As the world turns its attention to the policy-shaping discussions during this week’s Pre-Summit of the UN Food System Summit, the need for science and innovation to advance the transformation of food, land and water systems is clear.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with its 50-year track record of impact, success and high return on investment, is essential to these efforts.
Our new institutional brochure, Maize and wheat science to sustainably feed the world, links CIMMYT’s mission, vision and excellence in science to the urgent needs of a world where an estimated tenth of the global population — up to 811 million people — are undernourished.
CIMMYT is also a crucial wellspring of response capacity to CGIAR — the largest global, publicly funded research organization scaling solutions for food, land and water system challenges.
Maize and wheat science to sustainably feed the world explains why we do what we do in light of these challenges.
CIMMYT leads maize and wheat research for food systems that deliver affordable, sufficient, and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries.
Our research is focused on smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries and on improving the livelihoods of people who live on less than $2 a day.
CIMMYT science reaches them through innovation hubs, appropriate technologies, sustainable sourcing, and helps to address their needs and challenges through public policy guidance.
Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works for a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems.
This story was originally published on the Inter Press Service (IPS) website.
Durum wheat field landscape at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Toluca, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
Back-to-back droughts followed by plagues of locusts have pushed over a million people in southern Madagascar to the brink of starvation in recent months. In the worst famine in half a century, villagers have sold their possessions and are eating the locusts, raw cactus fruits, and wild leaves to survive.
Instead of bringing relief, this year’s rains were accompanied by warm temperatures that created the ideal conditions for infestations of fall armyworm, which destroys mainly maize, one of the main food crops of sub-Saharan Africa.
Drought and famine are not strangers to southern Madagascar, and other areas of eastern Africa, but climate change bringing warmer temperatures is believed to be exacerbating this latest tragedy, according to The Deep South, a new report by the World Bank.
Up to 40% of global food output is lost each year through pests and diseases, according to FAO estimates, while up to 811 million people suffer from hunger. Climate change is one of several factors driving this threat, while trade and travel transport plant pests and pathogens around the world, and environmental degradation facilitates their establishment.
Crop pests and pathogens have threatened food supplies since agriculture began. The Irish potato famine of the late 1840s, caused by late blight disease, killed about one million people. The ancient Greeks and Romans were well familiar with wheat stem rust, which continues to destroy harvests in developing countries.
But recent research on the impact of temperature increases in the tropics caused by climate change has documented an expansion of some crop pests and diseases into more northern and southern latitudes at an average of about 2.7 km a year.
Prevention is critical to confronting such threats, as brutally demonstrated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on humankind. It is far more cost-effective to protect plants from pests and diseases rather than tackling full-blown emergencies.
One way to protect food production is with pest- and disease-resistant crop varieties, meaning that the conservation, sharing, and use of crop biodiversity to breed resistant varieties is a key component of the global battle for food security.
CGIAR manages a network of publicly-held gene banks around the world that safeguard and share crop biodiversity and facilitate its use in breeding more resistant, climate-resilient and productive varieties. It is essential that this exchange doesn’t exacerbate the problem, so CGIAR works with international and national plant health authorities to ensure that material distributed is free of pests and pathogens, following the highest standards and protocols for sharing plant germplasm. The distribution and use of that germplasm for crop improvement is essential for cutting the estimated 540 billion US dollars of losses due to plant diseases annually.
Understanding the relationship between climate change and plant health is key to conserving biodiversity and boosting food production today and for future generations. Human-driven climate change is the challenge of our time. It poses grave threats to agriculture and is already affecting the food security and incomes of small-scale farming households across the developing world.
We need to improve the tools and innovations available to farmers. Rice production is both a driver and victim of climate change. Extreme weather events menace the livelihoods of 144 million smallholder rice farmers. Yet traditional cultivation methods such as flooded paddies contribute approximately 10% of global man-made methane, a potent greenhouse gas. By leveraging rice genetic diversity and improving cultivation techniques we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance efficiency, and help farmers adapt to future climates.
A farmer in Tanzania stands in front of her maize plot where she grows improved, drought tolerant maize variety TAN 250. (Photo: Anne Wangalachi/CIMMYT)
We also need to be cognizant that gender relationships matter in crop management. A lack of gender perspectives has hindered wider adoption of resistant varieties and practices such as integrated pest management. Collaboration between social and crop scientists to co-design inclusive innovations is essential.
Men and women often value different aspects of crops and technologies. Men may value high yielding disease-resistant varieties, whereas women prioritize traits related to food security, such as early maturity. Incorporating women’s preferences into a new variety is a question of gender equity and economic necessity. Women produce a significant proportion of the food grown globally. If they had the same access to productive resources as men, such as improved varieties, women could increase yields by 20-30%, which would generate up to a 4% increase in the total agricultural output of developing countries.
Practices to grow healthy crops also need to include environmental considerations. What is known as a One Health Approach starts from the recognition that life is not segmented. All is connected. Rooted in concerns over threats of zoonotic diseases spreading from animals, especially livestock, to humans, the concept has been broadened to encompass agriculture and the environment.
This ecosystem approach combines different strategies and practices, such as minimizing pesticide use. This helps protect pollinators, animals that eat crop pests, and other beneficial organisms.
The challenge is to produce enough food to feed a growing population without increasing agriculture’s negative impacts on the environment, particularly through greenhouse gas emissions and unsustainable farming practices that degrade vital soil and water resources, and threaten biodiversity.
Behavioral and policy change on the part of farmers, consumers, and governments will be just as important as technological innovation to achieve this.
The goal of zero hunger is unattainable without the vibrancy of healthy plants, the source of the food we eat and the air we breathe. The quest for a food secure future, enshrined in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, requires us to combine research and development with local and international cooperation so that efforts led by CGIAR to protect plant health, and increase agriculture’s benefits, reach the communities most in need.
Barbara H. Wells MSc, PhD is the Global Director of Genetic Innovation at the CGIAR and Director General of the International Potato Center. She has worked in senior-executive level in the agricultural and forestry sectors for over 30 years.
Bram Govaerts (left), Nicole Birrell (second from left) and Martin Kropff (right) stand for a group photo with José Francisco Gutiérrez Michel (second from right), Secretary of Agri-Food and Rural Development of Mexico’s Guanajuato state.
Today the Board of Trustees of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) announced leadership changes.
The Board approved the appointment of Martin Kropff, current Director General of CIMMYT, as Global Director of Resilient Agrifood Systems of CGIAR. He will play a critical role in enabling an effective transition to the new structure of CGIAR and implementing the CGIAR 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy. In this role, Kropff will be hosted by the CGIAR System Management Organization and will be based in Montpellier, France.
“We congratulate Dr. Kropff on his new position. We are convinced that he will bring to CGIAR the same excellence in science, innovation and effective management that he brought to CIMMYT,” said Board of Trustees Outgoing Chair Nicole Birrell, who completes her term in October this year.
“Through my tenure as CIMMYT Director General, we built a strong and committed team. I am sure that — with the support of the Management Committee, the Executive Committee, the Board, and the three CGIAR Science Group directors — the work of CIMMYT will find a good place in CGIAR,” said Martin Kropff.
New Director General ad interim
Effective July 1, 2021, in accordance with CIMMYT’s Constitution, the Board of Trustees appointed Bram Govaerts as CIMMYT’s Director General ad interim.
Govaerts has been part of the CIMMYT family since 2007. He is Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Director General for Research (Sustainable Production Systems and Integrated Programs) ad interim. He is also the director of CIMMYT’s Integrated Development Program.
Govaerts is renowned for pioneering, implementing and inspiring transformational changes for farmers and consumers in meeting sustainable development challenges. He brings together multi-disciplinary science and development teams to integrate sustainable, multi-stakeholder and sector strategies that generate innovation and change in agri-food systems.
“On behalf of the full Board, we want to thank Dr. Govaerts for his leadership and willingness to ensure that the Center, our research and our operations continue to run smoothly to serve our mandate and mission, as well as the broader One CGIAR vision,” said Board of Trustees Incoming Chair Margaret Bath.
“The world needs CIMMYT and our mission now more than ever, to respond to the challenges that are ahead. We are ready to take up this role, as CIMMYT has done ever since Norman Borlaug and his talented team started their work in the service of the poorest. Let us continue celebrating his legacy by generating further impact through our science,” Govaerts said.
