Location: Pakistan

For more information, contact CIMMYT’s Pakistan office.

Conservation agriculture machinery arrives in Pakistan

Written by on March 24, 2014. Posted in News.

By Imtiaz Hussain and Imtiaz Muhammad/CIMMYT

CIMMYT’s Conservation Agriculture Program (CAP) is addressing the lack of good quality conservation agriculture (CA) seeders and multi-crop planters in Pakistan. Under the USAID-funded Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan, CAP will facilitate pilot testing and refining CA-based multi-crop seeders in cereal systems. CIMMYT-Pakistan imported multi-crop happy seeders, bed planters and zero tillage drills from India with the cooperation of CIMMYT-India. This machinery arrived at the National Agriculture Research Center, Islamabad, at the end of February.

Machinery is unloaded at the NARC, Islamabad. Photos: Awais Yaqub

CIMMYT brought CA to Pakistan in the 1980s with the introduction of zero tillage drills in rice-wheat areas. The technique helped solve the issue of late planting in ricewheat cropping systems. With the mechanization of harvesting, however, the burning of crop residue has become problematic. In addition, huge amounts of standing and loose residue affect the first-generation zero tillage drill. Farmers in Punjab hand-plant hybrid maize and cotton crops on already-made ridges and wide beds; there is also need to mechanize this operation.

The pilot testing of new seeders will start this year in cropping systems such as rice-wheat, maize-wheat, cotton-wheat and rain-fed wheat. The seeders will help farmers plant different crops under different levels of residue to reduce residue burning. CIMMYT will provide CA seeders to national agriculture research system partners for use in agriculture extension and adaptive research and for demonstrations in farming communities.

The activity will also promote the refinement and production of resource-conserving seeders through public-private partnerships in the project area.

New initiative launched to enhance capacity of wheat scientists

Written by on March 21, 2014. Posted in News.

By Yahya Rauf/CIMMYT

CIMMYT and USDA, in collaboration with the United States Education Foundation for Pakistan (USEFP), launched a capacity enhancement initiative in the form of a coaching course, under the Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program (WPEP).

The objective of the initiative is to ensure that promising young Pakistani wheat scientists apply for and obtain international Ph.D. scholarships. Pakistan lacks professional wheat scientists and most working wheat scientists are at the age of retirement. By 2020, Pakistan will face difficulties due to a shortage of qualified professionals in wheat research. This new initiative is a step forward to develop the country’s wheat research capacity.

Participants attend a capacity enhancement initiative with CIMMYT, USDA and USFP officials. Photos: Awais Yaqub/CIMMYT

The course recognizes that young scientists need assistance in preparing for the tests, applications and interviews required for international scholarships. CIMMYT and USEFP selected 11 Pakistani wheat scientists from across the country based on their professional skills, association with wheat research and academic potential. The course participants will go through two months of coaching for the GRE, TOEFL and other standardized tests.

CIMMYT Country Representative Imtiaz Muhammad reminded participants at the inaugural ceremony that self-motivation, dedication and devotion are required to achieve the objectives of the course. He also praised the efforts of all stakeholders, including USEFP and USDA staff members, who helped launch this program.

Ian Winborne, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service plant health advisor, welcomed the participants and said if the first phase of this initiative is successful in accomplishing its objectives, USDA will be interested in funding its continuation.

Maize interventions discussed in Pakistan

Written by on February 17, 2014. Posted in News.

By AbduRahman Beshir/CIMMYT

Partners with the Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP) are working to enhance availability and access to maize seeds and varieties. The AIP maize working group discussed problems and shared recommendations to help improve maize production and productivity during its inception meeting from 3-4 February in Islamabad.

Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, chairman of PARC, leads a group discussion. On his left is Shahid Masood, a member of the plant sciences division of PARC. On his right are Michael Wyzan, USAID representative, and Imtiaz Muhammad, AIP interim project leader and CIMMYT country representative.

Maize follows wheat and rice as Pakistan’s third most important cereal crop and is first in productivity. Covering 1.14 million hectares with a national average grain yield of about 4.0 tons per hectare (t/ha), maize area, production and productivity increased by 14.5 percent, 26 percent and 13.6 percent, respectively, from 2010-11 to 2013, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. The high demand for feed and food are the main forces driving the increased production of maize in Pakistan. Punjab and KPK provinces are the leaders in maize production. Most maize production receives irrigation, and the majority of maize farmers produce the crop in rotation with wheat and rice.

