Arun Kumar Joshi, CIMMYT Country Representative for India, CIMMYT Regional Representative for South Asia and Managing Director of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), predicted a bumper year for wheat in India.
“The feedback so far I am getting is that there will be record production of wheat,” he said. “The reason is that the area of cultivation has increased. According to government estimates, wheat has been sown in more than 34 million hectares so far in this rabi season.”
Reasons for this include no current threat from locusts or diseases, appropriate levels of soil moisture and humidity, and farmers shifting to planting crops earlier, explained Joshi.
This trip was an extension of their visit to the Türkiye Akdeniz University, Antalya, under the ICAR-NAHEP overseas fellowship program. The trip to CIMMYT program in Türkiye was with the objective to get exposure to CIMMYT’s germplasm and other new developments in wheat improvement that may be helpful for wheat production in the Northern Hill zone of India, which grows wheat on around 0.8 million hectares.
Ajaz Ahmed Lone, Principal Scientist, Genetics and Plant Breeding at the Dryland Agricultural Research Station, and Shabir Hussain Wani, Scientist, Genetics and Plant Breeding and Principal Investigator, aimed to learn more about CIMMYT’s wheat improvement systems.
Meeting at TAGEM, from left to right: Hilal Ar, Amer Dababat, Ajaz Lone, Shabir Wani, Fatma Sarsu, Aykut Ordukaya. (Photo: TAGEM)
After a brief introduction on CIMMYT’s international and soil borne pathogens program in Türkiye by Abdelfattah Dababat, CIMMYT Country Representative for Türkiye and program leader, the visitors met with General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM) representative Fatma Sarsu and her team to discuss possible collaboration and capacity building between the two institutions.
Ayşe Oya Akın, Amer Dababat, Shabir Wani, Sevinc Karabak, Senay Boyraz Topaloglu, Ajaz Lone and Durmus Deniz outside of the GenBank in Ankara, Türkiye. (Photo: GenBank)
Wheat improvement in Türkiye
Lone and Wani also visited the GenBank in Ankara to meet its head, Senay Boyraz Topaloglu, who gave a presentation about the GenBank and highlighted the site’s various facilities.
They then visited the Transitional Zone Agricultural Research Institute (TZARI) in Eskisehir, located in Central Anatolian Plateau of Türkiye, to hear about historical and current studies, particularly within the national wheat breeding program delivered by Head of the Breeding Department, Savas Belen. Belen briefed the visitors about the institute’s facilities, and the collaboration with CIMMYT scientists on wheat breeding activities and germplasm exchange.
Dababat and Gul Erginbas-Orakci, research associate at CIMMYT, presented an overview of soil borne pathogens activities in TZARI-Eskisehir.
Before the visitors departed to Konya, Director of TZARI, Sabri Cakir, welcomed the visitors in his office.
Visitors to TZARI, from left to right: Sali Sel, Shabir Wani, Ajaz Lone, Sabri Cakir, Amer Dababat, Savas Belen, Gul Erginbas-Orakci. (Photo: TZARI)
On the final day, the scientists were briefed about Bahri Dagdas International Agricultural Research Institute (BDIARI) through a presentation given by Murat Nadi Tas and Musa Turkoz. Bumin Emre Teke from the animal department presented a European project report on animal breeding, and Mesut Kirbas provided an overview of a European project on e-organic agriculture, as well as visits to the institute’s laboratory and field facilities and the newly established soil borne pathogens field platform.
Dababat said, “It was a fruitful short trip which enabled scientist from SKUAST-Kashmir and CIMMYT-Türkiye to share knowledge about wheat improvement activities and will give way to a road map for future research collaborations between the three institutions.”
Musa Turkoz, Amer Dababat, Ajaz Lone, Shabir Wani, Gul Erginbas-Orakci, Murat Nadi Tas, Bumin Emre Teke and Mesut Kirbas visit the BDIARI site in Konya, Türkiye. (Photo: BDIARI)
“To meet expected wheat demand for 2050, production will need to double, which means increasing harvests nearly 70 kilograms per hectare each year,” said Leonardo Crespo-Herrera, CIMMYT wheat scientist and 2022 Japan Award recipient. “Breeding will be a major contributor, but better agronomic practices and policies will also be critical.” (Photo: CIMMYT)
International science to save wheat — a crucial food grain for 2.5 billion of the world’s poor — from a rising tide of insect pests known as aphids was lauded on November 22 with the 2022 Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers (the Japan Award).
The 2022 Japan Award recognized novel breeding approaches to identify and select for genetic resistance in wheat to two species of aphids that cause wheat grain losses reaching 20% and whose rapid spread is propelled by rising temperatures.
Aphid resistant wheat can contribute to more sustainable food production, protecting farmers’ harvests and profits, while reducing the need to use costly and harmful insecticides, said Leonardo Crespo-Herrera, bread wheat improvement specialist for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and one of the three 2022 Japan Award recipients.
