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Precision farming down under at the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture

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In late June, while the great majority of the conservation agriculture community converged on Winnipeg, Canada, in the Northern Hemisphere, Dr. Francelino Rodrigues, a CIMMYT post-doctoral fellow in precision agriculture in the Biometric and Statistics Unit of the Genetic Resources Program, and Dr. Jack McHugh, a CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist in the Global Conservation Agriculture Program, ventured into the much colder Southern Hemisphere to take part in the Digital Rural Futures Conference at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.

Although the conference itself held considerable incentive to visit Australia, it was the National Centre for Engineering in Agriculture (NCEA) at USQ that was of greater interest, because of the possibilities for future collaborations in precision farming research and development (R&D). The NCEA was established in 1994 and specializes in engineering research relevant to the agribusiness sector and the natural resource base it utilizes. The center promotes research through extension, training and commercialization. Having worked at NCEA prior to CIMMYT, McHugh thought there were benefits in closer collaboration between CIMMYT and NCEA to take advantage of the precision agriculture R&D being conducted there.

Prior to the conference, Rodrigues and McHugh presented their work from Mexico and China, respectively, to NCEA staff. The discussion highlighted the complementary nature of the two organizations in the areas of precision agriculture, field monitoring, smart technologies and remote sensing. A tour of the NCEA ‘smart farms’ was the highlight of the conference for McHugh, who was able to see that much of his earlier work had been developed into significant applied instrumentation.

Rodrigues commented on the versitile multi-proximal sensor platform developed by McHugh at the NCEA: “The platform [on a motorbike] allows simultaneously on-the-go measurements of apparent soil electro-conductivity and the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), which gives a tremendous advantage compared with stop-and-go measurements. It’s something we started to do with a wood sled in the past year at CIMMYT’s experiment station in Obregón, but the motorbike would definitely create a new opportunity for fast and efficient measurements during crop growth.”

According to the NCEA, the farming system of the future will have robotic sensing systems and decision support tools that interface seamlessly with commercial on-farm operations to optimize resource usage. The NCEA is working on components of this, but much of what the CIMMYT researchers saw could be applied immediately to current farming systems and already includes considerable integration. Some of the systems displayed were controlled remotely by tablets and interfaced on large screen monitors that displayed real-time feedback of sensors, machinery and field activities including the following: smart weed spot sprayers that are able to differentiate crops from weeds based on reflectance and leaf shape; aerial vehicles with multispectral and thermal sensors; and irrigation monitoring for water scheduling.

Smart weed spot sprayer working with reflectance and leaf shapes to differentiate crops from weeds.

Other sensors on display included NDVI sensor platforms, automated cone penetrometers, sensor-equipped bee traps and automated adaptive control of furrow irrigation systems. Of particular note was the augmented reality (AR) for real-time interactivity with on-farm devices and information. AR automatically filters information from online sources based on the user’s current location and viewing perspective, using the camera in a tablet or smartphone. AR markers in the ‘real-world’ (e.g., weather stations, pumps, field sensors, crops and more) can be discovered and online information can be retrieved. The data is merged into the device’s real-world observation, and the user can interact with the content to control and configure machinery. The next step is to build collaboration between both institutes. McHugh and Rodrigues are looking forward to the identification and application of the NCEA technology through future research exchanges and project development.

Australian delegation praises CIMMYT’s global achievements

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By Miriam Shindler/CIMMYT

The Australian delegation stand with CIMMYT representatives in front of the Gene Bank. Front row left to right: Ambassador Tim George, Ms. Robyn McClelland, Sergeant-at-Arms, Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, Hon. Bronwyn Bishop, Mr. Stephen Jones MP, Hon. Philip Ruddock MP and his wife Back row left to right: Ashleigh McArthur, Australian Embassy in Mexico; Senator Deborah O’Neill; Mr. Mark Coulton MP; William Blomfield, Australian Embassy in Mexico; Dr.Marianne Bänziger , CIMMYT Deputy Director General; Mr. Damien Jones, Special Adviser to the Speaker; Dr. Kevin Pixley, Director Genetic Resources Program Director; Dr. Hans Braun, Director Global Wheat Program Director; Ricardo Curiel, MasAgro Communications Specialist. (Photo: Xochiquezatl Fonseca/CIMMYT)
The Australian delegation stand with CIMMYT representatives in front of the Gene Bank.
Front row left to right: Ambassador Tim George, Ms. Robyn McClelland, Sergeant-at-Arms, Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, Hon. Bronwyn Bishop, Mr. Stephen Jones MP, Hon. Philip Ruddock MP and his wife Back row left to right: Ashleigh McArthur, Australian Embassy in Mexico; Senator Deborah O’Neill; Mr. Mark Coulton MP; William Blomfield, Australian Embassy in Mexico; Dr.Marianne Bänziger , CIMMYT Deputy Director General; Mr. Damien Jones, Special Adviser to the Speaker; Dr. Kevin Pixley, Director Genetic Resources Program Director; Dr. Hans Braun, Director Global Wheat Program Director; Ricardo Curiel, MasAgro Communications Specialist. (Photo: Xochiquezatl Fonseca/CIMMYT)

