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.

CIMMYT connects with partners at the 2012 African Green Revolution Forum

Written by on October 12, 2012. Posted in News.

African “We have arrived at the tipping point and are not taking Africa’s Green Revolution to scale,” said Kofi Annan during the opening session of the 2012 African Green Revolution Forum which took place in Arusha, Tanzania, from 26-28 September. The forum gathered 1,000 participants from ministries of agriculture, industry, and the international donor community. CIMMYT was represented by Wilfred Mwangi. Melinda Gates of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Kanayo Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, President of Tanzania, also attended the event.

During the forum, Annan called on governments to invest more in agricultural development, as did Gates who urged for a much more ambitious investment in agricultural research and development for the next 10 years. “This was a great event for networking especially with key partners and policymakers in countries where CIMMYT works in Africa,” said Mwangi, who participated in a number of plenary sessions and side events including one on ‘Embarking on a Journey to Enable Private Sector Investment’. Among the panelists of the session were the Minister of Agriculture, Food Security, and Cooperatives of Tanzania and Isaka Mashauri, managing director and chief executive officer of TANSEED International Ltd. Mashauri attended an intensive maize breeding and variety release course organized by CIMMYT in 2005 and during the event he praised CIMMYT for helping him to build his seed company by providing maize germplasm and technical backstopping. The drought tolerant maize germplasm provided by CIMMYT allowed him to release four drought tolerant maize varieties to local farmers in Tanzania, the first to be released by a local seed company. According to Mashauri, his partnership with CIMMYT is a very good model for helping to build the local private sector that should be emulated by others (for more information on CIMMYT’s work with TANSEED International Ltd, visit the BMGF website and the CIMMYT website).

Boosting the seed business through management training in Rwanda

Written by on October 10, 2012. Posted in News.

One of the major factors contributing to low national average maize yield in Rwanda is small-scale farmers’ limited access to improved maize seed, as was stated by Claver Ngaboyisonga (Crop Research and Extension at Rwanda Agricultural Board (RAB) director), Nyiringabo Ignace (Win Win Agri-tech Ltd director), and Ngoga Claudien (Agriculture Promotion – Sarura Seed Company director) during a Seed Business Management training organized by Win Win Agritech Ltd and CIMMYT from 4 to 6 September 2012 at the Pastoral Centre in Kigali, Rwanda. The training aimed to increase awareness on quality seed production and marketing, and to improve the skills and knowledge among new small seed companies, as quality seed production and marketing are challenges the sector is yet to overcome.

Maize cultivation in Rwanda is rapidly expanding due to changes in cropping systems, agricultural policies, and use of inputs such as fertilizer and new maize varieties adapted to different agro-ecologies. However, the national average yield remains low at 2.4 t/ha, despite the increase in area under maize cultivation from 109,400 ha in 2005 to 223,414 ha in 2011 and in production from 97,251 t in 2005 to 525,679 t in 2011. According to Ngaboyisonga, public-private partnership and involvement of private seed companies in seed production and marketing of quality improved seed is crucial for increasing the national average yield.

To achieve this goal, 28 participants from Win Win Agri-tech Ltd, Agriculture Promotion Company Ltd- Sarura, and RAB participated in the training program covering all aspects of the seed business, spanning from variety identification to marketing. The sessions were coordinated by CIMMYT seed systems specialists Mosisa Worku Regasa and James Gethi. Maereka Enock Kuziwa, a course participant, expressed satisfaction with the way the program was organized and conducted. “Seed business is a relatively new field in the Rwandan market and continuing support from CIMMYT to the seed business industry in Rwanda would be very useful,” added Ignace. This training will go a long way in promoting the use of improved maize varieties, especially those developed by CIMMYT in collaboration with RAB.

CIMMYT trains Vietnamese scientists in doubled haploid technology

Written by on October 9, 2012. Posted in News.