Genome-assisted project develops climate-resilient wheat

Written by on January 13, 2014. Posted in News.

By Ravi Valluru, Arun Joshi and Ravi P. Singh/CIMMYT

Innovative approaches to plant genotyping are helping CIMMYT researchers and partners to develop high-yielding, climate-resilient wheat in South Asia.

Researchers sow wheat trials. Photo: Arun Joshi

The genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) approach offers significant benefits over traditional plant breeding. Conventional breeding relies on scoring phenotypes, which is often laborious and inexact, to determine the estimated breeding value (EBV). This approach delays the verification of breeding results. Plant selection through genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (GS), however, is a variant of marker-assisted selection (MAS) that enables crop breeders to rank best parents accurately and cost-effectively.

Researchers Jesse Poland, a geneticist with Kansas State University, and Ravi P. Singh, head of CIMMYT’s bread wheat improvement program, are developing GBS-assisted wheat with support from Cornell University. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is funding the $5 million, five-year project under the Feed the Future initiative. “This genotyping project signifies a new era of big science for international wheat development,” Poland said.

The project builds on the established heat tolerance and yield potential framework established by CIMMYT scientists. About 1,000 advanced wheat lines developed in Mexico by CIMMYT were planted at Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) locations as well as in Faisalabad, Pakistan, and six environments in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico, to characterize them for heat tolerance.

Researchers acquire “greenness” data using a hand-held NDVI sensor. Photo: Ravi Valluru

Through rigorous testing of wheat lines for various traits – including yield – the GS project will promote the best varietal options for testing and release by national programs and the private sector in South Asia. “Incorporating genomic selection criteria into CIMMYT’s bread wheat breeding pipeline will significantly expedite wheat genetic gains,” Singh said. Wheat varieties developed by the GS project will have enhanced climate resilience. Their heat tolerance and maximized yield potential could reduce heat-induced yield losses by 20 to 30 percent. “Efforts will be initiated to incorporate the genomic selection strategy into conventional breeding programs in South Asia,” said CIMMYT wheat breeder Arun Joshi, adding that genomic information, genomic models and optimized strategies generated through the GS project will benefit cultivar selection worldwide.

Though MAS improves breeding decisions, GS has several additional benefits. “Being a hypothesis-independent approach, the beauty of GS is that it tracks genetic variance for a trait in a population and reduces the breeding cycle significantly,” Singh said. Additionally, the genomic data collected will be useful to manage the genetic diversity and the retention of favorable alleles in the population, safeguarding prospects for long-term genetic gains.

Crucial to implementing the approach are adequate and affordable genotyping platforms, simplified breeding schemes to capture additive genetic effects, models for estimating long-term marker effects and a close collaboration between science and industry.

“If GS-assisted crop breeding, by encompassing other possible biological – for example metabolic – markers, lives up to its promise, it will certainly change the face of crop breeding, productivity and food security,” said CIMMYT wheat physiologist Ravi Valluru, interim coordinator of the GS project at BISA.

CIMMYT rebuilds partnerships in Pakistan

Written by on November 5, 2013. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT Faisalabad Office (left-right): Dr, Imtiaz Muhammed, Country Liaison Officer, CIMMYT Pakistan; Dr. Etienne Duveiller, South Asia Regional Director, CIMMYT; Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, Director General, CIMMYT; Dr. Javed Ahmad, Wheat Botanist, Wheat Research Institute WRI Faisalabad; Dr. Makhdoom Hussain, Director, Wheat Research Institute WRI Faisalabad; Mr. Abdul Hamid, CIMMYT Faisalabad; Mr. Muhammad Noor, CIMMYT Faisalabad. Photo by Miriam Shindler. — CIMMYT Faisalabad Office (left-right): Dr, Imtiaz Muhammed, Country Liaison Officer, CIMMYT Pakistan;
Dr. Etienne Duveiller, South Asia Regional Director, CIMMYT; Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, Director General,
CIMMYT; Dr. Javed Ahmad, Wheat Botanist, Wheat Research Institute WRI Faisalabad; Dr. Makhdoom
Hussain, Director, Wheat Research Institute WRI Faisalabad; Mr. Abdul Hamid, CIMMYT Faisalabad; Mr.
Muhammad Noor, CIMMYT Faisalabad. Photo by Miriam Shindler.

By Imtiaz Muhammad/CIMMYT

CIMMYT has a long history with Pakistan. The majority of wheat grown in the country is a result of their collaboration. Dr. Norman Borlaug’s principles of free germplasm exchange still support Pakistan’s national program.

