Tag: awards

A poster on a CIMMYT-led project to establish a system for assessing wheat grain quality in the main wheat-producing areas of Mexico received special mention at the 1st Latin American International Conference on Cereals and Cereal Products Quality and Safety in Rosario, Argentina, 23 September 2007. CIMMYT is partnering with several federal and Mexican state-level organizations (INIFAP, SIAP, SAGARPA and CONASIST-CONATRIGO) and the private sector (GRANOTEC) to determine the varieties cultivated and the quality of wheat grain lots from commercial fields in the North West and the Central Highlands of Mexico.

The two-year project, funded by COFUPROSAGARPA- CONACYT, aims to assess which varieties are being cultivated and what new and improved wheat varieties should be planted to better suit local markets. The poster describes how CIMMYT and partners conducted the analysis of grain from commercial fields in the country’s major wheat lands, to provide potential users with a clear idea of its quality. “The use of old varieties and inappropriate crop management are the main factors influencing crop quality variability,” says Javier Peña, who is head of CIMMYT’s cereal quality laboratory and leader in the project. “With a crop quality assessment system, we will know which varieties to improve for manufacturers of wheat-based products.”

In a gala ceremony on 18 October at the National Anthropology and History Museum of Mexico, AgroBio-México recognized Silverio García’s PhD thesis as one of the best in the country. AgroBio-México is a non-profit association that brings together various organizations interested in agricultural biotechnology education, promotion, research, production and commercialization in Mexico.

García, a postdoctoral associate, is presently employed at a state-level plant biotechnology research centre (CIATEJ-CONACYT), and worked for approximately nine years at CIMMYT as an entomologist and plant breeder, focusing specifically on the application of molecular markers.

García’s thesis deals with the biochemical, biophysical and genetic bases of insect resistance in maize, and focuses on developing varieties that are resistant to storage pests, particularly maize weevil. His results are already being used to develop and distribute improved varieties. With this new maize, producers could reduce losses in storage by as much at 30 percent.

García’s research is built upon work by David Bergvinson, former CIMMYT entomologist, and was made possible through scientific collaboration with CIMMYT, the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, and the University of Ottawa in Canada, along with funding from CIDA, and support from CONACYT in Mexico.

“In light of the serious threats to natural resources and food security, agricultural biotechnology is emerging as a new tool that will help fight the problems of food production,” says García.

CIMMYT’s presence was highly visible at the presentation ceremony, as Natalia Palacios, maize nutrition and quality specialist, received an honorable mention for her efforts to disseminate science to the general public and to children in particular.

The first place winner in this category (Rafael Guadarrama, of the highly regarded TV news organization, Canal 11), said his reports on CIMMYT research were a decisive factor that led to his win.

Lastly, Pedro Brajcich, Director General of INIFAP and CIMMYT Board member, was among the experts and VIPs invited to sit at the head table for the event.

CIMMYT wheat agronomist Bram Govaerts has informed the editors that Sarah Chambers, a student with CIMMYT’s wheat agronomy team in summer 2005, was one of the finalists of the 2006 Bell Medal of the University of Queensland, Australia. During her internship, Sarah collected data from the long-term sustainability trial at El Batán and interviewed farmers. Her honors project, “An economic comparison of conservation agriculture technologies with traditional farm practices in rain-fed cropping systems of central Mexico,” received special mention from the Bell Medal judges.

Says wheat agronomist Ken Sayre: “Sarah was an undergraduate exchange student at the Technológico de Monterrey and contacted me about doing a project with us. We’d always wanted to put an economic foundation on our research with the long-term trial, so we sent her out with Dagoberto Flores to interview rainfed maize farmers. The data they obtained on production costs and returns went into a spreadsheet model created by Bram, and showed that Mexican maize farmers lose money using conventional practices but can improve earnings significantly by using zero-tillage and leaving residues on the soil.”

Sayre cautions that the study was based on market costs for labor and residues, and should be fine-tuned by taking into account the use of family for fieldwork or the returns to feeding residues to farm animals, rather than selling the residues. The Bell Medal was created in 1985 in honor of Arthur F. Bell, who was a pathologist, Director of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations, and the first scientist to hold the position of Under- Secretary of the then State Department of Agriculture and Stock in Queensland.

CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist Ravi Singh has yet another honor to add to his growing collection. He has been awarded the 2007 International Service in Crop Science Award, given by the Crop Science Society of America. The focus of this award is on creativity and innovation in bringing about specific changes in practices, products, and/or programs in the crops area at the international level. The award will be presented on November 6 at a ceremony during the Crop Science Society of America awards program in New Orleans. Congratulations Ravi.