We began 2020 with grim news of the COVID-19 pandemic spreading from country to country, wreaking havoc on national economies, causing countless personal tragedies, and putting additional pressure on the livelihoods of the poor and hungry.
The global crisis exposed the enormous vulnerability of our food system.
If we have learned anything from the past year, it is that we need to urgently invest in science for renewed food systems that deliver affordable, sufficient, and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries.
During this time, the dedication and resilience of the CIMMYT community allowed us to continue making important advances toward that vision.
We hope you enjoy reading our stories and will join us in actively working towards resilience, renewal and transition in our agri-food systems, to ensure that they are strong in the face of current and future crises.
At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), staff are one of our most important assets. We anchor our commitment to diversity and inclusion through our vision, mission and organizational strategy. We interpret workplace diversity as understanding, accepting and valuing all aspects of one’s identity, including gender.
Scientists such as Itria Ibba, head of the Wheat Chemistry and Quality Laboratory, Thokozile (Thoko) Ndhlela, maize line development breeder, and Huihui Li, quantitative geneticist, empower the rest of the maize and wheat research community to do more for those who need sustainable food systems the most.
It wasn’t easy to find a convenient time for the four of us to have a conversation — me, because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, from the Netherlands, Itria in Mexico, Thoko in Zimbabwe and Huihui in China – but we managed. I enjoyed hearing about their work, what sparked — and continues to spark — their passion for maize and wheat research and had the chance to share some thoughts about where the CGIAR transition is taking us.
Martin Kropff, Itria Ibba, Thoko Ndhlela and Huihui Li share a discussion over Zoom. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Martin Kropff: Hello Itria, Huihui and Thoko, great to see you! I’d love to hear more about what you do. Why do you think your work is important in this day and age?
Itria Ibba: Hello Martin! I lead the [CIMMYT] Wheat Chemistry and Quality Laboratory. I am very passionate about my work, which I believe is very important.
In the lab we work both on the improvement of wheat technological and nutritional quality. Both of these aspects are fundamental for the successful adoption of a wheat variety and, of course, to promote a healthy and nutritious diet. Development of nutritious varieties is especially important because — especially in developing countries — the basic diet doesn’t provide all the micro and macronutrients necessary to live a healthy life. Since my focus is wheat, a staple crop that is mainly used for human consumption, I think the work that I am doing can actually have a direct and real impact on the lives of many people.
Kropff: It is important that you — on the quality side of the work — can give feedback to the breeders, and they listen to you. Is it happening?
Ibba: I believe that yes. Of course, quality cannot be the only target in the selection process where several other traits such as yield potential, disease resistance and tolerance to abiotic stresses have to be considered. However, especially for wheat, quality needs to be considered because it is strictly associated with the economic value of a specific variety and plays a fundamental role throughout the whole wheat value chain. The feedback we are giving is being taken positively. Of course, it could be ‘heard’ more.
Kropff: If I may ask, do you think you’re being treated as a scientist regardless of your gender? Or does it matter?
Ibba: Personally, I have always felt that I was respected, in my lab and in my team, especially at CIMMYT. At the beginning, I had some concerns because I am a bit young… Mainly because of that, yes, but not because I am a woman. I cannot say anything bad from that perspective.
Kropff: I think that young people must have the future in our organization. Sometimes when people get older — I try not to be like that, but I am also getting older — they think that they know everything and then you have to be very careful, because the innovations are mostly coming from young people. But young minds come up with new ideas. What about your work, Huihui? You are contributing in a completely different way than Itria and Thoko, and you are coming from a mathematical point of view. When I see you, I always think about math.
Li: Yes, due to my major, sometimes I feel like I am a stranger working in an agricultural research organization. Because I can’t breed new varieties, for example. So, what’s my position? I ask myself: how can I have a successful career in agriculture? But I think that in this new era, this new digital era, I can do more.
Kropff: Data, data, data!
Li: Yes! We can do smart agriculture based on big data. We can do a lot of things with prediction, so that breeders can save time and effort. Maybe we cannot breed the varieties directly or we cannot publish our new findings in high impact journals, but we can play an essential role for this work to be successful. I think that’s my added value: to be useful to breeders.
Kropff: And you are! Thoko, what about you?
Ndhlela: I’m a maize breeder. I’m responsible for two product profiles in southern Africa and these are extra early, early and nutritious maize. I feel like my work is very important, given that I am focusing on developing and deploying nutritious and stress-tolerant maize varieties to people who rely on maize as a staple food crop. White maize is the one that is mainly consumed and yet it doesn’t contain any of the micronutrients such as vitamin A, zinc, iron. We are working towards closing that gap where people have limited or no access to other foods that contain those micronutrients. If we provide them with maize that is nutritious, then we close that gap and addressing the issue of malnutrition. It is especially critical, for young children. According to UNICEF, 53% of the mortalities in children globally are due to micronutrient deficiencies. My work aims to address to a greater extent the problems that farmers face.
Thoko Ndhlela presents on provitamin A maize at a CIMMYT demonstration plot in Zimbabwe. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Kropff: Are you working on provitamin A maize?
Ndhlela: Yes!
Kropff: It’s orange right? How are consumers adopting it? Does that require extra marketing activities?
Ndhlela: Yes, because in most countries where maize is a popular staple food, people use yellow maize mostly for livestock feeds. But when it comes to the main food, they mainly use white maize. So there has to be that extra effort. We have been working with HarvestPlus on that front, and so far in southern Africa we’ve made good strides in terms of getting people to accept the maize.
Back in the day, when they were first introduced to the idea of eating yellow maize as main food, that maize came from food relief and not in a good state, so there was that negative attitude, which they remembered when we came in with vitamin A maize [which has a yellow color]. We told them, “This is different” and the fact that we did demos, they grew the maize, they harvested and consumed it, led to their acceptance of it. Right now, we have so much demand for seed, especially across southern Africa. Seed companies that we work with say that the seed is sold out and people are still looking for it.
Kropff: I’m very happy to hear this. We have to make sure that what we do is demand-driven, right? And on your role as a woman in research in Zimbabwe. Do you feel like you are taken seriously as a scientist?
Ndhlela: I really do, yes. I am really given space to be myself, to do my work and have that impact on the ground.
Ibba: Martin, I have a question regarding One CGIAR. Will there be any changes within CIMMYT regarding redistribution of research areas? Will some of the research areas change the research focus or implement new research groups and strategies?
Kropff: I could talk for five hours about this. CGIAR has big plans to change the structure, to change the initiatives, to change everything this year.
I believe that CIMMYT is strong, we have a lot of impact. The quality of our work is really high, and I want to make sure that CIMMYT’s work — your work — finds a solid landing in the new CGIAR.
They’re envisioning a restructuring in three large science groups. Several Directors General suggest that we shouldn’t start breaking everything up but that we take whole programs as we have them now and bring them into the new science groups. It’s complicated but everyone wants the CGIAR to be successful.
In terms of research, what we do as CIMMYT already provides solutions, for example, the Integrated Development Programs, such as CSISA, MasAgro, SIMLESA. This has now been taken over by the whole CGIAR. These are programs where you work with national systems and you look at what is important to them, and where innovation is needed. Not focusing on single solutions but integrated solutions from different disciplines. When the research needs come directly from the stakeholders, we become more demand-driven. And that makes life even more exciting.
I think that when we listen to our stakeholders, there will always be a maize and wheat component [in agricultural research]. When we interviewed them in 2020, they stated that things [that are on top of their wish list for agricultural research and development are] breeding, agronomy, big data, and wheat, maize and rice.
I always say: what we need is food systems that deliver affordable — you said it already, Thoko — sufficient and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries. And for all those criteria, wheat and maize are key because they are efficient, they are produced very well, they provide a good basis of nutrition, and you can produce them within planetary boundaries.
But, back to you. Could you share a story or anecdote about a turning point or defining moment in your work?
Ibba: Personally, I’ve had different turning points that led me to this career but I believe that one of the most important moments for me was when I started my PhD in Crop Science at Washington State University. There for the first time in my scientific career I understood the importance of working together with breeders, molecular scientists, cereal chemists and even with food companies in order to deliver a successful product from farmers all the way to consumers. The research done there had a real impact that you could see and I loved it. Also for this reason, I am happy to now work at CIMMYT because this happens here, as well, but at a bigger scale. You can clearly see that the work and research you do are directly used and go into new wheat lines and new varieties which are grown by different farmers across the world. It’s amazing. That’s what I think had a bigger impact for me.