The Honorary Bronwyn Bishop, speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, commended CIMMYT’s impressive achievements during a visit to the El Batán campus on 16 January. Bishop was accompanied by Tim George, the Australian ambassador to Mexico, as well as three other members of the House of Representatives and a member of the Senate.

In an engaging presentation, CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin captivated the delegation by showcasing CIMMYT’s history and extensive agricultural research for development activities. The delegation was also impressed by CIMMYT’s contribution to the Australian agriculture sector; 98 percent of Australian wheat is derived from CIMMYT parental lines. A 4.6 percent yield increase due to CIMMYT germplasm translates into additional annual income of up to AUD$ 250 million (US$ 219.8 million) for Australian wheat farmers.

The fruitful visit was an opportunity to strengthen the partnership between CIMMYT and Australia and to form future collaborative projects that will help both farmers in the developing world and in Australia. Australia is one of CIMMYT’s strongest partners and collaborators. Institutions such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) are working with CIMMYT to improve maize and wheat varieties for farmers in Australia and the developing world.

Programming language helps crop data analysis

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By Luis Narro/CIMMYT

The computer programming language “R” can help crop researchers with data analysis and interpretation, students learned during a course on the tool this month. Held at the National University of Cajamarca in Peru from 11 to 15 November, the course promoted the use of “R” in crop improvement. 

Data analysis is crucial for comparing the performance of maize hybrids and evaluating experiments. Free of charge and useful for analyzing diverse types of data, the “R” program has been around for about a decade but is relatively new and unknown in South America. It was developed by two statisticians in New Zealand. CIMMYT and the university’s College of Engineers organized the event, which drew some 70 participants from experiment stations from Peru’s National Institute for Technological Innovation (INIA), universities and governmental organizations with research programs. Teachers included Ramón Giraldo Henao from the National University of Colombia, Felipe de Mendiburu from the La Molina National Agrarian University in Lima, Carlos Urrea Florez from Nebraska State University and Luis Narro León from CIMMYT.

R-Peru2-DNA

Mendiburu, who developed the application Agricolae for R, taught the participants how to use the program. The application is specifically designed for the planning and analysis of agricultural and plant breeding experiments. Giraldo presented on the various uses of “R,” including its applications in statistics, types of variables and measurement scales, measures of location and shape variability, probability, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, regression, analysis of variance and contingency tables. Urrea described bean breeding with emphasis on the use of molecular markers to improve disease tolerance. Participants then used salt, detergent and alcohol to extract DNA from strawberries.

Luis Narro León explained maize breeding programs using conventional and unconventional methods. “The strategy of maize breeding program should be aimed at the production of hybrids as the ultimate goal,” Narro said. Carlos Tirado Soto from the National University of Cajamarca opened and closed the course, thanking CIMMYT and its collaborators offering the continued financial and logistical support of the university for similar events in the future. CIMMYT thanks Luis Alcantara, Héctor Cabrera, Alicia Medina, Miguel Angel Pots, Jorge Piedra and Víctor Sánche, from the College of Engineers, for their logistical support. Representing course participants, Vladimir Jara thanked the organizers for the opportunity and said he hoped that training would continue for researchers and teachers in Peru.

Australian ambassador visits program in Ethiopia

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By Dagne Wegary/CIMMYT

The Australian Ambassador to Ethiopia paid her first visit to a CIMMYT program this month and commended efforts to improve livelihoods in resource-poor rural households.

