CIMMYT training courses play a critical role in helping international researchers meet national food security and resource conservation goals. By sharing knowledge to build communities of agricultural knowledge in less developed countries, CIMMYT empowers researchers to aid farmers. In turn, these farmers help ensure sustainable food security. In contrast to formal academic training in plant breeding and agronomy, CIMMYT training activities are hands-on and highly specialized. Trainees from Africa, Asia and Latin America benefit from the data assembled and handled in a global research program. Alumni of CIMMYT courses often become a significant force for agricultural change in their countries.
Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda is one of Africa’s leading advocates for food and nutrition security. As chief executive officer and head of mission of the Africa-wide Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN), aimed at making Africa a food-secure region, she coordinates policy research and advocacy programs. She joined the CIMMYT Board in 2009 and will finish her appointment this month.
Upon awarding her a plaque in appreciation of her many contributions on 14 April, during the recent Board meetings in El Batán, Mexico, Board Chair Prof. John Snape called Sibanda, who grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe, an important voice on the Board. “She brought her views on African smallholder farmers and is well respected throughout the development world,” Snape said. “Her critical insights for CIMMYT governance, based on balanced and positive perspectives regarding the Center’s research-for-development agenda and the CGIAR, were always highly appreciated.”
Sibanda has long followed and supported CIMMYT’s work. We hope she will continue to do so through FANRPAN and her other numerous endeavors, and thank her and wish her well!
CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees is composed of 13 experts appointed in their individual capacity and not as a representative of any outside entity.
The process to appoint new members to the Board is conducted by the Nominations Committee, whose sole duty is to ensure a mix of skills on the Board at any one time, based on a skills matrix of CIMMYT’s required expertise. As a result, the Board will represent expertise in science (CIMMYT’s key areas of research), finance, audit, risk management, governance, international partnerships and gender and diversity. Board members are also appointed with consideration of their geographical origins. Each member is appointed for a three-year term, with a maximum limit of two terms.
The chair of the Nominations Committee leads the search for new Board members. This is done through a referencing system, rather than a formal and advertised search. Prospective candidates are approached formally and then interviewed by the Board. Newly-appointed Board members undergo an induction program conducted by CIMMYT and the CGIAR and attend their first meeting as an observer.
Dr. Feng Feng
Photo credit: CIMMYT
Dr. Feng is currently the director of the Chinese Bureau of International Cooperation, NSFC. He is responsible for developing international cooperation channels with foreign partners, making policy for international research cooperation in NSFC, and setting the budget for the different research areas for international cooperation. He received his B.Sc. in plant genetics and breeding, and M.Sc. and Ph.D. in plant pathology from the Agricultural University of China.
Dr. Luis Fernando Flores Lui
Photo credit: INIFAP
Dr. Flores Lui is General Director of the Mexican Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock (INIFAP). Over the last 25 years he has held numerous positions within the organization. At an international level he has coordinated the biotechnology group at the Asia-Pacific Council (APEC); worked with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in different universities. He received his B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering from the Antonio Narro Agrarian Autonomous University, his M.Sc. from Irrigation Water Use and Management in 1974 from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education and his Ph.D in Soil Sciences from the University of California, Davis.
Photo credit: INIFAP
Dr. Raúl Gerardo Obando Rodríguez
Dr. Rodriguez is the Coordinator for Research and Innovation at the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture and Livestock (INIFAP). He is an Agricultural Engineer by trade with a PhD in Plant Nutrition at the University of California, Davis. He has held various positions in in INIA, INIFAP, the National Coordinator of the Produce Foundation (COFUPRO), the National System for Research and Technology Transfer (SNITT) and the Graduate College (COLPOS), to name a few.
Bongiwe Nomandi Njobe
Photo credit: CIMMYT
Bongiwe Njobe is Executive Director (founder and sole proprietor) of ZA NAC Consulting and Investments. Over the past 20 years she has held numerous positions in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Sector (FMCG) sector and the Agricultural Public Sector including Group Executive: Corporate Sustainability at Tiger Brands Limited, Corporate Affairs Director at South African Breweries Limited and Director General at the South African National Department of Agriculture. She currently serves as a Director on the Vumelana Advisory Fund, Independent Board Member on the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and as a Trustee at the Kagiso Trust. She is also a member of the High Level Advocacy Panel for the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and a member of the Institute of Directors (Southern Africa) Sustainability Development Forum.
