research: Sustainable agrifood systems

From left to right: Marcelo Martins, President of Cargill Mexico; Carlos Barragán, Farmers category winner; Citlali Fuentes, from Fundación Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural, Opinion Leaders category winner; Mario López, Researchers category winner; and Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Winners of third Cargill-CIMMYT Award increase food production in Mexico

Written by on July 25, 2018. Posted in Press releases.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EL BATAN, MEXICO – Cargill Mexico and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) announced the winners of the third Cargill-CIMMYT Food Security and Sustainability Award on July 24. The award ceremony took place at CIMMYT’s global headquarters in México.

The Cargill-CIMMYT Award supports initiatives that tackle food security challenges in Mexico through long-term solutions. Winners have successfully increased the production of nutrient-rich food and made it available to people.

This year, the jury selected the most innovative projects in three categories:

Farmers: Carlos Barragán, for the project ‘De la milpa a tu plato’ (‘From the field to your plate’). Based in the state of Oaxaca, this initiative promotes food security and sustainability in small-scale farming systems.
Opinion Leaders: Fundación Mexicana para el Desarrollo Rural, for the project Educampo. This project supports poor maize smallholders who live in marginalized communities to make their farming more productive and profitable.
Researchers: Mario López, for the project ‘Technology for bean production.’ This initiative incremented production from 2 to 9 tons per hectare, disseminated agricultural technologies and increased the use of improved seed.

Winners were awarded a total of $25,000. The Farmers and Researchers categories received $10,000 each and the Opinion Leaders category was supported with $5,000.

A panel of experts from the agricultural and food sectors selected the winners from a shortlist of 30 projects across the country. The jury included representatives from Cargill Mexico, CIMMYT, Grupo Bimbo, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, Mexico’s Agriculture Council and Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.

About Cargill

Cargill’s 155,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive.

We combine 153 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.

About Cargill Mexico

Cargill Mexico aims to contribute in improving agricultural productivity, satisfying and fulfilling the expectations of the domestic industry. In addition to adding value to human and animal nutrition and thus encourage economic development, Cargill Mexico reinvests its profits in several new businesses in the country. Cargill has 9 business units that have operations in Mexico, it employs more than 1,750 people in 13 states and has a total of 30 facilities, including a corporate office in Mexico City. For more information, visit Cargill.com.mx, and our News Center.

About CIMMYT

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.

For more information

Cargill Mexico: Joselyn Ortega, Joselyn_Ortega@cargill.com, +52 5511057429.

CIMMYT: Ricardo Curiel, R.Curiel@cgiar.org, +52 5558047544.

Photos available (click on the image to download the high-resolution JPG file)

Carlos Barragán (center) receives the Cargill-CIMMYT Award, in the Farmers category. Behind him are representatives from the organizations in the jury (from left to right): Bosco de la Vega, President of Mexico’s National Agriculture Council; David Hernández, Global Chief Procurement Officer of Grupo Bimbo; Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT; Jorge Zertuche, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Agriculture; Marcelo Martins, President of Cargill Mexico; and José Sáenz, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Economy. (Photo: CIMMYT) — Carlos Barragán (center) receives the Cargill-CIMMYT Award, in the Farmers category.
Behind him are representatives from the organizations in the jury (from left to right): Bosco de la Vega, President of Mexico’s National Agriculture Council; David Hernández, Global Chief Procurement Officer of Grupo Bimbo; Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT; Jorge Zertuche, Mexico’s Undersecretary of Agriculture; Marcelo Martins, President of Cargill Mexico; and José Sáenz, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Economy. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Bedilu Desta, an agricultural mechanization service provider, demonstrates a two-wheel tractor. (Photo: Frédéric Baudron/CIMMYT)

Training manual greases the wheels for mechanization entrepreneurs

Written by Matthew O'Leary on July 13, 2018. Posted in News.

ROME — A new training manual is set to provide practical guidance for agricultural mechanization entrepreneurs in rural areas, where family farmers commonly lack capital to invest in the farm power required to increase food production.

The five-module training manual targeted at farm mechanization hire service providers, including youth and women, was developed by researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and official launched July 13 at FAO’s Rome headquarters.

It sets out a syllabus which trainers can tailor to local environments to equip entrepreneurs with essential business skills and knowledge to promote appropriate mechanization farmers need to sustainably intensify production, said Josef Kienzle, an agricultural engineer at FAO.

The manual will initially be rolled out in sub-Saharan African rural communities where improved access to agricultural mechanization is crucial, he said.

Small-scale mechanization, such as two-wheel tractor based technologies including direct seed planters, represent a shift away from destructively intensive agriculture. However, the decline of hire tractor schemes means resource-poor farmers often lack the financial means to obtain them, said Bruno Gerard, director of CIMMYT’s sustainable intensification program.

“To increase the productivity, profitability, and sustainability of their farms, family farmers need greater access to affordable yield-enhancing inputs. Hire service providers can improve access to mechanization that reduces labor drudgery and promotes sustainable intensification practices,” he said.

Sustainable intensification seeks to produce more food, improve nutrition and livelihoods, and boost rural incomes without an increase in inputs – such as land and water – thus reducing environmental impacts.

Sub-Saharan Africa needs sustainable intensification of agriculture. With 224 million people currently undernourished and a population tipped to almost double by 2050, bringing it to over 2 billion people, increasing food production is of the utmost importance.

Despite the need, African crop yields are stagnant with more than 95 percent of farmed land in sub-Saharan Africa rain-fed. Over half of soils are degraded following years of farming without replacing nutrients and low fertilizer use, as most farmers can’t afford it.

“Inclusive mechanization strategies create an enabling environment and provide a framework for making decisions on how to allocate resources, how to address current challenges, how to take advantage of opportunities that arise while in the meantime emphasize the concept of sustainable crop intensification and the roles of the private and public sectors,” said Kienzle. Farm machinery enables farmers to adopt sustainable crop production intensification practices – such as conservation agriculture – that benefit from greater farm power and precision.

The manual will be initially distributed and courses organized through FAO and CIMMYT field projects in sub-Saharan Africa utilizing local trainers and experts in machinery and agribusiness, he said. The manual is expected to be rolled out to other subregional offices and hubs in the future.

Mechanization fuels rural employment opportunity

Increased adoption of agricultural mechanization is stimulating jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities in Africa where youth and women increasingly face severe job insecurity, said Gerard.

Clara Chikuni has gained a reliable income since becoming a mechanization service provider and offering maize shelling in her local area. (Photo: Matthew O’Leary/CIMMYT)

Clara Chikuni, a mother from rural Zimbabwe, has secured a stable income after starting her own mechanized shelling business two years ago. Servicing maize farmers in a 5 kilometer radius of her home, Chikuni has more customers than she says she can handle and has developed reliable employment compared to her previous job buying and selling shoes.

“There is a lot of demand for mechanized maize shelling services. I am happy I can provide a service to the community and make money to support my family,” she said. “I hope with the profits I can move into the two wheel tractor business in the future.”

Chikuni was trained as an agricultural mechanization service provider through CIMMYT’s Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project supported by the Australian Government.

