As staple foods, maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to two-thirds of the worldâs food energy intake, and contributing 55 to 70 percent of the total calories in the diets of people living in developing countries, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. CIMMYT scientists tackle food insecurity through improved nutrient-rich, high-yielding varieties and sustainable agronomic practices, ensuring that those who most depend on agriculture have enough to make a living and feed their families. The U.N. projects that the global population will increase to more than 9 billion people by 2050, which means that the successes and failures of wheat and maize farmers will continue to have a crucial impact on food security. Findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which show heat waves could occur more often and mean global surface temperatures could rise by up to 5 degrees Celsius throughout the century, indicate that increasing yield alone will be insufficient to meet future demand for food.
Achieving widespread food and nutritional security for the worldâs poorest people is more complex than simply boosting production. Biofortification of maize and wheat helps increase the vitamins and minerals in these key crops. CIMMYT helps families grow and eat provitamin A enriched maize, zinc-enhanced maize and wheat varieties, and quality protein maize. CIMMYT also works on improving food health and safety, by reducing mycotoxin levels in the global food chain. Mycotoxins are produced by fungi that colonize in food crops, and cause health problems or even death in humans or animals. Worldwide, CIMMYT helps train food processors to reduce fungal contamination in maize, and promotes affordable technologies and training to detect mycotoxins and reduce exposure.
The overall objective of the 5-year EU-funded DeSIRA action, led by the International Potato Center (CIP), is to improve climate change adaptation of agricultural and food systems in Malawi through research and uptake of integrated technological innovations.
CIMMYTâs role is focused on the following project outputs:
Identify and develop integrated technology options that effectively provide management options to contribute to reducing risks and increasing resilience and productivity of the smallholder farmersâ agrifood systems in Malawi. Towards this objective, CIMMYT will evaluate drought-tolerant and nutritious maize varieties under conservation agriculture and conventional practices, and assess the overall productivity gains from agronomic and germplasm improvements versus current farming practices.
Develop, test and promote robust integrated pest and disease management strategies to predict, monitor and control existing and emerging biotic threats to agriculture while minimizing risks to farmersâ health and damage to the environment. Towards this objective, CIMMYT will evaluate the effect of striga on maize performance under conservation agriculture and conventional practices; evaluate farmer methods and other alternatives to chemical sprays for the control of fall armyworm; and study the effect of time of planting for controlling fall armyworm.
The conservation of plant genetic diversity through germplasm conservation is a key component of global climate-change adaptation efforts. Germplasm banks like the maize and wheat collections at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) may hold the genetic resources needed for the climate-adaptive crops of today and tomorrow.
But how do we ensure that these important backups are themselves healthy and not potential vectors of pest and disease transmission?
âGermplasm refers to the source plants of either specific cultivars or of unique genes or traits that can be used by breeders for improved cultivars,â program moderator and head of the Health and Quarantine Unit at the International Potato Center (CIP) Jan Kreuze explained to the eventâs 622 participants. âIf the source plant is not healthy, whatever you multiply or use it for will be unhealthy.â
According to keynote speaker Saafa Kumari, head of the Germplasm Health Unit at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), we know of 1.3 thousand pests and pathogens that infect crops, causing approximately $530 billion in damages annually. The most damaging among these tend to be those that are introduced into new environments.
Closing the gap, strengthening the safety net
The CGIAR has an enormous leadership role to play in this area. According to Kumari, approximately 85% of international germplasm distribution is from CGIAR programs. Indeed, in the context of important gaps in the international regulation and standards for germplasm health specifically, the practices and standards of CGIARâs Germplasm Health Units represent an important starting point.
âGermplasm health approaches are not necessarily the same as seed and plant health approaches generally,â said Ravi Khaterpal, executive secretary for the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI). âBest practices are needed, such as CGIARâs GreenPass.â
In addition to stronger and more coherent international coordination and regulation, more research is needed to help source countries test genetic material before it is distributed, according to Francois Petter, assistant director for the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO). Head of the CGIAR Genebank Platform Charlotte Lusty also pointed out the needed for better monitoring of accessions in storage. âWe need efficient, speedy processes to ensure collections remain healthy,â she said.
Of course, any regulatory and technological strategy must remain sensitive to existing and varied social and gender relations. We must account for cultural processes linked to germplasm movement, said Vivian Polar, Gender and Innovation Senior Specialist with the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB). Germplasm moves through people, she said, adding that on the ground âwomen and men move material via different mechanisms.â
âThe cultural practices associated with seed have to be understood in depth in order to inform policies and address gender- and culture-related barriersâ to strengthening germplasm health, Polar said.
The event was co-organized by researchers at CIP and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).
The overall webinar series is hosted by CIMMYT, CIP, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), IITA, and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is sponsored by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition (A4NH), the CGIAR Gender Platform and the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB).
The third of the four webinars on plant health, which will be hosted by CIMMYT, is scheduled for March 10 and will focus on integrated pest and disease management.Â
A shop attendant displays drought-tolerant maize seed at the Dryland Seed Company shop in Machakos, Kenya. (Photo: Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT)
For several decades, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has worked with partners and farmers to improve maize and wheat varieties. Packed with âupgradesâ such as tolerance to environmental stresses, tolerance to diseases and pests, boosted nutrient content, higher yield potential and storage capabilities, and improved efficiency in using water and fertilizers, these seeds are rolled out by CIMMYT and its partners to create new opportunities for easier and better lives for farmers.
Together with national research partners, farmers, local governments and seed companies, CIMMYTâs work in seed systems has reaped results. Its experts are eager to put this experience into further action as CGIAR embarks on the next ten years of its journey to transform food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. And rightly so: investments in CGIAR research â mainly through their contributions to enhancing yields of staple food crops â have returned ten-fold benefits and payoffs for poor people in terms of greater food abundance, lower prices of food, reduced food insecurity and poverty and reduced geographical footprint of agriculture. A large part of this impact is the result of CIMMYTâs day to day efforts to create a better world.
A Bangladeshi woman cuts up feed for her family’s livestock. They did not previously have animals, but were able to buy them after her husband, Gopal Mohanta, attended a farmer training from CIMMYT and its partners, which gave him access to better seed, technologies, and practices. Mohanta planted a wider range of crops, and in 2005 he planted maize for the first time, using improved seed based on CIMMYT materials. (Photo: S. Mojumder/Drik/CIMMYT)
Replacing old varieties, not as easy as it sounds
Slow variety turnover â that of more than ten years â makes farmers vulnerable to risks such as climate change and emerging biotic threats. On the other hand, planting improved varieties that match farmersâ needs and the geography they work in, can increase productivity gains and improve the nutritional status of smallholders and their families. This, in turn, contributes to increased household incomes. Indirectly, the benefits can reach the surrounding community by providing increased employment opportunities, wage increases and affordable access to food.
Despite its tremendous benefits, varietal turnover is no small feat.
When it comes to seeds, detailed multi-disciplinary research is behind every new variety and its deployment to farmers. Just as the production of a new snack, beverage or a car requires an in-depth study of what the customer wants, seed systems also must be demand-driven.
Socioeconomists have to work hand-in-hand with breeders and seed system specialists to understand the drivers and bottlenecks for improved varietal adoption, market needs, and gender and social inclusion in seed delivery. Bottlenecks include the lack of access by farmers â especially for resource-poor, socially-excluded ones â to reliable information about the advantages of new varieties. Even if farmers are aware of new varieties, seeds might not be available for sale where they live or they might be too expensive.
