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Theme: Innovations

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

MasAgro Maize

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

MasAgro Maize, a component of CIMMYT’s MasAgro project, promotes the sustainable development of both maize grain and seed producers by breeding maize hybrids with conventional technologies and improving native maize seed in collaborative breeding projects with participant farmers. MasAgro’s improved maize seeds are tested in collaboration with the local seed sector that, in turn, commercializes the best adapted materials in Mexico’s growing regions. In 2015, MasAgro Maize’s main results were:

  • 16 collaborative breeding trials of native maize were established with participant farmers in eight communities in the state of Oaxaca in southwest Mexico.
  • 48 small and medium-sized Mexican seed companies collaborated with MasAgro Maize. Together, they produced 1.2 million 20 kilogram bags containing 60,000 seeds of hybrid maize.
  • Participating companies increased sales of MasAgro hybrid seed by 44 percent from 2014 to 2015.
  • Local seed companies sold 26 MasAgro hybrids branded under 100 commercial names in 19 states, 78 regions and 257 municipalities of Mexico.

OBJECTIVES

  • To have the technology and genetic materials needed to raise average rainfed maize production in Mexico from 2.2 to 3.7 tons per hectare over a 10 year period.
  • To increase the use of high-yielding, improved maize seed in Mexico over an area of between 1.5 and 3 million hectares.
  • To raise Mexico’s production of rainfed maize between 5 and 9 million tons in 10 years.
  • To promote the development of the maize seed industry in Mexico.
  • To strengthen food security in Mexico and in the rest of the world.

MasAgro Maize partners are encouraged to apply for licenses to commercialize CIMMYT maize hybrids, following the procedures described in the Allocations page.

Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (SRFSI)

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Eastern Gangetic Plains region of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal is home to the greatest concentration of rural poor in the world. This region is projected to be one of the areas most affected by climate change. Local farmers are already experiencing the impact of climate change: erratic monsoon rains, floods and other extreme weather events have affected agricultural production for the past decade. The region’s smallholder farming systems have low productivity, and yields are too variable to provide a solid foundation for food security. Inadequate access to irrigation, credit, inputs and extension systems limit capacity to adapt to climate change or invest in innovation. Furthermore, large-scale migration away from agricultural areas has led to labor shortages and increasing numbers of women in agriculture.

The Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) project aims to reduce poverty in the Eastern Gangetic Plains by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the environment and involving women. CIMMYT, project partners and farmers are exploring Conservation Agriculture-based Sustainable Intensification (CASI) and efficient water management as foundations for increasing crop productivity and resilience. Technological changes are being complemented by research into institutional innovations that strengthen adaptive capacity and link farmers to markets and support services, enabling both women and men farmers to adapt and thrive in the face of climate and economic change.

In its current phase, the project team is identifying and closing capacity gaps so that stakeholders can scale CASI practices beyond the project lifespan. Priorities include crop diversification and rotation, reduced tillage using machinery, efficient water management practices, and integrated weed management practices. Women farmers are specifically targeted in the scaling project: it is intended that a third of participants will be women and that at least 25% of the households involved will be led by women.

The 9.7 million Australian dollar (US$7.2 million) SRFSI project is a collaboration between CIMMYT and the project funder, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. More than 20 partner organizations include the Departments of Agriculture in the focus countries, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, the Indian Council for Agricultural Research, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Bihar Agricultural University, EcoDev Solutions, iDE, Agrevolution, Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Services, JEEViKA, Sakhi Bihar, DreamWork Solutions, CSIRO and the Universities of Queensland and Western Australia.

