As staple foods, maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to two-thirds of the world’s 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 world’s 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.
How big do farms need to be to enable farmers to escape poverty by farming alone? And what alternative avenues can lead them to sustainable development?
These issues were explored in a paper in which we examined how much rural households can benefit from agricultural intensification. In particular we, together with colleagues, looked at the size of smallholder farms and their potential profitability and alternative strategies for support. In sub-Saharan Africa smallholder farms are, on average, smaller than two hectares.
At the end of 2019, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) will say goodbye to Alexey Morgunov, head of the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP) in Turkey.
A native of Russia, Morgunov joined CIMMYT as a spring wheat breeder in 1991 working with Sanjaya Rajaram, former Global Wheat Program director and World Food Prize laureate. Morgunov went on to work as a breeder of winter wheat in Turkey in 1994 and later to Kazakhstan, where he helped generate new wheat varieties and technologies for Central Asia and the Caucasus region.
Since 2006 he has led the International Winter Wheat Improvement Program (IWWIP), a highly-productive collaboration between Turkey, the International Center for Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), and CIMMYT.
As part of that program, Morgunov contributed to the development of more than 70 widely grown wheat varieties in Central and West Asia and, in 2013, to a national wheat landrace inventory in Turkey. He has also helped develop and characterize synthetic wheats — created by crossing modern durum wheat with grassy relatives of the crop — and used them in breeding to broaden the diversity of winter wheat.
Alex Morgunov (right) with World Food Prize laureate and former CIMMYT wheat program director Sanjaya Rajaram. (Photo: Alex Morgunov/CIMMYT)
A professional journey across Central Asia
Morgunov said his childhood in rural Russia instilled in him the importance of agriculture and of education.
“My parents, who lived in rural Russia, went through hunger and were trying to make sure that their children worked somewhere close to food production so that we wouldn’t go hungry,” he explained. “They said: ‘OK, Alex, you go to an agricultural university and you will not be hungry.’ ”
After his university studies, Morgunov joined the Plant Breeding Institute at Cambridge as a visiting scientist in the late 1980s, where he crossed paths with CIMMYT scientists seeking to partner with the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. After an interview in 1991, he was invited to join the CIMMYT team in Mexico as a wheat breeder.
He was later posted to Kazakhstan to build relationships in Central Asia, a period he cites as a standout. “In the late 90s CIMMYT started working with Central Asian countries experiencing severe food security issues,” he said. “They didn’t really have any technologies or varieties for grain production, so we started a program in 95/96 which later developed into a CGIAR program.”
“We had great impact in those countries at the time, introducing zero tillage in Kazakhstan, new seed varieties in Tajikistan after the civil war, and high-yielding rust-resistant varieties to Uzbekistan.”
Reflecting on his time at CIMMYT, it was the friends and connections he made that stood out the most for Morgunov.
“The thing I most enjoyed was communicating with colleagues,” Morgunov said. “You start working in Kazakhstan and other places and building up cooperation and technical relationships and, over time, these relationships become friendships that we enjoy for as long as we live. I think this is very satisfactory for us as human beings.”
One of Morgunov’s passions is sailing. (Photo: Alex Morgunov)
Despite his plans to retire, Morgunov still plans to continue working — but on his own terms. “My wife is from Kazakhstan so we will be moving there and I plan to continue working in a different capacity and different schedule,” he explains. “Some Russian universities are writing to me to participate in projects and also universities from Kazakhstan. I have a couple of PhD students in Kazakhstan so I’d like to move more into the educational side of things, working with younger people.”
He was also given an Adjunct Faculty position by Washington State University early this year and will volunteer for them.
Morgunov has also recommended that CIMMYT creates an “emeritus” status for long-serving colleagues retiring from the organization, so they can continue to support the organization.
It won’t be all work though. Morgunov is a devoted tennis player and plans to improve his backhand. A keen sailor, he also hopes to spend more time on the waves and visiting new countries.
Halima Bibi stands on her field in the district of Malda, West Bengal, India.
In recent years, due to increasing demand and financial advantage, maize is gaining importance as a significant cash crop in West Bengal, India.
Halima Bibi is one of the farmers who embraced the possibilities of the crop. All the hard work she put into maize cultivation paid off when she learnt that she would receive the Krishi Karman Prize, awarded by India’s Ministry of Agriculture, for best maize production for the year 2017-2018. “I couldn’t believe my ears when officials from the state agriculture department told me that I had won the award,” Bibi excitedly shared.
