research: Sustainable agrifood systems

SIMLESA spills over into South Sudan

Written by on June 22, 2012. Posted in News.

South Sudan, Africa’s newest country, is set to benefit from the project “Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa” (SIMLESA), following fruitful discussions between project representatives and South Sudan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF). Project coordinator Mulugetta Mekuria and agronomist Fred Kanampiu met with George Leju, Director General of Research, Training, and Extension Services, Cirino Oketayot, Executive Director of Research, and Luka Atwok, maize breeder, in Juba on 6 June 2012. Mekuria gave an overview of the project’s vision, focus, and accomplishments to date and explained how SIMLESA’s experiences can reach and benefit South Sudan. The opportunity for collaboration was first discussed in Rwanda in October 2011 and since then Atwok has attended a series of SIMLESA-organized trainings and workshops.

Leju welcomed the proposal and thanked CIMMYT and the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR, which funds the project) for considering South Sudan as a beneficiary of the work. “SIMLESA resonates well with the MoAF strategic plan as it addresses the core challenges of the country, which has emerged from war,” said Leju. Oketayot highlighted South Sudan’s research structure, current priorities, challenges, and areas that need support, including an urgent need for capacity building. He also emphasized the importance of maize and legumes in the country’s farming systems and the potential impact of SIMLESA on these systems.

“ACIAR has availed initial funding for spillover activities,” said Mekuria. “The idea is to ensure that SIMLESA research results are quickly scaled out to countries like South Sudan and improve food security there.”

South Sudan scientists will join SIMLESA capacity building activities, attending core country and regional training events. “The project will also facilitate their travel to target country sites for activities like field days, so they get first-hand experience,” said Kanampiu. The first such capacity building initiative is planned for August this year, when CIMMYT will hold a workshop on basic agricultural research design and implementation. In addition to a very productive meeting, Leju and Oketayot were also delighted to receive an information pack full of background on SIMLESA, as well as shirts and baseball caps.

CIMMYT team wins CCAFS recognition

Written by on May 25, 2012. Posted in News.

On 29 April, CIMMYT had a double reason to celebrate, picking up the award for “Best gender paper” and “Best science paper” (along with Bioversity), at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) Science Conference in Copenhagen. The conference was part of a series of CCAFS meetings held from 29 April – 02 May, and was attended by various CIMMYT staff.

The best gender paper, titled ‘Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Kenya: How Does Gender Matter?’ and co-authored by Simon Wagura Ndiritu, Menale Kassie and Bekele Shiferaw, highlighted the differences between technologies adopted on female- and male-managed farm plots in Kenya. They found that whilst there were gender differences in the adoption of technologies such as the use of animal manure, soil and water conservation, other differences in the use of chemical fertilizers and improved seed may stem from the varying levels of access to resources for men and women, rather than gender itself. “This recognition inspires me to put more effort to produce more quality research that will bring excellent distinction to CIMMYT and myself,” said Kassie, while Ndiritu said “it is an encouragement to a young scientist,” adding that he is looking forward to having the paper published.

The winning science paper, ‘Assessing the vulnerability of traditional maize seed systems in Mexico to climate change’, was authored by David Hodson (FAO), and Mauricio Bellon (Bioversity) and Jonathan Hellin from CIMMYT. With climate change models predicting significant impacts in Mexico and Central America, particularly during the maize growing season (May – October), the paper assessed the capacity of traditional maize seed systems to provide farmers with appropriate genetic material, under the anticipated agro-ecological conditions. Their results indicated that whilst most farmers will have easy access to appropriate seed in the future, those in the highlands will be more vulnerable to climate change and are likely to have to source seed from outside their traditional supplies, entailing significant additional costs and changes to the traditional supply chain.

To share the good news, the Socioeconomics program hosted a get-together with the team in Nairobi, Kenya. During the cake cutting ceremony, the best gender paper award was dedicated to women farmers from Embu and Kakamega in Kenya’s Eastern and Western Provinces, where the data was collected. The Nairobi team also took the opportunity to initiate monthly seminars in order to share research findings hosted by the Global Maize Program and the Socioeconomics program and promote regular interaction among the team. The program directors, Bekele Shiferaw and B. M. Prasanna nominated Dan Makumbi, Hugo De Groote, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Fred Kanampiu, and Sarah Kibera, to form the organizing committee for the seminars.

CIMMYT participates in EU Day exhibition in Nairobi

Written by on May 17, 2012. Posted in News.

EU-exhibition As part of European Union Day celebrations in Kenya, an exhibition to showcase research and development activities supported by the EU or its member states took place on 09 May 2012 at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi. CIMMYT was among 12 exhibitors participating and featured the projects Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA), Effective Grain Storage (EGS), Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), and Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping System for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA). On display were cobs of CIMMYT and commercial maize hybrids harvested from drought stressed plots alongside cobs of the same hybrids from fully irrigated plots. Several CIMMYT publications were available for visitors.

Maize is a staple food in Kenya, so visitors to the stand were keen to know which varieties would thrive in their locales. Visitors also included people working in other agricultural research and development organizations, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) country director Erna Kerst. A component of the DTMA project focusing on heat stress is funded by USAID. CIMMYT was represented by Dan Makumbi, Titus Kosgei, and Florence Sipalla.

Africa recruits research partners to secure its food

Written by on May 15, 2012. Posted in Features.

ACIAR’s Dr. John Dixon and Dr. Daniel Rodriguez of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, with farmers from Melkassa, Ethiopia

A maize – legume farm in Tanzania

Government extension officer Frank Swai, Tanzania

Farmer and single mother of four Felista Mateo, Tanzania

CIMMYT’s Dr. Fred Kanampiu, Tanzania

By Judie-Lynn Rabar and
Dr. Gio Braidotti

East African farmers are spearheading a research drive to intensify crop production of their most important staple foods. The farmers’ experiments with conservation agriculture and variety selection are part of a broader, 5-country push to stave off a looming food and soil-health crisis.

