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.

In Nepal, collective action helps improve farmers’ incomes

Written by on July 8, 2015. Posted in Features.

Littri Gaun is a characteristic remote, hilly village in Dadeldhura district of Nepal. Relatively low agricultural yields, soil erosion and labor out-migration are major challenges for monsoon-dependent agriculture in this region. During the kharif season, farmers mostly grow the dominant staple crops – unbunded upland rice and maize. Some farmers also practice maize-soybean mixed cropping because soybean fetches a good price in the market. Finger millet is also grown for home consumption in some areas during kharif.

Farmers in Littri Gaun believe that chemical fertilizer can destroy soil, and use only farmyard manure and plant litter to enrich their soil. Low nutrient levels — particularly for Nitrogen – have led to consistently low crop productivity. Moreover, farmers grow traditional local varieties for which seeds may have been saved for several years, as seed replacement rates are low. With men migrating outside for work, women are left responsible for the agricultural production, as well as household duties, resulting in high levels of drudgery for women and high labor constraints during peak agricultural times.

CIMMYT led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia in Nepal (CSISA-NP) began working with farmers in Littri Gaun in 2012 and facilitated farmers in the village to form a group called “Ugratara Agriculture Group.” CSISA works with Ugratara to introduce new, suitable crop varieties, better-bet agronomic practices and small-scale machinery that women can use.

CSISA and Ugratara have conducted several maize trials to screen and grow different registered hybrids, to evaluate different crop establishment methods and to experiment with different methods of fertilizer management. Trials showed that hybrid maize yields were more than double to those of the local varieties under the same management conditions. With hybrids, Ugratara has even harvested up to three times the yield of the local maize varieties. Among the genotypes tested, group members preferred Kanchan-101 (hybrid) because of the high and early yields. Trials also showed that the local maize variety produced higher yields when fertilizer was applied, demonstrating the importance of good nutrient management.

During a farmers’ field day, Ugratara group members expressed that improved varieties like the maize variety Kanchan 101 (hybrid), introduced by CSISA, are more productive than their local maize. Ugratara group member, Naresh Khadka said, “We are producing more than double using the hybrid Kanchan-101 and it’s ready early than the local variety.” For upland rice, trials also showed that the appropriate use of chemical fertilizers nearly doubled yields of local rice varieties and that chemical fertilizer increased yields over those achieved through the application of farmyard manure.

CSISA also introduced improved varieties of lentil, which has increased the number of farmers producing lentil, lentil yields, and household lentil consumption. Farmers have also been able to sell their surplus lentil production in the market for NRs. 150/kg. “After seeing the benefits of improved lentil variety, more farmers are now expanding their area under lentil cultivation,” said Khadka.

Finally, CSISA introduced small machines like the mini tiller and the jab planter, which helped women to prepare and cultivate land, making them more self-sufficient, saving their time and helping them to adapt better to labor shortages. Women in Littri Gaun are not allowed to plough land with bullocks, as it is considered to be men’s work. Saru Khadka, a lady member of Ugratara group, said, “By using minitiller for preparing our fields, we don’t have to depend on men for labor and bullocks.” Participation in Ugratara has helped the group’s women members to feel empowered. Khadka acknowledged that women in Ugratara have learned to confidently express their views and problems to relevant authorities and they feel more capable and assertive now.

AIP-CIMMYT holds national meeting on conservation agriculture in Pakistan

Written by on July 6, 2015. Posted in News.

Inaugural session of the AIP-Agronomy national meeting on conservation agriculture. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan

“Cereal system productivity cannot be improved without improving agronomic practices,” declared Shahid Masood, Member of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) at a two-day AIP-Agronomy national meeting on conservation agriculture held in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 26-27 May 2015. He lauded CIMMYT’s efforts to strengthen conservation agriculture (CA) research and disseminate CA to Pakistan’s farming community and mentioned the importance of public and private partnerships for promoting CA technologies. The meeting was jointly organized by CIMMYT and PARC under USAID’s Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan.

To read more about the AIP’s work and the national conservation agriculture meeting, view the full article here.

Creative solutions for Latin American agriculture

Written by on July 6, 2015. Posted in News.

Course participants learning about the experiences of Mexican farmers who practice CA. Photo: Gabriela Ramírez

Nele Verhulst, Strategic Research Coordinator of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP), led CIMMYT’s 21st International Training Course on Conservation Agriculture from 25 May-26 June 2015. A total of 132 people have taken the course since its inception. This year, participating researchers from Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador and Mexico were trained in sustainable technologies and conservation agriculture (CA).

Field tour in the central valleys of Mexico. Photo: Gabriela Ramírez

“During the course, we encountered different situations that…will allow us to better recognize the challenges and opportunities we will face when we return to our home countries,” said José Vásquez from Guatemala, who gave the closing speech during the course’s graduation ceremony. He added that the five weeks of the course are extremely relevant for successfully carrying out extension work in their countries.

