, MoALD, provincial agriculture ministries, and farmers to build indigenous soil fertility management resources and capabilities and promote locally adapted strategies for long-term resilience by using integrated soil fertility management approaches.
CIMMYT principal scientist Frédéric Baudron has two main research interests: making mechanization appropriate to smallholders and biodiversity conservation.
Wondering how these two intersect, a colleague of Baudron once asked him what the link was between an elephant and a tractor?
Now, in the recent report, “Addressing agricultural labour issues is key to biodiversity-smart farming research,” published in Biological Conservation, Baudron and other contributors have answered that question, examining trade-offs between labor and biodiversity conceptually, as well as in the specific context of Indonesia and Ethiopia.
Innovations in agricultural technology have led to undeniable achievements in reducing the physical labor needed to extract food from fields. Farm mechanization and technologies such as herbicides have increased productivity, but also became on the other hand major threats to biological diversity.
Adopting technologies that improve the productivity of labor benefits farmers in multiple ways, including a reduction of economic poverty, time poverty (i.e., lack of discretionary time, reducing labor drudgery), and child labor. Conversely, technologies that promote biodiversity often increase the burden of labor, leading to limited adoption by farmers. Therefore, there is a need to develop biodiversity-smart agricultural development strategies, which address biodiversity conservation goals and socio-economic goals, specifically raising land and labor productivity. This is especially true in the Global South, where population growth is rapid and much of the world’s remaining biodiversity is located.
“Without accounting for labor issues biodiversity conservation efforts will not be successful or sustainable,” said Baudron. “Because of this, we wanted to examine what biodiversity-smart agriculture might look like from a labor point of view.”
Research has quantified that farming families in Africa who use tractors expended an average of 640 labor hours per hectare in maize cultivation. In contrast, farmers not using tractors spent over 1100 hours for the same yield.
Practicing tractor operation at Toluca experiment station (Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Trade-offs
While that is a clear win for reducing the heavy physical toil of farming, there are potential negative effects on biodiversity. In many countries in the Global North, the rise of tractors and other big machinery has led to larger and more rectangular fields and the removal of farm trees and hedgerows, all of which is associated with lower biodiversity. The same is now happening in parts of the Global South.
“A trade-off implies that one goal can only be achieved at the expense of another goal,” said Baudron. “It is not always a conscious choice; however, as farmers often adopt labor-saving techniques without considering the effects on biodiversity, simply because they lack options, and sometimes the necessary context.”
In Indonesia, the transition from harvesting rubber to producing palm oil has reduced the amount of physical labor, but biological diversity has decreased. However, innovations such as reducing fertilizer usage to avoid nutrient leaching into soil have been possible without compromising yield, and with the benefit of lower costs to farmers.
In Ethiopia, labor-saving technologies like the use of small-scale combine harvesters have been compatible with high biodiversity.
“I tell my colleagues a two-wheel tractor that allows mechanization with little negative environmental consequence (compatible with a mosaic of small, fragmented fields, with on-farm scattered trees, etc.) contributes to a landscape that works for people and biodiversity, including elephants,” said Baudron.
Arnab is a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning analyst in the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program in India.
Arnab focuses on generating learning opportunities to improve project outcomes and the evaluation of post-intervention processes. He is interested in using mixed methods and participatory tools, along with ICT based methods, which are relevant for information diffusion and knowledge networks in food systems.
The Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) Initiative held its Evaluation and Planning Workshop in Dinajpur, Bangladesh, from June 6 to 8, 2023. The purpose of this interactive workshop was to bring together people from diverse sectors to assess the progress and challenges and adjust future implementation of the Initiative’s activities, which aim to improve South Asian agrifood systems to promote sustainable and nutritious foods for all. All three government partners participated in the three-day event: the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Training on Applied Nutrition (BIRTAN), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute – On-Farm Research Division (BARI-OFRD), and the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI).
Participants visited the research platform trial hosted by BWMRI in Dinajpur, Bangladesh (Photo: Nur-A-Mahajabin Khan/CIMMYT)
The primary goal of the first day was to visit the locations of TAFSSA’s experiments and to interact with the farmers hosting the trials while they were taking place. Participants were divided into groups and visited several on-farm sites, viewing the trials and engaging in meaningful discussions with the farmers. These visits provided useful firsthand insights on the problems farmers confront while attempting to diversify their crops and improve their livelihoods. For example, visiting the research platform trial hosted by the BWMRI at its research station in Dinajpur allowed the participants to compare results from a broader set of diversified cropping patterns.
