A new fact sheet captures the impact of CIMMYT after six decades of maize and wheat research in Pakistan.
Dating back to the 1960s, the research partnership between Pakistan and CIMMYT has played a vital role in improving food security for Pakistanis and for the global spread of improved crop varieties and farming practices.
Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and first director of CIMMYT wheat research, kept a close relationship with the nation’s researchers and policymakers. CIMMYT’s first training course participant from Pakistan, Manzoor A. Bajwa, introduced the high-yielding wheat variety “Mexi-Pak” from CIMMYT to help address the national food security crisis. Pakistan imported 50 tons of Mexi-Pak seed in 1966, the largest seed purchase of its time, and two years later became the first Asian country to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat, with a national production of 6.7 million tons.
CIMMYT researchers in Pakistan examine maize cobs. (Photo: CIMMYT)
In 2019 Pakistan harvested 26 million tons of wheat, which roughly matches its annual consumption of the crop.
In line with Pakistan’s National Food Security Policy and with national partners, CIMMYT contributes to Pakistan’s efforts to intensify maize- and wheat-based cropping in ways that improve food security, raise farmers’ income, and reduce environmental impacts. This has helped Pakistani farmers to figure among South Asia’s leaders in adopting improved maize and wheat varieties, zero tillage for sowing wheat, precision land leveling, and other innovations.
With funding from USAID, since 2013 CIMMYT has coordinated the work of a broad network of partners, both public and private, to boost the productivity and climate resilience of agri-food systems for wheat, maize, and rice, as well as livestock, vegetable, and fruit production.
Some of Mexico’s favorite dishes are taking on a new hue with blue corn chips, blue tortillas or blue tamales. But should breeders, millers, processors and farmer organizations invest in expanding the production of blue maize and blue maize products? Are consumers really interested, and are they willing to pay more?
CIMMYT markets and value chain specialist Trent Blare explains, in one minute, the results of his study, which gives insight into Mexican consumers’ preferences and demand for blue maize tortillas. Consumers near Mexico City perceived blue maize tortillas to taste better and were willing to pay up to a third more to buy them for special family events or to consume them in a restaurant .
Four scientists from the CIMMYT community have been included in the Highly Cited Researchers list for 2019, Published by the Web of Science Group, a Clarivate Analytics company.
The list identifies scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant influence through publication of multiple papers, highly cited by their peers, during the last decade. For the 2019 list, analysts surveyed papers published and cited during 2008-2018 which ranked in the top 1% by citations for their ESI field and year.
Researchers are selected for their exceptional research performance in one of 21 fields, or across several fields.
This year’s recipients affiliated with CIMMYT include:
José Crossa: Cross-field category. CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist at the Biometrics and Statistics Unit with the Genetic Resources Program.
Julio Huerta: Cross-field category. CIMMYT-seconded INIFAP wheat breeder and rust geneticist.
Ravi Prakash Singh: Agricultural Sciences category. CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist and Head of Bread Wheat Improvement.
It is a significant honor to be part of this list, as it indicates that their peers have consistently acknowledged the influence of their research contributions in their publications and citations.
“Congratulations and thanks to these colleagues for effectively communicating their excellent science, multiplying CIMMYT’s impact by influencing thousands of readers in the international research community,” said CIMMYT Genetic Resources Program Director Kevin Pixley.
Step into supermarkets or restaurants in Mexico City and surrounding towns and you might see products made from blue maize — food which would not have been available just a few years ago. Some of Mexico’s favorite dishes are taking on a new hue with blue corn chips, blue tortillas or blue tamales. But should breeders, millers, processors and farmer organizations invest in expanding the production of blue maize and blue maize products? Are consumers really interested, and are they willing to pay more?
These are some of the questions researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico set out to answer. They set up study to test consumer preferences and willingness to pay for this blue maize tortillas.
Maize is a main staple crop in Mexico and tortillas form the base of many traditional dishes. Blue maize varieties have existed for thousands of years, but until recently they were mostly unknown outside of the farming communities that grew them. In addition to its striking color, the grain has gained popularity partly due to its health benefits derived from anthocyanin, the blue pigment which contains antioxidants.
Trent Blare (left), economist at CIMMYT and leader of the study, conducts a choice experiment with interviewee Luis Alcantara. (Photo: Carolyn Cowan/CIMMYT)
“Demand for blue maize has skyrocketed in the past few years,” said Trent Blare, economist at CIMMYT and the leader of the research.” Three years ago, white and blue maize sold at the same price. One year ago, blue maize cost just a few Mexican pesos more, and now blue maize is worth significantly more. However, we still lack information on consumer demand and preferences.”
According to Blare, the end goal of the study is to explore the demand for blue maize and try to better understand its market potential. “If we want farmers who grow blue maize to be able to get better market value, we have to know what the market looks like.”
This research received funding from Mexico’s Agency for Commercialization Services and Agricultural Market Development (ASERCA), which has been working with farmer organizations on post-harvest storage solutions for their maize. As blue maize is softer than typical white or yellow varieties, it requires special storage to protect it against insects and damage. In order to help provide farmers with the correct maize storage technology, ASERCA and others in Mexico will benefit from a deeper understanding of the market for blue maize in the region. In addition, researchers were interested to know if there is a premium for growing blue maize, or for making tortillas by hand. Premiums could help convince farmers to invest in post-harvest technologies and in the production of blue maize.