“In addition to genetic yield potential, CIMMYT wheat breeding focuses on yield stability, disease resistance, and nutritional and end-use quality,” Crespo-Herrera explained. “Adding another target trait — aphid resistance — makes wheat breeding much more challenging.”
Efficient and effective field testing to confirm the genetics
Crespo-Herrera and his CIMMYT colleagues managed to identify and characterize genome segments responsible for aphid resistance in wheat and its near relatives, as well as running innovative field tests for a set of elite wheat breeding lines that were predicted to carry that resistance.
“With the aphid species called the greenbug, its feeding causes yellowing and necrotic spots on wheat, so we could actually measure and score wheat plants in plots that we deliberately infested with the aphids, keeping the resistant lines and throwing out the susceptible ones,” said Crespo-Herrera.
For the other species, the bird cherry-oat aphid, the only visible feeding damage is when the plants become stunted and die, so Crespo-Herrera and colleagues instead measured biomass loss and reduced growth in 1,000 artificially infested wheat lines, identifying a number of lines that had low scores for those measurements. Given that the lines tested came from a set that had already shown resistance to the greenbug, some of the successful lines feature resistance to both aphid species.
For the bird cherry-oat aphid, in two years of additional field tests, Crespo-Herrera and his team found that aphid populations were lower in plots sown with resistant wheat lines. “The experiments included remote sensing measurements that identified certain spectral signatures correlated with aphid populations; this may help us to assess resistance in future field trials.”
The researchers also found that a cutting-edge approach known as “genomic prediction” provided good estimations regarding promising, aphid-resistant wheat breeding lines.
Motivating young researchers in research and development
Established in 2007, the Japan Award is an annual prize organized by the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC) of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and supported by the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). Awardees receive a $5,000 cash prize.
In an excerpt of an official note regarding Crespo-Herrera’s research, those agencies said “…This study has been highly evaluated for developing (wheat) lines that have been distributed worldwide for use in wheat breeding, and the methods of this study have been applied to develop varieties with resistance mechanisms against various kinds of insects, not only aphids.”
Crespo-Herrera thanked JIRCAS and MAFF for the award. “I feel honored to have been selected.”
Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world and the fourteenth largest producer of wheat; in 2021 alone, the country produced 14.3 million tons (t) of wheat on 12.1 million hectares (ha). Despite this impressive figure, wheat yield in the country falls below average at 1172.5 t/ha compared to 3474.4 t/ha globally.
Research into wheat diseases in Kazakhstan has primarily revolved around airborne fungal foliar diseases, such as stem rust, leaf rust and stripe rust, which can be devastating for farmers and their crops. However, the effects of fungi relating to wheat root and crown root were yet to be examined – these diseases affect yields, stands and grain quality due to infections that cause damping-off, blight, necrosis, and dry rotting.
Using plant samples taken during the 2019 growing season, scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) conducted a quantitative survey to determine the distribution of this fungi. Using morphological and molecular tools on 1,221 samples from 65 sites across the central, eastern, and southeastern region, scientists found that Bipolarissorokiniana and Fusariumacuminatum were the most predominant fungal species isolated.
In total, 74 isolates from 16 species were tested, revealing that F. culmorum and F. pseudograminearum, B. sorokinaiana, Fusarium sp., R. solani, F. redolens, C. spicifera, C. inaequalis, and N. orvzae were virulent fungi.
Results show the diverse spectrum of pathogenic fungal species linked to wheat crown and root rot in Kazakhstan and is highly likely to be the first report from the country on the presence of F. seudograminearum, Fusarium sp., C. spicifera, and C. inaequalis.
With this new data, scientists can develop mitigations to prevent crop loss and improve wheat yield across Kazakhstan.
Cover photo: The scientists from Turkey researching root and crown rot in Kazakhstani wheat: Abdelfattah A. Dababat (CIMMYT), Mustafa Imren (Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University), Göksel Özer (Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University) and Rauan Zhapayev. (Photo: Abdelfattah A. Dababat/CIMMYT)
Mustafa Alisarli, Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University rector, is awarded for hosting this symposium by the representative of the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (GDAR), Dr Suat Kaymak.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) coordinated the VIII International Cereal Nematode Symposium between September 26-29, in collaboration with the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies and Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University.
As many as 828 million people struggle with hunger due to food shortages worldwide, while 345 million are facing acute food insecurity – a crisis underpinning discussions at this symposium in Turkey focused on controlling nematodes and soil-borne pathogens causing reduced wheat yields in semi-arid regions.
A major staple, healthy wheat crops are vital for food security because the grain provides about a fifth of calories and proteins in the human diet worldwide.
Seeking resources to feed a rapidly increasing world population is a key part of tackling global hunger, said Mustafa Alisarli, the rector of Turkey’s Bolu Abant Izzet Baysal University in his address to the 150 delegates attending the VIII International Cereal Nematode Symposium in the country’s province of Bolu.