Possibly the most complex reason for slow variety turnover is risk vulnerability: some farmers simply canât afford to take the risk of investing in something that might be good but could also disappoint. At the same time, seed companies also perceive a certain risk: they might not be interested in taking on an improved variety that trumps the seeds from older but more popular varieties they have on stock. For them, building and marketing a new brand of seeds requires significant investments.
Agricultural seed on sale by a vendor near Islamabad, Pakistan. For improved crop varieties to reach farmers, they usually must first reach local vendors like these, who form an essential link in the chain between researchers, seed producers and farmers. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
New approaches are yielding results
Despite the complexity of the challenge, CIMMYT has been making progress, especially in Africa where slow variety turnover is creating roadblocks for increased food security and poverty alleviation.
Recent analysis of the weighted average age of CIMMYT-related improved maize varieties in 8 countries across eastern and southern Africa reveals that the overall weighted average age has decreased from 14.6 years in 2013 to 10.2 years in 2020. The remarkable progress in accelerating the rate of variety turnover and deploying the improved genetics â with climate resilience, nutritional-enhancement and grain yield â are benefiting more than eight million smallholders in Africa.
In Ethiopia, CIMMYT, EIAR and ICARDAâs work led to the adoption of improved rust-resistant varieties, corresponding productivity gains and economic benefits that, besides the urgent need to fight against the damaging rust epidemic, depended on a combination of enabling factors: pre-release seed multiplication, pro-active policies and rust awareness campaigns. The estimated income gain that farmers enjoyed due to adopting post-2010 varieties in 2016/2017 reached $48 million. For the country itself, the adoption of these varieties could save $65 million that otherwise would be spent on wheat imports.
Bill Gates echoes this in Chapter 9 of his new climate book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, as he describes CIMMYT and IITAâs drought-tolerant maize work: â[âŠ] experts at CGIAR developed dozens of new maize varieties that could withstand drought conditions, each adapted to grow in specific regions of Africa. At first, many smallholder farmers were afraid to try new crop varieties. Understandably so. If youâre eking out a living, you wonât be eager to take a risk on seeds youâve never planted before, because if they die, you have nothing to fall back on. But as experts worked with local farmers and seed dealers to explain the benefits of these new varieties, more and more people adopted them.â
Bidasem director general MarĂa Ester Rivas (center) stands for a photo with her seed processing team. Bidasem is a small seed company based in the city of Celaya in the central Mexican plains region known as the BajĂo. Despite their small size, Bidasem and similar companies play an important role in reaching small farmers with improved seed that offers them better livelihoods. (Photo: X. Fonseca/CIMMYT)
Holistic action needed if we are to reach farmers with genetic innovations
Now more than ever, with increased frequency and intensification of erratic weather events on top of the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, successful seed systems require the right investments, partnerships, efforts across disciplines, and enabling policies.
Varietal release and dissemination systems rely greatly on appropriate government policies and adoption of progressive seed laws and regulations. CGIARâs commitment to farmers and the success of national seed systems is described in the recently launched 10-year strategy: âCGIAR will support effective seed systems by helping national governments and private sector companies and regulators build their capacities to play their roles successfully. New initiatives will be jointly designed along the seed distribution chain, including for regional seed registration, import and export procedures, efficient in-country trialing, registration and release of new varieties, and seed quality promotion through fit-for-purpose certification.â
In line with CGIARâs ambitious goals, to provide farmers with a better service, small- and medium-size seed companies need to also be strengthened to become more market-oriented and dynamic. According to SPIA, helping local private seed dealers learn about new technology increases farm-level adoption by over 50% compared to the more commonly used approach, where public sector agricultural extension agents provide information about new seed to selected contact farmers.
CIMMYT socioeconomics and market experts are putting this in practice through working with agrodealers to develop retail strategies, such as targeted marketing materials, provision of in-store seed decision support and price incentives, to help both female and male farmers get the inputs that work best.
Within the new CGIAR, CIMMYT scientists will continue to work with partners to strongly improve the performance of wheat and maize in smallholder farmersâ fields. Concerted efforts from all actors conforming the entire seed system are essential to achieve our vision: to transform food systems for affordable, sufficient and healthy diets produced within planetary boundaries. Wheat and maize seed systems will form the basis to fulfill that vision and provide a tried and tested roadmap for other crops, including legumes, vegetables and fruits. Together, we can keep a finger on the pulse of farmersâ needs and build healthy diets for a better tomorrow from the ground up.
Agricultural market systems play a pivotal role in food security, livelihood development and economic growth. However, the agricultural sector in Nepal is constrained by a lack of spatially-explicit technologies and practices related to improved seed and fertilizer. Embracing these challenges, Dyutiman Choudhary, a scientist in market development with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), works to strengthen the seed and fertilizer market systems and value chains, with the ultimate goal to ensure demand-driven, inclusive and market-oriented cereal production.
Nepalâs agricultural sector is dominated by smallholder farmers. As farming is mostly semi-commercial and subsistence in nature, many smallholder farmers are isolated from markets and lack knowledge about the latest farming technologies and inputs. They are unable to upgrade their farms to increase productivity for generating marketable surplus to make profitable income. Agribusiness entities in Nepal â such as seed companies, agrodealers and importers â face market development challenges and lack the commercial and business orientation to develop and deliver new technologies to farmers. Output market linkages are weak and loosely integrated, leading to poor coordination, weak information flow and lower return to actors.
This is where Choudharyâs expertise in agribusiness management fits in to make a difference.
Born and raised in Shillong, a hill station in northeastern India with a distinctive charm, he was enrolled as an engineering student. However, his interest took a sudden turn when he got drawn towards biological sciences and ultimately decided to leave the engineering course by stepping into agribusiness management. âI realized I was walking in the right direction as I was fascinated to learn about the livelihood benefits of agroforestry and the scope of agribusiness in fostering overall economic growth.â
He joined CIMMYT in 2017 as an expert in market development, but his roles and responsibilities transitioned to working as a Lead for the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project within four months of his appointment. His role involves leading an interdisciplinary team of scientists, partners and experts to develop a synergistic market system. The NSAF team fosters public private partnerships, improves access to support services and strengthens inclusive value chains in a supportive policy environment.
Choudharyâs research focuses on assessing crops, seed and fertilizer value chains; developing commercial and inclusive upgrading strategies with businesses and stakeholders; assessing competitiveness of seed companies; lobbying for policies to foster the growth of seed and fertilizer business; and building pathways for public and private sector services to market actors and smallholder farmers.
Dyutiman Choudhary (seventh from left) with seed producers during a field visit. (Photo: Dipak Kafle)
A roadmap to innovative market systems
Choudhary introduced the vision of a market system approach and put together a strategic roadmap in collaboration with a team from CIMMYT researchers from the Global Maize program, the Sustainable Intensification program and the Socioeconomics program. The roadmap addressed the concerns of low crop productivity, poor private sector growth and a less supportive policy environment inhibiting agricultural innovations in Nepal.
âSeed and fertilizer market systems in Nepal are uncompetitive and lack influx of new knowledge and innovations that restricts agriculture growth,â Choudhary explained.
