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.
A delegation from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NNSFC) visited CIMMYT El Batán on 11-12 July. The group of seven was led by Zhu Daoben, the Vice-President of NNSFC. During their visit they were briefed on all of CIMMYT’s programs and visited the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center, the Crop Research Informatics Laboratory (CRIL) and saw the biotech facilities.
Afghanistan is still be in the midst of turmoil and conflict, but the work CIMMYT is doing to help rebuild the agriculture sector has won praise from the person responsible for coordinating agricultural research in that country.
“We are very pleased with the cooperation and help we have received from CIMMYT, right from the beginning,” said M. Aziz Osmanzai in an interview with Informa at his office in Kabul, Afghanistan. “I hope CIMMYT will be able to expand staff and operations in our country as the work you are doing has been particularly effective.”
Osmanzai is Director of Agriculture Research Institute (ARIA) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock of Afghanistan (MAIL). He was particularly pleased that two new wheat varieties, based on CIMMYT material were performing very well under local conditions and were being proposed for formal varietal release.
He hoped too that CIMMYT might find ways to help the government encourage and implement more conservation agriculture in the country. While wheat is the number 1 food crop, it is grown by share croppers and small holder farmers using traditional methods. Seeds are broadcast by hand into fields that have been plowed using draft animals and so more modern seeders do not exist in the country, making the transition to zero till more difficult.
Seventy-four students graduated Friday, 18 May from an intensive, four-month English course at the Turkish-American Association in Ankara, Turkey. What makes the students and the course special is that they are all agricultural researchers with the government of Turkey and the course was organized by CIMMYT and ICARDA. It’s the second year in a row the course has been given. Turkey requires that its employees have proficiency in English before they can go abroad for advanced training, such as that offered by CIMMYT.
This course was designed to help bring as many young researchers to the required level as possible. Funding for the course was part of Turkey’s contribution as a member of the CGIAR. In addressing the graduates, Alexei Morgunov, the CIMMYT country representative in Turkey, congratulated them on the hard work they had done, pointing out that the knowledge and the friendships they had formed would stay with them throughout their careers. Morgunov was joined at the ceremony by Mesut Keser, the ICARDA country representative and by Masum Burak, the Director General of the General Directorate for Agricultural Research for Turkey. He thanked CIMMYT and ICARDA for their work in organizing the course. Morgunov said he hoped the course would become an annual event.
In the context of CIMMYT’s long-standing and fruitful partnerships with Chinese researchers and research organizations, CIMMYT wheat scientist He Zhonghu (far left) accompanied six key experts from three Chinese ministries and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) on a visit to CIMMYT and several Mexican research institutions during 20-23 April 2007. Members of the delegation were Liu Xu, Vice President, CAAS (to the left of Masa); Yang Chuan, Deputy Division Chief, National Development and Reform Commission; Zhou Wenneng, Division Chief Ministry of Science and Technology, Wang Jiuchen, Division Chief, Ministry of Agriculture; (not in the photo) Yang Jun, Deputy Division Chief, Ministry of Agriculture; and Dai Xiaofeng, Deputy Director General, CAAS.
On 7 March 2007, Jesús González, of CIMMYT’s Agua Fría research station, talked of CIMMYT’s aims and achievements to an audience of 400 during the traveling exhibition “No maize, no country,” organized by the Museo Nacional de Culturas Populares of CONACULTA, Mexico’s public agency for cultural promotion. The exhibition, held in Huauchinango, Puebla, this year, is designed to foster reflection and discussion regarding the importance and potential of maize in Mexico, as well as the challenges and opportunities of globalization.
This is not the first time that Agua Fría colleagues have publicized CIMMYT’s work to outside audiences: like staff at CIMMYT research stations worldwide, for years they have taken part in promotional activities and attended visits from representatives of academic institutions, community support organizations (like the Fundación Miguel Alemán), and farmer associations from the states of Veracruz and Mexico. Agua Fría is located in Puebla State near the border of Veracruz, and is an ideal location to test and demonstrate maize of humid, lowland tropical adaptation.
Inaugurated formally in 2000, Agua Fría has grown and developed significantly. Those who work at the station are grateful for the contributions of CIMMYT management and the enormous dedication of staff who contributed to station development, including Raymundo López, Philippe Monneveux, Dan Jeffers, David Bergvinson, and Alejandro López. Up until 2002, for example, the station had only provisional offices, no telephone service, and no connection to Internet. The 3.5 kilometer road leading to the station from the highway was nearly impassible in the rainy season, making the station accessible only on foot, or by having the bus towed in with a tractor. Today, the access road is paved and facilities are fully functional for staff and visitors.
