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.

Dr. Norman E. Borlaug statue unveiled in India

Written by on September 20, 2013. Posted in Features.

Left to right: Katharine McDevitt, Professor of Sculpture at Chapingo Autonomous University and sculptor of the statue of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug; Dr. Etienne Duveiller, BISA Director of Research for South Asia; Dr. Thomas A. Lumpkin, Director General of CIMMYT and BISA; and the Honorable Sri Sharad Pawar, Indian Minister of Agriculture. Photo credit: M. Shindler/CIMMYT

By Miriam Shindler, CIMMYT

The Honorable Shri Sharad Pawar, India’s Minister of Agriculture, and Jeanie Borlaug Laube, daughter of the late Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, unveiled a statue of Borlaug at the National Agricultural Science Complex in Delhi on 19 August. Working for its precursor and later CIMMYT, Borlaug developed semi-dwarf, disease-resistant wheat varieties and led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques in Mexico, India and Pakistan. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in India and Pakistan, greatly improving food security in those nations. These collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution, and Borlaug is often called the “Father of the Green Revolution” and credited with saving more than 1 billion people worldwide from starvation. Borlaug was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his work and contributions to world peace through an increased food supply.

Flowers are placed at the statue of Dr. Norman Borlaug at the National Agricultural Science Complex in Delhi. Photo credit: M.Shindler/CIMMYT

The CIMMYT-commissioned statue was donated to the people and scientists of India as a gift to mark 50 years of partnership (Dr. Borlaug introduced his new wheat varieties in India in 1963). The statue leaves a permanent reminder of Dr. Borlaug’s achievements and a legacy for the future. The statue was handmade by the artist Katharine McDevitt, professor of sculpture at Universidad Autónoma Chapingo (Chapingo Autonomous University) in the Mexican State of Texcoco. It is the oldest agricultural university in the Americas and is also where Dr. Borlaug started his research in Mexico in 1944, sleeping on the floor of a university barn. The Borlaug statue holds a book inscribed with the names of some of the leading visionaries who worked with him during the “Green Revolution” – M.S. Swaminathan, C. Subramaniam, B. Sivaraman, A.B. Joshi, S.P. Kohli, Glenn Anderson, M.V. Rao andV.S. Mathur. It also contains a list in Latin and Hindi script of the original Mexican wheat varieties that were so productive in India. Speaking at the event, Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, Director General of both CIMMYT and the Borlaug Institute of South Asia, said, “In his vigorous support for an agricultural revolution in South Asia and his passion for understanding their circumstances, Norm won the hearts of Indian farmers and helped deliver 50 years of food security to the region. The National Agricultural Science Complex, where Norm spent a lot of his time in India, is a fitting place for this statue, and hopefully will inspire a new generation of scientists to conquer the great new challenges facing the country and the region.”

CIMMYT launches mobile phone voice messaging for climate-smart villages in India

Written by on September 19, 2013. Posted in News.

A new pilot program is trying to reach farmers in India with information on weather, pests and climate change — through their mobile phones. CIMMYT launched the “Dissemination of climate smart agro-advisories to farmers in CCAFS benchmark sites of India” project on 15 August in four villages of the Karnal District in the State of Haryana and in the Vaishali District in the State of Bihar on 1 September. The project is led by CIMMYT‘s Surabhi Mittal with IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited as the content partner and Kisan Sanchar as the dissemination and implementing agency.

The project has aims to help farmers clarify information about climate-smart technology; help them adopt technologies that could mitigate their risks due to climate change; and to measure how receiving information on mobile phones affects farmers. Its reach covers 1,200 male and female farmers in eight villages and will run for 8 months on a pilot level. Farmers whose mobile numbers are in the project database receive two voice messages every day along with detailed SMS messages – in Hindi when required. These messages give weather predictions, information about pests and remedies, details of climate smart technologies and general information about climate change and solutions. Some farmers belong to the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) climate smart villages and some belong to control villages in the Karnal and Vaishali districts.

Challenges building this mobile number database included farmers who could not receive messages from unknown numbers. The project team worked with farmers to authorize the messages and get permission from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to unblock them. Encouraging women to participate was another hurdle. Due to cultural barriers, men were not willing to share the contact numbers of their wives. Awareness and focus group discussions held in Karnal from 29 to 30 August helped solve the issue. Project Leader Mittal met the Sarpanch, or the elected head, of the villages as well as with government women health workers known as Anganwadi workers. The four villages in Karnal have women Sarpanch, helped mobilize women farmers and women in households headed by men. In Bihar, a female scout is working closely with women farmers and has created women’s groups to for the project.

Customized feedback is built into the project. First, a helpline allows farmers to give feedback and ask for responses to questions. Some questions are instantly sorted out, some are diverted to other experts and some responses are collected and the farmer is called later. The feedback is converted the next day into voice messages if it is relevant to a wider group of farmers. The other form of feedback is filtered back by field scouts who interact closely with the farmers, frequent focus group discussions and through a bi-weekly structured feedback form. Efforts are being made to make the information more relevant, timely, customized and useful for the farmers. The research and field teams have to work closely and proactively to meet the farmers’ diverse requests. Efforts to compile farmers’ correct phone numbers and to make farmers aware of the benefits of learning about new technologies are great challenges. But the enthusiasm of farmers – shown through an increased listening rate to the voice messages and an increasing number of calls to the helpline – is a great motivation for the project team.

