The world needs better management of water, soil, nutrients, and biodiversity in crop, livestock, and fisheries systems, coupled with higher-order landscape considerations as well as circular economy and agroecological approaches.
CIMMYT and CGIAR use modern digital tools to bring together state-of-the-art Earth system observation and big data analysis to inform co-design of global solutions and national policies.
Our maize and wheat genebanks preserve the legacy of biodiversity, while breeders and researchers look at ways to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture.
Ultimately, our work helps stay within planetary boundaries and limit water use, nutrient use, pollution, undesirable land use change, and biodiversity loss.
A new policy brief produced by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) lays out a clear case for the benefits and importance of conservation agriculture, and a road map for accelerating its adoption in Eastern India.
A collaborative effort by research and policy partners including ICAR, the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and national academic and policy institutions, the brief represents the outputs of years of both rigorous scientific research and stakeholder consultations.
Eastern India â an area comprising seven states â is one of the worldâs most densely populated areas, and a crucial agricultural zone, feeding more than a third of Indiaâs population. The vast majority â more than 80% â of its farmers are smallholders, earning on average, just over half the national per capita income.
Conservation agriculture (CA) consists of farming practices that aim to maintain and boost yields and increase profits while reversing land degradation, protecting the environment and responding to climate change. These practices include minimal mechanical soil disturbance, permanent soil cover with living or dead plant material, and crop diversification through rotation or intercropping. A number of studies have shown the success of conservation agriculture in combatting declining factor productivity, deteriorating soil health, water scarcity, labor shortages, and climate change in India.
The road map lists recommended steps for regional and national policy makers, including
establishing a database repository on conservation agriculture for eastern India,
setting up common learning platform and sites for science-based evidence on CA,
developing an effective and productive supply chain system for CA machinery,
offering subsidies for CA machinery as incentives to farmers,
adopting pricing strategies to encourage market demand for sustained adoption of CA,
developing synergies for effective coordination between NARS and CGIAR institutions, and
A combine harvester equipped with the Super SMS (left) harvests rice while a tractor equipped with the Happy Seeder is used for direct seeding of wheat. (Photo: Sonalika Tractors)
Partners include the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS), the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), Dr. Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Bihar Agricultural University, and the Department of Agriculture of the state of Bihar.
Kiyasi Gwalale walking through her baby trial in Chebvute, Masvingo. Photo: C. Thierfelder/CIMMYT
It was an early morning on March 12, 2020, when we entered Kiyasi Gwalaleâs field in the Chebvute area of Masvingo, southern Zimbabwe. Gwalale participates in the Zambuko Livelihoods Initiative, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Zambuko initiative aims to increase rural resilience against the negative effects of climate change. More than 70% of smallholders in Zimbabwe farm on sandy soils that are low in soil fertility and are increasingly affected by the vagaries of climate. The Gwalale family is an example of one of the millions affected.
In Chebvute, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has established trials to test the effectiveness and productivity of conservation agriculture and climate resilient crop species since 2018. This has been in the form of âmother and babyâ trials.
A traditional tool of breeders, âmother trialsâ show different technologies to farmers to allow them to select the best option. In Chebvute, these trials were amplified to demonstrate farmersâ crop management practices such as conservation agriculture, crop rotation with legumes and different drought-resilient crop varieties.
A baby trial with DT maize, cowpea and white sorghum in Chebvute. Photo: C. Thierfelder/CIMMYT
Baby trial farmers taking after their âmothersâ
Since 2019, the best options have been taken on by follower farmers in so called âbaby trialsâ, where they use a subset from the mother trials to gain first-hand experience with the technology. Learning by doing is a central concept of this approach.
Gwalale as a âbaby trial farmerâ learned from the mother trials that drought-tolerant maize varieties out-yield traditional varieties under conservation agriculture, but need to be rotated with legumes to also improve the soil and the nutrition of the farm household. In addition, she realized that planting white sorghum is a drought-resilient strategy in this area as small grains are less affected by in-season dry-spells.
Gwalale and her family have been resident in Chebvute for 15 years but farm only on 0.4 ha of land. With her husband and three children, she grows maize, sorghum, groundnuts and Bambara nuts. What she gets from these fields is barely enough to survive.
In the 2019/20 cropping season, a devastating drought lasting from mid-December to mid-January destroyed all her hopes that this year would be a better season. Instead, she went on an educational journey to find out how improved farming practices can make a difference in her own life.
âWe planted this baby trial for the first time in December 2019, as we had seen from the nearby mother trials that these varieties planted under no-tillage seem to grow better than our own. We planted the baby at the same times as our own crops, but instead of tilling the soil and clearing the land, which we are used to, we just planted in riplines without tillage and covered the soil with mulch,â explains Gwalale.