Doubled haploid (DH) technology is increasingly utilized in maize breeding for achieving rapid genetic gains and speeding up product development. Several maize breeding programs within public institutions and small and medium private enterprises, especially in tropical maize growing countries, lag behind in using this technology. By disseminating newly developed tropical inducer lines, offering technical know-how to breeding programs, and conducting training courses, CIMMYT has been working to close this gap. CIMMYT also produced an elaborate training manual on DH technology (available for download at CIMMYT library repository).

The National Maize Research Institute (NMRI), Hanoi, Vietnam, is currently expanding its technical capacity to adapt the DH technology to its institutional needs. To assist NMRI in achieving this goal, CIMMYT has been offering training to its scientists. Three NMRI scientists were trained at CIMMYT-Mexico from January to May 2012. NMRI then organized a four-day training course during 10–12 September 2012, which was led by CIMMYT scientists Vijay Chaikam and Dan Jeffers and attended by 60 NMRI breeders/scientists. Mai Xuan Trieu (NMRI director general), Luong Van Vang (Maize Development Project director), Kha Le Quy (Maize Breeding Department head), and Dang Ngoc Ha (International Cooperation Department head) inaugurated the course with discussions about the challenges for maize production in Vietnam. Jeffers presented on future challenges for maize in Asia, CIMMYT’s vision for addressing these problems, and identification and management of prominent maize diseases in Southeast Asia. Chaikam’s presentations covered all the technical details of DH technology and the components required for establishing a successful DH breeding program. Jeffers and Chaikam also visited Song Boi experimental station in Hoa Binh province to assess its suitability for DH operations.

During the closing ceremony, Mai Xuan Trieu and Luong Van Vang expressed their gratitude to Thomas Lumpkin (CIMMYT director general), Marianne Bänziger (CIMMYT deputy director general), and B.M. Prasanna (Global Maize Program director) for their efforts in forging collaboration with NMRI and the support provided to adapt DH technology in maize breeding programs.

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Maize traveling seminar for high-level officials in Nepal

Written by on October 3, 2012. Posted in News.

The Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP) led by CIMMYT, in close partnership with the the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC) and the Department of Agriculture (DoA) jointly organized a five-day Maize Traveling Seminar for high-level officials in the hills of Nepal during 2-6 September 2012. The purpose of the seminar was to offer policy makers firsthand information on the status of maize varietal development, seed multiplication, marketing, technology dissemination, and the HMRP’s efforts to improve food security and livelihoods of the resource-poor and disadvantaged farmers in the hills of the country. The seminar was attended by 25 officials from the National Planning Commission (NPC), Ministry of Agriculture and Development (MoAD), Ministry of Finance (MoF), NARC, National Seed Board (NSB), DoA, donors (SDC and USAID), NGOs, private sector, and the media.

At the beginning of the seminar, the newly-established Ganesh Himal community-managed seed company from the mid-hill District of Dhading was inaugurated. Yamuna Ghale, senior program officer and SDC representative stressed its importance for the region: “The more than four tons of improved seed this company is expected to produce and sell to neighboring districts will help to increase the seed replacement rate in the area with resulting increases in productivity this year. This approach needs to be replicated in other hill areas of the country.” The participants then visited the National Maize Research Program (NMRP) in Rampur, Chitwan, where they observed varietal improvement and maintenance and source seed production activities. NMRP coordinator K.B. Koirala presented on the current status, priorities, and challenges of maize research and seed production in Nepal. He highlighted that the area under maize source seed production and the quality of the seed have been significantly improved, and that NMRP and other HMRP partners had reached thousands of resource-poor farmers in their respective command areas.

