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.
Farmer Kausila Chanara direct dry seeding rice in Ramghat, Surkhet, Nepal. Photo: P.Lowe/CIMMYT
KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) — Nepal will benefit from a new project that will strengthen the country’s seed and fertilizer sectors, boost farmer income and increase the country’s food security through 2021.
More than 70 percent of Nepal’s population works in agriculture, yet a profound lack of resources, infrastructure and networks have weakened rural economies, increased urban and international migration and strained the ability of families to avoid malnutrition. Two out of every three Nepalese suffer from food insecurity at some time during the year and the prevalence of stunting is nearly 40 percent.
“With right seeds, resources and practices Nepalese farmers could produce 50 percent more food on their land, enough to not only eliminate domestic food insecurity but even become a food surplus country,” said Dyutiman Choudhary, coordinator and market development specialist for the five-year Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project (NSAF).
Research has shown the better application of fertilizer and planting improved hybrid seeds are the two most impactful steps Nepalese maize farmers can take to boost income and grain yields in their fields. Adopting just these two practices can increase grain yields 1.8 and 1.4 tons per hectare, respectively.
Launched on August 1, NSAF will build competitive and vibrant seed and fertilizer systems that significantly expand seed production, marketing and distribution by enhancing the capacity and role of public, private and community sectors in seed and fertilizer value chains. It is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MOAD) and private sector.
During an event for the project’s launch in Kathmandu, Choudhary presented an overview of the project’s overarching strategy and key approaches being implemented to increase adoption of quality seed and integrated soil fertility management technologies for more than 100,000 smallholder farmers in 25 of Nepal’s 75 districts.
MOAD Secretary and Program Chair Suroj Pokharel and Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States Embassy in Nepal Michael C. Gonzales also acknowledged the contribution of robust agriculture projects that support the Government of Nepal’s Agriculture Development Strategy through the promotion of innovations in digital technology and market research development to improve farming practices. Other event invitees included government representatives, the U.S Embassy, USAID, partner organizations, local media, project beneficiaries and other private stakeholders.
Learn more about the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project (NSAF) through this infographic and fact sheet from the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative.
Members of National Technical Committee of NSB evaluating BAW 1260, the breeding line used to develop BARI Gom 33. Photo: CIMMYT
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) — As wheat farmers in Bangladesh struggle to recover from a 2016 outbreak of a mysterious disease called “wheat blast,” the country’s National Seed Board (NSB) released a new, high-yielding, blast-resistant wheat variety, according to a communication from the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) in Bangladesh.
Called “BARI Gom 33,” the variety was developed by WRC using a breeding line from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), a Mexico-based organization that has collaborated with Bangladeshi research organizations for decades, according to Naresh C. Deb Barma, Director of WRC, who said the variety had passed extensive field and laboratory testing. “Gom” means “wheat grain” in Bangla, the Bengali language used in Bangladesh.
“This represents an incredibly rapid response to blast, which struck in a surprise outbreak on 15,000 hectares of wheat in southwestern Bangladesh just last year, devastating the crop and greatly affecting farmers’ food security and livelihoods, not to mention their confidence in sowing wheat,” Barma said.
Caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum, wheat blast was first identified in Brazil in 1985 and has constrained wheat farming in South America for decades. Little is known about the genetics or interactions of the fungus with wheat or other hosts. Few resistant varieties have been released in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, the countries most affected by wheat blast.
The Bangladesh outbreak was its first appearance in South Asia, a region where rice-wheat cropping rotations cover 13 million hectares and over a billion inhabitants eat wheat as main staple.
Many blast fungal strains are impervious to fungicides, according to Pawan Singh, a CIMMYT wheat pathologist. “The Bangladesh variant is still sensitive to fungicides, but this may not last forever, so we’re rushing to develop and spread new, blast-resistant wheat varieties for South Asia,” Singh explained.
The urgent global response to blast received a big boost in June from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), which funded an initial four-year research project to breed blast resistant wheat varieties and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), which also provided grant to kick-start the work in South Asia. Led by CIMMYT, the initiative involves researchers from nearly a dozen institutions worldwide.
Chemical controls are costly and potentially harmful to human and environmental health, so protecting crops like wheat with inherent resistance is the smart alternative, but resistance must be genetically complex, combining several genes, to withstand new mutations of the pathogen over time.
Key partners in the new project are the agricultural research organizations of Bangladesh, including the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), and the Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal in Bolivia, which will assist with large-scale field experiments to select wheat lines under artificial and natural infections of wheat blast.
Other partners include national and provincial research organizations in India, Nepal and Pakistan, as well as Kansas State University (KSU) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Services (USDA-ARS). The U.S. Agency for International Agricultural Development (USAID) has also supported efforts to kick-start blast control measures, partnerships and upscaling the breeding, testing and seed multiplication of new, high-yielding, disease resistant varieties through its Feed the Future project.
BARI Gom 33 was tested for resistance to wheat blast in field trials in Bolivia and Bangladesh and in greenhouse tests by the USDA-ARS laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland. International partnerships are critical for a fast response to wheat blast, according to Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.
“Worldwide, we’re in the middle of efforts that include blast surveillance and forecasting, studies on the pathogen’s genetics and biology, integrated disease management and seed systems, as well as raising awareness about the disease and training for researchers, extension workers, and farmers,” said Braun.
