To address challenges caused by maize diseases and pests, AATF renews its commitment to the TELA maize project, which works towards the commercialization of transgenic drought-tolerant and insect-proof maize varieties to safeguard food security in Sub-Saharan Africa.
CIMMYT is happy to announce six new, improved tropical maize hybrids that are now available for uptake by public and private sector partners, especially those interested in marketing or disseminating hybrid maize seed across eastern Africa and similar agro-ecologies in other regions. NARES and seed companies are hereby invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release, scale-up seed production, and deliver these maize hybrids to farming communities.
| Newly available CIMMYT hybrids | Key traits |
| CIM21EAPP1-01-23 | Intermediate maturing, white, high yielding, drought tolerant, NUE, and resistant to GLS, TLB, Ear rots, and MSV |
| CIM21EAPP1-01-22 | |
| CIM21EAPP1-02-13 | Early maturing, white, high yielding, drought tolerant, NUE, and resistant to GLS, TLB, Ear rots, and MLN |
| CIM21EAPP1-02-11 | |
| CIM21EAPP2-01 | Late maturing, white, high yielding, drought tolerant, NUE, and resistant to GLS, TLB, Ear rots, and Striga |
| CIM21EAPP2-05 |
| Performance data | Download the CIMMYT Eastern Africa Maize Regional On-Station (Stage 4) and On-Farm (Stage 5) Trials: Results of the 2021 to 2022 Seasons and Product Announcement from Dataverse. |
| How to apply | Visit CIMMYT’s maize product allocation page for details |
| Application deadline | The deadline to submit applications to be considered during the first round of allocations is 21 May 2023. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during subsequent rounds of product allocations. |
The newly available CIMMYT maize hybrids were identified through rigorous, years-long trialing and a stage-gate advancement process which culminated in the 2022 Eastern Africa On-Farm (Stage 5) Trials. The products were found to meet the stringent performance and farmer acceptance criteria for CIMMYT’s breeding pipelines that are designed to generate products tailored in particular for smallholder farmers in stress-prone agroecologies of eastern Africa .
Applications must be accompanied by a proposed commercialization plan for each product being requested. Applications may be submitted online via the CIMMYT Maize Licensing Portal and will be reviewed in accordance with CIMMYT’s Principles and Procedures for Acquisition and use of CIMMYT maize hybrids and OPVs for commercialization. Specific questions or issues faced with regard to the application process may be addressed to GMP-CIMMYT@cgiar.org with attention to Nicholas Davis, Program Manager, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT.
CIMMYT is happy to announce five new, improved tropical maize hybrids that are now available for uptake by public and private sector partners, especially those interested in marketing or disseminating hybrid maize seed across South Asia and similar agro-ecologies in other regions. NARES and seed companies are hereby invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release, scale-up seed production, and deliver these maize hybrids to farming communities.
| Newly available CIMMYT hybrids | Key traits |
| CAH201 | Medium maturing, yellow, high yielding, drought + waterlogging tolerant, and resistant to TLB and FSR |
| CAH202 | |
| CAH203 | Medium maturing, yellow, high yielding, drought tolerant, and resistant to TLB and FSR |
| CAH204 | Medium maturing, yellow, high yielding, drought and heat tolerant, and resistant to MSR |
| CAH205 |
| Performance data | Download the CIMMYT-Asia Maize Regional On-Station (Stage 4) and On-Farm (Stage 5) Trials: Results of the 2020/21, and 2021/22 Seasons and Product Announcement from Dataverse. |
| How to apply | Visit CIMMYT’s maize product allocation page for details |
| Application deadline | The deadline to submit applications to be considered during the first round of allocations is 5 May 2023. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during subsequent rounds of product allocations. |
The newly available CIMMYT maize hybrids were identified through rigorous, years-long trialing and a stage-gate advancement process which culminated in the 2021/22 CIMMYT-Asia Maize Regional On-Farm (Stage 5) Trials On-Farm Trials. The products were found to meet the stringent performance and farmer acceptance criteria for CIMMYT’s breeding pipelines that are designed to generate products tailored in particular for smallholder farmers in stress-prone agroecologies of South Asia.
