In 1970, Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his important scientific work that saved millions of people from famine. Today, humanity faces an equally complex challenge which requires the commitment of all nations, leaders, investors and strategic partners: avoiding the next food crisis.
The Government of Mexico, the Nobel Peace Center and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Borlaug’s Nobel Prize with a call to action to develop a transformational response of agriculture for peace, with an emphasis on nutrition, environment and equity.
Join us on December 8, 2020, from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m. (CST, GMT-6).
This special event is part of the run-up to the United Nations Summit of Agrifood Systems of 2021. It will feature international experts in each of the five action tracks of the summit: ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all; shift to sustainable consumption patterns; boost nature-positive production; advance equitable livelihoods; and build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress.
Guest speakers will include:
Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón – Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs
Kjersti Fløgstad – Executive Director, Nobel Peace Center
Victor Villalobos – Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development
Martin Kropff – Director General, CIMMYT
Margaret Bath – Member of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees
Alison Bentley – Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program
Robert Bertram – Chief Scientist, USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security
Nicole Birrell – Chair of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees
Julie Borlaug – President of the Borlaug Foundation
Gina Casar – Assistant Secretary-General of the World Food Programme
Martha Delgado – Mexico’s Deputy Secretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights
Marco Ferroni – Chair, CGIAR System Board
Federico González Celaya – President of Mexico’s Food Banks Association
Bram Govaerts – Deputy Director General for Research and Collaborations a.i. and Director of the Integrated Development Program, CIMMYT
Juana Hernández – Producer from the community of San Miguel, in Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico
Rut Krüger Giverin – Norwegian Ambassador to Mexico
Sylvanus Odjo – Postharvest Specialist, CIMMYT
Lina Pohl – FAO’s Mexico Representative
B.M. Prasanna – Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize
Tatiana Ramos – Executive Director, Conservation International Mexico
Alfonso Romo – Private Sector Liaison, Government of Mexico
Bosco de la Vega – President Mexico’s National Farmer’s Agricultural Council (CNA)
A young man uses a precision spreader to distribute fertilizer in a field in India. (Photo: Mahesh Maske/CIMMYT)
Although nitrogen has helped in contributing to human dietary needs, there are still large areas of the world — namely sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia — that remain short of the amountsthey need to achieve food and nutritional security.
Conversely, synthetic nitrogen has become increasingly crucial in today’s intensive agricultural systems, but nearly half of the fertilizer nitrogen applied on farms leaks into the surrounding environment. It is possible that we have now transgressed the sustainable planetary boundary for nitrogen, and this could have devasting consequences.
Given this conflicting dual role this compoundplays in agricultural systems and the environment — both positive and negative — the nitrogen challenge is highly relevant across most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations.
Facing a global challenge
The challenge of nitrogen management globally is to provide enough nitrogen to meet global food security while minimizing the flow of unused nitrogen to the environment. One of the key approaches to addressing this is to improve nitrogen use efficiency – which not only enhances crop productivity but also minimizes environmental losses through careful agronomic management – and measures to improve soil quality over time.
Globally, average nitrogen use efficiency does not exceed 50%. Estimates show that a nitrogen use efficiency will need to reach 67% by 2050 if we are to meet global food demand while keeping surplus nitrogen within the limits for maintaining acceptable air and water qualities to meet the SDGs.
This target may seem ambitious — especially given the biological limits to achieving a very high nitrogen use efficiency — but it is achievable.
Earlier this year, J.K. Ladha and I co-authored a paper outlining the links between nitrogen fertilizer use in agricultural production systems and various SDGs. For instance, agricultural systems with suboptimal nitrogen application are characterized with low crop productivity, spiraling into the vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition and poor economy, a case most common in the sub-Saharan Africa. These essentially relate to SDG 1 (no-poverty), 2 (zero-hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 8 (decent work and economic growth) and 15 (life on land).
On the other hand, excess or imbalanced fertilizer nitrogen in parts of China and India have led to serious environmental hazards, degradation of land and economic loss. Balancing the amount of N input in these regions will contribute in achieving the SDG 13 (climate action). Equally, meeting some of the additional SDGs (5, gender equality; 6, clean water and sanitation; 10: reduced inequalities; etc.) requires optimum nitrogen application, which will also ensure “responsible consumption and production” (SDG 12).
A diagram shows the impact of fertilizer nitrogen use on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. (Graphic: CIMMYT/Adapted from CCAFS)
So, how can we achieve this?
Increased research quantifying the linkages between nitrogen management and the SDGs will be important, but the key to success lies with raising awareness among policy makers, stakeholders and farmers.
Most agricultural soils have considerably depleted levels of soil organic matter. This is a central problem that results in agroecosystems losing their ability to retain and regulate the supply of nitrogen to crops. However, poor knowledge and heavy price subsidies are equally to blame for the excess or misuse of nitrogen.
While numerous technologies for efficient nitrogen management have been developed, delivery mechanisms need to be strengthened, as does encouragement for spontaneous adaptation and adoption by farmers. Equally — or perhaps more importantly — there is a need to create awareness and educate senior officials, policy makers, extension personnel and farmers on the impact of appropriate soil management and intelligent use of nitrogen fertilizer, in conjunction with biologically integrated strategies for soil fertility maintenance.
