Gebre received his doctorate in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Kyushu University, Japan.
On September 25, with financial and academic support from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Girma Gezimu Gebre upgraded his honorific from mister to doctor. Born in Dawuro zone, in southern Ethiopia, Gebre received his doctorate in Agricultural and Resource Economics from Kyushu University, Japan.
His dissertationâGender Dimensions of the Maize Value Chain and Food Security: The Case of Dawuro Zone in Southern Ethiopiaâwas supported by CIMMYT through the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project. Dil Rahut, global program manager of the socioeconomics and sustainable intensification programs at CIMMYT, served on his committee.
Asked about Gebreâs achievement, Rahut alluded to his hard work and dedication. âDesire is the starting point of all achievements while hard work and commitment are the end points of all the high achievements,â he said.
Gebreâs research explores how and to what degree gender plays a role in the adoption of improved maize varieties, maize productivity, maize market participation, and marketing channel choices, as well as food security among smallholder households across the maize value chain. Gebre already boasts published articles on the impact of gender on various dimensions of agriculture and agricultural development as well as various other topicsâ from the development of sustainable banana value chains in Ethiopia to barriers to farmersâ innovativeness.
At Kyushu University Gebre was awarded the 2020 Graduate School of Bioresources and Bioenvironmental Science âOutstanding Student Prize.â He was also awarded the 2020 Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics Prize in recognition of his excellent academic achievements and quality as a role model for other students.
Before pursuing a Ph.D., Gebre received a Masterâs degree in Economics (Development Policy Analysis) from Mekelle University, Ethiopia, and a Masterâs degree in Agricultural Production Chain ManagementâHorticulture Chain from Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands. He has served as the coordinator of the postgraduate program in Agribusiness and Value Chain Management and as the head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Aksum University, Ethiopia.
Fall armyworm continues to cause havoc in Africa. Farmers in Somalia have not been spared since this unwelcome guest showed up in the country over three years ago. As part of the mitigation measures, the Somali Agriculture Technical Group (SATG) in partnership with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently conducted online trainings on fall armyworm management for sustainable crop protection. The online trainings, targeting national agriculture stakeholders in the country, took place on August 25 and September 30, 2020, with nearly 250 participants attending both webinars.
âThis is the first of our efforts to reach out to our partners in Somalia, especially the Somali Agriculture Technical Group and the national agricultural research system, to increase the awareness on the integrated pest management approaches that can help combat this highly destructive pest,â said B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYTâs Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE).
âThis training was designed to help participants to gain a better understanding about fall armyworm, how to identify it, how to monitor and scout for it, how to effectively implement a management strategy that is environmentally and ecologically benign, in order to protect the food security and livelihoods of farmers and their families,â Prasanna said.
An integrated pest management strategy for sustainable control of fall armyworm should consider various interventions, including regular scouting and monitoring of the pest in the fields, host plant resistance, biological and biorational control, agroecological management, and use of environmentally safer pesticides and good agronomic practices tailored for the socio-cultural and economic contexts of the farmers. Ultimately, the purpose of a functional integrated pest management approach is to suppress pest population by applying techniques that minimize human and environmental harm, while protecting the crops from economic damage.
âI am happy to see the expertise from high levels of research at CIMMYT, icipe, IITA, universities, SATG and the humanitarian sector coming together to tackle and solve problems linked to food production and consumption. I believe that such important trainings have great value for Somalia, and should be further strengthened and encouraged,â said Abdalla Togola from the ICRC.
B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program MAIZE, presents at the online training on integrated pest management-based fall armyworm control. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Hussein Haji, the Executive Director of Somali Agriculture Technical Group speaks at the fall armyworm online training on integrated pest management-based fall armyworm control. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Professor Dan McGrath of Oregon State University, USA, delivering a training on integrated pest management-based fall armyworm control. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
John Karonga, an agronomist at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) speaks at the online training on integrated pest management-based fall armyworm control. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Hussein Haji, the Executive Director of SATG was optimistic that the training would go a long way to empower farmers in Somalia, through their cooperatives, and could lead to better ways of tackling challenges such as fall armyworm, already made worse by other stresses like drought and desert locusts.
âThrough our extension workers, we hope this information will trickle down to our cooperatives, who produce mainly maize and sorghum seed in Somalia,â he added.
This comes on the back of a partnership between the ICRC and SATG to implement activities intended to improve food production among rural communities in six regions of Somalia. The partnership would enhance quality seed production with a focus on maize and sorghum, the major staple crops in the country.
Besides Prasanna, the key resource persons included Dan McGrath (Professor Emeritus, Oregon State University, USA), Joseph Huesing (CIMMYT Consultant on integrated pest management) and Georg Goergen (Entomologist, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture), Frederic Baudron (CIMMYT Systems Agronomist), Anani Bruce (CIMMYT Entomologist), Yoseph Beyene (CIMMYT Regional Breeding Coordinator for Africa) and Saliou Niassy (Head of Agricultural Technology Transfer Unit, International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology).
