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.
Abdelfattah A. Dababat (Amer) is the CIMMYT Country Representative in Türkiye and the leader of the Soil Borne Pathogens.
In 2009, he received a second post doctorate offer from CIMMYT to work on the soil borne pathogens. More than 600 scientists/students were benefited from the symposiums, workshops, and courses which he has organized since 2010.
He has co-supervised/co-supervising more than 45 Master and PhD students from around the world and he has published more than 130 peer-reviewed articles and more than 150 proceedings, abstracts, and 2 manuals, books, and book chapters.
He obtained his BSc in 1996 from Al-Najah National University and his MSc in 1999 from the University of Jordan in Amman. From 2009 to 2013 he worked at the Palestinian Agriculture Research Center for a trilateral project among Germany, Israel, and Palestine. In 2003, he received a PhD scholarship offer from the German KAAD to complete his PhD studies at Bonn University where he also did his post doctorate from 2007 to 2009.
Wei Xiong is an interdisciplinary researcher focusing on the interactions between agricultural production and environment, with specific experiences in climate change and agriculture, development of agricultural system modeling tools, evaluation of climate-smart agriculture, and Genotype by Environment Interaction analysis.
Xiong is good at using cutting-edge technologies (such as cloud computing, machine learning, big data, HPC, and bioinformatics) in G×E×M interaction analysis, with a track record of improving short- and long-term agricultural forecast models at the local, national, and global scales. He is also interested in smart agriculture, agricultural AI, and innovative predictive approaches from genomics to phenomics.
The Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program aims to enhance and protect the productivity of wheat in Pakistan by supporting research that leads to the identification, adoption, and optimal agronomic management of new, high yielding, disease-resistant wheat varieties. The main goal of the project is to facilitate efforts of scientific institutions in Pakistan to minimize adverse effects of wheat rusts — including the highly virulent Ug99 stem rust disease — through surveillance and genetically resistant varieties.
As part of the U.S. government’s assistance to Pakistan, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Pakistan’s Ministry of Agriculture have identified the development of wheat varieties with resistance to virulent rust strains as a goal for improving food security and related agricultural production challenges. This document outlines a project for providing cereal rust protection for wheat production in Pakistan.
This wheat production enhancement project is a multi-partner, collaborative research and development program that includes human resource development. The primary external partners — USDA, CIMMYT, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas — work cooperatively with Pakistan research organizations to refine work plans and implement research and development activities in rust surveillance, pre-breeding, breeding, seed, and agronomy as described in objectives section.
Objectives
Rust pathogen surveillance
Pre-breeding to enhance the diversity and utility of rust resistant wheat breeding parent
Accelerated breeding to develop and test rust resistant, high performance candidate wheat varieties
Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.
The Eastern Gangetic Plains region of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal is home to the greatest concentration of rural poor in the world. This region is projected to be one of the areas most affected by climate change. Local farmers are already experiencing the impact of climate change: erratic monsoon rains, floods and other extreme weather events have affected agricultural production for the past decade. The region’s smallholder farming systems have low productivity, and yields are too variable to provide a solid foundation for food security. Inadequate access to irrigation, credit, inputs and extension systems limit capacity to adapt to climate change or invest in innovation. Furthermore, large-scale migration away from agricultural areas has led to labor shortages and increasing numbers of women in agriculture.
The Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) project aims to reduce poverty in the Eastern Gangetic Plains by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the environment and involving women. CIMMYT, project partners and farmers are exploring Conservation Agriculture-based Sustainable Intensification (CASI) and efficient water management as foundations for increasing crop productivity and resilience. Technological changes are being complemented by research into institutional innovations that strengthen adaptive capacity and link farmers to markets and support services, enabling both women and men farmers to adapt and thrive in the face of climate and economic change.
In its current phase, the project team is identifying and closing capacity gaps so that stakeholders can scale CASI practices beyond the project lifespan. Priorities include crop diversification and rotation, reduced tillage using machinery, efficient water management practices, and integrated weed management practices. Women farmers are specifically targeted in the scaling project: it is intended that a third of participants will be women and that at least 25% of the households involved will be led by women.
