Tag: hubs

The other revolution that was born in Mexico: The legacy of sustainable transformation and its new roots

Written by dmedina on December 3, 2024. Posted in Blogs.

Members of the Maíz Criollo Kantunil group next to a plot of land cultivated using sustainable practices (Photo: Jenifer Morales/CIMMYT)

The Mexican Revolution was not the only transformative movement to emerge in Mexico. Another profound transformation began in the Mexican countryside, and today, far from guns, today it continues to drive a more peaceful and resilient society through the integration of science, innovation and ancestral knowledge.

In the 1960s, Mexico set a precedent for global agricultural change. Today, that movement has evolved into a sustainability approach that responds to today’s challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss and the need to ensure food security. Under CIMMYT’s leadership, the Hub model has established itself as a key tool for delivering scientific solutions to producers, strengthening resilient and sustainable agricultural systems.

At CIMMYT, we believe that ensuring food security means not only producing healthier food but also conserving natural resources such as soil and water and promoting the well-being of farmers and their communities. Through the Hub model, we have promoted practices such as the sustainable management of staple crops such as maize and related crops, and the use of strategies to strengthen the seed system to meet the challenges of the agricultural sector.

A clear example of this approach is the Maíz Criollo Kantunil group in Yucatán. Led by Edgar Miranda, this collective of eight families has adopted innovative practices such as regenerative agriculture, efficient water use and agroecological pest management. By linking with the Hub model, the group has been able to conserve native seeds, strengthen local agroecology and generate social and productive benefits for their community.

“Our main objective is that the next generations will have seeds available to meet their food needs,” said Edgar Miranda. “We work with sustainable practices that allow us to conserve our resources and produce healthy crops,” he added.

In addition to supporting producers, the Hub model fosters associativity and community participation, essential pillars for building inclusive and resilient food systems. These activities are in line with national initiatives such as strengthening production chains, but also reflect CIMMYT’s commitment to a global approach to sustainable development.

CIMMYT’s strategy in Mexico not only supports producers in transforming their agricultural systems, but also promotes strategic alliances with public and private actors. These collaborations strengthen the integration of scientific solutions and sustainable practices, stimulate innovation in rural communities, and promote resilience to the challenges of climate change. With an approach based on science, inclusiveness and continuous learning, CIMMYT continues to contribute to building a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous future for Mexico and the world.

Agricultural knowledge management framework for innovation (AKM4I) in agri-food systems. (Graphic: CIMMYT)

A knowledge revolution

Written by Ricardo Curiel on March 12, 2021. Posted in News.

The key to transforming food production systems globally lies in knowledge management processes, according to a team of researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

The challenge is to combine traditional knowledge with state-of-the-art scientific research: to meet regional needs for improvement in farming systems with knowledge networks fostering innovative practices and technologies that increase yields and profits sustainably.

A group of CIMMYT researchers led by Andrea Gardeazábal, Information and Communications Technology for Agriculture Monitoring and Evaluation Manager, recently published a proposal for a new knowledge management framework for agri-food innovation systems: Agricultural Knowledge Management for Innovation (AKM4I).

“We are proposing a knowledge management framework for agricultural innovation that addresses the need for more inclusive and environmentally sustainable food production systems that are able to provide farmers and consumers with affordable and healthy diets within planetary boundaries,” Gardeazábal said.

The AKM4I framework was designed to help agricultural development practitioners understand how farming skills and abilities are developed, tested and disseminated to improve farming systems in real-life conditions.

Following systems theory principles, the model empirically describes how information is created, acquired, stored, analyzed, integrated and shared to advance farming knowledge and produce innovative outcomes that effectively contribute to: collaboratively building local capacities for developing joint problem-solving abilities and integrated-knowledge solutions; empowering farmers with site-specific knowledge; co-creating technology and conducting participatory community-based research; and bridging innovation barriers to drive institutional change.

Knowledge access for systems transformation

Schematic illustration of CIMMYT's knowledge and technology development networks, or hubs, for sustainable maize and wheat production systems. (Graphic: CIMMYT) — Schematic illustration of CIMMYT’s knowledge and technology development networks, or hubs, for sustainable maize and wheat production systems. (Graphic: CIMMYT)

The framework builds on CIMMYT’s learnings from MasAgro, a bilateral project with Mexico that relies on participatory research and knowledge and technology development networks for sustainable maize and wheat production systems.

This CIMMYT project was recently acknowledged with the 2020 Innovative Applications in Analytics Award for developing groundbreaking monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) systems and tools for publicly funded researchers and field technicians who advise more than 150,000 farmers in Mexico.

“Through the outlined principles and processes, the AKM4I framework can assist in closing the cycle of continually re-creating knowledge, evaluating and iterating upon innovations, building coalitions to democratize knowledge access and utilization, and using MEAL to facilitate course-correction of all stages of knowledge management,” concludes the study.

Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT Chief Operating Officer, Deputy Director General for Research and Integrated Development Program Director, believes the AKM4I framework should be the cornerstone of agri-food systems transformation, including the current reformation of CGIAR’s partnerships, knowledge, assets, and global presence.

“The MasAgro hub and knowledge management model will become the operational model of many regional initiatives of CGIAR,” Govaerts said.

Read the study:
Knowledge management for innovation in agri-food systems: a conceptual framework

Ortiz Hernández, manager of CIMMYT’s innovation hub in Bajío, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Breaking Ground: Erick Ortiz Hernández innovates regional solutions for greater impact

Written by Leslie Domínguez on August 21, 2020. Posted in Features.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) operates 11 hubs — nodes of innovation — in Mexico, supported by a portfolio of projects including MasAgro. These hubs are perfectly defined by the agro-ecological conditions of the territory in which they are located, and their main aim is innovation management focused on sustainable and resilient agri-food systems.

The Bajío Hub — which includes the central states of Guanajuato, Michoacán and Querétaro — is directed by Erick Ortiz Hernández, who through integrated management, seeks to improve farmers’ livelihoods working hand in hand with a large network of stakeholders, promoting and validating sustainable and scalable technologies.

Ortiz Hernández joined CIMMYT in 2010 as a collaborator in the state of Michoacán, where he trained and certified technicians, and managed the first modules and platforms of the MasAgro project. That experience allowed him to become the manager of the Yucatan Peninsula Hub, in southeastern Mexico, in 2015. After three years of serving in the state of Guanajuato, he has recently taken a management position at the Bajío Hub.

Growing up in a rural community of less than a thousand people in the state of Puebla, Ortiz Hernández was familiar with agriculture from a young age. However, he considers that his decision to pursue a career in agronomy was unplanned. It was when he got into the agronomy-engineering program at the Chapingo Autonomous University — one of the most prestigious institutions in agricultural studies in Mexico — that he realized how drawn he was to plant production, choosing it as his specialty.

“As a Chapingo student, you know that CIMMYT is one of the most relevant research institutions not only in Mexico, but internationally,” says Ortiz Hernández. “To be honest, when I graduated, I would never have imagined that I could be part of this great team.”

Tailored sustainability

Currently, he coordinates and manages the operation of different projects at the Bajío Hub, working with both the public and private sectors. All of them operate under the same objectives: to monitor and address activities in the value chain to improve production systems, produce more with less through conservation agriculture and precision farming practices, and achieve a successful association with the market.

One of these projects is Cultivando un México Mejor [Cultivating a Better Mexico], in partnership with Heineken Mexico. Through CIMMYT’s research and the implementation of improved management practices, experts explore the requirements for the sustainable management of water used in the daily cultivation process.

These actions are of utmost importance, since every year the region’s water tables are affected by the excessive use of water. Around 80% of the consumption of this natural resource is used for farming activities.

Ortiz Hernández explains that the production of 2.2 pounds of wheat in the region can require 1,500 liters of water on average. However, he and his team have shown that water consumption can be reduced by 30-50% by implementing practices that save water without decreasing yields and, ideally, with low production costs.

Ortiz Hernández in a wheat field in Guanajuato where sustainable and climate-smart practices are implemented. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT) — Ortiz Hernández in a barley field in Guanajuato where sustainable and climate-smart practices are implemented. (Photo: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)

Linking for success

The Bajío Hub also manages MasAgro Guanajuato, a collaboration project between the government of state of Guanajuato and CIMMYT. Its aim is to support the technological improvement of conventional agri-food production, in order to implement actions of diagnosis, design, validation, demonstration and induction to the use of sustainable technological innovations.

One of the current situations faced by this program is that farmers in the area either broadcast or leave the fertilizer on the surface, resulting in an inefficient use. The technical team identified this problem and the possibility of mitigating it, by creating collaborative links with leading companies in the manufacture of agricultural machinery in the state, to design and produce a tool that meets this purpose.

“By working on a territorial innovation management approach, we get stakeholders to provide what is needed for farmers to access and adopt appropriate technology,” explains Ortiz Hernández. “What we expect from this type of project is not only to benefit the 500 or 1,000 farmers with whom we work directly, but to scale up and multiply those numbers generating an impact in the region through partnerships and alliances.”

Ortiz Hernández sees his management role as a strategic one, in which he has the flexibility to innovate by working with his team to generate efficient models, processes and tools. He can also propose and manage activities with different stakeholders in the region, so they can join in or align common objectives.

“There is no better moment than when farmers are harvesting and you see a smile on their faces due to the good results. When you know you contributed, even a little, you feel good and you come home happy,” says Ortiz Hernández.

One of his personal goals, and something he tries to incorporate into any project, is to create awareness of farmers’ major role in global food security. “We have to see farmers for what they really are: the people who ensure that food reaches our tables and who guarantee its quantity and quality. It is vital to recognize their daily efforts.”