The fall armyworm, a voracious caterpillar officially reported for the first time in Africa in Nigeria in 2016, remains a serious pest with devastating consequences on millions of farmersâ food and livelihood security. The pest has spread quickly throughout sub-Saharan Africa, primarily attacking maize and sorghum, two main staple crops in the region. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates up to 18 million tons of maize are lost to the pest annually, at an estimated economic loss of $4.6 billion.
To reduce the losses, experts have been recommending a toolbox of integrated pest management (IPM) practices to minimize the damage on smallholder farmersâ fields. Scientists at CIMMYT are also working intensively to develop improved maize varieties with native genetic resistance to this devastating insect pest.
Cover photo:Â Kowthar Abdirahman Afyare studies agriculture at the Somali National University. (Photo: AMISOM Public Information)
As the calendar turns to October 16, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) celebrates World Food Day. This year’s theme is “Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together.”
The COVID-19 global health crisis has been a time to reflect on things we truly cherish and our most basic needs. These uncertain times have made many of us rekindle our appreciation for a thing that some take for granted and many go without: food.
Food is the essence of life and the bedrock of our cultures and communities. Preserving access to safe and nutritious food is and will continue to be an essential part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for poor and vulnerable communities, who are hit hardest by the pandemic and resulting economic shocks.
In a moment like this, it is more important than ever to recognize the need to support farmers and workers throughout the food system, who make sure that food makes its way from farm to fork.
Sustainable food systems
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), over 2 billion people do not have regular access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. The global population is expected to reach almost 10 billion by 2050.
Our future food systems need to provide affordable and healthy diets for all, and decent livelihoods for food system workers, while preserving natural resources and biodiversity and tackling challenges such as climate change.
Countries, the private sector and civil society need to make sure that our food systems grow a variety of food to nourish a growing population and sustain the planet, together.Â
This year, for World Food Day, we bring you three stories about CIMMYT’s work to produce nutritious food in a sustainable way.
Cereals offer greater health and nutrition benefits than commonly acknowledged, despite often being considered ânutrient-poorâ, say scientists. Read more.
Breaking Ground: Isaiah Nyagumbo advances climate-smart technologies to improve smallholder farming systems
Systems agronomist transforms farmers’ livelihoods through improved crop performance and soil health, promoting sustainable techniques that mitigate climate change effects. Read more.
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Rural women in Nepal significantly contribute to food security, and when they are empowered, they can create avenues for agricultural growth. As seed producers are often disadvantaged in terms of accessing advanced agricultural knowledge and seed production skills, one opportunity for growth is strengthening the capacity of women seed producers.
âIn more than 80% of households in Sindhupalchowk district, women have the final say on the selection of maize variety,â said D.B. Bhandari, managing director of Hairyali Community Seed Company (HCSC). âThis urged me to engage women in seed production of preferred maize varieties for the mid-hills.â
HCSC, a partner company of the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project implemented by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is working to improve the business literacy of rural women to support their involvement in seed production and marketing of maize, wheat and rice seeds in Sindhupalchowk district, Bagmati province, Nepal.
Seed producers attend an orientation on the production and marketing of hybrid seed. (Photo: Dharma Dawadi/CIMMYT)
A path to empowerment and income
Access to agricultural inputs such as seed and fertilizer is challenging in Thulosirubari village due to its rural location and absence of agrodealers or nearby markets. Progressive farmers Parbati Gautam and Kamala Gautam, who grew up in the village in a family that has cultivated maize for generations and now grow maize, rice, millet and vegetables, found a solution. They decided to establish a cooperative âThulosirubari Mahila Krishi Sahakari Sanstha â that not only eases the supply of seed for farmers in their village but also engages in seed production. The cooperative has 45 female members so far.
In coordination with HCSC and the Government of Nepalâs Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP), orientation programs and women-only trainings were designed and organized by the NSAF project so farmers could boost their seed production efficiency and profitability at the grassroots level. The partnership between CIMMYT, HCSC and PMAMP provided technical and financial support to these groups, improved their entrepreneurship skills and business literacy, and created marketing linkages between the farmers and buyers. Thirty-five women were trained in the use of good agricultural practices in quality seed production and marketing of hybrid maize, rice and tomato seeds. HCSC supported the women with male and female lines of hybrid maize â Khumal hybrid-2 â to produce first generation seeds and build their skills on estimating ratios for sowing seeds, balanced fertilizer application, weeding, rouging and detasseling.
âI am so happy to learn about the importance of having different male and female lines and how to maintain their quality for crossing to produce first generation of hybrid maize seeds,â Kamala Gautam said.
After getting the required training and technical support, seven farmers from the cooperative, including Kamala and Parbati, collectively produced 1.1 mt of Khumal hybrid-2 with the value of $2,514, which was sold to HCSC in 2019. As the cooperative is a contract seed producer for HCSC, the women have market assurance and do not worry where and how to sell their seed.