GCAP International Training Course on Conservation Agriculture (CA) graduates hold certificates, which authorize them to teach and train others on CA practices, during the Course’s closing ceremony. Photo: CIMMYT

A particular challenge of CA, according to Vazquez, is that “one size” does not fill all, and precepts must be adapted to local settings, with involvement of all actors, including farmers. “This implies that we will have to be extremely creative when listening to farmers and interpreting what they say, and even more so when asking them to adopt the technologies we have to offer,” said Vásquez.

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff explained CIMMYT’s role as a research organization and highlighted the crucial part it plays as a capacity building NGO.

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff addresses course graduates during closing ceremony. Photo: CIMMYT

“This role is indispensable for creating links with the different national systems, and for CIMMYT it is essential to share the knowledge it acquires. That is why we would like to propose a new project, CIMMYT Academy, which will bring together all the short-, medium- and long-term training activities available,” Kropff said.

Kropff concluded by reminding each participant of the role they have as CIMMYT ambassadors to their own countries and expressed his hope for continued collaboration in the future. Further reading on the course may be found here on Inside CIMMYT.

Looking towards the future: Govaerts examines food security and nutrition in a changing world

Written by on July 6, 2015. Posted in News.

Bram Govaerts shares a quote from Dr. Norman Borlaug with the audience: “I personally cannot live comfortably in the midst of abject hunger and poverty and human misery, if I have the possibilities of—even in a modest way, with the help of my many scientific colleagues—of doing something about improving the lives of these many young children.” Photo: Jennifer Johnson

Bram Govaerts, associate director of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) and leader of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program, made a presentation on the future prognosis of food security and the actions that must be taken to achieve it at the Prospectiva del Mundo (World Prospective) Mexico 2015 conference on 25 June. The conference, organized by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Mexican chapter of the World Future Society, brought together national and international experts in fields such as development, education, finance and agriculture.

These experts were gathered in order to draft a “charter of human duties,” an initiative proposed by the late Nobel Laureate Jos Saramago, who believed that there was a global need for a charter that would define the responsibilities, not just the rights, that each human being has to the development of their surroundings. The charter will later be presented to the United Nations.

Govaerts co-presided over a panel on nutrition and food production alongside Fernando Soto Baquero, FAO representative in Mexico. The panelists were tasked to propose duties for the charter and to answer the question: “How can we improve food distribution in a way that does not harm consumers while maintaining a profitable industry?”

In his presentation, Govaerts highlighted the challenges facing food security in the coming years. “It is not just a question of producing more food, but of producing food that is more nutritious and affordable, with less impact on the environment,” said the recipient of the 2014 Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. “We must end hidden hunger.”

He emphasized the necessity of using the genetic materials stored in CIMMYT’s gene banks to develop improved varieties, and to ensure that these varieties can be productively used by farmers. “CIMMYT is the home of one of the greatest jewels in the world: 130 thousand wheat accessions and 35 thousand maize accessions that represent the global biodiversity of these grains. However, if we don’t take advantage of our stored genetic material to create better varieties, our collection is nothing more than a refrigerator full of boxes.”

Govaerts proposed five duties for the charter of human obligations: investing in research for sustainable rural development; giving priority to family farming and small and medium producers; more equal opportunity for farmers, especially women; sustainable intensification; and further developing market opportunities for producers. He ended his presentation with a call to action, urging the audience to take the world’s duty to agriculture to heart.

“We have a great challenge before us, and a great decision to make: we will need to feed 9 billion people in 2050, and we can either do it unsustainably or sustainably. There is a lot of potential in this room, but we cannot feed 9 billion people on potential alone. We need everyone’s help and actions, and I invite you to join us.”

Farmers bring a direct seeder/fertilizer to a field in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo: Jelle Van Loon

Mexican leader expresses support for innovation and sustainable development

Written by on July 6, 2015. Posted in News.

CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff and Bram Govaerts, Associate Director of the Global Conservation Agriculture Program and Leader of MasAgro, meet with Senator Cota.

As part of his plan for working with Mexico, CIMMYT’s host country, on 24 June Director General Martin Kropff held an introductory meeting with Senator Manuel Cota, leader of Mexico’s National Peasant Confederation (Confederación Nacional Campesina/CNC), an organization comprising more than five million smallholder farmers. Sustainable development and scientific innovation were some of the key issues discussed.

Senator Cota acknowledged CIMMYT’s importance and said that he and his group are proud that CIMMYT is headquartered in Mexico. He recounted CIMMYT’s history, mentioning that it was founded in Mexico during the administration of President Adolfo López Mateos, who left a historic legacy of worldwide significance.

“CIMMYT has the support of the association I represent and Mexican legislators are very sensitive to rural issues, so there is no doubt that they are extremely willing to collaborate with science to generate innovations that benefit the agricultural sector,” said Senator Cota.

Kropff said that it is most important to establish useful strategies that help farmers, and that it is essential to incorporate research and innovation into the seed sector and public and private organizations.

