In a world grappling with regional conflicts, climate change, and fragile food systems, the G7 emphasized sustainable agriculture and food security as essential for global stability in a recent communique. CIMMYT supports this vision through the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) initiative, which the G7 recognized as essential in transforming food systems. VACS aims to boost agricultural productivity with climate-resilient crops and healthy soils.
“With our partners, we will work on concrete and ambitious actions to achieve long-term sustainable development, strong environmental, social, and governance standards, and shared prosperity worldwide,” stated the G7 communique.
Fortifying indigenous crops
The G7 statement highlights the importance of dryland crops for sub-Saharan Africa, particularly ancestral grains and peas in securing nutrient-rich diets. CIMMYT, with over 75 partners such as WorldVeg and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), implements the VACS Quick Wins Seed Systems Project across west, east, and south Africa. The project promotes adoption of dryland grains and legumes, helps smallholders obtain climate-resilient seeds, and connects them with markets and agri-services. CIMMYT and its partners recently published a report which identifies the required training in crop breeding to support project implementation across the continent.
“VACS is working to improve the livelihoods of smallholders,” said Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT’s director general. “CIMMYT is implementing VACS focused on crop breeding, seed systems, partnerships, and capacity development. These areas protect our most important grains from further fragility.”
CIMMYT is also leading genetic research by predicting novel traits necessary for future crop varieties. A 2023 study published in Molecular Plant by CIMMYT scientists identified essential traits in six crops: sorghum, pearl millet, groundnut, cowpea, maize, and common bean. These characteristics could improve global food and nutrition security. High-yielding traits in legumes are being scaled up for delivery by CIMMYT and Afriseed through the Southern Africa Accelerated Innovation Delivery Initiative (AID-I) Rapid Delivery Hub, targeting over 35,000 smallholders in Zambia during 2023-2024.
Monitoring Field Visit in Mali, West Africa. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Capacity development through sustained global partnerships
Several G7 members, including the United States, support CIMMYT’s efforts with VACS. A key component of the initiative is capacity building for local researchers and practitioners. A recent initiative aims to train African breeding programs and research professionals, creating a cohort of VACS Fellows to strengthen local and regional food systems. In Guatemala, InnovaHubs, through partnership with CGIAR, Mexico, and Norway, brings farmers closer to markets, technologies, and high-quality seeds.
Strategy for the future
With over 130 countries depending on food imports and over 1.3 billion people considered food insecure, CIMMYT’s 2030 Strategy provides a comprehensive plan forward for agrifood systems through innovative research and partnerships. “Our partners provide the local knowledge and expertise to ensure our research has an impact on smallholder communities. Only through close collaboration with local actors can we transform global food production to become more inclusive and sustainable,” said Govaerts. “We stand ready to support G7 goals for shared prosperity.”
Starting in 2025, CIMMYT, the Centre for Behaviour Change and Communication (Cbcc), Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation (Kalro), and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (Kephis) will support a program benefiting over 5,000 farmers in Busia by introducing high-yielding finger millet varieties. Successfully piloted in Teso South, the initiative aims to maximize millet harvests to meet rising demand. Certified seeds from Kalro, monitored by Kephis, will ensure higher yields and easier management. Aggregation centres will store produce and serve as learning hubs, addressing climate resilience and promoting sustainable millet cultivation.
CA in action at the farmer level. (Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT)
For decades, smallholder farmers in Southern Africa have battled the whims of a changing climate—from withered crops to yield reductions and looming food insecurity concerns. And the outlook is not improving. Based on the latest available science, the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reaffirms the projected negative impacts of climate change on livelihoods in Southern Africa.
Conservation Agriculture (CA) has been considered as an important step to make smallholder farming systems climate smart and resilient. The principles of CA are simple yet potent: minimal soil disturbance, crop cover, and diverse rotations, which tend to have lasting implications on rebuilding soil health, conserving moisture, and nurturing a thriving ecosystem. A strong evidence base from on-farm and on-station trials show that CA has the potential to build the adaptive capacity and resilience of smallholder farming systems to climate stress.
Yet, despite the positive results, significant scaling gaps remain. Key questions arise on what can be done to turn the tide, scale, and encourage uptake. What institutional, policy and economic incentives would enable scaling? Could mechanization be the missing link? The Understanding and Enhancing Adoption of Conservation Agriculture in Smallholder Farming Systems of Southern Africa (ACASA) project responds to these questions. With funding from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) and implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and CIMMYT, the ACASA project goes beyond the narrow focus on promotion and technology delivery of past and ongoing interventions on CA in Southern Africa.
ACASA was designed to help stakeholders gain deeper understanding of the interactions between the socio-economic, biophysical, and institutional constraints and opportunities for adoption of CA practices. To do this, the project has undertaken extensive surveys aimed at understanding incentives, drivers, and barriers of CA adoption across Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe.
Dialogues for change
Participants from across the region during the reflective meeting. (Photo: CIMMYT)
In December 2023, CIMMYT collaborated with IITA and the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of Zimbabwe to convene a highly engaging, reflective, and learning meeting, with the participation of government representatives, the private sector, and research institutes, among others. The primary objective was to share valuable insights accumulated over years of research and development on conservation agriculture in southern Africa. These insights are a result of collaborative efforts in social science, scaling, and mechanization work by CIMMYT, IITA, and extension and research partners in Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Conversations centered on tracing the historical pathway of CA, leveraging mechanization, and identifying key enablers to transform smallholder agriculture.
Tracing the pathway of conservation agriculture
For decades, CIMMYT has been a leading force in promoting Conservation Agriculture. From the early stages in the 1990s, CIMMYT introduced CA principles and practices through on-farm and on-station field days, to undertaking robust research on biophysical impacts and developing adapted technologies in collaboration with national and global partners. As this research progressed and matured, efforts were made to integrate and focus on understanding the social and economic factors influencing CA adoption, while recognizing the significance of enabling environments. To date, linkages with mechanization and other innovations promoting CA-friendly equipment have been strengthened, ensuring inclusivity and empowerment. Questions remain around policy and institutional innovations to nudge and sustain adoption. In a nutshell, there is scope to borrow tools and methods from behavioral and experimental economics to better study and facilitate behavioral change among smallholder farmers. This snapshot highlights global efforts, grounded in scientific evidence, farmer centric approaches, and collaborative partnerships.
