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.

CIMMYT-CAAS-Seed industry interface on rapid-cycle maize breeding

Written by on July 9, 2012. Posted in News.

To strengthen the modern technology-driven maize breeding in China, “CIMMYT-CAAS-Seed Industry Interface on Rapid-cycle Maize Breeding” was held on June 9, 2012 in CIMMYT-CAAS Joint International Research Center based in Beijing. Co-sponsored by CIMMYT, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), and the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), the workshop was attended by 52 scientists and managers from 23 seed companies and public sector institutions in China. Their aim was to establish a dynamic interface between the CIMMYT-CAAS maize team and the seed industry to begin rapid-cycle, genomic selection-based maize breeding, under an initiative titled “Eight + One”—that is, eight seed companies plus the CAAS institute of crop sciences—as an industry/institution collaboration platform for commercial maize breeding.

Senior managers addressing participants included David Bergvinson, senior program officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; GCP director Jean-Marcel Ribaut; Shumin Wang, deputy director, CAAS-ICS; and from CIMMYT, Gary Atlin, associate director of the CIMMYT global maize program, and Kevin Pixley, director of the genetic resources program.

CAAS

Scientists presented on CIMMYT work in genomic selection (concept and CIMMYT activities, Xuecai Zhang), double haploid approaches in maize breeding (Daniel Jeffers), marker-assisted selection in maize breeding (Yunbi Xu), modeling and simulation in plant breeding (Jiankang Wang), bioinformatics and computing needs for genomic selection (Gary Atlin), and our breeding pipeline and examples from lowland tropical maize breeding (Xuecai Zhang). BGI-Shenzhen’s Gengyun Zhang described the company’s genotyping platforms and service. A group discussion addressed rapid-cycle maize breeding through industry-institution collaboration, such as the molecular breeding network in China, coordinated genotyping and phenotyping, use of temperate and tropical DH inducers, environmental data collection, and standardization of maize trials.

Participants also attended an “Open Day for Chinese Breeders,” a concurrent session of the 3rd Annual Meeting of Integrated Breeding Platform Project organized by GCP and CAAS, were introduced to IB FieldBook and IBP Analysis Tools. “(This workshop) came at a right time and brought us right information and knowledge for accelerating maize commercial breeding,” said Zanyong Sun, Vice president of Beijing Denong Seed Co. The workshop’s chief organizer, maize molecular breeder Yunbi Xu, sees it as an important first step for industry institution initiatives. “We’ll establish a common genotyping and MAS platform to serve the Chinese maize breeding community,” he said.

Using double haploid in maize breeding

Written by on July 6, 2012. Posted in News.

The use of doubled haploids in maize breeding was first proposed more than half a century ago. Today, the in vivo haploid induction technique is routinely used in maize inbred line development, in both the public and the private sector. The DH technology enhances maize breeding in two ways: 1) it reduces the time required to produce completely homozygous inbred lines. Whereas six or more generations of self-pollination are needed to traditionally produce inbreds, DH technology produces inbreds in only two generations; and 2) because the higher genetic variance among DH lines compared to F2 plants, or selfed F3 or F4 families, improves the effectiveness of selection.

DH technology in maize breeding was the theme of a training workshop organized by the University of Hohenheim (UH) and CIMMYT at Stuttgart, Germany, during 11-15 June 2012. The program was organized under the ‘Abiotic stress tolerant maize for Asia’ (ATMA) project funded by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). A total of 21 scientists, including maize breeders and physiologists from Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Vietnam, UH, and CIMMYT attended the weeklong course. Experts on DH technology from UH, CIMMYT, and German seed companies served as resource persons on the course, delivering lectures on various aspects of DH technology in maize breeding. Mornings were devoted to lectures whilst in the afternoons, participants undertook hands-on, practical project in various aspects of DH line development and production.

Day-1 presenters included UH’s Wolfgang Schipprack; Vanessa Prigge, an ex-PhD student of UH and CIMMYT who is currently working as a Potato Breeder in SaKa Pflanzenzucht GbR, and T. Wegenast, Dow AgroSciences. In the afternoon, participants worked on identification of haploid kernels from various DH-induced populations and planted haploid kernels on germination paper for development of seedlings. DH lab members at UH explained and demonstrated the selection of haploid kernels and developing seedlings for colchicine treatment for chromosome doubling.

On the second day, B. Schilling and B. Devezi of the UH-DH lab jointly presented various aspects of management of greenhouses, safety issues, and requirements for running a successful DH program. E. Senger a PhD student at UH, and Vijay Chaikam, CIMMYT, also shared their experiences. During the afternoon, preparation of colchicine solution, preparation of maize seedling for colchicine treatment, application of colchicine treatment, and the transplanting the seedlings in greenhouse were demonstrated to the participants.