On her 7 November visit, Ambassador Lisa Filipetto learned about activities under the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program, which have been implemented in different parts of Ethiopia since 2010. She visited SIMLESA sites in northwest Ethiopia, where work is conducted by the Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI). Maize-based farming in the region is characterized by unsustainable production systems, including monocropping, repeated tillage and residue removal. SIMLESA promotes new crop varieties and production practices such as intercropping, maize-legume rotations, reduced tillage and year-round residue coverage. Farmers who have traditionally monocropped maize appreciate the new practices, which help them increase harvests while replenishing soil fertility.

Australian-Ambassador-to-Ethiopia-briefed-on-the-peformances-of-SIMLESA-activties

Filipetto was accompanied by scientists from CIMMYT-Ethiopia and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), SIMLESA partners. Dr. Biru Yitaferu, director general of ARARI, and Likawent Yeheyis, director of livestock research for ARARI, welcomed the visiting team. Yitaferu highlighted ARARI’s managerial structure, mandates, missions and resource capacities while Yiheyis presented an overview of SIMLESA work in the region.

Presentations showcased the program’s extensive research and development activities including conservation agriculture-based exploratory trials; farmer participatory variety selection (PVS) for maize, grain legumes and forage and fodder varieties; and technology implementation in South Achefer and Jabitenan districts, which is aided by ARARI researchers and district agricultural offices.
Ambassador-Lisa-Filipetto-and-SIMLESA

Filipetto visited a SIMLESA site hub in South Achefer and saw activities of the Abchikli Farmers’ Training Center on conservation agriculture-based intercropping, as well as PVS trials with hybrid and open-pollinated maize and varieties of sweet lupine – a multi-purpose legume crop traditional in Ethiopia. Four of the sweet lupine varieties in the trials are under the final stage of evaluation for future commercial release. Yeheyis said Amhara’s agriculture bureau will include conservation agriculture, maize-legume intercropping and maize-fodder/forage relay cropping in its regular extension program. This will contribute significantly to adoption of the technologies by a wider range of farming communities in the region, according to Yeheyis.

At the end of her visit, Filipetto expressed great interest in partnering with CIMMYT to improve livelihoods in the region. SIMLESA in Ethiopia is funded by Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID).

Allen McHugh reports on conservation agriculture in China

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caunews_-China3The past few weeks have been busy and interesting in China: preparing for the International Conservation Agriculture Forum in Yinchuan and work travels to Beijing, Yangling (Shaanxi province), and Xuchang (Henan province) are a sure way to keep oneself occupied.

Strengthening partnerships in Beijing

I travelled to Beijing during 2-4 May to discuss future cooperation between the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) and the China Agricultural University (CAU) at a meeting with Jan Thomas, USQ vice-chancellor, and K.E. Bingsheng, CAU president, accompanied by the USQ delegation and CAU senior professors. What does this have to do with CIMMYT? Part of my mandate in China is to forge new partnerships, especially with universities seeking to expand internationally. This requires putting on the CIMMYT uniform to demonstrate presence and reinforce linkages with old and new colleagues. As a result, we hope to see a memorandum of understanding and the facilitation of staff and student exchanges between these universities, Ningxia institutions, and CIMMYT.

Water-use efficiency in Yangling

The Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling hosted the final review of the ACIAR “More effective water use by rainfed wheat in China and Australia” project led by Tony Condon (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO), in which the Ningxia Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences is a partner (led by Yuan Hanmin). The project aims to improve and stabilize farmer returns from growing wheat in dry, rainfed environments in northwest China through development of higher-yielding wheat germplasm that uses water and soil resources more effectively. I spent 6-10 May first hearing about and seeing the extensive breeding work with Australian and Chinese lines, and later discussing the role of conservation agriculture and soil management in breeding with the reviewers and other participants, including Greg Rebetzke from CSIRO. During a Combined China-EU-Australia Workshop on Phenotyping for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Water-Use Efficiency in Crop Breeding, which followed the review, Richard Richards (CSIRO) presented a very pertinent paper on “Opportunities to improve cereal root systems for greater productivity.” His focus on below-ground processes provides considerable and significant support for conservation agriculture and associated management practices in improving root system functions.

