Theme: Capacity development

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.

Syngenta scientists visit CIMMYT–Turkey Seed Program

Written by on July 2, 2014. Posted in News.

By Abdelfattah A. Dababat and Dietrich Hermann/CIMMYT

CIMMYT has been working with agriculture research institutes in Turkey since the mid-1980s, focusing on developing germplasm that is broadly adapted and generates stable yields across a changing environment. The seed also must be more droughttolerant, resistant to diseases and cold temperatures and have winter hardness.

In 2000 CIMMYT-Turkey agreed to establish the Soil Borne Pathogens (SBP) program to work on root diseases such as cereal cyst nematodes, root lesion nematodes and dryland crown rot. In 2009 the SBP program at CIMMYT-Turkey started collaborating with Syngenta to explore possibilities to control SBPs on wheat. The idea was to use seed treatments on wheat germplasm having different resistance reactions to the SBP to investigate if the seed treatments showed additive and/or synergetic effects on both susceptible and resistant germplasm.

From left to right: Drs. Gül Erginbas-Orakci, Monika Scheller, Alexei Morgounov, Dietrich Hermann, Sami Suzer and Amer Dabadat visit the Trakya Agriculture

In order to get a more comprehensive understanding of the way CIMMYT Turkey works with agricultural research institutes, Dr. Dietrich Hermann and Dr. Monika Scheller from Syngenta Crop Protection AG in Basel, Switzerland, visited the SBP program 9-12 June. They were hosted by Dr. Abdelfattah A. Dababat and Dr. Gül Erginbas-Orakci. The visit started at the Trakya Agriculture Research Institute (TARI) in Edirne. TARI has been working on main crops such as sunflowers, rice, wheat, barley, oats, soybeans, safflower, flax, canola and pasture and forage crops to develop new, high-quality cultivars that have high yield and adaptation capabilities. Other projects include new agronomy techniques to increase farmer income, determining alternative crops for the region and producing elite and certified seed for seed producers and farmers.

The Syngenta delegation meets with TZARI director, Dr. Sabri Cakir, in his office.

The institute also contributes to Turkey’s agricultural economy with research on agronomy, pests and diseases; technological studies; and extension services. Guided by the institute’s director, Dr. Adnan Tulek, the group visited a wheat gall nematodes trial and discussed their life cycle and importance. They also toured the SBP nurseries and saw the best lines with multiple disease resistance traits. Dr. Alexei Morgounov, leader of the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP), showed some of the program’s seed multiplication plots as well as the landraces nursery. IWWIP is a joint enterprise of the government of Turkey, CIMMYT and the International Center for Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA).

IWWIP’s main objective is to develop winter/ facultative wheat germplasm for Central and West Asia. The following day the group visited the Transitional Zone Agriculture Research Institute (TZARI) in Eskisehir and met with Dr. Sabri Çakir, TZARI’s director, who briefed the visitors about the institute’s main activities. TZARI’s primary focus is improving yield potential and drought tolerance, particularly in winter wheat varieties.

TZARI has released 21 bread wheat varieties suited for dry conditions, 10 bread wheat varieties for irrigated conditions, five durum wheat, two triticale, 11 barley and two oat varieties, plus a range of germplasm for other crops (cabbage, chickpeas, common vetch, cumin, green beans, lentils, melons, onions, peppers, poppies, safflower, tomatoes and turnips). The group saw SBP activities in the lab, growth room, greenhouses and semi-field, addressed technical details and discussed possibilities for future collaborative work. Dr. Mustafa Cakmak, a TZARI wheat breeder, gave a tour of the field trials at the institute station and briefed the researchers on the IWWIP materials planted under both drought and irrigated conditions.

The Syngenta scientists gave presentations to breeders, pathologists and agronomists at both locations. Scheller provided an overview of Syngenta’s cereal seed care-product portfolio, and Hermann offered insight on the Syngenta strategy in barley and wheat, for seeds and crop protection, as well as opportunities seen in integration across technologies. The number of questions and the intensity of the discussion indicated the national scientists had significant interest in learning more about Syngenta’s technologies such as hybrid barley and seed care products. Hermann and Scheller will explore the possibility of increased interaction between the two institutes and the local Syngenta team in Turkey. The tour, which also offered opportunities for intensive discussion during the travel time between locations, was highly appreciated by the guests from Syngenta and will further increase the trust and strategic links between the organizations.

CIMMYT to conduct exchange program with Chinese Agricultural University

Written by on June 30, 2014. Posted in News.

By Karen Willenbrecht/CIMMYT

Chinese scientists will have more opportunities to learn from and apply CIMMYT’s research thanks to an agreement signed 16 June between CIMMYT and Yunnan Agricultural University.

High-level representatives from the university visited CIMMYT headquarters in Mexico as the first step in establishing a cooperative relationship that will benefit agricultural technology development in China’s Yunnan Province a major agricultural area in the far southwest of the country.