Kilima Tembo is a secondary school in the Karatu district in Tanzania’s rural highlands. Here, near the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangira National Park, agriculture is king and food security rests squarely on grains grown in the region’s maize–legume intercropping system.

So important is farming to the community that the school has an agriculture teacher and the school head, Ms Odilia Basso, has allowed the Selian Agricultural Research Institute (SARI) to use school grounds to run field trials as part of a 5-country initiative to overhaul the maize and legumes supply chain—from farm to market.

That means breaking with a long-standing cycle of lifting production simply by bringing more land under the plough. The ecological consequences of that approach are catching up with farmers and their environment, but agricultural science is providing more sustainable alternatives to improve food security.

The research-based strategy is called SIMLESA—sustainable intensification of maize–legume cropping systems for food security in eastern and southern Africa. Launched in March 2010, the project is supported by the Australian Government through ACIAR.

Ambitious aims

A major objective is to introduce conservation agriculture techniques and more resilient varieties to increase the productivity and resilience of this vital cropping system. SIMLESA is aiming not only to increase yields by 30% from the 2009 average but also to reduce, by the same factor, risk from yield variability between seasons.

The Kilima Tembo Secondary School will help achieve these goals. The school is hosting the so-called ‘Mother Trial’—a long-term SARI field trial of conservation agriculture. This farming practice involves conserving ground cover between harvests to preserve soil moisture and, over a number of years, radically improve soil health and fertility.

Unlike 11 other farmer-led field sites established by SARI (the so-called ‘Baby Trials’), the Mother Trial is managed directly by the institute’s scientists, landing the school’s students with front-row seats on research and development activities designed to sustain a farming revolution.

Mr. Bashir Makoko, an agronomist working on the SIMLESA project, says students have the opportunity to learn about the project and its significance to the community at an open day with scientists and extension workers from SARI.

The socioeconomist running the trial, Mr. Frank Mbando, is encouraging student participation. He has arranged for data to be collected in ways that allow students to interact with technical staff. “Direct involvement in the project will equip the students with the information they need as potential farmers,” he says.

Household and regional impacts

Supporting these activities are partnerships that link farmers with a suite of national resources—extension officers, research centres and agricultural ministries—and international research centres.

Coordinating these linkages is Dr. Mulugetta Mekuria, from the South African regional office of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Also involved is the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Dr. Mekuria says SIMLESA was designed to have impacts at both the household and regional level.

“The aim is to ensure food security through agricultural research, stronger economic institutions, partnerships, and capacity building,” he says. “We want to increase food security and incomes while driving economic development through improved productivity from more resilient and sustainable maize-based farming systems.”

To implement the program, Dr. Mekuria is using the ‘3-I Approach’, a research for development (R4D) strategy designed to enhance smallholder prosperity based on the principles of integration, innovation, and impact. “SIMLESA activities will focus on integrated cropping systems, the use of innovation platforms to test and promote promising practices, and ensuring positive and measurable impacts on food security, sustainability and farm household incomes.”

ACIAR is funding SIMLESA with $20 million in financial support. The centre has enlisted Australian expertise through Dr. Daniel Rodriguez, of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, and Professor John Howieson from the Institute for Crop and Plant Sciences at Murdoch University in Perth.

Positive experience

Ms. Felista Mateo, a 37-year-old farmer from Kilima Tembo village is already benefitting from participating in SIMLESA.

A single mother of four, Ms. Mateo supports her family with produce from her land, mainly maize and pigeon pea. Any surpluses, though small, are stored in granaries and either used domestically or sold to middlemen.

Following advice from government extension officer Mr. Frank Swai, she achieved yield gains that her neighbours are now attempting to duplicate. As her harvest increases, she plans to build a larger granary to store her surplus and sell more grain as a cash crop.

Traditionally, farmers have had no way of tracking the market and the middlemen who buy their produce have exercised control over prices. However, Ms. Mateo owns a mobile phone and since the inception of SIMLESA and its support network, she can now call an extension officer and check market prices. The result is greater bargaining power for the villagers when the middlemen come calling.

Averting food insecurity

More than 200 million people living in extreme poverty in the partner countries stand to benefit from SIMLESA.

Currently, the region is barely self-sufficient in grain, importing 10% of its needs—one quarter in the form of emergency food aid.
Maize is the main staple and legumes —primarily groundnut, pigeon pea and chickpea— are an important source of protein. Instead of a more prosperous future, however, the region is facing growth in demand for maize and legumes in the next 10 years. It is that trend towards food insecurity that SIMLESA is attempting to avert.

But it is not just on-farm practices that are targeted for innovation. Urban grain prices have remained stubbornly high following the global food crisis of 2007–08. But higher prices for consumers have not translated into higher prices for farmers. This has weakened incentives for farmers to increase food crop production, a state of affairs that SIMLESA is attempting to change.

CIMMYT’s Dr. Fred Kanampiu says that the SIMLESA project is aiming to achieve a ‘whole-chain’ impact. “Despite the multiple efforts underway with the researchers, the final focus should not be lost,” he says. “It is the farmer who is to be the end beneficiary of the research. The farmers’ lives should be improved, their pockets well-lined and their families well catered for.”

Of all the crops produced by farmers such as Ms. Mateo, it is pigeon pea that has an important role to play as a cash crop. Farmers are fond of this legume because it yields two harvests a year and there is a good export market to India. Pigeon pea retails up to TZS150,000 (about US$100) per 100 kilogram bag. On average, one acre (0.405 hectares) of land yields 300–400 kg of pigeon pea. Typically, 95% of the crop is sold.

