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.
The radio talk show was organized by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and focused on maize development under the CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), supported by USAID in collaboration with national partners. The Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation conducted the show in Urdu and English and aired it throughout the country.
One of the show panelists, Zahid Shafique, program leader from Pakistan’s National Agricultural Research Center, gave an overview of AIP’s interventions and expressed the hope that the program will help Pakistan develop affordable hybrid maize seed, which is currently sold for $6-8 per kilogram, one of the highest prices in South Asia.
Faisal Hayat, deputy manager of the seed company Jullundur Private Limited, noted that CIMMYT’s joint evaluation of hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) with AIP maize partners has helped the private sector develop improved hybrids and OPVs that are better adapted to Pakistan’s diverse climates. Capacity building efforts to ensure quality seed production is key to ensuring the sustainability of AIP after its completion said Nazim Ali, an agricultural economist with USAID.
CIMMYT was represented by maize improvement and seed systems specialist AbduRahman Beshir, who briefed the panelists about the introduction and nationwide testing of diverse germplasm and the allocation of well adapted maize hybrids and OPVs to partners.
Bleached spikes infected with wheat blast hold shriveled grain, if any. Photo: E. Duveiller/CIMMYT
DINAJPUR, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) — Responding to a 2016 outbreak of the deadly and little-understood crop disease “wheat blast” in Bangladesh, 40 wheat pathologists, breeders and agronomists from Bangladesh, India and Nepal have gathered to hone their skills through surveillance exercises in farmers’ fields and molecular analysis of the causal fungus in laboratories of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) at Gazipur.
Entitled “Taking action to mitigate the threat of wheat blast in South Asia: Disease surveillance and monitoring skills training,” the 13-day program was launched on 4 February at BARI’s Wheat Research Center (WRC), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Dinajpur, in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the CGIAR research program on wheat, the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project led by Cornell University, and Kansas State University (KSU).
The 2016 Bangladesh outbreak was the first time wheat blast has appeared in South Asia. The disease struck 15,000 hectares in 7 southwestern and southern districts of Bangladesh, with crop losses averaging 25-30 percent and reaching 100 percent in some cases.
In response the Bangladesh Ministry of Agriculture formed a task force through the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) to help develop and distribute resistant cultivars and pursue integrated agronomic control measures. A factsheet distributed to wheat farmers is raising awareness about the disease and particularly its identification and management.
Caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT) and first discovered in Paraná State, Brazil, in the mid-1980s, wheat blast constitutes a major constraint to wheat production in South America. The sudden appearance of a highly virulent MoT strain in Bangladesh presents a serious threat for food and income security in South Asia, home to 300 million undernourished people and whose inhabitants consume over 100 million tons of wheat each year.
Experts from CIMMYT, Cornell University and Kansas State University, along with scientists from BARI and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), are serving as instructors and facilitators.
“This training will increase the capacity of Bangladesh and neighboring country scientists, thereby strengthening research on wheat blast and monitoring disease through intensive surveillance,” said the Additional Secretary (Research), Ministry of Agriculture Md. Fazle Wahid Khondaker, chief guest in the inaugural session. Arun K. Joshi, CIMMYT-India country representative, T.P. Tiwari, CIMMYT-Bangladesh country representative, Prof. Dr. Bahadur Meah from BAU, Mymensingh, and Additional Director, Department of Agricultural Extension, and Md. Julfikar Haider were present as special guests. Dr. N.C.D. Barma, WRC, BARI chaired the session, and BARI Director General Dr. Abul Kalam Azad took part.
The training program is funded by BARI, CIMMYT, DGGW, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and CSISA- Mechanization projects, as well as the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The DGGW project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) through UK Aid.
Participants with guests during training inauguration. Photo: S. Khan/CIMMYT
Timothy Krupnik (right) explains the use and benefits of the Power Tiller Operated Seeder to USAID Deputy Administrator Gary Lindon (far left). Photo: Md. Aktarul Islam/CIMMYT-Bangladesh
JESSORE, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) — USAID’s Deputy Administrator Gary Lindon visited Bangladesh in November 2016 to learn how the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) engages with partners to help smallholder farmers uptake sustainable agriculture practices, as well as to observe the private sector’s role in producing farm machinery that is faster, more environmentally friendly and affordable for smallholder farmers.
One example of sustainable, smallholder-friendly machinery being promoted by CIMMYT with national partners is the two-wheeled mechanical reaper, a tool that’s proven to save farmers time and money, and helps them cope with increasing labor scarcity in Bangladesh — a trend that has continued to rise as Bangladesh develops economically and more people leave rural areas for off-farm employment, according to Timothy Krupnik, systems agronomist at CIMMYT.
“Mechanical harvesting also allows farmers to more quickly clear the field and sow the next crop, which has yield advantages for planting crops like wheat,” said Krupnik.
Lindon also met with service providers — entrepreneurial farmers turned businessmen — who have purchased the two-wheeled mechanical reapers and are now offering their harvesting services to smallholder farmers at an affordable fee.
“The local service provision business model is key to unlocking agricultural and entrepreneurial capacity in rural Bangladesh,” said Kevin Robbins, director of programs at International Development Enterprises, one of CIMMYT’s partners in Bangladesh. “We’ve seen just over 1,000 local service providers provide agricultural machinery services to over 40,000 farmers — catalyzing a level of impact that would not have been possible if we had promoted a traditional model where every farmer buys his or her own machine.”
The deputy administrator of USAID and his attaché observe a rice and wheat crop harvester piloted by an entrepreneurial farmer turned businessman. Photo: Md. Aktarul Islam/CIMMYT-Bangladesh
Shafiqul Islam, CIMMYT’s Jessore hub coordinator, also explained that through mechanical harvesting, farmers save $48 per hectare, while service providers earn approximately $31 per hectare.