The province spans approximately 394,000 square kilometers (152,000 square miles) and has a population of more than 46 million. Zhang Haixiang, chairman of Yunnan Agricultural University, expressed eagerness to collaborate with CIMMYT in several areas, including an exchange program for young scientists and professors.

He noted that the climate in Yunnan Province is similar to El Batán’s and hoped CIMMYT researchers could share their experience of breeding maize and wheat in that environment. He also invited CIMMYT leadership to visit the university, offering a personal tour of its cereal research programs, particularly as they relate to rice, maize and wheat. Marianne Bänziger, deputy director general for research and partnerships, told the delegates CIMMYT staff are interested in strengthening collaboration with China.

“There are more opportunities than currently taken for Chinese students or visiting scientists to gain experiences and contribute to CIMMYT research programs,” she said. “We need champions with CIMMYT and Chinese institutions such as the Yunnan Agricultural University to create those opportunities where our interests align.” A memorandum of understanding was signed by Bänziger and Wen Jun, the university’s deputy chairman of academic affairs, that outlined the collaboration agreement.

During their visit, the delegates met with Dr. Xuecai Zhang, a CIMMYT maize genomic selection breeder; Dr. Lan Caixia and Dr. Yuanfeng Hao of the Global Wheat Program; and Dr. Jiafa Chen of the Seeds of Discovery program. They also visited the Genetic Resources Center, the bioscience complex and the maize and wheat quality labs.

Yunnan Agricultural University is the only agricultural higher education and research organization in Yunnan. The university is home to a key national laboratory for rice biodiversity, a research institute for highland crop development and a rural development institute. CIMMYT has one staff member, Dan Jeffers from the Global Maize Program, based in Yunnan Province and has strong partnerships with the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Predominance of informal seed systems in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Pakistan: a wake-up call for improvement

Written by on June 27, 2014. Posted in News.

By Krishna Dev Joshi, Muhammad Imtiaz and Akhlaq Hussain/CIMMYT

Improving and sustaining wheat productivity gains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KP) and other parts of Pakistan is vital to addressing national food security, as wheat is a major staple in the country.

Regular deployment of new, high-yielding and rust-resistant wheat varieties is essential to ensure ongoing improvement in wheat yields. This can only be achieved once a sustainable and profitable wheat seed system is in place. A workshop held on 4 June at the Cereal Crops Research Institute (CCRI), Nowshera, KP, brought together 49 participants representing major actors in the wheat value chain.

Participants included researchers from institutes in KP as well as from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), farmers, extension personnel, private seed companies, seed regulatory bodies and CIMMYT scientists. Participants analyzed gaps and opportunities in the current seed system. CIMMYT organized the event under the Agriculture Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan with CCRI, KP, Nowshera and PARC. The AIP is funded by the USAID Feed The Future Initiative.

Workshop participants stressed using innovative approaches for research, extension, seed production and marketing. According to the KP Department of Agriculture Extension, wheat productivity in the province is nearly 1.6 tons per hectare (t/ha) while the national average yield in Pakistan is around 2.7 t/ha. Wheat is grown on about 730,000 hectares in KP. Considering a 30 percent seed replacement rate, about 30,000 tons of wheat seeds is needed annually in the province. According to the Federal Seed Certification and Registration Department (FSC&RD) only around 7 percent of certified seeds are replaced every year (3.8 percent by public sector and 2.9 percent by private seed companies).

The remaining 93 percent of seed comes from informal sources. The lack of business perspective among almost all the major value chain actors coupled with weak coordination and linkage between them were identified by workshop participants as the main reasons for the predominance of informal seed systems in the province. The prevalence is a concern for wheat growth and sustainability. Farmer Abdul Malik from Swabi stressed that “seed is very important to maximize yield, and unavailability of quality seeds is the main cause of low productivity.”

He asked for better wheat seed of the right varieties that is available locally, adapted to specific conditions and affordable. Another farmer asked for focus on wheat varieties suitable for rain-fed conditions, as more than 60 percent of the wheat grown in KP is rain-fed. The workshop identified the long adoption lag phase as another major issue in releasing new varieties and making certified seed available. Workshop participants stressed that seeds coming to villages should include information about new varieties and associated technologies. Seed packets should contain information about new varieties and their specific adaptation to irrigated or Barani (rainfed) lands and other relevant traits. Demonstration plots and other adaptive research are important to popularize new varieties as well as for educating farmers about new seed varieties.

A total of 23 private seed companies are registered in KP, the majority of which are in urban areas, and few of these are functional. The majority of functional seed companies do not have wheat seed in their business portfolio or only have a small quantity of wheat seed because demand is low and this business is unprofitable. The high cost of seed production (small holdings and majority of nonirrigated areas, low productivity, etc.) adds to this complexity. complexity. The net returns from the sale of wheat seeds by the public sector Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) project were only around 7 percent (disregarding staff salary, overheads, seed storage costs).

The wheat seed business is unlikely to become a business of choice for private sector companies in this province. Wheat seed from Punjab does have a market in KP because of lower seed procurement prices. ADF, within the Department of Agriculture Extension, encourages local private seed companies to minimize dependency on Punjab, though the implementation is complicated without changing wheat grain pricing policy regime in the province, a major factor responsible for making this industry highly uncompetitive.

