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.
There is no nationwide official data on how much rice in India is grown through DSR. M L Jat, principal scientist with Mexico-based CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), estimated that about 10 per cent of India’s 44 million ha under rice cultivation is through DSR.
In the past few decades, many state governments have been encouraging farmers to move to DSR because it is easier on the environment, but without much success.
A new analysis by wheat scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) published in Scientific Reports includes insights and genetic information that will help in the efforts to breed yellow rust resistant wheat.
The machine saves farmers the burden of physically removing maize from combs, a tedious, time wasting and costly exercise that is practiced by at least 85 per cent of smallholder farmers in the country according to a research dubbed ‘maize production, challenges and experience of smallholder farmers in East Africa by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Can Africa’s smallholder farmers adopt and reap the benefits of farm mechanization? The Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) team set out in 2013 to test this proposition. With the project nearing closure, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) project leader Frédéric Baudron believes the answer is yes.
“We have demonstrated that small-scale mechanization is a pathway to sustainable intensification and rural transformation, and can have positive gender outcomes as well,” he explained.
Here are some of the key lessons learned along the way, according to the people involved.
1. Appropriate mechanization is essential
With many farms in Africa measuring no more than two hectares, FACASI focused on bringing two-wheel tractors to regions where smallholdings dominate, especially in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. For most small farmers, conventional farm machinery is out of reach due to its size, costs, and the skills needed to operate it. The typical path to mechanization would be for farmers to consolidate their farms, which could lead to social and environmental upheaval. Instead, the FACASI team scaled-down the equipment to suit the local context.
FACASI has obtained evidence to dispel commonly held myths about farm power in smallholder farming systems,” said Eric Huttner, research program manager for crops at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
“We gained many valuable insights by continuously refining technologies in the context of efficiency, farmer preference and needs,” said Bisrat Getnet, FACASI national project coordinator in Ethiopia, and director of the Agricultural Engineering Research Department in the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR).
Jane Mautsa and her husband operating the sheller. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
3. Make it useful
The basic two-wheel tractor is a highly flexible and adaptable technology, which can be used to mechanize a range of on-farm tasks throughout the seasons. With the right attachments, the tractor makes short work of sowing, weeding, harvesting, shelling, water pumping, threshing and transportation.
“This multi-functional feature helps to ensure the tractor is useful at all stages of the annual farming cycle, and helps make it profitable, offsetting costs,” said Raymond Nazare, FACASI national project coordinator in Zimbabwe and lecturer at the Soil and Engineering Department of the University of Zimbabwe.
4. Less pain, more profit
Reducing the unnecessary drudgery of smallholder farming can be financially rewarding and open new doors. Mechanization can save farmers the costs of hiring additional labor, and vastly reduce the time and effort of many post-harvest tasks — often done by women — such as transport, shelling and grinding. FACASI researchers demonstrated the potential for mechanization to reduce this onerous labor, allowing women to channel their time and energy into other activities.
“The project demonstrated that small mechanization can create profitable employment,” said Tirivangani Koza, of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement.
“Women and youth are using small mechanization to grow profitable businesses,” said Alice Woodhead in Australia.
“They have advanced from dependent family members to financially independent entrepreneurs. Their new skills, such as servicing the tractors, marketing and shelling, have increased their family’s income. FACASI has also inspired community members to launch aligned businesses such as shelling services, inventing new two-wheel tractor implements for the growing customer base, or becoming artisan mechanics. In some districts, the two-wheel tractors are starting to create a cycle of innovation, business development, food diversification and sustainable economic growth,” she said.
6. Respond to farmer demands
Although the FACASI team set out to promote mechanization as a way to help farmers take up conservation agriculture techniques such as direct seeding, they opened the Pandora’s box for other beneficial uses. By the project’s end, it was clear that transport and mechanization of post-harvest tasks like shelling and threshing, had become far more popular among farmers than mechanization of crop production. This result is a sign of the team’s success in demonstrating the value of small-scale mechanization, and adapting technologies to respond to farmers’ needs.
7. Embrace new research models
Agricultural research for development has long forgotten about labour and mechanization issues; the FACASI team helped put these front and center by involving engineers, business enterprises, agriculturalists, and partners from across the supply chain.
“FACASI demonstrates an important change in how to do agricultural research to achieve meaningful impacts,” Woodhead said.
“Rather than focus only on the farm environment and on extension services, they worked from the outset with partners across the food, agriculture and manufacturing sectors, as well as with the public institutions that can sustain long-term change. The project’s results are exciting because they indicate that sustainable growth can be achieved by aligning conservation agriculture goals, institutions and a community’s business value propositions,” she explained.
What’s next?
Demonstration of a minitiller, Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: Matt O’ Leary/CIMMYT)
Although the project has ended, its insights and lessons will carry on.
“We have built a solid proof of concept. We know what piece of machinery works in a particular context, and have tested different delivery models to understand what works where,” explained Frédéric Baudron.