In 1961, Manzoor A. Bajwa, a young Pakistani wheat scientist, arrived in Mexico to receive training in improved wheat production. While working alongside Borlaug and his team in Ciudad Obregón, Bajwa identified a medium-to-hard white grain line with a high-gluten content ideal for making good chapattis. The new variety also showed promising resistance to rust and powdery mildew. To mark this momentous collaboration, the line was named MexiPak –meaning line selection in Mexico by a Pakistani researcher.

In Pakistan, the name MexiPak is synonymous with the successes of the Green Revolution. In a recent meeting between CIMMYT and Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, the Minister for Food Security and Research, he recalled experiences in rural Punjab when he was 7 or 8 years old. One year, his father had record wheat harvests. The reason? “MexiPak,” he said. This is just one example of CIMMYT-Pakistani collaboration. The Pak-81 line, which has been released in more countries than any other wheat variety in history, was selected by a Pakistani breeder while training at CIMMYT.

Today, Pakistan faces daunting challenges due to climate change, changing diets, increasing population, groundwater depletion and growing food security concerns. The new Prime Minister and cabinet have indicated an increased interest in developing Pakistan’s agriculture sector and the country’s agricultural research abilities. In a related development, the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, recently became the top-ranked university for agricultural sciences in South Asia (NTU Rankings, 2013). CIMMYT and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) are reigniting agricultural research for development across Pakistan.

Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program (WPEP) Farm Machinery Shed at the Wheat Research Institute, Faisalabad. Photo by Miriam Shindler.

Since 2010, PARC and CIMMYT have worked closely to improve agronomic practices through projects such as the Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program (W-PEP) and the new Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP), a $30 million program funded by the United States Agency for International Development. The PARC complex in Islamabad houses CIMMYT offices where agronomists, breeders and socio-economic experts work to improve maize and wheat yields.

In a recent visit to Pakistan by CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin, PARC and the Pakistani government reaffirmed their commitment to establishing the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) in Pakistan. PARC donated land on its Islamabad campus to erect the BISA-CIMMYT headquarters in Pakistan, as well as land that will be converted into an experimental farm. The Pakistani government also asked BISA to build an experimental farm in every province. BISA will provide Pakistani researchers with the opportunity to collaborate with South Asian counterparts to increase wheat yields and develop more nutritious and heat-resistant maize. BISA is following in the steps of Borlaug in starting a second productive and sustainable Green Revolution.

CIMMYT and USDA support wheat improvement in Pakistan

Written by on October 11, 2013. Posted in News.

By Yahya Rauf/CIMMYT

A meeting last month highlighted the efforts of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and CIMMYT to improve wheat in the country. PARC and CIMMYT-Pakistan organized the annual wheat planning and Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program (W-PEP) meeting from 17 to 18 September at the National Agriculture Research Centre (NARC) in Islamabad. PARC2

The meeting reviewed progress and achievements during the last three years under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded W-PEP program and refined work plans for 2013-14. The program is aimed primarily at developing wheat varieties that resist Ug99 stem rust as well as fostering seed multiplication and distribution, improved agronomic practices and human resource development in the agriculture sector to ensure food security. During the inaugural session, USDA Agriculture Counselor Clay Hamilton said the USA and Pakistan have a long history of agricultural collaboration. The U.S. will continue to provide support for wheat productivity in Pakistan, he said.

Shahid Masood, PARC scientist from the Plant Sciences Division, highlighted PARC’s role in strengthening the national and provincial agricultural research system in coordination with national and international collaborators and research partners. Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country liaison officer for Pakistan, briefed the participants about W-PEP’s achievements during last three years and the impact of this program on the national wheat research system in rust surveillance, breeding, pre-breeding and capacity building, which led to the release of Ug-99 resistant wheat varieties like NARC-2011. National partners from all provinces, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, presented their achievements and work plans for 2013-14. They acknowledged the role of USDA, CIMMYT and PARC in supporting wheat productivity enhancement in Pakistan.

Pakistan program aims for agricultural innovation

Written by on October 10, 2013. Posted in News.

WPEP-AIP-meeting By Imtiaz Muhammad/CIMMYT

International and Pakistani scientists are expanding efforts to accelerate access to climate-resilient maize and rust-resistant wheat varieties in Pakistan, as well as to improve farmers’ access to quality seeds, as part of the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP). Project partners discussed these priorities during a cereals and cereal systems meeting at the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) in Islamabad from 29 to 30 August. AIP is a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)- funded project focusing on cereals, vegetables and livestock in Pakistan, a country challenged by rapid population growth and climate change.

