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.
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Agronomy experts from across Pakistan gathered earlier this month to discuss progress in Pakistan since 2014 under the USAID funded Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP). At the meeting, 23 national partners shared their progress and evaluation of new techniques, planters and their dissemination in the wheat based systems of Pakistan.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) drew 80 participants from both private and public spheres to the conference where they discussed key issues such as Pakistan’s large yield gap, residue management techniques and ways to increase efficiency in fertilizer and water management.
AIP has reached more than 11,000 farmers in Pakistan through demonstration, training and farmer days. AIP promotes dissemination of sustainable farming activities such as zero-tillage wheat planting after rice and legume crops, ridge planting of wheat, improved fertilizer management in wheat and rice, direct seeding with multi-crop planters, wheat panting with Zero-Tillage Happy Seeders in rice residue and maize planting with small planters in Pakistan.
In Pakistan, wheat is grown on more than 9 million hectares annually, yielding roughly 2.8 tons of grain per hectare, yet falls below the global average of 3.2 tons per hectare due to a wide yield gap, improper residue management techniques, inefficient fertilizer and water management.
Ghulam Muhammad Ali, Member and AIP focal person of PARC, said that there is a need to increase per unit area productivity in the crop sector as cultivated land is decreasing because of housing and climate-related degradation. Private sector active involvement in research and dissemination would also help to increase agriculture productivity in the country.
AIP is working with private-public partnerships to move beyond educating stakeholders in new technologies to helping farmers implement them in their fields. Their efforts have resulted in the local manufacturing and provision of planters and seeders to over 300 farmers in the provinces of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan, according to AIP Project Leader Imtiaz Muhammad.
All of the provided machines are operated under the practice of zero tillage, meaning farmers directly sow new seeds into the residue of the previous crop grown. The tools also help farmers maximize their production, since they sow seeds using an inverted T opener that breaks up the soil then distributes seeds evenly. Research has shown these methods increase yield and decrease carbon footprint.
Farmers preferred these machines due to their increased planting speed, reduction in loss of seed and seed breakage and the increased yield they saw using these machines. Local producers of zero-till machinery, such as Greenland Engineering are also benefiting, their sales have almost tripled, from 37 in 2016 to 150 in 2017 as adoption of the technology has expanded.
Azeem Kahan, Director General of the National Agricultural Research Center in Islamabad, emphasized the need for a national database of resource conserving technology such as planters and seeders, and said that the PARC collaboration with CIMMYT will focus on coordination that will help stakeholders share their knowledge about agronomic interventions in Pakistan.
Participants of AIP’s Agronomy National Meeting 2017 in Islamabad with Ghulam M. Ali, AIP Focal person. Photo: CIMMYT/K.Syed
Dahit Traders founder Chullu Ram Chaudhary at his workshop in Bardiya district, Nepal. Photo: CIMMYT/CSISA/A.Khadka
KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) – In 2015 Chullu Ram Chaudhary started Dahit Traders, which sells small-scale agricultural machinery in the Bardiya district of mid-western Nepal.
Dahit provides year-round employment to 20 local youths as mechanics and machine operators, and hires an additional 35 mechanics during rice and wheat planting and harvesting seasons. Chaudhary was motivated to found his company in 2014 while attending a machinery training organized by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA).
Chaudhary began by focusing on two-wheel tractors and has since expanded his business to several nearby towns, now also providing machine repair services to surrounding districts. His core business has broadened to include a variety of attachments for power tillers, including seed drills, reapers and threshers, all of which are relevant and useful for small-scale farmers of Bardiya and surrounding districts.
Each expansion allows him to provide employment for local youth by creating sales, mechanic and support staff jobs, which has the added benefit of slowing migration from Nepal’s key agricultural production areas. About 1,500 Nepalese youth migrate for foreign employment daily due a lack of employment opportunity and capital constraints in their own communities, a phenomena that directly contributes to agricultural yield loss in Nepal, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
This absence of farm labor along with a lack of agricultural knowledge, irrigation and mechanization along with the inability to invest in new technology due to lack of capital also limits Nepal’s yield potential, despite having fertile soil and access to year-round farming. Many plots in Nepal are also very small, due to the traditional inheritance practice of splitting land between sons, further limiting production. Cereal and pulse yields are well below regional averages and present rates of increase won’t meet the long-term requirements.
Success for entrepreneurs like Chaudhary allows farming households to access innovative, scale-appropriate technology, increase employment for youth and boost cropping system productivity, all of which are needed to sufficiently and sustainably increase food production for future generations. In addition to providing training on machinery, CSISA linked Chaudhary with SKT Traders – a national-level importer of small-scale machinery – and provided technical support to Dahit Trader’s mechanics on machinery operation, repair and maintenance.
To increase awareness of scale-appropriate machinery, CSISA and Dahit Traders conducted joint demonstrations of equipment in farmers’ fields in order to help farmers see the potential for these machines to reduce drudgery, increase efficiency and enable them to establish micro enterprises based on custom-hired services.
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – A recently held traveling seminar brought together private and public seed partners in Pakistan to enhance maize production and productivity in order to meet current demand and plan for future needs.
The seminar, hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), facilitated discussion around the demand for maize in Pakistan, which has experienced rapid growth in the last thirty years largely due to its demand for feed and food as a result of rapid population growth.
Pakistan is one of the top producers of maize in South Asia and it is the country’s third most important cereal, with production increasing 75 percent since 1990 due to the expansion of hybrid maize varieties in the spring season. However, the lack of a strong national seed system has caused the country to import 85 percent of its maize for roughly $50 million annually, making the retail price of seed very expensive for farmers.
Since 2013, CIMMYT’s Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) has built public-private partnerships to catalyze equitable growth in agricultural production, productivity and value in Pakistan. AIP encourages leaders in the local private sector through product allocation and capacity building to produce quality maize seeds and enhance Pakistan’s seed sector.
