CIMMYT’s work in Africa helps farmers access new maize and wheat systems-based technologies, information and markets, raising incomes and enhancing crop resilience to drought and climate change. CIMMYT sets priorities in consultation with ministries of agriculture, seed companies, farming communities and other stakeholders in the maize and wheat value chains. Our activities in Africa are wide ranging and include: breeding maize for drought tolerance and low-fertility soils, and for resistance to insect pests, foliar diseases and parasitic weeds; sustainably intensifying production in maize- and wheat-based systems; and investigating opportunities to reduce micronutrient and protein malnutrition among women and young children.
Representatives from various sectors in Tanzania met to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the country’s groundnut value chain, with the aim of establishing a platform for dialogue among stakeholders involved in groundnut production and distribution.
Participants attentively listen to a presentation at the groundnut value chain stakeholders’ meeting in Tanzania. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The meeting was organized by TEMNAR Co. Ltd., and brought together key stakeholders including farmers, government officials, research institutes, NGOs, and partners such as Ruvuma Commercialization and Diversification of Agriculture (RUCODIA), SWISSAID, and Vodacom. All participants affirmed the meeting’s overall impact and significance, acknowledging that the event would help lay a strong foundation for the growth of groundnut farming, particularly in Mtwara and Lindi regions.
The meeting featured presentations from scientists at the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) — who addressed topics such as groundnut agronomy and seed technology — and representatives from TEMNAR, who outlined strategies to facilitate effective collaboration among stakeholders and achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Discussions centered on topics such as groundnut varieties, market demands, and the importance of quality and cleanliness throughout the production process. Trust in business relationships was identified as a key factor for success.
Participants at the meeting shared innovative ideas and identified opportunities for strengthening the sector. They highlighted, for example, the need for aggregators to specify their groundnut volume requirements and the application of simple technologies — such as hand push planters and threshing machines — to increase production efficiency. They also emphasized the importance of planting new TARI-bred groundnut varieties to meet market demand, and the establishment of additional seed multiplication farms to increase seed availability.
: A participant examines displayed groundnuts at the groundnut value chain stakeholders’ meeting in Tanzania (Photo: CIMMYT).
Another key component of the meeting was assessing the challenges faced by local groundnut farmers. These include the shortage of good groundnut seed, limited agronomical knowledge, and the labor-intensive nature of planting, harvesting, and picking the crop. To address these challenges, participants suggested making agricultural inputs and tools more accessible to farmers, conducting technology demonstrations, and establishing seed multiplication farms across different districts.
Both farmers and aggregators expressed their commitment to making changes in their farming practices; aggregators are now able to access groundnuts easily through phone calls, while farmers enjoy improved access to markets and better prices. A number of follow-up actions have also been planned as a result of the meeting, such as product buyback initiatives during the harvest season and the establishment of field days to help reach more farmers and aggregators at the local level.
As the effects of climate change intensify, rain dependent crop production is becoming more challenging for smallholder farmers in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia. Farmers often experience either too little or too much rain to effectively grow their crops, which means growing crops under irrigation is becoming key to building resilience to climate shocks. However, smallholder farmers often lack the access to equipment and skills to implement low-cost irrigation technologies.
The Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I) implemented by the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has partnered with Total LandCare (TLC) Malawi and Zambia to promote Sustainable Intensification practices in eastern and central Malawi. TLC conducted a training session on using treadle pumps for irrigation plot layout in Mumbi Village, Petauke District, Zambia.
Farmers setting up an irrigation plot as a live demonstration. (Photo : TLC)
Letting gravity do the work
The irrigation system operates on the principle of pumping water manually from a low point to a high point from which the water then flows by gravity through a system of channels to irrigate crops.
Properly managed, treadle pump irrigation can improve household food security, income, nutrition, and health sustainably without detrimental effects to the environment.
The training educated 12 farmers in establishing an irrigation layout using gravity-fed basins, with water pumped from a stream downhill using a treadle pump. Participants learned how to erect channels that directed water into basins.
During practical irrigation training in Muya village of Mondolo camp, Petauke district, one of the farmers, Magret Tembo said, “This method of irrigation will negate the burden associated with use of watering cans, a practice which has been giving us backaches. Through this technology, we will experience increased production through better water management and increased area coverage.”
Following the setup demonstration, participants received practical guidance on various aspects of irrigation and crop management, covering such topics as planting techniques and effective fertilizer use, and application of pesticides and fungicides.
Inexpensive and durable
“Treadle pump irrigation offers tremendous opportunities to dramatically increase agricultural production while enriching the livelihoods of many resource-poor farmers,” said Zwide Jere, Co-founder/Managing Director of TLC.
Treadle pumps are inexpensive, so individuals can afford to purchase one and they are durable and easy to maintain, so one pump will work for years for individual households.
“The pumps are also designed to work in many environments,” said Paul Malambo, Country Manager for TLC Zambia. “So, over the years, TLC has been able to distribute the pumps in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.”
