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 farmersâ own innovations, and embraces remote sensing, mobile phones and other information technology. These interventions are gender-inclusive, to ensure equitable impacts for all.
Resorting to conservation agriculture would not only increase crop yield, income and reduce the use of natural resources, but would also confer climate change benefits, according to a study by Indian agricultural scientists and others published in an international journal on Thursday.
The study, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, also showed that conservation agriculture was key to meeting many of the UNâs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, climate action and clean water. Conservation agriculture can offer positive contributions to several SDGs, said M. L. Jat, a Principal Scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and first author of the study.
A series of coincidences led Sylvanus Odjo to study agronomy. It was only after finishing his first degree that he learned that his namesake, Silvanus, was the Latin deity of forests and fields.
Spurred by a curiosity about the natural world, he spent several years working at the National Institute of Agriculture in his native Benin, before pursuing advanced degrees in Belgium, where he developed his interest in cereals research.
âObviously by that point I knew about the CGIAR centers and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center,â he explains. âIf youâre working on maize, youâll know about CIMMYT.â
He joined the organization as a postdoctoral researcher in 2017 and now works as a postharvest specialist. He coordinates a network of platforms which evaluates and validates potential solutions and transfers them to farmers across Mexico and Latin America.
âAll the projects Iâm working on now have the same objective: finding ways to avoid and reduce postharvest losses.â These, Odjo estimates, can be as high as 40% in some parts of Mexico, with dramatic consequences for smallholder farmers whose food security is directly linked to the amount of grain they have. They are also the most likely to be affected by the effects of climate change.
âA lot of people think postharvest just means storage,â he points out, âbut it actually encompasses everything from the moment of harvest and includes processes like drying, shelling, technical and economic activities.â
A drying specialist by training, Odjo now works across the entire postharvest system. There are two central components to his work. The first involves testing postharvest technologies to develop recommendations for farmers, conducting trials under controlled conditions on CIMMYT research stations and with local collaborators across Mexico and assessing how drying and storage technologies fare under different conditions. The second, and perhaps more challenging, is promoting the successful ones, such as hermetic grain storage bags, among farmers and providing training on how to use them appropriately.
âWe see a lot of publications agreeing that we need to promote hermetic technologies, which is true.â The question, Odjo asks, is how to do it. âHow can we succeed in making a solution available to farmers? And once that has happened, how do we convince them to use it? Those are big questions which people were asking 50 years ago but theyâre still being discussed today.â
Odjo demonstrates the use of a handheld grain moisture tester in ComitĂĄn de Dominguez, Chiapas, Mexico. (Photo: Juan Carlos Reynoso)
Finding answers to the big questions
âThe potential solutions sound so simple, but when you actually try to implement these things it can be very complex.â
Odjo can reel off a list of postharvest interventions which seem straightforward initially but fail at the moment of implementation. Farmers might be instructed to harvest their grain at a particular time, which turns out to conflict with the timing of an important traditional ceremony, which cannot be rescheduled. Elsewhere they may be encouraged to avoid reducing moisture levels by purchasing a dryer but lack the resources to do so.
Much of Odjoâs work involves conducting research into the process of technology transfer and the scaling of postharvest technologies, working with a number of projects in Mexico to find the most efficient ways of training farmers and providing them with the tools they need to use improved practices and technologies.