“The training and support gave me the know-how and confidence to start my business,” said the mother. “Other women now ask me how I did it and I encourage them to also get involved.”

There is a market for farming mechanization services that can make a big difference for a smallholder farm and help it transition from subsistence farming to a more market-oriented farming enterprise, said FAO’s Kienzle.

Apart from hire services, mechanization creates additional opportunities for new business with repair and maintenance of equipment, sales and dealership of related businesses including transport and agro-processing along the value chain.

The knowledge and expertise of both CIMMYT and FAO combined has made this manual unique and very praxis oriented, focused on smallholder mechanization businesses, he said.

Download the training manual: Hire services as a business enterprise: a training manual for small-scale mechanization service providers

Further information:

Q+A: Agricultural mechanization fuels opportunity for youth in rural Africa

Mechanization fuels rural opportunities around the globe

Rural21 features CIMMYT mechanization experts

Mechanization for smallholder farmers fact sheet

New Publications: Increasing food and nutrition security in Sub-Saharan African maize-based food systems, a technological perspective

Written by on July 5, 2018. Posted in Publications.

Two experimental lines of provitamin A-enriched orange maize, Zambia. Photo: CIMMYT.

A new study from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Wageningen University examines the preferences and needs of maize processors and consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). According to the authors, the demand for maize, a staple crop in SSA, will triple by 2050 due to rapid population growth. At the same time, the effects of climate change, such as erratic rainfall and drought, threaten agricultural productivity and the ability to meet this growing demand, while persistently high malnutrition pose additional challenges to the region. The authors suggest six objectives to enhance maize breeding programs for better food security and nutrition in SSA.

First, they recommend breeding programs enhance the nutrient density of maize through biofortification to help reduce deficiencies in vitamin A, zinc and protein. Since wheat is difficult to grow in most of SSA and expensive to import, they also suggest that programs breed to enhance the suitability of maize for making bread and snacks. The authors recommend breeding to improve maize for use as ‘green maize’ – the first crop to reach the marketplace after the dry season. If suitable green maize varieties are available, the hunger gap between seasons could be significantly reduced.

The authors’ fourth suggestion is breeding to improve characteristics that enhance the efficiency of local processing. For example, soft maize is preferred for traditional dry and wet milling, but hard maize is usually preferred for pounding or refining processes in the home. Lastly, the authors suggest breeding to reduce waste by maximizing useful product yield and minimizing nutrient losses, and breeding to reduce anti-nutrient concentrations in grains. For example, phytate or phytic acid is a naturally occurring compound found in cereals that binds with minerals and prevents their absorption. Transgenic and gene editing approaches may offer viable options for reducing phytate production.

The authors emphasize that none of these opportunities to enhance breeding strategies are “magic bullet” solutions. Sustainable, diversified crop production and post-harvest management strategies will play an important role in improving nutrition, food security and livelihoods.

Check out the full article: “Sub-Saharan African maize-based foods: Technological perspectives to increase the Food and nutrition Security impacts of maize Breeding programmes” 2018. Ekpa, O., Palacios-Rojas, N., Kruseman, G., Fogliano, V., Linnemann, A. (2018). In: Global Food Security, v. 17, pp. 48-56 and check out other recent publication by CIMMYT staff below:

Bayesian functional regression as an alternative statistical analysis of high-throughput phenotyping data of modern agriculture. Montesinos-López, A., Montesinos-Lopez, O.A., De los Campos, G., Crossa, J., Burgueño, J., Luna-Vazquez, F.J. In: Plant Methods v. 14, art. 46.
Exploring the physiological information of sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence through radiative transfer model inversion. Celesti, M., van der‏ Tol, C., Cogliati, S., Panigada, C., Peiqi Yang, Pinto Espinosa, F., Rascher | Miglietta, F., Colombo, R., Rossini, M. In: Remote Sensing of Environment v. 215, p. 97-108.
Genome-wide association mapping for resistance to leaf rust, stripe rust and tan spot in wheat reveals potential candidate genes. Juliana, P., Singh, R.P., Singh, P.K., Poland, J.A., Bergstrom, G.C., Huerta-Espino, J., Bhavani, S., Crossa, J., Sorrells, M.E. In: Theoretical and Applied Genetics v. 131, no. 7, p. 1405-1422.
High-throughput method for ear phenotyping and kernel weight estimation in maize using ear digital imaging. Makanza, R., Zaman-Allah, M., Cairns, J.E., Eyre, J., Burgueño, J., Pacheco Gil, R. A., Diepenbrock, C., Magorokosho, C., Amsal Tesfaye Tarekegne, Olsen, M., Prasanna, B.M. In: Plant Methods v. 14, art. 49.
IPM to control soil-borne pests on wheat and sustainable food production. Dababat, A.A., Erginbas-Orakci, G., Toumi, F., Braun, H.J., Morgounov, A.I., Sikora, R.A. In: Arab Journal of Plant Protection v. 36, no. 1, p. 37-44.
Long-term impact of conservation agriculture and diversified maize rotations on carbon pools and stocks, mineral nitrogen fractions and nitrous oxide fluxes in inceptisol of India. Parihar, C.M., Parihar M.D., Sapkota, T.B., Nanwal, R.K., Singh, A.K., Jat, S.L., Nayak, H.S., Mahala, D.M., Singh, L.K., Kakraliya, S.K., Stirling, C., Jat, M.L. In: Science of the Total Environment v. 640-641, p. 1382-1392.
Major biotic maize production stresses in Ethiopia and their management through host resistance. Keno, T., Azmach, G., Dagne Wegary Gissa, Regasa, M.W., Tadesse, B., Wolde, L., Deressa, T., Abebe, B., Chibsa, T., Mahabaleswara, S. In: African Journal of Agricultural Research v. 13, no. 21, p. 1042-1052.
Natural variation in elicitation of defense-signaling associates to field resistance against the spot blotch disease in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Sharma, S., Ranabir Sahu, Sudhir Navathe, Vinod Kumar Mishra, Chand, R., Singh, P.K., Joshi, A.K., Pandey, S.P. In: Frontiers in Plant Science v. 9, art. 636.
Population structure of leaf pathogens of common spring wheat in the West Asian regions of Russia and North Kazakhstan in 2017. Gultyaeva, E.I., Kovalenko, N.M., Shamanin, V.P., Tyunin, V.A., Shreyder, E.R., Shaydayuk, E.L., Morgunov, A.I. In: Vavilovskii Zhurnal Genetiki i Selektsii v. 22, no. 3, p. 363-369.
The ADRA2A rs553668 variant is associated with type 2 diabetes and five variants were associated at nominal significance levels in a population-based case–control study from Mexico City. Totomoch-Serra, A., Muñoz, M. de L., Burgueño, J., Revilla-Monsalve, M.C., Perez-Muñoz, A., Diaz-Badillo, A. In: Gene v. 669, p. 28-34.

Scaling Scan: A simple tool for big impact

Written by on June 25, 2018. Posted in Features.

