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Wheat fields in the Arsi highlands, Ethiopia, 2015. (Photo: CIMMYT/ Peter Lowe)

Rust-resistant bread wheat varieties widely adopted in Ethiopia

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Press releases.

Wheat fields in the Arsi highlands, Ethiopia, 2015. (Photo: CIMMYT/ Peter Lowe)
Wheat fields in the Arsi highlands, Ethiopia, 2015. (Photo: CIMMYT/ Peter Lowe)

A state-of-the-art study of plant DNA provides strong evidence that farmers in Ethiopia have widely adopted new, improved rust-resistant bread wheat varieties since 2014.

The results — published in Nature Scientific Reports — show that nearly half (47%) of the 4,000 plots sampled were growing varieties 10 years old or younger, and the majority (61%) of these were released after 2005.

Four of the top varieties sown were recently-released rust-resistant varieties developed through the breeding programs of the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Adoption studies provide a fundamental measure of the success and effectiveness of agricultural research and investment. However, obtaining accurate information on the diffusion of crop varieties remains a challenging endeavor.

DNA fingerprinting enables researchers to identify the variety present in samples or plots, based on a comprehensive reference library of the genotypes of known varieties. In Ethiopia, over 94% of plots could be matched with known varieties. This provides data that is vastly more accurate than traditional farmer-recall surveys.

This is the first nationally representative, large-scale wheat DNA fingerprinting study undertaken in Ethiopia. CIMMYT scientists led the study in partnership with EIAR, the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and Diversity Array Technologies (DArT).

“When we compared DNA fingerprinting results with the results from a survey of farmers’ memory of the same plots, we saw that only 28% of farmers correctly named wheat varieties grown,” explained Dave Hodson, a principal scientist at CIMMYT and lead author of the study.

The resulting data helps national breeding programs adjust their seed production to meet demand, and national extension agents focus on areas that need better access to seed. It also helps scientists, policymakers, donors and organizations such as CIMMYT track their impact and prioritize funding, support, and the direction of future research.

“These results validate years of international investment and national policies that have worked to promote, distribute and fast-track the release of wheat varieties with the traits that farmers have asked for — particularly resistance to crop-destroying wheat rust disease,” said Hodson.

Ethiopia is the largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa. The Ethiopian government recently announced its goal to become self-sufficient in wheat, and increasing domestic wheat production is a national priority.

Widespread adoption of these improved varieties, demonstrated by DNA fingerprinting, has clearly had a positive impact on both economic returns and national wheat production gains. Initial estimates show that farmers gained an additional 225,500 tons of production — valued at $50 million — by using varieties released after 2005.

The study results validate investments in wheat improvement made by international donor agencies, notably the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ethiopian government, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO, formerly DFID), the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank. Their success in speeding up variety release and seed multiplication in Ethiopia is considered a model for other countries.

“This is good news for Ethiopian farmers, who are seeing better incomes from higher yielding, disease-resistant wheat, and for the Ethiopian government, which has put a high national priority on increasing domestic wheat production and reducing dependence on imports,” said EIAR Deputy Director General Chilot Yirga.

The study also confirmed CGIAR’s substantial contribution to national breeding efforts, with 90% of the area sampled containing varieties released by Ethiopian wheat breeding programs and derived from CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) germplasm. Varieties developed using germplasm received from CIMMYT covered 87% of the wheat area surveyed.

“This research demonstrates that DNA fingerprinting can be applied at scale and is likely to transform future crop varietal adoption studies,” said Kindie Tesfaye, a senior scientist at CIMMYT and co-author of the study. “Additional DNA fingerprinting studies are now also well advanced for maize in Ethiopia.”

This research is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and CGIAR Fund Donors. Financial support was provided through the “Mainstreaming the use and application of DNA Fingerprinting in Ethiopia for tracking crop varieties” project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Grant number OPP1118996).

RELATED PUBLICATIONS:

Ethiopia’s Transforming Wheat Landscape: Tracking Variety Use through DNA Fingerprinting

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR INTERVIEW REQUESTS:

Dave Hodson, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), d.hodson@cgiar.org

ABOUT CIMMYT:

The International Maize and What 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 the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR 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. For more information visit staging.cimmyt.org

Hans Braun receives prestigious Norman Borlaug Award for Lifetime Achievement in Wheat Research

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in News.

Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT's Global Wheat Program, speaks at the 8th International Wheat Conference in 2010. Braun has dedicated nearly four decades to wheat research. (Photo: Petr Kosina/CIMMYT)
Hans-Joachim Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, speaks at the 8th International Wheat Conference in 2010. Braun has dedicated nearly four decades to wheat research. (Photo: Petr Kosina/CIMMYT)

Hans Braun, director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has received the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award for nearly four decades of wheat research. He received the award on October 9, 2020, during the virtual Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Technical Workshop.

“We rest on the shoulders of a lot of mighty people who have come before us,” said Ronnie Coffman, vice chair of BGRI, speaking to a global audience of wheat scientists and farmers as he presented four individuals with the award. “Each of these individuals has contributed to the improvement of wheat and smallholder livelihoods in major and enduring ways.”

Responsible for technical direction and implementation of the Global Wheat Program at CIMMYT and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), Braun leads and manages a team of 40 international scientists who develop wheat germplasm. This germplasm is distributed to around 200 cooperators in wheat-producing countries worldwide, and is responsible for the derived varieties being grown on more than 50% of the spring wheat area in developing countries.

Lifetime achievement

With the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award, the BGRI community honors four individuals who have been integral to the initiative. (Photo: BGRI)
With the Norman Borlaug Lifetime Achievement Award, the BGRI community honors four individuals who have been integral to the initiative. (Photo: BGRI)

“In his 35 years with CIMMYT, Hans has become familiar with all major wheat-based cropping systems in the developing and developed world,” said Coffman, who called Braun an important collaborator and close personal friend.

“Hans was integral to the BGRI’s efforts in preventing Ug99 and related races of rust from taking out much of the 80% of the world’s wheat that was susceptible when Ug99 was first identified in 1999,” Coffman explained. He “has been an integral partner in the development and implementation of the Durable Rust Research in Wheat (DRRW) and Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) projects.”

Braun delivered a keynote speech accepting the award and discussing the bright future of wheat, despite the many challenges that lie ahead.

“The future of wheat improvement in developing countries remains on the shoulders of public organizations and institutions. It is paramount that we share germplasm, information and knowledge openly,” he said.

He emphasized the need to “keep the herd together” and maintain strong, global partnerships.

Braun also noted the importance of continuing to improve nutritional content, growing within planetary boundaries, and taking farmers’ preferences seriously. He highlighted CIMMYT’s exceptional capacity as one of the world’s largest and most impactful wheat breeding programs, and encouraged national partners to continue their close collaboration.

He recalled what Norman Borlaug told him in 2004, when he became head of the Global Wheat Program: “Hans, I have confidence you can lead the program and I will always help you” — and how he did.