Participants also visited the UH-DH research station at Eckartsweier, where Schipprack detailed various field based aspects of DH development including selection of plants for transplanting in field, organized demonstration of mechanized transplanting of D0 plants, management of D0 nursery, and identification of false positives in the nursery. After the D0 nursery, participants visited the DH inducer development and maintenance nursery, D2 nurseries, and the isolation block for production of induction crosses. On the final day of the workshop, UH’s A.E. Melchinger delivered a lecture on the application of marker-based prediction strategies for DH lines and discussed various models and approaches for prediction of DH lines. George Mahuku shared updates on DH line production and development of tropical inducer lines at CIMMYT, and talked about possible models for use of DH technology by national breeding programs in Asia. Participants appreciated the initiatives and efforts of CIMMYT and UH, and discussed various options to get DH technology into their breeding programs.

Avinash Singode, Directorate of Maize Research, Bhagya Rani Banik, Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, and Le Quy Kha, National Maize Research Institute, were very supportive of the course and expressed their sincere thanks to organizers. P.H. Zaidi, Project Coordinator, ATMA, thanks Prof. Melchinger and Schipprack and his team for their time, efforts, and inputs in jointly organizing the workshop, and emphasized the need to follow up on this in the hope that within one year, each participating institution will have access to DH technology in their program, at least through Model-1 (send their most elite population to CIMMYT, and get back DH lines), as suggested by Mahuku.

China-CIMMYT impact: celebrating 30 years of collaborations

Written by on June 25, 2012. Posted in News.

CIMMYT director general Tom Lumpkin, Global Wheat Program director Hans Braun, and Global Maize Program director B M Prasanna visited the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS) during 16-18 May 2012. As part of the visit, CAAS President Li Jiayang highlighted CIMMYT’s contributions to Chinese agricultural development and named CIMMYT as a CAAS strategic partner for international collaboration. An agreement was also signed between CAAS and CIMMYT to further promote collaboration on applied biotechnology in crop improvement. A workshop was held on 18 May 2012 to celebrate the 30-year China-CIMMYT collaboration. There were more than 60 participants, including Ren Wang, CAAS vice president, deputy director general Liu Zhiming from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and division director Yinglan Zhang from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Lumpkin described CIMMYT’s new development and collaboration role with China, followed by presentations from CIMMYT liaison officer Zhonghu He and five partners from CAAS and from the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Shandong, and Ningxia.

MOA As indicated in Ren Wang’s speech, CIMMYT has the largest investment in China among CGIAR centers. Five collaborative research programs led by CIMMYT scientists stationed in China have been established at CAAS, Yunnan and Sichuan. This has created a new model for CGIAR-China collaboration and increased CIMMYT’s impact in China. CIMMYT is also the first international center to establish collaborative projects with the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

CIMMYT wheat germplasm has contributed significantly to wheat production in China. More than 90,000 wheat accessions were introduced to China and 14,000 genotypes were stored in national and provincial genebanks, accounting for around 55% of introduced wheat germplasm in China. More than 260 improved varieties were released from CIMMYT germplasm, and the accumulated planting area for these varieties has reached 45 million hectares.

More than 1,000 tropical inbred lines and populations from CIMMYT were introduced to China. CIMMYT germplasm has played a significant role in subtropical maize breeding in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces. CIMMYT tropical maize germplasm has also been used as a donor for breeding temperate maize in northern China, as occurred in the two leading temperate hybrids Nongda 108 and Zhengdan 958.

CIMMYT-China collaborations have also had an impact on the application of molecular technology. Forty functional markers were developed, validated, and used in various wheat breeding programs, and three advanced lines developed from molecular markers are expected to be released in the next few years. These markers have been widely used to characterize Chinese and CIMMYT germplasm. A novel method for mapping quantitative trait genes, the ICIM, was developed and used in many countries. Breeding simulation tools are used to optimize the complicated breeding strategies. Nine training courses have been held in China, Mexico, IRRI, and Australia to promote new tools and methods. QTL analysis through joint linkage-LD mapping was developed and used to understand molecular mechanisms for drought tolerance. The genes related to the biosynthesis of proV A have been cloned and used to develop functional markers for molecular breeding. Chip-based and sequencing-based genotyping techniques have been used for genetic diversity analysis, haplotype map construction, and association mapping in maize. More than 400 papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals, including several papers in high-impact journals such as Genetics (2007), PNAS (2010), and Nature Genetics (2010, 2012).

CHINA-CIMMYT-30years-collaboration-seminar Bed planting has produced significant impact in the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan, Shandong, and Henan, bringing among other benefits a 30% reduction in input use. Bed planting is particularly advantageous at saving water. Conservation agriculture techniques combined with new winter wheat varieties have been broadly extended in traditional spring wheat areas, allowing farmers to take advantage of climate change to increase yields and reduce input use.