Workshop participants highlighted the role of seed and agricultural input dealers that sell wheat seed in the province. These dealers are vital actors in areas with underdeveloped seed markets, such as KP. Ensuring access to correct and appropriate information about the seeds they sell is vital. Participants, for example, raised concerns that some seed dealers sold seeds of a rust- susceptible wheat variety last year in Swabi, resulting in big losses for farmers. This was linked with a lapse in the implementation of Seed Act provisions, which is meant to protect farmers.

New technologies help Indian farmers improve nutrient management

Written by on June 26, 2014. Posted in News.

By ML Jat, RS Dadarwal, Tripti Agarwal and Love Kumar Singh/CIMMYT

In the intensively cropped region of northwest India, farmers generally use imbalanced and inappropriate nutrient doses, which leads to low yields, high production costs and low nutrient efficiency. The resulting loss of applied nutrients, particularly nitrogen, creates a large environmental footprint.

An interactive workshop was held 5-6 June in Haryana State to promote the use of precision nutrient management tools in smallholder production systems. The 175 participants received hands-on training in Nutrient ExpertTM, a software tool that helps determine fertilizer requirements in cereals, and GreenSeekerTM, an optical sensor that measures the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, an indicator of crop development and health.

To encourage widespread adoption of both technologies, the agriculture departments in the participating districts received them for free. Meanwhile, Haryana’s Department of Agriculture has planned more than 1,000 demonstrations of the tools in maize and rice fields during this year’s rainy season.

The training was jointly organized by the International Plant Nutrition Institute-South Asia Program, CIMMYT and the Haryana Department of Agriculture, under the umbrella of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Many of the participants were agriculture development officers or extension experts who will use the tools to devise climate-smart management strategies for sustainable development.

First SRFSI strategic planning meeting

Written by on June 24, 2014. Posted in News.

By Mahesh Gathala and Pat Wall/CIMMYT

A new project designed to improve farming systems in Bangladesh, India and Nepal kicked off work with a strategic planning meeting 19-21 May in New Delhi.

The Sustainable and Resilient Farming System Intensification (SRFSI) project, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), is scheduled to run for 50 months and will focus on the heavily populated Eastern Gangetic Plains, home to some 300 million people and the world’s highest concentration of rural poverty. Together with farmers – especially women farmers – project staff will develop more intensive, sustainable and resilient farming systems by incorporating conservation agriculture (CA) and strategic supplementary irrigation into the current farming systems. The changes allowed by these two practices will permit more timely planting of the main cereal crops – rice, maize and wheat – increasing yield and allowing for a third crop to be sown between the main winter crop and summer rice. Supplementary irrigation will help ensure timely planting and act as a buffer against mid-season droughts, predicted to become more frequent with the advance of climate variability.

The project also calls for crop and system modeling to aid the development of farmer decision support tools, frequent farmer discussions and consultations, support and training of local service providers and agricultural dealers and farmer-to-farmer information exchange.

The strategic planning meeting set the stage for summer field work in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Photo: Mahesh K Gathala

The meeting opened with an introduction to the program and background information from Dr. John Dixon, the ACIAR principal advisor responsible for SRFSI and a former director of CIMMYT’S Impact and Assessment (Socio-economics) Program, and Dr. Mahesh Gathala, a CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist and leader of the SRFSI project. Partners from the region then presented results from pre-project activities, including reports of field research in Bangladesh and West Bengal, and studies on the hydrology of the communities where the project will be based. Dr. Rasheed Sulaiman discussed a survey of potential partners for the innovation systems developed in the project.

With this background, workshop attendees began to focus on planning the field work for the coming summer season. Gathala and Andy McDonald presented a view of the researchable issues common to the project areas, followed by presentations from longtime CIMMYT partners in the region on opportunities for change. Based on these presentations, Gathala and Pat Wall, former director of CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program who has been involved in the development of the SRFSI project, developed and proposed a core research program for the coming season based on direct seeding and/or direct transplanting of rice (a key strategy to reach CA systems), strategic supplementary irrigation of the rice crop and short-season rice varieties, all of which will enable timely harvest of the rice crop and allow for seeding of the winter crops at the optimum time. This plan will be discussed and refined with partners in separate country planning workshops.

Initially the SRFSI was to include a large component of technology out-scaling (commonly called extension), but ACIAR decided to make out-scaling the focus of a separate but associated project. Dixon discussed current thinking on the phases of technology generation, out-scaling, adoption and impact, followed by interesting and enlightening presentations on successful projects linking agribusiness and small farmers to achieve technology adoption from Sanjeev Asthana and N. Sai Krishna of the National Skills Foundation of India, Srivalli Krishnan of USAID and Madan Pariyar of the SRFSI partner organization, iDE. A framework for the project will now be developed and this will be the focus of discussion at the next planning workshop set for 6-7 July in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Wheat Field Day in Georgia

Written by on June 24, 2014. Posted in Features.