A farmer demonstrating how to use the pump (top left and right) in Kasenengwa, Zambia (Photo: TLC)
“Providing access to technical knowledge and support for under-utilized land, water and labor resources is an important part of the AID-I project, said Kevin Kabunda, CIMMYT lead for the AID-I. “As is collaboration with local partners like TLC who facilitate the dissemination of expertise.”
TLC is a registered non-governmental organization based in Malawi and active in Zambia. Its mission is to empower self-reliance and prosperity for rural households in the Southern Africa region.
CIMMYT and the Global Center on Adaptation, along with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture’s Food Systems Resilience Program (FSRP), presented the results of their joint research on climate risks during a two-day workshop held in October in Addis Ababa.
Participants of the workshop in Addis Ababa (Photo: CIMMYT).
For over a year and a half, agricultural experts, academics and scientists worked together under the project Digital Climate Advisory Services for Priority Agricultural Value Chains in Ethiopia, which aimed to analyze the risks posed by climate change on five value chains – wheat, maize, coffee, soybean and livestock – and to offer practical adaptation options. CIMMYT conducted the studies in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and with the sponsorship of GCA. The workshop was attended by experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, the Ethiopian Metrology Agency, the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Green Agro Solutions, among other organizations.
From research outcomes to practical solutions
As a prelude to the two-day discussion, CIMMYT senior scientist, Kindie Tesfaye, expressed his hopes that the research findings will be translated into practical solutions in the field. In turn, GCA Food Security senior program officer Mercy Nyambura invited the guests to share their insights, knowledge and expertise on how the joint research outputs could be put to use.
Highlighting that climate variability and climate extreme events are the main two factors undermining food security in Ethiopia, Keberu Belayneh, FSRP’s head at the Ministry of Agriculture, underlined the need for multi-partnerships to respond and adapt to climate change. He farther shared his hope that the program will contribute to the government’s ongoing efforts to ensure food security in the country.
Offering the perspective of a private sector actor, Green Agro Solutions’ executive director Abrhame Endrias hailed the partnership between his company and CIMMYT in five districts where the company deployed its digital platform LERSHA – “for agriculture” in Amharic. LERSHA provides farmers with vital weather forecasts, as well as other services such as farm inputs, mechanization services, and agro-climate advice. In addition, development agents are bridging the literacy gap between the farmers and the digital services, added Abrhame Endrias. In the five districts where CIMMYT and Green Agro Solutions partnered, LERSHA ‘s adoption rates increased, Abrhame Endrias noted.
Vibrant discussions
The results on the five value chains were presented in five different sessions. The first day of the workshop, Debre Markos University’s Dereje Ademe communicated the findings of the studies on the maize and soybean value chains, while Abate Mekuriaw, associate professor at the Addis Ababa University, introduced the results on the wheat value chain. They were followed on the second day by Adama Ndour and Mekdes Woldegiorgis, post-doctoral researchers at CIMMYT-Ethiopia, who discussed with the audience their findings on the current and future climate risks for the coffee and cattle value chains.
Echoing Kindie Tesfaye and Mercy Nyambura’s call, the conversations mainly focused on the potential implementation of the research outcomes, with multiple participants voicing their wishes to see the outputs cascading down to district levels.
Keberu Abayneh, the head of the FSRP in the Ministry of Agriculture, gave a closing remark at the end of the workshop thanking CIMMYT, the technical team that carried out the studies, the Ministry of Agriculture and all stakeholders who took part in it.
Following this, the first Regional Climate Risk Analysis Output Communication Workshop was held in Adama, Ethiopia, from November 13-14, 2023.
As highlighted in the first workshop, the research findings needed to be cascaded down to the regional and district level in order to be implemented successfully. To this end, the second workshop brought together the main representatives from regional agricultural offices in the 11 regional states, who engaged in discussions around the research findings, recommendations, and implementation methods. Researchers, agricultural experts, and representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, Green Agro Solution, CIMMYT and FSRP also took part in the discussions.
Participants of the workshop in Adama (Photo: CIMMYT).
This workshop, held with the aim of engaging participants from 11 regional states in active discussions and gathering feedbacks, is believed to lay the groundwork for cascading down the research results for implementation.
When representatives from regional states presented on their respective areas, they found more common points than differences. Climate change risk on each of the five value chains is felt across Ethiopia due to extremes and variances in rainfall and temperatures, and many regions are shifting cultivating seasons, forwarded by up to three months because of late-onset of rainfall. These incidents are forcing farmers to change conventional cultivation patterns, with those who stick to the conventional schedule at risk of losing their yields. Some farmers have even changed the types of crops they grow as a result.
Participants noted that the recommended adaptation plans are commendable and implementable in their respective areas, with the proper guidance and resources. In order to ensure tangible impact, they asked for the research documents on the priority value chains to be communicated to a wider range of stakeholders in each regional state.