“In Bangladesh, private sector companies are working hard to promote agricultural machinery that develops the sector,” said Mohammad Jamil, managing director at Metal Pvt. Ltd., a leading private company in Bangladesh that sells reapers. “We want to do more business — the kind of business that changes the lives of farmers through increasing the sales of appropriate agricultural machinery. There’s a strong incentive for us to endorse the adoption of new technologies, which in turn increases food production, boosts farmer income and supports our economy. It’s a win-win business model and a sustainable way to develop our country.”
The team later visited lentil and maize fields that had been seeded directly with seeders, affordable machines that can attach directly to two-wheeled tractors, which are increasingly being used by farmers in Bangladesh. Farmers attending the USAID field visit commented that through the use of two-wheel tractor attachable seeders they can save $60 per hectare by avoiding recurring tillage and manual seeding costs.
“This machine also helps farmers to sow seeds on time, as recommended by agronomists, because direct sowing saves farmers’ 7-10 days compared to full tillage and manual sowing systems,” explained Islam.
CIMMYT launched the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) program in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems. Through this program, CIMMYT is operating 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.
David Hodson, senior scientist with CIMMYT, trains South Asian wheat scientists on the use of handheld surveillance and monitoring devices. Hodson directs the rusttracker.org global wheat rust monitoring system for the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project. Credit: CORNELL/Linda McCandless
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Scientists are concerned over the proliferation of highly virulent fungal wheat diseases, including two new races of yellow rust – one in Europe and North Africa, the other taking hold in East Africa and Central Asia – and a new race of stem rust emerging in Europe.
The collaborative Global Rust Reference Center (GRRC) hosted by Aarhus University in Denmark and including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), was instrumental in identifying the new races of yellow and stem rust.
A strategic tool developed by David Hodson, a senior scientist with CIMMYT plays a key role in monitoring the movement of wheat-rust pathogens, helping farmers combat the disease in time to save crops and prevent food insecurity.
“We see an alarming increase in severe disease, more disease diversity and rapid spread,” said Hodson, who invented the Rust Tracker field surveillance tool.
Last year, the Italian island of Sicily was badly hit by a strain of wheat stem rust – an event not seen in Europe since the 1950s, following concerted efforts by wheat breeders to eliminate it.
Stem rust appears as a reddish-brown fungal build-up on wheat stems or leaves, stunting and weakening plants, preventing kernels from forming, leading to shriveled grain and potential crop losses of 50 to 100 percent.
Dispersal modeling, undertaken by the University of Cambridge and the UK Met Office, which forecasts weather and climate change, indicates that spores from the Sicilian outbreak could potentially have spread within the Mediterranean wheat growing region, but scientists are unsure whether they will successfully over-winter, surviving and proliferating, according to a recent story in the journal Nature.
EARLY WARNING
“Several factors may be influencing the changes and rapid spread: increased travel and trade; increasing pathogen populations; more uniform cropping systems and also climate change, but the rapid changes we are observing highlight the need for an enhanced early-warning system,” said Hodson, a member of an international team of scientists collaborating under the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project administered by Cornell University through the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI).
Scientists engaged with the major four-year international project – which has a budget of $34.5 million due to grants equalling $24 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a recent $10.5 million grant from UK Aid (Britain’s Department for International Development, or DFID) – use comparative genomics and big data to develop new wheat varieties. The aim is to help governments provide smallholder farmers in the developing world with seeds incorporating resilience to environmental stresses and diseases through local entrepreneurial distributors.
“The sooner farmers are notified of a potential rust outbreak, the better chance they have to save their crops through fungicides or by planting resilient wheat varieties,” Hodson said.
“It’s a constant challenge. We’re always on the lookout for new diseases and variants on old diseases to put the wheels in motion to aid governments who can distribute seeds bred specifically to outsmart rusts.”
However, the long-term sustainability of these vital disease-monitoring systems is uncertain. Despite the significant investments, challenges remain, Hodson said.
“It’s worrying that just as stem rust is re-appearing in Europe we’re at risk of losing the only stem rust pathotyping capacity in Europe at GRRC, due to a funding shortfall. Given the threats and changes we are observing, there really is a critical need for a long-term strategy to address major crop diseases.”
TRACKER ORIGINS
The online Rust Tracker was originally conceived as a tool to battle stem rust, including the lethal Ug99 race, which since its discovery in 1998 has spread from Uganda into the Middle East and is now found in 13 countries. If Ug99 takes hold in a field it can completely wipe out a farmer’s crop. In developing countries, farmers have more difficulty accessing and affording fungicides, which can potentially save a crop.
Under the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, the predecessor to the DGGW project, BGRI-affiliated scientists aimed to prevent the spread of Ug99 into the major global breadbaskets of China and India. So far, they have succeeded in keeping it in check and raising awareness among governments and farmers of its potentially devastating impact.
“Researchers and farmers are connected in the global village,” Hodson said. “Plant pathogens know no borders. We must leave no stone unturned in our efforts to understand the dynamics of wheat rusts, how they’re changing, where they’re spreading and why. If wheat scientists can help prevent a food crisis, we’re doing our job to help maintain political and economic stability in the world.”
CIMMYT scientist Caixia Lan. Photo: Courtesy of Caixia Lan
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Support for research into breeding crops resistant to wheat rust is essential to manage the spread of the deadly disease, which has caused billions of dollars of yield losses globally in recent years, said Caixia Lan, a wheat rust expert at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Rust disease has historically been a menace to wheat production worldwide. Although agricultural scientists manage the disease by breeding wheat varieties with rust resistant traits, the emergence of new races hinders progress and demands continued research, said the scientist.