When a CIMMYT scientist discusses developing hybrids, the first thought that comes to mind is probably new variety of drought tolerant maize.
However, CIMMYT engineers in the global conservation agriculture program are producing a whole different set of hybrids in the fields of El Batán, Mexico. At CIMMYT Day, Jelle Van Loon, Leader of Smart Mechanization and Machinery Innovation, explained the importance of creating “hybrids” of already existing machinery to meet the demands of farmers regionally.
Taking into consideration a varying range of crops, soils and climates, farmers not only need the correct seed, but also the proper technologies to work in their prospective environments. Looking at existing and functional machinery from different parts of the world, like China, Brazil, USA and India, Van Loon and his team are able to convert the machines to make them suitable for use in Mexico, for Mexican farmers.
“It is all a learning experience,” explained Van Loon to his CIMMYT colleagues. “We have to go into the fields and see what is working for these farmers. We have to meet their needs.” This is the very basis for the CIMMYT’s Take it to the Farmer initiative, which is designed to offer advice on a personal level and make innovations readily available to Mexican farmers.
A year of celebrations in honor of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s birth centennial was officially closed last Thursday 9 April in a ceremony at CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico.
“If he (my father) were here,” said Jeanie Borlaug Laube, who chairs the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, “he would remind you that it is your moral imperative to speak up and protest for the world’s right to science-based innovation.” She was addressing an audience of government representatives, private sector partners, researchers, CIMMYT trustees, and diplomats including the Australian and Belgian ambassadors to Mexico.
The occasion also marked the celebration of a double achievement for CIMMYT: the 2014 World Food Prize being awarded to Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, former global wheat program director, and the 2014 Borlaug Field Award to Dr. Bram Govaerts, leader of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project.
During his distinguished career, Rajaram led work that resulted in the release of more than “480 varieties of bread wheat in 51 countries, occupying more than 58 million hectares,” said Prof. John Snape, Chair of CIMMYT’s Board of Trustees. “A feat unlikely to ever be surpassed by another wheat breeder.”
Rajaram’s merits were also recognized by Mexican government representatives at the World Food Prize ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa, USA, on 16 October 2014. Enrique Martínez y Martínez, head of Mexico’s Agriculture Secretariat (SAGARPA), congratulated him for developing varieties and technologies that have helped boost wheat productivity in Mexico and the rest of the world.
Photo credit: CIMMYT
During the ceremony, Martínez y Martínez signed and renewed SAGARPA’s technical collaboration agreement with CIMMYT for the implementation of MasAgro, CIMMYT’s major project in Mexico. “MasAgro boosts a new model of agricultural extension based on sustainable technologies and capacity building activities that match Mexico’s Farmer’s Confederation’s development vision,” said Mexican Senator Manuel Cota, who is also President of the Farmer’s Confederation and of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
By the end of 2014, there were over 200,000 farmers linked to MasAgro on more than 440,000 hectares across Mexico. “To address farmer’s needs we must pursue scientific excellence as Norman Borlaug did,” stressed Dr. Bram Govaerts, MasAgro leader. “We must go out to the field and get our hands dirty; take risks and be bold in our research; let innovation flow and get rid of false illusions of control,” Govaerts added.
After the ceremony, Dr. Borlaug’s family, government officials and CIMMYT laureate scientists unveiled a statue of Dr. Borlaug at the Center facilities.
“Next year CIMMYT will celebrate its 50th anniversary,” said Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT director general. “For 50 years Mexico has been the cradle of CIMMYT’s global agricultural innovation. Our challenge now is to ask what the next 50 years will hold.”
Climate-smart agriculture can be “an effective tool to address climate change and climate variability,” according to Kai Sonder, head of CIMMYT’s geographic information systems (GIS) unit, who was one of 754 participants from 75 countries, including 39 CIMMYT representatives, at the third annual Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture, held in Montpellier, France, during 16-18 March.
“Challenges are different for developing and developed countries, but climate change is affecting all of us,” said Sonder. Millions of smallholder farmers in developing countries have less than one hectare of land, earn less than USD $1 per day and are highly vulnerable to extreme climatic events. Many farmers in developed countries struggle to make a living, are dependent on subsidies and insurance payouts and are also highly vulnerable to extreme climatic events.
