Climate change will lower global wheat production with the most negative impacts occurring in Africa and South Asia, reveals a new study released by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Read the full story here.
Honoring a legacy of innovative development in Zambia and looking forward to meeting the nation’s goals for food security, Bram Govaerts, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), along with CGIAR Board Chair Lindiwe Sibanda, visited facilities and met with southern Africa collaborators of the Southern Africa AID-I Rapid Delivery Hub on June 2 and 3, 2023.
“CIMMYT’s work in Zambia and the region is geared to help national governments build resilience to climate change, diversify maize-based farming systems and improve productivity and production to address reduce hunger and poverty,” said Govaerts.
Southern Africa AID-I Rapid Delivery Hub aims to provide critical support to over 3 million farming households in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia via targeted interventions for demand driven seed scaling, improved soil health and fertilizer use efficiency, and rapid delivery of critical agricultural advisory services deep into rural communities.
CIMMYT research and innovation supports Zambia’s medium-term goal of “Socio-Economic Transformation for Improved Livelihoods” and its 2030 Vision of becoming “A Prosperous Middle-Income Nation by 2030.”
Govaerts and Sibanda toured Afriseed’s factory in Lusaka and its wheat field trials in Ngwerere. They also attended a field demonstration of Purdue Improved Crop Storage bags in the nearby district of Chongwe organized by the Catholic Relief Services, a local partner promoting low-cost post-harvest technologies for small-scale farmers in Zambia.
The delegation visited private partner Zamseed, a company commercializing and releasing CIMMYT-bred, Fall Armyworm tolerant maize seeds.
Southern Africa AID-I Rapid Delivery Hub has enabled the release of nearly 10,000 metric tons of certified maize and legume seed, which have been harvested by Zambian seed companies and community-based seed organizations, directly benefiting a million semi-subsistence farmers.
Govaerts also hailed Zambia’s commitment to creating a transparent seed system. “Thanks to this conducive policy environment, Zambia is a major hub in sub-Saharan Africa for hybrid maize seed production and export in Africa.”
Besides Southern Africa AID-I Rapid Delivery Hub, CIMMYT and the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute have been collaborating for over two decades along with public and private partners in Zambia through different investments designed to create sustainable interventions that strengthen food systems and directly reach small-scale farmers.
The devastating disease wheat blast is a threat to crop production in many South Asian countries. In Bangladesh, it was first identified in seven southern and southwestern districts in 2016, and later spread to 27 others causing significant damage. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is working with the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) and other national partners to conduct research and extension activities to mitigate the ongoing threat.
From March 1-10, 2023, a group of 46 wheat researchers, government extension agents, and policy makers from ten countries — Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Sweden, and Zambia — gathered in Jashore, Bangladesh to learn about and exchange experiences regarding various wheat diseases, particularly wheat blast. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first in-person international wheat blast training held in Bangladesh. It focused on the practical application of key and tricky elements of disease surveillance and management strategies, such as resistance breeding and integrated disease management.
“This is an excellent training program,” said Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council (BARC), during the opening session. “Participants will learn how to reduce the severity of the blast disease, develop and expand blast resistant varieties to farmers, increase production, and reduce imports.”
This sentiment was echoed by Golam Faruq, director general of BWMRI. “This program helps in the identification of blast-resistant lines from across the globe,” he said. “From this training, participants will learn to manage the devastating blast disease in their own countries and include these learnings into their national programs.”
Hands-on training
The training was divided into three sections: lectures by national and international scientists; laboratory and field experiment visits; and trips to farmers’ fields. Through the lecture series, participants learned about a variety of topics including disease identification, molecular detection, host-pathogen interaction, epidemiology and integrated disease management.
Hands-on activities were linked to working on the Precision Phenotyping Platform (PPP), which involves the characterization of more than 4,000 wheat germplasm and releasing several resistant varieties in countries vulnerable to wheat blast. Participants practiced taking heading notes, identifying field disease symptoms, tagging, and scoring disease. They conducted disease surveillance in farmers’ fields in Meherpur and Faridpur districts — both of which are extremely prone to wheat blast — observing the disease, collecting samples and GPS coordinates, and completing surveillance forms.
Participants learned how to use cutting-edge technology to recognize blast lesions in leaves using field microscopes. They went to a pre-installed spore trapping system in a farmer’s field to learn about the equipment and steps for collecting spore samples, observing them under a compound microscope, and counting spores. They also visited the certified seed production fields of Shawdesh Seed, a local company which has played an important role in promoting wheat blast resistant varieties BARI Gom 33 and BWMRI Gom 3 regionally, and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU) in Gazipur to see current wheat blast research in action.
Blast-resistance in Bangladesh
“I am so happy to see the excellent infrastructure and work ethics of staff that has made possible good science and impactful research come out of the PPP,” said Aakash Chawade, associate professor in Plant Breeding at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. “Rapid development of blast-resistant varieties and their dissemination will help Bangladesh mitigate the effects of wheat blast, not only inside the country but by supporting neighboring ones as well.”
“Besides the biotic and abiotic challenges faced in wheat production, climate change and the Russia-Ukraine crisis are further creating limitations to wheat production and marketing,” said Pawan Kumar Singh, head of Wheat Pathology at CIMMYT and lead organizer of the training. “Due to the development of blast-resistant wheat varieties and its commercial production under integrated disease management practices, the domestic production of wheat in Bangladesh has increased and there is increased interest from farmers in wheat.”
