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Location: Asia

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.

New Publications: Sustainable agriculture boosts water savings in India

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Farmer weeding maize field in Bihar, India. Photo: CIMMYT/M. DeFreese
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.

Read the study “Conservation agriculture in irrigated intensive maize-based systems of north-western India: Effects on crop yields, water productivity and economic profitability,” and check out other new publications from CIMMYT staff, below.

  • Comparative performance of top-cross maize hybrids under managed drought stress and variable rainfed environments. 2016. Menkir, A., Meseka, S., Bossey, B. Ado, S., Obengantiwi, K., Yallou, C., Coulibaly, N., Olaoye, G., Alidu, H., Crossa, J. In: Euphytica, vol.212, p.455-472.
  • 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: Crop simulation models help Balwinder Singh predict future challenges

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TwitterBGBalwinder3Breaking 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.”

Singh went on to earn a Ph.D. from Charles Sturt University in Australia through the John Allwright Fellowship funded by the Australian Center for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR). He started work for CIMMYT in 2013 as associate scientist based in New Delhi working with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project, which aims to improve food security and the livelihoods of more than 8 million farmers in South Asia by 2020.

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.”

Sales boost seed sector growth in Nepal

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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
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.
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.

USAID delegation tours sustainable agriculture activities in Bangladesh

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Inside Ayla Traders, an agricultural input dealer who now advises farmers on integrated weed management. Photo: CIMMYT
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
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 put . Photo: CIMMYT
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.

Maize breeding on track for climate change in Africa, scientist urges bigger investments

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A farmer dries maize on his rooftop in Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/ F. Sipalla
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.”

Read the research papers:

Gains in Maize Genetic Improvement in Eastern and Southern Africa: 1. CIMMYT Hybrid Breeding Pipeline

Gains in Maize Genetic Improvement in Eastern and Southern Africa: II. CIMMYT Open-Pollinated Variety Breeding Pipeline

Breaking Ground: David Guerena transfers world-class science to smallholder farmers

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TwitterBG_DavidGuerenaBreaking 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.

He recently joined the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), where, as soil scientist-systems agronomist, he leads the soils/nutrient management activities for the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Feed the Future Program.

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.

The project receives support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

New Publications: Consumer preference for GM food in Pakistan

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A day laborer in Islamabad, Pakistan pauses from his work of harvesting wheat by hand. Photo: A. Yaqub/CIMMYT
A day laborer in Islamabad, Pakistan pauses from his work of harvesting wheat by hand. Photo: A. Yaqub/CIMMYT

MEXICO CITY (CIMMYT) – While genetically modified (GM) foods continue to be a topic of debate in much of the developed world, few studies have focused on consumers’ acceptance of GM food in developing countries.

A new study from researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) used a comprehensive primary dataset collected from 320 consumers in 2013 from Pakistan to analyze the determinants of consumer acceptability of GM foods in the country.

The researchers found that GM foods were more accepted among female consumers as compared to male consumers. In addition, older consumers were more willing to accept GM food compared to young consumers. The acceptability of GM foods was also higher among wealthier households. Low price is the key factor leading to the acceptability of GM foods.

Read the full study “Acceptability of GM Foods among Pakistani Consumers” here and check out other new publications from CIMMYT staff below.

India celebrates women in climate smart agriculture

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In celebration of International Women’s Day, 150 women from villages across Haryana and Bihar, India joined to celebrate the adoption of climate-smart agriculture in their communities. Photo: Kailash C Kalvaniya/ CIMMYT
In celebration of International Women’s Day, 150 women from villages across Haryana and Bihar, India joined to celebrate the adoption of climate-smart agriculture in their communities. Photo: Kailash C. Kalvaniya/ CIMMYT

NEW DELHI (CIMMYT) – If women were given the same access to land, seed and other resources as men, they could increase yields on their farm up to 30 percent, reducing the number of hungry people in the world by 150 million. However, large gender disparities in agriculture continue to make it difficult for rural women to access resources and make their own farming decisions.

In response, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) began initiatives to empower rural women such as campaigns to eliminate residue burning, build partnerships with local organizations and more.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) addresses the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change by sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, building resilience in food-production systems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.

In celebration of International Women’s Day, two events promoting the adoption of CSA technologies and practices among women farmers – like the GreenSeeker sensor, zero tillage farming and others – were organized in the states of Bihar and Haryana, India, representing contrasting agro-ecological and socio-economic regions.