âWhat weâre looking for is the right technology for each farmer,â he explains. âBecause the conditions in the highlands of Guanajuato are not the same as in coastal YucatĂĄn, or any of the other locations we work in.â Hermetic technology has been proven to be effective in most conditions, but the choice to use hermetic silos, hermetic bags, or a cocoon storage container ultimately depends on farmer preferences and the specific conditions in their local area. âWe noticed, for example, that in the highlands pests tend to pose less of a threat to stored grain, so we need to use a different strategy than we would at sea level, where humidity can significantly increase the risk of grain becoming contaminated.â
Odjo and his team have also noted that in Mexico, although many postharvest activities such as shelling are led by women, men are more likely to attend farmer trainings, which makes it harder to ensure that they are reaching their target demographic. âGender has emerged as a key parameter that we need to take into account, so weâre working with an excellent gender specialist at CIMMYT to find ways of making sure we transfer knowledge and technologies efficiently.â
While it can be challenging coordinating with so many different stakeholders, each with their distinct priorities and interests, Odjo is adamant that postharvest research can only be successful when it is fully interdisciplinary and collaborative. Though farmers are their core audience, he and his team make sure they work with extension agents, government actors, researchers and development practitioners to find solutions. âI canât do anything alone so Iâm open to collaboration,â he adds. âWe always need fresh ideas.â
âA lot of people think postharvest just means storage, but it actually encompasses everything from the moment of harvest and includes processes like drying, shelling, technical and economic activities,â Odjo explains. (Photo: Francisco AlarcĂłn/CIMMYT)
Sharing knowledge in 140 characters
Up until quite recently, Odjo was reluctant to join Twitter because he felt that he had nothing to share. It was only when colleagues encouraged him to use social media as a platform for discussing postharvest issues that he discovered the app is an effective way of sharing recommendations directly with farmers and agricultural service providers. âOne of my lecturers used to say that you can understand something if youâre capable of explaining it to a kindergarten-aged child. If you donât succeed, it means you havenât understood.â
âThatâs become a part of my job that I really enjoy: figuring out how to share research and results of investigations with different audiences in a simple manner.â
His newfound social media presence has also proved useful for connecting with researchers on a global level. In late 2019, researchers in Laos interested in learning about postharvest technologies reached out to Odjo, who was able to arrange for colleagues to travel to the country and share practices developed with local extension agents and blacksmiths in Mexico. âAnd do you know how they found me? Through my Twitter account.â
Moving forward, Odjo hopes to extend the scope of his activities beyond Latin America and carry out more knowledge exchange with his peers across the world. âIn research, a lot of people are working on the same topics, but we donât always share the information. Iâm open to sharing my experience, because Iâm sure I can learn a lot from others that will be useful for my job.â
Kenya in particular stands out as a case study he can learn from, where a high incidence of aflatoxins in maize, heavy government intervention and fierce market competition among providers of hermetic bags have allowed for the successful scaling of postharvest technologies. âIt would be great to be able to analyze their scaling process and learn from it. Not to replicate it entirely, because obviously the conditions arenât the same, but there will undoubtedly be lessons we can take and apply here in Mexico and Latin America.â
A maize farmer in southern Ethiopia. (Photo: S. Samuel/CCAFS)
Because of unpredictable climate conditions, agricultural production in Ethiopia faces uncertainties during both the growing and harvesting seasons. The risk and uncertainty are bigger for smallholder farmers, as they canât protect themselves from climate-related asset losses. Access to insurance schemes, climate information and other tools could help to minimize climate risks for smallholder farmers.
A new collaborative project launched in Ethiopia aims to reduce agricultural investment risk. The Capacitating African Stakeholders with Climate Advisories and Insurance Development (CASCAID-II) project builds on learnings from the CASCAID-I project in West Africa. It will target Ethiopia, Ghana and Senegal, focusing not only on smallholder farmers but on the food value chain as a whole. In a context of increasing integration of farmers into urban markets, the project will improve agricultural productivity, food security and profitability of agricultural enterprises.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) will partner with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the University of Florida, with the support of the CGIAR research program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS).
Kindie Tesfaye, CIMMYT, presents an overview of climate services in Ethiopia. (Photo: Simret Yasabu /CIMMYT)
Physical and digital tools across the value chain
In October 2019, thirty partners gathered for the CASCAID-II project launch and meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They agreed on the project goals, a set of priority research questions and a schedule of activities for the next two years.
Partners also reviewed the tools that could be used to deliver climate advisories and agricultural insurance products, ensuring that all the actors in the value chain are engaged from the start. Team members aim to embed services in existing physical and digital (âphygitalâ) data infrastructures and to collect user feedback, so performance can be improved. Users will be segmented according to advanced socioeconomic and agro-ecological factors, so they can be targeted more efficiently with appropriate services and climate-smart agriculture options. The project will draw on real-time and multi-scale yield forecasting for better preparedness and decision-making.
