Theme: Climate adaptation and mitigation

Climate change threatens to reduce global crop production, and poor people in tropical environments will be hit the hardest. More than 90% of CIMMYT’s work relates to climate change, helping farmers adapt to shocks while producing more food, and reduce emissions where possible. Innovations include new maize and wheat varieties that withstand drought, heat and pests; conservation agriculture; farming methods that save water and reduce the need for fertilizer; climate information services; and index-based insurance for farmers whose crops are damaged by bad weather. CIMMYT is an important contributor to the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security.

Digital nutrient management tool reduces emissions, improves crop yields and boosts farmers’ profits

Written by Alison Doody on January 15, 2021. Posted in News.

A farmer in the Ara district, in India's Bihar state, applies NPK fertilizer, composed primarily of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT) — A farmer in the Ara district, in India’s Bihar state, applies NPK fertilizer, composed primarily of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)

An international team of scientists, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has demonstrated how better nutrient management using digital tools, such as the Nutrient Expert decision support tool, can boost rice and wheat productivity and increase farmers’ income while reducing chemical fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions.

Reported today in Nature Scientific Reports, the results show how the farmer-friendly digital nutrient management tool can play a key role in fighting climate change while closing the yield gap and boosting farmers’ profits.

The researchers tested the Nutrient Expert decision tool against typical farmer fertilization practices extensively using approximately 1600 side-by side comparison trials in rice and wheat fields across the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India.

The study found that Nutrient Expert-based recommendations lowered global warming potential by 12-20% in wheat and by around 2.5% in rice, compared to conventional farmers’ fertilization practices. Over 80% of farmers were also able to increase their crop yields and incomes using the tool.

Agriculture is the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in India. To tackle these emissions, crop scientists have been working on new ways to make farming more nutrient- and energy-efficient. Of the many technologies available, improving nutrient-use-efficiency through balanced fertilizer application — which in turn reduces excess fertilizer application — is key to ensuring food security while at the same time contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals on climate change.

The work was carried out by CIMMYT in collaboration with farmers, and funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Scientists from the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and the former International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI) also contributed to this study.

Researchers tested the Nutrient Expert decision tool against typical farmer fertilization practices extensively using approximately 1600 side-by side comparison trials in rice and wheat fields across the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India (Graphic: CIMMYT).

Precise recommendations

Nutrient Expert, which was launched back in 2013, works by analysing growing conditions, natural nutrients in the soil, and even leftover nutrients from previous crops to provide tailored fertilizer recommendations directly to farmers phones. The tool also complements the Government of India’s Soil Health Cards for balanced and precise nutrient recommendations in smallholder farmers’ fields.

Each farmer’s field is different, which is why blanket fertilizer recommendations aren’t always effective in producing better yields. By using nutrient management tools such as Nutrient Expert, farmers can obtain fertilizer recommendations specific to the conditions of their field as well as their economic resources and thus avoid under-fertilizing or over-fertilizing their fields.

“While efficient nutrient management in croplands is widely recognized as one of the solutions to addressing the global challenge of supporting food security in a growing global population while safeguarding planetary health, Nutrient Expert could be an important tool to implement such efficient nutrient management digitally under smallholder production systems,” said Tek Sapkota, CIMMYT climate scientist and first author of the study.

Sapkota also argues that adoption of the Nutrient Expert tool in rice-wheat systems of India alone could provide almost 14 million tonnes (Mt) of extra grain with 1.4 Mt less nitrogen fertilizer use, and a reduction of 5.3 Mt of carbon (CO2) emissions per year over current practices.

However, technological innovation alone will not achieve these positive outcomes.

“Given the magnitude of potential implications in terms of increasing yield, reducing fertilizer consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, governments need to scale-out Nutrient Expert-based fertilizer management through proper policy and institutional arrangements, especially for making efficient use of the nearly 200 million Soil Health Cards that were issued to farmers as part of the Soil Health mission of the Government of India,” said ML Jat, CIMMYT principal scientist and co-author of the study.

Read the study:
Crop nutrient management using Nutrient Expert improves yield, increases farmers’ income and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

CIMMYT working to create climate-resilient wheat

Written by Bea Ciordia on January 12, 2021. Posted in In the media.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) was awarded a $5 million grant from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) to develop climate-resilient wheat.

Durum wheat drought tolerance trials in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico, 2017. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

FFAR grant develops climate-resilient wheat

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on January 11, 2021. Posted in Press releases.

Wheat constitutes 20% of all calories and protein consumed, making it a cornerstone of the human diet, according to the United Nations. However, hotter and drier weather, driven by a changing climate, threatens the global wheat supply. To address this threat, the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a $5 million grant to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to develop climate-resilient wheat. CIMMYT leads global research programs on maize and wheat, sustainable cropping systems and policies to improve farmers’ livelihoods. These activities have driven major gains in wheat variety improvement across the globe for decades; in the US alone, for example, over 50% of the wheat acreage is sown with CIMMYT-related varieties.

Wheat is among the most widely grown cereal crops in the world and the third-largest crop grown in the US by acre. Nearly all US wheat crops are improved and supported by public agriculture research. As most wheat in the US is dependent on rainfall and has no access to irrigation, this research is critical for helping the plants — and producers — weather climatic changes including extreme heat and drought. Additionally, the demand for wheat is expected to rise in the coming years — as much as 60% by 2050. Without public research, wheat production could decrease by nearly 30% over the same period due to extreme climate conditions.

“FFAR leverages public agriculture research funding through public-private partnerships to pioneer actionable research. With temperatures on the rise and water becoming scarcer, we are committed to supporting wheat farmers and providing new wheat varieties designed with future environmental challenges in mind,” said FFAR’s Executive Director Sally Rockey.

Using the FFAR grant, CIMMYT researchers are pioneering wheat breeding technologies to produce heat-tolerant, drought-resistant and climate-resilient wheat.

CIMMYT researchers and collaborators are applying cutting-edge approaches in genomics, remote sensing and big data analysis to develop new breeding technologies. A key intervention will explore the vast and underutilized reserve of wheat genetic resources to fortify the crop against current and future climate-related stresses.

“This project will help bridge a longstanding gap between state-of-the-art technological findings and crop improvement to deliver climate resilient wheat to farmers as quickly as possible,” said Matthew Reynolds, head of Wheat Physiology at CIMMYT and principal investigator of the project.

Breakthroughs from the FFAR funded project will achieve impact for growers via the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) that supplies new wheat lines to public and private breeding programs worldwide, and has boosted productivity and livelihoods for wheat farmers for over half a century, especially in the Global South.

The research and breeding supported by FFAR will be conducted under the Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC), a project led by CIMMYT in partnership with experts across the globe, designed to ensure wheat’s long-term climate resilience. Under the umbrella of the Wheat Initiative’s AHEAD unit, the most relevant advances in academia will be channeled to HeDWIC to help further boost impacts.