An effective and aggressive campaign against the misuse of nitrogen will be effective in areas where the compound is overused, while greater accessibility of nitrogen fertilizer and policies to move farmers towards soil quality improvement will be essential in regions where nitrogen use is currently sub-optimal.
It is only through this combination of approaches to improved system management, agricultural policies and awareness raising campaigns that we can sufficiently improve nitrogen use efficiency — and meet the SDGs before it’s too late.
Read the full study “Achieving the sustainable development goals in agriculture: the crucial role of nitrogen in cereal-based systems” inAdvances in Agronomy.
Nitrogen is the most essential nutrient in crop production but also one of the most challenging to work with. The compound is central to global crop production — particularly for major cereals — but while many parts of the world do not have enough to achieve food and nutrition security, in others excess nitrogen from fertilizer leaks into the environment with damaging consequences.
What is nitrogen?
Around 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere is made up of nitrogen gas or N2 — a molecule made of two nitrogen atoms glued together by a stable, triple bond.
Though it makes up a large portion of the air we breathe, most living organisms can’t access it in this form. Atmospheric nitrogen must go through a natural process called nitrogen fixation to transform before it can be used for plant nutrition.
Why do plants need nitrogen?
In both plants and humans, nitrogen is used to make amino acids — which make the proteins that construct cells — and is one of the building blocks for DNA. It is also essential for plant growth because it is a major component of chlorophyll, the compound by which plants use sunlight energy to produce sugars from water and carbon dioxide (photosynthesis).
The nitrogen cycle
The nitrogen cycle is the process through which nitrogen moves from the atmosphere to earth, through soils and is released back into the atmosphere — converting in and out of its organic and inorganic forms.
It begins with biological nitrogen fixation, which occurs when nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the root nodules of legumes convert organic matter into ammonium and then nitrate. Plants are able to absorb nitrate from the soil and break it down into the nitrogen they need, while denitrifying bacteria convert excess nitrate back into inorganic nitrogen which is released back into the atmosphere.
The process can also begin with lightning, the heat from which ruptures the triple bonds of atmospheric nitrogen, freeing its atoms to combine with oxygen and create nitrous oxide gas, which dissolves in rain as nitric acid and is absorbed by the soil.
Excess nitrate or that lost through leaching — in which key nutrients are dissolved due to rain or irrigation — can seep into and pollute groundwater streams.
A diagram shows the process through which nitrogen moves from the atmosphere to earth, through soils and is released back into the atmosphere – converting in and out of its organic and inorganic forms. (Graphic: Nancy Valtierra/CIMMYT)
What about nitrogen fertilizer?
For thousands of years, humans didn’t need to worry about nitrogen, but by the turn of the Twentieth Century it was evident that intensive farming was depleting nitrate in the soil, which raised concerns about the world’s rising population and a possible food crisis.
In 1908, a German chemist named Fritz Haber devised a process for combining atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen under extreme heat and pressure to create liquid ammonia — a synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. He later worked with chemist and engineer Carl Bosch to industrialize this process and make it commercially available for farmers.
Once production was industrialized, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer — used in combination with new, high-yielding seed varieties — helped drive the Green Revolution and significantly boost global agricultural production from the late 1960s onwards. During this time Mexico became self-sufficient in wheat production, as did India and Pakistan, which were on the brink of famine.
In today’s intensive agricultural systems, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has become increasingly crucial. Worldwide, companies currently produce over 100 million metric tons of this product every year, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicts that demand will continue to rise steadily, especially in Africa and South Asia.
Is it sustainable?
As demand continues to rise worldwide, the challenge of nitrogen management is to provide enough to meet global food security needs while minimizing the flow of unused nitrogen — which is 300 times more polluting than carbon dioxide — to the environment.
While many regions remain short of available nitrogen to achieve food and nutrition security, in others nearly half of the fertilizer nitrogen applied in agriculture is leaked into the environment, with negative consequences including increased environmental hazards, irreparable land degradation and the contamination of aquatic resources.
This challenge can be addressed by improving nitrogen use efficiency — a complex calculation which often involves a comparison between crop biomass (primarily economic yield) or nitrogen content/uptake (output) and the nitrogen applied (input) through any manure or synthetic fertilizer. Improving this ratio not only enhances crop productivity but also minimizes environmental losses through careful agronomic management and helps improve soil quality over time.
Currently, average global nitrogen use efficiency does not exceed 50%, which falls short of the estimated 67% needed to meet global food demand in 2050 while keeping surplus nitrogen within the limits for maintaining acceptable air and water qualities.
A woman in India uses a precision spreader to apply fertilizer on her farm. (Photo: Wasim Iftikar)
Blue-sky technology
Much progress has been made in developing technologies for an efficient nitrogen management, which along with good agronomy are proven to enhance crop nitrogen harvest and nitrogen use efficiency with lower surplus nitrogen.
Scientists are investigating the merits of biological nitrification inhibition, a process through which a plant excretes material which influences the nitrogen cycle in the soil. Where this process occurs naturally — in some grasses and wheat wild relatives — it helps to significantly reduce nitrogen emissions.