“Since my arrival, I’ve heard about CNC–CIMMYT collaboration, and I feel very grateful and recognize that it is essential to have the support of such an important organization,” said Kropff. “Furthermore, this recognition is international because it was due to the efforts of small-scale farmers that the Center received the 2014 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application as part of the World Food Prize”, concluded Kropff.

The race to feed the world by 2050: implications for international agricultural research

Written by Mike Listman on June 30, 2015. Posted in Features.

The good news: by 2050, world population growth will likely fall to half or less the rate of 1.7% per year witnessed over the last half of the 20th century, offering a glimmer of hope for humanity to feed itself sustainably. More troubling though is that agricultural productivity growth is also slowing in many parts of the world, often because of declining investments in farm productivity-oriented research and political indifference. Which competing trend will win out in the end?

Attempting to answer this critical question and shed light on the causes, Philip G. Pardey, Professor of Science and Technology Policy, University of Minnesota, spoke to a global gathering of CIMMYT scientists in Mexico on 15 June. His presentation gave evidence and conclusions from recently published research¹ to develop and apply the new “International Agricultural Prospects” model that projects global agricultural consumption and production to 2050.

Looking at U.S. trends over the 20th Century, Pardey said that agricultural productivity grew quickly until 1990 but the pace of growth slowed afterwards by more than half. “Data from 1910 show a curvilinear trend featuring a productivity surge in the 1950s-70s,” he explained. “This U.S. surge might be illustrative of a more general one-time phenomenon in many agricultural economies around the world. This includes widespread uptake of agricultural chemicals, improved seeds, fertilizer and other modern inputs, and a massive movement of labor out of the sector.” The implication, he said, was a need to double down on sustainable agricultural productivity growth including giving increased attention to research that maintains past productivity gains.

Other conclusions from Pardey included:

Think long-term: it takes decades to go from an idea to a commercialized farm technology.
The basic political economy is driving investments away from farm productivity.
Population and demographics are major determinants of the consumption of agricultural output.
Additional demand for biofuels may not have as dramatic an effect on food futures as some speculate.
Available agricultural land appears more than sufficient for the projected growth in food production.

presentation on international agriculturalprospects. To left, Director General Kropff live tweets event. Photo: CIMMYT — Science Week participants listen to Pardey’s presentation on international agricultural prospects. To left, Director General Kropff live tweets event. Photo: CIMMYT

Regarding consumption, the model factored in consumption of biofuels, human food and animal feed, while considering changes in population growth, per capita income, and demographics — most notably the aging of the planet’s population. “We expect worldwide average per capita incomes in 2050 to be at the levels of more prosperous countries in 2000, but with a big spread among regions of the world,” said Pardey. “There will be encouraging reductions in people below the poverty line, but major clusters of the poor will persist in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.” He also observed that increased life expectancies and numbers of the elderly in countries like China would reduce the demand for calories and change the structure of diets.

The driving factors used to forecast production included the pace of crop yield growth in different regions around the world, the location and availability of agricultural land, and its agro-ecological suitability for growing specific crops. “In the U.S., the ‘average’ maize plant has moved 279 kilometers north and 342 kilometers west since 1910,” he explained. “From 16 to 21 percent of the growth in U.S. maize output is attributable to this movement.”

^[1] See A Bounds Analysis of World Food Futures: Global Agriculture Through to 2050 and The International Agricultural Prospects Model: Assessing Consumption and Production Futures Through 2050 (version 2.1).

AIP-CIMMYT holds national meeting on conservation agriculture in Pakistan

Written by on June 24, 2015. Posted in News.

Inaugural session of the AIP-Agronomy national meeting on conservation agriculture. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan

National partners shared progress on AIP’s agronomy activities and on implementation related issues at the event, which was attended by 58 agriculture professionals from various provincial and federal research institutes, agriculture extension, universities, private companies and international centers, who are involved in agronomy research and dissemination of CA technologies among the farming community under AIP.

On this occasion, Muhammad Azeem Khan, National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Director General, mentioned that in the 1980s, CIMMYT worked on developing zero tillage wheat technology for Pakistan’s rice-wheat area and acknowledged CIMMYT’s current research activities and capacity building of national scientists in Pakistan.

Imtiaz Muhammad, CIMMYT Country Representative and AIP Project Leader, informed participants that 13 national public and private sector partners are collaborating on conservation agriculture activities under AIP and that CIMMYT has provided new planters and financial support for implementation activities.

Imtiaz Hussain, Cropping System Agronomist, mentioned that conservation agriculture techniques such as zero tillage and bed planting in Pakistan’s rice-wheat, maize-wheat, legume-wheat, cotton-wheat and rainfed wheat cropping systems are currently being evaluated and disseminated. In collaboration with national partners, CIMMYT is also evaluating the zero-tillage Happy Seeder, which can plant wheat under heavy rice residue, without burning, in the Punjab’s rice-wheat area. This environmentally friendly technology has helped farmers avoid burning rice residues, reduce tillage operations and improve wheat yields. CIMMYT, in collaboration with national partners, is also focusing on evaluating site-specific nutrient management techniques, such as Nutrient ExpertTM decision support tools for wheat and maize and the GreenSeeker handheld sensor for nitrogen management in wheat.