CIMMYT trained scientists play a leading role in China. Over 800 Chinese scientists and administrators have visited CIMMYT and more than 200 scientists have participated in various training courses or visiting scientist programs and more than 60 postgraduates were trained. Among them, more than 60 serve at a research professor level or became presidents of provincial academies or directors of research institutes. As of 2012, more than 20 training courses and international conferences have been jointly organized, with more than 3,500 participants.

Preventing stripe rust in Sichuan, China

Written by on June 13, 2012. Posted in News.

GarryField One of the worst wheat diseases in China, stripe rust has appeared in yearly epidemics since 1950 and caused losses of more than 60 million tons. As China is among the world’s main producers of wheat, the CIMMYT China office in Chengdu, in collaboration with the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS), organized a two-day workshop to address these issues.

On 23 April 2012, around 50 participants from Sichuan and neighboring provinces were joined at SAAS by representatives from the Sichuan Department of Science and Technology and the Foreign Expert Bureau of Sichuan Province. The purpose of the workshop, which included site visits, was to learn about breeding for durable resistance to stripe rust in wheat.

Following an introduction by SAAS vice president Liu Jianjun, the workshop began with several seminars on breeding and rust diseases. Professor Bob McIntosh from Sydney University, Australia, presented a seminar on host pathogen interactions and the current status of global rust
epidemics, followed by CIMMYT scientist Sybil Herrera who gave an update on her work with minor, durable resistance genes, marker development and their application in breeding programs. CIMMYT wheat breeder Garry Rosewarne outlined some of the work on quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis and breeding strategies at SAAS. Ennian Yang from SAAS closed with an account of CIMMYT SAAS collaborations, outlining the early shuttle breeding between China and Mexico and related outcomes.

The rest of the workshop was dedicated to field visits, with two sites visited on the first day. At Xindu farm, the main SAAS breeding site, the participants saw demonstrations of the selected bulk methodology. At the Guanghan site there were several elite yield trials as well as seed multiplication blocks of the latest, high-yielding releases from another Sichuan based breeder, Dr Wuyun Yang. During discussions, Dr Tang, a local agronomist, also explained conservation agriculture techniques developed in collaboration with CIMMYT’s consultant Ken Sayre. In traditional Chinese fashion, the evening was spent at a banquet at the “One Duck” restaurant, with everyone enjoying excellent food and wine, and catching up with old friends.

The second day of the workshop involved a visit to the field station of the Neijiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, hosted by their president Huang Yuecheng. Based in a mountainous region near Chengdu, there were interesting demonstrations of intercropping with high-yielding wheat and specially designed equipment for cultivation and sowing on small, hilly plots. The main purpose of this field visit however was to see the academy’s own variety, Neimai 836, which has high yield potential and good resistance to powdery mildew (Pm21) as well as stem rust resistance against Ug99.

Pakistan and CIMMYT: The center says “Khush Aamdeed” (warm welcome) to a distinguished delegation

Written by on June 4, 2012. Posted in News.

The strength and breadth of the fruitful five-decade partnership between Pakistan and CIMMYT have grown significantly in recent years: this was one conclusion from the visit to CIMMYT on 29 May 2012 of a 12-member team of senior civil servants, ambassadors, and corporate executives from Pakistan.

The event was one leg of a foreign study tour by the group, as part of the 96th National Management Course given by the government of Pakistan’s National Management College. Designed to sensitize participants in public policy formulation and implementation, diplomacy, and external and bilateral relations, the tour’s stop at El Batán gave the visitors a broadbrush overview of Pakistan and CIMMYT’s shared history, of global challenges to food security, and how our current and future partnerships address them.

As emerged in the CIMMYT presentations, Pakistani policymakers, researchers, and farmers played a key role in the Green Revolution. In 1961 as part of his work with Norman Borlaug, Pakistani FAO trainee Manzoor Bajwa (later Director General of Pakistan’s AYUB Agricultural Research Institute) selected Mexipak, a high-yielding wheat that would eventually become the country’s most popular variety. In 1966, Pakistan imported 41,000 tons of Mexipak seed from Mexico and, only two years later, harvested 7 million tons of wheat, making it the first country in Asia to achieve self sufficiency for the crop. Sixty percent of the wheat seed to be sown in Pakistan this year comes from direct CIMMYT selections, and at least half the improved maize varieties grown are derived from joint Pakistan-CIMMYT breeding research. In the late 1990s-early 2000s, with CIMMYT support, Pakistan researchers helped launch conservation agriculture in South Asia.

From our shared history, the discussions moved to challenges to food security for humanity and for individual nations like Pakistan, as well as solutions. On the latter, the visitors learned of the global alliances MAIZE and WHEAT and—as examples of country and regional initiatives— the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture with Mexico, including the Wheat Yield Consortium and Seeds of Discovery project, and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA). Despite having arrived in Mexico the previous day after more than 30 hours of travel, the visitors were attentive and inquisitive, with questions about CIMMYT’s policies on intellectual property, about genetically-modified crops, about small-scale farmers’ access to improved seed and the role of transnational seed companies, and about the rationale for research on wheat photosynthesis, to name a few topics.