âMy husband and I are not educated,â Parbati Gautam explained. âHowever, I was able to sell the hybrid maize seed then use the money to buy decent clothes and offer a better education to my two daughters and son.â
A woman stands in her rice seed production field in Nepal. (Photo: Mohan Mahato/CIMMYT)
Women empowering women
Parbati Gautam has served as chairperson at the cooperative for eight years, where she has mentored other seed producers. Based on her experience, women who have access to information and seed production technologies tend to have better crop yields and make informed decisions to increase their incomes and livelihoods.
According to Bhandari, farmersâ preferences are gradually shifting from local to hybrid varieties which offer better yields, early maturity and resilience to the effects of climate change. Parbati and Kamala Gautam confirm this, sharing that hybrid seed production provides 4-5 times more monetary value per kilogram of seed than that of grain.
âAlthough the cost of parent lines is expensive for seed production, improved farming technology ensures better quality seeds, higher yields and attractive farm business opportunities,â Parbati Gautam explained.
Since 2017, NSAF project researchers have been working to establish linkages with partner seed companies for seed marketing. Altogether, about 300 mt of maize and rice seed was produced by women farmers engaged in the project with the value of $112,000, and 80 percent of this seed was sold to three private seed companies including HCSC. In 2019, the NSAF project team established partnerships with an additional three cooperatives in Banke, Dang and Sindhupalchowk districts, where over 800 women are members.
The projectâs engagement of women’s seed producer groups is an example of an inclusive seed business model where farmers decide what to grow and how to sell. This intervention can be piloted in other parts of Nepal where women account for over 60 percent of the rural farming community. Targeted and sustained interventions to increase womenâs business agility, technical capacity in quality seed production, and market linkages will help boost productivity at household level and the country at large.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize award is likely to turn the eyes of the world to the millions of people who suffer from, or face the threat of hunger. CGTN Africa has been running a series on food production in the continent. The series is in line with this year’s Nobel Peace Prize theme â making food security an instrument of peace. This episode focuses on the impact of improved seeds.
Seeds are the start and the first step in a solution for global hunger.
B.M. Prasanna, director of the Global Maize Program and of the CGIAR Research program on Maize at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), says smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa make up 80% of all farms there, and contribute significantly to food production in the region.
âOver the past 15 years, CIMMYT and partners in sub-Saharan Africa have been able to intensively work with seed companies to invest in deployment of climate-resilient and nutritionally enriched maize seed, and generate demand for such products,â Prasanna says.
Efforts towards managing the Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN), a viral disease affecting maize, have contributed to reducing seed production losses from 33 per cent to 16 per cent in the last four years, bolstering steady supply of maize seeds in the Eastern African region.
For ten years now, the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) has been an unmissable event. Every September, the premier forum for African agriculture has brought people together to share experiences about transforming agriculture, raising productivity for farmers and increasing incomes.
The theme of the 2020 summit â Feed the Cities, Grow the Continent: Leveraging Urban Food Markets to Achieve Sustainable Food Systems in Africa â was a call to action to rethink our food systems to make them more resilient and deliver better nourishment and prosperity for all.
This year, the summit went virtual. Delegates could not mingle, visit booths and network over lunch, but attendance reached new heights. Over 10,400 delegates from 113 countries participated in this edition of the AGRF, compared to 2,300 delegates last year.
As in the previous years, CGIAR centers, including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), maintained an active presence among speakers and attendees.
With over 50 projects and hundreds of staff based across nine countries, Africa holds a significant position in CIMMYT’s research agenda. CIMMYTâs work in Africa helps farmers access new maize and wheat system-based technologies, information and markets, raising incomes and enhancing crop resilience to drought and climate change. CIMMYT sets priorities in consultation with ministries of agriculture, seed companies, farming communities and other stakeholders in the maize and wheat value chains.
Striving for excellence
CGIAR leveraged AGRF 2020âs highly diversified and international audience to launch the Excellence in Agronomy 2030 initiative (EiA 2030) on September 7, 2020. EiAâs impressive group of experts plans to hit the ground running in 2020 and work toward speeding up progress in tailoring and delivering nutrients and other agronomic solutions to smallholder farmers in Africa and other regions.
âAcross agricultural production systems, low crop yields and inadequate incomes from agriculture are the rule rather than the exception,â said Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT and Chair of One CGIAR Transition Advisory Group (TAG) 2 on Research. âAt the same time, the âasksâ of agriculture have evolved beyond food security. They now include a broader range of Sustainable Development Goals, such as sustainable land management, climate change mitigation, provision of heathy diets, and inclusive economic growth. None of these goals will be achieved without the large-scale adoption of improved and adapted agronomic practices. To this end, we have initiated the creation of a CGIAR-wide EiA 2030 initiative aiming at reducing yield and efficiency gaps for major crops at scale.â
EiA 2030 is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, supported by the Big Data Platform and co-created by AfricaRice, CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IITA and IRRI.