Suat Kaymak, Head of the Plant Protection Department, on behalf of the director general of the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (GDAR), delivered an opening speech, emphasizing the urgent need to support the CIMMYT Soil-borne Pathogens (SBP) research. He stated that the SBP plays a crucial role in reducing the negative impact of nematodes and pathogens on wheat yield and ultimately improves food security. Therefore, the GDAR is supporting the SBP program by building a central soil-borne pathogens headquarters and a genebank in Ankara.
Discussions during the five-day conference were focused on strategies to improve resilience to the Cereal Cyst Nematodes (Heterodera spp.) and Root Lesion Nematodes (Pratylenchus spp.), which cause root-health degradation, and reduce moisture uptake needed for proper development of wheat.
Richard Smiley, a professor emeritus at Oregon State University, summarized his research on nematode diseases. He has studied nematodes and pathogenic fungi that invade wheat and barley roots in the Pacific Northwest of the United States for 40 years. “The grain yield gap – actual versus potential yield – in semiarid rainfed agriculture cannot be significantly reduced until water and nutrient uptake constraints caused by nematodes and Fusarium crown rot are overcome,” he said.
Experts also assessed patterns of global distribution, exchanging ideas on ways to boost international collaboration on research to curtail economic losses related to nematode and pathogen infestations.
A special session on soil-borne plant pathogenic fungi drew attention to the broad spectrum of diseases causing root rot, stem rot, crown rot and vascular wilts of wheat.
Soil-borne fungal and nematode parasites co-exist in the same ecological niche in cereal-crop field ecosystems, simultaneously attacking root systems and plant crowns thereby reducing the uptake of nutrients, especially under conditions of soil moisture stress.
Limited genetic and chemical control options exist to curtail the damage and spread of these soil-borne problems which is a challenge exacerbated by both synergistic and antagonistic interactions between nematodes and fungi.
Nematodes, by direct alteration of plant cells and consequent biochemical changes, can predispose wheat to invasion by soil borne pathogens. Some root rotting fungi can increase damage due to nematode parasites.
Integrated managementFor a holistic approach to addressing the challenge, the entire biotic community in the soil must be considered, said Hans Braun, former director of the Global Wheat Program at CIMMYT.
Braun presented efficient cereal breeding as a method for better soil-borne pathogen management. His insights highlighted the complexity of root-health problems across the region, throughout Central Asia, West Asia and North Africa (CWANA).
Richard A. Sikora, Professor emeritus and former Chairman of the Institute of Plant Protection at the University of Bonn, stated that the broad spectrum of nematode and pathogen species causing root-health problems in CWANA requires site-specific approaches for effective crop health management. Sikora added that no single technology will solve the complex root-health problems affecting wheat in the semi-arid regions. To solve all nematode and pathogen problems, all components of integrated management will be needed to improve wheat yields in the climate stressed semi-arid regions of CWANA.
Building on this theme, Timothy Paulitz, research plant pathologist at the United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), presented on the relationship between soil biodiversity and wheat health and attempts to identify the bacterial and fungal drivers of wheat yield loss. Paulitz, who has researched soil-borne pathogens of wheat for more than 20 years stated that, “We need to understand how the complex soil biotic ecosystem impacts pathogens, nutrient uptake and efficiency and tolerance to abiotic stresses.”
Julie Nicol, former soil-borne pathologist at CIMMYT, who now coordinates the Germplasm Exchange (CAIGE) project between CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) at the University of Sydney’s Plant Breeding Institute, pointed out the power of collaboration and interdisciplinary expertise in both breeding and plant pathology. The CAIGE project clearly demonstrates how valuable sources of multiple soil-borne pathogen resistance in high-yielding adapted wheat backgrounds have been identified by the CIMMYT Turkey program, she said. Validated by Australian pathologists, related information is stored in a database and is available for use by Australian and international breeding communities.
Economic losses
Root-rotting fungi and cereal nematodes are particularly problematic in rainfed systems where post-anthesis drought stress is common. Other disruptive diseases in the same family include dryland crown and the foot rot complex, which are caused mainly by the pathogens Fusarium culmorum and F. pseudograminearum.
The root lesion nematode Pratylenchus thornei can cause yield losses in wheat from 38 to 85 percent in Australia and from 12 to 37 percent in Mexico. In southern Australia, grain losses caused by Pratylenchus neglectus ranged from 16 to 23 percent and from 56 to 74 percent in some areas.
The cereal cyst nematodes (Heterodera spp.) with serious economic consequences for wheat include Heterodera avenae, H. filipjevi and H. latipons. Yield losses due to H. avenae range from 15 to 20 percent in Pakistan, 40 to 92 percent in Saudi Arabia, and 23 to 50 percent in Australia.