Creating awareness on the climate risk and the adaptation plans, building capacity to ensure the implementation, piloting and then scaling up implementation across the regional states with consistent monitoring and evaluation can bring effective results, stakeholders agreed.
In a strategic move to improve food security and promote agricultural development, Syngenta Foundation Nigeria, one of the key partners in the Dryland Crops Program (DCP), has introduced a new initiative known as the AVISA Farmers’ Hub. The initiative was launched at an event in the Murya Community of Obi Local Government Area in the Nasarawa State of North Central Nigeria. The Farmers’ Hub aims to support and empower farmers in the region, contributing to the overall objectives of the DCP.
The introduction of the Farmers’ Hub comes at a time when smallholder farmers in the region are grappling with limited access to essential resources such as knowledge, high-quality inputs, modern technology, and reliable markets, all of which are critical for achieving high-quality agricultural productivity.
A farmers’ hub (FH) is an all-inclusive commercial platform that provides diverse inputs such as seeds, seedlings, fertilizers, and crop protection products, as well as price and weather information. In addition, it provides farmers with value-added services such as aggregation, cleaning, sorting and grading of produce, bulk sales, training, equipment leasing and rental, financing, and trade credit. Smallholder farmers can now take advantage of the opportunities provided by the Farmers’ Hub by transitioning from subsistence agriculture to a commercially oriented system.
Inside the farmer’s hub. The hub is all-inclusive platform offering a wide range of inputs including seeds, seedlings, fertilizers and more (Syngenta Foundation Nigeria).
During the event, the Country Program Manager of Syngenta Foundation Nigeria, Isaiah Gabriel, emphasized the foundation’s dedication to commercializing AVISA crops: “The foundation is working to facilitate the commercialization of cowpea, sorghum, groundnuts, and pear millet.” Gabriel also emphasized the importance of raising awareness among farmers and establishing a platform that provides smallholder farmers with improved seeds, seedlings, fertilizers, mechanization, and other value-added services. He urged farmers in the state to maximize their utilization of the Farmers’ Hub and its services, which are intended to facilitate improved seed production and service delivery.
The Farmers’ Hub was established with the goal of resolving access issues, optimizing yields, aggregating grains, and overcoming market challenges. Finally, the hub hopes to improve food security and increase the income of smallholder farmers.
Prof. Mary Yeye, the National Coordinator of AVISA, commended the initiative and emphasized the importance to farmers of taking advantage of the project and making prudent use of its resources as she addressed the participants.
Experts in attendance, that included Prof. Lucky Omoigui, a seed system specialist from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Prof. SG Gaya, a groundnut breeder from Bayero University Kano (BUK), and Prof, Alhassan Lalihu from the Federal University Lafia, discussed several of the obstacles to high agricultural productivity. These factors include restricted access to improved seeds, expensive fertilizers, and security concerns. The experts lauded the Farmers’ Hub as the final step in delivering resources to smallholder farmers. In addition, they urged all levels of government to intensify efforts to subsidize input costs and improve farmers’ security.
The program manager of the Nasarawa State Agricultural Development Program, Emmanuel Alanama, responded by thanking Syngenta Foundation for selecting Nasarawa State for this significant project. He acknowledged that 75 to 80 percent of the state’s population are farmers and expressed the willingness of the state government to collaborate and support any agricultural initiatives.
Farmers participating in a training session at the farmers hub. (Syngenta Foundation Nigeria)
Rowland Alaku, manager of the Farmers’ Hub, assured farmers that they would have guaranteed access to quality seeds. The farmers in attendance expressed their gratitude for the initiative and promised to utilize the hub fully in order to benefit their own farming endeavors.
Other dignitaries in attendance included Prof. Johnson Onyibe from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria; Dr. Teryima Iorlamen from the University of Agriculture, Makurdi; and several village heads. More than 150 farmers, stakeholders, and government officials attended the event, highlighting its importance.
CIMMYT scientist, Kindie Tesfaye, emphasizes the importance of user-centered climate information services and agricultural extension. These tools enable farmers to make informed decisions, manage risks, and increase productivity, contributing to food security.
Local farmer showcases her indigenous seed during the seed and livestock fair in Mbire. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Farmers, stakeholders, and partners, including seed companies, Hamara Chicks, PHI Commodities, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), BioHUB Trust (BHT), Kurima Machinery and Technology, and Zimplow Limited, participated in the Seed and Livestock Fair in the Mbire and Murewa districts of Zimbabwe, which showcased indigenous and improved seed varieties and different technologies to strengthen crop and livestock value chain systems.
Initiated by CIMMYT in 2022, as the CGIAR Initiative on Agroecology, these series of fairs have become instrumental in bringing agrodealers closer to farmers and showcasing sustainable technologies and innovations that have the potential to strengthen production systems. It was also an opportunity for the agroecology initiative team to provide feedback to farmers and stakeholders on ongoing activities and technologies that were being tested since the initiative’s inception in Zimbabwe. By adopting a multi-partner approach, these fairs bring local food systems actors together to ensure food and nutrition security and improved income for farmers.