In Karatu district some 15% of farmers live on less than a dollar a day. Mr. Makoko says the major obstacles to lifting their profitability are high inputs costs, low produce prices, lack of markets, and prolonged drought. By introducing pigeon pea or similar crops, and integrating the ‘whole-chain’ approach, these obstacles can be reduced or overcome.

Socioeconomist Frank Mbando, Tanzania.

Senior agronomist Tuaeli Mmbaga, Tanzania.

The way forward will include training farmers to provide them with further education on how to manage their land.”

–Tuaeli Mmbaga

Better varieties

While the main research thrust is on conservation agriculture, CIMMY T and ICRISAT are participating in accelerated breeding and performance trials that aim to introduce farmers to maize and legume varieties that yield well in good years and are resilient enough in the bad seasons to help reduce farmers’ risks.

Mr. Mbando is tracking impacts associated with the new varieties and says the farmers’ response to the studies has been positive.

“They suggested that breeders take into account farmers’ criteria when making selections, so a participatory approach will be used to evaluate varieties,” he says. “So far, farmers have indicated early maturity, pest and disease tolerance, high yields and marketability as the preferred traits. Variety registration and production will then also be stepped up to make the seed available in sufficient quantities.”

Partnership approach

Mbulu district, located about 50 kilometres from Karatu, is the next community targeted for SIMLESA activities in Tanzania, to start after the current crop has been harvested. At the SIMLESA inception meeting, farmers agreed to leave post-harvest residue on the ground in preparation for the trials. Field activities in the Eastern Zone districts of Gairo and Mvomero are expected to begin in the next growing season.

Ms. Tuaeli Mmbaga, the senior agronomist on this project, says that with support from extension officers, farmers will assess the technology both pre-harvest and post-harvest.

“The way forward will include training farmers to provide them with further education on how to manage their land,” she says. “This will include an Innovation Learning Platform in partnership with farm produce stockists, community leaders, and other stakeholders to ensure that more people become involved with the project.”

Crop modeling scientist Dr. Daniel Rodriguez, who leads the Queensland component of ACIAR’s SIMLESA program, is convinced that research to reduce food shortages in eastern and southern Africa could have many benefits for farmers, including in his native Queensland.

“Our scientists will be working to improve the resilience and profitability of African farms, providing access to better seeds and fertilisers to raise the productivity of local maize–legume farming systems,” Dr. Rodriguez says. “Together we may be able to help solve one of the greatest challenges for the developed world—eliminating hunger and poverty in Africa—while at the same time boosting legume production here in Australia.”

Building agricultural research capacity

ACIAR’s Dr. John Dixon says the emphasis of Australia’s direct involvement is on building capacity within the African agricultural research system.

“Conservation agriculture amounts to a substantial shift in farming practices for the region,” Dr. Dixon says. “But it stands to provide so many advantages—not just greater water-use efficiency and soil health but also opportunities to break disease cycles and improve livestock nutrition.”

These are long-term efforts that need to be adapted to many agro-climatically diverse locations, Dr. Dixon says. “So it is vital that the African agricultural research system is built up so that it can take lead responsibility for implementing innovation into the future.”

New boost for maize-legume cropping in eastern and southern Africa

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

maize-esa CIMMYT has entered into a collaborative research program to increase household and regional food security and incomes, as well as economic development, in eastern and southern Africa, through improved productivity from more resilient and sustainable maize-legume farming systems. Known as “Sustainable intensification of maize-legume cropping systems for food security in eastern and southern Africa” (SIMLESA), the program aims to increase productivity by 30% and reduce downside risk by 30% within a decade for at least 0.5 million farm households in those countries, with spill-over benefits throughout the region. In addition to CIMMYT, the program involves the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the national agricultural research systems of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania, as well as the International Center for Research for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa, the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation Queensland, and Murdoch University in Western Australia. “The demand for maize in the region is expected to increase by at least 40% over the next ten years; and the demand for legumes by 50%,” says CIMMYT socioeconomist, Mulugetta Mekuria, who is leading the center’s efforts under the program. “Seasonal variability causes wide swings in food crop yields, including maize and legumes. This program will play a crucial role in reducing farmers’ risk and the vulnerability of farm households.” Work is being funded with Aus$ 20 million from the Australian Government, and forms part of the Government’s new, four-year Food Security through Rural Development Initiative.

For more information: Mulugetta Mekuria, socioeconomist (m.mekuria@cgiar.org)
For interviews and media support: Mike Listman, corporate communications (m.listman@cgiar.org)

See also official announcements from ACIAR and AusAid

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket: Bangladesh tries maize cropping for feed

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

CIMMYT E-News, vol 6 no. 2, February 2009

feb02 Demand for maize has popped up across Asia, but much of the grain is enjoyed by poultry, not people. In Bangladesh, maize is a fairly new crop, yet demand in this country already mirrors that of neighboring nations like China and India. A recent CIMMYT report explores these emerging trends and the efforts to incorporate sustainable and economically viable maize cropping systems into a traditionally rice-based country.

“Simply put, people have more money,” says Olaf Erenstein, a CIMMYT agricultural economist. “Asia’s population growth has slowed and incomes have increased. This means dietary demands and expectations are changing as well.”