In Turkey, Heterodera filipjevi has caused up to 50 percent crop losses in the Central Anatolia Plateau and Heterodera avenae has caused up to 24 percent crop losses in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The genus Fusarium which includes more than a hundred species, is a globally recognized plant pathogenic fungal complex that causes significant damage to wheat on a global scale.
In wheat, Fusarium spp. cause crown-, foot-, and root- rot as well as head blight. Yield losses from Fusarium crown-rot have been as high as 35 percent in the Pacific Northwest of America and 25 to 58 percent in Australia, adding up losses annually of $13 million and $400 million respectively, due to reduced grain yield and quality. The true extent of damage in CWANA needs to be determined.
Abdelfattah Dababat, CIMMYT’s Turkey representative and leader of the soil-borne pathogens research team said, “There are examples internationally, where plant pathologists, plant breeders and agronomists have worked collaboratively and successfully developed control strategies to limit the impact of soil borne pathogens on wheat.” He mentioned the example of the development and widespread deployment of cereal cyst nematode resistant cereals in Australia that has led to innovative approaches and long-term control of this devastating pathogen.
Dababat, who coordinated the symposium for CIMMYT, explained that, “Through this symposium, scientists had the opportunity to present their research results and to develop collaborations to facilitate the development of on-farm strategies for control of these intractable soil borne pathogens in their countries.”
Paulitz stated further that soil-borne diseases have world-wide impacts even in higher input wheat systems of the United States. “The germplasm provided by CIMMYT and other international collaborators is critical for breeding programs in the Pacific Northwest, as these diseases cannot be managed by chemical or cultural techniques,” he added.
Closing ceremony of the International Cereal Nematode Symposium. From left to right; Hans Braun, Brigitte Slaats, Richard Sikora, Grant Hollaway, Mesut Keser, Zahra Maafi, Richard Smiley, Mustafa Imren, Fatih Ozdemir, Amer Dababat. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Road ahead
Delegates gained a greater understanding of the scale of distribution of cereal cyst nematodes and soil borne pathogens in wheat production systems throughout West Asia, North Africa, parts of Central Asia, Northern India, and China.
After more than 20 years of study, researchers have recognized the benefits of planting wheat varieties that are more resistant. This means placing major emphasis on host resistance through validation and integration of resistant sources using traditional and molecular methods by incorporating them into wheat germplasm for global wheat production systems, particularly those dependent on rainfed or supplementary irrigation systems.
Sikora stated that more has to be done to improve Integrated Pest Management (IPM), taking into consideration all tools wherever resistant is not available. Crop rotations for example have shown some promise in helping to mitigate the spread and impact of these diseases.
“In order to develop new disease-resistant products featuring resilience to changing environmental stress factors and higher nutritional values, modern biotechnology interventions have also been explored,” Alisarli said.
Brigitte Slaats and Matthias Gaberthueel, who represent Swiss agrichemicals and seeds group Syngenta, introduced TYMIRIUM® technology, a new solution for nematode and crown rot management in cereals. “Syngenta is committed to developing novel seed-applied solutions to effectively control early soil borne diseases and pests,” Slaats said.
It was widely recognized at the event that providing training for scientists from the Global North and South is critical. Turkey, Austria, China, Morocco, and India have all hosted workshops, which were effective in identifying the global status of the problem of cereal nematodes and forming networks and partnerships to continue working on these challenges.
Sieg Snapp presents research on agroecological approaches to maize farming in Malawi and Zimbabwe at Tropentag 2022. (Photo: Ramiro Ortega Landa/CIMMYT)
Farmers, development practitioners and scientists gathered at Tropentag 2022 between September 14-16 to answer a question that will affect all our futures: can agroecological farming feed the world?
This year’s event explored the potential of agroecology to contribute to improved nutrition, enhanced natural resource management and farm incomes.
Sieg Snapp, Director of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) presented on agroecology approaches to enhance learning in a changing world based on experiences with maize-based cropping systems in southern Africa. Snapp suggested that accelerated learning and adaptative capacity are key to the local generation of suitable solutions to agricultural problems, and proposed agroecology as a foundational approach that emphasizes understanding principles, harnessing biological processes, and enhancing local capacity.
Snapp shared how an agroecology living laboratory in Malawi has supported farmer agency around soil health, crop diversification and sustainable intensification since 2013, while living labs are being established in “food territories” in Zimbabwe to support innovation and strategies for evaluating the benefits of farm-scale agroecology approaches. She also explored solutions for pest management, inclusive financing modalities and collaborative innovation generation between farmers and researchers.
Gender and disease-resistant varieties
Michael Euler, Agricultural Resource Economist at CIMMYT, presented in the conference session on technology adoption and dissemination for smallholder farms, which included contributions on the adoption and impact of improved forage production, use of biogas facilities, agroecological management practices, improved wheat seeds, and access to and use genetic diversity in gene banks.