OBJECTIVES

  • Understand farmer circumstances with respect to cropping systems, natural and economic resources base, livelihood strategies, and capacity to bear risk and undertake technological innovation
  • Develop with farmers more productive and sustainable technologies that are resilient to climate risks and profitable for smallholders
  • Catalyze, support and evaluate institutional and policy changes that establish an enabling environment for the adoption of high-impact technologies
  • Facilitate widespread adoption of sustainable, resilient and more profitable farming systems

 

Zero-tillage service provision is key to facilitating adoption.
Zero-tillage service provision is key to facilitating adoption.
Service provider Azgad Ali and farmer Samaru Das have a fruitful relationship based on technology promoted through CIMMYT's SRSFI project.
Service provider Azgad Ali and farmer Samaru Das have a fruitful relationship based on technology promoted through CIMMYT’s SRSFI project.
A zero-tillage multi-crop planter at work in West Bengal.
Bablu Modak demonstrates his unpuddled mechanically transplanted rice.
Bablu Modak demonstrates his unpuddled mechanically transplanted rice.
CIMMYT's SRFSI team and the community walk through the fields during a field visit in Cooch Behar.
CIMMYT’s SRFSI team and the community walk through the fields during a field visit in Cooch Behar.

Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS)

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

African maize farmers must deal with drought, weeds, and pests, but their problems start with degraded, nutrient-starved soils and their inability to purchase enough nitrogen fertilizer. Maize yields of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are a fraction of those in the developed world, due mainly to the region’s poor soils and farmers’ limited access to fertilizer or improved maize seed. On average, such farmers apply only 9 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of cropland. Of that small amount, often less than half is captured by the crop; the rest is leached deep into the soil where plants cannot recover it or otherwise lost.

The Improved Maize for African Soils Project (IMAS) develops maize varieties that are better at capturing the small amount of fertilizer that African farmers can afford, and that use the nitrogen they take up more efficiently to produce grain. Project participants will use cutting-edge biotechnology tools such as molecular markers—DNA “signposts” for traits of interest—and transgenic approaches to develop varieties that ultimately yield 30 to 50 percent more than currently available varieties, with the same amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied or when grown on poorer soils.

The varieties developed will be made available royalty-free to seed companies that sell to the region’s smallholder farmers, meaning that the seed will become available to farmers at the same cost as other types of improved maize seed.

In four years or less, African farmers should have access to IMAS varieties developed using conventional breeding that offer a 20 percent yield advantage over current varieties. Improved varieties developed using DNA marker techniques are expected to be introduced within seven to nine years, and those containing transgenic traits are expected to be available in approximately 10 years, pending product performance and regulatory approvals by national regulatory and scientific authorities, according to the established laws and regulatory procedures in each country.

IMAS is being led by CIMMYT and funded with $19.5 million in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The project’s other partners — DuPont-Pioneer, Kenya Agricultural Livestock and Research Organization and the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa — are also providing significant in-kind contributions including staff, infrastructure, seed, traits, technology, training, and know-how.

The second phase of IMAS continues to be implemented through the Seed Production Technology for Africa (SPTA) project.

OBJECTIVES

  • Conventional and marker assisted breeding to develop hybrids and OPVs with improved nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) adapted to southern and eastern Africa
  • Identification and deployment of native trait alleles to enhance yield under low nitrogen conditions through association mapping and Quantitative Trait Loci mapping
  • Development of transgenic maize varieties adapted to southern and eastern Africa with increased yield under severe nitrogen limitation
  • Managing NUE varieties for sustainability in African maize cropping systems
  • Project stewardship, public awareness and capacity building
  • NUE variety registration, release and dissemination in southern and eastern Africa

Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP)

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation was initiated in 1999 with the objective of increasing the food security of farm families in the hills of Nepal by raising the productivity and sustainability of maize-based cropping systems. The HMRP went through three phases between 1999 and 2010, the fourth and final phase began in August 2010 and concluded in 2015. There are two key outcomes for the project.

First, farm households in the hills of Nepal, especially those belonging to women, poor and disadvantaged groups, have improved food security and income.

Second, the National Seed Board, the Nepal Agricultural Research Council and the Department of Agriculture enforce quality control in both public and private institutions.

