research: Genetic resources

The long-standing and fruitful relationship between Germany and CIMMYT received a boost on 01 May 2011 when, as part of an official tour of Latin America, the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Christian Wulff, visited CIMMYT headquarters to learn more of the center’s work and discuss strengthened partnerships. President Wulff was accompanied by his wife, Bettina, and nearly 60 distinguished guests including German vice ministers and members of parliament, embassy personnel, and business and media representatives. Greeting the guests were CIMMYT Director General Tom Lumpkin and several of the center’s German and German-speaking staff.

After touring the main exhibition hall showcasing Dr. Norman Borlaug’s achievements and contributions to agricultural development, including his Nobel Prize of 1970 and the Aztec Eagle of the same year from Mexico, the entourage attended a presentation by Hans-Joachim Braun, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program. The talk addressed food security and related constraints—climate change, the rising demand for grains, the increasing scarcity of resources like land, water, and fertilizer—as well as CIMMYT’s work in the developing world and its relationship with Germany, a long-term and significant supporter of the center. To name just a few examples, German contributions have funded work on stress tolerant maize for Africa, a regional wheat network for Central Asia, and wheat pathology research for South Asia. German staff at CIMMYT and our partnerships with German universities and institutes have been of enormous value in getting improved technology to farmers.

The whirlwind tour then moved to the seed bank, with exhibitions of maize and wheat genetic resources outside and a visit inside to the upper seed storage chamber. In an impromptu closing statement, President Wulff thanked CIMMYT and described his positive impression of the visit and Braun’s presentation, which he called one of the clearest and most fact-based he had ever heard. Reports on the visit in the German media have referred to CIMMYT as a “highly-regarded research center.”

In addition to Lumpkin and Braun, CIMMYT staff interacting with the guests included Marianne Bänziger, deputy director general, research and partnerships; Scott Ferguson, deputy director general, corporate services; Peter Wenzl, head of the crops research informatics lab; Susanne Dreisigacker, molecular biologist and head of marker applications in wheat; GIS expert Kai Sonder; agricultural economist Tina Beuchelt; Marc Rojas, coordinator of the International Strategy for Maize Improvement; and Petr Kosina, assisting with the event management.

Click here to view/hear…

• A factsheet on Germany & CIMMYT
• The presentation attended by the guests
• Selected photos of the visit

All of us who work at CIMMYT have noticed its recent growth—new faces, new projects, and new facilities being constructed at El Batán and elsewhere. All of this means more research is getting done, and, inparticular, the global maize program is using and producing more breeding materials.

Until recently, the question for the maize program was, where to put them? “The old system just didn’t havethe capacity to store any more seed,” says Efrén Rodríguez, head of data processing and seed distribution.

In a smart solution to the space problem, between 07 February and 16 March 2012 a new system of movable shelving units was installed in the genetic resources center. These can be moved sideways using a winding handle, eliminating the need for a permanent passage between each set of shelves.

The previous fixed shelving had a capacity of 2,880 boxes,whereas the new storage system can hold 4,104—an increase in capacity of more than 40%, with further space available on topof the units if needed. It also takes up slightly less space.

Thanks to Gary Atlin, Félix San Vicente, and Natalia Palacios for their support to this project.

The new storage system is an essential step in supporting the Maize Improvement Consortium for Latin America (IMIC-LA),which is a component of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) initiative. Improvements will also be made in on other places such as a second drying room and storage space for Seeds of Discovery materials.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway recently received 25,000 seed samples from all over the world. Speaking to NPR radio, Cary Fowler, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which runs the Svalbard vault, highlighted the importance not only of storing new and current varieties, but also the old varieties that farmers do not use anymore. In doing so the genepool can be preserved and we can safeguard for future eventualities such as climate change or the emergence of new diseases, he said.