During the rest of the traveling seminar, participants visited HMRP partners’ activities in the hill districts of Palpa, Syangja, and Kaski, including participatory variety selection (PVS), community-based seed production (CBSP), maize-vegetables inter-cropping, and on-farm trials and demonstrations activities conducted by CBSP groups and cooperatives. In the Manakamana Women Farmers Group of Syangja district, about 45 women members gathered to welcome the participants of the seminar. During interactions with the farmers, they learnt about farmers’ constraints and needs for marketing the seed, improving yields, storage facilities, credits, inputs, training etc. Amy Prevatt, USAID-Nepal representative, expressed her satisfaction with the accomplishments of HMRP and its partners regarding reducing poverty and food insecurity in the hills of Nepal. “I am sure the project will continue supporting you to overcome the marketing constraints and to make your CBSP group stronger and sustainable,” she said. The team and the farmers carried a walk around the village to observe crop conditions in CBSP, PVS, and intercropping trials. The team then headed for the Palpa district to visit the Radha Krishna Women farmers groups and Shiva Sakti maize seed producers group in Chatiwan, which has recently graduated into a cooperative with technical assistance from HMRP and its partners.

The seminar was concluded with a business meeting co-chaired by Tek Bahadur Gurung (NARC director of livestock and fisheries) and Dharma Dutta Baral (deputy director general at DoA under MoAD). During the meeting, participants assessed the effectiveness of the seminar; most of them expressed their satisfaction over its achievements, shared recommendations for further improvement, and suggested that the seminar be conducted annually during the main maize season. “The seminar provided good information that can only be appreciated by observing it at the field level,” said Baral. Gurung summed up the meeting by thanking the seminar organizers and stating that “the NARC and the MoAD are proud of the close partnership we have maintained with CIMMYT over the past 27 years. Events like the traveling seminar give us the opportunity to witness some of the fruitful results of this partnership.”

CIMMYT “Open Door”: Valuable knowledge resource

Written by on October 2, 2012. Posted in News.

On 21 September 2012, CIMMYT-El Batán opened its doors to 280 students, accompanied by their professors, from 14 Mexican universities for the 6th “Open Door” event. This year, students visited the wheat and maize programs, conservation agriculture demonstration plots, the germplasm bank, and biotechnology and cereal laboratories.

Initiated by CIMMYT knowledge management and training specialist Petr Kosina in 2007, the “Open Door” event aims to give Mexican students an overview of CIMMYT activities and to help them understand how CIMMYT’s work can influence their studies and future careers. The students participating in the 2012 event appreciated the activities, as Grecia Daniela Ruiz from Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Salvatierra, Guanajuato, said: “We haven’t slept much, yet being here is so exciting. Every place we toured provided me with new experiences. As I continue to learn in the field and in the lab, my mind changes for good. CIMMYT is inspiring.”

Innovation, the use of organic fertilizer and other natural products to preserve the soil, avoiding chemical contamination, and working with farmers in sustainable ways were among the topics most discussed by the students, especially those from the newly opened program on sustainable agricultural technology in Michoacán and from the engineering on sustainable agricultural innovation program in Guanajuato. “I would like to do innovative work to reduce contamination and promote sustainable crops which are less harmful to the soil and people,” said Ericka Yazmín Rivera from Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Los Reyes, Michoacán. Víctor Octavio Villanueva, a recently graduated agronomist currently teaching agronomy, added: “What I like most is that CIMMYT works with many disciplines and has lots of researchers. They conduct their experiments in the lab and in the field. CIMMYT’s germplasm bank is also impressive. I wish I had visited the Center when I was a student.” The students also appreciated the connection between research and development. Ericka Yazmín Rivera noted: “CIMMYT’s work may seem to be focused on farmers, but in the end it reaches beyond farming as the world experiences food scarcity.”

Ma. de Lourdes de la Isla, emeritus researcher and professor at Colegio de Postgraduados (CP), sent a thank-you letter to the CIMMYT Training Office, saying the event“provided a very valuable source of knowledge.” She also praised the professionalism of the organizers and presenters. Special thanks to all the presenters, and to Daniela Flores Castillo and Norma Hernández for coordinating the logistics.

Wheat community meets in Afghanistan for 2nd ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop

Written by on September 26, 2012. Posted in News.