Plant breeders and postgraduates majoring in genetics and breeding gathered at the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science in Beijing between 19 and 22 March to learn more about genotype by environment interactions and breeding simulations. Among the key speakers were José Crossa, Yunbi Xu and Jiankan Wang from CIMMYT. Topics covered by the CIMMYT scientists ranged from an overview of experimental designs in plant breeding given by José Crossa to a quick course in marker assisted breeding from publications to practice given by Yunbi Xu; and an introduction to a genetics and breeding simulation tool by Jiankang Wang. The four-day workshop was sponsored by CAAS and the Generation Challenge Program of the CGIAR.
Eight breeders from developing countries arrived in El Batán this week to attend the Advanced Wheat Improvement course. They come from India, Pakistan, Sudan, Egypt, Ecuador and South Africa and will study wheat improvement techniques in Mexico for the next three months. The new course is currently the longest being offered in the CG system. On Saturday, participants move to Ciudad Obregón, where the real work begins.
Lene Lange, chair of the CIMMYT Board of Trustees, recently visited the headquarters of our sister institute, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Patancheru, India. It was her first visit to the campus in 20 years and she was shown the ICRISAT lab facilities and germplasm bank and visited some field activities. Lange was particularly interested in discussing issues surrounding the new global interest in biofuels as well as public-private sector partnerships. Her hosts for the visit were ICRISAT Deputy Director General, Dyno Keatinge and former CIMMYT scientist, David Hoisington.
On January 19, 2007, Raj Gupta stepped down as the CIMMYT Facilitator of the Rice-Wheat Consortium (RWC) based in New Delhi, India. When Raj assumed the leadership of the RWC, the technological foundation had been created for the new resourceconserving technologies (RCT) appropriate for the dominant ricewheat production system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), such as zero-till seeding and bed planting of wheat and other crops. It was obvious that these new technologies offered a tremendous potential to benefit the livelihoods of farmers producing rice and wheat in the IGP and that they also offered pragmatic opportunities to enhance the long-term sustainability of this production system.
However, farmer adoption of these new technologies was still negligible. Teaming with former CIMMYT wheat agronomist Peter Hobbs, Raj brought together farmers, the private sector (especially machinery manufacturers), scientists, and extension agents in a partnership essential for the rapid adoption of the RCTs. When Raj began his efforts, the area in the IGP devoted to RCTs was not more than 10,000 ha. After less than seven years, it has reached nearly 3 million hectares. This tremendous achievement of the RWC partnership, led by Raj, was awarded the King Baudouin award in 2004 and represents the best example of the widespread adoption of RCT and conservation agriculture by small and mediumscale farmers in irrigated production systems anywhere in the world.
The CIMMYT community wishes to express a deep sense of gratitude for Raj’s remarkable efforts and wishes him all the best as takes on new challenges with ICAR in India.
Chinese journalists Fan Jian (center) of the Science and Technology Daily and Jianke Jiang (right) of the People’s Daily, accompany Xiaofeng Dai, Deputy Director General, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as he handles an infrared sensor at the Tlaltizapán experiment station, as part of their visit to CIMMYT during November 28-December 2, 2006.
Referring to the first-ever training course in Turkey on assessing the impacts of agricultural research and development, held during 22 November-01 December, Mesut Keser, Deputy Director General of the Turkish General Directorate of Agricultural Research (TAGEM), called the event a success and said that participants are now eager to apply what they learned: “The lecturers’ intelligence, enthusiasm and friendly approach helped a lot, creating an interactive learning setting which (allowed) participants to get the most from the course.”
Organized jointly by CIMMYT, ICARDA, and TAGEM, and hosted at TAGEM facilities in Ankara, the course drew 26 participants—all Turkish nationals, 9 of whom were women—from diverse research institutes and regions of Turkey.
According to CIMMYT impact assessment specialist Roberto La Rovere, who helped organize the course and served as facilitator and lecturer, objectives included increasing awareness, knowledge, and critical thinking on impact assessment; allowing participants a chance to practice; and identifying opportunities for follow-up impact assessments in Turkey, including one focused on wheat research. “We gave participants an overview of concepts, approaches, and best practices,” says La Rovere.
At the end of the workshop, participants were also able to sketch the main elements of a potential expost impact assessment of the joint MARA/CIMMYT/ ICARDA International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP) in Turkey. Other CIMMYT staff involved included wheat breeder/ agronomist Alexei Morgounov, who presented the IWWIP program and oversaw logistics; wheat pathologist Julie Nicol; and economist Erika Meng, who assisted with pre-course preparations.
The course helped lay the groundwork for future ICARDA-CIMMYT-TAGEM collaboration, especially in impact assessment. Says La Rovere: “Despite the wide variety of skills, expectations, and knowledge of English, the workshop went well beyond expectations and yielded a network of potential assessors and partners in for impact assessment in Turkey.”