OBJECTIVES

  • Farm households in the hills of Nepal, especially of poor and disadvantaged groups, have improved food security and income.
  • Available varieties and technologies are used
  • Poor and disadvantaged households have increased access to quality maize seed and proven technologies
  • Groups/cooperatives supply quality seeds at competitive market prices
  • Poor and disadvantaged maize producing households will have access to multiple agricultural interventions for enhanced productivity
  • The National Seed Board (NSB), NARC, and the DoA allow decentralization of the source seed production system
  • Public and private institutions obtain seed inspection mandate and license
  • CBSP/cooperatives manage supply of quality seed
  • The NSB and NARC consider HMRP’s experience in variety development, certification and release system

PRINCIPAL COORDINATOR

Nirmal Gadal

Ethiopia Wheat Rust Scaling

Written by Courtney Brantley on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Wheat is a traditional crop cultivated by about five million households on 1.6 million hectares in Ethiopia. Despite the country’s huge potential, the average wheat productivity of 2.5 tonnes per hectare is lower than the global average of 3 tonnes per hectare. Stem rust and yellow rust diseases caused by Pucccinia spp. are the major biotic constraints for wheat production in the country and recent recurrent outbreaks have debilitated many wheat varieties in major production areas in Ethiopia.

Projects to accelerate seed multiplication of rust resistant varieties funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others contributed to the replacement of the widely grown susceptible varieties Kubsa and Galama. However, in 2013–2014, a new Pgt race, identified as TKTTF, unrelated to the highly virulent Ug99 rust disease, which is also present in Ethiopia, caused 100 percent yield losses on bread wheat variety Digalu in some regions.

The Ethiopia Wheat Rust Scaling seed and surveillance project aims to develop, demonstrate and scale up high-yielding wheat varieties with adult plant resistance to prevailing rust pathogens with the following objectives: enhancement of rust surveillance; early warning and phenotyping; fast-track variety testing and pre-release seed multiplication to assure availability of rust resistant improved wheat varieties for distribution in targeted districts; accelerating seed multiplication of durable rust resistant wheat varieties through the formal and informal seed systems; demonstration and scaling up of improved wheat varieties and improving linkages between small scale durum wheat producers and agro-industries with the aim of creating market access to smallholder durum wheat producers.

The project includes conducting wheat rust surveys, training and field days. Farmer cooperative unions are being organized in clusters and women and youth groups will participate in informal seed production. The number of private seed enterprises and women farmers participating in the accelerated informal seed multiplication program will be increased as the project progresses in consultation with stakeholders.

CIMMYT worked with the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project to import of 5 tons of stem rust resistant bread wheat variety “Kingbird” and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cereal Disease Laboratory, the University of Minnesota and Washington State University in phenotyping and genotyping of commercial cultivars and elite materials from the national wheat research program, respectively.

Objectives

  • Enhancement of rust surveillance, early warning and phenotyping.
  • Fast-track variety testing and pre-release seed multiplication to assure availability of rust resistant improved wheat varieties for distribution in targeted districts.
  • Accelerating seed multiplication of durable rust resistant wheat varieties through the formal and informal seed systems.
  • Demonstration and scaling up of improved wheat varieties.
  • Improving linkages between small scale durum wheat producers and agro-industries with the aim of creating market access to smallholder durum wheat producers in 10 districts.

Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI)

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Agricultural intensification is both a need and an opportunity for countries in sub-Sahara Africa. For intensification to occur sustainably — with minimum negative environmental and social consequences — it is widely recognized that resources must be used with much greater efficiency. Although much emphasis is being placed in current research for development work on increasing the efficiency with which land, water and nutrients are being used, farm power appears as the “forgotten resource.” However, farm power in countries sub-Saharan Africa is declining due to the collapse of most hire tractor schemes, the decline in number of draft animals and the decline in human labor related to rural-urban migration. Another aspect of low farm power is high labor drudgery, which affects women, who generally due the majority of threshing, shelling and transport by head-loadings, disproportionally. Undoubtedly, sustainable intensification in these countries will require an improvement of farm-power balance through increased power supply — via improved access to mechanization — and/or reduced power demand – via energy saving technologies such as conservation agriculture techniques.

The Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification project examines how best to exploit synergies between small-scale-mechanization and conservation agriculture. The overall goal of the project is to improve farm power balance, reduce labour drudgery, and minimize biomass trade-offs in Eastern and Southern Africa, through accelerated delivery and adoption of two-wheel-tractor-based technologies by smallholders.

This project is now in the second phase, which began on June 1, 2017.

