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research: Sustainable agrifood systems

Participatory scaling of climate-smart agriculture

Introducing climate change in Bihar’s Krishi road map. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA
Introducing climate change in Bihar’s Krishi road map. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA

BIHAR, India (CIMMYT) — Rich endowment of fertile soil, adequate rainfall and sufficient ground water makes agriculture key to the overall development of the economy of the state of Bihar in India. Farm mechanization to enhance cropping intensity, reduce labor requirements and improve farm production efficiency is a vital policy initiative taken by Bihar’s Department of Agriculture to address the shrinking area under cultivation. Although the state government has accorded top priority to agriculture, the action plan (the so-called Krishi road map) it has prepared for the agriculture sector does not include a strategy for climate change mitigation.

Extreme climatic vulnerability keeps Bihar’s agricultural productivity low. It is the only state in the country where drought and flood recurrently occur at the same time. To overcome these adverse conditions, the government of Bihar is trying to re-orient agriculture by enacting diversification policies and other measures such as irrigation, flood control and drainage schemes. It has also been involved in climate-smart agriculture (CSA) work and pilot climate-smart villages (CSVs) undertaken by CIMMYT and the Borlaug Initiative for South Asia (BISA) and other collaborators. Concerns about climate change challenges were shared by Nitish Kumar, Bihar’s chief minister, with CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff during his recent visit to Bihar. They also discussed local community collaboration with researchers, policymakers and scientists on establishing a strategic approach to scale sustainable intensification based on conservation agriculture.

Throughout 2016, traveling seminars and workshops were organized in CSVs to disseminate knowledge about climate-smart agriculture practices (CSAPs). Highlighted at these events were the benefits of direct-seeded rice, laser land leveling, bed planting, residue management, site-specific nutrient management, the GreenSeeker sensor, zero tillage, crop diversification, intensification with legume incorporation, information & communications technologies and weather forecasting. During a stakeholder consultation in September 2016 led by Vijoy Prakash, Bihar’s Agriculture Production Commissioner, CIMMYT-BISA shared its CSA experiences. Addressing the need to incorporate climate change into the Krishi road map, the Chief Minister and other senior government officials visited the CSA research sites at BISA-Pusa and the CSV pilots in Samastipur District implemented by CCAFS, CIMMYT and BISA. Bihar’s Agriculture Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary also visited 30 CIMMYT-BISA pilot CSVs in Samastipur and Vaishali Districts.

Farmers sharing their experiences with climate-smart practices during a field visit by the Chief Minister of Bihar. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA
Farmers sharing their experiences with climate-smart practices during a field visit by the Chief Minister of Bihar. Photo: CIMMYT-BISA

The Bihar Agricultural Management and Training Institute (BAMETI) issued a letter to CIMMYT stating that the government of Bihar plans to implement CSA and CSVs in all 38 districts of Bihar. BAMETI is responsible for organizing need-based training programs for the farming community. The Bihar’s Department of Agriculture is also preparing a proposal to introduce CSAPs to improve the resilience of farmers by mainstreaming CSVs in Bihar with technical and strategic support from CIMMYT, BISA and CCAFS in collaboration with Rajendra Agricultural University, Bihar Agricultural University and the ICAR research complex for the eastern region. Based on the success of CSVs, the linkages with CIMMYT will help fulfill Bihar’s innovative Krishi road map. Commending the work done in farmers’ fields and its relevance for addressing climate challenges from a farming systems perspective, Chief Minister Kumar sent a letter to CIMMYT’s DG on the occasion of CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary.

Since then, several field days, workshops and meetings have been conducted by CIMMYT-BISA in collaboration with other partners to fulfill the Krishi road map. On October 7, 2016, a field day on “Direct-Seeded Rice in Climate-Smart Villages’’ was held at CSV Digmbra with more than 300 farmers, service providers, NGOs, private companies and state agriculture department representatives participating, as well as scientists from Krishi Vikas Kendra University and CIMMYT.

Among the subjects discussed were CSA interventions implemented through innovative partnerships with farmers and farmer cooperatives to build farmers’ resilience to climate change and increase their productivity and incomes, while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Samastipur’s district magistrate reported that the government of Bihar is supporting farmers’ adoption of improved technologies by providing them with subsidies for mechanization, irrigation and improved seed. Finally, several progressive farmers shared their experiences with climate-smart practices and encouraged other farmers to adopt them in order to improve their livelihoods.

Crop and bio-economic modeling for an uncertain climate

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Gideon Kruseman, CIMMYT ex-ante and foresight specialist presents household level bio-economic models at workshop. CIMMYT/Khondoker Mottaleb

Gideon Kruseman is CIMMYT’s ex-ante and foresight specialist.

The potential impact of climate change on agriculture and the complexity of possible adaptation responses require the application of new research methods and tools to develop adequate strategies. At a recent five-day training workshop titled “Crop and Bio-economic Modeling under Uncertain Climate,” scientists applied crop and bio-economic models to estimate biophysical and economic impacts of climate variability and change.

Crop system modeling is used to simulate yields for specific weather patterns, nutrient input levels and bio-economic household modeling involves using quantitative economic methodology to incorporate biological, chemical and/or physical processes to analyze the impact of technology development, policy interventions and such exogenous shocks as extreme weather events on the decision-making processes of smallholder farmers and related development indicators. Events influence results in two ways: the probability of occurrence will shape decision-making and actual occurrence will shape realized results.

During the training, which was organized and hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which took place in November in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, scientists examined how technology development and policy or development interventions may influence farm household decisions on resource allocation and cropping patterns.

The training was beneficial due to its “holistic approach to solve smallholder agricultural production problem using decision support tools,” said Theodrose Sisay from the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research.

Attendees learned in practical terms how shifting weather patterns will change farmer perception of the probability of occurrence of extreme events, which may influence subsequent cropping patterns and technology choices. Cropping system models shed light on the effects of different weather patterns on crop yields under varying management practices. Bio-economic household modeling then places those results in the context of smallholder livelihood strategies.

Bio-economic household model results demonstrated the conditions under which cropping patterns are likely to change as a result of resource constraints and household preferences. The analysis illustrated how cropping patterns may shift as a result of climate change:

bem-before-after-cc

Before climate change.                                          After climate change.

Figure: comparison of model results of climate change scenarios

The workshop was organized under the Global Futures & Strategic Foresight (GFSF) project and the “Flagship 1” component of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), which in part explores global and regional foresight modeling tools.

Participants included representatives of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) and West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF), as well as researchers from agricultural research institutes and universities from Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda.

This was the third and last of a series of training workshops offered to same group of trainees since 2014. Not only did the 16 participants learn how to apply crop and bio-economic models allowing them to estimate biophysical and economic impacts of climate variability and change, but they also learned how to assess different adaptation options.

The tools they worked with included the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), and a bio-economic household model using Gtree with the general algebraic modeling system (GAMS). The training involved plenary discussions, group work, and individual hands-on exercises.

The training program served as a refresher course on GAMS, said Janvier Egah, a socio-economist from Benin.