Insights from the field
Described as a data and evidence driven process, a notable highlight was the detailed gathering and analytical efforts using a large multi-country household survey involving 305 villages and 4,374 households across Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The main thrust was not only to harvest data but listen to farmers and better understand their context while deciphering their decision-making processes concerning CA adoption, across the three countries. A compelling and hopeful story unfolds from the results. The adoption of CA practices such as crop residue retention, minimum tillage, crop rotation, and intercropping is much higher than previously thought, highlighting a crucial need for better targeted surveys. Key enablers to strengthen adoption include access to CA extension, hosting demonstrations, and access to credit. In addition, age, and extension in the case of Zambia were identified as important drivers of the speed and persistence of adoption. Demand for mechanization is rising, which is key to address drudgery associated with CA and to raise production efficiencies. Key recommendations centered on the need for investments in a dense network of farmer-centric learning centers that allow for experiential learning, facilitating equitable access to mechanization, promoting private sector participation, and developing integrated weed management options as weeds remain the Achilles Heel of CA adoption in the region. [1]
Emerging lessons
A deep dive on the findings reveals critical considerations for the widespread adoption of Conservation Agriculture (CA). Firstly, weed-related labor challenges pose a significant obstacle, with around 75% of farmers in three countries citing weeds as the most constraining issue during initial CA adoption. Addressing this weed management challenge is essential, emphasizing the need for environmentally safe, non-chemical solutions as a research priority. Secondly, there is a noticeable gap between scientific research on CA and farmer practices, primarily attributed to limited technical knowledge. Bridging this gap requires innovative approaches to translate scientific information into practical, farmer-centered products. Thirdly, incentivizing CA adoption through complementary input support programs, like payments for environmental services, may encourage farmers, especially when private returns are not immediate.
Fourthly, strengthening extension systems is crucial to facilitate farmer learning and bridge the awareness-to-know-how gap. Lastly, investing in improved machinery value chains can alleviate high labor costs and drudgery associated with CA practices, with economic estimates suggesting farmers’ willingness to pay for machinery hire services. These insights collectively highlight the multifaceted nature of challenges and opportunities for scaling up CA adoption.
Moving forward
ACASA’s research findings are not just numbers — they are seeds of hope. They point towards a future where CA adoption among smallholder farmers can transform the breadbasket of the three African countries, and beyond. CIMMYT and its partners remain committed to continuous learning, refining their approaches, and working hand-in-hand with farmers to nurture the CA revolution.
It will not be a pipe dream to transform agriculture in Southern Africa through CA by cultivating seeds of resilience, one at a time. This is because the experience from the region suggests that with the right political will, it is possible to mainstream CA as a critical adjunct to climate-smart agriculture strategies and resilience building. This broader institutional and political buy-in is important since CA programming cannot succeed without sector-wide approaches to removing systemic constraints to technology adoption. A classic example is the Government-backed Pfumvudza program in Zimbabwe, which has seen adoption of planting basins conditioned on receipt of input subsidies soar to more than 90%.
[1] CIMMYT/IITA Scientists explore the weed issue in detail in a paper just accepted and forthcoming in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems – Unanswered questions and unquestioned answers: The challenges of crop residue retention and weed control in Conservation Agriculture systems of southern Africa.
Seed company partners observe the performance of heat-tolerant hybrids in the dry heat of southern Karnataka, India. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Millions of smallholders in the Global South depend on maize, largely cultivated under rainfed conditions, for their own food security and livelihoods. Climate change mediated weather extremes, such as heat waves and frequent droughts, pose a major challenge to agricultural production, especially for rainfed crops like maize in the tropics.
“With both effects coming together under heat stress conditions, plants are surrounded, with no relief from the soil or the air,” said Pervez H. Zaidi, maize physiologist with CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program in Asia. “Climate change induced drought and heat stress results in a double-sided water deficit: supply-side drought due to depleted moisture in soils, and demand-side drought with decreased moisture in the surface air. “
Extreme weather events
Weather extremes have emerged as the major factor contributing to low productivity of the rainfed system in lowland tropics. South Asia is already experiencing soaring high temperatures (≥40◦C), at least 5◦C above the threshold limit for tropical maize and increased frequency of drought stress.
A woman agricultural officer discusses the performance of heat tolerant hybrids at farmers’ field in Raichur districts of Karnataka, India. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“In today’s warmer and drier climate, unless farmers have copious amounts of water (which might not be a sustainable choice for smallholders in the tropics) to not only meet the increased transpiration needs of the plants but also for increased evaporation to maintain necessary levels of humidity in the air, the climate change mediated weather extremes, such as heat and drought pose a major challenge to agricultural production, especially for rainfed crops like maize in lowland tropics,” said Zaidi.
To deal with emerging trends of unpredictable weather patterns with an increased number of warmer and drier days, new maize cultivars must combine high yield potential with tolerance to heat stress.
Maize designed to thrive in extreme weather conditions
CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program in South Asia, in partnership with public sector maize research institutes and private sector seed companies in the region, is implementing an intensive initiative for developing and deploying heat tolerant maize that combines high yield potential with resilience to heat and drought.
By integrating novel breeding and precision phenotyping tools and methods, new maize germplasm with enhanced levels of heat stress tolerance is being developed for lowland tropics. Over a decade of concerted efforts have resulted in over 50 elite heat stress tolerant, CIMMYT-derived maize hybrids licensed to public and private sector partners for varietal release, improved seed deployment, and scale-up.
Popular normal hybrids (left) & CAH153, a heat tolerant hybrid (right) under heat stress. (Photo: CIMMYT)
As of 2023, a total of 22 such high-yielding climate-adaptive maize (CAM) hybrids have been released by partners throughout South Asia. Through public-private partnerships, eight hybrids are being already deployed and scaled-up to over 100,000 hectares in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Also, the heat tolerant lines developed by CIMMYT in Asia were used by maize programs in sub-Saharan Africa for developing heat tolerant maize hybrids by crossing these as trait donors with their elite maize lines.
Studies on the new CAM hybrids show that while their yield is like existing normal maize hybrids under favorable conditions, the CAM hybrids outperform normal hybrids significantly under unfavorable weather conditions.
“The unique selling point of the new CAM hybrids is that they guarantee a minimum yield of at least 1.0 tons per hectare to smallholder farmers under unfavorable weather when most of the existing normal hybrids end-up with very poor yield,” said Subhas Raj Upadhyay, from the Lumbini Seed Company Ltd. in Nepal.
Given the superior performance of CAM seeds in stress conditions, Nepali farmers have expressed willingness to pay a premium price: an average of 71% more with government subsidy, or at least 19% extra without a subsidy for CAM seed. Similarly, the farmers in hot-dry areas of the Karnataka state of India are ready to pay 37% premium price for CAM seed compared to normal hybrid seed. These reports strongly validate the demand of CAM seed and therefore a targeted initiative is needed to accelerate deployment and scaling these seeds in climate-vulnerable marginal agroecologies in tropics.
As the global population approaches the 10 billion mark, the reliance on fertilisers to boost agricultural production has become an essential, yet environmentally challenging, practice. A Century-long dependence on these additives has allowed food production to keep pace with the growth in human population. However, the use of fertilisers across various farming systems is now causing severe ecological stress. The leaching of nitrogen into natural ecosystems, coupled with the release of greenhouse gases, is pushing the Earth’s environmental limits to a critical threshold.
To address this, an ambitious new research initiative aims to shrink the nitrogen footprint of agriculture by developing a breakthrough technology based on nature’s own solutions: a natural process called biological nitrification inhibition (BNI). The Novo Nordisk Foundation has awarded CIMMYT a grant of up to USD 21.1 million to lead an innovation research initiative called CropSustaiN that is designed to reduce the nitrogen footprint of wheat cultivation.