“Linking with CIMMYT-CCAFS, I’ve learned advanced farming techniques, which support better agriculture with increased productivity and profits,” said Ms. Suman, a young farmer from Bastara village in Karnal, India. Suman’s success with climate-smart agriculture inspired women from other villages to begin practicing sustainable farming as well. Photo: CIMMYT
“Linking with CIMMYT-CCAFS, I’ve learned advanced farming techniques, which support better agriculture with increased productivity and profits,” said Ms. Suman, a young farmer from Bastara village in Karnal, India. Suman’s success with climate-smart agriculture inspired women from other villages to begin practicing sustainable farming as well. Photo: CIMMYT

In Bihar, the event was held in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia and was attended by 80 women farmers from climate smart villages (CSVs), areas that integrate CSA technologies and practices into village development plans, using local knowledge and expertise and supported by local institutions, to help communities adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Usha Singh, professor of home science at Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agriculture University, Bihar, highlighted the role of women in Bihar’s agriculture sector and their contribution to sustainable food production, nutrition and livelihoods. Singh shared home remedies to overcome malnutrition among children and women in rural areas by using their farm produce to prepare balanced diet. R.K. Asthana, animal husbandry scientist with the agricultural extension center Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in Biroli, emphasized the important role training activities for livestock management can have in improving the socioeconomic status of women in the area.

In Haryana, the event was organized at a climate smart village in Bastara, Karnal in collaboration with the ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, which was attended by over 70 women farmers from across several villages. Women shared their experiences under CSVs, discussed ways to increase productivity and profitability, and raise awareness among other women farmers in the area.

HS Jat, CIMMYT senior scientist in Karnal, provided an overview of CIMMYT-CCAFS activities in Haryana and emphasized strengthening and formalizing women groups to enhance knowledge and increase access to resources. CIMMYT event organizers and assistant research associates Munmun Rai and Deepak Bijarniya, and assistant research scientist JM Sutaliya, collectively emphasized the positive impact of CSA interventions in India, which have built farmer resilience to climate change while increasing their productivity and incomes. Deepa Chandra and DK Gosain, program coordinators for National Dairy Research Institute’s KVK in Haryana, also spoke at the event.

For further information:

Women in agriculture step together for change

Bangladesh urges $500 million in funds to intensify surface water irrigation

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TwitterWWD3
Designed by Bose Zhou/CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Most current food security projections show that staple crop production must double by 2050 to keep up with global need, which will continue to expand due to population growth and changing dietary demands.

In South Asia, where population pressures pose a significant food security challenge, yields of major cereal crops have not changed dramatically since the Green Revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. This has prompted regional governments and development practitioners to focus instead on efforts to expand double cropping – the practice of growing at least two crops per year on the same piece of land – in order to boost productivity on an annual basis.

This approach is in line with sustainable intensification techniques, which aim to boost production, rather than encroach on natural ecosystems and harm the environment by expanding farmland into limited natural areas.

Scientists with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are researching how best to increase double cropping in Bangladesh, which, as South Asia’s most densely populated country, poses unique food security challenges.

In the northwest of the country, farmers already rotate at least two crops in the same field each year using groundwater irrigation to overcome drought risks during the dry winter season.

“Most development initiatives favor the use of groundwater resources for irrigation, although in Bangladesh, ground water extraction can result in high energy costs and in some areas can present a health risk due to natural arsenic contamination of groundwater,” said Timothy Krupnik, systems agronomist at CIMMYT.

“In support of government programs recommending the conjunctive use of surface water as an irrigation alternative, we investigated the available land in Bangladesh that could be reliably cropped to wheat, maize, or rice in double cropping patterns,” Krupnik said, adding that the effort resulted in a new online geospatial tool that can be used by water resource planners and policymakers to target the use of surface water in support of sustainable intensification. It helps identify surface water irrigation resources and land area most suited for double cropping and sustainable intensification.

“Using satellite data for irrigation technology targeting in Bangladesh enabled us to identify areas that are under low input and output crop production in a region with abundant surface water,” said Urs Schulthess, CIMMYT’s remote sensing scientist involved in developing the geospatial tool. “This is an example of sustainable intensification that does not deplete water resources.”