Dave Hodson, a principal scientist at CIMMYT and one of the training’s resource speakers, added: “This is a remarkable success that researchers developed two blast resistant varieties in Bangladesh urgently. It was only achievable because of the correct measures taken by the researchers and support of Government policies.”
However, there are still some barriers to widespread adoption of these varieties. As such, in parallel to other activities, a team from Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) joined the field trip to meet local farmers and conduct research into the socio-economic factors influencing the adoption and scaling of relevant wheat varieties.
Leading crop simulation models used by a global team of agricultural scientists to simulate wheat production up to 2050 showed large wheat yield reductions due to climate change for Africa and South Asia, where food security is already a problem.
The model predicted average declines in wheat yields of 15% in African countries and 16% in South Asian countries by mid-century, as described in the 2021 paper “Climate impact and adaptation to heat and drought stress of regional and global wheat production,” published in the science journal Environmental Research Letters. Climate change will lower global wheat production by 1.9% by mid-century, with the most negative impacts occurring in Africa and South Asia, according to the research.
“Studies have already shown that wheat yields fell by 5.5% during 1980-2010, due to rising global temperatures,” said Diego N.L. Pequeno, wheat crop modeler at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the paper. “We chose several models to simulate climate change impacts and also simulated wheat varieties that featured increased heat tolerance, early vigor against late season drought, and late flowering to ensure normal biomass accumulation. Finally, we simulated use of additional nitrogen fertilizer to maximize the expression of these adaptive traits.”
The wheat simulation models employed — CROPSIM-CERES, CROPSIM, and Nwheat within the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer, DSSAT v.4.6 — have been widely used to study diverse cropping systems around the world, according to Pequeno.
“The DSSAT models simulated the elevated CO2 stimulus on wheat growth, when N is not limiting,” he said. “Our study is the first to include combined genetic traits for early vigor, heat tolerance, and late flowering in the wheat simulation.”
Several factors, including temperature, water deficit, and water access, have been identified as major causes in recent wheat yield variability worldwide. The DSSAT wheat models simulate the impact of temperature, including heat stress, water balance, drought stress, or nitrogen leaching from heavy rainfall.
“Generally, small and low-volume wheat producers suffered large negative impacts due to future climate changes, indicating that less developed countries may be the most affected,” Pequeno added.
Climate change at high latitudes (France, Germany, and northern China, all large wheat-producing countries/region) positively impacted wheat grain yield, as warming temperatures benefit wheat growth through an extended early spring growing season. But warmer temperatures and insufficient rainfall by mid-century, as projected at the same latitude in Russia and the northwestern United States, will reduce rainfed wheat yields — a finding that contradicts outcomes of some previous studies.
At lower latitudes that are close to the tropics, already warm, and experiencing insufficient rainfall for food crops and therefore depending on irrigation (North India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), rising heat will damage wheat crops and seriously reduce yields. China, the largest wheat producer in the world, is projected to have mixed impacts from climate change but, at a nation-wide scale, the study showed a 1.2% increase in wheat yields.
“Our results showed that the adaptive traits could help alleviate climate change impacts on wheat, but responses would vary widely, depending on the growing environment and management practices used,” according to Pequeno. This implies that wheat breeding for traits associated with climate resilience is a promising climate change adaptation option, but its effect will vary among regions. Its positive impact could be limited by agronomical aspects, particularly under rainfed and low soil N conditions, where water and nitrogen stress limit the benefits from improved cultivars.
Extreme weather events could also become more frequent. Those were possibly underestimated in this study, as projections of heat damage effects considered only changes in daily absolute temperatures but not possible changes in the frequency of occurrence. Another limitation is that most crop models lack functions for simulating excess water (e.g., flooding), an important cause of global wheat yield variability.
This study was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat agri-food systems (CRP WHEAT; 2012-2021), the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP115 Project), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, the Mexican government through the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project, and the International Treaty of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and its Benefit-sharing Fund for co-funding the project, with financial support from the European Union.
The G20 MACS is composed of the ministries or governmental bodies responsible for agricultural research in each G20 state and leading research institutions, including CIMMYT as part of CGIAR, which strategically advise these decision makers. The G20 MACS addresses diverse global challenges in agriculture affecting the people and planet through joint agricultural research and innovation strategies and implementation of initiatives under new cooperation formats.
“CIMMYT is working for a world with resilient agri-food systems and protecting biodiversity with a multi-crop, multi-institutional, and multi-disciplinary approach,” said Govaerts during the recent MACS meeting. “70% of wheat and over 50% of maize varieties sown worldwide are derived from CIMMYT materials, and we are improving livelihoods in over 50 countries.”
In its efforts to ensure biodiversity, CGIAR genebanks hold over 770,000 accessions, of which 80% are immediately accessible. As an added measure of security, duplicates of 78% of the seeds reside at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
Because wheat provides 20% of the global population’s daily protein intake, protecting it from disease, pests, and the effects of climate change is paramount. And to keep pace with the growing population, yields must increase in sustainable manners. To meet those challenges, CIMMYT coordinates the International Wheat Improvement Network, which involves hundreds of partners and testing sites worldwide. The Network has established a global phenotyping network, with platforms hosted locally so that environments are optimal for specific trait phenotyping.
