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.
To the first-time observer, the aftermath of a fall armyworm infestation must be terrifying. The larvae can cause significant damage to an entire field in a single night, leaving once-healthy leaves looking like tattered rags.
A new instructional video, which will air in Bangladesh, aims to combat both the pest and the distress its appearance can cause with detailed, actionable information for farmers. The video describes how to identify the pest, its lifecycle and the kind of damage it can do to maize â among other crops â and provides techniques for identifying, assessing, and combating an infestation.
This video was developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with support from the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), as part of the project Fighting back against fall armyworm in Bangladesh. Supported by USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative and Michigan State University, this CIMMYT-led project works in synergy with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), and with national partners to mitigate the impact of this invasive pest on smallholder farmers’ livelihoods.
The video is available in Bangla with English captions.
For the first time, wheat blast, a fast-acting and devastating fungal disease, has been reported on the African continent, according to a new article published by scientists from the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the US Department of Agriculture â Foreign Disease Weed Science Research Unit (USDA-ARS).
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize award is likely to turn the eyes of the world to the millions of people who suffer from, or face the threat of hunger. CGTN Africa has been running a series on food production in the continent. The series is in line with this year’s Nobel Peace Prize theme â making food security an instrument of peace. This episode focuses on the impact of improved seeds.
Donald L. Winkelmann, Director General of CIMMYT from 1985 to 1994. (Photo: CIMMYT)
With sorrow we report the passing of Donald Winkelmann, who served as Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) from 1985 to 1994.
During his tenure, CIMMYT expanded notably and gained recognition as a research center committed to sustainable agricultural development. Winkelmann successfully negotiated CIMMYTâs final status as a public international organization.
The Center’s first economist, Winkelmann arrived in 1972 to conduct and coordinate what became a landmark series of adoption studies on emerging maize and wheat technologies from CIMMYT. He established CIMMYT’s Economics program and served as its first director.
In his first address as Director General, he emphasized that, when competing against “new forces” and technological changes “the old personality of CIMMYT must endure â the commitment to excellence and action, and to the ideal of making things better.”
Winkelmann was appointed for a second term as Director General by the Board of Trustees in 1990.
On November 23, 1994, he received the Order of the Aztec Eagle â the highest distinction given to a foreigner by the Mexican government. During the award ceremony, the Under-Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico, Ambassador Andres Rozenthal, highlighted three stages of Winkelmann’s contributions to Mexico. First, as visiting professor of economics at the Post Graduate College (1966-1971), where he helped train Mexican agricultural economists with new tools and methodologies. Second, as founder and director of the Economics program at CIMMYT (1971-1985), where he addressed themes such as on-farm research and comparative advantage studies, generated research methodologies, and carried out training workshops in agricultural economics. Lastly, as Director General of CIMMYT (1985-1994), where he helped strengthen collaboration between CIMMYT and Mexican research institutions, while working on allocation of resources to research, strategic planning and research impacts.â
After retiring from CIMMYT in November 1994, Winkelmann accepted the appointment of Chair of the CGIARâs Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).
The CIMMYT community sends its warmest condolences to the Winkelmann family.
Donald L. Winkelmann, Director General of CIMMYT from 1985 to 1994. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Donald L. Winkelmann, Director General of CIMMYT from 1985 to 1994. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Donald L. Winkelmann, Director General of CIMMYT from 1985 to 1994. (Photo: CIMMYT)
Director General Martin Kropff (left) and former Deputy Director General Marianne BĂ€nziger (third from left) greet Donald Winkelmann and his wife Breege during a visit to the CIMMYT headquarters in October 2019. (Photo: CIMMYT)
CIMMYT researcher Bram Govaerts participates in the World Food Prize and Borlaug Dialogue.
The director of the Integrated Development program and Representative for the Americas at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Bram Govaerts, has been elected as Fellow by the leading professional organization of agronomists in the United States.
The American Society of Agronomy (ASA) presented this award to Govaerts for his outstanding contributions to the field of agronomy.