Farm mechanization in Xuchang

The 30th anniversary of the Henan Haofeng Machinery Manufacturing Company in Xuchang, Henan province, provided an excellent opportunity to present conservation agriculture and small machinery requirements for developing countries to 4 academicians, about 10 high level officials from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Agriculture, Henan Provincial Government, and many highly regarded Chinese mechanization scientists and extension workers.

During 16-18 May, the factory hosted two forums, one focused on combination of wheat agricultural machinery and agronomy, and another on scientific innovation and development of Chinese agricultural machinery. Although the language of the forums was Chinese, my presentation in English was understood by the senior people, some of whom later inquired about the new Chinese Turbo Happy Seeder developed by CIMMYT. The discussion on conservation agriculture per se was limited, but I was able to meet many old Chinese friends and strengthen new relationships for CIMMYT and the Global Conservation Agriculture Program.

Australia’s Grains Research & Development Corporation praises CIMMYT

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In a recent interview on Ground Cover TV, John Harvey, Managing Director of Australia’s Grains Research & Development Corporation (GRDC), described CIMMYT’s high value to the global wheat research community, calling it among other things “…a Mecca for wheat researchers.”

An Australian statutory corporation founded in 1990, GRDC is one of the world’s leading grains research organisations, responsible for planning, investing and overseeing research and development, delivering improvements in production, sustainability and profitability across Australia’s grains industry. As of 1994, GRDC has supported CIMMYT with a focus on targeting, importing, and evaluating CIMMYT wheat germplasm for use in Australia. More than 90% of the wheat grown in Australia is descended from varieties contained in CIMMYT’s genebank, yielding a net benefit to Australian farmers of nearly A$ 150 million per year. By the same token Australia, which has been renowned for wheat breeding for more than a century, has contributed high-quality germplasm and crucial technical expertise to CIMMYT in numerous areas of our work. The last minute of the video is devoted to CIMMYT .

SIMLESA: Celebrating two years of achievements, defining the future

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During 19-23 March 2012, over 200 researchers, policy makers, donors, seed specialists, and NGO representatives from Africa and Australia gathered in Arusha, Tanzania, for the second SIMLESA (Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa) Annual Regional Planning and Review Meeting. Representation from the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), which generously supports the work, included nine members of the organization’s Commission for International Agricultural Research.

Participants shared lessons from the last two years and discussed better ways to design and implement future activities. Ten sessions addressed issues including project implementation, Australian-African partnerships, program and partner progress and lessons, and communications and knowledge management.

SIMLESA

A key message was that SIMLESA had consolidated and strengthened activities across all objectives, maximizing gains from integration, innovation, information, and technology diffusion for greater impacts on livelihoods and agroecosystems. It was noted that the use of integrated systems can foster productive intensification of agriculture and, indeed, the Innovation Platform Framework, supported by science and partnerships, can contribute to productive, sustainable and resilient maize-legume systems. For even greater impact, the program should rely on stronger leadership from agribusiness, while supporting the public sector’s role, and ensure a farm-income focus to reduce poverty.

Another key message was to strengthen Australian-African partnerships through better delivery of research products, capacity building under any of ACIAR’s four thematic areas, bridging research and extension, strengthening policy and socioeconomic research, and building individual and institutional capacity.

SIMLESA25Speaking at the SIMLESA’s second “birthday party,” Joana Hewitt, chairperson of the ACIAR Commission for International Agricultural Research, reiterated the Australian government’s commitment to long-term partnerships with African governments. Participants also heard of the new SIMLESA Program in Zimbabwe, focusing on crop-livestock interactions. During the dinner, Kenya and Mozambique were recognized for their efforts in promoting and strengthening local innovation platforms.

In addition to SIMLESA’s program steering committee and the mid-term review team, the event drew representatives from USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program, from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa. SIMLESA is centered in five countries— Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique—with spillovers benefiting Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia. Representatives from all those countries interacted at the meeting.

A SIMLESA “village” and poster presentations allowed partner representatives and researchers to showcase achievements, and visits to Karatu and Mbulu—Tanzanian sites where SIMLESA is present— demonstrated how the project is transforming agriculture.