Project partners agreed to start with the CCAFS Regional Agricultural Forecasting Tool (CRAFT) for sub-national yield forecasting in Ethiopia and to develop climate advisories and insurance services in line with the needs of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Participants of the launch of the digital agro-climate advisory platform gather for a group photo. (Photo: Semu Yemane/EIAR)
Precise data from scientists to farmers
In a related development, Ethiopia recently launched a digital agro-climate advisory platform, which offers great potential to improve farmersâ management of climate-induced risks, facilitate technology adoption and improve livelihoods.
Speaking at the platformâs launch ceremony, Eyasu Abraha, advisor to the Minister of Agriculture, thanked development partners for supporting the establishment of the platform in the timely move towards digitalization and use of precise data.
The platform incorporates location-specific climate information, as well as soil- and crop-specific best-bet agronomic management recommendations for farmers, development agents and extension officers. It automates crop-climate modeling and uses technologies such as text messaging, interactive voice response (IVRS) and smartphone apps for dissemination.
Nancy Wawira strolls through a small plot of maize at Kithimu, in Kenyaâs Embu County. She is charmed by the attributes of a maize variety that can yield 2,700kg per acre or more. The variety can endure drought-like conditions, matures in less than 120 days and has potential for double-cobbing.
Wawira is visiting a demonstration farm to witness the performance of several high yielding, early to medium maturing, drought-tolerant maize varieties.
By coming to this demonstration farm, Wawira hoped to identify a newer maize variety she could plant on her quarter-acre of land to get higher yield. The plot she stood on was the exact replica of what she was looking for. âOccasions such as this field day are very important for me and I always endeavor to attend them, as there is always something new to see or learn,â she says.
On her farm, she has been planting one of the old but popular commercial varieties suitable for this mid-altitude ecology. She normally harvests 4 bags of maize, of 90kg each, every season. However, if there is not enough rain or if there are pests or diseases, which is often the case, she harvests just 2 bags or less. This is hardly enough to meet her familyâs food requirements for the year.
Switching to the maize variety she was interested in, and applying recommended farming practices, she could harvest 6 bags per season or more.
âToday, I have learnt how to improve my farming,â says Wawira. âEven when I access the variety that is high yielding, drought-tolerant and can mature in about three and a half months, as I witnessed on one of the plots, I still need to pay attention to proper crop husbandry related to spacing, timing of the planting, seed, fertilizer and pesticide application besides weed control,â she says.
Nancy Wawira examines maize in one of the demo plots. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Made-to-order
Wawira was one of the more than 400 farmers from nearby Manyatta sub-county visiting the demonstration farm on February 7, 2020. They were able to see varieties and learn about their traits, invited by the Seed Trade Association of Kenya (STAK) with the support of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
The demonstration is a continuation of the work started under the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) project and later under the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project.
Officials from Embu County, led by its minister in charge of agriculture Jamleck Muturi, were present during the farmersâ visit. Ten seed firms, some of which use CIMMYTâs germplasm for seed propagation and marketing, participated as well.
âSeveral of our member seed companies are showcasing the varieties developed through CIMMYTâs breeding pipeline,â said Duncan Ochiengâ, the chief executive officer of STAK. âThe maize varieties showcased on these demo farms were designed to be drought-tolerant, high yielding and range from early to medium maturing. These varieties are juxta-posted with other commercial varieties suitable for this region.â
During visits to demonstration farms, farmers give feedback on their variety preferences. Seed companies can then align their breeding, germplasm-access requests, seed production or marketing plans with farmersâ expectations.
Some of the farmers who participated in the field day in Embu County, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Jackline Wanja in one of the demo plots of the variety she liked. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
A seed company representative shows seeds to a farmer during the visit to the demonstration farm. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
STAK chief executive officer Duncan Ochieng’ examines a maize cob in one of the demo plots. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Dire traits
Farming stresses such as pests, diseases, heat and drought have made targeted breeding a critical necessity.
Young farmers are increasingly choosing varieties that can mature faster, typically in less than three months. They also favor varieties that offer higher yield than the popular commercial varieties, many of which have been on the market for at least a decade. Other sought-after traits are good performance in low or erratic rains, tolerance to maize lethal necrosis, reduced lodging, and efficiency in nitrogen use.
Jackline Wanja, 25, relies on her one-acre farm for survival. âOn average, I harvest about 25 bags per acre. On the demo farm, I got to know of a variety than can yield at least 30 bags per acre. I also learnt that the variety is not only drought-resilient but can also mature in about three and a half months. This is the variety that I plan to plant my farm next season,â Wanja said.