There was an excellent presentation on legal aspects of the Pakistan-CIMMYT partnership and on the germplasm bank. Four Norman Borlaug Fellows (a program funded by USDA) from Pakistan accompanied the visitors for lunch, where talk touched upon how to improve practical aspects of the Pakistan-CIMMYT partnership. “We came here to learn,” said Ahmed Yar Khan, Director General of the National School of Public Policy, “and we have learned many things. We’ll certainly take back the messages we’ve heard to our colleagues in Pakistan.” CIMMYT also took the opportunity to thank the Embassy of Pakistan in Mexico for its typically excellent assistance in organizing the visit and arranging visas.

CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin, who was traveling in South Asia at the time, was pleased to hear the visit went well and thanked everyone involved: “I am sure that Dr. Borlaug would be smiling, knowing that we are making good progress to rebuild a relationship with a country that was so important to him.”

Genetic resources information and analytical system (GRIS) for wheat and triticale

Written by on May 31, 2012. Posted in News.

20120509_120632 GRIS (http://wheatpedigree.net) is designed to study the diversity of wheat through analysis of pedigrees, and provides information services for breeding and research programs. The database contains pedigree and genetic allele information on 160,000 genotypes (varieties and breeding lines). All data are accompanied by standardized reference citations.

The author of the GRIS database, Sergey Martynov of Vavilov Research Institute, and programmer of the web application Dmitriy Dobrotvorskyi, recently met in Istanbul with a group of CIMMYT scientists involved in the development of Wheat Atlas, Rust Spore and IWIS-bib, to discuss collaboration on further development of these web-based tools. The key outputs of the meeting were agreements on (1) incorporation of the GRIS search into the Wheat Atlas and (2) further development of web-based modules to broaden the use of GRIS to conduct various genealogical and statistical analyses. Compatibility of GRIS with external statistical software (ANOVA, various algorithms of cluster analysis, etc.) is also considered essential in order to extend the opportunities for use of GRIS.

Thanks go to the CIMMYT-Turkey office, and to Alexei Morgounov in particular for facilitating this meeting.

Nepal farmers like rust resistant wheat

Written by on May 28, 2012. Posted in News.

On 14 May 2012, at Tikathali, Changathali Village Development Committee Centre (VDC) in Lalitpur, around 30 participants from MoA, NARC, seed companies, and CIMMYT were joined by 61 farmers (43 female, 18 male) and several graduate students and technicians. The event also saw active participation from senior district agriculture development officers from Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, and Kathmandu as well as the Crop Development Directorate of Nepal and the Seed Quality Control Center.

After a brief introduction, the farmers were led on a field tour by Maiya Maharjan Saligram, the head of the Loktantrik Integrated Pest Management Group in Changathali. Here they were shown the wheat plots and given detailed information about the characteristics of each variety, such as maturity class, yield potential, and disease resistance.They were split into four groups and asked to evaluate six varieties and two checks, which they then ranked one to eight according to individual performance.

Back at the VDC, NARC’s senior plant pathologist Sarala Sharma said that with active awareness among farmers, wheat breeders, and pathologists, Nepal is fully prepared to face the possible arrival of the stem rust race Ug99 because resistant varieties are already in farmers’ fields. She also described how positive the PVS approach has been over recent years; not only has there been a rapid increase in adoption rates of new varieties, but there has also been a remarkable reduction in yellow rust. Madan Bhatta, chief of NARC’s germplasm division, also endorsed the PVS approach, while Dilaram Bhandari from Seed Quality Control suggested that small-scale farmers should work together to develop an effective seed producers organization. The farmers were further encouraged by Suroj Pokhrel, director of the Crop Development Directorate, and Yubak Dhoj G.C. from the Plant Protection Directorate, who assured them that their suggestions are extremely important.

The farmers themselves were very happy with the event, saying that by sharing experiences with each other, they were building confidence in their own ability to manage wheat diseases, seed production, and profitability. They were particularly enthusiastic about strengthening their groups to share new technology and seed varieties, with the female farmers especially motivated. Through PVS, farmers have widened the coverage of rust resistant varieties, tested new options, and gradually replaced older, lower-yielding varieties, thus increasing production and productivity. With the new varieties, the farmers expected a 10% yield increase.

Other participants included Hira Kaji Manandhar from the plant pathology division at the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) of NARC, NARC scientist D.B. Thapa; NARC crops and horticulture director Yagya Prasad Giri; CIMMYT’s regional wheat breeder Arun Joshi; and lead farmer Dhana Maharjan.