“Success in this initiative could lead to a major shift in agricultural practices globally, benefiting both the planet and farmers’ livelihoods. In addition to using less fertiliser, cost for the farmer will be minimal because all the components are already in the seed. This initiative could, potentially, be extended from wheat cultivation to include other staple crops like maize and rice,” says Claus Felby, Senior Vice President, Biotech, Novo Nordisk Foundation.
“BNI could be a part of how we revolutionise nitrogen management in agriculture. It represents a genetic mitigation strategy that not only complement existing methods but also has the potential to decrease the need for synthetic fertilisers substantially. The mitigation potential of better nitrogen fertiliser management could be as impactful for the Global South as the Green Revolution,” explains Bram Govaerts, Director General, CIMMYT.
Revolutionary mitigation approach
Rooted in a seed-based genetic strategy, BNI leverages a plant’s innate ability to suppress soil nitrification through the release of natural compounds. This approach potentially promises to curb the use and leaching of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers—a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and water pollution—without compromising wheat yield or soil vitality. The BNI-method contrasts with synthetic nitrification inhibitors and could offer a more scalable and cost-effective solution, potentially reducing nitrogen fertiliser usage by 20%, depending on regional farming conditions.
By harnessing the power of genetics in plant seeds, CropSustaiN leverages the natural process of BNI to develop new wheat varieties that require significantly less nitrogen fertiliser. Using conventional breeding, genes from wild crop relatives like wild rye, which have inherently better nitrogen use efficiency, are incorporated. CIMMYT makes such breeding products available to its global network of partners for the international public good.
The agenda for CropSustaiN includes validating BNI efficacy across diverse climates and integrating the technology into mainstream agricultural protocols. While the venture carries success risks, the potential rewards—ranging from widespread BNI adoption to valuable insights into nitrogen management—position it as a pioneering initiative. By ensuring that the seeds developed through this program are accessible to all farmers without exclusive patent rights, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is leading an inclusive approach to agricultural innovation.
CropSustaiN builds on the joint research by the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) and CIMMYT that started in 2015. The initiative has already yielded BNI wheat lines tested over three farming seasons. These innovative crops are now poised for further development and for scaling worldwide, indicating a potential paradigm shift in agricultural practices.
The Novo Nordisk Foundation has already laid the groundwork for CropSustaiN by funding related BNI research at CIMMYT, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Aarhus University, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Copenhagen -thus fostering an ecosystem for research innovation.
About the Novo Nordisk Foundation
Established in Denmark in 1924, the Novo Nordisk Foundation is an enterprise foundation with philanthropic objectives. The vision of the Foundation is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The Foundation’s mission is to progress research and innovation in the prevention and treatment of cardiometabolic and infectious diseases as well as to advance knowledge and solutions to support a green transformation of society.
www.novonordiskfonden.dk/en
About CIMMYT
CIMMYT is a cutting edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow’s problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers, while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries. CIMMYT is a core CGIAR Research Center, a global research partnership for a food-secure future, dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.
Further information
Jakob Stein, Communications Specialist, jse@novo.dk
Participants at the SAS Africa implementation roadmap retreat. (Photo: Maria Monayo/CIMMYT)
Stronger partnerships, innovation, and agile science for impact were resounding themes when CIMMYT researchers from the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program in Africa gathered in Nairobi to develop the program’s implementation roadmap in alignment with the CIMMYT 2030 Strategy.
The three-day retreat from 25-28 March, attended by research teams from the eastern, western, southern, and Horn regions of Africa, provided a platform to share insights and chart a course towards sustainable agricultural development for the continent.
Routes to amplifying research impact
In her opening remarks, SAS Program Director, Sieglinde Snapp, emphasized the importance of grounding the CIMMYT 2030 Strategy in the African context and the urgent need for actionable plans to address pressing challenges in agrifood systems. Snapp drew attention to the significance of collaboration with public, private, and civil society stakeholders, highlighting how inclusive partnerships are essential for driving meaningful change. She urged the team to focus on turning strategic vision into tangible plans, with clear milestones to track progress.
“Humanity pulled together and got to the moon in the 60s. Conventional science and engineering got us there,” said Snapp. “However, when we have high uncertainty and high-value conflicts, we need to have all stakeholders at the table. We need to do action science and think of what the actual science looks like.”
Christian Witt, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, delivered a keynote address focusing on the importance of advancing agronomy globally and exploring opportunities at the national level. He advocated for a balanced approach to tackling macroeconomic challenges while fostering grassroots innovation that augments impact. He also underscored the CIMMYT 2030 Strategy’s critical role across CGIAR, calling for a pivot in funder influence towards a unified, demand-driven research methodology.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Senior Program Officer, Christian Witt, gives a keynote speech on advancing global agronomy. (Photo: Maria Monayo/CIMMYT)
Deep diving into the strategy
The retreat also featured a panel discussion on the CIMMYT 2030 Strategy. From the value of strategic partnerships to the need for excellence in research and delivery, the panel highlighted the key pillars of CIMMYT’s strategy and underscored the importance of aligning efforts with global priorities and challenges.
Participants discussed the role of data systems for agile agronomy, noting the need for innovative methodologies to harness the vast amount of data available. They placed key focus on empowering farmers, particularly through initiatives like the BACKFEED Farmer Agency. This inclusive feedback system enables knowledge co-creation via mobile phones, fostering networking among farmers of diverse backgrounds. Regular and spontaneous interactions facilitate data collection, addressing social exclusion in agricultural information channels faced by those with multiple vulnerabilities.
Paswel Marenya, SAS associate program director for Africa, shared thought-provoking insights on the Pathways to Impact. He demonstrated how complementarity and bundled approaches, impact orientation, evidence-supported scaling, subsidiarity, localization, and training of farmers and communities, and inclusive seed systems, can transform food systems.
During an analysis of the strategy in the African context, central inquiry focused on identifying areas where SAS could deliver the greatest value. Discussions revealed a consensus on several key priorities: the need of developing and implementing policies from the ground up, addressing the specific needs of smallholder farmers, enhancing capacity for sustainable development, ensuring inclusivity for youth and women, expanding innovative solutions, and encouraging regional collaboration. These common themes highlight a united drive towards comprehensive and impactful agricultural advancement across Africa’s diverse landscapes.
On implementing the strategy, attendees discussed a range of plans and proposals:
Diversify from maize to alternative crops, such as pigeon peas.
Engage stakeholders in agile agronomy discussions to identify impact pathways.
Train the private and public sectors for climate-smart agriculture.
Address concerns regarding prevailing inefficiencies within the formal seed system and the lack of business models for non-hybrid seeds like groundnut or wheat.
Identify opportunities for financial inclusion through aggregator and off-taker models.
Consider the importance of mechanization policies, markets, and extension services.
Engage strategically in the humanitarian-development-peace nexus, as the majority of food insecurity is found in conflict areas.
Improve nutrition education and meet local demand for nutritious crops like pigeon pea and groundnut.
Consider the role of data and analytics in humanitarian-development-peace pathways, policy engagement for building value chains, and the significance of impact pathways.