With outbreaks of new strands reported in Europe, Africa and Central Asia, wheat rust presents an intensifying threat to the over 1 billion people in the developing world who rely on the crop as a source of food and for their livelihoods.
One of the most recent rust races, Ug99, was detected in 1998 and has since spread across 13 countries, alone causing crop losses of $3 billion in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, said Lan.
Working with CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program Lan is identifying and mapping adult-plant resistance genes to different races of rust (leaf, stripe, and stem) in bread and durum wheat and transferring them into new varieties that help secure farmer’s production.
Growing up in an area dependent on agriculture in rural China, Lan knows all too well the impact crop disease and natural disaster has on family food security and livelihoods. The struggles of smallholder farmers to feed and support their families motivated her to pursue a career in agriculture for development, but it was not until university that she became inspired by the improvements made to crop yield through genetic manipulation and breeding, she said.
Rust is a fungal disease that uses wheat plants as a host, sucking vital nutrients and sugars from the plant leaving it to wither and die. Without intervention, wheat rust spreads due to the release of billions of spores, which travel by wind to other plants, crops, regions or countries. Spores have the potential to start new infection, ravage crops and threaten global food security.
The science behind building genetic resistance takes two forms known as major (or race-specific) genes and adult-plant resistance based on minor genes. Major resistance genes protect the wheat plants from infection by specific strains of rust. While adult plant resistance, Lan’s area of specialization, stunts the pathogen by reducing the infection frequency and limiting its nutrient intake from the host wheat plant. Some of the longer-lasting adult-plant resistance genes have been shown to provide protection against multiple diseases for decades and have not succumbed to a mutated strain of rust so far.
Replacing wheat crops for varieties bred with several rust-resistant genes acts as a safeguard for occasions when the pathogen mutates to overcome one resistant gene as the others continue the defense, Lan said.
Lan has identified a number of rust resistant genes in CIMMYT germplasm and developed molecular markers, which are fragments of DNA associated with a specific location in the genome. However, as new races of the disease emerge and old ones continue to spread, research identifying durable and multiple rust resistant genes and breeding them into crops is of high importance, she said.
Wheat researcher with Green Seeker at Wheat Research Institute Sakrand, Sind Province, Pakistan. Photo: Sarfraz Ahmed
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – Pakistani and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) scientists are working with wheat farmers to test and promote precision agriculture technology that allows the farmers to save money, maintain high yields and reduce the environmentally harmful overuse of nitrogen fertilizer.
Wheat is planted on more than 9 million hectares in Pakistan each year. Of this, 85 percent is grown under irrigation in farming systems that include several crops.
Farmers may apply nearly 190 kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer per hectare of wheat, placing a third of this when they sow and the remainder in one-to-several partial applications during the crop cycle. Often, the plants fail to take up and use all of the fertilizer applied. More precise management of crop nutrients could increase farmers’ profits by saving fertilizer with no loss of yield, as well as reducing the presence of excess nitrogen that turns into greenhouse gases.
Precision nutrient management means applying the right source of plant nutrients at the right rate, at the right time and in the right place. CIMMYT is working across the globe to create new technologies that are locally adapted to help farmers apply the most precise dosage of fertilizer possible at the right time, so it is taken up and used most effectively by the crop.
CIMMYT and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) have developed the application “urea calculator” for cell phones. In this process, a Green Seeker handheld crop sensor quickly assesses crop vigor and provides readings that are used by the urea calculator to furnish an optimal recommendation on the amount of nitrogen fertilizer the wheat crop needs.
National partners observe the Green Seeker at work at Rice Research Institute, Kala Shah Kaku, and Punjab, Pakistan. Photo: Abdul Khalique
Tests with the crop sensor/calculator combination on more than 35 farmer fields during 2016 in Pakistan results showed that 35 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare could be saved without any loss in grain yield. This technology is being evaluated and demonstrated in Pakistan as part of the CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), supported by the United States Agency for International Development in collaboration with Pakistan partners.
CIMMYT recently began work in four provinces of Pakistan, providing Green Seekers and training to AIP research, extension and private partners. Fifty-five specialists in all took part in training events held at the Wheat Research Institute Sakrand, Sind Province; the Rice Research Institute KSK, Punjab Province; and the Model Farm Service Center, Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Training and new partnerships will help national partners to demonstrate and disseminate sustainable farming practices to wheat farmers throughout Pakistan.
Evaluating CIMMYT’s white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT
ISLAMABAD (CIMMYT) – New varieties of white maize in Pakistan have the potential to both quadruple savings of irrigation water and nearly double crop yields for farmers, thereby building food security and conserving badly needed water resources for the country.
Maize is the third most important cereal crop in Pakistan, which at a production rate of four tons per hectare, has one of the highest national yields in South Asia. Maize productivity in Pakistan has increased almost 75 percent from levels in the early 1990s due to the adoption and expansion of hybrid maize varieties. The crop is cultivated both in spring and autumn seasons and grows in all provinces throughout the country.
However, Pakistan is expected to be severely affected by climate change through increased flooding and drought, and is already one of the most water stressed countries in the world. If the country is to be able to meet future food demand, new maize varieties that can grow with less water under harsher conditions must be developed and adopted by farmers.
The Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI) in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – an area particularly reliant on white maize for food, unlike other parts of the country where yellow maize is predominantly used for animal feed – recently tested nine white maize varieties (hybrids and open-pollinated varieties) provided by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that demonstrated tolerance to water stress conditions.