For John Njiru, 52, a higher-yielding variety with a lot of foliage, which remains green even after the maize cob has dried, is what he came looking for. For this farmer with 12 acres of land, the green maize foliage is a significant source of income when sold to livestock keepers. Njiru feeds his own livestock with it, making substantial savings on animal feed expenditure. âIf this variety is as high yielding as I have been made to understand and can offer me at least 30 bags per acre, I would be a happy farmer. My farming would be very profitable,” he says.
John Njiru on a demo plot of the variety he liked. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Cesar Petroli, High-throughput Genotyping Specialist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), develops genomic profiles of DNA samples, generating tens or even hundreds of thousands of molecular markers. This helps the team to set up genetic diversity analysis, improve genebank collections management and identify genomic regions associated with the expression of important agronomic traits.
Watch him explain how this molecular information can help the breeding process, to ultimately help farmers face climate change and food security challenges.
Women play a crucial role in Ethiopian agriculture. A significant portion of their time is spent in the field helping their male counterparts with land preparation, planting, weeding and harvesting. Despite this, women face barriers in accessing productive resources and gaining financial benefits.
In 2015 and 2016, there was a 9.8% gap in farming plot productivity between woman- and man- managed farms in Ethiopia, which translated to a $203.5 million loss in the countryâs GDP. Access to mechanization services though service provision could contribute to decreasing this gap.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the German development agency GIZ have been testing service provision models in different areas of Ethiopia to expand small-scale agricultural mechanization that would benefit both men and women.
Zewdu Tesfaye, a smallholder farmer and mother of two, lives in the Amba Alaje district of the Tigray region. Two years ago, she paid $8 to become a member of the Dellet Agricultural Mechanization Youth Association (DAMYA), established to provide agricultural mechanization services in the area.
Zewdu Tesfaye drives a two-wheel tractor to the irrigation area. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Along with other members, Tesfaye provides various services to farmers in her area that need assistance. âI take part in every assignment the group is tasked with. I drive the two-wheel tractor and I support during threshing and irrigation,â she says.
Tesfaye has now secured a job providing these services and has started earning income. In November 2019, she received $72 from the associationâs threshing services, which she saved in the bank. If women are given equal opportunities and equal access to resources, she says, they have the capacity to do anything that will empower themselves and change their familiesâ lives.
DAMYA currently has 12 members â eight men and four women â and all responsibilities are shared, with benefits divided equally. âAgricultural mechanization is an area less accessible to women,â explains group chair Alemayehu Abreha. âThus, we highly encourage and motivate our women members to maximize their potential and invite other women to witness that everything is possible.â
Belay Tadesse, regional advisor for GIZâs Integrated Soil Fertility Management project, explained that the initiative aims to benefit both women and men as service providers and recipients. Various trainings are provided for women, so that they are well acquainted with the machinery, as well as with the business aspects of each model. Events and other activities are also helping spread awareness, to attract and encourage more women to get involved in similar jobs, adds Tadesse.
Belay Tadesse shows young women from Dellet how the water should flow. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
In the Gudiya Billa district, located about 220 kilometers away from Addis Ababa, the introduction of the two-wheel tractor has been a blessing for many farmers in the area, especially women. For Kidane Mengistu, farmer and mother of six, harvesting season used to bring an added strain to her already existing chores. Now everything has changed. Through the new service provision model, Mengistu is able to get help with her daily tasks from Habtamu, a farmer professionally trained in agricultural mechanization. âWe now hire Habtamu, a service provider, to get different services like threshing,â she says. âHe does the job in few hours with reasonable amount of payment. This has given me ample time to spend on other household chores.â
Kidane Mengistu is much happier with the threshing service she gets from the service provider. (Photo: Simret Yasabu/CIMMYT)
Maize, sorghum and teff are the three main crops grown on Mengistuâs eight hectares of land. With the introduction of the two-wheel tractor and service provision model, she and Habtamu have been able to begin potato irrigation on two hectares â Mengistu provides the land while Habtamu provides and operates the water pump â and together they share costs and income. Mengistu says she and her family have seen firsthand the benefits of the two-wheel tractor and plan to purchase their own someday.