Article author Surabhi Mittal was quoted in India’s Financial Chronicle on the subject. Read the story here.

Pathology Research Greenhouse opened in Ankara, Turkey, honors researcher

Written by on September 13, 2013. Posted in News.

A new greenhouse opened at the Central Field Crop Research Institute in Ankara, Turkey, honoring Senior Pathologist Lutfi Cetin for his contribution to wheat pathology research. The new, state-of-the-art greenhouse allows independent work on yellow, leaf, and stem rust throughout the year. The greenhouse has three sections—one for each of the rusts studied—and can maintain its temperature throughout winter frosts and hot summers. Its construction was supported by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock of Turkey, FAO, and IFAD. Turquía

The pathogen collected in June of this year has been already multiplied in the greenhouse. The pathology group of the Central Field Crop Research Institute represents one of the few labs in the region dealing with rust at all stages and plays important role in research, breeding, and training. A half-day workshop was held on 27 August 2013 at the institute to recognize Mr. Cetin’s contributions.
Mr. Cetin started his wheat carrier more than 30 years ago and has been closely associated with the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (Turkey-CIMMYT-ICARDA) in developing yellow rust resistant germplasm for the past 20 years. In the mid-1990s, when the cooperative work started, the frequency of yellow rust resistant entries did not exceed 20 to 30%. The pathology screening field with artificial inoculation was established in Haymana near Ankara with reliable and heavy infection by yellow and other rusts. This work later developed into broader rust pathology research including monitoring, pathotype identification, and screening in the seedling stage. The pathology group now annually evaluates 6,000 to 8,000 lines and populations from IWWIP in the field and around 1,000 in the seedling stage.

Maize stover: an underutilized resource for rainfed India

Written by on September 12, 2013. Posted in News.

Rastrojo-de-maíz Introducing maize stover into India’s commercial dairy systems could mitigate fodder shortages and halt increasing fodder costs, according to new research by CIMMYT and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The two organizations collaborated on the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project (CSISA), which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), as well as the CGIAR Research Program on MAIZE. Their study shows that while significant variations exist among maize cultivars in terms of their stover quantity and fodder quality, stover from some high yielding popular hybrids is at par or even better value with the best sorghum stover traded. Sorghum stover, the above-ground biomass left after grain harvest, supports much of the urban and near-urban dairy production in peninsular India.

Between 130 and 200 tons of sorghum stover are sold daily in the fodder markets of Hyderabad alone. Some of the stover is transported several hundred kilometers and costs, on a dryweight basis, about 50% of the price of sorghum grain, which is up from 20 to 30% just 15 years ago. Sorghum stover’s high monetary value can be explained by India’s demand for sorghum fodder, and possibly to a decline in the area of sorghum planted. The crop has been replaced with maize in some regions. Dairy farmers and fodder traders in India generally think maize stover is less suitable than sorghum stover as livestock feed. To challenge the negative perceptions about maize stover, maize stover of a popular high-yielding hybrid with high-quality stover fodder was provided to a commercial dairy producer in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

Rastrojo-de-maíz2 This dairy producer had maintained his eight improved Murrah buffaloes on a diet typical of that of urban and near-urban dairy systems in peninsular India. It consisted of 60% sorghum stover and 40% a homemade concentrate mix of 15% wheat bran, 54% cotton seed cake, and 31% husks and hulls from threshed pigeon-pea. Each of the dairy producer’s buffaloes consumed about 9.5 kg of sorghum stover and 6.5 kg of the concentrate mix per day and produced an average of 8.9 kg of milk per day. This dairy producer purchased sorghum stover at 6.3 Indian rupees (Rs) per kilogram. Together with the cost for concentrates, his feed cost totalled 18.2 Rs per kg of milk while his sale price was 28 Rs per kg of milk. In this trial, the dairy farmer purchased maize stover at 3.8 Rs per kg. When he substituted sorghum stover with maize stover, his average yield increased from 8.9 to 9.4 kg of milk per buffalo per day while his overall feed costs decreased from 18.2 to 14.5 Rs per kg of milk per day. The substitution of sorghum stover with maize increased his profits from 3.7 Rs per kg of milk, apart from an additional 0.5kg milk per buffalo.

This study demonstrated the big potential benefits for India’s smallholder rainfed maize and dairy farmers of adopting dual-purpose, food-and-feed maize cultivars, which combine high grain yield with high fodder quality. In this way, farmers can help solve the problem of fodder scarcity while increasing the benefits of their maize cropping. “Poultry and animal feed has been the major driver for unprecedented increase in demand of maize in South & Southeast Asia. The dual-purpose maize, with high stover quality along with high grain yield, is emerging as another big driver that can further add in the increasing demand for maize in this region” says CIMMYT Maize Breeder P.H. Zaidi, who is actively collaborating with ILRI-Hyderabad, India.

Training on weed control in direct seeded rice will boost farmers’ confidence

Written by on September 10, 2013. Posted in Features.

CSISA scientists address farmers’ concerns on Direct Seeded Rice method in Haryana
The Dry Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) method is gaining popularity in north India, thanks to the researchers, agricultural departments, and enterprising farmers of Punjab and Haryana who have made efforts to implement it on a large scale. Faced with the threats of depleting groundwater, shortage of farm labor, rising production costs, and climate variability, more and more farmers are adopting this alternative method of sowing rice. It promises to be both environmentally friendly and cost efficient.