“Over time, I had forgotten everything,” he added. “With this training, I remembered the notions of the past course and learned new concepts such as integrating the costs of climate change in bio-economic models. These models interest me particularly and I want to write and submit proposals to apply them.”

The participants came with their own input data for the DSSAT cropping system model and learned how to calibrate the model. The participants developed climate change scenarios, ran simulations and interpreted the simulation outputs using graphical and statistical interfaces.

Workshop participants. Photo credit: CIMMYT
Workshop participants. Photo credit: CIMMYT

The participants, who have worked together in these workshops on three different occasions, indicated a strong willingness to continue collaborating after the conclusion of the project. They took steps to develop a concept note for a collaborative research grant with a major component related to the use of crop and bio-economic models.

The workshop had a stronger component related to the economic analysis of household decision-making than previous training sessions, and trainees used simulation models based on mathematical programming techniques.

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants expressed interest in pursuing further analysis of this type in the future as a complement to crop growth modelling.

Can sub-Saharan Africa meet its future cereal food requirement?

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To satisfy the enormous increase in demand for food in sub-Saharan Africa until 2050, cereal yields must increase to 80 percent of their potential. This calls for a drastic trend break. Graphic courtesy of Wageningen University

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Sub-Saharan Africa will need to transform and intensify crop production to avoid over-reliance on imports and meet future food security needs, according to a new report.

Recent studies have focused on the global picture, anticipating that food demand will grow 60 percent by 2050 as population soars to 9.7 billion, and hypothesizing that the most sustainable solution is to close the yield gap on land already used for crop production.

Yet, although it is essential to close the yield gap, which is defined as the difference between yield potential and actual farm yield, cereal demand will likely not be met without taking further measures in some regions, write the authors of the report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

In particular, sub-Saharan Africa faces the prospect of needing greater cereal crop imports or expanding onto previously unfarmed lands, which will lead to a sharp uptick in biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

“No low-income country successfully industrialized in the second half of the 20th century while importing major shares of their food supply,” said co-author Kindie Tesfaye, a scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

To meet food demand without planting on previously unsown lands, farmers in sub-Saharan Africa will need to close yield gaps, but in addition consider options to sustainably intensify the number of crops grown on existing croplands by rotation and expanding the use of irrigation in a responsible manner.

“If intensification is not successful and massive cropland expansion is to be avoided, sub-Saharan Africa will become ever more dependent on imports of cereals than it is today,” Tesfaye said, adding that the African Development Bank highlights self-sufficiency in agriculture as a principal goal of its action plan for agricultural transformation.

More than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is projected to occur in Africa, where it increased 2.6 percent each year between 2010 and 2015, according to data from the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

In sub-Saharan Africa, population will increase 2.5 times overall by 2050, and demand for cereals will triple, while current levels of cereal consumption already depend on substantial imports.

For the study, titled “Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself?”, scientists focused on 10 countries where cereals make up half of calories in the human diet and half the cropland area that are part of  the Global Yield Gap Atlas, which is developed using local data, to estimate food production capacity on existing cropland.  Of the 10 countries, seven do not have enough land area to support expansion.

Except in Ethiopia and Zambia, cereal yields in most countries in the region are growing more slowly than population and demand, while total cropland area has increased a massive 14 percent in the last 10 years. Although Ethiopia shows progress in crop production intensification, other countries lag behind, Tesfaye said.

“With improved cultivars, hybrid seeds, coupled with increased use of irrigation, fertilizers, modern pest management practices and good agronomy, it’s possible to achieve accelerated rates of yield gain, but more research and development are required,” he added.

Can Sub-Saharan Africa Feed Itself?” appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of December 12. It is co-authored by Wageningen University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and multiple CGIAR centers, regional and national Institutions in Africa.

Wheat rust poses food security risk for global poor, says DFID’s Priti Patel

David Hodson, CIMMYT senior scientist (L), describes the challenges posed by wheat rust to Priti Patel, Britain's international development secretary, during the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting in London. Handout/DFID
David Hodson, CIMMYT senior scientist (L), describes the challenges posed by wheat rust to Priti Patel, Britain’s international development secretary, during the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting in London. DFID/handout

LONDON (CIMMYT) – International wheat rust monitoring efforts are not only keeping the fast-spreading disease in check, but are now being deployed to manage risks posed by other crop diseases, said a scientist attending a major scientific event in London.

Although initially focused on highly virulent Ug99 stem rust, the rust tracking system – developed as part of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, an international collaboration involving Cornell University and national agricultural research programs – is also used to monitor other fungal rusts and develop prediction models with the aim of helping to curtail their spread.

“We appear to be looking at some shifts in stem rust populations with the Digalu race and new variants increasing and spreading,” said David Hodson, a senior scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), who showcased the latest research findings at the recent Grand Challenges meeting in London hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Our data reinforce the fact that we face threats from rusts per se and not just from the Ug99 race group – we are fortunate that international efforts laid the groundwork to establish a comprehensive monitoring system,” said Hodson, one of more than 1,200 international scientists at the gathering.

“The research investments are having additional benefits,” he told Priti Patel, Britain’s secretary of state for international development, explaining that the wheat rust surveillance system is now also being applied to the deadly Maize Lethal Necrosis disease in Africa.

“The learning from stem rust and investments in data management systems and other components of the tracking system have allowed us to fast-track a similar surveillance system for another crop and pathosystem.”

In a keynote address, echoed by an opinion piece published in London’s Evening Standard newspaper authored by Patel and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, Patel described the risks posed by wheat rust to global food security and some of the efforts funded by Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) to thwart it.

“Researchers at the University of Cambridge are working with the UK Met Office and international scientists to track and prevent deadly outbreaks of wheat rust which can decimate this important food crop for many of the world’s poorest people,” Patel said, referring to collaborative projects involving CIMMYT, funded by the Gates Foundation and DFID

Patel also launched a DFID research review at the meeting, committing the international development agency to continued research support and detailing how the UK intends to deploy development research and innovation funding of £390 million ($485 million) a year over the next four years.

Wheat improvement work by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers was highlighted in the research review as an example of high impact DFID research. Wheat improvement has resulted in economic benefits of $2.2 to $3.1 billion per year and almost half of all the wheat planted in developing countries.

Healthy soils for a healthy, food secure future

Healthy soils are vital for a healthy and food secure future. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Healthy soils are vital for a healthy and food secure future. (Photo: CIMMYT)

At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) we care deeply about one of the Earth’s most precious resources: soils. Humanity relies on soils not only for food production, but also for a range of vital ecosystem services. Soil is the vital substrate for terrestrial ecosystems, whether natural or agricultural.

Increasing population and related food demand are putting tremendous pressure on soils and too often lead to unsustainable practices jeopardizing their long term productivity. When increasing food demand is met by clearing new lands, it often occurs on more fragile soils, and/or at the expense of natural habitats. This short-term solution puts future livelihoods at risk and cannot continue.