Bringing together Afghanistan’s wheat stakeholders, the second ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop was held during 01-03 September 2012 on the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) campus. This year the workshop focused on strengthening agronomy and technology delivery. It was attended by a total of 50 participants from organizations including the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA); the MAIL Department of Extension and Agricultural Development; the MAIL Improving Agricultural Inputs Delivery System (IAIDS) project; the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA); the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); and NGOs Joint Development Associates International (JDA), Solidarités International (SI), Norwegian Project Office/Rural Rehabilitation Association for Afghanistan (NPO/ RRAA), and the Afghan Women’s Resource Center (AWRC). R.P. Singh, former Principal Investigator in Agronomy with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s All India Coordinated Wheat Improvement Project, served as the resource person for the event.

The workshop was inaugurated by Noor Ahmad Popal, national wheat sector coordinator, on behalf of the director general of planning, MAIL. Popal stressed the need to give more emphasis to crop production management in general and to that of rainfed wheat in particular, suggesting that the country’s annual wheat needs would be around seven million tons by 2020. Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT country liaison officer for Afghanistan, welcomed the participants and noted that this workshop would indeed look at crop production management more critically. He also emphasized the need for an efficient varietal release process, as new release proposals had been delayed in the recent past.

Over the three days, the workshop included presentations of wheat research results by researchers from all of Afghanistan’s wheat research stations. Abdul Latif Rasekh (ARIA head of agronomy) presented the current status of understanding on wheat agronomy in Afghanistan, followed by a presentation from R.P. Singh on imperatives in wheat agronomic research. A joint presentation on demonstration of technologies in farmers’ fields was given by CIMMYT and the NGOs (JDA, SI, NPO/RRAA, and AWRC). On the third day, Singh gave a second talk on “Gains of Green Revolution: Problems and Opportunities”, which attracted a large audience. This final day also saw presentations on the technical program for the 2012- 13 season for the disciplines of crop improvement, agronomy, plant pathology, and technology demonstrations. Qudratulla Soofizada (technical change management specialist, ARIA, MAIL), who recently returned from participation in the 51st All India Wheat & Barley Research Workers’ Meeting proposed a model based on the Indian program that could be adopted in Afghanistan to coordinate wheat research. The workshop made several recommendations, such as initiating varietal evaluation trials by zone from the 2012-13 season onwards. Mohammad Qasem Obaidi, Director of ARIA, expressed great satisfaction on the outcomes of the workshop and hoped to initiate similar workshops for more crops.

Afghanistan’s wheat crop has shown recent signs of revival with a total harvest of slightly over five million tons in the 2011-12 season. Irrigated wheat productivity was comparable to the global average at around 3 tons per hectare, but the lower yield of rainfed wheat, 1.1 tons per hectare, brought the national average yield to around 1.9 tons per hectare. Afghanistan’s import needs are set to fall this year, to around half a million tons for the current marketing season. The country’s community of wheat researchers is now geared up to move further in enabling Afghanistan to harvest enough wheat to achieve selfsufficiency. Group-photo-2nd-wheat-workshop

Conservation agriculture in Zambia: less labor and higher yields

Written by on September 24, 2012. Posted in News.

Zambia To reduce farm labor, improve soil productivity and crop yields, and contribute towards food security of farming households in the changing climate environment, CIMMYT, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the Zambian Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) introduced and expanded conservation agriculture (CA) in Zambia. The activities are implemented under the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume based Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA) project funded by USAID.

CA entails reduced or no tillage systems, keeping crop residue on the soil surface as mulch, and using crop rotation. It increases the infiltration of water in the soil and thus reduces soil erosion and surface run-off of water that is desperately needed for plant production. This is a crucial change in regions like Zambia’s Eastern Province, where most smallholder farmers engage in the traditional ridge and furrow farming and planting maize in monocropping. While ridging was once promoted as a measure against erosion and high intensity rainfall, it now shows its drawbacks: ridge preparation, mostly done by women and children, is long, tedious, and difficult as most farmers use hoes. Furthermore, farm productivity in Eastern Zambia is already generally low due to increasingly erratic rainfall, low fertilizer use, soil degradation, pests and diseases in the monocropped maize, and weeds, which leads to yields too low to sustain households’ food requirements from one harvest to the next. Crop rotation and diversification help farmers arrest the spread of disease and reduce the risk of crop failure. In addition, they enable farmers to grow cereals and legumes, a source of cash and food crops to boost household incomes.