“There is this idea that demand should come from producers, but there are many steps along the maize value chain. We’re basically going backwards in the value chain: is there demand, is there a market, going all the way from the consumer back to the farmer,” Blare explained.
“There was an interesting gender aspect to this research: it was mostly women buying and making these maize-based foods, and women were more willing to pay a premium for blue maize,” said Miriam Perez (right), research assistant and interviewer. (Photo: Carolyn Cowan/CIMMYT)
A matter of taste
The study was conducted in Texcoco, just outside of Mexico City, where CIMMYT’s global headquarters are based. This town in the State of Mexico was chosen because of its long history growing and consuming blue maize. Interviews were held in three different locations, a local traditional market and two local shopping malls, in order to ensure that different socioeconomic groups were included.
“There is a certain pride in the blue tortilla. As Mexicans, the tortilla is something that brings us together,” said Mariana Garcia Medina, research assistant and interviewer. (Photo: Carolyn Cowan)
The team interviewed 640 consumers, asking questions such as where do they buy different types of tortillas, in which dishes they use different types of tortillas and if they faced difficulties in purchasing their preferred tortilla. The team also conducted sensory analysis and attributes, and gave study participants a choice between handmade blue maize tortillas, handmade white maize tortillas, and machine-made white maize tortillas.
The interviewees were given three different scenarios. Would they be willing to pay more for blue tortillas compared to other tortillas if eating quesadillas at a restaurant? To serve during a special event or visit from a family member? For everyday use?
The answers allowed researchers to quantify how much more consumers were willing to pay and in what circumstance, as they were given different price points for different types of tortillas in different scenarios.
True colors
The researchers found that preferences for blue and white maize were distinct for different dishes, and that there was a particular preference for blue maize when used in traditional dishes from this region, such as tlacoyos or barbacoa. A majority of consumers was willing to pay more for higher quality tortillas regardless of the color, as long as they were made handmade and fresh from locally grown maize. Interviewers also saw a noticeable difference in preference for blue tortillas depending on the situation: blue tortillas are demanded more for special occasions and in traditional markets.
“I found it fascinating that there is a difference in blue maize consumption based on the circumstance in which you are eating it.” Blare said. “This is one of the innovations in our demand study — not analyzing the demand for a food product in general but analyzing differences in demand for a product in different contexts, which is important as food is such an important component for celebrations.”
“We think there is potential to replicate this in other places in Mexico, to see consumer preference and price willingness for blue maize and other value-added maize products,” said Jason Donovan, senior economist at CIMMYT. “This will not just inform farmers and markets but also how to do this kind of research, especially in middle-income economies. This study is the first of its kind.”
“As a Colombian, it really surprised me that Mexicans were able to distinguish between white and blue maize tortillas even when blindfolded! It really shows the importance of maize to their diet and culture,” said Diana Ospina Rojas (left), research assistant and interviewer. (Photo: Carolyn Cowan/CIMMYT)
Still got the blue
Overall, the results revealed that women were willing to pay 33% more for blue maize tortillas while men were willing to pay 19% more. For every additional year of education, a consumer was willing to pay 1% more for blue maize tortillas. Interestingly, a person’s income had no effect on her or his willingness to pay for more blue maize tortillas. Many people interviewed expressed a preference for blue maize, but commented that they cannot always find it in local markets.
The information collected in these choice experiments will help farmers, breeders, and other actors along the maize value chain make more informed decisions on how to best provide blue maize varieties to the public — and give consumers what they want.
“It was a very interesting experience, I’ve never participated in a survey like this before and I think it is important to take the time to think about our decisions about food,” said Brenda Lopez, one of the interviewees in the choice experiment. Lopez preferred the handmade tortillas, especially those made with blue maize. “I think they have more flavor,” she said. “I just bought handmade tortillas in the market before participating in this survey, but I had to buy white because there was no blue available.”
Another interviewee, Luis Alcantara, agreed. “I prefer blue because of the flavor, the texture, even the smell,” he said. “At home we eat machine-made tortillas because it is hard to find handmade tortillas, and even if you do, they are not blue. We would buy blue if we could.”
Cover photo: Blue maize tortillas (Photo: Luis Figueroa)
Visitors at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Obregon, Mexico, where elite wheat lines are tested for new traits.
For a number of reasons, including limited interdisciplinary collaboration and a dearth of funding, revolutionary new plant research findings are not being used to improve crops.
“Translational research” — efforts to convert basic research knowledge about plants into practical applications in crop improvement — represents a necessary link between the world of fundamental discovery and farmers’ fields. This kind of research is often seen as more complicated and time consuming than basic research and less sexy than working at the “cutting edge” where research is typically divorced from agricultural realities in order to achieve faster and cleaner results; however, modern tools — such as genomics, marker-assisted breeding, high throughput phenotyping of crop traits using drones, and speed breeding techniques — are making it both faster and cost-effective.
In a new article in Crop Breeding, Genetics, and Genomics, wheat physiologist Matthew Reynolds of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and co-authors make the case for increasing not only funding for translational research, but the underlying prerequisites: international and interdisciplinary collaboration towards focused objectives and a visionary approach by funding organizations.