Instead of extracting water from underground aquifers, surface water irrigation involves deploying water through low-lift irrigation pumps and canal distribution networks managed by water sellers who direct water to farmers’ fields. Although Bangladesh is likely to remain largely reliant on groundwater irrigation, use of available surface water presents a low-energy and low-carbon emissions alternative in select areas of the country, Krupnik said.

The research conducted by scientists funded by the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project, provides initial evidence to support a government of Bangladesh policy aimed at stimulating a $500 million investment in development aid from donors to help farmers transition from rice-fallow or rainfed systems to surface water irrigation and double cropping. The funds form part of an overall request for investment of over $7 billion to support agricultural development in southern Bangladesh.

After mapping rivers and freshwater canals in southern Bangladesh with the new tool, the scientists conservatively estimate that at least 20,800 of fallow and 103,000 hectares of rainfed cropland could be intensified through surface water irrigation to substantially increase cereal crop production through double cropping. These figures account for land set into non-crop reserves to limit risks of nitrate or phosphorous contamination of rivers and canals.

Groundwater irrigation techniques have been difficult to implement in the south of the country due to high energy pumping costs for groundwater, and additional challenges posed by saline shallow water tables. Currently, about 1.7 million farming households in Bangladesh simply leave cropland fallow and unproductive after the monsoon season, according to the World Bank.

By integrating the use of groundwater with lower-cost surface water irrigation, farmers could benefit from increased cropping intensity.

To evaluate potential land productivity resulting from conversion from fallow or rainfed crops to surface water irrigated maize, wheat, and rice, CIMMYT scientists measured yields produced by farmers on their own farms and in farmer-managed demonstrations implemented by the CSISA project.

The three crops are among the most important cereals grown in Bangladesh for food security and income.

Based on analysis, CIMMYT’s scientists estimate that if 25 to 75 percent of fallow or low-intensity land is converted to irrigated maize, production could increase from 10 to 14 percent or from 29 to 42 percent, respectively. Conversion to wheat could increase production from 9 percent to 10 percent or from 26 percent to 31 percent. On the other hand, rice is projected to increase only about 3 percent under such conditions.

Overall, increasing maize and wheat production through double cropping could generate revenues from $36 to $108 million each year for farmers, Krupnik said.

Breaking Ground: Akhter Ali helps transform agriculture sector in Pakistan

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AkhterAliBreaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Akhter Ali always knew he wanted to have an impact on the livelihoods of farmers in Pakistan.

“I come from a farmer family – the poverty and inequality of rural communities always disturbed me,” said Ali, who was born in Multan district, Pakistan. “I knew from a young age I wanted to do something to help my community and the rural poor throughout my country.”

Ali, an agricultural economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is working to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes for farmers through the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), an initiative funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to build up the country’s agriculture sector through the development and dissemination of new agriculture technologies.

“Agriculture supports nearly half of Pakistan’s population – more than two thirds for those living in rural areas –  and accounts for over 20 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product” Ali said. “Strengthening this sector by connecting and addressing the needs of different actors in rural markets is key to poverty reduction and achieving food security.”

Despite the significant role of agriculture to the economy, the sector has only grown 2.8 percent in recent years due to weak market structures, resource depletion and other challenges. Ali, along with other researchers, is analyzing how maize and wheat farmers can access the best seed, technology and practices to sustainably increase crop yields across the country.

“If we want to boost farmer livelihoods, we need to change how farmers work by ensuring they know how to sustainably manage their land, water and other resources,” Ali said. “We then need to ensure that the markets in which these farmers operate are stable so that they have easier access to agricultural inputs like seed.”

Ali’s research over the past four years at CIMMYT has focused on making these goals a reality, from conducting comprehensive surveys, which are expected to help develop the durum wheat market in Pakistan, to adoption and impact studies of such sustainable technology as zero tillage machines and precision land levelers, now used by thousands of farmers throughout Pakistan.

“There are 80,000 farmers – 20 percent of which are women, whose numbers are growing – working with AIP who have adopted these new, sustainable technologies,” said Ali. In the future, Ali hopes to see his work continue to be used as a tool by policy makers, extension workers and others.

“We still face challenges with farmer access to seed, from engaging women to market constraints, so it’s critical we create policies that facilitate sustainable development in rural communities,” Ali said.

