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research: Genetic resources

Bill Gates and Carlos Slim Partner to Support Innovation for Farmers

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Daimoniz Miondo is one of 800 farmers in Chipeni, Mvera Extension Planning Area, Dowa District, Malawi, who has adopted conservation agriculture practices in recent years with joint support from Malawi’s Department of Agricultural Extension Services, the NGO Total LandCare, and CIMMYT. “I’m harvesting between 30 and 40 bags of maize now per acre, where I used to get only 15 or 20 bags,” says Miondo, who farms to support a household of seven. “Before conservation agriculture, there was a lot of erosion and the rain would wash away the fertilizer and affect the yields.” Conservation agriculture practices cut labor and other farm costs, as well as helping to capture and hold rainfall, thus salvaging harvests when drought hits. Photo credit: Trevor Samson/CIMMYT

Originally posted on the Impatient Optimists blog (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) on 13 February 2013.

We are extremely pleased to welcome Bill Gates and Carlos Slim Helú to CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City today. They have come to inaugurate major infrastructure improvements for CIMMYT supported by their respective foundations. The nearly 20,000 square meters of construction include badly-needed advanced laboratories, greenhouses, and training facilities. They will be used for cutting-edge research by CIMMYT to help speed the access of developing country farmers to the benefits of science and innovation.

Where are we now and what have we learned? 

The repeated food price hikes of recent years most sorely affect the poor, who spend as much as three-quarters of their daily income simply to eat. We know that 0.8 billion human beings are not eating enough.

We’ve not seen the last of food price crises. Widespread, severe droughts of 2012 have devastated global grain harvests, further reduced food stocks, made export markets skittish. Because the world relies heavily on a few, high-production “bread basket” countries, low stocks superimposed on financial speculation will surely bring further, seismic shocks to global food markets.

From the 2007-08 food price peaks, which fueled food riots in more than 30 countries, it should be clear that global food security is everyone’s concern, in both developed and developing countries.

Not all is gloom and doom: Innovation can support more precise and productive science and farming.

There is hope, and more bountiful harvests and sustainable agriculture are key parts of the solution. In many developing countries farming continues to employ large segments of the populace and plays a central role in national economies. There is enormous potential for farmers to boost productivity, reduce reliance on destructive practices, move beyond subsistence, and power development at large. Best of all, new, exciting science is available to adapt to small-scale farmers’ needs, and these farmers are actually looking to policymakers and research and extension organizations to support them.

CIMMYT partners with those actors and others worldwide to offer farmers improved options: better seed and knowhow, improved cropping systems, more secure crop storage methods. Progressive farmers begin to view their daily occupation as an enterprise, rather than mere subsistence, so the focus shifts onto science and innovation to gain precision. Several examples:

  • DNA analysis to home in on high-value maize and wheat traits for better yields, disease resistance, heat and drought tolerance.
  • Doubled haploids to speed the creation of genetically pure inbred lines and new maize hybrids.
  • Conservation and precision agriculture, including more targeted application of irrigation water and fertilizer to boost system output while saving resources and the environment.
  • Cell phone services so farmers can access precise, locally-tailored information on weather, markets, recommended crops and practices for their fields.

An extraordinary initiative funded by and co-coordinated with Mexico—known as MasAgro, the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture—is taking these and other innovations directly to Mexican farmers and sequencing the DNA of CIMMYT’s vast maize and wheat seed collections. Similarly innovative partnerships in Africa and Asia feature cropping systems approaches to increase yields and the resilience of the resource base, while supporting farmers’ direct involvement to test and promote new practices. Millions of smallholder farmers and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa are benefiting from the adoption of drought tolerant maize varieties developed using advanced breeding techniques.

The work of all these partners, including CIMMYT, would not be possible without the support of other key partners: national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies, including the CGIAR Consortium, who represent the political will and commitment of their constituents through their donations and engagement. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides not only momentous funding for our work, but invaluable technical guidance and political support.

Returning to today’s inauguration, thanks to the generous support of the Carlos Slim Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we have effectively doubled our research capacity here in Mexico.

We can accelerate our efforts to unlock the tremendous potential of wheat and maize using modern information and communications technology, combined with the improved and more sustainable agricultural practices. The very personal and proactive engagement in CIMMYT’s mission of visionary personalities such as Mr. Slim Helú and Mr. Gates, and the on-going support of their respective foundations for our relatively little-known research institute, send a strong signal to the world that something important must be going on here. Indeed there is.