Battling pests
In efforts to combat the threat of wheat blast, CIMMYT has established a regional collaboration which includes testing centers (over 15,000 lines tested), surveillance networks, and the release of blast resistant varieties in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In addition, CIMMYT has trained 100 extension agents from 10 countries in wheat blast identification and surveillance protocols.
Fall armyworm, is a voracious pest in both Africa and Asia, has caused up to $13 billion per year in crop losses in sub-Saharan Africa since 2016, threatening the livelihoods of millions of farmers throughout the region. CIMMYT has developed hybrid maize varieties resistant to this pest by identifying and validating sources of native genetic resistance.
International Year of the Millet: 2023
Within its presence in CGIAR, CIMMYT is working in networks with African NARS and private sector partners to share resources and knowledge and innovating sustainable crop and crop-livestock systems. This will directly support the Millets And Other Ancient Grains International Research Initiative (MAHARISHI), inaugurated at the G20 MACS conference. The initiative facilitates research collaboration on climate-resilient and nutritious grains, including millets and other underutilized grains. CIMMYT is also initiating and supporting crop improvement programs for sorghum, millet, groundnut, pigeon pea, and chickpea, in a model that empowers the national research centers.
This work dovetails with the recently announced Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), in which CIMMYT is catalyzing efforts to scale up existing and high potential innovations, technologies, and business models as opposed to starting new ones in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Creating sustainable solutions
CIMMYT is also pioneering the development of a hub network which supports adaptive research and integrated development for sustainable agrifood systems. With particular attention paid to inclusivity, these hubs are changing the perception of women’s roles in agriculture.
“CIMMYT is building towards future-proof solutions that foster empowerment through raising family income and food security, working with partners in the Global South for the benefit of the Global South,” said Govaerts.
Soil-borne pathogens (SBP) are a serious threat to Turkey’s food security, especially as climate extremes (temperature, precipitations) become more commonplace. SBP are an array of specific adverse effects, such as root rot, wilt, yellowing, and dwarfing caused by fungi, bacteria, viruses, and nematodes. These pathogens can cause 50-75% yield loss in crops.
On May 2, 2023, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) Country Representative in Turkey, Abdelfattah Dababat, joined the inauguration ceremony of the International Soil-Borne Pathogens Research & Development Center (ISBPRDC).
Vahit Kirişci, Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, inaugurated the Center, which is the first of its kind in the Central West Asia and North Africa (CWANA) region dedicated to advancing research on SBPs and developing innovative solutions to control and prevent their spread.
The opening ceremony took place at the Directorate of Plant Protection Central Institute working under the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM), and it was attended by deputy ministers, TAGEM’s DG, and high-level officials of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Serving under the auspices of the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM), part of the Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, the ISBPRDC will meet international standards for sanitary conditions.
CGIAR and TAGEM mutually supported the SBP CIMMYT Turkey program by establishing and funding the ISBPRDC.
Bringing partners together
CIMMYT is signing a collaboration agreement with the ISBPRDC to facilitate knowledge exchange and technology transfer between the two institutions, which will support joint research and development activities aimed at improving crop health and productivity.
“The most effective way forward to battle against threats to food security is through cooperation,” said Dababat. “This collaboration is a great opportunity for Turkey’s seed industry to maintain its competitive advantage in foreign markets.”
Thirty-five scientists and technicians will work at the ISBPRDC and the institute will act as an umbrella for all SBP research in Turkey. Bahri Dağdaş International Agricultural Research Institute (BDIARI), the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute (TZARI), and the Plant Protection Central Research Institute (PPCRI) with offices in Konya, Eskisehir, and Ankara, respectively, will support the ISBPRDC center and collaborate with the SBP program at CIMMYT to deliver high-yielding wheat germplasm that is resistant to SBP.
Among new programs at the center are the development of a robust surveillance system to track pathogens, a genebank for germplasm, and screening facilities for resistance against SBP.
Recent successful events in Beijing included the first annual meeting of the China-Pakistan Joint Lab on Wheat Molecular Breeding. The meeting was attended by six distinguished Pakistani wheat scientists who had been invited to China for a 10-day training.
Read more.
Wheat production is strained by rising temperatures, longer droughts, and emerging crop diseases. CIMMYT wheat researchers are leading what the Technology Times and scientists call a ‘wheat revolution’ by developing drought-tolerant and fungal-resistant wheat varieties.
Read more here.
AMES, IOWA—The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) has announced the 2023 Borlaug CAST Communication Award goes to Alison Bentley.
While Bentley is known for her global research on wheat genetics, she is also recognized for her proficiency in science communication. Bentley has a passion for delivering practical applications from innovation to farmers, extensive reach through communicating and influencing, and mentoring and support of individuals and community efforts. Bentley’s exceptional work in raising awareness about the importance of wheat as a food crop is also evidenced by her wide-ranging list of communication activities.
In 2022 alone, Bentley delivered 20 scientific presentations—including five international keynote talks and 15 additional invited talks. Bentley focused her communication efforts around two major areas. The first area was her rapid, science-led response to the impact of the Russian/Ukraine war on global wheat production through a communication article in Nature, followed with a social media campaign and numerous presentations and invited policy briefings. Her second area of focus was a major communications campaign by initiating and leading the Women in Crop Science network. This network was developed to address key issues such as the promotion and championing of females throughout their research careers, creating equal opportunities, and increasing visibility of members.
