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Naeela Qureshi is a wheat rust pathologist and molecular geneticist at CIMMYT in Mexico, facilitating extensive research on wheat rust in Mexico and Kenya. Her role is critical in supporting the breeding and physiology teams of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program. She also focuses on unraveling the genetic components of rust resistance through Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) mapping. Naeela uses advanced bi-parental recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations and develops molecular markers linked to rust resistance genes and QTL to improve marker-assisted breeding strategies.
Previously, Naeela was a Research Scientist-Molecular Genetics at Agriculture Victoria Research, Australia, specializing in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies such as targeted genotyping by sequencing (tGBS), RNA sequencing, and amplicon resequencing across diverse genetic populations and lines. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australia.
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Dragan Milic is responsible for providing support to the National Agriculture Research Systems (NARS) in Africa, assisting them in the development of breeding improvement plans aimed at delivering increased genetic gains for smallholder farmers. These enhancement strategies will specifically target product profiles, optimization of breeding schemes, utilization of genotyping, automation, mechanization, appropriate breeding software, and establishment of connections with seed producers.
MiliÄ also extends support to national breeding teams in African countries, implementing a comprehensive internal breeding pipeline optimization plan supported by the Excellence in Breeding platform. Furthermore, he assists national partners in integrating and establishing breeding networks with CGIAR institutes and regional and national collaborators.
Before joining CIMMYT, Dragan MiliÄ spent his professional career at the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops (IFVCNS) in Novi Sad, Serbia. He served as the Head of the Forage Breeding team at IFVCNS and possesses over 20 years of experience in breeding, seed production, and leadership in conventional and molecular alfalfa/forage breeding. Dragan MiliÄ has been a visiting scientist at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and UC Davis through different scholarships funded by the Serbian and US governments.
His main expertise is related to forage and grain legumes breeding, field-based experiment phenotyping, legume genetics, and forage and grain legumes seed systems. He was involved in defining strategies based on conventional and molecular breeding efforts towards variety selection and the development of improved forage/alfalfa germplasm for Southern East Europe and Asia. Dragan is the author of many alfalfa/grain legumes varieties released in Serbia, Belarus, Morocco, Turkey, Ukraine, and the EU.
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Lennin Musundire is responsible for supporting the National Agriculture Research Systems (NARS) in Africa to develop breeding improvement plans to deliver higher genetic gains targeted at smallholder farmers. These improvement plans will focus on product profiles, breeding scheme optimization, use of genotyping, automation, mechanization, appropriate breeding software and links with seed producers. Provides support to national breeding teams in African countries, implements an all-inclusive internal breeding pipeline optimization plan supported by the Excellence in Breeding platform as well as supports national partners to integrate and build breeding networks with CGIAR institutes and regional, national partners.
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Peter Setimela is CIMMYT Country Representative for Zambia and Legume Seed Systems Lead for the AID- Project.
Setimela is a seed systems scientist with over 20 years of experience in CG centers, universities, and national agricultural research institutes.
A credible and innovative scientist with strong technical, commercial, and financial acumen and extensive experience in leading multi-cultural teams to deliver ground-breaking agricultural initiatives primarily in the Eastern and Southern African regions. Demonstrates a comprehensive portfolio of skills including research and development, technology scaling, program management, advocacy, partnerships, capacity building, logistics, team leadership, operations, fundraising, and training. An adaptable and resilient leader with strong communication and influencing skills and the ability to unite diverse agendas to achieve outstanding results.
CIMMYT stands out for its role in agricultural innovation, demonstrated through the dedicated research of visiting Chinese scholar Wang Hui. Her tenure at CIMMYT underscores the center’s pivotal role in driving agricultural advancements through international partnerships, significantly contributing to global food security and scientific development.
Ethiopia is the largest wheat producer in East Africa, with about 65% share of the total wheat production in sub-Saharan Africa. The area under wheat increased from about 1.5 million hectares in 2010 to 2.5 million hectares in 2023. More importantly, the productivity increased from 1.8 tons per hectare to about 3 tons per hectare in the same period, implying an increase of about 5% per annum in productivity (See Figure 1).
Several factors have contributed to this spectacular increase in productivity, including better farm practices implemented through clustering farmers land to reduce production costs, and introducing new, improved varieties which enable farmers to withstand challenges of crop diseases.
Figure 1: Wheat grain yield trends in Ethiopia by decade, 1960 to 2022 (USDA data).
A DNA finger printing study found that about 87% of the wheat area in Ethiopia comprises of varieties developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). In 2023, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) released six new wheat varieties of CIMMYT origin aimed for the mid to highlands (> 1800 meters above sea level) and lowlands (< 1800 masl) of the country. âThese newly released varieties provide options for farmers to face devastating rust diseases and at the same time obtain higher productivity,â said wheat breeder Leonardo Crespo.
Gadisa Alemu, wheat breeder based in EIAR, Kulumsa, added that the CIMMYT varieties were tested in farmersâ fields prior to release. âThis allows participating farmers to have quicker access to seed of selected varieties,â he said.
Wheat breeders . The aim was to obtain additional insights into the activities of CIMMYTâs partners and co-design a strategy that allows early evaluation and access to CIMMYT germplasm by national partners in Ethiopia. The team visited research centers in Holetta (highlands), Debre Zeit and, Kulumsa (midlands), and Arsi Negele (lowlands). Kulumsa, together with the highlands of Meraro and Asasa plains, represent about 60-70% of the wheat area in Ethiopia. Â âThese are important sites for wheat breeding activities in Ethiopia. Given that Holetta and Debre Zeit are hot spots for diseases, there is an increased interest in the Arsi Negele region to expand wheat production under irrigated conditions,â said Bekele Abeyo, wheat breeder and CIMMYTâs Ethiopia Country Representative.