“The agroecology initiative has been collaborating with an array of organizations and institutes that can support our mission towards promoting agroecology and improving farming production, including other CGAIR entities like IWMI and ILRI, Hamara Group, Ecolyfe, and PHI Commodities,” said Dorcas Matangi, research associate at CIMMYT.
This year’s edition of the seed and livestock fair “Fostering Synergies: Diverse Crops, Livestock and Inclusive Communities” advocated for enhancing synergies within the farm to foster sustainable agroecology transitions for resilient food and nutrition outcomes. With over 800 farmers and stakeholders participating, the event provided a vibrant platform for knowledge sharing, exploration of indigenous and improved seed varieties, and sensitization of innovative technologies.
“The seed and livestock fairs hosted by the agroecology initiative bring together farmers and food system actors from all walks of life to foster learning around agroecology, which includes the importance of diversity (crop and livestock) while also appreciating local innovations in the respective area,” said Jesca Mapfinya, a Murewa farmer.
The right seed, assures a good harvest
Various seed companies participated in the fair to showcase different seeds which are well adapted in Murewa and Mbire districts. Each agroecological region in Zimbabwe is unique, with adaptable seed varieties that are either landrace or improved. Local landraces and many underutilized crop species are adapted to weather and climate variability, climate change, and extreme weather such as drought and heat stress. Farmers indicated that their motivations for growing landraces are related to sustainable farming systems suitable for social, cultural, nutritional, and agronomic traits. Their place in rural communities remains important, providing much-needed functional diversity and social capital. Including improved varieties within the basket of options can further intensify production systems in these communities.
“Primarily, we sell seed varieties and build farmer capacity around appropriate agronomic practices. The seed fairs are a good platform to match seeds and systems and allows a farmer to provide feedback about our seed varieties and how they are performing in the respective areas,” said Onesmous Satenga, SeedCo.
Farmers interact and purchase seed from a local company. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Building crop and livestock synergies
For the first time since the inception of the fairs, livestock such as cattle, sheep, goats, chicken and rabbits were displayed. Partners, including ILRI and the Hamara Chicks, who are into sasso chicken and feed production, reiterated the importance of crop diversity for improved livestock nutrition. ILRI and the Grasslands Research Institute exhibited various local feedstocks and alternative livestock feed grasses and also presented several feed formulations. Farmers also provided feedback on the feeding strategies employed for different livestock.
“We feed cattle with poultry litter, maize grain, maize stover, and groundnut shells in various proportions depending on the availability of these feed sources. Forage legumes such as velvet bean (mucuna pruriens) and lablab (lablab purpureus) have been introduced, and we have started to grow these for feed,” said Samson Tashaya, Murewa farmer.
Local goat breeds showcased by farmers during the seed and livestock fair. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Of keen interest to farmers and stakeholders was the sasso breed of chickens that the Hamara Group was promoting.
“We have recently joined as partners with CIMMYT and are promoting hybrid chicken production, especially sasso, here in Murewa ward 27 and 4. This is our first time coming to this seed fair, and it was a learning opportunity. The interactions with farmers were really good,” said Alan Norton, team leader at Hamara Chicks.
Modernizing smallholder production systems
Mechanization experts from Kurima Machinery and Zimplow shared their recommendations at the fair. They acknowledged that farmers rely heavily on scarcely available labor and production activities that are backbreaking. They advocated for modern production systems to produce more food and support economic transformation. Experts from Kurima Machinery and Zimplow demonstrated several machines that could aid farmers in various on-farm activities.
“This fair has come at the right time as I begin land preparation for my pfumvudza (conservation agriculture plots). I have seen how the basin digger works, and I am keen to purchase an instrument to make my work much easier,” said Chief Chisunga, Mbire.
“This crop season’s outlook is still unclear, but weather experts have warned of an intense El Nino event likely to happen in the second half of the season. Technologies such as conservation agriculture can ensure good moisture retention in crop fields, and it needs to be paired with good agronomic practices,” said Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi, climate and food systems expert.
Live demonstration by Kurima of machinery equipment to local farmers (Photo: CIMMYT)
CIMMYT Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in November 2023 with the Addis Ababa-based private food processing company Alvima Foods Complex Plc, in an effort to encourage durum wheat production among smallholder farmers and create market linkage in selected woredas of Oromia and Amhara regional states.
The MoU, which is part of CIMMYT Ethiopia’s overall durum wheat project aiming to reinvigorate durum wheat production in the country, was signed by Workneh Rikita, Alvima general manager, and Kindie Tesfaye, CIMMYT Ethiopia’s senior scientist.
CIMMYT Ethiopia signing a memorandum of understanding.
The MoU aims primarily to create market linkage between farmers and manufacturers, in a context of a sharp decrease of durum wheat production. “Prior to the 1980s, 80% of the wheat produced in Ethiopia was durum, but in 2016 our nationwide research on wheat showed that the durum wheat coverage was 5%, which stands in contrast to the country’s effort to industrialize the economy and substitute import goods with local produce”, said Kindie Tesfaye, CIMMYT durum wheat project leader. “We, as CIMMYT, want to encourage farmers to produce good quality durum wheat in quantity, and teach them about contract farming by creating market linkage with produce receivers like Alvima.”