By using questionnaires that were addressed separately to male and female spouses in the household, researchers obtained insights on perceived individual roles in decision-making and agreements. The study found that an increase in the role of the female spouse in household farming decisions is positively associated with the uptake of rust-resistant varieties.
Additional sessions from the event focused on crops and cropping systems, animal production systems, food security and nutrition, agroecology, and food processing and quality.
Cutting-edge models for crops and crop diseases, boosted by high-resolution climate datasets, could propel the development of early warning systems for wheat blast in Asia, helping to safeguard farmers’ grain supplies and livelihoods from this deadly and mysterious crop disease, according to a recent study by scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Originally from the Americas, wheat blast shocked farmers and experts in 2016 by striking 15,000 hectares of Bangladesh wheat fields, laying waste to a third of the crops. The complex interactions of wheat and the fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT), which causes blast, are not fully understood. Few current wheat varieties carry genetic resistance to it and fungicides only partly control it. Warm temperatures and high humidity favor MoT spore production and spores can fly far on winds and high-altitude currents.
Mean potential wheat blast disease infections (NPI) across Asia, based on disease and crop infection model simulations using air temperature and humidity data from 1980-2019. Black dots represent wheat growing areas with presumably unsuitable climates for wheat blast. The x and y axes indicate longitude and latitude.
“Using a wheat blast infection model with data for Asia air temperatures and humidity during 1980-2019, we found high potential for blast on wheat crops in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and areas of India, whereas the cooler and drier weather in countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan appear to render their wheat crops as unlikely for MoT establishment,” said Carlo Montes, a CIMMYT agricultural climatologist and first author of the paper, published in the International Journal of Biometeorology. “Our findings and approach are directly relevant for work to strengthen monitoring and forecasting tools for wheat blast and other crop diseases, as well as building farmers’ and agronomists’ disease control capacity.”
Montes emphasized the urgency of those efforts, noting that some 13 million hectares in South Asia are sown to wheat in rotation with rice and nearly all the region’s wheat varieties are susceptible to wheat blast.
CIMMYT’s experimental station in Obregón, a small city in Mexico’s state of Sonora, is considered a mecca for wheat research and breeding. In 1945, Norman Borlaug arrived as a geneticist for a special project between the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation, to help local farmers with wheat production. After a few years, his strong bond with the community, students and interns was key to making a remarkable difference on wheat research that save millions from famine and won him the Nobel Peace Prize. A legacy that has lasted for many decades.
At Obregón, scientists have access to state-of-the-art field facilities and an ideal location, in the northern Yaqui Valley. The station’s dry climate and favorable temperature in winter is suitable to assess yield potential, while its hot summers are ideal to study wheat’s tolerance to different stressors.
Here, scientists and field workers work hard all year round to ensure the future of wheat. Varieties grown in all continents have CIMMYT and Sonoran DNA.
SPECIAL THANKS TO: Jeanie Borlaug Laube. Jesús Larraguibel Artola, President of PIEAES (Patronato para la Investigación y Experimentación Agrícola del Estado de Sonora A.C.). Asociación de Organismos de Agricultores del Sur de Sonora A.C. (AOASS) Global Wheat Program, CIMMYT: Alison Bentley (Program Director), Karim Ammar, Rodrigo Rascón, Carolina Rivera, Alberto Mendoza, Leonardo Crespo and Nele Verhulst.
CREDITS: Production: Alfonso Cortés, Marta Millere and Silvia Rico, CIMMYT. Additional drone shots: Courtesy of INIFAP and PIEAES. Post-production: Silvia Rico, CIMMYT
MUSIC: The Way Up created by Evert Z. Licensed from Artlist.io (License owner: CIMMYT. Creator Pro License Number – 159864). Eclipse created by EFGR. Licensed from Artlist.io (License owner: CIMMYT. Creator Pro License Number – 159864).
China is the largest global producer and consumer of wheat. The country’s breeders are developing high quality, high yield varieties, with resistance to the droughts and crop blights that have increased in frequency and spread due to climate change.
He is also director of the China office for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), introducing 20,000 samples of wheat seed sources to more than 25 institutions and contributing to the breeding of more than 80 new varieties.
María Florencia Rodríguez García (cereal pathologist)
Ernesto Solís Moya (wheat breeder)
Jorge Iván Alvarado Padilla (wheat breeder)
The award recognizes the team’s long-term contribution to Mexican wheat cultivation and their efforts to expand impacts worldwide. They have released many varieties with resistance to leaf rust, which has led to the stabilization of the disease in bread wheat.
Presented annually, the award is bestowed upon a team of researchers serving a national breeding program or other nationally based institution. Winners receive an inscribed bronze statue of Norman Borlaug.
Huerta has been hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico since the late 1990s.