Having prior experience as a regional lead for high-value products and value chains for South Asia and an inclusive market-oriented development expert in Eastern and Southern Africa, Choudhary carries unique capabilities for putting together a winning team and working with diverse partners to bring about a change in farming practices and build a strong agribusiness sector in Nepal.
Under his leadership, Nepalese seed companies are implementing innovative and competitive marketing approaches to develop newly acquired hybrid varieties under their brands. The companies are upgrading to build business models that cater to the growth of seed business, meet market demands and offer innovative services to smallholder farmers to build a sustainable national market. Facilitating financing opportunities has enabled these enterprises to produce strategic business plans to leverage $2 million to finance seed business. Improved value chain coordination mechanisms are increasing demand of seed companyâs products and enhancing smallholder farmersâ access to output markets.
There is a renewed interest and confidence beaming from the private sector to invest in fertilizer business due to improved knowledge, communication and collaborative methods. The government committed to support balanced soil fertility management and allocated $2.4 million in 2019 to initiate fertilizer blending in Nepal.
Dyutiman Choudhary (left) welcomes the Feed the Future team leader to the CIMMYT office in Nepal. (Photo: Bandana Pradhan/CIMMYT)
Dyutiman Choudhary shows a demonstration plot during a field visit with USAID and project partners in Nepal. (Photo: Darbin Joshi)
Dyutiman Choudhary (left) receives a token of appreciation at an International Seed Conference organized in Nepal. (Photo: Bandana Pradhan/CIMMYT)
Competitiveness fosters productivity
The results of Choudharyâs work have the potential to transform Nepalese agriculture by unleashing new investments, changes in policies and practices, and innovative business management practices. âDespite a huge change in my TOR and the challenges to deliver impactful outcomes, I was able to successfully steer the project to produce exciting results that made the donor to declare it as their flagship project in Nepal,â he explained. âAt the end of the day, reflecting upon the work achieved with my team and the stakeholders in co-creating solutions for complex issues brings me immense satisfaction.â
An amiable individual, he feels close to natural science and loves interacting with farmers. âIâve always enjoyed traveling to biodiversity-rich locations, to understand local cultures and livelihood practices, so as to gauge the drivers of innovation and adaptation to change among diverse rural populations.â
âKeeping up the momentum, I want to continue to support growth in agribusiness management in less favorable regions, helping stakeholders in the farm-to-fork continuum to leverage the potential of innovations in research, development and delivery.â
Nancy Wawira stands among ripening maize cobs of high yielding, drought-tolerant maize varieties on a demonstration farm in Embu County, Kenya. Involving young people like Wawira helps to accelerate the adoption of improved stress-tolerant maize varieties. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Since the 1980s, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have spearheaded the development and deployment of climate-smart maize in Africa.
This game-changing work has generated massive impacts for smallholder farmers, maize consumers, and seed markets in the region. It also offers a blueprint for CGIARâs new 2030 Research and Innovation Strategy, which proposes a systems transformation approach for food, land and water systems that puts climate change at the center of its mission.
Over the course of the 10-year run of the first iteration of this collaborative work on climate-adaptive maize, the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, CIMMYT and IITA partnered with dozens of national, regional, and private sector partners throughout sub-Saharan Africa to release around 160 affordable maize varieties. This month, CGIAR recognizes climate-smart maize as one of the standout 50 innovations to have emerged from the institutionâs first half-century of work.
Game changer
Maizeâs importance as a food crop in sub-Saharan Africa is hard to overstate. So are the climate change-driven challenges it faces.
It accounts for almost one third of the regionâs caloric intake. It is grown on over 38 million hectares, primarily under rainfed conditions. Around 40% of this area faces occasional drought stress. Another 25% suffers frequent drought and crop losses reaching 50%.
Drought-tolerant maize stabilized production under drought-stress conditions. Recent studies show that farmers growing drought-tolerant maize varieties in dry years produced over a half ton more maize per hectare than those growing conventional varieties â enough maize to support a family of six for nine months.
Such drastic results fed increased demand for improved, climate-adaptive maize seed in sub-Saharan Africa, thus strengthening local commercial seed markets and helping drought-tolerant maize varieties reach an increasing share of climate-vulnerable farmers.
Today, approximately 8.6 million farmers have benefitted from CIMMYT- and IITA-derived climate-adaptive maize varieties in sub-Saharan Africa. Millions have risen above the poverty line.
In addition to drought-tolerance, CIMMYT- and IITA-derived climate-adaptive maize varieties have been developed to tolerate multiple climate-driven stresses and to provide improved nutritional outcomes through biofortification with essential nutrients such as provitamin A and zinc.
The task ahead
In his recently published book, How to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe, Bill Gates says âno other organization has done more than CGIAR to ensure that families â especially the poorest â have nutritious food to eat. And no other organization is in a better position to create the innovations that will help poor farmers adapt to climate change in the years ahead.â
CGIARâs new strategic orientation is an important step towards making good on that potential. CIMMYT and IITAâs longstanding work on climate-smart maize offers an important blueprint for the kinds of bold, comprehensive, and collaborative research for development initiatives such a strategy could empower.
As CIMMYT and IITA directors general Martin Kropff and Nteranya Sanginga note in a recent op-ed, âThe global battle against climate change and all its interconnected impacts requires a multisectoral approach to formulate comprehensive responses.â
A seed vendor near Islamabad, Pakistan. For improved crop varieties to reach the farmers who need them, they usually must first reach local vendors, who form an essential link in the chain between researchers, seed producers and farmers. (Photo: M. DeFreese/CIMMYT)
Wheat is not just an essential part of the Pakistani diet, but also absolutely critical to the countryâs economy and to the farmers who cultivate it. The government of Pakistanâs goal to achieve self-sufficiency in wheat production just became more attainable with the release of five new wheat varieties. These new seeds could help the countryâs 8.8 million hectares of wheat-farmed area become more productive, climate-resilient and disease-resistant â a welcome development in a region where new climate change scenarios threaten sustained wheat production.
With multiple years of on-station and on-farm testing, the Wheat Research Institute (WRI) in Faisalabad, the Arid Zone Research Institute (AZRI) in Bhakhar, and the Barani Agricultural Research Institute in Chakwal released five varieties: Subhani 2021, MH-2021, Dilkash-2021, Bhakkar-20 and MA-2020.
The varieties, drawn from germplasm from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), were developed for different production environments in the Punjab province of Pakistan.
Dilkash-2021 was developed by WRI from a cross with a locally developed wheat line and a CIMMYT wheat line. MH-2021 and MA-2020 were selected from the CIMMYT wheat breeding germplasm through international trials and nurseries.
Subhani-21 and MA-2020 were selected from special trials assembled by CIMMYT for expanded testing, early access and genomic selection under the USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Applied Wheat Genomics at Kansas State University, in partnership with Cornell University and four South Asian countries (Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan).
Over the course of multiple years and locations, the new varieties exhibited a yield potential that is 5 to 20% higher than current popular varieties such as Faisalabad 2008, in addition to good grain quality and attainable yields of over 7 tons per hectare. They also showed an impressive resistance to leaf and yellow rusts, compatibility with wheat-rice and wheat-cotton farming systems, and resilience to stresses.
âIt is exciting to see new varieties coming out of these collaborative projects between the Pakistani breeding programs, CIMMYT and the university teams,â said Jesse Poland, associate professor at Kansas State University and director of the Wheat Genomics Innovation Lab.