With over 160 million people, Bangladesh is among the world’s most densely populated countries. Wheat is Bangladesh’s second most important staple food, after rice. The country grows more than 1.3 million tons each year but consumes 4.5 million tons, meaning that imports whose costs exceed $0.7 billion each year comprise more than two-thirds of domestic wheat grain use.
WRC will produce tons of breeder’s seed of BARI Gom 33 each year. This will be used by the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) and diverse non-governmental organizations and private companies to produce certified seed for farmers.
“This year WRC will provide seed to BADC for multiplication and the Department of Agricultural Extension will establish on-farm demonstrations of the new variety in blast prone districts during 2017-18,” said Barma.
As an added benefit for the nutrition of wheat consuming households, BARI Gom 33 grain features 30 percent higher levels of zinc than conventional wheat. Zinc is a critical micronutrient missing in the diets of many of the poor throughout South Asia and whose lack particularly harms the health of pregnant women and children under 5 years old.
With funding from HarvestPlus and the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition, CIMMYT is leading global efforts to breed biofortified wheat with better agronomic and nutritional quality traits. The wheat line used in BARI Gom 33 was developed at CIMMYT, Mexico, through traditional cross-breeding and shared with Bangladesh and other cooperators in South Asia through the Center’s International Wheat Improvement Network, which celebrates 50 years in 2018.
Stable window 1 and 2 (W1W2) funding from CGIAR enabled CIMMYT and partners to react quickly and screen breeding lines in Bolivia, as well as working with KSU to identify sources of wheat blast resistance. The following W1 funders have made wheat blast resistance breeding possible: Australia, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Canada, France, India, Japan, Korea, New Zeland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the World Bank. The following funders also contributed vital W2 funding: Australia, China, the United Kingdom (DFID) and USAID.
Afghan women from wheat farming villages in focus-group interviews as part of Gennovate, a global study on gender and agricultural innovation. Photo: CIMMYT archives
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — New research shows improved wheat raises the quality of life for men and women across rural communities in Afghanistan.
A recent report from Gennovate, a major study about gender and innovation processes in developing country agriculture, found that improved wheat varieties emerged overwhelmingly among the agricultural technologies most favored by both men and women.
In one striking example from Afghanistan, introducing better wheat varieties alone reduced women’s work burden, showing how the uptake of technology – whether seeds or machinery – can improve the quality of life.
“Local varieties are tall and prone to falling, difficult to thresh, and more susceptible to diseases, including smuts and bunts, which requires special cleaning measures, a task normally done by women,” said Rajiv Sharma, a senior wheat scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and country liaison officer for CIMMYT in Afghanistan. “Such varieties may comprise mixes of several seed types, including seed of weeds. They also give small harvests for which threshing is typically manual, with wooden rollers and animals, picking up sticks, stones, and even animal excrement that greatly complicates cleaning the grain.”
Both women and men spoke favorably about how improved wheat varieties have eased women’s wheat cleaning work. “Improved seeds can provide clean wheat,” said an 18-year old woman from one of the study’s youth focus groups in Panali, Afghanistan. “Before, we were washing wheat grains and we exposed it to the sun until it dried. Machineries have [also] eased women’s tasks.”
Finally, Sharma noted that bountiful harvests from improved varieties often lead farmers to use mechanical threshing, which further reduces work and ensures cleaner grain for household foods.
Gennovate: A large-scale, qualitative, comparative snapshot
Conceived as a “bottom-up” idea by a small gender research team of CGIAR in 2013, Gennovate involves 11 past and current CGIAR Research Programs. The project collected data from focus groups and interviews involving more than 7,500 rural men and women in 26 countries during 2014-16.
According to estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), if women farmers had the same access to resources as men, agricultural output in developing countries would rise by an estimated average of as high as 4 percent. Photo: CIMMYT archives
Some 2,500 women and men from 43 rural villages in 8 wheat-producing countries of Africa and Asia participated in community case studies, as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.
“Across wheat farm settings, both men and women reported a sense of gradual progress,” said Lone Badstue, gender specialist at CIMMYT and Gennovate project leader. “But women still face huge challenges to access information and resources or have a voice in decision making, even about their own lives.”
According to estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), if women farmers, who comprise 43 per cent of the farm labor force in developing countries, had the same access to resources as men, agricultural output in 34 developing countries would rise by an estimated average of as high as 4 percent.
“Gender-related restrictions such as limitations on physical mobility or social interactions, as well as reproductive work burden, also constitute key constraints on rural women’s capacity to innovate in agriculture,” Badstue explained.
Gender equity drives innovation
The Gennovate-wheat report identified six “positive outlier communities” where norms are shifting towards more equitable gender relations and helping to foster inclusiveness and agricultural innovation. In those communities, men and women from all economic scales reported significantly higher empowerment and poverty reductions than in the 37 other locations. Greater acceptance of women’s freedom of action, economic activity, and civic and educational participation appears to be a key element.
“In contexts where gender norms are more fluid, new agricultural technologies and practices can become game-changing, increasing economic agency for women and men and rapidly lowering local poverty,” Badstue said.
The contributions and presence of CIMMYT in Afghanistan, which include support for breeding research and training for local scientists, date back several decades. In the last five years, the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) of the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (MAIL) has used CIMMYT breeding lines to develop and make available to farmers seed of 15 high-yielding, disease resistant wheat varieties.