“Cooperation, not business venture”
Established in 2011, Alvima Foods Complex initially centered its operations around importing and exporting agro-food products. In 2017, the company set up a pasta and flour processing factory and contracted 800 farmers to produce durum wheat. “At first, our objective was to produce premium quality pasta, unlike most processing companies in the country which produce pasta from hard wheat or mixed wheat,” said Workneh Rikita, Alvima’s general manager. In the absence of binding rules, the project failed and Alvima resigned to import durum wheat. “The law on contract farming was constituted recently and the difficulties to access foreign currency (therefore to import goods), which led us to turn our attention back to our initial project”, said Workneh Rikita.
Alvima Foods Complex general manager added that his company didn’t sign the agreement as a business venture but as an advantageous cooperation to learn from. He thanked CIMMYT for agreeing to work with his company and expressed his hopes for its success.
The current durum wheat market in Ethiopia is unpredictable as prices are set by the brokers, which heavily disadvantages the growers. The objective of the memorandum of understanding is to address such market challenges faced by farmers, affording them guaranteed market opportunities at a fair price.
As part of the agreement between Alvima Foods Complex and the durum wheat growers in target districts of the Amhara and Oromia regional states, CIMMYT will leverage on its expertise to help the farmers produce more and in good quality. Alvima will access the produce from farmers’ cooperatives directly, without the intervention of middlemen, to guarantee better incomes to producers. Moreover, CIMMYT is training farmers on use of climate information, accessing climate advisories, video-based production trainings, and crop disease management.
“If the farmers get the premium price for their produce, they will be encouraged to continue producing better wheat,” said Kindie Tesfaye. “We want the cooperation to be sustainable and to create direct links between farmers and local food processors (such as AVLIMA). The MoU will also benefit Ethiopia by decreasing imports of processed food items.”
A multilayered challenge to durum wheat production
Supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CIMMYT and Digital Green (an organization creating digital tools to assist farmers) have been conducting durum wheat improved varieties were insufficiently promoted; the seed was not made adequately accessible to farmers; productivity was perceived by farmers as being low; and market linkage was poor. These multilayered challenges led farmers to prioritize bread wheat varieties, according to Kindie Tesfaye.
In response, CIMMYT structured its support around three main pillars: the organization helps farmers access seeds together with Oromia’s Seed Enterprise, provides farmers with digital advisory services to improve their productivity, and works with the private and public sectors to upgrade market linkages, as with the memorandum of understanding signed with Alvima Foods Complex Plc.
An international cohort of scientists representing 12 countries gathered at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) station in Njoro for a comprehensive training course aimed at honing their expertise in wheat rust pathology.
With a mission to bolster the capabilities of National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), the training course attracted more than 30 participants from diverse corners of the globe.
Maricelis Acevedo, a research professor of global development at Cornell and the associate director of Wheat DEWAS, underscored the initiative’s significance. “This is all about training a new generation of scientists to be at the forefront of efforts to prevent wheat pathogens epidemics and increase food security all over the globe,” Acevedo said.
This year’s training aims to prepare global scientists to protect against disease outbreaks that threaten wheat productivity in East Africa and South Asia. The course encompassed a wide array of practical exercises and theoretical sessions designed to enhance the participants’ knowledge in pathogen surveillance, diagnostics, modeling, data management, early warning assessments, and open science publishing. Presentations were made by DEWAS partners from the John Innes Centre, Aarhus University, the University of Cambridge and University of Minnesota.
(Photo: Borlaug Global Rust Initiative)
The course provided practical, hands-on experience in selecting and evaluating wheat breeding germplasm, race analysis and greenhouse screening experiments to enhance knowledge of rust diseases, according to Sridhar Bhavani, training coordinator for the course.
“This comprehensive training program encompasses diverse aspects of wheat research, including disease monitoring, data management, epidemiological models, and rapid diagnostics to establish a scalable and sustainable early warning system for critical wheat diseases such as rusts, fusarium, and wheat blast,” said Bhavani, wheat improvement lead for East Africa at CIMMYT and head of wheat rust pathology and molecular genetic in CIMMYT’s Global Wheat program.
An integral part of the program, Acevedo said, was the hands-on training on wheat pathogen survey and sample collection at KALRO. The scientists utilized the international wheat screening facility at KALRO as a training ground for hot-spot screening for rust diseases resistance.
Daisy Kwamboka, an associate researcher at PlantVillage in Kenya, said the program provided younger scientists with essential knowledge and mentoring.
“I found the practical sessions particularly fascinating, and I can now confidently perform inoculations and rust scoring on my own,” said Kwamboka said, who added that she also learned how to organize experimental designs and the basics of R language for data analysis.