In 2007, scientists discovered biological nitrification traits in a wheat relative and in 2018 they succeeded in transferring them into a Chinese spring wheat variety. The initial result showed low productivity and remains in the very early stages of development, but researchers are keen to assess whether this process could be applied to commercial wheat varieties in the future. If so, this technology could be a game changer for meeting global nitrogen use efficiency goals.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of Philip Pardey and do not necessarily reflect the official views or position of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Working with national agricultural research centers (NARS), CGIAR centers, including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), have played a pivotal role in staving off the last global food crisis, mainly through enhancing the yields of staple food crops like cereals.
A new report, commissioned by the Supporters of Agricultural Research (SoAR) Foundation and authored by experts from the University of California, Davis, the University of Minnesota and North Dakota State University shows that over the past five decades, CGIAR investment has generated returns of 10 times the amount invested.
We caught up with co-author Philip Pardey, a professor at the University of Minnesota and Director of the university’s GEMS Informatics Center, to discuss the report’s implications, the importance of collaboration between NARS and CGIAR, and why investment in agricultural research and development (R&D) is needed now more than ever.
According to the report, CGIAR investment has returned a benefit-cost ratio of 10:1. How does this compare to other government investments?
A benefit-cost ratio of 10:1 means that on average, a dollar invested today brings a future return equivalent to $10 in present-day value. This is high: any ratio over the threshold of 1:1 justifies investment.
This indicates that governments — and others who invest in CGIAR and related public food and agricultural R&D — would have profited society by doing more agricultural R&D compared with the investment opportunities normally available to them. Opportunities for investment in other national and global public goods, like education and infrastructure, might also have yielded very high returns, but there is no comparable evidence that those other opportunities yielded similar return on investments.
Drawing on the findings of this report, and other related work, we conclude that the economic evidence justifies at least a doubling of overall investments in public food and agricultural R&D.
The report shows evidence of massive underinvestment in agricultural research and development (R&D) in past years. Why is that?
As we show in the report, inflation adjusted CGIAR funding has declined sharply by around 25% in the past few years. There is nothing in the economic evidence that justifies this scaling back.
Some commentators have suggested that the easy gains from agricultural R&D have already been made and that the historical returns-to-research evidence is no longer representative of the returns to more recent R&D. However, the empirical evidence refutes that notion. For example, a 2019 study from Rao et al. showed that the contemporary returns of agricultural R&D are as high as ever.
What are the risks of continuing on this path of underinvestment in agricultural R&D?
In the second half of the 20th century, global food supply grew faster than demand and real food prices fell significantly, alleviating hunger and poverty for hundreds of millions around the world. Whether or not that pattern can be repeated in the first half of the 21st century will depend crucially on investments in agricultural R&D, including investments made through CGIAR.
Global demand for food is projected to grow by 70% from 2010 to 2050. Simply meeting that increased demand will call for transformative innovations in agriculture to adapt to a changing climate, combat co-evolving pests and diseases, and increase productivity of a fairly fixed land base and a shrinking supply of agricultural water. To make food abundant and affordable for the increasingly urban, poorest of the poor demands doing much more — and much better — than simply keeping up. If adequate investments in agricultural R&D are absent, even the odds of keeping up look increasingly questionable.
Your report shows that returns are a joint effort between NARS and CGIAR. Can you elaborate on that?
The impact evidence we reviewed for our study made clear that the success of CGIAR research is inextricably intertwined with research undertaken by national programs. In fact, this national-international R&D connectedness makes it difficult to figure out what share of the overall benefits from research are attributable to CGIAR or national innovation systems.
CGIAR has appropriately shifted its attention to low-income countries that are still heavily dependent on agriculture for livelihoods and food security. These also tend to have lower national R&D capacities and more fragile innovation systems, as well as limited, albeit emerging, private sector capabilities to support their food and agricultural sectors.
Supporting the evolution of agricultural innovation systems within CGIAR’s target economies requires doubling down on technology discovery, adaptation and delivery activities.
Philip Pardey at the University of Minnesota, USA. (Photo: InSTePP/University of Minnesota)
How can CGIAR better meet current global food challenges?
CGIAR has been demonstrably successful as an international instrument of technology discovery and in enhancing the international transfer, or spillover, of these new technologies. Tackling longer term agricultural technology challenges has been a key part of past successes.
However, a significant share of the funding for the CGIAR appears to have shifted away from the more strategic development of international public innovation goods to more localized economic development activities with a technology component. For example, the share of unencumbered CGIAR funding shrank from around 80% in 1971 to 50% in 2000, and since 2010 has plummeted to very low levels. The impact evidence provides little support for the notion that this shift in funding, which often implies a greater emphasis on more localized and shorter-term activities, is a high payoff strategy that best leverages CGIAR’s comparative advantages.
As it continually repositions its role as a source of international public innovation goods targeted to agriculturally dependent low-income countries, CGIAR will need to rethink how it partners with the public agencies, universities and private research entities that are the major source of innovations in food and agriculture.
When CGIAR was founded, a large share of the world’s agricultural R&D was done by public agencies in rich countries. Now the agriculturally large, middle-income countries spend on par with the rich countries, and the innovation landscape in rich and many middle-income countries is increasingly dominated by private firms. This comes with new partnership opportunities for CGIAR, but also new challenges, not least given the increasingly proprietary nature of the innovations and data that are driving developments in the food and agricultural sectors.
