Theme: Innovations

Working with smallholders to understand their needs and build on their knowledge, CIMMYT brings the right seeds and inputs to local markets, raises awareness of more productive cropping practices, and works to bring local mechanization and irrigation services based on conservation agriculture practices. CIMMYT helps scale up farmers’ own innovations, and embraces remote sensing, mobile phones and other information technology. These interventions are gender-inclusive, to ensure equitable impacts for all.

Ethiopian machines for Ethiopian farmers

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on March 23, 2023. Posted in News.

Techno-Nejat owner Usman Abdella, operations manager Ali Mussa, and GIZ project manager Ralf Barthelmes with a recently completed seed cleaner at Techno-Nejat workshop in Adama, Ethiopia. (Photo: Adane Firde)

In many sub-Saharan countries, including Ethiopia, smallholder farmers of legume, wheat, and maize struggle to maintain their own food security, produce higher incomes, and promote economic growth and jobs in agricultural communities.

As farmers, fabricators, and aid workers collaborate to move forward on this problem, innovative solutions are moving out into the field – and generating new ideas across the continent.

Where are machines for small farmers?

Machines tailored to local needs and conditions can often make a big difference–but most agricultural technology is designed and produced to meet the requirements of massive, commercial farms. To help close this gap, Green Innovations Centers (GIC) work to connect smallholding farmers with locally produced technology that can transform their business, their family lives, and their local economies.

Launched in 2014 by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s special initiative, ONE WORLD No Hunger, the GIC collaborate with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to increase agricultural mechanization in 14 countries in Africa and two in Asia.

Technician at Techno-Nejat workshop, Adama, Ethiopia. (Photo: Adane Firde)

The need for seed

Informal seed systems, in which farmers save and reuse seed, and exchange low quality seed with other farmers, are prevalent among Ethiopian smallholder farmers. Seed cleaning plays an important role in helping farmers build high-yielding seed development systems by removing seed pods and other chaff, eliminating seeds that are too small or infected, and refining the seeds to a high-quality remainder.

After GIC staff in Ethiopia identified seed cleaning as a critical need for smallholding farmers in the country, researchers set out to develop a solution that was affordable, sustainable, and adaptable to local demands.

Local machines for local farmers

In 2022, GIC Ethiopia partnered with Techno-Nejat Industries in Adama, Ethiopia, to design and produce a first run of mobile seed cleaners for use by smallholding farmers across the country. Techno-Nejat has an established track record in agricultural fabrication and was eager to take on the new collaboration.

In early March, the company completed the initial delivery of eight seed cleaners. The machines process chickpea, soy, wheat, and barley seed with a maximum capacity of 1.5 tons per hour. With wheels and a compact, efficient design, they are also easy to move from one farmer’s property to another. At a cost of US $7,500 and a production time of 55 days, the machines have potential both for expansion within Ethiopia and scaling up for export.

Mr. Zogo, owner of Techno Agro Industrie in Benin, with Ali Mussa, Adama, Ethiopia. (Photo: Adane Firde)

Seeding future collaboration

Smallholding farmer cooperatives will take delivery of the first eight seed cleaners in the coming weeks. And while Ethiopian farmers are ready to experience the immediate benefits for their operations, this innovation is also showing promise for additional collaboration.

“Through existing GIC networks, we have connected with Techno Agro Industrie, a company manufacturing seed cleaners in Benin,” said Techno-Nejat’s owner Usman Abdella. “We welcome partnership opportunities, and we extend the red carpet,” Usman said.

As funding for GIC’s mechanization effort winds down, this organic, private Ethiopia-Benin partnership holds promise to generate continued benefits of innovation after the project has concluded, fostering South-South collaboration within Africa.

Building towards a climate-smart agriculture future through harnessing crop modeling

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on February 24, 2023. Posted in News.

Participants of the crop modeling simulation workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Tawanda Hove/CIMMYT)

Anticipating appropriate and timely responses to climate variability and change from an agricultural perspective requires forecasting and predictive capabilities. In Africa, climate-related risks and hazards continue to threaten food and nutrition security.

Crop simulation models are tools developed to assist farmers, agronomists and agro-meteorologists with insights on impacts to possible management decisions. Such tools are enablers for taking an appropriate course of action where complexity exists relating to both crop and livestock production. For example, a new variety can be introduced to Zimbabwe, but its performance will differ depending on the agroecological zones of the country and the respective treatments a farmer may apply. Applying modeling tools to assess its performance can predict yield differences and facilitate the generation of recommendations for which region is most suited to the variety, water use efficiency, and crop combinations.

Earlier this month, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) hosted a crop modeling simulation workshop with delegates from various African countries in Harare, Zimbabwe.

“The CGIAR Initiatives of Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) and Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems (SI-MFS) have recognized the need to enhance modeling capacity in Africa to allow African scientists to lead in solving challenges within agricultural systems,” said CIMMYT crop scientist and coordinator of the workshop, Vimbayi Grace Petrova Chimonyo.

The workshop was facilitated by renowned global crop modeling experts to provide critical coaching support to upcoming modelers. These experts included Sue Walker, a professor at the University of the Free State, Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, a professor at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), KPC Rao, a lead scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Dirk Raes (KU Leuven), Diego Peqeuno (CIMMYT) and Siyabusa Mukuhlani from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

Crop models are scientific presentations of statistical knowledge about how a crop will grow in interaction with its environment. They use mathematical equations representing processes within a predefined plant system and the interactions between crops and the environment. The discipline is based on the premise that agricultural system environments are complex and not homogenous. Crop models enable decision-makers to make data-driven decisions by simulating possible outcomes to changes in a system and the configuration of production systems.

“It is quite apparent that modeling skills are scarce on the African continent. This workshop is a step toward consolidating existing capacities on the continent. If we are going to be able to close the already existing food deficit gap on the continent and meet the food requirements needed by 2050, with an estimated global population of nine billion, then we need to take modeling seriously,” said Chimonyo in her opening address at the workshop.

Due to the lack of crop modeling expertise in African states, there is a gap in capacity to build relevant crop advisory tools for farmers at a local level. This leads to poor policy formulation as decisions are based on a high degree of generalizations.

