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Responding to fall armyworm in Lao PDR

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

 

Highland maize production systems in Southeast Asia are crucial in that they generate considerable income for otherwise impoverished farmers in remote upland areas. However, they are largely unsustainable, involving destructive slash and burn agriculture, with increasingly short fallow times between crops. Additionally, and in response to historically favorable maize markets, many farmers now plan to expand maize cultivation areas, which is anticipated to have serious consequences for biodiversity loss and ecosystem services.

The arrival of fall armyworm adds additional pressures that could lead to intensification of management practices and over-use of insecticides; a partial transition away from maize as farmers respond to the pest by growing other crops and initiating new land use practices; and increased use of sustainable intensification practices that employ agroecological options for fall armyworm management.

Responding to fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda J.E. Smith) with data, evidence and agroecological management options in Lao PDR is a research project funded through the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE). It sees CIMMYT partner with the Laos Farmer Network (LFN) and the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI) to understand how smallholders in the country are responding to fall armyworm invasion and develop agroecological management options to control its spread.

Working with CIMMYT, LFN will train lead farmers to conduct surveys and collect data from farmers in their local areas. The network will also distribute a series of infographics and videos in local languages, developed by CIMMYT and translated with major support from HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation and the Lao Farmer Rural Advisory Project, to outline appropriate pesticide use and sustainable farming practices to limit impact on harvests. An estimated 2,000 farmers will receive information on research results and fall armyworm management advice.

The results will offer evidence-based insights allowing LFN and the Lao Upland Rural Advisory Service (LURAS) project to plan future extension and development activities more effectively, while also identifying crucial additional research needs given these urgent issues and circumstances.

This research will yield actionable lessons and position LFN and the LURAS project to provide farmers with context-specific and agroecological fall armyworm management advice that responds to insights derived from farmer surveys that characterize pest incidence and severity, and relates them to farmersā€™ management practices, farm- and landscape-biodiversity, and location.

Preventing Seed Transmission of Maize Lethal Necrosis in Africa

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The outbreak of maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in east Africa in 2011 (first reported in Kenyaā€™s South Rift Valley) was a major concern, given that maize is the regionā€™s most important staple crop. This disease is caused by co-infection of plants with two viruses ā€“ maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV) ā€“ and can cause yield losses of up to 90%. It spread rapidly across east Africa, compromising food and economic security for several million smallholder farmers.

MLN is a complex challenge that must be addressed through a multipronged approach. While significant advances have been made through intensive efforts by CIMMYT and other partners in terms of identifying and developing MLN tolerant or resistant hybrids, the rapid spread of the epidemic over the last few years remains a concern for farming communities, policy makers, national plant protection organization and the commercial seed sector, as well as the international scientific community.

There is also increasing suspicion that commercial seed flows may have been the initial source of the dissemination of the MLN-causing viruses over large distances, and it is thought that transmission of MCMV through contaminated maize seed continues to be a major risk factor in the spread of MLN across east Africa and beyond. However, there is a lack of reliable information on various aspects of MLN epidemiology, including the rate of MCMV transmission through seed.

The project on ā€˜Preventing Seed Transmission of Maize Lethal Necrosis in Africaā€™ aims to generate a better understanding of these epidemiological issues to allow for more effective control of MCMV transmission through commercial seed, support the development of effective, evidence-based phytosanitary regulations, reduce MLN disease pressure in eastern Africa, and curb the spread to non-endemic countries in other parts of the continent.

Objectives

  • DevelopĀ appropriateĀ protocols for assessing MLN transmission through seed
  • Develop reliable and cost-effective diagnostic protocols for curbing the spread of MCMV/MLN through seed implemented by NPPOs and commercial seed companies.
  • DetermineĀ the rates of transmission forĀ the East African and US (Hawaiian)Ā isolates of MCMV in tropical, subtropical and temperateĀ maize germplasm
  • Understand the mode of MCMV transmission through commercial seed within endemic areas to allow more effective control
  • DetermineĀ the distribution of MCMV in maize seed, and the effects of seed treatments on virus transmission
  • AnalyzeĀ whether virusĀ and/or host factors controlĀ seed transmissionĀ of MCMV
  • Identify economical treatment methods to reduce or prevent MCMV transmission through seed for commercial seedĀ industry and casual seed trade
  • Generate detailed understanding of the role of root debris on persistence of MCMV in the soil, the persistence of the virus in different soil types, and the durationĀ of virus viability in the soil
  • DisseminateĀ science-based knowledge and evidence generated through this project to National Plant Protection Organizations (NPPOs) and Ministries of Agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa

Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC)

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) program is managed by the UK Met Office, supported by the World Bank and the UKā€™s Department for International Development (DFID). The four-year program, which started in 2018, aims to strengthen weather forecasting systems across Asia. The program will deliver new technologies and innovative approaches to help vulnerable communities use weather warnings and forecasts to better prepare for climate-related shocks.

Since 2019, as part of ARRCC, CIMMYT has been working with the Met Office and Cambridge University to pilot an early warning system to deliver wheat rust and blast disease predictions directly to farmersā€™ phones in Bangladesh and Nepal.

The system was first developed in Ethiopia. It uses weather information from the Met Office, the UKā€™s national meteorological service, along with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge, to construct and deploy a near real-time early warning system.

Phase I: 12-Month Pilot Phase

Around 50,000 smallholder farmers are expected to receive improved disease warnings and appropriate management advisories in the first 12 months as part of a proof-of-concept modeling and pilot advisory extension phase focused on three critical diseases:

  • Wheat stripe rust in Nepal: extend and test the modelling framework developed in Ethiopia to smallholder farmers in Nepal as proof-of concept;
  • Wheat stem rust in Bangladesh and Nepal: while stem rust is currently not widely established in South Asia, models indicate that devastating incursion from neighboring regions is likely. This work will prepare for potential incursions of new rust strains in both countries;
  • Wheat blast in Bangladesh: this disease is now established in Bangladesh. This work will establish the feasibility of adapting the dispersal modelling framework to improve wheat blast predictability and deploy timely preventative management advisories to farmers.

Phase II: Scaling-out wheat rust early warning advisories, introducing wheat blast forecasting and refinement model refinement

Subject to funding approval the second year of the project will lead to validation of the wheat rust early warnings, in which researchers compare predictions with on-the-ground survey results, increasingly supplemented with farmer response on the usefulness of the warnings facilitated by national research and extension partners. Researchers shall continue to introduce and scale-out improved early warning systems for wheat blast. Concomitantly, increasing the reach of the advice to progressively larger numbers of farmers while refining the models in the light of results. We anticipate that with sufficient funding, Phase II activities could reach up to 300,000 more farmers in Nepal and Bangladesh.

Phase III: Demonstrating that climate services can increase farmersā€™ resilience to crop diseases

As experience is gained and more data is accumulated from validation and scaling-out, researchers will refine and improve the precision of model predictions. They will also place emphasis on efforts to train partners and operationalize efficient communication and advisory dissemination channels using information communication technologies (ICTs) for extension agents and smallholders. Experience from Ethiopia indicates that these activities are essential in achieving ongoing sustainability of early warning systems at scale. Where sufficient investment can be garnered to support the third phase of activities, it is expected that an additional 350,000 farmers will receive disease management warnings and advisories in Nepal and Bangladesh, totaling 1 million farmers over a three-year period.

Objectives

  • Review the feasibility of building resilience to wheat rust through meteorologically informed early warning systems.
  • Adapt and implement epidemiological forecasting protocols for wheat blast in South Asia.
  • Implement processes to institutionalize disease early warning systems in Nepal and Bangladesh.
Unlike white maize varieties, vitamin A maize is rich in beta-carotene, giving it a distinctive orange color. This biofortified variety provides consumers with up to 40% of their daily vitamin A needs. (Photo: HarvestPlus/Joslin Isaacson)

Biofortified Maize for Improved Human Nutrition

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Biofortified Maize for Improved Human Nutrition project conducts field research both at CIMMYT and with partners on breeding for increased pro-vitamin A and Zinc content in both Africa and Latin America. The project grant is renewed annually and has been in operation since 2004.

Key activities include supporting early and mid-late product development, evaluation and release in Mexico and target countries in southern Africa, food science and retention studies. Molecular breeding and biochemical analysis are key components for successful breeding, and the project also involves technical backstopping for partners in both regions.