In your report you have documented clear evidence to support investment in agricultural R&D. What are the next steps in engaging national governments and decision makers to get agricultural R&D back on their agendas?
Today, as in the past, funding streams for CGIAR research are in decline and under threat. This mirrors a pattern of declining public support over recent decades for agricultural R&D conducted by national programs in many of the world’s richer countries.
However, public expectations about the roles of government to address glaring market failures may be realigning. For instance, the COVID-19 crisis exposed weakness in many public health systems, with calls for renewed and hopefully sustained, long-term investments in these public programs. COVID has also revealed the fragility of food supply systems, even in rich countries. The tide of public opinion also seems to be turning regarding the growing risks associated with climate change.
Evidence-based efforts to communicate the inter-relatedness between climate, public health and agriculture risks, and the role of innovation in reducing these growing risks over the decades ahead is critical to right-sizing and realigning the public roles in agricultural R&D.
Just as strong public investments play a crucial and complimentary role regarding significant private investments in health research, so too does the basic and pre-competitive research, undertaken with public funding, prime the pump for the growing private roles in agricultural innovation.
And even as the worldwide demand for more diversified diets continues to increase, demand for staple crops such as wheat and maize will also continue to grow and will remain crucial to securing favourable nutrition and food security outcomes in the decades ahead. Innovations in agriculture are hard won, and there are long lags (often a decade or more) between spending on agricultural R&D and getting new crop technologies in the hands of farmers. Thus there is a real sense of urgency to revitalize the investments in agricultural R&D required to produce the innovations that are needed now more than ever to sustainably feed the world.
Philip Pardey is a Professor of Applied Economics and Director of the GEMS Informatics Center, a joint venture of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) and the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute (MSI), both at the University of Minnesota.
Close up of a durum wheat spike. (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
In a landmark discovery for global wheat production, an international team led by the University of Saskatchewan and including scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has sequenced the genomes for 15 wheat varieties representing breeding programs around the world, enabling scientists and breeders to much more quickly identify influential genes for improved yield, pest resistance and other important crop traits.
The research results, just published in Nature, provide the most comprehensive atlas of wheat genome sequences ever reported. The 10+ Genome Project collaboration involved more than 95 scientists from universities and institutes in Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
“It’s like finding the missing pieces for your favorite puzzle that you have been working on for decades,” said project leader Curtis Pozniak, wheat breeder and director of the USask Crop Development Centre (CDC). “By having many complete gene assemblies available, we can now help solve the huge puzzle that is the massive wheat pan-genome and usher in a new era for wheat discovery and breeding.”
“These discoveries pave the way to identifying genes responsible for traits wheat farmers in our partner countries are demanding, such as high yield, tolerance to heat and drought, and resistance to insect pests,” said Ravi Singh, head of global wheat improvement at CIMMYT and a study co-author.
One of the world’s most cultivated cereal crops, wheat plays an important role in global food security, providing about 20 per cent of human caloric intake globally. It’s estimated that wheat production must increase by more than 50% by 2050 to meet an increasing global demand.
The research team was also able to track the unique DNA signatures of genetic material incorporated into modern cultivars from wild wheat relatives over years of breeding.
“With partners at Kansas State University, our CIMMYT team found that a DNA segment in modern wheat derived from a wild wheat relative can improve yields by as much as 10%,” said Philomin Juliana, CIMMYT wheat breeder and study co-author. “We can now work to ensure this gene is included in the next generation of modern wheat cultivars.”
The team also used the genome sequences to isolate an insect-resistant gene called Sm1, that enables wheat plants to withstand the orange wheat blossom midge, a pest which can cause more than $60 million in annual losses to Western Canadian producers.
“Understanding a causal gene like this is a game-changer for breeding because you can select for pest resistance more efficiently by using a simple DNA test than by manual field testing,” explained Pozniak.
The 10+ Genome Project was sanctioned as a top priority by the Wheat Initiative, a coordinating body of international wheat researchers.
“This project is an excellent example of coordination across leading research groups around the globe. Essentially every group working in wheat gene discovery, gene analysis and deployment of molecular breeding technologies will use the resource,” said Wheat Initiative Scientific Coordinator Peter Langridge.
The International Maize and What Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information visit staging.cimmyt.org
ABOUT CDC:
The Crop Development Centre (CDC) in the USask College of Agriculture and Bioresources is known for research excellence in developing high-performing crop varieties and developing genomic resources and tools to support breeding programs. Its program is unique in that basic research is fully integrated into applied breeding to improve existing crops, create new uses for traditional crops, and develop new crops. The CDC has developed more than 400 commercialized crop varieties.
Wheat stalks grow in a field in India. (Photo: Saad Akhtar)
Wheat scientists in the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), presented a range of new research at the 2020 Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Technical Workshop in October, highlighting progress in spring wheat breeding, disease screening and surveillance and the use of novel genomic, physiological tools to support genetic gains.