“We now need to move from piloting to scaling. This does not mean leaving all the work to development partners; research still has a big role to play in generating evidence and making sure this knowledge can be used by local manufacturers, engineers, local dealers and financial institutions,” he said.
As an international research organization, CIMMYT is strategically placed to provide critical answers to farming communities and the diversity of actors in the mechanization value chain.
“ACIAR provided us generous and visionary support, at a time when very few resources were going to mechanization research in Africa,” Baudron acknowledged. “This allowed CIMMYT and its partners from the national research system and the private sector to develop unique expertise on scale-appropriate mechanization. The legacy of FACASI will be long-lived in the region,” he concluded.
Cover photo: Starwheel planter in Zimbabwe. (Photo: Jérôme Bossuet/CIMMYT)
June marks the start of the rice growing season in India’s breadbasket but on the quiet fields of Haryana and Punjab you wouldn’t know it.
Usually the northwestern Indian states are teeming with migrant laborers working to transplant rice paddies. However, the government’s 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.
“Farmers 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,” 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 — 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 India’s air pollution crisis, said CIMMYT scientist Balwinder Singh.
“Mechanized 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,” 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: 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.
“Matching nursery sowing to meet delayed transplanting dates is an immediate action that farmers can take to ensure crop productivity in the short term. However, it’s important policymakers prioritize technologies, such as direct seeders, that contribute to long term solutions,” 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.
“Identifying the areas with delayed transplanting well in advance should be a priority for effectively targeting the direct drilling of wheat using Happy Seeders,” 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. “Incentivizing farmers through a direct benefit transfer payment to adopt ‘no burn’ practices may help accelerate transitions.”
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.
“CIMMYT 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,” 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.
“Research evidence generated over the past decade demonstrates that maize along with modern agronomic management practices can provide a profitable and sustainable alternative to rice,” Jat explained. “The 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.”
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 farmers’ 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 ICAR’s 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 ICAR’s deputy director general for Natural Research Management, SK Chaudhari.
“Policies encouraging farming practices that save resources and protect the environment will improve long term productivity of the nation,” 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: A farmer uses a tractor fitted with a Happy Seeder. (Photo: Dakshinamurthy Vedachalam/CIMMYT)
In response to increasing labor scarcity and costs, growth in mechanized wheat and rice harvesting has fueled farm prosperity and entrepreneurial opportunity in the poorest parts of Nepal, researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have recorded.
Farmers are turning to two-wheeled tractor-mounted reaper-harvesters to make up for the lack of farm labor, caused by a significant number of rural Nepalese — especially men and youth — migrating out in search of employment opportunities.
For Nandalal Oli, a 35-year-old farmer from Bardiya in far-west Nepal, investing in a mechanized reaper not only allowed him to avoid expensive labor costs that have resulted from out-migration from his village, but it also provided a source of income offering wheat and rice harvesting services to his neighbors.
“The reaper easily attaches on my two-wheel tractor and means I can mechanically cut and lay the wheat and rice harvests,” said Oli, the father of two. “Hiring help to harvest by hand is expensive and can take days but with the reaper attachment it’s done in hours, saving time and money.”
Oli was first introduced to the small reaper attachment three years ago at a farmer exhibition hosted by Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), funded through USAID. He saw the reaper as an opportunity to add harvesting to his mechanization business, where he was already using his two-wheel tractor for tilling, planting and transportation services.
Prosperity powers up reaper adoption
Number of 2-wheel tractor-attachable reaper-harvesters operational through service providers in Nepal’s Terai, 2014–2019
Over 4,000 mechanized reapers have been sold in Nepal with more than 50% in far and mid-west Nepal since researchers first introduced the technology five years ago. The successful adoption — which is now led by agricultural machinery dealers that were established or improved with CSISA’s support — has led nearly 24,000 farmers to have regular access to affordable crop harvesting services, said CIMMYT agricultural economist Gokul Paudel.
“Reapers improve farm management, adding a new layer of precision farming and reducing grain loss. Compared to manual harvesting mechanized reapers improve farming productivity that has shown to significantly increase average farm profitability when used for harvesting both rice and wheat,” he explained.
Nearly 65% of Nepal’s population works in agriculture, yet this South Asian country struggles to produce an adequate and affordable supply of food. The research indicated increased farm precision through the use of mechanized reapers boosts farm profitability by $120 a year when used for both rice and wheat harvests.
Oli agreed farmers see the benefit of his harvesting service as he has had no trouble finding customers. On an average year he serves 100 wheat and rice farmers in a 15 kilometer radius of his home.
“Investing in the reaper harvester worked for me. I earn 1,000 NRs [about $8] per hour harvesting fields and was able to pay off the purchase in one season. The added income ensures I can stay on top of bills and pay my children’s school fees.”
Farmers who have purchased reapers operate as service providers to other farms in their community, Paudel said.
“This has the additional benefit of creating legitimate jobs in rural areas, particularly needed among both migrant returnees who are seeking productive uses for earnings gained overseas that, at present, are mostly used for consumptive and unproductive sectors.”