“In this modern era, we need advisories that are context specific. For example, just because a maize variety achieved a certain yield in one context doesn’t mean the same variety will achieve the same yields even if the rainfall patterns are the same. Other factors come into play, such as the soil type, temperature and other related aspects affecting the yield. Crop modeling affords advisory managers some specifications necessary to achieve high yields in different environments,” said Walker.

Vimbayi Chimonyo from CIMMYT making opening remarks at the workshop. (Photo: Tawanda Hove/CIMMYT)

Speakers at the workshop focused on three models, APSIM, AquaCrop and DSSAT, and participants had the opportunity to take part in activities and ask questions face-to-face. The workshop also covered key modeling aspects such as the minimum data requirements needed to run a model, calibration and validation of models, confidence testing of results, the science involved in simulating phenological development and growth processes, water and nitrogen cycles, and the use of multi-modeling approaches.

The workshop was particularly useful for young scientists, according to Rao, allowing more experienced modelers to share their expertise. “With such an interactive platform, experienced modelers like me can demonstrate multi-modeling approaches.”

Rao presented on two main approaches. The first involved the application of different simulation models to simulate one component of a system such as crops. The second simulated the complete system by integrating various models, such as crops, livestock, and economic models, providing an opportunity to understand the synergies and trade-offs between different components of the whole farm.

Participants at the workshop expressed their satisfaction with the training provided and left with practical knowledge that they could apply in their work both in the field and in the lab.

“When I first arrived, I knew very little about modeling, but as the workshop progressed, my confidence in applying models increased. I intend to immediately apply this knowledge for the forthcoming season such that we can start making impactful contributions to the country’s food and nutrition security status,” said Birhan Abdulkadir Indris, a research officer at CIMMYT.

“I am leaving this workshop with the confidence that I will advise farmers in my circle of influence with services tailored to their needs. I have learned that crop modeling can be used for many purposes and that different models address different issues,” said Connie Madembo, a research technician at CIMMYT. “I intend to teach other fellow PhD students at the University of Zimbabwe the same things I have learnt here. As a country, we need to be at the forefront of using these models, considering Zimbabwe’s high weather variability.”

As a way forward, the trained scientists were encouraged to apply the modeling skills they had gained to address short-term problems such as yield gaps and water use efficiency and long-term challenges such as the local impacts of climate change.

“While more capacity training is required, starting somewhere is better than never starting,” said Mabhaudi.

Mini-tillers bolster Nepal maize farmers’ food supplies and profits, new study shows

Written by Mike Listman on February 14, 2023. Posted in Publications.

Use of lightweight, 5-9-horsepower mini-tillers by smallholder farmers in Nepal’s mid-hills cut tillage costs and boosted maize yields by facilitating timely maize cultivation, thus enhancing food self-sufficiency and farm profits and reducing rural poverty, a new study by an international team of scientists shows.

Published in the Journal of Economics and Development, the study reports findings of an on-farm survey involving more than 1,000 representative households from 6 districts of the mid-hills, a region of steep and broken terrain where rainfed maize is a staple crop, outmigration of working-age inhabitants makes farm labor scarce and costly, and farmers on small, fragmented landholdings typically till plots by hand or using ox-drawn plows.

“Conventional two- or four-wheel tractors are difficult to operate in the mid-hills’ rugged topography,” said Gokul P. Paudel, researcher working together with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Leibniz University, Hannover, Germany, and lead author of the study. “Farms are small and the mini-tillers are a good fit. Very small farms — those comprising less than 0.4 hectares of land and normally not served by hired farm labor or larger machinery — benefited the most from mini-tiller adoption.”

The paper is the first to provide empirical linkages between small-scale farm mechanization and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly No Poverty (SDG-1) and Zero Hunger (SDG-2).

“Given its rural poverty and the resulting outmigration from farm areas to cities and to other countries, Nepal has increasingly become a labor-exporting country,” explained Paudel, who partnered in this study with researchers from the Asian Development Bank Institute and Cornell University. “Our research can help guide investments by Nepal and other developing countries in scale-appropriate farm mechanization, supporting those who wish to remain on rural homesteads and make a go of it.”

Machine operators starting the mini-tiller in the Kavrepalanchok district in the mid-hills of Nepal. (Photo: CIMMYT)

The science team found that farm size, labor shortages, draft animal scarcity, and market proximity were major factors that facilitate the adoption of appropriate mechanization in Nepal, according to Tim Krupnik, CIMMYT systems agronomist and study co-author.

“Smallholder farms dominate more than two-thirds of agricultural systems globally,” Krupnik said. “Interest in scale-appropriate farm mechanization is growing rapidly, particularly among donors and governments, and practical empirical measures of its impact are crucial.” The findings of the latest study fill this knowledge gap and provide sufficient evidence to prioritize the spread of appropriate technologies among smallholder farmers.

Krupnik noted that, through its office in Nepal and strong shared research and capacity-building activities, CIMMYT has worked for almost four decades with Nepali scientists and development partners, including the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), to raise the productivity and sustainability of the country’s maize- and wheat-based farming systems.

In addition to strong government partnerships, CIMMYT works closely in Nepal with a range of non-government organizations, and importantly, hand-in-hand with private farm machinery manufacturers, retailers, and mechanics.

The study described was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Academy for International Agricultural Research (ACINAR) commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and carried out by ATSAF e.V. on behalf of the Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the One CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA), and generous funders who contribute to the CGIAR Trust Fund.

Read the study: The contributions of scale-appropriate farm mechanization to hunger and poverty reduction: Evidence from smallholder systems in Nepal

Cover photo: In the Palpa district in the mid-hills of Nepal, a woman farmer tills the soil for maize seeding. (Photo: Gokul Paudel/CIMMYT)

Solar powered dryers boost peanut production in Togo

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on February 3, 2023. Posted in Features.

Solar powered peanut dryers in Togo are helping women-run cooperatives reduce their workload and increase their profits.

A number of West African countries have climate and soil well-suited to groundnut cultivation. In the second half of the twentieth century, the region became a world leader in peanut production. In Togo, peanuts do well, but problems with postharvest processing have kept this crop performing well below its potential.

However, the introduction of the solar powered dryers has had a significant positive impact on the production and preservation of a vital crop for the local population.