âWhen the drought came, all my other crops in the tilled fields started to wilt and die â some did not even germinate. We could not believe what was happening in this baby trialâ.
CIMMYT scientist Christian Thierfielder pleased with the results in another baby trial plot in Chebvute. Photo: C. Thierfelder/CIMMYT
Resounding results in the baby trial
All crops in the baby trial survived the dry-spell and when the rains started to fall again in January, they continued to grow very well. Gwalale replanted the crops in the affected fields but they never caught up with the baby trial. Even after using the ripper to make more riplines, it was too late to experience the same wonder seen in the baby trial. âFor now, we are yet to see how much we will get from this small field, but we learned a big lesson and want to expand our land area with this way of planting next year,â she says.
More than 200 baby trial farmers in Chebvute, the majority of which are women, have experienced the same in their own baby trials and realized that it does not take much effort to achieve food security.
Timely planting, conserving the soil and the moisture with conservation agriculture, effective weeding and application of adequate plant nutrients are the key ingredients of success. This can be learned effectively in a small plot such as a baby trial. Farmers have realized that it is possible to make a difference when they apply the principles of sustainable agriculture in their farming systems. The interventions introduced will help them to become more climate-resilient and ultimately more food secure.
June marks the start of the rice growing season in Indiaâs breadbasket but on the quiet fields of Haryana and Punjab you wouldnât know it.
Usually the northwestern Indian states are teeming with migrant laborers working to transplant rice paddies. However, the governmentâs swift COVID-19 lockdown measures in late March triggered reverse migration, with an estimated 1 million laborers returning to their home states.
The lack of migrant workers has raised alarms for the labor-dependent rice-wheat farms that feed the nation. Healthy harvests are driven by timely transplanting of rice and, consequently, by the timely sowing of the succeeding wheat crop in rotation.
Without political support for alternative farming practices, crop losses from COVID-19 labor disruptions could reach $1.5 billion and significantly diminish the country’s grain reserves, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) warned.
Researchers also fear delayed rice transplanting could encourage unsustainable residue burning as farmers rush to clear land in the short window between rice harvest and wheat sowing. Increased burning in the fall will exacerbate the COVID-19 health risk by contributing to the blanket of thick air pollution that covers much of northwest India, including the densely populated capital region of New Delhi.
The burning of crop residue, or stubble, across millions of hectares of cropland between planting seasons is a visible contributor to air pollution in both rural and urban areas. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)
Both farmers and politicians are showing increased interest in farm mechanization and crop diversification as they respond to COVID-19 disruptions, said M.L. Jat, a CIMMYT scientist who coordinates sustainable intensification programs in northwestern India.
âFarmers know the time of planting wheat is extremely important for productivity. To avoid production losses and smog-inducing residue burning, alternative farm practices and technologies must be scaled up now,â Jat said.
The time it takes to manually transplant rice paddies is a particular worry. Manual transplanting accounts for 95% of rice grown in the northwestern regions. Rice seedlings grown in a nursery are pulled and transplanted into puddled and leveled fields â a process that takes up to 30 person-days per hectare, making it highly dependent on the availability of migrant laborers.
Even before COVID-19, a lack of labor was costing rice-wheat productivity and encouraging burning practices that contribute to Indiaâs air pollution crisis, said CIMMYT scientist Balwinder Singh.
âMechanized sowing and harvesting has been growing in recent years. The COVID-19 labor shortage presents a unique opportunity for policymakers to prioritize productive and environmentally-friendly farming practices as long term solutions,â Singh said.
Sustainable practices to cope with labor bottlenecks
CIMMYT researchers are working with national and state governments to get information and technologies to farmers, however, there are significant challenges to bringing solutions to scale in the very near term, Singh explained.
There is no silver bullet in the short term. However, researchers have outlined immediate and mid-term strategies to ensure crop productivity while avoiding residue burning:
Delayed or staggered nursery sowing of rice:Â By delaying nursery sowing to match delays in transplanting, yield potential can be conserved for rice. Any delay in transplanting rice due to labor shortage can reduce the productivity of seedlings. Seedling age at transplanting is an important factor for optimum growth and yield.
âMatching nursery sowing to meet delayed transplanting dates is an immediate action that farmers can take to ensure crop productivity in the short term. However, itâs important policymakers prioritize technologies, such as direct seeders, that contribute to long term solutions,â Singh said.