Participants in the AIP-Agronomy national meeting on conservation agriculture. Photo: Amina Nasim Khan

USAID Representative Nazim Ali acknowledged CIMMYT’s efforts to implement AIP activities among smallholder farmers and disseminate improved technologies in smaller provinces such as Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

At the closing session, participants agreed to focus on locally manufacturing the zero-till Happy Seeder and ZT multi-crop planter, disseminating CA planters and techniques through service providers, introducing small farm machinery to smallholders in northern Pakistan and building the capacity of national partners.

CIMMYT to host international conservation agriculture workshop during China Science Week

Written by on June 22, 2015. Posted in News.

Postgraduates discussing and preparing the CA runoff demonstration with Professors Li Lingling and Zhang at Dingxi Research Station in preparation for the workshop. Photos: Jack McHugh/CIMMYT

An international conservation agriculture (CA) workshop to be held during China Science Week (30 June–4 July 2015) will bring CIMMYT CA researchers, colleagues and national researchers together with the objective of building agro-ecological capacity among researchers in western China. At the workshop, hosted by CIMMYT-China, participants will discuss subjects such as CA successes and the science and practical agronomy underpinning CA, and will view field displays of CA benefits.

The workshop will advance international exchange and future collaboration through CIMMYT-China’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP). China, a vital component of GCAP, plays an ever-increasing role in agricultural development across Asia and Africa. For example, GCAP-China collaborator Zhang Anping from the Nanjing Research Institute of Agricultural Mechanization recently returned from a 12-month machinery development program in Zimbabwe sponsored by the Chinese Government. Zhang will be hosting CIMMYT-GCAP on an agricultural machinery tour in Shandong Province following China Science Week.

Internationally renowned experts will be joined by CIMMYT’s GCAP team who will provide training and present CA research, development and extension practices, and share their expertise on CA issues that arise across Africa, Latin America and South Asia. Danny Decombel, Crop Nutritionist who has lived and worked in China for 27 years, will provide insights on nutrient and plant management and monitoring systems. Carl Timler of Wageningen University will provide hands-on training on the use of Farm DESIGN computer models and other farming system analytical tools. Farm DESIGN is a product of Wageningen University’s Farming Systems Ecology group.

National scientists will discuss new technologies, scientific advances and scholarly publications in China. Representatives from Gansu Agricultural University, The Grassland Institute of Lanzhou University, Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and local agronomy consultants, in partnership with GCAP-China, will also be organizing the event.

Common farming practices on the Loess Plateau near Dingxi to be visited during the workshop.

In addition to the workshop, a participatory learning field day will be held at Dingxi Research Station in Gansu Province. During the field day, participants will learn about challenges to CA adoption, and will view demonstrations of conventional vs. CA treatment of water-holding capacity, infiltration, runoff, soil strength, plant nutrition levels and crop water use.

CIMMYT representatives attending will include Bruno Gerard, GCAP Director; M.L. Jat, Senior Cropping System Agronomist; Frederic Baudron, Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) Project Leader; Santiago Lopez Ridaura, GCAP Systems Agronomist; and Tim Krupnik, Systems Agronomist.

Also in attendance will be professors John Bennett (University of Southern Queensland Australia), Enamel Haque (Murdoch University Perth Australia) and Jeremy Whish (CSIRO Australia). National representatives include Yang Changrong, expert in agro-ecology; Lan Yubin, leading expert in precision agriculture at South China Agricultural University; Pan Genxing, expert in soil biology and amendments at Nanjing Agricultural University; and Wang Yingkuan, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Agricultural & Biological Engineering and Vice Secretary General of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering.

SAGARPA and CIMMYT aligning agendas for a great new vision on sustainable maize and wheat systems for improved livelihoods

Written by on June 12, 2015. Posted in News.

Texcoco, Mexico, 11 June 2015.- Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) discussed today their continued commitment to Mexico’s food security and pledged to work together to raise Mexico’s self-sufficiency of cereal production to 75 percent by 2018. Enrique Martínez y Martínez, head of SAGARPA, and Martin Kropff, newly appointed director general at CIMMYT, held a meeting to discuss research and development priorities in the framework of their strategic collaboration. As an example of the collaboration the MasAgro project aims to boost maize productivity by promoting use of improved seeds and sustainable farming practices among Mexico’s smallholder farmers and how these past efforts can be improved for more impact that responds to real needs.

Secretary Martínez y Martínez acknowledged CIMMYT’s efforts in increasing maize and wheat productivity in Mexico and in the world but requested the non-profit international research organization to come up with new ideas to tackle food security challenges in Mexico within the new global context. President Peña Nieto pledged to increase spending in research to 1 percent of Mexico’s GDP. Current investment stands at 0.35 percent and SAGARPA counts on CIMMYT to help increase investment in agricultural research for development, Martínez said.

