Tag: Tunisia

CIMMYT’s director general Thomas Lumpkin met with Mohamed Ben Salem, the Minister of Agriculture of Tunisia, on 11 February 2012 in Tunis, Tunisia, during a visit to the region focusing on fortifying CIMMYT’s presence in Africa. From CIMMYT, Lumpkin was accompanied by Wilfred Mwangi, liaison officer for Africa, and Karim Ammar, head of the durum wheat program and a Tunisian national.

Wheat is currently the number one imported crop into Africa and, at approximately 216 kilos per person per year, the North Africa region has the highest wheat consumption per capita in the world. Tunisia already imports an estimated 2 million tons of wheat per year, and with low yields and a growing population, wheat production is a major concern for the country. 61% of Tunisia’s total land area is categorized as arid, and erratic rainfall and weather patterns are the primary concern for the country’s wheat producers. In 2010, for example, an extended period of drought halved the country’s wheat production. Diseases and pests such as Hessian fly also cause problems.

During the meeting, which aimed at re-establishing links and partnerships in the region, Lumpkin and Ben Salem discussed opportunities for activities in line with the WHEAT CGIAR Research Program (CRP) lead by CIMMYT in partnership with ICARDA. They talked about improved varieties and agronomic techniques developed at CIMMYT, and the potential for establishing a research platform in Tunisia aimed at achieving higher yields.

CIMMYT’s activities in Tunisia date back to the period 1966-1977, when a comprehensive project known as “The Wheat Project” was implemented by the Government of Tunisia, CIMMYT, USAID, the Ford Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. The goals of the project were to introduce and adapt Mexican semi-dwarf high-yielding wheat varieties and to train Tunisian scientists in agricultural research and extension methods. During the project, 55 Tunisian nationals were trained at CIMMYT in Mexico, and to this day many refer to the varieties developed as “Mexican wheats”.

Lumpkin continued with his visits to the region by heading to Rabat, Morocco to meet with officials alongside Mahmoud Sohl, director general of ICARDA, to link activities in the region with the WHEAT CRP. He also joined CIMMYT’s Hans Braun, director of the global wheat program and Cheraé Robinson, director of fundraising and strategic partnerships, at the Global Food Security Forum, held in Rabat during 07-09 March 2012, where he spoke as a panelist on the subject of Investment and Innovation: Key Building Block of Food Security. Lumpkin will end his recent tour of Africa in Tanzania for the annual meetings of the Sustainable Intensification of Maize- Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project at the end of March.

On 10 February 2012, CIMMYT’s Director General, Thomas Lumpkin, visited the headquarters of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Tunis, Tunisia, accompanied by Wilfred Mwangi, Liaison Officer for Africa, and Karim Ammar, Head, Durum Wheat Program. In his meeting with the Bank’s President, Donald Kaberuka, Lumpkin presented CIMMYT’s major projects and activities on wheat and maize research and development in Africa, including breeding, biotechnology, agronomy, socioeconomics, seed systems, and human resources development. “The AfDB President was keenly interested in biotechnology, and we discussed examples of successful projects and the potential benefits for Africa,” said Lumpkin.

The group also discussed the MAIZE CRP and CIMMYT’s strong partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Institutional linkages such as these can be very beneficial to African smallholder farmers, as demonstrated by the major projects accomplished by CIMMYT’s Africa offices, such as Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Sustainable Intensification of Maize- Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA), Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA), Insect Resistant Maize for Africa (IRMA), and Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS). “CIMMYT has had an enormous impact on wheat in Africa. Most cultivars are CIMMYT derived and many wheat scientists from African NARS have been trained at CIMMYT,” said Ammar.

It is hoped that these successes can continue, given the strength of the CIMMYT cadre of researchers currently based in Africa. Of the 38 African-based IRS, 29 are African scientists from seven different countries, and the directors of both the Socioeconomics Program and the Global Maize Program are based in Nairobi. “Africa has become the nucleus for maize research and development of CIMMYT,” stated B.M. Prasanna, Director of the Global Maize Program.

Throughout the meetings, CIMMYT’s desire to assist West African countries in maize and wheat production was expressed. CIMMYT is currently leading the WHEAT CRP in conjunction with the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), an initiative with a strong focus on Africa. Lumpkin emphasized the need for this CRP to also address wheat needs in African countries which are not traditionally wheat growers, but where wheat consumption may be rapidly increasing. According to FAO, Algeria’s bread and durum wheat imports rose 41.5 percent to a record 7.42 million tons in 2011, and the continent’s most populous nation, Nigeria, imports 4 million tons of wheat per year according to the USDA, with annual per capita wheat consumption currently about 25 kg.

Follow-up activities with the AfDB will be co-ordinated by Mwangi, who has already had further meetings with the Bank’s executive staff. “It was an excellent meeting and gave us the opportunity to highlight the major investments CIMMYT is making in Africa”, said Mwangi. The meeting formed part of a series of CIMMYT activities in Tunisia, Kenya, and Nigeria, designed to strengthen ties with local partners, donor organizations, and CGIAR institutions in the region.

“It is very difficult to find conservation agriculture machinery. You have to go to China or India to get it,” said Mahesh Kumar Gathala, new CIMMYTBangladesh-based cropping systems agronomist for South Asia. Gathala, a native of India, was just one of the 15 participants invited to attend a five-week conservation agriculture course at CIMMYT-El Batán, Mexico, where improving machinery and professional capacity were hot topics.

Begun in late May 2011, the course combined research advances in multidisciplinary approaches to sustainable crop management with the vast experience of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The main aim was to enhance participants’ understanding of the use and application of conservation agriculture sowing technologies and relevant agricultural implements in irrigated and rainfed wheat and maize production systems.

The participants came from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Morocco, Tunisia, India, and Turkey. For many, it was their first time in Mexico. They spent most of their time at CIMMYT-El Batán, but also visited the Toluca station and farmers’ fields in Hidalgo to see CA practices in action and share experiences from their own countries.

Gathala noted the major differences in CA farming in Mexico and South Asia. “Fields are much smaller in Bangladesh, and crop residues are in much higher demand as animal feed,” he said. “These conditions make CA more difficult to push.” A CA practitioner for a decade, Gathala nonetheless felt the course was useful: “There is always something new to learn and share.”

Participant Raju Teggelli of India agreed. “I enjoyed the coursework, especially the practical experience. I found the instrument calibration and the hands-on training most useful,” said the Entomologist from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, in Karnataka, India.

Sincere thanks to all who made the course possible, and especially to the participants for their valuable and engaging contributions.