“This additional work can also contribute to jobs for youth keeping them home rather than migrating,” he said.
The adoption rate of the reaper harvester is projected to reach 68% in the rice-wheat systems in the region within the next three years if current trends continue, significantly increasing access and affordability to the service.
Private and public support for mechanized harvester key to strong adoption
Achieving buy-in from the private and public sector was essential to the successful introduction and uptake of reaper attachments in Nepal, said Scott Justice, an agricultural and rural mechanization expert with the CSISA project.
Off the back of the popularity of the two-wheel tractor for planting and tilling, 22 reaper attachments were introduced by the researchers in 2014. Partnering with government institutions, the researchers facilitated demonstrations led by the private sector in farmers’ fields successfully building farmer demand and market-led supply.
“The reapers were introduced at the right place, at the right time. While nearly all Terai farmers for years had used tractor-powered threshing services, the region was suffering from labor scarcity or labor spikes where it took 25 people all day to cut one hectare of grain by hand. Farmers were in search of an easier and faster way to cut their grain,” Justice explained.
“Engaging the private and public sector in demonstrating the functionality and benefits of the reaper across different districts sparked rapidly increasing demand among farmers and service providers,” he said.
Early sales of the reaper attachments have mostly been directly to farmers without the need for considerable government subsidy. Much of the success was due to the researchers’ approach engaging multiple private sector suppliers and the Nepal Agricultural Machinery Entrepreneurs’ Association (NAMEA) and networks of machinery importers, traders, and dealers to ensure stocks of reapers were available at local level. The resulting competition led to 30-40% reduction in price contributing to increasing sales.
“With the technical support of researchers through the CSISA project we were able to import reaper attachments and run demonstrations to promote the technology as a sure investment for farmers and rural entrepreneurs,” said Krishna Sharma from Nepal Agricultural Machinery Entrepreneurs’ Association (NAMEA).
From 2015, the private sector capitalized on farmers’ interest in mechanized harvesting by importing reapers and running their own demonstrations and several radio jingles and sales continued to increase into the thousands, said Justice.
Building entrepreneurial capacity along the value chain
Through the CSISA project private dealers and public extension agencies were supported in developing training courses on the use of the reaper and basic business skills to ensure long-term success for farmers and rural entrepreneurs.
Training was essential in encouraging the emergence of mechanized service provision models and the market-based supply and repair chains required to support them, said CIMMYT agricultural mechanization engineer Subash Adhikari.
“Basic operational and business training for farmers who purchased a reaper enabled them to become service providers and successfully increased the access to reaper services and the amount of farms under improved management,” he said.
As commonly occurs when machinery adoption spreads, the availability of spare parts and repairs for reapers lagged behind sales. Researchers facilitated reaper repair training for district sales agent mechanics, as well as providing small grants for spare parts to build the value chain, Adhikari added.
Apart from hire services, mechanization creates additional opportunities for new business with repair and maintenance of equipment, sales and dealership of related businesses including transport and agro-processing along the value chain.
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) aims to sustainably increase the productivity of cereal based cropping systems to improve food security and farmers’ livelihoods in Nepal. CSISA works with public and private partners to support the widespread adoption of affordable and climate-resilient farming technologies and practices, such as improved varieties of maize, wheat, rice and pulses, and mechanization.
Cover photo: A farmer uses a two-wheel tractor-mounted reaper to harvest wheat in Nepal. (Photo: Timothy J. Krupnik/CIMMYT)
In 2019, CIMMYT continued to perform groundbreaking crop research and forge powerful partnerships to combat hunger and climate change, preserve maize and wheat biodiversity, and respond to emerging pests and diseases.
Bill Gates spoke about the “essential role of CGIAR research centers in feeding our future” and together with other stakeholders urged us to “do even better.” In his Gates Notes blog, he highlighted the great example of CIMMYT’s drought-tolerant maize, which helps resource-poor farmers withstand increasing climate risks.
Over the course of the year, we supported our national partners to release 82 maize and 50 wheat varieties. More than 14,000 farmers, scientists, and technical workers across the world took part in over 900 training and capacity development activities. CIMMYT researchers published 386 peer-reviewed journal articles.
In 2019, CIMMYT also marked the end of a decade of achievements in seed security. CIMMYT celebrated being the largest depositor at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault with 173,779 accessions from 131 countries. The most recent deposit included 15,231 samples of wheat and 332 samples of maize.
Innovative solutions like DNA fingerprinting – a method used to identify individual plants by looking at unique patterns in their genome – brought state of the art research into farmer’s fields, providing valuable insights into the diversity of wheat varieties grown in Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
CIMMYT also continued to play a key role in the battle against fall armyworm, coordinating a global research-for–development consortium to build an evidence-based response against the pest in both Africa and Asia.
Through the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), CIMMYT helped women find business opportunities and empoweredfemale entrepreneurship with the help of mechanization solutions.