“‘Heat,’ ‘drought’ and ‘wheat’ are three of the most important words for billions of people,” said CIMMYT Interim Deputy Director for Research Kevin Pixley. “This partnership between CIMMYT and FFAR will help ensure that the best agricultural science is applied to sustainably raise production of one of the world’s most important staple crops, despite unprecedented challenges.”

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff said, “This project represents not only a breakthrough to develop wheat for the future, but also an emerging partnership between CIMMYT and FFAR. I look forward to a productive collaboration that will move us all closer to our mission of maize and wheat science for improved livelihoods.”

FFAR’s investment was matched by co-investments from the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) and Accelerating Genetic Gains for Maize and Wheat (AGG), a project which is jointly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO).

FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT:

Marcia MacNeil, Communications Officer, CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, CIMMYT. +52 5951148943, m.macneil@cgiar.org

Brian Oakes, FFAR. +1 202-604-5756, boakes@foundationfar.org

About the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) builds public-private partnerships to fund bold research addressing big food and agriculture challenges. FFAR was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase public agriculture research investments, fill knowledge gaps and complement USDA’s research agenda. FFAR’s model matches federal funding from Congress with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. Through collaboration and partnerships, FFAR advances actionable science benefiting farmers, consumers and the environment.

Connect: @FoundationFAR | @RockTalking

About CIMMYT

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.

For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org

Unleashing the potential of plant health

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on January 8, 2021. Posted in News.

The UN has designated 2020 as the International Year of Plant Health. CGIAR Centers have significant scientific knowledge, extensive experience on the ground, and thought leadership that they can lend to the global discussion to advance awareness, collaboration, and scaling of needed interventions.

CGIAR’s International Year of Plant Health events will comprise a series of four webinars of global scope targeting scientists and researchers working in relevant fields. The webinars will take an in-depth look into current science in the area, identify areas for further research, and opportunities to take current scientific innovations to scale.

Each webinar will examine one aspect of the crop supply chain — from genebanks to farmers’ fields to consumers’ plates — to identify ways of promoting the adoption of tools and practices designed to boost the long-term health of plants and the environment in low- and middle-income countries. With the acceleration of the effects of climate change on the incidence and intensity of pests and diseases, identification of the right crop varieties, mix of crops, and tools and practices will be key to ensuring the availability of food to feed the planet.

Webinar series

Webinar 1: Climate change and plant health: impact, implications and the role of research for adaptation and mitigation

January 28, 2021 – 13:00 GMT

Webinar 1 will discuss the anticipated impacts of climate change on plant health in smallholder systems, tackling how the occurrence, intensity, and frequency of biotic and abiotic stresses will change as a function of climate change. It will provide participants with information on the negative effects on plant health, in relation to food security, nutrition, environment, gender, and livelihoods, as well as on the role of research in providing support to global efforts to mitigate or adapt to climate change challenges for plant health. Full details of webinar 1.

Webinar 2: Germplasm health in preventing transboundary spread of pests and pathogens

February 17, 2021 – 12:00 GMT

Webinar 2 will highlight the importance of germplasm (phytosanitary) health in the prevention of transboundary pest and disease spread, as well as the propagation of clean planting material to be used locally. Experts will discuss the implications of poor germplasm practices on agricultural and food system sustainability, farmer livelihoods, and food and nutrition security. They will also examine how opportunities for greater workplace diversity in germplasm health hubs and gender-responsive programming could drive more inclusive sustainable development. Full details of webinar 2.

Webinar 3: Integrated pest and disease management

March 10, 2021 – 12:30 GMT

Webinar 3 examines integrated approaches for sustainable management of transboundary diseases and crop pests and their implications for agri-food system sustainability, social inclusion and gender equity. Drawing on both successes and enduring challenges, experts will identify the potential benefits of more gender-responsive approaches to pest and disease control; more coordinated action by national, regional and global organizations; and lessons to be learned from successful animal health management. Full details of webinar 3.

Webinar 4: A One Health approach

March 31, 2021 – 14:00 GMT

Webinar 4 brings together scientists working at the intersection of environmental, human, and animal health. In this session, the experts will examine plant health and agriculture from a “One Health” approach — a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary perspective that recognizes the health of people, animals, plants, and their environments as all closely connected. In this approach, agricultural practices and plant health outcomes both are determined by, and contribute to, ecological, animal, and human health. Full details of webinar 4.

A signpost at the entrance to Farm Inputs Care Centre (FICA) in Masindi, Uganda. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)

Delivering improved maize seed against all odds

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 21, 2020. Posted in News.

As one of the pioneer homegrown seed companies in Uganda, Farm Inputs Care Centre (FICA) has become one of the leading players in the seed sector value chain. Since its inception in 1999, it has played a significant role in variety development and maintenance, seed production, and processing, packaging and marketing.

The close linkages it has maintained with partners such as National Agriculture Research Organization (NARO)’s National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCCRI) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have seen it acquire new hybrids for commercialization and production of early generation seed.

A FICA representative stands in front of a demonstration plot for one of the organization’s stress-tolerant maize varieties in Uganda. (Photo: Mosisa Worku/CIMMYT)

A unique opportunity for collaboration

Recurrent plant threats such as drought, pests and diseases — alongside the perpetual need to develop and foster better performing varieties in changing climatic conditions — has required partners to intensify efforts to tackle these challenges to bolster smallholders’ resilience. The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, for instance, ushered in the partnership between CIMMYT, FICA, national agriculture research systems, and other partners to develop and scale up well-adapted, drought-tolerant maize varieties among farmers in Uganda and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

“One of the unique features of the collaboration is that besides CIMMYT, there was a multi-stakeholder platform that would convene key seed sector players to discuss issues affecting the industry. Ultimately, this benefitted the farmers,” says FICA’s Chief Executive Officer Narcis Tumushabe.

This partnership continued during the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) initiative — which ran from 2016 to2020 — and now, in the Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project, which launched in July 2020 with the ambition of fast-tracking the development of climate-resilient, higher-yielding, demand-driven, gender-responsive and nutritious maize and wheat varieties.

Tumushabe is happy that the hybrids delivered in the DTMA and STMA projects proved worthwhile against multiple stresses in farmers’ fields, offering reliable yields even in challenging conditions like drought or other stresses. Because of the diverse ecological zones in Uganda, it was essential to test the hybrids FICA accessed through the CIMMYT-NARO partnership across different ecological zones, ahead of commercialization. This has given farmers opportunities to choose the varieties that are suitable in their environment. The five varieties FICA chose to promote include Longe 9H — which produces about 700 metric tons annually — and WE 2114, WE 2115, WE 3106 and UH 5355, which cumulatively produce about 1,300 tons annually.

