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Gustavo Teixeira is an Automation and Mechanization Lead with CIMMYT’s Excellence in Breeding Platform.
As a Breeding Operations and Phenotyping module leader, he provides evaluation of breeding program operations according to continuous improvement and operational excellence methodologies and lead initiatives to improve CGIAR and National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) breeding operations capacities.
Teixeira is an expert in agriculture engineering, processes, mechanization and automatization. He has over 15 years of experience in the private sector, including as Automation Manager for R&D in Latin America at Syngenta.
Rice-wheat cropping rotations are the major agri-food system of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, occupying the region known as the âfood basketâ of India. The continuous rice-wheat farming system is deceptively productive, however, under conventional management practices.
Over-exploitation of resources leaves little doubt that this system is unsustainable, evidenced by the rapid decline in soil and water resources, and environmental quality. Furthermore, continuous cultivation of the same two crops over the last five decades has allowed certain weed species to adapt and proliferate. This adversely affects resource-use efficiency and crop productivity, and has proven to negatively influence wheat production in the Western Indo-Gangetic Plains under conventional wheat management systems.
Studies suggest weed infestations could reduce wheat yields by 50-100% across the South Asian Indo-Gangetic Plains. Globally, yield losses from weeds reach 40%, which is more than the effects of diseases, insects, and pests combined.
Herbicides are not just expensive and environmentally hazardous, but this method of chemical control is becoming less reliable as some weeds become resistant to an increasing number common herbicides. Considering the food security implications of weed overgrowth, weed management is becoming increasingly important in future cropping systems.
How can weeds be managed sustainably?
Climate-smart agriculture-based management practices are becoming a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional rice-wheat cropping systems across South Asia, leading to better resource conservation and yield stability. In addition to zero-tillage and crop residue retention, crop diversification, precise water and nutrient management, and timing of interventions are all important indicators of climate-smart agriculture.
In a recently published 8-year study, scientists observed weed density and diversity under six different management scenarios with varying conditions. Conditions ranged from conventional, tillage-based rice-wheat system with flood irrigation (scenario one), to zero-tillage-based maize-wheat-mung bean systems with subsurface drip irrigation (scenario 6). Each scenario increased in their climate-smart agriculture characteristics all the way to fully climate-smart systems.
At the end of 8 years, scenario six had the lowest weed density, saw the most abundant species decrease dramatically, and seven weed species vanish entirely. Scenario one, with conventional rice-wheat systems with tillage and flooding, experienced the highest weed density and infestation. This study highlights the potential of climate-smart agriculture as a promising solution for weed suppression in northwestern India.
On September 23, 2021, the United Nations is convening a Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. The Summit will launch bold new actions to deliver progress on all 17 SDGs, each of which relies in part on healthier, more sustainable and equitable food systems.
According to the UN, the term âfood systemâ encompasses every person and every process involved in growing, raising or making food, and getting it into your stomach. The health of our food systems profoundly affects the health of our bodies, as well as the health of our environment, our economies and our cultures. When they function well, food systems have the power to bring us together as families, communities and nations.
As the worldâs largest public agricultural research network, CGIAR has made invaluable contributions to global efforts to reach these 17 goals. Â CIMMYT plays an important role in these efforts.
Throughout September, in recognition of the historic UN Summit, we are highlighting the impact of CIMMYT research to attain the SDGs, in collaboration with the broader CGIAR and development community.
A new partnership announced today between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), PepsiCo and Grupo Trimex will greatly contribute to scale out sustainable farming practices in the central Mexican states of Guanajuato and MichoacĂĄn, which together form the countryâs second wheat producing region.
The project Agriba Sustentable â a shortened reference for BajĂo Sustainable Agriculture â will promote the adoption of conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification practices among local farmers who will have access to PepsiCoâs wheat grain supply chain via Grupo Trimex.
âA part of the wheat that we use in Mexico for our products comes from the BajĂo region,â said Luis Treviño, Director of Sustainability at PepsiCo Latin America. âHowever, agricultural production in the region has needs and areas of opportunity that we were able to identify thanks to the experience and deep knowledge that CIMMYT has developed over the years.â
Agriba Sustentable is the latest example of the new business models that CIMMYT is exploring as part of its integrated development approach to agri-food systems transformation, which seeks to engage multiple public, private and civil sector collaborators in cereals value chain development and enhancement efforts.
