This month, the worldâs eyes are upon global leaders gathered in Madrid for COP25 to negotiate collective action to slow the devastating impacts of climate change.
According to the UN, the world is heading for a 3.2 degrees Celsius global temperature rise over pre-industrial levels, leading to a host of destructive climate impacts, including hotter and drier environments and more extreme weather events. Under these conditions, the worldâs staple food crops are under threat.
A new video highlights the work of the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Network (HeDWIC), a global research and capacity development network under the Wheat Initiative, that harnesses the latest technologies in crop physiology, genetics and breeding to help create new climate-resilient wheat varieties. With the help of collaborators and supporters from around the world, HeDWIC takes wheat research from the theoretical to the practical by incorporating the best science into real-life breeding scenarios.
More than 11,000 scientists signed on to a recent report showing that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency and the United Nations warned that the world is on course for a 3.2 degree spike by 2100, even if 2015 Paris Agreement commitments are met.
Agriculture, forestry, and land-use change are implicated in roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Agriculture also offers opportunities to mitigate climate change and to help farmers â particularly smallholders in developing and emerging economies who have been hardest hit by hot weather and reduced, more erratic rainfall.
Most of CIMMYTâs work relates to climate change, helping farmers adapt to shocks while meeting the rising demand for food and, where possible, reducing emissions.
Family farmer Geofrey Kurgat (center) with his mother Elice Tole (left) and his nephew Ronny Kiprotich in their 1-acre field of Korongo wheat near Belbur, Nukuru, Kenya. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Climate-resilient crops and farming practices
53 million people are benefiting from drought-tolerant maize. Drought-tolerant maize varieties developed using conventional breeding provide at least 25% more grain than other varieties in dry conditions in sub-Saharan Africa â this represents as much as 1 ton per hectare more grain on average. These varieties are now grown on nearly 2.5 million hectares, benefiting an estimated 6 million households or 53 million people in the continent. One study shows that drought-tolerant maize can provide farming families in Zimbabwe an extra 9 months of food at no additional cost. The greatest productivity results when these varieties are used with reduced or zero tillage and keeping crop residues on the soil, as was demonstrated in southern Africa during the 2015-16 El Niño drought. Finally, tolerance in maize to high temperatures in combination with drought tolerance has a benefit at least twice that of either trait alone.
Wheat yields rise in difficult environments. Nearly two decades of data from 740 locations in more than 60 countries shows that CIMMYT breeding is pushing up wheat yields by almost 2% each year â thatâs some 38 kilograms per hectare more annually over almost 20 years â under dry or otherwise challenging conditions. This is partly through use of drought-tolerant lines and crosses with wild grasses that boost wheatâs resilience. An international consortium is applying cutting-edge science to develop climate-resilient wheat. Three widely-adopted heat and drought-tolerant wheat lines from this work are helping farmers in Pakistan, a wheat powerhouse facing rising temperatures and drier conditions; the most popular was grown on an estimated 40,000 hectares in 2018.
Climate-smart soil and fertilizer management. Rice-wheat rotations are the predominant farming system on more than 13 million hectares in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, providing food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions. If farmers in India alone fine-tuned crop fertilizer dosages using available technologies such as cellphones and photosynthesis sensors, each year they could produce nearly 14 million tons more grain, save 1.4 million tons of fertilizer, and cut CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 million tons. Scientists have been studying and widely promoting such practices, as well as the use of direct seeding without tillage and keeping crop residues on the soil, farming methods that help capture and hold carbon and can save up to a ton of CO2 emissions per hectare, each crop cycle. Informed by CIMMYT researchers, India state officials seeking to reduce seasonal pollution in New Delhi and other cities have implemented policy measures to curb the burning of rice straw in northern India through widespread use of zero tillage.
Farmers going home for breakfast in Motoko district, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Measuring climate change impacts and savings
In a landmark study involving CIMMYT wheat physiologists and underlining nutritional impacts of climate change, it was found that increased atmospheric CO2 reduces wheat grain protein content. Given wheatâs role as a key source of protein in the diets of millions of the poor, the results show the need for breeding and other measures to address this effect.