Shifting trends in Pakistan from urbanization to climate change will make it even more necessary to understand how rural communities operate in the coming years, he said, adding that policies supporting its development will be key to feeding the country and alleviating rural poverty.

Small machinery provides affordable options for women farmers in Nepal

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nepal
Farmer Sunita Baineya checking her maize as it comes out of a shelling machine powered by 4WT in Sirkohiya, Bardiya. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Small-scale mechanization is becoming more important on smallholder farms in Nepal as young people, particularly men, migrate away from rural areas in large numbers, leaving women to take on even bigger responsibilities.

Some 13 million people – about 50 percent of Nepal’s population – live in the hills and mountains where most subsistence farming takes place. Women traditionally contribute more agricultural labor than men in these rural areas, typically undertaking time-consuming tasks such as weeding, harvesting, threshing and milling in addition to household chores. Two-thirds of women in Nepal are self-employed or engaged in unpaid family labor.

Nepal has the lowest ratio of men to women in all of South Asia and the proportion of rural households headed by women jumped from 15 to 25 percent between 2001 and 2011. As a result, rural women face many challenges, their potential curtailed in part due to the difficulty accessing credit. Despite a 2002 amendment to the country’s Land Act, the practice of male succession means that women only own property in a fifth of rural households.

“Almost everywhere there are changes, but maybe particularly so in the mountains,” said Scott Justice, a rural mechanization specialist with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project in Nepal (CSISA-NP), who works with smallholders as part of efforts to help improve livelihoods. “Tasks like the upkeep of terraces, plowing or service hiring are getting delayed or passed on to women, at the same time as the prices of hiring are going up.”

Following the April 2015 earthquake in Nepal, CSISA-NP was contracted by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to help affected farming communities recover by providing grain storage tools, farm machinery and training, reaching 33,150 earthquake-affected households.

CSISA-NP, a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with the International Rice Research Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute and funded by USAID, aims to address the gender imbalance by increasing access to affordable machinery options to increase farm income while reducing drudgery for women.

An as yet unpublished study on the spread of mini-tillers has shown approximately 7,000 mini-tillers sold in hill districts, Justice said.

“A key priority for the government and projects like ours is getting owners to use the [mini-tiller] engine to power other machinery like wheat and rice threshers, mini-maize shellers, pumps and maybe even reapers and planter-seeder attachments,” said Justice.

“A small cadre of machinery importers who, along with CIMMYT’s market development efforts, are increasingly attuned to small farmers’ needs, bringing in a new generation of small and inexpensive machinery ideas and products emerging from China,” he said. “These qualities make it easier for women and their households to access and use such technologies.”

One of the technologies identified by CSISA-NP is a small, lightweight, precision hand cranked fertilizer spreader, which is growing in popularity because it can increase rice and wheat yields by 5 to 10 percent while cutting labor by half or more. CSISA has trained 150 service providers to use the fertilizer spreader, while cooperating private sector partners have imported over 500 of these spreaders in advance of the 2016-2017 wheat season.

CSISA focuses on the creation of a sustainable private machinery and service sector that serves farmers’ needs. A core group of approximately 15 to 20 (mostly) small businesses are constantly traveling and scouring the markets in China for new machinery and new ideas. One challenge is to encourage them to look more broadly in Asia for innovative scale appropriate technologies that meet the needs of both women and men in Nepal.

“Our activities are based on more than two decades of CIMMYT experience of small-scale mechanization in Nepal’s Terai area – rather than joining farmers’ experiments, we join in small and mid-sized machinery importers’ marketing experiments,” explained Justice.

CSISA is led by CIMMYT with the International Rice Research Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute and funded by USAID. It was established in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems. 

Breaking Ground: Xuecai Zhang prepares future generation of crop breeders

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TwitterBG8Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT

EL BATAN (CIMMYT) — Xuecai Zhang wants to merge traditional maize breeding methods with new software and other tools to help improve farmers’ yields faster than ever.

“In the next three decades we need to increase agricultural production by 70 percent to meet projected food demand,” said Zhang, a maize genomic selection breeder at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “However, crop yields, while improving, are not increasing quickly enough to meet this challenge. We must explore new methods and technologies that can speed up our crop breeding processes if we hope to feed a world with over 2.3 billion more people by 2050.”

Growing up in Henan province, China, Zhang’s mother was a teacher who instilled a love of science in him from a young age.