From peanut stews and sauces that are staples of national cuisine to overseas export of peanut products, there is no shortage of uses for this groundnut in Togo. However, smallholding farmers struggle to preserve their entire crop in large part because of aflatoxins, which thrive when conditions are too moist and ruin peanuts.

“Peanuts are a very perishable commodity and they can spoil if not stored properly for processing,” said Aïssetou Koura, president of the peanut farmer cooperative in Koumonde.

This is particularly true for smallholding peanut farmers, which in Togo includes many women. The established method for drying peanuts is to lay them out in the open air, which is a labor-intensive process that leaves the crop exposed to unexpected rains and contamination by pests. “In the past, we suffered huge losses,” Aïssetou explained.

Aicha Gaba from the N’kani N’kana cooperative works with a solar dryer in Koumonde, Togo. (Photo: Laré B. Penn/University of Lome)

A better way to dry

In 2021, the introduction of solar dryers began to change things dramatically for peanut farmers in cooperatives from Tovegan to Dapaong. In collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIC) in Togo helped a local manufacturer, Guema Concept, develop solar dryer technology for local peanut farmers from plans made by the University of Hohenheim.

Launched in 2014 by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s special initiative One World No Hunger, GIC collaborates with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to increase agricultural mechanization in 14 countries in Africa and two in Asia.

The dryers are equipped with a ventilation system and a power kit that includes solar panels and a battery so they can operate during periods of reduced sunlight. They have a capacity of 12 kilograms and can complete a drying cycle in as little as two hours, which is about one quarter of the time a manual drying cycle takes. Depending on the solar exposure, cooperatives like the one in Koumonde can perform three or four cycles in a day.

“We have found a solution by preserving our products with the solar dryer,” Aïssetou said.

GIC has helped five smallholding farmer cooperatives procure solar dyers across Togo, and more than 50 women farmers are members of these groups whose work is benefitting from this technology.

Farmers like Aicha Gaba are also increasing their profit because the solar dryers allow them to do more work with fewer laborers.

“Our cooperative dries peanuts with only two people via the solar dryer, unlike conventional open drying, which requires five people to spread, turn, monitor and collect the peanuts,” Gaba said.

“This process reduces the workers’ wages and then saves us the money of three workers, which is a good thing for us.”

The new technology is producing better peanuts thanks to consistent moisture and temperature levels and faster processing speeds, said Djéri Bossa, a member of the cooperative in Bassar.

“Thanks to the solar dryers offered by GIC Togo, we can freely dry our products in good conditions,” Bossa explained.

“The products derived from the processing of peanuts are of improved quality, unlike the conventional open-drying method we used.”

All is not sunny

Despite the initial success of the solar dryers, there are challenges that remain for scaling up this innovation. The dyers are quite heavy and, for smallholding women, it can be difficult to maneuver the machines by themselves. At the same time, farmers say that – even with the greater volume the dryers have helped them achieve – they would still like a higher-capacity machine.

But even with the need for lighter, harder-working dryers, there is enormous potential for this innovation to spread to new areas, bring additional production and income to smallholding farmers (including many women), and help make groundnuts a bigger piece of the economic pie in Togo.

Cover photo: Smallholding peanut farmers Aicha Gaba and Aïssetou Koura lay peanuts into a solar dryer in Koumonde, Togo. (Photo: Laré B. Penn/University of Lome)

Thank you to our partners, Laré B. Penn (University of Lomé) and Johanna Steinkuehler (GIZ Togo).

Farmers in Zimbabwe embrace agroecology

Written by Tawanda Hove on January 4, 2023. Posted in News.

Smallholder farmers display a range of small and large grains at the agroecology seed fair in Mbire, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Tawanda Hove/CIMMYT)

Smallholder farmers in resource-poor communities of Zimbabwe and much of the Global South have been experiencing low crop productivity due to many factors, including inappropriate seeds and seed varieties, labor shortages, loss of agro-biodiversity, insufficient inputs, degrading soils, and recurrent droughts. These threats are now amplified by climate change.

This has resulted in broken food systems rendering food and nutrition insecurity commonplace. The One CGIAR initiative, Transformational Agroecology Across Food, Land, and Water Systems, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Zimbabwe, is designed to bring agroecological advances to smallholder famers in an effort to strengthen local food systems.

Smallholder farmers in the Mbire and Murehwa Districts of Zimbabwe were introduced to innovative agroecology interventions, premised on harnessing nature’s goods and services while minimizing adverse environmental impacts and improving farmer-consumer connectivity, knowledge co-creation, and inclusive relationships among food system actors.

Smallholder farmers register for the agroecology seed fair in Mbire, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Tawanda Hove)

Farmer to farmer collaboration at seed fairs

In response to challenges related to lack of appropriate seeds and eroding agrobiodiversity and, as a way to transition prevailing food systems to more sustainable ones, farmers were invited to take part in seed fairs. The seed fair’s objective was to enable smallholder farmers to access improved and locally adapted seeds of food crops originating from the private sector and fellow farmers. In addition, the seed fairs provided a platform for learning about agroecological practices. Farmers were also given a chance to see different machinery that could aid in land, food, and feed preparation, and address their labor shortage challenges.

At the opening of the seed fair in Mbire, Dorcas Matangi, CIMMYT research associate, acknowledged that smallholder farmers operate in challenging and complex ecological, social, and economic systems and there is a need for interventions that address the natural resource base without ignoring the social and economic dynamics within communities.

“The communal culture of sharing and trading between community members can be capitalized on for a collective benefit, said Matangi. “One such case is through events such as seed fairs where we encourage farmers to showcase and sell seeds they know perform very well.”

She further explained to the participating farmers how increasing their crop diversity and using practices such as conservation agriculture techniques benefit the environment and improves food security and nutrition.

“I am grateful for these efforts,” said Grace Musandaira, supervisor of the Agriculture Advisory and Rural Development Service. “Our region is arid, and as such, it is very difficult for our farmers to achieve significant yields to assure them there is enough food for the year. In addition, the knowledge provision relating to preserving and improving agrobiodiversity through agroecological practices is set to improve rural livelihoods.”

Senzeni Nyagonye, a farmer in Mbire, said “This initiative is teaching and exposing us to so many new concepts such as conservation agriculture with mechanization. If we can apply conservation agriculture with the seeds we bought at this seed fair, we are optimistic about a great harvest.”