For several decades, conservation agriculture (CA) has been a main research topic for CIMMYT’s agronomists. CA, as we define it, is based on three principles: 1) reduced or no tillage; 2) permanent soil cover; 3) crop rotation. Empirical evidence demonstrates the large benefits of CA on soil conservation/reclamation and soil health.

Work has been carried out and knowledge generated in very diverse agro-ecologies and socio-economic environments in the regions where CIMMYT works (Latin America, Southeast Asia, East and Southern Africa). Since many people use the term CA in a less scientific way, I sometimes call it innovation agriculture. I have seen many fields worldwide where our scientists work alongside farmers on sustainable intensification with a focus on these elements.

Agronomic “proof of concepts” is not sufficient, and we cannot just rely on results obtained at the field level to expect adoption at scale. Placing technical innovations, such as CA, into a farming systems context is needed to understand its adoptability and potential contribution to soil conservation, productivity, and climate change adaptation. One major adoption constraint of CA for many smallholder farmers is keeping a permanent crop cover with crop residues (zero tillage without proper soil cover can do more harm than good with regard to soil erosion).

Crop residues are often used to feed livestock, but these materials left in the field after a crop has been harvested are also essential to maintaining rich and fertile soil. Feeding the soil versus feeding animals is often a difficult choice farmers have to make. Through farming system research and participatory approaches, CIMMYT and its partners are working with farmers to develop technological and management options that provide higher profitability, improved resource use efficiency, while maintaining or improving their production base; soils.

The 2016 U.N. World Soil Day theme on Dec. 5, is “Soils and pulses, a symbiosis for life,” which resonates very well with our work: CIMMYT conducts research in maize and wheat based systems and is a strong proponent of diversification through the improved use of legumes in rotation or intercropping.

Soils draw a great deal of interest on the climate change mitigation front. They are a huge carbon reservoir with the potential to store even more under better land management and land use practices, as shown by the recent 4 per thousand initiative launched during the COP21 2015 U.N. climate talks in Paris. However, those mitigation options need to be better quantified to assess sequestration potential and not oversell options and technologies. CIMMYT scientists have recently contributed to several studies on that topic, helping to shed the light on greenhouse gas sequestration potential from technical innovations such as CA and reduced tillage.

Increased productivity through improved varieties of maize and wheat with better management practices is not only soil friendly but also provides land sparing opportunities; reducing the pressure on clearing new land preserving natural ecosystems.

Sustainable agriculture poised to save Mayan rainforests from deforestation

Tour of field trials sown with MasAgro maize materials in Hopelchen, Campeche, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Tour of field trials sown with MasAgro maize materials in Hopelchen, Campeche, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Sustainable farming practices allow smallholder farmers to improve maize yields without increasing land, which has proven to reduce deforestation in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula according to an independent report commissioned by the Mexico REDD+ Alliance and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

Conservation agriculture, a sustainable intensification technique that includes minimal soil movement, surface cover of crop residues and crop rotations, was successfully trialed in the south east of Mexico to protect biodiversity and counter rainforest loss caused by a creeping agricultural frontier, as part of a rural development project the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro).

Over a year ago, the MasAgro project, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Mexico’s Secretariat of Agriculture (SAGARPA), partnered with local organization Pronatura Peninsula de Yucatan to test a sustainable intensification strategy in Hopelchen, a small community in the state of Campeche, where indigenous and Mennonite farmers grow maize following traditional farming practices.

Technician Vladimir May Tzun visits Santa Enna research platform to make fertility checks in Hopelchen, Campeche. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Technician Vladimir May Tzun visits Santa Enna research platform to make fertility checks in Hopelchen, Campeche. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Decades of plowing the fields without crop rotation and applying agrochemicals to control pests have degraded the soils in Hopelchen. As a result, farmers are prone to convert rainforest areas into growing fields to address diminishing crop yields. In an effort to curb this practice, MasAgro introduced conservation agriculture to improve soil fertility and water availability on the fields of five participant farmers.

A key moment during the project was when producers saw the benefits of conservation agriculture after two months of drought. Participant farmers achieved more developed maize cobs than those who did not, according to findings in the MasAgro case study featured in the report, “Experiences on sustainable rural development and biodiversity conservation in the Yucatan Peninsula.”

The positive results have sparked the interest of farmers from adjacent communities who want to get involved in the MasAgro project, said Pronatura’s field manager of sustainable agriculture, Carlos Cecilio Zi Dzib.

Maize growing in Santa Enna demonstration module in Hopelchen, Campeche, Mexico.
Maize growing in Santa Enna demonstration module in Hopelchen, Campeche, Mexico.

“MasAgro has been very successful in the Peninsula,” said Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT’s regional representative in Latin America. “In the course of its second year of implementation, MasAgro has established a research platform and offered training to 150 farmers, who have attended events organized in collaboration with TNC and Mexico’s Agriculture, Forestry and Livestock Research Institute.”

“This work is an effort to document the experiences of some of the sustainable rural initiatives and projects that contribute to reduce deforestation in the region, and thus make their contribution to the conservation and sustainable management of the Mayan Forest in the Yucatan Peninsula,” wrote report authors Carolina Cepeda and Ariel Amoroso.

SAGARPA and CIMMYT plan to present achievements of their MasAgro partnership, including the Hopelchen farmers’ success story, during the United Nations’ thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 13), which will take place from December 4 to 17 in Cancun, Mexico.

Promoting drought tolerant maize seed in southern Africa

The orange maize was showcased at a seed fair in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. In addition to high yielding, disease resistant and drought-tolerant, the maize variety reduces farmers’ vulnerability to the effects of drought and other stresses, such as heat. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.
The orange maize was showcased at a seed fair in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. In addition to high yielding, disease resistant and drought-tolerant, the maize variety reduces farmers’ vulnerability to the effects of drought and other stresses, such as heat. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.

HARARE (CIMMYT) — In its continuing efforts to increase the productivity of maize systems in southern Africa, CIMMYT held seed fairs in two districts of Zimbabwe in September to promote the sharing of information and knowledge about new seed options for farmers and to encourage farmer-to-farmer information exchange.

At the seed fairs, which are like trade fairs, farmers, seed companies, government agencies and non-governmental organizations displayed seed and technological products. The idea of the seed fairs arose out of the problem of suitable dryland crop varieties for the climate in most parts of Zimbabwe.

The main aim of the seed fairs, held in Mutoko and Murewa districts in Mashonaland East Province, was to help smallholder farmers access information that would help them make informed decisions in coping with drought and climate change adaptation. This included awareness on various drought tolerant seeds, and a new variety of nutritious pro-vitamin A maize seed available on the market. Another focus of the seed fairs was to promote good agricultural practices, including sustainable intensification practices such as conservation agriculture.

Funded by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the seed fairs were attended by more than 1,400 smallholder farmers from the two districts, eight seed companies, traditional leaders, local government officials, non-governmental organizations and policy makers, as well as CIMMYT’s regional partners from Malawi, South Africa and Zambia. Regional participation is an important component of CIMMYT’s information exchange initiative.