Wheat breeder and WRI director Javed Ahmad (center, wearing a white cap) explains the performance of a new variety and its positive traits to visitors. (Photo: Muhammad Shahbaz Rafiq)
Closing the yield gap between research fields and smallholder fields
Despite all of these encouraging traits, releasing a new variety is just half of the battle. The other half is getting these new, quality seeds to markets quickly so that wheat growers can realize the benefits. A fast-track seed multiplication program for each of these varieties has been designed and implemented.
âPakistan has started to multiply early-generation seeds of rust-resistant varieties. These will be available to seed companies for multiplication and provision to farmers in the shortest possible time,â agreed wheat breeder and WRI Director Javed Ahmad and the National Wheat Coordinator Atiq Rattu.
Wheat breeder and WRI director Javed Ahmad (left) discusses performance of the new varieties with a colleague. (Photo: Muhammad Shahbaz Rafiq)
However, the current seed replacement rate is still low, mainly because new, quality seeds are rarely available at the right time, location, quantity, and price for smallholders. Strengthening and diversifying seed production of newly released varieties can be done by decentralizing seed marketing and distribution systems and engaging both public and private sector actors. Additionally, marketing and training efforts need to be improved for women, who are mostly responsible for household-level seed production and seed care.
In 2020, Pakistan harvested 25.7 million tons of wheat, up from 23.3 million tons a decade ago in 2010, which roughly matches its annual consumption of the crop. Pakistan is coming close to its goal of self-sufficiency, as outlined in the Pakistan Vision 2025, Food Security Policy 2018 and Vision for Agriculture 2030. Research shows that the public sector cannot extensively disseminate seeds alone; new policies must create an attractive environment to private sector partners, so that entrepreneurs are also attracted to the seed business. With continued efforts and a bold distribution and training effort, new releases like these will contribute to narrowing the yield gap between research stations and farmersâ fields.
Wheat infected with the blast fungus in Meherpur, Bangladesh, in 2019. (Photo: PLOS Biology)
As scientists study and learn more about the complicated genetic makeup of the wheat genome, one chromosomal segment has stood out, particularly in efforts to breed high-yielding wheat varieties resistant to devastating and quickly spreading wheat diseases.
Known as the 2NvS translocation, this segment on the wheat genome has been associated with grain yield, tolerance to wheat stems bending over or lodging, and multiple-disease resistance.
Now, thanks to a new multi-institution study led by wheat scientist Liangliang Gao of Kansas State University, we have a clearer picture of the yield advantage and disease resistance conferred by this chromosomal segment for wheat farmers â and more opportunities to capitalize on these benefits for future breeding efforts.
The Aegilops ventricosa 2NvS segment in bread wheat: cytology, genomics and breeding, published in Theoretical and Applied Genetics, summarizes the collaborative effort by scientists from several scientific institutions â including International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) head of global wheat improvement Ravi Singh and wheat scientist Philomin Juliana â Â to conduct the first complete cytological characterization of the 2NvS translocation.
A rich background
The 2NvS translocation segment has been very valuable in disease-resistance wheat breeding since the early 1990s. Originally introduced into wheat cultivar VPM1 by the French cytogeneticist Gerard Doussinault in 1983 by crossing with a wild wheat relative called Aegilops ventricosa, the segment has been conferring resistance to diseases like eye spot (Pch1 gene), leaf rust (Lr37 gene), stem rust (Sr38 gene), stripe rust (Yr17 gene), cereal cyst (Cre5 gene), root knot (Rkn3 gene) and wheat blast.
The high-yielding blast-resistant CIMMYT-derived varieties BARI Gom 33 and WMRI#3 (equivalent to Borlaug100),released in Bangladesh to combat a devastating outbreak of wheat blast in the region, carry the 2NvS translocation segment for blast resistance.
Earlier research by Juliana and others found that the proportion of lines with the 2NvS translocation had increased by 113.8% over seven years in CIMMYTâs international bread wheat screening nurseries: from 44% in 2012 to 94.1% in 2019. It had also increased by 524.3% in the semi-arid wheat screening nurseries: from 15% in 2012 to 93.7% in 2019. This study validates these findings, further demonstrating an increasing frequency of the 2NvS translocation in spring and winter wheat breeding programs over the past two decades.
New discoveries
The authors of this study completed a novel assembly and functional annotation of the genes in the 2NvS translocation using the winter bread wheat cultivar Jagger. They validated it using the spring wheat cultivar CDC Stanley and estimated the actual size of the segment to be approximately 33 mega base pairs.
Their findings substantiate that the 2NvS region is rich in disease resistance genes, with more thanâ10% of the 535 high-confidence genes annotated in this region belonging to the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) gene families known to be associated with disease resistance. This was a higher number of NLRs compared to the wheat segment of the Chinese Spring reference genome that was replaced by this segment, adding further evidence to its multiple-disease resistant nature.
In addition to being an invaluable region for disease resistance, the study makes a strong case that the 2NvS region also confers a yield advantage. Â The authors performed yield association analyses using yield data on lines from the Kansas State University wheat breeding program, the USDA Regional Performance Nursery âcomprising lines from central US winter wheat breeding programs â and the CIMMYT spring bread wheat breeding program, and found a strong association between the presence of the segment and higher yield.
Global benefits
The yield and disease resistance associations of the 2NvS genetic segment have been helping farmers for years, as seen in the high proportion of the segment present in the improved wheat germplasm distributed globally through CIMMYTâs nurseries.
âThe high frequency of the valuable 2NvS translocation in CIMMYTâs internationally distributed germplasm demonstrates well how CIMMYT has served as a key disseminator of lines with this translocation globally that would have likely contributed to a large impact on global wheat production,â said study co-author Juliana.
Through CIMMYTâs distribution efforts, it is likely that national breeding programs have also effectively used this translocation, in addition to releasing many 2NvS-carrying varieties selected directly from CIMMYT distributed nurseries.
With this study, we now know more about why the segment is so ubiquitous and have more tools at our disposal to use it more deliberately to raise yield and combat disease for wheat farmers into the future.
The new interactive map allows visitors to visually explore the milestones that allowed a global network of researchers to fight threats to wheat production.
In 2005, preeminent wheat breeder and Nobel Laureate Norman E. Borlaug sounded the alarm to bring the worldâs attention to the outbreak of a new variant of stem rust, Ug99, that threatened to wipe out 80% of the worldâs wheat.
The result was the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), a global community that pioneered innovative ways for scientists and smallholder farmers around the globe to collaborate on meeting challenges brought about by wheat disease and climate change.
As a founding member of BGRI, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and, later, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat, played a crucial role in the core work of the initiative. They led breeding and large-scale international testing to develop disease resistant wheat varieties, coordinated closely with longstanding national partners to facilitate the release and spread of the varieties to farmers, and contributed to critical disease monitoring and tracking initiatives.
The BGRI has documented these efforts and related resources in a newly released interactive story map: Inside the global network safeguarding the worldâs wheat from disease and climate change. The map highlights the BGRIâs efforts from 2005 to 2020 to introduce climate-resilient, disease-resistant wheat to resource-constrained wheat growers around the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
When a disease threatens to destroy the worldâs most important food crop, who do you call?