Julio Huerta, wheat pathologist and recipient of the BGRI Gene Stewardship Award 2022, giving a talk to students introducing CIMMYT’s wheat breeding program. (Credit: CIMMYT)
BGRI Technical Workshop
Receiving the prize at the 2022 BGRI Technical Workshop on September 9, Huerta said, “The award means a recognition from the global rust scientific community for the hard work (flesh, mind, soul and spirit) over the years, carried with many colleagues around the world to keep rust disease under control.”
Alison Bentley, director of the Global Wheat Program, also participated in the event with a presentation on the connection between conflict and vulnerability in global food systems. She explored reasons why wheat has been dramatically impacted by the conflict in Ukraine and summarized the proposed response agenda by CIMMYT.
Md. Sayedul Islam inaugurated the greenhouse complex along with Golam Faruq and Md. Benojir Alam. (Credit: Timothy J. Krupnik/CIMMYT)
A new greenhouse complex, built with financial support from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), at the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) was inaugurated on 13 August 2022. The greenhouse was built at BWMRI’s headquarters in Dinajpur, Bangladesh.
This complex has a room for generator, a sample preparation room and space for a small laboratory. These upgrades will add new momentum for greenhouse activities and BWMRI and CIMMYT scientists designed the facility to accommodate wheat scientists from Bangladesh and other countries.
The BWMRI has been working to combat wheat blast disease since 2016, with financial and technical support from CIMMYT and other investors. CIMMYT has also assisted the Government of Bangladesh in developing an early warning system for wheat blast.
Because of the challenging phenology of synthetic wheat and introductions from winter and facultative wheat zones, field condition evaluation of these germplasm is difficult and the greenhouse will help ease this hurdle. Additionally, several pathological experiments investigating the biology of wheat blast will now be able to be performed in the new greenhouse facility.
Supplementary activities at the greenhouse include disease screening and research into unlocking the genetics of host resistance. The installation of a diesel generator will keep the greenhouse running in case of power outages.
Visitors to the newly constructed greenhouse at the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute. (Credit: Rezaul Kabir/BWMRI)
Md. Sayedul Islam, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, inaugurated the greenhouse complex. Additional attendees at the opening included Shaikh Mohammad Bokhtiar, Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), Golam Faruq, Director General of BWMRI, Mirza Mofazzal Islam, Director General of the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA), Debasish Sarker, Director General of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Md. Benojir Alam, Director General of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), and Md. Abdul Wadud, Executive Director and Additional Secretary at the Bangladesh Institute of Research and Training on Applied Nutrition (BIRTAN). Timothy J. Krupnik, country representative of CIMMYT in Bangladesh, was also present.
Rust pathogens are the most ubiquitous fungal pathogens that continue to pose a serious threat to wheat production. The preferred strategy to combat these diseases is through breeding wheat varieties with genetic resistance.
Landraces are a treasure trove of trait diversity, offer an excellent choice for the incorporation of new traits into breeding germplasm, and serve as a reservoir of genetic variations that can be used to mitigate current and future food challenges. Improving selection efficiency can be achieved through broadening the genetic base through using germplasm pool with trait diversity derived from landraces.
In a recent study, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) used Afghan landrace KU3067 to unravel the genetic basis of resistance against Mexican races of leaf rust and stripe rust. The findings of this study not only showcase new genomic regions for rust resistance, but also are the first report of Lr67/Yr46 in landraces. This adult plant resistance (APR) gene confirms multi-pathogenic resistance to three rust diseases and to powdery mildew.
Using genotype sequencing and phenotyping, the authors also report an all-stage resistance gene for stripe rust on chromosome 7BL, temporarily designated as YrKU. The genetic dissection identified a total of six quantitative trait locus (QTL) conferring APR to leaf rust, and a further four QTL for stripe rust resistance.
Although use of landraces in wheat breeding has been practiced for a long time, it has been on a limited scale. This study represents a significant impact in breeding for biotic stresses, particularly in pest and disease resistance.
Sridhar Bhavani, head of rust pathology and molecular genetics and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), shared potential solutions for fighting back against wheat stem rusts like Ug99.
More than 200 new wheat varieties released by CIMMYT over the last ten years have contributed to reducing the spread of wheat stem rust in East Africa, where the disease originated. Scientists identify genes resistant to Ug99 and breed new varieties that are not susceptible to stem rust pathogens.
For long-term success, combining multiple resistant genes within a single variety is the way to go.
National, regional, and international partners at the CGIAR Plant Health and Rapid Response to Protect Food Security and Livelihoods Initiative launch in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 12, 2022. (Credit: Susan Otieno)
CGIAR together with national, regional, and international partners kicked off the Plant Health and Rapid Response to Protect Food Security and Livelihoods Initiative also known as the Plant Health Initiative in Nairobi, Kenya, on May 12-13, 2022. The Initiative’s inception meeting was fittingly held on the first-ever International Day of Plant Health on May 12 and was attended by over 200 participants (both in-person and virtual), representing diverse institutions.