Promote the importance of open science, data sharing, and addressing gaps between product enhancement and production.
Participants discuss how SAS can further contribute to CIMMYT’s 2030 Strategy. (Photo: Maria Monayo/CIMMYT)
Eyes on the future
In reflections at the end of the retreat, Snapp reiterated the importance of investing in soil resilience through agile agronomy and participatory research to foster collaboration and inclusivity in decision-making processes. She focused on the significance of foresight targeting and market intelligence, particularly in regions grappling with soil degradation and the impact of the climate crisis. Her presentation highlighted key priorities for driving impactful agricultural development, including effective data management, climate adaptation, and alignment of existing solutions with climate goals. The interconnectedness of foresight targeting, seed systems, and agile agronomy was underscored, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and addressing essential topics like nitrogen and climate change. Additionally, Snapp reiterated the crucial role of collaborative efforts between different teams and organizations in effectively advancing agricultural research and development initiatives.
To cap off three days of intense discussions and strategy-building, participants took part in fun team-building activities that echo CIMMYT’s core values of excellence, integrity, and teamwork.
Australia’s smallest seed company, Rebel Seeds, has achieved a significant milestone with the Australian Hard classification for Borlaug 100, a wheat variety introduced in 2015 through the CIMMYT-Australia-ICARDA Germplasm Evaluation (CAIGE) project. This classification allows Borlaug 100 to be delivered into H2 segregations at bulk-handling sites across Queensland and northern New South Wales, benefiting local growers with better prices and enhancing its export potential. The success of Borlaug 100 underscores CIMMYT’s crucial role in providing resilient, high-yielding wheat varieties suited to diverse growing conditions globally.
Global temperatures are projected to warm between 1.5-2 degrees Celsius by the year 2050, and 2-4 degrees Celsius by 2100. This is likely to change precipitation patterns, which will impact crop yields, water availability, food security, and agricultural resilience.
To prepare for these challenges, Atlas of Climate Adaptation in South Asian Agriculture (ACASA) uses process-based simulation models that can predict crop growth, development, and yield in order to understand the response of crops to climate change. Models such as Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), InfoCrop, and Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) facilitate the field scale study of the biophysical and biochemical processes of crops under various environmental conditions, revealing how they are affected by changing weather patterns.
The ACASA team, along with experts from Columbia University and the University of Florida, met for a three-day workshop in January 2024 to boost the work on spatial crop modeling. The aim was to design a modeling protocol through a hands-on demonstration on high-performance computers. When scientifically executed, gridded spatial crop modeling–even though complex and data-intensive–can be a great way to frame adaptation and mitigation strategies for improving food security, which is one of ACASA’s goals.
ACASA’s Spatial Crop Modelling Group meets in Colombo, Sri Lanka, January 2024. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Decisions on data
The group decided to use DSSAT, APSIM, and InfoCrop for simulating the impact of climatic risks on crops such as rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, millet, pigeon pea, chickpea, groundnut, soybean, mustard, potato, cotton, and more. They chose harmonized protocols across all three models with standard inputs, such as conducting simulations at 0.05 degrees. The model input data about weather, soil, crop varietal coefficients, and crop management are being collected and processed for model input formats at 5 kilometer (km) spatial resolution.
A Python version called DSSAT-Pythia is now available to accelerate spatial and gridded applications. The programming for implementing InfoCrop on the Pythia platform is in progress. InfoCrop has been proven in India for past yield estimations, climate change spatial impact, and adaptation assessments for 12 crops.
For other crucial modeling components, a work plan was created including developing regional crop masks, crop zones based on mega-commodity environments as defined by CGIAR, production systems, crop calendars, and irrigated areas by crop. Genetic coefficients will then be calculated from measured past values and recent benchmark data of varietal units.
With this information, several adaptation options will be simulated, including changes in planting dates, stress-tolerant varieties, irrigation, and nitrogen fertilizer (quantity, methods, and technology), residue/mulching, and conservation tillage. The team will evaluate impact and adaptation benefits on yields, water, and nitrogen-use efficiency based on the reported percentage change from the baseline data.
As the project progresses, this work will make strides towards realizing food security for the planet and increasing the resilience of smallholder farming practices.
Blog written by Anooja Thomas, University of Florida; Apurbo K Chaki, BARI, Bangladesh; Gerrit Hoogenboom, University of Florida; S Naresh Kumar, ICAR-IARI, India
Globally, climate extremes are adversely affecting agricultural productivity and farmer welfare. Farmers’ lack of knowledge about adaptation options may further exacerbate the situation. In the context of South Asia, which is home to rural farm-based economies with smallholder populations, tailored adaptation options are crucial to safeguarding the region’s agriculture in response to current and future climate challenges. These resilience strategies encompass a range of risk reducing practices such as changing the planting date, Conservation Agriculture, irrigation, stress-tolerant varieties, crop diversification, and risk transfer mechanisms, e.g., crop insurance. Practices such as enterprise diversification and community water conservation are also potential sector-specific interventions.
Atlas of Climate Adaptation in South Asian Agriculture (ACASA) aims to identify hazard-linked adaptation options and prioritize them at a granular geographical scale. While doing so, it is paramount to consider the suitability of adaptation options from a socioeconomic lens which varies across spatial and temporal dimensions. Further, calculation of scalability parameters such as economic, environmental benefit, and gender inclusivity for prioritized adaptation are important to aid climatic risk management and developmental planning in the subcontinent. Given the credibility of econometric and statistical methods, the key tenets of the approach that are being applied in ACASA are worth highlighting.
Evaluating the profitability of adaptation options
Profitability is among the foremost indicators for the feasible adoption of any technology. The popular metric of profitability evaluation is benefit-to-cost ratio. This is a simple measure based on additional costs and benefits because of adopting new technology. A benefit-to-cost ratio of more than one is considered essential for financial viability. Large-scale surveys such as cost of cultivation and other household surveys can provide cost estimates for limited adaptation options. Given the geographical and commodity spread, ACASA must resort to the meta-analysis of published literature or field trials for adaptation options. For example, a recent paper by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) based on meta-analysis shows that not all interventions result in a win-win situation with improvements in both tradable and non-tradable outcomes. While no-till wheat, legumes, and integrated nutrient management result in an advantageous outcome, there are trade-offs between the tradable and non-tradable ecosystem services in the cases of directed seed rice, organic manure, and agroforestry2.
Quantification of adaptation options to mitigate hazards
Past studies demonstrate the usefulness of econometric methods when analyzing the effectiveness of adaptation options such as irrigation, shift in planting time, and crop diversification against drought and heat stress in South Asia. Compared to a simple cost-benefit approach, the adaptation benefits of a particular technology under climatic stress conditions can be ascertained by comparing it with normal weather conditions. The popular methods in climate economics literature are panel data regression and treatment-based models. Subject to data availability, modern methods of causal estimation, and machine learning can be used to ascertain the robust benefits of adaptation options. Such studies, though available in literature, have compared limited adaptation options. A study by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Institute of Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (ICAR-NIAP), based on ‘Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households’ of National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), concluded that though crop insurance and irrigation effectively improve farm income and reduce farmers’ exposure to downside risk, irrigation is more effective than crop insurance1.