By Alexei Morgounov/CIMMYT

Georgia has high soil fertility and good agro-environmental conditions for growing wheat, yet the country imports most of the grain it needs. To help make Georgia’s agriculture sector more self-sufficient, a small workshop and Wheat Field Day were held 7 June at Lomtagora Farm in Marneuli County.

The farm is a focal point in Georgia for the testing and adoption of winter wheat germplasm supplied by the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program, a joint project of the government of Turkey, CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). Several high-yielding varieties have been identified, multiplied and delivered to the farming communities in the country. During the field day, participants saw more than 70 varieties and breeding lines demonstrated on big plots and submitted seed requests for the ones they liked. Traditional Georgian bread was baked from different genotypes including the landraces, and samples were offered to the visitors.

Drs. Kakha Lashki and Alexei Morgounov discuss the performance of the new wheat lines. Photo: Alexei Morgounov

Dr. Kakha Lashki, head of the farm, emphasized the need for technological innovations and varieties to improve farms and increase wheat production. Dr. Alexei

Morgounov of CIMMYT-Turkey presented some of those technological solutions. He also addressed the challenges facing wheat farmers globally. Dr. Ram Sharma of ICARDA-Tashkent spoke about the outcomes of regional cooperation with ICARDA and how they can be applied in Georgia.

This was the fifth year for the Wheat Field Day, and it attracted around 100 participants from across the country.

Course gives managers better understanding of seed business

Written by on June 23, 2014. Posted in News.

By Diriba Hika/CIMMYT

A training session on seed business management gave Ethiopian agriculture managers a deeper knowledge that they said would enable them to help fill the gap in the supply of quality protein maize to the nation’s farmers.

The training was organized by CIMMYT’s Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development and conducted by CIMMYT senior scientists working in Africa as well as experts from the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, Integrated Seed System Development-Ethiopia and the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa-Ethiopia. The trainees were managers drawn from national agricultural research systems, the Ministry of Agriculture, farmers’ cooperative unions and private and public seed companies. Of the 16 trainees, three were women.

Dr. Asnake Fikre, crop research director of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture, told participants that “regardless of the significant public sector investments made to provide farmers with better seeds, the national seed system could not do what was expected of it.” He encouraged the seed company mangers to apply the training to improve efficiency in their businesses.

Asnake discussed the government’s recent efforts to address issues relating to seed quality, efficiency, diversification and sustainability, including a revised seed law that recognizes the importance of a pluralistic seed sector and encourages cooperation with the global seed industry. Also, the Ministry of Agriculture approved direct marketing of maize hybrid seed in the country this year.

As part of the training, the managers were given two helpful reference materials: a manual prepared by CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the book Seed Business Management in Africa, written by John MacRobert, a former CIMMYT seed systems specialist. “The training is of international standard,” one participant said. “It helped us to see where we are, what we lack and what we can do better in the future. As a manager, I found the training very helpful in decision-making in the business.”

Sixteen Ethiopian agriculture managers attended the training course on seed business management, Photo: Diriba Hika

The NuME project is working to provide quality protein maize seed to the rural poor who rely on maize as their staple food by building the capacity of seed companies and regulatory bodies. This training is a part of the human capacity development targeted by the project to successfully build the seed value chain by producing and marketing high-quality seed to maize growers.

Seed Business Management Syllabus

Topics covered at the training included:

The seed business cycle and value chain
Identifying and choosing the right maize varieties
Basics of maize breeding, variety testing and product release
Hybrid seed production characteristics
Distinguishing characteristics of inbred lines, hybrids and open pollinated varieties (OPVs)
Managing growers and contracts
Maintenance of inbred line parents and OPVs
Certification standards and inspection procedures
Seed physiology, storage and quality
Warehouse management
Developing marketing, sales and promotion strategies
Product distribution and presentation, merchandising
Dealing with customers
Overview of seed policy in Africa…

Workshop gives agronomists tips on writing for scientific journals

Written by on June 23, 2014. Posted in News.

By Isaiah Nyagumbo/CIMMYT

Agronomy scientists got practical, hands-on advice on translating their research data into credible scientific publications during a five-day workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The 13 scientists have been conducting research for the past four years addressing sustainable intensification in Africa using conservation agriculture and improved maize and legume varieties as part of the SIMLESA program, funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. The goal of the workshop was to help them accelerate production of publications based on their research.

Participants met with biometricians one-on-one to discuss the data and experiments they wanted to analyze, and the outputs of the statistical analyses for each data set were shared in feedback sessions. Feyissa Mekonnen, data manager for CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program and Socioeconomics Program, assisted with the analysis of the data, which was collected under objective 2 during phase 1 of SIMLESA. In the final session, participants received some hints on how to present statistical results in scientific publications.

Dr. Mulugetta Mekuria, the SIMLESA program coordinator, emphasized the need to transform research data into scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals for the benefit of the scientific and development communities. All the participants confirmed to Dr. Mekuria that they would complete draft papers by the end of July.