Sridhar Bhavani, CIMMYT senior scientist and head of Rust Pathology and Molecular Genetics, delivered a keynote presentation on a “Decade of Stem Rust Phenotyping Network: Opportunities, Challenges and Way Forward,” highlighting the importance of the international stem rust phenotyping platforms established with national partners in Ethiopia and Kenya at the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research station in Debre Zeit, and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization station in Njoro, respectively. These platforms support global wheat breeding, genetic characterization and pre-breeding, surveillance and varietal release, and will continue to be an important mechanism for delivering high performing material into farmers’ fields.
CIMMYT wheat breeder Suchismita Mondal chaired a session on breeding technologies, drawing on her expertise leading the trait delivery pipeline in AGG (including rapid generation cycling and speed breeding). She led a lively Q&A on the potential for genomics and data-driven approaches to support breeding.
In the session, CIMMYT Associate Scientist and wheat breeder Philomin Juliana presented a “Retrospective analysis of CIMMYT’s strategies to achieve genetic gain and perspectives on integrating genomic selection for grain yield in bread wheat,” demonstrating that phenotypic selection — making breeding selections based on physically identifiable traits — has helped increase the proportion of genes associated with grain yield in CIMMYT’s globally distributed spring wheat varieties. Her work demonstrates the efficiency of indirect selection for yield in CIMMYT’s Obregon research station, and the potential of genomic selection, particularly when incorporating environmental effects.
The use of Obregon as a selection environment was further explored by CIMMYT wheat breeder Leo Crespo presenting “Definition of target population of environments in India and their prediction with CIMMYT’s international nurseries.” This work confirms Obregon’s relevance as an effective testing site, allowing the selection of superior germplasm under distinct management conditions that correlate with large agroecological zones for wheat production in India. Similar analyses will be conducted in AGG with the support of the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform to optimize selection conditions for eastern Africa.
A wheat field is fed by drip irrigation in Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: H. Gomez/CIMMYT)
Supporting future genetic gains
CIMMYT’s Head of Global Wheat Improvement Ravi Singh presented “Genetic gain for grain yield and key traits in CIMMYT spring wheat germplasm — progress, challenges and prospects,” highlighting the International Wheat Improvement Network as an important source of new wheat varieties globally. He described progress on the implementation of genomic selection and the use of state of the art tools to collect precise plant trait information, known as high-throughput phenotyping (HTP), in CIMMYT wheat breeding.
With partners, he is now conducting both genotyping (measuring the genetic traits of a plant) and phenotyping for all entries in the earliest stages of yield trials in Mexico. In addition, his team has succeeded in phenotyping a large set of elite lines at multiple field sites across South Asia. Looking forward, they aim to shorten generation advancement time, improve the parental selection for “recycling” (re-using parents in breeding), and adding new desirable traits into the pipeline for breeding improved varieties.
Following on from Ravi’s presentation, CIMMYT scientist Margaret Krause highlighted progress in HTP in her talk on “High-Throughput Phenotyping for Indirect Selection on Wheat Grain Yield at the Early-generation Seed-limited Stage in Breeding Programs.” This work highlights the potential of drones to capture highly detailed and accurate trait data, known as aerial phenotyping, to improve selection at the early-generation, seed-limited stages of wheat breeding programs.
This kind of physiological understanding will support future phenotyping and selection accuracy, as seen in the work that CIMMYT scientist Carolina Rivera shared on “Estimating organ contribution to grain-filling and potential for source up-regulation in wheat cultivars with contrasting source-sink balance.” Her research shows that a plant’s production of biomass is highly associated with yield under heat stress and that it is possible to achieve greater physiological resolution of the interaction between traits and environment to deliver new selection targets for breeding.
Overall, the talks by AGG scientists demonstrated tremendous progress in spring wheat breeding at CIMMYT and highlighted the importance of new tools and technologies to support future genetic gains.
TheBorlaug Global Rust Initiativeis an international community of hunger fighters committed to sharing knowledge, training the next generation of scientists, and engaging with farmers for a prosperous and wheat-secure world. The BGRI is funded in part through the Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) project from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
After a 37-year career, Hans-Joachim Braun is retiring from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). As the director of the Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, Braun’s legacy will resonate throughout halls, greenhouses and fields of wheat research worldwide.
We caught up with him to capture some of his career milestones, best travel stories, and vision for the future of CIMMYT and global wheat production. And, of course, his retirement plans in the German countryside.
Beyh Akin (left) and Hans Braun in wheat fields in Izmir, Turkey, in 1989. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Major career milestones
Native to Germany, Braun moved to Mexico in 1981 to complete his PhD research at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Obrégon, in the state of Sonora. His research focused on identifying the optimum location to breed spring wheat for developing countries — and he found that Obrégon was in fact the ideal location.
His first posting with CIMMYT was in Turkey in 1985, as a breeder in the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP). This was the first CGIAR breeding program hosted by a CIMMYT co-operator, that later developed into the joint Turkey, CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) winter wheat program. “In 1990, when the Commonwealth of Independent States was established, I saw this tremendous opportunity to work with Central Asia to develop better wheat varieties,” he said. “Today, IWWIP varieties are grown on nearly 3 million hectares.”
Although Braun was determined to become a wheat breeder, he never actually intended to spend his entire career with one institution. “Eventually I worked my entire career for CIMMYT. Not so usual anymore, but it was very rewarding. CIMMYT is at my heart; it is what I know.”