Direct drilling of wheat using the Happy Seeder: Direct seeding of wheat into rice residues using the Happy Seeder, a mechanized harvesting combine, can reduce the turnaround time between rice harvest and wheat sowing, potentially eliminating the temptation to burn residues.
âIdentifying the areas with delayed transplanting well in advance should be a priority for effectively targeting the direct drilling of wheat using Happy Seeders,â said Jat. The average farmer who uses the Happy Seeder can generate up to 20% more profits than those who burn their fields, he explained. âIncentivizing farmers through a direct benefit transfer payment to adopt âno burnâ practices may help accelerate transitions.â
Directly sown rice: Timely planting of rice can also be achieved by adopting dry direct seeding of rice using mechanized seed-cum-fertilizer planters. In addition to reducing the labor requirement for crop establishment, dry direct seeding allows earlier rice planting due to its lower water requirement for establishment. Direct-seeded rice also matures earlier than puddled transplanted rice. Thus, earlier harvesting improves the chance to sow wheat on time.
âCIMMYT researchers are working with the local mechanical engineers on rolling out simple tweaks to enable the Happy Seeder to be used for direct rice seeding. The existing availability of Happy Seeders in the region will improve the speed direct rice sowing can be adopted,â Jat said.
Crop diversification with maize: Replacing rice with maize in the monsoon season is another option to alleviate the potential shortage of agricultural labor due to COVID-19, as the practice of establishing maize by machine is already common.
âResearch evidence generated over the past decade demonstrates that maize along with modern agronomic management practices can provide a profitable and sustainable alternative to rice,â Jat explained. âThe diversification of rice with maize can potentially contribute to sustainability that includes conserving groundwater, improving soil health and reducing air pollution through eliminating residue burning.â
A combine harvester equipped with the Super SMS (left) harvests rice while a tractor equipped with the Happy Seeder is used for direct seeding of wheat. (Photo: Sonalika Tractors)
Getting innovations into farmersâ fields
Rapid policy decisions by national and state governments on facilitating more mechanized operations in labor-intensive rice-wheat production regions will address labor availability issues while contributing to productivity enhancement of succeeding wheat crop in rotation, as well as overall system sustainability, said ICARâs deputy director general for agricultural extension, AK Singh.
The government is providing advisories to farmers through multiple levels of communications, including extension services, messaging services and farmer collectives to raise awareness and encourage adoption.
Moving toward mechanization and crop diversity should not be viewed as a quick fix to COVID-19 related labor shortages, but as the foundation for long-term policies that help India in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, said ICARâs deputy director general for Natural Research Management, SK Chaudhari.
âPolicies encouraging farming practices that save resources and protect the environment will improve long term productivity of the nation,â he said.
Northwestern India is home to millions of smallholder farmers making it a breadbasket for grain staples. Since giving birth to the Green Revolution, the region has continued to increase its food production through rice and wheat farming providing bulk of food to the country.
This high production has not come without shortfalls, different problems like a lowering water table, scarcity of labor during peak periods, deteriorating soil health, and air pollution from crop residue burning demands some alternative methods to sustain productivity as well as natural resources.
Cover photo:Â A farmer uses a tractor fitted with a Happy Seeder. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)
On June 5, 2020, the world celebrates World Environment Day as COVID-19 continues to cause challenges and restrictions. Existing threats of climate change with the new challenges of a global pandemic adversely affect the agricultural sector, a mainstay of most sub-Saharan African economies. This situation calls for increased attention to how agriculture is practiced and natural resources â such as soil and water â are cared for.
Smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe are custodians of these natural resources, yet climate variability of shifting rainfall seasons, El Niño and droughts threaten successful rain-fed farming. Coupled with conventional farming practices such as tillage and deforestation, the soil structure and chemical quality are gradually degrading. Each passing year has resulted in declining yields, food insecurity and increased household vulnerabilities, particularly in drought-prone, low rainfall areas of southern Zimbabwe.
With support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative, led by the World Food Programme (WFP), aims to enable vulnerable, smallholder farmers to increase their food security, income and resilience by managing climate-related risks. Â Building on R4, WFP has just launched the Zambuko Livelihoods Initiative, focusing on social cohesion of communities, improved crop and livestock production and improved access to finance, with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is a partner to implement the project component on appropriate seeds and agricultural practices.
We discuss the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative with Christian Thierfelder, the Principal Cropping Systems Agronomist and a Strategic Leader for Africa at CIMMYT, and Munaye Makonnen, the Project Lead from WFP in Zimbabwe.
Promising high yields of white sorghum on a field in the mother trials in Mwenezi, Zimbabwe.