âThe projectâs specific goal is to improve the sustainability of the wheat production system in the BajĂo region by enabling the adoption of technological innovations and sustainable production practices among at least 200 farmers in the Grupo Trimex supply chain during the first year of implementation, and to gradually scale out to reach many more farmers,â said Bram Govaerts, Director General of CIMMYT.
CIMMYTâs long-term field trials in Mexico have shown that conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification practices raise wheat yields by up to 15% and cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40%.
âThe farming practices that CIMMYT promotes reduce environmental impact,â said Mario Ruiz, Sourcing Manager of Grupo Trimex. âConservation agriculture can cut CO2 emissions by up to 60% from reduced diesel consumption, lower fuel use by up to 70% and water consumption by 30%.â
According to PepsiCo Mexico, Agriba Sustentable is an important step for its global vision PepsiCo Positive (pep+), which seeks to offset its agricultural footprint by promoting sustainable farming on 2.8 million hectares globally. The plan also aims to improve the livelihoods of 250,000 people who are part of their global agricultural supply chain and to source sustainably 100% of the companyâs key ingredients by 2030.
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The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.
A CIMMYT researcher and a field worker lay out wheat seed for planting at the center’s headquarters in Texcoco, Mexico. In experimental trials, hundreds or thousands of wheat lines are planted for evaluation, each in small quantities, and so they are carefully laid out and sown by hand. (Photo: CIMMYT)
To help feed a growing world population, wheat scientists have turned to innovative technologies like genomic selection to hasten selection for positive traits â such as high grain yield performance and good grain quality â in varieties that are still undergoing testing. Instead of being shackled by the long duration of traditional breeding cycles, genomic selection allows scientists to make predictions regarding which traits will present when crossing two varieties; allowing breeders greater guidance and lessening potential time lost when crossing varieties that do not display potential for genetic gain. To reap the benefits of genomic selection, it is vital that the predictive models employed are as accurate as possible.
Currently, wheat breeders select characteristics like grain yield performance early in the breeding process, while selecting traits like good grain quality at a later stage in the breeding process.
Considering two or more traits, like grain yield and good grain quality, is an example of a multi-trait model. The team examined this multi-trait model against a single trait model that improves one specific trait. Overall, the researchers found that prediction performance was highest using the multi-trait model.
However, the team also demonstrated that when breeding programs arrive at their genetic predictions, applying a specific correction method will account for differences between the predicted breeding value and the actual observed breeding value. Current correction models tend to underestimate that difference, which results in breeding programs not running as efficiently as possible.
By partnering selections from different stages in the breeding process and examining the resulting genetic predictions through a more appropriate correction model, the team has shown that breeding programs can use this to their benefit in developing and ultimately releasing improved wheat varieties that meet growing yield needs worldwide and respond to abiotic and biotic stressors.
Gyanendra Pratap Singh (center), Director of ICAR-IIWBR, presents at the 60th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workersâ Meet. (Photo: Courtesy of ICAR-IIWBR)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centerâs (CIMMYT) legacy of work with the Indian Centre for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has once again produced more successful collaborations this year. This solid partnership resulted in the release of new varieties poised to bring new, superior yielding, disease-resistant, high-quality wheat varieties suitable for different production environments to Indian farms.
The National Variety Release Committee announced the release of nine new varieties at the 60th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workersâ Virtual Meet on August 23â24, 2021, hosted by the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR) of ICAR. Of the nine new varieties identified, five were selected by national partners from CIMMYT international trials and nurseries.
At the event, ICAR-IIWBR director Gyanendra Pratap (GP) Singh highlighted the impressive growth trajectory of Indiaâs wheat production, estimated at 109.52 million tons of wheat harvested in 2021, a figure which was 86.53 million tons in 2015 and less than 60 million tons in 1991. Singh highlighted that this success is dependent upon the deployment of superior wheat varieties, bridging yield and information gaps, strengthened seed value chain, supportive government policies and, of course, farmer support to adopt new varieties and technologies.
The CIMMYT-derived varieties announced at the meeting include DBW296, DBW327, DBW332, HUW296 and JKW261. A few days earlier, variety PBW869 was released by the Punjab Agricultural University for growing in Punjab State under conservation agriculture practices.
