The G20 MACS is composed of the ministries or governmental bodies responsible for agricultural research in each G20 state and leading research institutions, including CIMMYT as part of CGIAR, which strategically advise these decision makers. The G20 MACS addresses diverse global challenges in agriculture affecting the people and planet through joint agricultural research and innovation strategies and implementation of initiatives under new cooperation formats.
âCIMMYT is working for a world with resilient agri-food systems and protecting biodiversity with a multi-crop, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary approach,â said Govaerts during the recent MACS meeting. â70% of wheat and over 50% of maize varieties sown worldwide are derived from CIMMYT materials, and we are improving livelihoods in over 50 countries.â
In its efforts to ensure biodiversity, CGIAR genebanks hold over 770,000 accessions, of which 80% are immediately accessible. As an added measure of security, duplicates of 78% of the seeds reside at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Because wheat provides 20% of the global population’s daily protein intake, protecting it from disease, pests, and the effects of climate change is paramount. And to keep pace with the growing population, yields must increase in sustainable manners. To meet those challenges, CIMMYT coordinates the International Wheat Improvement Network, which involves hundreds of partners and testing sites worldwide. The Network has established a global phenotyping network, with platforms hosted locally so that environments are optimal for specific trait phenotyping.
Battling pests
In efforts to combat the threat of wheat blast, CIMMYT has established a regional collaboration which includes testing centers (over 15,000 lines tested), surveillance networks, and the release of blast resistant varieties in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In addition, CIMMYT has trained 100 extension agents from 10 countries in wheat blast identification and surveillance protocols.
Examining Ug99 stem rust symptoms on wheat. (Photo: Petr Kosina/CIMMYT)
Fall armyworm, is a voracious pest in both Africa and Asia, has caused up to $13 billion per year in crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa since 2016, threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers throughout the region. CIMMYT has developed hybrid maize varieties resistant to this pest by identifying and validating sources of native genetic resistance.
International Year of the Millet: 2023
Within its presence in CGIAR, CIMMYT is working in networks with African NARS and private sector partners to share resources and knowledge and innovating sustainable crop and crop-livestock systems. This will directly support the Millets And Other Ancient Grains International Research Initiative (MAHARISHI), inaugurated at the G20 MACS conference. The initiative facilitates research collaboration on climate-resilient and nutritious grains, including millets and other underutilized grains. CIMMYT is also initiating and supporting crop improvement programs for sorghum, millet, groundnut, pigeon pea, and chickpea, in a model that empowers the national research centers.
Malawian farmer in her groundnut plot under conservation agriculture. (Photo: T. Samson/CIMMYT)
This work dovetails with the recently announced Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), in which CIMMYT is catalyzing efforts to scale up existing and high potential innovations, technologies, and business models as opposed to starting new ones in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Creating sustainable solutions
CIMMYT is also pioneering the development of a hub network which supports adaptive research and integrated development for sustainable agrifood systems. With particular attention paid to inclusivity, these hubs are changing the perception of womenâs roles in agriculture.
âCIMMYT is building towards future-proof solutions that foster empowerment through raising family income and food security, working with partners in the Global South for the benefit of the Global South,â said Govaerts.
Miguel Ezequiel May Ic, San Felipe Orient, Quintana Roo (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
In a world where more than 800 million women, men, and children still go hungry, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) offers proven science and formidable partnerships to help achieve the recently stated ambitions of prosperous nations for global food security and nutrition.
Meeting in Hiroshima, Japan, the weekend of 19 May 2023, the grouping of seven wealthy nations known as the G7 released a public statement recognizing that the world faces the highest risk of famine in a generation and the need of working together to build more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive agriculture and food systems.
âRealizing resilient global food security and nutrition for all is our shared goal for a better future for each human being,â reaffirmed the leaders of Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Comoros, the Cook Islands, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, the Republic of Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Vietnam, and the European Union, in a joint statement.
The six-page statement lays out detailed actions, policy goals, and partnerships to respond to the immediate food security crisis, in which more than 250 million persons in 58 countries need emergency food assistance, as well as preparing for and preventing future crises.
Research with impacts for marginalized, small-scale farmers
Recognizing the key role of applied research to boost food production while addressing climate shocks, the leaders advocated promoting climate-smart agriculture, including ââŠagro-ecological, nature-based solutions and ecosystem based approaches and other innovative approaches as appropriate, drawing on the knowledge and evidence base developed by the FAO, IFAD and CGIAR.â
Established in 1971, CGIAR is a global partnership dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources. A founding member and leader in CGIAR, CIMMYT is responsible for major impacts in the productivity of two key food crops, according to Bram Govaerts, director general of CIMMYT.
Celia Agustina Magaña Magaña in her milpa field (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
âMaize and wheat together sustain billions of people worldwide, providing around a fifth of humanityâs nutritional protein and carbohydrates, generating nearly $50 billion in trade each year, and covering 400 million hectares of land â thatâs approximately one quarter of the worldâs farmland,â said Govaerts. âWe stand ready to support G7 efforts.â
âFully half of the maize and wheat varieties grown in low- and middle-income countries carry CIMMYT breeding contributions,â Govaerts explained. âThis and our research on more productive and efficient farming methods for those crops generate approximately $3.5-4 billion each year in enhanced benefits to farmers and consumers.â
As part of its decades-long cropping systems research, CIMMYT has studied and promoted conservation agriculture, a soil- and water-saving approach involving reduced tillage, keeping a cover of crop residues, and growing multiple crops together or in rotations. This approach has become highly relevant for farmers in places such as South Asia, where rising temperatures and fresh water scarcities threaten more than 13 million hectares of crop production. As part of its âcropping systemsâ approach, CIMMYT has diversified its expertise to groundnut, pigeon pea, chickpea, pearl millet and sorghum, with a strong focus on nutrition and resilience, while maintaining the Centerâs foundational work in seed production and seed marketing systems.