Modern agriculture, food production and distribution are major contributors of greenhouse gases, generating about one-quarter of global emissions. Climate-smart agriculture addresses the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change by sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, building resilience in food-production systems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.
Challenges and areas where climate-smart agriculture has yet to take hold were addressed at the conference. “California has not practiced it for 50 years and is now dealing with the consequences of poor groundwater management,” said Sonder. “Likewise, Ciudad Obregón and Sinaloa in Mexico are fully-irrigated areas in the middle of a desert where climate-smart practices need to be implemented on a larger scale based on CIMMYT’s activities with local partners.”
Progress and exhibitions on climate-smart agriculture projects were also showcased. “This is becoming an integral part of CIMMYT work, as climate conditions increasingly disrupt growing seasons,” Sonder said. “MasAgro is looking at water and nutrient efficiency in Mexico, and CIMMYT is developing maize and wheat varieties that are tolerant to stresses like heat and drought and their combinations,” said Sonder. In collaboration with the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Food Security and Agriculture (CCAFS), CIMMYT has also piloted 27 climate-smart villages in Haryana, India, which will disseminate key climate-smart agricultural interventions.
The conference also allowed potential partners to meet and identify areas for future cooperation. Sonder mentioned interactions with Jacob van Etten, Senior Scientist at Bioversity International, who works on climate change and climate-smart agriculture in Costa Rica and uses iButton sensors to measure climate data in the field. “Such cheap and effective devices can allow us to reach more places, and I’d like to use them to monitor storage and humidity conditions in metal silos for CIMMYT’s Effective Grain Storage Project in eastern and southern Africa, as well as in the postharvest activities of MasAgro in Mexico,” said Sonder
A new project in Ethiopia aims to improve the livelihoods of wheat farmers by encouraging the development and multiplication of high-yielding, rust-resistant bread and durum wheat varieties.
Photo: CIMMYT
High-quality seed is the key entry point for elevating farmer productivity in Ethiopia. As Norman Borlaug, the late Nobel Peace Prize laureate and wheat breeder who worked for many years with the International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) wrote: “Rust never sleeps.”
Stem, leaf and yellow rusts choke nutrients and devastate wheat crops without recognition of political boundaries, making it essential that global action is taken to control all virulent strains of these devastating diseases to ensure food security.
At a recent workshop hosted by the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) in the capital, Addis Ababa, 150 participants from 24 organizations discussed the project, which builds upon the successes of a previous EIAR and International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Bekele Abeyo points out that high-quality seed is critical in Ethiopia. Photo: CIMMYT
The purpose of the March workshop titled “Seed Multiplication and Delivery of High-Yielding Rust-Resistant Bread and Durum Wheat Varieties to Ethiopian Farmers” was to launch the three-year seed project, which has a budget of $4.75 million, and strengthen the involvement of stakeholders and key partners.
Aims include enhancing rust disease surveillance, early warning and phenotyping; fast-track variety testing and pre-release seed multiplication; accelerating seed multiplication of durable rust-resistant wheat varieties; demonstrating and scaling up improved wheat varieties; and improving the linkages between small-scale durum wheat producers and agro-industries.
To achieve these goals EIAR, CIMMYT and the University of Minnesota will implement project activities in collaboration with other key Ethiopian stakeholders, including agricultural research centers, public and private seed enterprises, the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, the Ethio-Italian Development Cooperation “Agricultural Value Chains Project in Oromia” and the Ethiopia Seed Producers Association.
The project covers 51 districts in four major wheat-growing regions of Ethiopia. Milestones include the following: reaching 164,000 households with direct access to the new technology and having more than 2 million households benefiting from indirect access to high-yielding rust resistant cultivars; wheat yield increases of 25 percent for farmers with access to rust-resistant seed varieties; training for about 5,000 agricultural experts, development agents, seed producers and model farmers; more than 50 percent of the wheat area being sown to cultivars with durable resistance to current rust threats; an increased number of seed growers and associations participating in accelerated seed multiplication; and the increased participation of women farmers to lead accelerated seed multiplication and scaling up.
All partners will be involved in close monitoring and working groups related to the project.
At the workshop, a key topic was emphasizing to farmers that they must avoid susceptible rust suckers as they are pumping more spores on cultivars under production, which is one reason for the recurrent epidemics of wheat rusts and break down of resistant genes.
Delegates also engaged in discussions on the importance of cropping systems and variety diversifications. Fruitful deliberations and interactions occurred and important feedback was captured for project implementation and to ensure successful results.