Applications must be accompanied by a proposed commercialization plan for each product being requested. Applications may be submitted online via the CIMMYT Maize Licensing Portal and will be reviewed in accordance with CIMMYT’s Principles and Procedures for Acquisition and use of CIMMYT maize hybrids and OPVs for commercialization. Specific questions or issues faced with regard to the application process may be addressed to GMP-CIMMYT@cgiar.org with attention to Nicholas Davis, Program Manager, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT.
Numerous actors — from African startups to global humanitarian organizations — are responding to the continent’s food challenges. For Sub-Saharan Africa to meet its food needs as climate change persists, the region must first overcome some basic hurdles.
The On-farm-Maize Select project will pilot a new genomics-driven selection method based on on-farm performance of Stage 1 maize breeding materials that is expected to deliver increased rates of genetic gain to the farmers through:
The hypothesis is that generating genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) based on on-farm phenotyping will lead both to increased selection accuracy for performance under farmer management, including challenging conditions that women and the poorest farmers face, and enable rapid cycling of parents by reducing the number of years of testing before new crosses are made. This hypothesis will be initially tested by estimating expected genetic gain on-station and on-farm based on the genetic correlation between on-station and gender-disaggregated on-farm performance of the same set of genotypes, as well as the repeatability of selection on-station versus on-farm. The value of on-farm versus on-station testing for estimating GEBVs for parent selection and early-stage advancement will be confirmed in two selected CIMMYT maize breeding pipelines (one each in eastern and southern Africa – EA-PP1 and SA-PP1) by comparing the performance on-farm of a sample of Stage 1 breeding lines from the second cycle of on-farm vs on-station selection. The efficacy and costs of undertaking on-farm genomic selection versus on-station selection at Stage 1 of the two selected breeding pipelines will also be evaluated.
Key Outputs
Expected Outcomes
1000FARMS is an institutional platform of NARES/CGIAR breeding networks whose purpose is to magnify their effectiveness and impact by enabling them to generate sufficient on-farm data and product insights on late-stage maize breeding selection candidates and new releases to ensure they will be high-performing in the hands of farmers, are farmer-preferred and climate-adapted, and can be recommended for scaling by the seed system. The platform achieves this by integrating three primary components:
These tools and methodologies already exist and have been well-tested; the innovation of 1000FARMS is to put all three components together to accelerate the uptake of the OFT approach across CGIAR and NARES breeding networks.
Objectives:
Senior government officials in Zambia have embraced the rollout of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center’s (CIMMYT’s) new innovations which target smallholder farmers and agriculture-based value chain actors in the country.
On January 17, 2023, CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts met with Minister of Agriculture Reuben Mtolo Phiri. The Minister reassured Govaerts that the investments made by CIMMYT in the country had the Government’s full support.
Earlier this year, a delegation led by Cary Fowler, the US Special envoy for Global Food Security met the Minister and his team at the Government complex in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital, to deliberate on a variety of agriculture development issues concerning the country.
Govaerts’ visit came off the back of the new Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), a CIMMYT-led project funded by the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID). The project seeks to scale up promising innovations that could transform the maize and legume value chains within the southern African region, with a focus on Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania.
“As the Government of Zambia, we intend to create a private sector driven economy for which agriculture plays a critical role. Having progressive partners like CIMMYT helps us achieve this cause and this new program is received with open arms,” said Phiri.
The aims of the AID-I project include strengthening seed systems, the promotion and adoption of stress-tolerant maize and legume varieties, demonstration of good agriculture practices that respond to the effects of climate change and addressing systemic constraints in maize and legume value chains.