Guest post: Partnering to Empower Poor Farming Families and Ensure Global Food Security

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Originally posted on the Impatient Optimists blog (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) on February 8, 2013. By David Bergvinson – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Mexican scientist and CIMMYT collaborator J. Arahón Hernández Guzmán examines a maize ear in Jala, Mexico. Photo courtesy of Eloise Phipps/CIMMYT
Mexican scientist and CIMMYT collaborator J. Arahón Hernández Guzmán examines a maize ear in Jala, Mexico. Photo courtesy of Eloise Phipps/CIMMYT

There is an African proverb that captures the importance of partnerships in the work we do at the Gates Foundation: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”

Nowhere are partnerships more important than in efforts to help poor farming families around the world to increase their agricultural productivity. Helping farmers grow and sell more crops in a sustainable and equitable way is a catalyst for rural employment that helps address poverty, nutrition, and food security.

One of our partners in this effort is the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (the Spanish acronym is CIMMYT). CIMMYT was the birth place of the first Green Revolution, which resulted from breakthroughs in the development of high yielding wheat varieties that first enabled Mexico to become self-sufficient in wheat production in the 1960s. This was then shared with farmers in India and Pakistan to avert mass starvation.

This success was made possible by bringing together innovation, strong partnerships between nations, and a clear end goal to address an urgent need – global food security.

Next week, we will see another tremendous step towards addressing this urgent need. Bill Gates and Mexican businessman and philanthropist Carlos Slim will inaugurate a new research complex at CIMMYT that will address the complex challenges facing maize and wheat farmers around the globe. How?

The new facilities will enable CIMMYT and its international partners to utilize the power of technology to store information on genetic makeup of plants to improve seed varieties for the benefit of millions. CIMMYT’s maize and wheat gene banks hold the keys that – through better seed varieties – can help farmers address the challenges posed by climate change, increase the efficiency of crops in the use of fertilizer and limited water resources, and improve the nutritional quality of staple crops.

This important work – to make better use of natural crop diversity – is the largest international effort of its kind. The project is supported by the Government of Mexico under the MasAgro project, and will benefit not only farmers in Mexico, but farmers around the globe, through a network of dedicated researchers – many of whom have been trained at CIMMYT over the past decades.

Information and genetic resources generated by MasAgro will be shared freely with the global maize and wheat community, and serve as a model for other crops that are vital to smallholder farm families. Generating these global public goods is a unique role that CIMMYT plays in the agricultural development ecosystem.

In Bill Gates’ Annual Letter, he emphasized the importance that innovation, goals, and measurement have played in enabling the world to work toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – including the goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

The donation made by Carlos Slim to modernize CIMMYT’s research facility will help ensure its continued contribution to develop and delivering farmer-preferred solutions that increase productivity in a sustainable manner. Providing resources for agricultural innovation, building strong partnerships, and setting clear goals for productivity gives us good reason to be optimistic about the future of food security and increased farm productivity to help lift rural families out of poverty.

Congratulations to Germplasm Bank!

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The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank achieved ISO9001:2008 certification this week, after nearly two years of data gathering, intensive analysis, and assessment of processes and best practices. The ISO standards relate to quality management systems and are designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders, while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements. The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank is the first CGIAR germplasm bank to achieve ISO9001 certification, and is now one of only three genebanks globally to achieve certification (and the first outside of Europe). CIMMYT staff and areas involved in this certification included both the germplasm banks, human resources, purchasing, risk management, security, maintenance, and ICT departments. A special thanks is extended to Bibiana Espinosa and Paulina Gonzalez, both of whom sheparded the lengthy process to this noteworthy conclusion.

G20 recognizes Mexico and CIMMYT for creating MasAgro

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Mexico and CIMMYT were recognized by G20 agricultural development experts for presenting the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) initiative at the Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists (MACS) held on 26 September in Guadalajara, Jalisco, in the framework of the activities organized by the Mexican presidency of G20, which includes the largest economies in the world.

During the meeting “Strengthening international cooperation through agricultural research and development,” Karen García, Chief Executive of MasAgro at CIMMYT, expressed her gratitude for the distinction granted to MasAgro, which was included in a report delivered to the G20 Agricultural Vice- Ministers and described as a model of research and capacity building that promotes public-private partnerships in the food and farming sector.

Bram Govaerts, Associate Director of CIMMYT’s Conservation Agriculture Program and leader of the MasAgro component “Take It to the Farmer”, called upon the international community to commit to promoting collaborative research strategies that strengthen global food security. As an example, Govaerts cited the Global Programs WHEAT and MAIZE that CGIAR centers are collaboratively implementing to increase the productivity of small-scale farmers in different regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Marty Jones, representative of the Global Forum of Agricultural Research (GFAR), urged the participants to establish a mechanism to facilitate setting agricultural research and development priorities and create sustainable production systems with the capacity to bring about a 60 % increase in global food and agricultural productivity by 2050.