The G7 statement cites the importance of dryland cereal and legume crops in settings such as sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and CIMMYT has undertaken initiatives to improve the livelihoods of small-scale producers and consumers of sorghum, groundnut, cowpea, common beans, and millets. Among other things, the work generates and shares data on the performance and the availability of seed of improved varieties of those crops.
CIMMYT is co-leading the CGIAR initiative Digital Innovation, which is working across 13 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to improve the quality of information systems and strengthen local capacities to realize the potential of digital technologies, thereby boosting small-scale farmersâ adoption of better practices, their incomes, and their resilience to climate shocks, while reducing the gender gap and managing food system risks.
Partner connections and funding power success
These impacts would not have been possible without CIMMYTâs longstanding, effective relationships with hundreds of public and private partners worldwide, a number of which are mentioned in the G7 statement, as well as the global reach of the jointly-generated, freely-shared knowledge from those collaborations, according to Govaerts.
Isaiah Nyagumbo inspects a maize ear at the Chimbadzwa plot (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
âA 2022 study in Nature Scientific Reports showed that the Centerâs climate science, associated with some 90% of its research, appears on academic and research platforms as well as in social media and government and international organization websites across the Global North and South, contributing to the decolonization of science and the democratization of scientific debates,â he said.
CIMMYT partnerships with and support for private seed producers and dealers have helped fuel the adoption and spread of drought tolerant maize varieties in Africa. A 2021 study shows that, during 1995-2015, nearly 60% of all maize varieties released in 18 African countries came from research by CIMMYT or the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), bringing yearly benefits as high as $1.05 billion and gaining mention in a blog by Bill Gates.
Regarding support for CIMMYTâs work from prosperous nations, including several G7 members, the Center receives generous investments on the order of $170 million each year from diverse funders including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Deutsche Gesellschaft fĂŒr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the government of Mexico, and CGIAR.
Maize under conservation agriculture (CA) in Malawi (Photo: T. Samson/CIMMYT)
With many stresses facing agricultural food systems, including climate change, disease epidemics, growing populations, there is not one solution that will answer all the challenges. However, a foundational part of any attempt to strengthen food systems is the effort to conserve crop diversity. Maintaining a robust set of plant varieties serves as a building block for developing favorable traits, like increased yield, increased disease resistance, and drought tolerance, among others.
Dedicated to conserving crop diversity, the Crop Trust is a non-profit international organization with the mission of making that diversity available for use globally, forever, for the benefit of everyone.
On April 3, 2023, Crop Trustâs Executive Director, Stefan Schmitz, and Director of Programs, Sarada Krishnan, visited the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for the first time to examine CIMMYTâs maize and wheat genebanks, with the goal of establishing a set of standards for genebanks around the world. The parties also discussed future collaborations between the two institutions that will be best amplify each organizationâs strengths.
A key part of the Crop Trustâs mission is support for collections of unique and valuable plant genetic resources for food and agriculture held in genebanks.
âCIMMYT is â and has been â one of the key partners in making sure crop diversity is safe and available for all of humanity,â said Schmitz. âTheir maize and wheat genebanks serve a crucial role in assuring crop diversity, especially in Latin America.â
Maize seed samples, CIMMYT germplasm bank (Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT manages the most diverse maize and wheat collections. CIMMYTâs germplasm bank, also known as a seed bank, is at the center of CIMMYTâs crop-breeding research. This remarkable, living catalog of genetic diversity comprises over 28,000 unique seed collections of maize and 123,000 of wheat.
âCIMMYT is honored to host the Crop Trust as any global solution requires global collaboration,â said CIMMYT Director General, Bram Govaerts.
Advances in genebank management
Representatives of the Crop Trust were eager to learn more about CIMMYTâs efforts in Digital sequence information (DSI). CIMMYT is using DSI to analyze structure, redundancies, and gaps within its own genebank and is now working to bring DSI tools to national genebanks in Latin America.
This visit builds on ongoing work, such as the third workshop of the Community of Practice for Latin America and the Caribbean on the use of genomic and digital tools for the conservation and use of Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GRAA) held in November 2022.
In 2020, CIMMYT was the largest contributor to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, providing 173,779 maize and wheat accessions from 131 countries.
The Seed Vault, managed by the Crop Trust, is a repository collection holding duplicates of seeds from over 1,700 genebanks around the world.
CIMMYTâs most recent donation to the Seed Vault was in October 2022.
Colleagues from CIMMYTâs germplasm bank prepare a delivery of 263 accessions of maize and 3,548 accession of wheat. (Photo: Francisco AlarcĂłn/CIMMYT)
âAll CIMMYT staff we met were passionate about their work and welcomed us kindly, generously sharing their knowledge and time with us. We look forward to continuing our collaboration, to strengthen it, and make sure that the crop collections held at the CIMMYT genebank are safe and available, forever,â said Schmitz.
Wheat production is strained by rising temperatures, longer droughts, and emerging crop diseases. CIMMYT wheat researchers are leading what the Technology Times and scientists call a ‘wheat revolution’ by developing drought-tolerant and fungal-resistant wheat varieties.