GENNOVATE has been supported by generous funding from the World Bank; the CGIAR Gender & Agricultural Research Network; the government of Mexico through MasAgro; Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); numerous CGIAR Research Programs; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Delegates and participants of the regional policy dialogue on scaling conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification in South Asia in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo: Das, S./CIMMYT Bangladesh.
High input costs, depleted and degraded natural resources, indiscriminate and imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers and adverse effects from climate change make South Asia – home to about 1.766 billion people (one fourth of the world’s population) – one of the most food insecure regions in the world.
A region-wide shift from conventional agriculture to more sustainable technologies and practices, such as no-till farming or precision land leveling, is critical towards combating these challenges.
Raj Paroda, TAAS chairman, highlighted this need during the dialogue by calling for increased agricultural development assistance from international donors that focuses on mainstreaming sustainable agriculture, a key element in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 global goals spearheaded by the United Nations to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all.
“The adaptation of conservation agriculture in South Asia, specifically in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, has shown impressive results in terms of saving costs and resources, and boosting income,” said John Dixon, Principal Advisor of ACIAR. “However, the widespread adaptation of conservation agriculture is held back by policy barriers. Institutions and policies have yet to be optimized in a way that facilitates and encourage [its] spread.”
According to Dixon, the regional policy dialogue allowed delegates to share experiences from their own countries and identify which policy changes, institutions and regulations can be adapted in a way that accelerates the widespread adoption of sustainable practices like conservation agriculture.
Paroda closed the dialogue by suggesting that delegates work towards enabling policies to increase funding, coordination and convergence of international private and public funder interest. He suggested the development of an active regional platform that would suggest a roadmap based on the current status, would help share knowledge, initiatives and advocate for policies relating to opportunities for capacity building and regional partnerships. He also identified that the promotion of new innovations through a network of young entrepreneurs and service providers and strong public-private partnerships as key elements to mainstreaming the adoption of sustainable agriculture across the region.
In agrarian countries like Bangladesh, agriculture can serve as a powerful driving force to not only raise family income, but also the nation’s entire economy.
Bangladesh is now threatened by increasing droughts, flooding and extreme weather events due to climate change. In response, rural communities are adapting through innovative, localized solutions that combine sustainable practices and technologies.
Below we detail how these three technologies are transforming farming across Bangladesh.
Axial flow pumps
The axial flow pump is an inexpensive surface water irrigation technology that can reduce costs up to 50 percent at low lifts – areas where the water source is close to the field surface, and therefore is easy to pump up to irrigate fields. Surface water irrigation involves deploying water through low-lift irrigation pumps like the axial flow pump and canal distribution networks managed by water sellers who direct water to farmers’ fields.
For example, 24-year old Mosammat Lima Begum, who lives in a village in Barisal District in Bangladesh, gained access to an axial flow pump and training on its use through CIMMYT’s Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). After the training, Begum started a business providing irrigation services to her neighbors, boosting her household income by nearly $400 in one year.
Groundwater extraction – a common approach to irrigation in much of South Asia – can result in high energy costs and present health risks due to natural arsenic contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh. Surface water offers a low-energy and low-carbon emissions alternative.
For more information on how axial flow pumps and surface water irrigation help farmers, click here.
Axial Flow Pump. Photo: CIMMYT.
Reapers
Reapers allow farmers to mechanically harvest and plant the next season’s crops, and can save farmers 30 percent their usual harvesting costs. The two-wheeled mechanical reaper is particularly popular in Bangladesh, especially among women since it’s easy to maneuver. It also helps farmers cope with increasing labor scarcity — a trend that has continued to rise as the country develops economically and more people leave rural areas for off-farm employment.
Like the axial flow pump, local service providers with reapers – entrepreneurs who purchase agricultural machinery and rent out their services – are now offering their harvesting services to smallholder farmers at an affordable fee.
Learn more about how reapers can reduce the cost of harvesting and risk of crop damage, making them a key tool to boost farmer efficiency in Bangladesh here.
Reaper. Photo: CIMMYT.
Seed fertilizer drills
Seed fertilizer drills till, plant and fertilize crops in lines simultaneously and with greater precision. These drills are frequently used as attachments on two-wheeled tractors.
Around 66 service providers in Barisal, Bangladesh have cultivated more than 640 hectares of land using seed drills for over 1,300 farmers since 2013. These drills cut 30 percent of their fuel costs compared to traditional power tillers, saving them about $58 and 60 hours of labor per hectare. In south-western Bangladesh where USAID’s Feed the Future initiative operates, 818 service providers have cultivated more than 25,500 hectares of land using seed drills for 62,000 small holder farmers till to date.
These drills can also allow farmers to plant using conservation agriculture practices like strip tilling, a system that tills only small strips of land into which seed and fertilizer are placed, which reduces production costs, conserves soil moisture and help boost yields.
Since 2013, CIMMYT has facilitated the sale of over 2,000 agricultural machines to more than 1,800 service providers, reaching 90,000 farmers. Through the CSISA Mechanization and Irrigation project, CIMMYT will continue to transform agriculture in southern Bangladesh by unlocking the potential productivity of the region’s farmers during the dry season through surface water irrigation, efficient agricultural machinery and local service provision.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) – Members of the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project (NSAF) met representatives from eleven seed companies at a recent meeting held in Kathmandu, Nepal. Representatives at the meeting discussed progress, challenges, lessons and implementation activities for 2016-17 and developed a work plan for 2107-18.
