Malho Marndi, a tribal farmer from Odisha,India, has been cultivating rice on her 10-acre farm for many years. However, worsening climate conditions and labor management challenges nearly pushed her to stop growing rice, except for personal consumption. The traditional method of transplanting seedlings into puddled fields was becoming unsustainable, and farmers across Odisha were experiencing yield declines that threatened their livelihoods.
To address these challenges, the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project led by CIMMYT, introduced the Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) technology in select districts under the Odisha government’s DSR-Odisha project. DSR involves sowing rice seeds directly into the field, significantly reducing the need for labor and water—making it an attractive solution for smallholder farmers.
In the Kharif season of 2021, Malho participated in a DSR awareness program led by CSISA. Inspired by the success stories of fellow farmers, she decided to take a leap of faith and implement DSR on her own land.
The results were transformative. By adopting DSR on her 10-acre farm, along with an additional 9 acres she had leased, Malho saw her yields nearly double compared to the traditional methods she had previously used. Encouraged by these outcomes and supported by CSISA’s technical guidance, she expanded her cultivation to 40 leased acres and her original 10 acres in 2022. By 2023, she increased her leased land to 50 acres, bringing the total area under DSR to an impressive 60 acres.
Photo: CIMMYT
Malho’s success didn’t end there. She became a service provider, investing in a tractor and rotavator to assist other smallholder farmers in her community. In 2023 alone, her machinery was used to support more than 30 acres of land. Today, she empowers both men and women farmers by renting out her equipment and encouraging the wider adoption of DSR.
Through mechanization and improved crop management practices, Malho now independently manages her rice and maize cultivation. Confident about the future, she hopes to see more resource-constrained farmers across Odisha adopt DSR, improving their yields and enhancing their livelihoods.
Rice is a critical staple for food security and a key export crop for India. The study published in Nature Communications explores context-specific pathways for increasing rice production in India, focusing on sustainable intensification — boosting yields without harming the environment or farm profitability.
The research analyzed over 15,000 field records across seven major rice-producing states in India using advanced machine learning techniques. The study identified nitrogen application and irrigation as key factors limiting yields, particularly in Eastern India (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh). By targeting farms with nitrogen and irrigation deficiencies, the study projects that yield gains could more than triple compared to general recommendations. Specifically, farms suffering from co-limitation by both nitrogen and irrigation could see the most significant gains in productivity and profitability.
Four scenarios for sustainable intensification were evaluated, ranging from blanket application of current nitrogen recommendations to highly targeted interventions. The analysis showed that targeted strategies, focusing on farms with the greatest yield constraints, could significantly improve nitrogen use efficiency and result in greater yields and profitability without excessive resource use.
The study highlights the potential of data-driven, context-specific solutions for rice intensification in India, emphasizing that targeted interventions could offer both higher returns for farmers and better environmental sustainability. It suggests a move away from “one-size-fits-all” approaches towards more precise, farm-specific recommendations based on local conditions and data. This approach could help close yield gaps while aligning with sustainable development goals.
Experts of a visiting team from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have lauded the premium quality rice (PQR) value chain process in northern Bangladesh.
They made the admiration while visiting the Bengal Auto Rice Mills at Pulhat in Dinajpur and exchanging views with its owner, PQR farmers, local service providers (LSP) and traders on PQR production, milling and marketing.
Dr. Zachary P. Stewart, Production Systems Specialist of the Center for Agriculture-Led Growth, Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security of the USAID from Washington led the team during their three-day tour in Northern Bangladesh that ended on Saturday.
John Laborde and Muhammad Nuruzzaman from the USAID’s Bangladesh Mission, Program Director of Sustainable Agrifood Systems at CIMMYT in Mexico Dr. Sieglinde Snapp and CIMMYT Country representative for Bangladesh Dr. Timothy J. Krupnik accompanied by him.
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia CSISA-III project, funded by USAID and implemented by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has been actively engaged in expanding and enhancing PQR value chains since 2016 in the Khulna division and since 2019 in the Rangpur division in Bangladesh.
The team members visited the entire Auto Rice Mills to observe the process of milling, sorting and packaging of PQR rice.