The map highlights work undertaken by scientists on the front lines of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) and Delivering Genetic Gain in Wheat (DGGW) projects from 2005 to 2020. These achievements formed the foundation for the work that continues today under the auspices of the CIMMYT-led  Accelerating Genetic Gains In Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project.
BGRI scientists from more than 22 national and international agricultural research centers infused resilience into wheat and largely staved off large-scale rust epidemics, working with farmers in East Africa, South Asia and other important bread baskets of the world. The BGRI community improved breeding pipelines, created the worldâs most sophisticated pathogen surveillance network, increased capacity in germplasm testing nurseries while conserving and sharing genetic resources, and training new generations of young scientists.
Through videos, photos, interviews, journal articles, blogs, news stories and other resources, the map allows visitors to explore the multifaceted work from hunger fighters in Australia, Canada, China, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries.
Written and produced by BGRI cinematographer Chris Knight and associate director for communications Linda McCandless, the map is linked to multimedia and resources from contributors around the world.
The DRRW and DGGW projects received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, national research institutes, and Cornell University.
Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) brings together partners in the global science community and in national agricultural research and extension systems to accelerate the development of higher-yielding varieties of maize and wheat â two of the worldâs most important staple crops. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR), AGG fuses innovative methods that improve breeding efficiency and precision to produce and deliver high-yielding varieties that are climate-resilient, pest- and disease-resistant, highly nutritious, and targeted to farmersâ specific needs.Â
Research reported in this story was supported by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research under award number Grant ID COTF0000000001. The content of this publication is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research.
The food security and livelihoods of smallholder farming families in sub-Saharan Africa depend on maize production. The region accounts for up to two-thirds of global maize production, but is facing challenges related to extreme weather events, climate-induced stresses, pests and diseases, and deteriorating soil quality. These require swift interventions and innovations to safeguard maize yields and quality.
In this Q&A, we reflect on the results and impact of the long-term collaborative work on drought-tolerant maize innovations spearheaded by two CGIAR Research Centers: the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). This innovative work has changed guises over the years, from the early work of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) and Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) projects through later iterations such as Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) and the newest project, Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG).
In this Q&A, three leaders of this collaborative research reflect on the challenges their work has faced, the innovations and impact it has generated for smallholder farmers, and possible directions for future research. They are: B.M Prasanna, director of CIMMYTâs Global Maize Program and of the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE); Abebe Menkir, a maize breeder and maize improvement lead at IITA; and Cosmos Magorokosho, project lead for AGG-Maize at CIMMYT.
Briefly describe the challenges confronting small-scale farmers prior to the introduction of drought-tolerant maize and how CIMMYT and IITA responded to these challenges?
B.M.P.: Maize is grown on over 38 million hectares in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 40% of cereal production in the region and providing at least 30% of the populationâs total calorie intake. The crop is predominantly grown under rainfed conditions by resource-constrained smallholder farmers who often face erratic rainfall, poor soil fertility, increasing incidence of climatic extremes â especially drought and heat â and the threat of devastating diseases and insect pests.
Around 40% of maize-growing areas in sub-Saharan Africa face occasional drought stress with a yield loss of 10â25%. An additional 25% of the maize crop suffers frequent drought, with yield losses of up to 50%. Climate change is further exacerbating the situation, with devastating effects on the food security and livelihoods of the millions of smallholder farmers and their families who depend on maize in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, the improved maize varieties with drought tolerance, disease resistance and other farmer-preferred traits developed and deployed by CIMMYT and IITA over the last ten years in partnership with an array of national partners and seed companies across sub-Saharan Africa are critical in effectively tackling this major challenge.
A.M.: Consumption of maize as food varies considerably across sub-Saharan Africa, exceeding 100 kg per capita per year in many countries in southern Africa. In years when rainfall is adequate, virtually all maize consumed for food is grown in sub-Saharan Africa, with a minimal dependence on imported grain. Maize production, however, is highly variable from year to year due to the occurrence of drought and the dependence of national maize yields on seasonal rainfall. One consequence has been widespread famine occurring every five to ten years in sub-Saharan Africa, accompanied by large volumes of imported maize grain as food aid or direct imports.
This places a significant strain on resources of the World Food Programme and on national foreign exchange. It also disincentivizes local food production and may not prevent or address cyclical famine. It also leaves countries ill-equipped to address famine conditions in the period between the onset of the crisis and the arrival of food aid. Investment in local production, which would strengthen the resilience and self-sufficiency in food production of smallholder farming families, is a far better option to mitigate food shortages than relying on food aid and grain imports.
C.M.: Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa face innumerable natural and socioeconomic constraints. CIMMYT, in partnership with IITA and national agricultural research system partners, responded by developing and catalyzing the commercialization of new maize varieties that produce reasonable maize yields under unpredictable rainfall-dependent growing season.
Over the life of the partnership, more than 300 new climate-adaptive maize varieties were developed and released in more than 20 countries across sub-Saharan Africa where maize is a major staple food crop. Certified seed of over 100 stress-tolerant improved maize varieties have been produced by seed company partners, reaching more than 110,000 tons in 2019. The seeds of these drought-tolerant maize varieties have benefited more than 8 million households and were estimated to be grown on more than 5 million hectares in eastern, southern and west Africa in 2020.
A farmer in Mozambique stands for a photograph next to her drought-tolerant maize harvest. (Photo: CIMMYT)
In what ways did the drought-tolerant maize innovation transform small-scale farmersâ ability to respond to climate-induced risks? Are there any additional impacts on small scale farmers in addition to climate adaptation?
B.M.P.: The elite drought-tolerant maize varieties can not only provide increased yield in drought-stressed crop seasons, they also offer much needed yield stability. This means better performance than non-drought-tolerant varieties in both good years and bad years to a smallholder farmer.
Drought-tolerant maize varieties developed by CIMMYT and IITA demonstrate at least 25-30% grain yield advantage over non-drought-tolerant maize varieties in sub-Saharan Africa under drought stress at flowering. This translates into at least a 1 ton per hectare enhanced grain yield on average, as well as reduced downside risk in terms of lost income, food insecurity and other risks associated with crop yield variability. In addition to climate adaptation, smallholder farmers benefit from these varieties due to improved resistance to major diseases like maize lethal necrosis and parasitic weeds like Striga. We have also developed drought-tolerant maize varieties with enhanced protein quality â such as Quality Protein Maize or QPM â and provitamin A, which improve nutritional outcomes.
We must also note that drought risk in sub-Saharan Africa has multiple and far-reaching consequences. It reduces incentives for smallholder farmers to intensify maize-based systems and for commercial seed companies to invest and evolve due to a limited seed market.
Drought-tolerant maize is, therefore, a game changer as it reduces the downside risk for both farmers and seed companies and increases demand for improved maize seed, thus strengthening the commercial seed market in sub-Saharan Africa. Extensive public-private partnerships around drought-tolerant maize varieties supported the nascent seed sector in sub-Saharan Africa and has enabled maize-based seed companies to significantly grow over the last decade. Seed companies in turn are investing in marketing drought-tolerant maize varieties and taking the products to scale.
A.M.: The DTMA and STMA projects were jointly implemented by CIMMYT and IITA in partnership with diverse national and private sector partners in major maize producing countries in eastern, southern and western Africa to develop and deploy multiple stress-tolerant and productive maize varieties to help farmers adapt to recurrent droughts and other stresses including climate change.