A previous workshop on the surveillance, early warning and phenotyping component of the project was held at the Cereal Disease Laboratory in Minnesota.
Bekele Abeyo is a CIMMYT senior scientist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He will lead the seed improvement project.
CIMMYT and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) have jointly developed and launched an application for Android called “N Calculator,” to support smallholder farmers using the GreenSeeker, a compact sensor to quickly assess crop vigour and calculate optimal fertilizer dosages. Held in the CIMMYT-CCAFS climate-smart village (CSV) Noorpur Bet of Ludhiana, Punjab, India, the launch was led by John Snape, CIMMYT Board Chair.
The Greenseeker ensures accurate and balanced nitrogen fertilizer applications, cutting farmers’ costs, reducing nitrification and nitrogen runoff into groundwater and water systems, and raising crop yields. But smallholder farmers often lack the training to interpret the raw data from the GreenSeeker. N Calculator automatically calculates the best nitrogen and urea rate using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) values from GreenSeeker, and right on a mobile handset.
“The application will help scale out GreenSeeker technology and precision nitrogen management in wheat-based systems in South Asia, among other things reducing emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas,” said M.L. Jat, CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist. “It will also be critical for extension agents to scale out climate-smart agriculture practices across the region.”
Delegates including the BISA Executive Committee and national scientists interacted with farmers and members of farmer cooperatives who are actively disseminating climate-smart agriculture practices.
Participants included S. Ayyapan, DG (ICAR); Thomas A Lumpkin, director general, CIMMYT; Marianne Bänziger, deputy director general for research and partnerships, CIMMYT; Nicole Birrel, CIMMYT board member; Anthony De Sa IAS, Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh; B.S. Dhillon, Vice Chair of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU); Suresh Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary of Punjab; B.S. Sidhu, Agriculture Commissioner of Punjab; and H.S. Gupta, Director General, BISA.
Eliud Kireger, KALRO Director General, attends the International Wheat Yield Potential Workshop in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico. Photo: Alfredo Sáenz/CIMMYT
This week, CIMMYT had the honor of hosting Dr. Eliud Kireger, the Acting Director General of the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). His visit included travel to the experiment station at Ciudad Obregón for first-hand experience regarding CIMMYT wheat research, as KALRO is one of the few partners in Africa with whom we work on both maize and wheat.
According to Kireger, a burning issue in agriculture today in eastern and southern Africa is “low productivity per unit area. The increase we’ve seen in yields in different countries is largely due to expansion in land area.” He attributed this low productivity per unit area to lack of technologies or knowledge that can boost productivity. This dearth translates itself in many ways, such as low use of fertilizers, improved seed, or mechanization.
Taking a break to capture the moment on camera. Left to right: Bram Govaerts, Associate Director of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program and leader of MasAgro, Eliud Kireger, Stephen Mugo and Victor Kommerell, Program Manager-WHEAT. Photo: CIMMYT Files
Accompanying Kireger was Stephen Mugo, CIMMYT–Africa Regional Representative who also doubles as country representative for Kenya. Mugo lauded the benefits of the CIMMYT–KARLO synergy. “There is no single institution — working alone — that can be able to address all the challenges facing agriculture,” Mugo said. “From early on, CIMMYT decided that the only way was to team up with national institutions and work together, so that CIMMYT-developed germplasm and technologies reach intended beneficiaries countrywide for the benefit of maize and wheat farmers. CIMMYT and KALRO jointly design common projects on clear and specific areas to improve maize and wheat, then seek funding for these projects to address drought tolerance, crop pests and emerging diseases.”
One such emerging disease is maize lethal necrosis (MLN), which CIMMYT and KALRO are jointly tackling through ultra-modern shared facilities for MLN screening and for doubled haploid technology that both stand on KALRO land.
Gulshad Nabi (Chand) is a progressive farmer from Chak Dahir, Tehsil Muridke in the Sheikhupura District of Punjab Province, Pakistan. He cultivates wheat and basmati rice, which constitute his family’s only source of livelihood. Heavy tillage and burning of rice residues are the common practices for growing wheat in the region, resulting in the loss of soil nutrients, air pollution and poor food security and livelihoods for farmers like Gulshad.