“More crops mean more money,” said Mohammad Ali, one of the farmers. “I am delighted to produce a variety of crops and witness the increase in my earnings. By cultivating four crops in a single year, I have experienced firsthand the positive impact on my income. Crop diversification has opened doors to new opportunities and has brought greater satisfaction to my farming endeavors.”
During the second day of the workshop, presentations were held to provide an overview of results from the activities TAFSSA implemented during the first seasons of the Initiative, including research platform trials, training sessions on nutrition, and on-farm activities carried out across the divisions of Rangpur and Rajshahi. These presentations emphasized TAFSSA’s progress, obstacles, and preliminary results and were followed by a question-and-answer session to discuss the outcomes and efforts. This interactive workshop promoted information exchange and sparked more debate. Participants underlined the significance of market links between farmers and consumers, emphasizing the need to develop sustainable and lucrative value chains.
Panelists engaged in a discussion about TAFSSA’s progress, challenges, and path forward (Photo: Nur-A-Mahajabin Khan/CIMMYT)
Future adjustments and improvements were discussed, which encouraged collaboration and problem-solving as a group. The method was inclusive and participative, ensuring that all opinions were heard and considered. The day ended with a dinner, during which participants were free to network and discuss ideas further with one another.
The third and final day began with a discussion on TAFSSA’s beneficiaries, particularly those involved in altering agrifood systems in South Asia to promote sustainable and healthy diets for all in the region. Participants looked at the gender aspect of the Initiative and whether it was effectively reaching all of its target beneficiaries, including men, women, and other marginalized groups.
The workshop provided a forum for participants to share their experiences, address issues and collaborate together to reform South Asian agrifood systems. The evaluation and planning exercises aimed to create equal access to nutritious diets, boost livelihoods and resilience among farmers, and safeguard land, air and groundwater resources.
Participants evaluated field production results during the field visit (Photo: Nur-A-Mahajabin Khan/CIMMYT)
“It’s crucial to acknowledge the lack of technical knowledge among farmers,” said Dr. Mazharul Anwar, from the BARI. “Providing targeted training programs for specific crops like tomato, carrot, sorghum, and others can help bridge this knowledge gap and enhance farmers’ capabilities in achieving better yields and sustainable practices.”
Through its work in South Asia, TAFSSA can contribute to change in the region and continue its objective to develop more sustainable and equitable agrifood systems by obtaining useful information from field trials, interactive visits with farmers, presentations, and conversations. To that end, the workshop has set the stage for the Initiative to achieve its goals thanks to the collaborative efforts and collective passion of all the participants.
Malnutrition is rampant in Pakistan and the release of bio-fortified wheat varieties with higher zinc content will help the country’s 9 million hectares of cultivated wheat fields become more productive, climate resilient and disease resistant.
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Pankaj Koirala has a PhD in Economics and currently contributes to CSISA Ukraine project within CIMMYT’s Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program. He conducts research in agricultural systems, climate change, and sustainability, especially focusing on survey data and human/farmer’s behaviors, socioeconomic and institutional contexts. Currently, he engages in studies to understand the impacts of climatic variables on food and nutritional security, climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Koirala has published peer-reviewed scientific papers on Economic Policy and Analysis, sustainability, and others and served as a reviewer in various peer-reviewed journals.
Wheat is critical to millions of households in Pakistan as it serves a dual role as a foundational part of nutritional security and as an important part of the country’s economy. Pakistan’s goal to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production is more attainable with the release of 31 wheat varieties since 2021.
These new seeds will help the country’s 9 million hectares of cultivated wheat fields become more productive, climate resilient, and disease resistant—a welcome development in a region where climate change scenarios threaten sustained wheat production.
The varieties, a selection of 30 bread wheat and 1 durum wheat, 26 of which developed from wheat germplasm provided by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) were selected after rigorous testing of international nurseries and field trials by partners across Pakistan. During this period, three bread wheat varieties were also developed from local breeding programs and two varieties (one each of durum and bread wheat) were also developed from the germplasm provided by the ICARDA. These efforts are moving Pakistan closer to its goal of improving food and nutrition security through wheat production, as outlined in the Pakistan Vision 2025 and Vision for Agriculture 2030.
Harvesting wheat in Tandojam, Pakistan (Photo: CIMMYT)
Over multiple years and locations, the new varieties have exhibited a yield potential of 5-20% higher than current popular varieties for their respective regions and also feature excellent grain quality and attainable yields of over seven tons per hectare.
The new crop of varieties exhibit impressive resistance to leaf and yellow rusts, compatibility with wheat-rice and wheat-cotton farming systems, and resilience to stressors such as drought and heat.