Martin Kropff (first row, fourth from left), Bram Govaerts (second row, first from left) and Lennart Woltering (second row, third from left) spoke at the “Scaling and Food Systems Transformation in the PLUS-COVID-19 era” panel.
Scaling agriculture beyond numbers
On September 7, 2020, a group of experts, including Lennart Woltering, Scaling Catalyst at CIMMYT and chair of the Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) working group of the Community of Practice on Scaling, gathered to explore how organizations are supporting scaling food systems in a post-COVID-19 world.
As Martin Kropff mentioned in a video address, One CGIAR aims to deliver on its commitments by building on its experience with pioneering integrated development projects, such as CSISA, CIALCA and AVISA. âOne CGIAR plans to be actively involved and help partners to scale by delivering on five One CGIAR impact areas at the regional level. How? By taking integrated regional programs from strategic planning to tactical implementation in three steps: strategic multi-stakeholder demand-driven planning process, tactical plan development based on the integration of production and demand, and implementation of multi-stakeholder innovation hubs. An integrated regional approach will deliver at scale,â Kropff said.
“CIMMYT has developed different scenarios regarding what agri-food systems will look like in 2025 with the COVID-19 shock. Whatever may unfold, integrated systems are key,” highlighted Bram Govaerts, Director of the Integrated Development Program and one of CIMMYT’s interim Deputy Directors General for Research, during the session.
âDiversity and proactive mindsets present at the #AGRF2020 High-Level Ministerial Roundtable. An example of how we can shape the future, listening to whatâs needed, investing in agriculture and making resilient food systems to resist the impact of #COVID19 #AgricultureContinues,â tweeted Bram Govaerts (first row, second from left) along with a screenshot of his Zoom meeting screen.
Putting healthy diets on the roundtable
Later in the week, CIMMYT experts took part in two key events for the development of Africaâs agriculture. Govaerts stepped in for Kropff during the High-Level Ministerial Roundtable, where regional leaders and partners discussed reaching agricultural self-sufficiency to increase the regionâs resilience toward shocks such as the ongoing pandemic.
At the Advancing Gender and Nutrition policy forum, Natalia Palacios, Maize Quality Specialist, spoke about engaging nutritionally vulnerable urban consumers. Palacios echoed the other speakersâ calls for transforming agri-food systems and pointed out that cereals and effective public-private partnerships are the backbone of nutritionally vulnerable and poor urban customersâ diets.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, in 30 years, the population of Africa is projected to double to a number as high as 2.7 billion, from 1.34 billion in 2020. Considering only the projected population, by 2050 Africa will have to supply 112.4 to 133.1 million tons of wheat and 106.5 to 126.1 million tons of maize to ensure food security of the burgeoning population. âWe are living in a very challenging time because we need to provide affordable, nutritious diets â within planetary boundaries,â Palacios said.
Cover photo: Over 10,400 delegates from 113 countries participated in the 2020 edition of the African Green Revolution Forum. (Photo: AGRA)
It is no secret that Africa is urbanizing at breakneck speed. Consider Lagos. In 1950 the Nigerian city boasted a population of a few hundred thousand. Today that number has soared to around 14 million. It is estimated that by 2025 half of Africaâs population will live in urban areas.
This demographic transformation has had dramatic consequences for human health and nutrition. Urban dwellers are far more likely to rely on cheap highly-processed foods, which are shelf-stable but poor on nutrients.
These statistics, presented by moderator Betty Kibaara, Director of the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, framed the 2020 African Green Revolution Forumâs policy symposium on âAdvancing Gender and Nutrition.â The forum comprised two tracks. One focused on addressing the needs of nutritionally vulnerable urban consumers, particularly women; the other on gender-based financing in the African agri-food system
Speaking in the first track, Natalia Palacios, maize quality specialist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), underlined the enormity of the challenge. âWe need to provide affordable, nutritious diets … within planetary boundaries,â she said.
Many of the panelists pointed out further dimensions of the challenge â from evidence deficits around the continentâs urban populations to the amplifying effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Palacios stressed that the bedrock of any response must be effective partnerships between governments, companies and non-profit actors working in this area.
âThe really important thing is to start working together,â she said, âto start developing the strategies together instead of providing things or demanding things.â Speaking to the role of organizations like CIMMYT, Palacios highlighted the need to work closely with the private sector to understand the demand for agricultural raw materials that can be converted into nutritious diets.
Rich nutrition within reach
Palaciosâ most recent research efforts focus on precisely this question. She and a team of researchers, including CIMMYT senior scientist Santiago Lopez-Ridaura, explored how various innovations in maize production have improved the macro- and micro-nutrient content of the grain and led to healthier maize-based agri-food systems.