The discussion added to the Nepal Seed Vision 2013-2025 – a holistic, long-term vision for the country’s seed sector development – which calls for the local development of 40 hybrid vegetable, maize and rice seeds. The plan also encourages the development of products by the private sector and set a target to develop and promote an additional 20 hybrids by the end of 2025.
Nepal’s seed sector is dominated by an informal seed system where farmers produce, retain and exchange their own seeds for subsequent seasons planting. The formal seed system covers about 10 percent of seed transactions, and the country currently imports nearly all its hybrid maize and vegetable seed to meet the increasing demand for high-yielding crop varieties.
The NSAF, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development, will provide public and private seed companies with parental lines of hybrid maize and other crops that are uniquely adapted to Nepal’s environment. The project also assists local seed companies to have strong R&D as well as facilitates business and market opportunities.
Dyutiman Choudhary, NSAF project coordinator, highlighted the important role of the private sector in developing and disseminating NSAF products and services to farmers and other end users during the meeting. Yagya Prasad Giri , director for crop and horticulture research at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), emphasized the importance of collaboration between public and private partners to bridge the demand and supply gap in quality seed production and marketing.
“Enhancing the capacity of local seed institutions is critical in order for the country to achieve its 2025 seed vision,” said Giri while opening the meeting.
Various departments of NARC also discussed progress under NSAF. In addition, CIMMYT and other NSAF representatives travelled to various districts in Nepal to evaluate project activities with various stakeholders.
The Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project (NSAF) is a five year flagship project under the U.S. government’s Feed the Future initiative. NSAF aims to increase agricultural productivity and household income by helping farmers access improved seeds together with best management practices.
Participants of NSAF seed company partners annual review and planning meeting, Kathmandu. Photo: K.Ram/CIMMYT
Scientists take readings of rust disease incidence on experimental wheat lines at the Shishambagh research station, Nangarhar, of the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan. Photo: Raqib/ CIMMYT
With generous funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) over the last 15 years, Afghanistan research organizations and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have helped supply Afghan farmers with improved varieties and farming practices to boost production of maize and wheat.
“As of 2012, the start of the most recent phase of ACIAR-funded work, Afghanistan partners have developed and released 12 high-yielding and disease resistant bread wheat varieties, as well as 3 varieties of durum wheat, 2 of barley and 3 of maize,” said Rajiv Sharma, a senior wheat scientist at CIMMYT and country liaison officer for CIMMYT in Afghanistan.
Sharma spoke at a workshop, which took place on August 28, with partners from the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) of the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (MAIL). The event was organized to review accomplishments and facilitate MAIL’s takeover of all activities, when the project ends in October 2018.
“The pedigrees of all new varieties feature contributions from the breeding research of CIMMYT and the International Winter Wheat Improvement Programme based in Turkey, both responsible for introducing more than 9,000 new wheat and maize lines into the country since 2012,” Sharma added. The International Winter Wheat Improvement Programme (IWWIP) is operated by Turkey, CIMMYT, and ICARDA (the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas).
Sharma noted that CIMMYT’s presence in Afghanistan, which includes support for breeding research and training for local scientists, dates back several decades and that the latest achievements with ARIA and other partners and ACIAR support include:
The delineation of wheat agro-climatic zones.
Forecasting climate change impacts on the Afghan wheat crop.
Strategizing to raise wheat production.
Characterization of Afghanistan’s wheat genetic resource collection.
Training abroad for 64 Afghan researchers and in-country for 4,000.
Launching research on wheat hybridization.
In direct partnership with farmers, more than 1,800 farmer field demonstrations, 80 field days, and introduced machinery like seed drills and mobile seed cleaners.
Shared research on and promotion of conservation agriculture, genomic selection, wheat bio-fortification, quality protein maize, climate change, crop insurance and wheat blast resistance and control.
In good years Afghan farmers harvest upwards of 5 million tons of wheat, the country’s number-one food crop, but in some years annual wheat imports exceed 1 million tons to satisfy domestic demand, which exceeds 5.8 million tons.
Multiple partners map avenues to fortify cereal farming
The workshop attracted 45 participants representing ARIA, MAIL, ICARDA, CIMMYT, Michigan State University, ACIAR, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Embassy of Australia, and several provincial Directorates of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (DAIL) of Afghanistan.
A group photo of attendees at the workshop held in Afghanistan. Photo: CIMMYT archives
Among other participants, Mahboobullah Nang, Director of Seed Certification, and Akbar Waziri, Director of the Cereal Department, both from MAIL, offered the Ministry’s support for the continuation of CIMMYT’s longstanding efforts in Afghanistan, particularly in breeding and varietal testing and promotion.
Representing ACIAR, Syed Mousawi commended capacity development activities organized by CIMMYT since the 1970s, which have raised the quality of crop research in Afghanistan and provided a vital link to the global science community over the years.
Participants also recommended extending CIMMYT outreach work, offering training in extension, introducing advanced technologies, and support for and training in varietal maintenance, conservation agriculture, experimental designs, research farm management, data analysis and data management.
With backing from leading international donors and scientists, nine South Asia wheat researchers recently visited the Americas for training on measures to control a deadly and mysterious South American wheat disease that appeared suddenly on their doorstep in 2016.