21st anniversary of NARC celebrated in Nepal

Written by on May 24, 2012. Posted in News.

On 07 May 2012, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) celebrated its 21st Anniversary in Kathmandu. Chief Guest, Barsha Man Pun, Ministerdesignate and representative of the Honorable Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, inaugurated the opening ceremony. Other Government authorities such as Dipendra Bahadur Kshetry, Vice Chairman of the National Planning Commission, Nathu Prasad Chaudhary, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC), and Dil Bahadur Gurung, NARC Executive Director, were also among the high level officials attending the celebration. CIMMYT-Nepal was represented by G. Ortiz-Ferrara, Country Liaison Officer, Arun K. Joshi, Head of Administration, and Nirmal Gadal, Agronomist.

NEPAL55 The gathering brought together more than 275 scientists and development workers. “The Nepal Government is planning to raise the budget for agriculture significantly in the upcoming national budget plan” said Pun. “There is also a need to adopt enhanced technology to double agricultural production and to attract youth to the sector,” he added. Pun also mentioned that “the Prime Minister and his Government are committed to giving top priority to farming as it is the only way to alleviate poverty and ensure employment for a larger section of society”.

Kshetry stated that “in the next Governmental fiscal year, NARC and MoAC have plans to deploy large numbers of agricultural scientists and technicians in all 75 districts of the country to address farming and farmers’ problems.” Whilst Gurung highlighted that “the low seed replacement rate is one of the major factors affecting farm productivity and output. Similarly, around 70% of the farmland in the country is not irrigated and they depend on the mercy of the sky”.

On behalf of CIMMYT’s Director General, the Management, and of the CIMMYT colleagues who have worked in Nepal over the past 27 years, Ortiz-Ferrara congratulated NARC on its anniversary and thanked the Government of Nepal for their strong partnership and for hosting the South Asia regional office. He took the opportunity to brief the audience about the Nepal Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) concept discussed with the management of NARC by Director General Thomas Lumpkin, during his recent visit to Nepal. “The strategic objective of BISA in Nepal is to enable NARC, CIMMYT, and its partners to deliver greater impact toward food security and livelihoods in the country,” said Ortiz-Ferrara. He also highlighted the strong endorsement given to the BISA India by the Honorable Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and the Government of India.

In their closing remarks, Pun and Kshetry expressed the Government of Nepal’s strong interest and unconditional support for a BISA-Nepal. “Nepal is a poor country, but we have a good heart, we fully support this initiative” said Gurung. NARC and CIMMYT-Nepal scientists are currently having strategic meetings to develop a proposal and plan of action to make BISA-Nepal a reality.

Zhonghu He becomes a CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist

Written by on May 23, 2012. Posted in News.

During his visit to the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in China, Director General Thomas Lumpkin took the opportunity to make a very special announcement – the promotion of Zhonghu He to CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist. He now joins an illustrious group of past and present CIMMYT Distinguished Scientists: Mujeeb Kazi, Sanjaya Rajaram, Surinder K. Vasal, Ravi Singh, Jose Crossa, and Hugo Córdova.

He first joined CIMMYT as a post-doctoral scientist from 1990-92, before coming back to lead the China office when it first opened in 1997. In the subsequent 15 years He used his connections with CAAS to successfully establish a CIMMYT-CAAS wheat improvement program that is now highly recognized in China and worldwide for its significant achievements in varietal development, quality testing technology, molecular marker development and application, and training. In addition, He has authored 219 refereed journal articles in the last eight years alone, including publications in Crop Science, Euphytica, Journal of Cereal Science, and Journal of Theoretical and Applied Genetics.

Upon receiving the news of his promotion, He said: “Becoming a Distinguished Scientist was beyond my dreams ten years ago. It is a great honor, not only for me but also for my program and my fellow scientists and support staff. I am very grateful for the support and encouragement received from our colleagues at CIMMYT and CAAS, and thanks also to our collaborators in China and worldwide.”

Congratulations He and good luck in your new appointment.

Looking to the future with CAAS and China

Written by on May 22, 2012. Posted in News.

the-chinese-academy1 Whilst Director General Thomas Lumpkin is in China meeting with the ex- and current Presidents of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Beijing, a delegation of six CAAS representatives took the opportunity to come to El Batán to discuss collaborations between CIMMYT and China and opportunities for future projects. Li Jinxiang, Vice President, Ye Zhihua, Director General of the Institute of Quality Standard and Testing Technology for Agro-Products, Chen Wanquan, Director Generation of the Institute of Plant Protection, Li Sijing, Vice President of the Graduate School, Niu Liping, Deputy Director General of the Logistic Service Center, and Wang Jing, Project Officer of the Department of International Cooperation of CAAS visited CIMMYT while in Mexico for the G20 meetings.