Statistical models for spatial interpolation of econometric estimates
Since ACASA focuses on gridded analysis, an active area of statistical application is the spatial interpolation or downscaling of results to a more granular scale. Many indicators used for risk characterization are available at coarser geographical units or points from surveys. Kriging is a spatial interpolation method where there is no observed data. Apart from spatial interpolation of observed indicators, advanced Kriging methods can be potentially used to interpolate or predict the estimates of the econometric model.
ACASA’s approach involves prioritizing adaptation options based on suitability, scalability, and gender inclusivity. Econometric and statistical methods play a crucial role in evaluating the profitability and effectiveness of various adaptation strategies from real world datasets. Despite challenges such as limited observational data and integration of econometric and statistical methods, ACASA can facilitate informed decision-making in climate risk management and safeguard agricultural productivity in the face of climatic hazards.
1 Birthal PS, Hazrana J, Negi DS and Mishra A. 2022. Assessing benefits of crop insurance vis-a-vis irrigation in Indian agriculture. Food Policy 112:102348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2022.102348
2 Kiran Kumara T M, Birthal PS, Chand D and Kumar A. 2024. Economic Valuation of Ecosystem Services of Selected Interventions in Agriculture in India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 02250, IFPRI-South Asia Regional Office, New Delhi.
Blog written by Prem Chand, ICAR-NIAP, India and Kaushik Bora, BISA-CIMMYT, India
I am Grace Malaicha, a proud native of the Zidyana Extension Planning Areas in Central Malawi, where my journey with Conservation Agriculture (CA) began. In 2005, I observed neighboring farmers practicing CA techniques on their land. Intrigued and inspired, I decided to embark on this path myself, joining the CA program initiated by CIMMYT and Total LandCare in 2006. I started practicing it on my demonstration plot and observed that yields were getting higher from the second year onwards.
My dedication to CA has changed not only myself but also influenced other members of my farming community. As a mother trial host farmer under the CGIAR Initiative: Diversification for resilient agribusiness ecosystems in East and Southern Africa today, I have been implementing different treatments, which include maize doubled-up legume system and improved drought-tolerant maize varieties planted under CA on flat land and comparing it to the traditional ridge tillage system that involves substantial soil movement.
But what does CA mean to me? It is more than just a set of principles that I apply like minimum soil disturbance, mulching, and crop rotation. CA reduces drudgery, secures yields, and maintains productivity in times of climate change. CA has changed my approach to farming, transforming my once conventional maize monocrop into a diverse maize-legume system. By intercropping with two crops, I have spread the risk of unanticipated crop failure, while incorporating groundnut, cowpeas, and pigeon pea into the mix, which are more drought tolerant. I increased the land area under CA and tried it on many other crops including different legumes as rotation or intercrops, birds-eye chili, vegetables, and cassava.
Over the years, I have witnessed firsthand the harsh realities of a changing climate in central Malawi, from intense heat to prolonged droughts and erratic rainfall patterns. This year, 2024, has even been worse due to the prolonged dry spells between January and February, and the erratic rainfall during this time. Despite these challenges, our CA plots have continued to thrive, showcasing the resilience and adaptability of climate-smart farming practices.
Grace trains farmers on Conservation Agriculture. (Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT)
Recognizing the power of knowledge sharing and from the encouragement by CIMMYT and Total LandCare, I started to train fellow farmers, both locally and across borders. At first, I worked with women groups around my homestead and trained about 100 female farmers on the principles of CA. I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to train other farmers in other districts of Malawi. Since 2008, I have also trained farmers in eastern Zambia and from Mozambique where all farmers speak my language Chichewa. Farmers believe other farmers more and are now realizing the benefits of implementing CA in their own fields.
I enrolled to be a local trainer in CA within my community in 2016. My passion for teaching and catalyzing change has led to the adoption of CA by numerous farmers. I embrace my commitment to ongoing learning through carefully implementing these CA trials and playing an active role during awareness meetings.
My life had changed so much. I was speaking on the radio and television. In 2012, the Minister of Agriculture visited my plot, and I was asked to speak in front of a Parliamentary Committee about my experiences as a smallholder woman farmer in Malawi. I spoke about what women can do in agriculture and what changes I made on my land. From representing my country at high level meetings, each step has shaped me into a resilient and empowered woman.
However, my journey has not been without obstacles, including hardships in my personal relationship. In 2012, I made the decision to join my husband in South Africa where I took up menial jobs to earn a living, abandoning my plot back home. But my true passion lay in farming, and I decided to make the bold decision to come back home, leaving my husband and continue with farming. Through perseverance and determination, I have overcome these challenges, and I am now much stronger.
Grace Malaicha stands in her field. (Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT)
Today, I stand with pride in front of my CA plot, not only sustaining my family but also sending all my children to school. I now converted all my land to conservation agriculture, 3ha are under maize and 2ha under groundnuts. Beyond farming, I have investments in housing, claiming rentals in the nearby town of Salima to sustain my financial income and expand in farming.
I will continue on this path as I learned so much over the years and believe that CA may be the only climate-smart agriculture response in reach of smallholder farmers that everybody can apply, and I will continue to support others as a champion of CA.
To address the vulnerability of increased climate risks which impact agriculture, it is imperative to identify location-specific adaptation options. Atlas of Climate Adaptation in South Asian Agriculture (ACASA) is working on identifying commodity specific hazards at different geographical regions and the key adaptation options aligned with geography and hazards. This has been done for major cereal crops (rice, wheat, and maize), coarse grains (millets), oilseeds (coconut, mustard), legumes and vegetable crops (chickpea, potato), livestock, and fisheries. In ACASA, Systematic Literature Review (SLR) serves as a fundamental tool to identify key climate adaptation options and assess their effectiveness, considering agroecological factors.
Literature reviews are a customary approach for researchers to grasp existing knowledge and findings. The SLR methodically establishes clear research objectives, employs structured search queries to identify relevant literature, applies defined exclusion criteria, and extracts data for scientific analysis. This structured approach facilitates mapping the literature, validating findings, identifying gaps, and refining methodologies thereby minimizing biases, and ensuring comprehensive coverage of evidence.
Commodity-specific research questions, aligned with the problem/population, intervention, comparison/consequences, outcome, and time PICO(T) framework, have been used to guide the search process. By utilizing keywords specific to these questions, ACASA sourced literature from reputable databases such as Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and local databases of South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Local databases and gray literature further bolstered the understanding of local conditions and broadened the coverage of studied literature.
Systematic Literature Review (SLR)
The searched literature was then filtered using the well-established Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analysis (PRISMA) framework. PRISMA provides a minimum set of evidence-based literature to be used for further analysis. Let us look at maize as an example of a commodity under analysis in ACASA. For maize, a total of 1,282 papers were identified and based on four exclusion criteria pertaining to adaptation options, quantitative assessment, hazard, and risk only of which 72 papers were shortlisted. The PRISMA framework supported in getting a manageable dataset for in-depth analysis while ensuring transparency in the overall filtering process.