Agronomy scientists from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawai, Mozambique and Zimbabwe trained with biometricians and data analysts. Photo: CIMMYT

The workshop, held 26-31 May, was attended by scientists from Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, organized by regional CIMMYT scientists Dr. Fred Kanampiu and Dr. Isaiah Nyagumbo and facilitated by five biometricians from the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa led by Yolisa Pakela-Jezille. It ended with a social event for participants and CIMMYT staff where Dr. Mekuria bid farewell to Dr. Kanampiu, who will be leaving CIMMYT at the end of July after 17 years.

Improving women farmer’s access to agricultural information and training in India

Written by on June 20, 2014. Posted in News.

By Anuradha Dhar/CIMMYT

On a hot summer day in the Muzaffarpur District of Bihar State, India, 345 women farmers gathered to talk about the challenges they face in agriculture with a visiting team from the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. During the event, which was organized by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), one woman said, “Brothers, if you are farmers, so are we.” The group responded with loud claps and whistles. The women then discussed their day-to-day issues and shared their enthusiasm to learn about new agricultural technologies and management practices.

It is relatively uncommon to see women in rural India – where gender discrimination runs deep and women often are not empowered to speak or make decisions – talk openly and passionately about their lives. The farmers who attended the CSISA meeting are members of the new initiative Kisan Sakhi, meaning “a woman farmer friend,” jointly started by CSISA and the Bihar Mahila Samakya, an Indian government program on women’s equality.

Women farmers discussing their training needs with the CSISA team. Photo: Madhulika Singh

Women work extensively on farms across India – participating in sowing, weeding and harvesting – and are responsible for managing farm work and household chores. However, their contribution in agriculture remains largely unseen and unacknowledged. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, women account for 43 percent of the agricultural labor force in developing countries and produce 60 percent of the food, yet compared with men farmers most women don’t have land rights or equal access to education or training.

Kisan Sakhi aims to empower women farmers in Bihar by disseminating new climate-resilient and sustainable farming technologies and practices that will reduce women’s drudgery and bridge the gender gap in agriculture. FAO estimates that the productivity gains from ensuring equal access to fertilizer, technology and tools could raise the total agricultural output in developing countries and reduce the number of hungry people.

“In spite of doing all kinds of work in the field, I never got the respect as a farmer that men farmers would get,” said Sumintra Devi, who is now a member of Kisan Sakhi. She is being introduced to new technologies and management practices such as improved weed management, maize intercropping, intensification of cropping systems with summer green gram, machine transplanting of rice under non-puddled conditions and nursery management. “We have discussions with the group members during which they identify the training needs and practices they would like to adopt,” said CSISA gender specialist Sugandha Munshi. In one such discussion, the women mentioned the painful and tedious process of shelling maize by hand. CSISA organized training that demonstrated post-harvest technologies such as a hand-powered maize sheller and “super bags” for effective grain storage (see photos on page 8). Six geographical areas – Aurai, Bandra, Bochaha, Gai Ghat, Kudhni and Musahri – in Muzaffarpur District have been identified for the pilot work. “Women farmers recognize that receiving information and skill is more important than short-term monetary support from a project,” said R.K. Malik, the leader of CSISA’s Objective 1 and the Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh hub manager.

CSISA has also started helping women farmers to become entrepreneurs. As part of Kisan Sakhi, four women self-help groups in the Bandra area are pooling resources to buy a rice-transplanting machine, which will help them to earn income by offering custom-hire services. “It is part of a major shift in perception of participating women groups. CSISA and its partnership with the government of Bihar now see an opportunity to involve women for adoption of new technologies and facilitate them to become service providers,” said Malik.

CIMMYT maize projects creating synergies for enhanced impacts in South Asia

Written by on June 13, 2014. Posted in News.

By AbduRahman Beshir and P.H. Zaidi/CIMMYT

South Asia is particularly vulnerable to climate fluctuations, and extreme weather conditions can cause abiotic stress in rain-fed crops such as maize. Recognizing these challenges to crop production, CIMMYT has partnered with national programs in South Asia to develop and deploy climate-smart agricultural technologies through two projects supported by USAID’s Feed the Future initiative – Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan and Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA).

HTMA is an alliance between private and public research and development institutes in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan whose goal is to develop new generations of maize hybrids that can withstand heat stress. AIP for Pakistan is a multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary project partly focused on deploying the most promising technologies, including stress-resilient maize cultivars, suitable for the country’s environment. Recognizing an opportunity for the two initiatives to collaborate, the Maize and Millets Research Institute (MMRI) and CIMMYT organized a workshop for 35 AIP and HTMA project partners 29-31 May at Sahiwal, Pakistan.