Farmer Chand sharing his experience with Sikandar Hayat Bosan (left), Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Food Security & Research. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan
The Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), led by CIMMYT and funded by USAID, has begun testing with Punjab farmers the Zero-Tillage Happy Seeder, which sows wheat seed with fertilizer directly into the residues of the preceding rice crop in one pass and without tillage. “This practice offers a more sustainable and productive way to manage rice residues and raise wheat yields,” said Imtiaz Hussain, CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist. “It allows earlier sowing of wheat, which increases yields, and dramatically cuts the time, labor and fuel needed to plant wheat, which normally requires as many as seven tractor passes. Because the rice residues decompose on the soil rather than being burned, there is less pollution.”
In Sheikhupura District and in partnership with Engro EXIMP AgriProducts Private Limited, CIMMYT has promoted the seeder with 13 progressive farmers, including Nabi, who also received technical training in its use and in conservation agriculture practices and benefits.
After the training, Nabi used the seeder to sow wheat on just over three hectares without burning rice residues and saving more than 260 liters of diesel. At the Pakistan Agriculture Conference and Expo in Islamabad, Nabi described his experience to Mr. Sikandar Hayat Bosan, Federal Minister of Food Security & Research. “CIMMYT helped me improve my farming practices. The crop growth is great. Planting wheat with the Zero Tillage Happy Seeder is a new experience – a very modern practice that saves my time and resources,” said Nabi.
Mr. Sikandar Hayat Bosan (left), Federal Minister of Food Security & Research, and Mr. Gregory Gottlieb (red tie), Director for USAID Pakistan, visited the stand and talked to Imtiaz Muhammad (far right), CIMMYT Country Representative in Pakistan, and AIP component leads about their programs. Photos: Amina Nasim Khan
The Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), led by CIMMYT and funded by USAID, presented the latest advances in agricultural technology and provided a platform for local industry to explore innovative technologies, products and services at the Pakistan Agriculture Conference and Expo 2015 in Islamabad.
The main attractions were the Zero-Tillage Happy Seeder, durum wheat, biofortified maize, goats bred through artificial insemination, alternate wetting and drying in rice, rice storage in hermetic bags and protected vegetable cultivation models. The AIP exhibit attracted many visitors including farmers, policymakers, agriculture experts and scientists from both public- and private-sector organizations, opening new avenues for AIP to connect with target groups and explore agricultural opportunities in Pakistan.
Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT Country Representative, Pakistan, at the AIP-maize component display.
India staff members (L-R) Anuradha Dhar, Meenakshi Chandiramani, Anu Raswant and Kailash Kalvaniya at the exhibit stall in the Mela at IARI, Pusa Campus. Photo: BISA/CIMMYT
The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) organized the Pusa Krishi Vigyan Mela (Agriculture Science Fair) during 10-12 March. Initiated in 1972, the Mela is an important annual event for IARI to raise awareness about agricultural technological developments and for receiving feedback from farming communities. The Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and CIMMYT India mounted an exhibit on their work and staff discussed farming practices and mechanization with several farmers and scientific community members, as well as handing out printed materials to visitors.
Agriculture has the potential to be “part of the solution to reduce the impact of climate change,” according to Dr. R.S. Paroda, Chairman of the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences, who was one of nearly 100 participants at a launching and planning workshop for Flagship Projects on climate-smart agriculture of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security (CCAFS). Held on 24-25 February in New Delhi, the event was jointly organized by CIMMYT and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with participants from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and other partnering countries.
Dr. Ayyappan, Secy DARE & DG, ICAR, felicitating the launch. Photos: CIMMYT-India.
In the fight against climate change, agriculture is both a perpetrator and a victim. Modern agriculture, food production and distribution are major contributors of greenhouse gases, generating about one-quarter of global emissions. Climate-smart agriculture addresses the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change by sustainably increasing agricultural productivity, building resilience in food-production systems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.
The workshop began with a presentation of CCAFS Flagship Project Portfolios, followed by group discussions on associated farming practices, policy, frameworks and recommendations on partnering with governments and other organizations. Clare Stirling, Senior Scientist with the Global Conservation Agriculture Program at CIMMYT, cited the Center’s success in developing climate-smart villages in India and identified improved access to weather information, crop insurance and technology uptake by farmers as key focus areas.
Innovative business models and open innovation platforms for scaling project outputs across diverse agro-ecosystems were also defined. Md. Jalal Uddin of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute proposed integrating mitigation and adaption measures like the promotion of renewable energy, environment management systems, climate change trusts and resilience funds with CCAFS initiatives.