Two of the early-maturing, open-pollinated varieties gave above average seed yields even though farmers irrigated the fields just twice, compared to the usual eight to ten times necessary with currently grown varieties. These varieties can also be harvested in less than 100 days and yield seven to 10 tons per hectare (ha) under good management practices – over twice the national average of four tons per ha – giving farmers time to grow another crop within the same season and produce nearly double the current national average yield.
Team of researchers evaluating CIMMYT’s white maize germplasm at CCRI. Photo: CIMMYT
CCRI will distribute about 1000 kilograms of these seeds to about 100 farmers across the province in the coming autumn season, which farmers will be allowed to keep for subsequent seasons. These varieties will not only contribute to climate mitigation strategies but also help farmers adopt new, sustainable cropping systems. In addition to meeting food demand, these new varieties also can alleviate the scarcity of livestock feed in Pakistan, contributing to the country’s food and nutritional security.
The CIMMYT-led Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), which receives support from the United States Agency for International Development, is helping to bring affordable, climate resilient and water efficient maize options to market. Since the launch of the program in 2013, Pakistani researchers have identified more than 80 CIMMYT hybrids and open-pollinated varieties that are well adapted to the country’s diverse environments.
Learn more about how AIP is sustainably increasing agricultural productivity across Pakistan here.
CIMMYT’s interventions on cropping intensification in Southern Bangladesh look beyond surface water irrigation to ensure long-term environmental sustainability. Photo: T. Krupnik/CIMMYT
DHAKA, Bangladesh (CIMMYT) – For the first time, researchers have mapped rivers and freshwater canals in southern Bangladesh using geospatial tools as part of a new initiative to help farmers in monsoon and rainfed systems transition to sustainable farming methods. Essential to this transition is the use of surface water for irrigation, which is less costly and more environmentally friendly than extracting groundwater.
A new study by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) indicates that by switching to surface water irrigation, farmers can greatly increase crop production, even in the face of soil and water salinity constraints. It identified over 121,000 hectares (ha) of currently fallow and rainfed cropland that could be placed under irrigation. Dry season wheat and maize production would also increase significantly, thereby greatly benefiting national cereal productivity.
Access to irrigation is needed to ensure crops will grow during southern Bangladesh’s dry season, a challenge for farmers who have traditionally relied on rainfed cultivation. Extracting groundwater for irrigation is energy-intensive, but southern Bangladesh has a dense network of rivers and natural canals that can be used for surface water irrigation.
In order to maximize productivity without expanding to new land, farmers in southern Bangladesh will need to rotate at least two crops per year. By using crop rotation, an SI practice that can boost yields, increase profits, protect the environment, and improve soil function and quality, farmers can grow different crops on the same plot, minimizing crop expansion into forests.
Surface water irrigation can increase cereal productivity and intensify cropping systems, even in the face of soil and water salinity constraints. Photo: T. Krupnik/CIMMYT
As South Asia’s population continues to rise and more people move out of poverty, changing dietary preferences are increasing the demand for wheat and maize, while maintaining the demand for rice. However, the average increase in the yield potential of staple crops since the 1960s has been negligible, while farm area per capita has shrunk more than 60 percent to just a tenth of a hectare per person, according to 2014 World Bank Indicators.
The Government of Bangladesh recently adopted land- and water-use policies to support agricultural development in southern Bangladesh by calling for donors to invest over $7 billion. Of these funds, $500 million will be allocated for surface water irrigation to help farmers transition from monsoon rice-fallow or rainfed systems to intensified double-cropping systems.
Future interventions on cropping intensification in southern Bangladesh must look beyond surface water irrigation to assess where conjunctive use of groundwater might be needed and to ensure long-term environmental sustainability. While research results support the targeted use of surface water irrigation alongside improved water governance measures, more viable crop diversification options must be explored and the environmental impact of large-scale irrigation development needs to be assessed.
Building on this study, the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia will work with national agricultural research systems, government and private sector partners to develop policy and market interventions that continue to build sustainable intensification strategies for both irrigated and rainfed systems across southern Bangladesh.
Breaking Ground is a regular series featuring staff at CIMMYT
Jiafa Chen, a statistical and molecular geneticist at CIMMYT. Photo: CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Maize has always been an integral part of Jiafa Chen’s life.
Chen, a statistical and molecular geneticist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has helped identify new genetic resources that have the potential to be used to breed new maize varieties that withstand a variety of environmental and biological stresses. He has also played a significant role in the development of a recent partnership between CIMMYT and Henan Agricultural University (HAU) in China.
Born in Henan – a province in the fertile Yellow River Valley known for its maize and wheat production – Chen’s family grew maize, which was a major source of income and led to his interest in breeding the crop as a means to help small farmers in China. He went on to study agriculture at HAU, where he focused on maize at a molecular level throughout undergraduate and graduate school, then came to CIMMYT as a postdoctoral researcher in 2013.
“Coming to CIMMYT was natural for me,” Chen said. “CIMMYT’s genebank – which holds over 28,000 maize accessions – offered a wide array of genetic resources that could help to breed varieties resistant to disease and abiotic stress which are large challenges in my country.”
Over Chen’s four years at CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City, he has helped characterize CIMMYT’s entire maize genebank using DArTseq, a genetic fingerprinting method that can be used to help identify new genes related to traits like tolerance to heat under climate change, or resistance to disease. This research is being used to develop maize germplasm with new genetic variation for drought tolerance and resistance to tar spot complex disease.