After filtering through PRISMA, a bibliometric analysis was conducted which contained research trend analysis, regional distribution patterns, adaptation option categorizations, and a co-occurrence analysis. Useful patterns in popularity of studied adaptation options, hazards, and their linkages were observed through this analysis. For instance, drought was the most studied hazard, while pest diseases and economics were major hazard impacts studied for the maize literature. In terms of adaptation options, stress tolerant varieties were the most popular adaptation option. Further, co-occurrence analysis provided linkages between adaptation options and hazards, and demonstrated that researchers have also studied bundled technologies.
SLR helped understand the effectiveness of certain adaptation options. Going ahead, this step will be fully realized through a “meta-analysis” which will be pivotal in quantifying the evidence and prioritizing adaptation options for different agroecologies. SLR has proven to be an effective research method to build a comprehensive database that can be used across different thematic areas of ACASA. Adaptation options enlisted through SLR can be further substantiated through expert elicitations via heurism, crop modelling, cost-benefit analysis, and other important pillars of ACASA to identify efficient and cost-effective options.
SLR also provided the ACASA team with the opportunity to identify certain literature gaps such as uneven geographical coverage and excessive emphasis on certain adaptation options versus the rest. Conceptualization of systematically reviewing climate adaptation options in the South Asian context by integrating bibliometric and meta-analysis adds novelty to the current efforts of ACASA.
Blog written by Aniket Deo, BISA-CIMMYT India; Niveta Jain, ICAR-IARI India; Roshan B Ojha, NARC Nepal; and Sayla Khandoker, BARI Bangladesh
Map: BISA works with National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) of South Asia to develop ACASA.
Atlas of Climate Adaptation in South Asian Agriculture (ACASA) is different from many projects supported by our team. I would love to dive into the promising features of the ACASA platform and the exciting technical advances being made, but I want to focus here on how the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) has organized this program for greater and longer-term impact.
BISA is a strong regional partner and is the lead institution for the ACASA program. In fact, we could have simply asked BISA to build the ACASA platform and known they would make a great technical product. However, our goal is not just to have great technical products, but also to improve the lives of small-scale producers. For any great technical product to deliver impact, it must be used.
From day one, the ACASA program has not just kept the users’ needs in mind, indeed they have kept the users themselves engaged on the project. By establishing strong, financially supported partnerships with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, they are achieving four key outcomes, among many others:
Benefit from local expertise regarding national agricultural practices, climate risks, and solutions
Leverage NARS connections to national and subnational decision makers to inform product requirements
Establish national ownership with a partner mandated to support users of the product
Strengthen climate adaptation analytics across South Asia through peer-to-peer learning.
These outcomes lead to more accurate and appropriate products, user trust, and the long-term capacity to maintain and update the ACASA platform. The latter being essential given the constantly improving nature of our understanding of and predictions around climate and agriculture.
If this model of working has such advantages over “if you build it, they will come”, you might wonder why we do not use it in all cases. This approach requires divergence from business-as-usual for most researchers and is not without a cost. The BISA team are not only putting deep emphasis on the technical development of this product, but they are also spending considerable time, effort, and budget to create a program structure where the NARS are catalytic partners. The NARS teams are empowered on the project to contribute to methodologies used beyond their national boundaries, they have the task of making the best data available and validating the outputs, the responsibility of understanding and representing stakeholder requirements, and the ownership of their national platform for long-term use. BISA has developed a structure of accountability, provided funding, facilitated team-wide and theme-specific workshops, and shared decision-making power, which all presents additional work.
In the end, we encouraged this approach because we see too many decision support tools and platforms developed by international researchers who merely consult with users a few times during a project. These efforts may result in building captivating products, meeting all the needs brainstormed by the research team, but their future is sitting in a dusty (and unfortunately crowded) corner of the internet. While this approach seems fast and efficient, the efficiency is zero if there is no value gained from the output. So, we look for other ways to operate and engage with partners, to work within existing systems, and to move beyond theoretically useful products to ones that are used to address needs and can be evolved as those needs change. BISA has been an exemplary partner in building and supporting a strong ACASA team, and we are eager to see how each NARS partner leverages the ACASA product to generate impact for small-scale producers.
Tess Russo is a senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, based in Seattle, United States.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has experienced the worst impacts of climate change on agriculture over the past decades and projections show such effects are going to intensify in the coming years. Diminished agricultural production has been the primary impact channel given the high reliance on rainfed agriculture in the region. Combined with a growing population, food security for millions of people is threatened.
Conservation Agriculture (CA) is a sustainable cropping system that can help reverse soil degradation, augment soil health, increase crop yields, and reduce labor requirements while helping smallholder farmers adapt to climate change. It is built on three core principles of minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention, and crop diversification.
CA was introduced in southern Africa in the 1990s, but its adoption has been patchy and often associated with commercial farming. A group of researchers, led by Christian Thierfelder, principal cropping systems agronomist at CIMMYT, set out to understand the reasons why smallholder farmers adopt CA, or why they might not or indeed dis-adopt. Their results were published in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems on March 12, 2024.
Conservation Agriculture plot. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“Conservation Agriculture can cushion farmers from the effects of climate change through its capacity to retain more soil water in response to high water infiltration and increased soil organic carbon. It is therefore a viable option to deal with increased heat and drought stress,” said Thierfelder. However, even with these benefits, adoption of CA has not been as widespread in countries like Malawi.
“There are regions within Malawi where CA has been promoted for a long time, also known as sentinel sites,” said Thierfelder. “In such places, adoption is rising, indicating that farmers are realizing the benefits of CA over time. Examining adoption dynamics in sentinel sites can provide valuable lessons on scaling CA and why some regions experience large rates of non- or dis-adoption.”
Thierfelder and his co-authors, Innocent Pangapanga-Phiri of the Center for Agricultural Research and Development (CARD) of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), and Hambulo Ngoma, scientist and agricultural economist at CIMMYT, examined the Nkhotakota district in central Malawi, one of the most promising examples of widespread CA adoption.
Total LandCare (TLC), a regional NGO working in Malawi has been consistently promoting CA in tandem with CIMMYT in the Nkhotakota district since 2005.
Results from both individual farmer interviews and focused group discussions revealed that farmers that implement CA saw higher yields per hectare than those who practiced conventional tillage practices. In addition, farmers using CA indicated greater resilience in times of drought, improved soil fertility, and reduced pest infestation.
Why adopt CA?
The primary factors enhancing CA adoption in the Nkhotakota district were the availability of training, extension and advisory services, and demonstration plots by the host farmers. Host farmers are farmers that have been trained by a TLC extension officer and have their own plot of land to demonstrate CA methods. In addition, host farmers train other farmers and share knowledge and skills through farmer field days and other local agricultural exhibitions.
“Social networks among the farmers serve a vital role in CA adoption,” said Ngoma. “Seeing tangible success carries significant weight for non-adopter farmers or temporal dis-adopters which can persuade them to adopt.”