The WE 3106 variety has a strong stem and produces big cobs and Tumushabe notes that some livestock farmers prefer this variety as a good forage source for their livestock. Large-scale commercial farmers prefer WE 2114 due to the positioning of the ears at a uniform height, which makes it easy for harvesting using combine harvesters.

Additionally, FICA breeders have also developed impactful combination hybrids using CIMMYT and FICA lines and the company looks to double its annual production of certified stress-tolerant maize seed to 4,000 metric tons in the next five years. Currently, it enlists about 800 contract seed growers to support its seed multiplication efforts.

A FICA employee walks through a seed production field growing hybrid maize variety WE2114 in Masindi, Uganda. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT) — A FICA employee walks through a seed production field growing hybrid maize variety WE2114 in Masindi, Uganda. (Photo: Mosisa Worku/CIMMYT)

Surmounting monumental challenges for varietal turnover

Promoting new seed varieties, especially in a highly competitive market, is no mean task. With the seed delivery systems in sub-Saharan Africa mainly driven by the supply side, seed companies end up multiplying only the popular varieties that are already in high demand, explains Mosisa Worku Regasa, a seed systems specialist at CIMMYT.

“Consequently, these companies become reluctant to multiply new seed varieties due to deficient demand, thereby slowing down the rate of varietal turnover,” says Mosisa. “There is, however, a growing push for a demand-driven system.”

“Some avenues for cultivating a demand-led environment include investing a great deal of resources to better understand farmers’ preferences or product profiles, setting up numerous demonstration plots for newer, better-performing varieties closer to the farmers locations in addition to investing in other marketing and promotional activities.”

Still, the seed sector must confront other dynamics such as farmers that are captive of old albeit popular varieties.

“There are cases where, depending on the stage of a seed company’s development, the number of products that one can deliver in the right quality and appropriate maintenance level has to be limited or realistically managed,” Tumushabe explains.

“The seed company also ought to be sure that the new variety will be superior to existing varieties under farmers’ conditions. That is why one may find little excitement if the genetic gain of a new crop variety is not significantly high compared to the already known and available crop variety. This may make one wonder why an old variety continues to persist in the market.”

To create awareness and sustain the demand for its seed, FICA has established demonstration farms to showcase the performance of its stress-resilient maize varieties among farmers and engaged agro-dealers as last mile seed merchants. It is also during field days held at demonstration farms where the company obtains feedback on how to improve its breeding program, particularly from women smallholder farmers. Such efforts have helped raise the company’s share of stress-tolerant maize seed production to 70% of the total maize seed it produces, which indicates good progress in variety replacement.

A researcher from the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) walks through a wheat field in India. (Photo: BISA)

Solving South Asia’s sustainability issues will require a systems approach to crop management

Written by Alison Doody on December 17, 2020. Posted in News.

New research by an international team of scientists, including scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), shows that adopting a portfolio of conservation agriculture and crop diversification practices is more profitable and better for the environment than conventional agriculture.

Reported last month in Nature Scientific Reports, the results of the study should encourage farmers and policymakers in South Asia to adopt more sustainable crop management solutions such as diversifying crop rotations, direct-seeding rice, zero tillage and crop residue retention.

Rice-wheat has for a long time been the dominant cropping system in the western Indo-Gangetic plains in India. However, issues such as water depletion, soil degradation and environmental quality as well as profitability have plagued farmers, scientists and decision makers for decades. To tackle these issues, researchers and policymakers have been exploring alternative solutions such as diversifying rice with alternative crops like maize.

“Climate change and natural resource degradation are serious threats to smallholder farmers in South Asia that require evidence-based sustainable solutions. ICAR have been working closely with CIMMYT and partners to tackle these threats,” said SK Chaudhari, deputy director general of the Natural Resource Management at ICAR.

In the study, CIMMYT scientists partnered with the ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), Swami Keshwan Rajasthan Agriculture University and Cornell University to evaluate seven cropping system management scenarios.

The researchers measured a business-as-usual approach, and six alternative conservation agriculture and crop diversification approaches, across a variety of indicators including profitability, water use and global warming potential.

Wheat grows under a systematic intensification approach at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) in India. (Photo: BISA)

They found that conservation agriculture-based approaches outperformed conventional farming approaches on a variety of indicators. For example, conservation agriculture-based rice management was found to increase profitability by 12%, while decreasing water use by 19% and global warming potential by 28%. Substituting rice with conservation agriculture-based maize led to improvements in profitability of 16% and dramatic reductions in water use and global warming potential of 84% and 95%. Adding the fast-growing legume mung bean to maize-wheat rotations also increased productivity by 11%, profitability by 25%, and significantly decreased water use by 64% and global warming potential by 106%.

However, CIMMYT Principal Scientist and study co-author M.L. Jat cautioned against the allure of chasing one silver bullet, advising policymakers in South Asia to take a holistic, systems perspective to crop management.

“We know that there are issues relating to water and sustainability, but at the same time we also know that diversifying rice — which is a more stable crop — with other crops is not easy as long as you look at it in isolation,” he explained. “Diversifying crops requires a portfolio of practices, which brings together sustainability, viability and profits.”

With South Asia known as a global “hotspot” for climate vulnerability, and the region’s population expected to rise to 2.4 billion by 2050, food producers are under pressure to produce more while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and damage to the environment and other natural resources.

“Tackling these challenges requires strong collaborative efforts from researchers, policymakers, development partners and farmers,” said Andrew McDonald, a systems agronomist at Cornell University and co-author of the study. “This study shows this collaboration in action and brings us closer to achieving resilient, nutritious and sustainable food systems.”

“The results of this study show that one-size doesn’t fit all when it comes to sustainable crop management,” said PC Sharma, director of India’s ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (ICAR-CSSRI). “Farmers, researchers and policymakers can adopt alternative crop rotations such as maize-wheat or maize-wheat-mung bean, but they can also improve existing rice-wheat rotations using conservation agriculture methods.”

A farmer compares yellow and orange maize in Kwanza Sul, Angola. (Photo: Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT)

Crop variety guide for farmers

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 17, 2020. Posted in Publications.

As part of a rural resilience project in Zimbabwe, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has published a new guide to stress-tolerant crop varieties for smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe.

The guide is a critical output of a project led by CIMMYT and the international humanitarian response agency GOAL, in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Government of Zimbabwe and other partners. With financial support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the project aims to reach 5000 smallholder farmers in target areas in the country.

Among the project components is the promotion of stress-tolerant seed and climate-smart agriculture practices to rural smallholders. With increasing threats of climate change and a decline in soil fertility, using these improved varieties and climate-smart practices is critical to help farmers adapt to external stresses.