CIMMYT, HarvestPlus and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), together with several stakeholders, have been deeply involved in work to improve the nutritional quality of staple-dependent food systems. In partnership with a broad network of national and private-sector partners, they have released over 60 improved maize and wheat varieties fortified with zinc or provitamin A in 19 countries.
Cover photo: Unlike white maize varieties, vitamin A maize is rich in beta-carotene, giving it a distinctive orange color. This biofortified variety provides consumers with up to 40% of their daily vitamin A needs. (Photo: HarvestPlus/Joslin Isaacson)
The CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) is proud to release its 2019 Annual Report.
Around the world, the COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the need to strengthen food systems while improving the food security and livelihoods for the most vulnerable, especially the resource-constrained smallholder farmers.
In 2019 MAIZE and its partners made great advances in the development of improved stress-tolerant maize varieties, continued their battle against fall armyworm in both Africa and Asia, and maintained their focus on sustainable intensification of maize-based cropping systems in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Latin America where maize plays a critical role in food and nutritional security, income and livelihoods of millions of resource-constrained smallholders and consumers. We look forward to continued productive collaborations as we transition with our partners into an integrated, inclusive One CGIAR designed to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) as its main CGIAR Consortium partner, MAIZE focuses on increasing maize production for the 900 million poor consumers for whom maize is a staple food in Africa, South Asia and Latin America.
Shivali Sharma (right), pre-breeding research leader at ICRISAT, explains pearl millet pollination techniques to visitors at the ICRISAT campus. (Photo: Michael Major/Crop Trust)
Did you know that vehicles with steering wheels on the left are often cheaper to make than right hand-drive cars? They are mass-produced in much larger batches. But many drivers and governments were just unwilling to change to this dominant design.
We humans are not so adept at change. Instead of embracing novel ways of thinking, weâd rather stick to the old ones. We cling onto what is safe, what is familiar or what we are already good at. We see this in the workplace, in our personal lives and in society as a whole. The world still canât agree on using the metric system!
Within the domain of plant breeding, we are both driving and responding to rapid change. It is mesmerizing to visualize the changes gene editing is about to deliver, not to mention what genomic prediction is already delivering. We are being challenged on every single aspect of plant breeding.
Change of a different sort is about to cascade through the worldâs main network of agricultural research centers â which includes centers at the global forefront of plant breeding. CGIAR is embarking on a transition into a much more integrated One CGIAR organization.
An overarching goal of this integration is no other than to ensure breeding improvement plans â and the changes they aim to drive â are implemented as seamlessly and quickly as possible. The Excellence in Breeding Platform is both driving and supporting this change among CGIAR centers and international and national partners.
The case for change in plant breeding programs
Plant breeders are in fact missing some vital opportunities. For example, there continues to be a rather limited use of real market insights to inform resource allocation within programs. This in turn results in a selection of traits weighted towards what breeders and associated scientists think are needed, which may not necessarily meet actual market needs.
With new goals and structures foisting change on breeding programs, their success depends on one thing above all else: savvy change management. Fortunately, there are some steps we can take to manage change well.
1. Drive out complacency with a sense of urgency
Most change management efforts fail when insufficient urgency is built early enough in the process. But this urgency can be the most effective antidote against complacency. Organizations that have either secured a very dominant and successful position in the market, or lack effective and threatening competition, can very easily slide into a sense of self-righteousness and an inward-looking perspective.
Although CGIAR breeding efforts could be thought of as an example of the latter â lacking competitors â seasoned managers in industry and marketing like to think that âthere is no such thing as a lack of competition.â Funding, for one, is by nature a competition. Funding agencies might look at other fields and/or players to support if they deliver a higher return on investment, not only financially but also socially.
The impact of high complacency cultures can be seen in plant breeding. For instance, a rather large number of breeding programs still lack a high enough rate of what is called âelite x elite crosses.â Unless breeding pipelines run on such crosses, they achieve less than optimal genetic gains and delivery at the field. And donors get a lesser return on investment. Moreover, this complacency means not delivering the best varieties smallholder farmers need to support their families.
The parable of the slowly boiling frog is oftentimes used to portray the consequences of complacency. In any complacency-filled organization, no matter how intelligent, educated and well-intentioned its members are, change is often dead on arrival.
You may already have an inkling of what it takes to create enough urgency: bold and sometimes risk-taking leadership. For instance, some years ago, Unilever was one of the first global companies to decouple its financial growth from its environmental footprint, and it established the then outrageous sounding goal of halving its environmental footprint by 2030.
A good urgency-raising example that could inspire our line of work may be this one: let’s renew at least 50% of a current portfolio of cultivars within the next five years in a given Target Population of Environments (TPE). A second could be: letâs deploy sparse testing in at least 90% of field trials within six months.
To create urgency we need to articulate the gap between opportunities available, and the current ability of the organization to pursue such opportunities. But we must also spell out â upfront â the risks if we donât bridge such a gap.