“It’s ironic,” said Reynolds. “Many breeding programs have invested in the exact technologies — such as phenomics, genomics and informatics — that can be powerful tools for translational research to make real improvements in yield and adaptation to climate, disease and pest stresses. But funding to integrate these tools in front-line breeding is quite scarce, so they aren’t reaching their potential value for crop improvement.”
Members of the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) which focuses on translational research to boost wheat yields.
Many research findings are tested for their implications for wheat improvement by the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) at the IWYP Hub, a centralized technical platform for evaluating innovations and building them into elite wheat varieties, co-managed by CIMMYT at its experimental station in Obregon, Mexico.
IWYP has its roots with the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), which in 2010 formalized the need to boost both wheat yield potential as well as its adaptation to heat and drought stress. The network specializes in translational research, harnessing scientific findings from around the world to boost genetic gains in wheat, and capitalizing on the research and pre-breeding outputs of WHEAT and the testing networks of the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN). These efforts also led to the establishment of the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC).
“We’ve made extraordinary advances in understanding the genetic basis of important traits,“ said IWYP’s Richard Flavell, a co-author of the article. “But if they aren’t translated into crop production, their societal value is lost.”
The authors, all of whom have proven track records in both science and practical crop improvement, offer examples where exactly this combination of factors led to the impactful application of innovative research findings.
Improving the Vitamin A content of maize: A variety of maize with high Vitamin A content has the potential to reduce a deficiency that can cause blindness and a compromised immune system. This development happened as a result of many translational research efforts, including marker-assisted selection for a favorable allele, using DNA extracted from seed of numerous segregating breeding crosses prior to planting, and even findings from gerbil, piglet and chicken models — as well as long-term, community-based, placebo-controlled trials with children — that helped establish that Vitamin A maize is bioavailable and bioefficacious.
Flood-tolerant rice: Weather variability due to climate change effects is predicted to include both droughts and floods. Developing rice varieties that can withstand submergence in water due to flooding is an important outcome of translational research which has resulted in important gains for rice agriculture. In this case, the genetic trait for flood tolerance was recognized, but it took a long time to incorporate the trait into elite germplasm breeding programs. In fact, the development of flooding tolerant rice based on a specific SUB 1A allele took over 50 years at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines (1960–2010), together with expert molecular analyses by others. The translation program to achieve efficient incorporation into elite high yielding cultivars also required detailed research using molecular marker technologies that were not available at the time when trait introgression started.
Other successes include new approaches for improving the yield potential of spring wheat and the discovery of traits that increase the climate resilience of maize and sorghum.
One way researchers apply academic research to field impact is through phenotyping. Involving the use of cutting edge technologies and tools to measure detailed and hard to recognize plant traits, this area of research has undergone a revolution in the past decade, thanks to more affordable digital measuring tools such as cameras and sensors and more powerful and accessible computing power and accessibility.
Scientists are now able to identify at a detailed scale plant traits that show how efficiently a plant is using the sun’s radiation for growth, how deep its roots are growing to collect water, and more — helping breeders select the best lines to cross and develop.
An Australian pine at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Texoco, Mexico, commemorates the 4th symposium of the International Plant Phenotyping Network.
Phenotyping is key to understanding the physiological and genetic bases of plant growth and adaptation and has wide application in crop improvement programs. Recording trait data through sophisticated non-invasive imaging, spectroscopy, image analysis, robotics, high-performance computing facilities and phenomics databases allows scientists to collect information about traits such as plant development, architecture, plant photosynthesis, growth or biomass productivity from hundreds to thousands of plants in a single day. This revolution was the subject of discussion at a 2016 gathering of more than 200 participants at the International Plant Phenotyping Symposium hosted by CIMMYT in Mexico and documented in a special issue of Plant Science.
There is currently an explosion in plant science. Scientists have uncovered the genetic basis of many traits, identified genetic markers to track them and developed ways to measure them in breeding programs. But most of these new findings and ideas have yet to be tested and used in breeding programs, wasting their potentially enormous societal value.
Establishing systems for generating and testing new hypotheses in agriculturally relevant systems must become a priority, Reynolds states in the article. However, for success, this will require interdisciplinary, and often international, collaboration to enable established breeding programs to retool. Most importantly, scientists and funding organizations alike must factor in the long-term benefits as well as the risks of not taking timely action. Translating a research finding into an improved crop that can save lives takes time and commitment. With these two prerequisites, basic plant research can and should positively impact food security.
Authors would like to acknowledge the following funding organizations for their commitment to translational research.
The International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) is supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in the UK; the U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the USA; and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) in Switzerland.
The Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) is supported by the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) Project by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) of the Government of Mexico; previous projects that underpinned HeDWIC were supported by Australia’s Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC).
The Queensland Government’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries in collaboration with The Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) have provided long-term investment for the public sector sorghum pre-breeding program in Australia, including research on the stay-green trait. More recently, this translational research has been led by the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) within The University of Queensland.
ASI validation work and ASI translation and extension components with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, respectively.
Financial support for the maize proVA work was partially provided by HarvestPlus (www.HarvestPlus.org), a global alliance of agriculture and nutrition research institutions working to increase the micronutrient density of staple food crops through biofortification. The CGIAR Research Program MAIZE (CRP-MAIZE) also supported this research.
The CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) as a primary research partner. Funding comes from CGIAR, national governments, foundations, development banks and other agencies, including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
A researcher uses a vertical probe to measure moisture at different soil depths. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Since 1900, more than two billion people have been affected by drought worldwide, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Drought affects crops by limiting the amount of water available for optimal growth and development, thereby lowering productivity. It is one of the major abiotic stresses responsible for variability in crop yield, driving significant economic, environmental and social impacts.
A new technical manual, “Management of drought stress in field phenotyping,” provides a quantitative approach to drought stress phenotyping in crops. Phenotyping is a procedure vital to the success of crop breeding programs that involves physical assessment of plants for desired traits.
The manual provides guidance for crop breeders, crop physiologists, agronomists, students and field technicians who are working on improving crop tolerance to drought stress. It will help ensure drought screening trials yield accurate and precise data for use by breeding programs.
A sprinkler system irrigates a drought phenotyping trial field in Hyderabad, India. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Based on decades of CIMMYT’s research and experience, the manual covers aspects related to field site selection, effects of weather, crop management, maintaining uniform stress in trials, and duration of stress. It focuses on an approach that standardizes the required intensity, timing and uniformity of imposed drought stress during field trials.
Such a rigorous and accurate approach to drought screening allows for precision phenotyping. Careful management of imposed drought stress also allows the full variability in a population’s genotype to be expressed and identified during phenotyping, which means the full potential of the drought tolerance trait can be harnessed.
Variability among maize genotypes for agronomic and yield traits under managed drought stress. (Photo: CIMMYT)
“Crop breeding programs using conventional or molecular breeding approaches to develop crops with drought tolerance rely heavily on high-quality phenotypic data generated from drought screening trials,” said author and CIMMYT scientist P.H. Zaidi. “By following the guidance in this manual, users can maximize their quality standards.”
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been a pioneer in developing and deploying protocols for drought stress phenotyping, selection strategy and breeding for drought tolerance. CIMMYT’s research on drought stress in maize began in the 1970s and has since remained a top priority for the organization. Drought-tolerant maize is now one of CIMMYT’s flagship products and is a key component of CIMMYT’s portfolio of products aimed to cope with the effects of climate change in the tropics.
The information presented in the manual is based on the work on quantitative management of drought stress phenotyping under field conditions that received strong and consistent support from several donor agencies, especially Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany’s GIZ and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE). The manual itself was funded by the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding (EiB) platform.
SASKATOON, Canada (CIMMYT) — Amid global efforts to intensify the nutritional value and scale of wheat production, scientists from all major wheat growing regions in the world will gather from July 21 to 26, 2019 at the International Wheat Congress in Saskatoon, the city at the heart of Canada’s western wheat growing province, Saskatchewan. The CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is a founding member of the G20 Wheat Initiative, a co-host of the conference.
Wheat provides 20% of all human calories consumed worldwide. In the Global South, it is the main source of protein and a critical source of life for 2.5 billion people who live on less than $2 (C$2.60) a day.
In spite of its key role in combating hunger and malnutrition, the major staple grain faces threats from climate change, variable weather, disease, predators and many other challenges. Wheat’s vital contribution to the human diet and farmer livelihoods makes it central to conversations about the rural environment, agricultural biodiversity and global food security.
More than 800 delegates, including researchers from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, CIMMYT, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP), Cornell University’s Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat project (DGGW), the University of Saskatchewan and many other organizations worldwide will discuss the latest research on wheat germplasm.
“We must solve a complex puzzle,” said Martin Kropff, CIMMYT’s director general. “Wheat must feed more people while growing sustainably on less land. Wheat demand is predicted to increase 60% in the next three decades, while climate change is putting an unprecedented strain on production.”
“The scientific community is tackling this challenge head-on, through global collaboration, germplasm exchange and innovative approaches. Researchers are looking at wheat’s temperature response mechanisms and using remote sensing, genomics, bio-informatics and other technologies to make wheat more tolerant to heat and drought,” Kropff said.
The congress is the first major gathering of the wheat community since the 2015 International Wheat Conference in Sydney, Australia.
CGIAR and CIMMYT scientists will share the latest findings on:
State-of-the-art approaches for measuring traits to speed breeding for heat and drought tolerance
Breeding durum (pasta) wheat for traits for use in bread products
New sources of diversity — including ancient wheat relatives — to create aphid-resistant wheat and other improved varieties
DNA fingerprinting to help national partners identify gaps in improved variety adoption
For more details on schedule and scientists’ presentations, click here.
Research shows that more than 60% of wheat varietal releases since 1994 were CGIAR-related.
Low- and middle-income countries are the primary focus and biggest beneficiaries of CGIAR wheat research, but high-income countries reap substantial rewards as well. In Canada, three-quarters of the wheat area is sown to CGIAR-related cultivars and in the United States almost 60% of the wheat area was sown to CGIAR-related varieties, according to the research.
WHEN
July 21-26, 2019
The opening ceremony and lectures will take place on
Monday, July 22, 2019 from 08:50 to 10:50 a.m.
CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food secure future dedicated to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and improving natural resources.