As most other farmers in the district of Malda, Bibi and her husband Zakir Hossain were growing rice in their 10-bigha (3.3-acre) land, but life was still a struggle for the couple and their two children, trying to make ends meet.
Life took a turn for Bibi and her family when she observed field activities of the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (SRFSI) project and she realized the importance of no-till maize cultivation. In 2015, she hired a zero-till multi-crop planter and sowed maize in her land. Since then, there was no looking back.
“When I learnt about the high demand for maize, we started cultivating the crop on half of our land, but gradually shifted to growing maize across our entire 10 bighas,” Bibi said. “The agriculture department helped me a lot.”
Rewarding productivity
Sefaur Rahman, a researcher and assistant director of agriculture in the district of Malda, predicted a dramatic growth in maize cultivation in West Bengal in the coming years, because farmers are now aware of the crop’s increased productivity, profitability and cost efficiency.
Through the SRFSI project, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) have reached out to a large number of smallholder farmers, especially marginalized women, to promote conservation agriculture and other sustainable techniques that make farming more profitable. In West Bengal, the project team has worked in partnership with Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya agricultural university and the West Bengal Department of Agriculture, among others.
In the 2017-18 crop season, Bibi produced 16,800 kg of maize from her land. She initially invested 20,000 rupees ($280) per acre, which led to a net profit of 150,000 rupees ($2,113) in total.
A quick lesson learned, the right decision at the right time, and a lot of hard work led Bibi to win the Krishi Karman Prize. These awards are given to the best performing states for raising the country’s food grain production. Taking to Twitter, the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, expressed her satisfaction. “I am happy to share that West Bengal has been selected once again for Krishi Karman Award by Govt. of India for the year 2017-18, primarily for maize production,” she said.
As Bibi’s story confirms, embracing conservation agriculture techniques is the way to reap maximum benefits and profits from the farm. In this case, the zero-till cultivation of maize paved a new road towards self-sufficiency and sustainability for the farmers of West Bengal.
Maize plants at the MLN screening facility in Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: Jennifer Johnson/CIMMYT)
The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya, will begin its phenotyping (screening/indexing) cycle of 2020 at the beginning of January 2020, which will continue in four other intervals throughout the year. Interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for screening.
In 2013, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) jointly established the MLN screening facility at the KALRO Naivasha research station in Kenya’s Rift Valley, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.
MLN was first discovered in Kenya in 2011 and quickly spread to other parts of eastern Africa. The disease causes premature plant death and unfilled, poorly formed maize cobs, which can lead to up to 100% yield loss in farmers’ fields.
CIMMYT and partners are dedicated to stopping the spread of this deadly maize disease by effectively managing the risk of MLN on maize production through screening and identifying MLN-resistant germplasm. The MLN screening facility supports countries in sub-Saharan Africa to screen maize germplasm — for hybrid, inbred and open pollinated varieties — against MLN in a quarantined environment.
This is the largest dedicated MLN screening facility in East Africa. Since its inception in 2013, the facility has evaluated more than 200,000 accessions — more than 300,000 rows of maize — from more than 15 multinational and national seed companies and national research programs.
Partners can now plan for annual MLN phenotyping (screening/indexing) during 2020 with the schedule below. The improved and streamlined approach for MLN phenotyping should enable partners to accelerate breeding programs to improve resistance for MLN for sub-Saharan Africa.
CIMMYT study finds that women are 33% more likely to pay for blue maize tortillas and men are 19% more likely. A person’s income had no impact on the willingness to pay more for blue maize.
Kassim Massi and Joyce Makawa have learned how conservation agriculture nurtures the soil of their 2.5-acres farm in Lemu, Malawi, and helps them to better cope with regular dry spells and storm rains. With four children and two grandchildren, their livelihoods depend on rainfed crop farming, in particular maize, the main staple in Malawi, and a few goats and free-range poultry. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) introduced them to conservation agriculture, along with five other families in their community.
“I have learnt a lot from this experiment. I can see that with crop rotation, mulching and intercropping I get bigger and healthier maize cobs. The right maize spacing, one seed at the time planted in a row, creates a good canopy which preserves the soil moisture in addition to the mulch effect,” Massi explains. “The mulch also helps to limit water runoff when there are heavy rains. I don’t see the streams of mud flowing out of this plot like for my other field where I only planted maize as usual on ridges,” he adds.