Eleven years ago this week, Apple Inc. released the iPhone. While it was not the first smartphone on the market, industry experts often credit the iPhone’s groundbreaking design with the launch of the mobile revolution. The device, its competitors and the apps that emerged with them have changed how over two billion people interact with the world on a daily basis.

The success of this revolution, however, goes far beyond the actual technology. At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) outside Mexico City, scaling expert Lennart Woltering points to a smartphone lying on his desk.

“We have to remember that this phone is just hardware. It is useless if you don’t have a network connection or an outlet in your house with electricity,” he says.

Woltering joined CIMMYT last year as part of the German Development Cooperation’s effort to aid the scaling-up of agricultural innovations. New, improved seeds, small-scale machinery and conservation practices can all play a role in achieving several of the Sustainable Development Goals, but Woltering says many other non-technological factors, such as markets and policies, can prevent these innovations from having significant impact.

Roadside vendor sells roasted maize cobs in Kenya. (Photo: P.Lowe/CIMMYT)

“Many research institutes and nongovernmental organizations tend to focus on technology as the solution for everything,” he says. “But we find that 9 out of 10 cases, limiting factors have more to do with financing not being available to people, or poor policies that are hampering the adoption of technology.”

For example, CIMMYT has many initiatives in South Asia to promote conservation agriculture. Adopting no-till practices can help reduce erosion and improve soil health for better yields, but farmers who make this transition often need access to a different kind of machinery, such as the Happy Seeder, to plant their seeds. If government subsidies exist for conventional rototillers but not for the Happy Seeder, it is difficult to persuade farmers to make that economic sacrifice.

“It is a completely different ballgame in the real world, and you have to be honest about whatever fake reality you created in your project,” says Woltering.

Projects are designed in a very controlled way. They have a fixed budget and a fixed end date, and they are often shielded from the social and economic complexities that can propel or hinder an innovation from scaling.

“So if a donor says, ‘We want two million people to be reached,’ well, how are you going to do that? That’s where the Scaling Scan can help,” says Woltering.

Extension agents in Mexico use the Scaling Scan. (Photo: L. Woltering/CIMMYT)

The Scaling Scan helps an individual analyze, reflect on, and sharpen one’s scaling ambition and approach through a series of questions and prompts. It focuses on ten scaling ‘ingredients’ that need to be considered (e.g. knowledge and skills, public sector governance, awareness and demand) to reach the desired outcome.

“The Scaling Scan helps you figure out what exactly is required, what is possible, and what bottlenecks exist that you need to address in your strategy,” Woltering says.

Woltering collaborated with The PPPLab, a consortium of four Dutch institutes, to release the first version of the Scaling Scan last year. They tested it with project teams in the Netherlands, Mexico, India, Nepal and Kenya, and based on the feedback, they are now releasing a second version, which is available here.

In the trials with the first Scaling Scan, some teams realized the results they wanted to achieve were too ambitious given the circumstances. For other teams, it helped them clarify exactly what they wanted to achieve.

“Having a project objective is not enough to internalize the main goal,” says Woltering. “It also changes over time, especially if it’s a long-term project. The scaling scan can be good for an annual checkup.”

Woltering emphasizes that successful scaling requires multidisciplinary collaboration.

“If you only have a team of agronomists, you will not reach a scale of millions you want to achieve. If you only have a team of policy experts, you will not succeed,” he says. “There are professionals that can really help and add value to what we are doing.”

“It’s hard to get an agronomist and an economist in the same room together, but we’re not going to change the world if we don’t work together with others who have their specific specialty or expertise,” he says.

The Scaling Scan also includes a responsibility check through some very simple but strategic questions.

“Every system has its pros and cons – some people benefit, some do not. Some have power, some do not,” says Woltering. “So what does it mean if your innovation goes to scale? Maybe there’s a whole new power dimension.”

Successfully scaling something may have unintended consequences. There are always tradeoffs and resistance to change. Woltering says the responsibility check can help actors in the development sector to think through these questions and consider what the possible outcomes could be.

For more explanation on how and when to use the tool, we invite you to download the Scaling Scan (also available in Spanish) which contains detailed practical information. We recommend the Excel sheet (also available in Spanish) to have the average scores and results generated automatically. A condensed, two-page PDF is also available.

This work is supported by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

CIMMYT projects working to enhance business agility of South Asian seed companies

Written by on June 18, 2018. Posted in News.

Participants of the international training. Photo: S.Thapa/CIMMYT-Nepal

Improved seed with proper management practices is an important agricultural input which can boost crop productivity by more than 50 percent. This gain is necessary to achieve food security and alleviate poverty in many developing countries. However, it can be challenging for farmers to find high-quality seeds as availability, affordability and accessibility remain hurdles to improved seed distribution. In Nepal, the majority of rural farmers use farm-saved seeds of inferior quality leading to low productivity and subsistence livelihood.

The seed industry in Nepal, as in most developing countries, is still emerging and largely untapped. Lack of availability of start-up working capital, business incentives in the sector, new technologies and required technical expertise limit the current seed value chain.

To address this, the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project is engaging Nepalese seed companies in a business mentoring process to enhance their ability to test and deploy new products, develop business and marketing plans and sustain a viable, competitive seed business, particularly in hybrid seeds.

The NSAF project, in collaboration with the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) & the Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal (SEAN) organized an “International Training Workshop on Seed Business Management” for senior-level seed company managers and business owners representing 15 private seed companies from Nepal and Pakistan. Held from April 23 to 25 in Kathmandu, the training aimed to develop market-oriented seed businesses that emphasize hybrid seed. The training focused on increasing the technical, financial and market management capacities of senior managers and conveying the requirements of a competitive seed business using case studies from Africa and Asia.

Navin Hada, AID project development specialist at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-Nepal highlighted the timeliness of the training and congratulated the NSAF team for bringing south Asian seed companies and international experts together for experience sharing and collaborations.

“SEAN has more than 2000 registered members in Nepal and business-oriented training like this help our members to enhance their efficiency,” said Laxmi Kant Dhakal, chairman of SEAN and president of the Unique Seed Co Plc.

Suma Karki from Seed Quality Control Center (SQCC) of Nepal receiving certification of participation Photo: E. Kohkar/CIMMYT-Pakistan.

The training was facilitated by John MacRobert, a consultant for business mentoring of Nepalese seed companies and former principal seed system specialist for CIMMYT with the support of the NSAF team. The training workshop included lectures, discussions and customized exercises to develop business plans; marketing, production and financial strategies; seed quality control; and research and development plans.

During the reflection session to close the training, Dyutiman Choudhary, NSAF project coordinator, appreciated the professional interaction and experience sharing among Nepalese and Pakistani seed companies and acknowledged the role of MacRobert in bringing diverse experiences from Africa and other regions.

At the closing ceremony, Yubak Dhoj G.C, secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Land Management and Co-operative, emphasized the importance of hybrid seed self-sufficiency for Government of Nepal initiatives for attaining food security and alleviating poverty.

The Nepal Seed and Fertilizer project is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and is a flagship project in Nepal. NSAF aims to build a competitive and synergistic seed and fertilizer systems for inclusive and sustainable growth in agricultural productivity, business development, and income generation in Nepal. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)-led, USAID-funded, Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan supported the participation of Pakistani seed companies to the training.