Maize demonstration plot. (Photo: CIMMYT)
During focus group discussions facilitated by the authors, farmers indicated that demonstration plots also removed fear for the unknown and debunked some myths regarding CA systems, for example, that practitioners show ‘laziness’ if they do not conventionally till their land.
“This suggests that CA uptake could be enhanced with increased, targeted, and long-term promotion efforts that include demonstration plots,” said Ngoma.
Similarly, the longer duration of CA exposure positively influenced farmers’ decisions to adopt CA methods as longer exposure might allow farmers to better understand the benefits of CA practices.
Why not adopt CA?
Farmers reported socioeconomic, financial, and technical constraints to adopt CA. An example is that farmers might not have the labor and time available for weed control, a necessary step in the first few years after the transition to CA.
“Weed control is an important challenge during the early years of CA adoption and can be seen as the ‘Achilles heel’ of CA adoption,” said Thierfelder. CIMMYT scientists therefore focused a lot of research in recent years to find alternative weed control strategies based on integrated weed management (IWM) using chemical, biological, and mechanical control options.
Examining the stover in a maize plot. (Photo: CIMMYT)
In most cases, the benefits of CA adoption are seen only after 2 to 5 years. Having such a long-term view is not always possible for smallholder farmers, who often must make decisions based on current conditions and have immediate family obligations to meet.
As a contrast to adopters of CA, non-adopters reported a lack of knowledge about CA as a whole and a lack of specific technical knowledge needed to transition from more traditional methods to CA.
This scarcity of technical support is often due to the lack of strong agriculture extension support systems. Since CA adoption can be complex, capacity building of both farmers and extension agents can therefore foster adoption and implementation of CA. This reinforces that farmer-to-farmer approaches through host farmers could complement other sources of extension to foster adoption.
Next steps
The authors identified three policy recommendations to accelerate CA adoption. First, there is a need to continue promoting CA using farmer-centric approaches more consistently, e.g., the host farmer approach. Using a farmer-centered approach facilitates experiential learning and can serve as a motivation for peer-to-peer exchange and learning and can reduce misinformation. The host farmer approach can be augmented by mega-demonstrations to showcase CA implementation at scale. In addition, rapid and mass extension delivery can be enhanced by using digital technologies.
Second, CA promotion should allow farmers the time to experiment with different CA options before adoption. What remains unclear at the policy level is the types of incentives and support that can be given to farmers to encourage experimentation without creating economic dependence. NGOs and extension workers could help farmers deal with the weed pressure soon after converting from full to minimum tillage by providing herbicides and training.
Third, there is a need to build and strengthen farmer groups to facilitate easier access to training, to serve as conduits for incentive schemes such as payments for environmental services, and conditional input subsidies for CA farmers. Such market-smart incentives are key to induce initial adoption in the short term and to facilitate sustained adoption.
In a landmark initiative to bolster sustainable agriculture and food security, the consultative workshop ‘Bottlenecks to Expansion of Pearl and Finger Millets in Africa’ marked a pivotal step towards revitalizing millet cultivation across the continent. Spearheaded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in collaboration with CIMMYT and the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research (ISRA), a meeting held in Senegal united global experts to unlock the untapped potential of millets as a cornerstone of sustainable agriculture and food security in Africa.
The discussions included identifying the symptoms of the problem, underlying issues causing these symptoms, and the interventions needed to be implemented to address these issues. This collaborative efforts among national and international organizations including government bodies, research institutes, and NGOs, demonstrated the goal of revitalizing millet cultivation through partnerships.
A group photo of the participants in the ‘Bottlenecks to Expansion of Pearl and Finger Millets in Africa’ workshop in Senegal. (Photo: Marion Aluoch/CIMMYT)
The United Nations General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets to raise awareness of and direct policy attention to millets’ nutritional and health benefits and their suitability for cultivation under adverse and changing climatic conditions.
Long overlooked but brimming with potential, millets offer a sustainable solution for both farmers and consumers in terms of profitability, adaptability, and sustainability in farming, as well as healthier dietary options for consumers.
Lessons learned from India
India, a key player in millet production, provided valuable insights into millet cultivation and consumption, providing a potential model for Africa to emulate in its millet-related strategies.
To understand the growth of millets in India, the Indian Ambassador to Senegal, Naba Kumar Pal, highlighted the strategies used by the Indian government to raise awareness about millets as a nutritious cereal that contributes to food security and provides a nutritious dietary option aimed at eliminating hunger and improving nutrition in his opening remarks.
“The first step the government did was to rebrand millets from ‘coarse grains’ to ‘nutri-cereals’, a move that has significantly increased domestic consumption and market interest of millets in India,” said the ambassador.
Indian Ambassador to Senegal, Naba Kumar Pal, highlights the Indian government’s efforts to promote millets as a nutritional powerhouse. (Photo: Marion Aluoch/CIMMYT)
In Africa, millets are under appreciated and not utilized as crops. They are often labeled as a ‘poor man’s crop,’ ‘neglected crop,’ or ‘orphan crop’. The negative connotations have, among other areas, influenced consumers’ perceptions. By changing the vocabulary from demeaning to empowering, millets’ image can be transformed from an overlooked option to a crop of choice in Africa.
The workshop also delved into policy advocacy and commercialization efforts in India, and how these strategies could be replicated in African contexts. Tara Satyavati and Dayakar Rao, representing Indian institutions, shared insights on millet production, nutritional evaluation, and the development of value-added products. The importance of policy intervention, such as increasing the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for millets and including them in public meal programs in India, was discussed. These measures not only provided financial incentives to farmers but also increased accessibility and consumption among the general population.
The two asserted that “millets offer a sustainable solution for both farmers and consumers in terms of profitability, adaptability, and sustainability in farming, as well as healthier dietary options for consumers.”
Millets are adaptable to diverse climates, have low water requirements, and provide nutritional benefits. African countries, which face similar issues in terms of climate change and food security, can use millets as a crop to promote environmental sustainability and economic viability.
National and international collaborations
A panel discussion shed light on national and international initiatives that highlighted collaborative efforts in crop improvement and millet innovations. On the national level, Hamidou Diallo from the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Equipment, and Food Sovereignty of Senegal (MAERSA) outlined a multi-pronged approach for Senegal. These approaches included increasing millet production, providing high-quality seeds, equipping local producers with essential tools and equipment, providing fertilizers to farmers, and expanding the overall cultivated areas of millet. These efforts represent a focused approach to leveraging agricultural innovation in millets to improve livelihoods and income for small-scale farmers.
“Aligning with the needs of the local community ensures the initiatives are impactful and resonate with the agricultural landscape and community needs,” he emphasized.
Insights into the international initiatives included discussions on innovative initiatives in the Dryland Crop Program (DCP), presented by Dryland Crops Program Director and Wheat Program Director Kevin Pixley, included the establishment of the African Dryland Crops Improvement Network, gene editing, a legumes mining project and the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS) project, that will include millets as a prioritized crop.
“We need to find innovative ways to reach more farmers with options to improve their livelihood and popularize millets across different market segments,” said Pixley.