The participants also expressed their support of researchers who are developing the Germplasm Resource Information Network (GRIN–GLOBAL) and working to make genetic resources more accessible to the international scientific community. Simon Liu, representative of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), invited experts to cooperate in establishing policies giving open source access to genetic and genomic data obtained with public sector program support to benefit mainly farmers in developing countries.

CIMMYT at the 1st Agro-biodiversity and Agro-products Fair

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2012-09-08-15.22.26National Service Seed Inspection and Certification (SNICS) and National Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (SINAREFI) organized the first Agro-biodiversity and Agroproducts Fair in Xochitla Ecological Park, Tepozotlan, Mexico, during 7-8 September 2012, to promote conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of crop species which originated in Mexico (maize, squash, bean, avocado, tejocote, poinsettia, and vanilla). Production techniques, crop diversity, biodiversity, handicraft, agro-industrial processing, and culinary products were demonstrated to a large audience of farmers, educators, private entrepreneurs, policy-makers, donors, and international institutions representatives.

2012-09-08-15.30.06CIMMYT participated in the fair through its Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative under the Genetic Resources Program. Martha Willcox (SeeD maize phenotyping coordinator) and Carolina Saint Pierre (SeeD wheat phenotyping coordinator) presented maize and wheat collections from the CIMMYT genebank and a poster prepared by Paulina González and Bibiana Espinosa from the germplasm bank emphasizing the importance of seed conservation and its long-term benefits for humanity. CIMMYT team was also represented by Isabel Peña, Institutional Relations Head, who provided visitors with information on CIMMYT. The CIMMYT booth was visited by many students, professors, and farmers. The students and professors expressed a particular interest in CIMMYT’s publications on maize and wheat diseases, conservation agriculture, the SeeD initiative, breeding for drought and low nitrogen tolerance, breeding of native maize (criollos), and grain storage techniques. Farmers were mostly interested in CIMMYT maize collections samples. They also shared their experience working with different types of maize.

The Fair’s program included many interesting presentations. SINAREFI highlighted their conservation networks including custodian farmers of native maize in the states of Sinaloa and Oaxaca. The farmers brought maize ears to demonstrate maize races they produce and maintain on their farms, and discussed the advantages of the dynamic on-site conservation system which allows for farmer selection and adaptation to changing environments. Other members of the agricultural research community were present at the Fair to discuss their recent research activities and demonstrate their products.

The Fair provided opportunities for interaction with local farmers and students from different parts of Mexico, and demonstrated various agro-products and sustainable technologies. CIMMYT’s participation raised public awareness of CIMMYT’s work and created a closer relationship with SNICS and SINAREFI.

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 .

CIMMYT-CAAS-Seed industry interface on rapid-cycle maize breeding

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To strengthen the modern technology-driven maize breeding in China, “CIMMYT-CAAS-Seed Industry Interface on Rapid-cycle Maize Breeding” was held on June 9, 2012 in CIMMYT-CAAS Joint International Research Center based in Beijing. Co-sponsored by CIMMYT, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), and the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), the workshop was attended by 52 scientists and managers from 23 seed companies and public sector institutions in China. Their aim was to establish a dynamic interface between the CIMMYT-CAAS maize team and the seed industry to begin rapid-cycle, genomic selection-based maize breeding, under an initiative titled “Eight + One”—that is, eight seed companies plus the CAAS institute of crop sciences—as an industry/institution collaboration platform for commercial maize breeding.

Senior managers addressing participants included David Bergvinson, senior program officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; GCP director Jean-Marcel Ribaut; Shumin Wang, deputy director, CAAS-ICS; and from CIMMYT, Gary Atlin, associate director of the CIMMYT global maize program, and Kevin Pixley, director of the genetic resources program.

CAAS

Scientists presented on CIMMYT work in genomic selection (concept and CIMMYT activities, Xuecai Zhang), double haploid approaches in maize breeding (Daniel Jeffers), marker-assisted selection in maize breeding (Yunbi Xu), modeling and simulation in plant breeding (Jiankang Wang), bioinformatics and computing needs for genomic selection (Gary Atlin), and our breeding pipeline and examples from lowland tropical maize breeding (Xuecai Zhang). BGI-Shenzhen’s Gengyun Zhang described the company’s genotyping platforms and service. A group discussion addressed rapid-cycle maize breeding through industry-institution collaboration, such as the molecular breeding network in China, coordinated genotyping and phenotyping, use of temperate and tropical DH inducers, environmental data collection, and standardization of maize trials.