2. Build a guiding coalition
These days, driving change is too complex to be led by single individuals. We live in fast-paced times. And situations are full of evident and not-so-evident links among myriad moving pieces. We cannot expect one individual to be able to gather enough information fast enough, and then to consistently make the right decisions. Instead, a guiding coalition is needed, with sufficient determination, commitment and thought diversity. Such coalitions require five traits: a position of power, credibility, leadership, expertise, and individual egos held at bay. Once such teams are assembled, the main drivers of success are having a common goal, and enough trust and safety so the real issues are unearthed and addressed.
3. Develop a vision and a strategy
When leadership tries to drive change by applying dated approaches such as micromanagement or an authoritarian stance, plans are likely to fail upon arrival. These methods may breed compliance, but certainly not a fierce and sincere commitment. Because of the extreme uncertainty and organizational survival being at stake, crafting a vision plays a bigger role during change management than during business as usual.
Two main aspects of developing a vision are especially relevant to CGIAR breeding programs.
Firstly, academic and R&D organizations often keep doing what has worked well in the past. But any change management effort ought to be very explicit about what it is known as âstrategic dismissal.â This is the ability to stop and phase out activities no longer providing enough value, or where the outcomes of which are not wanted/needed by funding agencies or beneficiaries. For instance, programs investing in developing hybrid cultivars for the first time in a crop could downsize previous cultivar development efforts. Alternatively, they could scale down efforts in countries that have their own strong local breeding programs. These changes are no small feat, but the inability to phase out activities clashes with the very first posit of any effective strategy: donât just âkeep doing.â
Secondly, a vision provides an invisible fabric that pulls all efforts together in a cohesive way. Therefore, its scope is much wider than most people realize, stretching across strategies, plans, and the budgets and means needed to exert change at the depth and speed needed.
4. Encourage constructive confrontation
One characteristic of a complacent organization stands out: a rather low-candor, low-confrontation culture. No one needs excessively high-confrontation, âtake no prisonersâ, toxic cultures. But low-confrontation cultures tend to breed under-performance, status quo maintenance and deeply ingrained complacency. And perhaps the most negative consequence is that they fail to instill a strong enough sense of ownership and accountability among its members.
Change is coming (it has arrived already…)
Yes, change is hard, but it is coming. Maybe not for drivers of right-hand drive cars. But certainly for those who want to modernize and optimize their breeding programs. Now is the time for us to invest in a smart and forward-looking change management processes.
Hugo Campos is the Chair of the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding (EiB) Platform Steering Committee and Director of Research for the International Potato Center (CIP). This blog was developed with support from EiBâs communications lead Adam Hunt.This is the second in a series of blogs on change in the breeding domain. See the first.
Stakeholders in the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project have pledged to strengthen efforts to deliver desirable stress tolerant, nutritious and high-yielding maize and wheat varieties to smallholder farmers in a much shorter time. The alliance, comprising funders, national agricultural research systems (NARS), private seed companies, non-governmental organizations, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and, for the maize component the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), made these assurances during virtual events held in July and August 2020, marking the inception of the 5-year AGG project.
The initiative seeks to fast-track the development of higher-yielding, climate resilient, demand-driven, gender-responsive and nutritious seed varieties for maize and wheat, two of the worldâs most important staple crops. The project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).
Tackling current and emerging threats
Jeff Rosichan, scientific program director of the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR), acknowledged the significant and ambitious aim of the project in tackling the challenges facing maize and wheat currently and in the future. âWe are seeing the emergence of new pests and pathogens and viral diseases like never before. A lot of the work of this project is going to help us to tackle such challenges and to be better prepared to tackle emerging threats,â he said.
AGG builds on gains made in previous initiatives including Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) and Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW), with support from partners in 17 target countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia.
Hailu Wordofa, agricultural technology specialist at the USAID Bureau for Resilience and Food Security, underscored his expectation for CIMMYTâs global breeding program to use optimal breeding approaches and develop strong collaborative relationships with NARS partners, âfrom the development of product profiles to breeding, field trials and line advancement.â
Similarly, Gary Atlin, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation lauded the move toward stronger partnerships and greater emphasis on the CIMMYT and IITA breeding programs. âThe technical capacity of partners has increased through the years. It is prudent to ensure that national partnerships continue. It is always a challenging environment, this time multiplied by the COVID-19 crisis, but through this collaboration, there is a greater scope to strengthen such partnerships even more,â he said.