During the meeting, Martin Kropff restated CIMMYT’s commitment to Mexico’s development. “We strongly believe in public – private partnerships and want to help Mexico further strengthen its links with international research networks,” said Kropff who was Rector of Wageningen University, a world class agricultural higher education institution in the Netherlands, before recently joining CIMMYT. Research, however, should not be done for the sake of research but garantee impact and respond to demand-driven needs, agreed both leaders.

SAGARPA and CIMMYT agreed to work together to develop a yellow maize integrated seed sector in Mexico. The country is self-sufficient in white maize production but imports between 8 to 10 million tons of yellow maize to meet industry and livestock demand for yellow grain. Also a plan for a public-private investment platform in the wheat sector could jointly be developed through a bilateral working agenda.

Conservation agriculture in Africa: where does it fit?

Written by on June 9, 2015. Posted in Blogs.

Conservation agriculture (CA) encompasses the principles of minimum soil disturbance, retention of crop residues on the soil and diversification through crop rotations and associations. Worldwide, CA adoption exceeds 125 million hectares. Its benefits include reduced production costs and soil degradation, more effective and efficient use of resources like water and fertilizer, and greater overall cropping system productivity. CA-based practices have recently regained scientific attention as part of newly emerging concepts such as sustainable intensification, ecological intensification and climate-smart agriculture.

CIMMYT’s increasing efforts to promote CA in Sub-Saharan Africa began at a regional hub in southern Africa in 2004, moved to eastern Africa in 2009, and subsequently expanded to other Africa locations. In Africa, conservation agriculture has benefitted from significant donor attention and the call to address multiple agricultural challenges, which include the pressure of expanding populations on land resources, declining soil fertility, low productivity, and the negative effects of climate variability.

Research has proven the biophysical and economic benefits of CA for Africa, yet CA adoption and spatial expansion by African farmers is relatively low, compared to its acceptance in similar agro-ecologies in the Americas and Australia.

The lack of widespread adoption in Africa has led some researchers to question the suitability of CA for smallholder farmers in Africa or the wisdom of spending resources to study and promote it. A divide between CA-for-Africa proponents and opponents in the research community has opened, obscuring issues and hindering unbiased examination of CA opportunities and constraints. Adding to the uncertainty, there is little research in Africa to assess where CA might make the best impact or, more generally, where conditions are simply too marginal for cropping systems of any type.

AFTER 10 YEARS OF RESEARCH, WE FEEL IT IS CRITICAL TO LOOK OBJECTIVELY AT WHERE WE ARE WITH CA IN AFRICA. Specifically: What is CIMMYT’s comparative advantage in the research and development of CA systems? Does “business-as-usual” — that is, conventional tillage systems — provide better outcomes? Is there any form of alternative agriculture being adopted more quickly or widely than CA? Do we gain anything if we lose our comparative advantage as a leading global CA research institute and only focus on “good agronomic practices”?

We believe that CA has great promise for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa but CIMMYT and other organizations may have approached its study and extension from the wrong angle. In particular, CA has often been promoted in Africa as a way to raise yields. In fact, short-term yield gains are common from better moisture capture and retention under CA, in seasons with erratic and prolonged dry spells. But yield benefits from CA are normally not immediate; they generally begin to appear after two-to-five cropping seasons. Smallholder farm households often live at the edge of food insecurity year-in and year-out and are undisposed to risk an innovation that raises system productivity only in the medium term.

In contrast, the adoption of CA outside of Africa has been driven by benefits such as energy savings, reduced erosion, more timely sowing, and enhanced water- and nutrient-use efficiency. Furthermore, CA adopters worldwide have typically been large-scale commercial farmers who seek enhanced and sustainable profits and, as a consequence, ways to cut production costs. So how can their positive experience apply to smallholders and be used for proper targeting and extension of CA systems in Africa?

IN OUR OPINION, CIMMYT AND ITS PARTNERS SHOULD FOCUS ON (1) identifying the key drivers that have facilitated adoption of CA worldwide and (2) delineating the niches in Africa where these drivers are present, meaning where CA is likely to fit. As a start, we may wish to look at settings where:

Farm energy is scarce or expensive (whether provided by motors, draft animals or human labor ).
Timely planting is crucial, soil degradation extensive, and climate-related stress common. (This niche might be bigger than we think in Africa)

WE BELIEVE THAT CHALLENGES HAVE TOO OFTEN BEEN CONFUSED WITH BARRIERS TO ADOPTION. Too much time and effort have been spent highlighting challenges arising when implementing CA, instead of actively looking for ways to overcome them through technological and institutional innovations, including improved working arrangements between multiple actors. Furthermore, we feel that far too many resources are being channelled by CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture and Socioeconomics Programs into diagnostic studies, without commensurate investments in applied research for innovations to address the challenges.