Owner of Bengal Auto Rice Mills Mr. Zahangir Alam informed that previously he sourced BRRI dhan50 (Banglamoti) from the southern part of Bangladesh.
However, since establishing a connection with CSISA in 2019, he has been procuring 30 percent to 40 percent of the total annual demand for BRRI dhan50 for producing PQR from the CSISA-beneficiary PQR farmers’ groups and others locally.
He highlighted how farmers have benefited from direct paddy purchases from them and obtaining high-quality and admixture-free rice.
“With assistance from CSISA, I have successfully branded this variety using its original name (BRRI dhan50) since 2020,” Zahangir Alam added.
Lead farmer Md. Azad expressed the advantages they have experienced from cultivating BRRI dhan50 through CSISA and higher yield of the BRRI dhan50 variety compared to the BRRI dhan28.
He highlighted their affiliation with the Bengal Auto Rice Mills, which has enabled them to fetch prices 7-8 Bangladesh Taka (BDT) higher per kilogram of paddy than those for BRRI dhan28.
During the visit, Agronomist from Bangladesh Office of IRRI Dr. Sharif Ahmed provided an overview of the PQR initiatives conducted by CSISA.
He also facilitated the tour alongside Md. Alanuzzaman Kurishi, Hub Coordinator at CIMMYT’s Dinajpur Field Office and Abdullah Miajy, a Specialist in Agricultural Research and Development at IRRI’s Rangpur Hub.
As a warming planet desiccates crops around the world, threatening livelihoods and nutrition, farmers in Bihar, India, are boosting their wheat yields with a deceptively simple adaptation.
“Farmers can plant their wheat crop several weeks earlier, so that their wheat matures earlier and they are able to harvest their wheat before the heat gets bad,” said Amit Kumar Srivastava, a scientist with the International Rice Research Institute in India. “Traditionally, farmers in Bihar planted their wheat in mid-December. This put their crop at risk of what’s called ‘terminal heat’ – high heat during a critical growth stage that impacts the yields. We’ve advised them to begin planting by November 20.”
Bihar is blessed with good soil and adequate water resources. But its yields have been lagging below India’s average. Today, the average hectare of Bihar farmland produces 2.9 tons of wheat – significantly below the average yield in India of 3.4 tons.
Rising heat threatened to reduce this harvest even further. Wheat, like people, can suffer from heat stress. Researchers have found that an increase of just one-degree Celsius cuts wheat yields by 6%. In high heat conditions, wheat produces fewer, smaller grains, potentially impacting nutrition and livelihoods. Bihar, one of the poorest states in India, is considered a climate change hotspot and temperatures are expected to rise by up to 1 degree Celsius by 2050. India can ill afford declining farm yields. In fact, it needs to increase its wheat yields from around 110 million tons to 140 million tons by 2050 just to keep pace with domestic demand.
This seemingly simple adaptation was actually quite complicated to develop, explained Sonam Sherpa, a spatial agronomist with the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. “It required researchers to look at the agricultural system as a whole. We had to understand why farmers were planting so late. And we learned it was because they were waiting for their rice crop to mature. And they couldn’t plant their rice crop earlier because they were waiting for the monsoon rains, which are unpredictable in Bihar. Understanding the system as a whole, led us to recommend a rice variety that matures earlier and to develop weather forecasting tools and systems that can communicate with farmers when the monsoon rains are expected. That will help farmers move forward with planting their rice earlier, allowing for an earlier harvest. And then planting and harvesting their wheat earlier.”
To demonstrate the potential of this shift, researchers established demonstration fields throughout the state and brought government officials and farmers to see the difference.
It was striking. Across the state, farmers who adopted early rice harvesting and early wheat planting grew nearly one ton more of wheat on each hectare than those who planted late – a 36% increase in yield. At the most extreme ends of the planting spectrum the difference in yield is hard to overstate; the difference in yields between the wheat planted in early November versus the wheat planted in late December was 69%. That’s enough of a boost to turn Bihar from a net wheat importer to a breadbasket for the region.
“Seeing is believing,” said Srivastava. As of the 2020-21 wheat growing season, an estimated 22% of farmers in the target districts – about half a million farmers with an estimated 0.83 million hectares of land – have shifted to different varieties of rice that allow them to plant their wheat earlier. Similar gains could be seen elsewhere in Eastern India, research indicates, if the rice-wheat system is managed as a system.