“I would like to thank all with whom I cooperated over four decades and who contributed to make CIMMYT’s program strong,” concluded Hans. “I am very optimistic that the global wheat community will continue to develop the varieties farmers need to feed 10 billion.”

This story was first posted on the BGRI blog and on the WHEAT website.

Learn more about the other distinguished scientists receiving this award, and the Technical Workshop outcomes, on the BGRI website.

Harvesting golden spikes of wheat in Ethiopia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT

East Africa partners welcome “new era” in wheat breeding collaboration

Written by Marcia MacNeil on . Posted in Features.

Representatives from ministries of agriculture and national agricultural research systems (NARS) in Ethiopia and Kenya recently joined funder representatives and technical experts from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to renew a long-standing collaboration under the auspices of an ambitious new project, Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG).

AGG is a 5-year project that brings together partners in the global science community and in national agricultural research and extension systems to accelerate the development of higher-yielding varieties of maize and wheat — two of the world’s most important staple crops. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), AGG fuses innovative methods that improve breeding efficiency and precision to produce varieties that are climate-resilient, pest- and disease-resistant, highly nutritious, and targeted to farmers’ specific needs.

Ethiopia and Kenya: CIMMYT’s longstanding partners

The inception meeting for the wheat component of AGG in East Africa drew more than 70 stakeholders from Ethiopia and Kenya: the region’s primary target countries for wheat breeding. These two countries have long-standing relationships with CIMMYT that continue to deliver important impacts. Ninety percent of all wheat in Ethiopia is derived from CIMMYT varieties, and CIMMYT is a key supporter of the Ethiopian government’s goal for wheat self-sufficiency. Kenya has worked with CIMMYT for more than 40 years, and hosts the world’s biggest screening facilities for wheat rust diseases, with up to 40,000 accessions tested each year.

AGG builds on these successes and on the foundations built by previous projects, notably Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat, led by Cornell University. The wheat component of AGG works in parallel with a USAID-funded “zinc mainstreaming” project, meeting the demand for increased nutritional quality as well as yield and resilience.

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff gave key remarks at the stakeholder gathering, which took place Thursday, August 20.

“Cooperation between CIMMYT and Ethiopia and Kenya – as in all the countries where CIMMYT works – has had tremendous impact,” he said. “We are proud, not for ourselves, but for the people we work for: the hundreds of millions of poor people and smallholders who rely on wheat and maize for their daily food and incomes.”

“AGG will raise this spirit of global cooperation to a new level.”

AGG Project Leader and CIMMYT Interim Deputy Director General for Research Kevin Pixley introduced the new project as a “unique and important” project that challenges every stakeholder to grow.

“What we would like to achieve is a step change for all of us, he told the stakeholders. “Each of us has the opportunity and the challenge to make a difference and that’s what we’re striving to do.”

Representatives from the agricultural research communities of both target countries emphasized the significance of their long collaboration with CIMMYT and their support for the project.

The Honorable Mandefro Nigussie, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Agriculture, confirmed the ongoing achievements of CIMMYT collaboration in his country.

“Our partnership with CIMMYT [
] has yielded several improved varieties that increased productivity twofold over the last 20 years. He referred to Ethiopia’s campaign to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat. “AGG will make an immense contribution to this. The immediate and intermediate results can help achieve the country’s ambitious targets.”

A holistic and gender-informed approach

Deputy Director of Crops at the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Organization (KALRO) Felister Makini, representing the KALRO Director General Eliud Kireger, noted the project’s strong emphasis on gender-intentional variety development and gender-informed analysis to ensure female farmers have access to varieties that meet their needs and the information to successfully adopt them.

“The goal of this new project will indeed address KALRO’s objective of enhancing food security and nutrition in Kenya,” she said. “This is because AGG not only brings together wheat breeding and optimization tools and technologies, but also considers gender and socioeconomic insights, which will be pivotal to our envisaged strategy to achieve socioeconomic change.”

Funding partners keen for AGG to address future threats

Before CIMMYT wheat experts took the virtual floor to describe specific workplans and opportunities for partner involvement, a number of funder representatives shared candid and inspiring thoughts.

“We are interested in delivery,” said Alan Tollervey of FCDO, formerly the UK Department for International Development. “That is why we support AGG, because it is about streamlining and modernizing the delivery of products [
] directly relevant to both the immediate demands of poor farmers in developing countries and the global demand for food – but also addressing the future threats that we see coming.”

Hailu Wordofa, Agricultural Technology Specialist at the Bureau for Resilience and Food Security at USAID highlighted the importance of global partnerships for past success and reiterated the ambitious targets of the current project.

“We expect to see genetic gains increase and varieties [
] replaced by farmer-preferred varieties,” he reminded stakeholders. “To make this happen, we expect CIMMYT’s global breeding program to use optimal breeding approaches and develop strong and truly collaborative relationships with NARS partners throughout the entire process.”

“Wheat continues to be a critical staple crop for global food security and supporting CIMMYT’s wheat breeding program remains a high priority for USAID,” he assured the attendees.

He also expressed hope that AGG would collaborate other projects working in parallel, including the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics at Kansas State University, and the International Wheat Yield Partnership.

FFAR Scientific Program Director Jeff Rosichan called AGG a “really ambitious project that takes a comprehensive look at the research gaps and challenges and how to translate that research into farmers’ fields.”

Agriculture prevails even under COVID-19

The global COVID-19 pandemic was not ignored as one of several challenges during this time of change and transition.

“As we speak today, despite the challenge that we have with the COVID-19, I am proud to say that work on the nurseries is on-going. We are able to apply [our] skills and deliver world-class science,” said Godwin Macharia, center director at KALRO-Njoro.

“This COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that there is a great need globally to focus on food equity. I think this project allows that to happen,” said Jeff Rosichan from FFAR.

Transformations are also happening at the research organization and funding level. CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff noted that “demand-driven solutions” for “affordable, efficient and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries” are an important part of the strategy for One CGIAR, the ongoing transformation of CGIAR, the world’s largest public research network on food systems, of which CIMMYT is a member.

Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program reminded attendees that, despite these changes, one important fact remains. “The demand for wheat will continue to grow for many years to come, and we must meet it.”

Cover photo: Harvesting golden spikes of wheat in Ethiopia. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

New analysis to help in creating yellow rust resistant wheat

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in In the media.

A new analysis by wheat scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) published in Scientific Reports includes insights and genetic information that will help in the efforts to breed yellow rust resistant wheat.

Read more here: https://www.world-grain.com/articles/13959-new-analysis-to-help-in-creating-yellow-rust-resistant-wheat 

Stripe rust hits wheat crop in Nepal

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in In the media.

Nepalese and CIMMYT wheat scientists, working at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) suspect new races of stripe and leaf rust infected the wheat crop in the Nepal hills and terai in the recent 2020 wheat season. This was reported after detailed survey and surveillance activities of rust diseases in the terai and hill regions were carried out during March and April, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cessation of many field activities.