Among the batch of seeds was the vault’s first delivery from Tajikistan. CIMMYT wheat breeder Alexey Morgounov also featured in the NPR weekend segment, which typically has a listenership of over one million. Originally from Russia but now based in Turkey, Morgounov spoke about the unusual nature of wheat farming in Tajikistan. Unlike most other wheat-growing countries, farmers in Tajikistan are still planting the same ancient varieties that have been cultivated on the land for thousands of years. “They don’t want to give up growing them,” says Morgounov, “because those varieties have the taste and texture that they want.”

Instead it is the attitude of breeders that is changing. Morgounov says that before, he would have tried to persuade farmers to replace their old varieties with new, more productive kinds of wheat. Now however, he works with the farmers to improve the ancient wheat lines through traditional methods, whilst retaining the qualities that Tajikistanis desire in their flatbreads. In a country where homemade bread is “the centrepiece of life,” according to Morgounov, and where the people get half their calories from such bread, this is a very important mission indeed, and means that these ancient varieties can be preserved not only in genebanks such as the Svalbard vault and CIMMYT’s own genebank, but in the field as well.

You can listen to the NPR segment here.

At El Batán on 20 December 2011, CIMMYT staff, family, and friends joined specialists from Mexican universities and national research programs, Second Secretary Shin Taniguchi of the Japanese Embassy in Mexico, and farmers in a gala farewell luncheon for the retiring head of maize genetic resources, Suketoshi Taba, after an illustrious 36-year career at CIMMYT in the study, conservation, and use of maize diversity.

In the opening tribute to Taba, CIMMYT Director General Thomas Lumpkin credited his many years of participatory research with farmers to improve landraces for traits like yield and insect resistance, while preserving their grain quality for local food products. “This is work few breeders have done, and it’s greatly appreciated by CIMMYT,” said Lumpkin. Researchers Flavio Aragón, of Mexico’s National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock Institute (INIFAP) and Humberto Castro of the Autonomous University of Chapingo—both of whom have worked shoulder to shoulder with Taba and farmers—recalled their long collaboration with the retiring scientist. Castro brought a commemorative plaque from the University and news of renewed funding for the project they had pursued.

A commemorative plaque from CIMMYT was also awarded by Lumpkin at the CIMMYT Christmas party on 16 December 2011. Lumpkin made reference to Taba’s successful coordination of work of national seed banks in 13 Latin American countries to rescue and regenerate more than 15,000 endangered seed collections of native maize races, as well as bringing to 27,000 the number of unique seed samples in CIMMYT’s maize germplasm bank. Staff from the Tlaltizapán research station came personally to present Taba with a plaque of appreciation from station personnel.

In his speech, Taba thanked all present and made special mention of his mentors, his team, and co-workers. “I could not have achieved anything without the hard work and support of colleagues,” he said. “I sincerely hope that CIMMYT will continue to focus on farmers in its work.”

Born on Okinawa just following World War II, Taba grew up on a farm there at a time when, in his words, “…there were no supermarkets, and we ate only what we could grow.” A particularly momentous year in his life was 1975, when he obtained a PhD in plant breeding at Kansas State University, got married, and arrived at CIMMYT as a post-doctoral fellow. After serving during 1977-86 as the center’s maize breeder for the Andean Region, Taba took up an appointment as head of maize genetic resources in 1987.

With wonderful dishes from CIMMYT’s food services unit and a background of spirited music from a local mariachi band, guests saw Taba receive a unique gift from the global maize program: an original watercolor painting by local artist and former CIMMYT staff member Linda Ainsworth. Withal, the fond wishes of those at the event, which went on into the evening with celebration and shared recollections, constitute a souvenir that Taba will take with him wherever he goes.

A frequent visitor to CIMMYT, retired University of Massachusetts at Boston Professor Garrison Wilkes, could not be present at the luncheon but sent Taba a letter which closed with the words: “Never have so many people who plant and consume maize, now and in the future, owed so much to a single person…We value what you have accomplished and future generations of humans will be more food secure because of your service.”