Understand farmer circumstances with respect to cropping systems, natural and economic resources base, livelihood strategies, and capacity to bear risk and undertake technological innovation
Develop with farmers more productive and sustainable technologies that are resilient to climate risks and profitable for smallholders
Catalyze, support and evaluate institutional and policy changes that establish an enabling environment for the adoption of high-impact technologies
Facilitate widespread adoption of sustainable, resilient and more profitable farming systems
Zero-tillage service provision is key to facilitating adoption.
Service provider Azgad Ali and farmer Samaru Das have a fruitful relationship based on technology promoted through CIMMYT’s SRSFI project.
Bablu Modak demonstrates his unpuddled mechanically transplanted rice.
CIMMYT’s SRFSI team and the community walk through the fields during a field visit in Cooch Behar.
The International Wheat Improvement Program was established as a cooperative international research effort by the Turkish national wheat research program and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in 1986. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Rural Areas (ICARDA) joined the program in 1990, integrating its highland wheat breeding program.
The main objective of IWWIP is to develop winter/facultative wheat germplasm for the region of Central and West Asia. IWWIP is fully integrated into the national Turkish wheat program, with a strong connection to partners within and outside the region, such as eastern Europe and the United States.
The program is governed by a steering committee. Three coordinators — Beyhan Akin from CIMMYT, Mesut Keser from ICARDA and Fatih Ozdemir from the Turkish national wheat research program — provide technical leadership.
IWWIP focuses on the development of elite wheat lines for rainfed and irrigated areas in Central and West Asia.
Since the inception of the program, more than 105 winter wheat varieties originating from IWWIP germplasm have been released. Germplasm from IWWIP is sent each year to approximately 100 cooperators in 50 countries, making it an important vehicle for the global exchange of winter wheat germplasm.
Core traits for rainfed areas are yield and yield stability, drought and heat tolerance, resistance to three cereal rusts and soil-borne diseases — nematodes, crown and root rots —, and end-use quality. Other traits considered for specific areas are resistance to Septoria leaf blight and insects. For irrigated and high-rainfall areas, breeding focuses on yield potential, cereal rusts, Septoria and quality.
Germplasm with special traits, such as resistance to stem rust and Russian wheat aphid, and Sun pest vegetative stage resistance, is developed in nurseries and shared with IWWIP cooperators. IWWIP distributes four International Winter Wheat Nurseries each year, targeted for semiarid and irrigated conditions: Facultative and Winter Wheat Observation Nurseries (FAWWONs) FAWWON-SA and FAWWON-IRR, and the replicated International Winter Wheat Yield Trials (IWWYTs) IWWYT-SA and IWWYT-IRR.
In 2018, IWWIP established a speed-breeding facility at the Aegean Agricultural Research Institute in Menemen, Izmir, with the capacity to grow 20,000 plants in one cycle. This facility allows for greater genetic gain by increasing the number of generations per year and reducing the time it takes to incorporate new traits into elite germplasm.
IWWIP uses multi-location testing in Turkey as well as shuttle breeding globally, serving as a successful model for a jointly operated breeding program between national and international institutes. Shuttle breeding to improve drought and heat tolerance and cold tolerance has been working well and produces novel germplasm with abiotic stresses tolerance.
Major IWWIP contributions:
Close cooperation with CIMMYT’s Soil Borne Pathogens Group to identify genotypes with resistance to nematodes and root rots, used in breeding programs in the region and beyond.
A national inventory of wheat landraces in Turkey (2009-2014), with collections from over 1,500 farmers from 68 provinces. The collected material was characterized and deposited in the Turkish Gene Bank in Ankara. The best accessions are currently used as parents, undergoing further study by the Turkish National Program and IWWIP, and being used in the development of primary synthetic winter wheat for breeding diverse and resilient wheat varieties.
High-quality data that has increased selection efficiency to develop yellow-rust-resistant cultivars.
Substantial improvement in stem rust resistance through shuttle methodology between Turkey and Kenya.
Publication of NDVI and digital photos for germplasm evaluation under irrigated and drought conditions.
IWWIP has played a major role in building the capacity of young researchers through long-term practical training at CIMMYT, ICARDA, and Turkish national wheat breeding programs; participation in traveling seminars; support for participation in regional conferences and IWWIP annual meetings; and on-site visits of IWWIP breeders.
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The Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation was initiated in 1999 with the objective of increasing the food security of farm families in the hills of Nepal by raising the productivity and sustainability of maize-based cropping systems. The HMRP went through three phases between 1999 and 2010, the fourth and final phase began in August 2010 and concluded in 2015. There are two key outcomes for the project.