During the traveling seminar – which was held for seven days in two phases – participants evaluated the performance of different CIMMYT maize products at the project’s partner research center, located in the Punjab province which is the hub of Pakistan’s yellow maize production and the major source of poultry feed, a robust industry growing 8-10 percent annually.
Participants also visited Khyber Pakhtun Khwa province where white maize is the dominant dietary staple. During the visit stakeholders were able to be better understand the dynamics of major maize producing areas and future production trends, various crop management technologies, adoption and utilization patterns, production constraints and dissemination of maize-based technologies.
Concluding the seminar, Yusuf Zafar, Chairman of the Pakistan Research Council commended CIMMYT for creating multi-stakeholder collaborations and actions towards increasing the production and productivity of maize in Pakistan. He pressed the private sector to take the lead in the production and dissemination of the new maize products shared under the AIP program.
CIMMYT’s Country Representative Muhammad Imtiaz, also called upon the private sector to continue to strive to meet the project’s goals of a self-sufficient maize seed sector after the project ends early next year.
Participants of maize traveling seminar visiting maize activities at MMRI-Sahiwal, Pakistan, 2017. Photo: E.Shakeel/CIMMYT
AIP researcher in the maize stem borer lab – the only facility in Pakistan for mass rearing of maize stem borers. Photo: A.Yuqub /CIMMYT
Islamabad (CIMMYT) — The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and along with local and national media recently toured agricultural initiatives led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC).
Yusuf Zafar, Chairman of the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), highlighted the Agricultural Innovation Program’s (AIP) aim to improve farming practices and livelihoods in farming communities – especially for smallholders – across Pakistan.
Funded by USAID and led by CIMMYT, AIP has helped boost agricultural productivity by bringing new technologies to the sector while of sustainable practices, which has helped improve Pakistan’s overall economy, Zafar added. Agriculture is the largest sector of Pakistan’s economy, supporting half of the country’s labor force.
PARC Chairman Yusuf Zafar briefing media about USAID, PARC and CIMMYT partnership through AIP to improve farming practices and livelihoods across Pakistan. Photo: A.Yuqub /CIMMYT
Muhammad Imtiaz, CIMMYT country representative in Pakistan and AIP project leader, briefed media representatives about the collaboration between USAID and CIMMYT along with the NARC and other partners. He highlighted key AIP successes, such as such as the introduction of new planting machineries and drip irrigation systems.
The tour also visited to maize fields at NARC where AIP initiatives in improved livestock, maize and wheat were showcased. AIP scholars – students who have completed their master’s degree in the U.S. with AIP funds – were also present and provided information on their experiences and accomplishments.
AIP will continue to scale out successful technologies, encourage innovation through national agricultural research systems and secure resources to combat climate change effects in agriculture.
A new project will train one-thousand villages in Maharashtra, India on sustainable technologies and practices. Photo: P. Vishwanathan/CCAFS
JAWHAR, India (CIMMYT) – A new project is bringing sustainable technologies and practices to one-thousand villages in Maharashtra, India, the second most populous state in the country and an area that is particularly vulnerable to climate change effects like erratic rainfall, heat waves, sea water intrusion and other climatic risks.
Agriculture provides income for over half of Maharashtra’s population, yet productivity is severely affected by climate change and unsustainable agricultural practices that degrade soil quality. In 2015 alone 60 percent of villages in the state suffered drought affecting nearly nine million farmers.
New “climate smart” practices are critical if farmers in Maharashtra are to survive future climatic shocks, improve productivity and maintain a healthy ecosystem. The state has the second largest tribal population in the country, with most of these communities inhabiting fringe forest settlements and degraded lands which have low productivity and high vulnerability to erosion, making it even more vital farmers adopt sustainable practices.
A Climate Smart Village Programme for the Tribal Regions of Maharashtra was launched to promote these practices – such as zero-till farming, integrated nutrient and water management and proper harvesting and storage – targeting farmers across Maharashtra’s tribal belt.
The three-year project, launched in 2016, is being implemented across over 1,000 villages in the state. Last year, 100 primary villages were identified as most likely to adopt climate smart practices in Maharashtra’s three districts and chosen to implement sustainable agriculture practices. Farmers groups from each primary village will link for the last two years of the project with nine skilled-up villages – villages where at least one climate smart practice has been adopted – to share and help implement climate smart farming practices and techniques.
Large quantities of improved seed that are resilient to drought, heat and other stresses are also being provided to use alongside these practices, ensuring maximum yield.
A key aspect of the program is ensuring that the climate smart technologies being promoted are adapted to local conditions – it’s critical that these new tools can be used by small and marginal farmers at an affordable cost. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center through the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) are currently distributing different small scale farm machineries like fertilizer drills and threshers that are catered to farmer preferences, including women farmers in the 100 primary villages.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) advisories will also be provided to farmers to ensure they have access to real-time information on weather forecasts, pest and disease outbreaks, market intelligence and more. BISA in collaboration with IFFCO Kishan Sanchar Limited, a telecommunications company in New Delhi, will release a mobile based ICT service in 2017 to provide advisories to enrolled farmers. 4,000 farmers have been selected for the service this year. The service will be constantly monitored and upgraded as required to meet the needs of more than 50,000 farmers over the course of the project.
The final component of the project ensures that farmers are enrolled in crop insurance schemes, which is essential to protecting and reimbursing farmers should their crops fail under poor climate conditions. BISA enrolled 500 farmers for insurance from November 2016-March 2017 and in the process to enroll more farmers in the coming monsoon season during July-October of this year.