“Conserving and utilizing biodiversity is crucial to ensure food security for future generations,” Chen said. “For example, all modern maize varieties currently grown have narrow genetic diversity compared to CIMMYT’s genebank, which holds some genetic diversity valuable to breed new varieties that suit future environments under climate change. CIMMYT and other genebanks, which contain numerous crop varieties, are our only resource that can offer the native diversity we need to achieve food security in the future.”
Chen moved back to China this month to begin research at HAU as an assistant professor, where he will continue to focus on discovering new genes associated with resistance to different stresses. Chen was the first student from HAU to come to CIMMYT, and has served as a bridge between the institutions that officially launched a new joint Maize and Wheat Research Center during a signing ceremony last week.
The new center will focus on research and training, and will host four international senior scientists with expertise in genomics, informatics, physiology and crop management. It will be fully integrated into CIMMYT’s global activities and CIMMYT’s current collaboration in China with the Chinese Agricultural Academy of Sciences.
“I think through the new center, CIMMYT will offer HAU the opportunity to enhance agricultural systems in China, and will have a stronger impact at the farm level than ever before,” Chen said. “I also think HAU will have more of an opportunity to be involved with more global agricultural research initiatives, and become a world-class university.”
Introducing climate change in Bihar’s Krishi road map. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA
BIHAR, India (CIMMYT) — Rich endowment of fertile soil, adequate rainfall and sufficient ground water makes agriculture key to the overall development of the economy of the state of Bihar in India. Farm mechanization to enhance cropping intensity, reduce labor requirements and improve farm production efficiency is a vital policy initiative taken by Bihar’s Department of Agriculture to address the shrinking area under cultivation. Although the state government has accorded top priority to agriculture, the action plan (the so-called Krishi road map) it has prepared for the agriculture sector does not include a strategy for climate change mitigation.
Extreme climatic vulnerability keeps Bihar’s agricultural productivity low. It is the only state in the country where drought and flood recurrently occur at the same time. To overcome these adverse conditions, the government of Bihar is trying to re-orient agriculture by enacting diversification policies and other measures such as irrigation, flood control and drainage schemes. It has also been involved in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) work and pilot climate-smart villages (CSVs) undertaken by CIMMYT and the Borlaug Initiative for South Asia (BISA) and other collaborators. Concerns about climate change challenges were shared by Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s chief minister, with CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff during his recent visit to Bihar. They also discussed local community collaboration with researchers, policymakers and scientists on establishing a strategic approach to scale sustainable intensification based on conservation agriculture.
Throughout 2016, traveling seminars and workshops were organized in CSVs to disseminate knowledge about climate-smart agriculture practices (CSAPs). Highlighted at these events were the benefits of direct-seeded rice, laser land leveling, bed planting, residue management, site-specific nutrient management, the GreenSeeker sensor, zero tillage, crop diversification, intensification with legume incorporation, information & communications technologies and weather forecasting. During a stakeholder consultation in September 2016 led by Vijoy Prakash, Bihar’s Agriculture Production Commissioner, CIMMYT-BISA shared its CSA experiences. Addressing the need to incorporate climate change into the Krishi road map, the Chief Minister and other senior government officials visited the CSA research sites at BISA-Pusa and the CSV pilots in Samastipur District implemented by CCAFS, CIMMYT and BISA. Bihar’s Agriculture Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary also visited 30 CIMMYT-BISA pilot CSVs in Samastipur and Vaishali Districts.
Farmers sharing their experiences with climate-smart practices during a field visit by the Chief Minister of Bihar. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA
The Bihar Agricultural Management and Training Institute (BAMETI) issued a letter to CIMMYT stating that the government of Bihar plans to implement CSA and CSVs in all 38 districts of Bihar. BAMETI is responsible for organizing need-based training programs for the farming community. The Bihar’s Department of Agriculture is also preparing a proposal to introduce CSAPs to improve the resilience of farmers by mainstreaming CSVs in Bihar with technical and strategic support from CIMMYT, BISA and CCAFS in collaboration with Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar Agricultural University and the ICAR research complex for the eastern region. Based on the success of CSVs, the linkages with CIMMYT will help fulfill Bihar’s innovative Krishi road map. Commending the work done in farmers’ fields and its relevance for addressing climate challenges from a farming systems perspective, Chief Minister Kumar sent a letter to CIMMYT’s DG on the occasion of CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary.
Since then, several field days, workshops and meetings have been conducted by CIMMYT-BISA in collaboration with other partners to fulfill the Krishi road map. On October 7, 2016, a field day on “Direct-Seeded Rice in Climate-Smart Villages’’ was held at CSV Digmbra with more than 300 farmers, service providers, NGOs, private companies and state agriculture department representatives participating, as well as scientists from Krishi Vikas Kendra University and CIMMYT.
Among the subjects discussed were CSA interventions implemented through innovative partnerships with farmers and farmer cooperatives to build farmers’ resilience to climate change and increase their productivity and incomes, while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Samastipur’s district magistrate reported that the government of Bihar is supporting farmers’ adoption of improved technologies by providing them with subsidies for mechanization, irrigation and improved seed. Finally, several progressive farmers shared their experiences with climate-smart practices and encouraged other farmers to adopt them in order to improve their livelihoods.
Thermal image of the CIMMYT-Obregon station acquired from the thermal camera at a 2-meter resolution on 14 February 2013. Well-watered (cooler) plots are shown in blue, water-stressed (warmer) plots in green and red. Roads and bare soil areas have an even higher temperature and are shown in yellow. Photo: CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Micro-satellites are emerging as an effective low-cost option to collecting data like sow date and yields on small farms across the developing world. When used in combination with bio-physical and socio-economic data, micro-satellite data can improve monitoring and evaluation, better assess and understand changes and shocks in crop-based farming systems and improve technology targeting across farmer communities.