Through AID-I, CIMMYT experts are working with over 20 global, regional, national and local partners including the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Catholic Relief Services (TLC), Total Land Care (TLC), the International Water Management Institution (IMWI) and World Vegetable Center.
Also attending the meeting was AID-I Technical Lead and CIMMYT Scientist Hambulo Ngoma who discussed some of the latest project activities.
“As this project focuses on accelerated delivery, we have set up more than 40 demonstrations in eastern Zambia with the intention of showcasing stress-tolerant varieties for maize and legume under conservation agriculture. In addition, we are showcasing other good agriculture practices such as strip cropping which not only enhances intensified crop production but is a biological control for fall armyworm,” Ngoma said.
The Minister appreciated the rationale of the project and indicated that participatory variety selection for farmers was crucial if they were going to maximize their yields and returns from farming.
Phiri further emphasized that CIMMYT and partners’ investment in legume value chain strengthening came at a welcome time as upscaling soya bean production was a key priority in the Government’s strategic plan for agricultural development because of its export-ready market within the region.
“Markets such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania can readily take up the soya we produce, and we are looking to export legumes such as soya and groundnuts to East Africa. This project therefore fits very well within our strategic road map,” Phiri said.
The demonstration plots set up by CIMMYT experts will help farmers grow the right varieties for their agro ecologies and have greater response capabilities to the export market opportunities the Government is facilitating.
The Minister also indicated that he hoped CIMMYT would assist in strengthening the country’s capacity to deal with fall armyworm. CIMMYT Global Maize Program Director B.M. Prasanna reassured Phiri that through the Zambian Agriculture research Institute (ZARI), CIMMYT had already released three fall armyworm-tolerant varieties. He also discussed how the AID-I project would be instrumental in scaling up their uptake, especially amongst smallholder farmers who have minimal disposable income to buy enough pesticides to control the pest.
Concluding the meeting, Govaerts spoke of CIMMYT’s commitment to supporting Zambia achieve its food security and agricultural export goals.
“As CIMMYT, we want you to recognize us as a listening partner. We are of the conviction that we can only combat climate change and achieve shared prosperity through the strength of convening power, where we leverage on each other’s strength.”
As the project is focused on scaling existing promising technologies and innovations, rapid transformative results are on the horizon for the people of Zambia.
Stewards Global, trading as Afriseed, is a Zambia seed systems intervention success story. Thanks to support from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other partners such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Afriseed is transforming rural farmers’ livelihoods through supplying drought tolerant maize seed.
What began as a start-up in 2007 has since grown to be one of the leading companies in Zambia’s seed industry. “I started this company with a team of three people. We did not have much, but we had a compelling vision,” says founder Stephanie Angomwile. “Initially, we were multiplying and distributing legume seed to the market as we had observed the deficit where it was very difficult for any serious farmer to procure improved and high-performing seed.”
“Having set up the business, we were fortunate to get AGRA’s support to secure proper industrial premises where we could focus our operations and serve the Zambian market,” she explains. “Using a basic drum seed dresser, we were able to churn out 100 metric tons of seed per season, which was quite impressive considering how rudimentary our equipment was.”
At this point, USAID bought into their vision and furnished Afriseed with a processing plant that could handle, sort, treat, and package seeds for both legume and maize. The company then pivoted to working with maize seed, based off the observation that most farmers were obtaining yields lower than the genetic potential of existing varieties.
“To do so, it was quite clear that we needed an institution that could help us break into the maize seed industry dominated by large multinational seed companies,” Angomwile explains. “This led us to partner with CIMMYT, which is a partnership that still exists today and has enabled us to accelerate our market penetration strategy through providing us with high-performing drought-tolerant genetics which are growing in popularity among farmers.”