To address these issues, CIMMYT organized community meetings to raise awareness on CA and conducted training sessions for extension officers and farmers to build knowledge, capacity, and skills. Facilitators from CIMMYT and IITA led a hands-on training for extension officers in November 2011. The extension officers then went on to train farmers in their communities and facilitated the establishment of demonstration plots, where they showcased successful examples of CA systems. The demonstration plots serve as learning centers for farmers in each community. Farmers also have a chance to share information on CA through farmer-to-farmer exchange visits, field days, and community meetings.

Maren Tembo, who hosts a demonstration plot in the Mangena community in Chipata District, is excited about this new technology: “The practice demands less labor, which enables me to grow other crops such as groundnuts, tobacco, and cotton. I’m looking forward to earning additional income from these crops to supplement my current household budget.” Another farmer from the district, Mulenga Zulu, has also benefitted from the project. “My crop shows greater yields than before. I anticipate higher profits as a result of applying CA on my farm,” he says. Like Tembo, he is also happy about the reduced labor demands.

Menkir-and-group-IITA-Training-Aug-2012_JohnMacRobert Having experienced CA, both Tembo and Zulu hope that more farmers will adopt the practice. “This project should continue so that others can learn from us that we do things differently now,” she added. Learning about CA has enabled Tembo to lessen the challenges her family faces, especially the tedious labor in preparing the field. Zulu is proud to see that other farmers admire what they see on his farm.

The future of the project is promising: with testimonies from fellow farmers, assistance from dedicated extension workers, and community media broadcasts, more farmers in the neighboring districts are bound to pick up the practice. Besides higher yields for less work, there is an added long-term bonus for the farmers: their interaction with service providers, initiated through the project, will improve their market access for both farm inputs and outputs.

CIMMYT and IITA training on management of seed production and maize field trials

Written by on September 21, 2012. Posted in News.

Menkir-and-group-IITA-Training-Aug-2012_JohnMacRobert During 27 August – 1 September 2012, the Drought Tolerant Maize in Africa (DTMA) project held a training course on management of field trials and nurseries and seed production of open pollinated and hybrid maize varieties. The course took place at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria, and was attended by 30 participants from Ghana and Nigeria, including CIMMYT scientists Peter Setimela and John MacRobert. The resource persons were drawn from Nigerian universities, the National Agriculture Research System, IITA, and CIMMYT.

The training session was opened by Nteranya Sanginga, IITA director general, who commended the collaboration between IITA and CIMMYT in implementing DTMA and working towards its vision of producing more than 70,000 tons of drought tolerant maize seed. Sanginga also spoke of the importance of training to empower maize technicians from the national maize programs and seed companies to manage field trials and produce quality seed needed by smallholder farmers in Ghana and Nigeria.

The training course emphasized the importance of good trial management, advanced experimental designs, management of maize nurseries and variety trials, and key aspects of seed production. Training included practical field sessions during which participants applied appropriate experimental designs for various fields and learnt how to lay out a field trial. They also tried various pollinating techniques used in maize breeding and variety maintenance.

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Workshop on precision phenotyping in Asia

Written by on September 21, 2012. Posted in News.

To keep pace with the unprecedented increase in maize demand in Asia, maize programs in the region are increasingly using new tools and techniques for maize improvement to achieve long-term food security. One of such tools is precision phenotyping, the theme of a training workshop organized by CIMMYT-Asia at Hyderabad, India, during 29 August-1 September 2012. The workshop was attended by 31 scientists, including maize breeders, agronomists, and physiologists from Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, collaborating with CIMMYT in various Asian regional projects: MAIZE, Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize, Abiotic Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (ATMA); Asian Maize Drought Tolerance (AMDROUT), International Maize Improvement Center-Asia (IMIC-Asia); and collaborators from seed companies.