To support variety adoption, a team of CIMMYT experts have identified suitable drought-tolerant and nutritious maize, sorghum and millet varieties. These will be promoted through “mother and baby” trials, designed to facilitate conversations among farmers, extension, and researchers, in these areas.

The new crop variety guide aims to help smallholder farmers in target areas make informed choices by providing critical information about the prioritized products and their maturity length, drought-tolerance, nutritional value, and pest and disease resistance. Direct linkages with private sector seed companies will ensure that farmers have access to this seed at affordable prices.

Implementing crop rotation between these best-suited, stress-tolerant varieties and climate-resilient cowpeas and groundnuts in a conservation agriculture system can improve food and nutrition security even under a variable climate.

Starting with good seed, and enhanced with improved agronomic practices, smallholder farmers have a greater chance of reliable yields and improved income.

Download the manual: Variety description: maize, sorghum, millet, cowpeas and groundnuts

Direct sowing of wheat seed into a recently-harvested rice field using the “Happy Seeder” implement, a cost-effective and eco-friendly alternative to burning rice straw, in northern India. (Photo: BISA/Love Kumar Singh)

“Happy Seeder” saves farmers money over burning straw, new study in India shows

Written by Mike Listman on December 10, 2020. Posted in News.

Compared to conventional tillage practices, sowing wheat directly into just-harvested rice fields without burning or removing straw or other residues will not only reduce pollution in New Delhi and other parts of northern India, but will save over $130 per hectare in farmer expenses, lessen irrigation needs by as much as 25%, and allow early planting of wheat to avoid yield-reducing heat stress, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.

The practice requires use of a tractor-mounted implement that opens grooves in the soil, drops in wheat seed and fertilizer, and covers the seeded row, all in one pass. This contrasts with the typical method for planting wheat after rice, which involves first burning rice residues, followed by multiple tractor passes to plow, harrow, plank, and sow, according to Harminder S. Sidhu, principal research engineer at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and a co-author of the study.

“There are already some 11,000 of these specialized no-till implements, known as the Happy Seeder, in operation across northern India,” said Sidhu, who with other researchers helped develop, test and refine the implement over 15 years. “In addition to sowing, the Happy Seeder shreds and clears rice residues from the seeder path and deposits them back onto the seeded row as a protective mulch.”

Covering some 13.5 million hectares, the Indo-Gangetic Plain stretches across Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan and constitutes South Asia’s breadbasket. In India, the northwestern state of Punjab alone produces nearly a third of the country’s rice and wheat.

Some 2.5 million farmers in northern India practice rice-wheat cropping and most burn their rice straw — an estimated 23 million tons of it — after rice harvest, to clear fields for sowing wheat. Straw removal and burning degrades soil fertility and creates a noxious cloud that affects the livelihoods and health of millions in cities and villages downwind. Air pollution is the second leading contributor to disease in India, and studies attribute some 66,000 deaths yearly to breathing in airborne nano-particles produced by agricultural burning.

The central and state governments in northwestern India, as well as universities and think-tanks, have put forth strategies to curtail burning that include conservation tillage technologies such as use of the Happy Seeder. Subsidies for no-burn farming, as well as state directives and fines for straw burning, are in place and extension agencies are promoting no-burn alternatives.

A farmer in India uses a tractor fitted with a Happy Seeder. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)

As an aid for policy makers and development practitioners, the present study applied econometrics to compare conventional and zero-tillage in terms of yield, input levels and implications for rice residue burning. The study also compared use of the Happy Seeder versus a simple zero-tillage drill with no straw shredder. Participants included more than 1,000 farm households in 52 villages, encompassing 561 users of conventional tillage, 226 users of simple zero-tillage seeding implements, and 234 Happy Seeder users.

They found that only the Happy Seeder was able to sow wheat directly into large amounts of rice residues, with significant savings for farmers and equal or slightly better wheat yields, over conventional tillage. The Happy Seeder also saves time and water.

“Given the benefits of sowing wheat using the Happy Seeder against the tremendous health and environmental costs of residue burning, the reduction or elimination of straw burning should be pushed forward immediately,” said P.P. Krishnapriya, research scientist at the Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University, and a co-author of the article. “Investments in social marketing and policies that foster the use of the Happy Seeders, including significant subsidies to purchase these machines, must be accompanied by stricter enforcement of the existing ban on residue burning.”

The study also found that the information sources most widely-available to farmers are currently geared towards conventional agricultural practices, but farmers who use the internet for agricultural information are more likely to be aware of the Happy Seeder.

“Awareness raising campaigns should use both conventional and novel channels,” said Priya Shyamsundar, lead economist at the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and co-author of the article. “As with any innovation that differs signiﬁcantly from current practices, social and behavioral levers such as frontline demonstrations, good champions, and peer-to-peer networking and training are critical.”

In addition, rather than having most individual farmers own a Happy Seeder — a highly-specialized implement whose cost of $1,900 may be prohibitive for many — researchers are instead promoting the idea of farmers hiring direct-sowing services from larger farmers or other people able to purchase a Happy Seeder and make a business of operating it, explained Alwin Keil, a senior agricultural economist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the new study.

“We are extremely grateful to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Nature Conservancy, and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat Agri-Food Systems (WHEAT), who supported our research,” said Keil.

A young man uses a precision spreader to distribute fertilizer in a field. (Photo: Mahesh Maske/CIMMYT)

Too much or never enough

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 4, 2020. Posted in Blogs.

Although nitrogen has helped in contributing to human dietary needs, there are still large areas of the world — namely sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia — that remain short of the amounts they need to achieve food and nutritional security.

Conversely, synthetic nitrogen has become increasingly crucial in today’s intensive agricultural systems, but nearly half of the fertilizer nitrogen applied on farms leaks into the surrounding environment. It is possible that we have now transgressed the sustainable planetary boundary for nitrogen, and this could have devasting consequences.

Given this conflicting dual role this compound plays in agricultural systems and the environment — both positive and negative — the nitrogen challenge is highly relevant across most of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations.

Facing a global challenge

The challenge of nitrogen management globally is to provide enough nitrogen to meet global food security while minimizing the flow of unused nitrogen to the environment. One of the key approaches to addressing this is to improve nitrogen use efficiency – which not only enhances crop productivity but also minimizes environmental losses through careful agronomic management – and measures to improve soil quality over time.

Globally, average nitrogen use efficiency does not exceed 50%. Estimates show that a nitrogen use efficiency will need to reach 67% by 2050 if we are to meet global food demand while keeping surplus nitrogen within the limits for maintaining acceptable air and water qualities to meet the SDGs.

This target may seem ambitious — especially given the biological limits to achieving a very high nitrogen use efficiency — but it is achievable.