Objectives

  • Conduct field research on breeding for increased pro-vitamin A for target countries in Africa
  • Conduct field research on breeding for increased Zinc for product evaluation and release
  • Conduct essential research to deploy analytical tools and marker assisted selection or genomic selection methods in micronutrient breeding work
  • Facilitate the dissemination, promotion and consumption of biofortified crops

TELA Maize Project

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The name TELA is derived from the Latin word tutela, which means “protection.” The TELA Maize Project is a public-private partnership led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) working towards the commercialization of transgenic drought-tolerant and insect-protected (TELAĀ®) maize varieties to enhance food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Launched in 2018, the TELA Maize Project builds on progress made from a decade of breeding work under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project.

Africa is a drought-prone continent, making farming risky for millions of smallholders who rely on rainfall to water their crops. Climate change will only worsen the problem. Identifying ways to mitigate drought risk, stabilize yields, and encourage small-scale farmers to adopt best management practices is fundamental to realizing food security and improved livelihoods for the continent. Drought is just one of the many challenges facing sub-Saharan African farmers. Insects pose additional challenges as farmers in the developing world have little or no resources to effectively manage them. Insect protection complements and protects yield made possible through research and development.

Through TELA, AATF and its partners are pursuing the regulatory approval and dissemination of new biotech/genetically-modified maize seeds containing either an insect-resistant trait or the stacked insect-resistant and drought-tolerant traits across seven target countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda). The transgenic technology, including gene constructs, transformation and other recombinant DNA technologies, and other proprietary information and materials regarding the transgenes, owned by Bayer CropScience LP (formerly Monsanto Company), is licensed royalty-free to the partners for use in the project.

To the extent where their germplasm is transformed/incorporated into finished lines, Bayer and CIMMYT further grant AATF the license to commercially release the transgenic maize varieties within the partner countries, provided that no royalty fee shall be charged by AATF/its sublicensees, and subject to compliance with all regulatory, biosafety and stewardship requirements. CIMMYTā€™s non-transgenic parental lines which may be used for introgression in this project have been shared under the terms of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) of the Plant Treaty, and remain available to other third parties outside the project in the same way. The partner countries are in different stages of the approval process to test and commercialize TELAĀ® hybrids, which will determine when farmers can access the improved TELA seeds.

Seed companies can receive license rights to produce and commercialize the new TELAĀ® hybrids under their private brand from AATF in due course. Licensed seed companies will access the technology royalty-free for them to produce and sell the seeds to farmers at prevailing market prices. Better yield performance, combined with improved seed quality, will deliver more value to farmers and create more demand and potential for the seed brand.

Smallholder farmers benefit from TELA maize, as it provides better drought tolerance, protection against stem borers, and partial but significant protection against fall armyworm. As a result, smallholders will spend less money on insecticides and reduce their exposure to these chemicals, besides benefiting from improved yields and better grain quality.

Farmers at the field school in Msambafumu, Malawi, begin preparing the soil for their next set of experiments. (Photo: Emma Orchardson/CIMMYT)

KULIMA Promoting Farming in Malawi

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

KULIMA stands for ā€˜Kutukula Ulimi mā€™Malawiā€™, which means ā€˜promoting farming in Malawiā€™ in the countryā€™s main local language, Chichewa. KULIMA aims to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and diversification of smallholder farmers based on market demand, while increasing income generation by farm enterprises and creating jobs through developing local value addition of raw agricultural products. It also seeks to stimulate better information supply on agricultural policy, investments and their outcomes to both government actors and the general public.

Within KULIMA Action, CGIAR Centers are working to make their expertise and technologies more easily available to more people. In coordination with GIZ and FAO, they provide guidance on the suitability of technologies and inputs in different agroecological zones in Malawi, successful agricultural practices, and the application of relevant innovations and technologies to address the issues affecting agricultural production systems in a holistic manner.

CIMMYTā€™s role within the project is to contribute towards increasing agricultural productivity and diversification through upscaling climate-smart agriculture technologies. To achieve this, CIMMYT supports production and utilization of drought tolerant and nutritious maize along with sustainable intensification practices that protect the soil and enhance soil fertility, commonly referred to as conservation agriculture. The focus is on creating demand for these technologies among smallholders by increasing awareness through farmer training, extension messaging and demonstrating the yield benefits of using drought tolerant versus unimproved non-drought tolerant varieties, and sustainable intensification practices versus conventional ones. CIMMYT is working in collaboration with NGOs and community-based organizations to train lead farmers and extension agents to reach out to smallholder farmers.