Read more here: https://www.seedquest.com/news.php?type=news&id_article=117729&id_region=&id_category=&id_crop=

Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC)

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) program is managed by the UK Met Office, supported by the World Bank and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). The four-year program, which started in 2018, aims to strengthen weather forecasting systems across Asia. The program will deliver new technologies and innovative approaches to help vulnerable communities use weather warnings and forecasts to better prepare for climate-related shocks.

Since 2019, as part of ARRCC, CIMMYT has been working with the Met Office and Cambridge University to pilot an early warning system to deliver wheat rust and blast disease predictions directly to farmers’ phones in Bangladesh and Nepal.

The system was first developed in Ethiopia. It uses weather information from the Met Office, the UK’s national meteorological service, along with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge, to construct and deploy a near real-time early warning system.

Phase I: 12-Month Pilot Phase

Around 50,000 smallholder farmers are expected to receive improved disease warnings and appropriate management advisories in the first 12 months as part of a proof-of-concept modeling and pilot advisory extension phase focused on three critical diseases:

  • Wheat stripe rust in Nepal: extend and test the modelling framework developed in Ethiopia to smallholder farmers in Nepal as proof-of concept;
  • Wheat stem rust in Bangladesh and Nepal: while stem rust is currently not widely established in South Asia, models indicate that devastating incursion from neighboring regions is likely. This work will prepare for potential incursions of new rust strains in both countries;
  • Wheat blast in Bangladesh: this disease is now established in Bangladesh. This work will establish the feasibility of adapting the dispersal modelling framework to improve wheat blast predictability and deploy timely preventative management advisories to farmers.

Phase II: Scaling-out wheat rust early warning advisories, introducing wheat blast forecasting and refinement model refinement

Subject to funding approval the second year of the project will lead to validation of the wheat rust early warnings, in which researchers compare predictions with on-the-ground survey results, increasingly supplemented with farmer response on the usefulness of the warnings facilitated by national research and extension partners. Researchers shall continue to introduce and scale-out improved early warning systems for wheat blast. Concomitantly, increasing the reach of the advice to progressively larger numbers of farmers while refining the models in the light of results. We anticipate that with sufficient funding, Phase II activities could reach up to 300,000 more farmers in Nepal and Bangladesh.

Phase III: Demonstrating that climate services can increase farmers’ resilience to crop diseases

As experience is gained and more data is accumulated from validation and scaling-out, researchers will refine and improve the precision of model predictions. They will also place emphasis on efforts to train partners and operationalize efficient communication and advisory dissemination channels using information communication technologies (ICTs) for extension agents and smallholders. Experience from Ethiopia indicates that these activities are essential in achieving ongoing sustainability of early warning systems at scale. Where sufficient investment can be garnered to support the third phase of activities, it is expected that an additional 350,000 farmers will receive disease management warnings and advisories in Nepal and Bangladesh, totaling 1 million farmers over a three-year period.

Objectives

  • Review the feasibility of building resilience to wheat rust through meteorologically informed early warning systems.
  • Adapt and implement epidemiological forecasting protocols for wheat blast in South Asia.
  • Implement processes to institutionalize disease early warning systems in Nepal and Bangladesh.

Blast and rust forecast

Written by Matthew O'Leary on . Posted in Features. 1 Comment on Blast and rust forecast

An early warning system set to deliver wheat disease predictions directly to farmers’ phones is being piloted in Bangladesh and Nepal by interdisciplinary researchers.

Experts in crop disease, meteorology and computer science are crunching data from multiple countries to formulate models that anticipate the spread of the wheat rust and blast diseases in order to warn farmers of likely outbreaks, providing time for pre-emptive measures, said Dave Hodson, a principal scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) coordinating the pilot project.

Around 50,000 smallholder farmers are expected to receive improved disease warnings and appropriate management advisories through the one-year proof-of-concept project, as part of the UK Aid-funded Asia Regional Resilience to a Changing Climate (ARRCC) program.

Early action is critical to prevent crop diseases becoming endemic. The speed at which wind-dispersed fungal wheat diseases are spreading through Asia poses a constant threat to sustainable wheat production of the 130 million tons produced in the region each year.

“Wheat rust and blast are caused by fungal pathogens, and like many fungi, they spread from plant to plant — and field to field — in tiny particles called spores,” said Hodson. “Disease strain mutations can overcome resistant varieties, leaving farmers few choices but to rely on expensive and environmentally-damaging fungicides to prevent crop loss.”

“The early warning system combines climate data and epidemiology models to predict how spores will spread through the air and identifies environmental conditions where healthy crops are at risk of infection. This allows for more targeted and optimal use of fungicides.”

The system was first developed in Ethiopia. It uses weather information from the Met Office, the UK’s national meteorological service, along with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge, to construct and deploy a near real-time early warning system.

CIMMYT consultant Madan Bhatta conducts field surveys using Open Data Kit (ODK) in the mid-hills of Nepal. (Photo: D. Hodson/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT consultant Madan Bhatta conducts field surveys using Open Data Kit (ODK) in the mid-hills of Nepal. (Photo: D. Hodson/CIMMYT)

Initial efforts focused on adapting the wheat stripe and stem rust model from Ethiopia to Bangladesh and Nepal have been successful, with field surveillance data appearing to align with the weather-driven disease early warnings, but further analysis is ongoing, said Hodson.

“In the current wheat season we are in the process of comparing our disease forecasting models with on-the-ground survey results in both countries,” the wheat expert said.

“Next season, after getting validation from national partners, we will pilot getting our predictions to farmers through text-based messaging systems.”

CIMMYT’s strong partnerships with governmental extension systems and farmer associations across South Asia are being utilized to develop efficient pathways to get disease predictions to farmers, said Tim Krupnik, a CIMMYT Senior Scientist based in Bangladesh.

“Partnerships are essential. Working with our colleagues, we can validate and test the deployment of model-derived advisories in real-world extension settings,” Krupnik said. “The forecasting and early warning systems are designed to reduce unnecessary fungicide use, advising it only in the case where outbreaks are expected.”

Local partners are also key for data collection to support and develop future epidemiological modelling, the development of advisory graphics and the dissemination of information, he explained.

The second stage of the project concerns the adaptation of the framework and protocols for wheat blast disease to improve existing wheat blast early warning systems already pioneered in Bangladesh.

Example of weekly stripe rust spore deposition forecast in Nepal. Darker colors represent higher predicted number of spores deposited. The early warning system combines weather information from the Met Office with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge. (Graphic: University of Cambridge and Met Office)
Example of weekly stripe rust spore deposition forecast in Nepal. Darker colors represent higher predicted number of spores deposited. The early warning system combines weather information from the Met Office with field and mobile phone surveillance data and disease spread modeling from the University of Cambridge. (Graphic: University of Cambridge and Met Office)

Strong scientific partnership champions diversity to achieve common goals

The meteorological-driven wheat disease warning system is an example of effective international scientific partnership contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, said Sarah Millington, a scientific manager at Atmospheric Dispersion and Air Quality Group with the Met Office.