The seed fairs helped establish linkages among farmers, seed companies, researchers, extension agents and agro-dealers. In addition, the seed fairs provided an important avenue for stakeholders to share critical information for informed decision-making at different levels. This has boosted the farmers’ confidence and increased the sense of ownership of their own activities.

“By bringing multiple stakeholders together, the fairs helped stimulate information sharing networks that are beneficial to all stakeholders,” said Peter Setimela, CIMMYT senior seed systems specialist. He added: “Planting wrong seeds lowers harvests and threatens food and nutritional security of the smallholder farmers. In our breeding for stress tolerance, we have tested and evaluated maize varieties from different areas of Zimbabwe under local conditions, incorporated various desirable traits and developed suitable varieties for local climatic conditions.”

Mutoko and Murewa districts were selected as the first beneficiaries of this information dissemination initiative. The fairs sought to build on progress achieved in the CIMMYT on-farm trials conducted in the two districts under a different project – Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa.

Although the main focus was drought tolerant and pro-vitamin A maize, other crop seeds such as finger millet, pearl millet, sorghum, beans, Bambara nuts, pumpkin and ground nut, were also exhibited by farmers.

International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) research officer Irenie Chakoma (extreme right) and CIMMYT research associate Angeline Mujeyi are inundated by requests for information from smallholder farmers at the Mutoko seed fair. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) research officer Irenie Chakoma (extreme right) and CIMMYT research associate Angeline Mujeyi are inundated by requests for information from smallholder farmers at the Mutoko seed fair. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT.

The farmers were given space to exhibit their own seeds. This was critical in providing an avenue for farmers to exchange seeds that are not marketed through the formal systems but which farmers like. The objective of these demonstrations was to revive local seed varieties, share information on them and acknowledge that these crops thrive in local conditions, and that they could contribute to food and nutritional security.

Mutoko smallholder farmer Anna Chirere, who actively participated in the seed fair, said: “We now know that knowledge is power. So we are going to copy this knowledge from our fellow farmers and seed houses here present.”

CIMMYT plans to make the seed fairs an annual event. This would help the farmers to continue learning from one another and enhance cooperation among the community members. Maize seed on exhibition was drought-tolerant and also included the newly released pro-vitamin A maize that is orange in color, hence the name ‘orange maize’.

In Zimbabwe, nearly one in five children under the age of five is vitamin A deficient. This deficiency can lead to lower IQ, stunting, blindness, increased susceptibility to diseases and higher health risks to mothers – and their infants – during childbirth. According to the World Bank, malnourished children are more likely to drop out of school, and have lower incomes as adults, reducing overall economic growth.

Thokhozile Ndhlela, CIMMYT maize breeder, said many people in rural Zimbabwe cannot afford expensive vitamin A-rich foods such as yellow, orange and red pigmented fruits, dark leafy vegetables, or animal products such as milk, eggs, liver and cheese.

Pro-vitamin A maize, when eaten as a staple, could provide half of the average daily requirement of vitamin A for women and children. In addition to its nutritional benefits, pro-vitamin A maize is bred to yield higher than conventional varieties and is disease resistant and drought tolerant.

Ndhlela said there were 11 varieties of the pro-vitamin A maize in southern African, six of which were already in commercial production in Zambia after a successful launch of an initial three hybrids in 2012.

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About The Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA)

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). The organization also works with a wide network of ACP-EU public and private sector bodies as well as international organizations around the world. CTA’s mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and support sound natural resource management through information, communication and knowledge management, multi-stakeholder engagement, capacity-building and empowerment of agricultural and rural development organizations and networks in ACP countries.

New Publications: How to better breed maize for future climates in Latin America

A CIMMYT staff member at work in the maize active collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center. CIMMYT/Xochiquetzal Fonseca
A CIMMYT staff member at work in the maize active collection in the Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Center.
CIMMYT/Xochiquetzal Fonseca

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — A new study from The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) evaluates how elite lines of maize in tropical conditions throughout Latin America perform under abiotic stresses like drought, nitrogen (N) deficiency and combined heat and drought stress.

By 2050, demand for maize is predicted to double in the developing world, and cereal production will need to greatly rise to meet this demand. However, drought and N deficiency are common detrimental factors towards achieving this goal throughout the developing world. The development of new maize germplasm able to tolerate these stresses is crucial if productivity in maize-based farming systems is to be sustained or increased in tropical lowlands in Latin America and elsewhere.

The authors found that only a few lines were tolerant across these conditions, which re-emphasizes the need to separately screen germplasm under each abiotic stress to improve tolerance. Based on high best linear unbiased predicted general combining ability, they found it will be possible to develop hybrids tolerant to multiple abiotic stresses without incurring any yield penalty under non-stressed conditions using these inbred lines. These elite lines can immediately be used in tropical breeding programs in Mexico, Central and South America, and sub-Saharan Africa to improve tolerance to abiotic stress to ensure food security in a changing climate.

Read more about the study “Identification of Tropical Maize Germplasm with Tolerance to Drought, Nitrogen Deficiency, and Combined Heat and Drought Stresses” here and check out other new publications from CIMMYT staff below.

  1. AlphaSim : software for breeding program simulation. 2016. Faux, A.M.; Gorjanc, G.; Gaynor, C.; Battagin, M.; Edwards, S.M.; Wilson, D.L.; Hearne, S.; Gonen, S.; Hickey, J.M. The Plant Genome 9 (3) : 1-14.
  2. Conservation agriculture-based wheat production better copes with extreme climate events than conventional tillage-based systems: a case of untimely excess rainfall in Haryana, India. 2016. Aryal, J.P.; Sapkota, T.B.; Stirling, C.; Jat, M.L.; Jat, H.S.; Munmun Rai; Mittal, S.; Jhabar Mal Sutaliya. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment  233 : 325-335.
  3. Grain yield performance and flowering synchrony of CIMMYT’s tropical maize (Zea mays L.) parental inbred lines and single crosses. 2016. Worku, M.; Makumbi, D.; Beyene, Y.; Das, B;. Mugo, S.N.; Pixley, K.V.; Banziger, M.; Owino, F.; Olsen, M.; Asea, G.; Prasanna, B.M. Euphytica 211 (3) : 395-409.
  4. Growing the service economy for sustainable wheat intensification in the Eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains: lessons from custom hiring services for zero-tillage. 2016.  Keil, A.; D’souza, A.; McDonald, A. Food Security 8 (5) : 1011-1028.
  5. Wheat landraces currently grown in Turkey : distribution, diversity, and use. 2016. Morgounov, A.I.; Keser, M.; Kan, M.; Kucukcongar, M.; Ozdemir, F.; Gummadov, N.; Muminjanov, H.; Zuev, E.; Qualset, C. Crop Science 56 (6) : 3112-3124.
  6. First report of sugar beet nematode, Heterodera schachtii Schmidt, 1871 (Nemata: Heteroderidae) in sugar beet growing areas of Sanliurfa, Turkey. 2016. Jiang-Kuan Cui; Erginbas-Orakci, G.; Huan Peng; Wen-Kun Huang; Shiming Liu; Fen Qiao; Elekcioglu, I.H.; Imren, M.; Dababat, A.A.; De-Liang Peng. Turkish Journal of Entomology 40 (3) : 303-314.
  7. Identification of tropical maize germplasm with tolerance to drought, nitrogen deficiency, and combined heat and drought stresses. 2016. Trachsel, S.; Leyva, M.; Lopez, M.; Suarez, E.A.; Mendoza, A.; Gomez, N.; Sierra-Macias, M.; Burgueño, J.; San Vicente, F.M. Crop Science 56 : 1-15.
  8. Performance and sensitivity of the DSSAT crop growth model in simulating maize yield under conservation agriculture. 2016. Corbeels, M.; Chirat, G.; Messad, S.; Thierfelder, C. European Journal of Agronomy 76 : 41-53.
  9. The bacterial community structure and dynamics of carbon and nitrogen when maize (Zea mays L.) and its neutral detergent fibre were added to soil from Zimbabwe with contrasting management practices. 2016. Cruz-Barrón, M. de la.; Cruz-Mendoza, A.; Navarro–Noya, Y.E.; Ruiz-Valdiviezo, V.M.; Ortiz-Gutierrez, D.; Ramirez Villanueva, D.A.; Luna Guido, M.; Thierfelder, C.; Wall, P.C.; Verhulst, N.; Govaerts, B.; Dendooven, L. Microbial Ecology. Online First.
  10. Genetic diversity and molecular characterization of puroindoline genes (Pina-D1 and Pinb-D1) in bread wheat landraces from Andalusia (Southern Spain). 2016. Ayala, M.; Guzman, C.; Peña-Bautista, R.J.; Alvarez, J.B. Journal of Cereal Science 71 : 61-65.