The project is financed under the 11th European Development Fund and is being implemented in ten districts of Chitipa, Chiradzulu, Karonga, Kasungu, Mzimba, Mulanje, Nkhata Bay, Nkhotakota, Salima and Thyolo.

Objectives

  • Increase agricultural productivity and diversify production in a participatory, sustainable and climate-change resilient manner
  • Establish agricultural value chains and create related income and employment opportunities
  • Strengthen agricultural sector governance

Training, surveillance, and monitoring to mitigate the threat of wheat blast disease in Bangladesh and beyond

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Wheat blast (Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum, or MoT) was first discovered in Brazil in 1985. Since then, it has spread across central and southern Brazil, parts of Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina. Grain sterility caused by the disease can significantly reduce wheat yield, with reductions as high as 32% in some parts of Brazil, even with up to two fungicide applications.

The disease appeared in Bangladesh unexpectedly in 2016 and re-emerged in 2017. Wheat area consequently dropped from 62,763 hectares in 2016 to just 14,238 hectares a year later. Suitable climatic conditions in South Asia warn that wheat blast will be a long-term problem.

Some 300 million people in South Asia consume over 100 million tons of wheat annually. Wheat blast therefore presents a significant threat to food security. Compounding these problems, climate change and the evolution of wheat blast ā€“ increasing virulence, fungicide resistance and sexual recombination ā€“ present further threats.

This project responds to these problems by working to mitigate the effect of wheat blast in South Asia and South America and limit the risk of further spread of this threat, with an emphasis on training, surveillance and monitoring to mitigate the threat of wheat blast disease in Bangladesh and beyond.

Objectives

  • Improve upon a preliminary modeling framework to manage data requirements for automated time- and spatially-explicit wheat blast outbreak early warning systems (EWS)
  • Improve flowering predictability to more accurately gauge disease risk
  • Demonstrate the performance of wheat blast resistant and zinc biofortified variety BARI Gom 33 in farmersā€™ fields.

Big data analytics for climate-smart agricultural practices in South Asia (Big Data2 CSA)

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Heterogeneity in soils, hydrology, climate, and rapid changes in rural economies including fluctuating prices, aging and declining labor forces, agricultural feminization, and uneven market access are among the many factors that constrain climate-smart agriculture (CSA) in South Asiaā€™s cereal-based farming systems.

Most previous research on CSA has employed manipulative experiments analyzing agronomic variables, or survey data from project-driven initiatives. However, this can obscure the identification of relevant factors limiting CSA, leading to inappropriate extension, policy, and inadequate institutional alignments to address and overcome limitations. Alternative big data approaches utilizing heterogeneous datasets remain insufficiently explored, though they can represent a powerful alternative source of technology and management practice performance information.

In partnership with national research systems and the private sector in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, Big data analytics for climate-smart agricultural practices in South Asia (Big Data2 CSA) is developing digital data collection systems to crowdsource, data-mine and interpret a wide variety of primary agronomic management and socioeconomic data from tens of thousands of smallholder rice and wheat farmers.

The project team analyzes these data by stacking them with spatially-explicit secondary environmental, climatic and remotely sensed data products, after which data mining and machine learning techniques are used to identify key factors contributing to patterns in yield, profitability, greenhouse gas emissions intensity and resilience.

These approaches however must be practical in order for them to be useful in agricultural development and policy. As such, the projectā€™s analytical results will be represented through interactive web-based dashboards, with gender-appropriate crop management advisories deployed through interactive voice recognition technologies to farmers in Bangladesh, India and Nepal at a large-scale. Big Data2 CSA is supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Flagship 2 on Climate-SmartĀ Technologies and Practices.