CIMMYT is working with the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and other partners to increase agricultural productivity and the value of agricultural commodities in the country. The program is supporting Pakistan in agricultural research for development, which includes building partnerships between research and those it serves; increasing investments; generating, sharing and making use of agricultural knowledge for development; and demonstrating and building awareness of the development impact and returns from agricultural innovation. Farmers throughout the world face similar problems from increasing production costs, fluctuating market prices, water and soil degradation and potential implications of climate change, said Ken Sayre, a CIMMYT consultant on conservation agriculture. Sayre also described the benefits of conservation agriculture crop management technologies and their main principles.

These include seeding systems that allow major reductions in tillage, retaining adequate levels of crop residues on the soil surface and using diversified crop rotations. There are many challenges AIP can address. Maize yields in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province are low due to a lack of technology. Most maize farmers in Pakistan use manual sowing, which is not cost or time-effective, and farmers need more confidence in hybrid seeds before they will pay a premium for them. Meeting participants discussed several options for commissioned projects in wheat, including rapid diffusion of high-yielding, rust-resistant wheat; introducing fungicides for wheat management; and generating a durum wheat value chain in Pakistan. Participants also discussed potential projects and goals related to climate-resilient wheat, the cultivation of durum wheat in Balochistan province, the standardization of fungicides to combat yield losses and strengthening communication.

For the rice work plan, top priority areas include developing tolerance to submergence and heat in locally adapted varieties such as super basmati, basmati 515, IR-6 and IR 9, in addition to bacterial leaf blight resistance and superior grain quality. Abdul Rehman and Surapong Sarkarung represented IRRI, where some of the activities have already begun. Priorities for the maize work plan include introducing climateresilient maize hybrids, developing biofortified maize, developing cultivars with resistance to biotic stresses and strengthening the maize seed sector. CIMMYT maize expert R. Sadananda and national partners joined to refine the maize work plan. Kay Simmons from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-Agricultural Research Service and Ian C. Winborne, plant health advisor for the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, also attended the meeting to discuss wheat productivity enhancement in Pakistan.

A new era for Agricultural Innovation in Pakistan

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

On 27-28 May, representatives from CIMMYT, USAID, the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), ILRI, IRRI, AVRDC, and UC Davis met with colleagues from several Pakistan universities, agricultural secretaries of the provinces, development sector organizations, private sector representatives, and farmer organizations, to discuss and plan the next stage of the USAID-supported Agricultural Innovation Program for Pakistan (AIP).

In his opening address, Randy Chester, USAID’s Deputy Office Chief for Agriculture, stated that “AIP represents a unique and unprecedented collaboration, in that it will bring together the expertise and resources of all of these organizations, including USAID, to increase the income of farmers across Pakistan.” By using the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) approach of agricultural research for development (AR4D), AIP “will foster a demand-driven, results-oriented, science research community, and enhance linkages between Pakistan’s agricultural research and innovation communities, the wider global community of agricultural scientists, and the private and civil society sectors,” he concluded.

AIP is a unique program for CIMMYT, aiming to address not only cereals and cereal systems, but also livestock, vegetables, and fruit trees, through a combination of commissioned projects, a competitive grants system, and human resource development. The program will draw on the expertise and resources of the five international partners, but many other Pakistan partners will be brought on as the program develops. PARC Chairman, Iftikhar Ahmad, highlighted the role that Pakistan organizations have to play: “We need a new kind of collaboration,” he said. “It must be a two-way process in that Pakistan must also contribute to international science. Pakistani scientists must play a crucial role in paying back what we get from the outside. Other economies can benefit from Pakistani science as well,” he added.

It would not be the first time that Pakistan has positively impacted worldwide agricultural development. Its national agricultural research system was instrumental in identifying two high-yielding wheat mega-varieties, ‘Mexi-Pak’ and ‘Pak81’, also known as ‘Siete Cerros’ and ‘Seri’, respectively, recalled Hans Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program.

During spirited working groups, participants put forward their suggestions for project priorities that will enable AIP to increase the incomes of tens of thousands of farmers, through increased agricultural productivity, in the shortest time frame possible. There will be a strong focus on adapting and up-scaling existing technologies present elsewhere in the region, such as Greenseeker sensors for improved nutrient management.