“Diverse expertise from the Met Office, the University of Cambridge and CIMMYT shows how combined fundamental research in epidemiology and meteorology modelling with field-based disease observation can produce a system that boosts smallholder farmers’ resilience to major agricultural challenges,” she said.

The atmospheric dispersion modeling was originally developed in response to the Chernobyl disaster and since then has evolved to be able to model the dispersion and deposition of a range of particles and gases, including biological particles such as wheat rust spores.

“The framework together with the underpinning technologies are transferable to forecast fungal disease in other regions and can be readily adapted for other wind-dispersed pests and disease of major agricultural crops,” said Christopher Gilligan, head of the Epidemiology and Modelling Group at the University of Cambridge.

Fungal wheat diseases are an increasing threat to farmer livelihoods in Asia

Wheat leaf rust can be spotted on a wheat plant of a highly susceptible variety in Nepal. The symptoms of wheat rust are dusty, reddish-orange to reddish-brown fruiting bodies that appear on the leaf surface. These lesions produce numerous spores, which are spread by wind and splashing water. (Photo: D Hodson/CIMMYT)
Wheat leaf rust can be spotted on a wheat plant of a highly susceptible variety in Nepal. The symptoms of wheat rust are dusty, reddish-orange to reddish-brown fruiting bodies that appear on the leaf surface. These lesions produce numerous spores, which are spread by wind and splashing water. (Photo: D Hodson/CIMMYT)

While there has been a history of wheat rust disease epidemics in South Asia, new emerging strains and changes to climate pose an increased threat to farmers’ livelihoods. The pathogens that cause rust diseases are continually evolving and changing over time, making them difficult to control.

Stripe rust threatens farmers in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, typically in two out of five seasons, with an estimated 43 million hectares of wheat vulnerable. When weather conditions are conducive and susceptible cultivars are grown, farmers can experience losses exceeding 70%.

Populations of stem rust are building at alarming rates and previously unseen scales in neighboring regions. Stem rust spores can spread across regions on the wind; this also amplifies the threat of incursion into South Asia and the ARRCC program’s target countries, underscoring the very real risk that the disease could reemerge within the subcontinent.

The devastating wheat blast disease, originating in the Americas, suddenly appeared in Bangladesh in 2016, causing wheat crop losses as high as 30% on a large area, and continues to threaten South Asia’s vast wheat lands.

In both cases, quick international responses through CIMMYT, the CGIAR research program on Wheat (WHEAT) and the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative have been able to monitor and characterize the diseases and, especially, to develop and deploy resistant wheat varieties.

The UK aid-funded ARRCC program is led by the Met Office and the World Bank and aims to strengthen weather forecasting systems across Asia. The program is delivering new technologies and innovative approaches to help vulnerable communities use weather warnings and forecasts to better prepare for climate-related shocks.

The early warning system uses data gathered from the online Rust Tracker tool, with additional fieldwork support from the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), funded by USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, both coordinated by CIMMYT.

Hans Braun, Director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), inspects wheat plants in the greenhouses. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Crossing boundaries

Written by Marta Millere on . Posted in Features.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views or position of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

Daily life as we know it has grinded to a halt and crop scientists are pondering next steps in face of the global COVID-19 crisis. Hans Braun, Director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, joins us for a virtual chat to discuss the need for increased investment in crop disease research as the world risks a food security crisis.

What have you learned from your work on contagious wheat diseases that we can take away during this time?

Wheat epidemics go back to biblical times. Wheat scientists now believe Egypt’s “seven bad years” of harvest referenced in the Bible were due to a stem rust outbreak.

So, we know what happens when we have a crop epidemic: diseases can completely wipe out a harvest. I have seen subsistence farmers stand in front of their swaying, golden wheat fields, but there is not a single grain inside the spikes. All because of wheat blast.

There are a lot of parallel issues that I see with COVID-19.

The epidemiology models for humans which we see now have a lot in common with plant epidemiology. For example, if you take a wheat field sown with a variety which is rust-resistant and then you get a spore which mutates and overcomes the resistance — like COVID-19 overcomes the human immune system — it then takes about two weeks for it to sporulate again and produce millions of these mutated spores. They sporulate once more and then you have billions and trillions of spores — then the wheat fields at the local, national and, in the worst case, regional level are severely damaged and in worst case are going to die.

The problem is that since we cannot quarantine wheat, if the weather is favorable these spores will fly everywhere and — just like with COVID-19 — they don’t need a passport to travel.

Could you elaborate on that? How can wheat diseases go global?

Usually it takes around 5 years, sometimes less, until a mutation in a rust spore can overcome the resistance of a wheat variety. Every so often, we see rust epidemics which cover an entire region. To monitor this movement, the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative of Cornell University and CIMMYT, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and DFID, established a global rust monitoring system that provides live data on spore movements.

For example, if you have a new race of stem rust in Yemen — and in Yemen wheat matures early — and then farmers burn the straw, their action “pushes” the spores up into the air, thus allowing them to enter the jet stream and cover 2,000 to 5,000 kilometers in a short period of time. Spores can also be carried on clothes or shoes by people who walked into an infected wheat field. Take Australia, for example, which has very strict quarantine laws. It is surrounded by sea and still eventually they get the new rust races which fly around or come with travelers. One just cannot prevent it.

Stem rust resistant (left) and susceptible (right) wheat plants at the stem rust phenotyping facility in Njoro, Nakuru County in Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Stem rust resistant (left) and susceptible (right) wheat plants at the stem rust phenotyping facility in Njoro, Nakuru County in Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)

Could climate change exacerbate the spreading of crop diseases?

Yes, the climate and its variability have a lot to do with it. For example, in the case of yellow rust, what’s extremely important is the time it takes from sporulation to sporulation. Take a rust spore. It germinates, then it grows, it multiplies and then once it is ready it will disperse and infect wheat plants. From one dispersal to the next it takes about two weeks.

In the last decades, in particular for yellow rust, new races are better adapted to high temperature and are multiplying faster. In a Nature paper, we showed that 30 years ago yellow rust was not present in the Great Plains in the US. Today, it is the most important wheat disease there. So there really is something going on and changing and that’s why we are so concerned about new wheat disease races when they come up.

What could an epidemiologist specialized in human viruses take from this?

Well, I think human epidemiologists know very well what happens in a case like COVID-19. Ordinary citizens now also start to understand what a pandemic is and what its related exponential growth means.

Maybe you should ask what policymakers can learn from COVID-19 in order to prevent plant epidemics. When it comes to epidemics, what applies to humans applies to plants. If there is a new race of a given crop disease, in that moment, the plant does not have a defense mechanism, like humans in the case of COVID-19, because we haven’t developed any immunity. While in developed countries farmers can use chemicals to control plant diseases, resource-poor farmers do not have this option, due to lack to access or if the plant protective has not been registered in their country.