Anne Wangui, Maize Seed Health Technician, demonstrates how to test maize plants for maize dwarf mosaic virus (MDMV). (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Symbiotic partnerships with great impact
âFrom the NARS perspective, we are committed to doing our part as primary partners to deliver the right seed to the farmers,â said Godfrey Asea, director of the National Crops Resources Research Institute at the National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO), Uganda. âWe see an opportunity to review and to use a lot of previous historical data, both in-country and regionally and to continue making improved decisions. We also reiterate our commitment and support to continuously make improvement plans in our breeding programs.â
Martin Kropff, director general of CIMMYT, recognized the tremendous impact arising from the longstanding cooperation between CIMMYTâs maize and wheat programs and national programs in countries where CIMMYT works. âA wheat study in Ethiopia showed that 90% of all the wheat grown in the country is CIMMYT-related, while an impact study for the maize program shows that 50% of the maize varieties in Africa are CIMMYT-derived. We are very proud of that â not for ourselves but for the people that we work for, the hundreds of millions of poor people and smallholder farmers who really rely on wheat and maize for their living and for their incomes,â he said.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of East Africa-based Western Seed Company Saleem Esmail expressed optimism at the opportunities the project offers to improve livelihoods of beneficiaries. âI believe we can do this by sharing experiences and by leveraging on the impacts that this project is going to bring, from new technologies to new science approaches, particularly those that help save costs of seed production.â
He, however, observed that while the target of fast-tracking varietal turnover was great, it was a tough call, too, âbecause farmers are very risk averse and to change their habits requires a great deal of effort.â
On his part, director of Crop Research at the Oromia Agricultural Research Institute (OARI) in Ethiopia Tesfaye Letta revealed that from collaborative research work undertaken with CIMMYT, the institute has had access to better-quality varieties especially for wheat (bread and durum). These have helped millions of farmers to improve their productivity even as Ethiopia aims for wheat self-sufficiency by expanding wheat production under irrigation.
âWe expect more support, from identifying wheat germplasm suitable for irrigation, developing disease resistant varieties and multiplying a sufficient quantity of early generation seed, to applying appropriate agronomic practices for yield improvement and organizing exposure field visits for farmers and experts,â he said.
Challenges and opportunities in a time of crisis
Alan Tollervey, head of agriculture research at Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the UK representative to the CGIAR System Council, emphasized the need for continued investment in agricultural research to build a resilient food system that can cope with the demands and pressures of the coming decades. This way, organizations such as CIMMYT and its partners can adequately deliver products that are relevant not only to the immediate demands of poor farmers in developing countries â and the global demand for food generally â but also to address foreseen threats.
âWe are at a time of intense pressure on budgets, and that is when projects are most successful, most relevant to the objectives of any organization, and most able to demonstrate a track record of delivery. CIMMYT has a long track history of being able to respond to rapidly emerging threats,â he said.
Felister Makini, the deputy director general for crops at the Kenya Agricultural Research Organization (KALRO) lauded the fact that AGG not only brings together maize and wheat breeding and optimization tools and technologies, but also considers gender and socioeconomic insights, âwhich will be crucial to our envisioned strategy to achieve socioeconomic change.â
Zambia Agriculture Research Organization (ZARI) maize breeder Mwansa Kabamba noted that the inclusion of extension workers will help to get buy-in from farmers especially as far as helping with adoption of the improved varieties is concerned.
In its lifecycle, the AGG project aims to reduce the breeding cycles for both maize and wheat from 5-7 years currently to 3-4 years. By 2024, at least 150,000 metric tons of certified maize seed is expected to be produced, adopted by 10 million households, planted on 6 million hectares and benefit 64 million people. It also seeks to serve over 30 million households engaged in wheat farming the target countries.
Cover photo: CIMMYT researcher Demewoz Negera at the Ambo Research Center in Ethiopia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
By 2050, global demand for wheat is predicted to increase by 50 percent from todayâs levels and demand for maize is expected to double. Meanwhile, these profoundly important and loved crops bear incredible risks from emerging pests and diseases, diminishing water resources, limited available land and unstable weather conditions â with climate change as a constant pressure exacerbating all these stresses.
Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) is a new 5-year project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) that brings together partners in the global science community and in national agricultural research and extension systems to accelerate the development of higher-yielding varieties of maize and wheat.
Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), AGG fuses innovative methods to sustainably and inclusively improve breeding efficiency and precision to produce seed varieties that are climate-resilient, pest- and disease-resistant, highly nutritious, and targeted to farmersâ specific needs.
AGG seeks to respond to the intersection of the climate emergency and gender through gender-intentional product profiles for its improved seed varieties and gender-intentional seed delivery pathways.
AGG will take into account the needs and preferences of female farmers when developing the product profiles for improved varieties of wheat and maize. This will be informed by gender-disaggregated data collection on current varieties and preferred characteristics and traits, systematic on-farm testing in target regions, and training of scientists and technicians.
Farmer Agnes Sendeza harvests maize cobs in Malawi. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
To encourage female farmers to take up climate-resilient improved seeds, AGG will seek to understand the pathways by which women receive information and improved seed and the external dynamics that affect this access and will use this information to create gender-intentional solutions for increasing varietal adoption and turnover.