These projects catalyzed the release and commercialization of numerous stress-resilient new maize varieties in target countries across Africa. Increasing the resilience of farming systems means that smallholder farmers need guaranteed access to good quality stress resilient maize seeds. To this end, the two projects worked with public and private sector partners to produce large quantities of certified seeds with a continual supply of breeder seeds from CIMMYT and IITA. The availability of considerable amount of certified seeds of resilient maize varieties has enabled partners to reach farmers producing maize under stressful conditions, thus contributing to the mitigation of food shortages that affect poor people the most in both rural and urban areas.
C.M.: The drought-tolerant maize innovation stabilized maize production under drought stress conditions in sub-Saharan Africa countries. Recent study results showed that households that grew drought-tolerant maize varieties had at least half a ton more maize harvest than the households that did not grow the drought-tolerant maize varieties, thus curbing food insecurity while simultaneously increasing farmersâ economic benefits. Besides the benefit from drought-tolerant innovation, the new maize varieties developed through the partnership also stabilized farmersâ yields under major diseases, Striga infestation, and poor soil fertility prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.
How is the project addressing emerging challenges in breeding for drought-tolerant maize and what opportunities are available to address these challenges in the future?Â
Margaret holds an improved ear of drought-tolerant maize. Margaretâs grandmother participated in an on-farm trial in Murewa district, 75 kilometers northeast of Zimbabweâs capital Harare. (Photo: Jill Cairns/CIMMYT)
B.M.P.: A strong pipeline of elite, multiple-stress-tolerant maize varieties â combining other relevant adaptive and farmer-preferred traits â has been built in sub-Saharan Africa through a strong germplasm base, partnerships with national research partners and small- and medium-sized seed companies, an extensive phenotyping and multi-location testing network, and engagement with farming communities through regional on-farm trials for the identification of relevant farmer-preferred products.
CGIAR maize breeding in sub-Saharan Africa continues to evolve in order to more effectively and efficiently create value for the farmers we serve. We are now intensively working on several areas: (a) increasing genetic gains (both on-station and on-farm) through maize breeding in the stress-prone environments of sub-Saharan Africa by optimizing our breeding pipelines and effectively integrating novel tools, technologies and strategies (e.g., doubled haploids, genomics-assisted breeding, high-throughput and precise phenotyping, improved breeding data management system, etc.); (b) targeted replacement of old or obsolete maize varieties in sub-Saharan Africa with climate-adaptive and new varieties; (c) developing next-generation climate-adaptive maize varieties with traits such as native genetic resistance to fall armyworm, and introgressed nutritional quality traits (e.g., provitamin A, high Zinc) to make a positive impact on the nutritional well-being of consumers; and (d) further strengthening the breeding capacity of national partners and small and medium-sized seed companies in sub-Saharan Africa for a sustainable way forward.
A.M.:Â The DTMA and STMA projects established effective product pipelines integrating cutting-edge phenotyping and molecular tools to develop stress-resilient maize varieties that are also resistant or tolerant to MLN disease and fall armyworm. These new varieties are awaiting release and commercialization. Increased investment in strengthening public and private sector partnerships is needed to speed up the uptake and commercialization of new multiple stress-resilient maize varieties that can replace the old ones in farmersâ fields and help achieve higher yield gains.
Farmersâ access to new multiple-stress-tolerant maize varieties will have a significant impact on productivity at the farm level. This will largely be due to new varietiesâ improved response to fertilizer and favorable growing environments as well as their resilience to stressful production conditions. Studies show that the adoption of drought-tolerant maize varieties increased maize productivity, reduced exposure to farming risk among adopters and led to a decline in poverty among adopters. The availability of enough grain from highly productive and stress-resilient maize varieties can be the cheapest source of food and release land to expand the cultivation of other crops to facilitate increased access to diversified and healthy diets.
C.M.: Â The project is tackling emerging challenges posed by new diseases and pests by building upon the successful genetic base of drought-tolerant maize. This is being done by breeding new varieties that add tolerance to the emerging disease and pest challenges onto the existing drought-tolerant maize backgrounds. Successes have already been registered in breeding new varieties that have high levels of resistance to MLN disease and the fall armyworm pest.
Opportunities are also available to address new challenges including: pre-emptively breeding for threats to maize production challenges that exist in other regions of the world before these threats reach sub-Saharan Africa; enhancing the capacity of national partners to build strong breeding programs that can address new threats once they emerge in sub-Saharan Africa; and sharing knowledge and novel high-value breeding materials across different geographies to immediately address new threats once they emerge.
Cover photo: Alice Nasiyimu stands in front of a drought-tolerant maize plot at her family farm in Bungoma County, in western Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Sanjaya Rajaram at the Centro de Investigaciones AgrĂcolas del Noroeste (CIANO) in Ciudad ObregĂłn, in Mexicoâs Sonora state. (Photo: Gil Olmos/CIMMYT)
With great sorrow, we report the passing of Sanjaya Rajaram, former Wheat Program director and distinguished scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), in Mexico on February 17, 2021, at the age of 78. Rajaram was one of the most successful and influential wheat breeders ever, and was distinguished with the World Food Prize in 2014.
As leader of bread wheat breeding and later director of CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program, Rajaram â affectionately known by his colleagues as âRajâ â personally oversaw the development of more than 480 high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties sown on 58 million hectares in 51 countries, increasing global wheat production by more than 200 million tons during his lifetime in diverse regions across the globe.
âAt CIMMYT, we all remember Raj as a great and humble colleague helping the team to perform at the highest levels of science with impact. Many of us within CIMMYT, as well in national programs worldwide, have been inspired by him,â said Martin Kropff, CIMMYT Director General. âWe will also remember him as a friend who cared for others and treated all people alike.â
âDr. Rajaram built a generation of wheat breeders at CIMMYT, ICARDA and national research institutions, who are carrying on his legacy and ensuring that new wheat varieties continue to reach farmers. We will deeply miss his presence and encouragement,â said Ravi Singh, head of the Wheat Improvement program once led by Rajaram.
Norman Borlaug (right) in the field with Sanjaya Rajaram, his successor as head of CIMMYT’s wheat program. (Photo: Gene Hettel/CIMMYT)
Hans Braun (center), Sanjaya Rajaram (third from right), Ravi Singh (first from right) and other colleagues stand for a photograph during a field day at CIMMYTâs experimental station in Ciudad ObregĂłn, Sonora, Mexico. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Sanjaya Rajaram (right) speaks during a field day for scientists and staff at the CIMMYT experimental station in Toluca, Mexico, in 2013. (Photo: CIMMYT)
The World Food Prize 2014 was awarded to Sanjaya Rajaram for his achievements in plant research and food production. (Photo: RajaramS, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Sanjaya Rajaram speaks at the 2015 BGRI Workshop in Sydney, Australia. (Photo: Christopher Knight/CIMMYT)
Sanjaya Rajaram speaks at the event to celebrate CIMMYTâs 50th anniversary in 2014. (Photo: Gerardo MejĂa/CIMMYT)
A life devoted to wheat breeding
Born on a small farm in India in 1943, Rajaram studied genetics and plant breeding at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, he joined CIMMYT in 1969, diligently working as a wheat breeder alongside Nobel Prize Laureate and scientist Norman Borlaug in Mexico. Recognizing his talent and initiative, Borlaug appointed Rajaram as head of CIMMYTâs wheat breeding program at just 29 years of age.