9th workshop on QTL Mapping and Breeding Simulation well received at University of Sydney

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A three-day workshop on QTL Mapping and Breeding Simulation was held during 7–9 March 2012, at the Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Sydney, Cobbitty, Australia. It was attended by 35 participants, included plant geneticists, breeders, and graduate students from across Australia. The workshop was the ninth in a series organized by CIMMYT’s Jiankang Wang with the help of the CIMMYT Biometric and Statistics Unit and his team in China. Previous workshops were held in China, Mexico, and at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

taller-QTL-EQ

The workshop format included lectures, practice exercises and discussions. The themes covered included: an introduction to plant breeding and quantitative genetics; linkage analysis and genetic map construction; QTL mapping methods; and principles of breeding simulation. The practice exercises provided for comments and suggestions on using the QTL IciMapping software and QU-GENE simulation tools, and allowed for closer interaction between the trainers and participants.

Primary lecturers at the workshop included Richard Trethowan (University of Sydney), Jiankang Wang (CIMMYT-China and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences), and Luyan Zhang (Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and CIMMYT consultant). Richard worked at CIMMYT from 1996 to 2006 as head of wheat breeding for rainfed environments, and continues to be a valued collaborator and member of the CIMMYT family. Jiankang is a quantitative geneticist based in Beijing, and Luyan is currently working with him on QTL mapping methodology.

CIMMYT features in GRDC’s Ground Cover magazine

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The November-December 2011 issue of the Grains Research and Development Corporation’s (GRDC) magazine, Ground Cover, stressed the importance of continued funding of wheat research, and highlighted the role of Australian institutions such as the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in advancing CIMMYT’s research.

In 2010, the GRDC and ACIAR contributed over 10 percent of CIMMYT’s annual budget, and CIMMYT’s Director General, Thomas Lumpkin, expressed his gratitude for their sustained support; a reflection of their many shared values in wheat breeding and development, he said. This investment has a significant return: over 90 percent of the wheat currently grown in Australia has ancestry originating from CIMMYT’s genebank.

To read the full story click here.

Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister praises SIMLESA achievements in Africa

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“Agricultural research will remain pivotal to lifting agricultural productivity in the next 50 years as it has over the past 50 years.”

This was one of the key messages of Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd in a plenary address closing the 5th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture, held in Brisbane, Australia during 26-29 September 2011. Rudd spoke in depth on the importance of agricultural research in ensuring global food security, recognizing the contributions of CIMMYT and other Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers. “Food security requires that governments, global organizations, policymakers, scientists and farmers work in partnership to develop the best possible strategies to rise to this great global challenge of our time.”

The minister singled out the impressive achievements of the initiative on Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) since its launch in early 2010. “This particular project is helping to develop drought and disease-tolerant maize and legume varieties and to educate farmers about new farming technologies in conservation agriculture in five African countries. In the first eighteen months of the program, we’ve helped train more than 150 agricultural researchers from Malawi, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania and trialed conservation agriculture in 215 fields owned by local farmers. It’s on track to reaching its target of increasing crop productivity of maize and legumes by 30% on around half a million African small farms within 10 years.”

DSC02242SIMLESA is funded by the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and led by CIMMYT. It is being implemented in collaboration with the national agricultural research systems of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania; the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT); and Australian partners including the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (QDEEDI), Murdoc University, and the University of Queensland. These partnerships with Australian universities, as well as with universities in Africa, have been key to building capacity through short-term training and postgraduate fellowships for researchers. Adopting the Innovation Platform framework, further co-operation with a range of private and public sector organizations, NGOs, and famers’ organizations in Africa has meant the project has been able to quickly and effectively reach farmers on the ground with outputs such as varieties and technologies.

Rudd emphasized the value of investing in partnerships like these, particularly with respect to the growing field of conservation agriculture, the theme of the congress. “Conservation agriculture is one of the newest success stories in this quest to impart Australian knowledge to help feed the world,” he said. He reminded his listeners that Australia is both a world leader in agricultural research and a major international donor, mentioning the country’s role as a core supporter of the CGIAR.

Affirming Australia’s commitment to agricultural research and ending his address, he said “we need a new Agricultural Revolution of the 21st century if we are to feed a further 3 billion members of the human family. As a responsible global citizen, Australia stands ready to play our part.”