New Publications: Tackling the wheat blast threat in South Asia

Written by Mike Listman on May 31, 2018. Posted in Publications.

This blast-infected wheat spike contains no grain, only chaff. Photo: CIMMYT files.

A spatial mapping and ex ante study regarding the risk and potential spread in South Asia of wheat blast, a mysterious and deadly disease from the Americas that unexpectedly infected wheat in southwestern Bangladesh in 2016, identified 7 million hectares of wheat cropping areas in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan whose agro-climatic conditions resemble those of the Bangladesh outbreak zone.

The study shows that, under a conservative scenario of 5-10% wheat blast production damage in a single season in those areas, wheat grain losses would amount to from 0.89 to 1.77 million tons worth, between $180 and $350 million. This would strain the region’s already fragile food security and forcing up wheat imports and prices, according to Khondoker Abdul Mottaleb, first author of the study.

“Climate change and related changes in weather patterns, together with continuing globalization, expose wheat crops to increased risks from pathogens that are sometimes transported over long distances,” said Mottaleb.

Foresight research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has focused on new diseases and pests that have emerged or spread in recent decades, threatening global food safety and security. For wheat these include Ug99 and other new strains of stem rust, the movement of stripe rust into new areas, and the sudden appearance in Bangladesh of wheat blast, which had previously been limited to South America.

“As early as 2011, CIMMYT researchers had warned that wheat blast could spread to new areas, including South Asia,” said Kai Sonder, who manages CIMMYT’s geographic information systems lab and was a co-author on the current study, referring to a 2011 note published by the American Pathological Society. “Now that forecast has come true.”

CIMMYT has played a pivotal role in global efforts to study and control blast, with funding from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

This has included the release by Bangladesh of the first blast resistant, biofortified wheat variety in 2017, using a CIMMYT wheat line, and numerous training events on blast for South Asia researchers.

Read the full article in PLOS-One: “Threat of wheat blast to South Asia’s food security: An ex-ante analysis” and check out other recent publication by CIMMYT staff below:

Africa’s unfolding economic transformation. 2018. Jayne, T.S., Chamberlin, J., Benfica, R. In: The Journal of Development Studies v. 54, no. 5, p. 777-787.
Agricultural innovation and inclusive value-chain development: a review. 2018. Devaux, A., Torero, M., Donovan, J. A., Horton, D. In: Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies v. 8, no. 1, p. 99-123.
Challenges and prospects of wheat production in Bhutan: a review. 2018. Tshewang, S., Park, R.F., Chauhan, B.S., Joshi, A.K. In: Experimental Agriculture v. 54, no. 3, p. 428.442.
Characterization and mapping of leaf rust resistance in four durum wheat cultivars. 2018. Kthiri, D., Loladze, A., MacLachlan, P. R., N’Diaye, A., Walkowiak, S., Nilsen, K., Dreisigacker, S., Ammar, K., Pozniak, C.J. In: PLoS ONE v. 13, no. 5, art. e0197317.
Fixed versus variable rest period effects on herbage accumulation and canopy structure of grazed ‘Tifton 85’ and ‘Jiggs’ Bermuda grass. 2018. Pedreira, C. G. S., Silva, V. J. da., Guimaraes, M. S., Pequeño, D. N. L., Tonato, F. In: Pesquisa Agropecuaria Brasileira v. 53, no. 1, p. 113-120.
Gestión de la interacción en procesos de innovación rural. 2018. Roldan-Suarez, E., Rendon-Medel, R., Camacho Villa, T.C., Aguilar-Ávila, J. In: Corpoica : Ciencia y Tecnología Agropecuaria v. 19, no. 1, p. 15-28.
Market participation and marketing channel preferences by small scale sorghum farmers in semi-arid Zimbabwe. 2018. Musara, J. P., Musemwa, L., Mutenje, M., Mushunje, A., Pfukwa, C. In: Agrekon v. 57, no. 1, p. 64-77.
The economics behind an ecological crisis: livelihood effects of oil palm expansion in Sumatra, Indonesia. 2018. Kubitza, C., Krishna, V.V., Alamsyah, Z., Qaim, M. In: Human Ecology v. 46, no. 1, p. 107–116.
Understanding the factors that influence household use of clean energy in the Similipal Tiger Reserve, India. 2018. Madhusmita Dash, Behera, B., Rahut, D. B. In: Natural Resources Forum v. 42, no. 1, p. 3-18.

Breaking Ground: Wei Xiong helps farmers and policymakers make better decisions

Written by on May 30, 2018. Posted in Features.

Farmers and agricultural policymakers frequently encounter tough decisions with complex trade-offs. Selecting which crop to plant next season, for example, would be much easier with a crystal ball. Wei Xiong, a senior scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), cannot look into the future, but he can remove a lot of the guesswork.

Xiong uses modeling tools to simulate how agricultural systems would respond to different policies, technological innovations and climate change.

“With these simulations, we can show farmers and policymakers different hypothetical outcomes,” said Xiong. “We can help them make better, more informed decisions.”

Xiong and his multi-disciplinary team are interested in looking at new angles of agricultural issues. For one project, Xiong is investigating how climate change could affect global beer prices. He and his team are studying the effects of increasingly frequent extreme weather events, such as drought, on global barley yields and how this could affect beer production and prices.

“We call the project drinking security,” added Xiong.

Xiong is also interested in the impacts of air pollution on agricultural production and livelihoods in India and China.

“We want to know if air pollution affects yields and whether policies to curb air pollution will have any impact on farmer incomes, food prices and international trade,” he said.

Xiong collaborates with a team of Chinese agricultural scientists and local extension officers on a program called Size & Technology Backyard. The program aims to increase farmers’ yields while decreasing agricultural pollution in the water, air and soil. During each growing season, agricultural students stay in villages to conduct surveys and field research with farmers.

“Based on that data, we can create an agricultural modeling system that incorporates everything from the crop physiology side, to the socioeconomic side and human dimension side,” said Xiong. “We can project which farmers are most likely to adopt which specific kinds of technology based on everything from their location to their family structure.”

But in China, Xiong explained, agriculture still falls under government control.

“The government has always decided which crop you should plant, which area you should use and how to use the areas,” said Xiong. “Most of the policies are based on suggestions by experts.”

The team will use their simulation models to recommend policies that benefit farmers and the environment.

Xiong effectively links many silos through his work at CIMMYT, in large part due to his diverse educational background. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in geography at Hubei University, he continued with a master’s degree in meteorology from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) in Beijing. He later went on to earn a doctorate in agronomy from China Agricultural University.

After ten years as a professor at CAAS, Xiong worked at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis where he designed large-scale simulations of crop production and the effects of global policy. In 2014, he collaborated with other researchers on a global agriculture systems modeling project through a position at the University of Florida. Last fall, Xiong joined CIMMYT at its headquarters in El Batán, Mexico, working on sustainable intensification.