Hans Braun (center), Sanjaya Rajaram (third from right), Ravi Singh (first from right) and other colleagues stand for a photograph during a field day at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“Make the link to the unexpected”
One of Braun’s standout memories was a major discovery when he first came to Turkey. When evaluating elite lines from outside the country — in particular lines from a similar environment in the Great Plains — his team noticed they were failing but nobody knew why.
Two of his colleagues had just returned from Australia, where research had recently identified micronutrient disorders in soil as a major constraint for cereal production. The team tried applying micro-nutrients to wheat plots, and it became crystal clear that zinc deficiency was the underlying cause. “Once aware that micro-nutrient disorders can cause severe growth problems, it was a minor step to identify boron toxicity as another issue. Looking back, it was so obvious. The cover picture of a FAO book on global soil analysis showed a rice field with zinc deficiency, and Turkey produces more boron than the rest of the world combined.”
“We tested the soil and found zinc deficiency was widespread, not just in the soils, but also in humans.” This led to a long-term cooperation with plant nutrition scientists from Cukurova University, now Sabanci University, in Istanbul.
But zinc deficiency did not explain all growth problems. Soil-borne diseases — cyst and lesion nematodes, and root and crown rot — were also widespread. In 1999, CIMMYT initiated a soil-borne disease screening program with Turkish colleagues that continues until today. Over the coming decade, CIMMYT’s wheat program will make zinc a core trait and all lines will have at least 25% more zinc in the grain than currently grown varieties.
After 21 years in Turkey, Braun accepted the position as director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and moved back to Mexico.
Left to right: Zhonghu He, Sanjaya Rajaram, Ravi Singh and Hans Braun during a field trip in Anyang, South Korea, in 1990. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Partnerships and friendships
Braun emphasized the importance of “mutual trust and connections,” especially with cooperators in the national agricultural research systems of partner countries. This strong global network contributed to another major milestone in CIMMYT wheat research: the rapid development and release of varieties with strong resistance to the virulent Ug99 race of wheat rust. This network, led by Cornell University, prevented a potential global wheat rust epidemic.
CIMMYT’s relationship with Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Obregón farmers union, the Patronato, is especially important to Braun.
In 1955, Patronato farmers made 200 hectares of land available, free if charge, to Norman Borlaug. The first farm community in the developing world to support research, it became CIMMYT’s principal wheat breeding experimental station: Norman Borlaug Experimental Station, or CENEB. When Borlaug visited Obregón for the last time in 2009, the Patronato farmers had a big surprise.
“I was just getting out of the shower in my room in Obregón when I got a call from Jorge Artee Elias Calles, the president of the Patronato,” Braun recalls. “He said, ‘Hans, I’m really happy to inform you that Patronato decided to donate $1 million.’”
The donation, in honor of Borlaug’s lifetime of collaboration and global impact, was given for CIMMYT’s research on wheat diseases.
“This relationship and support from the Obregón farmers is really tremendous,” Braun says. “Obregón is a really special place to me. I am admittedly a little bit biased, because Obregón gave me a PhD.”
Hans Braun (right) and colleagues in a wheat field in CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Norman Borlaug (left), Ravi Singh (center) and Hans Braun stand in the wheat fields at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, in Mexico’s Sonora state. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Left to right: Sanjaya Rajaram, unknown, unknown, unknown, Norman E. Borlaug, unknown, Ken Sayre, Arnoldo Amaya, Rodrigo Rascon and Hans Braun during Norman Borlaug’s birthday celebration in March 2006. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Left to right: Hans Braun, Ronnie Coffman, Jeanie Borlaug-Laube, Thomas Lumpkin, Antonio Gándara, Katharine McDevitt and unknown during the unveiling of the Norman Borlaug statue at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, in 2012. (Photo: Xochil Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Participants in the first technical workshop of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative in 2009 take a group photo at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A worldwide perspective
Braun’s decades of international research and travel has yielded just as many stories and adventures as it has high-impact wheat varieties.
He remembers seeing areas marked with red tape as he surveyed wheat fields in Afghanistan in the 1990s, and the shock and fear he felt when he was informed that they were uncleared landmine areas. “I was never more scared than in that moment, and I followed the footsteps of the guy in front of me exactly,” Braun recalls.
On a different trip to Afghanistan, Braun met a farmer who had struggled with a yellow rust epidemic and was now growing CIMMYT lines that were resistant to it.
“The difference between his field and his neighbors’ was so incredible. When he learned I had developed the variety he was so thankful. He wanted to invite me to his home for dinner. Interestingly, he called it Mexican wheat, as all modern varieties are called there, though it came from the winter wheat program in Turkey.”
Seeing the impact of CIMMYT’s work on farmers was always a highlight for Braun.
Hans Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program of CIMMYT, is interviewed by Ethiopian journalist at an event in 2017. (Photo: CIMMYT)
CIMMYT’s future
Braun considers wheat research to be still in a “blessed environment” because a culture of openly-shared germplasm, knowledge and information among the global wheat community is still the norm. “I only can hope this is maintained, because it is the basis for future wheat improvement.”
His pride in his program and colleagues is clear.