Participants also attended an “Open Day for Chinese Breeders,” a concurrent session of the 3rd Annual Meeting of Integrated Breeding Platform Project organized by GCP and CAAS, were introduced to IB FieldBook and IBP Analysis Tools. “(This workshop) came at a right time and brought us right information and knowledge for accelerating maize commercial breeding,” said Zanyong Sun, Vice president of Beijing Denong Seed Co. The workshop’s chief organizer, maize molecular breeder Yunbi Xu, sees it as an important first step for industry institution initiatives. “We’ll establish a common genotyping and MAS platform to serve the Chinese maize breeding community,” he said.

China-CIMMYT impact: celebrating 30 years of collaborations

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CIMMYT director general Tom Lumpkin, Global Wheat Program director Hans Braun, and Global Maize Program director B M Prasanna visited the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS) during 16-18 May 2012. As part of the visit, CAAS President Li Jiayang highlighted CIMMYT’s contributions to Chinese agricultural development and named CIMMYT as a CAAS strategic partner for international collaboration. An agreement was also signed between CAAS and CIMMYT to further promote collaboration on applied biotechnology in crop improvement. A workshop was held on 18 May 2012 to celebrate the 30-year China-CIMMYT collaboration. There were more than 60 participants, including Ren Wang, CAAS vice president, deputy director general Liu Zhiming from the Ministry of Science and Technology, and division director Yinglan Zhang from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. Lumpkin described CIMMYT’s new development and collaboration role with China, followed by presentations from CIMMYT liaison officer Zhonghu He and five partners from CAAS and from the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Shandong, and Ningxia.

MOAAs indicated in Ren Wang’s speech, CIMMYT has the largest investment in China among CGIAR centers. Five collaborative research programs led by CIMMYT scientists stationed in China have been established at CAAS, Yunnan and Sichuan. This has created a new model for CGIAR-China collaboration and increased CIMMYT’s impact in China. CIMMYT is also the first international center to establish collaborative projects with the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

CIMMYT wheat germplasm has contributed significantly to wheat production in China. More than 90,000 wheat accessions were introduced to China and 14,000 genotypes were stored in national and provincial genebanks, accounting for around 55% of introduced wheat germplasm in China. More than 260 improved varieties were released from CIMMYT germplasm, and the accumulated planting area for these varieties has reached 45 million hectares.

More than 1,000 tropical inbred lines and populations from CIMMYT were introduced to China. CIMMYT germplasm has played a significant role in subtropical maize breeding in Yunnan, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces. CIMMYT tropical maize germplasm has also been used as a donor for breeding temperate maize in northern China, as occurred in the two leading temperate hybrids Nongda 108 and Zhengdan 958.

CIMMYT-China collaborations have also had an impact on the application of molecular technology. Forty functional markers were developed, validated, and used in various wheat breeding programs, and three advanced lines developed from molecular markers are expected to be released in the next few years. These markers have been widely used to characterize Chinese and CIMMYT germplasm. A novel method for mapping quantitative trait genes, the ICIM, was developed and used in many countries. Breeding simulation tools are used to optimize the complicated breeding strategies. Nine training courses have been held in China, Mexico, IRRI, and Australia to promote new tools and methods. QTL analysis through joint linkage-LD mapping was developed and used to understand molecular mechanisms for drought tolerance. The genes related to the biosynthesis of proV A have been cloned and used to develop functional markers for molecular breeding. Chip-based and sequencing-based genotyping techniques have been used for genetic diversity analysis, haplotype map construction, and association mapping in maize. More than 400 papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals, including several papers in high-impact journals such as Genetics (2007), PNAS (2010), and Nature Genetics (2010, 2012).

CHINA-CIMMYT-30years-collaboration-seminarBed planting has produced significant impact in the provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan, Shandong, and Henan, bringing among other benefits a 30% reduction in input use. Bed planting is particularly advantageous at saving water. Conservation agriculture techniques combined with new winter wheat varieties have been broadly extended in traditional spring wheat areas, allowing farmers to take advantage of climate change to increase yields and reduce input use.

CIMMYT trained scientists play a leading role in China. Over 800 Chinese scientists and administrators have visited CIMMYT and more than 200 scientists have participated in various training courses or visiting scientist programs and more than 60 postgraduates were trained. Among them, more than 60 serve at a research professor level or became presidents of provincial academies or directors of research institutes. As of 2012, more than 20 training courses and international conferences have been jointly organized, with more than 3,500 participants.