A total of 1,058 farmers attended two seed fairs in Mbire and Murehwa. Farmers had the opportunity to access a variety of crop seeds ranging from maize, to sorghum, millets, groundnuts, bambara groundnuts, and sunflowers. More than 200 farmers exhibited local seeds that were available for sale or exchange. Private seed companies also showcased and sold certified drought-tolerant maize, sorghum, bean and cowpea varieties.

“The seed fairs in Mbire and Murehwa were very successful”, said Matangi. “And we feel these efforts will serve as a useful case study to guide a national scale-up.”

For women in Ivory Coast, processing cassava no longer has to be a grind

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on January 2, 2023. Posted in Features.

Attieke is the national dish of Ivory Coast. Served with fried fish or a vegetable stew, this tangy, fermented side is the heart and soul of Ivorian cuisine. And because it’s made from cassava, attieke is gluten free. So, in addition to its status as an iconic food of hospitality from Abidjan to Yamoussoukro, attieke has the potential to catch on in distant locales.

Producing attieke is complicated—transforming tubers in the ground into a delicious bowl of couscous-like cassava involves harvesting, peeling, grinding, fermenting, pressing, and effectively storing the processed crop. And in Ivory Coast, this work is traditionally performed almost entirely by women.

A cooperative member processes cassava using a manual grinder. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

A grueling process

Traditional methods for processing cassava, however, are very slow and extremely laborious. “We had to use a wooden plank with nails [to grind cassava]”, said N’Zouako Akissi Benedicte, president of the local agricultural cooperative in Mahounou, Nanafoue, about 30 kilometers from the capital, Yamoussoukro. To remove the liquid from the ground cassava, Ivorian women used “a kind of screw press” that required so much strength that “it caused us pain in the chest.”

In addition to being painful and grueling, these manual methods are terribly inefficient, generating about 30 kilograms of product per hour. Benedicte said a worker could process very little cassava in a day’s work using this traditional approach. Limited physically by this hard manual labor and struggling to generate enough income to establish financial independence, women working in cassava production in Ivory Coast face difficult challenges.

Hydraulic cassava press. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

Lightening the load

Three years ago, things started to change for Benedicte and other women working in cassava production in her area. At that time, her cooperative partnered with the Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIC) of Ivory Coast to receive training to use hydraulic-powered cassava grinders and presses. These machines, which GIC helped design and adapt for the climate and cultural context of Ivory Coast, promised to significantly increase speed of production while making all aspects of cassava work more accessible to women. For instance, the grinding capacity of the equipment is around 600 kg/hr.

Launched in 2014 by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development’s special initiative, ONE WORLD no hunger, GIC collaborates with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to increase agricultural mechanization in 14 countries in Africa and two in Asia.

Beyond helping Benedicte’s cooperative finance the purchase of the new machines and providing instruction in their use, GIC offered the agricultural cooperative a broad range of seminars on topics including selecting seed varieties, soil preparation, processing, and commercialization. This comprehensive approach set the women of Mahounou, Nanafoue up for success.

Gas powered mechanical cassava grinder in Mahounou, Ivory Coast. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

A message for my sisters

For Benedicte, the new grinder and press are making a huge difference. “The press with the hydraulic system is very efficient and we no longer need to use so much effort to remove the juice,” she said. According to Benedicte, workers in the cooperative are now processing up 1,000% more cassava per day and are only limited by the availability of raw material.

Better yield is also generating financial improvements for these women. “A woman who is working can buy her own machine and earn money that can be used for the education of her children,” Benedicte said. “I have a message for my sisters: a woman cannot solely depend on her husband and expect him to provide everything.”

GIC is working with 32 other groups like Benedicte in Ivory Coast, and the mechanization program has impacted the work of 1,000 women so far.

Taking the next step

There are still hurdles to overcome. In Mahounou, women producing cassava are relying on men to ignite the machines, and when a grinder or a press breaks down, it can be difficult to find spare parts. Benedicte believes electric machines could help solve both problems and take their business to the next level. “We would like to increase our production and sell it at an international level,” she said. “We would like to have a small processing unit here for women that could be used to produce high quality products for the international markets.”

GIC also has plans for a technology transfer that could reproduce this successful program in Malawi. Ivorian staff are collaborating with colleagues there to develop a cassava grinder and press for the Malawian context.

For Benedicte, there is more than food and income at stake in the success of these efforts. “It is important to be autonomous in taking charge of our own expenses,” she said. “This is being a woman. So, please, I invite my sisters to work.”

Cover photo: N’Zouako Akissi Benedicte, president of the local agricultural cooperative, with cooperative members and mechanical cassava grinders. (Photo: Sylvanus Odjo/CIMMYT)

How does CIMMYT’s improved maize get to the farmer?

Seven new CIMMYT maize hybrids available from Southern Africa Breeding Program

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on December 19, 2022. Posted in News.

CIMMYT is happy to announce seven new, improved tropical maize hybrids that are now available for uptake by public and private sector partners, especially those interested in marketing or disseminating hybrid maize seed across southern Africa and similar agro-ecologies in other regions. NARES and seed companies are hereby invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release, scale-up seed production, and deliver these maize hybrids to farming communities.

Newly available CIMMYT hybrids	*Key traits*
CIM21SAPP1-14	Intermediate-maturing, white grain, high-yielding, drought-tolerant, NUE, resistant to GLS, MSV, TLB, and ear rots
CIM21SAPP1-10
CIM21SAPP1-01	Late-maturing, white grain, high-yielding, drought-tolerant, NUE, resistant to MSV, TLB, and ear rots
CIM21SAPP1-08
CIM21SAPP2-12	Early-maturing, white grain, high-yielding, drought-tolerant, NUE, resistant to GLS, MSV, TLB
CZH1815A	Early-maturing, PVA biofortified, orange grain, high yielding, drought-tolerant, NUE, resistant to GLS, TLB, ear rots, MSV
CZH1805A
Performance data	Download the CIMMYT Southern Africa Maize Regional On-Station (Stage 4) and On-Farm (Stage 5) Trials: Results of the 2019, 2021, and 2022 Seasons and Product Announcement from Dataverse.
How to apply	Visit CIMMYT’s maize product allocation page for details
Application deadline	The deadline to submit applications to be considered during the first round of allocations is 10 January 2023. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during subsequent rounds of product allocations.