Complementing Rudd’s address at the congress, Mulugetta Mekuria, CIMMYT socio-economist and SIMLESA program coordinator, was interviewed by Australian media, including the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and several radio stations, on SIMLESA’s potential role in contributing to enhanced food security in eastern and southern Africa. He acknowledged the role of partners in national agricultural research systems who are helping to implement activities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania; Australian institutions, regional and international partners for their technical backstopping; the support of the Australian government and ACIAR; and CIMMYT’s leadership of the program. “SIMLESA was designed to have impacts at both the household and regional level”, says Mekuria. “We want to increase food security and incomes while driving economic development through improved productivity from more resilient and sustainable farming systems. Project activities focus on integrated cropping systems, the use of innovation platforms to test and promote promising practices, and ensuring positive and measurable impacts.”

Key Australian farmers visit CIMMYT

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From 19-22 August 2011, CIMMYT hosted six leading Australian grain farmers at Toluca and El Batán. The visit formed part of a tour of farms, private and public research institutes and grain processing facilities in Singapore, UK, France, Canada, USA, and Mexico, which was supported by Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).

At Toluca Research Station the group learned about CIMMYT’s wheat breeding efforts from Wheat Breeder Ravi Singh. Of particular interest were the developments concerning stem rust race Ug99, which has reached South Africa, and risks spreading from there to western Australia, if previous disease trends occur. Stripe rust resistance, increased yield potential, and tolerance to drought and heat were also discussed; GRDC invests in this research in view of CIMMYT’s past and current contributions to higher and more stable wheat yields in Australia.

CIMMYT’s efforts to increase diversity and improve disease resistance and productivity through wide crosses with ancestors, using re-synthesized breadwheats and translocations from more distant relatives of wheat were also outlined by Wheat Geneticist David Bonnett. Station Manager, Fernando Delgado, also presented work on CIMMYT’s long-term agronomy trials, including the technique of staggering the planting of maize using offset precision planting discs, in which maize plants in neighboring rows are not planted directly next to each other. This leads to reduced competition between neighbors, and potential yield increases in hybrids of up to 10%, with no additional inputs. The farmers said they are keen to try these ideas on their farms, which are spread across very different production environments, and range from an irrigated 800ha to 5000ha rainfed.

On Monday the group visited El Batán for further talks by Marianne Bänziger (Deputy Director General, Research & Partnership), Etienne Duveiller (Associate Director, GWP), and Peter Wenzl (Project Lead, SeeD). They also visited the Genebank and saw more GRDC-funded rust resistance research in the field, presented by Sybil Herrera-Foessel (Wheat Geneticist/ Pathologist). Finally, Nele Verhulst further explained the long-term agronomy trials.

The visit also included an informal meeting with the Australian Ambassador to Mexico. The Ambassador expressed interest in the links between CIMMYT and Australia, and the global role of CIMMYT in improving the productivity and sustainability of wheat- and maize-based cropping systems. This view was reiterated by the farmers, who were impressed with the value Australia receives from the GRDC’s investment in CIMMYT. The farmers were also accompanied by GRDC’s Communications Manager, and Gregor Heard of Australia’s Rural Press. The farmers themselves will also write a blog post about the visit, which can be found here.

Deadly wheat disease hits primetime Australian TV

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CIMMYT-led international efforts to identify and deploy sources of resistance to the virulent Ug99 strain of stem rust have received coverage on ABC1, the primary television channel of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Stem rust spores, carried large distances by the wind, are no respecters of borders. The battle against the disease is one which requires global collaboration—and is attracting global media interest. “Wheat is our most important crop and [stem rust] is arguably the most damaging of all the pathogens of wheat, it destroys crops,” explained Professor Robert Park of the University of Sydney’s Plant Breeding Institute in an episode of Catalyst, ABC’s flagship science series, aired on 04 August 2011.

Ug99 is able to overcome the resistance of popular wheat varieties, making this new stem rust a major threat to world food security. In East Africa, where Ug99 first emerged, it has devastated smallholder wheat crops. ABC’s reporter Paul Willis visited the Njoro research station in Kenya, where the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) hosts a large-scale program now screening around 30,000 wheat lines from all over the world each year—including those brought from Australia by Park.

“What we’ve got here is materials that we receive from several developing countries. As you can see there’s Australia, there’s China, Nepal, Bangladesh. So everyone wants to test their material and see if it is actually resistant to Ug99,” said CIMMYT molecular breeder Sridhar Bhavani, pointing out plots of wheat in the field at Njoro.