In addition to this, our lines of work share a sense of urgency. If “doomsday” happens, it will be too late to react. At present, with a human pandemic, people are worried about the supply chain from food processing to the supermarket. But if we have an epidemic in plants, then we do not have the supply chain from the field to the food processing industry. And if people have nothing to eat, they will go to the streets and we will see violence. We simply cannot put this aside.

What other lessons can policymakers and other stakeholders take away from the current crisis?

The world needs to learn that we cannot use economics as the basis for disease research. We need to better foresee what could happen.

Let’s take the example of wheat blast, a devastating disease that can destroy the wheat spike and was initially confined to South America. The disease arrived in Bangladesh in 2016 and caused small economic damage, maybe 30,000 tons loss in a small geographic area — a small fraction of the national production but a disaster for the smallholder farmer, who thus would have lost her entire wheat harvest. The disease is now controlled with chemicals. But what if chemical resistance is developed and the disease spreads to the 10 million hectares in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India and the south of Pakistan. Unlikely? But what if it happens?

Agriculture accounts for 30% of the global GDP and the research money [going to agriculture] in comparison to other areas is small. Globally only 5% of R&D is invested in research for development related to agriculture. Such a discrepancy! A million U.S. dollars invested in wheat blast research goes a long way and if you don’t do it, you risk a disaster.

If there is any flip side to the COVID-19 disaster, it is that hopefully our governments realize that they have to play a much more serious role in many areas, in particular public health and disease control in humans but also in plants.

A Lloyd’s report concluded that a global food crisis could be caused by governments taking isolating actions to protect their own countries in response to a breadbasket failure elsewhere. I’m concerned that as the COVID-19 crisis continues, governments will stop exports as some did during the 2008 food price crisis, and then, even if there is enough food around, the 2008 scenario might happen again and food prices will go through the roof, with disastrous impact on the lives of the poorest.

This article was originally published by the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT):
Crossing boundaries: looking at wheat diseases in times of the COVID-19 crisis.

Cover photo: Hans Braun, Director of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), inspects wheat plants in the greenhouses. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Breaking Ground: Mandeep Randhawa fights wheat diseases using genetic resistance tools

Written by Alison Doody on . Posted in Features.

With new pathogens of crop diseases continuously emerging and threatening food production and security, wheat breeder and wheat rust pathologist Mandeep Randhawa and his colleagues at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agricultural and Research Organization (KALRO) are working tirelessly to identify new sources of rust resistance through gene mapping tools and rigorous field testing.

With wheat accounting for around 20% of the world’s calories and protein, outbreaks of disease can pose a major threat to global food security and farmer livelihoods. The most common and prevalent diseases are wheat rusts — fungal diseases that can be dispersed by wind over long distances, which can quickly cause devastating epidemics and dramatically reduce wheat yields.

To tackle the problem, Randhawa and his colleagues work on developing improved wheat varieties by combining disease-resistant traits with high yielding ones, to ensure that farmers can get the best wheat yields possible while evading diseases.

Screening for disease

A native of the Punjab state of India, Randhawa joined CIMMYT as a Post-doctoral Fellow in Wheat Rust Resistance Genetics in 2015. He now works as a CIMMYT scientist and manages the Stem Rust Screening Platform in Njoro, Kenya, which supports screening against stem rust of up to 50,000 wheat lines per year from as many as 20 countries. Over the last 10 years about 650,000 wheat lines have been evaluated for stem rust resistance at the facility.

“The platform’s main focus is on evaluation of wheat lines against the stem rust race Ug99 and its derivative races prevalent in Eastern to Southern Africa, the Middle East and Iran,” explains Randhawa. Ug99 is a highly virulent race of stem rust, first discovered two decades ago in Uganda. The race caused major epidemics in Kenya in 2002 and 2004.

“East African highlands are also a hotspot for stripe wheat rust so, at the same time, we evaluate wheat lines for this disease,” adds Randhawa.

The facility supports a shuttle breeding scheme between CIMMYT Mexico and Kenya, which allows breeders to plant at two locations, select for stem rust (Ug99) resistance and speed up the development of disease-resistant wheat lines.

“Wheat rusts in general are very fast evolving and new strains are continuously emerging. Previously developed rust-resistant wheat varieties can succumb to new virulent strains, making the varieties susceptible. If the farmers grow susceptible varieties, rust will take on those varieties, resulting in huge yield losses if no control measures are adopted,” explains Randhawa.

Helping and sharing

For Randhawa, helping farmers is the main goal. “Our focus is on resource-poor farmers from developing countries. They don’t have enough resources to buy the fungicide. Using chemicals to control diseases is expensive and harmful to the environment. So in that case we provide them solutions in the form of wheat varieties which are high yielding but they have long-lasting resistance to different diseases as well.”

Under the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, Randhawa and his team collaborate with KALRO to facilitate the transfer of promising wheat lines with high yield potential and rust resistance to a national pipeline for soon-to-be-released wheat varieties.

When he is not screening for wheat rusts diseases, Randhawa  also organizes annual trainings on stem rust diagnosis and germplasm evaluation for young wheat breeders and pathologists from developing countries. More than 220 wheat researchers have been trained over the last decade.

Mandeep Randhawa (left) talks to the participants of the 11th annual training on stem rust notetaking and germplasm evaluation. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
Mandeep Randhawa (left) talks to the participants of the 11th annual training on stem rust notetaking and germplasm evaluation. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)

A farmer at heart

Randhawa always had an interest in agricultural science. “Initially, my parents wanted me to be a medical doctor, but I was more interested in teaching science to school students,” he says. “Since my childhood, I used to hear of wheat and diseases affecting wheat crops, especially yellow rust — which is called peeli kungi in my local language.” This childhood interest led him to study wheat genetics at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, India.

His mentors encouraged him to pursue a doctorate from the Plant Breeding Institute (PBI) Cobbitty at the University of Sydney in Australia, which Randhawa describes as “the mecca of wheat rust research.” He characterized two new stripe rust resistance genes formally named as Yr51 and Yr57 from a wheat landrace. He also contributed to the mapping of a new adult plant stem rust resistance gene Sr56.

Coming from India, his move to Australia was a pivotal moment for him in his career and his identity — he now considers himself Indian-Australian.

If he had not become a scientist, Randhawa would be a farmer, he says. “Farming is my passion, as I like to grow crops and to have rich harvest using my scientific knowledge and modern technologies.”

At CIMMYT, Randhawa has a constant stream of work identifying and characterizing new sources of rust resistance. “Dealing with different types of challenges in the wheat field is what keeps me on my toes. New races of diseases are continuously emerging. As pests and pathogens have no boundaries, we must work hand-in-hand to develop tools and technologies to fight fast evolving pests and pathogens,” says Randhawa.

He credits his mentor Ravi Singh, Scientist and Head of Global Wheat Improvement at CIMMYT, for motivating him to continue his work. “Tireless efforts and energetic thoughts of my professional guru Dr. Ravi Singh inspire and drive me to achieve research objectives.”