Defining priorities for quality research in native maize

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DSC_0127In order to define the research priorities for the Seeds of Discovery initiative in maize quality of landraces (a Strategic Initiative of both CRPs MAIZE and WHEAT funded by Mexico), a diverse group of food scientists, chemists, maize breeders, genebank curators, social scientists, and representatives of research institutions such as UNAM and Chapingo, met for a workshop to discuss future research on quality characteristics within native Mexican maize.

Held during 23-24 April 2012, at Mansión del Quijote, the workshop recognized the need to preserve cultural customs and identify market niches in order to ensure the conservation and use of germplasm. Many native maize landraces are grown by farmers for specific culinary uses. Tlayudas, for example, are normally prepared using native maize from Raza bolita, whilst Pozole is only prepared with pozolero maize belonging to the ancho, cacahuacintle, and eloteros occidentales races. These culinary and cultural niches are not easily filled by standard
commercial hybrids.

The workshop was organized by Martha Willcox (Genetic Resources Program) and Natalia Palacios (Global Maize Program). “We wanted to prioritize specific uses and areas of research,” said Natalia Palacios. “By discussing state of the art research on quality, germplasm conservation
and characterization, and the uses and applications of landraces, we were able to identify some starting points for further research,” she added. Whilst a great deal of work has focused on landrace quality, much of this research has gone undocumented. Therefore, one of the key focuses for 2012 will be on data analysis, documentation, and publication.

“Overall, we hope to identify and characterize accessions with exceptional quality parameters to be used in breeding, both at the landrace level and to introgress into improved breeding lines, in order to provide an economic benefit to farmers,” stated Martha Willcox.

Genetic resources information and analytical system (GRIS) for wheat and triticale

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20120509_120632GRIS (http://wheatpedigree.net) is designed to study the diversity of wheat through analysis of pedigrees, and provides information services for breeding and research programs. The database contains pedigree and genetic allele information on 160,000 genotypes (varieties and breeding lines). All data are accompanied by standardized reference citations.

The author of the GRIS database, Sergey Martynov of Vavilov Research Institute, and programmer of the web application Dmitriy Dobrotvorskyi, recently met in Istanbul with a group of CIMMYT scientists involved in the development of Wheat Atlas, Rust Spore and IWIS-bib, to discuss collaboration on further development of these web-based tools. The key outputs of the meeting were agreements on (1) incorporation of the GRIS search into the Wheat Atlas and (2) further development of web-based modules to broaden the use of GRIS to conduct various genealogical and statistical analyses. Compatibility of GRIS with external statistical software (ANOVA, various algorithms of cluster analysis, etc.) is also considered essential in order to extend the opportunities for use of GRIS.

Thanks go to the CIMMYT-Turkey office, and to Alexei Morgounov in particular for facilitating this meeting.

CIMMYT team wins CCAFS recognition

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On 29 April, CIMMYT had a double reason to celebrate, picking up the award for “Best gender paper” and “Best science paper” (along with Bioversity), at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Science Conference in Copenhagen. The conference was part of a series of CCAFS meetings held from 29 April – 02 May, and was attended by various CIMMYT staff.

The best gender paper, titled ‘Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Kenya: How Does Gender Matter?’ and co-authored by Simon Wagura Ndiritu, Menale Kassie and Bekele Shiferaw, highlighted the differences between technologies adopted on female- and male-managed farm plots in Kenya. They found that whilst there were gender differences in the adoption of technologies such as the use of animal manure, soil and water conservation, other differences in the use of chemical fertilizers and improved seed may stem from the varying levels of access to resources for men and women, rather than gender itself. “This recognition inspires me to put more effort to produce more quality research that will bring excellent distinction to CIMMYT and myself,” said Kassie, while Ndiritu said “it is an encouragement to a young scientist,” adding that he is looking forward to having the paper published.

The winning science paper, ‘Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change’, was authored by David Hodson (FAO), and Mauricio Bellon (Bioversity) and Jonathan Hellin from CIMMYT. With climate change models predicting significant impacts in Mexico and Central America, particularly during the maize growing season (May – October), the paper assessed the capacity of traditional maize seed systems to provide farmers with appropriate genetic material, under the anticipated agro-ecological conditions. Their results indicated that whilst most farmers will have easy access to appropriate seed in the future, those in the highlands will be more vulnerable to climate change and are likely to have to source seed from outside their traditional supplies, entailing significant additional costs and changes to the traditional supply chain.