The impact of CIMMYT support
Since 2017, CIMMYT has been working with Afriseed to help smallholder farmers access new and improved varieties that are drought-tolerant and can withstand seasonal weather variations induced by climate change. “As CIMMYT, our role is not only to breed improved genetic material that farmers can take up, but also to support business development for the private sector through intensive capacity building programs that position such entities to be sustainable and to excel in the absence project support,” explains Hambulo Ngoma, an agricultural economist working with CIMMYT. The organization has provided Afriseed with two high performing varieties so far: AFS 635 and AFS 638. In addition, CIMMYT has supported Afriseed in stimulating demand within the smallholder farmer market through facilitating the establishment of demonstration plots and designing targeted seed marketing strategies.
During CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts’ recent visit to Zambia, Ngoma highlighted that the organization is aware that small-to-medium enterprises may be constrained with regards to marketing budgets and market development investments. “As such, when we are convinced that there is a business case and an opportunity for a food security transformation, we usually support promising entities such as Afriseed with knowledge and resources to stimulate demand,” he said. “This is of extreme importance as farmers growing old, recycled seed from ancient varieties need to transition to new, improved varieties.”
Govaerts said, “We are happy we could contribute to the success of Afriseed in our own small way and we hope our partnership will take you to the next level.”
Afriseed has since grown and now comprises nearly 200 workers: 90 permanent staff and 110 casual workers during the peak season. Production has surged to an excess of 10,000 metric tons per season and there is a growing customer base stretching throughout all regions of the country. Angomwile is very grateful to have had a partner like CIMMYT, which facilitated Afriseed’s membership to the International Maize Consortium (IMC), a global body that provides access to an expanded genetic pool bringing exposure to new genetic gains. “Being a member of IMC is definitely an advantage for us as an entity because the seed supply market is highly competitive,” she explains. “So, we can now quickly become aware of the new genetic materials available and ask our research and development team — established through the immense support from CIMMYT — to develop new varieties for our target market.”
Through a series of exchange visits and trainings, CIMMYT has mentored the research and development team who are now in a position to breed their own varieties without external support. “The number of farmers in high potential areas that are remotely located that are still growing recycled seed is still quite large,” says Peter Setimela, a seed systems specialist who was part of the mentoring team. “We need to continuously render extensive support to entities such as Afriseed such that the seed quality deficiency gap can be greatly reduced.”
As the rains have been in abundance during this 2022/23 season, there is high anticipation that farmers who have grown seed from reputable seed suppliers such as Afriseed, are set for a bumper harvest.
Cover photo: Afriseed staff preparing legume seeds for processing in Zambia. (Photo: Agricomms)
Scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) suggest counties in Kenya should scale up and accelerate the adoption of technologies that can control and prevent Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN) and fall armyworm (FAW) to achieve higher maize yields.
Although the technologies exist, many farmers have little information on how to implement them.
Seed companies and senior officials from the Ministry of Agriculture could play a key role in disseminating information, as could mobile phone technology and emerging digital innovation platforms.
Read the original article: Counties Urged To Scale Up And Adopt Pest Control Technologies
To mark International Women’s Day 2023, Nele Verhulst, cropping systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), shares progress from the Women in Crop Science group and how their work tries to contribute to gender equality in agriculture and science.
Growing up in the nineties in Belgium, I was interested in feminism, but I also assumed that the fight for equal rights for women and men had been fought and won. Studying bioscience engineering in the 2000s, more than half of the students were women, so this demonstrated to me that we were all set (although the large majority of professors were men, it seemed to be just a matter of time for that to be resolved). I have now been working in Latin America as an agronomist and researcher for more than 15 years and have come to realize that there is still a lot of work to do to achieve equal opportunities for female farmers, farm advisors, scientists, and other professionals in agriculture.
At CIMMYT, between 20 and 25 percent of staff in the science career track – careers involving field, lab, data, and socioeconomic work – are female. Because of that, Alison Bentley and I started a group of women in crop science at CIMMYT about one year ago on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in 2022. In our first meeting, we aimed to connect, discussed how to build a network (we did not even have a list of all women in science at CIMMYT, so it was hard to know who to invite), and decided whether we wanted to commit to additional actions to achieve a more inclusive environment at CIMMYT.