The extensive breadth of Bentley’s outreach ranges from classic science presentations and open access articles to blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, and Twitter campaigns. All these formats demonstrate her commitment to science communication and reaching as wide an audience as possible in an accessible way to engage with important, current topics regarding wheat supplies and plant breeding.
The official presentation of the award will take place at a special side event during the World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue event in Des Moines, Iowa, in October. The Borlaug CAST Communication Award honors the legacy of Norman Borlaug, a Nobel Prize winner and author of the first CAST publication, and Dr. Charles A. Black, the first executive vice president of CAST. It is presented annually for outstanding achievement by a scientist, engineer, technologist, or other professional working in the agricultural, environmental, or food sectors for contributing to the advancement of science through communication in the public policy arena.
ABOUT CAST
CAST is an international consortium of scientific and professional societies, universities, companies, nonprofits, libraries, and individuals. CAST convenes and coordinates networks of experts to assemble, interpret, and communicate credible, unbiased, science-based information to policymakers, the media, the private sector, and the public.
ABOUT CIMMYT
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis. Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. CIMMYT’s research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.
CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR INTERVIEWS
Sarah Fernandes
Head of Communications
CIMMYT
s.fernandes@cgiar.org
Public and private crop research organizations worldwide have worked behind the scenes for decades, bolstering the resilience of staple crops like maize and wheat to fight what is shaping up to be the battle of our time: feeding humanity in a biosphere increasingly hostile to crop farming.
In the case of wheat — which provides some 20% of carbohydrates and 20% of protein in human diets, not to mention 40% of total cereal exports — harvests spoiled by heat waves, droughts, and crop disease outbreaks can send food prices skyrocketing, driving world hunger, poverty, instability, human migration, political instability, and conflict.
Century-high temperature extremes and the early onset of summer in South Asia in 2022, for example, reduced wheat yields as much as 15% in parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, a breadbasket that yearly produces over 100 million tons of wheat from 30 million hectares of crop land.
Around half the world’s wheat crop suffers from heat stress, and each 1 °C increase in temperature reduces wheat yields by an average 6%, according to a 2021 review paper “Harnessing translational research in wheat for climate resilience,” published in the Journal of Experimental Botany, which also outlines nine goals to improve the climate resilience of wheat.
Droughts and shrinking aquifers pose equally worrying threats for wheat, said Matthew Reynolds, a wheat physiologist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the study. “Water availability is the biggest factor influencing potential yield in a majority of wheat environments globally,” Reynolds explained. “Studies predict severe water scarcity events for up to 60% of the world’s wheat-growing areas by the end of this century.”
Science and sources to toughen wheat
Along with modernized, more diverse cropping systems and better farm policies, more resilient varieties are crucial for sustainable wheat production, according to Reynolds and a wheat breeder colleague at CIMMYT, Leo Crespo, who added that breeders have been working for decades to stiffen wheat’s heat and drought tolerance, long before climate change became a buzzword.
“Breeding and selection in diverse environments and at targeted test sites characterized by heat and natural or simulated drought has brought farmers wheat varieties that perform well under both optimal and stressed conditions and we’re implementing new technologies to speed progress and lower costs,” said Crespo, mentioning that the Center’s wheat nurseries SAWYT and HTWYT target semi-arid and heat-stressed environments respectively and are sent yearly to hundreds of public and private breeders worldwide through the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN). “Retrospective analysis of IWIN data has shown that heat tolerance has been increasing in recent years, according to a 2021 CIMMYT study.”
“Climate change is a serious driver of potential disease epidemics, since changeable weather can increase selection pressure for new virulent pathotypes to evolve,” said Pawan Singh, a CIMMYT wheat pathologist. “We must be ever vigilant, and the IWIN is an invaluable source of feedback on potential new disease threats and changes in the virulence patterns of wheat pathogens.”
In the quest to improve climate resilience in wheat, CIMMYT “pre-breeding” — accessing desired genetic traits from sources like wheat’s grassy relatives and introducing them into breeding lines that can be crossed with elite varieties — focuses on specific traits. These include strong and healthy roots, early vigor, a cool canopy under stress, and storage of water-soluble carbohydrates in stems that can be used as stress intensifies to complement supplies from photosynthesis, as well as an array of traits that protect photosynthesis including ‘stay-green’ leaves and spikes and pigments that protect the delicate photosynthetic machinery from oxidative damage caused by excess light.
Though elite breeding lines may contain genetic variation for such traits, in pre-breeding researchers look further afield for new and better sources of resilience. The vast wheat seed collections of CIMMYT and other organizations, particularly seed samples of farmer-bred heirloom varieties known as “landraces,” are one potential source of useful diversity that cutting-edge genetic analyses promise to help unlock.
Rich diversity for wheat is still found in farmers’ fields in India, in the northern states of the Himalayan region, the hill regions, and the semi-arid region of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka. The landraces there show tolerance to drought, heat, and saline soils.
The so-called “synthetic wheats” represent another plentiful source of resilience genes. Synthetics are the progeny of crosses of tetraploid wheat (having four chromosomes, like the durum wheat used for pasta) with wild grass species. CIMMYT and other organizations have been creating these since the 1980s and using them as bridges to transfer wild genes to bread wheat, often for traits such as disease resistance and heat and drought tolerance.