Closing the meetings, Jonathon Conly, USAID Mission Director, Pakistan, praised the group in their collaboration to revolutionize Pakistan’s agricultural sector. “If we care about driving economic growth, it has to be done by increasing farm productivity, by increasing adoption of technologies, and human capacity,” he said; concluding: “I believe that AIP will lead to the desperately-needed increases in agricultural productivity in this country.” Pakistan35

US Ambassador to Pakistan visits National Agricultural Research Center in Islamabad

Written by on May 21, 2013. Posted in News.

Pakistan-(1) — US ambassador hands Wintersteiger keys to the chairman of PARC.

On 8 May 2013, US ambassador Richard Olson reaffirmed the United States government’s long-term support to farming communities in Pakistan during his visit to the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) in Islamabad. The visit, organized by CIMMYT in collaboration with US embassy in Pakistan and Pakistan Agricultural research Council (PARC)/NARC, was to recognize the success of the Wheat Productivity Enhancement Project (WPEP), a USDA program implemented by CIMMYT in collaboration with national and provincial research partners, and to inaugurate the harvesting ceremony for the Ug99 resistant wheat variety called NARC 2011. “Since the 1950s, the United States has been working to support agriculture in Pakistan,” stated Olson. “Wheat accounts for approximately 60% of the daily caloric intake of the average Pakistani, so our joint efforts to combat this disease are critical.”

Muhammad Imtiaz, CIMMYT country liaison officer and wheat breeder, briefed the ambassador on CIMMYT’s mission to sustainably increase productivity of wheat and maize systems to ensure global food security and reduce poverty. “CIMMYT collaboration on sustainable agricultural research with national and provincial research institutes in Pakistan began when Dr. Manzoor Bajwa and Dr. Norman Borlaug worked together to develop ‘Mexi-Pak,’ the wheat variety that started the Green Revolution in Pakistan and helped to double Pakistan’s wheat production between 1965 and 1970,” Imtiaz commented on the long-lasting importance of the partnership for Pakistani farmers. The work is not over as the need for disease resistant wheat varieties continues: experts estimate that Pakistan’s annual wheat harvest could be reduced by as much as 50% if and when Ug99 arrives. “Agriculture contributes 21% to the GDP of Pakistan and employs 45% of the labor force, making it one of the most significant economic drivers of Pakistan,” Imtiaz explained the importance of the sector. Pakistani farmers grew about 24 million tons of wheat on 8 million hectares last year, accounting for about 2.4% of the GDP.

Abdul Basit Khan, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of National Food Security and Research, and Iftikar Ahmed, PARC Chairman, appreciated CIMMYT’s effective role in wheat improvement through technical support and implementation of international funded projects, and reiterated its importance for enhancement of the research efficiency and capacity of Handing over of Wintersteiger key to Chairman PARC Pakistani national institutes.

Dr. Norman E. Borlaug

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on April 3, 2013. Posted in Videos. 1 Comment on Dr. Norman E. Borlaug

CIMMYT fights hunger and poverty in the developing world through smarter agriculture. We are the world’s number one caretaker and developer of maize and wheat, two of humanity’s most vital crops. Maize and wheat are grown on 200 million hectares in developing countries. 84 million of those hectares are planted with varieties of CIMMYT seed. We also maintain the world’s largest maize and wheat seed bank at our headquarters in Mexico.

We are probably best known for prompting the Green Revolution, which saved millions of lives across Asia and led to CIMMYT’s Norman Borlaug receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Because of population growth, natural resource degradation, and climate change the current challenge is to feed more people, with less resources, and in a more environmentally responsible way than ever before. It can be done.

Pakistan: Innovation to boost agriculture

Written by on March 26, 2013. Posted in News.

NARC-17 Pakistan ushered in a new era of agricultural research earlier this month when the Ministry of Food Security and Research, CIMMYT, USAID, the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), and key agricultural leaders from throughout Pakistan gathered in Islamabad on 08 March 2013 to announce the Pakistan ‘Agricultural Innovation Program’ (AIP). This $30 million project seeks to revitalize the contribution of science-supported innovation to the economic growth of Pakistan’s agricultural sector by utilizing the Agricultural Research for Development paradigm.

“Pakistan’s agricultural productivity has fallen behind comparable countries with similar agroecologies,” said Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT Director General. “There is a tremendous potential for growth, but we must act now.” Under AIP, commissioned projects and competitive grants will address key objectives to increase productivity within the cereals/cereal systems, livestock, and horticulture sectors. Whilst CIMMYT will manage and take responsibility for the overall AIP portfolio and the cereals/cereal systems component, the program will also draw on the expertise of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), The World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University of California, Davis. UC Davis will also assist in linking Pakistan research systems to agriculture science and innovation in the USA via the human resources development component of AIP; which will make a particular effort to engage women scientists in Pakistan. PARC is the hosting partner and will also oversee the competitive grants portfolio and ensure that AIP is led and executed by national partners.