Objectives

  • Develop ICT tools enabling digital collection of crop management data and a cloud-based database that can be managed by next-users
  • Support advanced degree-level students to engage in field and data science research
  • Create a digital data collection platform enabling crowd sourcing of crop management information to evaluate contributions to CSA
  • Create interactive and customizable web-based dashboards presenting post-season research results and providing CSA management recommendations
  • Organize CSA and big data policy briefings on mainstreaming processes and policy workshops

Fighting back against fall armyworm in Bangladesh

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Fall armyworm is an invasive Lepidopteran pest that favors maize and is native to the Americas. It was identified in Bangladesh for the first time in late 2018 following migration from Africa and southern India.

Supported by the University of Michigan and USAID, this project cooperates with national research and extension partners, CABI and the FAO to strengthen efforts to mitigate impact of the pest on farmersā€™ income, food security and health.

Objectives

  • Develop educational materials to help reach audiences with information to improve understanding and management of fall armyworm
  • Assist the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in deploying awareness raising and training campaigns
  • Institutional change to improve crop protection and integrated pest management
  • Prepare the private sector for appropriate fall armyworm response
  • Support the standing multi-threat pest emergency taskforce
  • Generate data and evidence to guide integrated fall armyworm management

Climate- and market-smart mung bean advisories (CAMASMA)

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Focusing on highly profitable but weather-risk prone mung bean production in coastal Bangladesh, the Climate and market-smart mung bean advisories (CAMASMA) project develops farmer friendly and demand-driven climate- and market-smart mung bean advisory dissemination systems.

Heavy rainfall events can cause significant damage to mung bean production, causing large yield and income losses for farmers in coastal Bangladesh. By integrating and disseminating weather-forecast information, climate-smart advisories for when and how to harvest mung bean help farmers to mitigate some of the climate risks associated with crop production.

Both mung bean farmers and traders can also benefit from real-time market price data. In addition to market intelligence on where large blocks of farmers have quality mung bean for sale, CAMASMA improves information flow to lower trading firmsā€™ transactions costs while speeding farm-gate purchase and income generation from farmers.

CAMASMA is a pilot project that demonstrates the power of climate services, agricultural advisories, and use of social network analysis and ICTs to speed information delivery and increase farmersā€™ resilience to extreme climatic events.

Objectives

  • Customize heavy and extreme rainfall event forecasts for coastal Bangladesh
  • Analyze social networks to assist extension agents in rapid deployment of crop management advice in remote and hard to reach areas
  • Set up interpretive algorithms and interactive voice response (IVR) mobile call systems for weather, mung bean management and market advisories appropriate to men and women smallholder farmers
  • Release and promote a smartphone app providing customized weather forecasts, mung bean agronomic advice, early warnings for potential crop damaging extreme weather events, and market information
  • Establish business models and strategies for sustaining the use of IVR and smartphone apps after project closure

Fall Armyworm R4D and Management

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda; FAW), an insect-pest native to the Americas, has been a persistent and serious pest of maize for over a century. Public and private sector scientists in the Americas ā€“ particularly in Brazil and the United States ā€“ have developed and deployed effective strategies to control the pest.

Incidence of fall armyworm was first reported in Nigeria in January 2016, and subsequently in over 40 countries across Africa. In Asia, the pest was first reported in India in mid-2018, and has since emerged in several countries in the Asia-Pacific. Strategies for fall armyworm management in both Africa and the Asia-Pacific can benefit immensely from those already fine-tuned in the Americas, with necessary customization to fit local agroecologies and farming systems. There is also a need to intensively work on various aspects of integrated pest management (IPM) for effective and sustainable fall armyworm management. This includes Research-for-Development (R4D) for discovering, validating and piloting best-bet technological interventions or management practices.

This project brings together the expertise of key institutions with long-standing experience in effectively dealing with transboundary insect-pests to strengthen the capacities of Africa- and Asia-based institutions in fall armyworm management. The goal is to develop and disseminate comprehensive, expert approved, IPM-based fall armyworm pest management practices that will enable various stakeholders ā€“ especially farmers, extension agents, and pest control advisors ā€“ to effectively scout, determine the need for, and appropriately apply specific interventions to control the fall armyworm in maize and other crops in Africa and Asia.