The study, creation, and use of bridging lines, landraces, and seed collections with useful traits as part of pre-breeding is described in the 2021 paper “Progress and prospects of developing climate resilient wheat in South Asia using modern pre-breeding methods,” published in the science journal Current Genomics.
Lines with new sources of heat- and drought-tolerance from CIMMYT’s pre-breeding are also distributed to public and private breeders worldwide via the IWIN for testing as the Stress Adapted Trait Yield Nurseries (SATYNs), according to the paper. These special nurseries are grown by national and private breeders throughout South Asia, for example in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, Nepal, and Pakistan. Lines from the nursery have on occasion been released directly as varieties for use by farmers in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Pakistan.
A critical challenge in pre-breeding is to identify and keep desirable wild genes while culling the undesirable ones that are also transferred in crosses of elite breeding lines with landraces and synthetics. One approach is through physiological pre-breeding, where complementary crosses are made to improve the crop performance under drought and heat stress. The second approach is using genomic prediction, on the basis of seeds, or accessions, in the gene bank collection that have gone through genomic and phenotyping analysis for target traits such as heat and drought tolerance. These approaches can also be combined to boost the speed and effectiveness of selecting strong varieties.
Breeding revolutions
Wheat breeding is being revolutionized by advances in “high-throughput phenotyping.” This refers to rapid and cost-effective ways to measure wheat performance and specific traits in the field, particularly remote sensing — that is, crop images taken from vehicles, drones, or even satellites. Depending on the wavelength of light used, such images can show plant physiochemical and structural properties, such as pigment content, hydration status, photosynthetic area, and vegetative biomass. Similarly, canopy temperature images from infrared photography allow detection for crop water status and plant stomatal conductance. “Such traits tend to show better association with yield under stress than under favorable conditions”, said Francisco Pinto, a CIMMYT wheat physiologist who is developing methods to measure roots using remote sensing. “A remotely sensed ‘root index’ could potentially revolutionize our ability to breed for root traits, which are critical under heat and drought stress but have not been directly accessible in breeding.”
Innovative statistical analysis has greatly increased the value of field trials and emphasized the power of direct selection for yield and yield stability under diverse environments.
Initial results from genomic selection programs, particularly where combined with improved phenotyping techniques, also show great promise. The potential benefits of combining a range of new technologies constitute a valuable international public good.
New initiatives
Launched in 2012, the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) facilitates global coordination of wheat research to adapt to a future with more severe weather extremes, specifically heat and drought. It delivers new technologies — especially novel wheat lines to wheat breeders worldwide via the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN), coordinated for more than half a century by CIMMYT.
HeDWIC is supported by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) and is part of the Alliance for Wheat Adaption to Heat and Drought (AHEAD), an international umbrella organization set up by the Wheat Initiative to bring the wheat research community together and to exchange new germplasm, technologies and ideas for enhancing tolerance to heat and drought.
Cover photo: Night heaters to increase night temperature in the field, as increasingly warmer nights are diminishing yield in many cropping systems. (Photo: Enrico Yepez/CIMMYT)
Harisankar Nayak, a CIMMYT supported PhD student, received significant honors from the Government of India for his PhD thesis. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) – Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) recognized Nayak’s exceptional academic performance and thesis work during the 61st convocation ceremony held in New Delhi on February 24, 2023. The Vice President of India, Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar, presided over the ceremony. Nayak was awarded the IARI Merit medal for his thesis, “Machine learning evidence-based agronomic practices for higher yield and lower emission in rice-wheat system,” published in the esteemed journal Field Crops Research.
Nayak’s research involved comparing multiple machine learning methods to identify the primary drivers and causes of wheat yield variability in northwestern India. His findings provide important methodology to identify variables involved when one farm’s yield is less than a similar farm in the same area. With these variables classified, policymakers, government ministries, and farmers themselves can take steps to raise yield, sustainably, across the entire north-western Indo-Gangetic Plain.
Timothy Krupnik, Country Representative for Research and Partnerships and Systems Agronomist at CIMMYT-Bangladesh, and Nayak’s PhD supervisor from CIMMYT, expressed his pride in Nayak’s achievements. “I saw first-hand how much work he put into his research, and he richly deserves this honor. The same was opined by Dr C. M. Parihar, Nayak’s supervisor from IARI, Dr. M.L. Jat, former principal scientist, CIMMYT-India and Dr T B Sapkota, senior scientist, Agricultural System/Climate Change, CIMMYT. In addition, this is an excellent example of the capacity development work arising from CIMMYT’s collaborations with ICAR and IARI.”
Nayak also led research examining the sustainability of rice production in the same area of India, which determined that nitrogen use could be reduced without impacting rice yields. “To be recognized by ICAR and IARI, among many other worthy students, is a great honor,” said Nayak. “CIMMYT provided crucial material support, helping me facilitate my research. Just as important were the opportunities to collaborate with CIMMYT scientists.” Nayak’s work is vital for addressing the challenges posed by a changing climate and feeding a growing population.
As part of its crucial mission to accelerate wheat adaptation to rapidly changing climate conditions due to global warming, the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) with the support of the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) has granted 10 awards since 2021, crowdsourcing innovative research from around the world.