âAn innovative and powerful feature of ICAR-CIMMYT collaboration has been the introduction of long-term (10-month) rotational involvement of Indian young scientists in CIMMYTs breeding program at Mexico as well as in wheat blast screening in Bolivia,â said Arun Joshi, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Asia and Managing Director, Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA). âIn this way, the breeding program of CIMMYT is an excellent example of joint breeding program with national institutions.â
At the 60th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workersâ Meet, participants highlighted new varieties, production growth and strengthened collaboration. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Beyond expectations
In addition to these important new wheat varieties, some CIMMYT-derived wheat varieties that were released in recent years have now been deemed suitable for regions beyond their initial region of cultivation, showing wide adaptation and yield stability.
Wheat variety DBW222, released in 2020 for the northwestern plain zone, has now been deemed suitable for cultivation in the northeastern plain zone. Similarly, DBW187, which was initially released for the northeastern plain zone, and then for northwestern plain zone as well for early sowing, is now also extended for sowing in the central zone, together representing 25 million hectares of the 31 million hectares of wheat grown in India.
âFarmers prefer these types of varieties that give them flexibility during sowing time, and have high, stable yields, and disease resistance,â GP Singh said at the meeting.
A major achievement discussed at this yearâs event was that three of the new varieties â DBW187, DBW303 and DBW222 â achieved record-high demand in Breeders Seed Indent, with first, second and seventh ranks, respectively. This is a reflection and indirect measure of popularity and demand for a variety. IIWBRâs innovative strategy to implement pre-release seed multiplication and create demand for seeds from new varieties has led to a faster turnover of improved varieties.
According to Ravi Singh, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Global Wheat Improvement at CIMMYT, the collaborators are âfurther expanding our partnership through the support from the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) and zinc-mainstreaming projects, to expand testing of larger sets of elite lines in targeted populations of environments of the four South Asian countries where various IIBWR-affiliated institutions shall expand testing in the 2021â22 crop season.â CIMMYT looks forward to continuing ongoing and new collaborations with the ICAR-IIWBR programs to deliver even faster genetic gain for yield and grain zinc levels in new varieties, he explained.
Speaking during the meeting Alison Bentley, Director of CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program, highlighted the collaborative efforts underway as part of the AGG project to accelerate breeding progress. âInnovations and discoveries in breeding approaches are being rapidly made â with further investment needed â to quickly and equitably accumulate and deploy them to farmers,â she said.
An international collaboration has discovered a biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) trait that, when transferred to growing wheat varieties, can reduce the use of fertilizers for wheat crops and increase yields.
Have you ever considered that bread and pasta are made from different types of wheat? How about the fact that there are thousands of different wheat products consumed around the world, and each one has unique characteristics and processing requirements?
Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) understand that the quality of the final product, be it spaghetti, a loaf of sourdough bread or a tandoori naan, is highly dependent on the quality of the grain and the flour it becomes. Every year, CIMMYT analyzes thousands of wheat lines in detail at its Wheat Quality laboratory to determine the nutritional, processing and end-use quality of the grain. In this short video, CIMMYTâs Wheat Quality lab head Maria Itria Ibba explains exactly what they are looking for and how they find it.
First, CIMMYT scientists test the overall grain quality by analyzing grain weight, density, protein content, moisture content and hardness.
The grains are then milled into flour, which is again analyzed for moisture content, protein content, color and protein quality. Protein quality is especially important to determine the end-use for the type of flour, and CIMMYT conducts several tests to determine this characteristic. Bread and durum wheat flours specifically are analyzed for overall protein quality by checking SDS-sedimentation volume. Mixographs are used to assess the flourâs mixing and absorption characteristics, and alveographs are used to measure dough deformation properties.
At the end of the tests, bread wheat flours are transformed into leavened breads and scored based on the loafâs volume and crumb quality. Durum wheat flour, used to make Italian-style pasta, is scored based on grain quality, flour yellowness, high protein content and protein quality.
CIMMYTâs work ensures that wheat-derived foods produced in developing countries are nutritious, affordable, and maximize profits for each actor in the value chain.