“A successful, full-fledged wheat breeding program must have breeders, quantitative genetics, pathology, physiology, molecular science, wide crossing, quality, nutrition, bioinformatics, statistics, agronomy and input from economists and gender experts,” in addition to a broad target area, he remarked at an acceptance address for the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement award.
“How many programs worldwide have this expertise and meet the target criteria? The Global Wheat Program is unique — no other wheat breeding program has a comparable impact. Today, around 60 million hectares are sown with CIMMYT-derived wheat varieties, increasing the annual income of farmers by around $3 billion dollars. Not bad for an annual investment in breeding of around $25 million dollars. And I don’t take credit for CIMMYT only, this is achieved through the excellent collaboration we have with national programs.”
A bright future for wheat, and for Braun
General view Inzlingen, Germany, with Basel in the background. (Photo: Hans Braun)
After retirement, Braun is looking forward to settling in rural Inzlingen, Germany, and being surrounded by the beautiful countryside and mountains, alongside his wife Johanna. They look forward to skiing, running, e-biking and other leisure activities.
“One other thing I will try — though most people will not believe me because I’m famous for not cooking — but I am really looking into experimenting with flour and baking,” he says.
Despite his relaxing retirement plans, Braun hopes to continue to support wheat research, whether it is through CIMMYT or through long friendships with national partners, raising awareness of population growth, the “problem of all problems” in his view.
“We have today 300 million more hungry people than in 1985. The road to zero hunger in 2030 is long and will need substantial efforts. In 1970, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries agreed to spend 0.7% of GDP on official development assistance. Today only 6 countries meet this target and the average of all OECD countries has never been higher than 0.4%. Something needs to change to end extreme poverty — and that on top of COVID-19. The demand for wheat is increasing, and at the same time the area under wheat cultivation needs to be reduced, a double challenge. We need a strong maize and wheat program. The world needs a strong CIMMYT.”
Left to right: Bruno Gerard, Ram Dhulipala, David Bergvinson, Martin Kropff, Víctor Kommerell , Marianne Banziger, Dave Watson and Hans Braun stand for a photograph at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
Former Director General of CIMMYT, Thomas Lumpkin (center), Hans Braun (next right) and Turkish research partners on a field day at a wheat landraces trial in Turkey. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Hans Braun (sixth from right) stands for a photograph with colleagues during a work trip to CIMMYT’s Pakistan office in 2020. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Hans Braun (seventh from left) visits wheat trials in Eskişehir, Turkey in 2014. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Cover photo: Hans Braun, Director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), inspects wheat plants in the greenhouses. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
Amen Mandizvidza is an assistant research associate with CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program, based in Zimbabwe.
Mandizvidza works to facilitate the adoption and implementation of seed road maps for drought-tolerant maize varieties and the production of certified seed, and provides technical seed production support to NGOs and private seed companies. He also implements on-farm trials and supports abiotic stress phenotyping and the application of phenotyping tools in maize breeding operations.
Four scientists working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been recognized as 2020 recipients of the Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researchers list.
The honor recognizes exceptional research performance demonstrated by the production of multiple papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year, according to the Web of Science citation indexing service.
Called a “who’s who” of influential researchers, the list draws on data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information™ at Clarivate.
The 2020 CIMMYT honorees include:
José Luis Francisco Crossa: CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist.
Julio Huerta: CIMMYT-seconded wheat breeder and rust geneticist with Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP).
Matthew Reynolds: CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist, wheat physiologist and member, Mexican Academy of Sciences.
Ravi Singh: CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist and Head of Bread Wheat Improvement.
“I congratulate my colleagues in the Global Wheat Program for this excellent recognition of their important work,” said incoming CIMMYT Global Wheat Program Director Alison Bentley.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is proud to partner with the Whole Grain Initiative in celebrating International Whole Grain Day on November 19, 2020.
In terms of diet and nutrition, ours is an age of contradiction. While populations in wealthy countries are faced with unprecedented levels of diet-related disease, close to 2 billion people globally remain food insecure. At the same time, global agriculture has an enormous role to play in the transition towards an environmentally sustainable future.
International Whole Grain Day 2020 is a good day to step back and consider the continued role of whole grains in the healthy, sustainable diets of today and tomorrow. Explore our content to learn what whole grains are, how we’re working to make whole grain wheat and maize even more nutritious, and discover some our favorite recipes.
For a deeper dive into the subject, check out our explainer on whole grains: What they are, why they are important for your health, and how to identify them.
The grain or kernel of maize and wheat is made up of three edible parts: the bran, the germ and the endosperm. (Graphic: Nancy Valtierra/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT’s “A Grain a Day” cookbook highlights the big role maize and wheat play in diets around the world, and brings global cuisine to your own kitchen. (Note: not all recipes call for whole grains.) Learn more.
Join members of the Whole Grain Initiative, the FAO and global leaders on November 19 as they discuss the role of whole grains in meeting the “triple challenge” of ensuring global food security and improving the livelihoods of agri-food workers in an environmentally sustainable manner. Join the webinar: Building Healthy, Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems.
Interested in learning more about how CIMMYT is working to make grain-based diets healthier and more nutritious? Check out our archive of health and nutrition content.