With extra money in their pockets, many people across Asia are starting to desire something with a bit more bite. In the past 40 years, increased prosperity and a related meat demand have sent two-thirds of global maize production toward animal feed instead of direct consumption. Currently, 62% of maize in Asia is used to feed livestock while only 22% goes straight to the dinner plate. This is not surprising, as total meat consumption in the seven major Asian maize-producing countries1 rose 280% between 1980 and 2000. Poultry, particularly, plays a large role. During the same time period, poultry production rose 7% each year in Asia, compared to a 5% global average.

The bare-bones reason for this shift is that it takes more grain to produce meat than would be used if people ate the product directly. Grain-to-meat conversion ratios for pork are on the order of 4:1. Chicken is more efficient, requiring only 2 kilograms of grain feed for a kilogram of growth. Either way, when people substitute meat for grain, grain production must increase to meet the demand.

From a farmer’s perspective, this is not a bad thing, and what is occurring now in Bangladesh illustrates how farmers can benefit, according to a recently published CIMMYT study. With a 15%-per-year increase in Bangladesh’s poultry sector since 1991, the feed demand has opened a new market for maize. And since the country’s current average per person poultry consumption is at less than 2 kg a year—compared to almost 4 kg in Pakistan, 14 kg in Thailand, and 33 kg in Malaysia—the maize and poultry industries have plenty of room to spread their wings.

What came first: The chicken or the seed?

The poultry industry in Bangladesh employs five million people, with millions of additional households relying on poultry production for income generation and nutrition. “Only in the past 10 to 15 years, as many people got a bit richer, especially in urban centers, did the market for poultry products, and therefore the profitability of maize, take off in Bangladesh,” says Stephen Waddington, who worked as regional agronomist in the center’s Bangladesh office during 2005-07 and is a co-author of the CIMMYT study.

“Many maize growers keep chickens, feed grain to them, and sell the poultry and eggs; more value is added than by just selling maize grain,” he says. “Most Bangladeshis have no history of using maize as human food, although roasting cobs, popcorn, and mixing maize flour with wheat in chapattis are all increasing.” Waddington adds that maize could grow in dinnertime popularity, as the price of wheat flour has increased and the price of maize grain remains almost 40% lower than that for wheat.

Worldwide, more maize is produced than any other cereal. In Asia, it is third, after rice and wheat. But due to the increasing demand for feed, maize production in Asia has almost quadrupled since 1960, primarily through improved yields, rather than area expansion. Future rapid population growth and maize demand will lead to maize being grown in place of other crops, the intensification of existing maize lands, the commercialization of maize-based production systems, and the expansion of maize cultivation into lands not currently farmed. The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that Asia will account for 60% of global maize demand by 2020.

Maize in Bangladesh is mainly a high-input crop, grown with hybrid seed, large amounts of fertilizer, and irrigation. While a successful maize crop requires high inputs, it also provides several advantages. “Maize is more than two times as economical in terms of yield per unit of land as wheat or Boro rice,” says Yusuf Ali.”Maize also requires less water than Boro rice and has fewer pest and disease problems than Boro rice or wheat.” The maize area in Bangladesh is increasing around 20% per year.

Maize-rice cropping challenges

“The high potential productivity of maize in Bangladesh has yet to be fully realized,” says Yusuf Ali, a principal scientific officer with the On-Farm Research Division (OFRD) of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and first author of the CIMMYT study. Bangladesh has a subtropical climate and fertile alluvial soils, both ideal for maize. From only a few thousand hectares in the 1980s, by 2007-08 its maize area had expanded to at least 221,000 hectares, he said.

Maize in Bangladesh is cropped during the dry winter season, which lasts from November to April. The other two crops commonly grown during winter are high-yielding irrigated rice (known in Asia as “Boro,” differentiating it from the flooded paddy rice common throughout the region) and wheat. Adding another crop into the mix and thereby increasing cropping diversity is beneficial for farmers, offering them more options.

Rice, the traditional staple cereal crop in Bangladesh, is grown throughout the country year round, often with two to three crops per year on the same land. So as the new crop on the block, maize must be merged with existing cropping patterns, the most common of which is winter maize sown after the harvest of paddy rice. And since rice is the key to food security in Bangladesh, farmers prefer to grow longer-season T. aman rice that provides higher yields than earlier-maturing varieties. This delays the sowing of maize until the second or third week of December. Low temperatures at that time slow maize germination and growth, and can decrease yields more than 20%. In addition, the later-resulting harvest can be hindered by early monsoon rains, which increase ear rot and the threat of waterlogging.

Another problem with maize-rice cropping systems is that the two crops require distinct soil environments. Maize needs loamy soils of good tilth and aeration, whereas rice needs puddled wet clay soils with high water-holding capacity. Puddling for rice obliterates the soil structure, and heavy tillage is required to rebuild the soil for maize. This is often difficult due to a lack of proper equipment, time, or irrigation. Moreover, excessive tillage for maize can deplete soils of nutrients and organic matter. Thus, as maize moves into rice-based cropping systems, agronomists need to develop sustainable cropping patterns, tillage management options, and integrated plant nutrient systems.

Support and supplies vital for success

“For a new crop like hybrid maize to flourish, there needs to be a flow of information and technology to and among farmers,” Waddington says.

In collaboration with the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), and various non-governmental organizations, CIMMYT provided hands-on training for maize production and distributed hybrid seed (which tends to be higher-yielding and more uniform, but must be purchased and planted each year to experience full benefits) to over 11,000 farm families across 35 districts in Bangladesh from 2000-06. A CIMMYT report showed that farmers who received the training were more likely to plant their maize at the best times and also irrigated more frequently and adopted optimal cropping patterns and fertilizer use, resulting in higher yields and better livelihoods.

“This training is vital, since the country is full of tiny, intensively-managed farms. Maize tends to be grown by the somewhat better resourced farmers, but these are still small-scale, even by regional standards,” says Waddingon, adding that farm families were eager to improve their maize-cropping knowledge and their fields.