The participants were lucky to attend lectures by Vincent Vadez (crop physiologist and acting program director of Dryland Cereals, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), P.H. Zaidi (senior maize physiologist/ breeder), L. Krishnamurthy (CIMMYT-Hyderabad consultant), B.S. Vivek (senior maize breeder), Zerka Rashid (CIMMYT project scientist), Raman Babu (CIMMYT maize molecular breeder), and MT Vinayan (post-doctoral fellow at CIMMYT-Hyderabad). Topics covered ranged from the importance of precision phenotyping for crop improvement, maize phenology and physiology, drought stress management, to root phenotyping techniques using mini-rhizotrons and molecular breeding.

The participants also received hands-on training in identifying maize growth stages and useful soil types for abiotic stress experiments and trials, and data analysis and management. During one of his lectures, Zaidi discussed the importance of heat and combined heat and drought stress in tropical maize and CIMMYT’s initiative in this newly emerging issue brought by climate change.

The course was well-received and highly appreciated by the participants, especially for its handson practical part and well-planned lectures.

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SIMLESA researchers discuss monitoring and evaluation

Written by on September 20, 2012. Posted in News.

Simlesa-prgram-ME The fourth workshop on monitoring and evaluation (M&E) organized by the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) initiative took place at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during 27 July – 1 August 2012. Following recommendations from the previous meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, the workshop aimed to update SIMLESA country performance monitoring plan and train M&E focal persons and country objective coordinators in qualitative data collection, participatory design of data collection tools, and data quality management for Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania.

The workshop was opened by Enock Warinda (Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa– ASARECA) and attended by 16 participants, including CIMMYT scientists, Dagne Wegary and Menale Kassie. Participants shared their experiences with data collection under SIMLESA and discussed potential ways to strengthen the data collection system. At the end of the workshop, the country M&E focal persons were tasked to develop M&E concepts for their respective countries to be funded and implemented through ASARECA and CIMMYT. To follow up on these activities, Peter Beine (ASARECA) and Austin Ngindi (CIMMYT-SIMLESA) will visit SIMLESA countries to assist with data quality assessment.

Fine-tuning plans to develop improved seed markets in Mexico

Written by on September 20, 2012. Posted in News.

Executive representatives of more than 30 Mexican smallscale seed companies who belong to the International Maize Yield Consortium (IMIC) of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program attended a workshop titled “Planning the MasAgro-IMIC network of seed sector members and partners.”

Initially workshop participants were given general information on progress achieved by MasAgro. Félix San Vicente, IMIC leader at CIMMYT, then presented a list of basic and pre-commercial materials that IMIC has developed for Mexico’s main agro-ecological environments. San Vicente also described several training and capacity building activities that IMIC has prepared and which should contribute to increasing the productivity of Mexico’s seed industry.

Laura Donnet, IMIC’s Socioeconomic Studies coordinator, estimated that the companies represented at the workshop currently hold close to an 18% share of the market. For this reason, the challenge for IMIC is to collaborate with Mexican seed companies and help them to work together to sustainably increase their market share.

With this goal in mind, workshop discussions centered on identifying market information that seed companies require to successfully market IMIC’s new products. Seed producers also focused on designing commercialization and marketing strategies that would contribute to developing the improved seed market in MasAgro’s target areas. As a result, action plans were established for each agro-ecological area with the aim of promoting the adoption of improved seed by IMIC network members and partners.

Also attending the workshop were experts in plant breeding, seed markets and Mexico’s agroindustrial maize chain. During the general meetings workshop organizers were able to gather information on what the seed sector expects from MasAgro. The participants expressed great interest in having IMIC foster very close coordination between public sector development programs and their seed production activities.

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Nepal team receives the 1st BGRI Gene Stewardship Award

Written by on September 19, 2012. Posted in News.