Xiong will return to China later this year to help establish a new CIMMYT office in Henan and strengthen CIMMYT’s partnership with Henan Agricultural University. The new location will focus on research and training, and will host two international senior scientists with expertise in remoting sensing, informatics, physiology and crop management.

Tar Spot Complex a potential big black spot on US maize economy

Written by on May 30, 2018. Posted in News.

Figure: Maize-producing counties in the USA that are vulnerable to Tar Spot Complex (TSC) of maize, developed based on climate analogue model analysis procedure matching historic climatic data of 13 counties where TSC has been detected.

A new study shows that nearly 12 million hectares of the maize-growing USA, approximately 33 percent of the entire maize-growing area of the country, might be vulnerable to a disease called Tar Spot Complex (TSC).

Native to Latin America, one of the two major fungal pathogens involved in TSC of maize was detected for the first time in the United States in 2015. In Latin America, TSC can cause up to 50 percent losses in maize yields, but the impact of one fungal pathogen alone on maize yields unknown. There is a hypothetical likelihood that the second fungal pathogen involved in TSC, could migrate to the US. If this happens, the devastating TSC disease in the US could cause significant economic damages.

Even a one percent loss in maize production caused by the disease in this area could lead to a reduction in maize production of 1.5 million metric tons of grain, or approximately $231.6 million in losses. Such production losses would not only affect the $51.5 billion US maize industry, but also the food security in a number of low-income countries that are heavily dependent on maize imports from the US.

The emergence and spread of new crop diseases or new variants of already established diseases around the globe over the last decades have generated serious threats for food safety and security. Therefore, the improvement of crop disease resistance has become one of the key focus topics of research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

The intent of this study is to raise public awareness regarding potential TSC outbreaks and to develop strategies and action plans for such scenario.

This study was published by an interdisciplinary team of CIMMYT scientists in the journal of Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change regarding the potential threats of TSC in the US and its global consequences. Within this article, ex-ante impact assessment techniques were combined with climate analogue analysis to identify the maize growing regions that may be vulnerable to potential TSC outbreaks in the USA.

This work was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE).

A Capacity Approach To Climate Change Modeling: Identifying Crop Management Adaptation Options

Written by on May 23, 2018. Posted in News.

Crop growth simulation models coupled with climate model projections are promoted and increasingly used for assessing impacts of climate change on crop yields and for informing crop-level adaptations. However, most reported studies are unclear regarding the choice of the global circulation models (GCMs) for climate projections and the corresponding uncertainty with these type of model simulations.In our study, we investigated to what extent far climate-change modeling can be used for identifying crop management adaptation options to climate change. We focused our analysis on a case study of maize production in southern Africa using the APSIM crop growth model (Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator) and projections from 17 individual climate models for the period 2017-2060 for the contrasting representative concentration pathways 2.6 and 8.5.

Our findings demonstrate that the identification of crop management-level adaptation options based on linked climate-crop simulation modelling is largely hindered by uncertainties in the projections of climate change impacts on crop yields. With uncertainties in future crop yield predictions of around 30 to 40% or more, many potential adaptation options to climate change are not identifiable or testable with crop-climate models.

First, the variation of climate predictions is high. Their accuracy is limited by fundamental, irreducible uncertainties that are the result of structural differences in the GCMs as well as different model parametrization and downscaling approaches. We found that different GCMs gave largely different results, without any clear pattern.

Second, there is also large uncertainty in simulating the responses of crops to changing climate because of the different structures, and input data and parameters of crop models. Besides, crop models often lack key processes (e.g., physiological plant responses to extreme temperatures) related to climate change impacts, as they were not built for this purpose. It is also evident that due to the limited capability of crop models in simulating effects of soil and crop management practices on crop yields, only a limited number of adaptation options could be informed.

A more successful approach for informing adaptation to climate change may be to begin with the decision-making context, assessing the existing capacities and vulnerabilities of farmers and their communities to climate change. This “capacity approach” does not require probability-based estimates of future climate, but rather a range of plausible representations that can help to better understand how the climate-related vulnerabilities can be addressed. Most of the decisions on crop management are made by the farmer in the context of his/her production objectives and farming opportunities and constraints. From there, farming options can be identified and proposed that are feasible and robust over a range of plausible climatic futures, without the need for detailed climate projections.

Furthermore, adaption to climate change is also entwined with socioeconomic drivers, such as globalization, economic and political priorities, and demographics. In fact, complexities in economic and social systems may outweigh climatic uncertainties in determining possible and feasible adaptation options. A general trend observed is that by diversifying their income sources, including off-farm income, farmers become less vulnerable to climate variability and change.

Whilst we argue that results from GCMs cannot be directly used for informing local-scale adaptation options, we do acknowledge that the use of ensembles of both climate and crop models in regionally- and globally-oriented impact studies can provide valuable information that can guide policy decision-making on agricultural adaptation to climate change at national and international scales.

These findings are described in the article entitled Can we use crop modelling for identifying climate change adaptation options? recently published in the journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology. This work was conducted by Marc Corbeels, David Berre, Leonard Rusinamhodzi and Santiago Lopez-Ridaura from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD).

This blog was originally published on the website Science Trends, find it here.

Breaking Ground: Lorena Gonzalez fast-forwards action on hunger using technology

Written by Matthew O'Leary on May 17, 2018. Posted in Features.

Intrigued by the unique relationship our food crops have to their geographical environment, Lorena Gonzalez dedicated her passion for geomatic technology to collect site-specific farm data that is revolutionizing the way researchers and farmers tackle hunger.

Working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) as a research assistant, Gonzalez is part of a seismic shift in agriculture, replacing time-consuming manual data collection with technology.

Instead of walking the fields taking measurements by hand, data is collected from a distance through remote sensing. Using cameras on board manned and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as on ground sensors, Gonzalez gathers information such as plant height, canopy temperature and relative biomass, and evaluates plant health and soil spatial variability in minutes rather than weeks.

Collaborating with farmers and colleagues from maize and wheat breeding programs Gonzalez uses Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to organize and analyze data and patterns related to specific farm locations, making it easier to relate information to growers’ specific needs.

“It is important to make sure that data is properly geo-referenced, this way we know exactly how each crop is impacted by the matrix of factors in its environment,” said Gonzalez. “Collecting crop management and field data such as fertilization rates, irrigations schemes or soil properties provides us with information to understand and improve plant growth.”

The tailored information is used to improve farmers’ decision-making, allowing for more precise agriculture to create sustainable farming systems that produce more food with fewer resources, she said.

Gonzalez’ love for all things data saw her delve into the world of geospatial science studying her bachelor in Geomatics Engineering in the Mexican state of San Luis Potosi. Her passion for helping farmers achieve food security led her to apply for a job at CIMMYT. Since working with the Sustainable Intensification Program she has developed skills to collect and visualize agricultural data in meaningful ways to inform different stakeholders.

“Farmers, researchers and politicians can make better decisions when we streamline field data using available technology. The path of data from field to farm decision-makers can be streamlined using the available technology creatively and collaboratively, if we dare to build the appropriate systems.”