Itria Ibba presenting on wheat quality in her lab at CIMMYT HQ, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Ndhlela: I think the biggest moment in my work was when I was first employed as a scientist at CIMMYT. I always looked at CIMMYT scientists as role models. I remember many times that CIMMYT jobs were being advertised for technicians, and people would say, “Oh, this is yours now!” and I told them, “No, no, no, I will only join CIMMYT as a scientist.” And I waited for that moment. And it came and was a turning point in my career and I really thought that now I can express myself, do my work without limitations. And to reach impact!
Another great moment in my work is when I hear that hundreds of farmers are growing and consuming the varieties that I am involved in developing and deploying. I really want to hear people talking of impact: how many tons of certified seed is being channeled from seed companies to the growers, and how many peoples’ lives are we improving. I think that really defines my work. If the varieties don’t get to the farmer, then it is just work going to waste.
Li: Sometimes I feel inferior because I can’t breed a variety, or have big papers in agriculture-related journals, but one day I looked up my citation of my publications and I felt self-satisfied. I could feel my impact. Actually, several of my papers are highly cited; my total citation is more than 3,000 right now.
Kropff: Oh good!
Li: Yes! That means that my work has impact and many people are using the algorithm I developed to have even more impact. Papers that cite my work are published in Science and Nature, Nature Genetics, etc. I feel useful and like my work plays an essential role in research.
Kropff: That’s the thing: there’s impact in science and impact in farmers’ fields and at CIMMYT it comes together. Colleagues at CIMMYT are taking your results and using them to make a difference through crop variety improvement and other things.
Ndhlela: How do you think that One CGIAR will help strengthen our research towards the Sustainable Development Goals across the geographies where we work?
Kropff: I have always promoted the idea of ‘One CGIAR’. Even before joining CIMMYT. But it is complicated because we’re bringing 13 CGIAR Centers together. I saw it at Wageningen University: when you have one organization, you can be so much stronger and more visible, globally.
Because together we [One CGIAR] are the global international organization for agricultural research. We add something [to our global partners such as] the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) which works on agricultural policy, and IFAD that has international development programs and World Food Programme which delivers food — most of it staple crops — to those who need it the most. But supplying food is not a sustainable approach, we want to have sustainable food systems in those countries, so that people can produce their own food. That’s where research is necessary, and knowledge is necessary.
I am super proud that the wheat and maize and agronomy work we do is so well adopted. Farmers are adopting our varieties across the globe. These are new varieties I’m talking about — this is key — which are on average 10 years old and they respond to current challenges happening on the ground. Regarding your work, Thoko, with maize, I just got data from Prasanna [CIMMYT’s Maize Program and CGIAR Research Program on Maize Leader, Prasanna Boddupalli] that farmers are growing drought-tolerant maize and other maize varieties from CIMMYT on 5 million hectares in eastern and southern Africa! All of this is because of a good seed systems approach with the private sector: small seed companies delivering our varieties scaling our great breeding work. Taking it to the farmers!
I think that the work that we do is super important to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Number one —– well, it’s number two, but for me it is the first —– is ending hunger. Because when you’re hungry, you cannot think or live normally. Poverty is also an incredibly important challenge. But I would put hunger as number one. I don’t think any of us here have had real hunger. My parents did, in the Second World War and let me tell you, when I heard those stories, I realized that that’s something that nobody should go through.
Climate change as well. We have to keep innovating because the climate keeps changing. I was just reading today in a Dutch newspaper that 2 degrees won’t be reached, it will be more. And in the Netherlands the land is so low, so that even with dykes, we will not be able to manage in the next 50 years. People will have to start moving. In the Indo-Gangetic Plains, they’ll have to plant short duration rice, use smart machinery such as the Happy Seeder, then plant short duration wheat — all just to stay ahead of the looming 50 ˚C weather.
Do you agree?
Ibba: Well, yes, but I hope that in the end there will be good coordination between the CGIAR Centers and everything. But if it works well, then I definitely think that it will be more impactful. That’s for sure.
Kropff: What can supervisors and mentors do to encourage women in science careers?
Li: I think this is a good question Martin. I am sure that Itria and Thoko will agree with me: women need more than just our salary. I think that women are more emotional, so, most of the time, when my supervisor is more considerate and careful in regard to my emotions, I feel touched and actually, more motivated. I simply need more consideration, emotionally. I have some experience in this with students [who work for me]. When I want to stimulate their motivation, I compare the two effects. Say, I increase their salary. I feel that the male student is happier than the female. [Laughs] On the other hand, I try to be more considerate with all of my students and ask them about their families or express concern about something. When I do this, I don’t get much of a reaction from the males but the females are grateful. I think the same works for me.
Huihui Li at work in her lab in China. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Kropff: I always intend to treat everyone equally and I think I do. But then some people need to be treated differently. That is situational management based on the capabilities and also the personality of people. Do we have to be more mindful of how one works with women?
Li: Well, people are diverse.
Kropff: Right. On the one hand, people should be treated as they want to be treated based on their individual personality, and then on the other hand you want to make sure that women are taken as seriously as men in, say, science.
Ndhlela: I agree with Huihui. Supervisors should give maximum support to women because they already have full plates. The field of science is challenging, so if they feel that they’re not being given enough support, they tend to get discouraged and demoralized. So, supervisors and colleagues need to take that into account. Like Huihui said, women are more emotional than our counterparts. And they need that support. When dealing with women in a professional setting, supervisors could take a visionary style where they give us space to work and do our assigned duties without a lot of interference. Micromanagement is frustrating. From my experience, women in science are serious and they can work with minimum supervision and they are really out there to achieve objectives.
Ibba: I agree with both of you. Space and trust, and constructive criticism. Apart from the strength and support from one’s supervisor, it would be good to implement a mentorship program for young scientists. Sometimes you need a non-supervisor voice or someone that can guide you [who you do not report to]. Human Resources also need to play a key role in supporting women and men, and ensuring zero discrimination. But I’m sure that all we really want is to be treated as humans [laughs]. We all have emotions.
Kropff: Thank you very much colleagues for this open discussion. This has been very interesting and given me a lot of food for thought. Our conversation makes me miss pre-COVID-19 informal moments at work and at conferences, social moments where people open up. But here we show, we can do that during Zoom meetings as well with videos on to read each other’s body language and with groups that are small. Thank you for the inspiration!
Seeds are a cornerstone of food security. That is why the maize and wheat genebanks have always been at the heart of the work of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Earlier this year, as the CIMMYT community wished farewell to Denise Costich, Terence (Terry) Molnar stepped into her shoes and took over the management of the world’s largest and most diverse collection of maize.
Molnar calls himself a curator, but unlike his counterparts at libraries and museums, his job is not only about registering and showcasing the 28,000 unique seed collections of maize. He and his team make sure that the rich maize biodiversity collected throughout time and geographies stays alive, viable and accessible to others.
We sat down with Molnar to learn more about his unique role and what we can do to celebrate biodiversity on the International Day for Biological Diversity — and every other day.
Germplasm banks around the world are protectors of genetic diversity, altogether preserving roughly 700,000 samples of wheat varieties from fields far and wide. Thomas (Tom) Payne, the head of CIMMYTs Wheat Germplasm Collection, or genebank, manages the Mexico-based collection of nearly 150,000 accessions from over 100 countries. He has been affiliated with CIMMYT since 1988, and has dedicated his career to wheat improvement and conservation, working in Ethiopia, Mexico, Syria, Turkey and Zimbabwe. In addition to managing the genebank, he is the chair of the CGIAR Genebank Managers Group, has served as secretary to the CIMMYT Board of Trustees, manages the CIMMYT International Wheat Improvement Network and was awarded the Frank N. Meyer Medal for Plant Genetic Resources in 2019.
In advance of his retirement in July 2021, CIMMYT senior scientist Carolina Saint Pierre sat down with Tom Payne over Zoom to ask him a few questions from the wheat breeding team about his lifetime of experience in wheat biodiversity conservation.
