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MasAgro Farmer, a component of CIMMYT’s MasAgro project, develops a sustainable intensification strategy for maize, wheat and similar grains by building hubs based on research platforms, demonstration modules and extension areas where sustainable farming practices and technologies are tested, improved and adapted. In 2015, main achievements included:
Average maize and wheat yields obtained by farmers participating in MasAgro were 20.5 percent and 2.8 percent higher, respectively, than the average yields achieved in the regions of Mexico where they live.
The average net income of maize and wheat farmers participating in MasAgro was 23 percent and 4 percent higher, respectively, than the average net incomes of their region in Mexico.
MasAgro set up 12 hubs with 43 research platforms and 452 demonstration modules that developed, tested, adapted and disseminated sustainable farming practices and technologies.
46 technicians were certified in sustainable agriculture and another 55 begun their training in 2015. CIMMYT has so far certified 294 MasAgro technicians.
4,009 extension areas were registered in MasAgro’s electronic field books.
MasAgro experts developed 17 new machinery prototypes and produced 26 precision farming tools and machines for sustainable farming of maize, wheat and similar grains.
OBJECTIVES
To promote conservation and precision agriculture practices to sustainably increase maize and wheat production in Mexico.
To develop skills and to transfer knowledge and technologies specifically adapted to meet the needs of the small scale farmer.
To reduce the impact of climate change in agriculture.
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MasAgro Biodiversidad (Biodiversity), a component of CIMMYT’s MasAgro project, studies and characterizes maize and wheat genetic diversity for use in breeding programs, which develop wheat varieties and maize hybrids improved through conventional technologies. These hybrids are better adapted to climate change, more resistant to pests and diseases and have higher yield potential.
In 2015, MasAgro Biodiversity’s main results were:
MasAgro Biodiversity began a comprehensive study of maize genetic diversity by obtaining, processing and analyzing the world’s largest genotypic data set to help scientists identify new genes of interest for maize breeding programs.
More than 2 billion genotypic data and more than 870,000 phenotypic data of maize field trails have been processed and uploaded to MasAgro Biodiversity’s database and repository making them available to the scientific community via the project website.
A high level of Tar Spot resistance was confirmed in maize landraces native to the state of Oaxaca in Mexico and Guatemala, which will be used to breed new resistant maize lines.
To order seeds from CIMMYT, please fill a seed request.
OBJECTIVES
To explore in depth the original genetic composition of maize and wheat through the analysis of hundreds of thousands of seeds stored in gene banks in Mexico.
To make available to the national and international scientific community information on key agronomic characteristics such as tolerance to heat and drought, or resistance to important pests.
To offer a genetic analysis service that taps on the best features of maize and wheat through conventional improvement programs for both grains.
To contribute to long term food security in Mexico and the rest of the world, despite the impact of climate change and the scarcity of natural resources such as water, nutrients and oil.
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MasAgro is a research for rural development project supported by Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The project promotes the sustainable intensification of maize and wheat production in Mexico. MasAgro develops capacities and research activities aimed at raising maize and wheat yields stability and profitability in Mexico. The program also seeks to increase farmer income and production systems sustainability by implementing collaborative research initiatives, developing and promoting the use of improved seed, sustainable technologies and farming practices.
OBJECTIVES
Obtain higher and more stable yields, increase farmer income and promote natural resource conservation in agriculture.
Promote collaboration and integration between participants of the maize, wheat and similiar grains value chains to develop, disseminate and adopt sustainable farming solutions in target agricultural zones.
Promote the growth of a Mexican seed sector and contribute to raise maize productivity in Mexico by conducting collaborative research in maize genetic resources and developing yellow and white maize hybrids of high yield potential and stability.
Use the genetic resources CIMMYT conserves and develop cutting-edge technologies and capacities in Mexico to accelerate the development of stable, high-yielding and climate resilient maize and wheat varieties.
Strengthen Mexico’s research capacities to increase yield potential and climate resilience of improved wheat varieties.