In crop research fields, it is now a common sight to see drones or other high-tech sensing tools collecting high-resolution data on a wide range of traits â from simple measurement of canopy temperature to complex 3D reconstruction of photosynthetic canopies.
This technological approach to collecting precise plant trait information, known as phenotyping, is becoming ubiquitous, but according to experts at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other research institutions, breeders can profit much more from these tools, when used judiciously.
In a new article in the journal Plant Science, CIMMYT researchers outline the different ways in which phenotyping can assist breeding â from large-scale screening to detailed physiological characterization of key traits â and why this methodology is crucial for crop improvement.
âWhile having been the subject of debate in the past, extra investment for phenotyping is becoming more accepted to capitalize on recent developments in crop genomics and prediction models,â explain the authors.
Their review considers different contexts for phenotyping, including breeding, exploration of genetic resources, parent building and translations research to deliver other new breeding resources, and how these different categories of phenotyping apply to each. Some of the same tools and rules of thumb apply equally well to phenotyping for genetic analysis of complex traits and gene discovery.
The authors make the case for breeders to invest in phenotyping, particularly in light of the imperative to breed crops for warmer and harsher climates. However, wide scale adoption of sophisticated phenotyping methods will only occur if new techniques add efficiency and effectiveness.
In this sense, âbreeder-friendlyâ phenotyping should complement existing breeding approaches by cost-effectively increasing throughput during segregant selection and adding new sources of validated complex traits to crossing blocks. With this in mind, stringent criteria need to be applied before new traits or phenotyping protocols are incorporated into mainstream breeding pipelines.
Following the spread of fall armyworm, crowdsourced data is powering a web-based application to help farmers in Bangladesh stay ahead of the crop pest.
The Fall Armyworm Monitor collects population, incidence and severity data, and guides pest management decisions. The web tool relies on information gathered by farmers using smartphones in their fields.
It was developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in cooperation with Bangladeshâs Department of Agricultural Extension, through the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm project, supported by USAID and Michigan State University.
When a foreign caterpillar first munched through Muhammad Hasan Aliâs maize field during the winter 2018-2019 season, he was stumped as to what it was or how to manage it. All he knew was his harvest and the investment he made in growing his crop was at risk.
âIâd never seen this type of insect in previous seasons, but I soon learned from government extension workers it was the fall armyworm,â explained Hasan Ali, a farmer from rural Chuadanga, in western Bangladesh. When poorly managed, fall armyworm can significantly reduce maize productivity.
Hasan Ali asked to join a training program, where he learned how to identify, monitor and control the spread of the invasive and voracious crop pest. The training, mainly tailored to extension staff, was facilitated by CIMMYT and Bangladeshâs Department of Agricultural Extension.
Participants of the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm trainings learning to collect field data through the Fall Armyworm Monitor web app in a farmer’s field in Chauadanga, Bangladesh. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT)
Participants of the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm trainings learning to collect field data through the Fall Armyworm Monitor web app in a farmer’s field in Chauadanga, Bangladesh. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT)
Participants and instructors of the Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm trainings participate in a field session to work with the Fall Armyworm Monitor web app in Chauadanga, Bangladesh. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT)
Equipped to fight the pest
Extension staff and farmers gained valuable insights into different methods of control, including management of small and large patches of insect attack.
âI learned to identify fall armyworms in my field â and how to use hand picking methods and appropriate application of insecticide for control,â said Hasan Ali.
Farmers also learned how to set up pheromone traps to monitor pest populations and to use smartphones to make data-driven integrated pest management decisions using a cloud-based monitoring platform.
Crowdsourced information on the movement of fall armyworm is essential for effectively monitoring its spread and is a pivotal step in its management, said CIMMYT Senior Scientist and Systems Agronomist Timothy Krupnik.
âFarmers in top maize growing regions are working with extension officers to monitor traps and report findings weekly by entering data into smartphones,â Krupnik said.
Pheromones are natural compounds emitted by female moths to attract males for mating. Synthetic compounds that mimic natural fall armyworm pheromones are placed in traps to lure and capture male moths, after which extension agents count moths, enter, and upload data in their districts. At the time of writing, 649 staff from the Department of Agricultural Extension are reporting weekly moth count and pest damage data.