In early June, Shri Vishnu Savara, Minister of Maharashtra’s Tribal Development Office, chaired an event that brought delegates from across India to review the current progress of the project in Jawhar, Palghar District. The event was facilitated by BISA representatives including Senior Consultant Prakash Naik, Hub Coordinators Abhilash Gupta and Mahesh Maske, Executive Assistant Anu Raswant and Administrative Officer Manish Rai. The event was co-chaired by Shri R. G. Kulkarni, Commissioner of Maharashtra’s Tribal Development Office and Arun Joshi, CIMMYT Asia Regional Representative.
Savara emphasized the important impact climate smart agriculture coupled with improved seed can have on farm productivity across Maharashtra’s tribal areas, and new ability to adapt to future climatic shocks and extreme weather events.
A day laborer in Islamabad, Pakistan pauses from his work of harvesting wheat by hand. Photo: A. Yaqub/CIMMYT
MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) — Farmers in Pakistan that practice climate change adaptation strategies like adjusting sowing time, adopting new crops and planting drought tolerant varieties have higher food security levels and are less likely to live in poverty than those that don’t, according to a new study.
South Asia is likely to be one of the most affected regions by climate change due to the region’s vast agrarian population and large number of poor, unfavorable geography, limited assets and a greater dependence on climate-sensitive sources of income.
In Pakistan, climate change has had a direct impact on rain patterns and increased the frequency of extreme weather events such as flash floods. Adaptation measures at the farm level can help lessen the impact of these negative effects on food security.
Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) recently surveyed 950 farmers across Pakistan to see what adaptation measures to climate change they use, if any.
The study found that farmers in Pakistan are using a variety of adaptation practices to counter the adverse impacts of climate change, primarily adjusting sowing time, adopting new crops and planting drought tolerant varieties. The results also highlighted the importance of awareness and knowledge about the local context, climate change, adaptation and its benefits. Younger farmers and farmers with higher levels of education are also more likely to use these adaptation practices, as do farmers that are wealthier, farm more land and have joint families.
The authors of the study conclude that adaptation policies should focus on increasing the awareness of climate change and climate risk coping strategies and its benefits, as well as increasing the affordability of climate risk coping capacity by augmenting the farm household assets and lowering the cost of adaptation.
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DNA fingerprinting of open-pollinated maize seed lots to establish genetic purity using simple sequence repeat markers. 2016. Setimela, P.S., Warburton, M.L., Erasmus, T. In: South African Journal of Plant and Soil, vol. 33, no. 2, p. 1-8.
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Dwarfing genes Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b are associated with both type I FHB susceptibility and low anther extrusion in two bread wheat populations. 2016. Xinyao He, Singh, P.K., Dreisigacker, S., Sukhwinder-Singh, Lillemo, M., Duveiller, E. In: PLoS One, vol. 11, no. 9 : e0162499.
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Hans-Joachim Braun (left, white shirt), director of the global wheat program at CIMMYT, Maqsood Qamar (center), wheat breeder at Pakistan’s National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, and Muhammad Imtiaz (right), CIMMYT wheat improvement specialist and Pakistan country representative, discussing seed production of Zincol. Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT.
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Farmers in Pakistan are eagerly adopting a nutrient-enhanced wheat variety offering improved food security, higher incomes, health benefits and a delicious taste.
Known as Zincol and released to farmers in 2016, the variety provides harvests as abundant as those for other widely grown wheat varieties, but its grain contains 20 percent more zinc, a critical micronutrient missing in the diets of many poor people in South Asia.
Due to these benefits and its delicious taste, Zincol was one of the top choices among farmers testing 12 new wheat varieties in 2016.
“I would eat twice as many chappatis of Zincol as of other wheat varieties,” said Munib Khan, a farmer in Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi District, Punjab Province, Pakistan, referring to its delicious flavor.
Khan has been growing Zincol since its release. In 2017, he planted a large portion of his wheat fields with the seed, as did members of the Gujar Khan Seed Producer Group to which he belongs.
The group is one of 21 seed producer associations established to grow quality seed of new wheat varieties with assistance from the country’s National Rural Support Program (NRSP) in remote areas of Pakistan. The support program is a key partner in the Pakistan Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“Over the 2016 and 2017 cropping seasons, 400 tons of seed of Zincol has been shared with farmers, seed companies and promotional partners,” said Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative in Pakistan and a wheat improvement specialist.
Zincol resulted from the CIMMYT’s “biofortification” breeding research, focused on enhancing nutrient levels in the grain of key food crops. Scientists develop biofortified crops using diverse genetic resources, including wheat landraces and wild relatives with the genetic potential to accumulate zinc in the grain.
Genes for enhanced grain zinc content from those sources are crossed into adapted, high-yielding varieties, over repeated cycles of selection involving many thousands of plants.
“One year after the release of Zincol, wheat farmers on more than 320 hectares are sowing the variety,” Imtiaz said.
He also noted that 15 tons of Zincol seed was shared free of charge for testing with 600 farm families in Sukkar District, Sindh Province, through an initiative of World Vision-Canada and HarvestPlus, a CGIAR research program dedicated to the study and delivery of biofortified foods.
Zincol yields as much other widely grown wheat varieties, but its grain contains 20 percent more zinc, a critical micronutrient missing in the diets of many poor people in South Asia. Photo: Kashif Syed/CIMMYT
Wheat: Vehicle for enhanced nutrition
Pakistan produces more than 25 million tons of wheat a year. The country has an annual per capita consumption averaging around 124 kilograms — among the highest in the world and providing over 60 percent of inhabitants’ daily caloric intake. The staple wheat-based foods are chappatis or a flat bread baked on the walls of large, cylindrical clay ovens.
Particularly in remote areas of Pakistan, human diets too often lack essential micronutrients such as zinc. According to a 2011 nutrition survey, 39 percent of children in Pakistan and 48 percent of pregnant women suffer from zinc deficiency, leading to child stunting rates of more than 40 percent and high infant mortality.
Zinc deficiency is also known to cause diarrheal disease, lower respiratory tract infections, malaria, hypogonadism, impaired immune function, skin disorders, cognitive dysfunction and anorexia, according to the World Health Organization.