CIMMYT scientists are devising approaches to gauge organic carbon stocks in soils. The stored carbon improves soil resilience and fertility and reduces its emissions of greenhouse gases. Their research also provides the basis for a new global soil information system and to assess the effectiveness of resource-conserving crop management practices.
Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation are causing the emergence and spread of deadly new crop diseases and insect pests. Research partners worldwide are helping farmers to gain an upper hand by monitoring and sharing information about pathogen and pest movements, by spreading control measures and fostering timely access to fungicides and pesticides, and by developing maize and wheat varieties that feature genetic resistance to these organisms.
Viruses and moth larvae assail maize. Rapid and coordinated action among public and private institutions across sub-Saharan Africa has averted a food security disaster by containing the spread of maize lethal necrosis, a viral disease which appeared in Kenya in 2011 and quickly moved to maize fields regionwide. Measures have included capacity development with seed companies, extension workers, and farmers the development of new disease-resilient maize hybrids.
The insect known as fall armyworm hit Africa in 2016, quickly ranged across nearly all the continentâs maize lands and is now spreading in Asia. Regional and international consortia are combating the pest with guidance on integrated pest management, organized trainings and videos to support smallholder farmers, and breeding maize varieties that can at least partly resist fall armyworm.
New fungal diseases threaten world wheat harvests. The Ug99 race of wheat stem rust emerged in eastern Africa in the late 1990s and spawned 13 new strains that eventually appeared in 13 countries of Africa and beyond. Adding to wheatâs adversity, a devastating malady from the Americas known as âwheat blastâ suddenly appeared in Bangladesh in 2016, causing wheat crop losses as high as 30% on a large area and threatening to move quickly throughout South Asiaâs vast wheat lands.
A community volunteer of an agricultural cooperative (left) uses the Plantix smartphone app to help a farmer diagnose pests in his maize field in Bardiya district, Nepal. (Photo: Bandana Pradhan/CIMMYT)
Partners and funders of CIMMYT’s climate research
A global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems, CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR and leads the South Asia Regional Program of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
CIMMYT receives support for research relating to climate change from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. Top funders include CGIAR Research Programs and Platforms, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mexicoâs Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Cornell University, the German aid agency GIZ, the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and CGIAR Trust Fund Contributors to Window 1 &2.
Kindie Tesfaye is a Senior Scientist based in Ethiopia. He has more than 15 years of experience in executing and managing climate, crop modeling and GIS related projects for agricultural research and development in developing countries.
During his time at CIMMYT, he has developed a system of data acquisition and quality control for climate, crop modeling and geospatial analysis. He has applied systems analysis, cropping systems modeling and geospatial analysis tools for yield gap analysis, targeting of climate smart technologies and climate change studies across different scales. In collaboration with partners, he has also developed a digital agro-climate advisory system that provides decision support to smallholder farmers.
Francisco Piñera has a multidisciplinary background in biology, crop production and crop physiology. He joined CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program in 2016.
Piñera’s research focuses on identifying traits and developing genetic resources for increased lodging resistance in wheat. He also coordinates collaborative activities with Mexican partners to develop new germplasm for wheat growing areas in Mexico.
Pramod Aggarwal leads the South Asia Regional Program for the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
He earned his post-doctoral degree at the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines, and holds two doctoral degrees from the University of Indore, India, and from Wageningen University-Netherlands. He was awarded Academy of Sciences for the Developing World’s Ernesto Illy Trieste Science Prize in 2009, and the Indian National Science Academy’s Young Scientist Medal in 1983.
His professional research focuses on crop growth models for tropical environments, impact assessment of climatic variability and climate change on crops, and adaptation strategies and mitigation options, among other topics.
Kanwarpal S. Dhugga, a Principal Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) who specializes in biotechnology, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Section on Biological Sciences, in recognition of his invaluable contributions to science and technology.
Announced by AAAS on November 26, 2019, the honor acknowledges among other things Dhuggaâs leading research on plant cell wall formation, with applications including their role in lodging resistance and in producing high-value industrial polymers in maize and soybean, and the assimilation, transport, and metabolism of nitrogen in plants.