Massi and Makawa started small, on a quarter acre, testing maize and maize-pigeon pea intercropping under conservation agriculture. Later they diversified to a maize-groundnut rotation with pigeon pea alleys, while introducing different drought-tolerant maize varieties on their plot. Pigeon pea and groundnut are legume crops that enrich the soil in nitrogen via nodules that host specific bacteria called rhizobia in their root systems. Massi and Makawa also put layers of maize stalks and groundnut haulms on the ground after harvest, creating a mulch that not only enriches the soil in organic matter but retains soil moisture and improves soil structure.
While they got only two bags of 50kg maize grain from their conventionally tilled maize field, they harvested almost three times more maize grain plus three bags of groundnuts, and two and half bags of pigeonpea from the 0.1 hectares grown under conservation agriculture. “This plot has become our food insurance and we plan to expand it.”
Family farmers Kassim Massi and Joyce Makawa in Lemu, Malawi. (Photo: Shiela Chikulo/CIMMYT)
Good for the soil and good for the farmer
“Building healthy soils over the years is one of the great impacts of conservation agriculture,” explains Christian Thierfelder, an agronomist with CIMMYT in Zimbabwe. “With no tillage, legume rotation or intercropping and crop residue management, a beneficial soil pore structure is developed over time. This enables water to infiltrate into the soil where it is available for plant growth in times of drought or during in-season dry spells.”
Under the GIZ-funded Out scaling climate-smart technologies to smallholder farmers in Malawi, Zambia & Zimbabwe initiative, the different ecosystem services that soils bring have been measured against the typical ploughed maize monocropping system. Fifteen year-long experiments show that 48.5mm more water infiltrates per hour under no-till as compared with the conventional method. Soil erosion is reduced by 64% for ripline-seeded maize with legume intercropping. At the Henderson Research station in Zimbabwe where soil erosion loss has been quantified, it means 90 metric tons per hectare of topsoil saved over twelve years.
“Conservation agriculture is good for the soil, and it is good for the farmer. The maize-legume intercropping under conservation agriculture provides very good financial return to labor and investment in most rural communities we worked with,” Thierfelder notes.
Climate mitigation or resilience?
There is growing recognition of the importance of soils in our quest for sustainability.
Soils play for instance an important role in climate regulation. Plants fix carbon dioxide (CO2) through photosynthesis and when those plants die and decompose, the living organisms of the soil, such as bacteria, fungi or earthworms, transform them into organic matter. That way, soils capture huge quantities of the carbon emissions that fuel climate change. This soil organic carbon is also essential for our food security because it retains water, and soil nutrients, essential for growing crops.
The quantity of carbon soils capture depends on the way farmers grow their crops. Conservation agriculture improves soil biodiversity and carbon sequestration by retaining crop residues as mulch, compared to conventional practices.
“Research shows that practices such as conservation agriculture can restore soil organic carbon at the level of four per thousand when farmers apply all principles of conservation agriculture: no-till, soil cover and crop diversification,” explains Marc Corbeels, agronomist seconded to CIMMYT from Cirad. Increasing soil organic content stocks globally by 0.4% per year is the objective of the “4 per 1000” initiative as a way to mitigate climate change and improve food security. At global level, sequestrating 0.4% more soil organic carbon annually combined with stopping deforestation would counteract the annual rise in atmospheric CO2.
“The overall soil organic carbon sequestration potential of conservation agriculture should however not be overestimated,” Corbeels warns. “Carbon sequestration is complex and context-specific. It depends for instance on the type of soils and the initial soil organic status, and the crop and biomass productivity as enough crop residues should be produced.”
“Now farmers in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe are facing prolonged drought and, in some parts, farming communities got hit by flash floods. With degraded and barren soils in this tropical environment, it is a disaster. In my experience, more than mitigation, improved climate resilience is a bigger benefit of conservation agriculture for the farmers”, Corbeels says.
“Science is important to build up solid evidence of the benefits of a healthy soil and push forward much-needed policy interventions to incentivize soil conservation,” Thierfelder states.
Scaling out conservation agriculture practices is what has driven him over the past decade in southern Africa.