Nepal-Team The first-ever Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) Gene Stewardship Award was awarded to the Nepal wheat team for their performance in promoting durable wheat varieties and enhancing food security. The award was handed to the Nepal team at the BGRI Technical Workshop in Beijing, China, held during 1-4 September 2012. It was announced at a special ceremony by Ronnie Coffman (BGRI vice chair) and presented by Jeanie Borlaug Laube (BGRI chair).

The Stewardship Award recognizes a researcher or team of researchers serving a national breeding program or other nationally based institution. Award recipients demonstrate excellence in the development, multiplication, and/or release of rust resistant wheat varieties through appropriate means that encourage diversity and complexity of resistance, promote the durability of the materials, and help implement BGRI’s goal of responsible gene deployment and stewardship.

The Nepal team, led by Madan Raj Bhatta and consisting of Sarala Sharma, Dhruba Bahadur Thapa, Nutan Raj Gautam, and Deepak Bhandari, was nominated by Arun Joshi (CIMMYT senior wheat breeder). “The wheat research team of Nepal has contributed remarkably to bringing about the excellence in the development and release of rustresistant wheat varieties, seed multiplication of resistant varieties with diverse genetic backgrounds, disease surveillance, participatory research with farmers, and improvement of livelihoods of smallscale farmers to combat the problems of food security,” Joshi explained. “This shows what a small program can do to serve farmers and enhance productivity and sustainability.”

Currently, the wheat research team works to release Ug99 resistant varieties of wheat and disseminate the new varieties to resource poor farmers. The Ug99 resistant seed is expected to cover around 5.4% of the area under cultivation for wheat in Nepal by the end of the current cycle (2011-2012). The team has also increased awareness about resistant varieties and pre-release seed multiplication among farmers, seed industry, planners, and national agriculture system. The resistant high-yielding varieties have been developed through collaboration between NARC and international research centers: CIMMYT, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and BGRI. According to Madan Raj Bhatta (Nepal Agriculture Research Center, NARC), “the new technologies and wheat varieties introduced by the team have brought a significant increment in area and productivity of wheat during the last five years.” The wheat area increased from 0.7 mha to 0.8 mha, production from 1.4 metric tons to 1.7 metric tons, and productivity from 2.1 tons per hectare to 2.3 tons per hectare.

In addition to its work in Nepal, the wheat team has maintained strong international collaborations by actively working with internationally recognized institutions, such as CIMMYT, BGRI, Cornell University, University of Sydney, University of Minnesota, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute. During the ceremony, NARC representatives praised the impressive performance of wheat varieties developed by the head of CIMMYT Global Wheat Breeding program Ravi Singh. Dil Bahadur Gurung (NARC executive director) expressed happiness with the wheat team’s achievements and highlighted its importance for Nepal.

11th International Gluten Workshop in Beijing

Written by on September 19, 2012. Posted in News.

Gluten The 11th International Gluten Workshop (IGW) jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and CIMMYT, was held in Beijing, China, during 12-15 August 2012. 150 participants from 16 countries were welcomed by Xifeng Gong (deputy director general of the International Collaboration Department), Zhensheng Li (wheat geneticists and former vice president of CAS), Shumin Wang (deputy director of the Institute of Crop Science, CAAS), and Javier Peña on behalf of Thomas Lumpkin (CIMMYT director general).

The participants attended lectures and presentations on capturing discoveries from genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics; biosynthesis, structure, and functional analysis of protein storage; improvement of end-use quality of wheat by genetic and alternative approaches; and starch and health attributes of wheat grain. Zhonghu He (CIMMYT distinguished scientist and liaison officer for China) gave a keynote presentation on wheat quality improvement, progress, and perspectives, and Javier Peña delivered an oral presentation on reliability of gluten-related smallscale- tests to estimated dough visco elasticity and bread loaf volume. The participants also met with Xu Liu, the vice president of CAAS. Besides lectures and presentations, the workshop included a visit to the wheat research lab at CAAS and CAS and discussed the application of new science in gluten study and wheat quality research in China. This research has achieved a significant progress, largely as a result of the long-term collaboration between CAAS and CIMMYT. To expand the scope of the workshop and to attract more participants, the organizers plan to include wheat biotechnology as one of the major topics for the 13th IGW (International Gluten and Wheat Biotechnology Workshop), which will be held in 2015 in Perth, Australia.