What is your favorite Triticum species?
Triticum aestivum, bread wheat, is my favorite. Bread wheat feeds around 2.7 billion people worldwide. In fact, more food products are made from wheat than from any other cereal. An interesting detail about Triticum aestivum, however, is that it’s a hexaploid, meaning that it is a distinct species formed from three separate species. The inherent genetic diversity resulting from its three ancestral species and its ability to naturally incorporate genetic diversity from other species gives breeders a broad palette of genetic diversity to work with for current and future needs.
How can genebank managers of vital food crops add diversity to existing collections?
Some of the thousands of samples that make up the wheat active collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. (Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT)
There are many vital genebanks, with community, national, regional, and international affiliations. Harmonization of these efforts into a global conservation network is needed. In wheat, for example, we do not adequately understand the diversity of the crop’s wild relatives. A recent study from Kansas State University observed that two thirds of the accessions of Aegilops tauschii held by several key collections were duplicates. This is an alarm to the global wheat community. The ex-situ collection of a critical species is less representative and more vulnerable than the sheer number of accessions would imply. We need to conduct a thorough characterization of all crop wild relatives to assess the risks to diversity, and a gap analysis of newly collected materials to ensure that their long-term conservation adds unique diversity to existing collections.
Which of the Triticum species that you store in the CIMMYT wheat genebank should, in your opinion, be explored much more?
Species that can readily cross with cultivated wheat, both bread wheat and durum wheat, should have intensified conservation and characterization efforts. Examples of these include Triticum monococcum subspecies monococcum (Einkorn) and Triticum turgidum subspecies dicoccon (Emmer).
What were the most surprising results from the genetic diversity analyses of nearly 80,000 wheat accessions from the CIMMYT genebank?
Modern, molecular genetic tools confirmed, for the most part, the centuries-old Linnaean taxonomic classification of Triticum and Aegilops species. There are generally two broad schools of taxonomists, “lumpers” and “splitters.” The former groups species based on a few common characteristics, and the latter defines multiple taxa based on many traits. The Seeds of Discovery work, in partnership with Michiel van Slageren from Kew Gardens, is confirming the salient taxonomy of the Triticum genus. Van Slageren previously studied and published a taxonomic monograph on the wheat ancestral Aegilops genus.
How can a genebank managers help in pre-breeding?
Maintaining native genetic diversity for use in the future is an important role that genebank managers play in pre-breeding and applied breeding processes. Furthermore, the identification of rare and odd variation plays an important role in understanding trait expression. Genebank managers are now gaining a stronger understanding of the genetic representativeness of their collections, and they can identify where gaps in the conserved genetic diversity may exist. A better understanding of the collections will enable their sustainable conservation and use.
Tom Payne at the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway, for the official opening ceremony in 2008. He holds one of the sealed boxes used to store the nearly 50,000 unique maize and wheat seed collections deposited by CIMMYT. (Photo: Thomas Lumpkin/CIMMYT)
What would you consider the biggest challenge when striving for genetic diversity in breeding wheat for the future?
CIMMYT and other CGIAR Centers are rightfully proud of their stewardship of global public goods, and the free access to and distribution of germplasm and information. Yet outside of the CGIAR, the two-way sharing of germplasm and knowledge is often still not realized by many crop communities. International agreements have attempted to bridge recognition of intellectual property rights with guaranteed access and benefit-sharing mechanisms. However, the playing field remains uneven between public and private organizations due to varied levels of investment and exclusivity, access to technology and information, and marketability.
What is one way we can ensure long-term conservation of staple crops around the world?
In the past few years, several internationally renowned germplasm collections have been destroyed due to civil conflicts, natural disasters and fires — for example in Aleppo, Cape Town and Sao Paulo. Each time, we hear what a shame it was that the destroyed heritage was lost, that it was irreplaceable and beyond value. When a genebank loses an accession, the ancestral lineage extending hundreds of generations becomes permanently extinct. Genebank managers recognize this threat, and hence duplicate samples of all accessions are now slowly being sent to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard for long-term preservation.
Cover photo: Tom Payne, Wheat Germplasm Collections & International Wheat Improvement Network Manager. (Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Maize ears of the newly released set of CIMMYT maize lines. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is pleased to announce the release of a set of 12 new CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs). These lines were developed at various breeding locations of CIMMYT’s Global Maize program by a multi-disciplinary team of scientists in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The lines are adapted to the tropical maize production environments targeted by CIMMYT and partner institutions.
CIMMYT seeks to develop improved maize inbred lines in different product profiles, with superior performance and multiple stress tolerance to improve maize productivity for smallholder farmers. CMLs are released after intensive evaluation in hybrid combinations under various abiotic and biotic stresses, besides optimum conditions. Suitability as either seed or pollen parent is also thoroughly evaluated.
To increase the utilization of the CMLs in maize breeding programs of partner institutions, all the new CMLs have been tested for their heterotic behavior and have been assigned to specific heterotic groups of CIMMYT: A and B. As a new practice, the heterotic group assignment is included in the name of each CML, after the CML number — for example, CML604A or CML605B.
Release of a CML does not guarantee high combining ability or per se performance in all environments. Rather, it indicates that the line is promising or useful as a parent for pedigree breeding or as a potential parent of hybrid combinations for specific mega-environments. The description of the lines includes heterotic group classification, along with information on their specific strengths, and their combining ability with some of the widely used CMLs or CIMMYT lines.
Plants of the newly released set of CIMMYT maize lines. (Photo: CIMMYT)
For further details regarding the released CMLs, please contact B.M. Prasanna, Director of the Global Maize Program, CIMMYT, and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize.
Health has certainly been in the spotlight over the past year. And how could it not be?
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the fact that many groups across the world struggle to make ends meet with little daily income, have poorer housing conditions and education, fewer employment opportunities, and have little or no access to safe environments, clean water and air, food security and health services.
In light of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) is calling on leaders worldwide to ensure that everyone has living and working conditions that are conducive to good health. For many the focus will, understandably, be on access to quality health care services. But there are myriad other factors that influence our ability to lead healthy lives — from how we care for our soil, to what we eat and the air we breathe.
Joining this year’s World Health Day campaign, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is highlighting five areas where it pays to think about health, and the solutions we can use to help build a healthier world for everyone.
Douglas Mungai holds up soil on his farm in Murang’a county, Kenya. (Photo: Robert Neptune/TNC)
Robust germplasm
How do we ensure that germplasm reserves are not potential vectors of pest and disease transmission? The second instalment in the CGIAR International Year of Plant Health Webinar Series tackles the often-overlooked issue of germplasm health.
A CIMMYT gene bank worker photographs maize accessions for the database for future reference. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
Seed viability test at the CIMMYT genebank. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
The conservation of plant genetic diversity through germplasm conservation is a key component of global climate-change adaptation efforts. Germplasm banks like the maize and wheat collections at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) may hold the genetic resources needed for the climate-adaptive crops of today and tomorrow.
But how do we ensure that these important backups are themselves healthy and not potential vectors of pest and disease transmission?
“Germplasm refers to the source plants of either specific cultivars or of unique genes or traits that can be used by breeders for improved cultivars,” program moderator and head of the Health and Quarantine Unit at the International Potato Center (CIP) Jan Kreuze explained to the event’s 622 participants. “If the source plant is not healthy, whatever you multiply or use it for will be unhealthy.”
According to keynote speaker Saafa Kumari, head of the Germplasm Health Unit at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), we know of 1.3 thousand pests and pathogens that infect crops, causing approximately $530 billion in damages annually. The most damaging among these tend to be those that are introduced into new environments.
Closing the gap, strengthening the safety net
The CGIAR has an enormous leadership role to play in this area. According to Kumari, approximately 85% of international germplasm distribution is from CGIAR programs. Indeed, in the context of important gaps in the international regulation and standards for germplasm health specifically, the practices and standards of CGIAR’s Germplasm Health Units represent an important starting point.
“Germplasm health approaches are not necessarily the same as seed and plant health approaches generally,” said Ravi Khaterpal, executive secretary for the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI). “Best practices are needed, such as CGIAR’s GreenPass.”