“One big lesson I learnt from my years of research with farmers is that if you treat well your soil, your soil will treat you well. Conservation agriculture adopters like Kassim Massi and his family are more resilient to these successive shocks. We need more farmers like them to achieve greater food security and climate resilience in the region,” he concludes.
December 5, we are celebrating World Soil Day under the theme “Stop Soil Erosion, Save our Future!” As CIMMYT’s research shows, farmers cannot deliver sustainable food security without healthy soils, as the farming land producing our staple crops provide important environmental services as well. CIMMYT calls for soil-smart agriculture and food systems.
Food entrepreneur Jorge Gaviria had the idea to small-scale farmers one by one who had surplus corn, buy it from them at market price and then import it to the United States. He partnered with CIMMYT to build up relationships with farmers, working out intricate systems that would determine fair prices and ensure that they were only buying surplus corn.
The US delegation stands for a group photo next to the sculpture of Norman Borlaug at the global headquarters of CIMMYT. (Photo: Eleusis Llanderal/CIMMYT)
The existence of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) marks one of the longest and strongest bilateral relationships between Mexico and the United States of America. Beginning with a pilot program sponsored by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation in the 1940s, it would officially become CIMMYT in 1966, with many examples of strong collaboration between both countries throughout over 50 years of history.
United States Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Ted McKinney and dozens of other U.S representatives were officially introduced to this legacy when they visited CIMMYT on November 8, 2019.
The director of the Genetic Resources program, Kevin Pixley (left), gives a tour of the recently remodelled Germplasm Bank museum to US Under Secretary McKinney (second from left). (Photo: Eleusis Llanderal/CIMMYT)
“This is a place I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time,” McKinney stated as he first laid eyes on the CIMMYT offices, “the historical CIMMYT.”
After photos and a quick tour of the museum, McKinney talked to CIMMYT Director General Martin Kropff over Skype. They bonded over their respect for Norman Borlaug and his legacy, especially as McKinney had known him and later his granddaughter Julie personally while the two men worked at Dow Agrosciences.
Kropff gave a presentation on CIMMYT’s impact on agriculture in the United States. McKinney was amazed at how much of CIMMYT’s wheat research benefits farmers in the United States, and expressed enthusiasm for further cooperation. “We’re ready, willing and able to help in any way,” he stated.
The director of the Integrated Development program and regional representative for the Americas, Bram Govaerts, presented on CIMMYT’s work with the United States. Mark Rhoda-Reis, Bureau Director of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, was pleased to learn that CIMMYT has been working with the University of Wisconsin-Madison on drought-tolerant maize.
The US Under Secretary of Agriculture for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs, Ted McKinney (center), speaks during one of the sessions at CIMMYT. (Photo: Eleusis Llanderal/CIMMYT)
The group then split off into two groups for tours of the wheat fields and the CIMMYT germplasm bank. The delegation participated in a series of roundtable discussions on various topics such as climate change, sustainable agri-food systems, and the delegates’ objectives and needs related to agriculture in their respective states. A frequent topic was the dilemma of a public with a growing fear of technology, though technology is indispensable in the growth of the science of agriculture. “Research and education is the future of agriculture,” said one of the representatives.
The director of the Genetic Resources program, Kevin Pixley (center), shows some of the genetic materials at CIMMYT’s Germplasm Bank to US Under Secretary McKinney (top-left). (Photo: Eleusis Llanderal/CIMMYT)
At the closing of their visit, the delegation was eager to spread their newfound knowledge about CIMMYT’s work and legacy. “I’m just so impressed with the work done here… the representation of all the countries in this facility is outstanding!,” said Chris Chin, Director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
“I was blown away. [CIMMYT] is so valuable to every country in the world,” stated Ignacio Marquez, a representative from the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
To protect crops, a rapid alert system has been developed which is able to predict the spread of wheat rust and warns policy makers and farmers allowing timely and targeted interventions.
The project involved a multidisciplinary team – biologists, meteorologists, agronomists, IT and telecommunications experts – and the system was developed by the University of Cambridge, the Met Office of Great Britain, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EIAR), the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
At the base of it all is the data. Read more here.
Judith Thomson, agrodealer in Mbalizi, Mbeya district, Tanzania. (Photo: Owekisha Kwigizile)
Many Tanzanian smallholder farmers fail to produce even 1 ton of maize grain per hectare. To improve crop yields, a farmer needs the right seeds and complementary inputs, including inorganic fertilizer. The “right” inputs will depend upon what his or her geographical location and farming system are. How many farmers have access to such inputs and advice? What is the distribution of agrodealers in rural areas? What do they stock, and at what prices?