Since that first meeting, we have organized coffee mornings and other events, and have split into smaller working groups to draft action plans on ten topics: gender in the workplace strategy development, advancement for locally recruited staff, mentorship, recruitment processes, microaggressions, harassment policies, work-life balance, family friendly work environment, raising external awareness about women in agriculture, and ensuring internal visibility.
Our group is also linked to the worldwide network of Women in Crop Science and the One CGIAR Women in Research and Science (WIRES) group.
I have enjoyed being able to make some first small changes – who knew sanitary facilities would turn out to be a recurring topic! – but most of all I have loved the opportunities over the past year to connect with women with a shared passion for crop science in all its aspects. That passion and the opportunities it creates to improve the lives of farmers and rural communities is the most important thing we are celebrating today.
Cover photo: Women participate in a public harvest event for timely sown wheat organized by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project with Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in in Nagwa village near Patna in Bihar, India. (Photo: Madhulika Singh/CIMMYT)
CGIAR’s Plant Health Initiative (PHI) is testing integrated pest management (IPM) packages against fall armyworm (FAW) in partnership with smallholder farmers and agricultural extension officers at the Plant Health Innovation Platform at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) Kiboko Research Station in Kenya.
The IPM packages comprise 18 combinations of treatments, including maize varieties with native genetic resistance to FAW, biopesticides, biological control agents, push-pull system, and bean varieties.
“This is a unique opportunity to identify eco-friendly and cost-effective IPM packages against a major pest like FAW through participatory engagement of smallholder farmers and extension personnel,” said BM Prasanna, Global Maize Program Director at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and CGIAR Plant Health Initiative Lead. “Also In our efforts against FAW, three FAW-tolerant maize hybrids have been recommended for release after national performance trials in Kenya.”
Participatory assessment
Participating farmers and extension personnel made their first assessment of the IPM combinations at the vegetative stage on November 8, 2022.
“With this second assessment on February 7, 2023, farmers and extension personnel are evaluating the same IPM combinations for their yield potential, which means the plants need to be not only healthy but also productive. The farmers are also looking at the quality of the maize ears, and the level of ear and kernel damage by the pest, if any. These assessments both at the vegetative and reproductive stages are critical for us to conclude this experiment and draw appropriate inferences,” Prasanna said.
Researchers will analyze the efficacy of the scoring of different IPM treatments by the farmers and from the vegetative/foliar and reproductive/harvest stages. In addition, scientists will conduct a cost-benefit analysis for each IPM treatment to identify relevant IPM packages that can be potentially scaled. Prasanna noted the initial scoring by the scientists and farmers were highly comparable.
The trials engaged farmers and extension workers from five different counties in Kenya. “The Plant Health Initiative is keen on co-creation and co-validation and taking an inclusive, participatory approach to innovations,” said Prasanna. He added that such an approach is vital for buy-in by the farmers, who need to be active partners in effectively scaling the selected IPM packages.
Farmers participating in the Field Day at the Innovation Platform applauded the initiative to involve them in validating solutions to manage FAW and expressed their eagerness to have the innovations in their hands. The farmers also had opportunities to ask questions, provide preliminary verbal feedback, and receive immediate clarification from the scientists to their queries.
”I know a farmer who has trained his two sons to go to every plant and kill the armyworm physically. You can imagine the time and energy that takes,” said Justice Kimeu, a farmer from Makueni County, Kenya. “Let the innovative methods we have seen here reach every farmer across the country.”
Plant Health Innovation Platform catalyzes collaboration
The Plant Health Innovation Platform at Kiboko brings together different innovations developed by the collaborating institutions: CIMMYT, KALRO, International Center for Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), AgBiTECH, Center for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI), and Farmfix Africa.