Agricultural solutions to tackle humanity’s climate crisis

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

More than 11,000 scientists signed on to a recent report showing that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency and the United Nations warned that the world is on course for a 3.2 degree spike by 2100, even if 2015 Paris Agreement commitments are met.

Agriculture, forestry, and land-use change are implicated in roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture also offers opportunities to mitigate climate change and to help farmers — particularly smallholders in developing and emerging economies who have been hardest hit by hot weather and reduced, more erratic rainfall.

Most of CIMMYT’s work relates to climate change, helping farmers adapt to shocks while meeting the rising demand for food and, where possible, reducing emissions.

Family farmer Geofrey Kurgat (center) with his mother Elice Tole (left) and his nephew Ronny Kiprotich in their 1-acre field of Korongo wheat near Belbur, Nukuru, Kenya. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Family farmer Geofrey Kurgat (center) with his mother Elice Tole (left) and his nephew Ronny Kiprotich in their 1-acre field of Korongo wheat near Belbur, Nukuru, Kenya. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Climate-resilient crops and farming practices

53 million people are benefiting from drought-tolerant maize. Drought-tolerant maize varieties developed using conventional breeding provide at least 25% more grain than other varieties in dry conditions in sub-Saharan Africa — this represents as much as 1 ton per hectare more grain on average. These varieties are now grown on nearly 2.5 million hectares, benefiting an estimated 6 million households or 53 million people in the continent. One study shows that drought-tolerant maize can provide farming families in Zimbabwe an extra 9 months of food at no additional cost. The greatest productivity results when these varieties are used with reduced or zero tillage and keeping crop residues on the soil, as was demonstrated in southern Africa during the 2015-16 El Niño drought. Finally, tolerance in maize to high temperatures in combination with drought tolerance has a benefit at least twice that of either trait alone.

Wheat yields rise in difficult environments. Nearly two decades of data from 740 locations in more than 60 countries shows that CIMMYT breeding is pushing up wheat yields by almost 2% each year — that’s some 38 kilograms per hectare more annually over almost 20 years — under dry or otherwise challenging conditions. This is partly through use of drought-tolerant lines and crosses with wild grasses that boost wheat’s resilience. An international consortium is applying cutting-edge science to develop climate-resilient wheat. Three widely-adopted heat and drought-tolerant wheat lines from this work are helping farmers in Pakistan, a wheat powerhouse facing rising temperatures and drier conditions; the most popular was grown on an estimated 40,000 hectares in 2018.

Climate-smart soil and fertilizer management. Rice-wheat rotations are the predominant farming system on more than 13 million hectares in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia, providing food and livelihoods for hundreds of millions. If farmers in India alone fine-tuned crop fertilizer dosages using available technologies such as cellphones and photosynthesis sensors, each year they could produce nearly 14 million tons more grain, save 1.4 million tons of fertilizer, and cut CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 million tons. Scientists have been studying and widely promoting such practices, as well as the use of direct seeding without tillage and keeping crop residues on the soil, farming methods that help capture and hold carbon and can save up to a ton of CO2 emissions per hectare, each crop cycle. Informed by CIMMYT researchers, India state officials seeking to reduce seasonal pollution in New Delhi and other cities have implemented policy measures to curb the burning of rice straw in northern India through widespread use of zero tillage.

Farmers going home for breakfast in Motoko district, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)
Farmers going home for breakfast in Motoko district, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

Measuring climate change impacts and savings

In a landmark study involving CIMMYT wheat physiologists and underlining nutritional impacts of climate change, it was found that increased atmospheric CO2 reduces wheat grain protein content. Given wheat’s role as a key source of protein in the diets of millions of the poor, the results show the need for breeding and other measures to address this effect.

CIMMYT scientists are devising approaches to gauge organic carbon stocks in soils. The stored carbon improves soil resilience and fertility and reduces its emissions of greenhouse gases. Their research also provides the basis for a new global soil information system and to assess the effectiveness of resource-conserving crop management practices.

CIMMYT scientist Francisco Pinto operates a drone over wheat plots at CIMMYT's experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)
CIMMYT scientist Francisco Pinto operates a drone over wheat plots at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: Alfonso CortĂ©s/CIMMYT)

Managing pests and diseases

Rising temperatures and shifting precipitation are causing the emergence and spread of deadly new crop diseases and insect pests. Research partners worldwide are helping farmers to gain an upper hand by monitoring and sharing information about pathogen and pest movements, by spreading control measures and fostering timely access to fungicides and pesticides, and by developing maize and wheat varieties that feature genetic resistance to these organisms.

Viruses and moth larvae assail maize. Rapid and coordinated action among public and private institutions across sub-Saharan Africa has averted a food security disaster by containing the spread of maize lethal necrosis, a viral disease which appeared in Kenya in 2011 and quickly moved to maize fields regionwide. Measures have included capacity development with seed companies, extension workers, and farmers the development of new disease-resilient maize hybrids.

The insect known as fall armyworm hit Africa in 2016, quickly ranged across nearly all the continent’s maize lands and is now spreading in Asia. Regional and international consortia are combating the pest with guidance on integrated pest management, organized trainings and videos to support smallholder farmers, and breeding maize varieties that can at least partly resist fall armyworm.

New fungal diseases threaten world wheat harvests. The Ug99 race of wheat stem rust emerged in eastern Africa in the late 1990s and spawned 13 new strains that eventually appeared in 13 countries of Africa and beyond. Adding to wheat’s adversity, a devastating malady from the Americas known as “wheat blast” suddenly appeared in Bangladesh in 2016, causing wheat crop losses as high as 30% on a large area and threatening to move quickly throughout South Asia’s vast wheat lands.

In both cases, quick international responses such as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, have been able to monitor and characterize the diseases and, especially, to develop and deploy resistant wheat varieties.

A community volunteer of an agricultural cooperative (left) uses the Plantix smartphone app to help a farmer diagnose pests in his maize field in Bardiya district, Nepal. (Photo: Bandana Pradhan/CIMMYT)
A community volunteer of an agricultural cooperative (left) uses the Plantix smartphone app to help a farmer diagnose pests in his maize field in Bardiya district, Nepal. (Photo: Bandana Pradhan/CIMMYT)

Partners and funders of CIMMYT’s climate research

A global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems, CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR and leads the South Asia Regional Program of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).

CIMMYT receives support for research relating to climate change from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. Top funders include CGIAR Research Programs and Platforms, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Cornell University, the German aid agency GIZ, the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and CGIAR Trust Fund Contributors to Window 1 &2.

Ethiopia, great mobilization against wheat rust

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in In the media.

To protect crops, a rapid alert system has been developed which is able to predict the spread of wheat rust and warns policy makers and farmers allowing timely and targeted interventions.