Compared to the more widely used method where seeds are first germinated in a nursery and then the rice seedlings are manually transplanted to the fields, DSR involves sowing seeds directly in the fields with the help of a machine called a Multi Crop Planter. This technique has been popular in some developed countries of the world, including the U.S., but is new for farmers in India. The Ministry of Agriculture of the Government of India has been promoting this technique through its two flagship schemes, the National Food Security Mission (NFSM) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna (RKVY). DSR brings many benefits to farmers—it reduces cultivation costs by 5,100 rupees (78 USD) per hectare, reduces water consumption by 25%, and increases profitability up to 4,600 (70 USD) rupees per hectare. “Moreover, when wheat is grown after a crop of DSR, wheat productivity has been found 8 to 10% higher than when grown after a crop of conventional cultivated rice,” says Virender Kumar from CSISA.

Reports find DSR effective in reducing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas responsible for global warming. CCAFS and Greenhouse Gas Emission quantification project are studying the benefits of conservation agricultural practices, like zero tillage DSR, on greenhouse gas emissions. “For each tonne of rice production with conservation agriculture based management practices, on average 400 kg CO2 equivalent was reduced compared to conventional puddled transplanted rice,” says ML Jat from CCAFS.

Haryana promotes direct seeded paddy
The State Agriculture Department, Haryana Agricultural University, and Farmers Commission are now promoting the use of DSR in Haryana because of its benefits. Four years ago, only 226 hectares of area was under DRS in Haryana. This number has increased to 8000 hectares in 2012 and is targeted to cover 20,000 hectares in 2013. However, access to effective weed management and cost-effective herbicides still remain a challenge and will affect the success of this technology in the long term.

As with any new technique, the phase of building awareness, training and responding to farmers’ concerns is integral to making DSR technique successful. Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), a project funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID along with other stakeholders, launched a campaign in May to encourage farmers to adopt DSR in Haryana. The campaign included technical trainings on DSR for farmers and service providers, meetings with different stakeholders to identify and solve the problems of availability of inputs including machinery and seed, mass-media programs like radio talks, and distribution of pamphlets in the local language. The campaign reached the farmer at the field and village level for their direct feedback and to understand their problems. “Synergy between different public-private stakeholders, feedback from farmers, and technical inputs to the farmers at the right time are necessary after a series of intensive trainings to make a transformation like Direct Seeded Rice technology a success,” says B.R. Kamboj from CSISA. CSISA, in collaboration with IFC-Dunar Foods Limited and the Haryana State Department of Agriculture, organized a travelling seminar on 14 August in different villages of the Asandh block of the Karnal district. Farmers highlighted their concerns, which included late availability of the subsidized inputs such as seeds, herbicides, and machinery, and weed problems even after the proper application of herbicides.

Responding to various issues, representatives from the organizations suggested the application of preemergence herbicide, which prevent the germination of weed seeds such as pendimethalin, is necessary for effective weed management in DSR; on machinery, farmers could establish farmer cooperatives and pool resources to purchase the machinery; on less germination, sowing should be done by the expert service providers. It is also critical to use the proper setting of the sowing depth of the machine. The participants also visited the DSR fields of different villages including Balla, Salwan, Dupedi, and Padhana. While the crops looked very healthy, symptoms of zinc deficiency and excessive use of urea were seen. B. R. Kamboj demonstrated how to identify the weeds and advised on judicious use of pesticides for effective control of insects, diseases, and weeds. To ensure a good harvest from the DSR fields, the next step is timely control of insects and pests. Farmers must learn to identify the insect and pests and the right stage to control them. The Department of Agriculture will provide regular visits and trainings on insect pest management (IPM) in some identified DSR villages. “This will be a very important activity to build the confidence in the farmers to continue using DSR technique,” Kamboj says.

Are mobile phones helping farmers?

Written by on September 4, 2013. Posted in Features.

mobile-phones2 Mobile phones promise new opportunities for reaching farmers with agricultural information, but are their potential fully utilized? CIMMYT’s agricultural economist Surabhi Mittal and IRRI’s economist Mamta Mehar argue that institutional and infrastructural constraints do not allow farmers to take full advantage of this technology. In India, agro-advisory service providers use text and voice messaging along with various mobile phone based applications to provide information about weather, market prices, policies, government schemes, and new technologies. Some service providers, such as IKSL, have reached more than 1.3 million farmers across 18 states of India. But what is the real impact of such services? Are messages available at the right time? Do they create awareness? Do they strengthen farmers’ capability to make informed decisions? Are they relevant to his or her farming context?

Mittal and Mehar say there is still a long way to go. While farmers get information through their mobile phones, it is often general information irrespective of their location and crops, which is information they cannot effectively utilize. In 2011, CIMMYT conducted a survey with 1,200 farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains; the survey revealed the farmers needed information on how to address pest attacks and what varieties better adapt to changing climatic conditions. Instead, they received standard prescriptions on input use and general seed varietal recommendations. To provide the information farmers really need, dynamic databases with farmers’ land size, cropping pattern, soil type, geographical location, types of inputs used, variety of seed used, and irrigation must be developed.