“Robust data is being generated on the efficacy and cost-benefit of various IPM combinations. After data analysis, 2-3 few specific IPM packages will be identified based on efficacy against FAW, cost effectiveness, affordability to smallholder farmers, and potential for rapid scale up,” Prasanna said.
Besides the FAW Innovation Platform at Kiboko, Kenya, the CGIAR Plant Health Initiative is operating eight other Innovation Platforms in Benin, Cameroon, Nigeria, Uganda, Lebanon, Philippines, Ecuador, and Colombia. Each of these platforms bring together diverse institutions engaged in developing game-changing solutions in managing key pests and diseases in the Initiative’s primary crops that include maize, banana, cassava, potato, sweet potato, rice, yam, sorghum, wheat, millets, legumes, and vegetables.
Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO)’s research station at Kiboko, Kenya, where several partner institutions including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), conduct significant research activities on crop breeding and seed systems, is now equipped with five new seed drying machines along with a dedicated shed to house these units, a cold room for storing breeding materials, and an additional irrigation dam/reservoir. These infrastructural upgrades are worth approximately US $0.5 million.
During the commissioning of the new facilities on February 7, 2023, CIMMYT Global Maize Program Director, BM Prasanna thanked the donors, Crops to End Hunger (CtEH) Initiative and Accelerated Genetic Gains (AGG) project, that supported the upgrade of the research station, and recognized the strong partnership with KALRO.
“Today is a major milestone for CIMMYT, together with KALRO, hosting this center of excellence for crop breeding. This facility is one of the largest public sector crop breeding facilities in the world, with hundreds of hectares dedicated to crop breeding. These new facilities will enable CIMMYT and KALRO crop breeders to optimize their breeding and seed systems’ work and provide better varieties to the farming communities,” said Prasanna.
Kenya suffered one of its worst droughts ever in 2022, and the newly commissioned facilities will support expedited development of climate-resilient and nutritious crop varieties, including resistance to major diseases and pests.
Improvements and enhancements
The efficiency of the seed driers capabilities to quickly reduce moisture content in seed from above 30% to 12% in two to three days, reducing the time taken for seed drying and allowing for more than two crop seasons per year in a crop like maize.
The additional water reservoir with a capacity of 16,500 cubic meters will eliminate irrigation emergencies and will also enhance the field research capacity at Kiboko. Reliable irrigation is essential for accelerating breeding cycles.
At the same time, the new cold room can preserve the seeds up to two years, preventing the loss of valuable genetic materials and saving costs associated with frequent regeneration of seeds.
World-class research center
“The Kiboko Research Center is indeed growing into an elite research facility that can serve communities in entire sub-Saharan Africa through a pipeline of improved varieties, not only for maize but in other important crops. This will not only improve climate resilience and nutrition, but will contribute to enhanced food and income security for several million smallholder farmers,” said Prasanna.
KALRO Director General Eliud Kireger appreciated the establishment of the new facilities and thanked CIMMYT and its partners for their support.
“Today is a very important day for us because we are launching new and improved facilities for research to support breeding work and quality seed production. This research station is in Makueni County, a very dry area yet important place for research because there is adequate space, especially for breeding,” said Kireger. “We are significantly improving the infrastructure at Kiboko to produce and deliver better seed to our farmers.”
For more than three decades, CIMMYT has conducted research trials at the Kiboko Research Station, focusing on drought tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency, and resistance to pests and diseases, such as fall armyworm and stem borer. The maize Double Haploid (DH) facility established in 2013 at Kiboko, with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, offers DH line production service for organizations throughout Africa, and is key to increasing genetic gains in maize breeding.
On February 7, Samantha Power, Administrator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), visited SEAN Seed Service Centre (SSSC) in Thankot, Nepal. Her time at the seed company — which is supported by the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project — provided an opportunity to learn more about how private sector support for agribusiness can help accelerate Nepal’s agricultural transformation.