Growing more with less: Improving productivity, resilience and sustainability in Africa

HARARE, Zimbabwe (CIMMYT) – “Rain patterns have changed tremendously,” says Dyless Kasawala, a smallholder farmer in Kasungu district, Malawi. “It’s different from the old days when you would be sure of a great harvest after the rains.”

For more than three decades now, life has not been easy for Kasawala and thousands of other smallholder farmers in this harsh, dry environment. Kasawala’s story is common throughout eastern and southern Africa. Observations by smallholder farmers confirm scientific evidence that shows climate change is occurring at an alarming rate, and could leave 50 million people in the region hungry by 2050.

CIMMYT technician Herbert Chipara inspects maize devastated by drought in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT
CIMMYT technician Herbert Chipara inspects maize devastated by drought in Mutoko district, Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/P. Lowe

From 1900 to 2013, droughts killed close to one million people in Africa, with economic damages of about $3 billion affecting over 360 million people. Such droughts are a clear sign of the high yield variability that impedes escape from poverty and hunger for millions of Africans. Climate change could also result in a 40 percent increase in the number of malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa by 2050, according to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa must become resilient to climate change effects like variable and severe drought and rainfall to ensure future food security. Practicing sustainable farming techniques can help small-scale farmers adapt to these challenges.

Across the world, more farmers are beginning to practice sustainable intensification (SI), which offers the potential to simultaneously adapt farming systems to climate change, sustainably manage land, soil, nutrient and water resources, improve food and nutrition security, and ultimately reduce rural poverty.

In practice, SI involves such conservation agriculture (CA) practices as minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and the use of crop rotation to simultaneously maintain and boost yields, increase profits and protect the environment. It contributes to improved soil function and quality, which can improve resilience to climate variability. The cropping systems CIMMYT promotes can be labelled as climate-resilient, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Husband and wife farmers Elphas Chinyanga (right) and Rita Gatsi tend their conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Pindukai village, Shamva district, Zimbabwe. Photo: P. Lowe/CIMMYT
Husband and wife farmers Elphas Chinyanga (right) and Rita Gatsi tend their conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Pindukai village, Shamva district, Zimbabwe. CIMMYT/P. Lowe

“We received little rain this year, but we’ll still have enough food,” says Kasawala, who is participating in a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which aims to increase farm-level food security and productivity through SI.

Kasawala was one of the first farmers to practice sustainable intensification in her district in 2010. She has managed to improve soil fertility in her fields, increase her maize yield and improve her household food security.

“Farmers have a number of technological options, but ultimately they have to make informed decisions on which technologies to adopt,” said Eric Craswell, co-chair of CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project steering committee. Such farmers as Kasawala who practice CA through SIMLESA participate in on-farm trials, which compare CA to conventional farming practices, test different levels of herbicide use and maize-legume crop rotations.

Maize farmers participating in SIMLESA are increasing yields and profits through sustainable intensification by increasing rotating and intercropping their maize with legumes. Above, smallholder farmer Lughano Mwangonde and sustainable intensification farmer in her conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Balaka district, Malawi. Photo: J. Siamachira/CIMMYT
Maize farmers participating in SIMLESA are increasing yields and profits through sustainable intensification by increasing rotating and intercropping their maize with legumes. Above, smallholder farmer Lughano Mwangonde and sustainable intensification farmer in her conservation agriculture demonstration plot in Balaka district, Malawi. CIMMYT/J. Siamachira

According to SIMLESA’s project leader Mulugetta Mekuria, there is evidence that shows new drought-tolerant maize varieties when coupled with SI bring even greater benefits to farmers. For example, combining elite drought-tolerant maize with direct seeding systems can improve the performance of maize by more than 80 percent. Now, nearly 650 maize and legume varieties, approved by farmers and selected by over 40 local seed companies, are being commercially distributed in the five SIMLESA countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania).

Zero tillage – a CA practice that directly sows seeds into unplowed soil and the residues of previous crops – has helped farmers cut planting time in half, allowing them to engage in other economic activities.

“Sustainable intensification is the only option to feed the extra two billion people by 2050, when resources are limited,” said John Dixon, principal advisor/research and program manager for the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR)’s Cropping Systems and Economics program. ‘’Now is the time to scale-up by taking our research to farmers through extension, non-governmental organizations and farmers’ associations.”

Through 2018, CIMMYT will focus on bringing sustainable intensification to even more farmers throughout eastern and southern Africa. Collaborative work with farmers, extension agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and agribusiness is expected to improve maize and legume productivity by 30 percent and reduce expected yield risk by 30 percent in about 650,000 rural households over a period of 10 years.

CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) with strong collaboration from National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and a wide range of private, university, public sector and non-governmental organizations. It aims at increasing farm-level food security and productivity in the context of climate risk and change.

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Gazing into the crystal ball at the future of food: Nutrient-dense maize and wheat

A scientist examines wheat grain. CIMMYT/Nathan Russell
A scientist examines wheat grain. CIMMYT/Nathan Russell

Gideon Kruseman is CIMMYT’s ex-ante and foresight specialist.

Over the next few decades, projections indicate global population will grow from more than 7 billion to more than 9 billion people by 2050. A large proportion of that world population will be living in low- and middle-income countries in urban environments – often huge — cities.