About the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat
Joining advanced science with field-level research and extension in lower- and middle-income countries, the Agri-Food Systems CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) works with public and private organizations worldwide to raise the productivity, production and affordable availability of wheat for 2.5 billion resource-poor producers and consumers who depend on the crop as a staple food. WHEAT is led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) as a primary research partner. Funding for WHEAT comes from CGIAR and national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies, in particular the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). www.wheat.org
About CIMMYT
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat, and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.
CIMMYT researcher Bram Govaerts participates in the World Food Prize and Borlaug Dialogue.
Expertise, multiple achievements and a significant contribution to sustainable agri-food systems in Mexico and globally, have merited Bram Govaerts, director of the Integrated Development Program and regional representative for the Americas at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Cornell University’s appointment as Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large. This is a distinction granted to individuals whose work in science, education, social sciences, literature and creative arts has had great impact and international visibility.
Cornell University launched the Professors-at-Large program to commemorate its centenary and to honor its first president, Andrew D. White. The program secures a connection between the university and its faculty with the world, global issues, great thinkers and outstanding intellectuals. Since then, personalities such as philosopher Jacques Derrida, writer and poet Octavio Paz, geneticist M. S. Swaminathan, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Norman Borlaug have received this distinction.
“I was honored to learn about my nomination and glad to be interviewed, but I was happily surprised and humbled to learn that I had been chosen to join this group of distinguished thinkers and artists, which has welcomed such outstanding members as Norman Borlaug and Octavio Paz,” said Govaerts.
Professors-at-Large take the responsibility to participate, over a six-year period, in several activities that strengthen the international academic community and are, afterwards, considered distinguished and lifetime members of the university.
Govaerts takes inspiration from the “take it to the farmer” vision, and has been instrumental to the development of CIMMYT’s project portfolio, which integrates innovations in maize and wheat production systems by minimizing their environmental impact.
Govaerts shares this acknowledgement with his team and collaborators who have joined efforts to achieve the objectives set in Colombia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Mexico and many other countries that have taken the decision to make a difference.
In 2014, Bram Govaerts received from the World Food Prize Foundation the Norman E. Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application, endowed by the Rockefeller Foundation, for leading the MasAgro project and finding innovative ways of applying science to improve the productivity and resilience of small and medium-sized maize and wheat farmers in Mexico.
Sometimes innovations fail to make an impact. Take 3D televisions, for example; launched at a large scale more than a decade ago, they did not achieve the expected commercial success. On paper, the technology was an affordable and thrilling breakthrough in home entertainment, but in practice many viewers failed to embrace it due to poor implementation. Today, it has largely fallen by the wayside.
Farming innovations can suffer similar fates if product designers do not consider the overall socioeconomic picture during development, warns Munyaradzi Mutenje, an agricultural economist with the Socioeconomics program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
“When the direct seed drill was first launched in Zimbabwe, farmers did not take to it,” Mutenje explains. “Here was a technology that could reduce the drudgery of hand sowing — vastly reducing labor costs and saving time — but no one wanted it. The scientists asked ‘why is no-one adopting this seed drill we designed? It solves so many production challenges… Why don’t people want it?’”
It transpired that women, who constitute a significant portion of the farming community in Zimbabwe, simply found the direct seed drill too heavy and awkward for practical use. They chose to stick with traditional farming methods and were skeptical of the new technology. In short, the product was not designed with the end user in mind.
Design that meets farmers’ needs
Mutenje stands next to a demonstration plot of maize during a field day organized by CIMMYT and Agriseeds. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Mutenje works in close association with CIMMYT’s sustainable intensification team in Zimbabwe, adding value by opening a dialogue with many different types of farmers. “From the basket of sustainable intensification technologies available, which one is appropriate for each type of farmer?” she asks herself when designing new interventions.
Technologies can seem good to scientists, but they might not be suitable for farmers, who operate within a system of which agriculture is only one component.
“You have to look at the situation from the farmers’ perspective,” Mutenje explains. “In order to assess the economic viability of innovations and to understand how and where to target them, we have to look at factors like social acceptance and cultural barriers that might constrain adoption within farming communities.”
Once technologies are rolled out to farmers, it is vital to seek feedback about the demand for new, and reviews of existing, technologies. This allows scientists to tailor their innovations to the needs and objectives of farmers.
“When we design technologies that meet farmers’ needs because we have interacted with them and understood the whole system; that is our greatest impact.”
All roads lead to CIMMYT
Growing up on a farm in rural Zimbabwe instilled in Mutenje a deep respect for women’s role in agriculture in southern Africa. With her father engaged in off-farm work, her mother tended the farm. She grew curious about household decision-making and was inspired to pursue a career in agricultural science, first studying at the University of Zimbabwe before obtaining her doctoral degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa with a thesis on the effects of AIDS on rural livelihoods.
“I was inspired by the multidisciplinary nature of science and how its application to farming allows scientists to directly help feed people and really transform people’s lives.”
During her undergraduate studies, Mutenje learned from CIMMYT scientists who offered her class practical agronomic examples and taught the students how to apply data analysis to solve complex problems. Fascinated by the power of data to elucidate patterns that can help scientists, she resolved, “One day I will work for CIMMYT to address food and nutritional security issues in southern Africa!”
In 2012, her aspirations became reality as she joined CIMMYT in Zimbabwe as a postdoctoral fellow. Today, she is a CIMMYT scientist.