Trainees at the CAICO farm in Okinawa, Bolivia. Photo: CIMMYT archives
Known as “wheat blast,” the disease results from a fungus that infects the wheat spikes in the field, turning the grain to inedible chaff. First sighted in Brazil in the mid-1980s, blast has affected up to 3 million hectares in South America and held back the region’s wheat crop expansion for decades.
In 2016, a surprise outbreak in seven districts of Bangladesh blighted wheat harvests on some 15,000 hectares and announced blast’s likely spread throughout South Asia, a region where rice-wheat cropping rotations cover 13 million hectares and nearly a billion inhabitants eat wheat.
“Most commercially grown wheat in South Asia is susceptible to blast,” said Pawan Singh, head of wheat pathology at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), an organization whose breeding lines are used by public research programs and seed companies in over 100 countries. “The disease poses a grave threat to food and income security in the region and yet is new and unknown to most breeders, pathologists and agronomists there.”
As part of an urgent global response to blast and to acquaint South Asian scientists with techniques to identify and describe the pathogen and help develop resistant varieties, Singh organized a two-week workshop in July. The event drew wheat scientists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Mexico, taking them from U.S. greenhouses and labs to fields in Bolivia, where experimental wheat lines are grown under actual blast infections to test for resistance.
The training began at the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research facility at Fort Detrick, Maryland, where participants learned about molecular marker diagnosis of the causal fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype triticum (MoT). Sessions also covered greenhouse screening for blast resistance and blast research conducted at Kansas State University. Inside Level-3 Biosafety Containment greenhouses from which no spore can escape, participants observed specialized plant inoculation and disease evaluation practices.
The group then traveled to Bolivia, where researchers have been fighting wheat blast for decades and had valuable experience to share with the colleagues from South Asia.
“In Bolivia, workshop participants performed hands-on disease evaluation and selection in the field—an experience quite distinct from the precise lab and greenhouse practicums,” said Singh, describing the group’s time at the Cooperativa Agropecuaria Integral Colonias Okinawa (CAICO), Bolivia, experiment station.
Other stops in Bolivia included the stations of the Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF), Asociación de Productores de Oleaginosas y Trigo (ANAPO), Centro de Investigación Agrícola Tropical (CIAT), and a blast-screening nursery in Quirusillas operated by INIAF-CIMMYT.
“Scientists in South Asia have little or no experience with blast disease, which mainly attacks the wheat spike and is completely different from the leaf diseases we normally encounter,” said Prem Lal Kashyap, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), who took part in the training. “To score a disease like blast in the field, you need to evaluate each spike and check individual spikelets, which is painstaking and labor-intensive, but only thus can you assess the intensity of disease pressure and identify any plants that potentially carry genes for resistance.”
After the U.S.A. and Bolivia, the South Asia scientists took part in a two-week pathology module of an ongoing advanced wheat improvement course at CIMMYT’s headquarters and research stations in Mexico, covering topics such as the epidemiology and characterization of fungal pathogens and screening for resistance to common wheat diseases.
Gary Peterson (center), explaining wheat blast screening to trainees inside the USDA-ARS Level-3 Biosafety Containment facility. Photo: CIMMYT archives
The knowledge gained will allow participants to refine screening methods in South Asia and maintain communication with the blast experts they met in the Americas, according to Carolina St. Pierre who co-ordinates the precision field-based phenotyping platforms of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.
“They can now also raise awareness back home concerning the threat of blast and alert farmers, who may then take preventative and remedial actions,” Singh added. “The Bangladesh Ministry of Agriculture has already formed a task force through the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) to help develop and distribute blast resistant cultivars and pursue integrated agronomic control measures.”
The latest course follows on from a hands-on training course in February 2017 at the Wheat Research Center (WRC) of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Dinajpur, in collaboration with CIMMYT, Cornell University, and Kansas State University.
Participants in the July course received training from a truly international array of instructors, including Kerry Pedley and Gary Peterson, of USDA-ARS, and Christian Cruz, of Kansas State University; Felix Marza, of Bolivia’s Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF); Pawan Singh and Carolina St. Pierre, of CIMMYT; Diego Baldelomar, of ANAPO; and Edgar Guzmán, of CIAT-Bolivia.
Funding for the July event came from the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), CIMMYT, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.
Global food production must increase by 70 percent to meet a population of more than 9 billion in 2050. India, with a current population of 1.3 billion and rising, is central to this challenge. Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – A new study identifies the key ways to keep up with India’s rising food demand while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.
Global food production must increase by 70 percent to meet a population of more than 9 billion in 2050. India, with a current population of 1.3 billion and rising, is central to this challenge.
As incomes rise in developing countries, many go through ‘nutrition transition’ away from staple crops towards high greenhouse gas-producing foods like meat and dairy. India, however, has a cultural preference for a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet — dairy, eggs, and plant-based products — and is likely to differ in this regard from similar developing countries, like China or Brazil.
In India, the majority of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture are produced from agricultural inputs, farm machinery, soil displacement, residue management and irrigation.
Authors in a recent study from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have identified higher emissions from continuously flooded rice, compared to rice which has more frequent periods of water drainage, and a wide range of emissions for other crops due to variation in fertilizer application.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has placed emphasis on mitigation of greenhouse gases from agriculture and a number of strategies have been proposed. Measuring emissions from different crops and management systems can help identify the most efficient way to reduce future greenhouse gas emissions while keeping up with food demand.