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MasAgro Maize, a component of CIMMYT’s MasAgro project, promotes the sustainable development of both maize grain and seed producers by breeding maize hybrids with conventional technologies and improving native maize seed in collaborative breeding projects with participant farmers. MasAgro’s improved maize seeds are tested in collaboration with the local seed sector that, in turn, commercializes the best adapted materials in Mexico’s growing regions. In 2015, MasAgro Maize’s main results were:
16 collaborative breeding trials of native maize were established with participant farmers in eight communities in the state of Oaxaca in southwest Mexico.
48 small and medium-sized Mexican seed companies collaborated with MasAgro Maize. Together, they produced 1.2 million 20 kilogram bags containing 60,000 seeds of hybrid maize.
Participating companies increased sales of MasAgro hybrid seed by 44 percent from 2014 to 2015.
Local seed companies sold 26 MasAgro hybrids branded under 100 commercial names in 19 states, 78 regions and 257 municipalities of Mexico.
OBJECTIVES
To have the technology and genetic materials needed to raise average rainfed maize production in Mexico from 2.2 to 3.7 tons per hectare over a 10 year period.
To increase the use of high-yielding, improved maize seed in Mexico over an area of between 1.5 and 3 million hectares.
To raise Mexico’s production of rainfed maize between 5 and 9 million tons in 10 years.
To promote the development of the maize seed industry in Mexico.
To strengthen food security in Mexico and in the rest of the world.
MasAgro Maize partners are encouraged to apply for licenses to commercialize CIMMYT maize hybrids, following the procedures described in the Allocations page.
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The Eastern Gangetic Plains region of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal is home to the greatest concentration of rural poor in the world. This region is projected to be one of the areas most affected by climate change. Local farmers are already experiencing the impact of climate change: erratic monsoon rains, floods and other extreme weather events have affected agricultural production for the past decade. The region’s smallholder farming systems have low productivity, and yields are too variable to provide a solid foundation for food security. Inadequate access to irrigation, credit, inputs and extension systems limit capacity to adapt to climate change or invest in innovation. Furthermore, large-scale migration away from agricultural areas has led to labor shortages and increasing numbers of women in agriculture.
The Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) project aims to reduce poverty in the Eastern Gangetic Plains by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the environment and involving women. CIMMYT, project partners and farmers are exploring Conservation Agriculture-based Sustainable Intensification (CASI) and efficient water management as foundations for increasing crop productivity and resilience. Technological changes are being complemented by research into institutional innovations that strengthen adaptive capacity and link farmers to markets and support services, enabling both women and men farmers to adapt and thrive in the face of climate and economic change.
In its current phase, the project team is identifying and closing capacity gaps so that stakeholders can scale CASI practices beyond the project lifespan. Priorities include crop diversification and rotation, reduced tillage using machinery, efficient water management practices, and integrated weed management practices. Women farmers are specifically targeted in the scaling project: it is intended that a third of participants will be women and that at least 25% of the households involved will be led by women.
Understand farmer circumstances with respect to cropping systems, natural and economic resources base, livelihood strategies, and capacity to bear risk and undertake technological innovation
Develop with farmers more productive and sustainable technologies that are resilient to climate risks and profitable for smallholders
Catalyze, support and evaluate institutional and policy changes that establish an enabling environment for the adoption of high-impact technologies
Facilitate widespread adoption of sustainable, resilient and more profitable farming systems
Zero-tillage service provision is key to facilitating adoption.
Service provider Azgad Ali and farmer Samaru Das have a fruitful relationship based on technology promoted through CIMMYT’s SRSFI project.
Bablu Modak demonstrates his unpuddled mechanically transplanted rice.
CIMMYT’s SRFSI team and the community walk through the fields during a field visit in Cooch Behar.
MasAgro Wheat, a component of CIMMYT’s MasAgro project, 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, main achievements of MasAgro Wheat 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 students continued their 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.
In the case of Mexico, 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 acreage currently devoted to wheat production.
The International Wheat Improvement Program was established as a cooperative international research effort by the Turkish national wheat research program and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in 1986. The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Rural Areas (ICARDA) joined the program in 1990, integrating its highland wheat breeding program.