Dr. P.H. Zaidi explaining about phenotypic traits. Photos: AbduRahman Beshir

Dr. Abid Mehmood, director general of agricultural research of Punjab Province, Pakistan, told the Pakistani maize scientists that “maize is one of the important crops for the food security of Pakistan” and said the workshop was “an excellent platform to learn and work together and share knowledge among scientists.” Mian Muhammad Shafique, director of MMRI, gave an overview on maize research and development at MMRI and its importance for Pakistan, and for Punjab in particular.Drs. P.H. Zaidi, B.S. Vivek and Raman Babu from CIMMYT-India and AbduRahman Beshir from CIMMYT-Pakistan shared current developments associated with conventional and molecular breeding for abiotic stress tolerance to help the scientists understand various principles, tools and techniques involved in developing climate-smart maize hybrids, with enhanced tolerance to major stresses such as drought and heat. The training also addressed the basic principles of quality maize seed production.

The workshop was followed by a field visit at the MMRI experimental farm, where participants got practical experience in identifying important phenotypic traits for climate-resilient maize and evaluated the performance of AIP, HTMA and MMRI maize trials at the institute. Zaidi commended the MMRI team for the way it managed the field trials, saying, “The longtime research work from MMRI and other centers is a primary reference for people working on developing heat stress-tolerant maize, and this effort has to continue at an accelerated pace.”

Participants of the international refresher course on Statistical and Genomic Analysis. Photo: CIMMYT

The participants also appreciated the performance of some of the germplasms in Sahiwal, where the maximum temperature often exceeds 45^oC during May and June. Dr. Beshir explained how the scientists can access CIMMYT’s germplasm and encouraged public and private institutions to further engage in the development and deployment of CIMMYT maize materials.

In the closing session, Dr. Sartaj Khan, national coordinator for cereal systems at the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC), thanked CIMMYT for organizing the course and urged participants to use the knowledge gained in their day-to-day activities. He also requested more training sessions with participants from diverse disciplines.

CIMMYT promotes the role of women in agriculture at Pakistan maize conference

Written by on June 12, 2014. Posted in News.

By AbduRahman Beshir and Imtiaz Muhammad/CIMMYT

Dr. Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT country representative for Pakistan, urged academics to encourage women to pursue agricultural careers during his keynote speech at a maize conference 3 May at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad-Pakistan.

Dr. AbduRahman Beshir, right, accepting an honor shield on behalf of CIMMYT staff.

“Why are women not competing for jobs in the field of agriculture, despite the relatively good numbers of women in the university?” he asked. He mentioned a recent example from the CIMMYT-Pakistan office, which advertised local vacancies for maize, wheat and agronomy positions but was unable to find qualified women candidates with relevant experience. He emphasized the role of women in Pakistan’s agricultural sector and said failing them is tantamount to failing half the country’s population.

The conference, organized by the university’s Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, drew 150 participants from public and private maize research and development institutions, including multinational companies and academia, for an update on recent trends in maize production.

Dr. AbduRahman Beshir, a maize improvement and seed systems specialist at CIMMYT-Pakistan, spoke about CIMMYT’s activities to enhance productivity and promote maize excellence in Pakistan. He encouraged public and private institutions to test and use CIMMYT maize germplasm in order to fast-track the deployment of improved maize varieties.

Participants expressed appreciation for CIMMYT’s recent efforts to bring maize excellence back to Pakistan and enthusiasm for partnering with the organization. CIMMYT staff received an honor shield during the closing ceremony.

The boom-bust cycle of rust resistance genes continues unabated in western China, but CIMMYT lines mostly unaffected

Written by on June 11, 2014. Posted in Features.

By Garry Rosewarne/CIMMYT

Pi’Xian yield trials of Chinese-bred, CIMMYT-derived stem rust lines (above) and the National Yield Trials (below) in the 2013-14 season that was particularly bad for lodging. Photos: Garry Rosewarne

The “boom-bust cycle” of resistance genes refers to the widespread use of a single resistance gene that protects multiple varieties of a grain from a disease (boom). When the disease overcomes this resistance gene many varieties simultaneously become susceptible (bust). The wheat cultivar Mianmai 37, released in 2004, has always had high levels of resistance to yellow rust. However, in the 2013-14 season in China’s Chengdu basin, this cultivar has high levels of the disease, indicating a new rust pathotype has likely evolved. CIMMYT researchers are awaiting investigations by pathologists to confirm the presence of a new race. Mianmai 37 has been extremely popular in western China and has been used as the high-yielding check in the government-run provincial yield trials for several years. It is also used extensively in breeding programs throughout the region, but with the outbreak of this new pathotype, several breeders have reportedly lost between 60 percent and 80 percent of their breeding stocks. About 60 percent of entries in the government trials have also showed susceptibility this year, despite testing last year that showed they were all highly resistant. It is unknown which resistance gene has been overcome.

Me Wu and Dr. Zhu Huazhong from the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences making final selections in Pi’Xian, Sichuan Province.

This new virulence comes on top of the V26 pathotype that first appeared in 2011-12. This pathotype took out the widely used gene Yr24/26, rendering many varieties susceptible. Of major concern was the apparent loss of resistance in the CIMMYT derived cultivar Chuanmai 42, the world’s first commercially released variety with a synthetic background, which showed a 15 to 20 percent leap in yield potential compared with the best non-synthetic lines in the region. Fortunately, Chuanmai 42 was segregated for resistance to V26, and reselections were quickly made and seed was bulked up so that this high-yielding variety can still be grown. The new yellow rust pathotypes have had virtually no effect on the CIMMYT nurseries in the region, where the vast majority of lines are maintaining their durability.