Key stakeholders for CCAFS flagship projects pose for a photo.
A final session on synergies and convergence opportunities covered topics such as contingency crop plans, weather-based index insurance and resilient technologies, all of which can be implemented in climate-smart villages. CIMMYT scientists P.H. Zaidi, Senior Maize Physiologist and Mahesh Gathala, Scientist and Cropping Systems Agronomist, outlined CIMMYT initiatives that support climate-smart agriculture, such as long-standing research on stress-resilient maize and sustainable cropping systems. Kaushik Majumdar, Director of the South Asia Program at the International Plant Nutrition Institute, and M.L. Jat, Senior Scientist with CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program, discussed initiatives to develop and disseminate climate-smart nutrient management tools and techniques for smallholder farming.
“The CCAFS workshop set the stage for all CGIAR institutions to collaborate and make climate-smart agriculture a reality,” said Jat.
Over the last week, MAIZE and WHEAT CRP investigators from the global cross-CRP study on gender in agricultural innovation met at El Batán from 26 Feb to 1 March to take stock of progress so far and plan the next steps in the implementation of this unique research initiative.
From left to right: Patti Petesch, Diana Lopez, Paula Kantor, Vongai Kandiwa, Dina Najjar, Lone Badstue, Anuprita Shukla and Amare Tegbaru. Photo: Xochiquetzal Fonseca/CIMMYT
The study will draw on interviews and focus groups with men and women engaged in small-scale farming around the world, to hear in their words how they practice and innovate in agriculture, and what factors, especially gender relations, they feel have influenced their success and failures. Through rigorous analysis both of the broader patterns in the data and delving deep into the case studies, the aim is to develop strategic research publications as well as practical observations and tools to integrate gender-sensitivity into agricultural research and development.
The appetite for more knowledge about the role of gender was clear at Gender and Development Specialist Paula Kantor’s well-attended brown bag lunch on Friday, introducing the GIZ-funded project on gender constraints to wheat R4D in Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.
As CIMMYT Gender Specialist Lone Badstue opened the workshop, she reflected on how quickly gender research has advanced since the CRPs were set up in 2011. From less than one full-time gender-specialist on staff, there are now the equivalent of eight full-time staff working with the CRPs on gender and 20 large projects with gender-integration.
At the workshop, the gender specialists shared their experiences of the 19 case studies conducted under MAIZE and WHEAT so far, before settling down to discuss data quality control and coding.
Leading specialists on the sustainable intensification of agriculture tried to hammer out indicators for assessing “sustainability,” a development term that refers roughly to the health and longevity of a system, at a 13 February workshop in San Jose, California.
“Sustainable intensification seeks to increase farm productivity while conserving social and ecological resources, said Rishi Basak, consultant for CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) who took part in the event, held during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, 12-16 February.
Santiago López Ridaura, CIMMYT GCAP Systems Agronomist, also attending the workshop, said “We are all interested in understanding and quantifying the impact of our research for development activities on the sustainability of agriculture and rural livelihoods. This workshop brought donors and researchers from different disciplines to discuss a common framework, indicators and metrics to do so. I believe it is an important step forward towards a common goal.”
Measuring sustainability remains a challenge, as it involves complex biophysical, environmental and socioeconomic interactions. “There are no widely-accepted indicators for the various dimensions of neither sustainable intensification, nor thresholds or benchmarks for those indicators,” Basak explained. “Lacking unified metrics for comparisons across initiatives, specialists tend to focus on specific practices— for example, conservation agriculture or agroforestry — rather than overall outcomes of sustainable intensification.”
The framework developed at the AAAS workshop is intended to provide for standardized methods that can be adapted for large- and small-scale farms. It will facilitate cross-program learning and assessment based on a set of indicators that are widely monitored or can be easily integrated into existing programs, such as “factor productivity” and “resilience.” These indicators will be measured by returns to labor and land, and by the variance in gross margin, respectively.
“Thinking about key indicators brought us back to basics: what are we trying to achieve when undertaking sustainable intensification projects and how do we know if we are successful?” Basak stated. “What data should we collect, how do we tell our success stories, and how can we compare results between projects?”
Workshop participants agreed to begin testing the indicators in the field, broaden consultation on the draft indicators and hire someone to provide intellectual leadership and coordination going forward.