Featured image: Little girl eating roti, Bangladesh (S. Mojumder/Drik/CIMMYT)
In the first installment of The Cereal Serial, CIMMYT’s maize and wheat quality experts Natalia Palacios and Itria Ibba explain what whole grains are and why they are an important part of a healthy diet. For a deeper dive into the subject, check out our whole grains explainer.
Share recipes and photos of your favorite whole grain foods by tagging @CIMMYT and using #choosewholegrains in your social media posts.
Shenggen Fan has extensive experience in developing strong connections at the highest levels with a wide range of influential stakeholders, and has engaged widely on issues related to agriculture, food, health, climate change, natural resource management and information technologies. He is currently Chair Professor at the College of Economics and Management at China Agricultural University in Beijing. He is a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition; the Advisory Council of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford; the Board of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture; and the Council of Advisers of the World Food Prize. He also serves as a member of the Lead Group for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement appointed by the UN Secretary General.
He previously spent over 20 years with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), including as Director General for the ten-year period until his departure in December 2019. His previous roles within IFPRI included several years as Division Director of Development Strategy and Governance, and prior to that, as a Research Fellow. His earlier professional experience also includes time as a Research Economist in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at the University of Arkansas and as a Post-doctoral Fellow and Associate Research Officer at the International Service for National Agricultural Research in the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics and an MSc in Agricultural Economics.
He was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in September 2020.
Hilary Wild has extensive international experience in the fields of finance, organizational management, governance, and risk management. She has been involved with CGIAR for several years, initially as a member of the Board of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and later the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in both cases chairing their Finance and Audit Committees.
She is now a member of the CGIAR System Board as well as all the constituent Centers of CGIAR, as well as a member of the CGIAR Audit, Finance and Risk Committee, and is a member of the HarvestPlus Program Advisory Committee. She is Trustee and Audit Committee Chair of WaterAid UK, chair the Church Commissioners Audit and Risk Committee, a member of the Oversight Advisory Committee of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a member of the Advanced Agriculture and Food Advisory Panel of CSIR, South Africa, and Treasurer of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
She was previously Chief Financial Officer of the World Health Organization (WHO), with overall responsibility for financial management of a $2 billion organization operating in 140 countries, and Director of Business Change. Before joining the WHO, she held various positions in the international financial sector, including as a director in investment banking as well as asset management in the Kleinwort Benson Group. She also worked for UNICEF in New York as Chief of Finance, and for a major USA commercial bank in London and as its representative in Greece. She has chaired oversight committees for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Labour Organization (ILO), and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
She was appointed to the Board of the CGIAR System Organization in September 2019.
Alyssa Jade McDonald-Baertl has a dynamic and energetic entrepreneurial perspective and approach to international development, a passion for the role of research and evidence-based change, and strong knowledge of sustainable business in the midcap/SME sector. She currently advises policy and programs in the European Commission regarding sustainable finance, eco-innovation and deployment for commercial or public-private partnerships to adapt to new market conditions brought on by the green and social economy. She is also a board member of UnternehmensGruen (German Federation of Green Economy), a politically oriented entrepreneurs’ association that campaigns for the environment and a sustainable economy.
A decade ago, she founded a social enterprise to grow and harvest cacao in Ecuador, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea for processing and sale in Europe, producing high-grade chocolate while increasing farmer livelihoods and agroforestry. Responding to the need for better farmer resilience, the enterprise pivoted to focus on cacao farmer education. This transdisciplinary education, drawn from planetary health and living income methodologies, contributed to improved farmer health, wealth and crop yields from Latin America to the Pacific. In the deep past, she spent a decade in corporate business as Head of International Communications at Deutsche Telekom, developing communication strategy for more than 50 countries, and as International Brand Manager for T-Systems (DEU), focused on M&A and market development. She is a former board member of the European Sustainable Business Federation and is currently conducting post-graduate research in Environmental Science regarding farmer training.
She was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in September 2020.
Alice Ruhweza has extensive experience working at the intersection of conservation and development in Africa and globally, fostering successful partnerships with a wide range of international institutions. She is currently the Africa Region Director for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), where she leads and oversees a regional program comprising 10 countries and 400 staff. There she is leading design of a new conservation framework that brings together work at national, transboundary and global levels, as well as development of a new system of program quality assurance. She sits on the Board of The Global Ever-Greening Alliance and on the steering committee of the Future Earth Water-Food-Energy Nexus working group.
Before joining WWF, she was Vice President of Programs and Partnerships with Conservation International, where she oversaw the Vital Signs Program, which provides data and diagnostic tools to help inform agricultural decisions and monitor outcomes around the world. She was also the Team Leader and Technical Adviser for the United Nations Development Programme Global Environmental Finance Unit in Africa. In this role, she led a team supporting 44 sub-Saharan African countries to attract and drive public and private finance towards their sustainable development priorities. The program successfully mobilized over USD 600 million over six and a half years, which with co-financing made it the largest environment program in the UN. She is a former Sustainable Agriculture Intensification Commissioner. She holds an MSc in Agricultural and Applied Economics.
She was appointed to the CGIAR System Board in September 2020.
In 1970, Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his important scientific work that saved millions of people from famine. Today, humanity faces an equally complex challenge which requires the commitment of all nations, leaders, investors and strategic partners: avoiding the next food crisis.
