research: Maize

A new consortium for hybrid maize research is scheduled to launch during the summer of 2010. In anticipation, CIMMYT-Asia organized a pre-launch meeting on the campus of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India. Over 40 participants from 27 national, regional, and multinational seed companies attended the meeting on 28 May 2010.

The meeting was structured to initiate partnerships between CIMMYT and private seed companies for the advancement of training, development, and testing for inbred and hybrid maize, which will be a key part of the Hybrid Maize Research Consortium (HMRC). This meeting was a follow-up to a previous awareness meeting held in March.

The day started with a welcome from senior CIMMYT maize breeder B.S. Vivek who explained the objectives of the meeting and introduced the HMRC concept, including three proposed consortium sub-projects: development and distribution of inbred lines, training of personnel, and evaluation of maize hybrids. He was followed by B.M. Prasanna, CIMMYT Global Maize Program (GMP) director, who presented on the GMP and explained the maize mega program. Discussions continued with a presentation on ICRISAT’s experience with private partnerships given by C.L.L Gowda, global theme leader of crop improvement at ICRISAT, and a presentation on pearl millet hybrid parents given by ICRISAT principal scientist K.N. Rai.

The afternoon was also action packed. CIMMYT maize physiologist P.H. Zaidi started off with a presentation on target traits and environments proposed for the HMRC. Participants were then asked to share their own priorities on target traits and to evaluate environments. Vivek concluded the day with an explanation of the proposed structure and organization of the HMRC, including its membership levels and benefits. He said that public sector non-commercial institutions will continue to be able to access germplasm without any restrictions. Also, a draft of a memorandum of agreement for HMRC was distributed, and 25 companies submitted HMRC membership pledges. Participants said they appreciated CIMMYT’s work in initiating the HMRC and that they hope it will serve as a platform for strengthening their maize breeding programs.

A training workshop for maize technicians was held from 17–21 May 2010 at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) station in Embu, Kenya. Organized by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project in collaboration with KARI, this is the final of the 13 DTMA countries to benefit from this training.

The workshop was officially opened by Wilfred Mwangi, associate director of the Global Maize Program (GMP), who emphasized the importance of taking technology to the farmers. In his remarks, Mwangi focused on the project’s aim to change farmers’ lives by improving the yield of drought tolerant maize varieties in drought-stressed areas. “Over the past four years, CIMMYT and its partners have developed tools to help build individual capacity by taking technology to the farmers,” he said. Mwangi introduced Prasanna Boddupali, GMP director, to CIMMYT collaborators in Kenya. Stephen Njoka, KARI-Embu center director, attended the opening of the course, and later conducted the closing ceremony.

A total of 35 participants attended the workshop, drawn from five KARI stations (Embu, Kakamega, Katumani, Muguga, and Mtwapa), seed companies, NGOs, and the CIMMYT field station in Kiboko. The training focused on upgrading technical staff’s skill and knowledge of field trial management, variety testing, registration, and release. Topics covered included breeding for abiotic and biotic stress, management of trials and nurseries, hybrid development, on-farm variety testing, seed production, variety descriptors, variety release and registration, and use of the CIMMYT Fieldbook software for pedigree and data management. Course presentations were in the form of lectures, demonstrations, and practical sessions.

Course participants displayed great enthusiasm and readiness throughout the training. Christine Khalamua (pictured) from KARI-Kakamega expressed her gratitude at having been selected to take part in the training, and was sure that the knowledge acquired during the course will greatly benefit her work. “I have especially learnt a lot about randomization of trials,” she said. The teaching was well supported with images that gave a clear description of the science, said Fred Manyara, a participant from KARI-Embu. “The course covered all activities that maize technicians are involved in. It was very useful and has greatly helped us in understanding the work that we do.”

Resource persons for the training were CIMMYT maize breeders Dan Makumbi, Peter Setimela, Stephen Mugo, and Yoseph Beyene; CIMMYT research assistants Silvano Assanga, Haron Karaya, Andrew Chavangi, and Joseph Kasango; KARI maize breeder James Gethi; and Evans Sikinyi of Seed Traders Association of Kenya (STAK).