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) recently carried out a survey of agrodealers in Uganda and Tanzania to answer such questions related to the last-mile delivery of seeds and other agronomic inputs.
This is a joint initiative from two projects — Taking Maize Agronomy to Scale in Africa (TAMASA) and Strengthening product profile-based maize breeding and varietal turnover in Eastern and Southern Africa — funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID.
For the study, CIMMYT teams interviewed 233 agrodealers in Uganda and 299 agrodealers in Tanzania. The survey started in September 2019, just before the main maize planting season, and covered five districts in each country, in both easy-to-reach and remote areas.
For maize seed, researchers looked at which varieties are available at the agrodealer and how do they decide on what to stock.
Agrodealers were also asked to report the key selling attribute of the different varieties they had in store whether it was yield, drought tolerance, maturity level or another marketing characteristic like pricing or packaging. Such information will give some better insights for CIMMYT’s maize breeding team about perceived differences along the seed value chain on key attributes and product profiles.
For example, a new variety in Uganda that was tolerant to maize lethal necrosis (MLN), was mainly promoted as a double cobber and not as MLN tolerant. And unlike in Uganda, there was no “cheap variety” option available in Tanzania, according to the agrodealers interviewed for the study, although high seed prices were often mentioned as the main barrier for seed purchases.
Better understanding how retailers select their varieties could help improve varietal turnover, a key indicator of how fast CIMMYT’s research reaches out farmers.
Besides their own role, it is also interesting to see how agrodealers perceive external challenges to influence farmer adoption of improved varieties. In Uganda, agrodealers saw counterfeit seed and government free seed distributions to farmers as the main challenges for their business, issues that were not frequently mentioned in Tanzania.
Understanding input market characteristics
Enumerator Mary Mdache (left) interviews Shangwe Stephano, staff of BAYDA agrovet shop in Haydom town, Mbulu district, Tanzania. (Photo: Furaha Joseph)
The use of fertilizer is very low in sub-Saharan Africa, around 8-12 kg per hectare, twenty times less than Western standards. Fertilizer access and affordability have been cited as key factors in the low rates of uptake.
The study may shed some new light on this, as it looks at what types of fertilizer is available to farmers at agrodealer shops, and what drives sale and prices. Researchers will examine whether there is a competition effect and how transport costs or subsidies impede the growth of the fertilizer market.
Georeferencing of interviewed agrodealers and farmer population mapping will help reveal the degree to which agrodealers are concentrated in particular areas, leaving other areas with relatively little local access to inputs. Project researchers will investigate how marketing conditions vary across such situation, examining, for instance, how input pricing strategies, selection and quality varies spatially. The team will also use data collected on fertilizer prices to further refine regional fertilizer profitability maps.
Such mapping exercises could help improve the relevance of extension advice. As an example, to tackle acid soils or phosphorus deficiency, could farmers find the recommended input, lime or appropriate P fertilizer at the right time and right price, so that it is profitable for them?
The detailed results of the study are expected in early 2020 to guide agronomic investments and policies for more functional input markets that drive a much-needed sustainable intensification of African smallholder agriculture.
According to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, one of the key constraints to improving food and nutritional security in Africa is the poor post-harvest management that leads to between 14 percent and 36 percent loss of maize grain, thereby aggravating hunger.
Since 2015, Harvest Plus, through the Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP), has collaborated with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS), and more than 30 national and international partners, in breeding biofortified crop varieties of vitamin A orange maize.
It’s been eight years since maize lethal necrosis (MLN) was first reported on the African continent. When it appeared in Kenya’s Bomet County in 2011, a sense of panic swept across the maize sector. Experts quickly realized that all maize varieties on the market were susceptible to this viral disease, which could wipe out entire maize fields.
Spearheaded by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), a rapid regional response involving national agriculture research systems (NARS), national plant protection organizations and seed sector partners was set up. The response involved multiple approaches: rigorous surveillance, epidemiology research, disease management across the seed value chain, and screening and fast-tracking of the MLN-tolerant maize breeding program.
Now, CIMMYT and its partners are reflecting on the tremendous impact of transboundary coalition to contain the devastating disease.