“Given its role as a key food staple, wheat with enhanced levels of zinc and other micronutrients can contribute to better nutrition,” said Velu Govindan, a CIMMYT wheat breeder who specializes in biofortification and helped develop Zincol.
“Zincol also carries the genetic background of NARC 2011, a popular, high-yielding Pakistan wheat variety that resists wheat stem rust, a deadly disease that threatens wheat worldwide,” Govindan added.
As part of AIP and HarvestPlus, as well as with numerous public and private partners and farmer seed production groups in Pakistan, CIMMYT is leading the extensive evaluation, distribution and seed production of Zincol, said Krishna Dev Joshi, a former CIMMYT wheat improvement specialist who worked on the project.
“With modest resources and limited amounts of seed, we tested and promoted Zincol over the last two years in Balochistan, Punjab, and Sindh, covering 15 districts and engaging nearly 700 farmers,” Joshi explained.
Joshi said farmer seed producers and private seed companies were able to provide another 100 tons of seed in 2016, enough to sow more than 2,500 hectares in 2017 and over half a million hectares in 2018.
“Zincol reached farmers nine years after the initial breeding cross in 2007, several years more quickly than is the norm in Pakistan, partly because it was tested simultaneously in national and provincial trials,” Joshi added. “Zincol is part of a suite of new, micronutrient-enhanced wheat varieties bred by CIMMYT and partners for use in South Asia, a region whose inhabitants consume 100 million tons of wheat each year.”
For India, Govindan and partners created a new biofortified wheat variety using synthetic parents crossed onto WH1105, a CIMMYT-derived high-yielding variety grown in India’s Northwestern Plain Zone. The new variety out-yields other popular varieties by as much as 8 percent and has a 20 percent higher zinc content, as well as good resistance to yellow rust disease. Another new Indian variety, Zinc Shakti, has a 40 percent greater grain zinc content and is being marketed by the private sector and spread via farmer-to-farmer seed sharing.
Direct seeding of rice with a multicrop direct-seeded rice planter in Sheikhupura, Punjab. Photo: Abdul Khaliq
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Farmers and research partners are praising innovative, locally manufactured farm implements that support conservation agriculture, with costs savings and soil and water conservation benefits, in rice-wheat farming rotation that cover more than 2.2 million hectares in Pakistan.
In a meeting in May 2017 at the Rice Research Institute Kala Shah Kaku, Punjab Province, Pakistan, farmers expressed satisfaction with the performance of nearly 200 locally-produced implements they received to test during 2016-2017, which allow seed of rice, wheat and other crops to be sown directly into unplowed and unflooded fields, including the stubble and other residues from preceding crops.
In traditional practices, rice plantlets are transplanted by hand into puddled fields, after 4 to 6 weeks of being grown in nurseries on the borders of the paddies.
“This requires enormous amounts of water and labor, both of which are expensive and in short supply,” said Muhammad Akhter, Director of Pakistan’s Rice Research Institute. “Moreover, puddling every season degrades the soil structure and depletes fertility, and flooded rice fields emit significant amounts of methane, a major greenhouse gas.”
After rice harvest, farmers typically burn rice residues, generating large noxious clouds, and drive tractor-drawn plows repeated over fields to prepare seed bed. They then sow wheat through broadcasting of the seed.
Since the 1990s, public research programs in South Asia have been working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and advanced research institutes to test and promote a suite of innovative practices, including reduced or zero tillage, which allow rice-wheat farmers to save money, better steward soil and water resources, cut greenhouse gas emissions and stop the burning of crop residues.
Locally manufactures direct-seeded rice planter and zero-till Happy Seeder. Photo: Abdul Khaliq
Direct seeding of rice in unplowed, unpuddled fields can provide improved plant density and productivity of irrigation water, saving in the end a quarter of the water used in flooding rice crops.
In 2014, the CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), supported by the United States Agency for Development (USAID), imported a multicrop zero tillage planter for rice and several zero tillage “Happy Seeders” to Pakistan from India for wheat, to be tested on farmers’ fields in five districts of Punjab by experts from the Punjab Agriculture Research and Extension Department, Engro Fertilizer and machinery manufacturers.
All tests were successful, and the following year CIMMYT worked with private machinery manufactures who produced the first locally-modified versions of both seeding implements.
Greenland Engineering Daska, a leading zero tillage drill manufacturer in Pakistan, collaborated with CIMMYT to adapt the rice planter’s inclined plate seeding system, offering an optimum planting density and thereby providing 10 percent higher rice yields than with the previous design.
Sharif Engineering, a zero tillage seed drill manufacturer of the Faisalabad region, modified the Happy Seeder so that farmers were able to sow wheat directly into heavy rice residue field and thus avoid burning the residues.
Sharif Engineering manufactured 13 Happy Seeders with AIP support; these were sold to farmers on 52:48 cost sharing basis in 2016, according to Mirza Ghazanfar, country representative for the company. Irfan Iqbal of Greenland Engineering said that company had produced and marketed 185 rice planters to farmers during 2016-17.
Akhter praised the efforts of USAID and CIMMYT to spread environmentally-friendly rice-wheat farming technologies to farmers of rice-wheat region.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – In Pakistan, maize is the third most important cereal crop after wheat and rice and it is the first in productivity among all the cereals. However, Pakistan imports about 90 percent of the hybrid seeds used to produce the crop, costing the country as much as $60 million annually. Furthermore, the genetic diversity of the currently available maize varieties is not diverse enough to adapt to the varied agro ecologies of Pakistan.
“Pakistan can be considered as a new frontier for CIMMYT’s maize impacts,” Beshir said. “Except for some limited maize activities in the early 1980s, there were no coordinated research activities in the past 32 years. I am glad to revitalize and breathe new life into Pakistan’s maize sector.”