Cover photo: At CIMMYT’s Wheat Quality lab, researchers evaluate how different bread wheat varieties behave at the time of baking. (Photo: CIMMYT)
An international collaboration has discovered and transferred to elite wheat varieties a wild-grass chromosome segment that causes roots to secrete natural inhibitors of nitrification, offering a way to dial back on heavy fertilizer use for wheat and to reduce the cropâs nitrogen leakage into waterways and air, while maintaining or raising its productivity and grain quality, says a new report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Growing wheat varieties endowed with the biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) trait could increase yields in both well-fertilized and nitrogen-poor soils, according to G.V. Subbarao, researcher at the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) and first author of the new report.
âUse of wheat varieties that feature BNI opens the possibility for a more balanced and productive mix of nitrogen nutrients for wheat fields, which are currently dominated by highly-reactive nitrogen compounds that derive in large part from synthetic fertilizers and can harm the environment,â Subbarao said.
The most widely grown food crop on the planet, wheat is consumed by over 2.5 billion people in 89 countries. Nearly a fifth of the worldâs nitrogen-based fertilizer is deployed each year to grow wheat but, similar to other major cereals, vegetables, and fruits, the crop takes up less than half of the nitrogen applied.
Much of the remainder is either washed away, contaminating ground waters with nitrate and contributing to algae blooms in lakes and seas, or released into the air, often as nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
The study team first homed in on the chromosome region associated with the strong BNI capacity in the perennial grass species Leymus racemosus and moved it from the grass, using âwide crossingâ techniques, into the cultivar Chinese Spring, a wheat landrace often used in genetic studies. From there, they transferred the BNI chromosome sequence into several elite, high-yielding wheat varieties, leading to a near doubling of their BNI capacity, as measured through lab analyses of soil near their roots.
The new wheats â elite varieties from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) into which the BNI trait was cross-bred â greatly reduced the action of soil microbes that usually convert fertilizer and organic nitrogen substances into ecologically-harmful compounds such as nitrous oxide gas, according to Hannes Karwat, a CIMMYT post-doctoral fellow and study co-author.
âThe altered soil nitrogen cycle was even reflected in the plantsâ metabolism,â Karwat said, âresulting in several responses indicative of a more balanced nitrogen uptake in the plants.â
The scientists involved said BNI-converted wheats in this study also showed greater overall biomass and grain yield, with no negative effects on grain protein levels or breadmaking quality.
âThis points the way for farmers to feed future wheat consumers using lower fertilizer dosages and lowering nitrous oxide emissions,â said Masahiro Kishii, a CIMMYT wheat cytogeneticist who contributed to the research. âIf we can find new BNI sources, we can develop a second generation of elite wheat varieties that require even less fertilizer and that better deter nitrous oxide emissions.â
A recent PNAS paper by Subbarao and Princeton University scientist Timothy D. Searchinger mentions BNI as a technology that can help foster soils featuring a more even mix of nitrogen sources, including more of the less-chemically-reactive compound ammonium, a condition that can raise crop yields and reduce nitrous oxide emissions.
CIMMYT researcher Masahiro Kishii examines wheat plants in a greenhouse. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Scale out to slow global warming?
The present study comes just as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its Sixth Assessment Report, which among other things states that â⊠limiting human-induced global warming ⊠requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions ⊠along with strong reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions.â
Globally, 30% of greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. BNI-enabled wheat cultivars can play an important role to reduce that footprint. Wheat-growing nations that have committed to the Paris Climate Accord, whose provisions include reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2050, could be early adopters of the BNI technology, together with China and India, the worldâs top two wheat producers, according to Subbarao.
âThis work has demonstrated the feasibility of introducing BNI-controlling chromosome segments into modern wheats, without disrupting their yields or quality,â said Subbarao. âTo realize the technologyâs full potential, we need to transfer the BNI feature into many elite varieties adapted to diverse wheat growing areas and to assess their yield in many farm settings and with varying levels of soil pH, fertilization and water use.â
A project to establish nitrogen-efficient wheat production systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains using BNI has recently been approved by Japan and is under way, with the collaboration of JIRCAS, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and the Borlaug Institute of South Asia (BISA). Under the project, BNI-converted wheat lines developed from JIRCAS-CIMMYT partnerships will be tested in India and the BNI trait transferred to popular national wheat varieties.
âAdaptation and mitigation solutions such as BNI, which help lessen the footprint of food production systems, will play a large role in CGIAR research-for-development, as part of One CGIAR Initiatives starting in 2022,â said Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT Director General.