“Country reports show there are now much less incidents of MLN in the region. We have effectively contained this disease as no new country in sub-Saharan Africa reported MLN since Ethiopia in 2014. This is a great achievement of an effective public private partnership,” noted B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize.
He was speaking at the closure workshop for the MLN Diagnostics and Management project and the MLN Epidemiology project on October 15-17, 2019, in Nairobi, Kenya. Experts from research, plant health and seed sector organizations from eastern and southern Africa reflected on the tremendous impact of the transboundary coalition to contain MLN across the region.
“The outbreak of the disease in Uganda in 2012 was a huge challenge as all the maize varieties and hybrids on the market were susceptible. With the support of CIMMYT and other partners in the national agriculture research systems, we got access to Bazooka, a high-yielding, drought- and MLN-tolerant maize variety that has helped in containing the disease,” said Godfrey Katwere, marketing manager for NASECO.
Until now, 19 MLN-tolerant and -resistant hybrids have been released, helping to keep the disease away from farmers’ fields and to stop its spillover to non-endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
CIMMYT team members check for traces of the maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) in maize plants during a visit to the MLN screening facility in Naivasha, Kenya. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Science in action
The MLN screening facility, established in Naivasha in 2013, has been key to a better understanding of the disease and to setting up MLN hybrid tolerance and resistance breeding efforts. The facility, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, has supported public and private partners to screen over 200,000 germplasm with around 300,000 rows of maize.
State-of-the-art epidemiology research has been carried out to identify how the disease could be transmitted and the best diagnostics methods along the seed value chain.
MLN is caused by the combination of the maize chlorotic mottle virus (MCMV) and any of the viruses belonging to the Potyviridae family.
As part of the project, studies showed that moist soil had higher MCMV virus loads than dry soil. The studies — conducted by Benham Lockhart of University of Minnesota and Peg Redinbaugh, a professor at Ohio State University and Research Leader and Research Plant Molecular Geneticist at USDA — indicated that MCMV can stay active in runoff water, and helped in understanding how the disease is transmitted and how to define management protocols.
“Crop debris may also act as source of MCMV inoculum but for a limited period of up to two months,” said L.M. Suresh, CIMMYT Maize Pathologist, in reference to soil transmission studies conducted by CIMMYT. “A host-free period of two months is, therefore, recommended for effective management of MLN,” he noted.
Rapid and low-cost MLN-causing virus detection methods such as immunostrips and ELISA-based tests were adopted at scale.
“After optimizing the protocols for MLN viruses’ diagnosis suitable for African systems, we transferred these technologies to [national plant protection organizations] and seed companies, not just within the endemic countries but also to the non-endemic countries in southern and west Africa, through intensive trainings,” Prasanna explained. “We created a digital MLN surveillance tool under the Open Data Kit (ODK) app for NPPOs and other stakeholders to effectively carry out MLN surveillance on the ground. The survey information is captured in real time in farmers’ and seed production fields coupled with rapid immunostrips MLN tests,” he remarked.
According to Francis Mwatuni, Project Manager of the MLN Diagnostics and Management project, this proactive and collaborative surveillance network has been an important outcome that helped curb MLN from spreading to non-endemic regions. “In 2016, we only had 625 surveillance points. By 2019, the surveillance points in all the target countries stood at 2,442, which intensified the alertness on MLN presence and how to effectively deal with it,” Mwatuni said. In total, 7,800 surveillance points were covered during the project implementation period.
Over 100 commercial seed firms have also been trained on how to produce MLN-free seed to facilitate trade within the endemic nations and to ensure the disease is not transferred to the non-endemic countries via contaminated seeds.
Participants at the MLN projects closure workshop stand for a group photo. (Photo: Joshua Masinde/CIMMYT)
Sustaining the fight
Researchers continue to work to lessen MLN’s resurgence or new outbreaks. In 2018, incidents in all endemic countries, except Ethiopia, declined sharply. One suggested explanation for the upsurge in Ethiopia, especially in the northwestern region, was reduced use of pesticide for fall armyworm control, as compared to previous years where heavy application of these pesticides also wiped out MLN insect vectors, such as maize thrips and aphids.
At the end of the projects, partners urged for the scale-up of second-generation MLN-tolerant and -resistant varieties. They explained farmers would fully benefit from recent genetic gains of the new improved varieties and its protection against MLN.