âPest management practices are best when they are data-driven,â Krupnik explained. âHaving information on the geographical location, plant growth stage and severity of infestation provides an informed base from which appropriate decisions can be made, with the ultimate goal of reducing pesticide misuse.â
âWe are also excited as the data are open-access, and we are working to share them with FAO and other partners crucial in fall armyworm response,â he added.
The Fall Armyworm Monitor gives moth count and other data at the division, district and upazilla levels. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Data for better decisions
âThe website hosts real-time data and depicts them graphically and in maps depending on userâs preferences. This information â which was core to the training extension agents participated in â is key for integrated pest management strategies,â explained Mutasim Billah, CIMMYT Data Specialist and the lead developer of the application.
âThe department of extension services have employed 253 officers to visit fields with handheld smart devices in 25 districts to upload data,â said Billah. âThe online tool stores data entries in its server and calculates the aggregated value for division, district and sub-district level on a weekly basis, and shows the estimated values through charts and in tabular format.â
The Fall Armyworm Monitor has become an essential tool for government officials to aid farmers in managing the pest which so far has been successful, said Bijoy Krishna Halder, additional Deputy Director of Plant Protection with the Bangladesh government.
âCIMMYT’s web portal is a very efficient way to collect data from the field. Anyone can access the page to see the overall condition of infestation across the country,âsaid Krishna Halder. âI check the portal every week about the fall armyworm condition and now it shows that the infestation is low with the overall field conditions good.â
The pest native to the Americas has become a global menace as it has spread attacking crops through Africa, and Asia, threatening the food and economic security of smallholder farmers.
The Fall Armyworm Monitor was created as part of the new Fighting Back Against Fall Armyworm in Bangladesh project is aligned with Michigan State Universityâs Borlaug Higher Education for Agricultural Research and Development (BHEARD) program, which supports the long-term training of agricultural researchers in USAIDâs Feed the Future priority countries.
Sixteen years of consistent learning and practice of climate-smart agriculture, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), are paying off for Luganu Mwangonde. Together with her husband Kenson, she has established herself as a successful smallholder farmer in Malawiâs Balaka district. She enjoys the multiple benefits of high yields from diverse crops, surplus to sell at the markets and improved soil quality.
âI started practicing the farming that does not demand too much labor back in 2004,â she explains at her 2.5-acre farm. âOver the years the process has become easier, because I have a full understanding of the benefits of techniques introduced through the project.â
In Malawiâs family farms, women often carry the burden of land preparation and weeding  in the fields while juggling household responsibilities, contributing to widen gender differences already prevalent in the community.
Mwangonde observes that learning climate-smart techniques â such as minimum tillage, mulching and planting on flat land surfaces â has given her an advantage over other farmers practicing conventional agriculture.
Better off
At the beginning, like other farmers in the area, Mwangonde thought conservation agriculture and climate-smart techniques required a lot of work, or even hiring extra labor. As she tried this new approach, however, weed pressure in her plot decreased gradually, with the help of mulching and other techniques, and the labor required to maintain the fields reduced significantly. This allowed her to have extra time to add value to her products and sell them on the markets â and to rest.
The best gain for her is knowing that her family always has enough to eat. âI have enough grain to last until the next harvest,â she says. âMy husband and I can provide for our seven children and four grandchildren.â During the 2018/19 season, Mwangondeâs family harvested six bags of maize, two bags of pigeon pea and four bags of groundnuts. The surplus from the harvest is reserved for later, when prices are more competitive.
âI am an equal partner in the farming activities. That means I can make decisions about how we work on our plot, distribute crops and apply everything that I have learnt about conservation agriculture,â Mwangonde explains. She has participated in CIMMYT activities where she could share her experiences on climate-smart agriculture with other women. As a lead farmer, she notes, she can confidently inspire the next generation of smallholders because of the empowering knowledge she has acquired.
Out of the 3,538 smallholder farmers from Balaka, Machinga and Zomba districts, up to 2,218 are women smallholder farmers who have successfully adopted climate-smart technologies.