Researchers also established relationships with private sector seed distributors who often advise farmers and help them identify and adopt different varieties of rice that allow for earlier harvesting. “The lesson here is that even with climate change, we can increase production by optimizing agricultural systems,” said Srivastava.
Sitting at the cutting edge of science, the crop breeding domain has been improving and refining tools, technologies and techniques. But adoption by public breeding programs focusing on Africa, Asia, and Latin America has often been slow. This has hindered progress on developing the new varieties needed for farmers to overcome climate impacts, build livelihoods, and feed their communities.
But One CGIAR’s new integrated approach is changing that. Building on the work of CGIAR Excellence in Breeding, the Breeding Resource Initiative can point to major progress in 2022, moving forward on an array of shared services, capacity development programs and technical support. Here are five significant milestones helping CGIAR and its national partners deliver better results:
1. Regional hubs are on their way: CGIAR’s vision is to have regional hubs coordinating and delivering services across crops. AfricaRice is set to grow into a regional service provider and coordinator for multiple crops in West Africa. After discussions, planning and site visits with BRI, AfricaRice leadership committed to working with the BRI team to start by providing regional nutritional analysis services, aimed to launch for selected partners in 2023. The plan is to then expand AfricaRice’s role as a coordinator of other competitive services like genotyping and capacity building. This is a major step toward CGIAR’s vision of not just improving breeding stations, but serving all CGIAR/National Agricultural Research and Extension Services (NARES) partners regionally. The aim is collaboration, efficiency and results in farmers’ fields.
2. Operations teams are amping up skills and knowledge: Breeding success hinges on good operational practices leading to accurate data. To ensure the heritability of breeding trials, BRI has offered resources, trainings and on-the-ground support for operational teams. Through its Breeding Operation Network for Development (BOND), BRI/EiB, along with IITA, ran three weeklong workshops for partners across Africa (watch all 22 sessions on plotmanship, gender, seed processing, irrigation and more), regular webinars exploring private and public sector best practices, and a series focusing on continuous improvement approaches. BRI also trained dozens of operational staff across Africa on how to use and maintain new USAID-supplied equipment. And CGIAR continued its push to harmonize rice breeding processes between IRRI, AfricaRice and CIAT through a week-long rice breeding operations training at IRRI. As well, new tools such as a gender inclusion checklist are now available to support operational excellence.
3. EBS is settling in as a universal data platform: The data management platform Enterprise Breeding System has made real strides in the past year, with an updated version with new features (Milestone 5) rolling out across three Centers (CIMMYT, IITA, IRRI), with over 500 users. Other Centers, such as AfricaRice are starting to deploy the system too. On their visit to AfricaRice’s Ivory Coast station, the BRI team noted barcode deployment across the upland rice nurseries – an inspiration to spur other CGIAR Centers to accelerate their own adoption. EBS is a single, powerful, shared, multi-crop platform and its deployment will mean major time and money savings for breeders – and better breeding decisions.
4. Lab services are expanding: As breeders strive for higher-yielding, climate-resilient and nutritious crops, BRI/EiB have been improving breeding speed and accuracy through streamlined, reliable and cost-effective genotyping services. Services include Low Density SNP Genotyping Services (LDSG), Mid-density SNP Genotyping (MDSG), along with training. BRI also launched a Lab Services Process Team to connect Genetic Innovation departments and teams and ensure delivery of high quality services through standardized processes. And launching in 2023, partners will be able to access biochemical testing for nutritional traits and quality. These improved services mean CGIAR and national partners are becoming more effective and competitive as they use this data to make better decisions.
5. Regional approaches set to drive change: BRI drives change at both local and regional levels. For example, team members visited Kiboko and Njoro stations in Kenya, and ran planning sessions in Nairobi with East African breeding teams. This helped clarify challenges and priorities in the region, helping define how services could best be established. Kenya’s key outcomes included: a commitment with CIMMYT leadership to establish services in Kiboko as a pilot, an action plan to improve EBS development and adoption in the region, and endorsement by CGIAR Breeding Research Services leadership of major Crops to End Hunger grants in the region – these fill key gaps in the drive to modernization. The team plans to organize similar sessions to support CGIAR/NARES breeding networks in other regions.