âI consider this a special honor,â said Dhugga, who leads CIMMYTâs research in biotechnology with a focus on editing genes for disease resistance in maize and wheat. He has published in high-impact scientific journals including Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Plant Cell, Molecular Plant, Plant Biotechnology Journal, Plant Physiology and others.
AAAS Fellows are elected each year by their peers serving on the Council of AAAS, the organizationâs member-run governing body. Scientists who have received this recognition include the inventor Thomas Edison (1878), anthropologist Margaret Mead (1934), and popular science author Jared Diamond (2000), as well as numerous Nobel laureates. The election of Dhugga doubles the tally of AAAS fellows at CIMMYT, the other one being Ravi P. Singh, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Global Wheat Improvement.
âKanwarpal merits CIMMYTâs wholehearted congratulations for this prestigious recognition of his standing in science,â said Kevin Pixley, director of CIMMYTâs Genetics Resources program, to which Dhugga belongs. âIâm humbled and grateful to count him as a member of our team.â
Dhugga identified the gene for an enzyme that propels the chemical reactions to produce guar gum, a cell wall polymer that is a dominant component of the edible kernel of the coconut. (Photo: Allen Wen/CIMMYT)
A native of Punjab in India, Dhugga has a M.Sc. in Plant Breeding from Punjab Agricultural University and a Ph.D. in Botany (Plant Genetics) from the University of California, Riverside. He was introduced to membrane protein biochemistry and cell wall synthesis during his postdoctoral research at Stanford University in the laboratory of Peter Ray. Prior to joining CIMMYT in 2015, Dhugga worked at DuPont Pioneer (now Corteva) from 1996 to 2014.
In addition to scientific excellence, Dhugga counts among his achievements prominent international, public-private partnerships, such as the one he led between DuPont Pioneer and the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics to explore new avenues to improve plant nitrogen use efficiency and reduce culm (stalk) lodging in cereals from 2004 to 2014. He continues to explore opportunities to secure funds for undertaking joint work with the collaborators from that period, thanks to the relationships fostered then. One of the scientists in his current group actually completed his Ph.D. under that collaboration.
As part of science outreach he has guided the research of many graduate students in Australia, Canada, India, and the US, a country of which he is also a citizen, and helped make high-quality education accessible to the underprivileged, including establishing a private school in his ancestral village in the state of Punjab in India.
The 2019 Fellows will receive rosette pins in gold and blue, colors symbolizing science and engineering. (Photo: AAAS)
Dhugga has also been successful as a principal or co-principal investigator in attracting significant funding for scientific research from public agencies such as the US Department of Energy, the US National Science Foundation, USAID, and the Australian Research Council. Part of his current research is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At DuPont Pioneer he was the recipient of two separate, highly competitive research grants to carry out high-risk, discovery research outside of the area of the assigned company goals.
Among his research endeavors, Dhugga highlights a breakthrough he made in the area of cell wall biosynthesis under a discovery research grant from DuPont Pioneer. He identified the gene for an enzyme that propels the chemical reactions to produce guar gum, a cell wall polymer that is also used in industrial products from shampoos to ice cream and is a dominant component of the coconut kernel. The results were published in Science. On a basic level, this provided biochemical evidence for the first time for the involvement of any of the genes from the large plant cellulose synthase gene family in the formation of a cell wall polymer. Dhugga also confides that whenever he flies over coconut plantations anywhere, he gets butterflies in his stomach at the thought that he was the first one to know how simple molecules made a complex matrix that became the edible kernel of the coconut.
âThat study constituted a prime example of the power of cross-disciplinary research in answering a longstanding fundamental question in plant biology,â he said. âAssaying enzymes involved in the formation of cell wall polymers is extremely difficult. The approach we used â identify a candidate gene by combining genomics with biochemistry and then express it in a related species lacking the product of the resulting enzyme to demonstrate its function â was subsequently applied by other scientists to identify genes involved in the formation of other key plant cell wall polymers.â
Dhugga will receive a pin as a token of his election as Fellow in an AAAS ceremony in Seattle, Washington, USA, on February 15, 2020.