On 22 March 2010, Boddupalli M. Prasanna, the new director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program (GMP), spent a fruitful day familiarizing himself with the Agua Fría station, its staff, and the work being done there. The day included meetings with staff assistants to discuss ways to strengthen station research activities and ways to improve work and staff conditions, especially in terms of occupational health and safety issues.

“For us, it is a very important opportunity to interact and to meet our new GMP director,” said Jesús Gónzalez, principal field assistant and lowland tropics program worker representative. “He is very enthusiastic and willing to listen to our concerns. We will continue to put in our best efforts to contribute to CIMMYT’s mission.”

Prasanna toured fields and facilities, meeting with staff from several different programs and was accompanied by Félix San Vicente, maize breeder, George Mahuku, senior maize scientist/pathologist, José Crossa, biometrician and distinguished scientist, and Reymunda Labuguen, GMP administrator. Leocadio Martínez, research assistant B, showed Prasanna the work being done on double haploids (DH) and explained the challenges of implementing DH technology. Also highlighted was the work CIMMYT is doing to develop tropically adapted haploid inducer lines, and the search for new phenotypic markers to increase efficiency.

The group also met with the lowland tropical breeding program, where a wide variety of elite inbred lines are in the final testing and characterization stage before they are released by CIMMYT. Discussion with the pathology team included details of the disease nurseries and efforts to identify suitable sources of resistance to different maize diseases.

“I am very impressed with the level of commitment and professionalism shown by the different groups working at Agua Fría and how the trials were being managed,” Prasanna told Agua Fría staff.

“I will do all I can to help you do your work in an efficient manner.”

Prasanna also visited the Tlaltizapán research station on 29 March, accompanied by Labuguen and Jill Cairns, maize physiologist. He visited the various program fields and attended a small ceremony for the planting of an Auracaria tree in honor of Hugo Córdova.

To welcome Lumpkin to the region and so he could meet CIMMYT partners, on 18 November 2008 the Global Maize Program (GMP) organized a gala dinner attended by more than 20 dignitaries, including representatives of Kenya’s agricultural research program, seed-producer organizations, universities and research institutes, and other international centers and major development projects. Joseph DeVries, director of the Program for Africa’s Seed Systems of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), observed that Lumpkin had joined CIMMYT “…at a particularly exciting time for agriculture in Africa,” a theme echoed by several other guests. After drinks and food, Lumpkin spoke of his origins and professional experience, and described important issues and directions for CIMMYT and others working in sub-Saharan Africa. “ All our passion and efforts as partners must come together on increasing agricultural productivity in Africa – to ensure that the poor too have access to affordable food, especially now that we are facing new global challenges: the economic crisis, sky-rocketing food and fuel prices and climate change.

GMP director Marianne Bänziger thanked those attending, saying that “… nothing would be possible without our partners, such as the seed companies, KEPHIS (the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services), and KARI (the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute).” As a prelude to the upcoming retirement of CIMMYT maize breeder Alpha Diallo, Bänziger and Lumpkin awarded him a compact version of a memorial plaque he will receive in December 2008. “CIMMYT is my family,” said Diallo, whose work has contributed to many improved varieties—particularly of stress tolerant and quality protein maize— in sub-Saharan Africa. “When I joined the center as a postdoc in 1983, I was among the first Africans to work here. If I was able to achieve anything, it was because I found people who believed in what they were doing and in what I wanted to do. When I leave, I’m going to be a CIMMYT ambassador.”

Before visiting Nairobi, Lumpkin spent four days in Ethiopia with CIMMYT colleagues and partners who included government officials, donor representatives, national agricultural research teams, seed producers, and farmers. In all interactions it was clear that strong partnerships and good relations between CIMMYT and collaborators were at work. In fact, CIMMYT agronomist Dennis Friesen says that, in Ethiopia, CIMMYT and the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) “…are viewed as one.”