How is the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative responding to climate change challenges in the sites of intervention â Chebvute and Mwenezi?
Thierfelder: The R4 and Zambuko initiatives pursue an integrated approach to increase resilience of smallholder farming communities. Different partner organizations have come together in these projects to pursue different interventions such as building dams and vegetable gardens as community assets, financial education, promotion of improved climate-smart technologies such as drought-tolerant seed in combination with conservation agriculture, insurance, and linking farmers to markets. The combined actions address all needs and shortfalls in the target communities. We see a transformational change from mere subsistence farming to a more commercially oriented farming by targeted smallholders.
Makonnen: Recognizing the need to address livelihoods holistically, R4 offers farmers a set of integrated tools so that communities can better manage climate risks. Farmers participate in activities that enhance the natural resource base at watershed level, helping them adapt to climate change. They also benefit from a weather index insurance cover that protects them against drought and incentivizes them to engage in high-risk high-return investments. In the case of minor shocks, farmers have their savings groups to draw up on and can access small credit for income generating activities. With the aim of increasing productivity and income, conservation agriculture practices are promoted. For their surplus production, participants are also supported in accessing markets. The project also plans to include a component on climate services that will allow communities to mitigate the impacts of disaster risk, increase production and enhance adaptation to climate change.
Since inception, how have the farming communities responded to the technologies and practices introduced in their respective sites?
Thierfelder: Farming communities were very skeptical initially about this new approach. However, the varieties and cropping systems displayed in our 10 mother trials showed dramatically higher yields than farmers observed in their own fields, so it was not difficult to get 200 baby trial farmers to experiment with the technology. During the 2019/2020 cropping season, farmers got even more excited to see maize and legume yields thrive in their baby trials while crops planted under conventional agriculture failed. In the next cropping season, we hope to reach the tipping point of farmers trying and experimenting with these climate-smart agriculture technologies to achieve a transformational change towards more resilience.
Makonnen: Looking at the performance of the trials, farmers can see for themselves that the agricultural practices promoted by the project result in higher yields. They also get practical experience by trying these out on their own fields. Such an approach has worked well in terms of getting farmers to become interested in and eventually adopt conservation agriculture principles because it is not just based on theory â farmers can actually see and experience the change for themselves.
Even in times of COVID-19, the work must continue, observing social distancing and using facemasks. Christian Thierfelder outlines trials with farmers in Mwenezi, Zimbabwe.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and disturbance to agri-food systems, how is the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative addressing the emerging challenges?Â
Thierfelder: We have created the base of more resilient farming systems that should positively respond to all external shocks â droughts, floods and maybe a virus as well. In our technology package we do promote self-pollinating legumes such as cowpea and groundnuts which can be grown even when farmers are cut off from supply chains for seed and fertilizer. We therefore hope that this can be a contribution to reducing the negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
Makonnen: As COVID-19 is compromising food security, it is now more important than ever to ensure that agricultural production continues to function smoothly. R4 continues to provide all the services in its integrated risk management package despite the pandemic. As farmers face challenges in production, including limited access to labor, we hope that high yielding and less labor-intensive conservation agriculture practices promoted by R4 really come into their own. Ensuring the safety of our beneficiaries, staff and partners is a priority for WFP so we have developed guidelines for R4 implementation in the context of COVID-19. For instance, trainings are taking place in smaller groups, social distancing is observed in all activities, messages on COVID-19 prevention are shared with beneficiaries and we are also looking into digital solutions to continue implementation during these unprecedented times.
Looking ahead, how will the adoption of appropriate agricultural practices and seed varieties strengthen the resilience of the farming communities?
Thierfelder: Our approach has been multi-faceted addressing different areas of concern to the farmers: income generation, credit, improved productivity, insurance and marketing. We believe that with this mix of interventions farming can more effectively withstand external stresses. However, we also realize that adoption does not happen overnight and requires a significant experimentation and learning process with farmers. WFP has seen the need for longer term investments, and this is now beginning to pay off.
Makonnen: Adoption of appropriate agricultural practices and seeds is just one of the components of R4. We know resilience requires a holistic approach which is why we have a set of interventions within R4 involving multiple partners. R4 will continue to work across the entire value chain bringing together natural resource management, access to financial services, access to inputs and markets and promotion of appropriate agricultural practices so that the farmers we work with are well equipped to manage risks and become resilient to the changing climate and risks to their food security.
Sign Phiri from CIMMYT inspects maize crops.
Cover photo: Kiyasi Gwalale stands on her baby trial plot.