A UAV is launched to collect data from a field in CIMMYT’s experiment station in Ciudad Obregón, Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT/ Peter Lowe

With climate change already affecting crop production, GIS becomes an increasingly important tool farmers can use to adapt and maintain crop yields, Gonzalez said. According to PNAS, each degree Celsius increase in global mean temperature is estimated to reduce the average global yields of wheat and maize by up to seven percent. These crops are key to the survival of humanity, providing a major portion of our caloric intake.

Remote sensing and precision agriculture plays a fundamental role in the ongoing challenge to reduce and cope with the effects of climate change and maximize land efficiency. Using quality data presented in useful ways helps farmers improve decision making, she added.

Gonzalez believes providing open access to geospatial decision support tools will allow smallholder famers to gain the information needed to make site-specific decisions on the exact quantity, location and timely application of resources needed to optimize food production.

If the world is to eliminate world hunger and malnutrition by 2030 as set out in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, smallholder farmers – who produce 80 percent of the world’s food – must benefit from access to remote sensing and precision agriculture, she said. Nine out of ten of the world’s 570 million farms are managed by families, making the family farm the predominant form of agriculture, and consequently a potentially crucial agent of change in achieving sustainable food security and in eradicating hunger in the future, according to UN reports.

Currently, Gonzalez is collecting data for an innovative private-public partnership, Mexico COMPASS, to help Mexican smallholder farmers increase wheat and sugar cane production by identifying factors that cause the yield gap between crop potential and actual performance.

The project aims to improve crop productivity and smallholder farmer incomes while facilitating rural community economic development. The data collected by Gonzalez in Mexico’s Yaqui Valley and in the state of Tabasco contributes to a system that combines earth observation satellite data with captured farm data to create a site-specific decision support tool for farmers. The project will help farmers to make better use of natural resources while monitoring crop health.

Improving smallholder farmer capacity and ability to make informed farming decisions is key to ending hunger and improving livelihoods, said Gonzalez.

Gonzalez’s work with CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification Program on the Mexico COMPASS project is funded by the UK Space Agency and has as partners: Rezatec, The University of Nottingham, Booker Tate and Colegio de Postgraduados (COLPOS).

Mexico and CIMMYT share a common vision for sustainable food production

Written by Jennifer Johnson on May 9, 2018. Posted in News.

Visiting the CIMMYT germplasm bank. Photo: C.Beaver/CIMMYT.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) is committed to provide Mexican farmers with the best possible seed and technical support, according to Baltazar Hinojosa Ochoa, Mexico’s secretary of agriculture, during his first visit to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) on May 6.

“My career in agriculture goes back 32 years, and I myself am a farmer,” Hinojosa said in his opening address. “With this great opportunity to visit CIMMYT also comes a great commitment to its work—I am here to work by your side, to learn, and to help make sure the projects you are working on become reality and continue the legacy of work you have upheld over many years.”

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff discussed CIMMYT’s longstanding partnership with Mexico and SAGARPA, and the Center’s work to help farmers in Mexico and around the world improve their productivity and sustainability. “Mexico is our home, our ally, and the cradle of the green revolution. The technologies and seeds that we develop here in Mexico are used in Africa, Asia, Latin America—practically all over the world,” he said.

Bram Govaerts, the Latin America regional representative at CIMMYT, presented in detail the positive impact that the seeds, technologies and sustainable intensification practices of the MasAgro project, a partnership between CIMMYT and SAGARPA, has had in Mexico.

Tour of CIMMYT campus. Photo: S.Rico, CIMMYT. — Tour of CIMMYT campus. Photo: C.Beaver/CIMMYT.

He cited a study by Mexico’s University of Chapingo that found that extension agents trained in the MasAgro method were 10 times more effective at (reaching) farmers.

Another study found that farmers who implemented MasAgro’s innovative sustainable intensification techniques were able to increase their maize yields under raid-fed agriculture by nearly a ton per hectare in several Mexican states.

The secretary of agriculture expressed particular interest in sustainable intensification practices that prevent soil erosion and promote efficient water use, citing the prime importance of conserving these resources that are crucial to protecting agriculture and food security.

“You have a clear vision of what needs to be done, and we are committed to that vision with you,” Hinojosa said. “We must begin to work today on issues such as water use and soil erosion rather than wait until our resources are already degraded.”

The secretary was then given a tour of CIMMYT’s seed bank, home to the largest collection of maize and wheat genetic diversity in the world, followed by presentations from CIMMYT researchers on their work with maize, wheat and sustainable intensification. Other visitors included Jorge Luis Zertuche, subsecretary of agriculture; Eduardo Mansilla, delegate of SAGARPA in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas; Sergio Martínez, advisor to the secretary of agriculture; as well as members of the CIMMYT management committee and researchers from the MasAgro project.

Participatory experimental field in Beernarayana climate-smart village. (Photo: CIMMYT)

“Layering” climate smart rice-wheat farming practices in India boosts benefits

Written by on May 8, 2018. Posted in News.

Farmers confront a daunting range of options for potentially achieving high crop yields in India’s western Indo-Gangetic Plains, where rice and wheat crops are planted in rotation to meet high demand for dietary food staples.

Since 1965, rotational crop planting has been deployed in the area to intensify production in a limited growing area, initially yielding positive food security results. Over time, agricultural practices have led to troubling consequences for the landscape, leading to unreliable or lower yields for farmers.

Now, new scientific research into “layering” climate smart agriculture techniques shows promise, demonstrating the potential for crop adaptability to climate change. Experiments reveal the possibilities for high productivity, benefits for water and energy supplies resulting in a smaller environmental footprint.

Throughout Southeast Asia, but particularly in the Indo-Gangetic Plains area, natural resources are three to five times more stressed due to agricultural intensification, urbanization, population growth, increasing climate change risks, and land degradation difficulties.

“Land is degraded in the region because over the past 50 years crop production increased quickly leading to inefficient use and mismanagement of resources,” said M.L. Jat, a Principal Scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), who works with a team of scientists on sustainable intensification and climate smart agriculture.

The scientists conducted a study to determine the most effective methods to grow rice and wheat in constrained conditions where horizontal expansion of crop growing areas is no longer a viable option for increasing yields.

Before embarking on their research, scientists were already aware that due to overpopulation, to meet rising food demand in the Indo-Gangetic Plains area, the only option for farmers is to increase yields on land already under agricultural production. Land shortages are exacerbated by reduced availability of water and energy.

By 2050, variability in growing conditions due to climate change is projected to lower crop yields by 10 to 40 percent and total crop failure will become more common.

Additionally, over the same time period, more than half the current wheat growing area in the Indo-Gangetic Plains will likely become unsuitable for production due to heat stress. Over pumping of ground water for rice production is simultaneously depleting the water table.

“Adaptation to climate change is no longer an option, but essential for minimizing crop losses that will occur as a result of the adverse impact of climate change,” Jat said, adding that the key to future food security is to use agricultural technologies that promote sustainable intensification and adapt to emerging climatic variability.

“Farmers face an enormous challenge – to be successful they must now rely on sustainable intensification management practices and adapt to emerging climate variability while playing a role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon to keep global warming in check,” he said.