Other efforts include BARI’s development and release of seven maize hybrids largely based on germplasm from CIMMYT. Two of the hybrids consistently produce comparable grain yields to those of commercial hybrids. The Institute is also working on short duration T. aman rice varieties that have yields and quality comparable to traditional varieties and could thus allow timelier planting of maize.

Power tillers seed the future

Another important advancement is the power-tiller-operated seeder (PTOS) created by the Wheat Research Center (WRC) of BARI. Originally for wheat, the machine has been modified and used to plant maize. Additional PTOSs need to be built, tested, and marketed. Another promising piece of equipment in the works is a power-tiller-operated bed former. Because making and destroying soil beds between every rice/maize rotation is not practical or efficient, the WRC-BARI/CIMMYT farm machinery program is working on a tiller that simultaneously creates a raised bed, sows seed, and fertilizes. This is vital since the turnaround time between rice and maize crops is limited. Like the PTOS, further testing and promotion are needed.

Though much work is still required to incorporate maize fully and sustainably into Bangladesh’s cropping systems, it has already spread across the country quicker than anticipated. Even so, scientists believe future production will fall short of demand. This gap provides farmers an additional crop option, and plants maize in a good position for future growth in Bangladesh.

For more information: Enamul Haque, program manager, CIMMYT-Bangladesh office (e.haque@cgiar.org).

1 China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam were identified in a CIMMYT study as Asian countries with more than 100 K hectares sown with maize. At the time of the study, Bangladesh did not meet this maize area requirement and therefore is not included in this statistic.

CIMMYT Intensifies Efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa with Livelihoods Program

Written by on May 14, 2012. Posted in Features.

August, 2004

live2 On 22 June 2004, CIMMYT culminated a year of hard work and planning to bring a new focus and intensity to the Center’s efforts in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by launching its new African Livelihoods Program (ALP) in Nairobi, Kenya. An extensive strategic planning exercise involving stakeholders, donors, and Center staff in the year before the launch resulted in a restructuring of the Center and its programs along with the creation of the ALP.

CIMMYT is no stranger to Africa. We began working with national research programs in the region even before our official opening in 1966. Today, around 40% of our budget is spent in the continent, representing one of the higher investments across the entire CGIAR. Outside of headquarters, CIMMYT’s largest contingent of international scientists is based in SSA, primarily in eastern and southern Africa. Center scientists based in Mexico provide active support, and a steady stream of African scientists have been training at headquarters.

Early work focused on the development of improved, higher yielding maize varieties adapted to African agroecosystems. Over time, the mission broadened to include the development of stress and disease tolerant varieties, crop management responses to declining soil fertility, overcoming the parasitic weed Striga, strengthening seed industry and distribution networks, and socioeconomic diagnostic and impact studies.

CIMMYT’s research foci in SSA, which have largely been on target, will not change drastically under the new African Livelihoods Program. However, CIMMYT is going to increase the emphasis on improving rural livelihoods through specific maize system interventions. That could include better nutrition through quality protein maize, higher profitability through intercropping/multicropping systems and access to technology and knowledge, or better and more sustainable land use through conservation agriculture techniques.

africaliv This new course relies on an integrated approach based on teams from diverse fields that bring their expertise to bear on specific problems. Projects will go beyond just the development of variety and technology to explore how to reach farmers with these improvements. CIMMYT cannot do this alone, and there will be a new focus on effective partnerships and networks to “deliver the goods” to farmers.

On hand for the launching event were Kenya’s Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Kipruto Arap Kirwa; the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Joseph Kinyua; CIMMYT Director General, Masa Iwanaga; Director of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Romano Kiome; the ALP director, Shivaji Pandey; and other distinguished guests.

Activities and Impact Highlights

High yielding hybrids and open pollinated varieties (OPVs), and promotion of varieties resistant to maize streak virus, gray leaf spot, and E. turcicum.

Since the mid-1960s, more than 150 hybrids and open pollinated varieties (OPV) released and planted on more than two million hectares in SSA contain CIMMYT germplasm. About 55% of the disease resistant varieties released since 1988 have contained CIMMYT germplasm.

Abiotic stress tolerant maize varieties

SSA farmers say drought is one of their main constraints. In response, CIMMYT is trying to move stress tolerance into OPVs and hybrids. Seed companies and farming communities are producing seed, with deployment exceeding 250,000 hectares in southern Africa. Sales of these varieties have quadrupled over each of the past four years.

Insect Resistant Maize

Conventionally bred maize varieties with resistance to stem boring insects have entered Kenya’s National Performance Trials. Transgenic Bt maize is charting new ground and is expected in farmers’ fields in 2008. “Firsts” produced by the Insect Resistant Maize in Africa (IRMA) project include the development of insect resistance management strategies for smallholder farmers, extensive pre-release studies on non-target organisms in African cropping systems, marker-free Bt constructs for the African varieties, and construction of the only biosafety greenhouse in SSA outside of South Africa.

Striga resistance and control

Striga inflicts roughly US$2.7 billion in maize losses in SSA annually. CIMMYT and partners have developed a technology based on coating seeds with a herbicide that offers Striga resistance. More than 130 OPVs, inbreds, and hybrids have been converted to herbicide resistance. Five hybrids were nominated for the Kenya National Performance Trials and three have been pre-released.

Quality Protein Maize (QPM)

QPM provides more complete dietary protein, which improves people’s nutrition and also their incomes through its use as animal feed. QPM is rapidly being moved into locally adapted varieties in SSA for distribution to farmers. Uganda has released a QPM OPV (Nalongo) that garnered the interest of the World Food Program, which is encouraging local farmers to grow it for emergency food rations.