The year 2019 showed us that while CIMMYT’s work may begin with seeds, our innovations support farmers at all stages of the value chain. The year ahead will be a challenging one as we continue to adjust to the “new normal” of life under COVID-19. We hope you enjoy this Annual Report as we look back on the exciting year that was 2019.
A unique consortium of global and Pakistan scientists has helped to drive the country’s recent growth in annual maize output to 6.3 million tons — nearly double the 2010 output — and energized the domestic production of affordable, quality seed of more nutritious and climate-resilient maize varieties.
With funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), support from the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and other national experts, and coordination by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the seven-year Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan has contributed to the dramatic growth in national maize productivity that began in the early 2000’s, when more farmers adopted hybrid seed and better management practices.
“A key AIP focus has been to reach smallholder and marginal farmers with affordable maize seed from domestic suppliers, thus reducing maize seed imports that cost Pakistan nearly $80 million in 2018-19,” said AbduRahman Beshir, CIMMYT maize seed system specialist for South Asia. “As part of this, the program has provided dozens of private companies with market-ready maize products and parental seed, as well as training in product marketing and business management and supporting the production and distribution of 175 tons of maize seed for on-farm demonstrations and promotion.”
“The testing of diversified maize products and release of new varieties represent encouraging progress,” said AbduRahman Beshir (foreground), CIMMYT maize seed system specialist, speaking during a traveling seminar, “but only advances in quality seed production and a competitive seed business at scale, with a strong case for investment by the private sector, will allow farmers to benefit.” (Photo: Waheed Anwar/CIMMYT)
Products from AIP have included more nutritious, diversified maize lines and varieties with tolerance to drought, infertile soils and insect pests, reducing the risk of smallholder farm families for whom losing a crop is catastrophic, according to Syed Khadem Jan, a farmer from Bajaur District of the tribal areas of Pakistan.
“Our area is very fragmented and maize yields have averaged less than 2 tons per hectare, due to the lack of improved varieties and management practices,” Jan said. “The new maize seed with drought-tolerance is what farmers are looking for and will help to secure our food and livelihoods.”
Pakistan farmers sow maize on 1.3 million hectares in diverse ecologies ranging from 30 meters above sea level on the arid plains of Sindh Province to nearly 3,000 meters in the Karakoram mountain range of Gilgit Baltistan Province and as part of complex, irrigated cropping rotations in Punjab Province and small-scale, rain-watered farms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. Yellow maize is used widely in poultry feed and white maize for various foods including unleavened roti. Despite rising domestic demand for maize, production in Pakistan faces challenges that include a lack of maize varieties for various uses and ecologies, a weak seed delivery system, high seed prices, and unpredictable weather.
Since 2014, AIP has supported the testing by public and private partners in Pakistan of more than 3,000 maize products from breeding programs of CIMMYT and partners such as the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). The extensive testing resulted in the identification of 60 new maize hybrids and varieties which CIMMYT handed over, together with their parental lines and breeder seed, to 16 public and private partners, according to Beshir.
“The maize seed distributed through AIP is enough to sow some 9,000 hectares, potentially benefitting nearly 110,000 families,” he said. “Similarly, CIMMYT has shared over 150 elite maize lines that have various preferred traits to foster variety registration, on-farm demonstrations, high-volume seed production, and intensive marketing. These contributions have broadened the genetic diversity and resilience of Pakistan’s maize and, through fast-track testing, saved partners at least eight years and considerable money, over having to develop them on their own from scratch and to pass them through conventional adaptation trials.”
Syed Khadam Jan, maize farmer from Bajaur District, Pakistan, holds a box of seed of a new climate-resilient maize variety from CIMMYT and the Pakistan Maize and Millet Research Institute. (Photo: Khashif Syed/CIMMYT)
Biofortified varieties provide better nutrition
Through AIP and national partners such as the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, farmers are testing pro-vitamin-A-enriched maize hybrids that are also remarkably high-yielding, helping to address one of the country’s chronic nutritional deficiencies. With the same aim, in 2017 the national variety evaluation committee approved the release of two “quality protein maize” hybrids, whose grain has enhanced levels of the amino-acid building blocks for protein in humans and other monogastric animals.
Thanking USAID and the government of Pakistan, as well as 22 public and private partners across the maize value chain, Muhammed Imtiaz, CIMMYT country representative for Pakistan and AIP project leader, underscored the importance of specialty maize products for vulnerable communities.
“Strengthening ‘Agriculture-to-Nutrition Pathways’ is a centerpiece of AIP and part of CIMMYT efforts to provide nutritious food for the needy,” Imtiaz said. “The introduction and evaluation of quality protein, Provitamin A and zinc enriched maize products represent a significant contribution both for the maize seed sector and Pakistan’s agricultural transformation.”
Addressing a 2020 AIP meeting, Muhammad Azeem Khan, PARC Chairman, urged stakeholders to use the new maize varieties. “I want to reiterate the importance of collaboration among public and private stakeholders to produce seed at scale, so that the diverse maize varieties can make it to the farmers’ fields as quickly as possible,” he said.