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Training leaders the innovative way

Written by on September 11, 2012. Posted in News.

15 staff members from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and CIMMYT participated in a four-day Leadership Development Program in Nairobi, Kenya, facilitated by Sharon Crabtree and Petr Kosina. The program was aimed at ensuring that leaders were aware of their individual competencies and job requirements, and focused on managerial styles which create a good organizational environment. The workshop activities included group exercises, personal reflection, coaching, and leadership theory.

Drawn from different countries, participants analyzed diverse learning and leadership styles, and the type of organizational climate they create.

Prior to the workshop, they participated in a 360-degree evaluation of leadership competencies, where they evaluated themselves and had their team members evaluate them. The emphasis was on what resonated with the team. “Even though we all have our deficiencies in leadership, we should maximize what we do better,” said Isaiah Nyagumbo, a scientist in the Conservation Agriculture Program reflecting on some of the key lessons from the program. “Often our eyes are open but we do not see,” added Arun K. Joshi, South Asia Regional Coordinator of the Global Wheat Program. “The ideas were not just cut and paste, it is based on research. Thus it is very professional using scientific methods and tools that bring to us the facts.”

Phosiso Sola, CIFOR’s Regional Coordinator for East and Southern Africa, found the program broke down the issues, making them easier to digest. “However, there is a need for follow-up coaching to support the leaders in making the changes they committed to at the end of the program,” she commented on the challenges of the program. Sridhar Bhavani, a wheat breeder based in Nairobi, found it useful to know how people perceive him as a leader: “I was glad to take it [the leadership program] early in my career and feel it will be very useful in the long run.”

Representing CIMMYT at the ICAE in Brazil

Written by on September 11, 2012. Posted in News.

ICAE-socioeconomics1 A team of scientists from CIMMYT’s socioeconomics program participated in the 28th triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE) in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, during 18-24 August 2012. ICAE, which is considered the key platform for the preservation of international agricultural and development economics research, brought together over 700 researchers and provided an opportunity to share new research ideas, methods, and tools.

The CIMMYT team presented more than 20 papers and posters and organized symposia in various sessions. Hugo de Groote and Bekele Shiferaw presented during a preconference workshop on ‘Innovations in Impact Assessment of Agricultural Research: Theory and Practice’ organized by the CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment. Several externally reviewed papers contributed by the CIMMYT team were accepted for oral and poster presentations during the conference. The presenters included Bekele Shiferaw, Menale Kassie, Olaf Erenstein, Hugo De Groote, Zachary Gitonga, Asfaw Negassa, Moti Jaleta, Sika Gbegbelegbe, Mulugetta Mekuria, and Surabhi Mittal. CIMMYT PhD students also presented their work, which is supported by CIMMYT projects.

CIMMYT and partners organized symposia on the Impact Pathway of Modern ICT on Agricultural Growth in South Asia and Africa (Mittal); Challenges in Assessing and Developing Seed Systems in Emerging Markets (Erenstein); Experimental Methods for Propoor Value Chain Development (De Groote and Matty Demont of Africa Rice Centre); Understanding the Drivers of Sustainable Intensification of Smallholder Agriculture (Mekuria); Challenges in Assessing and Valuing Drought Tolerance in Risk-prone Agricultural Systems (Erenstein); Bio-economic Modeling for Analysis of Food Security and Climate Change (Gbegbelegbe and Shiferaw); and Emerging Role of Grain Marketing Boards (GMBs) in Africa (Shiferaw with Michigan State University partners).

The conference also provided an opportunity to socialize and network with colleagues old and new. The current socioeconomics team enjoyed meeting with former directors Derek Byerlee, Prabhu Pingali, and John Dixon, and former colleague Greg Traxler, for some informative and enlightening discussions.