Akshaya Biswal is a scientist specialized in plant transformation and tissue culture, working with CIMMYTâs Genetic Resources Program. His current work focuses on application of gene editing to improve host-plant resistance.
CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)/Cas9-mediated genome editing has revolutionized our ability to study gene function and alter it to improve biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, increase yield potential of crop plants or even to improve the quality of grains. Various plant diseases cause up to 30% yield loss in cereals. Polyploidy in maize and wheat poses additional difficulty to breeders for developing and deploying resistant lines to pathogens. Some these can be solved by biotechnological intervention with relative ease. Biswal’s team uses gene editing to: control Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) in Africa for improved grain harvests; improve stem rust and powdery mildew resistance in wheat; and discover and validate the function of candidate genes underpinning large effect QTLs.
Prior to joining CIMMYT, Biswal completed postdoctoral placements at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the University of North Carolina. He earned a PhD in Biotechnology at Jawaharlal Technological University, an MSc from Banaras Hindu University, and a BSc from Utkal University, India.
Participants of the EBS DevOps Hackathon stand for a group photo at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: Eleusis Llanderal Arango/CIMMYT)
From October 21 to November 1, 2019, software developers and administrators from several breeding software projects met at the global headquarters of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico to work on delivering an integrated solution to crop breeders.
Efforts to improve crop breeding for lower- and middle-income countries involves delivering better varieties to farmers faster and for less cost. These efforts rely on a mastery of data and technology throughout the breeding process.
To realize this potential, the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB) is developing an Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) as a single solution for breeders. EBS will integrate the disparate software projects developed by different institutions over the years. This will free breeders from the onerous task of managing their data through different apps and allow them to rapidly optimize their breeding schemes based on sound data and advanced analytics.
“None of us can do everything,” said Tom Hagen, CIMMYT-EiB breeding software product manager, “so what breeding programs are experiencing is in fact fragmented IT. How do we come together as IT experts to create a system through our collective efforts?”
For the EBS to succeed, it is essential that the system is both low-cost and easy to deploy. “The cost of the operating environment is absolutely key,” said Jens Riis-Jacobson, international systems and IT director at CIMMYT. “We are trying to serve developing country institutions that have very little hard currency to pay for breeding program operations.”
Stacked software
During the hackathon, twelve experts from software projects across CGIAR and public sector institutions used a technology called Docker to automatically stack the latest versions of their applications into a single configuration file. This file can be loaded into any operating environment in less than four minutes â whether it be a laptop, local server or in the cloud. Quickly loading the complete system into a cloud environment means EBS can eventually be available as a one-click, Software-as-a-Service solution. This means that institutions will not need sophisticated IT infrastructure or support staff to maintain the software.
Behind the scenes, different applications are replicated in a single software solution, the Enterprise Breeding System. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“If everything goes as planned, the end users won’t know that we exist,” said Peter Selby, coordinator of the Breeding API (BrAPI) project, an online collective working on a common language for breeding applications to communicate with each other. Updates to individual apps will be automatically loaded, tested and pushed out to users.
As well as the benefits to breeders, this automated deployment pipeline should also result in better software. “We have too little time for development because we spend too much time in deployment and testing,” said Riis-Jacobson.
A cross-institution DevOps culture
Though important technical obstacles were overcome, the cultural aspect was perhaps the most significant outcome of the hackathon. The participants found that they shared the same goals, language and were able to define the common operating environment for their apps to work together in.
“It’s really important to keep the collaboration open,” said Roy Petrie, DevOps engineer at the Genomic and Open-Source Breeding Informatics Initiative (GOBii) based at the Boyce Thompson Institute, Cornell University. “Having a communications platform was the first thing.”
In the future, this could mean that teams synchronize their development timeline to consistently release updates with new versions of the EBS, suggested Franjel Consolacion, systems admin at CIMMYT.
“They are the next generation,” remarked Hagen. “This is the first time that this has happened in CGIAR informatics and it validated a key aspect of our strategy: that we can work together to assemble parts of a system and then deploy it as needed to different institutions.”