Ridderâs smart technology is used by CIMMYT scientists to develop wheat and maize varieties that boost production, prevent crop disease and improve smallholder farmersâ livelihood.
As extreme weather conditions increasingly threaten the global wheat supply, CIMMYTÂ head of wheat physiology Matthew Reynolds discusses the importance of developing drought-resistant crops through breeding programs to keep bread on the table.
Wheat leaves showing symptoms of heat stress. (Photo: CIMMYT) For more information, see CIMMYT’s Wheat Doctor: http://wheatdoctor.cimmyt.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=84&Itemid=43&lang=en. Photo credit: CIMMYT.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed vast inequalities when it comes to food security. But there is an even larger and more concerning crisis waiting for us: global food shortages caused by climate change.
Nobody knows when or how hard it will hit, but we inch closer each year with new temperature records, the spread of pests, and emerging crop diseases. We are already seeing the beginning of this future crisis. Climate-induced food price hikes have caused political turmoil in the Middle East, while climate-related disasters have been linked with mass human migration in South Asia.
Every seed company and crop research center worldwide is preoccupied with the race to breed hardier crops to keep pace with the demands of a growing population as circumstances become increasingly challenging. But the truth is, this is a relay race, and yet the crop research field is running 100-meter sprints in different places at different times.
For every scientific advance, other areas of crop research go under-resourced and are technology poor, with asymmetries in research investment creating islands of knowledge that are disparate and disconnected. Â These research asymmetries hold back crop improvement as a whole, contributing to climate-induced crop failure and the political turmoil that ensues when staple foods become scarce.
While it is common for academic crop scientists to share ideas and collaborate with industry, it is far less typical for major seed companies to cooperate with each other.
If the public and private sectors are to have any chance of outrunning climate change, industry must shift toward investing in mutually beneficial research and development to pool resources and build on every gain, in the interests of the whole.
In an unprecedented first step that reveals just how much pressure the sector feels about the daunting task ahead, some of the crop industryâs main players and competitors â including Syngenta, BASF, Corteva and KWS â recently shared their insights into the gaps in existing crop science.
The shortcomings identified that hold back the crop industry from addressing the looming food crisis have three features in common. They are all under-represented in scientific literature, are likely to boost productivity across a wide range of crops and environments, and crucially, the research is fundamental enough to be âpre-competitive,â or valuable without jeopardizing individual business outcomes.
For example, although scientists have made progress towards improving the potential of crucial processes in crop development, like photosynthesis, other gaps in knowledge must be filled to ensure that this translates into improved yield, especially under unstable environments.
Such research is critical to ensuring reliable harvests across a range of crops, and can be conducted without infringing the intellectual property or proprietary technology of any single company.
However, accessing research funding can be surprisingly difficult. Public research budgets are shrinking, their funds are at risk of being re-appropriated, and collaboration is not the industry standard.
New funding models, such as public-private partnerships, can collectively address knowledge gaps to avoid potential catastrophes for society at large.
This approach has already proven fruitful. The public-private consortium âCrops of the Future Collaborativeâ brings competitors together to jointly fund research into the characteristics crops need to adapt to a changing future.
Industry matched the Collaborativeâs initial $10 million investment by the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research to work on corn that survives in drought conditions and leafy greens that are resistant to pests.
Conducting this research jointly drastically improves crop efficiency and the technological toolbox available to breeders and other crop scientists, passing the baton in the race towards a food secure future.
Increasing the global food supply through research and development is the most achievable and sure approach to avoid a global food crisis, and comes with historically high returns on investment. Furthermore, scientists can tap into a global infrastructure of researchers across public and private sectors, international organizations, and the millions of farmers worldwide who have willingly collaborated over the last half century to provide enough food for all.
Failure to collaborate will ultimately result in unsustainable food systems, which not only renders seed companies obsolete but threatens a prerequisite of civilization: food security.
The private sector has the knowledge and resources to redefine the race. Rather than competing against one another, the crop industry must join forces to compete instead with climate change. And it is a contest we can only win if all players work together.
Matthew Reynolds is a distinguished scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. Jeffrey L. Rosichan is a director with Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research. Leon Broers is a board member with KWS SAAT SE & Co. KGaA.