The event began with a tour of the company’s facilities and seed lab, where Power met with breeders and employees responsible for sorting and grading seeds. Other stops on the visit included meetings with SSSC management and researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), who explained the important role the private sector plays in the country’s seed sector, from the development of climate stress tolerant varieties to facilitating seed access and distribution.
Later in the day, Power participated in a round table discussion with agribusiness entrepreneurs from seed and agricultural production companies, fertilizer manufacturers and distributors, and farmers cooperatives to better understand the key challenges and opportunities in fostering agricultural transformation in Nepal. The talks focused on the need for reforms on seed and fertilizer markets and elimination of market distorting policies such as unplanned subsidies, as well as the need to facilitate access to finance to boost investments and insurance to manage risks.
Key recommendations from participants included increased use of technologies — such as improved seeds, machineries, improved soil fertility management and digital tools — as well as the creation of a more enabling environment for attracting private sector investment and increasing agricultural participation among youth and disadvantaged communities in Nepal. The private sector plays a critical role in bolstering national food security, increasing economic growth, and creating transformative change in the country’s agricultural sector so it can be more commercial, competitive, and inclusive. Participants provided suggestions on how the Government of Nepal could further support the sector, allowing agribusinesses to develop and grow in order to cater to the needs of smallholder farmers and consumers.
CIMMYTs Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). It aims to develop competitive and vibrant seed and integrated soil fertility management (IFSM) systems for inclusive and sustainable growth in agricultural productivity, business development, and income generation in Nepal.
The best results in combating pests and diseases exacerbated by climate change and protecting agricultural food systems originate from strategic partnerships between national governments and international research organizations. Such a synergy between Zimbabwe’s Department of Research and Specialist Services (DRSS) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) was recognized for its effectiveness at an event hosted by Zimbabwe Plant Quarantine Services on January 9, 2023.
“The mandate of ensuring that Zimbabwe is protected from plant diseases and invasive pests is one which cannot be attained by government alone, but together with partners such as CIMMYT,” said Dumisani Kutywayo, Chief Director of DRSS.
Dagne Wegary Gissa, CIMMYT senior scientist in maize breeding, presented Kutywayo with the latest advanced PCR testing kits for detecting maize lethal necrosis. “We are committed to ensuring that we support Zimbabwe with improved maize and wheat varieties but also with rapid disease detection,” said Gissa.
Kutywayo and senior directors were given a tour of the plant quarantine services station, where they observed where all introduced maize seed is quarantined and tested before being incorporated into the local seed systems. Tanyaradzwa Sengwe, a seed health and quality expert, summarized the quarantine procedures and explained how the day-to-day operations between the two institutes are being implemented. This involves the management of imported seed, protocols of seed management and biosafety measures for the quarantine facility.
Expanding partnerships
Zimbabwe can now accelerate its crop improvement programs, Gissa indicated, because CIMMYT has provided the government access to doubled haploid (DH) technology. This technology significantly shortens the breeding cycle from seven years to approximately 3-4 years. DH technology has become an integral part of many commercial maize breeding programs, as DH lines offer several economic, logistic and genetic benefits over conventional inbred lines. Further, new advances in DH technology continue to improve the efficiency of DH line development and fuel its increased adoption in breeding programs worldwide.
CIMMYT-Zimbabwe has facilitated access for Zimbabwe’s maize breeding program to a CIMMYT DH facility in Kenya. Busiso Mavankeni, the head of the Crop Breeding Institute, related how it was very expensive for governments of developing countries to keep up with the latest breeding technology trends and so collaborating with CIMMYT is helping Zimbabwe. “Having access to the DH facility has been a great boon to our breeding program,” said Mavankeni.
CIMMYT and Zimbabwe are also engaged in capacity building exercises; involving training sessions across a variety of food system frameworks. Nhamo Mudada, Head of Plant Quarantine Services, acknowledged the multiple trainings ranging from disease identification and prevention systems to entomology related concepts. “Our technical capabilities have increased significantly, and we strongly attribute this to CIMMYT’s knowledge sharing mandate,” Mudada said.