By early 2020, selected CIMMYT and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) breeding teams will have access to a “minimal viable implementation” of the EBS, in which they can conduct all basic breeding tasks through a simple user interface. More functionality, breeding programs and crops from other institutions including national agricultural research programs will be added in phases over three years.
The study, co-authored by Julie Miller Jones of St. Catherine University, Carlos Guzman of the Universidad de CĂłrdoba and Hans-Joachim Braun of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), reviewed findings of more than 100 research papers from nutrition and medical journals as well as national health recommendations. It presents evidence for positive health impacts from diverse diets that include not more than 50% carbohydrates and the right mix of grain-based foods.
âEpidemiological studies consistently show that eating three 30-gram portions of whole-grain foods â say, half a cup of oats â per day is associated with reduced chronic disease risk,â said Miller Jones, Professor Emerita at St. Catherine University and first author of the study. âBut refined-grain foods â especially staple, enriched or fortified ones of the ânon-indulgentâ type â also provide key vitamins and minerals that are otherwise lacking in peopleâs diets.â
âCereal grains help feed the world by providing millions of calories per hectare and large amounts of plant-based protein,â said Braun, director of CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat. âThey are affordable, shelf stable, portable, versatile, and popular, and will play a key role as the world transitions to plant-based diets to meet future food needs.â
Folate fortification of refined grains has helped reduce the incidence of spina bifida, anencephaly, and other birth defects, according to Miller Jones. âAnd despite contributing to high sugar intake, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals are typically consumed with nutritious foods such as milk, yogurt, and fruit,â she added.
All grain-based foods, refined and whole, are good sources of dietary fiber, which is essential for sound health but critically lacking in modern diets. âOnly 4 percent of the U.S. population, for example, eats recommended levels of dietary fiber,â she said.
Obesity, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and other illnesses from unbalanced diets and unhealthy habits are on the rise in countries such as the U.S., driving up health care expenditures. The annual medical costs of obesity alone there have been estimated at nearly $150 billion.
âDietary choices are determined partly by lifestyle but also co-vary with daily habits and personal traits,â Miller Jones explained. âPeople who eat more whole-grain foods are more likely to exercise, not smoke, and have normal body weights, as well as attaining higher levels of education and socioeconomic status.â
According to the study, recommendations for grain-based foods need to encourage a healthy number of servings and replacing half of refined-grain foods with whole-grain products, as well as providing clearer and unbiased definitions of both types of grain-based foods.
The International Maize and Wheat 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 Research 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.
Four scientists from the CIMMYT community have been included in the Highly Cited Researchers list for 2019, Published by the Web of Science Group, a Clarivate Analytics company.
The list identifies scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple papers, highly cited by their peers, during the last decade. For the 2019 list, analysts surveyed papers published and cited during 2008-2018 which ranked in the top 1% by citations for their ESI field and year.
Researchers are selected for their exceptional research performance in one of 21 fields, or across several fields.
This yearâs recipients affiliated with CIMMYT include:
Ravi Prakash Singh: Agricultural Sciences category. CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist and Head of Bread Wheat Improvement.
It is a significant honor to be part of this list, as it indicates that their peers have consistently acknowledged the influence of their research contributions in their publications and citations.
âCongratulations and thanks to these colleagues for effectively communicating their excellent science, multiplying CIMMYTâs impact by influencing thousands of readers in the international research community,â said CIMMYT Genetic Resources Program Director Kevin Pixley.
Global wheat production is currently facing great challenges, from increasing climate variation to occurrence of various pests and diseases. These factors continue to limit wheat production in a number of countries, including China, where in 2018 unseasonably cold temperatures resulted in yield reduction of more than 10% in major wheat growing regions. Around the same time, Fusarium head blight spread from the Yangtze region to the Yellow and Huai Valleys, and northern China experienced a shortage of irrigated water.
In light of these ongoing challenges, international collaboration, as well as the development of new technologies and their integration with existing ones, has a key role to play in supporting sustainable wheat improvement, especially in developing countries. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been collaborating with China on wheat improvement for over 40 years, driving significant progress in a number of areas.