DSC_1848To share the good news, the Socioeconomics program hosted a get-together with the team in Nairobi, Kenya. During the cake cutting ceremony, the best gender paper award was dedicated to women farmers from Embu and Kakamega in Kenya’s Eastern and Western Provinces, where the data was collected. The Nairobi team also took the opportunity to initiate monthly seminars in order to share research findings hosted by the Global Maize Program and the Socioeconomics program and promote regular interaction among the team. The program directors, Bekele Shiferaw and B. M. Prasanna nominated Dan Makumbi, Hugo De Groote, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Fred Kanampiu, and Sarah Kibera, to form the organizing committee for the seminars.

Solving the Zinc Problem from Field to Food

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January, 2005

znThanks to pioneering research in Turkey, the links between zinc-deficient soils, plants, people, and continued malnutrition and poverty have been clearly articulated. Few other countries in the world are as well placed to show how plant breeding research can limit the impact of zinc deficiency on crop and human health. So what’s the next step?

In her work as a medical doctor and nutritionist, Prof. Ayhan Çavdar saw many women who could not give birth to healthy children. They had repeated miscarriages and stillbirths. Their babies had agonizing defects of the central nervous system, such as spina bifida, in which the spine fails to close properly, and anencephaly, characterized by an undeveloped brain and incomplete skull. One 18-year-old woman had already miscarried two anencephalitic fetuses. This devastating condition had a surprisingly simple treatment. Çavdar measured the levels of zinc in the young woman’s blood serum, plasma, and hair. They were extremely low. She prescribed zinc supplements for five months. The young woman conceived and gave birth to a healthy child after an uneventful pregnancy.

Zinc deficiency is implicated in health problems throughout the world (see box). The causes and consequences of the problem have been particularly well studied in Turkey, where Çavdar says “a nutrition-related, zinc-deficient milieu exists.”

Wheat is part of that milieu. Most people in Turkey and neighboring countries rely heavily on wheat as a staple. In rural areas, people can consume more than 500 grams of bread every day. Throughout West Asia and North Africa, wheat can constitute from 40 to 60% of daily caloric intake, compared with 21% in Europe or 20% worldwide. People risk zinc deficiency when they subsist on white bread, white rice, or other cereals and consume few vegetables, red meat, or other animal protein.

The Missing Zinc

The widespread zinc deficiency in Turkey’s soils and crops, including wheat, is considered a major
reason for the relatively high incidence of zinc deficiency in its people. In the early 1990s, researchers started a NATOsponsored project in Central Anatolia, Turkey’s major wheat growing area, to investigate the extent and significance of zinc deficiency in soils, plants, foods, and people. Partners included Çukorova University in Adana, the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute in Eskisehir, the Bahri Dagdas International Agricultural Research Center in Konya, the Research Institute of Rural Affairs in Sanliurfa, CIMMYT and Advanced Research Institutes in Australia, Germany, and the USA.

The project, led by Prof. Ismail Çakmak (then with Çukurova University, now with Sabanci University), built on the work of Dr. Robin Graham from Adelaide University in Australia and Mufit Kalayci from the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute in Eskisehir, who had shown the effects of zinc on plant growth and yield. Some wheat varieties, especially those developed from local landraces, used zinc much more effectively than others. Zinc application increased wheat yields by 5-500%, depending on location and soil zinc levels. Also seed that had higher zinc content yielded better than seed with low content.

Çakmak recalls that “when farmers saw the results with zinc fertilizer, they said, ‘Something good like aspirin has come!’ ”Because of the impressive project’s findings, fertilizer companies started producing zinc fertilizer. “Today, ten years after the problem was solidly diagnosed, Turkey uses 300,000 tons of zinc fertilizer. This is a success story,” emphasizes Çakmak. The Ministry of Agriculture estimates that the economic benefit from zinc fertilization in Turkey is about USD 150 million per year.

No Happy Ending—Yet

Plants that get a high dose of zinc fertilizer do not necessarily accumulate enough zinc in the grain to improve human nutrition. Some varieties cannot draw much zinc from the soil. Others easily extract zinc from the soil but cannot make good use of it. Finally, not every farmer can afford zinc fertilizer, and not every country provides it.

“Wheat varieties and landraces, and wheat’s wild relatives, have the genes to solve the zinc problem,” says Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Rainfed Wheat Systems Program and participant in the NATO project.

Getting Good Genes

Turkish wheat landraces and cultivars that use zinc efficiently are being combined with wheat varieties developed in the Turkey- CIMMYT-ICARDA International Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP) that have resistance to yellow rust and root diseases. “We’re evaluating about 180 wheat lines with these traits right now,” says Çakmak. “They’re showing very high levels of zinc efficiency when grown in zinc-deficient soils.” Çakmak and colleagues also found that wild relatives of wheat (Triticum monococcum, T. diccocoides, and Aegilops tauschii) tolerate zinc-deficient soils well compared to bread wheat. “Many of the wild wheats and Aegilops species that exhibit very high tolerance to zinc-deficient soils originated in Turkey,” says Çakmak, “very probably because Turkey has such zincdeficient soils.” They feel this valuable trait can easily be passed to improved bread wheats. Researchers also have high hopes that rye can contribute a similar genetic advantage to wheat.