The main objective of IWWIP is to develop winter/facultative wheat germplasm for the region of Central and West Asia. IWWIP is fully integrated into the national Turkish wheat program, with a strong connection to partners within and outside the region, such as eastern Europe and the United States.
The program is governed by a steering committee. Three coordinators — Beyhan Akin from CIMMYT, Mesut Keser from ICARDA and Fatih Ozdemir from the Turkish national wheat research program — provide technical leadership.
IWWIP focuses on the development of elite wheat lines for rainfed and irrigated areas in Central and West Asia.
Since the inception of the program, more than 105 winter wheat varieties originating from IWWIP germplasm have been released. Germplasm from IWWIP is sent each year to approximately 100 cooperators in 50 countries, making it an important vehicle for the global exchange of winter wheat germplasm.
Core traits for rainfed areas are yield and yield stability, drought and heat tolerance, resistance to three cereal rusts and soil-borne diseases — nematodes, crown and root rots —, and end-use quality. Other traits considered for specific areas are resistance to Septoria leaf blight and insects. For irrigated and high-rainfall areas, breeding focuses on yield potential, cereal rusts, Septoria and quality.
Germplasm with special traits, such as resistance to stem rust and Russian wheat aphid, and Sun pest vegetative stage resistance, is developed in nurseries and shared with IWWIP cooperators. IWWIP distributes four International Winter Wheat Nurseries each year, targeted for semiarid and irrigated conditions: Facultative and Winter Wheat Observation Nurseries (FAWWONs) FAWWON-SA and FAWWON-IRR, and the replicated International Winter Wheat Yield Trials (IWWYTs) IWWYT-SA and IWWYT-IRR.
In 2018, IWWIP established a speed-breeding facility at the Aegean Agricultural Research Institute in Menemen, Izmir, with the capacity to grow 20,000 plants in one cycle. This facility allows for greater genetic gain by increasing the number of generations per year and reducing the time it takes to incorporate new traits into elite germplasm.
IWWIP uses multi-location testing in Turkey as well as shuttle breeding globally, serving as a successful model for a jointly operated breeding program between national and international institutes. Shuttle breeding to improve drought and heat tolerance and cold tolerance has been working well and produces novel germplasm with abiotic stresses tolerance.
Major IWWIP contributions:
Close cooperation with CIMMYT’s Soil Borne Pathogens Group to identify genotypes with resistance to nematodes and root rots, used in breeding programs in the region and beyond.
A national inventory of wheat landraces in Turkey (2009-2014), with collections from over 1,500 farmers from 68 provinces. The collected material was characterized and deposited in the Turkish Gene Bank in Ankara. The best accessions are currently used as parents, undergoing further study by the Turkish National Program and IWWIP, and being used in the development of primary synthetic winter wheat for breeding diverse and resilient wheat varieties.
High-quality data that has increased selection efficiency to develop yellow-rust-resistant cultivars.
Substantial improvement in stem rust resistance through shuttle methodology between Turkey and Kenya.
Publication of NDVI and digital photos for germplasm evaluation under irrigated and drought conditions.
IWWIP has played a major role in building the capacity of young researchers through long-term practical training at CIMMYT, ICARDA, and Turkish national wheat breeding programs; participation in traveling seminars; support for participation in regional conferences and IWWIP annual meetings; and on-site visits of IWWIP breeders.
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African maize farmers must deal with drought, weeds, and pests, but their problems start with degraded, nutrient-starved soils and their inability to purchase enough nitrogen fertilizer. Maize yields of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are a fraction of those in the developed world, due mainly to the region’s poor soils and farmers’ limited access to fertilizer or improved maize seed. On average, such farmers apply only 9 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of cropland. Of that small amount, often less than half is captured by the crop; the rest is leached deep into the soil where plants cannot recover it or otherwise lost.
The Improved Maize for African Soils Project (IMAS) develops maize varieties that are better at capturing the small amount of fertilizer that African farmers can afford, and that use the nitrogen they take up more efficiently to produce grain. Project participants will use cutting-edge biotechnology tools such as molecular markers—DNA “signposts” for traits of interest—and transgenic approaches to develop varieties that ultimately yield 30 to 50 percent more than currently available varieties, with the same amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied or when grown on poorer soils.