Tonahuixtla, a small town located in Mexicoâs state of Puebla, had suffered extreme environmental degradation due to deforestation and erosion. Agricultural land was in poor condition and the town had stopped producing many of their heirloom maize varieties, a loss to both biodiversity in the region and local culture. Poverty had increased, forcing many to migrate to bigger cities or to the United States for work. Those who were left behind, most of them women, had few ways to generate income to support their families.
Today, the story of Tonahuixtla is different. The town actively participates in reforestation and erosion-prevention activities. Landrace maize production is increasing, preserving the town and regionâs biodiversity and customs. The residents have job opportunities that allow them to stay in their town and not migrate, all while preserving local biodiversity and protecting the environment.
What caused this change?
Corn husks.
Long considered a waste product, corn husks have been given a new lease on life through the Totomoxtle project. Named for the traditional indigenous Nahuatl word for corn husk, Totomoxtle turns the husks of native maize, found in a variety of colors, into a beautiful and sustainable veneer for furniture and walls. Founded by Mexican graphic designer Fernando Laposse, Totomoxtle has given farmers an incentive to plant native maize again, preserving invaluable biodiversity for future generations.
When Denise Costich, head of the maize collection of the germplasm bank at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), heard about the Totomoxtle project she knew she wanted to help. Passionate about preserving native maize, she and her team identified 16 landrace varieties from the CIMMYT maize collection that would produce husks in interesting colors and could grow well in the altitude and climate conditions of Tonahuixtla. She invited Laposse and project members to come visit the genebank and learn about CIMMYTâs work, and provided them with seed of the landraces they had identified.
âThis is what we normally do in our work at the germplasm bank, we give people seed,â Costich said. âBut this turned into a closer collaboration.â
In the dry and mountainous terrain surrounding the village of Tonahuixtla, native maize preservation and reforestation efforts have been key in protecting the local environment and culture. (Photo: Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
Colorful collaboration
The maize germplasm bank team arranged for Totomoxtle project members to receive training in how to make controlled pollinations in the native maize varieties, at one of CIMMYTâs experimental stations.
âThe technicians at CIMMYTâs Agua Fria station loved meeting the project members from Tonahuixtla, and immediately became passionate about the Totomoxtle project,â Costich said. âTo this day, the technicians still save all of the colored corn husks from CIMMYT maize trials and send them to Tonahuixtla to provide them with additional material for their project.â
In the village of Tonahuixtla, project members â many of them women â work to iron the corn husks flat and glue them on to a stiff backing, then send them via courier to Laposseâs workshop in London where he uses them to create beautiful furniture and wall panels. This work allows the residents of Tonahuixtla to stay in their village and not be forced to migrate, all while preserving maize biodiversity and protecting the environment.
âPart of what this project is doing is also helping to keep families together â providing livelihoods so that people can stay in their communities, so that they donât have to send all of their young people off to Mexico City or to the United States. To me, itâs really all connected,â Costich said.
Native maize tassels against a bright blue sky in Tonahuixtla. (Photo: Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
In the town of Tonahuixtla, Puebla, Mexico, a native maize field sits below a tree-covered hillside. The town has been active in reforestation efforts to control erosion. (Photo: Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
Denise Costich (front right, sitting) poses for a photo with Tonahuixtla residents, members of the Totomoxtle project, and CIMMYT Germplasm Bank staff. (Photo: Provided by Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
The value of sustainability
The project also shows the intersection between biodiversity conservation and protecting the local environment. The maize husks used for the project are a sustainable and biodegradable material, and any residue from the maize husks that are not used for the Totomoxtle project are either fed to animals in the dry season or used to make fertilizer, which is then returned to the maize fields, a completely circular cycle in which nothing is wasted.
âI think that many of the communities that we work in really do understand the value and the importance of biodiversity,â Costich said. âIn Tonahuixtla, the people are trying to reforest the hillsides in their region. They understand the connection between having no vegetation on the hills and having the rain water just roll right off the hills and into the temporary streams, thus losing that critically important resource. Over the years, as a result of the work they have done there, they have seen with their own eyes the improvement in the environment, not only that the hills are now covered with vegetation, but also they see a lot less runoff and erosion. I think thatâs a really important lesson for everyone. I come from an ecology background, so I am always very excited to get involved in projects where itâs not just about maize, itâs about everything. Itâs also about peopleâs lives, and nutrition, and the connections between them.â
Preserving local maize biodiversity is not just important for Tonahuixtla â it is important to all of humanity. Native maize varieties have adapted for thousands of years in farmersâ fields across Mesoamerica, developing natural resistance to local plant pests and diseases, as well as climatic conditions such as heat or drought. These native maize seeds, passed down generation to generation, could hold the key to developing improved maize varieties that can resist emerging maize diseases or extreme weather events related to climate change. If this biodiversity is lost, it represents a loss to global food security as a whole.