Almost half of children under age 5 are reportedly malnourished, Beshir said, adding that protein, vitamin A, and other micronutrient deficiencies in Pakistan are rampant, while the mortality rate is among the highest in South Asia.
Beshir’s work targets these underprivileged groups and in the foreseeable future, he hopes to see nutritional benefits improve significantly.
Throughout his life, Beshir has witnessed how small scale farmers are often unable to fulfill their basic needs as they struggle to get fair market prices for produce, in part due to middlemen and a lack of information in the market.
He grew up in Ethiopia, a country where agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, accounting for 80 percent of employment, according to UNDP. The livelihoods of Beshir’s grandparents and most of his relatives were dependent on agriculture, but his parents switched to a sideline business selling agricultural and food related products.
“I was brought up observing my parents’ entrepreneurial skills and efforts, but they wanted their children to pursue a career in science,” Beshir said, explaining how his parents encouraged him to attend university. “My father used to call me ‘doctor’ when I was a fourth grade pupil to inspire me in my education.”
Earning an undergraduate degree in agriculture and plant sciences was a life changing experience for Beshir, serving as an eye opener to the dire need for educated agricultural professionals to transform the livelihoods of rural farmers.
“Since then, I developed a passion on how to increase profits for rural farmers through technology promotion and targeted intervention.”
Beshir earned a Ph.D. in plant breeding from the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, in South Africa, and was awarded a gold medal for his research project highlighting the severity of malnutrition in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and the ways quality protein maize seeks to address the issue.
Before joining CIMMYT in 2013, Beshir was the national partner in Ethiopia for a CIMMYT-led project on quality protein maize development and drought-tolerant maize for Africa.
“My involvement in these projects gave me a good grasp of how CIMMYT’s impact-oriented interventions practically change the life of farmers and brought a maize revolution in my country, in partnership with local institutions,” he said.
His current work in Pakistan mainly involves extensive testing of various maize products sourced from CIMMYT breeding hubs in Colombia, Mexico, Zimbabwe and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Since 2014, more than 2,200 maize entries have been tested through the project.
Test samples consist of biofortified maize, as well as maize varieties that can tolerate major biotic and abiotic stresses, and they have been evaluated on more than 300 different sites in Pakistan. Such large scale testing is unprecedented in the history of maize in Pakistan.
Beshir’s led efforts resulted in the allocation of 49 market ready maize products (hybrids and OPVs) to partners in less than three years, a process that would otherwise have taken eight to 10 years to develop even a single product. The allocation of the new maize products has also given partners access to CIMMYT’s parental lines and breeder seeds, so that they can continue to lead sustainable seed businesses even after the project ends.
The facility will help national programs develop maize germplasm tolerant to maize stem borer attacks.
“As imported hybrid seeds are simply unaffordable to millions of small scale maize farmers, our research will enable local companies to provide affordable options to farmers,” he said.
Farmer weeding maize field in Bihar, India. Photo: CIMMYT/M. DeFreese
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — In northwestern India, growing maize is being advocated as an alternative to rice to address resource degradation challenges such as declining water tables and climate change induced variability in rainfall and temperature.
Sustainable agriculture practices have proven to increase farmer income, improve irrigation productivity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the cereal systems of the Indo-Gangetic plains (IGP), a fertile area extending over 2.5 million square kilometers across Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan.
The IGP currently abstracts 25 percent of global groundwater withdrawals, sustaining agricultural productivity across the region. However, aquifers are being depleted at rates faster than they can recharge, threatening food security for more than 500 million people.
In response, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) observed the impact of sustainable conservation agriculture practices like zero-tillage (ZT) and permanent bed planting (PB) in irrigated maize-based systems integrated with legumes in the IGP of northwestern India.
ZT and PB practices reduced irrigation water requirement by up to 65 and 98 hectares per millimeter, respectively, compared to conventional tillage systems, resulting in a water productivity boost of nearly 20 percent. Net profit from maize-based systems under ZT was over 30 percent higher than conventional systems.
The study concludes that by adopting sustainable practices like ZT and PB, farmers can sustainably increase productivity throughout the IGP region.
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Conservation agriculture in irrigated intensive maize-based systems of north-western India: effects on crop yields, water productivity and economic profitability. 2016. Parihar, C.M., Jat, S.L., Singh, A.K., Kumar, B., Singh, Y., Pradhan, S., Pooniya, V., Dhauja, A., Chaudhary, V., Jat, M.L., Jat, R.K., Yadav, O.P. In: Field Crops Research, vol.193, p.104-116.
Control of Helminthosporium leaf blight of spring wheat using seed treatments and single foliar spray in Indo-Gangetic Plains of Nepal. 2016. Sharma-Poudyal, D., Sharma, R.C., Duveiller, E. In: Crop Protection, vol.88, p.161-166.
Dairy farm households, processor linkages and household income: the case of dairy hub linkages in East Africa. 2016. Rao, E.J.O., Omondi, I., Karimov, A., Baltenweck, I. In: The International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, vol. 19, no. 4, p. 95-108.
Detection of wheat stem rust races TTHSK and PTKTK in the Ug99 race group in Kenya in 2014. 2016. Fetch, T.G., Zegeye, T., Park, R.F., Hodson, D.P., Wanyera, R. In: Plant Disease, vol. 100, no. 7, p. 1495.
Occurrence and population dynamics of the root lesion nematode Pratylenchus thornei (Sher and Allen) on wheat in Bolu, Turkey. 2017. Imren, M., Ciftci, V., Senol Yildiz, Kutuk, H., Dababat, A.A. In: Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry, vol. 41, no. 1, p. 35-41.
Population structure and genetic diversity analysis of germplasm from the Winter Wheat Eastern European Regional Yield Trial (WWEERYT). 2017. Beil, C. T., Manmathan, H. K., Anderson, V. A., Morgounov, A.I., Haley, S. D. In: Crop Science, vol. 57, p. 1-9.