DEWAS research leaders Dave Hodson, Bhavani and Acevedo conducted workshops and presentations along with leading wheat rust experts. Presenters included Robert Park and Davinder Singh from the University of Sydney; Diane Sauders from the John Innes Centre; Clay Sneller from Ohio State University; Pablo Olivera from the University of Minnesota; Cyrus Kimani, Zennah Kosgey and Godwin Macharia from KALRO; Leo Crespo, Susanne Dreisigacker, Keith Gardner, Velu Govindan, Itria Ibba, Arun Joshi, Naeela Qureshi, Pawan Kumar Singh and Paolo Vitale from CIMMYT; Chris Gilligan and Jake Smith from the University of Cambridge; and Jens Grønbech Hansen and Mogens S. Hovmøller from the Global Rust Reference Center at Aarhus University.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the knowledge imparted by the invited experts, along with the incredible care they have shown us throughout this wonderful training.”
Narain Dhar, Borlaug Institute for South Asia
For participants, the course offered a crucial platform for international collaboration, a strong commitment to knowledge sharing, and its significant contribution to global food security.
“The dedication of the trainers truly brought the training to life, making it incredibly understandable,” said Narain Dhar, research fellow at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia.
The event not only facilitated learning but also fostered connections among scientists from different parts of the world. These newfound connections hold the promise of sparking innovative collaborations and research endeavors that could further advance the field of wheat pathology.
Smallholder mechanization out scaling depends upon the availability of skilled mechanics who are fully oriented with machinery operation. However, this crucial skillset is often identified as a missing link. In many instances, lack of care or regular checks and the absence of readily available mechanics has led to the failure of mechanization projects in sub-Saharan Africa, with frequent machine breakdowns and equipment left sitting idle long after a project intervention. Across smallholder farming communities, this phenomenon can be seen through the presence of obsolete and abandoned machinery often serving as breeding grounds for birds.
The Feed the Future Zimbabwe Mechanization and Extension Activity, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to break this vicious cycle by improving the skillset of local mechanics and helping them stay in tune with evolving innovations in farm machinery. Implemented by CIMMYT, this activity targets existing mechanics across ten districts in Zimbabwe, offering specialized maintenance services to providers who own machinery. Through investing in their training, local capacity to troubleshoot, service and repair machinery will increase.
For most mechanics, the training workshop presents a first-hand experience of handling small machinery. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
Gaining practical experience
The program approaches training through full immersion and a deep dive into the individual components of key equipment. Workstations are set up to include a diesel engine—which forms the core of most of the machinery—a two-wheel tractor and post-harvest machines such as the multi-crop thresher, feed-chopper grinder and peanut butter machine. For most of the participants, the workshop presents them with first-hand experience of handling such machinery.
Andy Chagudhuma and Tendai Machonesa—from Bikita and Chiredzi, respectively—were among the first ten mechanics to participate in the five-day training. “I learned about all the machines here,” says Chagudhuma, “breaking them apart and fixing them. We worked through different scenarios while perfecting our knowledge on the operation of all the machinery.” With new skills gained, they eagerly await the opportunity to offer their expertise to service providers in their local areas, and a newfound confidence fuels their commitment to providing support through repair and maintenance work.
However, one remaining challenge is the notable absence of female participants in the training. While the field of mechanics is often male-dominated, the Mechanization Activity seeks to promote a gender-inclusive environment for local mechanics and service providers through awareness meetings and skills training. In the future, more machinery and technical trainings will be targeted specifically towards women as a way to redress this imbalance.
Overall, the benefits of the training echo far beyond the workshop itself. Through the skills acquired, opportunities for additional income generation increase, and the participation of rural youths in mechanization-oriented businesses and a thriving local economy are possible. By empowering local mechanics, the Mechanization Activity not only breathes life into their communities and the machinery sector but also paves the way for one of the project’s key objectives—the establishment of successful and entrepreneurial service providers.
The Seed Production Technology for Africa (SPTA) project, led by CIMMYT, has been selected by the CGIAR Gender Impact Platform as a successful case study of integrating gender into crop breeding.
The case study, published in Frontiers in Sociology, is one of fourteen that the CGIAR Genetic Innovation Gender strategy is drawing on to showcase lessons learned from practical experience. These case studies form a critical part of the efforts to pursue gender responsive or gender-intentional breeding and explore how these can inform larger breeding pipelines.
Maize is widely grown by both women and men in Africa. Evidence of gender-differentiated preferences for maize varieties remains inconclusive; however, there is evidence of gendered differences in management practices. Hybrids produced using SPTA segregate 1:1 for pollen producing and non-pollen producing plants referred to as 50% non-pollen producing (FNP) varieties. Previous research showed FNP offered a yield benefit under low input conditions. In the early stage of its inception, the project quickly recognized the potential implications of hybrids produced using SPTA for women and other resource-constrained smallholders in Africa.