“This sustainability is enabled by ensuring that our systems can screen genetic materials coming into the country and detect diseases which may be foreign to the agroecological region. CIMMYT has, over the years, supported the government not only from a financial perspective but also from a technical capacity perspective.
“Having reliable partners such as CIMMYT who generously invest in government priorities helps our country to be well positioned against threats to our food security,” said Kutywayo, “The key for creating and maintaining sustainable innovation is for development partners like CIMMYT to work within existing national frameworks,” said Kutywayo. “As the adverse effects of climate change intensify, such strategic partnerships are the only way to establish appropriate responses.”
“Our goal is to serve as critical partners for Zimbabwe’s agrifood programs. We have dedicated ourselves to be a long-term partners and will provide as much support as we can to ensure Zimbabwe’s food security,” Gissa said.
Use of lightweight, 5-9-horsepower mini-tillers by smallholder farmers in Nepal’s mid-hills cut tillage costs and boosted maize yields by facilitating timely maize cultivation, thus enhancing food self-sufficiency and farm profits and reducing rural poverty, a new study by an international team of scientists shows.
Published in the Journal of Economics and Development, the study reports findings of an on-farm survey involving more than 1,000 representative households from 6 districts of the mid-hills, a region of steep and broken terrain where rainfed maize is a staple crop, outmigration of working-age inhabitants makes farm labor scarce and costly, and farmers on small, fragmented landholdings typically till plots by hand or using ox-drawn plows.
“Conventional two- or four-wheel tractors are difficult to operate in the mid-hills’ rugged topography,” said Gokul P. Paudel, researcher working together with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany, and lead author of the study. “Farms are small and the mini-tillers are a good fit. Very small farms — those comprising less than 0.4 hectares of land and normally not served by hired farm labor or larger machinery — benefited the most from mini-tiller adoption.”
The paper is the first to provide empirical linkages between small-scale farm mechanization and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly No Poverty (SDG-1) and Zero Hunger (SDG-2).
“Given its rural poverty and the resulting outmigration from farm areas to cities and to other countries, Nepal has increasingly become a labor-exporting country,” explained Paudel, who partnered in this study with researchers from the Asian Development Bank Institute and Cornell University. “Our research can help guide investments by Nepal and other developing countries in scale-appropriate farm mechanization, supporting those who wish to remain on rural homesteads and make a go of it.”
The science team found that farm size, labor shortages, draft animal scarcity, and market proximity were major factors that facilitate the adoption of appropriate mechanization in Nepal, according to Tim Krupnik, CIMMYT systems agronomist and study co-author.
“Smallholder farms dominate more than two-thirds of agricultural systems globally,” Krupnik said. “Interest in scale-appropriate farm mechanization is growing rapidly, particularly among donors and governments, and practical empirical measures of its impact are crucial.” The findings of the latest study fill this knowledge gap and provide sufficient evidence to prioritize the spread of appropriate technologies among smallholder farmers.
Krupnik noted that, through its office in Nepal and strong shared research and capacity-building activities, CIMMYT has worked for almost four decades with Nepali scientists and development partners, including the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), to raise the productivity and sustainability of the country’s maize- and wheat-based farming systems.
In addition to strong government partnerships, CIMMYT works closely in Nepal with a range of non-government organizations, and importantly, hand-in-hand with private farm machinery manufacturers, retailers, and mechanics.
The study described was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Academy for International Agricultural Research (ACINAR) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and carried out by ATSAF e.V. on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the One CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA), and generous funders who contribute to the CGIAR Trust Fund.
Read the study: The contributions of scale-appropriate farm mechanization to hunger and poverty reduction: Evidence from smallholder systems in Nepal
Cover photo: In the Palpa district in the mid-hills of Nepal, a woman farmer tills the soil for maize seeding. (Photo: Gokul Paudel/CIMMYT)