Future research with farmers and other stakeholders should explore opportunities to ensure that CA systems meet smallholder farmers’ needs. It should also aim to target CA principles and practices in areas where highest returns are expected. In conclusion, we believe that BUSINESS AS USUAL IS NOT AN OPTION and that, in many places where CIMMYT works, CA IS IN DEMAND to alleviate labor bottlenecks, improve the timeliness of operations, control erosion and improve water- and nutrient-use efficiency. Should this demand be ignored? Of course challenges exist, but research – and international research in particular – should not simply document challenges but also provide solutions.

Christian Thierfelder is a CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist based in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has worked since 2004 in CA projects in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe and has conducted applied and strategic research on-farm and on-station to adapt CA to the needs of smallholder farmers in southern Africa. Through effective partnerships he has reached out to more than 10,000 farmers in southern Africa. He guided the research programs of 25 B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, and has authored and co-authored more than 30 research articles in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and books.

A CIMMYT systems agronomist based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Frédéric Baudron trained as a tropical agronomist, specialized as a livestock scientist and worked for various development programs targeting the interface between people (mainly farmers) and wildlife. He then completed a PhD in plant production systems. Projects he leads include Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI), implemented in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Isaiah Nyagumbo is a CIMMYT cropping systems agronomist based in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has worked in water harvesting and soil conservation research initiatives and was a pioneer of CA work on smallholder farming systems in Zimbabwe since the 1990s. Isaiah currently leads the agronomy component of the CIMMYT managed and ACIAR funded regional program ‘Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA)’ operating in 5 countries of Eastern and Southern Africa. Isaiah has also authored and contributed to regional research publications focusing mainly on CA, agricultural water management, water harvesting and technology dissemination.

For further detail regarding these views, stay tuned for the upcoming paper:

Baudron, F., Thierfelder, C., Nyagumbo, I., Gérard B., 2015. Where to target conservation agriculture? How to overcome challenges associated with its implementation? Experience from Eastern and Southern Africa. Forthcoming (expected in early-July) in Environments.

Growing land scarcity, the Borlaug hypothesis and the rise of megafarms

Written by on June 9, 2015. Posted in Features.

Derek Byerlee, former director of the CIMMYT economics program (1987-94) and current visiting scholar at Stanford University and adjunct professor at Georgetown University, presented some of his latest research at a brown bag lunch at CIMMYT headquarters on 1 May. His presentation, “Growing Land Scarcity, the Borlaug Hypothesis and the Rise of Megafarms,” examined the economic and environmental benefits and repercussions of cropland expansion, the recent rise of agribusiness and the delicate balance between crop intensification and deforestation.

The “Borlaug Hypothesis” is the idea that increasing crop yields can help prevent cropland expansion and deforestation, thus alleviating hunger and poverty without dramatically increasing environmental impact. Developed by the legendary Nobel Prize Laureate and CIMMYT scientist Norman Borlaug, the postulate is controversial in environmental circles, and some researchers have published studies showing that higher crop yields in the tropics increase incentives to clear forests, thus making investments in crop research potentially counterproductive to sustainable growth.

Byerlee noted that the world has increased per capita cereal production by about 40 percent over the last 50 years on about half the arable land per capita that it used in 1961. Models developed by Byerlee and his associates show that, without CGIAR work since 1965 to develop improved crop varieties, the land area devoted to food crops would have increased by 18 to 27 million hectares, mostly in developing countries. Byerlee supports Borlaug’s claim that broad-based investment in crop research and development indeed contributes to saving the world’s forests, although estimates by Byerlee and his associates are an order of magnitude lower than those of Borlaug.

Investment in crop intensification may be more important than ever, as the world’s growing population demands ever-growing quantities of food and land. “Meta-analysis of demand estimates suggests that, given current yield trends, agriculture will require an additional 200 to 450 million hectares of land by 2030 — as much as the entire combined land area of India and South Africa,” Byerlee said. At the same time, Byerlee found that an estimated 450 million hectares of land could be available for crop expansion but is concentrated in just a few countries and its cultivation could have negative impacts on the environment and on people already using that land for other purposes.

Linked to the question of where crops should be cultivated is the issue of who will cultivate them, especially on the land frontier. Byerlee described the recent rise of “megafarms” run by agribusiness companies and examined their economic benefits (or lack thereof) in comparison to traditional family farms that still prevail across the world. Byerlee argued that family farms were more efficient, equitable and contribute to more growth than megafarms, which benefit from professional management and technologies that allow for larger scale but do not display significant cost advantages over traditional family farms. Byerlee ultimately recommends models that combine agribusiness and smallholder farms for best results.

Please click here to view the full presentation.

First international training workshop on farming systems analysis in India

Written by on June 9, 2015. Posted in News.

The international training workshop “Approaches for integrated analysis of agricultural systems in South Asia: Field, to farm, to landscape scale,” jointly organized by CIMMYT and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), was held at Karnal, Haryana, India, during 18-23 May. The workshop targeted farming systems and agricultural development researchers in South Asia and provided an overview of the approaches and tools used to assess agricultural systems.