Battling malnutrition
Malnutrition is rampant in Pakistan and the release of biofortified wheat varieties with higher zinc content will help mitigate its deleterious effects, especially among children and women. Akbar-2019, a biofortified variety released in 2019, is now cultivated on nearly 3.25 million hectares. Farmers like Akbar-2019 because of its 8-10% higher yields, rust resistance, and consumers report its good chapati (an unleavened flatbread) quality.
“It is gratifying seeing these new varieties resulting from collaborative projects between Pakistani wheat breeding programs and CIMMYT along with funding support from various donors (USAID, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, HarvestPlus, and FCDO) and the government of Pakistan,” said Ravi Singh, wheat expert and senior advisor.
Closing the yield gap between research fields and smallholder fields
Releasing a new variety is only the first step in changing the course of Pakistan’s wheat crop. The next step is delivering these new, quality seeds to markets quickly so farmers can realize the benefits as soon as possible.
Increasing evidence suggests the public sector cannot disseminate enough seeds alone; new policies must create an attractive environment for private sector partners and entrepreneurs.
Field monitoring wheat fields (Photo: CIMMYT)
“Pakistan has developed a fast-track seed multiplication program which engages both public and private sectors so the new varieties can be provided to seed companies for multiplication and provided to farmers in the shortest time,” said Javed Ahmad, Wheat Research Institute chief scientist.
Strengthening and diversifying seed production of newly released varieties can be done by decentralizing seed marketing and distribution systems and engaging both public and private sector actors. Marketing and training efforts need to be improved for women, who are mostly responsible for household level seed production and seed care.
A concerted effort to disseminate the improved seed is required, along with implementing conservation agriculture based sustainable intensification, to help Pakistan’s journey to self-sufficiency in wheat production.
Integrated management of organic and inorganic nitrogen sources in high- to low-yield cereal production could bring yearly savings in nitrogen fertilizer of over 1 million tons in India, some 90,000 tons in Ethiopia, and more than 20,000 tons in Malawi, according to a new scientific paper, “Spatially differentiated nitrogen supply is key in a global food-fertilizer price crisis.”
“Global policies and governments should prioritize nitrogen supplies to low-yield, low-fertility cropping systems, such as smallholder maize and rice farms in Malawi, which are representative of the highly N-deficient cereal systems relied upon by over 100 million people in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Sieglinde Snapp, director of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and first author of the paper. “Those farmers should also ramp up organic nitrogen inputs, such as manure and legume crops.”
In the intensive, high-yield cropping systems of India, farmers generally over-apply N fertilizer on 90% of the rice and wheat crops and more than half of maize crops. Less than half the nitrogen is taken up and used by the crops and the rest is lost into the environment, contaminating water, land, and the atmosphere. “Simply saving the excess fertilizer from over-fertilized areas and shifting it to low-application areas could increase global crop yields by 30%, with huge reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Tek Sapkota, co-author of the paper and climate change leader at CIMMYT.
This study is based on evidence of achievable shifts in nitrogen management over 1-2 years, for a modest proportion of cropped area (10%). “We did not assess interventions with longer time horizons or large investment requirements such as precision agriculture, mechanization, or deep placement of fertilizer,” Snapp explained.
Snapp and her colleagues used evidence from the scientific literature to estimate N-fertilizer savings from the above interventions for maize, wheat, and rice cropping systems in India, Ethiopia, and Malawi. Integrated organic and inorganic nitrogen management was estimated by considering manure and legume N inputs along with N fertilizers. The effect of reallocating public subsidies to more cost-effective, high-N fertilizer was calculated as the extra nitrogen that could be made available through a lower unit cost of nitrogen.
Food production vs healthy environment?
According to Snapp, humanity is caught in a bind. Food crops grown using synthetic nitrogen fertilizer have fed expanding world populations since the 1960s, fertilizer use has increased nearly 10-fold since then, and significantly higher food demands lie ahead to mid-century. At the same time, poor use of N fertilizer is hurting the environment and, most recently, geopolitical conflicts have disrupted N fertilizer supplies and exposed the vulnerabilities of the global fuel-fertilizer-food nexus.
“In regions where cropping systems are highly deficient in nitrogen, investment is needed in policies and extension education to promote the use of organic nitrogen residues and legume crops,” Snapp said.
Extension agencies, she suggests, can extend their reach using digital tools and bi-directional communication approaches that engage local knowledge and farmers, including advisories regarding local soils and crop and fertilization requirements.
Awais Rasheed has established a high-throughput KASP molecular breeding platform and made outstanding contributions to promoting China-Pakistan cooperation. He has discovered and validated 90 KASP markers available for wheat breeding, accounting for 60 percent of similar markers internationally, which are widely used in China and 15 other countries.