Sustainability is another problem. Such agro-advisory projects require continued financial assistance; when money runs out, the project ends and the people are again left without information, feeling cheated and without trust for any similar project that may come in the future. There is a need to assess the willingness of farmers to pay for these services and develop sustainable business models, say Mittal and Mehar. Furthermore, it has been shown that the benefits of mobile phone services are not reaching the poor, as they do not have access to the technology despite its increasing availability. The main beneficiaries of the mobile phone revolution are the ones with skills and infrastructure, and the poor are thus left even further behind.

mobile-phones What can be done? Agro-advisory providers need to develop specific, appropriate, and timely content and update it as often as necessary. This cannot be achieved without a thorough assessment of farmers’ needs and their continuous evaluation. To ensure timeliness and accuracy of the provided information, two-way communication is necessary; Mittal and Mehar suggest the creation of helplines to provide customized solutions and enable feedback from farmers. The information delivery must be led by demand, not driven by supply. However, even when all that is done, it must be remembered that merely receiving messages over the phone does not motivate farmers to start using this information. The services have to be supplemented with demonstration of new technologies on farmers’ fields and through field trials.

For more information, see the full article published on the AESA website. This work is based on the ongoing research at CIMMYT’s Socioeconomics Program funded by CCAFS.

‘The 50 PACT’ Conference: collaborate for better food security in South Asia

Written by on September 3, 2013. Posted in Features.

The-50-PACT Farmers need to be more involved in developing and refining technology. This was one of the key conclusions of a technology working group comprised of leading Asian scientists, representatives of farmer groups and entrepreneurs who met during “The 50 Pact,” an international conference jointly organized by the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) to celebrate 50 years of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s first visit to India. Held in New Delhi during 16-17 August, the event brought together more than 200 participants from agriculture institutions, the government, think tanks, industry, and civil society of various countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Germany, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and the United States.

South Asia is the most populous region in the world and several models predict that this region is going to be dramatically impacted by climate change. “We must devise new ways to feed more people with less land, less water and under more difficult climate change conditions,” said Thomas Lumpkin, Director General of CIMMYT, highlighting a significant challenge that requires critical innovations, collaborations and commitments to solve food insecurity and strengthen agriculture in South Asia. This sentiment was echoed by others in the opening session of the conference, including S. Ayyappan, director general of ICAR, government of India, R.S. Paroda, president of Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), R.B. Singh, president of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Swapan Datta, ICAR and Marianne Bänzinger of CIMMYT. Remembering their personal interactions with Dr. Borlaug, “the Nobel laureate with a heart for the poor,” and his association with CIMMYT and India, they also felt the need to make a pact to bring about a second green revolution in the South Asia region. M.S. Swaminathan, a legendary figure in Indian agriculture, paid tribute to Dr. Borlaug for his immense contribution in agriculture during the opening ceremony. “From Bengal famine to Right to Food Act of India, it has been a historic transition and Dr. Borlaug played a very important role in this transition through his work in the last 50 years,” Swaminathan said. Jeanie Laube Borlaug, chairperson of BGRI and the daughter of Dr. Norman Borlaug, presented Swaminathan with the Dr. Norman Borlaug Award.

Technology and innovations will play a key role
Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka will have to work together to find regional solutions to food insecurity. Representatives from these countries talked about different agricultural developments during the post-green revolution period and emerging challenges and opportunities. They also highlighted how the BISA, with its mandate, furthers research on farming systems in addition to focusing on an eco-regional approach involving other CG centers. Utilizing all technologies, including molecular breeding, biotechnology, precision agronomy, and mobile-based decision making will be crucial. The session on technology highlighted this and also pushed for greater involvement of farmers at every step of new technology development. It is important to capture the process of adoption of innovation by farmers and use new technology to provide feedback to the researchers. The group advocated for increased political will and a better policy environment on the adoption of GM crops. Making agriculture profitable is important for producers and the entire agricultural value chain. Ramesh Chand of ICAR said that his recent analysis in India shows the real farm income is not declining, but the income gap between agricultural and non-agricultural income is widening. Agricultural infrastructure is not well developed, investments are low and land fragmentation is increasing. These are major concerns for this sector. The participants talked about a need for an enhanced cyber infrastructure for crop research, open access to agriculture database, and strengthening the value chain balancing the role of market, price, and technologies.

Greater regional synergy needed
More emphasis on synergy, partnerships, farmer’s welfare, productivity, profitability, and nutrition will be critical to address the problem of hidden hunger and food security in this region. Other areas to focus on include providing access to and the use of cutting edge research and new technologies that are not yet available in the region, ensuring commitments from governments and other donors for investments in agricultural research, advocating for a policy environment that embraces new technologies and invests in agricultural research, building a regional platform of collaboration with partners from all sectors, research centers, governments, the scientific world, and the farming community who share our mandate to transform farmers’ lives in the region.

Farming systems design: to feed a changing world

Written by on September 2, 2013. Posted in News.

Farming-systems2 Farming systems all over the world face complex problems in terms of production, such as natural resource depletion, climate change, increasing food demand, and volatile prices. Farmers have to adapt to continuously changing conditions to produce food. ‘Farming systems design’ is an approach that aims at modifying designs of farming systems to sustainably increase the overall productivity and profitability of the systems—and, hopefully, the welfare of individual farming families—while considering interactions in the system. Interactions are important features of farm system structure and operation. They may occur between the various components, including crop-crop, crop-livestock, and farm-household as well as on-farm-off-farm activities as they compete for the same resources.