“Having a set of indicators to assess our progress towards desired goals is very important. These indicators should not only help us in assessing progress, but also capturing main synergies and tradeoffs involved in our interventions,” said Ridaura.
The workshop immediately preceded a special symposium entitled “Beyond Intensification: Measuring the ‘Sustainable’ in Sustainable Intensification” on 13 February. The symposium was organized by Jerry Glover, Senior Sustainable Agricultural Systems Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and included the participation of Tracy K. Powell, USAID Agricultural Research Advisor based in Ethiopia; Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development, Imperial College, London; Sieglinde S. Snapp, cropping systems and soil management specialist, Michigan State University; Peter Thorne, crop-livestock systems scientist, International Livestock Research Institute; Cheryl A. Palm, Senior Research Scientist and Director of Research, Earth Institute, Columbia University; and Bruno Gerard, Director, CIMMYT Global Conservation Agriculture Program.
In work to help farmers in South Asia tackle changing climates and markets through resilient and productive cropping systems, scientists are now using a leading and longstanding model, the Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM).
To foster better use of soil and water through conservation agriculture and other resource- conserving practices, the Sustainable and Resilient Farming System Intensification in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (SRFSI) project held an APSIM workshop for nine researchers from Bangladesh, India and Nepal at Bihar Agricultural University (BAU), Bihar, India during 27-29 January. The workshop was inaugurated by the Honourable Vice Chancellor, Dr. M.L. Choudhary, accompanied by Research Director Dr. Ravi Gopal Singh.
The Vice Chancellor of Bihar Agricultural University, Dr. M.L. Choudhary, opens the APSIM Exposure Workshop. L-R: Ms. Alison Laing (CSIRO), Dr. Don Gaydon (CSIRO), Mr. Ashraf Ali (CIMMYT-Bangladesh), Dr. Ravi Gopal Singh (BAU) and Dr. Choudhary. Photos: Alison Laing (CSIRO) and Ashraf Ali (CIMMYT).
“The aim was to introduce these colleagues to the model and help them explore its adaptation and use,” said Md. Ashraf Ali, CIMMYT scientist and manager of SRFSI, which was launched in 2014 and is funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
“Our research targets rice-based systems in eight districts across those three countries, where wheat is often a key part of the rotation and climate change is already constraining crop yields.”
– Mahesh Kumar Gathala
CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist
According to SRFSI lead scientist, Mahesh Kumar Gathala, a CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist based in Bangladesh, SERFI works in Bangladesh, SERFI works in northwestern Bangladesh, West Bengal and Bihar in India, and the eastern Terai region of Nepal. “Our research targets rice-based systems in eight districts across those three countries, where wheat is often a key part of the rotation and climate change is already constraining crop yields.”
Ved Prakash (L) and Swaraj Dutta (R) work on modeling exercises.
One response to climate change – conservation agriculture – involves a complex, knowledge-intensive suite of practices including reduced tillage, keeping crop residues on the soil surface and careful use of rotations. A model like APSIM can speed the design and adoption of approaches tailored to specific locations, Singh explained. “But to provide reliable results, the model has to be adapted for the soil, climate and other conditions of each area,” he said.
Led by Don Gaydon and Alison Laing from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and with practical assistance from Dr. Sanjay Kumar, BAU, and Ali, the course provided theory and practice on the APSIM user interface and how to manage data on soils, weather and soil dynamics such as residue decomposition and moisture levels. “We also looked at how to model direct-seeded rice and wheat crops, long-term crop rotations and cropping simulations under climate-change,” Ali said.
Once assembled, a project modelling team with members from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and CSIRO will identify relevant parameters, calibrate the model and test it for diverse locations. Ultimately they will analyze scenarios for diverse crop management options, both current and proposed.
“With APSIM we can virtually ‘extend’ SRFSI field trials into the future by twenty years or more, gaining insight on long-term system variability,” Gathala said. “We can also explore likely impacts of the region-wide outscaling of new management options from one farm or village, including effects of different options on sustainability or greenhouse gas emissions, which can be difficult or expensive to measure in the field.”
Ved Prakash (L) and Swaraj Dutta (R) work on modeling exercises.
“Sustainable intensification seeks to increase farm productivity while conserving social and ecological resources, said Rishi Basak, consultant for CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) who took part in the event, held during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, 12-16 February.