“I loved exploring outside and seeing how plants grew — I always wanted to know how they worked,” said Zhang. “Maize was naturally interesting to me because it’s the second most grown crop in Henan, and is becoming a very important crop in China overall.”

Zhang first arrived at CIMMYT in 2009 while completing a doctorate in applied quantitative genetics. He subsequently returned as a postdoctoral fellow in 2011 to undertake molecular breeding and coordinate CIMMYT’s maize genomic selection program.

Since his return, he has focused mainly on helping breeders and statisticians work together to create new tools that can help accelerate the breeding process through genomic selection.

“It’s crucial that as breeders, we’re able to use genomic selection in our work,” Zhang said. “Not only does it speed up the breeding process to deliver better, faster results to farmers in the field, applied well it’s also a more cost-effective option.”

Conventional plant breeding is dependent on a researcher going into the field, observing the characteristics of a plant based on how its genotype interacts with the environment, then painstakingly selecting and combining those materials that show such favorable traits such as high yield or drought resistance.  This process is repeated again and again to develop new varieties.

Genomic selection adds DNA markers to the breeder’s toolkit. After initial field evaluation breeders are able to use DNA markers and advanced computing applications to select the best plants and predict the best combinations of plants without having to wait to evaluate every generation in the field. This speeds up the development of new varieties as more cycles of selection and recombination can be conducted in a year compared with field selection alone.

The cost of hiring a human to go and collect phenotypic data for conventional breeding is increasing, while conversely the costs associated with genomic selection are getting lower as genotyping and computing technology becomes more affordable, according to Zhang.

“Breeders need to think about where the technology is pushing our field,” he said. “They will increasingly have to be versed statisticians and computer scientists to effectively apply genomic selection to their work, and I want to help ensure they have the skills and tools to make the most of the technology.”

Zhang has helped demonstrate to breeders in Latin America, Africa and Asia of the value of genomic selection by showing that the technique can improve the prediction accuracy of successful varieties in comparison to conventional breeding. He also credits joint efforts like the GOBII project, a large-scale public-sector effort supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to apply genomic selection techniques to crop breeding programs across the developing world, as key towards curating the necessary data for genomic breeding programs.

“In the future, I hope to continue to help build better tools for breeders to move towards genomic selection,” Zhang said. “I chose to breed maize because of the potential impact it has to help smallholder farmers globally. Compared with other crops the yield potential of maize is very high, so I want to ensure we are using the best resources available that will help maize reach its full potential.”

Velu Govindan, a wheat breeder who has advanced the development of nutrient-rich millet and wheat varieties with higher yield potential, disease resistance and improved agronomic traits, has won the 2016 Young Scientist Award for Agriculture presented by India’s Society for Plant Research. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)

“Young Scientist Award” winner fights hidden hunger with high zinc wheat

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Velu Govindan, a wheat breeder who has advanced the development of nutrient-rich millet and wheat varieties with higher yield potential, disease resistance and improved agronomic traits, has won the 2016 Young Scientist Award for Agriculture presented by India’s Society for Plant Research. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Velu Govindan, a wheat breeder who has advanced the development of nutrient-rich millet and wheat varieties with higher yield potential, disease resistance and improved agronomic traits, has won the 2016 Young Scientist Award for Agriculture presented by India’s Society for Plant Research. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – A scientist who has advanced the development of nutrient-rich millet and wheat varieties with higher yield potential, disease resistance and improved agronomic traits has won the 2016 Young Scientist Award for Agriculture presented by India’s Society for Plant Research.

Velu Govindan, a wheat breeder from India working with the HarvestPlus project at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), received the award last week for high-yielding, nutritious wheat varieties tolerant to rust diseases and climate change-induced heat and drought stress.

“I’m so honored,” said Govindan. “It’s a terrific vote of confidence for the work we’re doing at CIMMYT and through HarvestPlus to develop nutritious staple crops that significantly reduce hidden hunger and help millions of people lead better, more productive lives in the global south.”

CIMMYT scientists tackle micronutrient deficiency or “hidden hunger” by biofortifying crops to boost nutrition in poor communities where nutritional options are unavailable, limited or unaffordable. About 2 billion people worldwide suffer from hidden hunger, which is characterized by iron-deficiency anemia, vitamin A and zinc deficiency.

The wheat component of HarvestPlus, which is part of the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health program managed by the CGIAR global agricultural research project, involves developing and distributing wheat varieties with high zinc levels.