Jonathan Crouch, director of Genetic Resources and Enhancement (GREU) is one of three scientists to win the very first Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers. He is the only one from a CGIAR research center. These new awards, sponsored by the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), recognize the contribution of young agricultural researchers to technological development for the improvement for food security and the environment in developing countries. They commend young researchers who show outstanding performance and research achievements that are expected to lead to future innovation. Jonathan will give a award-acceptance lecture at the United Nations University-HQ (Tokyo) on September 12th.

CIMMYT Board member and Professor at Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey, Ismail Çakmak, has received the prestigious 2007 Derek Tribe Award of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE) Crawford Fund, in recognition of his outstanding work and leadership in identifying zinc deficiency as the underlying cause of poor wheat yields in the calcareous soils of the Central Anatolia in Turkey. The award announcement appears on the 29 June 2007 update of the ATSE-Crawford Fund website.

Çakmak’s research led to the rapid uptake of Zn-containing NP and NPK fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) by farmers in the region and their development by fertilizer industries. Use of the enhanced fertilizers rose from nothing in 1995 to a record 350,000 tons per annum in Turkey in recent times. In some locations with extremely low plant-available zinc, their use has raised grain yields six-fold. In addition to boosting cereal productivity and farmers’ profits, the fertilizers improve zinc density in the grain, which should better the health, productivity, and mental development of members of resource-poor farm households who depend heavily on wheat in their diets.

The ATSE Crawford Fund Derek Tribe Award was inaugurated in 2001 to mark the outstanding contributions of Emeritus Professor Derek Tribe, founding director of the Crawford Fund, to the promotion of international agricultural research. The award is made biennially to a citizen of a developing country in recognition of distinguished contributions to the application of research in agriculture or natural resource management in a developing country or countries. The recipient of the inaugural 2001 Crawford Fund Derek Tribe Award was Sanjaya Rajaram, former Director of the CIMMYT Wheat Program.

For the second year in a row CIMMYT has been giving a ranking of “outstanding” in the annual performance measurement conducted by the CGIAR. CIMMYT was one of only two CGIAR centers to reach this, the highest performance level. The indicators look at a center’s overall performance in a very comprehensive way and include criteria about science quality and delivery, partnership, stakeholder perceptions, management, and governance.

CIMMYT Board Chair, Lene Lange, said “Congratulations to CIMMYT and to all of us! This is really fantastic news.” Her sentiment was echoed by the Board’s Program Committee Chair, Julio Berdegue, when he said, “Considering that the quality of the science explains half of the result, congratulations also to each member of the staff all around the world and at every level of the Center. Your very good work is the firm foundation of CIMMYT.”

The outstanding ranking will mean additional funding from the World Bank, beyond what had been budgeted for this year. That is good news, says DG Iwanaga, as it will help offset some anticipated decreases in core contributions from other partners.

Indian Agricultural Economist and former Director of CIMMYT’s Economics Program, Prabhu Pingali, was among 72 new members and 18 foreign associates inducted into the United States National Academy of Sciences this week, in recognition of his distinguished and continuing achievements in research.

Pingali has devoted his entire career to research agriculture in developing countries. His research and advisory work has focused on technological change, environmental externalities, and agricultural development policy. Currently Director of FAO’s Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Pingali has confirmed that hunger reduction is a prerequisite for fast development and poverty reduction: “Hungry people cannot take full advantage of a pro-poor development strategy….for each year that goes by without reducing hunger, developing countries suffer a total loss of about 500 billion US dollars in terms of lifetime earnings foregone…. Investment in hunger reduction…has a potential for generating high economic rates of return.”

Eleven winners of the prestigious 2006 Nuffield Farming Scholarships in Australia visited CIMMYT during 5-7 March 2007, as part of a study tour covering three continents and diverse farming systems and market arrangements.

The Nuffield Foundation and Trust both derive from the Lord Nuffield (William Morris, 1877-1963), a British engineer and businessman who founded Morris Motors and donated substantial sums during his lifetime to charity. The Foundation initially supported health and social well-being but, in the years immediately following World War II, expanded its objectives to include agricultural advancement, and the first Nuffield Farming Scholarship was launched in 1947. The Trust now exists as a separate body, independent of the Nuffield Foundation, and promotes agricultural, horticultural, forestry, and countryside management education in the United Kingdom and abroad.

Nuffield scholars gain a deep understanding and global perspective of politics, cultures, and challenges associated with agriculture, and typically go on to become highly influential in their fields. Among the worldwide bodies that support Nuffield Scholars are associations in Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, Republic of Ireland, and Zimbabwe. Their questions covered diverse and sometimes challenging topics, such as the purpose and nature of CIMMYT partnerships with private companies, or our methods for conserving diversity in seed collections.