In addition to stronger and more coherent international coordination and regulation, more research is needed to help source countries test genetic material before it is distributed, according to Francois Petter, assistant director for the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO). Head of the CGIAR Genebank Platform Charlotte Lusty also pointed out the needed for better monitoring of accessions in storage. “We need efficient, speedy processes to ensure collections remain healthy,” she said.
Of course, any regulatory and technological strategy must remain sensitive to existing and varied social and gender relations. We must account for cultural processes linked to germplasm movement, said Vivian Polar, Gender and Innovation Senior Specialist with the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB). Germplasm moves through people, she said, adding that on the ground “women and men move material via different mechanisms.”
“The cultural practices associated with seed have to be understood in depth in order to inform policies and address gender- and culture-related barriers” to strengthening germplasm health, Polar said.
The event was co-organized by researchers at CIP and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
The overall webinar series is hosted by CIMMYT, CIP, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), IITA, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is sponsored by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition (A4NH), the CGIAR Gender Platform and the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB).
The third of the four webinars on plant health, which will be hosted by CIMMYT, is scheduled for March 10 and will focus on integrated pest and disease management.
Alinda Sarah shows a maize cob due for harvest on the farm she owns with her husband in Masindi, mid-western Uganda. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
The ultimate challenge for crop breeders is to increase genetic gain of a crop: literally, to increase the crop’s yield on farmers’ fields. Wheat and maize breeders from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partner institutions are working to achieve this in record time, developing new varieties tailored for farmers’ needs that are also pest- and disease-resistant, climate-resilient, and nutritious.
This work is part of the Accelerating Genetic Gain in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project. Among other methods, breeders are using state-of-the-art novel tools such as genomic selection to achieve this ambitious goal.
In genomic selection, breeders use information about a plant’s genetic makeup along with data on its visible and measurable traits, known as phenotypic data, to “train” a model to predict how a cross will turn out — information known as “genomic estimated breeding values (GEBV)” — without having to plant seeds, wait for them to grow, and physically measure their traits. In this way, they save time and costs by reducing the number of selection cycles.
However, research is still ongoing about the best way to use genomic selection that results in the most accurate predictions and ultimately reduces selection cycle time. A recent publication by CIMMYT scientist Sikiru Atanda and colleagues has identified an optimal genomic selection strategy that maximizes the efficiency of this novel technology. Although this research studied CIMMYT’s maize breeding programs, AGG scientists working on wheat genetic gain and zinc nutritional content see cross-crop impacts.
Shortening a lengthy process
In the typical breeding stages, breeders evaluate parental lines to create new crosses, and advance these lines through preliminary and elite yield trials. In the process, thousands of lines are sown, grown and analyzed, requiring considerable resources. In the traditional CIMMYT maize breeding scheme, for example, breeders conduct five stages of testing to identify parental lines for the next breeding cycle and develop high yielding hybrids that meet farmers’ needs.
In the current scheme using genomic selection, breeders phenotype 50% of a bi-parental population to predict the GEBVs of the remaining un-tested 50%. Though this reduces the cost of phenotyping, Atanda and his co-authors suggest it is not optimal because the breeder has to wait three to four months for the plant to grow before collecting the phenotypic data needed to calibrate the predictive model for the un-tested 50%.
Atanda and his colleagues’ findings specify how to calibrate a model based on existing historical phenotypic and genotypic data. They also offer a method for creating “experimental” sets to generate phenotypic information when the models don’t work due to low genetic connectedness between the new population and historical data.
This presents a way forward for breeders to accelerate the early yield testing stage based on genomic information, reduce the breeding cycle time and budget, and ultimately increase genetic gain.
Regional maize breeding coordinator for Africa Yoseph Beyene explained the leap forward this approach represents for CIMMYT’s maize breeding in Africa.
“For the last 5 years, CIMMYT’s African maize breeding program has applied genomic selection using the ‘test-half-and-predict-half’ strategy,” he said. “This has already reduced operational costs by 32% compared to the traditional phenotypic selection.”
“The prediction approach shown in this paper — using historical data alone to predict untested lines that go directly to stage-two trials — could reduce the breeding cycle by a year and save the cost of testcross formation and multi-location evaluation of stage-one testing. This research contributes to our efforts in the AGG project to mainstream genomic selection in all the product profiles.”
Effective for maize and wheat
Atanda, who now works on the use of novel breeding methods to enhance grain zinc content in CIMMYT’s wheat breeding program, believes these findings apply to wheat breeding as well.
“The implications of the research in maize are the same in wheat: accelerating early testing stage and reducing the breeding budget, which ultimately results in increasing genetic gain,” he said.
CIMMYT Global Wheat Program director Alison Bentley is optimistic about the crossover potential. “It is fantastic to welcome Atanda to the global wheat program, bringing skills in the use of quantitative genetic approaches,” she said. “The use of new breeding methods such as genomic selection is part of a portfolio of approaches we are using to accelerate breeding.”
CIMMYT’s wheat breeding relies heavily on a time-tested and validated method using managed environments to test lines for a range of growing environments — from drought to full irrigation, heat tolerance and more — in CIMMYT’s wheat experimental station in Ciudad Obregón, in Mexico’s state of Sonora.
According to CIMMYT senior scientist and wheat breeder Velu Govindan, using the approaches tested by Sikiru can make this even more efficient. As a specialist in biofortification — using traditional breeding techniques to develop crops with high levels of micronutrients — Govindan is taking the lead mainstreaming high zinc into all CIMMYT improved wheat varieties.
“This process could help us identify best lines to share with partners one year earlier — and it can be done for zinc content as easily as for grain yield.”
If this study seems like an excellent fit for the AGG project’s joint focus on accelerating genetic gain for both maize and wheat, that is no accident.
“The goal of the AGG project was the focus of my research,” Atanda said. “My study has shown that this goal is doable and achievable.”
A shop attendant displays drought-tolerant maize seed at the Dryland Seed Company shop in Machakos, Kenya. (Photo: Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT)
For several decades, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has worked with partners and farmers to improve maize and wheat varieties. Packed with “upgrades” such as tolerance to environmental stresses, tolerance to diseases and pests, boosted nutrient content, higher yield potential and storage capabilities, and improved efficiency in using water and fertilizers, these seeds are rolled out by CIMMYT and its partners to create new opportunities for easier and better lives for farmers.
Together with national research partners, farmers, local governments and seed companies, CIMMYT’s work in seed systems has reaped results. Its experts are eager to put this experience into further action as CGIAR embarks on the next ten years of its journey to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. And rightly so: investments in CGIAR research — mainly through their contributions to enhancing yields of staple food crops — have returned ten-fold benefits and payoffs for poor people in terms of greater food abundance, lower prices of food, reduced food insecurity and poverty and reduced geographical footprint of agriculture. A large part of this impact is the result of CIMMYT’s day to day efforts to create a better world.
A Bangladeshi woman cuts up feed for her family’s livestock. They did not previously have animals, but were able to buy them after her husband, Gopal Mohanta, attended a farmer training from CIMMYT and its partners, which gave him access to better seed, technologies, and practices. Mohanta planted a wider range of crops, and in 2005 he planted maize for the first time, using improved seed based on CIMMYT materials. (Photo: S. Mojumder/Drik/CIMMYT)
Replacing old varieties, not as easy as it sounds
Slow variety turnover — that of more than ten years — makes farmers vulnerable to risks such as climate change and emerging biotic threats. On the other hand, planting improved varieties that match farmers’ needs and the geography they work in, can increase productivity gains and improve the nutritional status of smallholders and their families. This, in turn, contributes to increased household incomes. Indirectly, the benefits can reach the surrounding community by providing increased employment opportunities, wage increases and affordable access to food.
Despite its tremendous benefits, varietal turnover is no small feat.
When it comes to seeds, detailed multi-disciplinary research is behind every new variety and its deployment to farmers. Just as the production of a new snack, beverage or a car requires an in-depth study of what the customer wants, seed systems also must be demand-driven.
Socioeconomists have to work hand-in-hand with breeders and seed system specialists to understand the drivers and bottlenecks for improved varietal adoption, market needs, and gender and social inclusion in seed delivery. Bottlenecks include the lack of access by farmers — especially for resource-poor, socially-excluded ones — to reliable information about the advantages of new varieties. Even if farmers are aware of new varieties, seeds might not be available for sale where they live or they might be too expensive.