These five strides forward represent but a glimpse into Breeding Resources’ progress. And these are much more than just separate achievements. They represent a shift in breeding culture across the CGIAR-NARES networks – one that will help deliver better varieties, faster. With major plans for 2023, CGIAR-NARES can look forward to the tools and services they need to deliver first-class programs.
Story and feature photo by Adam Hunt, EiB/BRI/ABI Communications Lead. We would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund. And thank you to the supporters and partners of CGIAR Excellence in Breeding, particularly the funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Through examples from Egypt, Malaysia and Mexico, the authors explain the benefits of “co-culture”, such as when different crop species are grown together.
This innovation centers on co-design, combining farmer-centric models and new measurement tools that allow scientific advances to benefit a variety of smallholder production systems.
A recent study by Harvard University, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the University of Michigan, the Public Health Foundation of India, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Columbia University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, has determined the environmental impact of a government policy of delayed rice planting in northwest India.
“We have shown that the groundwater and air quality crises are major regional issues and are interconnected,” said co-author Balwinder-Singh, former Cropping System Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in New Delhi. “But there is still a path to clearer skies and safer water practices. Local solutions include planting rice varieties that either grow more quickly or need less water. Promoting less water-demanding crops like maize would be helpful in zones with severe groundwater depletion.”
Rice is a vital crop for India, contributing around 30 percent of calories consumed in the country and providing a crucial source of income from exports. However, due to climate change and conversion of land for other uses, rice growing area in India is projected to decline by 6-7 million hectares (ha) by 2050, while production must increase by 1.1% annually over the next four decades to achieve rice self-sufficiency for the country.
As there is limited opportunity to horizontal expansion of cultivable land, the predicted increase in demand must be met through increasing rice yields in regions with low yields and maintaining existing yields in high-yielding areas. This must be achieved using sustainable farming practices: currently, 90 percent of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of monsoon season cropped cereals in India is caused by rice cultivation, as is 80 percent of the energy and water used in agriculture.
Scientists found that in the Northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) of India, yield gaps were small (ca. 2.7 t ha−1, or 20% of potential yield) mainly because of intensive production system with high input use. Using management data from 4,107 individual farmer fields, the study highlighted scope to reduce nitrogen (N) inputs without compromising yields in this intensive production system.
Findings show evidence of and methodology for the quantification of yield gaps and approaches that can improve resource-use efficiency, providing a possible alternative approach that could be reproduced elsewhere for other crops and contexts. It is recommended that future research focuses on ways to reduce other production inputs without compromising the yields in such intensive production systems.
This paper is the result of Harishankar Nayak’s PhD training in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) jointly supervised by the researchers at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Cover photo: A farmer stands in his rice field at a Climate-Smart Village in the Vaishali district of Bihar, India, as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). (Photo: DK Singh/CIMMYT)
The largest real-world test of grains that grow year after year without replanting is showing promise for saving money, helping the environment, and reducing labor in China.
Initial trials with perennial rice as part of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) suggest the crop could be a game changer for agriculture and food security.
The next phase of the research will determine whether farmers wish to adopt Perennial Rice 23 (PR23), which has been developed by breeding an Asian variety of rice with a wild, perennial relative from Nigeria.
Prasanna Boddupalli presents at the International Plant Health Conference, September 2022. (Photo: International Plant Health Conference)
CGIAR research centers involved in the One CGIAR Plant Health Initiative joined forces at the International Plant Health Conference in London on September 21-23, 2022 to highlight the importance of global partnerships in effectively preventing and managing devastating pest and disease outbreaks in the Global South.
In an interactive side event on Plant Health Management in the Global South through Partnerships on September 21, the Plant Health Initiative team presented on and discussed: global diagnostic and surveillance systems against plant pests and diseases; risk assessment and preparedness for proactive response; integrated pest and disease management; mycotoxin mitigation strategy; and gender and social inclusion.
The CGIAR Plant Health Initiative, launched in January 2022, aims to protect agriculture-based economies of low and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America from pest and disease outbreaks in major crops by leveraging and building viable networks across an array of national, regional, and international institutions.