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CSRD workshop participants. Photo: M. Asaduzzaman/CIMMYT
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) – Scientists from across South and Southeast Asia launched a new agenda earlier this week to boost community involvement in developing climate information and extension messaging services across the region.
“Key to climate services is emphasis on the service,” said Timothy Krupnik, a systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and South Asia project leader for Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD).
Researchers know how the region’s farmers will be affected by climate change thanks to the development of climate models and other analyses, but there still is a lack of a strong support system that allows farmers to practically use this information.
“We must be able to rapidly extend information to farmers and others who require climate information to inform their decision making, and to assure that research outputs are translated in an easy to understand way that communicates to farmers, extension workers and policy makers,” said Krupnik. “Equally important is feedback from farmers on the quality of climate services so they can be adapted and improved over time.”
The researchers, who gathered in Dhaka, Bangladesh for a three-day workshop from September 17-19, 2017, evaluated how climate and agricultural extension advisories are currently produced and conveyed, and identified opportunities on how to improve these services for farming communities across Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
“CSRD’s activities are relevant to the U.S. government’s commitment to building resilience of smallholder farmers and to ensure increased production, as well bolster country resilience,” said David Westerling, acting economic growth office director and Feed the Future team leader for the United States Agency for International Development’s mission in Bangladesh. “That is why we are behind this effort.”
During the workshop, delegates assessed different ways to incorporate seasonal climate forecasts into farmer decision making, using several African countries as examples. For example, participants learned how to simply but effectively depict probabilistic forecasts in graphs to farmers during a group work discussion.
There were also experience sharing sessions on information and communication technology (ICT) in agricultural climate services. Giriraj Amarnath, researcher at the International Water Management Institute, Ishwor Malla, service director for ICT at Agri Private Limited and Md. Nadirruzzaman, assistant professor at the Independent University, Bangladesh indicated that ICT can be a cost-effective approach to transfer information to farmers who can, in turn, improve crop productivity using climate information shared their observation and experiences.
While ICT can serve as an important tool, participants emphasized the need for more face-to-face extension and interaction with farming communities to build trust in forecasts that would otherwise not be fully understood by downloading a mobile application or receiving an SMS message.
An analysis to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for climate services in each country and across countries was completed to examine how participants can collaborate in south-south exchanges to support ongoing work in agricultural climate services.
On the last day of the workshop, climate index-based agricultural insurance was also discussed, after which participants proposed new institutional arrangements to improve agricultural climate information flow to farmers in each of their countries.
Elisabeth Simelton, climate change scientist at the World Agroforestry Centre in Vietnam and project manager at the Consortium Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS), said the workshop provided an interesting platform where scientists and climate service providers from different countries were able to meet and exchange their experiences and ideas through interactive formats, so that everybody can take something new and useful back to their respective countries.
The Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) is a global partnership that connects climate science, data streams, decision support tools, and training to decision-makers in developing countries.The workshop was sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development on behalf of CSRD and is collaboratively organized by CIMMYT and CSRD through the SERVIR Support Team. This work was also implemented as part of the CGIAR Research Program on CCAFS. Read more about the workshop, participants and sponsors here.
At this year’s UN Climate Talks, CIMMYT is highlighting innovations in wheat and maize that can help farmers overcome climate change. Follow @CIMMYT on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.
Delegates from across South and Southeast Asia will gather in Dhaka, Bangladesh next week to ensure farmers across the region have the resources they need to better respond to climate change. Above, woman in Faridpur, Bangladesh winnowing wheat grain after harvest. Photo: Saikat Mojumder.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) — Leaders from across South and Southeast Asia will gather from September 17-19 to exchange ideas and strategies on how to support the growth of farmer-focused and relevant agricultural climate services in the region.
Ensuring that farmers have access to real-time climate services, such as early warning systems for drought or crop index insurance, is critical to support rural livelihoods and mitigate crop production loss in the event of a climatic shock.
The three-day workshop will evaluate how climate and agricultural extension advisories are produced and conveyed, emphasizing farming community involvement in the development of climate information and extension messaging.
By the conclusion of the workshop, participants will have a broad overview of South and Southeast regional agricultural climate services programs, become familiar with participatory approaches and methods in agricultural climate services and able to enact or improve them in their own country contexts. They’ll also develop an increased understanding of how to identify and leverage “decision points” in the agricultural calendar during which climate information and advisories can most benefit farmers. Finally, participants will understand the need for appropriate institutional arrangements to facilitate the flow of relevant climate information and advisories to farmers, and to supply feedback to meteorological, extension, development and policy oriented organizations.
Workshop participants will also develop an outline for a scientific review paper on the subject of participatory climate services for agricultural decision making in South and Southeast Asia, which will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal.
AbduRahman Beshir (L), Muhammad Aslam (M) and Amir Maqbool (R), CIMMYT’s Ph.D. student who completed his study on provitamin A (PVA) enriched maize during field evaluation of PVA hybrids at UAF. (Photo: M. Waheed/CIMMYT)
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – In Pakistan, malnutrition is endemic. Children, in particular, are severely affected, with nearly half of all children in Pakistan being chronically undernourished.
Chronic malnutrition commonly leads to a condition called stunting, which can permanently limit growth and development. Pakistan ranks among the highest countries in the world for vitamin A and zinc deficiencies, which affect cognition and can lead to otherwise preventable blindness.