Maize seed producers acknowledge the value of AIP training and support in new business models. “We are grateful to CIMMYT for reviving and helping the crawling maize seed industry to walk,” said Aslam Yousuf, Managing Director of HiSell Seeds Private Ltd. Company. “Now we need to learn to run.”
Dating back to the 1960s, the research partnership between Pakistan and CIMMYT has played a vital role in improving food security for Pakistanis and for the global spread of improved crop varieties and farming practices. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace laureate and first director of CIMMYT wheat research, kept a close relationship with the nation’s researchers and policymakers.
Cover photo: Participants at a February 2020 maize working group meeting of the Pakistan Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) with seed of maize parental lines shared by CIMMYT. (Photo: Awais Yaqub)
The benefits of perennials are not so clear, says CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff. CIMMYT tested wheat perennials, but the grain turned out not to last for years, says program leader Hans-Joachim Braun.
In Lennart Woltering’s first job working on agricultural water management with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Niger, he observed a phenomenon that would influence his career path. Although drip irrigation involved huge benefits in terms of yields and productivity, adoption was low all across Africa. This fact made Woltering frustrated and interested.
In his second job at the biggest management consulting firm of Germany focused on international development, he was awarded a contract by the German development agency GIZ to lead a team on a demand-supply match for innovations from the CGIAR. Here he found that uptake of many innovations that showed superior performance over alternatives was limited and largely confined to the pilot project environment. When a few years later GIZ and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) advertised a Scaling Advisor position, Woltering knew this was the job for him.
Scaling is the process of expanding beneficial technologies and practices over geographies, and across institutions and levels to impact large numbers of people. This sounds very abstract, and Woltering is now supporting colleagues to make sense of the what, why and how of scaling in their specific contexts. The GIZ and CIMMYT contract modality does not force him to work on one project alone, but allows him to support a broad range of projects and programs to achieve more sustainable impact, within and beyond CIMMYT.
Changing mindsets
There is a modus operandi of doing projects in the most efficient way to meet targets, then moving on to the next project. Success is often measured by the number of beneficiaries reached at the last day of that project. However, this is often at the expense of important “systems work” such as building lasting relationships, developing organizational capacities and improving the enabling environment rather than finding holes in it. CIMMYT’s mission and vision are focused on social impact, hence the outcomes of our work are more important than our outputs. We cannot assume that adoption of an innovation leads directly to positive impacts — we have the responsibility to abide by the principles of “do no harm” and “leave no one behind.” Scaling is a process that should be part of the design of projects from the beginning.
Woltering keeps asking himself, “What happens when the project stops tomorrow? Do local actors have the capacities and desire to take responsibility of the scaling process once the project is over? What models of collaboration can survive the project?” He observes a strong underestimation of the importance of context for an innovation to be successful. Woltering’s guiding principle is “10% is the innovation and 90% is the context.”
Lennart Woltering discusses scaling strategies during a workshop at CIMMYT. (Photo: Maria Boa Alvarado/CIMMYT)
The Scaling Scan
The first thing Woltering did at CIMMYT was visit the country offices and projects in Africa and Asia, to understand how colleagues give meaning to scaling and to identify opportunities and challenges. He saw that in every context there was a different bottleneck to scaling — government policies, the value chain, but hardly ever the technology. The common denominator among these situations was that there was always a weakest link. If that problem was solved, teams would encounter the next weakest link. He identified a need to think strategically about project elements from the beginning of the project.
Woltering came across a paper by PPPLab that mentioned ten scaling ingredients, or ten conditions for scaling to be successful. He got in touch with them to see how this could be useful for CIMMYT and the CGIAR. “How can we make this fluffy concept of scaling that people don’t understand into something meaningful?”
This idea became the Scaling Scan, developed by PPPLab and CIMMYT. The tool helps practitioners to analyze what they want to scale, while trying to keep the process as simple as possible. The Scaling Scan helps teams to come up with a realistic ambition and identify bottlenecks from the start. It highlights what project teams need to pay attention to on the journey to reach scale.
“One thing that immediately becomes clear is that impact at scale requires a much broader range of skills and disciplines than what any one organization can bring. The Scaling Scan and an associated partnership tool we developed helps teams to recognize what type of collaborations are necessary along the way. It is very encouraging to get emails from organizations like Catholic Relief Services and ILRI that they are using the Scaling Scan on their own,” says Woltering.
Participants in the scaling workshop stand for a group photo with the trainers. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Progress towards impact
For many decades, CGIAR focused only on research, but in the last 20 years, it expanded to focus on what actually happens with those research outputs.
CIMMYT has always been working on things we now call scaling, in the sense of having a positive impact and changing people’s lives for the better. However, how that happened in that specific context has never been integrated systematically in the design, implementation nor the learning. “Scaling is finally getting recognized as a science but also as an art, and it is great to work on both fronts with scientists and project managers,” says Woltering.