The Plant Health Initiative targets a broad range of pests and diseases affecting cereals (especially rice, wheat and maize) and legumes such as beans, faba bean, chickpea, lentil, and groundnut; potato; sweet potato; cassava; banana; and other vegetables.
Speaking at the meeting, CGIAR Plant Health Initiative Lead and Director of Global Maize Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) noted that climate change, together with human activities and market globalization, is aggravating challenges to plant health, including outbreaks of devastating insect-pests and diseases. In addition, according to data from the African Union Partnership on Aflatoxin Control in Africa (AUC-PACA), 40 percent of commodities in local African markets exceed allowable levels of mycotoxins in food, causing adverse effects on diverse sectors, including agriculture, human health, and international trade.
“The CGIAR Plant Health Initiative is, therefore, a timely program for strengthening inter-institutional linkages for effective plant health management especially in the low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Prasanna. “This calls for synergizing multi-stakeholder efforts to improve diagnostics, monitoring and surveillance, prediction and risk assessment of transboundary pests and pathogens, and implementing integrated pest and disease management in a gender-responsive and socially inclusive manner.”
Demand-driven multistakeholder approach
CGIAR Global Science Director for Resilient Agrifood Systems Martin Kropff reiterated the importance of the Initiative, and emphasized the need for a global plant health research-for-development consortium. He mentioned that all the CGIAR Initiatives, including the Plant Health Initiative, are demand-driven and will work closely with national, regional, and international partners for co-developing and deploying innovative solutions.
The chief guest at the event, Oscar Magenya, Secretary of Research and Innovation at Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out the need for a well-coordinated, multisectoral and multistakeholder approach to managing invasive pests and diseases. He recognized CGIAR’s contribution and partnership with the Government of Kenya through CIMMYT, especially in combating maize lethal necrosis and wheat rust in Kenya.
“As government, we invite the CGIAR Plant Health Initiative to partner with us in implementing the Migratory and Invasive Pests and Weeds Management Strategy that was launched recently [by the Kenya Government],” said Magenya.
Implications of Plant Health in Africa and globally
Zachary Kinuya, Director of Crop Health Program at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO) spoke on the importance of plant health management to African stakeholders, and observed that in addition to improved crop production, food and feed safety must be given adequate priority in Africa.
Director of the Plant Production and Protection Division at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jingyuan Xia applauded CGIAR for launching the global Initiative. Through his virtual message, Xia stated that the goals of the two organizations are aligned towards supporting farmers and policy makers in making informed decisions and ultimately ending global hunger. He added that the CGIAR has strong research capacity in developing and disseminating new technologies.
CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts explained how negative impacts on plant health, combined with climate change effects, can lead to global production losses and food system shocks, including the potential to result in food riots and humanitarian crises. He challenged stakeholders in the meeting to resolve tomorrow’s problems today, through collective and decisive action at all levels.
Sarah M. Schmidt, Fund International Agriculture Research Advisor_GIZ Germany making a contribution during the Launch of the Plant Health Initiative. (credit Susan Otieno/CIMMYT)
The German development agency (GIZ) Fund International Agricultural Research (FIA) Advisor Sarah Schmidt said that GIZ supports the Initiative because of its interest in transformative approaches in innovations for sustainable pest and disease management. Recognizing women’s major involvement in farming in Africa, Schmidt said there is a need to empower and equip women with knowledge on plant health as this will result to greater productivity on farms in Africa. “We welcome that the Plant Health Initiative dedicated an entire crosscutting work package to equitable and inclusive scaling of innovations,” she added.
Participants at the launch were also reminded by Ravi Khetarpal, Executive Secretary of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), that the Initiative is now at the critical phase of Implementation and requires diverse actors to tackle different issues in different geographies. Ravi added that biosecurity and plant health are important subjects for the Asia-Pacific region, in view of the emergence of new pests and diseases, and therefore the need to save the region from destructive pest incursions.
Other online speakers at the launch included Harold Roy Macauley, Director General of AfricaRice & CGIAR Regional Director, Eastern and Southern Africa; Nteranya Sanginga, Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and CGIAR Regional Director, West and Central Africa; and Joaquin Lozano, CGIAR Regional Director, Latin America & the Caribbean.
Reflecting on gender, social inclusion, and plant health
Panel discussions allowed for more in-depth discussion and recommendations for the Initiative to take forward. The panelists delved into the progress and challenges of managing plant health in the Global South, recommending a shift from a reactive to a more proactive approach, with strong public-private partnerships for sustainable outcomes and impacts.