The varieties developed will be made available royalty-free to seed companies that sell to the region’s smallholder farmers, meaning that the seed will become available to farmers at the same cost as other types of improved maize seed.
In four years or less, African farmers should have access to IMAS varieties developed using conventional breeding that offer a 20 percent yield advantage over current varieties. Improved varieties developed using DNA marker techniques are expected to be introduced within seven to nine years, and those containing transgenic traits are expected to be available in approximately 10 years, pending product performance and regulatory approvals by national regulatory and scientific authorities, according to the established laws and regulatory procedures in each country.
The second phase of IMAS continues to be implemented through the Seed Production Technology for Africa (SPTA) project.
OBJECTIVES
Conventional and marker assisted breeding to develop hybrids and OPVs with improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) adapted to southern and eastern Africa
Identification and deployment of native trait alleles to enhance yield under low nitrogen conditions through association mapping and Quantitative Trait Loci mapping
Development of transgenic maize varieties adapted to southern and eastern Africa with increased yield under severe nitrogen limitation
Managing NUE varieties for sustainability in African maize cropping systems
Project stewardship, public awareness and capacity building
NUE variety registration, release and dissemination in southern and eastern Africa
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The Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation was initiated in 1999 with the objective of increasing the food security of farm families in the hills of Nepal by raising the productivity and sustainability of maize-based cropping systems. The HMRP went through three phases between 1999 and 2010, the fourth and final phase began in August 2010 and concluded in 2015. There are two key outcomes for the project.
First, farm households in the hills of Nepal, especially those belonging to women, poor and disadvantaged groups, have improved food security and income.
Second, the National Seed Board, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council and the Department of Agriculture enforce quality control in both public and private institutions.
OBJECTIVES
Farm households in the hills of Nepal, especially of poor and disadvantaged groups, have improved food security and income.
Available varieties and technologies are used
Poor and disadvantaged households have increased access to quality maize seed and proven technologies
Groups/cooperatives supply quality seeds at competitive market prices
Poor and disadvantaged maize producing households will have access to multiple agricultural interventions for enhanced productivity
The National Seed Board (NSB), NARC, and the DoA allow decentralization of the source seed production system
Public and private institutions obtain seed inspection mandate and license
CBSP/cooperatives manage supply of quality seed
The NSB and NARC consider HMRP’s experience in variety development, certification and release system
Wheat is a traditional crop cultivated by about five million households on 1.6 million hectares in Ethiopia. Despite the country’s huge potential, the average wheat productivity of 2.5 tonnes per hectare is lower than the global average of 3 tonnes per hectare. Stem rust and yellow rust diseases caused by Pucccinia spp. are the major biotic constraints for wheat production in the country and recent recurrent outbreaks have debilitated many wheat varieties in major production areas in Ethiopia.
Projects to accelerate seed multiplication of rust resistant varieties funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others contributed to the replacement of the widely grown susceptible varieties Kubsa and Galama. However, in 2013–2014, a new Pgt race, identified as TKTTF, unrelated to the highly virulent Ug99 rust disease, which is also present in Ethiopia, caused 100 percent yield losses on bread wheat variety Digalu in some regions.
The Ethiopia Wheat Rust Scaling seed and surveillance project aims to develop, demonstrate and scale up high-yielding wheat varieties with adult plant resistance to prevailing rust pathogens with the following objectives: enhancement of rust surveillance; early warning and phenotyping; fast-track variety testing and pre-release seed multiplication to assure availability of rust resistant improved wheat varieties for distribution in targeted districts; accelerating seed multiplication of durable rust resistant wheat varieties through the formal and informal seed systems; demonstration and scaling up of improved wheat varieties and improving linkages between small scale durum wheat producers and agro-industries with the aim of creating market access to smallholder durum wheat producers.