More than 70 papers on systems research were recently presented at the 4th International Farming Systems Design Symposium in Lanzhou, China. CIMMYT researchers were represented by Bruno Gérard, director of the Conservation Agriculture Program, and CIMMYT agronomists Santiago López Ridaura, Tek Sakpota, Isaiah Nyagumbo, and Jack McHugh. The conference took place from 19- 22 August and was organized by WHEAT CRP Chinese partner Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and others. Research with a farming systems perspective can have various objectives ranging from increasing the amount of knowledge about farming systems to solving specific problems in the farming system. If it is commonly agreed that cross-links between disciplines and participatory approaches are needed to provide solutions, “there is no silver bullet approach to be expected,” said keynote speaker David Norman, professor emeritus of agricultural economics at Kansas State University and pioneer in the field of Farming Systems Research (FSR). “The most important is to take into account the whole farming system and bring together all stakeholders,” Norman explained. “If a project works on one crop, like CIMMYT on maize for instance, FSR would look at how maize impacted if they have livestock, the influence on livestock components, etc. The reductionist approach would look at how improving productivity of one item without considering the whole farming system.”

Farming-systems3 For Peter Carberry, chair of the Program Committee and deputy director at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), “this conference is about bringing those who are interested in a more integrative science together, and have all the different disciplines articulating possibilities for the future in terms of agriculture and farming.” One of the benefits of the conference for him is that among the 300 participants, there were 200 Chinese researchers and students, some who may not have been exposed to this thinking before. “We have a mix of people who are familiar with Farming Systems Design and others who are just starting learning about it; it is a great opportunity,” Carberry said. LingLing Li, professor at Gansu Agricultural University and keynote speaker, shared a similar point of view. “This platform is a really good start for all experts and students involved in Farming Systems Design, as we do not yet have many scientists doing this type of research in China,” Li said.

On day one and two, there were several presentations on Africa and on the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program led and mentored by CIMMYT. “SIMLESA has been innovating in so many different ways, firstly about systems and farming systems, participatory approaches and new experiments in research methodology by targeting not only productivity but also reduced risks, which we have heard a lot in this conference. Because for farmers risks are sometimes more important than total yields,” said John Dixon, senior advisor in the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and principal regional coordinator for Africa. Important questions raised throughout the conference included how to get better participation with farmers, how to get the private sector involved for marketing through innovation platforms, how to manage risks and how scientists can work much better at systems productivity to understand better nutrition, as one of the outcomes, “to better feed our future farmers,” Dixon insisted. On the last day, a special session brought together Australian and Chinese farmers to discuss farming operations. This opportunity to exchange information and share experiences related to climate risks, prices or yields created enthusiasm on both parts.

Cereal Systems Initiatives for South Asia-Mechanization and Irrigation project launched

Written by on August 27, 2013. Posted in News.

CIMMYT and International Development Enterprises (iDE) announced the initiation of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Mechanization and Irrigation in Bangladesh

In south-western Bangladesh, the world’s largest delta with plentiful fresh surface water, more than 600,000 hectares of land are fallowed without crop in the dry season.

Responding to this problem, CIMMYT and International Development Enterprises (iDE) are pleased to announce the initiation of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Mechanization and Irrigation (CSISA-MI) project to sustainably intensify cropping on fallow and low-productivity lands. This US$13-million, five-year project, supported by the Feed the Future Initiative and administered by the USAID mission in Bangladesh, was launched on 1 July 2013.

CSISA-MI is a sister initiative falling under the CSISA-Bangladesh program, connecting CIMMYT, IRRI, and WorldFish as partners. The MI initiative aims to unlock agricultural productivity in southern Bangladesh by conducting research and market development to increase the availability and adoption of resource-conserving irrigation equipment, and to scale farm machineries to respond to rural labor scarcity and high costs, while also encouraging crop management practices based on conservation agriculture (CA). Southern Bangladesh is constrained by numerous factors, including farmers’ inability to invest in resource-conserving and productivity-enhancing machinery, high cost of water pumping, and lack of awareness about the potential for dry season crops like wheat, maize, sunflower, and legumes.

CSISA-MI responds to these problems by developing smart business models to link farmers with agricultural service providers, and service providers with machinery and irrigation equipment dealers, to boost the use of irrigation and machinery for CA throughout the region. The project will also bridge the gap between the public and private sectors by facilitating partnerships with the government of Bangladesh and private sector partners engaged in irrigation, agricultural mechanization, and extension.

CSISA-MI will create broad access to low-cost surface water irrigation and smart agricultural machinery and other services to enable farmers to optimize water, labor, time, seed, and fertilizer use in their fields during the dry season. Research topics will focus on the improvement of irrigation water use efficiency and agricultural water management as well as enhancement of the use of fuel-saving axial flow pumps (AFPs) and other equipment for surface water irrigation. Further research and the development of value chains will focus on seed-fertilizer drills compatible with two-wheeled tractors for strip tillage, bed planters, multi-crop reapers, and rice transplanters used to reduce turn-around time between crops.

Machineries and cropping practices will be fine-tuned to the diverse agro-ecological conditions of the region through on-farm action research and experimentation in farmers’ fields. CSISA-MI harnesses the power of the market to align incentives toward large-scale, smart-technology adoption. The initiative has already made significant progress. Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with leading firms, including RFLP ran Group and ACI Agribusiness, have been signed to accelerate the commercial availability of AFPs, bed planters, and seed-fertilizer drills.