Working together, scientists have made substantial process in understanding Ug99 resistance and developing new wheats. “So far we’ve characterised close to about fifty genes for stem rust resistance,” said Bhavani. Producing suitable varieties and getting them to farmers is an ongoing challenge, but Willis strikes an optimistic note: “This looks like the hope for the future. It’s a strain of wheat called “King Bird” that was developed by CIMMYT and is now deployed all around the world. And it looks like it’s got very high levels of resistance against Ug99.”

The complete video clip, with transcript, is available here.

CIMMYT-China runs third training course on

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Nearly 70 participants attended a four-day training course on quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping and breeding simulation at Sichuan Agricultural University (Ya’an, Sichuan), 11-14 May 2009. This is the third QTL training course CIMMYT-China has organized.

A rapid increase in the availability of fine-scale genetic marker maps has led to intensive use of QTL mapping in the study of quantitative traits. QTL are identifiable areas of DNA that are closely linked to genes of such traits. QTL are associated with continuous traits that are caused by multiple genes as well as the environment, and tend to be hard to locate. The QTL mapping course aimed to help scientists better identify and classify QTL—specifically for drought tolerance and yield-related traits—through new software and technology developed by the Crop Research Informatics Laboratory (CRIL) team at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) QuLine, developed by CIMMYT and shared by CIMMYT and University of Queensland, Australia, is a genetics and breeding simulation tool. It integrates various genes with multiple alleles that operate within epistatic networks and interact differentially with the environment. QuLine also predicts the outcomes from a specific cross following the application of a real selection scheme.

CIMMYT’s Wheat Breeding Program has used QuLine to compare selection strategies, to study the effects on selection of dominance and epistasis, to predict cross performance using known gene information, and to investigate the efficient use of marker-assisted selection in pyramiding multiple genes in wheat breeding. The QuLine tool can bridge vast amounts of biological data and breeders’ needs for heightened selection efficiency and gain, using all available tools and information.

The course was sponsored by the Generation Challenge Program (GCP), the National 973 Program of China, and the Natural Science Foundation of China.

Tony Fischer wins 2007 Farrer Memorial Medal

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Former CIMMYT Wheat Program director, Tony Fischer, has won the 2007 Farrer Memorial Medal, an annual award established in 1911 to perpetuate the memory of famous Australian wheat rust researcher William Farrer and to encourage and inspire agricultural scientists.

In announcing the award, Farrer Memorial Trust Chairman Barry Buffier described Tony as the preeminent Australian crop physiologist of his generation. Tony’s main interest throughout his carrier has been wheat yield under both dry and well-watered conditions, with the goal of applying physiological knowledge to wheat improvement through breeding and agronomy. He has published more than 120 scientific publications, including several papers drawing on data from his own property in southern NSW where he kept crop, soil and climatic records for more than 40 years.

Tony received his medal in August at a ceremony in Canberra held to coincide with the Crawford fund 2007 Conference. He then delivered the 2007 Farrer Memorial Oration.

Wheat phenome atlas meetings at CIMMYT

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Wheat scientists met at CIMMYT El Batán to discuss the wheat phenome pilot project on 12 and 13 November 2007. CIMMYT and the University of Queensland have been working together to develop a “wheat phenome atlas” (WPA) since 2006.

“The WPA will be a freely-available online tool for wheat scientists. It will describe which parts of the genome influence the inheritance of all economically-important traits,” says Ian Godwin, molecular geneticist from the University of Queensland. Breeders will be able to go online for detailed information on a small piece of DNA sequence that affects resistance to leaf rust, for example. “This technology could also be applied to other crops such as maize and rice,” adds Godwin. Information for the WPA is obtained through advanced statistical analyses of decades of yield trials and recent data from molecular markers. CIMMYT has 40 years of data from field experiments, and has stored the seeds from these trials in the germplasm bank. Scientists can thus link data from yield trials with genetic analysis of seeds from the trials.

“The WPA will be accessible to anyone in the international wheat community, making the process of developing cultivars faster, cheaper, and more efficient,” says Hans-Joachim Braun, Head of the Global Wheat Program. A basic version of the WPA should be up and running by late 2008, says Godwin.

Left to right: Ian Godwin, Ian de Lacy, Christopher Lambrides (back), and Kaye Basford (all from the Universify of Queensland, Australia).