The relationship between CIMMYT and Pakistan spans five decades. In 1961, Pakistani FAO trainee Manzoor Bajwa, who was working with Norman Borlaug, selected Mexipak, a high-yielding wheat that went on to become the country’s most popular variety and one of the original megavarieties of the Green Revolution. After a large import of Mexipak seed from Mexico, Pakistan harvested 7 million tons of wheat in 1968, making it the first country in Asia to become self-sufficient in the crop. Most of Pakistan’s wheat crop (24 million tons in 2012) is produced with varieties derived from the CIMMYT/Pakistan collaboration. During the 1990s-early 2000s, CIMMYT helped Pakistani research to launch conservation agriculture in South Asia.

Now, AIP hopes to foster a demand-driven, results-oriented science research community and enhance linkages between Pakistan’s agricultural research and innovation communities, the wider global community of agricultural scientists, and the private and civil society sectors. Research is one among many contributors to increase food security and economic growth; but by creating a dynamic, responsive, and competitive system of science and innovation partnerships, the Agricultural Innovation Program hopes to rapidly boost agricultural production, productivity, and value.

For additional information contact Interim AIP project leader Rick Ward (r.ward@cgiar.org) or CIMMYT Pakistan Country Liaison Officer Muhammad Imtiaz (m.imtiaz@cgiar.org)

CIMMYT supports Pakistan’s agricultural machinery modernization

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

On 22 December 2012, two agricultural research organizations in Pakistan — National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, and Wheat Research Institute (WRI) Faisalabad, Punjab — received new Wintersteiger combine harvester and seeding machines from the Wheat Production Enhancement Program for Pakistan (WPEP) funded by USDA and implemented by CIMMYT in an effort to upgrade Pakistan’s wheat research infrastructure. Until now, the institutes were relying on old harvesting and planting machines which could no longer satisfy their research needs. Makhdoom Hussain, WRI Faisalabad director, expressed his gratitude regarding the purchase: “The replacement of old irreparable machines was much needed. It will build the Institute’s capacity to precisely design and conduct experiments.”

New project launched: Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia

Written by on February 11, 2013. Posted in News.

South Asian farm lands have been increasingly experiencing climate change related weather extremes. A report from the Asian Development Bank in 2009 warns that if the current trends persist until 2050, major crop yields and food production capacity of South Asia will significantly decrease — by 17% for maize, 12% for wheat, and 10% for rice — due to climate change induced heat and water stress. In response to this situation, USAID’s Feed the Future (FTF) initiative has decided to support the “Heat stress resilient maize for South Asia through a public-private partnership” (Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia, HTMA) project to develop heat resilient maize for South Asia.

USAID supports CIMMYT-led partnership for heat resilient maize in South Asia

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

PHOTO-NEPAL The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) will support a partnership to develop heat resilient maize for South Asia, as part of the US government’s Feed the Future initiative. The partnership is led by CIMMYT and involves Purdue University, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and several private and national research partners in South Asia. The aim is to develop and deploy heat stress tolerant, high-yielding maize hybrids for vulnerable, maize-dependent areas of South Asia.

“Out of a total of approximately six million hectares of hybrid maize grown in South Asia, nearly a million hectares are highly vulnerable to high temperature stress,” said BM Prasanna, director of CIMMYT’s global maize program. “Nearly 80 percent of the maize in this region is rainfed and highly vulnerable to extreme weather events, including drought and high temperatures. At the same time, spring maize has become an important option for intensifying and diversifying cropping systems in South Asia, especially in the upper and middle Indo-Gangetic plains, but the crop is prone to severe heat stress as well.”

The project will be funded for five years (2012-17) and USAID contributions will be matched with in-kind support from the public-private alliance. Work will build on the elite, abiotic stress tolerant maize germplasm from CIMMYT; the technical expertise of key resource partners (CIMMYT, Purdue University, and Pioneer Hi-Bred); the maize breeding and phenotyping locations and strengths of the national research programs of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan; and the seed production capacity, farmer linkages, and market reach of private partners (Pioneer Hi-Bred, Vibha AgriTech, Ajeet Seeds, and Kaveri Seeds).

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.”