CIMMYT works to protect many of these native maize varieties in their germplasm bank, which is home to over 28,000 different collections of maize. Kept in cold storage under optimum conditions in the CIMMYT seed vault, these seeds are preserved for future generations and are available to anyone who needs them, including farmers such as those in Tonahuixtla, who had lost much of their native maize diversity.
âThe biodiversity of cultivated plants is basically the guarantee for the future,â Costich said. âThis is our security backup. Seed security is food security.â
Maize cobs and veneer made out of corn husks are on display at an exhibition of the Totomoxtle project in Mexico City. (Photo: Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
Members of the CIMMYT Germplasm Bank team stand for a photo with a variety of landraces at an exhibition of the Totomoxtle project in Mexico City. (Photo: Emilio Diaz)
Cover photo: Denise Costich (center, pink hat) stands with members of the Totomoxtle project and CIMMYT Germplasm Bank staff members near Tonahuixtla. (Photo: Provided by Denise Costich/CIMMYT)
A first outbreak of maize lethal necrosis was found in Kenya in 2011 and researchers immediately became active because they knew that timely action was needed to prevent irreparable damage. This viral disease was decimating maize fields and spreading rapidly in east Africa through contaminated insects and seeds.
Nepalese and CIMMYT wheat scientists, working at the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) suspect new races of stripe and leaf rust infected the wheat crop in the Nepal hills and terai in the recent 2020 wheat season. This was reported after detailed survey and surveillance activities of rust diseases in the terai and hill regions were carried out during March and April, before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cessation of many field activities.
âWhat my project tries to do is visualize the diversity of corn that we have in my home country,â said Mexican designer Fernando Laposse. He partnered with CIMMYT, working with a village of Mixtec farmers and herders to transform waste from these plants into furniture. The cornâs kernels and husks come in hues of cream, deep red, pink, black and purple.
Seed security is the first step towards food security. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) preserves 28,000 unique seed samples of maize and 150,000 of wheat at its genebank in Mexico.
The Global Seed Vault in Svalbard opened in 2008. Since then, CIMMYT has duplicated and deposited 50 million seeds â 170,000 samples of maize and wheat â at Svalbard.
This year, CIMMYT sent 24 boxes of seed, with 332 samples of maize and 15,231 samples of wheat.
Join these seeds on a journey, as they travel more than 8,000 km from CIMMYTâs genebank in Mexico to the Global Seed Vault in the Arctic.
A supermarket, rather than a museum
This treasure, kept in the global network of genebanks, is key to ensuring sustainable, nutritious agricultural systems for future generations.
The purpose of genebanks is not just to preserve seed, but to use its biodiversity to address the needs of the future â and the needs of today.
Climate change is already impacting resource-poor farmers and consumers in low- and middle-income countries. Researchers and breeders at CIMMYT are rolling out solutions to these challenges, based on the diverse genetic resources kept in the genebank. As a result, farmers can use new varieties that yield more, need less inputs, and are more tolerant to drought or heat.
Our internal estimates show that about 30% of maize and more than 50% of wheat grown worldwide can be traced to CIMMYT germplasm.
Humanityâs legacy
Maize and wheat originated about 10,000 years ago. Since then, itâs survived war, drought, diseases, migration, birds, low yields â and the hard choice between feeding children or planting again.
Keepers of genebanks around the world are only the depositors of this legacy, which belongs to all humanity. CIMMYT will continue to preserve these seeds and to make their biodiversity available to researchers and famers, to solve todayâs and tomorrowâs most pressing issues.
Cover photo: A NordGen staff member brings a box of seed into the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway. (Photo: Thomas Sonne/Common Ground Media for NordGen)
Ispahani and AgBiTech are pleased to announce the formal registration of a biological control for Fall Armyworm in Bangladesh.
This rapid assessment and registration despite the ongoing lockdown due to Covid-19 is the result of months of collaborative hard work and support from members representing multiple organizations including USAID, CIMMYT, the Ministry of Agriculture, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Plant Protection Wing of Agricultural Extension, and the Fall Armyworm National Task Force.
Of the 6,000 plant species that have been cultivated by humans, just nine of them account for 66% of cultivated crops, according to the FAOâs 2019 report from the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Of the 7,774 local breeds of livestock worldwide, 26% are in danger of becoming extinct.