âHis initiatives, excellence in science for impact and the partnerships he inspired have resulted in improved nutrition, nature conservation, and national and international resilience and food securityâ, announced the ASA in a news release.
Being an ASA Fellow is the highest honor offered by the organization, with only 0.3% of active and emeritus members holding this distinction.
The awarding body recognized Govaerts as an international authority in maize and wheat cropping systems who works for a successful transition to sustainable intensification of small-scale farming in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
âBram engages from the field in a remote village all the way up to the office of the president, and from livelihoods and social inclusion to science and business development, in a tireless effort to generate systems change creating sustainable agri-food systems for nutrition, nature conservation and peace,â said Sanjay Rajaram, ASA Fellow, 2014 World Food Prize Laureate, distinguished scientist and retired CIMMYT Wheat Program director, who nominated Govaerts to the ASAâs Fellows Committee.
âI am honored and grateful for receiving this award which shows, above all, that CIMMYT stands for impact and sound science that saves millions of lives, a duty to humanity that we must never compromise,â Govaerts said.
Born in Belgium, Govaerts studied Bioscience Engineering at K.U. Leuven, where he earned a masterâs degree in the same subject with specialization in Soil Conservation and Tropical Agriculture. Research stays in Ethiopia and Mexico sparked his interest in sustainable intensification of small-scale farming systems. He achieved a doctoral degree in Bioscience Engineering â Soil Science, also from K.U. Leuven.
Govaerts cut his teeth as cropping systems expert at CIMMYT, where he progressed from post-doctoral fellow to his current position. He received the Norman Borlaug Field Award in 2014 from the World Food Prize Foundation. Govaerts has co-authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications. He is a member of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network on Data and Statistics (TReNDS) for the Sustainable Development Goals and A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.
When we talk about the impact of agricultural research we often rely on numerical metrics: percent increase in yield, percent decrease in crop loss, adoption rates, etcetera. For farmers on the ground, however, the impact can be much harder to boil down to a few numbers. Hiding behind every statistical table are real stories of dreams dashed or fulfilled, of everyday people trying to survive and flourish.
A new educational video powerfully dramatizes this point through the story of Jamal Mia and his daughter Rupa. Jamalâs dreams to own a house and see Rupa enroll in college are threatened when his maize crop is attacked by fall armyworm. An encounter with an agricultural extension officer puts Jamal on track to tackle the infestation, save his crop and secure his familyâs wellbeing.
The video was developed by CIMMYT with support from Bangladeshâs Department of Agricultural Extension and the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI), as part of a project titled “Fighting back against fall armyworm in Bangladesh.â Supported by USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative and Michigan State University, this CIMMYT-led project works in synergy with the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and with national partners to mitigate the impact of this invasive pest on smallholder farmers’ livelihoods.
The video was filmed in Dinajpur district, Bangladesh, and is available in Bangla with English captions.
Wheat blast damages wheat spikes. (Photo: Xinyao He / CIMMYT)
In an article published in Nature Scientific Reports, a team of scientists led by wheat breeder Philomin Juliana from the International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center (CIMMYT) conducted a large genome-wide association study to look for genomic regions that could also be associated with resistance to wheat blast.
Juliana and fellow scientists found 36 significant markers on chromosome 2AS, 3BL, 4AL and 7BL that appeared to be consistently associated with blast resistance across different environments. Among these, 20 markers were found to be in the position of the 2NS translocation, a chromosomal segment transferred to wheat from a wild relative, Aegilops ventricosa, that has very strong and effective resistance to wheat blast.
The team also gained excellent insights into the blast resistance of the globally-distributed CIMMYT germplasm by genomic fingerprinting a panel over 4,000 wheat lines for the presence of the 2NS translocation, and found that it was present in 94.1% of lines from International Bread Wheat Screening Nurseries (IBWSNs) and 93.7% of lines from Semi-Arid Wheat Screening Nurseries (SAWSNs). Although it is reassuring that such a high percentage of CIMMYT wheat lines already have the 2NS translocation and implied blast resistance, finding other novel resistance genes will be instrumental in building widespread, global resilience to wheat blast outbreaks in the long-term.