Regional approach to soil fertility research and diffusion

CIMMYT has served a prominent coordinating and facilitating role in the formation of the SoilFertNet and the soon to be launched Soil Fertility Consortium, which will serve four countries directly in southern Africa and other countries indirectly through the ECAMAW network.

Training and capacity building

Between 1998 and 2004, CIMMYT either sponsored or coordinated more than 150 training events ranging from PhD committee membership, to GMO awareness programs for parliamentarians, to farmer participatory research workshops. Participants from the region took advantage of about 2,500 individual training opportunities.

Socioeconomics

The CIMMYT Economics program has been active in Africa since the 1970s. It has been instrumental in developing the Farming Systems Research approach, which has been a key link in bringing agricultural research closer to farmers. CIMMYT economists in East Africa organized farm surveys, including 22 adoption studies, which provided the basis for most of the quantitative analysis on maize systems we have today.

Mother-Baby participatory research and diffusion

Participatory research has emerged as a major tenet of CIMMYT’s research efforts. This has been married with the need to improve technology transfer to farmers in the form of the mother-baby trials—a farmer-centered approach promoted and constantly refined by CIMMYT scientists in southern and eastern Africa. Mother-Baby trials, with the involvement of more than 100 partner organizations, are today grown in 12 African countries.

For more information: Dr. Shivaji Pandey

Pathways to intensification project formulated

Written by on May 9, 2012. Posted in News.

During 27-28 April 2012, CIMMYT’s Socioeconomics Program organized a formulation meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for its Technology Adoption and Intensification Pathways project. More than 35 participants from five African countries attended the meeting. The group included economists, agronomists, and breeders, drawn from CIMMYT; the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR); the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI); national agricultural research institutions; the University of Queensland, Australia; the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB); and universities from member countries of the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project. The objectives of the meeting were to discuss the project proposal with stakeholders, reflect on the in-house review comments by ACIAR, and develop the full proposal by developing a clear impact pathway. The four-year project is expected to develop actionable strategies and policy options for technology targeting and facilitating the adoption of integrated interventions.

The director of the Australian International Food Security Centre (AIFSC), Mellissa Wood, gave a keynote address on “New opportunities for enhancing food security in Africa”. She noted that food security remains an ongoing challenge in Africa, to which Australia is well placed to contribute thanks to its agricultural research expertise. The Australian Government has therefore renewed its focus on food security through rural development initiatives and the establishment of AIFSC. She pointed out that AIFSC’s mission is to accelerate demand-driven research, delivery and adoption of innovations to improve food security, by bridging the gap through agricultural research; understanding the requirements of smallholder production systems; understanding constraints to adoption of research outputs; and devising new modalities to overcome such constraints.

The meeting also benefited from key presentations by CIMMYT, partner institutions, and universities on key topics; break-out group discussions; and a brainstorming session. The new project has four main objectives: (1) panel data collection in sentinel villages and understanding of barriers to technology adoption; (2) risk analysis and adaptation options to manage climate risk and variability; (3) impact assessment and analysis of household intensification pathways; and (4) capacity building in gender-disaggregated agricultural policy analysis and communication of results.
Pathways-formulation-Meeting-Group-Photo

Strengthening the capacity of maize technicians in Zambia

Written by on May 7, 2012. Posted in News.

course-in-Zambia During the week of 15-20 April 2012, 36 maize technicians participated in a training session in Lusaka, Zambia. The participants were selected from seven seed companies in Zambia, national agricultural research organizations, and NGOs involved in agricultural research and extension in the eastern province of Zambia. The objective of the course was to update maize technical staff on implementing on-station and on-farm trials, seed production, and the use of secondary traits in selecting superior genotypes under low nitrogen, heat and drought trials, and it combined both lectures and field work.

Well-managed experiments provide the foundation of all research towards germplasm improvement. Technicians are responsible for many day-today field activities and much agronomic management, making their training crucial in strengthening the capacity of national programs. The course was organized by three CIMMYT projects—Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for the Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA) and Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS.—in collaboration with the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI). It was designed to give technicians greater insight into key processes within germplasm development, variety testing and release, and seed production. Emphasis was given to the importance of trial uniformity, good agronomic management practices, and standardizing measurements.

Each project contributed specialized content to the course: under DTMA the focus was on how to select genotypes under managed drought and heat stress, develop a seed production strategy using seed road maps and maintain trial uniformity. The SIMLEZA project emphasized on-farm testing using the Mother-Baby Trial approach while under IMAS the emphasis was on developing low nitrogen sites and important traits to select for production under low nitrogen. CIMMYT thanks the course organizers and resource persons, Kambambe Mwansa and Franscico Miti of the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute, and CIMMYT’s Peter Setimela, Jill Cairns, Biswanath Das and Sebastian Mawere.

Workshop on enabling technologies and environments for climate resilient future farming systems in Jharkhand, India

Written by on May 5, 2012. Posted in News.

A two-day workshop on potential technologies and policy environments for smallholder rainfed maize farming systems of Jharkhand state, India was organized jointly by Birsa Agriculture University (BAU), CIMMYT, and the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) during 16-17 April, 2012 at Ranchi, Jharkhand, India. The outcomes of the workshop will form part of CIMMYT’s IFAD-funded project on “Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Maize-Livestock Farming Systems in Hill Areas of South Asia” and the MAIZE CGIAR Research Program (CRP).