Understanding gender-based differences
From the start, the SPTA team conducted a gender review that underscored the fact that women in the region often use less fertilizer than men, a challenge that is further compounded by cultivation of smaller plots and lower quality soils. This review led the breeding team to explicitly target women and resource-poor farmers with an ambition to increase yields on women’s fields. From here henceforth, SPTA made it a priority to understand gender-based differences in performance and preference for new FNP maize varieties. This process involved ensuring both women and men farmers host trials to evaluate and attest to the performance of the FNP hybrids.
But these efforts were not without challenges. The team also found significant gender differences, particularly among women farmers in crop management practices and between farmers’ stated preferences during participatory varietal selection exercises and the varieties they used at home. This suggested that initial on-farm evaluations were not adequate for predicting real world demand for varieties. Moving forward, the evaluation strategy of SPTA evolved to enable variety evaluations under farmers’ preferred management practices.
The success of the SPTA team in ensuring that gender considerations were strongly embedded into the breeding program is attributed to strong collaboration across disciplines that included social scientists and gender researchers working closely with breeders, allocating funding to allow exploration, testing of gender topics and responsive variety evaluation tools and strong buy-in from leadership and donors. As the SPTA case highlights, there is value in starting small, building productive partnerships and collaborating to pilot and develop proof of concept for new models.
The Gwanda Provincial Veterinary Laboratory, now renovated as part of the Livestock Production Systems in Zimbabwe (LIPS-ZIM) project, will help detect and control livestock diseases. CIMMYT is working with ILRI and other partners to improve livestock productivity and support smallholder farmers.
Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Farming Systems in Zambia (SIFAZ) is driven by the need to address systemic productivity and sustainability challenges in Zambian smallholder farming systems. This project is implemented in a research-for-development approach where applied research is conducted alongside scaling-up of sustainable and climate-smart crop production and land management practices within selected pilot areas in the three agro-ecological zones (AEZ) of Zambia.
SIFAZ strives to test, promote and enhance the uptake of sustainable intensification practices (SIPs) including mechanization among smallholder farmers while fostering market linkages and creating an enabling environment for sustainable agriculture growth. Such efforts will contribute to the government’s development priorities, which are framed by the Vision 2030 (Republic of Zambia, 2006) of “a prosperous middle-income nation by 2030” including an efficient, competitive, sustainable and export-led agriculture sector that assures food security and increased income.
The SIFAZ project cycles I and II are being implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with CIMMYT and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in Zambia, with funding from the European Union (EU) for a period of seven years (2019-2026). Under the SIFAZ project, CIMMYT is leading the implementation of adaptive research and is currently working on establishing on-station and on-farm and field testing in and around three research centers in the southern, eastern and northern provinces of Zambia; the research approach includes co-development of on-farm trials using mother and baby trials; mechanization and socio-economics research.
To achieve this, SIFAZ supports three closely interlinked outputs:
Sustainable intensification practices (SIPs) co-developed with farmers and made available for scaling up.
Farmers trained, mentored and capacitated to use SIPs, better manage farmer enterprises and engage value chain actors.
Enabling institutional and policy environment for scaling and adoption of SIPs by smallholder farmers established.
A collaboration scheme launched between the Gorongosa Restoration Project (GRP) and CIMMYT seeks to improve climate resilience, food security and nutrition in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park by facilitating the adoption of sustainable practices and giving local farmers access to formal markets and improved value chains.
The partner organizations aim to develop more resilient agrifood systems that contribute to conserve resources and improve the livelihoods of farmers inhabiting the protected area in Mozambique’s Sofala Province.
“Our primary objective is to establish an evidence-based, scalable and replicable model for developing sustainable and resilient agrifood systems in Mozambique that enhance food and nutrition security and climate resilience of local farmers and communities,” said Gregory C. Carr, GRP President.
Gregory C. Carr (left) with Bram Govaerts. (Photo: Ricardo Curiel/CIMMYT)
The parties will explore collaboration opportunities to give local farmers access to drought tolerant and disease resistant varieties and improved seeds by building capacities of local seed systems.
“We are very excited to contribute to protect Gorongosa National Park by restoring soil health, accelerating a transition to resilience and sustainability and improving, as a result, the yields and living standards of local farming communities,” said Bram Govaerts, Director General at CIMMYT.
The new projects will also aim to promote agriculture conservation-based intensification practices that will increase yields sustainably and limit the expansion of the agricultural frontier in the buffer zone neighboring the protected area.
“If you bring two world class organizations together and create critical mass, it is possible to succeed and show that agriculture is not the enemy of biodiversity,” said the U.S. Special Envoy for Global Food Security, Cary Fowler.
Gregory C. Carr (left), Cary Fowler and Bram Govaerts sign a Memorandum of Understanding. (Photo: Ricardo Curiel/CIMMYT)
The 5-year Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the annual Borlaug Dialogue organized by the World Food Prize Foundation, which convenes international thought leaders, development specialists, researchers, farmers, practitioners and authorities from around the world to promote global food systems transformation and food security.