Focus on heat stress resilient maize for Asia

Written by on August 19, 2013. Posted in News.

HTMA-meeting Scientists from the Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project and representatives from collaborating public and private sector institutions from the region, Purdue University, and CIMMYT gathered together during 30-31 July 2013 in Kathmandu, Nepal, for the 1st HTMA Annual Progress Review and Planning Meeting. The meeting was jointly organized by the National Maize Research Program (NMRP) and CIMMYT to discuss progress to-date and future HTMA work plans. HTMA, supported by USAID under the Feed the Future initiative, is a public-private alliance targeting resource-poor people in South Asia who rely on growing maize for subsistence or income in rainfed conditions and whose welfare is directly dependent on maize yields and negatively affected by crop failures.

K.B. Koirala, National Maize Coordinator for Nepal, welcomed all participants and highlighted the importance of the public-private alliance through HTMA, especially for addressing such complex issues as developing and distributing heat stress resilient maize. CIMMYT Global Maize Program director B.M. Prasanna reiterated the need for and importance of maize breeding for heat-stress resilience in his opening remarks, while USAID’s Larry Beach stressed the project’s significance in addressing the emerging effects of climate change.

The first day was devoted to an annual progress review, which was initiated by senior maize physiologist and CIMMYT and HTMA project leader P.H. Zaidi, who presented updates on the project execution and status of progress during the project’s first year. The following session, chaired by Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) executive director D.B. Gurung, covered membrane lipid profiling in relation to heat stress; identifying quantitative trait loci (QTL) for heat-stress tolerance and component traits by joint linkage analysis; association mapping for heat tolerance; latest marker statistics on genotyping-by-sequencing; genomic selection for heat stress tolerance; and development of target populations for rapid-cycle genomic selection. The afternoon session was chaired by Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) chairman Iftikhar Ahmad and focused on phenotyping for heat-stress tolerance; crop modeling and the IMPACT model component; a road map for development and distribution of heat resilient maize; seed distribution systems; and seed companies’ perspectives on target markets.

During day two, participants discussed and developed a workplan and activities for the second year of the project for each collaborating institution. This was followed by a special session on “Exploring linkages & synergy among USAID-funded projects in South Asia.” Representatives from various ongoing projects in the region, including the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), and HTMA, as well as NARC and the Nepalese Ministry of Agriculture, joined in the lively discussion, which helped to identify opportunities for potential linkages among the region’s initiatives and a synergy between them. The linkages could offer a win-win situation for all stakeholders.

The meeting was concluded with an HTMA project steering committee meeting chaired by B.M. Prasanna. The committee members expressed their satisfaction with the strategy, ongoing activities, and the progress being made.

Making villages ‘climate smart’

Written by on August 13, 2013. Posted in News.

“Climatic extremes and variability are becoming more frequent and resulting in losses for farmers. This issue cannot be addressed in isolation; it needs collective participation of all stakeholders, at all levels,” stated Clare Stirling, leader of the CIMMYT component of the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) CRP, at a stakeholder consultation on ‘Climate Smart Agricultural Technologies for Smallholder Farmers of Bihar’ held on 22 July 2013.

The talks were organized by CIMMYT and BISA, under the aegis of CCAFS, and in collaboration with national research and extension partners such as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Rajendra Agriculture University, the State Department of Agriculture, and the Government of Bihar; international centers Bioversity International, the International Water Management Institute, and the International Food Policy Research Institute; local NGO and private sector partners; and farmer groups of the Climate Smart Village (CSV) clusters, Vaishali district, Bihar.

The lively discussions included almost 200 participants, including innovative CSV farmers from Bhatthadasi, Rajapakar, and Mukundpur (Vaishali district); agriculture advisors from various Village Panchayats; climate smart farmer groups, research students, and local service providers. M.L. Jat, CIMMYT-CCAFS South Asia Leader, explained the concept of CCAFS CSVs in South Asia, and the key climate smart activities they are implementing for the benefit of smallholder farmers in Bihar’s Vaishali district. Participants visited demonstration plots where R.K. Jat, CIMMYT-BISA Cropping Systems Agronomist, showed how mechanization and conservation agriculture-based management practices are being implemented even on small, fragmented land holdings. By effectively ‘pooling’ their land for operational purposes, farmers have improved efficiency, reduced costs, and established timely crop management even with uncertain rainfall. R.K. Jat also explained the main advantages of the key climate smart interventions such as zero tillage, Direct Seeded Rice (DSR), raised bed planting, residue management, crop diversification, and nutrient management in managing climate risks and optimizing resources for higher profitability for the smallholders.

The active participation of about 80 female farmers allowed for a balanced and varied consultation. All the farmers expressed their concerns regarding climate variability and how it is affecting their livelihoods. They shared their experiences of turning their villages into CSVs, and how the new practices have benefitted them; after planting their wheat under zero till in the winter of 2012-13, farmers were initially skeptical of these changes to age-old practices, but having now reaped higher yields with less input costs, all the farmers have committed to planting under zero tillage next season. DSR has also been recently introduced, and the farmers thought the technology seemed promising in that it would reduce cultivation costs and provide some security under the increasing uncertainties of rainfall and labor shortages. The women farmers praised the intoduction of the ZT machine by CIMMYT under CCAFS. With many men migrating to cities, the women highlighted the reduced labor load with the increased availability of machinery and bed planting of maize and legumes.