The newly available CIMMYT maize hybrids were identified through rigorous, years-long trialing and a stage-gate advancement process which culminated in the 2021/22 Southern Africa Stage 5 Regional On-Farm Trials. The products were found to meet the stringent performance and farmer acceptance criteria for CIMMYT’s breeding pipelines that are designed to generate products tailored in particular for smallholder farmers in stress-prone agroecologies of southern Africa.

Applications must be accompanied by a proposed commercialization plan for each product being requested. Applications may be submitted online via the CIMMYT Maize Licensing Portal and will be reviewed in accordance with CIMMYT’s Principles and Procedures for Acquisition and use of CIMMYT maize hybrids and OPVs for commercialization. Specific questions or issues faced with regard to the application process may be addressed to GMP-CIMMYT@cgiar.org with attention to Nicholas Davis, Program Manager, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT.

APPLY FOR A LICENSE

Smallholder farmers embrace climate-smart seed and mechanization fairs

Written by Tawanda Hove on December 14, 2022. Posted in News.

Farmers pose with the drought-tolerant seed of their choice at a seed fair in Masvingo district, Zimbabwe. (Photo: Tawanda Hove/CIMMYT)

The long-term climate outlook for sub-Saharan Africa predicts more erratic rainfalls and higher temperatures. For this reason, the rapid uptake of measures to adapt to climate change within seed systems is of paramount importance. In Zimbabwe, the adoption of “climate-smart seed varieties”, environmentally-sustainable and scale-appropriate mechanization is critical to reaching zero hunger in the face of climate change. Farmers in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo district appear to have embraced this goal. More than 1,000 farmers participated in recent R4/Zambuko climate smart seed and mechanization fairs held in the region on October 11 and 12, respectively.

The fairs were organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in partnership with Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development. Financial support was provided by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the World Food Programme (WFP). With the onset of the 2022/2023 cropping season, the new OneCGIAR Ukama Ustawi initiative will build upon this work to reach thousands more farmers in the area.

One highlight of the fairs was a strong focus on smallholder mechanization, which saw Zimbabwean and international mechanization companies displaying their products. Each demonstrated two-wheel tractors and a range of attachments, from trailers to crop production and harvesting implements. In the words of the District Development Coordinator (DDC) Kenneth Madziva, “It’s important that farmers own machinery that is appropriate to their context as we now need to move into an era of high productivity and efficient post-harvest processing. We also see some of the machinery on display quite relevant for conservation agriculture practices which aligns with the government’s Pfumvudza program.” Mechanizing the manual basin planting system in Pfumvudza to ripline seeding will dramatically reduce the farm labor usually needed to dig the basins while maintaining the key principles of conservation agriculture: no-tillage, crop residue retention and crop diversification.

According to Madziva, “Such initiatives from partners are very welcome, as rural livelihoods are predominantly agriculturally based. There is need to rapidly transition our farmers from a donor dependence to self-sufficiency, hence I am impressed with the number of farmers I have seen buy seed with their own hard-earned money.” The fairs generally strive to achieve two goals: first, ensuring that farmers are well-informed about climate adapted varieties able to withstand climate challenges such as in-season dry-spells and/or heat stress, and, second, that they buy the improved seed directly from private sector partners.

Farmers observe a two-wheel tractor engine being used to power a maize sheller. (Photo: Tawanda Hove/CIMMYT)

It is hoped that increasing famers’ exposure to scale-appropriate mechanization will translate into increased purchases of the equipment and a move away from the drudgery of both draft or manual production and processing systems. Robin Vikström, the donor representative from WFP also stated that it is high time for smallholder farmer systems be intensified, and mechanization is one of the essential triggers of intensification.

Vikström, speaking on the significance of the events said, “Such initiatives are part of a broader national resilience building strategy where our intention is to enable smallholder farmers to deal with climate shocks and stresses through capacity development trainings, diversified crop production systems, effective and well-governed Income Savings and Lending groups (ISALS) and improved livestock. This is a step forward from our tradition of distributing food, which is still necessary in certain contexts, but has to be progressed to self-reliance. The seed and mechanization fairs facilitate stronger interactions between the farmers and the private sector and furthermore the procurement of the right seed and mechanization for their ecological region. More interaction translates to better product development and increased sales which is a win-win for all stakeholders concerned. This is a major step towards sustainable achievement of food and nutrition security.”

Concerning the long-term plan of the intervention, Vikström added, “The initiative is currently set to run until 2025 with plans already underway to expand to more wards and districts as the development strategy is proving to be yielding significant results.” The seed fairs resulted in the sale of approximately 1.9 metric tons of improved white and orange maize seed, generating over $6,000 in revenue for participating private sector vendors.

Christian Thierfelder, Principal Cropping Systems Agronomist at CIMMYT and Principal Investigator for the program said, “As we expanded this year to different wards, our objective was to first create an educational platform for farmers where farmers could learn more about the various stress-tolerant seed varieties with improved genetics available from the private sector. Secondly, we wanted to create a selling platform for the private sector where various companies could have their products made much more easily accessible to the smallholder farmers. I am happy that the private sector talked about conservation agriculture, which is an important new narrative. Farmers need to grow the right seed in a good agronomic environment for the crop to succeed.”

Although this crop season’s outlook is yet to be officially communicated to farmers, there is high anticipation for a bumper harvest through improved varieties and efficient, mechanized operations and farmers were eager to buy the right seed to reap the benefits of science in their own homestead.

CIMMYT scientists rank in top 1% of highly cited papers

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on November 30, 2022. Posted in News.

Jill Cairns in front of CIMMYT headquarters. (Photo: Sam Storr/CIMMYT)

Three scientists from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are included in Clarivate’s 2022 Analysis of the most highly cited academic papers.

Maize Physiologist Jill Cairns, Distinguished Scientist and Head of Wheat Physiology Matthew Reynolds, and Biometrician José Crossa, all from CIMMYT, were recognized in the 2022 analysis.

Jose Crossa chairing a session on adding value to phenotypic data. (Photo: Alfonso Cortés/CIMMYT)

This year, 7,255 Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) designations were issued to 6,938 individuals globally. The award is given to scientists with papers that rank in the top 1% by citations. Matthew was awarded for his contribution to scientific literature in plant and animal sciences, while José and Jill were awarded for their contributions to scientific literature across several fields of research (cross fields).