That poses dangers for the robustness of the environment, the safety of our food supply chain, and even our potential exposure to pandemics, due to diseases that jump from animals to humans. It also makes our food less nutritious, less interestingâand less unique.
The COVID-19 crisis could offer a chance to reassess the way we eatâto revamp the diversity of our diets and our food systems, revisiting local and forgotten foods, particularly when it comes to fruits and vegetables.
âToday, 7.8 billion humans exploit almost each and every ecosystem of the planet. Livestock have followed humans in most of these ecosystems and are now far more numerous than wild vertebrates,â Frederic Baudron, a systems agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre, said in an interview. For example, there are 4.7 billion cattle, pigs, sheep and goats and 23.7 billion chickens on Earth. âWe live on an increasingly âcultivated planetâ, with new species assemblages and new opportunities for pathogens to move from one species to another.â
However, the biodiversity crisis is seldom considered a global issue and often not a pressing one, and conservationists say it isnât written about as often as it should be. âMedia coverage for the biodiversity crisis is eight-times lower than for the climate crisisâ, according to Baudron. âWe need to reduce the frequency of pandemics like COVID-19 by conserving and restoring biodiversity globally, most crucially in disease hotspots.â
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official views or position of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
What trends are we seeing with infectious diseases like COVID-19?
We see that outbreaks of infectious diseases are becoming more frequent, even when we account for the so-called âreporting biasâ: surveillance of such events becoming better with time and surveillance being better funded in the North than in the South.
60% of infectious diseases are zoonotic, meaning that they are spread from animals to humans and 72% of these zoonoses originate from wildlife. COVID-19 is just the last in a long list of zoonoses originating from wildlife. Other recent outbreaks include SARS, Ebola, avian influenza and swine influenza. As human activities continue to disturb ecosystems worldwide, we are likely to see more pathogens crossing from wildlife to humans in the future. This should serve as a call to better manage our relationship with nature in general, and wildlife in particular.
Why are we seeing more cases of diseases crossing from animals to humans? Where are they coming from?
Evidence points to bushmeat trade and consumption as the likely driver for the emergence of COVID-19. The emergence of SARS and Ebola was also driven by bushmeat consumption and trade. However, when looking at past outbreaks of zoonoses caused by a pathogen with a wildlife origin, land use changes, generally due to changes in agricultural practices, has been the leading driver.
Pathogens tends to emerge in well known âdisease hotspots,â which tend to be areas where high wildlife biodiversity overlaps with high population density. These hotspots also tend to be at lower latitude. Interestingly, many of these are located in regions where CIMMYTâs activities are concentrated: Central America, East Africa and South Asia. This, in addition to the fact that agricultural changes are a major driver of the emergence of zoonoses, means that CIMMYT researchers may have a role to play in preventing the next global pandemic.
Smallholders clear forests for agriculture, but they also have an impact on forests through livestock grazing and fuelwood harvesting, as on this picture in Munesa forest, Ethiopia. (Photo: Frederic Baudron/CIMMYT)
How exactly does biodiversity loss and land use change cause an increase in zoonotic diseases?
There are at least three mechanisms at play. First, increased contact between wildlife and humans and their livestock because of encroachment in ecosystems. Second, selection of wildlife species most able to infect humans and/or their livestock â often rodents and bats â because they thrive in human-dominated landscapes. Third, more pathogens being carried by these surviving wildlife species in simplified ecosystems. Pathogens tend to be âdilutedâ in complex, undisturbed, ecosystems.
The fast increase in the population of humans and their livestock means that they are interacting more and more frequently with wildlife species and the pathogens they carry. Today, 7.8 billion humans exploit almost each and every ecosystem of the planet. Livestock have followed humans in most of these ecosystems and are now far more numerous than wild vertebrates: there are 4.7 billion cattle, pigs, sheep and goats and 23.7 billion chickens on Earth! We live on an increasingly âcultivated planet,â with new species assemblages and new opportunities for pathogens to move from one species to another.
Wildlife trade and bushmeat consumption have received a lot of attention as primary causes of the spread of these viruses. Why has there been so little discussion on the connection with biodiversity loss?
The problem of biodiversity loss as a driver of the emergence of zoonoses is a complex one: it doesnât have a simple solution, such as banning wet markets in China. Itâs difficult to communicate this issue effectively to the public. Itâs easy to find support for ending bushmeat trade and consumption because itâs easy for the public to understand how these can lead to the emergence of zoonoses, and sources of bushmeat include emblematic species with public appeal, like apes and pangolins. Bushmeat trafficking and consumption also gives the public an easy way to shift the blame: this is a local, rather than global, issue and for most of us, a distant one.