Possibly the most complex reason for slow variety turnover is risk vulnerability: some farmers simply can’t afford to take the risk of investing in something that might be good but could also disappoint. At the same time, seed companies also perceive a certain risk: they might not be interested in taking on an improved variety that trumps the seeds from older but more popular varieties they have on stock. For them, building and marketing a new brand of seeds requires significant investments.
Agricultural seed on sale by a vendor near Islamabad, Pakistan. For improved crop varieties to reach farmers, they usually must first reach local vendors like these, who form an essential link in the chain between researchers, seed producers and farmers. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
New approaches are yielding results
Despite the complexity of the challenge, CIMMYT has been making progress, especially in Africa where slow variety turnover is creating roadblocks for increased food security and poverty alleviation.
Recent analysis of the weighted average age of CIMMYT-related improved maize varieties in 8 countries across eastern and southern Africa reveals that the overall weighted average age has decreased from 14.6 years in 2013 to 10.2 years in 2020. The remarkable progress in accelerating the rate of variety turnover and deploying the improved genetics — with climate resilience, nutritional-enhancement and grain yield — are benefiting more than eight million smallholders in Africa.
In Ethiopia, CIMMYT, EIAR and ICARDA’s work led to the adoption of improved rust-resistant varieties, corresponding productivity gains and economic benefits that, besides the urgent need to fight against the damaging rust epidemic, depended on a combination of enabling factors: pre-release seed multiplication, pro-active policies and rust awareness campaigns. The estimated income gain that farmers enjoyed due to adopting post-2010 varieties in 2016/2017 reached $48 million. For the country itself, the adoption of these varieties could save $65 million that otherwise would be spent on wheat imports.
Bill Gates echoes this in Chapter 9 of his new climate book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, as he describes CIMMYT and IITA’s drought-tolerant maize work: “[…] experts at CGIAR developed dozens of new maize varieties that could withstand drought conditions, each adapted to grow in specific regions of Africa. At first, many smallholder farmers were afraid to try new crop varieties. Understandably so. If you’re eking out a living, you won’t be eager to take a risk on seeds you’ve never planted before, because if they die, you have nothing to fall back on. But as experts worked with local farmers and seed dealers to explain the benefits of these new varieties, more and more people adopted them.”
Bidasem director general María Ester Rivas (center) stands for a photo with her seed processing team. Bidasem is a small seed company based in the city of Celaya in the central Mexican plains region known as the Bajío. Despite their small size, Bidasem and similar companies play an important role in reaching small farmers with improved seed that offers them better livelihoods. (Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Holistic action needed if we are to reach farmers with genetic innovations
Now more than ever, with increased frequency and intensification of erratic weather events on top of the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, successful seed systems require the right investments, partnerships, efforts across disciplines, and enabling policies.
Varietal release and dissemination systems rely greatly on appropriate government policies and adoption of progressive seed laws and regulations. CGIAR’s commitment to farmers and the success of national seed systems is described in the recently launched 10-year strategy: “CGIAR will support effective seed systems by helping national governments and private sector companies and regulators build their capacities to play their roles successfully. New initiatives will be jointly designed along the seed distribution chain, including for regional seed registration, import and export procedures, efficient in-country trialing, registration and release of new varieties, and seed quality promotion through fit-for-purpose certification.”
In line with CGIAR’s ambitious goals, to provide farmers with a better service, small- and medium-size seed companies need to also be strengthened to become more market-oriented and dynamic. According to SPIA, helping local private seed dealers learn about new technology increases farm-level adoption by over 50% compared to the more commonly used approach, where public sector agricultural extension agents provide information about new seed to selected contact farmers.
CIMMYT socioeconomics and market experts are putting this in practice through working with agrodealers to develop retail strategies, such as targeted marketing materials, provision of in-store seed decision support and price incentives, to help both female and male farmers get the inputs that work best.
Within the new CGIAR, CIMMYT scientists will continue to work with partners to strongly improve the performance of wheat and maize in smallholder farmers’ fields. Concerted efforts from all actors conforming the entire seed system are essential to achieve our vision: to transform food systems for affordable, sufficient and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries. Wheat and maize seed systems will form the basis to fulfill that vision and provide a tried and tested roadmap for other crops, including legumes, vegetables and fruits. Together, we can keep a finger on the pulse of farmers’ needs and build healthy diets for a better tomorrow from the ground up.
Wheat infected with the blast fungus in Meherpur, Bangladesh, in 2019. (Photo: PLOS Biology)
As scientists study and learn more about the complicated genetic makeup of the wheat genome, one chromosomal segment has stood out, particularly in efforts to breed high-yielding wheat varieties resistant to devastating and quickly spreading wheat diseases.
Known as the 2NvS translocation, this segment on the wheat genome has been associated with grain yield, tolerance to wheat stems bending over or lodging, and multiple-disease resistance.
Now, thanks to a new multi-institution study led by wheat scientist Liangliang Gao of Kansas State University, we have a clearer picture of the yield advantage and disease resistance conferred by this chromosomal segment for wheat farmers — and more opportunities to capitalize on these benefits for future breeding efforts.
The Aegilops ventricosa 2NvS segment in bread wheat: cytology, genomics and breeding, published in Theoretical and Applied Genetics, summarizes the collaborative effort by scientists from several scientific institutions — including International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) head of global wheat improvement Ravi Singh and wheat scientist Philomin Juliana — to conduct the first complete cytological characterization of the 2NvS translocation.
A rich background
The 2NvS translocation segment has been very valuable in disease-resistance wheat breeding since the early 1990s. Originally introduced into wheat cultivar VPM1 by the French cytogeneticist Gerard Doussinault in 1983 by crossing with a wild wheat relative called Aegilops ventricosa, the segment has been conferring resistance to diseases like eye spot (Pch1 gene), leaf rust (Lr37 gene), stem rust (Sr38 gene), stripe rust (Yr17 gene), cereal cyst (Cre5 gene), root knot (Rkn3 gene) and wheat blast.
The high-yielding blast-resistant CIMMYT-derived varieties BARI Gom 33 and WMRI#3 (equivalent to Borlaug100),released in Bangladesh to combat a devastating outbreak of wheat blast in the region, carry the 2NvS translocation segment for blast resistance.
Earlier research by Juliana and others found that the proportion of lines with the 2NvS translocation had increased by 113.8% over seven years in CIMMYT’s international bread wheat screening nurseries: from 44% in 2012 to 94.1% in 2019. It had also increased by 524.3% in the semi-arid wheat screening nurseries: from 15% in 2012 to 93.7% in 2019. This study validates these findings, further demonstrating an increasing frequency of the 2NvS translocation in spring and winter wheat breeding programs over the past two decades.
New discoveries
The authors of this study completed a novel assembly and functional annotation of the genes in the 2NvS translocation using the winter bread wheat cultivar Jagger. They validated it using the spring wheat cultivar CDC Stanley and estimated the actual size of the segment to be approximately 33 mega base pairs.
Their findings substantiate that the 2NvS region is rich in disease resistance genes, with more than 10% of the 535 high-confidence genes annotated in this region belonging to the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) gene families known to be associated with disease resistance. This was a higher number of NLRs compared to the wheat segment of the Chinese Spring reference genome that was replaced by this segment, adding further evidence to its multiple-disease resistant nature.
In addition to being an invaluable region for disease resistance, the study makes a strong case that the 2NvS region also confers a yield advantage. The authors performed yield association analyses using yield data on lines from the Kansas State University wheat breeding program, the USDA Regional Performance Nursery —comprising lines from central US winter wheat breeding programs — and the CIMMYT spring bread wheat breeding program, and found a strong association between the presence of the segment and higher yield.
Global benefits
The yield and disease resistance associations of the 2NvS genetic segment have been helping farmers for years, as seen in the high proportion of the segment present in the improved wheat germplasm distributed globally through CIMMYT’s nurseries.
“The high frequency of the valuable 2NvS translocation in CIMMYT’s internationally distributed germplasm demonstrates well how CIMMYT has served as a key disseminator of lines with this translocation globally that would have likely contributed to a large impact on global wheat production,” said study co-author Juliana.
Through CIMMYT’s distribution efforts, it is likely that national breeding programs have also effectively used this translocation, in addition to releasing many 2NvS-carrying varieties selected directly from CIMMYT distributed nurseries.