There is a global community of practice on scaling with donors, implementers and practitioners. Five years ago, there were ten members and now the agriculture working group has members of more than sixty different organizations (including USAID, IFAD, CGIAR, CRS). CIMMYT is not only leading this community, but also set up a CGIAR-wide task force and a CIMMYT internal task force on scaling.
The COVID-19 crisis has shown that we need sustainable change at scale, and short term and one-off solutions will not do. This has only accelerated a trend of funders and implementers shifting to a more systemic approach. “CIMMYT is at the forefront of this wave which makes it a very exciting time to be working on this,” said Woltering.
Smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia have embraced small-scale mechanization thanks to an innovative CIMMYT-led project, which is now drawing to a close. Since 2013, the Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project has helped farmers access and use two-wheel tractors that significantly reduce the time and labor needed to grow, harvest and process their crops. To ensure long-term sustainability, the project and its partners helped support and develop local enterprises which could supply, service and operate the machines, and encouraged the development of supportive government policies. The project was funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), as well as the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat.
“Mechanization is a system not a technology”
From its inception, FACASI went beyond simply providing machinery to farmers, and instead envisioned mechanization as a way out of poverty. “Mechanization is a system, not only a technology,” said Bisrat Getnet, the project’s national coordinator in Ethiopia and director of the Agricultural Engineering Research Department at the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research. “Mechanization needs infrastructure such as roads, fuel stations, spare part dealerships, maintenance centers, training centers and appropriate policies. This project assessed which measures are needed to sustain a new technology and addressed these with direct interventions,” he explained.
The FACASI project worked to introduce and develop new small-scale machines, including two-wheel tractors, small shellers and threshers, and small pumps, in African rural settings, collaborating with local engineers, farmers and manufacturers. This included adapting a range of attachments that could be used to mechanize on-farm tasks such as planting, harvesting, transporting and shelling. In parallel, the project developed local business opportunities around the supply, maintenance and use of the machines, to ensure that users could access affordable services and equipment in their communities.
The project initially worked in four countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Researchers saw significant potential for mechanization to reduce the labor intensity associated with smallholder farming, while encouraging application of conservation agriculture techniques and developing rural service provision businesses. In its second phase, which began in 2017, the project focused on strengthening its efforts in Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.
“In my view the most innovative aspect enabling FACASI’s success was the concept of combining engineering and business modelling, with an understanding of the political, legislative and policy situations in the four countries,” said Professor John Blackwell, an Adjunct Professor at Charles Sturt University who reviewed FACASI and also invented and helped commercialize several successful machines in South Asia, including the famous Happy Seeder.
“FACASI has proven that small mechanization is viable in smallholder settings,” said CIMMYT scientist and project coordinator Frédéric Baudron. “It has shown smallholders that they don’t have to consolidate their farms to benefit from conventional machines, but that machines can instead be adapted to their farm conditions. This, to me, defines the concept of ‘appropriate mechanization’,” he said.
Conservation agriculture planter manufacturing in Arusha, Tanzania. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Benefits to local communities
During its course, the project improved the efficiency and productivity of smallholder farming, reducing labor requirements and creating new pathways for rural women and youth.
The reduction in the labor and drudgery of farming tasks has opened many doors. Farmers can save the costs of hiring additional labor and reinvest that money into their enterprises or households. With a small double-cob sheller producing one ton of kernels in an hour compared to up to 12 days by hand, women can do something else valuable with their time and energy. Entrepreneurs offering mechanization services — often young people who embrace new technologies — can earn a good income while boosting the productivity of local farms.
Mechanization has shown to sustainably improve yields. In Ethiopia, farmers using two-wheel tractors were able to reduce the time needed to establish a wheat crop from about 100 hours per hectare to fewer than 10 hours. In trials, maize and wheat respectively yielded 29% and 22% more on average, compared with using conventional crop establishment methods.
Local female artisan, Hawassa, Ethiopia. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Impacts now and into the future
According to its national partners, FACASI has laid the groundwork for cheap and practical two-wheel tractors to proliferate. In Ethiopia, there are currently 88 service providers whose skills has been directly developed through FACASI project interventions. “This has been a flagship project,” said Ethiopia national coordinator Bisrat Getnet. “It tested and validated the potential for small-scale mechanization and conservation agriculture, it proved that new business models could be profitable, and it opened new pathways for Ethiopian agriculture policy,” he said.
In Zimbabwe, the project has also set the wheels of change in motion. “FACASI demonstrated an opportunity for creating employment and business opportunities through small-scale mechanization,” said Tirivangani Koza, of Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement. “With the right funding and policies, there is a very wide and promising scope to scale-up this initiative,” he said.
Post-harvest losses — which can range between 10-20% in major cereals — cause not only the loss of economic value of the food produced, but also the waste of scarce resources such as labor, land, and water, as well as non-renewable resources such as fertilizer and energy.
“High postharvest losses imply reduced grain yield, but with the same total greenhouse gas emission,” says Rabé Yahaya, a CIM/GIZ Integrated Expert working at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “Reducing these losses reduces the yield-scaled global warming potential — total greenhouse gas emission per kilogram of grain — and contributes to climate change mitigation, as well as food security.”