With the harmful effects of climate change, including drought and extreme temperatures moving from the abstract into the practical, the development and deployment of sustainable investments and support for climate action in agricultural and food systems must be accelerated. Â
A hotter and drier world will significantly affect the average yields of key staple crops. Researchers at the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) estimate that, without adaptation of climate-smart solutions, each Celsius degree increase in global mean temperatures will cut average maize yields by 7.4 percent and wheat yields by 6.0 percent.Â
âThose would be catastrophic losses, affecting every part of the global food system,â said CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts âAlready we see havoc being caused in food insecure regions like southern Africa. With that in mind, itâs time not only to keep developing climate smart solutions, but we need to speed up the distribution of innovations.â Â
CIMMYT is a partner in the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C) initiative, which aims to raise global ambition and drive more rapid and transformative climate action in all countries by bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, producers, civil society groups, and scientists and researchers.Â
The AIM for Climate Summit, May 8-10, in Washington DC, brought together a global coalition of climate partners, including CIMMYT, all working towards the mission of rapid dissemination of climate-smart innovations. Â
Bram Govaerts delivered closing remarks at IFPRI (Photo: CIMMYT)
As part of its participation in the Climate Summit, CIMMYT is reshaping its strategy for contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Â
The new strategy places CIMMYT research within three main pillars: (1) discovery, (2) systems development, and (3) inclusivity, all within the framework of climate adaptation and mitigation. Â
âOur new approach ensures that CIMMYT will be a partner of choice and a contributor to science and technology development. All while keeping the focus on smallholder farmers and establishing guidelines to ensure advances are sustainable and fair, as we engage previously underrepresented stakeholders,â said Govaerts. Â
Establishing frameworks for rapid innovationÂ
At the Summit, CIMMYT updated partners on the progress of two Innovation Sprints, which are key components of the AIM and intended to achieve innovations for climate smart agri-food systems in an expedited time frame. Â
The Climate-Resilient soil fertility management by smallholders in Africa, Asia, and Latin America Innovation Sprint provides targeted interventions for fertilizer application and overall soil health to smallholder farmers. Â
Fertilizers are essential for increasing crop yields and ensuring food security, yet fertilizer use for food and fodder is severely skewed at the global level, leading to over-fertilization in some regions and under-fertilization in others.Â
âWe need innovations that promote local adaptation and agency by smallholder farmers. By tailoring fertility management practices to specific conditions, smallholders will optimize productivity, enhance climate resilience, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions,â said Sieglinde Snapp, Innovation Sprint Leader and Program Director of CIMMYTâs Sustainable Agricultural Systems. Â
Sieg Snapp participated in a breakout session (Photo: SterlingComs)
Withdrawals from genebanksÂ
CIMMYTâs germplasm bank, also known as a genebank, is at the center of CIMMYTâs crop-breeding research. This living catalog of genetic diversity conserves over 28,000 unique seed collections of maize and 150,000 of wheat. Many other CGIAR institutions hold similar genebanks for other key crops. The Genebank Sprint unlocks potential climate smart solutions lurking in varieties held in genebanks.Â
Sarah Hearne spoke on the potential of utilizing CGIAR genebanks (Photo: CIMMYT)
Research has developed integrated approaches for six major crops (cassava, maize, sorghum, cowpea, common bean and rice), providing a scalable model for the rapid and cost-effective discovery of climate-adaptive alleles.Â
âGenetic diversity is a key part of our responses to climate change,â said Sarah Hearne, CIMMYT Principal Scientist. âBy utilizing the vast diversity catalogue in our CGIAR genebanks, we can disseminate climate resilient varieties to smallholder farmers around the world.âÂ
Working towards speeding up deployment Â
In addition, CIMMYTâs Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and based on the MasAgro model in Mexico, works toward improving legume seed and maize varieties. So far, 35 local partners are employing solutions in Zambia, Tanzania, and Malawi, and there have been 125 mega demonstrations, a majority managed by women, for farmers of improved seeds. Â
In conjunction with the Summitâs focus on rapid implementation, CIMMYT is ready to deploy a similar project immediately in Central America, a historically under-funded region, which would improve livelihoods throughout the area. Â
âCIMMYT is dedicated to accelerating food systems transformation by using the power of collective action for research and innovation to foster productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood systems that ensure global food and nutrition security,â said Govaerts.Â
During the recent International Day of Plant Health, a group of experts from across the globe sat together in a webinar to discuss and address the challenges facing plant health management capacity in the Global South.
AMES, IOWAâThe Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) has announced the 2023 Borlaug CAST Communication Award goes to Alison Bentley.
While Bentley is known for her global research on wheat genetics, she is also recognized for her proficiency in science communication. Bentley has a passion for delivering practical applications from innovation to farmers, extensive reach through communicating and influencing, and mentoring and support of individuals and community efforts. Bentley’s exceptional work in raising awareness about the importance of wheat as a food crop is also evidenced by her wide-ranging list of communication activities.
In 2022 alone, Bentley delivered 20 scientific presentationsâincluding five international keynote talks and 15 additional invited talks. Bentley focused her communication efforts around two major areas. The first area was her rapid, science-led response to the impact of the Russian/Ukraine war on global wheat production through a communication article in Nature, followed with a social media campaign and numerous presentations and invited policy briefings. Her second area of focus was a major communications campaign by initiating and leading the Women in Crop Science network. This network was developed to address key issues such as the promotion and championing of females throughout their research careers, creating equal opportunities, and increasing visibility of members.
The extensive breadth of Bentleyâs outreach ranges from classic science presentations and open access articles to blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and Twitter campaigns. All these formats demonstrate her commitment to science communication and reaching as wide an audience as possible in an accessible way to engage with important, current topics regarding wheat supplies and plant breeding.
The official presentation of the award will take place at a special side event during the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue event in Des Moines, Iowa, in October. The Borlaug CAST Communication Award honors the legacy of Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize winner and author of the first CAST publication, and Dr. Charles A. Black, the first executive vice president of CAST. It is presented annually for outstanding achievement by a scientist, engineer, technologist, or other professional working in the agricultural, environmental, or food sectors for contributing to the advancement of science through communication in the public policy arena.
ABOUT CAST
CAST is an international consortium of scientific and professional societies, universities, companies, nonprofits, libraries, and individuals. CAST convenes and coordinates networks of experts to assemble, interpret, and communicate credible, unbiased, science-based information to policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis. Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. CIMMYTâs research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.
CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT Director General, promotes 5 adaptation measures that can transform global agri-food systems, making them more resilient to climate shocks to help vulnerable regions cope with diminishing yields and forced migrations.
Public and private crop research organizations worldwide have worked behind the scenes for decades, bolstering the resilience of staple crops like maize and wheat to fight what is shaping up to be the battle of our time: feeding humanity in a biosphere increasingly hostile to crop farming.
In the case of wheat â which provides some 20% of carbohydrates and 20% of protein in human diets, not to mention 40% of total cereal exports â harvests spoiled by heat waves, droughts, and crop disease outbreaks can send food prices skyrocketing, driving world hunger, poverty, instability, human migration, political instability, and conflict.