Borlaug described Rajaram as âa scientist of great vision who made a significant contribution to the improvement of world wheat production, working for the benefit of hundreds of thousands of farmers in countries across the globe.â
Among Rajaramâs many accomplishments include being awarded the prestigious World Food Prize in 2014 for his role in increasing global wheat production and alleviating world hunger. His crossing of spring and winter wheat varieties led to new advances in wheat varieties that were stable across a wide range of environments, as well as featuring high yields and resistance to wheat diseases, particularly rust and foliar blight.
In 2015, he was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award, the highest honor conferred on Indians overseas. He also received the highly prestigious Padma Shri award from the government of India in 2001, the Friendship Award from the government of China in 1998, numerous fellowships from scientific societies and doctorates from various universities.
Rajaram recognized the importance of sharing his knowledge and cultivating the talents of the next generation of plant scientists, training and mentoring more than 700 scientists from developing countries worldwide.
Rajaram also served as Director of the Integrated Gene Management Program at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) before formally retiring in 2008. In his retirement, he continued as a special scientific advisor to CIMMYT and ICARDA, residing in his home of Mexico.
In addition to his successful career as a plant scientist, Rajaram launched and operated Resource Seeds International, a company to study and market seed of improved wheat varieties.
The CIMMYT community sends our deepest condolences to Rajaramâs family during this period.
A maize ear harvested from a “milpa,” the maize-based intercrop that is a critical source of food and nutritional security for smallholder farming communities in remote areas such as the Western Highlands of Guatemala. (Photo: Cristian Reyna)
The traditional milpa intercrop â in which maize is grown together with beans, squash, or other vegetable crops â can furnish a vital supply of food and nutrients for marginalized, resource-poor communities in the Americas, according to a study published today in Nature Scientific Reports.
One hectare of a milpa comprising maize, common beans, and potatoes can provide the annual carbohydrate needs of more than 13 adults, enough protein for nearly 10 adults, and adequate supplies of many vitamins and minerals, according to the study. The research was based on data from nearly 1,000 households across 59 villages of the Western Highlands of Guatemala and is the first to relate milpa intercropping diversity with nutritional capacity, using multiple plots and crop combinations.
âThe milpa was the backbone of pre-Columbian agriculture in North America, Mexico, and Central America,â said Santiago LĂłpez-Ridaura, specialist in agricultural systems and climate change adaptation at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and lead author of the article.
âMilpa production anchored around locally-adapted maize is still an essential food and nutritional lifeline for isolated, often indigenous communities throughout Mexico and Central America, and can be tailored to improve their food and nutritional security, along with that of small-scale farmers in similar settings,â he added.
Maize for feed or food and nutrition?
In modern times, some 1 billion tons of maize are harvested yearly from about 200 million hectares worldwide. Much of this output results from intensive monocropping of hybrids that yield an average 10 tons per hectare, in places like the U.S.
This massive world harvest goes chiefly for animal feed, corn starch, corn syrup, ethanol, and myriad industrial products, but in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia, maize remains a critical food staple, often grown by smallholder farmers with yields averaging around 1.5 tons per hectare.
The Western Highlands of Guatemala is among the worldâs poorest regions â a mountainous area ill-served by markets and where communities battered by food insecurity and malnutrition sow crops at altitudes of up to 3,200 meters, according to Cristian A. Reyna-RamĂrez, a co-author of the study from the Universidad AutĂłnoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, Mexico.
âFully two-thirds of farmers in this region grow milpas based on maize but varying the intercrops with potatoes, faba bean, and even fruit trees,â Reyna-RamĂrez said. âOur study showed that combinations such as maize-common bean-faba bean, maize-potatoes, and maize-common bean-potatoes provided the most carbohydrates, proteins, zinc, iron, calcium, potassium, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B6, niacin and vitamin C.â
The classic âmilpaâ intercrop comprises maize, beans, and squash. The bean plant climbs the maize stalk to reach sunlight and its roots add nitrogen to the soil; the squash leaves shade the soil, conserving moisture and inhibiting weed growth. Milpa systems are often grown on steep hillsides at a wide range of altitudes. (Photo: Cristian Reyna)
Better diets and routes out of poverty?
With typical landholdings of less than a quarter hectare and households averaging six members, Guatemalaâs Western Highlands inhabitants cannot depend on the milpa alone to satisfy their needs, LĂłpez-Ridaura cautioned.
âAs with many smallholder farm communities, lack of land and general marginalization traps them in a vicious circle of poverty and malnutrition, forcing them to experiment with risky cash crops or for working-age members to undertake dangerous and heartbreaking migrations to find work and send back remittances,â he explains.
According to LĂłpez-Ridaura, this study points the way for tailoring milpa systems to help communities that still rely on that intercrop or others that could benefit from its use.
Looking forward
Natalia Palacios Rojas, CIMMYT maize quality and nutrition expert and a co-author of this article, notes that calculations of this and other milpa studies consider raw nutrients and that research is needed on the nutritional contributions of cooked food and non-milpa foods such as poultry, livestock, home-garden produce, and purchased food.
âFurther work should also address the effects of storing milpa produce on its nutrient stability and how the seasonal availability of milpa crops impacts diets and nutrition,â Palacios said.
The authors are grateful for funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of Feed the Future, the U.S. Governmentâs global hunger and food security initiative, under the Buena Milpa project, as well as the support of the CGIAR Research Program on Maize.
The Heat and Drought Wheat Improvement Consortium (HeDWIC) is a global research and capacity building network that takes wheat research from the theoretical to the practical by incorporating the best science into real-life breeding scenarios.
By harnessing the latest technologies in crop physiology, genetics and breeding, HeDWIC makes it easier for wheat scientists to work together on solutions to the complex problems of heat and drought adaptation, contributing to the development of new, climate-resilient wheat varieties for farmers. HeDWIC-associated scientists examine current breeding material and collections held in germplasm banks and apply genomic and phenomic tools to identify novel diversity for heat, drought adaptative traits. This results in novel pre-bred lines in terms of genetic diversity for key stress-adaptive traits suitable for use in breeding programs and/or re-selection as cultivars.
The consortium delivers these lines to public and private wheat programs worldwide via the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) â coordinated for more than half a century by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) â as international public goods whose global impacts are well documented. Through PhD sponsorships and other opportunities for involvement in research, HeDWIC also provides hands-on training to young scientists, preparing a new generation of crop experts to tackle the pressing issues of crop adaptation under future climate scenarios.
HeDWIC adds value to developing more climate-resilient wheat varieties by:
Facilitating global coordination of wheat research related to heat and drought stress in partnership with the Wheat Initiative.
Developing research and breeding technologies in response to the priorities of stakeholders: researchers, breeders, farmers, seed companies, national programs, and funding organizations.
Connecting geographically and agro-climatically diverse sites for rigorous testing of promising concepts.
Curating data resources for use by the global wheat research community.
Accelerating the deployment of new knowledge and strategies for developing more climate resilient wheat.
Preparing a new generation of promising young scientists from climate-affected regions to tackle crop improvement challenges faced by their own countries.
Building additional scientific capacity of wheat researchers in a coordinated fashion that enables a faster response to productivity threats associated with climate change.
Enabling farmers to adapt to wheat production in a hotter and drier climate faster due to the coordinated effort and synergy lent by HeDWIC.