âUntil recently, investments in seed improvement work have not actively looked in this area,â said Olaf Erenstein, Director of CIMMYTâs Socioeconomics Program at a virtual inception meeting for the project in late August 2020. Now, âit has been built in as a primary objective of AGG to focus on [âŠ] strengthening gender-intentional seed delivery systems so that we ensure a faster varietal turnover and higher adoption levels in the respective target areas.â
In the first year of the initiative, the researchers will take a deep dive into the national- and state-level frameworks and policies that might enable or influence the delivery of these new varieties to both female and male farmers. They will analyze this delivery system by mapping the seed delivery paths and studying the diverse factors that impact seed demand. By understanding their respective roles, practices, and of course, the strengths and weaknesses of the system, the researchers can diagnose issues in the delivery chain and respond accordingly.
Once this important scoping step is complete, the team will design a research plan for the following years to understand and influence the seed information networks and seed acquisition. It will be critical in this step to identify some of the challenges and opportunities on a broad scale, while also accounting for the related intra-household decision-making dynamics that could affect access to and uptake of these improved seed varieties.
âIt is a primary objective of AGG to ensure gender intentionality,â said Kevin Pixley, Director of CIMMYTâs Genetic Resources Program and AGG project leader. âOften women do not have access to not only inputs but also information, and in the AGG project we are seeking to help close those gaps.â
Cover photo: Farmers evaluate traits of wheat varieties, Ethiopia. (Photo: Jeske van de Gevel/Bioversity International)
For smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, new agricultural technologies such as improved maize varieties offer numerous benefits â increased incomes, lower workloads and better food security, among others. However, when new technologies are introduced, they can denaturalize and expose gender norms and power relations because their adoption inevitably requires women and men to renegotiate the rules of the game. The adoption of new varieties will often be accompanied by a number of related decisions on the allocation of farm labor, the purchase and use of inorganic fertilizers, switching crops between women- and men-managed plots, and the types of benefit household members expect to secure may change.
In an article published this month in Gender, Technology and Development, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) explore how women in Nigeria negotiate these new power dynamics to access and secure the benefits of improved maize varieties and, more broadly, to expand their decision-making space.
Using focus group and interview data collected as part of the GENNOVATE project, the authors draw on case studies from four villages â two in the northern states of Kaduna and Plateau; two in the southwestern state of Oyo â to develop an understanding of the relationship between gender norms, womenâs ability and willingness to express their agency, and the uptake of agricultural technologies. âThis is an important step toward improving the capacity of agricultural research for development to design and scale innovations,â say the authors. âAchieving this ambition is highly relevant to maize.â
The results were similar across all four sites. The authors found that women in each area were constrained by powerful gender norms which privilege male agency and largely frown upon womenâs empowerment, thus limiting their ability to maximize the benefits from improved varieties or realize their agency in other domains.
All women respondents remarked that improved maize varieties were easy to adopt, have higher yields and mature quickly, which meant that income flows started earlier and helped them meet household expenditures on time. They prioritized the contribution of improved maize to securing household food security, which helped them meet their ascribed gender roles as food providers.
âAt the same time though, women felt they could not maximize their benefits from improved maize varieties due to menâs dominance in decision-making,â the authors explain. âThis was particularly the case for married women.â
âMen are meant to travel far â not womenâ
Woman selling white maize at Bodija market in Ibadan, Nigeria. (Photo: Adebayo O./IITA)
Embedded gender norms â particularly those relating to mobility â infuse the wider environment and mean that womenâs access to opportunities is considerably more restricted than it is for men.
The findings demonstrate that both women and men farmers secure benefits from improved maize varieties. However, men accrue more benefits and benefit directly, as they have unfettered mobility and opportunity. They can access markets that are further away, and the maize they sell is unprocessed and requires no transformation. Additionally, men do not question their right to devote profits from maize primarily to their own concerns, nor their right to secure a high level of control over the money women make.
On the other hand, women respondents â regardless of age and income cohort â repeatedly stated that while it is hard to earn significant money from local sales of the processed maize products they make, it is also very difficult for them to enter large markets selling unprocessed, improved maize.
The difficulties women face in trying to grow maize businesses may be partly related to a lack of business acumen and experience, but a primary reason is limited personal mobility in all four communities. For example, in Sabon Birni village, Kaduna, women lamented that though the local market is not large enough to accommodate their maize processing and other agri-business ventures, they are not permitted travel to markets further afield where âthere are always people ready to buyâ.
âWomenâs benefits relate to the fact that improved maize varieties increase the absolute size of the âmaize cakeâ,â say the authors. âThey expect to get a larger slice as a consequence. However, the absolute potential of improved varieties for boosting womenâs incomes and other options of importance to women is hampered by gender norms that significantly restrict their agency.â
The implications for maize research and development are that an improved understanding of the complex relational nature of empowerment is essential when introducing new agricultural technologies.