There is an inconvenient truth in the biodiversity crisis: we all drive it through our consumption patterns. Think of your annual consumption of coffee, tea, chocolate, sugar, textiles, fish, etc. But the biodiversity crisis is often not perceived as a global issue, nor as a pressing one. Media coverage for the biodiversity crisis is eight times lower than for the climate crisis.
The Unamat forest in Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios department, Peru. (Photo: Marco Simola/CIFOR)
Agriculture is a major cause of land use change and biodiversity loss. What can farmers do to preserve biodiversity, without losing out on crop yields?
Farming practices that reduce the impact of agriculture on biodiversity are well known and form the foundation of sustainable intensification, for which CIMMYT has an entire program. A better question might be what we can do collectively to support them in doing so. Supportive policies, like replacing subsidies by incentives that promote sustainable intensification, and supportive markets, for example using certification and labeling, are part of the solution.
But these measures are likely to be insufficient alone, as a large share of the global food doesnât enter the market, but is rather consumed by the small-scale family farmers who produce it.
Reducing the negative impact of food production on biodiversity is likely to require a global, concerted effort similar to the Paris Agreements for climate. As the COVID-19 pandemic is shocking the world, strong measures are likely to be taken globally to avoid the next pandemic. There is a risk that some of these measures will go too far and end up threatening rural livelihoods, especially the most vulnerable ones. For example, recommending âland sparingâ â segregating human activities from nature by maximizing yield on areas as small as possible â Â is tempting to reduce the possibility of pathogen spillover from wildlife species to humans and livestock. But food production depends on ecosystem services supported by biodiversity, like soil fertility maintenance, pest control and pollination. These services are particularly important for small-scale family farmers who tend to use few external inputs.
How can we prevent pandemics like COVID-19 from happening again in the future?
There is little doubt that new pathogens will emerge. First and foremost, we need to be able to control emerging infectious diseases as early as possible. This requires increased investment in disease surveillance and in the health systems of the countries where the next infectious disease is most likely to emerge. In parallel, we also need to reduce the frequency of these outbreaks by conserving and restoring biodiversity globally, most crucially in disease hotspots.
Farming tends to be a major driver of biodiversity loss in these areas but is also a main source of livelihoods. The burden of reducing the impact of agriculture on biodiversity in disease hotspots cannot be left to local farmers, who tend to be poor small-scale farmers: it will have to be shared with the rest of us.
Cover photo: Forests in the land of the Ese’eja Native Community of Infierno, in Peru’s Madre de Dios department. (Photo: Yoly Gutierrez/CIFOR)
A farmer checks the drip irrigation system at his rice field in India. (Photo: Hamish John Appleby/IWMI)
In 2009, state governments in Northwest India implemented a policy designed to reduce groundwater extraction by prohibiting the usual practice of planting rice in May and moving it to June, nearer the start of monsoon rains.
Although the policy did succeed in alleviating pressure on groundwater, it also had the unexpected effect of worsening already severe air pollution. The reason for this, according to a recent study published in Nature Sustainability, is that the delay in rice planting narrowed the window between rice harvest and sowing of the subsequent crop â mainly wheat â leaving farmers little time to remove rice straw from the field and compelling them to burn it instead.
Even though burning crop residues is prohibited in India, uncertainty about the implementation of government policy and a perceived lack of alternatives have perpetuated the practice in Haryana and Punjab states, near the nationâs capital, New Delhi, where air pollution poses a major health threat.
Land preparation on a rice field with a two-wheel tractor. (Photo: Vedachalam Dakshinamurthy/CIMMYT)
A farmer uses a tractor fitted with a Happy Seeder. (Photo: Vedachalam Dakshinamurthy/CIMMYT)
A farmer checks the drip irrigation system at his rice field in India. (Photo: Hamish John Appleby/IWMI)
Wheat crop in conservation agriculture. (Photo: Vedachalam Dakshinamurthy/CIMMYT)
A farmer ploughs a rice field with a water buffalo. (Photo: Licensed from Digitalpress – Dreamstime.com; Image 11205929)
Decades of research for development have enabled researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and other partners to identify potential solutions to this problem.
One particularly viable option focuses on the practice of zero tillage, in which wheat seed is sown immediately after rice harvest through the rice straw directly into untilled soil with a single tractor pass.
In a new blog published as part of the Chicago Council on Global Affairsâ Field Notes series, CIMMYT scientists Hans Braun and Bruno Gerard discuss the combination of agronomic and breeding conditions required to make zero tillage work, and propose a fundamental shift away from current incentives to maximize the regionÂŽs cereal production.