Data taken from satellites – remotely controlled communications systems that orbit the earth – can provide different spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions for agriculture that detail crop health, irrigation use, yield, soil analysis and more.
While this information has greatly benefited the accuracy and precision of farming across the globe, it’s traditionally been a challenge to collect data on farms in the developing world. Many farmers have small pieces of land that can’t be accurately observed by most freely available satellite imagery, and it’s extremely expensive to access information that isn’t free.
However, a trend in recent years towards smaller, often private organizations sending their own micro-satellites into the sky have made access to satellite imagery much more affordable due to their smaller size, shorter life cycles and lower upfront costs.
A recent study by scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) looked at the impact of the micro-satellite SkySat in Bihar, India, which mapped sowing dates and yields of smallholder wheat fields during the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 growing seasons. The study then compares how well sowing date and yield were predicted when using ground data, like crop cuts and self-reports, versus using crop models, which require no on-the-ground data, to develop and parameterize prediction models.
The study “Mapping Smallholder Wheat Yields and Sowing Dates Using Micro-Satellite Data,” concludes that micro-satellite data can be used to map individual field-level characteristics of smallholder farms with significant accuracy, capturing roughly one-half and one-third of the variation in field-measured sow date and yields, respectively, when parameterized with field measures. These results suggest that micro-satellites and the data they provide will continue to serve as an important resource for mapping field-level farm characteristics, and that their utility will only improve as micro-satellites develop increased temporal frequency throughout the growing season.
Learn more about this and other recent publications from CIMMYT scientists below.
Association analysis of resistance to cereal cyst nematodes (Heterodera avenae) and root lesion nematodes (Pratylenchus neglectus and P. thornei) in CIMMYT advanced spring wheat lines for semi-arid conditions. 2016. Dababat, A.A.; Gomez-Becerra, H.F.; Erginbas-Orakci, G.; Dreisigacker, S.; Imren, M.; Toktay, H.; Elekcioglu, I.H.; Tesfamariam Mekete; Nicol, J.M.; Ansari, O.; Ogbonnaya, F.C. Breeding Science. Online First.
Developing and deploying insect resistant maize varieties to reduce pre-and post-harvest food losses in Africa. 2016. Tadele Tefera; Mugo, S.N.; Beyene, Y. Food Security 8 (1) : 211-220.
Mapping smallholder wheat yields and sowing dates using micro-satellite data. 2016. Meha Jain; Srivastava, A.; Singh, B.; Rajiv K. Joon; McDonald, A.; Royal, K.; Lisaius, M.C.; Lobell, D.B. Remote Sensing 8 (10) : 860.
Nitrogen fertilizer placement and timing affects bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) quality and yield in an irrigated bed planting system. 2016. Grahmann, K.; Govaerts, B.; Fonteyne, S.; Guzman, C.; Galaviz-Soto, A.P.; Buerkert, A.; Verhulst, N. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 106 : 185-199.
Resistance of Bt-maize (MON810) against the stem borers Busseola fusca (Fuller) and Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) and its yield performance in Kenya. 2016. Tadele Tefera; Mugo, S.N.; Mwimali, M.; Anani, B.; Tende, R.; Beyene, Y.; Gichuki, S.; Oikeh, S.O.; Nang’ayo, F.; Okeno, J.; Njeru, E.; Pillay, K.; Meisel, B.; Prasanna, B.M. Crop Protection 89 : 202-208.
A suite of simple, climate-smart farming practices predicated for years by agricultural scientists holds the key to resource conservation, climate change and reduced pollution in South Asia. Photo: CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Recent media reports show that the 19 million inhabitants of New Delhi are under siege from a noxious haze generated by traffic, industries, cooking fires and the burning of over 30 million tons of rice straw on farms in the neighboring states of Haryana and Punjab.
However, farmers who rotate wheat and rice crops in their fields and deploy a sustainable agricultural technique known as “zero tillage” can make a significant contribution to reducing smog in India’s capital, helping urban dwellers breathe more easily.
Since the 1990s, scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been working with national partners and advanced research institutes in India to test and promote reduced tillage which allows rice-wheat farmers of South Asia to save money, better steward their soil and water resources, cut greenhouse gas emissions and stop the burning of crop residues.
The key innovation involves sowing wheat seed directly into untilled soil and rice residues in a single tractor pass, a method known as zero tillage. Originally deemed foolish by many farmers and researchers, the practice or its adaptations slowly caught on and by 2008 were being used to sow wheat by farmers on some 1.8 million hectares in India.
Scientists and policymakers are promoting the technique as a key alternative for residue burning and to help clear Delhi’s deadly seasonal smog.
Burning soils the air, depletes the soil
“Rice-wheat rotations in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan account for nearly a quarter of the world’s food production and constitute a key source of grain and income in South Asia, home to more than 300 million undernourished people,” said Andy McDonald, a cropping systems agronomist at CIMMYT. “But unsustainable farming practices threaten the region’s productivity and are worsening global climate change.”