Like other crops, wheat – which makes up 20 percent of the human diet – is affected by threats to the global food system from persistent population growth and economic and climate pressures. These challenges are further exacerbated by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. There is an urgent need to prioritize climate resilient wheat varieties to protect this food staple.
Some five years after HeDWIC was launched in 2014 to incorporate the most advanced research technologies into improving heat and drought tolerance of wheat, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that climate change was having an impact on food security through increasing temperatures, changing precipitation patterns and greater frequency of extreme weather events in its Special Report on Climate Change and Land.
“While some areas are becoming more conducive to wheat growing, crop yields are suffering in other regions around the world traditionally known as bread baskets,” said wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds, who leads HeDWIC at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
“Wheat is one of our fundamental crops, and we must spare no effort in protecting it from current and future challenges,” said Saharah Moon Chapotin, FFAR executive director. “Global collaborations are necessary to address global concerns, and these grants are bringing together international teams to share and build the science and research that will ensure the stability of this crop.”
The 10 recipient projects are under the umbrella of the HeDWIC project Harnessing Translational Research Across a Global Wheat Improvement Network for Climate Resilience, funded by FFAR. The first five awardee projects were identified in 2021, and an additional five projects were awarded in 2022.
To boost new ideas in “climate-proofing” crops, HeDWIC conducts virtual meetings that include all awarded research teams to take advantage of the collective global expertise in heat and drought resilience, leading to cross-pollination of ideas and further leverage of resources and capabilities.
In March, Reynolds led in-person discussions with some of the collaborating researchers at CIMMYT’s experimental research station on the outskirts of Ciudad Obregon, a city in Mexico’s Sonoran Desert, during CIMMYT’s annual Visitors’ Week.
Projects awarded in 2022
“The HeDWIC mini proposal allows us to explore the potential of chlorophyll fluorescence for the early detection of drought and heat stress in wheat. The controlled irrigation conditions for wheat grown in Obregon give us the opportunity to quantify photosynthesis by fluorescence while drought develops. Detecting a drought-specific fluorescence response and/or the interaction between active and passive fluorescence is relevant for breeding selecting purposes as well as large spatial scale detection of drought by monitoring the plant.” – Onno Muller, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Germany
“Heat stress during grain filling can restrict the availability of carbohydrates needed for grain development. India has been experiencing sudden spikes in both minimum and maximum temperatures by 3 to 5 degrees above normal from late-February onwards, which is an important time for wheat grain-filling and has resulted in declining wheat productivity. Our team is examining the ability of pre-flowering nitrogen applications to support biomass accumulation and overcome the grain-filling source (carbohydrate) limitation during heat spikes. If successful, the results could have broad-reaching benefits given that farmers are familiar with and well-skilled in using nitrogen applications regimes in crop management.” – Renu Pandey, Division of Plant Physiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute
“The HeDWIC funding provides a unique opportunity to test how the regulatory sugar, trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P) can protect wheat yields against increasingly common chronic and acute heat stress events. We have already shown that T6P spray increases wheat yields significantly in field conditions under a range of rainfall in wet and dry years. With increasing likelihood of heat stress events in the years ahead, in unique facilities at CIMMYT, we will test the potential of T6P to protect reproductive development from catastrophic yield loss due to chronic and acute heat.” – Matthew Paul, Rothamsted Research, UK
“Over the last decade, we have developed heat tolerant wheat germplasm at the University of Sydney that maintains yield under terminal heat stress. In our new HeDWIC project, this material will be tested under combined drought and heat stress under field conditions. This will provide plant breeders with highly valuable information on field tested germplasm for use in accelerated breeding programs targeting combined heat and drought tolerance. The work is critical for future food security considering the inextricable link between temperature and plant water demand, and the increased frequency and intensity of heat and drought events under projected climate change.” – William Salter, University of Sydney, Australia
“Wheat Rht-1 dwarfing genes were an essential component that led to spectacular increases in grain yields during the Green Revolution. Although Rht1 and Rht2 are still used widely in wheat breeding 50 years after they were introduced, they are suboptimal under drought conditions and are often associated with a yield penalty. Using a more extensive range of Rht-1 dwarfing alleles that were developed at Rothamsted, we will introduce them into CIMMYT germplasm to optimize biomass and ultimately increase grain yields under drought stress.” – Steve Thomas, Rothamsted Research, UK
Additional comments from 2021 awardees
“This opportunity has enabled the collection of significant amounts of data that will contribute to the advancement of knowledge in crop physiology and root biology. It has also provided early career researchers with opportunities to gain hands-on experience, develop important skills, and grow their networks. Additionally, this initiative has stimulated further ideas and collaborations among researchers, fostering a culture of innovation and cooperation that is essential for progress.” – Hannah Schneider, Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands
“The project is a unique opportunity for research groups from around the world to coordinate efforts on identifying ways to improve heat tolerance of wheat.” – Owen Atkin, Australian National University, Australia
“It is important to understand how high temperature limits crop growth and yield and to identify genetic variation that can be used for breeding climate resilient crops. This project has already begun to develop new methods for rapidly screening growth and physiological processes in genetically diverse panels which we hope will be invaluable to researchers and breeders.” – Erik Murchie, University of Nottingham, UK
“This project will provide novel phenotyping screens and germplasm to breeders and lay the groundwork for genetic analysis and marker development.” – John Foulkes, University of Nottingham, UK
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR INTERVIEWS
Sarah Fernandes
Head of Communications
CIMMYT
s.fernandes@cgiar.org
or
Matthew Reynolds
Distinguished Scientist
CIMMYT
m.reynolds@cgiar.org
ABOUT CIMMYT
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is an international organization focused on non-profit agricultural research and training that empowers farmers through science and innovation to nourish the world in the midst of a climate crisis. Applying high-quality science and strong partnerships, CIMMYT works to achieve a world with healthier and more prosperous people, free from global food crises and with more resilient agri-food systems. CIMMYT’s research brings enhanced productivity and better profits to farmers, mitigates the effects of the climate crisis, and reduces the environmental impact of agriculture.
CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
Scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are helping to scale up wheat production and productivity in Malawi.
The political conflict between Russia and Ukraine has disrupted food supply chains globally and Malawi’s wheat supply has been adversely affected. As a response, Pyxus Trading, the biggest agribusiness private company in Malawi, has endeavored to partner with CIMMYT to accelerate the growth of wheat production in the country.
At a recent visit by CIMMYT’s Director General Bram Govaerts, the executive management of Pyxus provided detailed updates of how CIMMYT has facilitated access to 100 improved wheat varieties now undergoing trials in Malawi. The visit was part of the Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I), a new project funded by the United States of Agency for International Development (USAID).
Attending the Pyxus field visit was United States Department of State Special Envoy for Global Food Security Cary Fowler, Dina Esposito, Assistant to the Administrator at USAID Bureau of Resilience and Food Security, and other USAID staff.
Speaking at a field tour this January at the Pyxus farm headquarters, Commercial Manager John Gait expressed the importance of achieving self-sufficiency in countries like Malawi.
“It’s become very apparent with the global supply chain disruptions of wheat and related commodities that countries like Malawi should rise to a level of self-sufficiency for strategic commodities such as wheat,” Gait said. “Through the help of CIMMYT, we managed to obtain materials for 100 varieties which we have put under trial. Our objective is to select varieties that are most adapted to our agroecology and provide us with satisfactory yields and grain quality sufficient for our processing ambitions.”
CIMMYT Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) Director Sieg Snapp affirmed CIMMYT’s support for private sector companies like Pyxus.
“When they told me they were searching for high performing genetic materials I told them about the Global Wheat Program and how such material could easily be obtained from our headquarters in Mexico,” Snapp said. “I immediately facilitated linkages between Pyxus and CIMMYT headquarters which saw the quick delivery of the varieties. Considering that it was quite recent, I am impressed to see that the trials are already so well established.”
Achieving global food security will require cooperation and collaboration between partners from different sectors. One of CIMMYT’s strategic thrusts is to encourage public-private partnerships where national governments can leverage on the competencies and capabilities of the private sector.
“We aim to be catalytic in all our functions. We believe we have a critical role in ensuring that countries like Malawi have access to the best genetics to ensure that they meet their food requirements. I am happy Pyxus identified us a strategic partner to work with in their wheat program, and through working hand in hand with the government and other key players, the quest to achieve food self-sufficiency can have a shortened pipeline,” Govaerts said.
In addition to witnessing the wheat trials, Govaerts received a tour of the entire Pyxus operations which included the groundnut and forestry operations. Pyxus staff each took turns explaining the various business models the company was employing to contribute to Malawi’s export earnings and food security.
As a commitment to help Malawi realise increased wheat production, CIMMYT will be closely following the Pyxus trials and providing technical support to ensure that the best varieties adopted are rapidly scaled.
The Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) is pleased to announce the 2023 Jeanie Borlaug Laube Women in Triticum (WIT) Early Career and Mentor awardees, recognizing excellence in science and leadership for a wheat-secure future.
The WIT awards are a premier recognition of talent and dedication of early-career women scientists and those who have excelled at mentoring women working in wheat and its nearest cereal relatives. This year’s winners are innovative wheat researchers from Malawi, Morocco, New Zealand, Spain, Tunisia and the United States.
“It is an honor to recognize these incredible scientists for their drive and vision in support of food security,” said Jeanie Borlaug Laube, chair of the BGRI and daughter of Nobel Prize Peace-winner Norman E. Borlaug. “My father believed that generations of hunger fighters would be needed to rid the world of food insecurity, and I’m proud to recognize these 2023 awardees for continuing to carry that mission forward.”
The WIT Early-Career Award provides women working in wheat with the opportunity for additional training, mentorship and leadership opportunities. The WIT Mentor Award recognizes the efforts of men and women who have played a significant role in shaping the careers of women working in wheat and demonstrated a commitment to increasing gender parity in agriculture.
“The WIT Awards have proven to be influential in shifting gender dynamics towards more equity in wheat science. WIT awardees are taking on leadership roles in scientific settings all over the world, and these newest awardees have the potential to continue that trend towards a more inclusive future,” said Maricelis Acevedo, director for science for the BGRI and research professor of global development in Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Since founding the WIT awards in 2010, the BGRI has now recognized 71 early-career award winners from 31 countries and 13 mentors from 9 countries.