The researchers used data collected over the last two years from CIMMYTâs IBWSNs and SAWSNs by collaborators at the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) and Bolivia’s Instituto Nacional de InnovaciĂłn Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF).
Devastating fungal disease
Wheat blast, caused by the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum, was first identified in 1985 in South America, but has been seen in Bangladesh in recent years. The expansion of the disease is a great concern for regions of similar environmental conditions in South Asia, and other regions globally.
Although management of the disease using fungicide is possible, it is not completely effective for multiple reasons, including inefficiency during high disease pressure, resistance of the fungal populations to some classes of fungicides, and the affordability of fungicide to resource-poor farmers. Scientists see the development and deployment of wheat with genetic resistance to blast as the most sustainable and farmer-friendly approach to preventing devastating outbreaks around the world.
This work was made possible by the generous support of the Delivering Genetic Gains in Wheat (DGGW) project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and managed by Cornell University, the U.S. Agency for International Developmentâs Feed the Future initiative, the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), The Swedish Research Council (VetenskapsrĂ„d), and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).
Seeds are the start and the first step in a solution for global hunger.
B.M. Prasanna, director of the Global Maize Program and of the CGIAR Research program on Maize at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), says smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa make up 80% of all farms there, and contribute significantly to food production in the region.
âOver the past 15 years, CIMMYT and partners in sub-Saharan Africa have been able to intensively work with seed companies to invest in deployment of climate-resilient and nutritionally enriched maize seed, and generate demand for such products,â Prasanna says.
Efforts towards managing the Maize Lethal Necrosis (MLN), a viral disease affecting maize, have contributed to reducing seed production losses from 33 per cent to 16 per cent in the last four years, bolstering steady supply of maize seeds in the Eastern African region.
Seed banks may be another resource for securing Indigenous seed, although these banks have other missions as well. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), maintains seed banks and programs to preserve seeds native to specific regions. The group also leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform to characterize genetic diversity so it can be used in conventional breeding programs to develop wheat and maize varieties that can address climate change, pest and disease resistance and yield to help manage food security.
âAbout 100 seed banks exist worldwide with seed used for cultural or heritage purposes and for production. CIMMYT has varieties that have been cultivated, conserved and cherished as grain and food crops for thousands of years,â says Tom Payne, head of the non-profit organizationâs wheat germplasm collections and International Wheat Improvement Network. âOur seed bank conserves varieties that can be a source for finding old genes that will solve new problems. We have to have that diversity to address changing production environments.â
For ten years now, the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) has been an unmissable event. Every September, the premier forum for African agriculture has brought people together to share experiences about transforming agriculture, raising productivity for farmers and increasing incomes.
The theme of the 2020 summit â Feed the Cities, Grow the Continent: Leveraging Urban Food Markets to Achieve Sustainable Food Systems in Africa â was a call to action to rethink our food systems to make them more resilient and deliver better nourishment and prosperity for all.
This year, the summit went virtual. Delegates could not mingle, visit booths and network over lunch, but attendance reached new heights. Over 10,400 delegates from 113 countries participated in this edition of the AGRF, compared to 2,300 delegates last year.
As in the previous years, CGIAR centers, including the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), maintained an active presence among speakers and attendees.
With over 50 projects and hundreds of staff based across nine countries, Africa holds a significant position in CIMMYT’s research agenda. CIMMYTâs work in Africa helps farmers access new maize and wheat system-based technologies, information and markets, raising incomes and enhancing crop resilience to drought and climate change. CIMMYT sets priorities in consultation with ministries of agriculture, seed companies, farming communities and other stakeholders in the maize and wheat value chains.
Striving for excellence
CGIAR leveraged AGRF 2020âs highly diversified and international audience to launch the Excellence in Agronomy 2030 initiative (EiA 2030) on September 7, 2020. EiAâs impressive group of experts plans to hit the ground running in 2020 and work toward speeding up progress in tailoring and delivering nutrients and other agronomic solutions to smallholder farmers in Africa and other regions.