The key will be to boost the use climate smart agriculture techniques, which have the potential to address these challenges, maintain environmental equilibrium and produce high crop yields simultaneously.

The strategy opens the door to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and farmer income, adapt to and develop the capacity to resist climate change, and reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.

After experimental fieldwork, the scientists learned that strategically combining climate smart agricultural technologies already used selectively as a result of years of CIMMYT-designed trials in the region are most likely to lead to high crop yields and food security.

WINNING TECHNIQUES

Their findings are reported in a new research paper published in Agricultural Water Management journal.

Currently, farmers are using such climate smart water and energy saving techniques as direct seeded rice, zero tillage, laser land leveling, alternate wetting and drying, weather forecast based irrigation, precision nutrient management. Other climate smart techniques include retention of crop residues on the fields to store carbon and prevent emissions and unhealthy smog levels that result from residue burning.

“Climate smart agriculture practices in isolation may not fulfill their full potential in adapting to climate risks and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in rice-wheat production systems,” Jat said.

“However, layering of these practices and services in optimal combinations may help to adapt and build resilience under diverse production systems and ecologies to ensure future food security.”

The scientists studied six scenarios in three different climate smart villages in India’s sub-tropical state of Haryana in the Indo-Gangetic Plains.

The first scenario was based solely on observing the normal practices of a farmer, the second and third scenarios were layered with different technologies used for tillage, crop establishment, residue and nutrient management, and designated as “improved farmers’ practices.”

The other three scenarios were based on climate smart agriculture practices combined with the available range of technologies deployed to enhance tillage, crop establishment, laser land leveling; residue, water and nutrient management; improved crop varieties, information and communication technology and crop insurance.

Scientists set out to determine the best combination of practices and found that layering of climate smart agriculture practices improved rice-wheat system productivity from 6 to 19 percent depending on techniques used.

Layering also led to savings of more than 20 percent irrigation water. Global warming potential was reduced by 40 percent.

“The research leaves us feeling optimistic that the work we’ve been conducting throughout South Asia is leading to strong results,” Jat said. “Our aim now is to continue to work through various real life scenarios to see how far we can go in sustainably intensifying the entire region so that food supply can keep apace with population growth under emerging climate change challenges.”

The project was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

Q+A with Iván Ortíz-Monasterio on nitrogen application and consequences

Written by on May 7, 2018. Posted in News.

Iván Ortíz-Monasterio, expert on sustainable intensification and wheat crop management at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), recently took part in a study detailing the detriments of excess fertilizer use and the benefits of more precise dosages.

In the following interview, he discusses the overuse of nitrogen fertilizer and related consequences, his experience with farmers, and his outlook for the future. According to Ortíz-Monasterio and study co-authors, research on wheat in the Yaqui Valley, state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico, and home to CIMMYT’s Norman E. Borlaug Experiment Station (CENEB), has direct implications for wheat crop management worldwide.

“The Yaqui Valley is agro-climatically representative of areas where 40 percent of the world’s wheat is grown, including places like the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India and Pakistan, the Nile Delta in Egypt, and the wheat lands of China,” said Ortíz-Monasterio.

Q: A key finding of the new publication was that, after a certain point, applying more nitrogen fertilizer does not increase yields, making excessive applications essentially a drain on farmers’ resources. Why then do farmers continue to apply more fertilizer than the crop needs?

A: Well there is a risk, if you under-apply N fertilizer, your yield goes down. Farmers are afraid that the yield will be lower and that their profit will be lower. The cost of under-applying for them is greater than the cost of over-applying, because they’re not paying all the costs of over applying. Those costs include the environmental impacts associated with greenhouse gas emissions, at a regional scale in the case of the Yaqui Valley because of nitrification of the Sea of Cortez, and at a local level due to contamination of the water table. All these costs are passed on to society. If we passed them on to farmers, then they would be more concerned about over-applying nitrogen fertilizers.

Q: Do you think farmers becoming more concerned is something that could happen?

A: Well there are starting to be more regulations in Europe. In the UK, farmers cannot apply any nitrogen before or at sowing; they can apply fertilizer only once the plant is about 15 centimeters tall. In other parts of Europe, like Germany, farmers cannot apply more than 150 kilograms of nitrogen on wheat, so it’s happening in other parts of the world. The government of Mexico and others are making commitments to reduce nitrous oxide emissions by 20 percent by 2030 and, in the case of agriculture, the main source of nitrous oxide is nitrogen fertilizer. To meet such commitments, governments will have to take policy action so, yes; I think there’s a good chance something will happen.

Q: There are technologies that can help farmers know precisely when to apply fertilizer and how much, for optimal crop yield and nitrogen use. Do many farmers use them? Why or why not?

NDVI map. Photo: CIMMYT. — NDVI (normalized difference vegetative index) map. Photo: CIMMYT archives

A: Something interesting to me is what’s happening right now. For the last 10 years, we’ve been working with Yaqui Valley farmers to test and promote hand-held sensors and hiring farm advisors paid with government money who provide this service free to farmers, and adoption was high. Then the government removed the subsidy, expecting farmers to begin covering the cost, but

farmers didn’t want to pay for it.

Then a company that uses drones approached me and other researchers in the region and requested our help to convert wheat crop sensor data obtained using airborne drones to recommended fertilizer dosages. We agreed and, in their first year of operation, farmers growing wheat on 1,000 hectares paid for this service. I don’t know what it is—maybe seeing a colorful map is more sexy—but farmers seem to be willing to pay if you fly a drone to collect the data instead of having a farm advisor walk over the field. But it’s great! In the past we relied on the government to transfer the technology and now we have this great example of a private-public partnership, where a company is helping to transfer the technology and making a profit, so that will make it sustainable. I’m very excited about that!

Q: Does CIMMYT have a plan to increase adoption of these technologies?

A CIMMYT technician uses a hand-held sensor to measure NDVI (normalized difference vegetative index) in a wheat field at the center's CENEB experiment station near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, northern Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT. — A CIMMYT technician uses a hand-held sensor to measure NDVI (normalized difference vegetative index) in a wheat field at the center’s CENEB experiment station near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, northern Mexico. Photo: CIMMYT archives

A: We’re not married to one technology, but need to work with all of them. You know we started with Greekseeker, which is a ground-based sensor, and now we’re also working with drones, with manned airplanes mounted with cameras, and even satellite images. So, there are four different ways to collect the data, and we’ve seen that the Greenseeker results correlate well with all of them, so the technology we developed originally for Greenseeker can be used with all the other platforms.

Q: Are you optimistic that farmers can shift their perceptions in this area and significantly reduce their nitrogen use?

A: I think we’re moving in that direction, but slowly. We need policy help from the government. Officials need to give some type of incentive to farmers to use the technology, because when farmers do something different they see it as a risk. To compensate for that risk, give them a carrot, rather than a stick, and I think that will help us move the technology faster.

Fourth international workshop on farming system design in south Asia

Written by on May 3, 2018. Posted in News.