Workshop participants and facilitators. Photo: CIMMYT

Compared to the rest of the world, South Asia’s natural resources are 3-5 times more stressed due to population and economic pressures. Several agricultural technologies and practices have been developed to address resource management challenges. However, researchers need to conduct specialized analyses of complex farming systems to find out which technologies are appropriate for farmers.

The training workshop allowed participants to share their experiences in the field and create better methods to ensure successful interventions. P.C. Sharma, Head of the Crop Improvement Program, CSSRI, commenced the workshop and greeted the participants, who comprised 30 young researchers from national research institutions and universities in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Santiago López Ridaura, CIMMYT Global Conservation Agriculture Program Systems Agronomist, presented workshop objectives, which included introducing participants to integrated farming systems analysis as well as to modeling tools and technology designed for specific farming communities.

“This course is the first of its kind in the region,” emphasized M.L. Jat, CIMMYT Cropping Systems Agronomist. “It is unique, demand-driven and organized to strengthen the capacity of young researchers in the region so that they may more effectively help build livelihood security for smallholder farmers.”

D.K. Sharma, CSSRI Director, stressed the need for systems research in the region and how partnerships with centers ike CIMMYT have helped to successfully implement conservation agriculture, sustainable intensification and other practices. Sharma also described CSSRI’s farmer participatory model, which provides farmers with land for cultivation against their annual compensation, thereby improving livelihoods.

A book on sustainable intensification was released. Photo: CIMMYT

Workshop attendees participated in modeling, analysis and participatory exercises that helped them to better understand the challenges of technology adoption in the field. Participants also visited farms, where they learned farmers’ needs first-hand and observed the complexity of different farming systems.

The workshop was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (SRFSI) project of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research’s (ACIAR). Other attendees included Mahesh Gathala, CIMMYT Cropping Systems Agronomist and SRFSI Project Leader; Jeroen Groot, Wageningen University Farming Systems Modeling Specialist; David Berre, CIMMYT Farming Systems Agronomist; Timothy Krupnik, CIMMYT Agronomist; and Alison Laing, Cropping Systems Modeler at ACIAR CSIRO Climate Adaptation Flagship.

Well-positioned for next phase, CSISA India plans for monsoon cropping season

Written by on June 1, 2015. Posted in News.

As Phase II of the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) draws to a close in India, it is well positioned for a Phase III, according to Andrew McDonald, CIMMYT Cropping Systems Agronomist and CSISA Project Leader speaking at the Objective 1 planning and evaluation meeting for the 2015 monsoon cropping season held in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 22-24 April. The meeting was attended by CSISA’s Objective 1 teams from the Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu hubs, comprising diverse disciplinary experts from CIMMYT, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Phase II began in October 2012 and will be completed in October of this year. The external evaluation report, commissioned by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), commended the uniqueness of CSISA’s work with service providers and farmers, its staff’s dedication and the strong collaboration among CSISA partners. CSISA was established in 2009 to promote durable change at scale in South Asia’s cereal-based cropping systems, and operates rural “innovation hubs” throughout Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

The teams took a critical view of activities from the previous monsoon cropping season and highlighted priority areas for this year. “Sustainable intensification of cropping systems should be the centerpiece of our growth strategy. Rice followed by mustard followed by spring maize or green gram is a great system that can help us achieve 300% cropping intensity,” said R.K. Malik, CIMMYT Senior Agronomist and CSISA Objective 1 Leader. “We need to focus not only on how to create new service providers but also on how existing ones can be used as master trainers. This will help fill the gap of field technicians and further strengthen delivery,” Malik explained, regarding CSISA’s network of more than 1,800 service providers.

Andrew McDonald, CSISA Project Leader, speaks at CSISA’s planning and evaluation meeting in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo: Ashwamegh Banerjee

Leading discussions on the Odisha hub, Sudhir Yadav, IRRI Irrigated Systems Agronomist, emphasized the importance of identifying the non-negotiable steps for successful technology implementation. “The performance of zero tillage, for example, depends on soil type, date of seeding and whether the crop is rainfed or receives supplementary irrigation,” said Yadav. CSISA successfully introduced zero tillage in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj District, where it has enabled crop intensification thanks to the retention of residual soil moisture.

The meeting served as a platform for representatives from Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) Improved Rice-based Rainfed Agricultural Systems project to showcase lessons in managing rainfed rice systems in northern Bihar.

CSISA is currently in discussions with USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to design the technical program, and determine the scope, geography, duration and budget of Phase III.

Maize protects Colombian coffee from climate change

Written by on June 1, 2015. Posted in News.

The Eddy Covariance microclimate station in Paraguaycito takes meteorological data needed to predict climate variability. Phots: Claudio Romero Perilla.

Preliminary results have shown that a maize-coffee cropping system acts like a huge atmospheric carbon sink, capturing up to 60 times more carbon than a coffee-bean system during one cycle of the associated temporary bean crop. In addition, maize creates a more adequate micro-climate for coffee’s growth and development because it reduces air temperature, helps to maintain soil moisture and decreases daytime-nighttime soil temperature fluctuations. This has a buffer effect that benefits soil biochemical processes and improves crop productivity.