“Despite the success registered, MLN is still a major disease requiring constant attention. We cannot rest as we redirect our energies at sustaining and building on the gains made,” said Beatrice Pallangyo, principal agricultural officer in Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives.
After the success containing MLN, stakeholders suggested the need to stay alert on other transboundary pests and diseases such as the tar spot complex, which could be a major threat to Africa’s food security in case of an outbreak.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) from Mexico and the German Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) signed a Declaration of Intent to intensify joint research on disease-resistant and stress-tolerant wheat. Representatives of both institutions met in Berlin at the International Conference on Improving Drought Stress Tolerance of Crops.
Ever wondered why farmers prefer a certain maize variety over another? What crop traits different farmers value? How they make their seed selections at the market? Pieter Rutsaert, an expert in markets and value chains with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), analyzes the important factors that African farmers consider when purchasing maize varieties at agro-dealers and the implications for how the seed industry can better meet farmers’ needs.
Maize is the most important cereal crop in Africa, grown on over 29 million hectares of rainfed farmland and consumed daily by around 50% of the population. However, increasingly erratic weather patterns threaten the performance the maize varieties grown, putting household food security at risk.
“African smallholders typically plant maize seeds they are familiar with, but these varieties often lack the attributes to tolerate harsher weather including droughts, extreme heat or disease stress,” Rutsaert explains.
“Despite the existence of maize varieties bred to stand up to harsher weather, their intrinsic attributes alone are not enough to convince farmers to leave their preferred varieties. These stress-tolerant varieties need to be properly marketed to be competitive and increase their market share.”
With previous experience as a marketing consultant in the food industry, Rutsaert brings unique skills and approaches to CIMMYT’s Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project, to help businesses develop new seed distribution and marketing strategies to get climate-resilient varieties into farmers’ fields.
Pieter Rutsaert (right) discusses a research study questionnaire with consultant enumerator Victor Kitoto. (Photo: Jerome Bossuet/CIMMYT)
Market intelligence on climate-smart seed
Rutsaert sees local agro-dealers as a strategic entry point for researchers to gather information on the varying farmer interests and conditions as information about seed demand is revealed at the point of purchase.
Despite large investments to support seed systems in sub-Saharan Africa, including investments to upgrade agro-dealer capacity, there is limited evidence into how women and men take decisions on maize seed purchases to support development initiatives.
“The agro-dealer space is where farmers decide what inputs to buy. In addition to providing farmers access to inputs at competitive prices, front-line agro-dealers offer technical assistance, such as advice on input use and production practices, and short-term credit for input purchases.”
Thus, agro-dealers offer the chance to learn about farmers’ unique conditions and ensure they adopt the right variety. Gathering these insights has the potential to support locally owned small and medium enterprises that produce stress-tolerant varieties, suited for local conditions, says the marketing expert.
An agent from a seed company (right) promotes sales at an agro-dealer shop. (Photo: Pieter Rutsaert/CIMMYT)
Marketing strategies for agro-dealers
Compared to multinational seed companies, local seed businesses are expected to show greater willingness to seek out traditionally underserved segments of the seed market, such as poorer farmers or those located in less-favored production regions. However, local seed producers and retailers generally lack marketing capabilities and have a limited understanding of the costs and benefits of different approaches to market their seed, Rutsaert says.
“Without effective marketing strategies responding to the needs of different clients, farmers will stick to the seeds that they know, even when this might not be the best for their situation,” he continues.
Based on the market information gathered, Rutsaert works with agro-dealers to develop retail strategies, such as targeted marketing materials, provision of in-store seed decision support, and price incentives, to help women and men farmers get the inputs that work best.
Rutsaert says he is committed to use his private sector experience to improve CIMMYT’s understanding of the seed sector and build the capacity of local agro-dealers to distribute climate-resilient maize varieties throughout the African region.
The Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project seeks to develop maize cultivars with tolerance and resistance to multiple stresses for farmers, and support local seed companies to produce seed of these cultivars on a large scale. STMA aims to develop a new generation of over 70 improved stress tolerant maize varieties, and facilitate the production and use of over 54,000 metric tons of certified seed. The STMA project is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID.
Climate mitigation or resilience? 
“Science is important to build up solid evidence of the benefits of a healthy soil and push forward much-needed policy interventions to incentivize soil conservation,” Thierfelder states.