Director of Research and Partnerships, Marianne Bänziger, presented on behalf of Lumpkin, highlighting that CIMMYT “benefits from a very strong contribution from China, not only in terms of partnerships, but also from Chinese students”. Seven students from China completing their PhD research at CIMMYT were also on hand to welcome the visitors and discuss their work.

In recent years, China’s largest crop has switched from rice to maize. Last year, 192 million tons of maize was harvested, but despite this record yield, China still needed to import 2 million tons of maize from the US alone. This deficit is partially due to increasing levels of meat consumption in China; per capita consumption of pork is expected to reach 38kg this year and a bad harvest could result in food shortages and price hikes worldwide. For this reason maize yields are a high priority for CIMMYT and maize breeder Félix San Vicente presented CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program to the visitors.

China is also the world’s largest producer of wheat (producing 17% of total yield), though the 2011 harvest was heavily affected by drought. Etienne Duveiller, Associate Director of the Global Wheat Program, presented CIMMYT’s recent developments and discussed a particular area of interest, the Wheat Yield Consortium, with the delegation. Marianne Bänziger reiterated “I think the WYC is one of the most incredible examples of international cooperation with 32 institutions working together to develop a strategy to raise wheat yields and meet the challenges ahead. We want to put wheat yields on track in order to sustain future generations”.

Globally, three countries produced half of the world’s grain last year –China, India, and the US. With 75 percent of the world’s spring wheat varieties and 50 percent of the developing world’s maize varieties coming from CIMMYT, partnerships with these key grain producing countries are a high priority. As stated by Marianne Banziger, “CIMMYT would like to strengthen our partnership with China and be prepared to address the future. No group can do it alone.”

Director General visits Nepal

Written by on May 16, 2012. Posted in News.

LumpkinNepal-NARI-KHUMALTAR1 CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin visited Nepal during 01-03 May 2012. One of the main objectives of his visit was to discuss the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) launched last year in India, and the potential for Nepal to follow a similar model, with Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and CIMMYT scientists.

Lumpkin also had fruitful technical and administrative discussions with international and national CIMMYT staff based in Kathmandu. Together with several NARC directors—including Tek Bahadur Gurung (director of administration and interim executive director), B.N. Mahto (director of planning and coordination), and Neeranjan Adhikari (director of crops and horticulture)—he visited three potential sites at NARC’s Khumaltar research station, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, where the main Nepal BISA administrative building and research and training facilities could be located. From CIMMYT, the group also included Guillermo Ortiz Ferrara, country liaison officer (CLO) for Nepal, Nirmal Gadal and Dilli Bahadur K.C. of the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), and CIMMYT-Nepal office manager Surath Pradhan.

“CIMMYT is interested in expanding the crop improvement and crop management systems research and development activities being conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, NARC, and all the other partners who have been associated with CIMMYT in Nepal for more than 40 years,” said Lumpkin. “We look forward to a Nepal BISA that can enable CIMMYT and its partners to deliver greater impact toward the food security in the country.” On behalf of NARC, Tek Bahadur Gurung expressed NARC’s interest and unconditional support to make the Nepal BISA a reality. NARC management, the CIMMYT CLO, and other senior CIMMYT staff based in Nepal will soon meet to develop a strategy and start the process of designing and implementing BISA Nepal.

On the second day of his visit, Lumpkin was invited to deliver a lecture at the Nepal Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) on “Food security in South Asia: Opportunities and challenges for agro-eco-scientists”. More than 50 scientists from NARC and NARI attended the lecture, which generated a lot of interest and a lively discussion. Lumpkin was also asked to inaugurate a sports event at Khumaltar organized by NARC, making the first serve in a volleyball tournament. Colleagues observed: “Not a bad serve for a person who travels more than 200 days a year!”

Bangladesh seed summit

Written by on May 15, 2012. Posted in News.

Food security is highlighted as one of the main priorities for Bangladesh in the country’s Investment Plan, and a sustainable seed supply constitutes a pivotal component of food security. With this in mind, a maize and wheat “seed summit” was jointly organized by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and CIMMYT at the Hotel Lake Castle in Dhaka on 26 April 2012.

The event was chaired by Anwar Faruque, additional secretary for the MoA, and Shirazul Islam, research director of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI). There were about 30 participants representing the MoA, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), several seed companies, CIMMYT, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Aimed at developing a strategic roadmap for sustainable seed production, the meeting provided an opportunity for specialists from across the region to share their knowledge and experiences. Naseer Uddin Ahmed, chief seed technologist at MoA, and Md Nuruzzaman, director of seed and horticulture at BADC, talked about opportunities and challenges for sustainable seed production and dissemination in Bangladesh. CIMMYT consultant Stephen Waddington shared findings from the Seed Sector Scoping Study for South Asia.