There were 69 participants in total, including scientists, extension agents (KVKs), and students from BAU; key officials from the state department of agriculture National Food Security Mission (NFSM); and scientists from IPNI, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and CIMMYT. The workshop was inaugurated by BAU vice chancellor M.P. Pandey, while sessions and break-out group discussions were facilitated by Kaushik Majumdar, director of IPNI’s South Asia Program; JS Choudhary, state NFSM director; AK Sarkar, dean of the College of Agriculture at BAU; ILRI scientist Nils Teufel; CIMMYT scientists M. L. Jat and Surabhi Mittal; and IPNI deputy director T. Satyanarayana.

The workshop was made up of presentations on key topics, break-out group discussions, and a brainstorming session. The overall key themes were: (1) current status, constraints, and opportunities in different regions of Jharkhand , (2) conservation agriculture in maize and wheat systems, (3) approaches for crop-livestock integration, (4) integrated farming systems for food and nutritional security, (5) optimizing nutrient management for improved yield and profitability, and (6) approaches for inclusive growth for Jharkhand.

The five break-out groups discussed conservation agriculture (CA); site-specific nutrient management (SSNM); integrated farming systems and crop livestock interactions; enabling policies; and knowledge gaps, partnerships, networks and scaling-out strategies. The discussion outcomes were particularly focused on technology targeting and enabling environments and policies.

Agriculture in Jharkhand is at very low cropping intensity (~114%), despite good rainfall in most districts. The most critical issues include: rolling topography with very small holdings, leading to severe erosion due to lack of appropriate rainwater harvesting; soil acidity; lack of high-yielding stress-tolerant cultivars; very limited mechanization; and poor farmer access to inputoutput markets, coupled with resource poverty.

Building on the experience of CIMMYT’s hill maize project in the state, the participants agreed that optimizing cropping systems deploying CA practices could alleviate many of these problems, and sustainably increase crop production and productivity. Integrating CA with SSNM has shown promising results in improving nutrient use efficiency, currently another bottleneck in productivity gains due to inappropriate nutrient use. Crop-livestock integration is also key, as animals dominate farming in Jharkhand.

To implement these technologies and practices on a large scale, policy support is crucial. The outcomes of the workshop are being documented to serve as a policy paper for prioritization and implementation of technologies by the state, with the goal of arresting land degradation, improving crop productivity, and improving resource use efficiency and farm profitability.

Jharkhand8

MELISA: Mechanization for SIMLESA

Written by on May 4, 2012. Posted in News.

Farm mechanization has progressed little if at all in sub-Saharan Africa, due to a lack of demand, promotion of unsuitable or unreliable machines, little support infrastructure, promotion of inappropriate machinery, an overriding development focus on seeds and fertilizer, and negative perceptions about the social and equity effects of mechanization.

During 10-13 April 2012, more than 50 participants from 12 countries in eastern and southern Africa took part in a workshop organized by the CIMMYT global conservation agriculture program to re-explore the issue and help develop a proposal for the project “Mechanization, entrepreneurship, and conservation agriculture to leverage sustainable intensification in eastern and southern Africa” (MELISA), which will build upon the ACIAR-funded project SIMLESA. The group included agronomists, socioeconomists, agricultural engineers, and private sector representatives.

Re-opening the debate about mechanization was deemed timely because farming in the region relies on increasingly fewer draft animals, tractor hiring schemes have collapsed, field labor is in ever-shorter supply, and the extreme drudgery of many farm operations often falls to women and generally makes agriculture unattractive to the young.

The project is expected to build on experiences with small-scale, intensified farming systems in South Asia—for example, 80% of all operations in Bangladesh are mechanized and mostly done by service providers—and on SIMLESA networks and activities to test and promote conservation agriculture. Both small-scale mechanization and conservation agriculture promise to improve smallholders’ “power” budget: mechanization increases the supply, whereas conservation agriculture reduces the demand by about half; thus smaller, more affordable sources of power, such as two-wheel tractors, can be used. Similarly, shifting from draft animals to tractors would free up substantial biomass (a pair of oxen consumes about nine tons of forage per year) that can be left as residues on the soil. As specific objectives, MELISA will:

evaluate and demonstrate small-scale motorized conservation agriculture technologies in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, using expertise, knowledge, skills, and implements from Africa, South Asia, and Australia;
test site-specific market systems to support mechanization in those countries;
identify improvements in national policies and markets for wide adoption; and
create awareness and share knowledge about mechanization.

The project will be submitted to ACIAR Australia and, if approved, could start in late 2012.

MELISA

CIMMYT lauded for outstanding technical support and partnership in Nepal

Written by on April 25, 2012. Posted in News.

On 04 April 2012 CIMMYT received an “Award of Honor” from the Society of Agricultural Scientist of Nepal (SAS-N). The award, in a form of a plaque, was handed over by Mr. Om Prakash Yadav, Chief Guest and Honorable Minister of State for Agriculture and Cooperatives. “This recognition is given to CIMMYT International for the many contributions in maize and wheat research and development in Nepal,” said Yadav.

The-award Receiving the prize on behalf of CIMMYT, Nepal country representative Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara thanked the Society for the recognition. “On behalf of the director general of CIMMYT, Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, the center’s management, and colleagues who have been based in Nepal and the region for more than 26 years, we thank SAS-N for this great honor,” he said. “I would like to give special thanks to the government of Nepal and the MoAC for hosting CIMMYT’s regional office. Finally, we thank the many government and non-government organizations for their long-standing partnership and collaboration.”

SAS-N is a non-profit professional organization dedicated to agricultural research and development in Nepal. It serves as a shared forum for agricultural scientists and researchers throughout the country and in various agricultural and related institutions. The Society aims to safeguard their professional integrity and improve research standards, thereby fostering economic development through agriculture growth. Some 300 participants in the meeting presented 135 papers on food security, agro-biodiversity, horticulture, livestock, fisheries, nutrition, plant breeding, pathology, crop and soils management, physiology, micro nutrients, irrigation, agro forestry, climate change, and socioeconomics.