Notably, a standardized protocol for testing Chinese noodle quality has been established, as has a methodology for breeding adult-plant resistance to yellow rust, leaf rust and powdery mildew. More than 330 cultivars derived from CIMMYT germplasm have been released in the country and are currently grown over 9% of the Chinese wheat production area, while physiological approaches have been used to characterize yield potential and develop high-efficiency phenotyping platforms. The development of climate-resilient cultivars using new technology will be a priority area for future collaboration.
In a special issue of Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering focused on wheat genetics and breeding, CIMMYT researchers present highlights from global progress in wheat genomics, breeding for disease resistance, as well as quality improvement, in a collection of nine review articles and one research article. They emphasize the significance of using new technology for genotyping and phenotyping when developing new cultivars, as well as the importance of global collaboration in responding to ongoing challenges.
In a paper on wheat stem rust, CIMMYT scientists Sridhar Bhavani, David Hodson, Julio Huerta-Espino, Mandeep Randawa and Ravi Singh discuss progress in breeding for resistance to Ug99 and other races of stem rust fungus, complex virulence combinations of which continue to pose a significant threat to global wheat production. The authors detail how effective gene stewardship and new generation breeding materials, complemented by active surveillance and monitoring, have helped to limit major epidemics and increase grain yield potential in key target environments.
In the same issue, an article by Caiyun Lui et al. discusses the application of spectral reflectance indices (SRIs) as proxies to screen for yield potential and heat stress, which is emerging in crop breeding programs. The results of a recent study, which evaluated 287 elite lines, highlight the utility of SRIs as proxies for grain yield. High heritability estimates and the identification of marker-trait associations indicate that SRIs are useful tools for understanding the genetic basis of agronomic and physiological traits.
Modeling Genotype à Environment Interaction Using a Factor Analytic Model of On-Farm Wheat Trials in the Yaqui Valley of Mexico. 2019. Vargas-Hernåndez, M., Ortiz-Monasterio, I., Perez-Rodriguez, P., Montesinos-Lopez, O.A., Montesinos-Lopez, A., Burgueño, J., Crossa, J. In: Agronomy Journal v. 111, no. 1, p. 1-11.
Velu Govindan will always remember his father telling him not to waste his food. âHe used to say that rice and wheat are very expensive commodities, which most people could only afford to eat once a week during his youth,â recalls the wheat breeder, who works at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
As in many parts of the world, the Green Revolution had a radical impact on agricultural production and diets in southern India, where Govindanâs father grew up, and by the late 1960s all farmers in the area had heard of âthe scientistâ from the USA. âBorlaugâs influence in India is so great because those new high-yielding varieties fed millions of people â including me.â
But feeding millions was only half the battle.
Today, at least two billion people around the world currently suffer from micronutrient deficiency, characterized by iron-deficiency anemia, lack of vitamin A and zinc deficiency.
Govindan works in collaboration with HarvestPlus to improve nutritional quality in cereals in addition to core traits like yield potential, disease resistance and climate tolerance. His area of focus is South Asia, where wheat is an important staple and many smallholder farmers donât have access to a diversified diet including fruit, vegetables or animal products which are high in micronutrients like iron and zinc.
âItâs important that people not only have access to food, but also have a healthy diet,â says Govindan. âThe idea is to improve major staples like rice, maize and wheat so that people who consume these biofortified varieties get extra benefits, satisfying their daily dietary needs as well as combatting hidden hunger.â
The challenge, he explains, is that breeding for nutritional quality is often done at the expense of yield. But varieties need high yield potential to be successful on the market because farmers in developing countries will not get a premium price simply for having a high micronutrient content in their grain.
Fast evolving wheat diseases are another issue to contend with. âIf you release a disease-resistant variety today, in as little as three or four yearsâ time it will already be susceptible because rust strains keep mutating. Itâs a continuous battle, but thatâs plant breeding.â
Velu Govindan speaks at International Wheat Conference in 2015. (Photo: Julie Mollins/CIMMYT)
Mainstreaming zinc
When it comes to improvement, breeding is only the first part of the process, Govindan explains. âWe can do a good job here in the lab, but if our varieties are not being taken up by farmers itâs no use.â
Govindan and his team work in collaboration with a number of public and private sector organizations to promote new varieties, partnering with national agricultural research systems and advanced research institutes to reach farmers in India, Nepal and Pakistan. As a result, additional high-zinc varieties have been successfully marketed and distributed across South Asia, as well as new biofortified lines which are currently being tested in sub-Saharan Africa for potential release and cultivation by farmers.