Anwar Faruque stressed the need for the private sector and government to work jointly to ensure the availability of affordable, quality seed for resource-poor and marginal farmers. CIMMYT maize breeder Bindiganavile Vivek described that very approach being pursued under the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC)-Asia, saying it was gaining popularity across Asia.

Participants expressed considerable interest, particularly at the possibility of accessing finished hybrids.

On behalf of the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC), Sudhir Chandra Nath spoke alongside M.A. Razzaque, executive director of Lal Teer Seed Company, and B.I Siddidue of Siddiquis Seeds, on private seed production challenges and opportunities in Bangladesh and associated expectations from the public sector.

A “Roundtable Discussion for Roadmap Development” was led by CIMMYT agricultural economist Frederick Rossi, where many issues and follow-ups were identified, including ways to encourage private sector involvement. Much discussion was generated on how to increase the relevance of maize hybrids from BARI and therefore reduce dependency on importing hybrid seeds from elsewhere. Private company representatives expressed their interest in improving the diversity, efficiency, and sustainability of wheat and maize seed systems. The CIMMYT Bangladesh office will help to organize a series of follow-up meetings to reach a consensus on the fundamental features of a sustainable and functional seed system for Bangladesh.

Plowing through poverty

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 4, June 2009

As part of the global work to test and disseminate conservation agriculture, CIMMYT and partners have introduced and promoted new agricultural machinery in Bangladesh, helping farmers to improve their crop yields, food security, and livelihoods.

Bangladesh and CIMMYT: decades of partnership, commitment, and achievement

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features. 1 Comment on Bangladesh and CIMMYT: decades of partnership, commitment, and achievement

CIMMYT E-News, vol 5 no. 8, August 2008

01a Work by CIMMYT with researchers, extension workers, policymakers, and farmers in Bangladesh for nearly four decades has helped establish wheat and maize among the country’s major cereal crops, made farming systems more productive and sustainable, improved food security and livelihoods, and won ringing praise from national decision makers in agriculture, according to a recent report published by CIMMYT.

“CIMMYT is one of the leading centers of the CGIAR …working in Bangladesh since the early 70s…initiating multi-dimensional work for varietal improvement, improved crop management, conservation of natural resources, and human resource development,” says Dr. Md. Nur-E-Elahi, Director General, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, citing the center’s contributions to the development of high-yielding maize and wheat varieties, wheat-rice and maize-rice systems, whole-family training, small-scale farm mechanization for conservation agriculture, and triticale (a wheat-rye hybrid) for fodder. “CIMMYT’s contributions to agricultural research and development in Bangladesh are highly recognized.”

Building capacity among scientists and farm families
More than 140 Bangladeshi wheat and maize scientists and extensionists have taken part in courses at CIMMYT-Mexico or come as visiting scientists in crop breeding, agronomy, pathology, cereal technology, experiment station management, seed production, economics, heat stress, and resource conserving practices. Dozens of scientists from Bangladesh have also attended conferences or international workshops organized by the center and partners. Finally, joint efforts in crop, soil, and water management research over the last 20 years have added to expertise in Bangladesh.More often than not, women and children contribute substantively to farm activities, so CIMMYT and the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) developed and refined a whole-family-training approach that has boosted adoption of improved cropping practices. “We’ve reached over 27,000 women and men farmers on maize and wheat production, and around 700 small-scale dairy farmers,” says Anton Prokash Adhikari, CIMMYT-Bangladesh Administrator. Follow-up studies in 1996 among a randomly-selected subset of families who attended training sessions showed a 90-100% adoption of improved practices. After training, maize farmers adopted a range of improved production practices, planting the crop on more land and raising grain yields by 0.8 tons per hectare. “This type of training has raised the quality of farming in Bangladesh,” says Adhikari.

With an average of over 1,000 inhabitants per square kilometer, Bangladesh is among the world’s most densely-populated countries, and nearly two-thirds of its people work in agriculture. The country furnishes a case study for the future of farming in developing countries: as a result of intensive cropping rotations, every square centimeter of arable land is used 1.8 times a year, and resources are stretched beyond what is normally considered “sustainable.” A recent report on CIMMYT efforts in Bangladesh gives an interesting account of how, through broad partnerships and sustained research for farmers, an international agricultural center can help improve farmers and consumers’ lives.

Joint work brings food and windfalls

“The last quarter century of work by a small team of dedicated CIMMYT staff and their colleagues in Bangladesh national programs has brought improvements in local and national income, food security, human nutrition, and well-being,” says agronomist Stephen Waddington, who worked for CIMMYT in Bangladesh during 2005-2007. “This is easily seen by any visitor to Bangladesh, where nowadays many otherwise poor people regularly have wheat chapattis for their breakfast, a glass of milk from triticale fodder-fed cows for their lunch, and maize-fed chicken, eggs, or fish for their dinner.”