On Friday, November 17, El Batán played host to a delegation from the National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC), accompanied by Zhong-Hu He, regional wheat coordinator for East Asia based at CIMMYT China. The visitors were Jie Wang, Vice President, Feng Feng, Deputy Director General (life science department), and Yinglan Zhang, Division Director (department of international collaboration).
The visit aimed to develop collaborative research projects between scientists from NSFC and CIMMYT’s wheat and maize programs and genetic resources and enhancement unit. Priority research areas include durable disease resistance, yield potential and grain quality in wheat, and disease resistance, drought tolerance, and high oil content in maize.
The visitors met with key scientists from headquarters for presentations and discussions. The group also saw CIMMYT’s work in action, visiting the Plant Genetic Resources Center, the biotechnology laboratories, the Crop Research Informatics Laboratory, and the Grain Quality Laboratory. On Saturday, November 18, the group spent the day at Tlaltizapán experiment station, where the research focus is on breeding mid-altitude and subtropical maize.
A Chinese-US Workshop on ‘Crop Genomics Applications to Plant Breeding and Biotechnology’ was held at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS) in Beijing on October 23-25, with organizational support from CIMMYT. The 24 participants included 12 scientists from the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDAARS). The workshop aimed to increase understanding between Chinese and USDA scientists, and successfully identified 12 areas of common interest.
The workshop was opened with welcome speeches from Zhanyuan Du, Director General of the Rural Development Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and Dr. Lijian Zhang, Vice President of CAAS, and the participants were joined by Edward B. Knipling, USDA-ARS Administrator, for the welcome dinner. During the workshop they heard more than 20 presentations covering safeguarding germplasm; applied genomics for improvements of wheat, maize, soybean, and rice; and biotechnology, communications and policy issues. The US scientists were also invited to visit laboratories at CAAS, China Agricultural University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This workshop was facilitated by Zhonghu He of the CIMMYT China office and Kay Simmons of USDA. Zhongu He is MOST’s theme leader for Chinese-US collaboration on biotechnology and germplasm. CIMMYT’s efforts in organizing the workshop were highly appreciated by CAAS and all the participants.
An international technical workshop on ‘Bioethanol, maize and wheat: opportunities and risks’, jointly organized by CIMMYT and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the Asia Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), was held on 4–5 November in New Delhi. The meeting was a forum for debate and knowledge-sharing, and will form a springboard to future research and action.
About 40 participants came from across the globe and included researchers, policy makers and managers from the public and private sectors in agriculture, rural development and environment. Attending from CIMMYT were John Dixon, Olaf Erenstein, Raj Gupta, Masa Iwanaga, Rodomiro Ortiz, and Ashish Srivastava.
The focus was on the wide range of potential opportunities and risks, posed by the ongoing expansion in biofuels, for the food security and livelihoods of the poor and for the environment. These are complex and not yet well understood. For example, higher grain prices due to demand for use in biofuels may boost farmers’ incomes, but may also lead to increased hunger and malnutrition.
CIMMYT and IFPRI are conducting a joint assessment of likely effects on food stocks and trade, national and household food security, and farm household livelihoods; John Dixon of CIMMYT and Siwa Msangi of IFPRI presented the workshop with an overview and scenario analysis. Delegates considered specific aspects of using biofuels, including national status and strategies in India, China, and Uganda, technical and environmental issues, and opportunities and risks in different agro-ecosystems. The participants ended by identifying and discussing priority issues for research.
The conclusions and recommendations will be presented to GFAR and to the CGIAR AGM in December, where CIMMYT will lead a side event on biofuels.
The First International Workshop of the Global Rust Initiative (GRI), 9-11 October, ended in Alexandria, Egypt, with agreement that a tremendous coordinated effort is needed to combat the resurgence of wheat stem rust, a fungal disease that could place the entire world’s wheat production in serious jeopardy.
Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and former Chairman of the CGIAR, made the library’s conference facilities available to the workshop. Fifty-six participants from 21 countries attended the three-day consultation to exchange research results to date and map out priority areas for the GRI activities.
“This is a global threat, and no single country can provide a solution; only by working together can we tackle it,” CIMMYT Director General Masa Iwanaga told the meeting.
“We have the world’s leading rust scientists here saying that we have a potentially explosive situation on our hands,” said the GRI Coordinator, CIMMYT wheat scientist Rick Ward. “And we basically have to replace all the wheat in the world.” “The caliber of scientists present and the terrific sense of urgency enabled us to address a great array of critical issues during the workshop. I believe all participants felt the event was a success,” said Ward.