QTL mapping for grain zinc and iron concentrations and zinc efficiency in a tetraploid and hexaploid wheat mapping populations. 2017. Velu, G., Yusuf Tutus, Gomez-Becerra, H.F., Yuanfeng Hao, Demir, L., Kara, R., Crespo-Herrera, L.A., Orhan, S., Yazici, A., Singh, R.P., Cakmak, I. In: Plant and Soil, vol. 411, no. 1, p. 81–99.
Ratooning pigeonpea in maize-pigeonpea intercropping: productivity and seed cost reduction in eastern Tanzania. 2017. Rusinamhodzi, L., Makoko, B. Sariah, J. In: Field Crops Research, vol.203, p.24-32.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Balwinder Singh uses crop simulation models to help smallholder farmers in South Asia prepare for future climates and unexpected challenges.
Despite improvements in agricultural technology in the past few decades, crop yield gaps persist globally. As climate patterns change, farmers are at risk of crop loss and reduced yields due to unforeseen weather events such as drought, heat or extreme rains.
Singh, a cropping system simulation modeler at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) based in New Delhi, India, uses crop simulation models—software that can estimate crop yield as a function of weather conditions, soil conditions, and choice of crop management practices—to develop future climate predictions that can help farmers reduce risk, overcome labor and resource constraints, intensify productivity and boost profitability.
“Using future climate data, simulation modelling allows researchers to develop hypotheses about future agricultural systems,” said Singh. “This can help predict and proactively mitigate potentially catastrophic scenarios from challenges such as shrinking natural resources, climate change and the increasing cost of agricultural production.”
A specific focus is on how to best quantify, map and diagnose the causes of the gap between potential yields and actual yields achieved by cereal farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plain. “My research combines field experimentation, participatory engagement, and cropping systems modelling and spatial data to identify promising technologies for increasing crop productivity and appropriate geographical areas for out scaling,” he said.
For example, Singh and a team of scientists have used simulation tools to find out why wheat productivity is low in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, for example, late sowing, suboptimal crop mangement and terminal heat stress. This process identified various potential techniques to raise wheat productivity, such as early sowing, zero tillage, or short duration rice varieties to facilitate early harvest and field vacation. Geospatial data and tools were used to identify the potential target zones for deployment of these promising technologies.
“The research is helping farmers increase agricultural productivity and to manage climate-related crop production risk and increase the use of agricultural decision support systems,” Singh said. “My research towards improving cereal production systems in South Asia contributes to the knowledge, process understanding and modelling tools needed to underpin recommendations for more productive and sustainable production systems.”
Growing up in rural India in a farming family, Singh viewed firsthand the uncertainty that smallholder farmers can face.
“I was brought up and studied in northwestern India – the region where the green revolution occurred known as the food basket of India,” Singh said.
“I grew up playing in wheat and cotton fields, watching the sowing, growing and harvesting of crops, so an interest in agricultural science came naturally to me and I have never regretted choosing agriculture as a career.”
While studying for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in agronomy at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana, India, a chance encounter helped shape his career.
“Dr. Norman Borlaug came to PAU in 2005 and he happened to visit my field experiment on bed planting wheat. I had a very inspiring conversation with him which made me decide to pursue a career in agricultural research and work for the farming community.”
Since 2014, Singh has led the CIMMYT participation in the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) as part of the Indo-Gangetic Basin team, conducting integrated assessments of the effects of climate change on global and regional food production and security, analyzing adaptation and mitigation measures.
Apart from collaborating with CIMMYT colleagues and other advanced research institutes from across the world to build weather and soil databases or working on simulation models, Singh enjoys interacting with farmers in their own fields and collecting data for crop simulation models to generate useable information for research and extension.
He also holds training sessions to aid in developing the capacity of CIMMYT’s national agricultural partners in system simulation modelling to create awareness of the proper use of simulation tools for research and extension.
“The most rewarding aspect of my work is to see my simulation results working in farmers’ fields,” Singh said. “There’s a proverb that says: ‘When a person is full they have a thousand wishes, but a hungry person has only one.’ There is no nobler task than that of being able to feed people. Some of us are not even aware of how many people are starving every day,” he said.
“It gives me great satisfaction to be a part of CIMMYT, an organization that works beyond political boundaries to safeguard future food security, improve livelihoods and carry on the legacy of Dr. Borlaug who fed billions.”
Sweeping “Aditya,” an improved wheat variety, into the floor duct of a seed cleaning machine at Unique Seed Co. Pvt. Ltd near Dhangadhi, Kailali, Nepal. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT
KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) – Four Nepalese seed companies are showing signs of significant growth, with seed sales increasing nearly 60 percent since 2014.
About 70 percent of Nepal’s population is employed in the agriculture and forestry sector, accounting for 34 percent of the country’s gross national product. While farmers still face many challenges in accessing new technology, market opportunities and other inputs, Nepal’s seed industry is beginning to grow thanks to new investments in seed company operations and facilities. There are currently 20 locally registered seed companies that provide about 50 % of the nation’s formal seed supply system.
The four companies – New Shreeram, Lumbini Seed Company, GATE Nepal Pvt. Ltd. and Unique – are part of a group of 10 Nepalese companies that have worked with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) since 2014 to improve their marketing and sales strategies, business development, product range and quality.
This growth is notable in Nepal’s emerging cereal seed industry, which is composed primarily of small- to medium-scale enterprises that often lack business plans, have relatively low operating capital and have limited processing and storage facilities. These companies produce open-pollinated crop varieties, which are then released and registered by Nepal’s National Seed Board.
Half of the companies working with CIMMYT have so far been able to secure financial resources of up to $200,000 each from Nepal’s Ministry of Agricultural Development.