The burning of paddy straw is one example, according to expert studies. Besides triggering costly respiratory ailments in humans and animals in farm regions and urban centers like Delhi, burning rice residues depletes soil nutrients, with estimated yearly losses in Punjab alone of 3.9 million tons of organic carbon, 59,000 tons of nitrogen, 20,000 tons of phosphorus and 34,000 tons of potassium, according to M.L. Jat, a senior agronomist at CIMMYT, who leads CIMMYT’s contributions to “climate-smart” villages in South Asia, as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
The Turbo Happy Seeder allows farmers to sow a rotation crop directly into the residues of a previous crop—in this case, wheat seed into rice straw—without plowing, a practice that raises yields, saves costs and promotes healthier soil and cleaner air. Inset: Agricultural engineer H.S. Sidhu (left), of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), who has helped test and refine and the seeder, visits a zero tillage plot with Dr. B.S. Sidhu, agricultural commissioner of Punjab State. Photo: CIMMYT
Zero tillage: A lot to like
Traditional tillage for sowing wheat in northern India involves removing or burning rice straw and driving tractor-drawn implements back and forth over fields to rebuild a soil bed from the rice paddy, a costly and protracted process.
Zero tillage cuts farmers’ costs and provides better yields. By eliminating plowing, farmers can sow wheat up to two weeks earlier. This allows the crop to fill grain before India’s withering pre-Monsoon heat arrives — an advantage that is lost under conventional practices.
A 2016 study in Bihar state showed that farmers’ annual income increased by an average 6 percent when they used zero tillage to sow wheat, due both to better yields and savings in diesel fuel through reduced tractor use.
Zero tillage also diminishes farmers’ risk from erratic precipitation, according to Jat. “A new study in Haryana has shown that in wet years when conventionally-sown wheat fields are waterlogged, zero-tilled crops can produce 16 percent more grain.”
Environmental and climate change benefits include 93 kilograms less greenhouse gas emissions per hectare. “In the long run, retaining crop residues builds up soil organic matter and thereby reduces farming’s carbon footprint,” Jat explained.
Zero-tilled wheat also requires 20 to 35 percent less irrigation water, slowing depletion of the region’s rapidly-dwindling underground water reserves and putting money in farmers’ pockets by reducing their need to pump.
“It’s impressive that a single practice provides such a broad set of benefits,” said McDonald, who leads CIMMYT’s Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA).
Specialized seed planters sell slowly
Farmer awareness is growing, but putting aside the plow is not an easy proposition for some. In particular, zero tillage requires use of a special, tractor-mounted implement which, in a single pass, chops rice residues, opens a rut in the soil, and precisely deposits and covers the seed.
Development of this special seeder was first funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and led by Punjab Agricultural University, with contributions from CIMMYT and other organizations. The latest version, the Turbo Happy Seeder, costs $1,900 — an investment that many farmers still struggle to make.
“As an alternative, we’ve been saying that not all farmers need to own a seeder,” Jat observed. “Many can simply hire local service providers who have purchased the seeder and will sow on contract.” In Bihar and the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, the number of zero-tillage service providers rose from only 17 in 2012 to more than 1,900 in 2015, according to Jat.
Given New Delhi’s smog troubles, Haryana and Punjab policymakers are adding support to avoid burning rice straw. “The government of Haryana has taken a policy decision to aggressively promote the seeder for zero tillage and residue management and to provide 1,900 seeders on subsidy this year,” said Suresh Gehlawat, assistant director of agriculture for that state, in a recent statement.
On the horizon: Zero tillage for rice
As part of these efforts, CIMMYT scientists and partners are testing and promoting with farmers a suite of resource-conserving practices. These include precision land levelling, which saves water and improves productivity, as well as directly sowing rice into untilled, non-flooded plots.
“The practice of direct-seeded rice requires less labor, raising farmers’ profits by as much as $130 per hectare over paddy-grown rice,” said Jat. “Moreover, growing rice in non-flooded fields uses 25 percent less water and reduces the emission of methane, a greenhouse gas 200 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, by 20 kilograms per hectare.”
The CGIAR is one of the biggest suppliers and conservers of crop genetic diversity. CIMMYT’s genebank contains around 28,000 unique samples of maize seed—including more than 24,000 landraces; traditional, locally-adapted varieties that are rich in diversity—and 150,000 of wheat, including related species for both crops. Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT.
NEW DELHI — Conserving and using agricultural biodiversity to create better crops can help meet several sustainable development goals and stave off further species extinctions, according to scientists at the first International Agrobiodiversity Congress.
About 75 percent of plant genetic diversity worldwide has been lost since the beginning of the 20th century and 30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Meanwhile, humans only consume about 1.5 percent of edible plants and only three of these – rice, maize and wheat – contribute nearly 60 percent of calories and proteins obtained by humans from plants. This huge loss in biodiversity due to environmental degradation caused by humans – what many scientists refer to as earth’s “sixth extinction”– is detrimental to global food security and the environment.
“Just a 7-10 percent loss of any major food crop would result in prices quadrupling,” says Howarth Bouis, founder of HarvestPlus and 2016 World Food Prize winner. “Non-staple food prices in India have [already] risen by 50 percent over the past 30 years.” A lack of agricultural diversity puts the world’s entire food chain at risk if a shock – such as increased instances of drought or crop diseases due to rising temperatures from climate change – were to destroy a particular type of crop.
As part of a global response to these challenges, researchers in collaboration with farmers are gathering seed to conserve and protect in genebanks across the world for future generations. These banks are the foundation of agriculture, food security and dietary diversity.
“We don’t know what scientists will need in 30 years,” says Marie Haga, executive director of the Crop Trust. “We need to conserve the entire spectrum [of seeds]. If it’s not being used right now, that does not mean it won’t be critically important in the future.”
New advancements in DNA-sequencing and phenotyping technologies have also created an opportunity to actively use the genetic information of these seeds that did not exist just a few years ago. Crop breeders can now more rapidly and effectively identify seeds that have traits like enhanced nutritional qualities, drought or heat tolerance, or disease resistances to create better crops that withstand challenges related to malnutrition, climate change, disease and more.