From left to right: Damaris Odeny (ICRISAT India), Geoff Morris (Colorado State University), Douglas Gayeton (co-founder of The Lexicon), Hamidou Diallo (MAERSA, Senegal), Kevin Pixley (director of the Dryland Crops Program), and Makiko Taguchi (FAO), engage in a panel discussion on the importance of national and international initiatives in promoting crop improvement and millet innovations, highlighting the collaborative spirit driving agricultural progress.
Other topics covered included insights from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) innovation lab on sorghum and millets, emphasizing the importance of African-led projects and addressing the knowledge gap between African and U.S. researchers.
Makiko Taguchi of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) emphasized the importance of global engagement in promoting millets as a sustainable and nutritious food source for global food security and agricultural development and highlighted the various initiatives and projects born of the International Year of Millets. Douglas Gayeton, co-founder of The Lexicon emphasized the role of effective messaging in changing people’s perceptions of millets. He underscored the importance of shifting away from terms like ‘neglected’ and ‘orphaned’ crops to more positive empowering language that resonates with consumers and policy makers.
CIMMYT’s role in dryland crop innovation
Recognizing the ever-evolving needs of society at large, CIMMYT began an initiative to advance research and broaden its impact by implementing the Dryland Crops Program. This approach is based on CIMMYT’s 2030 strategy, which will shape agriculture’s future as a driver of climate resilience, sustainable, and inclusive agricultural development, and food and nutrition security, all while meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Africa 2063 by promoting food security, improving nutrition, and mitigating the effects of climate change.
The meeting underscored the immense potential of millets in Africa to contribute to a resilient and nutritious future, reinforcing the need for continued collaboration, innovation, and investment in this vital crop. With the right mix of policy support, technological innovation and market development, millets could be the key to Africa’s resilient and sustainable agricultural future. The workshop concluded with a call to action for stakeholders to collaborate and implement innovative practices to enhance the growth of the millet sector in Africa.
From the densely lush landscape of Zambia’s northern province to the arid terrain of the south, a stark reality unfolds, intensified by El Niño. Zambia’s agriculture faces contrasting realities yet potential lies in adaptive strategies, a diversified crop basket, and collaborative initiatives which prioritize farmers. Despite persistent challenges with climate variability and uneven resource distribution, the country navigates unpredictable weather patterns, emphasizing the intricate interplay between environmental factors and adaptation strategies.
A healthy maize and groundnut stand in the northern Province (left) and a wilting maize crop in the southern Province (right). These photos were taken two days apart. (Photo: Blessing Mhlanga/CIMMYT)
Unpacking El Niño’s impact in Zambia
El Niño presents a common challenge to both southern and northern Zambia, albeit with varying degrees of intensity and duration. The 2022/2023 season had above normal rainfall amounts, with extreme weather events, from episodes of flash floods and flooding to prolonged dry spells, especially over areas in the south. In the 2023/2024 season, the southern region has already experienced irregular weather patterns, including prolonged droughts and extreme temperatures, leading to water scarcity, crop failures, and significant agricultural losses. Although the growing season is nearing its end, the region has only received less than one-third of the annual average rainfall (just about 250 mm). Dry spells of more than 30 days have been experienced and, in most cases, coincide with the critical growth stages of flowering and grain-filling. A glance at farmers’ fields paints a gloomy picture of the anticipated yield, but all hope is not lost.
In contrast, the northern province stands out receiving above-average rainfalls beyond 2,000 mm, providing a different set of challenges for crop production. In this region, incidences of waterlogging are prominent although the effects are not as detrimental as the drought in the southern province. In general, crops in the northern province promise a considerable harvest as compared to the ones in the southern province.
Maize stover and its competing use
The scarcity of resources in southern Zambia extends beyond water availability, with the competition for maize stover, a valuable byproduct used for animal feed which can also be retained on the soil surface for fertility improvement and soil moisture conservation. With limited access to alternative fodder sources, farmers face challenges in meeting the nutritional needs of their livestock while maintaining soil fertility and conserving moisture. The struggle to balance the competing demands for maize stover underscores the complex dynamics of resource management in the region. This is further worsened by the low maize stover yield expected due to the dry conditions.
Implementing fodder trials, which include cultivating fodder crops like mucuna and lablab, intercropped or rotated with maize, offers a lifeline to farmers. While maize crops may wilt under the stress of El Niño-induced droughts, leguminous crops such as mucuna, lablab, cowpea, and groundnuts exhibit resilience, thriving in adverse conditions and providing a crucial source of food, feed, soil cover, and income for farmers. The ability of legumes to withstand environmental stressors highlights the importance of crop diversification in building resilience to climate change and ensuring food security in vulnerable regions.
Conversely, in northern Zambia, the abundance of agricultural resources allows for a more sustainable utilization of maize stover. Farmers have greater access to fodder alternatives and can implement integrated farming practices to optimize the use of crop residues. This enables them to mitigate the adverse effects of soil degradation and enhance livestock productivity, contributing to the resilience of their agricultural systems.
Use of more climate-smart crops
Drought-tolerant cassava grown in the northern province. (Photo: CIMMYT)
In southern Zambia, maize stands as the main crop, often supplemented with the integration of some leguminous crops integrated to some extent, to diversify the agricultural landscape. However, the relentless and longevity grip of El Niño has taken a negative toll on maize production, despite efforts to cultivate drought-tolerant varieties. As the dry spell persists, maize plants at the critical tasseling and silking stage face an uphill battle, as the dry and hot air has adversely impacted pollen and silk development.
The dissimilarity with the northern province, where cassava thrives from abundant water, is striking. This resilient crop, known for its drought tolerance, presents a promising alternative for farmers in the southern province grappling with erratic rainfall patterns. As climate change continues to challenge traditional agricultural practices, exploring resilient crops like cassava may offer a lifeline for communities striving to adapt and thrive amidst adversity.
The SIFAZ project is designed around the idea that strip crops and intercrops can add nutritional and economic value to Conservation Agriculture (CA) systems for smallholder farmers in Zambia. While traditional yield metrics provide some insight across the several intercropping treatments being tested on-farm, the true benefits of these cropping systems extend beyond mere output. SIFAZ recognizes the diversification synergy, emphasizing that “two crops are better than one.”
However, the outcomes of the SIFAZ project and the CGIAR Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa have varied over the years between the two regions, reflecting the discrepancy in their agricultural landscapes.
Notably, regional differences in the adoption and success of these cropping systems have become apparent. In the northern province, crop-centric approaches prevail, leading to a higher concentration of successful crop farmers. Meanwhile, in the southern province, mixed systems that incorporate mixed crop-livestock systems achieve desirable effects. These findings highlight the importance of tailoring agricultural interventions to suit the specific needs and conditions of diverse farming communities.
Navigating the complex challenges of climate change requires a multifaceted approach that acknowledges the unique realities of different regions. By embracing adaptive strategies, harnessing indigenous knowledge, and fostering collaborative partnerships, Zambia can forge a path towards a more resilient and sustainable agricultural future, where farmers thrive despite the uncertainties of a changing climate.