Their efforts paid off with the development and release of more than half dozen competitive high-zinc varieties including Zinc-Shakthi, whose grain holds 40% more zinc than conventional varieties and yields well, has good resistance to rust diseases, and matures a week earlier than other popular varieties, allowing farmers to increase their cropping intensity. To date, these biofortified high-zinc wheat varieties have reached nearly a million households in target regions of South Asia and are expected to spread more widely in coming years.
The next step will be to support the mainstreaming of zinc, so that it becomes an integral part of breeding programs as opposed to an optional addition. âHopefully in ten yearsâ time, most of the wheat we eat will have those extra benefits.â
There may be a long way to go, but Govindan remains optimistic about the task ahead.
Velu Govindan examines wheat in the field.
Born into a farming family, he has fond memories of a childhood spent helping his father in the fields, with afternoons and school holidays dedicated to growing rice, cotton and a number of other crops on the family plot.
The region has undergone significant changes since then, and farmers now contend with both rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall. It was a motivation to help poor farmers adapt to climate change and improve food production that led Govindan into plant breeding.
He has spent nearly ten years working on CIMMYTâs Spring Wheat Program and still feels honored to be part of a program with such a significant legacy. âNorman Borlaug, Sanjay Rajaram and my supervisor Ravi Singh â these people are legendary,â he explains. âSo luckily weâre not starting from scratch. These people made life easy, and we just need to keep moving towards achieving continuous genetic gains for improved food and nutrition security.â
âCan we sustainably feed the nine to ten billion people in our planet in 30 years?â asked Kenneth M. Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation. âThis question becomes even more challenging with two current game changers: conflict and climate change.â
Food and agriculture experts met in Des Moines, Iowa, to discuss these issues at the Borlaug Dialogue and awarding of the 2019 World Food Prize.
The focus has shifted over the last few years from food to food systems, now including health and nutrition. âWe need an integrated agri-food systems approach for food security, nutrition, nature conservation and human security,â said Bram Govaerts, director of the Integrated Development program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Speakers agreed that to meet the current challenges of nutrition and climate change, we need a transformation of the global food system. âWe have something very positive â this narrative of food system transformation,â said Ruben EcheverrĂa, Director General of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).
In the discussions, speakers highlighted several areas that must be taken into consideration in this transformation.
Hale Ann Tufan, recipient of the 2019 Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, speaks at the award ceremony. (Photo: Mary Donovan/CIMMYT)
Food security for peace and development
The theme of this yearâs Borlaug Dialogue was âPax Agricultura: Peace through agriculture.â Panels addressed the interconnected issues of food security, conflict and development.
In the keynote address, USAID Administrator Mark Green issued a call to action and challenged participants âto take on the food and economic insecurity issues that are emerging from this eraâs unprecedented levels of displacement and forced migration.â Ambassadors, ministers and development experts gave examples of the interdependence of agriculture and peace, how droughts and floods could create conflict in a country, and how peace can be rebuilt through agriculture.
âAgriculture could root out the insurgency better than anything we did,â said Quinn about the Khmer Rouge surrender in Cambodia, where he served as an ambassador.
In the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, more than 1 million people died in 100 days. Geraldine Mukeshimana, Rwandaâs minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, explained that in the countryâs rebuilding process, all policies centered on agriculture.
âAlmost no country has come out of poverty without an agricultural transformation,â said Rodger Voorhies, president of Global Growth and Opportunity at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in a fireside chat with 2009 World Food Prize Laureate Gebisa Ejera.
Agriculture is vital because without food, we cannot build institutions, processes or economies. âYou cannot talk about human rights if you donât have any food in your stomach,â said Chanthol Sun, Cambodiaâs minister of Public Works and Transportation.