For example, in 2012 approximately 23 percent of Kenya’s maize production was lost due to an outbreak of the disease Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN). Thanks to the efforts of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other partners, there are now 13 hybrid varieties with tolerance to MLN – created in just four years.
Delegates to the congress also tackled issues regarding the effective and efficient management of genebanks, biosafety and biosecurity, intellectual property rights, access to germplasm, benefit sharing from use of germplasm, and farmers’ role in conservation of genetic resources and other related themes.
The Congress culminated with the adoption of “The Delhi Declaration on Agrobiodiversity Management” that recommended harmonizing multiple legal systems across countries to facilitate the safe transfer of genetic resources, developing and implementing an Agrobiodiversity Index to help monitor the conservation and use of agrobiodiversity in breeding programs, promoting conservation strategies for crop wild relatives and other strategies to strengthen agricultural biodiversity’s role in agricultural development.
CIMMYT representatives at IAC (L-R) Prashant Vikram, Ravi Singh, Cynthia O.R, Laura Bouvet, Sukhwinder-Singh, Martin Kropff, Kevin Pixley and Gilberto Salinas. Photo: CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Researchers gathered last week at the International Agrobiodiversity Conference in New Delhi to improve global collaboration on harnessing genes in breeding that can help wheat withstand the effects of climate change.
Wheat is the most widely cultivated staple food in the world, providing 20 percent of the protein and calories consumed worldwide and up to 50 percent in developing countries. It is also particularly vulnerable to climate change, since the crop thrives in cooler conditions. Research has shown wheat yields drop 6 percent for each 1 degree Celsius rise in temperature, and that warming is already holding back yield gains in wheat-growing mega-regions like South Asia.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT) genebank serves as a vital source of genetic information and biodiversity. Breeders use this information to accelerate the development of wheat resilient to climate change by identifying varieties that display valuable traits like drought and heat-stress tolerance, which allow them to flourish despite stressful conditions.
However, all this genetic information is incredibly dense and requires filtering before breeders can efficiently use that information, according to Sukhwinder Singh, head of the wheat pre-breeding team at CIMMYT’s Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative.
“Using new genes to improve wheat, or any crop, is incredibly difficult because often along with the desired traits, come numerous undesirable traits,” said Singh. “That’s where pre-breeding comes in – we essentially purify this huge pool of good and bad traits by identifying useful genes, like heat tolerance, then make these traits available in a form that’s easier for wheat breeders to access and use.”
Pre-breeding is done through cutting-edge, cost-effective technologies that characterize the genetic information of CIMMYT’s wheat genebank. Using these tools, nearly 40 percent of the 150,000 seed samples of wheat in the bank have undergone high-throughput genetic characterization, a process that allows pre-breeders to rapidly identify desirable traits in the varieties.
A recent successful example of pre-breeding was highlighted in a report that genetically characterized a collection of 8,400 centuries-old Mexican wheat landraces adapted to varied and sometimes extreme conditions, offering a treasure trove of potential genes to combat wheat’s climate-vulnerability.
“Pre-breeding helps us better understand and gather more information on what genetic traits are available in CIMMYT’s wheat genebank, so researchers can have more access to a wider variety of information than ever before,” said Prashant Vikram, wheat researcher who is also working with the pre-breeding team at CIMMYT.
However, as new genomics tools continue to develop, capacity building for researchers is necessary to ensure the potential impacts of the genebank’s biodiversity is fully realized and equitably accessible, said Kevin Pixley, SeeD project leader and program director of CIMMYT’s Genetic Resources Program.
During the IAC partners, scientists, students, and stakeholders from across the globe provided feedback on SeeD and pre-breeding initiatives, while CIMMYT led discussions on how to build genebank biodiversity for future food security and sustainable development. Increasing partnerships and multidisciplinary projects for stronger impact were identified as key needs for future initiatives.
“Multiple challenges in future wheat production – including heat stress, changes in rainfall and a growing threat of increased virulent diseases – will increase the demand for new varieties that can cope with stress and changing environment,” said Arun Joshi, CIMMYT’s regional representative in Asia. “This congress will focus on advances that can be made through increased diversity and targeted use of genetic resources to produce improved varieties.”
Martin Kropff, director general of CIMMYT, will give a keynote address on why effective partnerships and agrobiodiversity are needed to feed nine billion people. He will also chair a plenary session on “Agrobiodiversity for Sustainable Development Goals.” Other key themes for plenaries include agrobiodiversity for adaptation to and mitigation of climate change, intellectual property rights, access and benefit sharing, farmers’ rights, quarantine, biosafety and biosecurity and science-led innovation for agrobiodiversity management and sustainable use.
CIMMYT is also organizing a satellite session titled “Harnessing Biodiversity for Food Security and Sustainable Development.” This session will bring together numerous partners of the SeeD initiative, which seeks to unlock the genetic potential of maize and wheat genetic resources by providing breeders with a toolkit to improve targeted use in the development of high-yielding, climate-ready and resource-efficient cultivars. The session will also cover the importance of enhancing the use of genetic resources for improved agriculture, and how doing so can help meet several of the 17 U.N. Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. SeeD is a pioneering partner in the Diversity Seek initiative, which seeks synergies among projects to harness the diversity of crop species to feed humankind.
In addition to Kropff, CIMMYT speakers at the conference include Ravi Singh, distinguished scientist and head of bread wheat improvement and Kevin Pixley, director of CIMMYT’s genetic resources program. Other researchers working to improve the genetic potential of maize and wheat will also participate. CIMMYT will also host an evening reception on Nov. 7 to mark CIMMYT’s achievements over the last 50 years.
Check out the IAC program here and list of keynote speakers here.