A blast-blighted stalk of wheat. (Photo: Chris Knight/Cornell)
Every year, the spores of the wheat blast fungus lie in wait on farms in South America, Bangladesh, and beyond. In most years, the pathogen has only a small impact on the countriesâ wheat crops. But the disease spreads quickly, and when the conditions are right thereâs a risk of a large outbreak â which can pose a serious threat to the food security and livelihood of farmers in a specific year.
To minimize this risk, an international partnership of researchers and organizations have created the wheat blast Early Warning System (EWS), a digital platform that notifies farmers and officials when weather conditions are ideal for the fungus to spread. The team, which began its work in Bangladesh, is now introducing the technology to Brazil â the country where wheat blast was originally discovered in 1985.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA), Â Brazilâs University of Passo Fundo (UPF) and others developed the tool with support from USAID under the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project.
Although first developed with the help of Brazilian scientists for Bangladesh, the EWS has now come full circle and is endorsed and being used by agriculture workers in Brazil. The team hopes that the system will give farmers time to take preventative measures against the disease.
Outbreaks can massively reduce crop yields, if no preventative actions are taken.
âIt can be very severe. It can cause a lot of damage,â says MaurĂcio Fernandes, a plant epidemiologist with EMBRAPA.
Striking first
In order to expand into a full outbreak, wheat blast requires specific temperature and humidity conditions. So, Fernandes and his team developed a digital platform that runs weather data through an algorithm to determine the times and places in which outbreaks are likely to occur.
If the system sees a region is going to grow hot and humid enough for the fungus to thrive, it sends an automated message to the agriculture workers in the area. These messages â texts or emails â alert them to take preemptive measures against the disease.
More than 6,000 extension agents in Bangladesh have already signed up for disease early warnings.
In Brazil, Fernandes and his peers are connecting with farmer cooperatives. These groups, which count a majority of Brazilian farmers as members, can send weather data to help inform the EWS, and can spread alerts through their websites or in-house applications.
Wheat blast can attack a plant quickly, shriveling and deforming the grain in less than a week from the first symptoms. Advance warnings are essential to mitigate losses. The alerts sent out will recommend that farmers apply fungicide, which only works when applied before infection.
âIf the pathogen has already affected the plant, the fungicides will have no effect,â Fernandes says.
A blast from the past
Because wheat had not previously been exposed to Magnaporthe oryzae, most wheat cultivars at the time had no natural resistance to Magnaporthe oryzae, according to Fernandes.  Some newer varieties are moderately resistant to the disease, but the availability of sufficient seed for farmers remains limited.
The pathogen can spread through leftover infected seeds and crop residue. But its spores can also travel vast distances through the air.
If the fungus spreads and infects enough plants, it can wreak havoc over large areas. In the 1990s â shortly after its discovery â wheat blast impacted around three million hectares of wheat in South America. Back in 2016, the disease appeared in Bangladesh and South Asia for the first time, and the resulting outbreak covered around 15,000 hectares of land. CGIAR estimates that the disease has the potential to reduce the regionâs wheat production by 85 million tons.
In Brazil, wheat blast outbreaks can have a marked impact on the countryâs agricultural output. During a major outbreak in 2009, the disease affected as many as three million hectares of crops in South America. As such, the EWS is an invaluable tool to support food security and farmer livelihoods. Fernandes notes that affected regions can go multiple years between large outbreaks, but the threat remains.
âPeople forget about the disease, then you have an outbreak again,â he says.
Essential partnerships
The EWS has its roots in Brazil. In 2017 Fernandes and his peers published a piece of research proposing the model. After that, Tim Krupnik, a senior scientist and country representative with CIMMYT in Bangladesh, along with a group of researchers and organizations, launched a pilot project in Bangladesh.
There, agriculture extension officers received an automated email or text message when weather conditions were ideal for wheat blast to thrive and spread. The team used this proof of concept to bring it back to Brazil.
According to Krupnik, the Brazil platform is something of a âhomecomingâ for this work. He also notes that cooperation between the researchers, organizations and agriculture workers in Brazil and Bangladesh was instrumental in creating the system.
âFrom this, we’re able to have a partnership that I think will have a significant outcome in Brazil, from a relatively small investment in research supplied in Bangladesh. That shows you the power of partnerships and how solutions can be found to pressing agricultural problems through collaborative science, across continents,â he says.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are increasingly being applied across a diverse range of disciplines. Many aspects of our lives and work are now benefiting from these technologies. Disease recognition, for both human and plant health, is no exception. Ever more powerful AI/ML techniques are now opening up exciting opportunities to improve surveillance, monitoring and early warning for disease threats.