The project involved a multidisciplinary team – biologists, meteorologists, agronomists, IT and telecommunications experts – and the system was developed by the University of Cambridge, the Met Office of Great Britain, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EIAR), the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

At the base of it all is the data. Read more here.

Scientists develop an early warning system that delivers wheat rust predictions directly to farmers’ phones

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Press releases.

One of the researchers behind the study, Yoseph Alemayehu, carries out a field survey in Ethiopia by mobile phone. (Photo Dave Hodson/CIMMYT)
One of the researchers behind the study, Yoseph Alemayehu, carries out a field survey in Ethiopia by mobile phone. (Photo Dave Hodson/CIMMYT)

TEXCOCO, Mexico — Using field and mobile phone surveillance data together with forecasts for spore dispersal and environmental suitability for disease, an international team of scientists has developed an early warning system which can predict wheat rust diseases in Ethiopia. The cross-disciplinary project draws on expertise from biology, meteorology, agronomy, computer science and telecommunications.

Reported this week in Environmental Research Letters, the new early warning system, the first of its kind to be implemented in a developing country, will allow policy makers and farmers all over Ethiopia to gauge the current situation and forecast wheat rust up to a week in advance.

The system was developed by the University of Cambridge, the UK Met Office, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). It works by taking near real-time information from wheat rust surveys carried out by EIAR, regional research centers and CIMMYT using a smartphone app called Open Data Kit (ODK).

This is complemented by crowd-sourced information from the ATA-managed Farmers’ Hotline. The University of Cambridge and the UK Met Office then provide automated 7-day advance forecast models for wheat rust spore dispersal and environmental suitability based on disease presence.

All of this information is fed into an early warning unit that receives updates automatically on a daily basis. An advisory report is sent out every week to development agents and national authorities. The information also gets passed on to researchers and farmers.

Example of weekly stripe rust spore deposition based on dispersal forecasts. Darker colors represent higher predicted number of spores deposited. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)
Example of weekly stripe rust spore deposition based on dispersal forecasts. Darker colors represent higher predicted number of spores deposited. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)

Timely alerts

“If there’s a high risk of wheat rust developing, farmers will get a targeted SMS text alert from the Farmers’ Hotline. This gives the farmer about three weeks to take action,” explained Dave Hodson, principal scientist with CIMMYT and co-author of the research study. The Farmers’ Hotline now has over four million registered farmers and extension agents, enabling rapid information dissemination throughout Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is the largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa but the country still spends in excess of $600 million annually on wheat imports. More can be grown at home and the Ethiopian government has targeted to achieve wheat self-sufficiency by 2023.

“Rust diseases are a grave threat to wheat production in Ethiopia. The timely information from this new system will help us protect farmers’ yields, and reach our goal of wheat self-sufficiency,” said EIAR Director Mandefro Nigussie.

Wheat rusts are fungal diseases that can be dispersed by wind over long distances, quickly causing devastating epidemics which can dramatically reduce wheat yields. Just one outbreak in 2010 affected 30% of Ethiopia’s wheat growing area and reduced production by 15-20%.

The pathogens that cause rust diseases are continually evolving and changing over time, making them difficult to control. “New strains of wheat rust are appearing all the time — a bit like the flu virus,” explained Hodson.

In the absence of resistant varieties, one solution to wheat rust is to apply fungicide, but the Ethiopian government has limited supplies. The early warning system will help to prioritize areas at highest risk of the disease, so that the allocation of fungicides can be optimized.

Example of weekly stripe rust environmental suitability forecast. Yellow to Brown show the areas predicted to be most suitable for stripe rust infection. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)
Example of weekly stripe rust environmental suitability forecast. Yellow to Brown show the areas predicted to be most suitable for stripe rust infection. (Graphic: University of Cambridge/UK Met Office)

The cream of the crop

The early warning system puts Ethiopia at the forefront of early warning systems for wheat rust. “Nowhere else in the world really has this type of system. It’s fantastic that Ethiopia is leading the way on this,” said Hodson. “It’s world-class science from the UK being applied to real-world problems.”

“This is an ideal example of how it is possible to integrate fundamental research in modelling from epidemiology and meteorology with field-based observation of disease to produce an early warning system for a major crop,” said Christopher Gilligan, head of the Epidemiology and Modelling Group at the University of Cambridge and a co-author of the paper, adding that the approach could be adopted in other countries and for other crops.

“The development of the early warning system was successful because of the great collaborative spirit between all the project partners,” said article co-author Clare Sader-Allen, currently a regional climate modeller at the British Antarctic Survey.

“Clear communication was vital for bringing together the expertise from a diversity of subjects to deliver a common goal: to produce a wheat rust forecast relevant for both policy makers and farmers alike.”

RELATED PUBLICATIONS:

An early warning system to predict and mitigate wheat rust diseases in Ethiopia
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab4034

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:

Dave Hodson, Senior Scientist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT:

Marcia MacNeil, Communications Officer, CIMMYT. m.macneil@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 2070.

Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT. r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1167.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

This study was made possible through the support provided by the BBSRC GCRF Foundation Awards for Global Agriculture and Food Systems Research, which brings top class UK science to developing countries, the Delivering Genetic Gains in Wheat (DGGW) Project managed by Cornell University and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The Government of Ethiopia also provided direct support into the early warning system. This research is supported by CGIAR Fund Donors.

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 the CGIAR System 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. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.

ABOUT THE ETHIOPIAN INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH (EIAR):

The Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) is one of the oldest and largest agricultural research institutes in Africa, with roots in the Ethiopian Agricultural Research System (EARS), founded in the late 1940s. EIAR’s objectives are: (1) to generate, develop and adapt agricultural technologies that focus on the needs of the overall agricultural development and its beneficiaries; (2) to coordinate technically the research activities of Ethiopian Agricultural Research System; (3) build up a research capacity and establish a system that will make agricultural research efficient, effective and based on development needs; and (4) popularize agricultural research results. EIAR’s vision is to see improved livelihood of all Ethiopians engaged in agriculture, agro-pastoralism and pastoralism through market competitive agricultural technologies.

Wheat rust expert Bob McIntosh, of the Plant Breeding Institute, University of Sydney, Australia, examining rust symptoms on a wheat line in Kenya. (Photo: Petr Kosina/CIMMYT)

New publications: Special collection on wheat genetics and breeding

Written by Emma Orchardson on . Posted in Publications. 2 Comments on New publications: Special collection on wheat genetics and breeding

Global wheat production is currently facing great challenges, from increasing climate variation to occurrence of various pests and diseases. These factors continue to limit wheat production in a number of countries, including China, where in 2018 unseasonably cold temperatures resulted in yield reduction of more than 10% in major wheat growing regions. Around the same time, Fusarium head blight spread from the Yangtze region to the Yellow and Huai Valleys, and northern China experienced a shortage of irrigated water.

In light of these ongoing challenges, international collaboration, as well as the development of new technologies and their integration with existing ones, has a key role to play in supporting sustainable wheat improvement, especially in developing countries. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been collaborating with China on wheat improvement for over 40 years, driving significant progress in a number of areas.