I.S. Solanki, IARI Regional Station Head, emphasized the need for farmers to work with scientists in adopting resilient farm technologies and locally-adapted seed. This was reiterated by Stirling: “The concept of CSVs is just one example of making synergies among different programs, investments, institutions, and stakeholders, for adaptation, risk management, and mitigation of climate change effects,” she said.

Research battles wheat spot blotch disease

Written by on July 19, 2013. Posted in News.

wheat-spot-blotch-disease After screening some 500 wheat lines and varieties at 6 sites in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, a group of scientists were able to identify 35 genotypes that resist spot blotch. This is the number-one disease of wheat in the Eastern Gangetic Plains, seriously damaging the crops of farmers—who are mostly smallholders—on some 9 million hectares.

The results were reported at a meeting of participants in two projects of WHEAT, the CGIAR Research Program on this crop, at Mohanpur Campus of IISER-Kolkata, India, on 24 June 2013. Funded through multi-year competitive grants from WHEAT, the two project are “Deciphering phytohormone signaling in modulation of resistance to spot blotch disease for identification of novel resistance components for wheat improvement,” led by Shree P. Pandey, IISER-Kolkata, and “Spot blotch of wheat: Delivering resistant wheat lines and diagnostic and molecular markers for resistance,” led by Ramesh Chand of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. Among other things, participants discussed year-one outcomes and laid plans for the coming crop cycle.

Chand reported on the seedling stage resistance found in the wheat tested. In this type of resistance, the pathogen is present on wheat seedlings for up to 25 days without any infection, exhibiting responses such as lesion mimic and tissue necrosis, which appear to attenuate pathogen effects. The resistance gene Sr2 was also found in most of the resistant seed.

Exciting moments in the meeting were the discussions of biochemical and histo-pathological parameters and their possible integration in the resistance screening. Pandey and his team reported novel research to understand phytohormone signals that regulate wheat’s resistance against Bipolaris sorokiniana–the causal pathogen of spot blotch—and which are synthesized in response to the pathogen’s attack. The IISER group is assembling a dictionary of signaling genes that can serve as genomic tools for resistance breeding in wheat. “Expression of these DNA ‘words’ changes when plants are attacked by the spot blotch pathogen,” said Pandey. “Deciphering this word choice can elucidate the chain of command in plants in to the pathogen, helping breeders to design plants better-equipped with resistance genes.”

Finally, there was a report on the field performance of the 500 lines at two other locations, UBKV Coochbehar and RAU Pusa.

In addition to the scientists mentioned above, participants included WHEAT manager Victor Komerell; CIMMYT researcher Arun Joshi; Prof. V.K. Mishra, BHU, Varanasi; Prof. Apurba Chowdhury; Dr. P.M. Bhattacharya, UBKV; and Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, Bihar; as well as other wheat researchers from IISER-K.

“The partners here submitted separate proposals for the projects,” said Komerell. “This meeting furnishes an example of how WHEAT has encouraged them to collaborate.”

CIMMYT/CCAFS in India: Gender, action, research

Written by on July 19, 2013. Posted in News.

In June 2013, ML Jat (Global Conservation Agriculture Program) and research teams in Bihar and Haryana, India, welcomed CIMMYT gender specialist Tina Beuchelt and gender consultant Cathy Farnworth to discuss integration of gender perspectives into their daily research routine. The visit was triggered by the request from the CRP on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) to enhance women’s access to and use of agricultural and climate-related services and information (IDO5).

The visit began with discussions held with individual researchers on how to include a gender perspective in their work plans and field experiments, demonstration plots, out-scaling efforts, and surveys. The team visited farmers participating in CIMMYT/CCAFS projects in Bihar and Haryana, where lively small group discussions helped the visitors to gain a deeper understanding of the situation of women and men, their roles and responsibilities, and gender-related constraints existing in their small-scale farming systems. The team met with smallholder and better-off farmers, as well as landless workers and female-headed households to obtain a representative picture of those involved in agriculture in CIMMYT/CCAFS target areas. Men and women were interviewed separately, and CIMMYT staff helped to explain the production systems and the basket of climate-smart farming options currently available, and shared their thoughts on how to respond to specific gender challenges.

Given the varying agro-ecological environments and socioeconomic characteristics of farmers in each state, it was agreed that in order to address IDO5 successfully, new partners, new allies, and new ideas are needed. While the discussions proceeded well, one of the female participants made a timely and heart-felt warning: “You ask us to take risks, but where will you be if we fail?”

The trip culminated with a workshop on “Pathways of gender-equity led climate-smart farming: learning from stakeholders” organized jointly by the Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and CIMMYT/CCAFS in Haryana on 7 June 2013. A wonderful mix of male and female farmers; farmer organizations; researchers from ICAR, Haryana Agricultural University, and CGIAR; extension and developmental organizations, including the State Department of Agriculture, NGOs; private sector organizations; and politicians – about 65 participants in total – joined the workshop and contributed with great enthusiasm to discussions on advantages and disadvantages of different climate-smart technologies for women, more effective types of institutional support required to support women etc. Participants then formed small groups to discuss concrete ideas for action to support women in agriculture, which was followed by presentations and discussions in a plenary session chaired by DRW director Indu Sharma.