Earlier this year, J.K. Ladha and I co-authored a paper outlining the links between nitrogen fertilizer use in agricultural production systems and various SDGs. For instance, agricultural systems with suboptimal nitrogen application are characterized with low crop productivity, spiraling into the vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition and poor economy, a case most common in the sub-Saharan Africa. These essentially relate to SDG 1 (no-poverty), 2 (zero-hunger), 3 (good health and well-being), 8 (decent work and economic growth) and 15 (life on land).

On the other hand, excess or imbalanced fertilizer nitrogen in parts of China and India have led to serious environmental hazards, degradation of land and economic loss. Balancing the amount of N input in these regions will contribute in achieving the SDG 13 (climate action). Equally, meeting some of the additional SDGs (5, gender equality; 6, clean water and sanitation; 10: reduced inequalities; etc.) requires optimum nitrogen application, which will also ensure “responsible consumption and production” (SDG 12).

A diagram shows the impact of fertilizer nitrogen use on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. (Graphic: CIMMYT/Adapted from CCAFS)

So, how can we achieve this?

Increased research quantifying the linkages between nitrogen management and the SDGs will be important, but the key to success lies with raising awareness among policy makers, stakeholders and farmers.

Most agricultural soils have considerably depleted levels of soil organic matter. This is a central problem that results in agroecosystems losing their ability to retain and regulate the supply of nitrogen to crops. However, poor knowledge and heavy price subsidies are equally to blame for the excess or misuse of nitrogen.

While numerous technologies for efficient nitrogen management have been developed, delivery mechanisms need to be strengthened, as does encouragement for spontaneous adaptation and adoption by farmers. Equally — or perhaps more importantly — there is a need to create awareness and educate senior officials, policy makers, extension personnel and farmers on the impact of appropriate soil management and intelligent use of nitrogen fertilizer, in conjunction with biologically integrated strategies for soil fertility maintenance.

An effective and aggressive campaign against the misuse of nitrogen will be effective in areas where the compound is overused, while greater accessibility of nitrogen fertilizer and policies to move farmers towards soil quality improvement will be essential in regions where nitrogen use is currently sub-optimal.

It is only through this combination of approaches to improved system management, agricultural policies and awareness raising campaigns that we can sufficiently improve nitrogen use efficiency — and meet the SDGs before it’s too late.

Read the full study “Achieving the sustainable development goals in agriculture: the crucial role of nitrogen in cereal-based systems” in Advances in Agronomy.

A collage of shows images relating to different stages of the nitrogen cycle. (Graphic: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

Nitrogen in agriculture

Written by Emma Orchardson on December 4, 2020. Posted in Explainers.

Nitrogen is the most essential nutrient in crop production but also one of the most challenging to work with. The compound is central to global crop production — particularly for major cereals — but while many parts of the world do not have enough to achieve food and nutrition security, in others excess nitrogen from fertilizer leaks into the environment with damaging consequences.

What is nitrogen?

Around 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere is made up of nitrogen gas or N2 — a molecule made of two nitrogen atoms glued together by a stable, triple bond.

Though it makes up a large portion of the air we breathe, most living organisms can’t access it in this form. Atmospheric nitrogen must go through a natural process called nitrogen fixation to transform before it can be used for plant nutrition.

Why do plants need nitrogen?

In both plants and humans, nitrogen is used to make amino acids — which make the proteins that construct cells — and is one of the building blocks for DNA. It is also essential for plant growth because it is a major component of chlorophyll, the compound by which plants use sunlight energy to produce sugars from water and carbon dioxide (photosynthesis).

The nitrogen cycle

The nitrogen cycle is the process through which nitrogen moves from the atmosphere to earth, through soils and is released back into the atmosphere — converting in and out of its organic and inorganic forms.

It begins with biological nitrogen fixation, which occurs when nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in the root nodules of legumes convert organic matter into ammonium and then nitrate. Plants are able to absorb nitrate from the soil and break it down into the nitrogen they need, while denitrifying bacteria convert excess nitrate back into inorganic nitrogen which is released back into the atmosphere.

The process can also begin with lightning, the heat from which ruptures the triple bonds of atmospheric nitrogen, freeing its atoms to combine with oxygen and create nitrous oxide gas, which dissolves in rain as nitric acid and is absorbed by the soil.

Excess nitrate or that lost through leaching — in which key nutrients are dissolved due to rain or irrigation — can seep into and pollute groundwater streams.

A diagram shows the process through which nitrogen moves from the atmosphere to earth, through soils and is released back into the atmosphere – converting in and out of its organic and inorganic forms. (Graphic: Nancy Valtierra/CIMMYT)

What about nitrogen fertilizer?

For thousands of years, humans didn’t need to worry about nitrogen, but by the turn of the Twentieth Century it was evident that intensive farming was depleting nitrate in the soil, which raised concerns about the world’s rising population and a possible food crisis.

In 1908, a German chemist named Fritz Haber devised a process for combining atmospheric nitrogen and hydrogen under extreme heat and pressure to create liquid ammonia — a synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. He later worked with chemist and engineer Carl Bosch to industrialize this process and make it commercially available for farmers.

Once production was industrialized, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer — used in combination with new, high-yielding seed varieties — helped drive the Green Revolution and significantly boost global agricultural production from the late 1960s onwards. During this time Mexico became self-sufficient in wheat production, as did India and Pakistan, which were on the brink of famine.

In today’s intensive agricultural systems, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has become increasingly crucial. Worldwide, companies currently produce over 100 million metric tons of this product every year, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicts that demand will continue to rise steadily, especially in Africa and South Asia.

Is it sustainable?

As demand continues to rise worldwide, the challenge of nitrogen management is to provide enough to meet global food security needs while minimizing the flow of unused nitrogen — which is 300 times more polluting than carbon dioxide — to the environment.

While many regions remain short of available nitrogen to achieve food and nutrition security, in others nearly half of the fertilizer nitrogen applied in agriculture is leaked into the environment, with negative consequences including increased environmental hazards, irreparable land degradation and the contamination of aquatic resources.

This challenge can be addressed by improving nitrogen use efficiency — a complex calculation which often involves a comparison between crop biomass (primarily economic yield) or nitrogen content/uptake (output) and the nitrogen applied (input) through any manure or synthetic fertilizer. Improving this ratio not only enhances crop productivity but also minimizes environmental losses through careful agronomic management and helps improve soil quality over time.

Currently, average global nitrogen use efficiency does not exceed 50%, which falls short of the estimated 67% needed to meet global food demand in 2050 while keeping surplus nitrogen within the limits for maintaining acceptable air and water qualities.

Cutting-edge technological options for nitrogen management are on the horizon, though in the short-term nitrogen use efficiency can best be improved at farmer-level, by targeting fertilizer application, use of slow-release nitrogen fertilizers, using precision nitrogen application tools (Green Seeker) or fertigation using micro irrigation.