With funding from DANIDA, CIMMYT evaluated accessions from its wheat genebank for cultivars that produced zinc-rich grain, and considerable variation was found. Çakmak and his team, together with collaborators from Çukurova University (Hakan Ozkan),Tel Aviv University (Eitan Millet), and Haifa University (Eviatar Nevo), have identified wild and primitive wheats from the Fertile Crescent that have grain with seven times as much zinc as modern wheat varieties. Preliminary results also suggest that the grain of wild species has higher levels of proteins and amino acids that make it easier for people to absorb micronutrients such as zinc.

“We have access to nearly 10,000 unique accessions of wild relatives from the Fertile Crescent,” observes Çakmak. “Other research groups are not working with these materials. Because Turkey has zinc deficiency not only in soils and plants but also in people, we’re ideally suited to screen a range of crops for the HarvestPlus program.” (See box below)

harvestplus1HarvestPlus for a More Nutritious Harvest

Zinc deficiencies have serious consequences for health. Because there is no widely accepted method for measuring zinc deficiency, no firm estimates are available on the number of people who are zinc deficient. But billions are at risk for zinc deficiency, with the prevalence highest for South and Southeast Asia and Africa. Zinc supplementation has been shown to reduce by a third the effects of common childhood infections, especially diarrhea, pneumonia, and possibly malaria. In addition, zinc deficiency is an important cause of stunting.

harvestplus2As part of its contribution to HarvestPlus, the CGIAR’s global alliance to breed and disseminate crops for better nutrition, CIMMYT is developing nutritionally enhanced wheat varieties that will automatically increase people’s intake of essential dietary elements like zinc. Given that CIMMYTderived spring bread wheat varieties are planted on 80% of the global spring wheat area, the impacts could be wide-ranging.

The white bars in the figure above show the zinc content of wheat lines that are far along in the breeding process, of excellent agronomic type, and into which CIMMYT breeders have incorporated high levels of zinc (172% of check, in the best line). The best will be used to transfer this trait to other wheat varieties and for studies in which DNA markers will help researchers identify genes associated with high zinc content.

For more information: h.j.braun@cgiar.org

Truman State University Students See Science in Action at CIMMYT

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September, 2004

truman_studentsFive undergraduate biology students from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri, visited CIMMYT headquarters for four days in August to learn about CIMMYT’s research and observe scientists working in an international environment.

“What they are doing at CIMMYT is on the cutting edge in the molecular aspects, as well as in the traditional breeding programs,” says student Benjamin Schmidt. “Everyone we met was friendly and helpful in explaining the centers’ goals and how they hope to accomplish them.”

Scientists in the Applied Biotechnology Center gave presentations to the students about their research and also provided constructive criticism and new perspectives on the research presentations given by the students. “The best part was the scientists’ willingness to hear about our research and share their research with us,” says student Christopher Spencer.

Their research project, entitled “High-Density Genetic Map of Maize Transcripts,” focuses on comparing the genetic map of thousands of sequenced maize genes to the completely sequenced rice genome. The National Science Foundation grant that funds the project is aimed partly at exposing students to the international scientific community and the challenges faced by scientists who genetically improve plants for the developing world.

Dr. Brent Buckner, the students’ biology professor, thinks the trip’s highlight was a visit to CIMMYT’s subtropical field station in Tlaltizapán. “It was at this point that the students truly came to understand the marriage between laboratory science, plant breeding, and developing maize and wheat to combat world hunger,” says Buckner, who directs their research project.

“It was exciting to see firsthand the field projects that supported and complemented the laboratory projects that had been described to us on the first day, and to which the students had contributed during their shadowing experience,” says Buckner. “CIMMYT was an outstanding place to expose students to how classical breeding methods and molecular genetic techniques are being used together to improve agriculturally important crops.”

After visiting the experiment station, the students met with a local farmer who shared his methods for growing hybrid maize for his family’s consumption. “Seeing a Mexican farmer utilizing the science in the field drove home what the research is all about,” says student Ryan Douglas.

The students toured the Plant Genetic Resources Center, CIMMYT’s germplasm bank, learned about the domestication of wheat and genetic diversity of maize, and shadowed technicians in biotechnology laboratories. They saw the importance of maize in Mexico’s history and culture when they visited the Pyramids of Teotihuacan and the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. The trips emphasized the link between maize cultivation and human development in Mexico, and the role grains have played in civilization.