To demonstrate advances of the project “Increasing the profitability of maize-coffee systems” that CIMMYT has been conducting in Colombia for 10 years in collaboration with the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Producers (FEDERECAFE, Spanish acronym), two field days were held at the Paraguaycito–Quindío (29 April) and La Catalina–Risaralda (7 May) Experiment Stations belonging to CENICAFE, FEDERECAFE’s research unit. At these events, attended by 158 representatives of the Local Coffee Growers’ Committees and the National Federation of Cereal Growers (FENALCE, Spanish acronym), the latest advances in the areas of climate change, agronomy and genetic improvement were presented.*

At Paraguaycito, CENICAFE agronomists Myriam Cañon and Angela Castaño explain the effects of climate on the coffee-maize system.

On the subject of climate change, Angela Castaño, a Ph.D. student at Cauca University linked to CENICAFE, indicated that at the Paraguaycito Experiment Station, the performance of agro-ecosystem depends on energy-water-carbon dynamics, because its distribution is related to the production system. In the case of coffee, solar radiation, water and atmospheric carbon are distributed differently depending on whether the coffee is fully exposed to the sun, or if it is grown in association with other crops.

With the aim of studying energy-water-carbon dynamics in different coffee production systems, at Paraguaycito there is an Eddy Covariance micro-climate station that measures the sun’s energy and the amount of carbon and water vapor in the production system. Strategically placed sensors in the micro-climate station measure air and soil temperature and humidity, as well as the flow of latent heat (energy used for evapotranspiration) and of perceivable heat (energy used to heat the air). This information is used to study four types of agro-ecosystems that include growing temporary crops during the growth stage of coffee, namely, coffee with maize; coffee with common beans; coffee with pigeon-pea; and coffee under full sun exposure.

Myriam Cañon, Paraguaycito Station Coordinator, mentioned that the coffee-maize association reduces the number of coffee plants that die.

Diego Montoya, La Catalina Station Coordinator, explained that rain is now less frequent but more intense. This causes damage due to surface runoff on the steep terrain where coffee is grown in Colombia. However, there is less damage when coffee is cropped in association with maize because the soil is better protected by both crops.

This is the first of a two-part report; the second part will be published in the next issue of the CIMMYT Informa.

SUPER WOMAN: Paula Kantor engages men to support gender progress

Written by Mike Listman on May 29, 2015. Posted in Features.

FOCUS ON WOMEN CAN INADVERTENTLY END UP ALIENATING MEN

Gender research and outreach should engage men more effectively, according to Paula Kantor, CIMMYT gender and development specialist who is leading an ambitious new project to empower and improve the livelihoods of women, men and youth in wheat-growing areas of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.

“Farming takes place in socially complex environments, involving individual women and men who are embedded in households, local culture and communities, and value chains — all of which are colored by expectations of women’s and men’s appropriate behaviors,” said Kantor.

“We tend to focus on women in our work and can inadvertently end up alienating men, when they could be supporters if we explained what we’re doing and that, in the end, the aim is for everyone to progress and benefit.”

Funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the new project will include 14 village case studies across the three countries. It is part of a global initiative involving 13 CGIAR research programs (CRPs), including the CIMMYT-led WHEAT and MAIZE.

Participants in the global project will carry out 140 case studies in 29 countries; WHEAT and MAIZE together will conduct 70 studies in 13 countries.

Kantor and Lone Badstue, strategic leader for gender research at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, are members of the executive committee coordinating the global initiative, along with Gordon Prain of CIP-led Roots, Tubers and Bananas Program, and Amare Tegbaru of the IITA-led Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics.

“The cross-CRP gender research initiative is of unprecedented scope,” said Kantor. “For WHEAT, CIMMYT, and partners, understanding more clearly how gendered expectations affect agricultural innovation outcomes and opportunities can give all of our research more ‘ooomph’, helping social and biophysical scientists to work together better to design and conduct socially and technically robust agricultural R4D, and in the end achieve greater adoption and impact.”

To that end, outcomes will include joint interpretation of results with CRP colleagues and national stakeholders, scientific papers, policy engagement and guidelines for integrating gender in wheat research-for-development, according to Kantor.

Another, longer-term goal is to question and unlock gender constraints to agricultural innovation, in partnership with communities. Kantor said that male migration and urbanization are driving fundamental, global changes in gender dynamics, but institutional structures and policies must keep pace.

“The increase in de facto female-headed households in South Asia, for example, would imply that there are more opportunities for women in agriculture,” she explained, “but there is resistance, and particularly from institutions like extension services and banks which have not evolved in ways that support and foster the empowerment of those women.”

Kantor has more than 15 years of experience in research on gender relations and empowerment in economic development, microcredit, rural and urban livelihoods, and informal labor markets, often in challenging settings. She served four years as Director and Manager of the gender and livelihoods research portfolios at the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) in Kabul.

Any views expressed in this article are those of the author and not of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.