Century-high temperature extremes and the early onset of summer in South Asia in 2022, for example, reduced wheat yields as much as 15% in parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, a breadbasket that yearly produces over 100 million tons of wheat from 30 million hectares of crop land.
Around half the worldâs wheat crop suffers from heat stress, and each 1 °C increase in temperature reduces wheat yields by an average 6%, according to a 2021 review paper âHarnessing translational research in wheat for climate resilience,â published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, which also outlines nine goals to improve the climate resilience of wheat.
Simulating heat shocks in the field using portable plot-sized âheating tentsâ (Photo: G Molero/CIMMYT)
Droughts and shrinking aquifers pose equally worrying threats for wheat, said Matthew Reynolds, a wheat physiologist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the study. âWater availability is the biggest factor influencing potential yield in a majority of wheat environments globally,â Reynolds explained. âStudies predict severe water scarcity events for up to 60% of the worldâs wheat-growing areas by the end of this century.â
Science and sources to toughen wheat
Along with modernized, more diverse cropping systems and better farm policies, more resilient varieties are crucial for sustainable wheat production, according to Reynolds and a wheat breeder colleague at CIMMYT, Leo Crespo, who added that breeders have been working for decades to stiffen wheatâs heat and drought tolerance, long before climate change became a buzzword.
âBreeding and selection in diverse environments and at targeted test sites characterized by heat and natural or simulated drought has brought farmers wheat varieties that perform well under both optimal and stressed conditions and weâre implementing new technologies to speed progress and lower costs,â said Crespo, mentioning that the Centerâs wheat nurseries SAWYT and HTWYT target semi-arid and heat-stressed environments respectively and are sent yearly to hundreds of public and private breeders worldwide through the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN). “Retrospective analysis of IWIN data has shown that heat tolerance has been increasing in recent years, according to a 2021 CIMMYT study.”
âClimate change is a serious driver of potential disease epidemics, since changeable weather can increase selection pressure for new virulent pathotypes to evolve,â said Pawan Singh, a CIMMYT wheat pathologist. âWe must be ever vigilant, and the IWIN is an invaluable source of feedback on potential new disease threats and changes in the virulence patterns of wheat pathogens.â
In the quest to improve climate resilience in wheat, CIMMYT âpre-breedingâ â accessing desired genetic traits from sources like wheatâs grassy relatives and introducing them into breeding lines that can be crossed with elite varieties â focuses on specific traits. These include strong and healthy roots, early vigor, a cool canopy under stress, and storage of water-soluble carbohydrates in stems that can be used as stress intensifies to complement supplies from photosynthesis, as well as an array of traits that protect photosynthesis including âstay-greenâ leaves and spikes and pigments that protect the delicate photosynthetic machinery from oxidative damage caused by excess light.
Screening highly diverse lines – identified by DNA fingerprinting – from the World Wheat Collection under heat stress. (Photo: Matthew Reynolds/CIMMYT)
Though elite breeding lines may contain genetic variation for such traits, in pre-breeding researchers look further afield for new and better sources of resilience. The vast wheat seed collections of CIMMYT and other organizations, particularly seed samples of farmer-bred heirloom varieties known as âlandraces,â are one potential source of useful diversity that cutting-edge genetic analyses promise to help unlock.
Rich diversity for wheat is still found in farmersâ fields in India, in the northern states of the Himalayan region, the hill regions, and the semi-arid region of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka. The landraces there show tolerance to drought, heat, and saline soils.
The so-called âsynthetic wheatsâ represent another plentiful source of resilience genes. Synthetics are the progeny of crosses of tetraploid wheat (having four chromosomes, like the durum wheat used for pasta) with wild grass species. CIMMYT and other organizations have been creating these since the 1980s and using them as bridges to transfer wild genes to bread wheat, often for traits such as disease resistance and heat and drought tolerance.
Lines with new sources of heat- and drought-tolerance from CIMMYTâs pre-breeding are also distributed to public and private breeders worldwide via the IWIN for testing as the Stress Adapted Trait Yield Nurseries (SATYNs), according to the paper. These special nurseries are grown by national and private breeders throughout South Asia, for example in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, and Pakistan. Lines from the nursery have on occasion been released directly as varieties for use by farmers in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Pakistan.
A critical challenge in pre-breeding is to identify and keep desirable wild genes while culling the undesirable ones that are also transferred in crosses of elite breeding lines with landraces and synthetics. One approach is through physiological pre-breeding, where complementary crosses are made to improve the crop performance under drought and heat stress. The second approach is using genomic prediction, on the basis of seeds, or accessions, in the gene bank collection that have gone through genomic and phenotyping analysis for target traits such as heat and drought tolerance. These approaches can also be combined to boost the speed and effectiveness of selecting strong varieties.
Breeding revolutions
Wheat breeding is being revolutionized by advances in âhigh-throughput phenotyping.â This refers to rapid and cost-effective ways to measure wheat performance and specific traits in the field, particularly remote sensing â that is, crop images taken from vehicles, drones, or even satellites. Depending on the wavelength of light used, such images can show plant physiochemical and structural properties, such as pigment content, hydration status, photosynthetic area, and vegetative biomass. Similarly, canopy temperature images from infrared photography allow detection for crop water status and plant stomatal conductance. Â âSuch traits tend to show better association with yield under stress than under favorable conditionsâ, said Francisco Pinto, a CIMMYT wheat physiologist who is developing methods to measure roots using remote sensing. âA remotely sensed âroot indexâ could potentially revolutionize our ability to breed for root traits, which are critical under heat and drought stress but have not been directly accessible in breeding.â
Innovative statistical analysis has greatly increased the value of field trials and emphasized the power of direct selection for yield and yield stability under diverse environments.
Initial results from genomic selection programs, particularly where combined with improved phenotyping techniques, also show great promise. The potential benefits of combining a range of new technologies constitute a valuable international public good.