OBJECTIVES

  • To evaluate and demonstrate two wheel tractor-based technologies in the four selected sites of Eastern and Southern Africa, using expertise/knowledge/skills/implements from Africa, South Asia and Australia
  • To test site-specific market systems to deliver two wheel tractor-based mechanization in the four countries
  • To identify improvements in national markets and policies for wide delivery of two wheel tractor-based mechanization
  • To create awareness on two wheel tractor-based technologies in the sub-region and share knowledge and information with other regions

International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP)

Written by Courtney Brantley on . Posted in Uncategorized.

In 2011, agriculture ministers from the Group of 20 nations committed to developing an international initiative to coordinate worldwide research efforts in wheat genetics, genomics, physiology, breeding and agronomy.

The result, the Wheat Initiative, aims to encourage and support the development of a vibrant global public-private research community by sharing resources, capabilities, data and ideas to improve wheat productivity, quality and sustainable production around the world.

One of the Wheat Initiative’s key aims – increasing wheat yield and developing new wheat varieties adapted to different geographical regions – will be delivered by the International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) – an international partnership of research funders and research organizations.

The partnership was initiated by CIMMYT, the Britain’s Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food and the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2012. IWYP represents a long-term, global endeavor that utilizes a collaborative approach to bring together funding from public and private research organizations from a large number of countries.

The partnership supports both core infrastructure and facilitates transnational open calls for research, all targeted at raising the yield potential of wheat.

All partners are committed to transparency, collaboration, open communication of results, data sharing as well as improved coordination to maximize global impact and eliminate duplication of effort.

IWYP is an independent research activity but, as with all public wheat research activities, IWYP will help the Wheat Initiative to fulfill its mission to “co-ordinate wheat research and contribute to global food security.”

This partnership builds on previous work of the Wheat Yield Consortium.

Objectives

  • Increasing wheat yield and developing new wheat varieties adapted to different geographical regions
  • Support core infrastructure and facilitate transnational open calls for research, all targeted at raising the yield potential of wheat

Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA)

Written by Mary Donovan on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Water Efficient Maize for Africa partnership was launched in March 2008 to help farmers manage the risk of drought by developing and deploying maize varieties that yield 24 to 35 percent more grain under moderate drought conditions than currently available varieties. The higher and more reliable harvests will help farmers to feed their families and increase their incomes.

The varieties are being developed using conventional breeding, marker-assisted breeding, and biotechnology, and will be marketed royalty-free to smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa through African seed companies. The current, second phase of the project (2013–2017) includes breeding for resistance to stem borers—insect pests that seriously damage maize crops in the field—as well as product and production management, promotion with seed companies and farmers, and product stewardship activities.

The project focuses on Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The second phase of the project began on February 1, 2013.

OBJECTIVES

  • Product development. Develop and test drought tolerant and and insect-pest resistant maize varieties through conventional, molecular, and genetic engineering breeding approaches.
  • Regulatory affairs and compliance. Support multi-location testing and commercial release of drought tolerant and insect-pest resistant maize hybrids in the Water Efficient Maize for Africa partner countries.
  • Product deployment: Product and production management. Facilitate the marketing and stewardship of drought tolerant and insect-pest resistant hybrid maize seeds, and stimulate private sector investments for sustainable seed production, distribution and us
  • Communications and outreach. Support testing, dissemination, commercialization, adoption, and stewardship of conventional and transgenic drought tolerant and insect-pest resistant hybrids in the five target countries.
  • Legal and licensing support. Develop and implement appropriate licensing and intellectual property protection mechanisms for Water Efficient Maize for Africa products.

FUNDING INSTITUTIONS

  • Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Howard G. Buffett Foundation
  • U.S. Agency for International Development

PRINCIPAL COORDINATOR

Stephen Mugo

Profitability under different fertilization recommendation scenarios in Ethiopia and Tanzania, measured in U.S. dollars per hectare.

How the data revolution could help design better agronomic investments

Written by Jérôme Bossuet on . Posted in Features.

Profitability under different fertilization recommendation scenarios in Ethiopia and Tanzania, measured in U.S. dollars per hectare.
Profitability under different fertilization recommendation scenarios in Ethiopia and Tanzania, measured in U.S. dollars per hectare.