A woman in India uses a precision spreader to apply fertilizer on her farm. (Photo: Wasim Iftikar)

Blue-sky technology

Much progress has been made in developing technologies for an efficient nitrogen management, which along with good agronomy are proven to enhance crop nitrogen harvest and nitrogen use efficiency with lower surplus nitrogen.

Scientists are investigating the merits of biological nitrification inhibition, a process through which a plant excretes material which influences the nitrogen cycle in the soil. Where this process occurs naturally — in some grasses and wheat wild relatives — it helps to significantly reduce nitrogen emissions.

In 2007, scientists discovered biological nitrification traits in a wheat relative and in 2018 they succeeded in transferring them into a Chinese spring wheat variety. The initial result showed low productivity and remains in the very early stages of development, but researchers are keen to assess whether this process could be applied to commercial wheat varieties in the future. If so, this technology could be a game changer for meeting global nitrogen use efficiency goals.

Climate change adds to woes of lentil farmers in Nepal

Written by Emma Orchardson on November 27, 2020. Posted in In the media.

Once a world leading lentil producer, Nepal is now having to import them as farmers struggle with low productivity and warmer, wetter weather.

This could have serious implications in a country where lentils provide an important source of protein, especially for poor families.

Farmer Raj Narayin Singh stands in his wheat field in Bihar, India. (Photo: Petr Kosina/CIMMY)

Matching seed to farmer

Written by Marcia MacNeil on November 27, 2020. Posted in News.

Since the earliest days of global wheat breeding at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), breeders have made their crossing selections to meet farmers’ requirements in specific environments throughout the world’s wheat-growing regions.

To streamline and make this trait selection process consistent, in the 1970s CIMMYT breeders developed 15 mega-environments — sets of farming, climatic, weather, and geographic conditions to use as profiles for testing their varieties.

They took this a step further in the 1980s by developing sets of profiles for their varieties with common characteristics in current — and projected — climatic, soil and hydrological characteristics as well as socioeconomic features such as end-use quality and agronomic practices.

In newly presented research, CIMMYT wheat scientist Leo Crespo has taken another look at these mega-environments in the form of target population of environments (TPE) — specifically the ones that fall in the bread basket wheat production area of India — to create more nuanced definitions based on updated underlying conditions and desired traits.

Using meteorological and soil data, along with information about farmers’ practices in each region and more advanced analytical methods, Crespo defined three new specific TPEs for the region:

TPE1, in the optimally irrigated Northwestern Plain Zone with higher yield potential;
TPE2, in the irrigated, heat-stressed Northeastern Plains Zone; and
TPE3, in the drought-stressed Central-Peninsular Zone.

These TPEs encompass more than 28 million hectares, equivalent to more than 97% of India’s total wheat production area.

“While the mega-environments can be broad and transcontinental, we defined the TPE at a more regional level,” said Crespo. “In fact, two of our new TPEs — the NWPZ (TPE1) and part of the NEPZ (TPE2) — have distinct climate and soil characteristics, but they both fall under the same mega-environment: ME1.”

Elite wheat varieties at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, in Mexico's Sonora state. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT) — Elite wheat varieties at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico. (Photo: Marcia MacNeil/CIMMYT)

Comparing international environments

Crespo later cross-checked these TPEs with the testing environments that CIMMYT wheat breeders use in the research station in Obregon, in Mexico’s Sonora Valley.

Obregon has long been valued by wheat breeders worldwide for its unique capacity to simulate many wheat growing conditions. Wheat grown in the various testing environments replicate in Obregon — known as selection environments (SEs) — goes through an arduous testing process including testing in other agroeconomic zones and undergoing pest and disease infestations to demonstrate its resilience.

This process, though intensive, is much cheaper and more efficient than testing each potential new wheat line in every major wheat growing area. That is why it is so important to verify that the decisions made in Obregon are the right ones for farmers in the diverse growing areas of the world.

Crespo used data from one of CIMMYT’s global wheat trials, the Elite Spring Wheat Yield Trials (ESWYT), to estimate the genetic correlation between the TPEs and in Obregon, selection response indicators and performance prediction. He found that wheat lines that perform well in the Obregon selection environments are very likely to display high performance in the TPEs he defined in India.

“Our results provide evidence that the selection environments in CIMMYT’s Obregon research station correlate with international sites, and this has led to high genetic gains in targeted regions,” explained Crespo.

“We can achieve even greater gains by targeting selections for farmers in the TPEs and improving the testing in those TPEs, along with the high-quality evaluations from the selection environment.”

These findings confirming the relationship between the selection environments and farmers’ fields in one of the world’s largest wheat growing regions allow CIMMYT to realize its mission to deliver superior wheat germplasm to national partners for their breeding programs, or for direct release as varieties for farmers throughout the world.

Watch Leo Crespo’s full presentation at the BGRI Technical Workshop.

A solar powered irrigation pump in use, India. (Photo: Ayush Manik/CCAFS)

Are solar powered irrigation systems scalable?

Written by Sakshi Saini on November 23, 2020. Posted in News.

Climate change is a major challenge for India, which faces large-scale climate variability and is exposed to high risk. The country’s current development model reiterates the focus on sustainable growth and aims to exploit the benefits of addressing climate change alongside promoting economic growth.

The government has been heavily emphasizing the importance of solar power in India, and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) recently launched an ambitious initiative to further this cause. The Pradhan Mantri-Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) scheme aims to support the installation of off-grid solar pumps in rural areas, and reduce dependence on the grid in grid-connected areas.

However, there has been a knowledge gap about the potential use of solar energy interventions in the context of climate change and their scalability. In an effort to bridge this gap, scientists from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) have comprehensively synthesized existing pilot initiatives on the deployment of solar powered irrigation systems (SPIS) across different agro-climatic zones in India and tried to assess their scalability. This in turn has led to the identification of efficient and effective models for sustainable development in accordance with the region’s socioeconomic and geopolitical situation.

Solar powered irrigation systems in India

A compendium has been developed as part of the research carried out by CCAFS, in collaboration with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

The main objectives for bringing forth this compendium are: to qualitatively document various deployment models of SPIS and to understand the factors impacting the scalability of SPIS in India. The authors collected detailed information about the process of installing SPIS, their use and maintenance, and documented the different approaches in the form of case studies developed through primary and secondary research. They aimed to capture the key technical, social, institutional and financial attributes of the deployment approaches to enable comparative analysis and synthesis.