First, farm households in the hills of Nepal, especially those belonging to women, poor and disadvantaged groups, have improved food security and income.
Second, the National Seed Board, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council and the Department of Agriculture enforce quality control in both public and private institutions.
OBJECTIVES
Farm households in the hills of Nepal, especially of poor and disadvantaged groups, have improved food security and income.
Available varieties and technologies are used
Poor and disadvantaged households have increased access to quality maize seed and proven technologies
Groups/cooperatives supply quality seeds at competitive market prices
Poor and disadvantaged maize producing households will have access to multiple agricultural interventions for enhanced productivity
The National Seed Board (NSB), NARC, and the DoA allow decentralization of the source seed production system
Public and private institutions obtain seed inspection mandate and license
CBSP/cooperatives manage supply of quality seed
The NSB and NARC consider HMRP’s experience in variety development, certification and release system
The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) is a non-profit international research institute dedicated to food, nutrition and livelihood security as well as environmental rehabilitation in South Asia, which is home to more than 300 million undernourished people. BISA is a collaborative effort involving the CIMMYT and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research. The objective of BISA is to harness the latest technology in agriculture to improve farm productivity and sustainably meet the demands of the future. BISA is more than an institute. It is a commitment to the people of South Asia, particularly to the farmers, and a concerted effort to catalyze a second Green Revolution.
BISA was established on October 5, 2011, through an agreement between the Government of India (GoI) and CIMMYT and was bolstered by the globally credible name of Nobel Laureate Norman Ernest Borlaug. The institution draws on the decades of experience and success by CIMMYT, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a global network of partners in using research to generate tangible benefits for farmers internationally. BISA is supported by a growing number of national stakeholders in South Asia. It is committed to stronger collaborations for accelerated impact, most prominently with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the three state governments (Punjab, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh) where BISA farms are located.
Objectives
Ensure access to the latest in research and technologies that are currently not available in the region
Strategize research aimed at doubling food production in South Asia while using less water, land and energy
Strengthen cutting-edge research that validates and tests new technologies to significantly increase yield potential
Develop technologies for higher productivity in rice, maize and wheat based farming systems
Design research outputs targeted to small and marginal farmers across the region
Build on CIMMYT’s vast germplasm resources, and make research products and know-how developed by BISA freely available to stakeholders
Create a new generation of scientists to work with new technologies through training programs that will retain them in South Asia
Enable researchers to pursue multiple strategies and research possibilities while simultaneously allowing for more meaningful collaboration with national institutions
Build a forum with partners from all sectors – research centers, governments, science community, businesses and farmers – to transform farmers’ lives and improve food security in the region
Develop a policy environment that embraces new technologies and encourages investments in agricultural research
Develop and utilize BISA as a regional platform that focuses on agricultural research in the whole of South Asia
P.H. Zaidi joined CIMMYT in 2007, and has since focused on strengthening the abiotic stress-tolerant germplasm base relevant for the Asian region. He has led efforts to develop abiotic maize germplasm tolerant to stresses including heat, drought, water-logging and anaerobic germination. He has also developed and standardized screening phenotyping techniques, protocols and selection criterion for various abiotic stresses, and supported NARS partners in implementing these into their programs.
Zaidi played a key role in strengthening collaborative research activities between CIMMYT and Asian NARS, as well as initiating research collaborations with new partners in the region. He has organized training courses on abiotic stress breeding and precision phenotyping, and has received several awards for his contributions to maize research, including CIMMYT’s Outstanding Scientist Award in 2009.
The Improved Maize for Tropical Asia (IMTA) is employing modern maize breeding techniques to develop and deploy new, climate-resilient maize hybrids, including traits important for identified niche markets across tropical Asia.
The Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project facilitates sustainable increases in Nepal’s national crop productivity, income and household-level food and nutrition security, across 20 districts, including five earthquake-affected districts.
Nepal’s agriculture is mostly small-scale and subsistence-oriented, characterized by a mix of crop and livestock farming. The agriculture sector represents about one-third of the country’s gross domestic product and employs 75 percent of the labor force.
Over half of Nepal’s farms operate on less than half a hectare, with the majority unable to produce enough to meet their household food requirements for the whole year. Combined with an increasing urban population, it will not be possible for the country to meet future food demand without increased agricultural productivity and competitiveness of domestic production.