A new initiative hopes to combat malnutrition in Pakistan using biofortified maize, a tactic already in use in several areas around the world.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been improving yield, increasing total protein and micronutrient levels (like vitamin A and zinc) in maize for over 50 years. This work has continued in Pakistan through the United States Agency for International Development – funded Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) in partnership with the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council and other stakeholders in public and private sector
Since 2014, AIP has been testing CIMMYT-biofortified maize varieties in Pakistan to ensure the maize will grow in local conditions. In some cases, improved maize outperformed even local commercial checks in terms of yield. Earlier this year, CIMMYT allocated three pro vitamin A (PVA) enriched maize hybrids to the University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF), making Pakistan the first South Asian country to receive these products. The seed increase of the parental lines as well as the hybrids is in progress currently to expedite the process of hybrid registration and large scale seed production. Apart from the higher carotenoid content, the grain yields of these hybrids are remarkably high with a record of up to 12 tons per hectare from the various testing stations in Pakistan. The average maize yield in Pakistan is 4 tons per hectare. In addition to the support from AIP, UAF is also contributing its own resources to harness the benefits of these hybrids and eventually reduce vitamin A deficiency.
“We will engage the private sector and other value chain actors to fast track the deployment of these hybrids in the target areas,” says Muhammad Aslam, assistant professor at UAF.
Each biofortified maize variety offers different benefits to consumers. Quality protein maize includes all the essential amino acids required by the human body, enhanced zinc maize makes zinc more available for human digestion and provitamin A maize contains natural pigments, called carotenoids, which are converted to vitamin A in the body. Biofortified maize has proven to effectively combat vitamin A and zinc deficiencies, and is already being used around the world to combat malnutrition.
Maize demand in Pakistan has more than tripled since the 1990s. Maize is now being utilized by farmers and consumers in Pakistan in various forms and it is the most important cereal crop in terms of productivity, with among the highest yields in South Asia.
A number of public and private partners have expressed interest in the commercialization of provitamin A and zinc enhanced maize products. Earlier this year, Pakistan released two quality maize protein hybrids for the first time, indicating the potential for biofortified maize products to grow in the country.
“What is important now is to enhance synergies among stakeholders and mobilize resources and required expertise to scale up the seed production and dissemination of these biofortified maize products to curb the deplorable trend of Pakistan’s hidden hunger,” says AbduRahman Beshir, CIMMYT’s seed systems specialist.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan works to increase agricultural productivity and incomes in the agriculture sector through the development and dissemination of new agriculture technologies. The project is managed by a group of CGIAR Centers and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
A new joint effort will strengthen or establish drought monitoring and early warning systems in Bangladesh. Photo: Santosh Raj Pathak/ICIMOD.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) – A new joint effort will strengthen or establish drought monitoring and early warning systems in Bangladesh, as well as provide information on local cropping systems in South Asia to boost farmer resilience to climate change.
Regionally specific winter season drought and dry spells during the monsoon are a reoccurring concern in Bangladesh. Drought leads to reduced farming productivity, and climate change predictions suggest further decreases in precipitation in coming years. Additionally, there are uncertainties about where monsoons will flood in the rainy season, limiting groundwater recharge. If farmers are unable to adapt to these changes, bottlenecks in crop productivity and increased food insecurity are likely to result.
A workshop jointly hosted by a number of organizations was recently held at the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC) campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh to discuss the development of these agricultural monitoring services. The workshop brought together key partners to discuss anticipated methods, work plans and the user engagement process for effective development and long-term sustainability of the agricultural drought monitoring service.
Under this partnership, BARC is working to strengthen capacity of national research and agricultural extension institutes to use geographic information systems and remote sensing approaches for drought risk management.
(L-R) Birendra Bajracharya, regional program manager at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Shams Uddin Ahmed, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, Muhammad Jalal Uddin, executive chairman the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council and Timothy J. Krupnik, CIMMYT systems agronomist. Photo: Santosh Raj Pathak/ICIMOD
Shams Uddin Ahmed, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, noted that groundwater accessibility is a growing concern due to continued drought. The government has posed restrictions on deep well extraction, except for drinking water, to conserve crucial groundwater resources. He added that access to good quality drought monitoring and early warning information could help develop climate services to help farmers adapt to these challenges.
Muhammad Jalal Uddin, executive chairman of BARC, emphasized the need to adopt new technologies including remote sensing applications to improve predictability of climate hazards like floods and droughts. He added that with the adoption of improved agricultural practices, Bangladesh has become self-sufficient in rice, but that further work is needed to attain overall nutrition sufficiency.
Promoting and enabling climate services that increase farmer resilience to the impacts of climate variability can positively change behaviors and affect policy in developing countries. To do this, collaborators are working together to establish information communication technology platforms to provide user-oriented, easily accessible, timely and decision-relevant scientific information in the form of climate services.
Birendra Bajracharya, regional program manager of the Mountain Environment Regional Information System program at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), highlighted opportunities of using Earth observation data products for addressing societal challenges. He emphasized the user-centric “services” used by ICIMOD increase the sustainable use of Earth observation information and geospatial technologies for environmental management and improve resilience to climate change in the region.
CSRD is a a public-private partnership supported by USAID, Department for International Development (DFID), the Met Office, Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, ESRI, Google, the American Red Cross and the Skoll Global Threats Fund.
India is one of the world’s largest contributors to global warming, but simple changes in farm management can drastically cut emissions while meeting food demand.