In total, 16 case studies from across India were documented — 1 case for centralized SPIS, 2 distributed SPIS and 13 examples for decentralized systems. Though each of these was designed with unique objectives, detailed analysis reveals that all the cases revolve around the improvement of the three factors: accessibility, affordability and sustainability — the trinity against which all cases have been described. Grid-connected areas such as Gujarat and Maharashtra offer an immense scope of selling surplus energy being produced by SPIS, to energy-deficient electricity suppliers while areas such as Bihar and Jharkhand offer the potential for scaling the decentralized model of SPIS.

Two smallholders use a solar powered irrigation system to farm fish in Bihar, India. (Photo: Ayush Manik/CCAFS)

Assessing scalability

For inclusive and sustainable growth, it is important to consider the farm-level potential of solar energy use with multiple usages of energy. The compendium documents examples of the potential of solar irrigation systems in India for adaptation and mitigation benefits. It also assesses on the scalability of different deployment approaches such as solar pump fitted boats in Samastipur, Bihar, or the decentralized solar powered irrigation systems in Gujrat and West Bengal. Through the compendium, the authors study the five key stages of the scaling-up process to assess whether these initiatives are scalable and could reduce or replace fossil fuel dependence in agriculture.

While some of the documented cases are designed exclusively to address a very specific problem in a particular context, others are primarily designed as a proof-of-concept for wider applicability and policy implications — with or without suitable modifications at the time of scaling. In this compendium, both types of cases are included and assessed to understand their relevance and the potential contribution they can make in advancing the goal of solarizing irrigation and agriculture in a sustainable and effective way.

The authors conclude that all the cases have different technical, financial, and institutional aspects which complement each other, have been designed based on community needs and are in line with the larger objective of the intervention integrating three factors — accessibility, affordability and sustainability — to ensure secured availability of resources and to facilitate scalability.

Given that India is a diverse country with varied socioeconomic and geopolitical conditions, it is important to have set guidelines that lay out a plan for scaling while allowing agencies to adapt the SPIS model based on local context and realities in the field.

This article was originally published on the CCAFS website.

A smallholder farmer displays the products she purchased at a seed fair in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)

An instant seed market

Written by Shiela Chikulo on November 20, 2020. Posted in Features.

How do you create the largest market for stress-tolerant seed away from a major business center and attract over 1000 smallholder farmers in two days? Organize a seed fair to strengthen knowledge and information sharing.

The availability, access and use of climate-resilient seed by smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe is often hampered by transport costs, the distance between farming areas and viable seed markets, lack of public transport to business centers, and the inflated prices of seed and inputs by local agro-dealers. As a result, resource-poor farmers who cannot afford to purchase inputs resort to exchanging local seed retained or recycled from informal markets. This has devastating effects on farmers’ productivity, food and nutrition security.

Under the Zambuko/R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is promoting climate-smart technologies and appropriate seed varieties alongside conservation agriculture (CA) systems in Masvingo district, Zimbabwe. Since 2018, mother and baby trials have successfully yielded results for smallholders in Ward 17 and additional mother trials have been introduced in Ward 13.

To overcome the challenges of seed access, CIMMYT partnered with eight seed companies — including Agriseeds, Mukushi and SeedCo — to host two seed fairs in October, targeting farmers in Wards 13 and 17. The intervention sought to address seed insecurity while reducing the knowledge gap on available stress-tolerant seed varieties by smallholder farmers.

Groundwork preparations led by the Department of Agriculture and Extension Services (AGRITEX) mobilized farmers from the host wards as well as farmers from neighboring wards 15, 19 and 25. In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, regulations relating to social distancing, the use of masks and sanitization were adhered to throughout the events.

Climate-smart seed choices

A key message delivered to the more than 1000 farmers who attended the seed fairs was the importance of their preference when selecting the right seed for their field. “Farmers must be critical when selecting seed and ensure that their preferred seed will perform well under the prevailing climatic conditions to give a good harvest,” said CIMMYT seed systems specialist Peter Setimela.

Seed company representatives were offered a platform to market their varieties and explain the benefits of each product on the market while leaving it to the farmers to decide on the most suitable variety for their own needs. “Farmers came early for the seed fairs and showed interest in our products,” said Norman Chihumo, a regional agronomist at Syngenta Distributors. “We recorded fairly good sales of seed and chemicals through cash purchases and vouchers.”

Later in the day, farmers toured the seed company stands to see the diverse maize varieties and small grains on offer — including millet and sorghum, cowpeas and groundnuts — and heard testimonials from participants in the mother and baby trials. “Listening to a success story from a farmer I know gives me the confidence to follow suit and buy seed that works in this harsh climate of ours,” said Joice Magadza, a farmer from Ward 17.

Local farmer Happison Chitono agreed. “I never used to grow cowpeas on my plot,” he explained, “but after learning about the ability it has to fix nitrogen into my soil and possibility of rotating the legume with maize, I am now gladly adding it to my seed input package.”

Muza Vutete, a baby-trial farmer shares the advantages of adopting conservation farming principles at a seed fair in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)

A seed fair is also a knowledge market

A key highlight of the seed fair was the learning platform promoting CIMMYT’s ongoing activities under the Zambuko/R4 Rural Resilience Initiative. Here, cropping systems agronomist Christian Thierfelder shared the objectives of this initiative with participating farmers.

“We know how good this seed is, but we also have to grow it in a sustainable way, so we make best use of the limited rainfall we receive in this area while we improve our soils,” he explained to farmers. “Cropping systems such as conservation agriculture combine no-tillage, mulching and crop rotation in a climate-smart agriculture way which enables farmers to harvest enough, even under heat and drought stress.”

Thierfelder also demonstrated the use of farm equipment promoted by CIMMYT in collaboration with Kurima Machinery, explaining how these can help reduce drudgery and save time on planting, transport and shelling.

Representatives from Kurima machinery conduct a demonstration of the two-wheel tractor during the seed fair in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)

Vouchers for transparent seed access

The seed fairs culminated in the distribution of seed and input vouchers. One hundred farmers were selected through a transparent raffle and redeemed their vouchers at their preferred seed company stands. They then also had the option to purchase additional seed, fertilizer and chemicals using their own cash.

Particularly high sales were recorded for Provitamin A orange maize, which sold out on both seed fair days. Stress-tolerant varieties such as ZM 309 and ZM 523 from Zimbabwe Super Seeds, ZM521 from Champion Seeds, and MRI 514 from Syngenta were also favorites among the farmers, while white sorghum and cowpea varieties such as CBC2 also sold well. Most of these varieties were already known to farmers as they had seen them growing for two years in CIMMYT’s mother trials of Ward 17.

The seed fairs ended on a high note with a total of 1.2 tons of seed sold to farmers on both days and agro-dealers hailed the fairs as a timely business venture for creating linkages and bringing seed suppliers on-site to assess their shops. A post-seed fair monitoring exercise will soon follow up on farmers’ use of the seed and the performance of demo packs and purchased varieties.