Major cereal crops and vegetables currently have low yields, but there are significant prospects for increases through improved seed and soil fertility management practices. A large part of this yield gap results from a lack of knowledge, inadequate access to affordable improved technologies, extension services and markets due to weak public and private sector capacity to provide support services needed by small scale farmers.
NSAF promotes the use of improved seeds and integrated soil fertility management technologies along with effective and efficient extension, including the use of digital and information and communications technologies. The project will specifically increase availability of technologies to improve productivity in cauliflower, lentils, maize, onions, rice and tomatoes. It will also build competitive seed and fertilizer systems that significantly expand seed production, marketing and distribution by enhancing the capacity of public and private sectors in seed and fertilizer value chains.
Agriculture development needs to be locally owned and led through inclusive business models involving women and disadvantaged groups and farmers institutions. There is a need to further the development of Nepal’s cereals, legumes and vegetable sector by:
Developing market systems that are agile, resilient, and adaptive
Propelling agricultural growth through evidence-based policy change and harmonization.
Food security in Ukraine
Supplemental funds released in 2022 will be used to respond to the impact of the Ukraine war at the household level. CIMMYT and its partners will develop food security and resilient agriculture market systems, to advance the delivery of improved agriculture input management knowledge and technologies, application of best crop management practices, and development of local capacity to apply improved technologies.
The objective is to build resilience of smallholder farmers in four areas:
Protecting and sustaining crop production for strengthening local food production and consumption systems.
Supporting efficient agriculture supply chain.
Strengthening local cooperatives and micro, small- and medium-sized agribusiness enterprises.
Addressing the impact of global fertilizer shortages by exploring innovative products, novel application techniques and local market development.
The Heat Stress Tolerant Maize (HTMA) for Asia project is a public-private alliance that targets resource-poor people and smallholder farmers in South Asia who face weather extremes and climate-change effects. HTMA aims to create stable income and food security for resource-poor maize farmers in South Asia through development and deployment of heat-resilient maize hybrids.
South Asian farmlands have been increasingly experiencing climate change-related weather extremes. If current trends persist until 2050, major crop yields and the food production capacity of South Asia will decrease significantly – by 17 percent for maize – due to climate change-induced heat and water stress.
In response, CIMMYT and partners are developing heat stress-resilient maize for Asia. The project leverages the germplasm base and technical expertise of CIMMYT in breeding for abiotic stress tolerance, coupled with the research capacity and expertise of partners.
OBJECTIVES
Future climate data obtained from the recent CIMP5 database, and future and current heat stress hot-spots in South Asia are mapped
Genome-wide association studies revealed multiple haplotypes significantly associated heat tolerance, including nine significant haplotype blocks (~200 kb) for grain yield explaining 4 to 12% phenotypic variation individually with the effect size varied up to 440 kg/ha.
A total of 17 first generation heat tolerant hybrids formally licenced to project partners for deployment and scale-out in their targeted geographies/market in stress-prone ecologies of South Asia
New base germplasm, including early generation lines and pedigree populations, with enhanced levels of heat tolerance shared with partners to use in their own breeding programs.
Over 130 maize researchers and technical staff from India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, including 32 women and 99 men, were trained on various aspects of developing stress-resilient maize through four training course workshops organized under the project.
Strong phenotyping network for heat stress in South Asia, with well-equipped locations and trained representatives.
FUNDING INSTITUTIONS
United States Agency for International Development – Feed the Future
Smallholder maize farmers in marginal environments in Asia are prone to drought due to either scanty/erratic rainfall or falling groundwater levels.
The Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Project is a partnership among CIMMYT, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, national agricultural research systems of Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam to develop drought-tolerant maize for smallholder farmers in Asia.
AAA combines complementary technologies and comparative advantages, such as CIMMYT’s global expertise in drought-tolerant maize breeding, Syngenta’s elite germplasm bred for Asia, the national partners’ local knowledge of farmers’ requirements and their germplasm testing network.
This project covers a gamut of upstream and downstream activities: marker discovery (genome-wide association studies); trait discovery (understanding root structure and function-lysimetrics); marker applications (genomic selection); drought phenotyping facilities (rhizotronics, rain-out shelters; managed drought stress screening locations); germplasm development; hybrid deployment; and linking with potential hybrid commercialization partners.