Building on a track record of more than 50 years of impactful research, the Plant Health Initiative aims to develop and deploy solutions through partnerships, and to achieve impacts that contribute towards several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Healthy crops for a healthy planet
Showing the strength of partnerships in action, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Alliance Bioversity-CIAT (ABC), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the International Potato Center (CIP), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) highlighted the Initiative’s activities and sought feedback from the plant health experts participating in the session.
Martin Kropff, CGIAR Science Director of Resilient Agrifood Systems, welcomed the participants to the session. Prasanna Boddupalli, CGIAR Plant Health Initiative Lead & Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program, introduced the Initiative and its scope, emphasizing the inclusive partnerships. This was followed by presentations from Monica Carvajal (ABC), Lava Kumar (IITA), Alejandro Ortega-Beltran (IITA), Nozomi Kawarazuka (CIP), and Yanyan Liu (IFPRI).
Time was dedicated to engaging participants through Mentimeter polling on specific questions related to plant health management. Participants also shared their views on plant health research coordination, capacity strengthening, and knowledge exchange between the Global North and Global South, with a focus on improving food security and livelihoods of smallholders.
The event was successful not only in generating greater understanding of the Initiative amongst the participants, but also in developing significant interest from the participants to contribute to the Initiative’s goals with collective actions, all for the benefit of smallholders in the low- and middle-income countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Establishing wider networks for plant health
The Plant Health Initiative team, together with Kropff, also had a productive discussion on September 22 with Osama El-Lissy, International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) Secretary, on opportunities for joint actions on plant health management in the Global South by IPPC and the CGIAR Plant Health Initiative, together with national partners.
Boddupalli also participated in a workshop on September 20 organized by Euphresco, a network of organizations that fund research projects and coordinate national research in the phytosanitary area, at the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in the United Kingdom, on shaping global plant health research coordination. The workshop participants discussed and endorsed several actions for advancing global plant health research coordination.
Participants of a workshop by Euphresco endorsed actions to advance research coordination for global plant health. (Photo: Euphresco)
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann met with experts from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to promote crop diversification and use of Direct Sowing Rice (DSR) Basmati as part of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) project.
In a meeting with CIMMYT Director General Bram Govaerts, water shortages were an integral part of the discussion. Mann encouraged use of BISA models across the state that require less water consumption than other methods, without impacting farmers’ income.
Mann also highlighted the potential of crops like maize, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, bamboo, popular, and fruit such as guava and kinoo.
A multitude of research on the benefits of conservation agriculture in South Asia has predominantly focused on favorable environments where farmers have reliable access to energy supporting irrigation and inputs.
Farmers calibrate their machines for strip tillage in communities participating in experiments. (Credit: Ranik Martin)
Responding to the identified research gap, this research tests the hypothesis that seasonally alternating tillage (SAT) practices that alternate between strip-tillage in the winter season for maize and conventional tillage (CT) prior to rice can reduce energy use, increase energy productivity, and reduce yield-scaled emissions while increasing or maintaining yield and profit, even under these challenging conditions.
Working with 35 farmers who managed experiments in partially irrigated and rainfed environments in southern coastal Bangladesh, researchers teamed up with farming communities to compare the full suite of conservation agriculture to SAT practices against CT and farmer’s own practices.
The research found that in these coastal environments, both conservation agriculture and SAT practices have the potential to increase cereal yields and energy productivity while reducing yield-scaled emissions, thereby enabling farmers even in challenging coastal environments to produce more while reducing energy use and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
However, in consideration of farmers’ aversion to the elimination of tillage in rice, the research suggests that adaptations in CA practices and seasonal tillage prior to rice may be a more practical fit for rice-maize systems managed by smallholders reluctant to eliminate tillage for rice in coastal Bangladesh.
This research gives implications for future research and development efforts to take into consideration farmers’ preferences or the trade-offs resulting from significant change to conservation agriculture management in otherwise fully tilled systems. It is also vital to integrate development efforts that focus not only on agronomic management, but also on building supportive value chains to improve availability and affordability of the inputs and farm machinery required to successfully establish crops with such practices.