CIMMYT is collaborating with the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (SAAS) and the Chinese Government State Affairs for Foreign Expert Administration, which partially funds Dr. Garry Rosewarne’s work, on various projects to improve China’s wheat yields. Over the past three years, in conjunction with Dr. Yang Ennian, a breeding program has been established that focuses solely on the use of adult plant resistances. This program is also virtually unaffected by the arrival of new pathotypes. This year, fixed lines were selected from the most advanced material, and these will be grown on small observation plots next year. Not only is the use of slow-rusting genes having an effect in this program, but the change from pedigree breeding to selected bulk generation advancement is resulting in much more efficient field operations. This, combined with extensive use of summer nurseries, will see an increase in efficiency of up to 50 percent in the breeding program.

Dr. Zhu Huazhong of SAAS is also using slow-rusting genes from CIMMYT, albeit for a different reason. Chinese material is generally completely susceptible to the wheat stem rust lineages of Ug99. Although stem rust is rare in China, Dr. He Zhonghu recognized that it would be prudent to employ a pre-emptive breeding strategy in preparation for a potential incursion of Ug99. To this end, Dr. Zhu has been making crosses between Sichuan material and several of the CIMMYT stem rust nurseries in China. Not only are these lines showing good yellow rust resistance in yield trials, there appears to be an increase in lodging tolerance.

A Chinese-produced small-scale combine harvester is being tested on yield plots at Guanghan, Sichuan Province. Photo: Garry Rosewarne

CIMMYT’s Sichuan office also is testing machine harvesting of yield trials using a Chinese-built small plot harvester that costs about US $6,000, with hopes of implementing multi-location yield trials so lines can be more rigorously tested for yield stability. Collaborative breeding and research activities throughout China are also being driven by the Sichuan office, where slow-rusting germplasm is being distributed to selected key breeding programs to use in their hybridizations. Genetic populations have also been distributed for multiple environment testing against yellow rust, leaf rust, powdery mildew and fusarium head blight. Other research is focusing on quantifying the value of slow-rusting genes under epidemic conditions, using molecular markers to pyramid slow-rusting genes behind major seedling resistances and identifying novel resistance genes to yellow rust.

Varietal uptake by farmers is particularly difficult in China, where new seed can cost up to US$ 1,000 per ton. In a novel venture for this region, a seed company is being paid by the provincial government to grow another CIMMYT synthetically derived cultivar, Chuanmai 104, and the seed will be given directly to farmers in an effort to improve yields in the region.

Afghan researchers learn the essentials of wheat rust management

Written by on June 10, 2014. Posted in News.

By Rajiv Sharma/CIMMYT

Wheat has been receiving a lot of attention ever since new races of destructive fungi emerged, threatening the world’s second most important food crop. The onslaught of stem rust race Ug99 taught researchers and farmers how to use fungicides to control wheat rusts; meanwhile, new races of yellow rust continue to appear, keeping researchers on their toes to offer usable, economical solutions to farmers.

Afghanistan grows wheat on about 2.5 million hectares and has about 20 wheat varieties in its seed chain. Most of them are rust-resistant, but varieties keep losing resistance, while new varieties are added to the seed chain. Since it is not possible to take a newly susceptible variety out of cultivation and out of the seed chain immediately, an integrated rust management strategy must be in place to protect farmers’ interests.

To help develop such a strategy, CIMMYT-Afghanistan joined the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), the Afghan government and the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) to host a two-day training on “Wheat Rust Management” at the MAIL campus on 6-7 May. The training was conducted by Dr. Ruth Wanyera, principal scientist from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, and attended by 47 experts from ARIA, MAIL, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Agriculture Input Project (AIP) of the World Bank, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Kabul University and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

Hashim Azmatyar, acting director of ARIA, stressed that chemical control of rusts is sometimes necessary in cases where virulent races suddenly appear. Dr. Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT country representative for Afghanistan, exhorted MAIL officials to take urgent steps to remove susceptible varieties from Afghanistan’s seed chain.

The training also covered an introduction to rusts and their scoring, integrated rust management and the evolution of new races. Wanyera delivered a special lecture on how Kenya and the region collaborated with CIMMYT and responded to the Ug99 threat to safeguard the interests of affected farmers. She discussed at length the use of fungicides in managing rusts and shared the African experience on how chemicals offered an economically feasible solution when genetic resistance was not available.

Mid-career scientists get new tools for big data analysis

Written by on June 10, 2014. Posted in News.

By Raman Babu & BS Vivek/CIMMYT

“It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics,” George Bernard Shaw once said, and the 56 maize researchers who attended a mid-career refresher course on statistical and genomic analysis likely would agree.