âAcross agricultural production systems, low crop yields and inadequate incomes from agriculture are the rule rather than the exception,â said Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT and Chair of One CGIAR Transition Advisory Group (TAG) 2 on Research. âAt the same time, the âasksâ of agriculture have evolved beyond food security. They now include a broader range of Sustainable Development Goals, such as sustainable land management, climate change mitigation, provision of heathy diets, and inclusive economic growth. None of these goals will be achieved without the large-scale adoption of improved and adapted agronomic practices. To this end, we have initiated the creation of a CGIAR-wide EiA 2030 initiative aiming at reducing yield and efficiency gaps for major crops at scale.â
EiA 2030 is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, supported by the Big Data Platform and co-created by AfricaRice, CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRAF, ICRISAT, IITA and IRRI.
Martin Kropff (first row, fourth from left), Bram Govaerts (second row, first from left) and Lennart Woltering (second row, third from left) spoke at the “Scaling and Food Systems Transformation in the PLUS-COVID-19 era” panel.
Scaling agriculture beyond numbers
On September 7, 2020, a group of experts, including Lennart Woltering, Scaling Catalyst at CIMMYT and chair of the Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) working group of the Community of Practice on Scaling, gathered to explore how organizations are supporting scaling food systems in a post-COVID-19 world.
As Martin Kropff mentioned in a video address, One CGIAR aims to deliver on its commitments by building on its experience with pioneering integrated development projects, such as CSISA, CIALCA and AVISA. âOne CGIAR plans to be actively involved and help partners to scale by delivering on five One CGIAR impact areas at the regional level. How? By taking integrated regional programs from strategic planning to tactical implementation in three steps: strategic multi-stakeholder demand-driven planning process, tactical plan development based on the integration of production and demand, and implementation of multi-stakeholder innovation hubs. An integrated regional approach will deliver at scale,â Kropff said.
“CIMMYT has developed different scenarios regarding what agri-food systems will look like in 2025 with the COVID-19 shock. Whatever may unfold, integrated systems are key,” highlighted Bram Govaerts, Director of the Integrated Development Program and one of CIMMYT’s interim Deputy Directors General for Research, during the session.
âDiversity and proactive mindsets present at the #AGRF2020 High-Level Ministerial Roundtable. An example of how we can shape the future, listening to whatâs needed, investing in agriculture and making resilient food systems to resist the impact of #COVID19 #AgricultureContinues,â tweeted Bram Govaerts (first row, second from left) along with a screenshot of his Zoom meeting screen.
Putting healthy diets on the roundtable
Later in the week, CIMMYT experts took part in two key events for the development of Africaâs agriculture. Govaerts stepped in for Kropff during the High-Level Ministerial Roundtable, where regional leaders and partners discussed reaching agricultural self-sufficiency to increase the regionâs resilience toward shocks such as the ongoing pandemic.
At the Advancing Gender and Nutrition policy forum, Natalia Palacios, Maize Quality Specialist, spoke about engaging nutritionally vulnerable urban consumers. Palacios echoed the other speakersâ calls for transforming agri-food systems and pointed out that cereals and effective public-private partnerships are the backbone of nutritionally vulnerable and poor urban customersâ diets.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, in 30 years, the population of Africa is projected to double to a number as high as 2.7 billion, from 1.34 billion in 2020. Considering only the projected population, by 2050 Africa will have to supply 112.4 to 133.1 million tons of wheat and 106.5 to 126.1 million tons of maize to ensure food security of the burgeoning population. âWe are living in a very challenging time because we need to provide affordable, nutritious diets â within planetary boundaries,â Palacios said.