Of the world’s population of scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers are 1 in 1,000.

The analysis highlights disparities in the locations of top cited scientists. For example, 82.9% of recipients are from just ten countries and regions, out of a possible 70, and 71.4% are from the United States of America, China, the United Kingdom, Germany, or Australia. While the recognition is only given to individual scientists, Matthew, José, and Jill’s success is related to strong scientific collaborations worldwide.

Matthew Reynolds at IWC9 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo: Julie Mollins)

Opening the door to commercial fodder production

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on November 17, 2022. Posted in Features.

The paired challenges of population growth and climate change have put smallholder farmers in Zambia in a squeeze. In the Southern Province, the center of agricultural production for the nation, smallholder dairy farmers struggle to increase their production of fodder to commercially viable levels in the face of a long dry season that climate change is intensifying.

Smallholder farmers looking to support their families, enhance the local food supply, and sustain economic growth in their areas are at a distinct disadvantage because agriculture in Zambia is dominated by massive commercial operations with plentiful capital, large tracts of land, and expensive machinery, with most of their output marked for export.

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is partnering with the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the University of Hohenheim to identify key barriers and sustainable pathways to smallholder farmer success through a mechanization working group. This work is being carried out through the global initiative One World No Hunger, which launched Green Innovation Centers for the Agriculture and Food Sector (GIC) in 15 member countries in 2014.

“Mechanization is a critical aspect of responding to these problems and the core business of the GIC is to develop knowledge,” said Chimuka Mulowa, a GIC cooperative development advisor based in Choma, Zambia. “Our efforts provide training to smallholder farmers with a focus on adaptive mechanization as a critical ingredient in a holistic approach. Projects in the past have purchased equipment, but we integrate knowledge with existing infrastructure.”

Smallholder homestead with irrigation and fencing to protect developed pasture, Namwala, Southern Province, Zambia. (Photo: Vuyo Maphango)

In Zambia, the GIC works with 22 cooperatives to reach 10,000 small-scale farmers with training sessions on fencing land to grow grass, climate smart breeding, irrigation, and more. The GIC has reached their training goal, but implementation of new practices has been more difficult, with only about half the farmers adopting what they have learned so far.

To better understand the challenges smallholder farmers face in Zambia, Mulowa and the GIC partnered with researcher Vuyo Maphango, who was completing his master’s degree in agricultural economics at the University of Hohenheim under the supervision of Lennart Woltering, a senior scientist at CIMMYT. Woltering developed a tool called Scaling Scan which analyzes barriers to growth for successful innovations in the pilot stage and brings focus to key ingredients for expansion.

Mulowa and Maphango used Scaling Scan to assess the progress of the GIC efforts in Zambia. As they expected, for smallholder farmers trying to get into commercial fodder production, financing was a challenge. At $35,000 USD for a machinery like hay balers used once per year, it can take a farmer up to a decade to recoup such an investment. But Scaling Scan also identified surprising challenges, such as a lack of collaboration and uneven dissemination of knowledge and skills.

Tractor carrying hay bales, Choma, Southern Province, Zambia. (Photo: Vuyo Maphango)

“There was a lot of progress coming out of the Scaling Scan process,” Maphango said. “Growing the cooperatives of farmers is a critical GIC focus now, and this helps with the finance issues as well. Where farmers can’t afford to buy or develop high-quality seed, they can come together, share which seeds are working best for them, and help each other adopt best practices. Staying close as a cooperative also gives farmers stronger bargaining power with the ability to pool together finances.”

More affordable equipment will also help. Smaller, less expensive choppers and chuff cutters ($1500-2000 USD) are already available for silage production, but there is not a well-established tradition of employing silage production in Zambia, and farmers there have struggled to adopt it. Similar machines are making their way onto the market for fodder production and will require farmers to develop a new set of technical skills.

Mulowa and Maphango are also rethinking approaches to training. As an incentive, non-government organizations (NGOs) often pay participants for their time when they attend training sessions, but government ministries can’t sustain this practice beyond the end of a project due to lack of funding. For a deeper level of skill and knowledge development, GIC wants to help farmers see the benefit of training as providing its own incentive–continuing professional education will pay off, both in terms of better agricultural and business practices, and better financial outcomes. The key to this transition is results. When farmers see their yield improving because of skills and practices they developed in training, they will be hungry for more.

Success, for Zambian smallholders, is a door that is opening slowly but surely. “Early adopters are making progress,” Maphango said. “Some are growing their own grass, others are fencing their land and developing irrigation.” As these practices take root, and farmers share victories with cooperative members; the value of ongoing training becomes clear, and the door may open further for others to walk through.

Cover photo: Hay bales on a commercial farm, Chisamba, Central Province, Zambia. (Photo: Vuyo Maphango)

The democratization of innovation

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on November 15, 2022. Posted in Features.

When the Norwegian Red Cross hired Kristian Wengen and his consulting firm Tinkr to launch a “Scaling for Success” initiative, he found himself at a crossroads. From international aid projects aiming to address the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to private companies seeking to expand their market, everyone was talking about the challenges of scaling up – expanding and sustaining successful programs to reach a greater number of people – but there were few clear paths to solutions.

Wengen worked with CIMMYT to adapt the Scaling Scan. (Photo: Kristian Wengen)

The Scaling Scan has solutions to offer

But when Wengen came across a project using a tool called the Scaling Scan that identifies and analyzes 10 critical elements for assessing the scalability of any pilot project, he knew he had found a way forward. He was excited, but also worried because the project using the Scaling Scan had concluded.

Concerned he would lose access to the best tool he had found by far, Wengen connected with Lennart Woltering, who created the Scaling Scan for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with a Dutch-supported project on private-public partnerships called the PPPLab. Woltering and Wengen began a dialogue regarding repurposing the Scaling Scan for Wengen’s context.

“What I like about the Scaling Scan is that it works on a very detailed level to produce systemic results,” said Wengen. “It brings a simple approach to the complex problems of scalability, which allow organizations to achieve efficient solutions, regardless of their geographic or demographic context.”