New initiatives
Launched in 2012, the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) facilitates global coordination of wheat research to adapt to a future with more severe weather extremes, specifically heat and drought. It delivers new technologies â especially novel wheat lines  to wheat breeders worldwide via the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN), coordinated for more than half a century by CIMMYT.
HeDWIC is supported by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) and is part of the Alliance for Wheat Adaption to Heat and Drought (AHEAD), an international umbrella organization set up by the Wheat Initiative to bring the wheat research community together and to exchange new germplasm, technologies and ideas for enhancing tolerance to heat and drought.
Cover photo: Night heaters to increase night temperature in the field, as increasingly warmer nights are diminishing yield in many cropping systems. (Photo: Enrico Yepez/CIMMYT)Â
Through decades-long Asian and global partnerships, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is refining and spreading a suite of resource-conserving, climate-smart innovations for highly diverse maize- and wheat-based cropping systems, including more precise and efficient use of water and fertilizer, as well as conservation agriculture, which blends reduced or zero-tillage, use of crop residues or mulches as soil covers, and more diverse intercrops and rotations.
âZero-tillage and residue management for cereals â that is, sowing the seed directly into unplowed soils and residues from the preceding rice crop â has been adopted on a significant area in the transact of Indo-Gangetic Plain, with positive impacts on crop yields, profitability, and resource-use efficiencies,â said Tek Sapkota, senior scientist in agricultural systems/climate change, CIMMYT.
Continuous maize plot in El BatĂĄn, Mexico (Photo: CIMMYT)
The paper âConservation agriculture for sustainable intensification in South Asia,â published in the science journal Nature Sustainability reported that, compared to the conventional practice, conservation agriculture resulted overall in a 4.6% higher grain yield, a 14.6% improvement in water use efficiency, and a 25.6% greater net economic return. The net economic return was 40.5% higher for full conservation agriculture but, given the benefits of partial adoption of the practices, rigid adherence to an âall or nothingâ approach to spread conservation agriculture in South Asia does not seem warranted.
Conservation agriculture also offers several ecosystem services. In the study data, global warming potential was reduced by as much as 33.5% in rice-wheat systems, values that are consistent with other research. Moreover, conservation agriculture-based practices provide an economically feasible alternative to burning rice residues, a serious public health threat in northwestern India given the roughly 23 million tons of residues that are burned each year in the region.
âMore widespread adoption of zero-tillage in India has been made possible with the development of next-generation tractor-drawn implements that allow direct seeding into heavy residues, as well as business models whereby implement owners contract out with neighboring farmers to sow their crops and provide other services,â said Sapkota. âNational governments in South Asia are actively promoting conservation agriculture to address residue burning and other farming sustainability problems.â
Aerial view of maize and wheat breeding plots (Photo: CIMMYT)
Fitting conservation agriculture to maize farming in Mexico
Efforts to adapt conservation agriculture and promote its adoption by farmers operating highly-diverse, mostly rainfed maize-based cropping systems in Mexico have had mixed results. A recent study assessed soil health in 20 trials in starting between 1991 and 2016 in agro-ecologies ranging from handplanted traditional systems to intensive irrigated systems, contrasting conservation agriculture effects with those of local conventional practices, which commonly involve tillage, residue removal, and continuous maize production.
As reported in the 2021 paper âEffects of conservation agriculture on physicochemical soil health in 20 maize-based trials in different agro-ecological regions across Mexico,â published in the science journal Land Degradation and Development, conservation agriculture increased maize yields at most sites by 0.85 tons per hectare, on average. Organic matter and nitrates were higher in topsoils under conservation agriculture and soil aggregate stability was greater, meaning the soil more effectively moved air and water to plant roots. For other soil health parameters, such as nutrient content, pH, or compaction, most values were determined more by local soil type than by crop management.
Maize plot in El BatĂĄn, Mexico (Photo: CIMMYT)
âGiven the significant variation across agro-ecologies, local adaptive trials are important to assess the effects of conservation agriculture on soil health and fit it to local conditions,â said Simon Fonteyne, a CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist and first author of the paper.
Emissions control
Several recent studies have assessed the costs and potential of various sustainable intensification technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in India, Bangladesh and Mexico. Their findings can help inform national policies on food security, economic development and environment, including those relating to the Paris Agreement.
In the 2019 study âCost-effective opportunities for climate change mitigation in Indian agriculture,â published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, CIMMYT and partners found that estimated total emissions from Indian agriculture were 481 tons of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2012, with crops contributing over 40% and livestock nearly 60%. Under a business-as-usual scenario, agricultural greenhouse gas emissions in India would be 515 MtCO2e by 2030. This annual emissions could be reduced by 85.5 MtCO2e through adoption of mitigation practices and about 80% of that reduction could be achieved through measures that would actually save money and, in many cases, could be implemented with current technology. The efficient use of fertilizer, zero-tillage, and rice-water management could deliver more than 50% of the technical abatement potential.
âRealization of this mitigation potential will depend largely on the extent adoption by farmers,â said Sapkota, who was lead author of the study. âLarge-scale adoption of apparently win-win options is not happening, so the government of India will need to apply appropriate policy measures and incentives, consistent with its food security and emission reduction goals.
A similar study in Bangladesh, reported in the 2021 paper âQuantifying opportunities for greenhouse gas emissions mitigation using big data from smallholder crop and livestock farmers across Bangladesh,â published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, found greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture in Bangladesh of 76.8 MtCO2e for 2014â15. Yearly emissions by 2030 under a business-as-usual approach would approximate 86.9 MtCO2e and, by 2050, about 100 MtCO2e. Adoption of realistic, climate-smart crop and livestock management options to reduce emissions offer mitigation opportunities of 9.51 MtCO2e per year by 2030 and 14.21 MtCO2e by 2050. As much as 75% of this potential can be achieved through cost-saving options that benefit smallholder farmers. As is the case for India, realization of this potential largely depends on the degree to which supportive policies and measures can encourage farmer adoption.