Farmer applying urea with a spreader in a rice field. Photo Uttam Kunwar/ CIMMYT
After four decades, new site-specific fertilizer recommendations for rice have been introduced in Nepal that will help farmers increase the crop’s productivity by 10-30%, compared to their current practices.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD) endorsed the new fertilizer recommendations for rice crop at a consultative workshop in July 2022 held in Kathmandu. Developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in close collaboration with the Nepal Agriculture Research Council’s (NARC) National Soil Science Research Center (NSSRC) and International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), the new regime replaces the existing blanket approach of recommendations to help increase crop yields and fertilizer use efficiency.
The blanket approach assumed the whole country as one domain despite the heterogeneity in soils, other biophysical conditions and agronomic management practices, including crop varieties. As a result, fertilizers were under-utilized in low fertile soils or overused in farms with high soil fertility status, thereby farmers were not able to obtain the achievable yield.
Unlike the generic recommendations, the site-specific fertilizer management will help farmers to determine the crop’s fertilizer requirements based on soil fertility status of a particular farm, attainable yield target of the selected crop variety, crop’s yield response to fertilizers and agronomic management practices, such as irrigation, cropping systems etc. In other words, this new regime allows farmers to produce more with less fertilizers through a balanced application of fertilizers based on available soil properties.
Old is not always gold
Generally, soil fertility status changes every 3-5 years when there is continuous nutrient removal from soils due to an intensive cropping system with the adoption of high nutrient demanding improved and hybrid varieties. Thus, soil fertility management recommendations should be updated periodically but the existing recommendations were not updated since 1976.
Realizing the limitations, CIMMYT through the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project, supported by USAID, worked with NSSRC and IFDC to formulate fertilizer recommendations for major cereal crops and vegetables for specific domains of the country.
Under NSSRC’s leadership, a ‘Fertilizer Recommendation Committee’ comprising of a dedicated team of soil scientists within NSSRC and NSAF experts was formed to develop site-specific fertilizer recommendations using the Soil-SMART framework for delivering balanced fertilizers to farmers. Based on soil fertility status, agro-climate, irrigation regimes and geography, the country was divided into six soil fertility domains — four in the Terai region (Eastern, Central, Western and Far-western), one in inner Terai and one in the hills. Under each domain, recommendations were based on the attainable yield, crop variety, and irrigation regime.
This approach was first tested for rice crop.
Formulating new recommendations for rice
Three fundamental steps were used to develop site-specific fertilizer recommendations, which included: i) selection of yield goal, ii) estimation of crop nutrient requirement, and iii) estimation of indigenous nutrient supplies. To collect this information, NSAF and the committee designed field trials on nutrient omission and nutrient rates to determine the yield limiting nutrients and their optimum rate, respectively. Data from fertilizer trials conducted by different research institutes and universities, including trials from the project sites were collected and analyzed by the team to see the crop’s yield response to fertilizers. A modeling approach called Quantitative Evaluation of fertility of the tropical soils (QUEFTS) was also used to estimate the indigenous nutrient supply and attainable yield target of rice for different soil fertility domains. This model was applied as an alternate to extrapolate recommendations in areas where field data were not available, considering large financial and human resources required otherwise to conduct numerous field trials across different soil types and agro ecological zones. The model was validated with field trial data before making extrapolation of the recommendations. The QUEFTS model used soil properties from Nepal’s first digital soil map to identify nutrient status and deficiency.
In addition to agronomic optimum rate, an economic analysis was also conducted to see economic variability of the recommendations.
The newly developed recommendations provide guidance for balanced fertilization as it includes micronutrients zinc and boron, and organic inputs in addition to three major nutrients —Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorous (NPK). Results from field trials suggested that the new recommendation could increase rice productivity by 10-30% compared to existing farmers’ practice.
Infographic on developing domain specific fertilizer recommendations.
Advocating for endorsement
A three-day workshop was organized by CIMMYT and NSSRC to primarily share and approve the recommended fertilizer dose for rice crop as well as its relevance to achieve potential yield at farm level. Rajendra Mishra, joint secretary of MoALD inaugurated the event that was chaired by the Director of NARC’s Crop and Horticulture Research. Workshop attendees included MoALD, NARC, Department of Agriculture, USAID Nepal, secretaries from the Province Ministry of Land Management, soil scientists, university professors, agronomists and other high-level government officials.