Under this year’s “Harnessing Change” theme, the Foundation presented the prestigious World Food Prize to Heidi Kühn from the United States for her farmer-focused development model that revitalizes farmland, food security, livelihoods and resilience in war-torn regions around the world as a way for restoring peace and prosperity through agriculture.
About GRP
Gorongosa Restoration Project is a poverty alleviation, sustainable development and conservation non-profit organization used by Gorongosa National Park as a development engine for the Sofala region. GRP is a unique organization, with a mission to advance an integrated, multi-partner approach to conservation and people-centered development. While GRP actively protects Gorongosa National Park’s biodiversity and ecosystems, it also strives to unlock its economic potential for the community inhabitants of the Park’s Buffer Zone, former hunting and forestry concessions, Sofala Province and further afield. GRPs dual mandate of biodiversity conservation and human development is undergirded by the principle that the quest for conservation is a human-nature dynamic that must be addressed holistically. This axiom is increasingly supported by conservation science as well as by GRP’s 15 years of experience in the field.
About CIMMYT
CIMMYT is a cutting edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow’s problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers, while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries.
CIMMYT is a core CGIAR Research Center, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security and improving natural resources.
The Sainsbury Laboratory, the John Innes Centre and 21 other institutes are joining forces in a major global effort to monitor plant pathogens. Led by CIMMYT, the initiative aims to strengthen wheat productivity in food-insecure areas of East Africa and South Asia.
In Ethiopia, regional government representatives endorsed in October 2023 the National Framework on Climate Services (NFCS), a tool designed to guide the establishment and delivery of climate services in key sectors: water and energy, agriculture, health, disaster risk management, and environmental protection.
This endorsement by regional state representatives marks an important step towards the implementation at regional and zonal levels of the NFCS, which was adopted at the national level in 2020.
Participants of the two-day workshop organized by the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute in partnership with CIMMYT (Photo: CIMMYT).
The adoption of the Framework concluded a two-day workshop organized by the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute in partnership with CIMMYT through the AICCRA project, which aims to scale climate-smart agriculture and climate information services for the benefit of millions of small-scale farmers in Ethiopia. The workshop was also attended by ministers, state ministers and heads of federal offices from the sectors affected by climate change.
Responding and adapting to climate change requires that all affected sectors cooperate and collaborate, stressed Fetene Teshome, General Manager of the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute, in his opening remarks. Experts and regional and local representatives should come together to establish a system that can gather quality information and disseminate it to its users, he added.
“We can’t tackle climate change easily, so we have to find ways to live with it and use it to our benefit,” said Habtamu Itefa, minister of water and energy. He urged the workshop participants to approach the NFCS as a system designed to outlive governments and called them to play an essential role in its implementation in their respective regions, zones, districts and kebeles (sub-districts).
“Climate services will bring meaningful changes in agriculture”
Among the sectors most affected by climate change, agriculture accounts for about 40% of the GDP and employs more than 80% of the population, making it the backbone of the Ethiopian economy. It is thus crucial to address climate change impacts on the sector.
CIMMYT Senior Scientist, Kindie Tesfaye, explained how the AICCRA project works to enhance access to climate information services and validated climate-smart agriculture technologies in six African countries, including Ethiopia. As a stakeholder of the project, CIMMYT is training farmers, development agents, and local agricultural experts, and other agricultural value chain actors on the use of climate advisory services in collaboration with LERSHA, a digital platform providing farmers with contextualized weather forecast, inputs, mechanization and financial advisory services.
“We consider climate as a major problem for the country’s agricultural activities because the sector is heavily dependent on rain-fed production system and we believe that implementing this national framework on climate services will bring meaningful changes to the sector enabling it to manage climate risks successfully,” said Kindie Tesfaye.
The AICCRA project supported strengthening the function of the NFCS coordination team for multi- stakeholder engagement, supporting the endorsement of the framework and providing training on resource mobilization for its implementation. The project is also building capacity at different levels, promoting climate smart agriculture.
Productive in-depth discussions
Prior to the NFCS endorsement, participants shared inputs from their respective regions and sectors, providing inputs to the framework. Delegates mostly discussed capacity building needs, information delivery channels, synergetic cooperation among government institutions and mobilization of resources for implementation.
Signing of the endorsement between the Ethiopian Meteorological Institute and representatives of the regional states (Photo: CIMMYT).
On the second day of the workshop, four different papers were presented on a seasonal climate update for the 2023 Bega season (October to December), on the impacts outlook for the upcoming Bega season, on the national state of the climate, and on climate risk management in agriculture extension.
The plenary discussion that followed was led by Fetene Teshome and offered an opportunity to the participants to raise their concerns on the implementation of the framework in their respective regional states. Many of the participants reflected on how the framework can accommodate the different ecology of various areas and how it can upgrade or replace dysfunctional meteorology infrastructures.
The Climate Risk Curriculum module that was prepared by AICCRA for agricultural extension workers was also launched during the workshop.