Objectives

  • Develop, publish and disseminate comprehensive, expert-approved, IPM-based information resources for various stakeholder groups
  • Integrate traits for fall armyworm resistance into the CIMMYT breeding pipeline
  • Establish a fall armyworm Research-for-Development (R4D) Consortium

MLN Gene Editing Project

Written by Rodrigo OrdĆ³Ć±ez on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) Gene Editing Project uses gene editing technology to transform four elite CIMMYT maize lines which are susceptible to a devastating maize disease known as MLN. The disease first appeared in Kenya in 2011, and by 2013 it had reduced maize yields across the country by an average of 22%, resulting in loss of production worth $180 million and forcing many smallholder farmers to abandon planting maize. By 2014 it had spread to D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, hence posing a major threat to the food security and livelihoods of millions of Africans.

CIMMYT and its partners have responded to the problem by successfully developing MLN-tolerant hybrids through conventional backcrossing, which takes approximately 4-5 years. On the other hand, with the use of a gene editing technology known as CRISPR-Cas9, the breeding process can be accelerated, thereby reducing the time required to 2-3 years only, so that smallholders get faster access to improved maize varieties.

In partnership with Corteva Agriscience ā€” which has significant expertise in the genome-editing field and who is the technology owner ā€” and KALRO (Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization), CIMMYT scientists have been able to make a breakthrough via the CRISPR-Cas9 technology. The technology, Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) along with CRISPR-associated System (Cas) containing Protein 9, functions to replicate natural mutations in maize that will help strengthen its resistance to MLN. At the same time, this precisely targeted crop improvement process eliminates the transfer of many undesirable genes that would often accompany the desired ones as with the case in traditional backcrossing.

Under this project, four CIMMYT inbred lines, that are parents of two commercial hybrids in eastern Africa but susceptible to MLN, have been selected to undergo gene editing to become MLN-resistant. The edited, MLN-resistant lines will in turn be used to produce MLN-resistant hybrids which will still carry all the farmer-preferred agronomic traits including drought tolerance, similar to other elite maize hybrids developed by CIMMYT and released through partners.

CIMMYT is working in close collaboration with KALRO and other partners from the public and private sectors to increase the number of MLN-resistant Africa-adapted inbred lines and hybrids, as well as to make deployment efforts. By 2025, subject to compliance with regulatory procedures, commercial seeds of the gene-edited MLN-resistant elite maize hybrids will be available to up to 20,000 smallholder farmers for approximately 40,000 hectares of planting. In line with the CGIAR Principles on the Management of Intellectual Assets and CIMMYTā€™s constant endeavor to treat its improved germplasm as international public good, the MLN-resistant hybrids will be available royalty-free and seed companies entering into commercialization/licensing agreements in connection with this project will not be allowed to charge smallholder farmers higher seed cost. In this way, more farmers in MLN-affected countries in eastern and Central Africa can eventually benefit from increased supply of high-yielding, MLN-resistant and affordable maize products.

Related documents:

MLN Gene Editing project brief

MLN Gene Editing project: FAQs

Climate Services for Resilient Development in South Asia (CSRD)

Written by Rodrigo OrdĆ³Ć±ez on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Climate Services for Resilient Development (CSRD) is a global partnership that connects climate and environmental science with data streams to generate decision support tools and training for decision-makers in developing countries. Translating complex climate information into easy to understand actionable formats to spread awareness in the form of climate services is core to CSRDā€™s mission. CSRD works across South Asia (with emphasis on Bangladesh), the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia), and in South America (Colombia) to generate and provide timely and useful climate information, decision tools and services. In South Asia, CSRD focusses the development, supply and adaptation of agricultural climate services to reduce vulnerability by increasing resiliency in smallholder farming systems. These goals are strategically aligned with the Global Framework for Climate Services.

Project description

CSRD in South Asia aims to have the impact by increasing climate resilient farm management, indicated by increased use of climate services and climate information to inform farmers on how to better manage their production systems.Ā  CSRD also aims to develop and validate models for agricultural climate services that can be replicated in other regions with similar farming systems and climate risks, while also fine-tuning weather and climate advisories to be most useful to farmersā€™ decision-making. A series of sustained contributions to CSRDā€™s Action and Learning Framework Pillars 1-4, detailed below, are envisioned as major project outcomes:

  • Pillar 1: Create the solution space:
    CSRD works to establish a problem-focus, to engage key stakeholders, to create a platform for sustained communication and collaboration, and to build synergies among relevant programs.
  • Pillar 2: Utilize quality data, products, and tools
    CSRD provides access to useful and available information and technology, and to develop tailored products and services responsive to problem-specific needs.
  • Pillar 3: Build capacities and platforms
    CSRD supports the use of targeted products and services, and to promote sustainability, scalability, and replicability.
  • Pillar 4: Build knowledge
    A key goal of CSRDā€™s work is to identify and promote good practices among the global climate services community and to support research efforts and innovation that increase the effectiveness of climate services.