Gender inequities in accessing the plant health innovations were also discussed. The discussion highlighted the need for participatory engagement of women and youth in developing, validating and deploying plant health innovations, a shift in attitudes and policies related to gender in agriculture, and recognition and deliberate actions for gender mainstreaming and social inclusion for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
B.M. Prasanna speaking at the launch. (credit: Susan Otieno/CIMMYT)
Charting the course for the Initiative
The Plant Health Initiative Work Package Leads presented the Initiative’s five specific work packages and reiterated their priorities for the next three years.
“We are looking forward to taking bold action to bring all players together to make a difference in the fields of farmers all over the world,” said Prasanna.
The Initiative is poised to boost food security, especially in key locations through innovative and collaborative solutions.
“Plant Health Management in the Global South: Key Lessons Learnt So Far, and the Way Forward” moderated by Lava Kumar (IITA) with panelists: Florence Munguti [Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate (KEPHIS)], Maryben Chiatoh Kuo (African Union-Inter-African Phytosanitary Council), Roger Day (CABI) and Mark Edge (Bayer).
“Scaling Strategy, including Gender and Social Inclusiveness of Plant Health Innovations” moderated by Nozomi Kawarazuka (CIP), with panelists Jane Kamau (IITA), Alison Watson (Grow Asia), Sarah Schmidt (GIZ), Aman Bonaventure Omondi (Alliance Bioversity-CIAT) and Nicoline de Haan (CGIAR Gender Platform)
Work Package Title and Leads
Work Package 1: Bridging Knowledge Gaps and Networks: Plant Health Threat Identification and Characterization
Lead:Monica Carvajal, Alliance of Bioversity-CIAT
Work Package 2: Risk Assessment, data management and guiding preparedness for rapid response
Lead: Lava Kumar, IITA
Work Package 3: Integrated pest and disease management
Lead: Prasanna Boddupalli, CIMMYT
Work Package 4: Tools and processes for protecting food chains from mycotoxin contamination
Lead:Alejandro Ortega-Beltran, IITA
Work Package 5: Equitable and inclusive scaling of plant health innovations to achieve impacts Co-leads:Nozomi Kawarazuka, International Potato Center (CIP), Yanyan Liu, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
In nature, plants are simultaneously exposed to a complex system of biotic and abiotic stresses that limit crop yield. The cereal cyst nematode Heterodera filipjevi and dryland crown rot, caused by Fusarium, are important diseases facing cereal production around the world that cause significant yield loss. Yield loss accelerates when those diseases coexist with other abiotic stresses, such as drought.
Hexaploid bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an essential staple food for a large part of the world’s population, covering around 20% of daily caloric intake in the human diet, with global production at about 670.8 million tons per year, produced over 215.4 million hectares of land worldwide. Therefore, the program studying soil-borne pathogens at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)’s Turkey office initiated a study to investigate the effect of soil borne diseases (H. filipjevi and Fusarium culmorum) individually and in combination with drought on some morphological and physiological traits in wheat germplasm with different genetic tolerances to the three studied factors.
In this study, yield components included thousand kernel weight, spike weight, seed per spike and total grain yield. Morphological parameters, including plant height, final plant number (seedling emergence), relative water content, leaf chlorophyll content, H. filipjevi cyst number and presence of crown rot, were studied under greenhouse conditions in Turkey.
The main findings of the study showed that the interaction among water stress, F. culmorum and H. filipjevi increased the damage on the wheat parameters studied when compared with each stress applied alone. One of the most significant damages was seen in high seedling mortality under the three combined stresses (56% seedling death rate), which indicates the damage on wheat yield might occur at the seedling stage rather than later stages. This reduces plant density per area, which was ultimately responsible for low grain yield produced. The known dryland disease, crown rot, caused by F. culmorum, was significantly pronounced under water-stressed conditions.
In all studied parameters, the lowest damage was found among the resistant cultivars to biotic or abiotic stresses. This underscores the importance of wheat breeding programs to develop resistant germplasm, and reminds farmers to replace their old, susceptible varieties with new, resistant ones.
Based on our intensive experience in the CWANA region, most wheat growers basically do not recognize soil borne pathogens as a problem. In fact, most of them do not know that what nematode or soil fungal species are in their fields affecting yield. The term “hidden enemy” perfectly applies to the problems in the region and beyond. Integrated pest management (IPM) is, however, not practiced in the entire region and soil borne pathogen-induced yield losses are simply accepted.
We can conclude from this study that yield reduction in wheat due to soil borne pathogens could be lessened by improving and understanding the concept of IPM in the region where the practice of winter mono-culturing of wheat is the norm. Management of cereal soil-borne pathogens, especially cereal cyst nematode and crown rot, could involve an integrated approach that includes crop rotation, genetic resistance, crop nutrition and appropriate water supply.
Cover photo: Four different test crops show different stresses: T1V8 = Drought, T2V8 = Drought and Nematodes, T3V8 = Drought and fungus, T4V8 = Drought and nematode and fungus together. (Credit: CIMMYT)