A significant proportion of these losses are caused by late harvest due to labor shortages, with crops languishing in the field before farmers can retrieve them. Small and medium-sized machinery may seem like the answer, but many one or two-axe machines are often unable to reach the inner sections of rice and wheat fields because of limited road access, or the fact that they are simply too heavy to carry.
“As mechanized land preparation works outwards, inner fields get ready for harvest first, but without any applicated technical solution,” he explains.
Could motorized scythes be the answer? Yahaya thinks so.
The other scythe
Motorized scythes are hand-operated tools used for mowing grass or reaping crops. Though largely replaced by horse-drawn and tractor-mounted implements, they are still commonly used in some areas of Asia and Europe.
Models specifically adapted for harvesting rice and wheat have been commercially available in Africa for over two decades and currently sell for $150-350, presenting the lowest initial investment cost of all engine-driven solutions on the market. The motor scythe also boasts the lowest harvest cost per hectare and is portable enough to reach inner fields.
Despite its relative affordability, uptake in much of West Africa has been slow, as many farmers have found the 10kg machinery too heavy for sustained use.
“Studies carried out in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali show that this rapid fatigue is caused by incorrect handling of the machinery, including flawed posture,” Yahaya explains. “This is simply because most operators have never undertaken official training for operating the tool.”
In a bid to address this challenge, Yahaya has been collaborating with Elliott Dossou, Sali Atanga Ndindeng and Ernst Zippel — all scientists at AfricaRice — to design and test potential solutions. Their proposal for the development of a Service Provider Harvest (SPH) model has been shortlisted for the GIZ Innovation Fund 2020 award, from a GIZ/BMZ-supported Innovation Fund.
Ernst Zippel, CIM/GIZ Integrated Expert at AfricaRice, presents on the reduction of postharvest losses through correct usage of motor scythes. (Video: AfricaRice)
Cut for service
The approach focuses heavily on capacity development, with an initial nucleus group of trainers taking the lead on activities such as recruiting and contracting service providers, providing training on harvesting and threshing, supporting aftersales services such as machine maintenance and repair, and helping to determine the optimum harvest time.
Under the proposed model, each trainer will be responsible for a group of around 50 service providers, who will receive guidance on understanding their role, finance, creating a network of client farmers, machine maintenance and use.
In addition to the financial rewards and aftersales services, the training opportunities will make this technology accessible to young entrepreneurs in rural areas. Earning up to $18 a day for harvesting and weeding services, those using the tool can expect to see a return on their initial investment in one to two months.
“Young people are the main prospective clients for this initiative,” says Yahaya. “With the motor scythe and related training, they can start earning serious money.” He stresses, however, that all farmers – regardless of age or gender – will be able to benefit from the job creation opportunities this initiative provides.
The initiative has been shortlisted for the GIZ Innovation Fund 2020. If selected, funding from the accelerator program would support testing, the integration of GPS sensors into the tools, creation of a platform for bank security and Carbon Credit earning, other technical activities.
Farmers in the Bale area, in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, mainly produce wheat and barley. Temam Mama was no different — but some six years ago, the introduction of the two-wheel tractor offered him additional opportunities. This was part of an initiative of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Africa RISING project.
Selected as one of the two farmers in the region to test the technology, Temam took a five-day training course to understand the technology and the basics behind operating calibrating and maintaining the equipment.
The two-wheel tractor is multipurpose. By attaching various implements to a single engine, farmers can use it for ploughing, planting, water pumping, transportation, harvesting and threshing. For Temam, who had always relied on a rainfed agricultural system, the technology has high importance — he will be able to use the nearby river as a source of water for irrigation purposes.
To start off, Temam allocated 0.25 hectare from his four hectares of land for irrigation and planted potatoes for the first time. He was delighted with his harvest and the income he collected afterwards.
“From the first harvest, I was able to collect 112 quintals of potato and made roughly $1,529 in total,” said Temam.
Temam Mama checks his crops. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Eternal returns
His productive journey had just started. This income allowed Temam to keep growing his business. He bought a horse and cart for $550 and taking the advice from the project team, he constructed a Diffused Light Storage (DLS) system to store his potatoes for longer.
To diversify his income, Temam occasionally provides transport services to other farmers. Over time, Temam’s financial capital has continued to grow, bringing new ideas and a desire to change. He went from a wooden fence to a corrugated iron sheet, to an additional three rooms by the side of his house for rentals.
He is fortunate for having access to the river and the road, he explains. He also sees new opportunities emerging as the demand for potato in the market continues to grow. The price for one quintal of potato sometimes reaches $76 and matching the demand is unthinkable without the two-wheel tractor, he says.
In addition to the two-wheel tractor, he has also bought a water pump to enable him to increase the area that he can grow irrigated potato, garlic and pepper on. His target is to have two hectares irrigated soon.