Bangladesh emerged on the map of significant wheat-growing countries in the 1980s, according to Waddington. “Wheat became the second major cereal after rice, contributing to food security and human nutrition, and improving the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers and urban consumers,” he says. “Nineteen of the twenty-four wheat varieties released in Bangladesh carry CIMMYT lines in their backgrounds.” Much crop management and soil research for wheat was conducted in joint Bangladesh Wheat Research Center (WRC)-CIMMYT programs.

With climate change, enter maize and alternative crops

After playing a crucial role in Bangladesh agriculture, wheat production has declined in recent years, due chiefly to higher temperatures that hamper grain filling and incubate wheat diseases. But maize has become increasingly popular, partly in response to rising demand from the poultry sector for feed. “Last year farmers produced 1.3 million tons of maize, and output and interest are growing ,” says Enamul Haque, Senior Program Officer for CIMMYT-Bangladesh. “Maize fits well in Bangladesh’s climate, soils, and intensive farming systems.”

Again, CIMMYT has helped in a big way, providing improved maize lines adapted to local conditions, offering expertise in hybrid-based maize breeding and crop management research, helping to promote dialogue on enabling policies that foster productivity and effective markets. “Six out of the seven maize hybrids released by the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, in recent years contain CIMMYT maize lines, and there is significant use of CIMMYT maize by emerging private breeding companies,” says Haque.

Finally, in recent years, triticale has become a source of high-quality green fodder for small-scale dairy producers during the cool, dry, winter season. “Dual-purpose fodder and grain triticale can produce 7 to 12 tons per hectare of fresh fodder, and as much as 2 tons per hectare of grain for poultry feed or for chapattis,” says Haque. All triticale varieties sown in Bangladesh come from CIMMYT.

Mechanization and resource-conserving practices

Within the last decade or so, agriculture in Bangladesh has become highly-mechanized: 8 of 10 farmers use two-wheel tractors, which are more apt for their small and scattered land holdings than the four-wheel variety. Since 1995, Haque has worked with the WRC and local organizations to promote a varied set of implements for reduced, more efficient tillage and seeding. One key aim has been to enable farmers to sow wheat or other crops directly after rice harvest in a single day—instead of after two weeks of back-breaking, fuel-hungry plowing—thus saving money and allowing the new crop to mature before the pre-monsoon heat shrivels the grain.

Craig Meisner (left), a CIMMYT wheat agronomist during 1990-2005, contributed significantly to CIMMYT's presence, partnerships, and achievements in Bangladesh. — Craig Meisner (left), a CIMMYT wheat agronomist during 1990-2005, contributed significantly to CIMMYT’s presence, partnerships, and achievements in Bangladesh.

“To date thousands of farmers have adopted a small, two-wheel tractor-driven implement that tills, seeds, and covers the seed in a single pass,” says Haque. “This reduces turn-around between crops by 50%, cuts costs 15-20%, saves 30% in irrigation water and 25% in seed, and improves fertilizer efficiency—all this, as well as increasing yields by 20%, for wheat.” Owners of the single-pass seeding implement often hire out their services, earning USD 1,000-2,000 a year and each helping 20-100 other farmers to obtain the above-mentioned benefits. In addition, the reduced tillage implement and practices help address labor shortages that constrain farm operations at peak times, and are opening lucrative opportunities for machinery manufacturing and repair businesses.

For the future, CIMMYT staff are testing and promoting with researchers and farmers the use of permanent, raised beds and straw retention systems that can increase yields as much as 50% in intensive, wheat-maize-rice cropping sequences. Future activities of CIMMYT-Bangladesh will also focus on strengthening wheat and maize breeding programs, system-based research and resource-conserving practices, and the use of maize as food, fodder, and feed. “We’d also like to do more capacity building, study soil health and nutrition, and better disseminate useful technologies to farmers and extension agents,” Haque says, “but much depends on the resources available.”

Extensive partnerships key to past and future success

“CIMMYT has worked with national programs, NGOs, the private sector, farmers, donors, and policy planners,” says Md. Harun-ur-Rashid, Executive Chairman, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, and Director General, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute. “These joint programs have accumulated an impressive array of achievements and benefits.”

In addition to the key partners cited above, CIMMYT has worked with agricultural universities in Bangladesh, the Department of Agricultural Extension, the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, the Soil Resource Development Institute, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), the Bangladesh Chashi Kollan Samity, the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, Deoel Agro Industries Complex Ltd., and the Mahbub Engineering Workshop at Jamalpur. IRRI; ILRI; ICRISAT; IFDC; FAO; Murdoch University, ACIAR, and CSIRO, in Australia; Cornell University, Texas A&M University, Winrock International, and the Helen Keller Foundation, USDA, in the USA.

For more information: Enamul Haque, Senior Program Manager, CIMMYT-Bangladesh (e.haque@cgiar.org)