Josette Sheeran, president and CEO of Asia Society, echoed this thought, âNothing is more important to human stability than access to food.â
CGIAR had a booth at the 2019 World Food Prize and Borlaug Dialogue, and participated in several events and panels. (Photo: World Food Prize)
How to make technological innovations work
Innovations and technology can support a global food system transformation and help to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
In a panel on food security in the next decade, speakers shared the agricultural technologies they are excited about: data, gene editing, synthetic biology, data science and precision farming.
Josephine Okot, managing director of Victoria Seeds Ltd said, âWe must have mechanization.â She described the fact that Ugandan women farmers still rely on hand tools as a âdisgrace to humanity.â
The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) organized a session where panelists discussed how to realize a transformation in food systems through next generation technologies, highlighting the role regulatory frameworks and policies play in the adoption of new technologies.
Making innovations work is about more than developing the product. âIt takes a lot more than just a good seed to get a farmer to use it,â said 2019 World Food Prize Laureate Simon Groot. âIt includes good distribution, good marketing, good training, etcetera.â
Technology adoption requires a human emphasis and cultural element in addition to technology development.
The Executive Director of CGIAR, Elwyn Grainger-Jones (left), 2019 World Food Prize Laureate, Simon Groot (second from left) and other speakers present CGIAR’s Crops to End Hunger initiative. (Photo: Mary Donovan/CIMMYT)
Breeding demand-driven crops for all
âThe real enemy of farmers is lousy seeds,â said Simon Groot in his speech after receiving the World Food Prize.
CGIAR took the occasion of the World Food Prize to launch a new initiative, Crops to End Hunger. âWe are looking for big solutions at CGIAR. Crops to End Hunger is one of them,â said CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff. This program aims to meet the food, nutrition and income needs of producers and consumers, respond to market demands and increase resilience to challenges of the climate crisis.
âCGIAR released 417 new varieties last year. However, we can do more. Crops to End Hunger will rapidly excel breeding cycles,â said Elwyn Grainger-Jones, CGIAR Executive Director.
Felister Makini, deputy director general for Crops at Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), explained that focusing on the end users is what will have real impact. âIt is important to develop technologies that are demand-driven so that farmers want to grow them and consumers want to buy and eat them.â
In a session to unpack the Crops to End Hunger initiative hosted by Corteva Agriscience and CGIAR, Marco Ferroni, Chair of the CGIAR System Management Board, said that CGIAR is shifting toward a more demand-driven agenda for plant breeding, where markets dictate what the research priorities should be.
âWe must consider the human aspect in breeding,â said Michael Quinn, Director of the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB). âThis is where success will really come.â
Panelists discussed gender-conscious breeding, or taking both women and menâs desired traits into account.
The theme of gender was also emphasized by 2019 Norman Borlaug Field Award winner Hale Ann Tufan. She asked the Dialogue attendees to question gender biases and ânot only to âtake it to the farmerâ but take it to all farmers.â
CIMMYT’s Director General, Martin Kropff (right), speaks at a session to share the details of CGIAR’s Crops to End Hunger initiative. (Photo: Mary Donovan/CIMMYT)
Cover photo: Plenary session of the 2019 Borlaug Dialogue. (Photo: World Food Prize)
Society faces enormous challenges in the transition to sustainable rural development. We are unlikely to make this transition unless we move away from the 20th-century paradigm that sees the world as a logical, linear system focused on âscaling upâ the use of technologies to reach hundreds of millions of smallholders.
In a new article published this week on NextBillion, Lennart Woltering of CIMMYT contends that âfarming communities are unlikely to continue using a new practice or technology if the surrounding system remains unchanged, since it is this very system that shaped their conventional way of farming.â
Woltering calls on the research for development community to work towards producing deeper system change and offers some key considerations for moving in the right direction.
Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food production. In the latest episode of the BBC radio show Witness History, Rebecca Kesby interviews Ronnie Coffman, student and friend of Norman Borlaug.
Among other stories, Coffman recalls the moment when Borlaug was notified about the Nobel Prize â while working in the wheat fields in Mexico â and explores what motivated Borlaug to bring the Green Revolution to India.
Four scientists from the CIMMYT community have been included in the 