HeDWIC is directly funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) and is supported by in-kind contributions from IWIN, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)-funded Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat for Improved Livelihoods (AGG) project, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the International Wheat Yield Partnership, the Wheat Initiativeâs AHEAD, and many international partners who support research and capacity building activities through ongoing collaboration.
It also builds on decades of breeding and collaborative research under abiotic stress coordinated by CIMMYT, with support from agencies including Mexicoâs Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER), the CGIAR Trust Fund âin particular the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) â Australia’s Grains Research Development Corporation (GRDC), Germanyâs Ministry of Agriculture (BMEL), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and others.
Evidence of enormity and immediacy of the challenges climate change poses for life on earth seems to pour in daily. But important gaps in our knowledge of all the downstream effects of this complex process remain. And the global response to these challenges is still far from adequate to the job ahead. Bold, multi-stakeholder, multidisciplinary action is urgent.
In addition to exploring the important challenges climate changes poses for plant health, the event explored the implications for the wellbeing and livelihoods of smallholder farming communities in low- and middle- income countries, paying special attention to the gender dimension of both the challenges and proposed solutions.
The event was co-organized by researchers at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe).
The overall webinar series is hosted by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the International Potato Center (CIP), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). It is sponsored by the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition (A4NH), the CGIAR Gender Platform and the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB).
This is important
The stakes for the conversation were forcefully articulated by Shenggen Fan, chair professor and dean of the Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy at China Agricultural University and member of the CGIAR System Board. âBecause of diseases and pests, we lose about 20-40% of our food crops. Can you imagine how much food we have lost? How many people we could feed with that lost food? Climate change will make this even worse,â Fan said.
Such impacts, of course, will not be evenly felt across geographic and social divides, notably gender. According to Jemimah Njuki, director for Africa at IFPRI, gender and household relationships shape how people respond to and are impacted by climate change. âOne of the things we have evidence of is that in times of crises, womenâs assets are often first to be sold and it takes even longer for them to be recovered,â Njuki said.
The desert locust has been around since biblical times. Climate change has contributed to its reemergence as a major pest. (Photo: David Nunn)
Shifting risks
When it comes to understanding the impact of climate change on plant health âone of our big challenges is to understand where risk will change,â said Karen Garrett, preeminent professor of plant pathology at the University of Florida,
This point was powerfully exemplified by Henri Tonnang, head of Data Management, Modelling and Geo-information Unit at icipe, who referred to the âunprecedented and massive outbreakâ of desert locusts in 2020. The pest â known since biblical times â has reemerged as a major threat due to extreme weather events driven by sea level rise.
Researchers highlighted exciting advancements in mapping, modelling and big data techniques that can help us understand these evolving risks. At the same time, they stressed the need to strengthen cooperation not only among the research community, but among all the stakeholders for any given research agenda.
âThe international research community needs to transform the way it does research,â said Ana MarĂa Loboguerrero, research director for Climate Action at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. âWeâre working in a very fragmented way, sometime inefficiently and with duplications, sometimes acting under silos⊠It is difficult to deliver end-to-end sustainable and scalable solutions.â
Time for a new strategy
Such injunctions are timely and reaffirm CGIARâs new strategic orientation. According to Sonja Vermeulen, the event moderator and the director of programs for the CGIAR System Management Organization, this strategy recognizes that stand-alone solutions â however brilliant â arenât enough to make food systems resilient. We need whole system solutions that consider plants, animals, ecosystems and people together.
Echoing Fanâs earlier rallying cry, Vermeulen said, âThis is important. Unless we do something fast and ambitious, we are not going to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.â
Cover photo: All farmers are susceptible to extreme weather events, and many are already feeling the effects of climate change. (Photo: N. Palmer/CIAT)
Australiaâs High Commissioner to India, Barry Oâ Farrell (left), observes the use of drone technology at the BISA experimental station in Ludhiana, India. (Photo: Uttam Kumar/CIMMYT).
Australiaâs High Commissioner to India, Barry OâFarrell, visited the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) in Ludhiana, India, on January 20, 2021 along with his delegation.
OâFarrell acknowledged the historic role of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) sharing the seeds of the most recent, climate-resilient, high-yielding, and disease-resistant wheat genotypes. He also appreciated that this work is being continued with even greater vigor by BISA for the benefit of India and the whole of South Asia.
The High Commissioner was happy to note that wheat germplasm is freely shared with public and private sector national partners under constant guidance and collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Department of Agriculture Research and Education (DARE).
OâFarrell emphasized the strong collaboration between Indian and Australian research institutes. He called for even more cross-learning between scientists and other stakeholders for research, policy and capacity development in the areas of land, water, climatic resilience, environmental sustainability and germplasm enhancement for the benefit of farmers of both countries.
Witnessing science in action
Arun Kumar Joshi, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Asia and Managing Director of BISA, welcomed the group and briefed the visitors on CIMMYT and BISAâs collaboration with ICAR and DARE.
H.S. Sidhu, Principal Research Engineer at BISA, and M.L. Jat, Principal Scientist and Systems Agronomist at CIMMYT, presented the major challenges and research outputs related to climate change, the food-energy-water nexus and the overall agricultural sustainability challenges faced by India.
One of the successful examples of collaboration between Australia and India is the Happy Seeder, which addresses these challenges through conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification. OâFarrell saw the expansive wheat fields sown with the Happy Seeder and was impressed by the technology.
The group also discussed the evidence-based policy changes that have taken place, as well as future strategies for accelerated impact through new approaches, like carbon farming. A detailed discussion took place on climate-smart agriculture research, with a focus on precision water and nutrient management using digital agriculture technologies and their complementarity for boosting Happy Seeder uptake.
The High Commissioner and his delegation also visited the wheat breeding program, where CIMMYT researcher Uttam Kumar explained the development of wheat genotypes â in collaboration with ICAR-DARE and the national agriculture research system â for a range of environments, management conditions, and against various stresses, with the ultimate objective of serving the needs of smallholder farmers.
OâFarrell also appreciated the BISA-designed Phenocart for high-throughput precision phenotyping in wheat improvement. OâFarrell highlighted and appreciated that this season, BISA is conducting the largest wheat breeding trial in South Asia: currently more than 60,000 plots are planted at the BISA station in Ludhiana alone.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a new set of elite, improved maize hybrids to partners in eastern Africa and similar agro-ecological zones. National agricultural research systems (NARS) and seed companies are invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release of, and subsequently commercialize, these new hybrids, in order to bring the benefits of the improved seed to farming communities.
The deadline to submit applications to be considered during the first round of allocations is 9 February 2021. Applications received after that deadline will be considered during the following round of product allocations.
Information about the newly available CIMMYT maize hybrids from Eastern Africa breeding program, application instructions and other relevant material is available below.
To apply, please fill out the CIMMYT Improved Maize Product Allocation Application Forms, available for download at the links below. Each applicant will need to complete one copy of Form A for their organization, then for each hybrid being requested a separate copy of Form B. (Please be sure to use these current versions of the application forms.)
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a new set of elite, improved maize hybrids to partners in eastern Africa and similar agro-ecological zones. National agricultural research systems (NARS) and seed companies are invited to apply for licenses to pursue national release of, and subsequently commercialize, these new hybrids, in order to bring the benefits of the improved seed to farming communities.