Cover photo: Over 10,400 delegates from 113 countries participated in the 2020 edition of the African Green Revolution Forum. (Photo: AGRA)
Wheat blast, a fast-acting and devastating fungal disease, has been reported for the first time on the African continent. In an article published in the scientific journal PLoS One, a team of scientists confirmed that symptoms of wheat blast first appeared in Zambia during the 2018 rainy season, in experimental plots and small-scale farms in the Mpika district, Muchinga province.
Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the US Department of Agriculture â Foreign Disease Weed Science Research Unit (USDA-ARS) and the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI) participated in this study.
Wheat blast poses a serious threat to rain-fed wheat production in Zambia and raises the alarm for surrounding regions and countries on the African continent with similar environmental conditions. Worldwide, 2.5 billion consumers depend on wheat as a staple food and, in recent years, several African countries have been actively working towards reducing dependence on wheat imports.
âThis presents yet another challenging biotic constraint to rain-fed wheat production in Zambia,â said Batiseba Tembo, wheat breeder at ZARI and lead scientist on the study.
A difficult diagnosis
Researchers from ZARI check for wheat blast in experimental plots. (Photo: Batiseba Tembo/ZARI)
âThe first occurrence of the disease was very distressing. This happened at the spike stage, and caused significant losses,â Tembo said. âNothing of this nature has happened before in Zambia.â
Researchers were initially confused when symptoms of the disease were first reported in the fields of Mpika. Zambia has unique agro-climatic conditions, particularly in the rainfed wheat production system, and diseases such as spot blotch and Fusarium head blight are common.
âThe crop had silvery white spikes and a green canopy, resulting in shriveled grains or no grains at all⊠Within the span of seven days, a whole field can be attacked,â Tembo explained. Samples were collected and analyzed in the ZARI laboratory, and suspicions grew among researchers that this may be a new disease entirely.
Tembo participated in the Basic Wheat Improvement Course at CIMMYTâs global headquarters in Mexico, where she discussed the new disease with Pawan Singh, head of Wheat Pathology at CIMMYT. Singh worked with Tembo to provide guidance and the molecular markers needed for the sample analysis in Zambia, and coordinated the analysis of the wheat disease samples at the USDA-ARS facility in Fort Detrick, Maryland, United States.
All experiments confirmed the presence of the fungus Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT), which causes the disease.
âThis is a disaster which needs immediate attention,â Tembo said. âOtherwise, wheat blast has the potential to marginalize the growth of rain-fed wheat production in Zambia and may threaten wheat production in neighboring countries as well.â
Wheat blast spreads through infected seeds and crop residues, as well as by spores that can travel long distances in the air. The spread of blast within Zambia is indicated by both mechanisms of expansion.
Wheat blast has expanded rapidly since it was initially discovered in Brazil in 1985. (Map: Kai Sonder/CIMMYT)
A cause for innovation and collaboration
CIMMYT and the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT) are taking action on several fronts to combat wheat blast. Trainings and international courses invite participants to gain new technical skills and knowledge in blast diagnostics, treatment and mitigation strategies. WHEAT scientists and partners are also studying the genetic factors that increase resistance to the disease and developing early warning systems.
âA set of research outcomes, including the development of resistant varieties, identification of effective fungicides, agronomic measures, and new findings in the epidemiology of disease development will be helpful in mitigating wheat blast in Zambia,â Singh said.
âIt is imperative that the regional and global scientific communities join hands to determine effective measures to halt further spread of this worrisome disease in Zambia and beyond,â Tembo expressed.
Financial support for this research was provided by the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI), the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat (WHEAT), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and the US Department of Agricultureâs Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS).Â
The Basic Wheat Training Program and Wheat Blast Training is made possible by support from investors including the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), WHEAT, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Krishi Gobeshona Foundation (KGF), the Swedish Research Council (SRC) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, the United States Agency for International Development and the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research (FFAR).
About CIMMYT
The International Maize and What Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information visit staging.cimmyt.org.
It is no secret that Africa is urbanizing at breakneck speed. Consider Lagos. In 1950 the Nigerian city boasted a population of a few hundred thousand. Today that number has soared to around 14 million. It is estimated that by 2025 half of Africaâs population will live in urban areas.