The Scaling Scan focuses attention on discrete components – from finance and business cases to technology and skills – which are necessary to successfully scale an innovation. But it also spurs insight into how each of these necessary ingredients complement each other as a project prepares to successfully transition, reproduce, and expand.

Wengen believes the most effective work of the Scaling Scan happens in team conversations, and it helps deliver clear feedback that can form the basis of discussions that go straight to the heart of the matter. While the challenges of scaling an innovation are complex, the Scaling Scan cuts through the noise and focuses attention on solving the most important problems, whether related to leadership, collaboration, or public sector governance.

Scaling the Scaling Scan

In their conversations, Wengen and Woltering identified opportunities for improving the Scaling Scan. For example, Wengen is building a digitized, web-based version that, like the original Scaling Scan, will be freely available. He calls it a scorecard, a smaller version which capitalizes on the ability of the Scan to promote productive dialogue that moves a project forward. “I am thrilled to help broaden the reach of the Scaling Scan, as making it available for a much wider audience will democratize innovation,” Wengen said.

“Kristian’s adaptations are exactly how I designed the Scaling Scan to work,” said Woltering. “I wanted it to be straightforward enough to be useful across a broad range of business and development applications and flexible enough to be tailored to the specific needs of a particular region, culture, or marketplace.” Seeing how Wengen has utilized the Scaling Scan across a variety of markets has spurred Wennart to develop the Scaling Scan website, where other interested practitioners can download the tool and share their own innovations. “The Scaling Scan truly has utility across the broadest geographies and socioeconomic ranges,” said Wennart.

Wengen is hoping his scaling scorecard will help drive success in a new collaboration he is undertaking with Innovation Norway, a state-owned organization that helps Norwegian businesses grow and export promising products and services. Wengen believes his scorecard will add immense value to a diverse set of projects ranging from business management software helping bakeries reduce waste and increase profits to zero-carbon ocean-going ships and virtual medical training systems.

This kind of transfer and growth shows that even the Scaling Scan itself can be scaled up from the tropics to the Arctic Circle, and Woltering can’t wait to see where the next successful adaptation will spring up.

From silver bullets to transition science in the CGIAR: reflections on the scalingXchange Call to Action

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on October 31, 2022. Posted in Features.

The origins of the CGIAR, the world’s largest publicly funded agricultural research consortium for the poor, are closely related to the Green Revolution; a revolution mostly told as the work of one Northern hero with a superior technology that saved the world from starvation. Only recently has the notion that the introduction of that superior technology was one of many investments and innovations that kicked off as the Revolution started to gain ground – and that these investments and innovations came from both the North and South. Scaling of innovation happens in a larger system, often one that feels resistant to whatever we try to scale or, like in the case of the Green Revolution, aligned with what was being scaled and thus led to a tipping point and a completely new way agriculture is produced. The Revolution changed our relation to food, from which there was no going back.

In my ten years at the CGIAR – from 2005 to 2010 at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and then from 2017 to now at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) – major shifts can be observed in how scaling is approached.

First, scaling equals large adoption during the project, stemming from strong confidence that “if we build it, they will come”, or we just show how good our innovation is and others will scale it. From my own experience developing scale-appropriate drip irrigation in the Sahel, North Africa, I can say that approach hardly worked. When I re-joined the CGIAR in 2017, there was much more attention to the context in which the intervention is being scaled – we need to “create an enabling environment” for the innovation, and multiple innovations need to scale alongside “our”, mostly technical, innovation. It was very interesting to see up close how more and more colleagues have started to question whether scaling is “good” in the first place and whether it should be about “our” innovations.

COVID-19 and the major energy transitions that are going on in Europe and some states in the United States of America (USA) seem to have awoken a much stronger systems view, the realization that change takes decades, and that there are winners and losers in that process. I think we did a great job in questioning the “silver bullet” and “transfer of technology” mindset and see the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a transition process that requires radically different approaches and addresses multiple leverage points.

Scaling at One CGIAR

The major reform from 15 CGIAR centers to One CGIAR was the perfect opportunity to take scaling seriously as a science and an art. A range of methodologies have been developed, and informal networks of like-minded people have worked together a lot to push for a new paradigm on scaling. It is great that scaling is now well embedded in the One CGIAR strategy for the future. The big One CGIAR Initiatives have all reserved about 5 percent of their budgets to integrate scaling expertise. Also, scaling is very much recognized as a topic that requires a culture and mindset change within the organization to be much more effective.

Not surprisingly, the Call to Action from the Global South and its eight action points resonated a lot with me, especially since the following principles match really well:

It is not about reaching a target as fast as possible but about the whole environment for sustainability – more is not always better. Scaling can help us understand whether project outputs have contributed to something good (Action 1).
We need to reflect better on the viability of some innovations to go to scale – rather than promoting or selling our own solutions, supporting Southern solutions could increase viability (Action 7).
Problem owners should be in charge of scaling – scaling should be a locally owned process where those on the ground negotiate what is good and enough, and we, the research and development organizations, facilitate and support (Action 2).
The way projects are designed and implement set us up for failure. We create fake, highly controlled environments designed to prove that our innovation works – the gap with the reality on the ground could not be larger. The development community, with donors, need to rethink our approach (Action 5).
We need to invest in learning and the science of scaling. Organizations in the Global North need modesty in understanding that our role is not neutral and realize that there is so much we don’t know (Action 8).
Within organizations, scaling is a cultural issue tightly connected to change management. We need to shift mindsets and behaviors to allow better scaling to happen.

That this Call comes from researchers in the Global South is so powerful. It shows us that the current ways of working are not delivering and paints a picture of a better way of doing things, but at the moment, we are in uncertain limbo between the two. The guidance in the Call can help to incite momentum and change. I believe we are coming to a critical mass of people that can tip the scale and that the actions in the Call can become the new normal – so that the stories we tell in the future focus not just on external (Northern) innovations that lead to big change, but on the interplay between what is going in the South and how external “solutions” fit in.

Cover photo: Lead farmer Santa Bhandari harvests green maize for her buffaloes
Neulapur, Bardiya, Nepal. (Photo: Peter Lowe/CIMMYT)

New CIMMYT maize hybrids available from Latin America Breeding Program

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on October 27, 2022. Posted in News.