The Walmart Foundation and CIMMYT promote crop diversification in Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Campeche, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
A similar rapid assessment of costs for to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from crops, livestock, and forestry in Mexico found a national mitigation potential of 87.9 MtCO2eq per year, fully 72.3 MtCO2eq from livestock. As reported in the 2022 paper, âQuantification of economically feasible mitigation potential from agriculture, forestry and other land uses in Mexico,â published in the science journal Carbon Management, implementing mitigation potential on Mexican cropland could bring net benefits, compared to livestock and forestry options, which involve net costs. In the 2021 paper “Reduced Water Use in Barley and Maize Production Through Conservation Agriculture and Drip Irrigation” a reduction of emissions caused by lower fuel use in conservation agriculture of 192 kg CO2 haâ1 Â was measured in farmers fields, as well as an increase in soil carbon and a reduction in water use.
To provide a comprehensive overview of women and gender issues in agriculture, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently released âThe status of women in agri-food systems,â which provides compelling examples of policies and programs with a review of what has worked and specific recommendations. The report concludes that increasing womenâs empowerment is essential for womenâs well-being and has a positive impact on agricultural production, food security, diets, and child nutrition.
Despite the importance of agrifood systems for womenâs livelihoods and the welfare of their families, womenâs roles are marginalized, and their working conditions are likely to be worse than menâsâirregular, informal, part-time, low-skilled, labor intensive and thus vulnerable.
The International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) recognizes the pressing need for gender equality measures in agri-food systems and has initiated many specific projects to address gender equality. In addition, CIMMYT is committed to introducing a gender component into all its research, programs, and interventions.
âIt is an acknowledgment that gender and social equity has always been a critical component of the sustainability of any initiative, regardless of the crop and the geographic area affected,â said Bram Govaerts, CIMMYTâs Director General. âCIMMYT is now more intentional about addressing gender equality issues and we recognize the same old methods might not be the most effective.â
FAO: the collection of high-quality data are paramount for monitoring, evaluating and accelerating progress on gender equality in agrifood systems
In the past, many initiatives have relied on surveys to gather data from farmers, producers, consumers, and other stakeholders. However, in traditional rural societies, survey-based data collection might not be the best way to evaluate womenâs agency, as the deeply rooted cultural restrictions might not allow them to talk openly about sensitive issues, like their relationship with a spouse.
As part of the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for improved livelihoods in Asia and Africa (AGG) project, in Bihar India, CIMMYT researchers developed an innovative storytelling approach to data collection: using vignettes, farmers are given short stories to relate to their household circumstances. Stories are also easier to remember and help build a connection with the characters quickly.
This storytelling method debunked some long-held ideas about womenâs role in agriculture in this area of India, creating a more nuanced view of how and why women engage in agriculture. This method will lead to richer qualitative data, which can improve the development and sustainability of gender interventions.
FAO: Social protection programs have increased womenâs employment and enhanced womenâs resilience.
CIMMYTâs partnership with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) specifically supports women farmers by improving their access and exposure to modern and improved technological innovations, knowledge and entrepreneurial skills. CSISA works in synergy with regional and national efforts, collaborating with public and private-sector partners.
FAO: interventions must be designed to close gender inequalities and empower women.
While CIMMYT has produced many improved maize varieties, CIMMYT researchers discovered that these new varieties may fall short in meeting the needs of women and the poorest of farmers. We need to explore novel approaches to evaluating farmer demand for seed, considering new questions instead of continuing to look for gender-based differences in preferences.
A first step in that direction is to determine how demand for maize seed differs among farmers according to their needs, priorities, and resource limitations. Gender is a large part of that equation, but the CIMMYT researchers also advocate for other considerations, like how maize fits into household food security and livelihoods, decision-making dynamics around maize production, and seed accessibility.
Internal efforts at CIMMYT
While the FAO report is focused on women in the agri-food system, CIMMYT has also engaged several internal initiatives to ensure a more diverse portfolio of researchers and to cultivate a stronger sense of inclusion at CIMMYT and in the wider scientific community.
At CIMMYT, between 20 and 25 percent of staff in the science career trackâcareers involving field, lab, data, and socioeconomic workâare female. In 2022, Alison Bentley, Director of CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program, and Nele Verhulst, cropping systems agronomist started Women in Crop Science at CIMMYT. The group aims to connect and build a network of women in the science career track and commits to achieving a more inclusive environment at CIMMYT and within the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
CIMMYT is also helping to develop the next generation of women scientists through the annual Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum Awards, which recognizes scientific excellence and leadership potential. To date., over 60 women scientists have received leadership training and professional development opportunities meant to support them as they join the community of scholars who are fighting hunger worldwide.
Cover photo: Women sorting out maize seed at the Mgomâmera Seed Company warehouse in Lilongwe, Malawi. (Photo: CIMMYT/Kipenz Films)
Like other crops, wheat â which makes up 20 percent of the human diet â is affected by threats to the global food system from persistent population growth and economic and climate pressures. These challenges are further exacerbated by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. There is an urgent need to prioritize climate resilient wheat varieties to protect this food staple.
Some five years after HeDWIC was launched in 2014 to incorporate the most advanced research technologies into improving heat and drought tolerance of wheat, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that climate change was having an impact on food security through increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and greater frequency of extreme weather events in its Special Report on Climate Change and Land.
âWhile some areas are becoming more conducive to wheat growing, crop yields are suffering in other regions around the world traditionally known as bread baskets,â said wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds, who leads HeDWIC at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
âWheat is one of our fundamental crops, and we must spare no effort in protecting it from current and future challenges,â said Saharah Moon Chapotin, FFAR executive director. âGlobal collaborations are necessary to address global concerns, and these grants are bringing together international teams to share and build the science and research that will ensure the stability of this crop.â
To boost new ideas in âclimate-proofingâ crops, HeDWIC conducts virtual meetings that include all awarded research teams to take advantage of the collective global expertise in heat and drought resilience, leading to cross-pollination of ideas and further leverage of resources and capabilities.