Work that sparks joy
Working with the CIMMYT sustainable intensification program on projects spanning five countries in southern Africa, Mutenje finds joy in working alongside partners as part of a large team. “You become one big family,” she reflects.
She feels pride in working with smallholder farmers and transforming their livelihoods through science. By boosting the knowledge and potential of women in particular, she believes that sustainable, positive change is possible.
“Women are the custodians of food and nutritional security, so we need to understand their challenges and opportunities. If you help women and offer them training, their impact will go far since they will pass their knowledge on to their children.”
Mutenje carries out a qualitative vulnerability assessment in Bvukuru community, Masvingo province, Zimbabwe, to feed into a study for a project funded by the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA) and Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ). (Photo: CIMMYT)
Policy change to help farmers
Although working directly with farmers is what Mutenje enjoys the most, she concedes that prompting widespread change often calls for deeper scrutiny of the value chain, to identify bottlenecks that constrain adoption. Gathering empirical data and presenting evidence of the complete story to policymakers has enabled Mutenje to influence policy change on a national scale.
“In Mozambique, we discovered fertilizer costs were too high for farmers, so they were missing out on a technology that would enable increased yields.”
Mutenje’s work analyzed the whole system and found the import tax on fertilizer component materials was too high and that manufacturers were simply handing that cost down to the farmers. By highlighting this issue to government representatives, she triggered a change in import tax policy. This initiative resulted in fertilizer prices that are affordable to farmers, facilitating improved yields and livelihoods.
“An evidence-based approach, based on quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources allows scientists to present the complete story,” she explains. “Armed with this, we can convince policymakers to make changes to help farmers and improve food security.”
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) operates five agricultural experiment stations in Mexico. Strategically located across the country to take advantage of different growing conditions — spanning arid northern plains to sub-tropical and temperate climatic zones — the stations offer unique and well-managed testing conditions for a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses.
Heat and drought tolerance in wheat is the focus of study at Ciudad Obregón, while the humid, cool conditions at Toluca are ideal for studying wheat resistance to foliar diseases. The tropical and sub-tropical settings of Agua Fría and Tlaltizapán respectively are suited to maize field trials, while at El Batán researchers carry out a wide variety of maize and wheat trials.
A new video highlights the important and valuable contribution of the five experimental stations in Mexico to CIMMYT’s goal of developing maize and wheat that can cope with demanding environments around the world, helping smallholder farmers in Africa, Asia and Latin America adapt to challenges like climate change, emerging pests and disease, and malnutrition.
Featuring aerial cinematography and interviews with each station’s manager, the video takes viewers on a journey to each experimental station to highlight the research and management practices specific to each location.
In addition to their role in breeding maize and wheat varieties, CIMMYT’s experimental stations host educational events throughout the year that train the next generation of farmers, policymakers and crop scientists. They also provide the canvas on which CIMMYT scientists develop and test farming practices and technologies to help farmers grow more with less.
Some of the stations also hold historical significance. Ciudad Obregón and Toluca are two of the sites where Norman Borlaug set up his shuttle breeding program that provided the foundations of the Green Revolution. It was also in Toluca, while at a trial plot alongside six young scientists from four developing nations, where Borlaug first received news of his 1970 Nobel Peace Prize award.
On May 15, 2019, as part of the CGIAR System Council meeting held at the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, around 200 Ethiopian and international research and development stakeholders convened for the CGIAR Agriculture Research for Development Knowledge Share Fair. This exhibition offered a rare opportunity to bring the country’s major development investors together to learn and exchange about how CGIAR investments in Ethiopia help farmers and food systems be more productive, sustainable, climate resilient, nutritious, and inclusive.
Under the title One CGIAR — greater than the sum of its parts — the event offered the opportunity to highlight close partnerships between CGIAR centers, the Ethiopian government and key partners including private companies, civil society organizations and funding partners. The fair was organized around the five global challenges from CGIAR’s business plan: planetary boundaries, sustaining food availability, promoting equality of opportunity, securing public health, and creating jobs and growth. CGIAR and its partners exhibited collaborative work documenting the successes and lessons in working through an integrated approach.
There were 36 displays in total, 5 of which were presented by CIMMYT team members. Below are the five posters presented.
How can the data revolution help deliver better agronomy to African smallholder farmers?
This sustainability display showed scalable approaches and tools to generate site-specific agronomic advice, developed through the Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa (TAMASA) project in Nigeria, Tanzania and Ethiopia.
Maize and wheat: Strategic crops to fill Ethiopia’s food basket
This poster describes how CGIAR works with Ethiopia’s research & development sector to support national food security priorities.
Addressing gender norms in Ethiopia’s wheat sector
Research shows that restrictive gender norms prevent women’s ability to innovate and become productive. This significantly impacts Ethiopia’s economy (over 1% GDP) and family welfare and food security.
Quality Protein Maize (QPM) for better nutrition in Ethiopia
With the financial support of the government of Canada, CIMMYT together with national partners tested and validated Quality Protein Maize as an alternative to protein intake among poor consumers.
Appropriate small-scale mechanization
The introduction of small-scale mechanization into the Ethiopian agriculture sector has the potential to create thousands of jobs in machinery service provision along the farming value chain.