Notably, a standardized protocol for testing Chinese noodle quality has been established, as has a methodology for breeding adult-plant resistance to yellow rust, leaf rust and powdery mildew. More than 330 cultivars derived from CIMMYT germplasm have been released in the country and are currently grown over 9% of the Chinese wheat production area, while physiological approaches have been used to characterize yield potential and develop high-efficiency phenotyping platforms. The development of climate-resilient cultivars using new technology will be a priority area for future collaboration.

In a special issue of Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering focused on wheat genetics and breeding, CIMMYT researchers present highlights from global progress in wheat genomics, breeding for disease resistance, as well as quality improvement, in a collection of nine review articles and one research article. They emphasize the significance of using new technology for genotyping and phenotyping when developing new cultivars, as well as the importance of global collaboration in responding to ongoing challenges.

In a paper on wheat stem rust, CIMMYT scientists Sridhar Bhavani, David Hodson, Julio Huerta-Espino, Mandeep Randawa and Ravi Singh discuss progress in breeding for resistance to Ug99 and other races of stem rust fungus, complex virulence combinations of which continue to pose a significant threat to global wheat production. The authors detail how effective gene stewardship and new generation breeding materials, complemented by active surveillance and monitoring, have helped to limit major epidemics and increase grain yield potential in key target environments.

In the same issue, an article by Caiyun Lui et al. discusses the application of spectral reflectance indices (SRIs) as proxies to screen for yield potential and heat stress, which is emerging in crop breeding programs. The results of a recent study, which evaluated 287 elite lines, highlight the utility of SRIs as proxies for grain yield. High heritability estimates and the identification of marker-trait associations indicate that SRIs are useful tools for understanding the genetic basis of agronomic and physiological traits.

Other papers by CIMMYT researchers discuss the history, activities and impact of the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program, as well as the ongoing work on the genetic improvement of wheat grain quality at CIMMYT.

Find the full collection of articles in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Volume 6, Issue 3, September 2019.

See more recent publications by CIMMYT researchers:

  1. Genetic diversity among tropical provitamin A maize inbred lines and implications for a biofortification program. 2019. Julius Pyton Sserumaga, Makumbi, D., Warburton, M.L., Opiyo, S.O., Asea, G., Muwonge, A., Kasozi, C.L. In: Cereal Research Communications v. 47, no. 1, p. 134-144.
  2. Diversity and conservation priorities of crop wild relatives in Mexico. 2019. Contreras-Toledo, A. R., Cortes-Cruz, M. A., Costich, D.E., Rico-Arce, M. de L., Magos Brehm, J., Maxted, N. In: Plant Genetic Resources: Characterisation and Utilisation v. 17, no. 2, p. 140-150.
  3. Global wheat production with 1.5 and 2.0°C above pre-industrial warming. 2019. Bing Liu, Martre, P., Ewert, F., Porter, J.R., Challinor, A.J., Muller, C., Ruane, A.C., Waha, K., Thorburn, P.J., Aggarwal, P.K., Mukhtar Ahmed, Balkovic, J., Basso, B., Biernath, C., Bindi, M., Cammarano, D., De Sanctis, G., Dumont, B., Espadafor, M., Eyshi Rezaei, E., Ferrise, R., Garcia-Vila, M., Gayler, S., Yujing Gao, Horan, H., Hoogenboom, G., Izaurralde, R.C., Jones, C.D., Kassie, B.T., Kersebaum, K.C., Klein, C., Koehler, A.K., Maiorano, A., Minoli, S., Montesino San Martin, M., Soora Naresh Kumar, Nendel, C., O’Leary, G.J., Palosuo, T., Priesack, E., Ripoche, D.,Rotter, R., Semenov, M.A., Stockle, C., Streck, T., Supit, I., Fulu Tao, Van der Velde, M., Wallach, D., Wang, E. |Webber, H., Wolf, J., Liujun Xiao, Zhao Zhang, Zhigan Zhao, Yan Zhu, Asseng, S. In: Global Change Biology v. 25, no. 4, p. 1428-1444.
  4. Marker Assisted Breeding to Develop Multiple Stress Tolerant Varieties for Flood and Drought Prone Areas. 2019. Sandhu, N., Dixit, S., Mallikarjuna Swamy, B.P., Raman, A.K., Kumar, S., Singh, S.P., Yadaw, R.B., Singh, O.N., Reddy, J.N., Anandan, A., Yadav, S., Venkataeshwarllu, C., Henry, A., Verulkar, S., Mandal, N.P., Ram, T., Badri, J., Vikram, P., Arvind Kumar In: Rice v. 12, no. 1, art. 8.
  5. Modeling Genotype × Environment Interaction Using a Factor Analytic Model of On-Farm Wheat Trials in the Yaqui Valley of Mexico. 2019. Vargas-HernĂĄndez, M., Ortiz-Monasterio, I., Perez-Rodriguez, P., Montesinos-Lopez, O.A., Montesinos-Lopez, A., Burgueño, J., Crossa, J. In: Agronomy Journal v. 111, no. 1, p. 1-11.
  6. Does Size Matter? A Critical Review of Meta-analysis in Agronomy. 2019. Krupnik, T.J., Andersson, J.A., Rusinamhodzi, L., Corbeels, M., Shennan, C., Gerard, B. In: Experimental Agriculture v. 55 no. Special issue 2, p. 200-229.
  7. Effects of tillage, crop establishment and diversification on soil organic carbon, aggregation, aggregate associated carbon and productivity in cereal systems of semi-arid Northwest India. 2019. Jat, H.S., Datta, A., Choudhary, M., Yadav, A.K., Choudhary, V., Sharma, P.C., Gathala, M.K., Jat, M.L., McDonald, A. In: Soil and Tillage Research v. 190, p. 128-138.
  8. Transgenic solutions to increase yield and stability in wheat: shining hope or flash in the pan? 2019. Araus, J.L., Serret, M.D., Lopes, M.S. In: Journal of Experimental Botany v. 70, no. 5, p. 1419-1424.
  9. Model-Driven Multidisciplinary Global Research to Meet Future Needs: The Case for “Improving Radiation Use Efficiency to Increase Yield.” 2019. Asseng, S., Martre, P., Ewert, F., Dreccer, M.F., Beres, B.L., Reynolds, M.P., Braun, H.J., Langridge, P., Gouis, J. Le., Salse, J., Baenziger, P.S. In: Crop Science v. 59, p. 1-7.
  10. Proteome analysis of biofilm produced by a Fusarium falciforme keratitis infectious agent. 2019. Calvillo-Medina, R.P., Reyes‐Grajeda, J.P., Barba‐Escoto, L., Bautista-Hernandez, L.A., Campos‐Guillen, J., Jones, G.H., Bautista‐de Lucio, V.M. In: Microbial Pathogenesis v. 130, p. 232-241.