Outputs

CSRD in South Asia will ultimately generate the following broad outputs and services:

Download the report summarizingĀ CSRD activities, achievements, and challenges during the first year (from November 2016 through December 2017).

The CSRD consortium in South Asia is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in partnership with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), International Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), University de Passo Fundo (UPF), and the University of Rhode Island (URI). This consortium provides strength and technical expertise to develop relevant climate products that can assist farmers and other stakeholders with relevant information to improve decision making, with the ultimate goal of increasing resilience to climate-related risks. The CSRD consortium also works to assure that climate information can be conveyed in ways that are decision-relevant to farmers and other agricultural stakeholders.

As a public-private partnership, CSRD is supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), UK AID, the UK Met Office, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), ESRI, Google, the American Red Cross, and the Skoll Global Threats Fund.

Wheat Yield Consortium

Written by Courtney Brantley on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Wheat Yield ConsortiumĀ conducts research on wheat genetics and physiology to improve plant structure, increase the resilience and disease resistance of wheat, and its yield potential in Mexico and abroad. In 2015, Ā main achievements included:

  • More than 100 agronomic and physiological traits of 60 elite lines of high-yielding potential from CIMMYT Core Germplasm II set (CIMCOG II) were evaluated with high throughput phenotyping technologies.
  • Five elite lines were selected after analyzing three years of data collected from consecutive trials of the CIMCOG I set. Some lines were chosen for their resistance to lodging.
  • Aerial phenotyping platforms with remote sensors where used to identify five high-yielding and drought tolerant lines and seven outstanding heat tolerant lines from more than 600 elite lines tested in the field.
  • Nine Mexican studentsĀ undertookĀ doctoral studies in prestigious international universities with the benefit of acknowledged experts as advisers and using data from the MasAgro Wheat field trials. Three students concluded their doctoral studies and two more are in line to achieve their degree in the first semester of 2016.

Objectives

  • To raise wheat yield potential by 2 percent globally, with a view to increasing yield potential by 50 percent over 20 years.
  • To raise wheat production by 350,000 tons (10 percent) in 10 years, 750,000 tons (22 percent) in 15 years and 1.7 million tons (50 percent) in 20 years, in the same area currently devoted to wheat production in Mexico.

Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program (WPEP)

Written by Courtney Brantley on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Wheat Productivity Enhancement Program aims to enhance and protect the productivity of wheat in Pakistan by supporting research that leads to the identification, adoption, and optimal agronomic management of new, high yielding, disease-resistant wheat varieties. The main goal of the projectĀ is to facilitate efforts of scientific institutions in Pakistan to minimize adverse effects of wheat rusts ā€” including the highly virulent Ug99 stem rust disease ā€” through surveillance and genetically resistant varieties.

As part of the U.S. governmentā€™s assistance to Pakistan, the U.S. DepartmentĀ of AgricultureĀ (USDA) and Pakistanā€™s Ministry of Agriculture have identified the development of wheat varieties with resistance to virulent rust strains as a goal for improving food security and related agricultural production challenges. This document outlines a project for providing cereal rust protection for wheat production in Pakistan.

This wheat production enhancement project is a multi-partner, collaborative research and development program that includes human resource development. The primary external partners ā€” USDA, CIMMYT, and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas ā€” work cooperatively with Pakistan research organizations to refine work plans and implement research and development activities in rust surveillance, pre-breeding, breeding, seed, and agronomy as described in objectives section.

Objectives

  • Rust pathogen surveillance
  • Pre-breeding to enhance the diversity and utility of rust resistant wheat breeding parent
  • Accelerated breeding to develop and test rust resistant, high performance candidate wheat varieties
  • Seed multiplication and distribution
  • Agronomic management practices