In India, the country with the largest rural population, for instance, the percentage of urban population is expected to increase from 37 percent in 2011 to 56 percent by 2050. Globally it will grow from 55 percent in 2011 to 70 percent in 2050. The trends we anticipate in India are comparable to Africa as a whole where urban population is projected to increase from less than 40 percent to around 55 percent, although there are differences between countries and regions.

Meeting the sustainable development goals (SDGs) established in 2015 by the United Nations and the global community will be challenging. The 17 goals with 169 targets aim to solve problems related to climate change, hunger, education, gender equality, sanitation, jobs, justice and shared peace by 2030.

In particular, SDG 2, which aspires to eliminate hunger, and SDG 3, which aims to establish good health and well-being, will be challenging even if we concentrate only on climatic, environmental and biophysical constraints. If we also take into account all the implications of urbanization and economic growth on diets and dietary change a new dimension of complexity becomes apparent.

Whether model calculations are based on current consumption patterns and trends, healthy diets or a variety of ecological sustainability criteria, maize and wheat will play a significant dietary role. Currently, these two staple crops feed two-thirds of the world population and will continue to be the main supply of energy in human diets in all scenarios.

However, scenarios for maize and wheat will not ensure decrease in quantitative and qualitative malnutrition unless we act upon projected future demands now. Diets, dietary change and their effects on health and nutritional status form complex interactions with socio-economic and environmental drivers.

In the future, diets will inevitably change as they have in previous decades. Basic commodities in food consumed in urban areas require different traits than food consumed in rural areas where the chain between production and consumption is shorter. The reason for this is that in rural areas in low and middle income countries staple grains are milled and processed locally, while in urban areas people tend to eat industrialized processed or pre-processed food.

In urban areas in Africa and South Asia wheat-based products are starting to replace traditional staples such as maize and rice to some extent. Moreover, research reveals that in urban centers people tend to eat energy dense food, which can help prevent quantitative malnutrition in terms of calorie intake, but does not ensure a healthy diet. Healthy eating requires a wide range of nutrients that traditionally are found in diverse foods. When people opt for less diversity and more convenience, this requires nutrient-dense as well as calorie-dense food. A significant trend that points to convenience food is the increased consumption levels of snacks and fast food, in low- and middle-income countries.

Maize-based snacks are important components of urban diets. Moreover, maize is a key ingredient found in convenience food made by the food industry in the form of starch and syrup. Ensuring that maize and wheat can meet nutritional demands in less diverse diets requires the introduction of new traits into the varieties comparable to the ongoing efforts of maize and wheat biofortification at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

The development of nutrient-dense varieties takes time since they must also incorporate traits that address environmental conditions, climate change and resistance to pests and diseases as well as feature favorable post-harvest characteristics such as milling and processing quality.

Crucial to this process are the genetic resources that allow the traits to be combined in the breeding done at CIMMYT.

How do we do this? Billions of seeds, expertly and carefully conserved for humankind, are housed in our seed bank. They are freely available to breeders and other researchers around the world who may use them to uncover solutions to some of the challenges that face humanity in the future. Any one seed could help secure the food of our future.

While the potentially desirable traits hidden in the seeds in the seed bank are very valuable, there are costs involved in maintaining this diversity. Diversity is important for finding traits that will allow maize and wheat to be more nutritious than they are already today and so aid in meeting the demands of the future. Today, everyone can be part of this future by joining the save a seed movement.

Tackle food insecurity with homegrown education, Food Prize delegates say

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CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff (L) and Bram Govaerts, strategy lead for sustainable intensification in Latin America and Latin America Regional Representative, in the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines attending the 2016 World Food Prize ceremony. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins

DES MOINES, Iowa (CIMMYT) – Africa must develop a strong educational infrastructure to address the challenges of poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity, said experts at the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines, Iowa, recommending reforms at both the institutional and individual level to help smallholder farmers.

Almost 220 million people of the 1.2 billion people who live in Africa are undernourished. In sub-Saharan Africa, which lags behind regional and global trends, hunger affects about one out of every four people, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

“African countries must become more self-reliant when it comes to education, building on historical achievements to establish a strong infrastructure – not focused only on academic research, but with a practical ‘science for impact’ component as well,” said Martin Kropff, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

“Many people think education and capacity building are just about training or earning a doctoral degree, but it’s more extensive than that. It’s important to develop a proper framework for training individuals and institutions to ensure countries can achieve development goals.”

CIMMYT trains scientists throughout the developing world to become maize and wheat breeders. In Africa, where CIMMYT conducts 40 percent of its work, a screening facility for maize lethal necrosis disease and a center for double haploid breeding are also used as training facilities for capacity building, also helping to bolster national agricultural systems.

Kropff, who served as rector of Wageningen University and Research Center in the Netherlands before joining CIMMYT in 2015, is laying the groundwork for a “CIMMYT Academy.” The academy will pull together a range of existing training programs, uniting them into a coherent set of activities affiliated with universities throughout Africa to help breeders learn a variety of skills that can broaden their knowledge base.

“The key is to take a unified approach, sometimes a maize or wheat breeder needs also to learn technological and socioeconomic aspects of the work — we need integration – a more well-rounded approach – to really have impact,” Kropff said, adding that each innovation has a socioeconomic component and technological component.

“If we want to help countries in Africa struggling to establish a functional seed distribution system, we have to involve the private sector, so we also need to train people to become entrepreneurs,” he added.

FOUNDATION AND GROWTH

In the 1960s and 1970s, the international community helped set up the first educational development programs throughout Africa creating leadership candidates who subsequently trained many people, said Gebisa Ejeta, the 2009 World Food Prize laureate whose drought-resistant sorghum hybrids have increased food supply for millions of people throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Over time, these programs have provided the necessary foundation upon which to build institutions, he said.

“Nothing is more foundational for development than having native capacity at the human level as well as at the institutional level to really take more experiential learning forward and that way also to benefit greatly from development assistance,” Ejeta added. “Otherwise, it becomes an activity of external programs coming in and out.”

Africa has benefited over the past 10 years from being part of a new global landscape, Ejeta said, pointing to the expansion of infrastructure resulting from assistance from China, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Simultaneously, Africa is also beginning to invest directly internally.

“Africa needs to benefit from valuable lessons from China, India and Brazil,” Ejeta said. “Each one of them is different, but the common denominator is that they all invested systematically in human and institutional capacity building in their countries to really drive involvement processes taking place to bring about transformative change.”

We need to shift the center of gravity to African governments and scientists, said Joyce Banda, who served as president of Malawi from 2012 to 2014, adding that a major challenge is a lack of extension – many people don’t know how to properly grow crops, use technology or about improved seeds due to a lack of farmer education.

Good agricultural production goes side-by-side with good governance, Banda said. “We need to fight and make sure that our resources are safe for the benefit of agriculture and food security across Africa. Africa needs to educate for change because men are eating first, best and most, but women are growing the food, storing the food, processing the food, cooking the food and eating last and less.”