The project includes conducting wheat rust surveys, training and field days. Farmer cooperative unions are being organized in clusters and women and youth groups will participate in informal seed production. The number of private seed enterprises and women farmers participating in the accelerated informal seed multiplication program will be increased as the project progresses in consultation with stakeholders.
Enhancement of rust surveillance, early warning and phenotyping.
Fast-track variety testing and pre-release seed multiplication to assure availability of rust resistant improved wheat varieties for distribution in targeted districts.
Accelerating seed multiplication of durable rust resistant wheat varieties through the formal and informal seed systems.
Demonstration and scaling up of improved wheat varieties.
Improving linkages between small scale durum wheat producers and agro-industries with the aim of creating market access to smallholder durum wheat producers in 10 districts.
The Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project, a collaborative effort begun in April 2008, which now includes 22 research institutions around the world and is led by Cornell University, seeks to mitigate the threat of rust diseases to wheat. It aims to do so through coordinated activities that will replace susceptible varieties with durably resistant varieties, created by accelerated multilateral plant breeding and delivered through optimized developing country seed sectors. The project also aims to harness recent advances in genomics to introduce non-host resistance (immunity) into wheat.
Improved international collaboration in wheat research to meet growing world demand for food — an estimated 50 percent production increase in wheat alone is needed by 2020 — is another major goal of this project.
Objectives
Reduce systematically the world’s vulnerability to stem rust diseases of wheat through an international collaboration unprecedented in scale and scope.
Mitigate that threat through coordinated pathogen surveillance activities, and breeding initiatives.
Make efforts that will replace susceptible varieties in farmer’s fields with seed of durably resistant varieties, created by accelerated multilateral plant breeding, and delivered through optimized developing country seed sectors.
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Agricultural intensification is both a need and an opportunity for countries in sub-Sahara Africa. For intensification to occur sustainably — with minimum negative environmental and social consequences — it is widely recognized that resources must be used with much greater efficiency. Although much emphasis is being placed in current research for development work on increasing the efficiency with which land, water and nutrients are being used, farm power appears as the “forgotten resource.” However, farm power in countries sub-Saharan Africa is declining due to the collapse of most hire tractor schemes, the decline in number of draft animals and the decline in human labor related to rural-urban migration. Another aspect of low farm power is high labor drudgery, which affects women, who generally due the majority of threshing, shelling and transport by head-loadings, disproportionally. Undoubtedly, sustainable intensification in these countries will require an improvement of farm-power balance through increased power supply — via improved access to mechanization — and/or reduced power demand – via energy saving technologies such as conservation agriculture techniques.
The Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification project examines how best to exploit synergies between small-scale-mechanization and conservation agriculture. The overall goal of the project is to improve farm power balance, reduce labour drudgery, and minimize biomass trade-offs in Eastern and Southern Africa, through accelerated delivery and adoption of two-wheel-tractor-based technologies by smallholders.
This project is now in the second phase, which began on June 1, 2017.
OBJECTIVES
To evaluate and demonstrate two wheel tractor-based technologies in the four selected sites of Eastern and Southern Africa, using expertise/knowledge/skills/implements from Africa, South Asia and Australia
To test site-specific market systems to deliver two wheel tractor-based mechanization in the four countries
To identify improvements in national markets and policies for wide delivery of two wheel tractor-based mechanization
To create awareness on two wheel tractor-based technologies in the sub-region and share knowledge and information with other regions
Climate-change-induced heat stress and disease pathogens migrating across borders threaten the world’s wheat supply and food security in Africa and the Middle East. Building on the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) global partnership, Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) will mitigate serious threats to wheat brought about by climate change and develop and deploy new strains of wheat that are heat tolerant as well as resistant to wheat rusts and other diseases.
DGGW uses modern tools of comparative genomics and big data to develop and deploy varieties of wheat that incorporate climate resiliency as well as improved disease resistance for smallholder farmers in these politically vulnerable regions.”
The four-year grant builds on the successes of the BGRI, led by the DRRW project, funded by the UK Department for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation from 2008 to 2016.