More than 122 million people could be thrown into extreme poverty by 2030 from climate change induced by global warming, mostly in Africa and Asia.
Agriculture is one of the largest contributors to global warming, with greenhouse gas emissions predicted to rise 30 percent over the next three decades due to rising populations and changing consumer preferences to high-emission foods like dairy and meat in these two regions.
India alone is the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world, with agriculture contributing the most greenhouse gas emissions in the country after electricity. With a population of more than 1.3 billion and increasing, ensuring sustainable agricultural development is critical to achieve the country’s 2015 climate plan to reduce emissions intensity 35 percent by 2030 and food security for the region.
In a recent study, we analyzed how cereal farmers in India’s Indo-Gangetic Plain – an area that feeds 40 percent of the country’s population – manage their crops and the impact different practices have on yield and emissions.
Reducing nitrogen fertilizer can cut emissions without compromising yield
Nitrogen fertilizer is a huge greenhouse gas emitter. Creating it involves burning a lot of fossil fuel, and is produced primarily using natural gas. When farmers apply it to their fields, rain washes much of it into surrounding bodies of water, while bacteria in the soil feed on what’s left, releasing a powerful greenhouse gas called nitrous oxide.
16 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer are currently being applied by Indian farmers to their fields. Our research shows that farmers in India can reduce emissions and increase yields through better nitrogen management.
Culture and economics have a huge impact on emissions and yields
We also found various cultural, economic, household and other social factors significantly determined whether farmers adopted low-emission technologies.
For example, households with high levels of education, large land holdings and access to agricultural advisory, as well as farmers who received training on climate change, were likely to adopt zero tillage, a practice that retains soil moisture, builds up nutrients and decreases greenhouse gas emissions.
Other farmers who received training on climate change along with crop, soil, water and seed management, and those having access to agricultural credit tend to adopt low-emission technologies such as split application of nitrogen and use of farm yard manure.
Overall, capacity building that increases farmers’ awareness and skills in agriculture and climate change contributes to increased production and reduced emission intensity for all households. Farmers’ societies, farm cooperatives and local non-governmental organizations can therefore play a vital role in encouraging farmers to adopt appropriate low-emissions practices and technologies.
Government action needed for low-emission agriculture in India
Knowing the impact of various social drivers and low-emission strategies, particularly the decrease of nitrogen fertilizer use, on agricultural development can help increase production and reduce emissions nationwide.
State and local governments must integrate policies and technology that enhance farmer access to new innovations like zero tillage and irrigation, and provide more information on efficient residue, farm manure and nitrogen fertilizer management. The government must also adopt multiple approaches that include targeted subsidies for sustainable technologies like zero tillage machinery and precision land levelers, mobilize local civil society organizations to increase knowledge about low-emission practices and use information communication technology to increase awareness and access to information about sustainable agricultural practices.
Most importantly, all mitigation-related interventions require investment decisions at the household level. Family and farm size, the gender of household head and many other factors rare critical to take into account in each intervention to successfully scale out low-emission practices and technologies.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) — The Government of Nepal recently endorsed a new twenty-year agriculture development strategy that charts a progressive course of action to revitalize agriculture as an engine for economic growth and domestic food security.
At the center of this strategy is the recently launched the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP). The project will be implemented over the next decade and has research and development mandates for productivity enhancement and commercialization of major cereals, fisheries, fruits and vegetables.
PMAMP emphasizes wheat production as a priority, especially in the Terai – a very productive agricultural area – in order to achieve national self-sufficiency in wheat production within the next three years. Meeting this extremely ambitious goal will require an unprecedented increase in average yields of 10 percent per year, and a high level of strategic coordination among organizations contributing to agricultural development in Nepal.
The PMAMP leadership has requested that the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) through its Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) act as a technical advisor and strategic partner to design and implement programs for staple crop production, including mechanization and seed systems.
On July 26-27 in Kathmandu, PMAMP and CSISA organized the first working group forum for wheat to begin to unite and coordinate efforts of 21 core public and private stakeholders working on extension, research and sector development.
Discussion at the forum emphasized the identification of proven best practices for sustainable intensification, consideration of scaling pathways for knowledge and technological innovations, knowledge gaps and areas for future research and joint work plan development for the 2017-2018 wheat season.
A four-member committee representing PMAMP, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), CSISA and the private sector has been created to guide implementation of the collaborative work plan for wheat intensification across Nepal.
Rajan Dhakal, senior agriculture officer at PMAMP, remarked that the forum was instrumental in identifying technical priorities and clarifying how the efforts of diverse partners can contribute to the food security goals of the Government of Nepal.
Y.P. Giri, chair and director of crops and horticulture at NARC, said he appreciated CSISA’s efforts to facilitate discussion and coordination across a diverse set of stakeholders through a common and action-oriented platform.
Drawing on the success of the wheat forum, PMAMP will convene meetings for maize and rice with support from NARC, CSISA and private sector partners this fall.
CIMMYT launched the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems. CIMMYT operates rural “innovation hubs” in Bangladesh, India and Nepal to increase the adoption of various resource-conserving and climate-resilient technologies, and to improve farmer access to market information and enterprise development. Learn more about CSISA’s impact here.
CIMMYT’s wheat working group will serve as a strategic partner and provide technical advice for Nepal’s Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project. Photo: CSISA Nepal