The fourth international workshop on “Science of Farming Systems: Moving from Prototyping to Model-Based Assessment and Designing of Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems in South Asia” took place in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India from 19 to 22 March this year. The workshop was jointly organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) – Indian Institute of Farming System Research (IIFSR) and was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat Agri-Food Systems (WHEAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security (CCAFS).

Twenty-five participants from 11 research centers across 13 Indian states and Nepal attended the workshop. Workshop objectives included mainstreaming science-based approaches to farming systems analysis and research for development programs in South Asia, as well as overview and training courses on farming systems and technologies, especially focusing on FarmDESIGN, modelling software developed by WUR. A number of talks around FarmDESIGN were given, including hands-on workshops by scientists from CIMMYT and WUR.

Group photo of participants at the fourth international workshop on farming system design in south Asia. Photo: CIMMYT.

South Asian farming systems are characterized by a large diversity of smallholder systems with diversified faming system households. Accordingly, the farming systems research has been central to the south Asian national agriculture research systems. ICAR-IIFSR has developed specific integrated farming systems (IFS) prototypes for different agro-ecological zones of India and implemented them in research stations and rural communities.

The growing complexity of climate, markets and income uncertainties, as well as large age divides within farming households limits the large-scale adoption these prototype farming systems weigh output performance on the one hand and tradeoffs such as income resilience, environmental footprints and markets on the flip-side. Therefore, designing farm systems with effective targeting of climate resilience, profitability and sustainability, requires suitable technologies, practices to understand and capture the diversity of farming systems, their main components, characteristics, interrelationships and flows.

Previous CIMMYT-ICAR-WUR collaborations have explored the use of farm level modeling tools to assess, with multiple criteria, the sustainability of such IFS, identify main trade-offs and synergies and provide guidelines for their improvement. Capacity development of farming system network researchers on the use and application of the FarmDESIGN model has been one important activity in such collaboration. For scaling the outputs of such exercise, the farming systems have to be evaluated in terms of relevant indicators for different farm household types and communities, allowing them to identify main potential leverages and obstacles for adoption of different intervention. In this regard, this workshop is being organized involving key stakeholders.

The workshop objectives were to mainstream science based approaches for farming systems analysis in research for development programs in South Asia; to share results of integrated assessments of farming systems’ performance in a range of agro-ecologies across South Asia and discuss main implications for the re-design of IFS; to select methods for improved prototyping and model-based analysis using on-station data for developing an out-scaling process that is tested in multiple environments for large scale application; to share and solve main technical barriers implementation; to share and discuss other modeling techniques and their potential complementarity; to provide an overview of the application ‘FarmDESIGN,’ which was created by WUR, discuss main issues for further development to cover the needs of South Asian farming systems and further steps for larger implementation; discuss future research activities and collaborations.

Santiago Lopez Rodaura, senior farming systems specialist, CIMMYT and Jeroen Groot, farming systems expert from WUR gave a hands-on session on debugging, analysis visualization and analyzing prototype implementations in FarmDESIGN. AK Prusty, scientist, ICAR-IIFSR and collaborators from WUR, elaborated on-farm diagnosis and analysis in FarmDESIGN. AS Panwar, director, ICAR-IIFSR, led a session with presentations of case studies from peer review articles in diverse ecologies to demonstrate improved efficiency, income and reducing footprints through optimizing resource allocation with science-based approach using FarmDESIGN and other modeling programs using at least 10 prototype farming systems cases.

The workshop concluding with a planning session facilitated by CIMMYT principal scientist ML Jat. Recommendations were made by all the participants and emphasized studies on ongoing interventions looking at 10-15 year scenarios in cropping systems. Participants suggested studying climate prediction data and crop simulations with alternate wet-dry techniques to consider variability in the water table, among a number of other follow-up suggestions.

A “Virtual Task Force” was assigned to organize follow-ups on progress made based on meeting suggestions across locations and present a document to the Prime Minister of India’s office with suggestions for the Government of India’s initiative “Doubling farmer Income by 2022.”

Participants suggested creating a users guide for FarmDESIGN to be circulated to encourage wide-scale adoption, along with a manual for targeting typology interventions.

Panwar said, “seeing the progress across sites, I am convinced with the impact FarmDESIGN model has brought and will continue to with support from CIMMYT and WUR for changing face of cropping systems research”.

The program was able to achieve its target for improved understanding and capacity of key researchers on designing and implementing science based farming systems for improved efficiency and enhanced adoption in smallholder systems of South Asia.

The fourth international workshop on “Science of Farming Systems: Moving from Prototyping to Model-Based Assessment and Designing of Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems in South Asia” was jointly organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) – Indian Institute of Farming System Research (IIFSR) and was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat Agri-Food Systems (WHEAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture & Food Security (CCAFS).

Precision Nutrient Management: The Future of Nitrogen Use Efficiency

Written by on April 20, 2018. Posted in News.

This March, the Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA) held an international workshop on enhancing Nitrogen use efficiency in wheat using the combined approach of breeding and precision agronomy in Ladhowal, Punjab. The objective of this workshop was to train young scientists and students on new opportunities for improving Nitrogen use efficiency in wheat. This initiative is a part of the project supported by the Rothamsted Research, U.K. known as the Indo-U.K. Centre. Eighteen young scientists and post-graduate students from organizations across India and the U.K. attended the event.

The workshop was kicked off by N.S. Bains, director of research, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), who emphasized the need to increase Nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in wheat through breeding and agronomic adjustments. The workshop combined lectures and hands-on activities during field visits. In the lectures, participants received a global overview of fertilizer use and strategies for improving NUE in cereals with special reference to wheat. Lecturers used examples from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) germplasm bank to highlight the variability of genetic NUE in wheat, explored modeling approaches for improving NUE and soil-based approaches.

BISA organized field visits to provide a real-life learning platform for participants to see the precision nutrient management techniques used in the research trials. Coordinators provided hands-on training about in field root measurements and other physiological and agronomic traits. Coordinators defined NUE, discussed calculations and explained how root traits can affect Nitrogen use efficiency – extensive root systems allow plants to use Nitrogen more effectively. The group participated in using a handheld GreenSeeker Nitrogen sensor with the help of algorithms to find critical values nitrogen and fertilizer doses.

Concluding the workshop, Rajbir Singh, director, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI) at PAU, Ludhiana said “precision nutrient management is the new and futuristic research in the field of NUE.”

Feedback from participants shows an increased understanding of processes and procedures for improved NUE in wheat, genotype by environment interactions and recent advances in precision nutrient management. The site-specific knowledge and hands-on training supported better understanding on rate and timing effects of Nitrogen in conventionally and fertigation applied fertilizer. The knowledge exchange of experts from multi-disciplinary fields enhanced the understanding of principles of precision nutrient management and provided guidance for organizing the precision nutrition platform.

The Borlaug Institute for South Asia is a non-profit international research institute dedicated to food, nutrition and livelihood security as well as environmental rehabilitation in South Asia, which is home to more than 300 million undernourished people. BISA is a collaborative effort involving the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research. The objective of BISA is to harness the latest technology in agriculture to improve farm productivity and sustainably meet the demands of the future.