With this study, we now know more about why the segment is so ubiquitous and have more tools at our disposal to use it more deliberately to raise yield and combat disease for wheat farmers into the future.
Denise E. Costich, the recently retired head of the Maize Collection at the Germplasm Bank of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), sometimes likes to include a Woody Allen quote in her presentations.
“I have no idea what I’m doing,” declares the text over a photo of a befuddled-looking Allen. “But incompetence never stopped me from plunging in with enthusiasm.”
This is perhaps Costich’s tongue-in-cheek way of acknowledging the unusual trajectory that led her to the Germplasm Bank and her zeal for new and interesting challenges. But it is in no way an accurate reflection of the skill, knowledge and humane managerial style she brought to the job.
“CIMMYT requires individuals with a broad set of experiences,” says Tom Payne, head of the Wheat Collection at CIMMYT’s Germplasm Bank. Though she was not trained as a crop scientist, and despite having never worked in a genebank before, Costich’s rich set of professional and life experiences made her an ideal person for the job.
From Ithaca and back again
Born and raised in Westbury, NY, Costich spent much of her childhood on a tree nursery. Her grandfather was the manager, her father became the sales director and eventually her sister also went into the horticulture business. While her experiences on the nursery contributed to an early interest in plants and ecology, the business aspect of the nursery eluded her. “I just can’t sell things. I’m terrible,” Costich says. “But I really do like to study them.”
This studiousness took her to Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where she initially declared as a wildlife biology major. Her notion of what it meant to “study things” was influenced by her early heroes, primatologists and field biologists Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall. It involved travel. Fieldwork in faraway places. So, when the opportunity arose at the end of her sophomore year to travel to Kenya with Friends World College, Costich didn’t hesitate.
Costich eventually spent four years in Kenya, studying baboons. When she finally returned to Ithaca, she knew two things. Fieldwork was absolutely her thing, and she wanted to pursue a doctorate.
A chance conversation with her housemates in her last semester led to a post-graduation fieldwork stint in the Brazilian Amazon under the supervision of the legendary tropical and conservation biologist, Thomas Lovejoy. But instead of a dissertation topic, she stumbled across a parasite, a case of leishmaniasis and the realization that the rainforest was not the work environment for her.
Unexpected influences and outcomes continued to mark Costich’s career throughout her graduate studies at the University of Iowa. She found her plant not in the field, but while reading a dusty review paper as an exchange student at the University of Wisconsin. Her study of Ecballium elaterium (a wild species in the Cucurbitaceae, or squash, family) did not take her back to the tropics — where most of her peers were working and where she expected to be headed as a grad student — but rather to Spain where, incidentally, she first learned Spanish.
Several years after defending, Costich landed a tenure-track position in the Biology Department at The College of New Jersey. She continued to publish on Ecballium elaterium. Her career appeared to be settling into a predictable, recognizable academic trajectory — one with no obvious intersection with CIMMYT.
Then Costich saw an ad in the Ecological Society of America bulletin for a managing editor position for all of the Society’s journals. Her husband, a fellow biology Ph.D., had been working as an academic journal editor for several years. When Costich saw the ad she immediately drove over to her husband’s office. “I slapped the thing on his desk and said, ‘Here’s your job!’” she recalls.
Costich was right. Soon after, she was on her way back to Ithaca — where the Society’s offices were located — with a family that now included three children. While it was the right move for her family, it came at the cost of her budding academic career. In Ithaca, she soon found herself stuck in the role of itinerant postdoc.
Denise Costich in Spain in 1986, doing fieldwork on Ecballium elaterium with her daughter Mara.
An amazing turn of events
Costich admits that, especially the beginning, the return to Ithaca was tough, even depressing. Her recollections of these years can sound a bit like a game of musical chairs played with research laboratories. As one post-doc or research project wound down, she’d find herself scanning the campus for her next perch. She became very adept at it. “In ten years, I never missed a paycheck,” Costich says.
The turn of the millennium found Costich scanning the horizon yet again. As the days wound down at her latest post, a maize geneticist moved into the lab next door. What started as hallway jokes about Costich jumping ship and joining the maize lab soon turned into an interview, then a job offer.
The job introduced her to nearly everyone at Cornell working in maize genetics. Costich soon found herself managing the Buckler Lab’s work on maize population genetics. Meanwhile, she dabbled in side projects on Tripsacum, a perennial grass genus that is closely related to maize, and managed a major project on switchgrass. At the end of her postdoc, Buckler set to work trying to create a permanent position for her. Once again, Costich’s trajectory was beginning to take a stable, predictable form.
Then CIMMYT scientist Sarah Hearne showed up. “I’d heard through the grapevine — or maybe through the corn field — that the position of manager of the Maize Collection of CIMMYT’s Germplasm Bank was open… and that they were having a hard time trying to find a person for the position,” Costich recalls. She had met Hearne previously and personally knew and had worked with Suketoshi Taba, the pioneering longtime director of the germplasm bank. Naturally the topic emerged as she and Hearne caught up in Ithaca.
Hearne admitted that the search hadn’t yet been successful. “But I know the perfect person for the job,” she added.
“Yeah, who’s that?” Costich asked, not getting the setup.
Denise Costich, the maize collection manager at CIMMYT’s Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank, shows one of the genebank’s more than 28,000 accessions of maize. (Photo: Luis Salazar/Crop Trust)
A stranger in a strangely familiar land
Costich was not a little surprised by the suggestion. She had never worked at a germplasm bank before. She was finally finding some stability at Cornell.
At the same time, her early dreams of exploring new places through her work, especially the tropics, beckoned. Her youngest son was nearly college-aged. Against the advice of some who had watched her work so hard to establish herself at Cornell, she took the plunge.
By the time she reached the CIMMYT campus in Texcoco, Costich had crisscrossed a good part of the globe, picking up Spanish here, management skills there, a deep knowledge of maize and its biological and cultural evolution yonder. During this life journey, she developed a deep humanism that is all her own.
It all seemed like happenstance, perhaps, until she reached Mexico and — suddenly, counterintuitively — found herself in the field she was perfectly adapted for. “It turned out that being a germplasm bank manager was the perfect job for me, and I didn’t even know it!” Costich says. “I ended up using everything I learned in my entire career.”
That isn’t to say that it was easy, especially at first. Taba, her predecessor, had occupied the post for decades, was a trained crop scientist, and had grown the bank from a regionally-focused collection with 12,000 accessions to the preeminent maize germplasm bank globally with 28,000 accessions, a state-of-the-art storage facility, and a slew of pioneering practices.
Not only had Taba left enormous shoes to fill, during his tenure — as is common in the expansionary phase of many projects — it had been difficult for the bank to keep a full accounting and understanding of all the new material that had been added. According to germplasm bank coordinator Cristian Zavala, by the time Costich joined CIMMYT “we knew very little about the material in our vaults.”
“Taba was primarily a breeder,” Costich says. “I actually think this oscillation between a focus on breeding and a focus on conservation and curation is good for the bank.”
Visiting a newly-built community seed reserve in Chanchimil, Todos Santos Cuchumatanes, Huehuetenango, Guatemala, in 2016. From left to right: Mario Fuentes (collaborator), a member of the community seed reserve staff, Denise Costich, Carolina Camacho (CIMMYT), Miriam Yaneth Ramos (Buena Milpa) and Esvin López (local collaborator).
Visiting one of the oldest community seed reserves in the region, Quilinco, Huehuetenango, Guatemala, in 2016. From left to right: Pedro Bello (UC Davis), Esvin López (local collaborator), Denise Costich, José Luis Galicia (Buena Milpa), Ariel Rivers (CIMMYT) and Miriam Yaneth Ramos (Buena Milpa).
Costich with the winners of the Second Harvest Fair and Largest Mature Ear of Jala Maize Contest in Coapa, in Mexico’s Nayarit state.
Costich (left) measures ears of corn for the Second Harvest Fair and Largest Mature Ear of Jala Maize Contest in Coapa, in Mexico’s Nayarit state in 2019.
Costich (center) shares some comments from the stage at the Second Harvest Fair and Largest Mature Ear of Jala Maize Contest in Coapa, in Mexico’s Nayarit state. To her left is Angel Perez, a participating farmer from La Cofradía, and to her right, Rafael Mier, Director of the Fundación Tortillas de Maíz Mexicana.