AGG Maize and Wheat Improvement Teams Meet with Partners to Develop CG-NARES Breeding Strategy
In the first fortnight of September 2023, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and National Agriculture Research and Extension System (NARES) met in Nairobi, Kenya to create high-level strategies and guiding principles for CG-NARES breeding activities. This is in alignment with the âGenetic Innovationsâ initiative of the One CGIAR strategy. CIMMYT representation included breeding teams from the wheat, maize, and dryland crops. The meetings were organized by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CIMMYTâs Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project team.
It was recognized that the aforesaid strategies and principles need to be based on the biology of the crops and the context of each breeding program; incorporate the logistics of the breeding operations; and implement data driven tools for decision making such as genomic selection.
Participants shared how the application of novel and innovative technologies shortens the breeding cycles, accelerates the rate of genetic gain, and provides tools to enable the evaluation of plant materials (future variety candidates) and future target environments where these varieties will be grown.
It was concluded that effective breeding networks can be a strong instrument to enable faster delivery of improved germplasm to farmers. For this to happen efficiently, the networks require a high degree of coordination, organizational structure, governance, and clarity of roles. âIt is fundamental for network members to agree the objectives, vision and expected outcomes of collaborative activities. This forms the basis for co-design and co-implementation of crop improvement plansâ said Kevin Pixley, Interim Director of the Global Wheat Program and Director of the Dryland Crops Program.
The meeting also served as a platform for AGGâs and dryland cropâs breeding teams to exchange ideas and experiences. For instance, the Maize team shared their experience and learnings from on-farm-testing activities. The Wheat team shared the evolution and path of breeding modernization and implementation of new technologies. The Dryland Crops team shared their experience with co-designing and co-implementing breeding networks with NARES partners in Africa.
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Zerihun Tadesse is an associate scientist in the Global Wheat Program based in Mexico. His research focus is on developing and implementing modern breeding strategies to accelerate genetic gain in bread wheat populations. His goal is to develop high-yielding, early maturing, disease-resistant, and nutritious bread wheat lines for large target areas in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Harish Gandhi is a Breeding Lead for Dryland Legumes and Cereals in CIMMYT’s Genetic Resources program in Kenya. He is a transformative plant breeding and genetics professional, with more than 15 years experience of driving genetic gains, building effective teams, and pioneering innovative research and development.
David Omar Gonzalez Dieguez is a Post-Doctoral Fellow – Molecular Pre-Breeder in the Global Wheat Program at CIMMYT. He leads the application and integration of molecular tools in research and pre-breeding activities in wheat physiology.
In the research context, Dieguez focuses on the genetic basis of physiological traits related to yield components and climate resilience for yield potential, heat, and drought adaptation by performing GWAS analyses for gene/marker/QTL discovery and establishing marker validation for pre-breeding and breeding application to assist stacking of complementary physiological and agronomic traits.
In the pre-breeding context, Dieguez conducts the application and integration of genomic-assisted breeding tools (i.e. MAS/MABC and GS) at appropriate stages of the pre-breeding pipeline to support pre-breederâs decisions for selecting lines for yield potential and tolerance to heat and drought stress and for trait introgression.
Shubham Bhagat is currently working on the Climate Resilience Agriculture program and has expertise in agriculture mechanization and equipment, remote sensing, drone usage and farmer welfare programs, and research on varieties development.
Thanks to the support of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE, in Spanish), the National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP, in Spanish) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), these courses contributed to the development of a biosafety project, supported by GEF and UNEP, to complete the implementation process of the Cartagena Protocol through an innovative approach that promotes a strong link between biotechnology and biodiversity. In addition, it sought to strengthen capacities in the performance and interpretation of molecular analyses and promote the generational change that is gradually taking place in this Central American country.
ICTA seed production leaders and CIMMYT course facilitators. (Photo: CIMMYT)
At the same time, Alberto Chassaigne, curator of the Maize Collection of CIMMYTâs germplasm bank, participated in the course on Genetic Resources and Management of Germplasm Banks. He explained the management of CIMMYTâs germplasm bank, the processes that are carried out and the partnerships with ICTA on work with community seed banks and the plans of both institutions for 2023. Also, as a specialist in Seed Systems, Chassaigne and Ubaldo Marcos, research assistant in CIMMYTâs Maize Seed Systems area, gave a course on Maize Seed Production. This course was aimed at staff in charge of the production of basic and certified seed at ICTA. This course concluded with a field day at the Regional Research Center of the South (CISUR, in Spanish), Cuyuta, Escuintla, where participants asked the specialists questions while visiting a maize seed production plot.
Food crops and animal feeds produced through biotechnology innovations can now be imported into Kenya after the ban on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was lifted.
Kenyan scientists and research institutions are now able to develop crop varieties that will benefit farmers and their communities.
In a landmark statement on October 3, the Cabinet said: âIn accordance with the recommendation of the Task Force to review matters relating to GMOs and Food Safety, and in fidelity with the guidelines of the National Biosafety Authority (NBA) on all applicable international treaties including the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB), Cabinet vacated its earlier decision of 8th November 2012 prohibiting the open cultivation of GMOs and the importation of food crops and animal feeds produced through biotechnology innovations; effectively lifting the ban on GMOs. By dint of the executive action open cultivation and importation of white (GMO) maize is now authorized.â
The Gene Editing for Reducing Aflatoxin in Groundnuts project seeks to advance safer and nutritious groundnut varieties with durable genetic resistance to Aspergilli infection and aflatoxin contamination via gene editing. These new technologies will help address associated health and disease burdens, malnutrition, and trade and economic losses for smallholder farming communities in sub-Saharan Africa and globally. The main output of this project will be gene-edited varieties with reduced levels of aflatoxins.