Deadly wheat pathogens have been moving from the wheat fields of northern and East Africa into the Middle East. In their rush to identify genes that can resist evolving and virulent new strains of the disease known as stem rust, BGRI scientists have developed collaborative arrangements and facilities, with the crucial support of national governments and agencies, to screen thousands of samples of wheat each year from every continent under rust infection, to identify resistant lines.
DGGW is based at Cornell University and acts as the secretariat for the BGRI. Collaborations continue with national partners in Kenya and Ethiopia, as well as scientists at international agricultural research centers that focus on wheat, including CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.
Advanced research laboratories in the U.S., Canada, China, Turkey, Denmark, Australia and South Africa collaborate on the project. So far, more than 2,000 scientists from 35 international institutions spread across 23 countries are involved in the consortium, and 37 countries contribute data to the surveillance network.
Objectives
Mitigate serious threats to wheat brought about by climate change
Develop new strains of heat-tolerant wheat
Develop rust and disease resistant wheat
Monitor spread of stem rust and other windborne wheat diseases
The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) is a non-profit international research institute dedicated to food, nutrition and livelihood security as well as environmental rehabilitation in South Asia, which is home to more than 300 million undernourished people. BISA is a collaborative effort involving the CIMMYT and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research. The objective of BISA is to harness the latest technology in agriculture to improve farm productivity and sustainably meet the demands of the future. BISA is more than an institute. It is a commitment to the people of South Asia, particularly to the farmers, and a concerted effort to catalyze a second Green Revolution.
BISA was established on October 5, 2011, through an agreement between the Government of India (GoI) and CIMMYT and was bolstered by the globally credible name of Nobel Laureate Norman Ernest Borlaug. The institution draws on the decades of experience and success by CIMMYT, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), and a global network of partners in using research to generate tangible benefits for farmers internationally. BISA is supported by a growing number of national stakeholders in South Asia. It is committed to stronger collaborations for accelerated impact, most prominently with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the three state governments (Punjab, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh) where BISA farms are located.
Objectives
Ensure access to the latest in research and technologies that are currently not available in the region
Strategize research aimed at doubling food production in South Asia while using less water, land and energy
Strengthen cutting-edge research that validates and tests new technologies to significantly increase yield potential
Develop technologies for higher productivity in rice, maize and wheat based farming systems
Design research outputs targeted to small and marginal farmers across the region
Build on CIMMYT’s vast germplasm resources, and make research products and know-how developed by BISA freely available to stakeholders
Create a new generation of scientists to work with new technologies through training programs that will retain them in South Asia
Enable researchers to pursue multiple strategies and research possibilities while simultaneously allowing for more meaningful collaboration with national institutions
Build a forum with partners from all sectors – research centers, governments, science community, businesses and farmers – to transform farmers’ lives and improve food security in the region
Develop a policy environment that embraces new technologies and encourages investments in agricultural research
Develop and utilize BISA as a regional platform that focuses on agricultural research in the whole of South Asia
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Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) studies and characterizes maize and wheat genetic diversity for use in breeding programs, which develop wheat varieties and maize hybrids improved through conventional technologies. These hybrids are better adapted to climate change, more resistant to pests and diseases and have higher yield potential.
In 2015, SeeD’s main results were:
SeeD began a comprehensive study of maize genetic diversity by obtaining, processing and analyzing the world’s largest genotypic data set to help scientists identify new genes of interest for maize breeding programs.
More than 2 billion genotypic data and more than 870,000 phenotypic data of maize field trails have been processed and uploaded to SeeD’s database and repository making them available to the scientific community via the project website.
A high level of Tar Spot resistance was confirmed in maize landraces native to the state of Oaxaca in Mexico and Guatemala, which will be used to breed new resistant maize lines.
To explore in depth the original genetic composition of maize and wheat through the analysis of hundreds of thousands of seeds stored in gene banks in Mexico.
To make available to the national and international scientific community information on key agronomic characteristics such as tolerance to heat and drought, or resistance to important pests.
To offer a genetic analysis service that taps on the best features of maize and wheat through conventional improvement programs for both grains.
To contribute to long term food security in Mexico and the rest of the world, despite the impact of climate change and the scarcity of natural resources such as water, nutrients and oil.