Mwangonde is one of the beneficiaries of the Africa Research in Sustainable Intensification for the Next Generation (Africa RISING) project. She also benefitted from the support of the German Development Agency (GIZ), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Total Land Care (TLC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Incompatibility of surveys did not allow big-picture analysis, so a team of CGIAR researchers began tackling the household survey interoperability problem in 2015. They invited the global research-for-development community to contribute to the open-access dataset, which today includes more than 30,000 interviews conducted in 33 countries.
Broad adoption of the standardized survey tool may help guide international efforts to address smallholder challenges related to climate change, food security, nutrition, farm productivity, and social inclusion.
In crop research fields, drones and other high-tech sensing tools are now a common sight. They collect high-resolution data on a wide range of traits â from simple measurement of canopy temperature to complex 3D reconstruction of photosynthetic canopies.
This technological approach to collecting precise plant trait information, known as phenotyping, is becoming ubiquitous. According to experts at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and other research institutions, breeders can profit much more from these tools, when used judiciously.
Examples of different classes and applications of breeder friendly phenotyping. (Image: M. Reynolds et al.)
In a new article in the journal Plant Science, CIMMYT Wheat Physiologist Matthew Reynolds and colleagues explain the different ways that phenotyping can assist breeding â from simple to use, âhandyâ approaches for large scale screening, to detailed physiological characterization of key traits to identify new parental sources â and why this methodology is crucial for crop improvement. The authors make the case for breeders to invest in phenotyping, particularly in light of the imperative to breed crops for warmer and harsher climates.
A new study by researchers at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) assesses how three large projects have scaled service provision models for agricultural mechanization in Bangladesh, Mexico and Zimbabwe. In what is possibly the first cross-continental assessment of these issues to date, the study gauges the extent to which each initiative fits with the needs of its environment to enable sustained machinery use by farmers at a large scale, while acknowledging the influence of project design on outcomes.
Each of the projects has made considerable progress towards increasing the adoption of agricultural machinery in their target area. In Bangladesh and Mexico, mechanization service providers and machinery dealers have been able to strengthen their business cases because the projects use geospatial and market data to provide targeted information on client segmentation and appropriate cropping systems. In Zimbabwe, CIMMYT and partners have worked to strengthen the market for two-wheeled tractors by creating demand among smallholders, developing the capacity of existing vocational training centers, and spurring private sector demand.
However, despite these initial successes, it can often be difficult to gauge the sustained change and transformative nature of such interventions.
Applying a scaling perspective
To address this challenge, research teams held a series of workshops with project partners in each country, including regional government representatives, national and local private sector stakeholders, and direct project collaborators such as extension agents and site managers. Participants were asked to answer a series of targeted questions and prompts using the Scaling Scan, a user-friendly tool which facilitates timely, structured feedback from stakeholders on issues that matter in scaling. Responses given during this exercise allowed project designers to analyze, reflect on, and sharpen their scaling ambition and approach, focusing on ten scaling âingredientsâ that need to be considered to reach a desired outcome, such as knowledge and skills or public sector governance.
Local service provider uses a bed planter for crop production in Horinofolia, Bangladesh. (Photo: Ranak Martin)
âAlthough at first sight the case studies seem to successfully reach high numbers of end users, the assessment exposes issues around the sustainable and transformative nature of the project interventions,â says Lennart Woltering, a scaling advisor at CIMMYT.
The added value of this approach, explains Jelle Van Loon, lead author and CIMMYT mechanization specialist, is that lessons learned from project-focused interventions can be amplified to generate broader, actionable knowledge and implement thematic strategies worldwide. “This is especially important for CIMMYT as we do exactly that, but often face different constraints depending on the local context.”
The use of a scaling perspective on each of these projects exposed important lessons on minimizing project dependencies. For example, though each project has invested considerably in both capacity and business development training, in all three case studies the large-scale adoption of recommended service provision models has been limited by a lack of finance and insufficient collaboration among the value chain actors to strengthen and support mechanization service provider entrepreneurs.
âWhile provision of market and spatial information helps local businesses target their interventions, local stakeholders are still dependent on the projects in terms of transitioning from project to market finance, facilitating collaboration along the value chain, and provision of leadership and advocacy to address issues at governance level,â Woltering explains. This, Van Loon adds, demonstrates a need for the inclusion of properly planned exit strategies from projects, as well as a degree of flexibility during the project development phase.