Govindan has been actively involved in the recently released wheat variety Zinc Shakthi – meaning “more power” – which has been adopted by some 50,000 smallholder farmers in India. In addition, two new varieties are projected soon to be widely adopted throughout the fertile northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains of India.

“We’ve released ‘best bet’ varieties in India and Pakistan to ensure fast-track adoption of high zinc wheat,” Govindan said. “Farmers are adopting it, not only for its nutritional benefit, but also for its superior agronomic features like competitive yield, rust resistance and other farmer preferred traits.”

Before joining CIMMYT eight years ago, Govindan worked at the International Crops Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), where he initiated the development of an iron-rich pearl millet called Dhanashakti – meaning “prosperity and strength” – which was commercialized in 2012 in the Indian state of Maharashtra, where it is now used by more than 100,000 smallholder farmers.

In addition to his primary responsibility of breeding nutrient-rich wheat varieties, Govindan works with the Global Wheat Program’s spring wheat breeding team at CIMMYT. The spring bread wheat program develops high yielding and climate resilient varieties, which are distributed to more than 80 countries in the wheat growing regions of the developing world.

Through its annual awards ceremony, the Society for Plant Research, which has also produced the international journal Vegetos since 1988, recognizes individual contributions from across a broad spectrum of plant-based research, including agriculture, biotechnology, industrial botany and basic plant sciences.

Pakistan releases first quality protein maize varieties

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Field evaluation of QPM hybrids by team of experts in Harappa, Punjab. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar
Field evaluation of QPM hybrids by team of experts in Harappa, Punjab. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar

ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – For the first time, Pakistan will release quality protein maize (QPM) varieties for commercial consumption, which could help boost nutrition across the country where nearly half of all children are chronically malnourished.

In January 2017, Pakistan’s maize variety evaluation committee approved QPHM200 and QPHM300, two QPM hybrids, for large-scale cultivation in Pakistan. Developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Colombia and evaluated and selected in Pakistan by the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), these QPM hybrids can potentially yield up to 15 tons per hectare (ha) – over three times the national average – and can be provided to farmers for less than half the price of currently imported hybrid seeds.

Field evaluation of QPHM200 at Rawalakot, AJK, Pakistan. Photo: Muhammad Ashraf/NARC
Muhammad Hafiz (left) inside his QPHM300 field. Photo: M. Waheed Anwar

Maize is Pakistan’s third most important cereal following wheat and rice, producing one of the highest average grain yields in South Asia. While the majority of Pakistan’s maize is used for poultry feed, it is a major food source in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit Baltistan and the territories of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). These areas experience some of the highest rates of child malnutrition.

Normal maize is deficient in essential amino acids lysine and tryptophan, key protein building blocks that can’t be synthesized by human body and must be acquired from food sources. As a result, when human diets are comprised mainly of maize, consumers face a risk of malnutrition, particularly those with high protein requirements like young children, pregnant or lactating women. Conventionally bred QPM grain, which has been shown to improve nutritional status, has enhanced levels of lysine and tryptophan while the kernels have a favorable texture and flavor.

QPM was recently introduced to Pakistan through the CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) in collaboration with national partners with support from the United States Agency for International Development. The commercialization of the two QPM hybrids was aimed at boosting nutrition by alleviating protein deficiency, particularly for low income communities where affording protein rich diets is difficult.

Field evaluation of QPHM200 at Rawalakot, AJK, Pakistan. Photo: Muhammad Ashraf/NARC
Field evaluation of QPHM200 at Rawalakot, AJK, Pakistan. Photo: Muhammad Ashraf/NARC

In addition, providing low cost feed like QPM to the poultry industry can also enhance the nutritional status of the country, an industry that is growing 8 to 10 percent annually.

“The taste of the cob is unique, it’s good quality,” said Muhammad Hafiz, a QPM grower from Pindi Bhattain area in central Punjab who participated in pre-commercialization trials of the hybrids.

The QPM hybrids were primarily selected based on their yield advantage. Farmers were open to adopting them since they performed better in many locations than normal commercial hybrids. The added benefit of quality protein will also help promote the hybrids while combating malnutrition.

The continued production of quality seed through retention of protein quality complemented by effective delivery mechanisms to farmers are important steps to scale up use of the hybrids. An active role by NARC and other value chain actors in Pakistan can help make seeds more easily accessible and available.