This demographic transformation has had dramatic consequences for human health and nutrition. Urban dwellers are far more likely to rely on cheap highly-processed foods, which are shelf-stable but poor on nutrients.
These statistics, presented by moderator Betty Kibaara, Director of the Food Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation, framed the 2020 African Green Revolution Forumâs policy symposium on âAdvancing Gender and Nutrition.â The forum comprised two tracks. One focused on addressing the needs of nutritionally vulnerable urban consumers, particularly women; the other on gender-based financing in the African agri-food system
Speaking in the first track, Natalia Palacios, maize quality specialist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), underlined the enormity of the challenge. âWe need to provide affordable, nutritious diets … within planetary boundaries,â she said.
Many of the panelists pointed out further dimensions of the challenge â from evidence deficits around the continentâs urban populations to the amplifying effects of the COVID-19 crisis. Palacios stressed that the bedrock of any response must be effective partnerships between governments, companies and non-profit actors working in this area.
âThe really important thing is to start working together,â she said, âto start developing the strategies together instead of providing things or demanding things.â Speaking to the role of organizations like CIMMYT, Palacios highlighted the need to work closely with the private sector to understand the demand for agricultural raw materials that can be converted into nutritious diets.
Rich nutrition within reach
Palaciosâ most recent research efforts focus on precisely this question. She and a team of researchers, including CIMMYT senior scientist Santiago Lopez-Ridaura, explored how various innovations in maize production have improved the macro- and micro-nutrient content of the grain and led to healthier maize-based agri-food systems.
CIMMYT, HarvestPlus and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), together with several stakeholders, have been deeply involved in work to improve the nutritional quality of staple-dependent food systems. In partnership with a broad network of national and private-sector partners, they have released over 60 improved maize and wheat varieties fortified with zinc or provitamin A in 19 countries.
Cover photo: Unlike white maize varieties, vitamin A maize is rich in beta-carotene, giving it a distinctive orange color. This biofortified variety provides consumers with up to 40% of their daily vitamin A needs. (Photo: HarvestPlus/Joslin Isaacson)
On December 10, 1970, the former chair of the Nobel Committee, Aase Lionaes, called Norman Borlaug to receive the Nobel Peace Prize arguing, âHe has given us a well-founded hope, an alternative of peace and of life â the Green Revolution.â
From that moment, Borlaug became known as âthe man who saved one billion livesâ from famine and as âthe father of the Green Revolution.â Borlaug started a pivotal process in the 20th century, characterized by the development of high-yielding new wheat and maize varieties from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
âFood is the moral right of all who are born into this world,â Borlaug said during his acceptance speech or Nobel Lecture almost 50 years ago. The scientist, credited for coining the phrase âYou canât build peace on empty stomachs,â became the worldâs most acknowledged advocate of the right to food.
The Nobel Peace Center, the government of Mexico â through its Embassy in Oslo, Norway â and CIMMYT remembered Norman Borlaugâs legacy to commemorate the International Day of Peace on September 21. Established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, this day calls to halt all forms of violence for 24 hours and to strengthen the ideals of peace, including Sustainable Development Goal number 2, âzero hunger.â
According to the Nobel Peace Center, âDr. Norman Borlaugâs work is one of the greatest achievements for humankind.â On a similar note, CIMMYTâs director general, Martin Kropff, noted that âPeace lies in the hands of those who cultivate the land. We can build peace through agriculture.â
CIMMYT carries on Borlaugâs legacy by implementing integrated strategic development projects that aim to transform food production units into sustainable, resilient and healthy agri-food systems. For that reason, CIMMYT issued a call to form an international coalition to tackle the current crisis and avert a new food crisis.
âNorman Borlaug led the charge in the war against hunger more than 50 years ago; let us learn from this experience, let us do it again together by listening to the current crisis and by developing a matching transformative answer to overcome todayâs challenges and shortcomings,â said Bram Govaerts, director of CIMMYTâs Integrated Development program and representative for the Americas.