The average age of an African farmer is 60, but 65 percent of Africans are young people, Banda said, adding that it is a lost opportunity if young people aren’t introduced to agriculture and trained.

CONFRONTING RISKS

Comprehensive individual and institutional capacity building can demonstrate modern agricultural techniques to inspire younger people to embrace farming, said Bram Govaerts, strategy lead for sustainable intensification in Latin America and Latin America Regional Representative at CIMMYT.

“Farmers must be made aware of new farm technology, taught how to apply scientific research to agricultural practices and get opportunities to innovate – education can facilitate the creative process, said Govaerts who won the 2014 Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation and presented by the World Food Prize foundation.

“We need to first make sure partners can produce enough nutritious food for their families and then connect them to networks that can track data and crops all the way from farm to consumer,” he said. “We need to take a holistic approach to innovative post-harvest processes.”

For example, a small sensor placed in a post-harvest storage silo could measure temperature and humidity to protect the crop, but can also connect to a market network, allowing farmers to easily find buyers and prevent food waste.

“Millions of farmers in African countries are suffering from poverty, malnutrition and food insecurity, and a lack of technology prevents them from maximizing their potential contributions to their families and communities,” Govaerts said.

“I’m more and more convinced that change is going to come from innovation networks and the enabling tools that will generate them.”

New Publications: New findings on effects of tillage on growth, yield and more

Farmer Chamkaur Singh in his wheat field in Fatehgarh Sahib district, Punjab, India. The field was sown with a zero tillage wheat seeder known as a Happy Seeder, giving an excellent and uniform crop. Photo: P. Kosina/CIMMYT
Farmer Chamkaur Singh in his wheat field in Fatehgarh Sahib district, Punjab, India. The field was sown with a zero tillage wheat seeder known as a Happy Seeder, giving an excellent and uniform crop. Photo: P. Kosina/CIMMYT

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — A study from CIMMYT scientists has revealed new insights on the respective benefits of conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT) in north-west India.

Degradation of natural resources, increasing farm labor scarcity, and high production costs are major threats to north-west India’s rice-wheat cropping system.

Sustainable intensification practices, like switching from puddling then transplanting of rice to dry seeding, together with changing from CT to ZT for wheat with surface retention of rice residues, have proven to be very effective in maintaining or even boosting crop yields while preserving environmental resources.

However, whether using ZT for both crops brings additional benefits to either crop is not known. The effects of surface retention of rice residues in wheat on the subsequent DSR crop are also unknown, nor how this is affected by tillage for DSR.

In response, a field study was conducted during 2012-2014 to investigate the interactions between CT and ZT for rice and wheat, and both conventional and sustainable rice residue management, on the performance of a dry seeded rice-wheat system.

Researchers found that while surface retention of rice residues improved the growth of ZT wheat and this effect appeared early during the first crop, rice residue retention in wheat had an adverse effect on growth of the subsequent DSR crop in the first year. In addition, tillage treatment for rice did not affect wheat performance, and vice versa, over the first five crops.

Read more about the study “Effects of tillage and mulch on the growth, yield and irrigation water productivity of a dry seeded rice-wheat cropping system in north-west India” and other recent publications from CIMMYT scientists below:

  1. A taxonomy-based approach to shed light on the babel of mathematical models for rice simulation. 2016. Confalonieri, R.; Bregaglio, S.; Adam, M.; Ruget, F.; Tao Li; Hasegawa, T.; Yin, Y.; Zhu, Y.; Boote, K.; Buis, S.; Fumoto, T.; Gaydon, D.S.; Lafarge, T.; Marcaida III, M.; Nakagawa, H.; Ruane, A.C.; Singh, B.; Singh, U.; Tang, L.; Fulu Tao; Fugice, J.; Yoshida, H.; Zhao Zhang; Wilson, L.T.; Baker, J.; Yubin Yang; Yuji Masutomi; Wallach, D.; Acutis, M.; Bouman, B. Environmental Modelling & Software 85: 332-341.
  2. Effects of tillage and mulch on the growth, yield and irrigation water productivity of a dry seeded rice-wheat cropping system in north-west India. 2016.  Naveen-Gupta.; Sudhir-Yadav; Humphreys, E.; Kukal, S.S.; Singh, B.; Eberbach, P.L. Field Crops Research. 196: 219-236.
  3. Evaluation of the effects of mulch on optimum sowing date and irrigation management of zero till wheat in central Punjab, India using APSIM. 2016. Singh, B.; Humphreys, E.; Gaydon, D.S.; Eberbach, P.L. Field Crops Research 197: 83-96.
  4. High-temperature adult-plant resistance to stripe rust in facultative winter wheat. 2016.  Akin, B.; Xianming Chen; Morgounov, A.I.; Zencirci, N.; Anmin Wan; Meinan Wang. Crop and Pasture Science. Online First.
  5. Identification of earliness per se flowering time locus in spring wheat through a genome-wide association study. 2016. Sukumaran, S.; Lopes, M.S.; Dreisigacker, S.; Dixon, L.E.; Meluleki Zikhali; Griffiths, S.; Bangyou Zheng; Chapman, S.; Reynolds, M.P. Crop Science: 56.

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Private sector seed distribution vital for food security, World Food Prize delegates say

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Arturo Silva delivers a presentation at the Seed Security for Food Security forum at the World Food Prize conference in Des Moines, Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (CIMMYT) – Public-private collaborations can deliver improved seeds to smallholder farmers faster, speeding up global efforts to meet food security targets, said delegates attending a forum at the World Food Prize gathering this week in Des Moines, Iowa.

Already more than 800 million people go hungry worldwide and by 2050, global population will increase by more than 2 billion people to at least 9 billion. Among the many challenges scientists face in boosting food crop yields to meet demand is the distribution of high-yielding, nutritionally enhanced, often drought-tolerant, crop varieties to smallholder farmers in developing countries.

“We’re hamstrung when it comes to getting improved seeds into the hands of farmers due to a lack of affordable production capabilities,” said Arturo Silva, who leads the International Maize Improvement Consortium in Latin America (IMIC-LA), which is based at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) near Mexico City. “That’s where private sector seed companies come in – we need collaborations to ensure the seed gets to farmers.”

In Mexico, Silva and other CIMMYT scientists collaborate with the government through the MasAgro project – which promotes the sustainable intensification of maize and wheat production – and with private seed companies through IMIC-LA to distribute seeds that flourish in sub-tropical, tropical and highland environments.

“We still have 2.5 million hectares to convert from old products to new hybrids, but we are convinced we can make Mexico self-sufficient in maize,” Silva said. “We must democratize seed through public-private partnerships to help farmers who still lack access to technology.”

Currently, Mexican farmers produce 22 million tons of maize a year, but consumer demand outweighs production, leading to imports of up to 12 million tons of yellow maize from the United States a year at a cost of $2.5 billion.

“The challenge is to produce high-yielding seeds, while preserving genetic diversity and protecting the old indigenous landraces from potential risks and threats,” Silva said.