In a personal message to Dr. Hira Kaji Manandhar, President of SAS-N, Lumpkin sent his regrets for not being able to attend the event and said: “CIMMYT is very honored by your award. The agriculture research and farmer community of Nepal has been of priority importance to CIMMYT for over 40 years. Many Nepali scientists and staff are and have been part of the CIMMYT team. In recent years we have been expanding our portfolio of development projects in Nepal and are even planning construction of a building, perhaps as Nepal’s part of CIMMYT’s Borlaug Institute for South Asia, near Kathmandu”.

In a message of congratulations to SAS-N, Marianne Bänziger, CIMMYT deputy director general for research and partnerships, said: “We are very honored indeed for CIMMYT to receive this prestigious Award of Honor from the Society of Agricultural Scientists in Nepal. It should be testimony to the extremely fruitful and highly-valued collaboration that we have with scientists and institutions in Nepal for more than two decades. It is a partnership of mutual respect, complementary skills, joint leanings, and successes. We highly appreciate the support, hospitality and friendship that our staff experience, both those that are posted in Nepal as well as when others who visit. Without our collaboration with Nepal, CIMMYT and its programs would be less.”

SIMLESA: Celebrating two years of achievements, defining the future

Written by on April 24, 2012. Posted in News.

During 19-23 March 2012, over 200 researchers, policy makers, donors, seed specialists, and NGO representatives from Africa and Australia gathered in Arusha, Tanzania, for the second SIMLESA (Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa) Annual Regional Planning and Review Meeting. Representation from the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), which generously supports the work, included nine members of the organization’s Commission for International Agricultural Research.

Participants shared lessons from the last two years and discussed better ways to design and implement future activities. Ten sessions addressed issues including project implementation, Australian-African partnerships, program and partner progress and lessons, and communications and knowledge management.

SIMLESA

A key message was that SIMLESA had consolidated and strengthened activities across all objectives, maximizing gains from integration, innovation, information, and technology diffusion for greater impacts on livelihoods and agroecosystems. It was noted that the use of integrated systems can foster productive intensification of agriculture and, indeed, the Innovation Platform Framework, supported by science and partnerships, can contribute to productive, sustainable and resilient maize-legume systems. For even greater impact, the program should rely on stronger leadership from agribusiness, while supporting the public sector’s role, and ensure a farm-income focus to reduce poverty.

Another key message was to strengthen Australian-African partnerships through better delivery of research products, capacity building under any of ACIAR’s four thematic areas, bridging research and extension, strengthening policy and socioeconomic research, and building individual and institutional capacity.

SIMLESA25 Speaking at the SIMLESA’s second “birthday party,” Joana Hewitt, chairperson of the ACIAR Commission for International Agricultural Research, reiterated the Australian government’s commitment to long-term partnerships with African governments. Participants also heard of the new SIMLESA Program in Zimbabwe, focusing on crop-livestock interactions. During the dinner, Kenya and Mozambique were recognized for their efforts in promoting and strengthening local innovation platforms.

In addition to SIMLESA’s program steering committee and the mid-term review team, the event drew representatives from USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer Program, from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the African Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa. SIMLESA is centered in five countries— Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique—with spillovers benefiting Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia. Representatives from all those countries interacted at the meeting.

A SIMLESA “village” and poster presentations allowed partner representatives and researchers to showcase achievements, and visits to Karatu and Mbulu—Tanzanian sites where SIMLESA is present— demonstrated how the project is transforming agriculture.

The voice of farmers in Malawi and Mozambique: Mother-baby trials

Written by on March 21, 2012. Posted in News.

In February 2012 several CIMMYT staff working in Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA), including project leader Mulugetta Mekuria, Peter Setimela, and Isaiah Nyagumbo, as well as the national coordinators, made field visits and met with farmers who are collaborating in participatory trials in their own fields. SIMLESA is a four year program that was launched in March 2010 and is being funded by the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR). The project has adopted mother-baby trials (MBT), where farmers choose varieties that interest them from a central “mother” trial and test them out on their own farms in “baby” trials, as a way of evaluating new drought tolerant maize and legume varieties under farmer-managed conditions.

In the Manica Province of Mozambique, SIMLESA has been able to gear up its MBT activities through collaboration with farmers’ association IDEEA-CA, reaching out to more farmers through the association’s networks in and around the province. Improved varieties, appropriate use of commercial fertilizers, and the adoption of conservation agriculture (CA) practices have the potential to significantly improve the livelihoods of poor resource farmers in the region. The “yellow trial”, for example—with replications with and without fertilizer—demonstrates the advantages of using fertilizers.

The trials have provided a voice for farmers as they try out new drought tolerant maize and legume varieties in their fields and have the opportunity to influence seed companies to multiply the varieties they prefer. “It took me two seasons to appreciate the yields of the new hybrid,” said Marcello Chikukwa of Sussundenga District. “I was suspicious of the small plant size as compared to our local variety. But I realised that the local variety takes long to mature and had too much herbage, and the stem was very tall but the yields were very low.”

The testimony of farmers like Chikukwa is building momentum as farmers gain exposure to new drought tolerant maize and legumes in combination with CA practices and fertilizer use. The project also facilitates the creation of seed road maps, collaborating with diverse partners to produce certified seed and run promotion activities. Seed companies like Dengo Commercial in Mozambique are participating in seed production and promotion of new drought tolerant varieties, which are expected to produce good yields despite erratic rainfall in the region. Nine maize varieties and ten soya bean varieties are being promoted in three districts of Mozambique and six districts in Malawi.