What fertilizer application will give me the best returns? What maize crop variety should I use?

Each farmer faces constraints related to weather uncertainty, soil fertility management challenges, or access to finance and markets. To improve their yields and incomes, African smallholder farmers need agronomic advice adapted to their specific circumstances. The challenge is even greater in sub-Saharan Africa, where agricultural production landscapes are highly diverse. Yet traditional agronomic research was not designed to fit with complex agroecological regions and farming systems. Compounding the problem, research organizations often have limited resources to develop the necessary experiments to generate farm- and site-specific agronomic advice at scale.

“Agronomic research is traditionally not equipped to consider spatial or socio-economic diversity among the millions of farmers it targets,” said Sebastian Palmas, data scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Nairobi, Kenya.

Palmas presented some of the learnings of the Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa (TAMASA) project during a science seminar called “A spatial ex ante framework for guiding agronomic investments in sub-Saharan Africa” on March, 4, 2019.

The project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has used data to improve the way agronomic research for development is done. Researchers working on the TAMASA project addressed this challenge by using available geospatial information and other big data resources, along with new data science tools such as machine learning and Microsoft’s AI for Earth. They were able to produce and package information that can help farmers, research institutions and governments take better decisions on what agronomic practices and investments will give them the best returns.

By adapting the Quantitative Evaluation of the Fertility of Tropical Soils (QUEFTS) model to the conditions of small farmers in TAMASA target countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania), using different layers of information, CIMMYT and its partners have developed a versatile geospatial tool for evaluating crop yield responses to fertilizer applications in different areas of a given country. Because calculations integrate spatial variation of fertilizer and grain prices, the tool evaluates the profitability — a key factor influencing farmers’ fertilizer usage — for each location. The project team can generate maps that show, for instance, the estimated agronomic and economic returns to different fertilizer application scenarios.

The TAMASA team plans to publish the code and user-friendly interface of this new geospatial assessment tool later this year. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The TAMASA team plans to publish the code and user-friendly interface of this new geospatial assessment tool later this year. (Photo: CIMMYT)

Making profits grow

These tools could potentially help national fertilizer subsidy programs be more targeted and impactful, like the ambitious Ethiopia’s Fertilizer Blending initiative which distributes up to 250,000 tons of fertilizer annually. Initial calculations showed that, by optimizing diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea application, the profitability per hectare could improve by 14 percent on average, compared to the current fertilizer recommendations.

Such an approach could generate farm-specific advice at scale and boost farmers’ incomes. It could also provide insights on many different issues, like estimating market demand for a new fertilizer blend, or the estimated quantity of additional fertilizer required to bring about a targeted maize yield increase.

Future extensions of the framework may incorporate varietal differences in nutrient management responses, and thus enable seed companies to use the framework to predict where a new maize hybrid would perform best. Similarly, crop breeders could adapt this ex ante assessment tool to weigh the pros and cons of a specific trait and the potential impact for farmers.

The TAMASA team plans to publish the code and user-friendly interface of this new geospatial assessment tool later this year.

Maize Doubled Haploid Production Services

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Uncategorized.

CIMMYT provides a maize doubled haploid (DH) production service at cost to maize breeding programs in Africa and Latin America at its DH facilities in Kenya and Mexico.

This service reduces the time required to develop homozygous maize lines to just over one year, instead of three to seven years using more traditional inbreeding methods. This technology also results in better-quality maize lines: DH maize lines are 100% homozygous, whereas traditional inbreeding generates lines with only approximately 99.2% homozygosity. These advantages help breeders increase their rate of genetic gain: the rate at which the genetic potential of a crop increases in yield over time.

CIMMYT established centralized DH line production facilities for Africa at KALRO-Kiboko, Kenya. A similar facility is also in operation for Latin America at CIMMYT’s experimental station in Agua Fría, Mexico. Public and private sector organizations involved in maize breeding can access the DH production service by signing a DH service agreement.

Affordable, Accessible Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Project

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Smallholder maize farmers in marginal environments in Asia are prone to drought due to either scanty/erratic rainfall or falling groundwater levels.