Several factors, including temperature, water deficit, and water access, have been identified as major causes in recent wheat yield variability worldwide. DSSAT wheat models showcase the impact of temperature, heat stress, water balance and drought stress in large wheat yield reductions due to climate change for Africa and South Asia, where food security is already a problem.
Climate change will lower global wheat production with the most negative impacts occurring in Africa and South Asia, reveals a new study released by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
The devastating disease wheat blast is a threat to crop production in many South Asian countries. In Bangladesh, it was first identified in seven southern and southwestern districts in 2016, and later spread to 27 others causing significant damage. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is working with the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) and other national partners to conduct research and extension activities to mitigate the ongoing threat.
From March 1-10, 2023, a group of 46 wheat researchers, government extension agents, and policy makers from ten countries — Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Sweden, and Zambia — gathered in Jashore, Bangladesh to learn about and exchange experiences regarding various wheat diseases, particularly wheat blast. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first in-person international wheat blast training held in Bangladesh. It focused on the practical application of key and tricky elements of disease surveillance and management strategies, such as resistance breeding and integrated disease management.
Training participants get hands-on practice using a field microscope, Bangladesh. (Photo: Ridoy/CIMMYT)
“This is an excellent training program,” said Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC), during the opening session. “Participants will learn how to reduce the severity of the blast disease, develop and expand blast resistant varieties to farmers, increase production, and reduce imports.”
This sentiment was echoed by Golam Faruq, director general of BWMRI. “This program helps in the identification of blast-resistant lines from across the globe,” he said. “From this training, participants will learn to manage the devastating blast disease in their own countries and include these learnings into their national programs.”
Hands-on training
The training was divided into three sections: lectures by national and international scientists; laboratory and field experiment visits; and trips to farmers’ fields. Through the lecture series, participants learned about a variety of topics including disease identification, molecular detection, host-pathogen interaction, epidemiology and integrated disease management.
Hands-on activities were linked to working on the Precision Phenotyping Platform (PPP), which involves the characterization of more than 4,000 wheat germplasm and releasing several resistant varieties in countries vulnerable to wheat blast. Participants practiced taking heading notes, identifying field disease symptoms, tagging, and scoring disease. They conducted disease surveillance in farmers’ fields in Meherpur and Faridpur districts — both of which are extremely prone to wheat blast — observing the disease, collecting samples and GPS coordinates, and completing surveillance forms.
Muhammad Rezaul Kabir, senior wheat breeder at BWMRI, explains the Precision Phenotyping Platform, Bangladesh. (Photo: Md. Harun-Or-Rashid/CIMMYT)
Participants learned how to use cutting-edge technology to recognize blast lesions in leaves using field microscopes. They went to a pre-installed spore trapping system in a farmer’s field to learn about the equipment and steps for collecting spore samples, observing them under a compound microscope, and counting spores. They also visited the certified seed production fields of Shawdesh Seed, a local company which has played an important role in promoting wheat blast resistant varieties BARI Gom 33 and BWMRI Gom 3 regionally, and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU) in Gazipur to see current wheat blast research in action.
Blast-resistance in Bangladesh
“I am so happy to see the excellent infrastructure and work ethics of staff that has made possible good science and impactful research come out of the PPP,” said Aakash Chawade, associate professor in Plant Breeding at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Rapid development of blast-resistant varieties and their dissemination will help Bangladesh mitigate the effects of wheat blast, not only inside the country but by supporting neighboring ones as well.”
Training participants scout and score disease in a blast-infected wheat field, Bangladesh. (Photo: Md. Harun-Or-Rashid/CIMMYT)
“Besides the biotic and abiotic challenges faced in wheat production, climate change and the Russia-Ukraine crisis are further creating limitations to wheat production and marketing,” said Pawan Kumar Singh, head of Wheat Pathology at CIMMYT and lead organizer of the training. “Due to the development of blast-resistant wheat varieties and its commercial production under integrated disease management practices, the domestic production of wheat in Bangladesh has increased and there is increased interest from farmers in wheat.”
Dave Hodson, a principal scientist at CIMMYT and one of the training’s resource speakers, added: “This is a remarkable success that researchers developed two blast resistant varieties in Bangladesh urgently. It was only achievable because of the correct measures taken by the researchers and support of Government policies.”
However, there are still some barriers to widespread adoption of these varieties. As such, in parallel to other activities, a team from Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) joined the field trip to meet local farmers and conduct research into the socio-economic factors influencing the adoption and scaling of relevant wheat varieties.
Temina Lalani-Shariff explains the importance of mechanization technologies to sustainably manage finite land and water resources but also to enhance food security for a growing world population, in a more equitable manner.