One way CIMMYT helps boost demand for native Mexican maize landraces is by connecting small-scale Mexican farmers with intermediaries who sell Mexican maize as a niche gourmet food. In response to recent consumer demand, top chefs in North American cities have been buying niche varieties of maize to create specialty tortillas, tlacoyos, tetelas and tamales.

“We have hundreds of thousands of seed varieties,” said Ruben Echeverria, director general of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which is based in Cali, Colombia.

“The challenge is beyond technical change, it’s institutional change,” he added. “What CIMMYT is doing with seed companies is the way to go.”

“The private sector eventually has to take over,” said Jim Gaffney, global biotech affairs and regulatory lead at DuPont Pioneer, which hosted the Seed Security for Food Security forum. “Wherever the seed industry is healthy and vibrant, the private sector has been involved.”

DuPont Pioneer tops the Global Index of Field Crop Seed Companies and developed its own food security targets in 2012 that it aims to meet by 2020. Since the goals were established, DuPont Pioneer says it has invested $1.2 billion in research and development, introduced 600 new products and engaged with more than 314,000 smallholder farmers.

DuPont Pioneer also sponsored the development of a Global Food Security Index, which measures food affordability, availability, quality and safety in 113 countries and which the company is using to develop economic forecasts and country reports.

“Seed security equals food security,” said John Duesing, the company’s senior research director, adding that achieving food security is the world’s greatest challenge.

CIMMYT and Cargill Mexico announce second food security and sustainability awards

  • For a second year in a row, $25,000 will be awarded to projects contributing to food security and sustainability in Mexico’s agricultural sector.
  • Cargill will also be sponsoring a study to improve sustainability and responsible sourcing practices in Mexico’s maize and wheat markets.

MEXICO CITY – The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Cargill Mexico announced today the second Cargill-CIMMYT Food Security and Sustainability Award during CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary celebration.  

A prize of $25,000 will be awarded to projects that promote sustainable food security solutions in Mexico and are implemented by farmers, researchers and opinion leaders.

“Ultimately, Cargill and CIMMYT want to develop an operational strategy that can be replicated in other parts of Mexico and beyond,” said Cargill Senior Director of Corporate Responsibility, Michelle Grogg.

Effective sustainable intensification strategies in Mexico, or anywhere else, only achieve significant and sustainable yield increases when innovative leaders in the links forming the agri-business chain collaborate with each other, said CIMMYT’s director general, Martin Kropff. “CIMMYT is proud to partner with Cargill to identify and contribute to the great work that farmers, researchers and opinion leaders are doing in different links of Mexico’s maize and wheat value chains.”

  • The farmer association representative invested their $10,000 award in a conservation project that helped renew machinery and equipment.
  • The researchers category $10,000 award went to technological developments aimed at reducing consumption of fertilizers and herbicides in agriculture soybeans.
  • And, the opinion leader category winner used their $5,000 award to purchase a rainwater conservation system to help boost maize farmers’ productivity in the state of Hidalgo.

Cargill is also sponsoring a study to evaluate and outline a sustainable and responsible sourcing plan for the Mexican maize and wheat markets. A task force, including Cargill and CIMMYT experts, will evaluate pilot areas and approaches, including different ways to implement more sustainable and responsible sourcing practices in the local supply chain.

About Cargill

Cargill provides food, agricultural and industrial products and financial services to the world. Along with producers, customers, governments and communities, we support people to prosper together applying our knowledge and our 150 years of experience. We have 150,000 employees in 70 countries that are committed to feeding the world responsibly, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities in which we live and work. 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

Headquartered in Mexico, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly funded research for development for wheat and maize and for wheat- and maize-based farming systems. CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners, belongs to CGIAR and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from CGIAR Fund Donors, national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. staging.cimmyt.org

African Conservation Tillage Network CEO calls for high level support of conservation agriculture

African Conservation Tillage Network CEO Saidi Mkomwa
African Conservation Tillage Network CEO Saidi Mkomwa

EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Regional and national support for conservation agriculture is key to achieving widespread sustainable production intensification, said Saidi Mkomwa, CEO of the African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT).

Increased uptake of conservation agriculture, soil management practices involving minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotations used to boost sustainable agriculture and add to its profitability, will benefit from coordinated promotion through regional bodies and national governments, said Mkomwa, who will speak at a conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) on Wednesday.

CIMMYT research and programs supporting conservation agriculture’s greater sustainable productivity have helped organizations, governments and their institutions expand efforts, but to have real impact against challenges climate change and reduced resources increased high-level action is needed, he said.

Mkomwa will take part in a panel discussion titled, “The contribution farming systems research in scaling improved management practices and technical innovations” during the CIMMYT 50th anniversary conference in Mexico.

He shares his opinions on agricultural development in the following interview.

Q: What do you hope to contribute to the CIMMYT conference?

To congratulate CIMMYT on their 50 years of unique contributions such as their contribution to the Green Revolution, which pulled millions of people out of hunger. This is also an opportunity to remind CIMMYT of their former wheat breeder and father of the Green Revolution Borlaugs’ 1970’s prophecy, that a second Green Revolution will be necessary in 20 to 30 years, to make the bounty everlasting. The next Green Revolution challenged also by climate change, is being compelled to focus on the new food frontiers – smallholder rainfed agriculture in the semi-arid regions, which are also home to the millions of the hungry and the poor. CIMMYT is already researching and empowering farmers (particularly in Southern Africa) to adapt and adopt conservation agriculture as means to achieving sustainable production intensification. What could add value to this effort is more effective and higher level leadership and coordination of such activities which can empower the African Union’s Africa’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and national governments to support and invest in relatively low cost conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification.

Q: What is significant about CIMMYT: What role has CIMMYT played in your area of work?

CIMMYT has expertise and experience in plant breeding and promoting best performing crop cultivars as well as in research on conservation agriculture systems and practices that is capable of intensifying farming without degrading natural resources. CIMMYT’s research on conservation agriculture has helped to generate reliable scientific evidence and technologies in support of conservation agriculture as the best option for sustainable production intensification by smallholder farmers in Africa. This work has helped many governments and their institutions and other organizations in Africa, including ACT, to expand their effort to introduce and spread conservation agriculture.

Q: What are the key challenges the world faces into the future?

The conventional tillage agriculture has become unfit for meeting future food security sustainably and is increasingly being replaced with conservation conservation because of its greater productivity, profitability, efficiency, resilience and regenerative qualities. Availability and efficient utilization of production inputs – with specific focus on water, fertilizers and fuel – which were essential in the Green Revolution, become crucial as supplies dwindle and costs escalate. Their manufacture or use in conventional tillage agriculture further contributes to GHG emissions but can be minimized by adopting conservation agriculture systems as widely as possible across Africa and beyond.

Key challenges that are faced globally include the need to adopt conservation agriculture in response to sub-optimal yield plateau and profit margins prevailing in most countries; loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, soil degradation and erosion; loss of efficiency and resilience; and greater need for research, education and extension systems to overcome inadequate level of staff and farmer capacity.