The workshop was concluded with dinner wherein Suresh Gahalawat, Deputy Director for Agriculture in Karnal at the Government of Haryana, who had showed great enthusiasm regarding the topic during the workshop, announced that: “Gender will become part of the agricultural policies of Haryana”. “To start with, we will include the gender component in all schemes operated in the district,” he added, confirming the importance and success of the workshop.

The Indian research team is strongly committed to integrating gender into their research activities

Nutrient Expert™ decision support tools for maize and wheat launched

Written by on July 8, 2013. Posted in News.

Nutrient-Expert™ The Nutrient Expert™ decision support tools for maize and wheat in India were officially launched for public use on 20 June 2013 at the National Agricultural Science Centre Complex in New Delhi during a meeting jointly organized by the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) and CIMMYT.

Beginning in 2009 under the umbrella of the Cereal System Initiative in South Asia (CSISA) and later CRPs MAIZE, WHEAT, and CCAFS, the tools were developed through a joint effort of IPNI, CIMMYT, and national agricultural research systems to help Indian farmers achieve higher yields and profits. These easy-to-use, interactive, computer-based tools capture spatial and temporal variability to provide precise nutrient recommendations to smallholder farmers in the wheat and maize systems of India.

The Nutrient Expert™ was developed in collaboration with target users and local stakeholders from public and private sectors through a series of dialogues and consultations, using site-specific nutrient management principles. As a result, the tools reflect resource constraints of smallholder farmers, lack of access to soil testing, and absence of tillage-specific nutrient management strategies in India. In a three-year validation process assessing their efficacy under contrasting management scenarios, conducted across a large number of locations in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), state agricultural universities, state agriculture departments, and fertilizer and seed industries, the tools have shown improved productivity, profitability, efficiency, and reduced environmental footprints over existing fertilizer management practices. According to Bruno Gerard, Global Conservation Agriculture Program director, “the excellent outputs of the IPNI-CIMMYT partnership will benefit not only South Asia but also other regions.” Adding to the positives of the tools, IPNI vice president Adrian M. Johnston praised their unique ability to link databases for output.

The tools were launched at the presence of CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin, ICAR Crop Sciences deputy director general Swapan K. Datta, agricultural commissioner with the Government of India JS Sandhu, Adrian M. Johnston, Bruno Gerard, and ICAR assistant director general for Natural Resource Management B. Moham Kumar. As India faces many challenges to feed its growing population with changing food habits, Lumpkin emphasized the need for new tools: “We need to apply precision agriculture on each square meter; we need tools like the Nutrient Expert™ and remote-sensing technology to be able to do so.”

During panel discussions following the launch, participants stressed the importance of the tools and charted out the future course of action for their large-scale dissemination. “The challenges currently faced by South Asia should be used as an opportunity to create impact. Enabling farmers to apply fertilizer nutrients correctly and in a more precise way is one such opportunity,” said Datta. The Nutrient Expert™ tools will also help reduce the knowledge gap between extension workers and farmers, he added. Concerned about the degradation of natural resources, Kumar stressed that “excessive and imbalanced use of chemicals significantly contributes to nonpoint source pollution. A precise, site-specific nutrient management approach is a welcome solution to this problem.”

The concluding session, chaired by KD Kokate, ICAR deputy director general for extension, and co-chaired by CIMMYT’s Raj Gupta, provided necessary guidance for dissemination throughout the national system and other stakeholders.

The program was coordinated by IPNI-South Asia director Kaushik Majumdar and CIMMYT senior cropping systems agronomist ML Jat. Nutrient-Expert™3

Nepal wheat scientists receive government award

Written by on July 4, 2013. Posted in News.

Nepal The Government of Nepal and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) awarded Madan Raj Bhatta, Sarala Sharma, Deepak Bhandari, Dhruba Bahadur Thapa, and Nutan Raj Gautam — winners of the first-ever Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Gene Stewardship Award — for their outstanding contribution to food security through development and promotion of rust resistant wheat varieties in the country and for highlighting the country’s research globally. The award – one million Nepalese rupees (11,440 US$) and a plaque – was presented by the Minister of Agricultural Development Tek Bahadur Thapa Gharti on 8 May 2013 on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of NARC in Khumaltar, Lalitpur.

On behalf of the awardees, Bhatta and Sharma thanked the Government of Nepal and NARC for recognizing their contributions and praised the role of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and BGRI in promoting agronomically superior rust-resistant wheat varieties crucial for food security in the region. “I am going to use 100,000 rupees of my prize money to establish a fund awarding two farmers or technicians every year for significant contributions towards wheat rust management,” said Sharma in her award acceptance speech. On behalf of CIMMYT, wheat breeder Arun Joshi congratulated the award-winning team and NARC for their remarkable contributions in bringing about excellence in development and release of rust-resistant wheat varieties, seed multiplication of resistant varieties with diverse genetic backgrounds, disease surveillance, participatory research with farmers, and improvement of livelihoods of small-scale farmers to combat the problems of food security.

“Wheat has played a great role in internal food supply in the country, a role equivalent to more than 26 billion rupees annually,” said B.B. Gurung, NARC executive director. “The new technologies and wheat varieties introduced by the team have brought a significant increment in wheat area and productivity in the last five years,” he added, referring to the increase in wheat area from 0.7 million hectares to 0.8 million, production from 1.4 million tons to 1.8 million, and productivity from 2.1 t/ha to 2.3 t/ha.