Temam Mama drives a two-wheel tractor to the irrigation area. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
The future is bright
With his wife and four children, Temam is now living a well-deserved, healthy and exemplary life. Tomato, chilli and onion now grow on his farm ensuring a healthy diet, as well as diversified and nutritious food for the family. His economic status is also enabling him to support his community in times of need. “As part of my social responsibility, I have contributed around $152 for road and school constructions in our area,” noted Temam.
Under the Africa RISING project, Temam has proven that irrigation of high-value crops using two-wheel tractor pumping really works, and that it increases production and the profitability of farming. He has now stepped into a new journey with a bright future ahead of him.
“I plan to sell my indigenous cows to buy improved breeds and, in two to three years’ time, if I am called for refreshment training in Addis Ababa, I will arrive driving my own car,” concluded Temam.
Cover photo: Temam Mama’s family eats healthy and nutritious food produced through irrigation. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
The critical global challenge of significantly increasing food production by 2050 is exacerbated by water limitations. Droughts and water scarcity affect crop production across the world and global climate warming is aggravating this effect. A central challenge for researchers and policymakers is to devise technologies that lend greater resilience to agricultural production in drier environments.
The Interdrought 2020 congress presents the latest developments to address this global challenge.
Interdrought 2020 was scheduled to be held in Mexico City in March 2020. As it was not possible to proceed with the congress as a face-to-face meeting due to the travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the organizing committee has delivered the scientific program of the congress online. Congress proceedings are available at interdrought2020.cimmyt.org.
Today the organizing committee extended the reach of the congress proceedings to the global community by providing free online access to 43 presentations, 75 abstracts and 35 posters. The complete book of abstracts can also be downloaded. To date over 10,000 members of the scientific community have been invited to watch presentations and read the proceedings online.
Internationally recognized keynote speakers participated in the seven main sessions, supported by nine symposia convened by global experts, on topics ranging from breeding and management approaches to the basic science of plant–water relations.
State-of-the-art research and technology
Interdrought 2020 is an opportunity for scientific leaders from across the world to share the latest research and technology developments to advance plant production in water-limited situations. Interdrought 2020 embraces the philosophy of presenting and integrating results of both applied and basic research towards the development of solutions for improving crop production under drought-prone conditions.
Interdrought 2020, also known as Interdrought VI (IDVI) is the sixth congress in the series. It builds on the success of previous congresses held in Montpellier in 1995, Rome in 2005, Shanghai in 2009, Perth in 2013, and Hyderabad in 2017.
The congress was organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the University of Queensland. The organizers share a strong history of collaboration in crop research and agronomy that seeks to increase wheat’s tolerance to drought and its yield potential in hot conditions, such as those seen in Queensland, Australia, and Sonora, Mexico.
The organizers and the congress committee would like to thank major sponsors Corteva, the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), the University of Queensland, and supporting sponsors in silico Plants, the Journal of Experimental Botany, Illumina, Analitek, and LI-COR. Our sponsors’ belief in the value of the scientific content enabled us to deliver congress proceedings to not only delegates but the broader scientific community.
For more information, please contact
Professor Graeme Hammer
Chair of the Interdrought 2020 congress committee g.hammer@uq.edu.au
About CIMMYT
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.
QAAFI at the University of Queensland
The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) is a research institute of the University of Queensland supported by the Queensland Government via the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. QAAFI is comprised of four inter-related research centres working across crops, horticulture, animals, and nutrition and food sciences, with a focus on addressing challenges in the tropical and subtropical systems. For more information visit www.qaafi.uq.edu.au/about.
Tonahuixtla, a small town located in Mexico’s 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 region’s 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 CIMMYT’s work, and provided them with seed of the landraces they had identified.
“This is what we normally do in our work at the germplasm bank, we give people seed,” Costich said. “But this turned into a closer collaboration.”
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 CIMMYT’s experimental stations.
“The technicians at CIMMYT’s Agua Fria station loved meeting the project members from Tonahuixtla, and immediately became passionate about the Totomoxtle project,” Costich said. “To 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.”
In the village of Tonahuixtla, project members — many of them women — work to iron the corn husks flat and glue them on to a stiff backing, then send them via courier to Laposse’s 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.
“Part of what this project is doing is also helping to keep families together — providing livelihoods so that people can stay in their communities, so that they don’t have to send all of their young people off to Mexico City or to the United States. To me, it’s really all connected,” 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.
“I think that many of the communities that we work in really do understand the value and the importance of biodiversity,” Costich said. “In 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 that’s a really important lesson for everyone. I come from an ecology background, so I am always very excited to get involved in projects where it’s not just about maize, it’s about everything. It’s also about people’s lives, and nutrition, and the connections between them.”
Preserving local maize biodiversity is not just important for Tonahuixtla — it is important to all of humanity. Native maize varieties have adapted for thousands of years in farmers’ 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.
“The biodiversity of cultivated plants is basically the guarantee for the future,” Costich said. “This is our security backup. Seed security is food security.”
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)