“These additional funds have allowed the seed companies to expand their facilities to include seed storage buildings, processing plants and laboratories,” said Upadhaya. “They have also included newly released iron- and zinc-rich varieties in their product lines.”
Some companies have also introduced innovative incentives for their producers by bearing the transportation costs of seed from the farmers’ fields to the company stores as a way to boost sales, according to Upadhaya.
The Seed Entrepreneurs’ Association of Nepal (SEAN) – the seed companies’ umbrella organization – has increased its membership from 600 in 2014 to 1,000 in 2016, formed three regional chapters and contributed a unified voice to discussions around agricultural policies of interest to the seed industry, said Laxmi Kanta Dhakal, SEAN Chairman.
Tons of seed sold from 2014 to 2016.
As a result of these new technologies and investments, seed sold by these companies increased significantly and reached marginal areas of the country through new development networks and private sector traders.
New contractual agreements have since been signed between seed companies, informal groups and cooperatives for the production of seed. As outlined in Nepal’s Agricultural Development Strategy (2015-2025), these initiatives will help promote inclusive growth and an effective seed sector in Nepal.
CIMMYT launched the 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.
Inside Ayla Traders, an agricultural input dealer who now advises farmers on integrated weed management. Photo: CIMMYT
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) – A delegation of USAID representatives recently visited southern Bangladesh to learn about sustainable agriculture activities in the area and emerging challenges to wheat production.
Agriculture employs nearly two-thirds of Bangladesh’s population, with a majority of farmers owning land of less than half an acre, putting intense pressure on farmland while having to adapt to various environmental challenges from flooding and rising temperatures due to climate change, to increasing labor scarcity and production costs.
Despite these challenges, Bangladesh has successfully adopted sustainable technologies that conserve natural resources, improve productivity and increase profits, particularly with the two-wheeled tractor that is used by around 80 percent of farmers due to its versatility and ability to be fitted with a variety of additional equipment for planting, threshing and irrigation.
Challenges to widespread adoption of these innovations, however, remain a challenge.
USAID delegation learns about the symptoms and effect of wheat blast disease. Photo: CIMMYT
“Much of this innovation has not reached farmers at scale because commercialization has been impeded by the lack of standardization,” according to Andrew McDonald, cropping systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and project leader of the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA). “Most workshops create a unique machine every time a new piece is fabricated, which drives up costs to both manufacture and repair the machinery. Quality control is also an issue.”
From March 16-19, the USAID delegation visited farmers and agricultural machinery service providers in the Barisal, Jessore and Jhenaidah districts of Bangladesh, seeing firsthand how CIMMYT is working with NGOs, public and private sector partners to ensure that machinery is scaled, available and affordable to the most marginalized farmers.
The delegation, comprising USAID Senior Program Analyst Charisse Adamson, Water and Irrigation Advisor Biniam Iyob and Food Security Advisor Christopher Chibwana, also learned about various sustainable technologies from axial flow pumps that irrigate crops at reduced cost, to two-wheeled tractors developed by Janata Engineering; a small-scale but rapidly growing agricultural machinery manufacturer, importer and dealer that has been working closely with CSISA over the past seven years.
CIMMYT through CSISA partners with local manufacturing companies to ensure more farmers have access to sustainable machinery. Photo: CIMMYT
The visitors also observed how farmers are growing healthy rice seedlings for higher yields in community based seedbeds. Farmer-friendly learning videos are jointly produced by the project with the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute and shown by the Agricultural Advisory Society, with over 35,000 farmers learning about healthy rice seedlings between November 2016 and January this year.
The USAID team then visited the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute in Jessore to learn about wheat blast mitigation efforts in the region, which emerged in early 2016. The spread of wheat blast could be devastating to South Asia, which is home to 300 million undernourished people and whose inhabitants consume over 100 million tons of wheat each year.
“I have learned so much…I think you are doing a great job in making research outputs sustainable through strategic value chain pathways,” said Iyob at the end of the visit.
CIMMYT launched the 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.
A farmer dries maize on his rooftop in Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/ F. Sipalla
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – A comprehensive study of genetic gains resulting from long term breeding work on improved hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) in eastern and southern Africa shows that with appropriate funding, maize yields can continue to increase in extreme heat and drought conditions.
Investments into maize breeding and seed systems must expand to keep up with the capacity to withstand climate variability in the region, said Jill Cairns, one of the authors of the study, emphasizing that maize breeding is on track to meet the challenges of climate change in Africa.
The region is currently experiencing large climate variability, including the 2014-2015 drought; the 2015-2016 El Nino and severe drought and flooding in 2016-2017.
“We see evidence that increased investment works,” said Cairns, a maize physiologist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Zimbabwe. “Although our breeding work has led to higher genetic gains, yields remain lower, reflecting smaller research investments over time. On the other hand, in countries like the United States and China, which have become the top two maize producers worldwide, we see the beneficial impact of steady investments.”
Varieties released by CIMMYT’s partners in sub-Saharan Africa between the years 2000 and 2010, showed that genetic gains for yields made through this improved maize germplasm compare favorably with similar studies in other regions in better growing conditions — in China and the United States, for example.
On average, under optimal conditions, CIMMYT maize breeders increased yields by 109 kilograms per hectare per year, under managed drought conditions, 33 kilograms per hectare per year and under random drought conditions, 23 kilograms per hectare per year. By comparison, in China, under optimal conditions, gains were estimated at 95 kilograms per hectare per year and in the United States, 65 to 75 kilograms per hectare per year.
“Breeding is a long term investment but it ultimately pays off through improved varieties for smallholder farmers,” said Jill Cairns, a maize physiologist with CIMMYT in Zimbabwe, describing the impact of the breeding program in sub-Saharan Africa, which has been underway for more than 30 years.