In all three regions, the supply of appropriate mechanization services is struggling to meet demand and few solutions have been found to support the transition from project to market finance. Continued capacity development is required at all stages of the value chain to ensure the provision of high-quality services and it has been suggested that incentivizing potential clients to access mechanization services and linking service providers with machinery dealers and mechanics might produce more satisfying results than simply supporting equipment purchases.
Reduced response diversity does not negatively impact wheat climate resilience. 2019. Snowdon, R.J., Stahl, A., Wittkop, B., Friedt, W., Voss-Fels, K.P., Ordon, F., Frisch, M., Dreisigacker, S., Hearne, S., Bett, K.E., Cuthbert, R.D. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) v. 116, p. 10623-10624.
Farmer receiving information from a phone-based service. (Photo: Michelle DeFreese/CIMMYT)
Agricultural research is entering a new age in Bangladesh. The days, months and years it takes to collect farm data with a clipboard, paper and pen are nearing their end.
Electronic smartphones and tablets are gaining ground, used by researchers, extension workers and farmers to revolutionize the efficiency of data collection and provide advice on best-bet practices to build resilient farming systems that stand up to climate change.
Digital data collection tools are crucial in todayâs âbig dataâ driven agricultural research world and are fundamentally shifting the speed and accuracy of agricultural research, said Timothy Krupnik, Senior Scientist and Systems Agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
âEasy-to-use data collection tools can be made available on electronic tablets for surveys. These allow extension workers to collect data from the farm and share it instantaneously with researchers,â he said.
âThese tools allow the regular and rapid collection of data from farmers, meaning that researchers and extension workers can get more information than they would alone in a much quicker time frame.â
âThis provides a better picture of the challenges farmers have, and once data are analyzed, we can more easily develop tailored solutions to farmersâ problems,â Krupnik explained.
It is the first time extension workers have been involved in data collection in the country. Since the pilot began in late 2019, extension workers have collected data from over 5,000 farmers, with detailed information on climate responses, including the management of soil, water and variety use to understand what drives productivity. The DAE is enthused about learning from the data, and plans to collect information from 7,000 more farmers in 2020.
Bangladeshâs DAE is directly benefiting through partnerships with expert national and international researchers developing systems to efficiently collect and analyze massive amounts of data to generate relevant climate-smart recommendations for farmers, said the department Director General Dr. M. Abdul Muyeed.
Workers spread maize crop for drying at a wholesale grain market. (Photo: Dreamstime.com)
For the first time widespread monitoring examines how farmers are coping with climate stresses, and agronomic data are being used to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from thousands of individual farmers. This research and extension partnership aims at identifying ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change, he explained.
âThis work will strengthen our ability to generate agriculturally relevant information and increase the climate resilience of smallholder farmers in Bangladesh,” Dr. Muyeed said.
Next-gen big data analysis produces best-bet agricultural practices
âBy obtaining big datasets such as these, we are now using innovative research methods and artificial intelligence (AI) to examine patterns in productivity, the climate resilience of cropping practices, and greenhouse gas emissions. Our aim is to develop and recommend improved agricultural practices that are proven to increase yields and profitability,â said Krupknik.
The surveys can also be used to evaluate on-farm tests of agricultural technologies, inform need-based training programs, serve local knowledge centers and support the marketing of locally relevant agricultural technologies, he explained.
âCollecting farm-specific data on greenhouse gas emissions caused by agriculture and recording its causes is a great step to develop strategies to reduce agricultureâs contribution to climate change,â added Krupnik.
Rezatec, a leading provider of geospatial data analytics, has launched a free smartphone app which acts as a portal for farmers to record their agricultural activities and provides recommendations for optimal sowing and irrigation scheduling. Based on preliminary results from the experimental stations, the app has demonstrated the potential to increase wheat yields by up to 12%.
âYaqui Valley farmers are very experienced farmers; however, they can also benefit by using an app that is designed locally to inform and record their decisions,â explains Francelino Rodrigues, Precision Agriculture Scientist at CIMMYT. âSowing and irrigation timing are well known drivers of yield potential in that region â these are two features of the app weâre about to validate during this next season.â