âThe value of tools like PlantVillage Nuru is that we can greatly increase the coverage and speed of surveillance,â says CIMMYT scientist and disease surveillance expert Dave Hodson. âTrained pathologists can only visit a limited number of fields at fixed times in the season. With tools like Nuru, extension agents and farmers can all contribute to field surveys. This can result in much faster detection of disease outbreaks, better early warning and improved chances of controlâ.
New advances in AI/ML technology are now promising even greater improvements in these already powerful tools. CIMMYT scientists have had a long-standing partnership with the PlantVillage group, working to try and develop improved diagnostics for important wheat diseases such as rusts and blast. Considerable progress in developing automated diagnostics for wheat diseases has already been made, but the introduction of advanced image segmentation and tiling techniques promises to be a major leap forward.
âAdvances in computer science are constantly happening and this can benefit the mission of CGIAR and PlantVillage,â explains David Hughes, Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security at Penn State and founder of PlantVillage.
âImage segmentation and tiling techniques are a great example. They used to require intensive computing requirements. Now due to advances in computer science these powerful techniques are becoming more accessible and can be applied to plant disease problems like wheat rusts.â
By using these image segmentation and tiling techniques the developers at PlantVillage are now seeing a major improvement in the ability to automatically and accurately detect wheat rusts from in situ photos. âWe could not identify rusts with the older approaches but this segmentation and tiling tool is a game changer. The computer goes pixel by pixel across the images which is well suited to diseases like rusts that can be spread across the leaf or stem of the plant. The computer now has a much more powerful search algorithm.â
The team led by Pete McCloskey, lead A.I. engineer at Plant Village, actually used a multi-step process. First they removed the background to help the machine focus in on the leaf. They then digitally chopped the leaf into segments giving the AI a further helping hand so it can focus in and find the rust. Then the whole leaf is stitched together and the rust is highlighted to help humans working in the PlantVillage cloud system.
Fig: Examples of manual, hand labelled images (top rows) compared to AI generated images using segmentation and tiling (bottom rows) for stem rust (upper image panel) and stripe rust (lower image panel).
This exciting new development in rapid, accurate field detection of wheat rusts now needs validation and improvement. As with all AI/ML applications, numbers of images included in the models really improve the quality of the final predictions. âThe success of any machine learning model is rooted in the quality and quantity of the data it is trained on,â notes McCloskey. âTherefore, it is critical to source vast and diverse amounts of high-quality images from around the world in order to develop a global wheat rust recognition system.” In this aspect we hope that the CIMMYT global wheat community can help drive the development of these exciting new tools forward.
CIMMYT and PlantVillage are hoping to expand the current wheat rust image dataset and as a result produce an even more valuable, public good, disease detection tool. Given the extensive field work undertaken in wheat fields around the world by CIMMYT staff and partners, we hope that you can help us. Any photos of wheat rusts (stem, stripe and leaf rust) in the field would be valuable.
We would like to have images with one infected leaf or stem per image, it should be vertical in the image so you can see the whole leaf or stem segment. The leaf or stem needs to be in focus and should be roughly centered in the image. It helps to hold the tip of the leaf away from the stem, so it is outstretched and flat. Ideally for training data, the leaf should have only one type of rust and no other disease symptoms. It is okay to have other leaves/stems/soil/sky in the background. It is also okay to have hands and other body parts in the image.
Below are some example images. Any images can be uploaded here.
Sample images show a variety of wheat rusts (stem, stripe and leaf rust) in the field. (Photos: CIMMYT)
For more information contact Dave Hodson, CIMMYT (d.hodson@cgiar.org) or Pete McCloskey, PlantVillage (petermccloskey1@gmail.com).Â
Tan spot disease, caused by the fungus Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, may be less well-known than other pathogens of wheat such as rust and blast, but its potential to become a major threat to wheat-growing regions worldwide is a serious concern.
In Kazakhstan, one of the main wheat growing nations in Central Asia, farmers have struggled with tan spot epidemics since the 1980s. During epidemic years, Kazakh farmers have reported losing nearly half of their harvest to the disease.
A recent study published in Frontiers in Genetics has unlocked a promising new weapon against tan spot disease. Scientists at the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology (IPBB) in Kazakhstan and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) which found new sources of genetic resistance to tan spot disease.