“This is exactly what I was hoping for from this trip—the chance to interact with the people who make everything happen,” says student Kristen Haley. “I think the experience overall gave us a better understanding of the processes and a broader view of the project’s impact.”

Information for this article was provided by Kendra Knoll, a senior in communications science at Truman State University.

Big Bang from World Wheat Breeding Bucks

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CIMMYT E-News, vol 3 no. 5, May 2006

may01Global, collaborative wheat research brings enormous gains for developing country farmers, particularly in more marginal environments, according to an article in the Centenary Review of the Journal of Agricultural Science.

Forty years of worldwide, publicly-funded collaborative research to improve the yield potential and stress tolerance of wheat, along with efforts to extend the outputs of this science in developing countries, has lowered food costs for the poor, allowed food supplies to meet the demands of rising populations, brought harvest surpluses worth US$ 3-6 billion each year to farmers, and saved 1.8 billion hectares of natural ecosystems from conversion to farmland, to name a few results.

These and other findings appear in a recent review article by CIMMYT wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds and 1970 Nobel Peace Laureate Norman E. Borlaug—one of a series of papers to celebrate 100 years of publishing by the Journal of Agricultural Science. The review traces how international wheat breeding over the last five decades has evolved into “…a global agricultural strategic and trouble-shooting network that plays a central role in providing food security in the developing world.” Led initially by CIMMYT and later with the partnership of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the network for wheat and related crops provides a forum “…whereby institutional linkages are fostered and maintained globally, not only through exchange of germplasm, but also through knowledge sharing, training programmes, international visits and development of extended partnerships…” According to the article, centers like CIMMYT and ICARDA have also played a key role in collecting and conserving the landraces and other genetic resources that improved varieties have replaced, making those resources available worldwide and, more recently, ensuring that useful diversity is rechanneled into improved cultivars.

“Given its importance and accomplishments, it’s somewhat surprising that global wheat breeding struggles to find investors,” says Reynolds. Also noted by Reynolds and Borlaug was the fact that most of the increased area of adoption of improved wheat varieties since 1977 has occurred in more marginal, rainfed areas, rather than favored irrigated farmlands, and that yield increases from these varieties during 1979-95 were greater in semi-arid and heat-stressed environments (2-3% per year) than in irrigated areas (just over 1% per year).

“Considering the issue of food security and its positive influence on the livelihoods of poor people, it’s clear that publicly-funded international centers provide a continuity in agricultural development that would otherwise be lacking for many countries where economic, political, and social instability are commonplace,” the authors say.

A companion Centenary Review by Reynolds and Borlaug discusses the future of collaborative wheat improvement, in which, according to Reynolds, researchers will apply technology-assisted methodologies and powerful information tools to identify and breed value-added traits into wheat varieties. “At the same time, however, we’ll continue to seek farmer input to increase the amount of useful genetic diversity in the field and the local adaptation of varieties, as well as in testing and promoting conservation agriculture practices.”

Regarding the future, the authors say: “Policy-makers need to balance the appeal of high-risk investments in the latest technologies with the realities of resource-poor farmers, for whom tried and tested technologies offer immediate and reliable solutions.”

To access abstracts or full-text versions of the articles:

Impacts of breeding on international collaborative wheat research

Applying innovations and new technologies for international collaborative wheat improvement

For more information contact Mathew Reynolds (m.reynolds@cgiar.org).

Maintaining the Genetic Integrity of CIMMYT Seed Collections: New Maize and Wheat Gene Bank Operations Manual

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October, 2004

In 2004, CIMMYT restructured its research programs into six new global and ecoregional programs. One of these, the Genetic Resources Program, is now home to CIMMYT’s maize and wheat germplasm banks. This new organizational structure indicates the high importance and visibility that CIMMYT places on our role as custodians of maize, wheat, and related species genetic resources.

One of the first priorities of the program was to update the operations manual for the germplasm banks. The result of this effort is this publication, the Wellhausen-Anderson Genetic Resources Center Operations Manual. The policies and procedures outlined in the manual represent those currently being used in the introduction, evaluation, maintenance, regeneration, and distribution of genetic resources at CIMMYT. By following these procedures, CIMMYT ensures that the genetic resources entrusted to it in its germplasm banks are available to the world and that they maintain their genetic integrity while under CIMMYT’s custodianship.

Click here to see the manual.

Click here to see CIMMYT’s guiding principles for developing and deploying genetically engineered maize and wheat varieties.

Click here to see CGIAR draft guidelines for GMO detection in gene banks.