In March, Reynolds led in-person discussions with some of the collaborating researchers at CIMMYTâs experimental research station on the outskirts of Ciudad Obregon, a city in Mexicoâs Sonoran Desert, during CIMMYTâs annual Visitorsâ Week.
Projects awarded in 2022
Exploring the potential of chlorophyll fluorescence for the early detection of drought and heat stress in wheat (FluoSense4Wheat)
âThe HeDWIC mini proposal allows us to explore the potential of chlorophyll fluorescence for the early detection of drought and heat stress in wheat. The controlled irrigation conditions for wheat grown in Obregon give us the opportunity to quantify photosynthesis by fluorescence while drought develops. Detecting a drought-specific fluorescence response and/or the interaction between active and passive fluorescence is relevant for breeding selecting purposes as well as large spatial scale detection of drought by monitoring the plant.â â Onno Muller, Forschungszentrum JĂŒlich, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Germany
Physiological basis of amelioration of heat stress through nitrogen management in wheat
âHeat stress during grain filling can restrict the availability of carbohydrates needed for grain development. India has been experiencing sudden spikes in both minimum and maximum temperatures by 3 to 5 degrees above normal from late-February onwards, which is an important time for wheat grain-filling and has resulted in declining wheat productivity. Our team is examining the ability of pre-flowering nitrogen applications to support biomass accumulation and overcome the grain-filling source (carbohydrate) limitation during heat spikes. If successful, the results could have broad-reaching benefits given that farmers are familiar with and well-skilled in using nitrogen applications regimes in crop management.â â Renu Pandey, Division of Plant Physiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute
Can reproductive development be protected from heat stress by the trehalose 6-phosphate pathway?
âThe HeDWIC funding provides a unique opportunity to test how the regulatory sugar, trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) can protect wheat yields against increasingly common chronic and acute heat stress events. We have already shown that T6P spray increases wheat yields significantly in field conditions under a range of rainfall in wet and dry years. With increasing likelihood of heat stress events in the years ahead, in unique facilities at CIMMYT, we will test the potential of T6P to protect reproductive development from catastrophic yield loss due to chronic and acute heat.â â Matthew Paul, Rothamsted Research, UK
Investigating tolerance of heat resilient wheat germplasm to drought
âOver the last decade, we have developed heat tolerant wheat germplasm at the University of Sydney that maintains yield under terminal heat stress. In our new HeDWIC project, this material will be tested under combined drought and heat stress under field conditions. This will provide plant breeders with highly valuable information on field tested germplasm for use in accelerated breeding programs targeting combined heat and drought tolerance. The work is critical for future food security considering the inextricable link between temperature and plant water demand, and the increased frequency and intensity of heat and drought events under projected climate change.â â William Salter, University of Sydney, Australia
Novel wheat architecture alleles to optimize biomass under drought
âWheat Rht-1 dwarfing genes were an essential component that led to spectacular increases in grain yields during the Green Revolution. Although Rht1 and Rht2 are still used widely in wheat breeding 50 years after they were introduced, they are suboptimal under drought conditions and are often associated with a yield penalty. Using a more extensive range of Rht-1 dwarfing alleles that were developed at Rothamsted, we will introduce them into CIMMYT germplasm to optimize biomass and ultimately increase grain yields under drought stress.â â Steve Thomas, Rothamsted Research, UK
Additional comments from 2021 awardees
âThis opportunity has enabled the collection of significant amounts of data that will contribute to the advancement of knowledge in crop physiology and root biology. It has also provided early career researchers with opportunities to gain hands-on experience, develop important skills, and grow their networks. Additionally, this initiative has stimulated further ideas and collaborations among researchers, fostering a culture of innovation and cooperation that is essential for progress.â â Hannah Schneider, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
âThe project is a unique opportunity for research groups from around the world to coordinate efforts on identifying ways to improve heat tolerance of wheat.â â Owen Atkin, Australian National University, Australia
âIt is important to understand how high temperature limits crop growth and yield and to identify genetic variation that can be used for breeding climate resilient crops. This project has already begun to develop new methods for rapidly screening growth and physiological processes in genetically diverse panels which we hope will be invaluable to researchers and breeders.â â Erik Murchie, University of Nottingham, UK
âThis project will provide novel phenotyping screens and germplasm to breeders and lay the groundwork for genetic analysis and marker development.â â John Foulkes, University of Nottingham, UK
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis. Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. CIMMYTâs research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.
CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
Agriculture offers major solutions to several global challenges â most notably the tightly interlinked challenges of meeting Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on hunger (SDG2), extreme poverty (SDG1), and climate change (SDG13). CGIAR, in concert with a wide network of partners, has a vital role to play in transforming agri-food and land systems in the face of the climate emergency â ultimately benefiting low-income producers and consumers who are most at risk.
What is Crops to End Hunger?
Crops to End Hunger (CtEH) is a CGIAR initiative to accelerate and modernize the development, delivery and widescale use of a steady stream of new crop varieties. These new varieties are developed to meet the food, nutrition and income needs of producers and consumers, respond to market demand and provide resilience to pests, diseases and new environmental challenges arising from climate change.
CGIARâs plant breeding program has made major contributions to global food security since the mid 1960s, but there is evidence that the rate of adoption of new varieties has slowed. CtEH will support the acceleration of breeding cycles and application of modern breeding methods needed for both productivity gains and climate change adaptation. Farmers need varieties bred in and for the current climate, but are generally using varieties selected 20-30 years ago. In addition, many new varieties are insufficiently improved to induce farmers to adopt them. Prioritization of crops by specific geographies is based on projected benefits to poverty reduction and nutrition, and is an integral dimension of the modernization effort. Using market research, crop breeders gain greater awareness of the traits preferred by men and women farmers, consumers and others along the value chain, integrating them into âproduct profilesâ that guide breeding. Delivery of varieties is done through integrated partnerships and linkages to seed systems in-country, in which national regulatory agencies take responsibility for the release of improved seeds, while public agencies, community organizations and private seed companies undertake multiplication, distribution and promotion to reach farmersâ fields.