The Affordable, Accessible, Asian (AAA) Drought Tolerant Maize Project is a partnership among CIMMYT, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, national agricultural research systems of Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam to develop drought-tolerant maize for smallholder farmers in Asia.

AAA combines complementary technologies and comparative advantages, such as CIMMYT’s global expertise in drought-tolerant maize breeding, Syngenta’s elite germplasm bred for Asia, the national partners’ local knowledge of farmers’ requirements and their germplasm testing network.

This project covers a gamut of upstream and downstream activities: marker discovery (genome-wide association studies); trait discovery (understanding root structure and function-lysimetrics); marker applications (genomic selection); drought phenotyping facilities (rhizotronics, rain-out shelters; managed drought stress screening locations); germplasm development; hybrid deployment; and linking with potential hybrid commercialization partners.

Objectives

  • Validation of drought-tolerant genetic markers
  • Rhizotronics studies reveal importance of root functional traits in determining drought tolerance
  • Genomic selection is proving to be a powerful strategy for developing improved source populations
  • Promising results from hybrid trials in India and Indonesia indicate the value of this innovative partnership model

Funding Institutions

  • Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA)

Principal Coordinator

Bindiganavile Sampath Vivek

Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP)

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan is working to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes in the agricultural sector through the promotion and dissemination of modern technologies/practices in the livestock, horticulture (fruits and vegetables) and cereals (wheat, maize and rice) sector. The CIMMYT-led project aims to foster emergence of a dynamic, responsive, and competitive system of science and innovation in Pakistan.

This unique project places particular emphasis on building partnerships between public research and those it serves, including farmers and the private sector. AIP operates through three activity windows: commissioned projects, a competitive grants system and human resource development. Within these activity windows AIP addresses complex agricultural systems, but is divided into four “science windows’” including cereals and cereal systems, livestock, vegetables and perennial horticulture. The key indicator of AIP’s success is the number of small farmers who adopt or benefit from productivity or value-enhancing technologies.

OBJECTIVES

The long term goals of the project are food security, environmental protection, gender sensitization and poverty reduction through the adoption of sustainable technologies, resource management practices, advance agricultural models and improved systems.

Building resilience, self-reliance and a reliable business model

Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA)

Written by Rodrigo Ordóñez on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Intensive cereal cropping systems that include rice, wheat and/or maize are widespread throughout South Asia. These systems constitute the main economic activity in many rural areas and provide staple food for millions of people. The decrease in the rate of growth of cereal production, for both grain and residue, in South Asia is therefore of great concern. Simultaneously, issues of resource degradation, declining labor availability and climate variability pose steep challenges for achieving the goals of improving food security and rural livelihoods.

The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) was established in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems.

The project’s aim is to enhance the productivity of cereal-based cropping systems, increase farm incomes and reduce the environmental footprint of production through sustainable intensification technologies and management practices.

Operating in rural “innovation hubs” in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, CSISA complements regional and national efforts and involves public, civil society and private sector partners in the development and dissemination of improved cropping systems, resource-conserving management technologies, policies and markets. CSISA supports women farmers by ensuring their access and exposure to modern and improved technological innovations, knowledge and entrepreneurial skills that can help them become informed and recognized decision makers in agriculture.

The project is led by CIMMYT with partners the International Rice Research Institute and the International Food Policy Research Institute and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

OBJECTIVES

  • Promote resource-conserving practices, technologies and services that increase yield with less water, labor and input costs
  • Impart new knowledge on cropping management practices, from applied research
  • Improve access to market information and enterprise development.
  • Strengthen policy analysis to remove constraints to the adoption of new technologies
  • Build strategic partnerships and capacity to help sustain and enhance the scale of benefits of improved cereal growth

Core research to impact themes within CSISA include:

  • Coping with climate extremes in rice-wheat cropping systems
  • Accelerating the emergence of mechanized solutions for sustainable intensification
  • Strengthening the foundations of agro-advisory and precision management through knowledge organization and data integration at scale
  • Increasing the capacity of partners to conduct participatory science and field reconnaissance to target and prioritize development interventions