The Zambuko/R4 Rural Resilience Initiative supported by the United States Agency for International Aid (USAID), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the World Food Programme (WFP) aims to increase farmer resilience and capacity to withstand climatic shocks and stresses in rural communities of Masvingo, Mwenezi and Rushinga in Zimbabwe.

Irene Chikata, 69, operates her lightweight drip-kit on her plot in Nyanga, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)

Saving water and time

Written by Shiela Chikulo on November 13, 2020. Posted in Features.

“I wonder why I never considered using drip irrigation for all these years,” says Michael Duri, a 35-year-old farmer from Ward 30, Nyanga, Zimbabwe, as he walks through his 0.5-hectare plot of onions and potatoes. “This is by far the best method to water my crops.”

Duri is one of 30 beneficiaries of garden drip-kits installed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), an implementing partner under the Program for Growth and Resilience (PROGRESS) consortium, managed by the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF).

“In June 2020, I installed the drip kit across 0.07 hectares and quickly realized how much water I was saving through this technology and the reduced amount of physical effort I had to put in,” explains Duri. By September, he had invested in two water tanks and more drip lines to expand the area under drip irrigation to 0.5 hectares.

Michael Duri stands with his son and mother next to his potato field in Nyanga, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo)

Water woes

Zimbabwe’s eastern highland districts like Nyanga are renowned for their diverse and abundant fresh produce. Farming families grow a variety of crops — potatoes, sugar beans, onions, tomatoes, leafy vegetables and garlic — all year round for income generation and food security.

Long poly-pipes lining the district — some stretching for more than 10 kilometers — use gravity to transport water from the mountains down to the villages and gardens. However, in the last five-to-ten years, increasing climate-induced water shortages, prolonged dry spells and high temperatures have depleted water reserves.

To manage the limited resources, farmers access water based on a rationing schedule to ensure availability across all areas. Often during the lean season, water volumes are insufficient for effectively irrigating the vegetable plots in good time, which leads to moisture stress, inconsistent irrigation and poor crop performance. Reports of cutting off or diverting water supply among farmers are high despite the local council’s efforts to schedule water distribution and access across all areas. “When water availability is low, it’s not uncommon to find internal conflicts in the village as households battle to access water resources,” explains Grace Mhande, an avid potato producer in Ward 22.

Climate-proofing gardens

Traditionally, flood, drag hose, bucket and sprinkler systems have been used as the main irrigation methods. However, according to Raymond Nazare, an engineer from the University of Zimbabwe, these traditional irrigation designs “waste water, are laborious, require the services of young able-bodied workers and use up a lot of time on the part of the farmers.”

Prudence Nyanguru, who grows tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages and sugar beans in Ward 30, says the limited number of sprinklers available for her garden meant she previously had to irrigate every other day, alternating the sprinkler and hose pipe while spending more than five hours to complete an average 0.05-hectare plot.

“Whereas before I would spend six hours shifting the sprinklers or moving the hose, I now just switch on the drip and return in about two or three hours to turn off the lines,” says Nyanguru.

The drip technology is also helping farmers in Nyanga adapt to climate change by providing efficient water use, accurate control over water application, minimizing water wastage and making every drop count.

“With the sprinkler and flood systems, we noticed how easily the much-needed fertile top soil washed away along with any fertilizer applied,” laments Vaida Matenhei, another farmer from Ward 30. Matenhei now enjoys the simple operation and steady precision irrigation from her drip-kit installation as she monitors her second crop of sugar beans.

Frédéric Baudron, a systems agronomist at CIMMYT, observes that Zimbabwe has a long history of irrigation, but this has mostly tended to be large-scale. “This means either expensive pivots owned by large-scale commercial farmers — a minority of the farming population in Zimbabwe as in much of sub-Saharan Africa — or capital-intensive irrigation schemes shared by a multitude of small-scale farmers, often poorly managed because of conflicts amongst users,” he says. A similar pattern can be seen with mechanization interventions, where Zimbabwe continues to rely on large tractors when smaller, and more affordable, machines would be more adapted to most farmers in the country.

“Very little is done to promote small-scale irrigation,” explains Baudron. “However, an installation with drip kits and a small petrol pump costs just over $1 per square meter.”

Prudence Nyanguru tends to her thriving tomato field in Nyanga, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)

A disability-inclusive technology

The design of the drip-kit intervention also focused on addressing the needs of people with disabilities. At least five beneficiaries have experienced the limitations to full participation in farming activities as a result of physical barriers, access challenges and strenuous irrigation methods in the past.

For 37-year-old Simon Makanza from Ward 22, for example, his physical handicap made accessing and carrying water for his home garden extremely difficult. The installation of the drip-kit at Makanza’s homestead garden has created a barrier-free environment where he no longer grapples with uneven pathways to fetch water, or wells and pumps that are heavy to operate.

“I used to walk to that well about 500 meters away to fetch water using a bucket,” he explains. “This was painstaking given my condition and by the time I finished, I would be exhausted and unable to do any other work.”

The fixed drip installation in his plot has transformed how he works, and it is now easier for Makanza to operate the pump and switches for the drip lines with minimal effort.

Families living with people with disabilities are also realizing the advantages of time-saving and ease of operation of the drip systems. “I don’t spend all day in the field like I used to,” says George Nyamakanga, whose brother Barnabas who has a psychosocial disability. “Now, I have enough time to assist and care for my brother while producing enough to feed our eight-member household.”

By extension, the ease of operation and efficiency of the drip-kits also enables elderly farmers and the sick to engage in garden activities, with direct benefits for the nutrition and incomes of these vulnerable groups.

Scaling for sustained productivity

Since the introduction of the drip-kits in Nyanga, more farmers like Duri are migrating from flood and sprinkler irrigation and investing in drip irrigation technology. From the 30 farmers who had drip-kits installed, three have now scaled up after witnessing the cost-effective, labor-saving and water conservation advantages of drip irrigation.

Dorcas Matangi, an assistant research associate at CIMMYT, explains that use of drip irrigation ensures precise irrigation, reduces disease incidence, and maximal utilization of pesticides compared to sprinklers thereby increasing profitability of the farmer. “Although we are still to evaluate quantitatively, profit margin indicators on the ground are already promising,” she says.

Thomas Chikwiramadara and Christopher Chinhimbiti are producing cabbages on their shared plot, pumping water out of a nearby river. One of the advantages for them is the labor-saving component, particularly with weed management. Because water is applied efficiently near the crop, less water is available for the weeds in-between crop plants and plots with drip irrigation are thus far less infested with weeds than plots irrigated with buckets or with flood irrigation.

“This drip system works well especially with weed management,” explains Chinhimbiti. “Now we don’t have to employ any casual labor to help on our plot because the weeds can be managed easily.”