2023 Early-Career Awardees
From Malawi, Veronica is a Ph.D student, University of Nottingham (UoN)-Rothamsted Research (RRes) in the United Kingdom, and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) in Malawi. She focuses on exploiting the wider genetic variation among wheat and wild relatives to identify novel sources for increased grain zinc and iron concentration, and transfer these to African varieties.
From Morocco, Hafssa is genomic selection expert for the durum wheat breeding program at International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Morocco. Her work is aimed at implementing genomic selection and speed breeding tools to deliver superior cultivars to national partners from Central and West Asia, North Africa, and West Africa.
From Spain, Marina is a fourth-year Ph.D. student at the John Innes Centre where she studies the post-anthesis development of the unpollinated wheat carpel under the supervision of Cristóbal Uauy and Scott Boden and in collaboration with KWS and Syngenta. Marina is applying a combination of approaches, including field trials, microscopy work, machine learning, and transcriptomics to better understand the genetic processes regulating different aspects of female fertility in bread wheat.
From New Zealand, Megan is a CERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). She focuses on developing molecular understanding of the interactions between rust fungi and wheat through structural biology and protein biochemistry, and recently adopted new artificial intelligence technologies in her work to facilitate structural analysis on a genome-wide scale for the purpose of exploiting structural conservation to engineer novel, durable genetic resistance in wheat and ensure effective utilization of current resistance.
From the United States, Amanda is a research geneticist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) at the Cereal Crops Research Unit in Fargo, North Dakota. Her current research program focuses on pre-breeding and germplasm improvement for both tetraploid and hexaploid wheat, focusing on the Great Plains region.
2023 Mentor Award Winner
A dual citizen of Tunisia and the United States, Amor is vice president of the Borlaug Training Foundation. His work has spanned organizations on multiple continents, with positions at the University of Tunis, ICARDA, and CIMMYT. As Wheat Training Officer at CIMMYT from 2012-2018, he enhanced academic and hands-on training on wheat improvement for junior scientists from over 20 countries annually. There he developed a modular advanced wheat improvement course for mid-career scientists. In Tunisia he initiated the CRP-Wheat Septoria Precision Phenotyping Platform in Tunisia, where from 2015 to 2021 he fully involved graduate research as part of platform that led to women researchers earning seven Ph.D. and two MSc degrees in a six-year period.
Read the original article: 2023 Women In Triticum (WIT) Award Winners Announced
Representatives from Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) paid a visit to Bangladesh to see the valuable work of the Precision Phenotyping Platform (PPP).
PPP was established in response to the devastating wheat blast disease, which was first reported in the country in 2016.
Technical and financial support from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Australian Commission for International Agricultural Research and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, along with other funders, has contributed to the effort to combat the disease.
This is achieved by generating precise data for wheat blast resistance in germplasm in Bangladesh, as well as other wheat growing countries. This PPP has been used to screen elite lines and genetic resources from various countries.
On February 16 and 17, 2023, two groups of national and international delegations visited the BWMRI-CIMMYT collaborative research platform PPP at the BWMRI regional station in Jashore, Bangladesh.
The first group was made up of representatives from both the Australian Commission for International Agricultural Research and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. This included seven commissioners under the direction of Fiona Simson, along with ACIAR senior officials from Australia and India.
The other group was from BARC, which was led by Executive Chairman Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, along with Golam Faruq, Director General of BWMRI, and Andrew Sharpe, Bangabandhu Research Chair, Global Institute of Food Security (GIFS), University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
Both delegations were welcomed by Muhammad Rezaul Kabir, the Senior Wheat Breeder at BWMRI. Kabir gave a brief presentation about the platform and other wheat blast collaborative research programs in the seminar room.
The delegations then went to the PPP field, where BWMRI researchers Kabir and Robiul Islam, as well as CIMMYT researcher Md. Harun-Or-Rashid, explained further information about the BWMRI-CIMMYT collaborative research. Both commissioners and delegates appreciated seeing the work being conducted in person by the national and international collaborations of BWMRI and CIMMYT on wheat blast research.
“It is important, innovative work, that is affecting not only Bangladesh but many countries around the world that are now starting to be concerned about the impacts of wheat blast,” commissioner Simson said. “This study is very important for Australia and we are pleased to be contributing to it.”
Lindsay Falvey, another commissioner, added, “This is a wonderful experiment, using high-level science and technologies to combat wheat blast in Bangladesh. The experiment is well-planned. Overall, it is an excellent platform.”
ACIAR delegate Eric Huttner added to the praise for the project. “The platform is performing extremely well for the purpose of evaluating lines, resistance to the disease and that’s very useful for Bangladesh and rest of the world,” he said. “This is a gift that Bangladesh is giving to the neighboring countries to protect wheat.”
The delegates pledged to share their expert advice with the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh in order to increase investments and improve facilities for agricultural research programs in the country.
“This is an excellent work,” Executive Chairman of BARC, Bokhtiar said. “We can get more information from screening activities by using bioinformatics tools and training people through the BARC-GIFS program.”
Pawan Kumar Singh, Head of Wheat Pathology at CIMMYT-Mexico and Project Leader, coordinated the visits virtually and expressed his thanks to the delegations for their visit to the platform. This PPP, within a short span of few years, has been highly impactful, characterizing more than 15,000 entries and releasing several resistant varieties in countries vulnerable to wheat blast.