Participants of the international refresher course on Statistical and Genomic Analysis

Five agriculture universities, seven national agriculture research systems, five seed companies from South and Southeast Asia, CIMMYT and ICRISAT were represented at the course, held 12-21 May at CIMMYT’s Hyderabad office.

Big data is now a reality and the volume, variety and velocity of data coming into the breeding programs are reaching unprecedented levels. The ability to swiftly sift through multi-location phenotypes and high-density genotypes enables breeders to continuously drive innovation and make the best selection decisions. The course was intended to strengthen the statistical underpinnings of modern crop improvement approaches, particularly for mid-career scientists and students involved in maize research.

Presenting certificates of completion to the participants. Photo: Dzung Do Van

A significant percentage of the training was devoted to hands-on practical assignments using mostly open source data analysis platforms such as R and Genstat with real datasets obtained from CIMMYT breeding programs. A range of analyses such as generation of BLUPs for large and unbalanced data, factorial regressions, QTL mapping, genome-wide association analysis, genomic selection, fine mapping, and genotype imputation was demonstrated.

“Getting to know an amazing variety of powerful statistical and molecular breeding tools will definitely help advance my breeding program,” said Mahendra Tripathi, a maize breeder with the National Maize Research Program, Nepal, who is pursuing a Ph.D. with CIMMYT as part of the Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia project. Brad Thada, a student from Purdue University in the U.S. who researches heat tolerance, said he particularly liked the big picture of maize improvement that he could capture, while Ryan Gibson, also from Purdue, admired the fine mapping part of the course, which gave him an opportunity to understand the entire process of marker discovery and how to fine-tune it to breeder-ready applications. Willy Bayuardi from Indonesia’s Bogor Agricultural University said he found the course intensely educational, especially the “Meta-R” suite of programs that summarize R Script-based statistical analyses in a user-friendly interface.

Mateo Vargas and Gregorio Alvarado from the Biometrical and Statistical Unit of CIMMYT-Mexico facilitated the statistics part of the training as key resource persons. The molecular breeding team of CIMMYT-India (Raman Babu, Sudha Nair, Girish Krishna and S. Gajanan) along with Willy Bayuardi, Jefferson Paril (Institute of Plant Breeding, University of Philippines) and ICRISAT staff orchestrated the genomic analysis part. The course was coordinated by B.S. Vivek, Maize Breeder and Raman Babu, Molecular Breeder of CIMMYT-India, Hyderabad.

Seed summit aims to improve delivery of high-yielding varieties to farmers in eastern India

Written by on June 9, 2014. Posted in News.

By Anuradha Dhar

Strategies to make improved seed varieties more appealing and available to India’s farmers were the focus of the Seed Summit for Enhancing the Seed Supply Chain in Eastern India, held 14-15 May in Patna, Bihar. The summit was organized by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development Feed the Future initiative and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

More than 60 seed experts from the government, research institutions and the private sector identified the challenges in the seed value chain and discussed actionable solutions that will improve the delivery of improved wheat and rice varieties to farmers in eastern India.

Takashi Yamano, senior scientist and agricultural economist, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), highlighting the scope and purpose of the event in the first session at the seed summit. Photo: Nabakishore Paridasmall

Seed Scenario

Many varieties of the two key crops have been released in India in recent decades, which could significantly increase agricultural productivity and reduce rural poverty. However, most

small-scale and poor farmers in eastern India do not have access to modern varieties that can tolerate flooding or are more resistant to pests and diseases while generating higher yields.

Seed replacement rates are extremely low in eastern India, for several reasons: farmers are not aware of the potential of new varieties; a lack of proper seed storage infrastructure to maintain good quality; poor linkages among government, private sector and farmers to provide seeds in a timely manner; and gaps in the policy environment.

The event focused on strengthening the financial capacity and marketing skills of rural seed dealers and input retailers, expanding the role of agricultural extension and advisory services, leveraging civil society – farmers’ associations, community groups and nongovernmental organizations – to help promote new varieties and encouraging greater engagement from India’s vibrant private sector in the region’s seed markets.

David Spielman, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), said India is the fifth-largest seed market in the world, growing at 12 percent annually. “There is a need for better decision-making tools —better data, information and analysis at a strategic level to improve seed systems and markets in Asia. Greater investments in the research systems and improved market surveillance to identify and prosecute fraudulent seed production are also required,” he said.

Vilas Tonapi, principal scientist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, promoted alternative seed system models – individual farmer as a seed bank, village-based seed banks and group-based small-scale seed enterprise – to provide local platforms where farmers can easily buy improved seeds.

Looking Forward

The last session established four critical priorities for an action plan in the Indian seed sector, especially in the eastern states: the extension system should be restructured and revived; effective seed subsidy programs should be designed that are based on evidence, are cost-effective and are better targeted to reach poor farmers; mechanization of the seed sector should be promoted with the introduction of mobile seed treatment units and seed weighing machines; and demonstration of new varieties and new farm technologies should be promoted through progressive farmers.

To view photos and press coverage of the summit, please visit www.csisa.org.