A bank for farmers
However, according to Zavala, because of the limited knowledge of much material they were working with, many in the bank’s rank-and-file didn’t fully understand the importance of their work. Morale was mixed. Moreover, despite an assumption that her new job would see her working closely with local smallholders, Costich found that the institution was poorly known by everyday farmers in its host country. Where it was known, associate scientist on innovation and social inclusion, Carolina Camacho, notes, there was an assumption that CIMMYT only worked with hybrid varieties of maize and not the native landraces many smallholders in Mexico depend on.
These became the principal axes of Costich’s work at the bank: curation of backlogged material, staff development, and community outreach.
Thus, when Costich realized that records were being kept in a combination of paper and rudimentary digital formats, she sent Zavala, a promising young research assistant at the time, to an internship at the USDA’s Maize Germplasm Bank Collection in Ames, Iowa, to workshops at CGIAR germplasm banks in Colombia (CIAT) and Ethiopia (ILRI), and to meetings on specialized topics in Germany and Portugal.
Zavala had never left the country before, spoke little English, and remembers being “rebellious” at work. “I needed more responsibility,” he says. “Dr. Denise saw that and helped me grow.” Upon returning from an early trip, Zavala helped implement up-to-date traceability and data management processes, including migrating the genebank’s data onto the USDA’s GRIN-Global platform.
But as Payne points out, Costich’s tenure was never about simple bean — or, in this case, grain — counting. “She sees a more human aspect of the importance of the collections,” he says. The main tasks she set for the bank came to be subsumed into the overarching goal of a fuller understanding of the contents of the bank’s vaults, one that encompassed both their biological and sociocultural importance.
When Costich came across a collection of maize landraces from Morelos state assembled by Ángel Kato in the mid 1960s that conserved the name of the farmer who had donated each sample, she worked with Camacho and graduate student Denisse McLean-Rodriguez to design a study involving the donor families and their communities. McLean-Rodriguez, Camacho and Costich set out to compare the effects of ex-situ versus in-situ landrace conservation in both genetic and socioeconomic terms.
Similarly, when a colleague at INIFAP invited Costich to be a judge at a yearly contest for largest ear of Jala landrace maize in Mexico’s Nayarit state, they soon began discussing how they could contribute more than just their participation as judges to the community. Starting in 2016 Costich was a co-lead on a study of the landrace’s genetic diversity as well as an initiative to rematriate Jala seeds conserved at CIMMYT for over 60 years.
Costich and members of the Maize Collection team hosting Pedro Bello from UC Davis (center, glasses) at the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank in Texcoco, Mexico, for a workshop on seed longevity and conservation techniques.
A genebank is not an island
Genebanks are bulwarks against genetic erosion. But, as Camacho explains, this mission can be understood in both very narrow and very broad senses. The narrow sense focuses on genetic processes per se: the loss of alleles. The broad sense includes the loss of cultural practices and knowledge built and sustained around the cultivation of a given landrace. Through the initiatives the bank has undertaken during her tenure, Costich has tried to demonstrate, both scientifically and in practice, how germplasm collections such as CIMMYT’s can complement, reinforce, and be enriched by the work of smallholders — de facto germplasm conservators in their own right — while contributing to the difficult task of combating genetic erosion in the broad sense.
One gets the sense that in Costich’s view this isn’t about a one-way process of big institutions “helping” smallholders. Rather it’s about collaboration among all the participants in an interdependent web of conservation. As she argued at her recent exit seminar, Costich views germplasm banks as one link in a chain of food security backups that begins at the farm level.
Indeed, Costich’s most recent initiative demonstrated how innovations intended for one link in the chain can travel upwards and find applications at bigger institutions.
Costich recently led an initiative with community seed banks in the Cuchumatanes mountain range of Guatemala to study the use of DryChain technology in post-harvest storage of maize. This experiment showed the enormous benefits that incorporating such technologies could yield for energy-insecure or low-tech family and community seed reserves.
Ultimately, however, the study led to a second experiment at CIMMYT’s tropical-climate station at Agua Fría in Mexico. With advice from collaborators at UC Davis and an industry partner (Dry Chain America), the seed conditioning team retrofitted an old drying cabinet at the station to dry maize without using heat, but rather by forcing air to circulate through sacks of drying beads. Under the direction of Filippo Guzzon, a postdoc and seed biologist working with Costich, the long-term viability of seeds dried using the accelerated technique versus traditional, slower techniques was tested. The study showed no loss in long-term viability using the accelerated drying technique.
Denise Costich, CIMMYT director general Martin Kropff, and the Maize Collection team confer certificates of participation to two visiting interns, Jiang Li (to the left of Kropff), a doctoral student from CAAS, Beijing, China, and Afeez Saka Opeyemi (to the right of Costich), a staff member of the IITA Germplasm Bank in Nigeria.
Costich and the Maize Collection team at the 2018 CIMMYT Christmas party. Filippo Guzzon, seated to the right of Costich, had just been offered a postdoc with the team.
Costich and the Maize Collection team at the 2018 CIMMYT Christmas party.
A very busy retirement
At her exit seminar, Costich was presented a plaque in appreciation of her service at CIMMYT by Kevin Pixley, director of the genetic resources program. Terence Molnar, maize breeder with the Genetic Resources Team, has succeeded Costich as the Maize Germplasm Bank Head.
For some of her close colleagues, however, Costich’s departure is not the end of the road. “This is not a forever goodbye,” Guzzon says. “I will continue to be in touch with my cuatita,” says Camacho, who has also left CIMMYT.
For her part, Costich echoes that this is not a forever goodbye at all. Not to her friends and colleagues, and certainly not to her work. At a socially-distanced, maize-based farewell lunch Costich held just days before her departure, she was still busy weaving social connections and furthering collaborations among maize fanatics of all stripes — from chefs and designers to scientists and policy advocates.
She is already considering taking a part time position at her old lab at Cornell and a return to Tripsacum research. At the same time, she will be a visiting scientist at Mexico’s National Center for Genetic Resources (CNRG), where officially she will be heading up part of an international switchgrass study. Costich is hoping to leverage her tenure at CIMMYT by getting involved in a push to help improve the Mexican national system for plant genetic resources. Additionally, she has recently accepted an invitation from Seed Savers Exchange to join their board and she is looking forward to volunteering her time and expertise to various seed-saving initiatives within that organization and their many collaborators.
Asked what she’s looking forward to tackling in her retirement that isn’t work related, Costich betrays her deep allegiance to the plant world. “I don’t know,” she says, “I’m thinking of starting a big vegetable garden.”
Cover photo: Denise Costich stands for a photo during the inauguration of the CIMMYT Genebank museum in 2019. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
The challenges facing our food system are growing, both in size and in complexity. In order to tackle these issues and meet the needs of our changing world, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) understands the importance of assembling a workforce that is diverse, creative and representative. In addition to encouraging STEM careers and hiring more women in scientific positions, we must also foster a more encouraging scientific community for women whose careers are just sparking.
Whether it is through a school field trip, a first internship or a PhD thesis project, CIMMYT is committed to encouraging young women to step into the lab and the fields, and up to the challenge, as we strive to create a more equitable community. On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are inspired by the words of some of the many brilliant women whose scientific careers are just beginning, lighting the pathway to a more equitable future.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is particularly meaningful to CIMMYT’s new Global Wheat Program (GWP) Director, Alison Bentley. Listen and watch as she tells her story, from her first lightbulb moment on a high school field trip, to a leadership position in the wheat research world.
In celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, CIMMYT is participating in a unique marathon event, carrying a global conversation with CGIAR women scientists that are leading change and creating solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges.
Powered by Women in Research and Science (WIRES), a new employee-led resource group at CGIAR, the event will showcase the many ways women scientists are transforming the way we look at our food, land and water systems around the world. In addition to learning about cutting-edge science, you’ll be able to engage with inspiring speakers in 13 different countries.
Join CIMMYT’s discussion on February 11, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. CST, and learn about the journeys of the 2020 Bänziger Award recipients, an engaging Q&A with four CIMMYT scientists, and our vision for a more equitable workforce. Register for the event.
Maize and wheat science to sustainably feed the world explains why we do what we do in light of these challenges.