Objectives
Validation of drought-tolerant genetic markers
Rhizotronics studies reveal importance of root functional traits in determining drought tolerance
Genomic selection is proving to be a powerful strategy for developing improved source populations
Promising results from hybrid trials in India and Indonesia indicate the value of this innovative partnership model
Funding Institutions
Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA)
Climate Resilient Maize for Asia is supported by Germany’s development agency GIZ, and implemented as a public-private partnership, which targets enhanced resilience among resource-poor, maize-based farming families in South and Southeast Asia by providing them with abiotic stress-tolerant maize hybrids adapted to rain-fed stress-prone production systems for crop diversification, intensification and higher yields.
Most of the maize in Asia is grown as a rain-fed crop, which is prone to vagaries of seasonal monsoon rains. This is clearly reflected in the productivity of maize under rain-fed systems — usually less than half of the irrigated system. The erratic distribution pattern of monsoon rains results in drought or water logging at different crop growth stages, which is the main factor responsible for relatively low productivity of rain-fed maize. Due to the possibility of uncertain economic returns, farmers often hesitate to invest in improved seed, fertilizers and inputs, which further add to poor yields of rain-fed maize. Climate change effects are further threatening an already challenging maize mega-environment in the Asian tropics, which are identified as subject to climate change effects, with high vulnerability and low adoption capacity.
The project deals with high priorities of Asian stakeholders related to improving maize production in the face of current and anticipated effects of climate change and access to diverse and valuable maize germplasm, building upon the GIZ-funded project known as “Abiotic stress tolerant maize for increasing income and food security among the poor in South and Southeast Asia,” where significant progress is being made towards understanding the rain-fed stress-prone agro-ecologies in South and Southeast Asia, development of improved maize germplasm with enhanced levels of tolerance to drought, waterlogging or combined stress tolerance.
OBJECTIVES
Using data on elevation, aridity index and mean annual rainfall, a climate similarity map with a total 30 zones was developed for South Asia. This is useful in planning regional hybrid trials respective environment analogue.
New hybrid combinations by crossing promising stress-tolerant lines and evaluated across moisture regimes, including managed drought and waterlogging stresses, and optimal conditions, and a set of 50 promising hybrids are ready for large-scale adaptive trials.
Among the inbred lines developed under the project, four most promising lines were globally released CML (CIMMYT Maize Lines), namely CML-562, CML-563, CML-564 and CML-565, for use in low-land tropical breeding programs targeting stress-prone rainfed environment.
Total 18 Quantitative Trait Locus (QTLs) for grain yield under waterlogging and 21 QTLs for grain yield and anthesis-siling interval under drought were identified using genome-wide association studies and analyses of bi-parental populations. These validated genomic regions are candidate for introgression into elite Asia-adapted genetic background.
Breeder ready marker assays (KASP assays) have been developed for the 18 significant genomic regions that typically explained more than 10 percent of phenotypic variance under water-logging stress.
Protocol for rapid-cycle genomic selection (RC-GS) optimized with regards to constitution of suitable target population, and suitable statistical model for genomic selection.
Genetically enhanced cycle (C2) of two multi-parent synthetic populations were developed by inter-mating top 5 percent progenies with high genotypically estimated breeding values (GEBVs) were submitted for subjecting to double haploid for deriving new generation of stress-resilient maize lines
The Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan is working to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes in the agricultural sector through the promotion and dissemination of modern technologies/practices in the livestock, horticulture (fruits and vegetables) and cereals (wheat, maize and rice) sector. The CIMMYT-led project aims to foster emergence of a dynamic, responsive, and competitive system of science and innovation in Pakistan.
This unique project places particular emphasis on building partnerships between public research and those it serves, including farmers and the private sector. AIP operates through three activity windows: commissioned projects, a competitive grants system and human resource development. Within these activity windows AIP addresses complex agricultural systems, but is divided into four “science windows’” including cereals and cereal systems, livestock, vegetables and perennial horticulture. The key indicator of AIP’s success is the number of small farmers who adopt or benefit from productivity or value-enhancing technologies.
OBJECTIVES
The long term goals of the project are food security, environmental protection, gender sensitization and poverty reduction through the adoption of sustainable technologies, resource management practices, advance agricultural models and improved systems.