âBread wheat is the most important crop in Central Asia directly linked to food security. 45-60% of daily calories come from wheat,â said Alma Kokhmetova, Professor and Head of the Genetics and Breeding Laboratory at IPBB, who partnered with CIMMYT on this project.
Evaluation of tan spot disease resistance in a greenhouse. (Photo: IPBB)
Creative approaches to challenging, global issues
Global agriculture is repeatedly tested and threatened by emerging pests and diseases.
Fungicides and pesticides are not a one-stop, sustainable solution to controlling outbreaks. In addition to being unaffordable to much of the worldâs smallholder population, they have also been found to have some negative environmental and health side effects. But crop breeders will argue that there is a more efficient path to resilience: through genetics.
For example, some wheat varieties are naturally resistant to diseases such as tan spot â it is in their DNA. If breeders can figure out what genes hold the code to tan spot disease resistance, in this case, they can cross and breed future varieties to be naturally immune to the disease. It is a much cleaner, cheaper and greener solution than dousing the worldâs crops in fungus- and bug-killing chemicals.
A figure from the genome-wide association study shows novel genomic associations â especially here on chromosome 6A â that display resistance to both races of the tan spot fungus. (Figure: CIMMYT and IPBB)
Finding the needle in the haystack
Working together, CIMMYT and IPBB were able to find some important and novel genetic associations with resistance to tan spot for the two main races of the disease, race 1 and race 5, which are the most prevalent in Kazakhstan. The research centers assembled a panel with 191 samples of wheat having different levels of resistance from Kazakhstan, Russia and CIMMYT, through the International Winter Wheat Yield Partnership (IWWYP).
In order to conduct the genome-wide association study, the scientists used a genotyping platform called DArTseq to sequence the entries in the panel, a device that CIMMYT houses in its global headquarters in Mexico. The DArTseq method sequences the genome representations on the Next Generation Sequencing platforms and generates high-density single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) data in a cost-effective manner.
Using the SNPs generated by DArTSeq and the phenotypic scoring of resistance to tan spot at the seedling and adult plant stages in Kazakhstan, the scientists were able to mark genomic regions associated with resistance to the disease. Novel regions on chromosomes 3BS, 5DL and 6AL were all found to have some promising traits of resistance, especially 6AL, which appears to be superior in protecting plants from both of the races of the pathogen.
Tan spot, caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis on susceptible wheat cultivar Steklovidnaya 24. (Photo: IPBB)
Tan spot-resistant wheat cultivar Tyngysh. (Photo: IPBB)
The next steps
This discovery of a new source of genetic resistance to tan spot is exciting to breeders, researchers, donors, national agricultural systems, seed companies and, ultimately, farmers both in and outside of Kazakhstan. Essentially, any country that struggles with race 1 and race 5 of tan spot disease will benefit from this discovery.
âFor breeding purposes, 25 lines with the best allele combinations of novel and known genes identified in this study are currently being used in different crossing programs in Kazakhstan,â said Deepmala Sehgal, CIMMYT wheat geneticist. The next stage of this project will also be a collaborative effort with CIMMYT, where the results will be validated in other in genetic backgrounds.
âOnce the results are validated, their sequence information will be updated in a genotyping platform called Intertek, which has been designed to assist breeders in genotyping their germplasm with gene-based markers,â added Sehgal
More impact together
âThanks to the exchange of wheat materials between CIMMYT, Turkey and ICARDA (IWWIP), we have selected and produced disease-resistant advanced wheat lines. These wheat entries now are being evaluated in the different stages of the breeding process,â said Kokhmetova.
The early success of this study and partnership between CIMMYT and IPBB has led to another round of funding approved by the Kazakhstan government to bring this research to the next stage. Additionally, more projects that seek to find sources of genetic resistance to leaf rust and yellow rusts have recently been approved.
âDue to this previous successful collaboration done between IPBB and CIMMYT, two more projects have been funded to our national agricultural research system partner Professor Alma,â said Sehgal.
Although the story of tan spot-resistant wheat is still unfolding, major strides will continue to follow in the footsteps of this exceptional discovery.
Cover photo: Scientists from IPBB evaluate wheat infected with tan spot and wheat rusts in Kazakhstan. (Photo: IPBB)