“We’re constantly changing the breeding pipeline to ensure that the genetic gains are continuously increased,” she added. “Gains are illustrated by sustained increases in grain yield over time. In fact, we expect to see a higher genetic gain through the more recent hybrids developed by CIMMYT maize breeding team than those reported in the study undertaken on hybrids released between 2000 and 2010 because we’ve added a lot of new tools and we are incorporating many new technologies to further increase gains.”
The study confirmed that the lowest genetic gains occurred under low nitrogen conditions where little fertilizer was used, Cairns said, emphasizing the importance of increasing the potential for genetic gains to boost grain yields in areas with poor soil fertility throughout the region.
Scientists working with the CIMMYT maize breeding program primarily focus on developing hybrids, which result from the deliberate crossing of genetically diverse inbred lines that exhibit a wide variety of traits that are relevant for smallholders in the tropics.
Improved OPVs were developed at CIMMYT, using selected sets of inbred lines to reflect traits of the parental lines. In general, genetic gains in the OPVs released during the period under review were found to be higher than for the hybrids, although grain yields in the hybrids were certainly higher.
Resource-poor farmers in some African countries tend to use drought-tolerant improved OPVs, especially where the maize seed sector is weak or improved hybrid seeds are unavailable or unaffordable.
“Accessing hybrid seeds can be a real challenge for resource-poor, smallholder farmers in some areas,” Cairns said. “Hybrids also pose a conundrum for farmers in extremely drought-prone areas, where the tendency is to minimize the risk by using low-cost improved OPVs rather than investing in relatively higher-cost hybrid seeds.”
Yield gain in the CIMMYT-derived hybrids in eastern and southern Africa during the study period is comparable with gains reported in the United States and China. However, absolute yields in the region are still lower, reflecting the opportunity to further improve the yield potential of tropical maize, including in stress-prone environments.
Additionally, maize yields in sub-Saharan Africa, where maize accounts for 50 percent of cereal production in over 50 percent of countries, are still the lowest in the world. National maize yields in 30 countries in the region remain much lower than yields were in the U.S. Corn Belt in 1926 before hybrids were introduced!
Since the CIMMYT breeding program started in Zimbabwe in 1985 (part of the southern Africa region where maize accounts for 45 percent of calories and 43 percent of protein from cereals consumed), scientists have focused on increasing drought tolerance, among other important traits. Currently, the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project operates in 11 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
Continual evaluation is a critical component of crop improvement, according to scientists.
“Quantifying genetic gain each year is an integral part of our product development process,” said B.M. Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program, and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE. “This enables us to measure the progress being made, and to make necessary adjustments for continuous improvement of the performance of our products in the target agro-ecologies we serve.”
The research benefits are far-reaching.
In these two first-ever reviews evaluating genetic gains through CIMMYT’s maize breeding program in eastern and southern Africa, we get a clear understanding of benefits and impact of improved maize hybrids and OPVs released during 2000 to 2010, said Marianne Bänziger, who previously led the CIMMYT maize program, and is now deputy director general of research and partnerships at the organization.
“Use of improved seed has been increasing in sub-Saharan Africa and greater uptake is mostly a question of where the seed sector reaches,” Bänziger said. “The issue of variety replacement is complex. Working with governments and seed companies is a key part of our role.”
The dissemination and adoption of drought tolerant maize could generate as much as $590 million for farmers over a seven-year period, Cairns said. “As we take stock of the important role our work has played in this impoverished and environmentally harsh region, we’re grateful for the vital funding we receive from various agencies, especially the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the CGIAR research program MAIZE.”
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – David Guerena is fascinated by what he learns from smallholder farmers about the interactions between agriculture and the environment.
Guerena’s work involves the strategic planning and execution of multidisciplinary spatial agronomy programs across complex ecologies. In addition to strict biophysical work, which involves integrating chemistry, biology, and physics into agricultural systems, he also engages in socio-economic and market facilitation dynamics research.
“Humanity has been eking out a cultivated living from the earth for around 10,000 years,” Guerena said. “Smallholder farmers are the direct link to this collective knowledge, which has shaped and defined human history. I really enjoy witnessing farmers reap satisfying harvests from their own efforts, but via outputs from agronomic systems research of which I have been a part.”
“Agriculture is intensely satisfying. A seed, fertile soil, water and sunshine eventually turn into food. This is such a simple process, yet millions of people around the world don’t get enough to eat. I draw inspiration from being a part of positively changing this dynamic.”
Originally from Santa Barbara, California, Guerena has always been fascinated by the natural sciences and international travel. He decided to pursue a career in international agriculture by obtaining his Ph.D. from Cornell University, specializing in crop and soil science. Prior to joining CIMMYT, he worked as a soil scientist and agriculture innovations manager at One Acre Fund, served as an international research fellow with the World Agroforestry Center and a Borlaug Fellow in international food security.
CIMMYT provided a unique opportunity for Guerena to work on global food systems. “Together, maize and wheat make up a significant proportion of the global food supply – maize and wheat research is a globally important mandate,” he said. “CIMMYT has also left an indelible mark on human history through facilitating the Green Revolution.”
Currently, Guerena is working on spatial agronomy programs, focusing on questions such as how to move from blanketed to site-specific agronomic recommendations across complex agro-ecologies in the developing world. Guerena will also investigate how digital technologies like SMS, smartphones, image recognition, and remote sensing data can be used and integrated into agronomy programming for smallholder farmers living in poverty.
Precision agronomy, a farming management concept based on observing, measuring, and responding to inter- and intra-field variability in crops, is already transforming agricultural efficiency in the developed world, but these advancements have not yet reached the developing world.
This is of the utmost importance, as worldwide, the vast majority of farmers are smallholders producing most of the global food supply. CIMMYT is not only looking at ways to put its top-level science into the hands of farmers, but also at ways to use these technologies to turn farmers themselves into world-class agronomists. This approach may be a way to bypass cumbersome agricultural knowledge generation and dissemination systems and reach farmers directly, at scale.