About the CGIAR System Council
The CGIAR System Council is the strategic decision-making body of the CGIAR System that keeps under review the strategy, mission, impact and continued relevancy of the System as a whole. The Council meets face-to-face not less than twice per year and conducts business electronically between sessions. Additional meetings can be held if necessary.
This story, part of a series on the international agricultural research projects of recipients of the Crawford Fund’s International Agricultural Student Award, was originally posted on the Crawford Fund blog.
Researcher Tamaya Peressini performs disease evaluations 10 days post infection at CIMMYT’s glasshouse facilities.
In 2018, Tamaya Peressini, from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), a research institute of the University of Queensland (UQ), travelled to CIMMYT in Mexico as part of her Honours thesis research, focused on a disease called tan spot in wheat.
Tan spot is caused by the pathogen Pyrenophora triciti-repentis (Ptr) and her project aimed to evaluate the resistance of tan spot in wheat to global races to this pathogen.
“The germplasm I’m studying for my thesis carries what is known as adult plant resistance (or APR) to tan spot, which has demonstrated to be a durable source of resistance in other wheat pathosystems such as powdery mildew,” Peressini said.
Symptoms of tan spot on wheat plants.
Tan spot is prevalent worldwide, and in Australia causes the most yield loss out of the foliar wheat diseases. In Australia, there is only one identified pathogen race that is prevalent, called Ptr Race 1. For Ptr Race 1, the susceptibility gene Tsn1 in wheat is the main factor that results in successful infection in Ptr strains that carry Toxin A. However, globally it is a more difficult problem, as there are seven other pathogen races that consist of different combinations of necrotrophic toxins. Hence, developing cultivars that are multi-race resistant to Ptr presents a significant challenge to breeders, as multiple resistant genes would be required for resistance to other pathogens.
“At CIMMYT, I evaluated the durability of APR I identified in plant material in Australia by inoculating with a local strain of Ptr and also with a pathogen that shares ToxA: Staganospora nodorum,” Peressini explained.
“The benefit of studying this at CIMMYT was that I had access to different strains of the pathogen which carry different virulence factors of disease, I was exposed to international agricultural research and, importantly, I was able to create research collaborations that would allow the APR detected in this population to have the potential to reach developing countries to assist in developing durably resistant wheat cultivars for worldwide deployment.”
Recent work in Dr Lee Hickey’s laboratory in Queensland has identified several landraces from the Vavilov wheat collection that exhibited a novel resistance to tan spot known as adult plant resistance (APR). APR has proven to be a durable and broad-spectrum source of resistance in wheat crops, namely with the Lr34 gene which confers resistance to powdery mildew and leaf stem rust of wheat.
“My research is focused on evaluating this type of resistance and identifying whether it is resistant to multiple pathogen species and other races of Ptr. This is important to the Queensland region, as the northern wheat belt is significantly affected by tan spot disease. Introducing durable resistance genes to varieties in this region would be an effective pre-breeding strategy because it would help develop crop varieties that would have enhanced resistance to tan spot should more strains reach Australia. Furthermore, it may provide durable resistance to other necrotrophic pathogens of wheat,” Peressini said.
The plant material Peressini studied in her honors thesis was a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population, with the parental lines being the APR landrace — carries Tsn1 — and the susceptible Australian cultivar Banks — also carries Tsn1. To evaluate the durability of resistance in this population to other strains of Ptr, this material along with the parental lines of the population and additional land races from the Vavilov wheat collection were sent to CIMMYT for Tamaya to perform a disease assay.
“At CIMMYT I evaluated the durability of APR identified in plant material in Australia by inoculating with a local strain of Ptr and also with a pathogen that shares ToxA: Staganospora nodorum. After infection, my plant material was kept in 100 per cent humidity for 24 hours (12 hours light and 12 hours dark) and then transferred back to regular glasshouse conditions. At 10 days post infection I evaluated the resistance in the plant material.”
From the evaluation, the APR RIL line demonstrated significant resistance compared to the rest of the Australian plant material against both pathogens. The results are highly promising, as they demonstrate the durability of the APR for both pre-breeding and multi-pathogen resistance breeding. Furthermore, this plant material is now available for experimental purposes at CIMMYT, where further trials can validate how durable the resistance is to other necrotrophic pathogens and also be deployed worldwide and be tested against even more strains of Ptr.
“During my visit at CIMMYT I was able to immerse myself in the Spanish language and take part in professional seminars, tours, lab work and field work around the site. A highlight for me was learning to prepare and perform toxin infiltrations for an experiment comparing the virulence of different strains of spot blotch,” Peressini said.
During her stay in Mexico, Peressini had a chance to visit the pyramids of Teotihuacán and other cultural landmarks.
“I also formed valuable friendships and research partnerships from every corner of the globe and had valuable exposure to the important research underway at CIMMT and insight to the issues that are affecting maize and wheat growers globally. Of course, there was also the chance to travel on weekends, where I was able to experience the lively Mexican culture and historical sites – another fantastic highlight to the trip!”
“I would like to thank CIMMYT and Dr Pawan Singh for hosting me and giving the opportunity to learn, grow and experience the fantastic research that is performed at CIMMYT and opportunities to experience parts of Mexico. The researchers and lab technicians were all so friendly and accommodating. I would also like to thank my supervisor Dr Lee Hickey for introducing this project collaboration with CIMMYT. Lastly, I would like to thank the Crawford Fund Queensland Committee for funding this visit; not only was I able to immerse myself in world class plant pathology research, I have been given valuable exposure to international agricultural research that will give my research career a boost in the right direction,” Peressini concluded.