CIMMYT is happy to announce four new, improved tropical maize hybrids that are now available for uptake by public and private sector partners, especially those interested in marketing or disseminating hybrid maize seed across Latin America and similar agro-ecological zones. Public- and private-sector organizations are hereby invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release and /or scale-up seed production and deliver these maize hybrids to farming communities.

Product Code	Target agroecology	Key traits
CIM20LAPP1A-11	Latin-American lowland tropics and similar agroecologies.	Intermediate maturing, white, high yielding, drought tolerant, and resistant to TSC, MLB, and ear rots
CIM20LAPP1A-12
CIM20LAPP1C-9		Intermediate maturing, yellow, high yielding, drought tolerant, and resistant to MLB and ear rots
CIM20LAPP1C-10

Performance data	Download the CIMMYT Latin America Stage 4 and Stage 5 Trials: Results of the 2020 and 2021 Trials and Product Announcement from Dataverse.
How to apply	Visit CIMMYT’s maize product allocation page for details
Application deadline	The deadline to submit applications to be considered during the first round of allocations is 25 November 2022. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during subsequent rounds of product allocations.

The newly available CIMMYT maize hybrids, CIM20LAPP1C-9, CIM20LAPP1C-10, CIM20LAPP1A-11 and CIM20LAPP1A-12, were identified through rigorous trialing and a stage-gate advancement process which culminated in the 2020 and 2021 CIMMYT Latin America Stage 4 and Stage 5 Trials. The products were found to meet the stringent performance criteria for CIMMYT’s LA-PP1A and LA-PP1C breeding pipelines. While there is variation between different products coming from the same pipeline, the LA-PP1A and LA-PP1C pipelines are designed around the target product profiles described below:

Product Profile	*Basic traits*	*Nice-to-have / Emerging traits*	*Target agroecologies*
LatAM-PP1A (Tropical Lowland White)	Intermediate maturing, white, high yielding, drought tolerant, and resistant to TSC, MLB, and ear rots	GLS, Fusarium Stalk Rot	Latin-American lowland tropics and similar agroecologies.
LatAM-PP1C (Tropical Lowland Yellow)	Intermediate maturing, yellow, high yielding, drought tolerant, and resistant to MLB and ear rots	GLS, Fusarium Stalk Rot	Latin-American lowland tropics and similar agroecologies.
MLB: Maydis leaf blight; TSC: Tar spot complex; GLS: Grey leaf spot

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Is uptake of rust-resistant wheat linked to gender equality?

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on October 10, 2022. Posted in News.

Sieg Snapp presents research on agroecological approaches to maize farming in Malawi and Zimbabwe at Tropentag 2022. (Photo: Ramiro Ortega Landa/CIMMYT)

Farmers, development practitioners and scientists gathered at Tropentag 2022 between September 14-16 to answer a question that will affect all our futures: can agroecological farming feed the world?

Tropentag is an annual interdisciplinary conference on research in tropical and subtropical agriculture, natural resource management and rural development, jointly organized by nine European universities and the Council for Tropical and Subtropical Agricultural Research (ATSAF e.V), in cooperation with the GIZ Fund International Agricultural Research (FIA).

This year’s event explored the potential of agroecology to contribute to improved nutrition, enhanced natural resource management and farm incomes.

Sieg Snapp, Director of the Sustainable Agrifood Systems (SAS) program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) presented on agroecology approaches to enhance learning in a changing world based on experiences with maize-based cropping systems in southern Africa. Snapp suggested that accelerated learning and adaptative capacity are key to the local generation of suitable solutions to agricultural problems, and proposed agroecology as a foundational approach that emphasizes understanding principles, harnessing biological processes, and enhancing local capacity.

Snapp shared how an agroecology living laboratory in Malawi has supported farmer agency around soil health, crop diversification and sustainable intensification since 2013, while living labs are being established in “food territories” in Zimbabwe to support innovation and strategies for evaluating the benefits of farm-scale agroecology approaches. She also explored solutions for pest management, inclusive financing modalities and collaborative innovation generation between farmers and researchers.

Gender and disease-resistant varieties

Michael Euler, Agricultural Resource Economist at CIMMYT, presented in the conference session on technology adoption and dissemination for smallholder farms, which included contributions on the adoption and impact of improved forage production, use of biogas facilities, agroecological management practices, improved wheat seeds, and access to and use genetic diversity in gene banks.

Based on data from CIMMYT’s Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project in Ethiopia, Euler presented a study on how intra-household decision-making dynamics influence the adoption of rust-resistant wheat varieties.

By using questionnaires that were addressed separately to male and female spouses in the household, researchers obtained insights on perceived individual roles in decision-making and agreements. The study found that an increase in the role of the female spouse in household farming decisions is positively associated with the uptake of rust-resistant varieties.

Additional sessions from the event focused on crops and cropping systems, animal production systems, food security and nutrition, agroecology, and food processing and quality.

Annual Report 2021 launched

Written by Sarah McLaughlin on October 10, 2022. Posted in News.

Today, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is excited to share with you the Annual Report 2021: From Discovery to Scaling Up.

Read the web version of the Annual Report 2021

Download the Annual Report 2021 in PDF format

Download the financial statements 2021

Our latest Annual Report captures the three ways in which CIMMYT science makes a difference:

The scientific pathway from discovery and validation: In 2021, we embarked on an ambitious initiative to apply environmental genome-wide association methods to predict how today’s maize, rice, sorghum, cassava, groundnut, and bean varieties will perform in the future under climate scenarios, and help them succeed in three or four decades from now.
Translating science to innovation: Last year, we made important strides in boosting the resilience of maize and wheat to a hotter and drier world — and to the threats of ever-evolving and invasive pests and diseases.
Scaling up innovation for farmers and society: In collaboration with dozens of public- and private-sector partners in the countries where we work, in 2021 we scaled up sustainable technologies and farming practices for hundreds of thousands of farmers.

CIMMYT director general Bram Govaerts presented the current challenges: “A global food crisis fueled by conflict, trade disruptions, soaring commodity prices and climate change.” He also expressed CIMMYT is ready to respond to the immediate and long-term threats facing humanity. “We have solid, science-informed solutions, policy recommendations and proven methodologies that will help avert the global food security crisis that looms,” he said.

We want to thank all our funders and partners for their collaboration and support, year after year.