During the workshop, NSAF explained the application of QUEFTS model with reference to the case of rice based on the field trial data for domain specific fertilizer recommendations. Shree Prasad Vista, soil scientist at NSSRC, summarized the results for rice as the approach and facilitated its approval from MoALD. The participants also discussed on strategies to link with the extension system to reach a large number of farmers through the three-tier governments. Fourteen research papers on nutrient management for major cereal crops were also reviewed at the event.
“I congratulate NARC for this historical work on updating the fertilizer recommendations after 46 years. Now, we are moving towards sustainable soil fertility management by adopting site-specific fertilizer recommendations,” said MoALD Secretary Govinda Prasad Sharma.
Although the recommendation for rice was a significant output of the workshop, fertilizer recommendations for other major crops will be carried out following a similar process.
NARC’s Executive Director Deepak Bhandari commented, “It is our pleasure to move from a blanket approach to site-specific approach. This is a milestone for agricultural research in the country and I would like to thank all the scientists, NSAF project and USAID’s support for this notable achievement.”
Similarly, speaking at the event, Jason Seuc, Director of Economic Growth Office at USAID Nepal, emphasized the importance of soil fertility management for achieving food security targets set by the Government of Nepal. Seuc remarked that a sustainable soil fertility management is critical not only for food security but also for reducing the environmental pollution.
Representatives from the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on July 7-8. (Credit: Antara Foto/Pool/Sigid Kurniawan/rwa.)
The G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting held on July 7-8 in Bali saw Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, highlight support for CGIAR as part of a proposed cooperation initiative to boost global food security.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi highlighted the need to help CGIAR increase innovation and build cooperation on agricultural science and technology among countries. Addressing the meeting, Wang said the food and energy sectors are crucial for the healthy performance of the world economy and the effective implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
His statement was made shortly before the signing of Letters of Intent for Cooperation between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and two CGIAR Research Centers, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
CIMMYT, IRRI and CAAS intend to establish a joint Center in Hainan to address global food security through advances in wheat and rice breeding. The collaboration aims to enhance the environmental sustainability of rice and wheat based agri-food systems, promote biodiversity conservation, combat climate change, and improve the health and welfare of growers and consumers.
Jean Balié, Regional Director, South East Asia and Pacific, CGIAR, and Director General of IRRI said: “Our new agreement solidifies and updates a longstanding and fruitful partnership. Today we face a different and growing set of challenges to our food, land and water systems, and we welcome the opportunity to strengthen knowledge and information exchange from across CGIAR that will contribute to a transformation of global food, land and water systems.”
CIMMYT Director General, Bram Govaerts added: “This state-of-the-art breeding center will help us develop and deploy the new nutritious, high-yielding and resilient varieties that Asian farmers need to feed and nurture the most populous region of the world sustainably or within planetary boundaries.”
In three decades of collaboration, CAAS and CGIAR have cooperated on germplasm exchange, breeding new varieties of crops, and providing opportunities for staff collaboration, development and training.
In wheat research, the partnership has added as much as 10.7 million tons of grain – worth $3.4 billion – to China’s national wheat output. Additionally,eight CIMMYTscientists have won the Chinese Friendship Award – the highest award for foreign experts who have made outstanding contributions to China’s economic and social progress.
A reaffirmation of Chinese support for CGIAR comes on a tide of growing recognition that more investment is needed to tackle hunger.
Earlier in the year the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Communiqué underlined the urgent need to address risk in global food systems citing this as a top foreign policy objective. At the same time, the G7 Agricultural Ministers Communiqué cautioned that slowing down work to address longer term goals of food systems transformation, in order to address short term food crises, will have negative consequences in the medium and long term. In this context CGIAR’s System Board Chair, Marco Ferroni, recently highlighted the need for world leaders to look at the big picture to solve the food crisis.
The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) are establishing a breeding center in Sanya, Hainan Province, China.
The international cooperation will be conducive to the exploration and utilization of germplasm resources of the research organizations, biological breeding research, technical training, and the innovation of the global seed industry.