Five scientists from the CIMMYT community have been recognized with the Highly Cited Researcher award for 2018 for the influence of their research among their scientific peers.
The list, developed by Clarivate Analytics, recognizes exceptional research performance demonstrated by production of multiple papers that rank in the top 1 percent by citations for field and year, according to the Web of Science citation indexing service.
The honorees include:
Julio Huerta: CIMMYT-seconded INIFAP wheat breeder and rust geneticist;
Ravi Singh: CIMMYT Distinguished Scientist and Head of Bread Wheat Improvement; and
Sybil Herrera-Foessel: Former CIMMYT Global Wheat Program rust pathologist.
It is a significant honor to be part of this list, as it indicates that their peers have consistently acknowledged the influence of their research contributions in their publications and citations.
“This is a tremendous achievement and is a very good indicator for the relevance and quality of [their] publications,” said Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT).
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a new set of improved maize hybrids to partners in southern Africa and similar agro-ecological zones, to scale up production for farmers in these areas.
National agricultural research systems and seed companies are invited to apply for the allocation of these pre-commercial hybrids, after which they will be able to register, produce and offer the improved seed to farming communities.
The deadline to submit applications to be considered during the next round of allocations is January 3, 2019. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during the following round of product allocations.
Information about the newly available hybrids, application instructions and other relevant material is available below.
To apply, please fill out the CIMMYT Improved Maize Product Allocation Application Forms, available for download at the links below. Each applicant will need to complete one copy of Form A for their organization, then for each hybrid being requested a separate copy of Form B.
Please note: These forms have been updated since the last cycle, so please download a fresh copy from the links above. Applications using the old format may not be accepted.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — As the impact of climate change on food staples becomes more apparent, scientists with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are beginning to study how increasing temperatures will affect other contributors to the human diet. A new study indicates that the global beer supply will be hard hit. Given how seemingly plentiful beer is, this is difficult news to hear.
Two years ago, Xiong and the other scientists began to design the study to learn more about extreme drought and heat patterns adversely affecting crops around the world. Barley, the primary cereal grain from which beer is brewed, is one of the most heat-sensitive crops, meaning that even short periods of high temperatures can affect grain quality and grain yield.
Despite a number of studies published assessing yield loss of barley and other crops due to global warming, there were no previous studies published connecting the price of beer to barley yield. The study, which the scientists refer to as the “drinking security” project, has garnered world-wide interest from various media outlets given the popularity of beer.
Wanting to connect their research with an interest of the general public, or the price of beer, the study’s authors saw value in researching the intersection of barley, beer and climate change. As a cross-culturally shared beverage, beer — to some extent — is more popular than rice, wheat and maize as it is recognized as a lifestyle staple. “This is the reason why we chose barley and beer as the case crop, to raise awareness of climate change and its impacts. The wide interest in the study proved we succeed,” says Xiong.
The study also points out an alternative way to raise the public awareness of climate change for the future, or presenting an issue that has tangible realities for the average person. “Consuming less beer thanks to climate change won’t necessarily affect global health, but having no beer will definitely add insult to injury, particularly when we’re watching sports matches,” says Xiong. “If you still want a few pints of beer, then the only way to do so is to mitigate climate change.”
In the process of conducting climate and crop model simulations for the study, Xiong improved available data on global barley supply through the introduction of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), a program used for simulating crop growth, to develop a global calibration algorithm to allow the model to reproduce historical and projected future barley production.
This was the first endeavor to date using the DSSAT model for single crop analysis on a global scale — a total of 38 barley producing regions were analyzed. Xiong also assisted in the designing of the study’s extreme warm weather index to identify extreme drought and heat years from climate simulation outputs.
Following the use of DSSAT, CIMMYT-led High Performance Computing (HPC) allowed for the calculation of barely grain yield change due to extreme drought and heat, a fundamental component of the study. CIMMYT is currently establishing the modeling capacity to be able to cover 30 more crops worldwide in addition to barley with multiple HPC models. This will ultimately aid CIMMYT in analyzing agricultural and economic risks associated with maize and wheat.
The study acknowledges its limitations as a result of factors that were kept constant such as the behaviors of barley producers and beer drinkers, global food stock and population growth. “One shortcoming of the paper that could be improved in cooperation with CIMMYT is looking at the spatial shift of crop area under a warming climate,” Xiong says. “This area shift, or cultivar shift between regions, has already happened in many countries to help cope with a warming climate, but we are not clear how it happens and its resulting consequences.”
Despite the study’s findings, there is still space to develop the analysis by further considering the implications of future climate change forecasts. While the fate of beer seems bleak, there is still hope for the beverage in that the study did not consider the world’s progress in developing heat and drought resistant barley varieties and their adoption by farmers. However, Xiong particularly believes that the study signals the butterfly effect in climate change impacts, meaning that everyone will eventually suffer from the effects of climate change if no action is taken to fight it.
With news of a potential decrease in the world’s beer supply, climate change seems to have abruptly arrived on beer lovers’ doorsteps.
Four scientists from the CIMMYT community have been included in the 