Scientists in Afghanistan set new program to raise wheat harvests

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Photo: Masud Sultan/CIMMYT
Photo: Masud Sultan/CIMMYT

KABUL (CIMMYT) – Inadequate access to new disease-resistant varieties and short supplies of certified seed are holding back wheat output and contributing to rising food insecurity in Afghanistan, according to more than 50 national and international wheat experts.

Wheat scientists and policymakers discussed challenges to the country’s most-produced crop during a two-day meeting at Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) headquarters in Kabul, as part of the 5th Annual Wheat Researchers’ Workshop in November 2016. They took stock of constraints to the 2017 winter wheat crop, including dry autumn weather and rapidly-evolving strains of the deadly wheat disease known as yellow rust.

“Old wheat varieties are falling prey to new races of rust,” said Qudrat Soofizada, director for Adaptive Research at ARIA, pointing out that the country’s 2016 wheat harvest had remained below 5 million tons for the second year in a row, after a record harvest of more than 5.3 million tons in 2014.

The workshop was attended by 51 participants belonging to several ARIA research stations and experts from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and World Bank’s Afghanistan Agriculture Input Project (AAIP).

Afghanistan has been importing around 2.5 million tons of cereal grain — mainly wheat — in the last two years, with most of that coming from Kazakhstan and Pakistan, according to recent reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

“Most wheat farmers save grain from prior harvests and use that as seed, rather than sowing certified seed of newer, high-yielding and disease resistant varieties,” said Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT senior scientist and representative at the center’s office in Afghanistan. “This is holding back the country’s wheat productivity potential.”

Sharma explained that CIMMYT has been supporting efforts of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) to boost supplies of certified seed of improved varieties and of critical inputs like fertilizer.

“CIMMYT has worked with Afghanistan wheat scientists for decades and more than 90 percent of the country’s certified wheat varieties contain genetic contributions from our global breeding efforts,” Sharma explained.

Since 2012, the center has organised more than 1,700 wheat variety demonstrations on farmers’ fields and trained over 1,000 farmers. CIMMYT scientists are also conducting field and DNA analyses of Afghan wheats, which will allow faster and more effective breeding.

The FAO reports showed that the government, FAO and diverse non-governmental organizations had distributed some 10,000 tons of certified seed of improved wheat varieties for the current planting season. With that amount of seed farmers can sow around 67,000 hectares, but this is only some 3 percent of the country’s approximately 2.5 million-hectare wheat area.

“We have been informing the National Seed Board about older varieties that are susceptible to the rusts,” said Ghiasudin Ghanizada, head of wheat pathology at MAIL/ARIA, Kabul, adding that efforts were being made to take such varieties out of the seed supply chain.

After discussions, Ghanizada and MAIL/ARIA associates M. Hashim Azmatyar and Abdul Latif Rasekh presented the technical program for breeding, pathology and agronomy activities to end 2016 and start off 2017.

Zubair Omid, hub coordinator, CIMMYT-Afghanistan, presented results of wheat farmer field demonstrations, informing that grain yields in the demonstrations ranged from 2.8 to 7.6 tons per hectare.

T.S. Pakbin, former director of ARIA, inaugurated the meeting and highlighted CIMMYT contributions to Afghanistan’s wheat improvement work. M.Q. Obaidi, director of ARIA, thanked participants for traveling long distances to attend, despite security concerns. Nabi Hashimi, research officer, CIMMYT-Afghanistan, welcomed participants on behalf of CIMMYT and wished them good luck for the 2016-17 season.

Wheat breeding trial results were presented by Zamarai Ahmadzada from Darulaman Research Station, Kabul; Aziz Osmani from Urad Khan Research Station, Herat; Shakib Attaye from Shisham Bagh Research Station, Nangarhar; Abdul Manan from Bolan Research Station, Helmand; Said Bahram from Central Farm, Kunduz; Najibullah Jahid from Kohkaran Research Station, Kandahar; and Sarwar Aryan from Mulla Ghulam Research Station, Bamyan.

Agronomy results from the research stations of Badakhshan, Herat, Kabul, Kunduz, Helmand and Bamyan were also presented and summarized by Abdul Latif Rasikh, head of Wheat Agronomy, ARIA headquarters, Badam Bagh, Kabul