In 2017-18, a multi-Funder group, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), agreed to launch a modernization program for public plant breeding in lower-income countries. The CtEH initiative will invigorate breeding for the staple crops most important to smallholder farmers and poor consumers.
How does it work?
CtEH supports focused, science-based, well-resourced and long-term CGIAR Programs and investments in modern plant breeding on priority crops, which build on:
CGIARâs comparative advantages in global public goods research on crop breeding and genetics;
CGIARâs central role and responsibility for the conservation and characterization of the worldâs crop biodiversity, which is held in trust by CGIAR Research Centers for the world community.
This initiative aims to accelerate a transition in CGIAR crop breeding to address very different challenges from those faced in the Green Revolution. Twenty CGIAR crops, including cereals, legumes and root crops, have been chosen for this breeding initiative.
One part of this challenge is for breeding to modernize in terms of its objectives beyond pure yield gain â to address the expanding demand for improved varieties to meet biotic and abiotic stresses, such as climate change and environmental degradation, and to include a wider set of nutritional and market traits, as well as traits relevant to both end-users and value chains, which would increase the adoption rate of newly-bred varieties.
The first step towards modernization of breeding programs is to identify the gaps â the areas that need to be addressed or improved. The Breeding Program Assessment Tool (BPAT) has been developed for this purpose. The deployment of BPAT has been administered by the University of Queensland and has now been used to assess the breeding programs across CGIAR Research Centers. Examples of gaps include cross-CGIAR data management tools, access to low-cost genotyping, and sharing high-quality technical advice across programs and with partners.
What will result?
This process of improvement and modernization of CGIAR breeding programs will provide multiple benefits:
For a given level of investment it is anticipated that each breeding program will achieve increased rates of genetic gain and scale of impact â through adoption of farmer-preferred, market-demanded, climate-resilient varieties.
There will be further opportunity to integrate and support allied CGIAR crop programs, and to apply best practices across CGIAR Research Centers.
A stronger partnership and closer cooperation with national breeding programs, including national research institutes, universities and small and medium-sized enterprises in the private sector in low-income countries, as well as multilateral seed companies and advanced research institutes.
Adopting standardized ways of reporting needs, opportunities and progress will provide Funders with a transparent view of where and how they are getting high rates of return for their investment.
With this new initiative, CGIAR will enhance its contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals towards 2030 through high-priority staple crops tailored for the specific needs of targeted regions and their populations.
Silvia Chinda an organic soya farmer posing in front of her soya crop. (Photo: Tawanda Hove/CIMMYT)
Leading scientists, practitioners and representatives of development agencies, and international and non-governmental organizations reimagine the path to achieve Zero Hunger at a time when recurring crises driven by food insecurity, climate change and conflict stretch both emergency response and development efforts to the limit.
The exercise aims to trigger disruptive thinking around how long-term development investments can help build more resilient communities. Stronger cooperation mechanisms between the humanitarian and development sectors are necessary to break the cycle of recurrent crises by building local agency and capacities. Aid and development beneficiaries in vulnerable communities must be front and center in every effort seeking to achieve a hunger free and sustainable planet.
The brief has been endorsed by a group of experts who participated in the 2022 Borlaug Dialogue of the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa.
How can we overcome the primary obstacles to a food secure, resilient, and inclusive world?
The first challenge involves addressing fractures between aid and development organizations that work in silos without sharing information, objectives, learnings, and resources. The authors make a strong case for increasing cooperation â rather than competition â to confront the intricate and interconnected challenges of climate change, food insecurity and conflict.
In addition, they advocate for more ambitious and community-centered interventions that prioritize systemic change over emergency responses to food crises. The change of perspective implies shifting the emphasis from addressing immediate humanitarian needs to investing in long-term resilience.
The third recommendation is to phase out outdated top-down planning and policy-making processes that fail to align with community needs, delegate decisions or transfer resources directly to partners on the ground. Listening to the needs of beneficiaries and affected communities from the start of any intervention is considered the most significant step to achieve lasting change.
CIMMYT and partners are leading by example and catalyzing change in sub-Saharan Africa
With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), CIMMYT and other CGIAR centers, in partnership with innovation generators and organizations on the ground, will develop and scale up solutions for transforming farming systems by implementing the Accelerated Intervention Delivery Initiative (AID-I) in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, and the Sustainable Agrifood Systems Approach for Sudan (SASAS). Both initiatives answer the need for stronger cooperation between the humanitarian and development sectors by creating a common space where aid and research organizations work together on the ground to address the urgent and long-term needs of vulnerable communities to their mutual advantage.
These CIMMYT-led projects will establish innovation hubs or networks for developing, testing, and adapting sustainable farming practices and technologies to the needs of local farmers actively engaged in participatory research and extension activities, building cooperative relationships, and leveraging the existing collaboration between One CGIAR research systems. As a result, co-creation between partners and project beneficiaries is at the heart of every research activity, co-development process and scaling endeavor.
AID-I will adopt market-based approaches to provide critical information and innovations to 3 million smallholder farmers, who will maintain or increase local food production and mitigate the impacts of the global food, fuel, and fertilizer crises. Small and medium sized enterprises will be supported to strengthen innovative approaches to agricultural value change development, creating agricultural systems that are built for long-term resilience and success.
Similarly, SASAS will take a multi-crop approach focusing on soil fertility management to achieve productivity gains and inclusive agriculture-led economic growth in the Greater Khartoum, Blue Nile and South Kordofan regions of Sudan. CIMMYT will leverage on-the-ground partnerships to adapt and replicate previously successful Integrated Agrifood Systems Initiatives (IASI) projects, empowering communities to ensure the agricultural transformation works for their needs.
Ultimately, both initiatives shift their focus from crisis response to building long-term resilience and aim to achieve rapid but lasting climate-smart impacts that demonstrate the power of small-scale agriculture as a major driver of transformative change by expanding access to improved technologies, tools, and information in sub-Saharan Africa.
About CIMMYT
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis. Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. CIMMYTâs research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.
CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
