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.
DNA is often referred to as the blueprint for life. It contains codes to make the proteins, molecules and cells essential for an organismâs growth and development. Over the last decade, scientists have been figuring out how specific sections of DNA in maize and wheat are associated with physical and genetic traits, such as grain size and drought resistance.
Quantitative geneticist Huihui Li with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) helps link this new genetic knowledge with traditional crop breeding, to speed up the development of improved maize and wheat varieties. Liâs research uses cutting-edge genomics, computational biology and statistical tools to turn data into useful information for plant breeders.
âBreeders always accumulate big amounts of data, most of the time they need efficient tools to mine the stories from this data. Thatâs part of our job in the Biometrics and Statistics Unit,â she explained.
Her research helps breeders more quickly and accurately predict which maize and wheat varieties in the CIMMYT gene bank have the traits they seek to create improved varieties. For example, if a plant breeder wanted to develop a hybrid maize variety with high protein levels and pest resistance, Li could help by identifying which parental varieties would have these traits.
It takes about ten years for crop breeders to develop a new hybrid. Removing some of the guesswork during the early stages of their experiments could reduce this time significantly. With increasing environmental pressures from climate change and population growth, releasing better crop varieties more quickly will be vital to ensure there is enough food in the future.
Li says her family and experience growing up in China greatly influenced her career choice.
âThrough my grandfatherâs experience as the head of the Bureau of Agriculture and Forestry, I learned that there were many people in China suffering from hunger, poverty and malnutrition,â she said.
Li realized that these issues were prevalent throughout the developing world when her mother left China for two years to serve as a foreign aid doctor in Cameroon.
âAs a ten-year-old girl, I told myself that I should make my contribution to reduce hunger and poverty, and improve human nutrition in the future,â Li recalled. âI always ask myself, âWhatâs my value to humanity?â
She studied bio-mathematics and quantitative genetics at Beijing Normal University and Cornell University before joining CIMMYT in 2010 as a consultant.
âI wanted to join CIMMYT because it works throughout the developing world to improve livelihoods and foster more productive, sustainable maize and wheat farming,â Li explained. âAlso, CIMMYT provided a platform where I could collaborate with scientists worldwide and receive academic and career-boosting trainings.â
She became staff in 2012 and is currently based out of the CIMMYT office in Beijing. In addition, Li is an adjunct associate professor with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS). She helps CAAS scientists improve their experimental design and better incorporate genetic information into their crop breeding.
âI love doing research,â Li said. âIâm a curious person so if I can solve a problem, I feel very happy, but I really want my research to have value â not just for myself â but for the world.â
Huihui Liâs work contributes to Seeds of Discovery (SeeD), a multi-project initiative comprising: MasAgro Biodiversidad, a joint initiative of CIMMYT and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) through the MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture) project and the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize (MAIZE) and Wheat (WHEAT).
Samjhana Khanal surveys heat-tolerant maize varieties in Ludhiana, India, during a field day at the 13th Asian Maize Conference. (Photo: Manjit Singh/Punjab Agricultural University)
KATHMANDU, Nepal â I feel humbled and honored to have been chosen for the 2018 MAIZE-Asia Youth Innovators Award. I want to thank my father and brother for never clipping my wings and letting me fly high. I want to thank my mother, who despite having no education, not being able to read or write a single word, dreamed of having a scientist daughter. Everyone has a story and this is mine.
Due to my familyâs poverty and the hardships faced during the civil war in Nepal, I had to leave school at grade 5 and was compelled to work as child labor in a local hotel to meet my familyâs daily needs. I remember those difficult months where I used to cry every day, as the hotel was right across from the school and I wanted to study so badly but I was deprived from education due to my familyâs condition. My life changed when a mountain climber staying at the hotel heard my story and generously decided to pay my school fees. I would go on to graduate top of my class.
Everyone has challenges. It is my dream to dedicate my life to fight the greatest challenge of all: hunger.
The amount of undernourished people in the world has been increasing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), over 820 million people face chronic food deprivation. Many of these people live in developing countries, including my home country, Nepal. About 6 million people, which is about 23% of Nepalâs population, are undernourished. Moreover, half of children under the age of five suffer from malnutrition in Nepal.
Increasing agricultural production, gender equity and awareness is crucial to meet sustainable development goals by 2030. As an agricultural student, I chose to focus on maize-based systems, as maize is a staple food crop and a major component of feed and fodder for farm animals. It is the second major crop in Nepal after rice â first in the hill region of Nepal â and can be a backbone for food security and a good source of income for resource-poor farmers.
Demand for maize is growing in Nepal, but production has remained stagnant. This is partly due to lack of knowledge on proper nutrient management and fertilizer use. In addition, due to the economic situation in Nepal, many men have been forced to migrate to find work and support their families, which has led to an increased âfeminizationâ of agriculture. However, female farmers frequently have less access to information and resources that would help them to increase yields.
Since my undergraduate degree, I have carried out research on nutrient management in maize in the Eastern Terai region of Nepal, particularly focusing on women, to increase the maize production and income of smallholder farmers. My research involved the use of Nutrient Expert, a dynamic nutrient management tool based on site-specific nutrient management principles, to increase maize production and enhance soil quality without negatively affecting the environment. Regional fertilizer recommendations are often too broad and cannot take into account the soil quality of individual farmers’ field, as it varies greatly among fields, seasons and years. Applying the incorrect amount of fertilizer is costly to farmers and can negatively affect the environment and crop yields.
The Nutrient Expert app rapidly provides farm-specific fertilizer recommendations for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for crops in the presence or absence of soil testing results, contributing to dynamic nutrient management, increased productivity and net returns from crops for farmers. In the meantime, it helps to decrease the nitrogen and phosphorous leaching from the soil into rivers, which protects the water ecosystem both in wetlands and oceans. This technology is sustainable because it optimizes the use of nutrients in the soil for higher productivity and prevents the overuse of fertilizer. It decreases the farmerâs cost of production and is environmentally friendly. Further, my research showed that Nutrient Expert helped farmers to produce 86.6% more maize grain than their previous fertilizer practice.
Proper nutrient management is just one of the challenges facing agriculture today. To address these challenges and to create a world without hunger it is extremely important to work with and include young people. Effective extension tools to train and motivate young minds in research and create more interest in maize-based systems and farming is necessary for the overall adoption and proper utilization of improved varieties and technologies.
Samjhana Khanal was recently awarded the 2018 MAIZE-Asia Youth Innovators Award from the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) in the category of âChange Agentâ for her research on the productivity and profitability of hybrid maize in Eastern Terai, Nepal. Using Nutrient Expert, a decision support tool, individual maize farmers can get specific soil nutrition and fertilizer recommendations, resulting in higher grain yield, productivity and profits.
An agricultural graduate, Khanal has founded and co-founded several local social organizations in Nepal to involve young minds in the development of innovative strategies to work towards sustainable agriculture and zero hunger. Her organizations support more than 285 households with community microfinance, help resource-poor farmers and assist women farmers.
The MAIZE-Asia Youth Innovators Awards aim to celebrate youth participation in maize-based agri-food systems and are sponsored by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) in collaboration with Young Professionals for Agricultural Development (YPARD).
The Director General of CIMMYT, Martin Kropff (left), and the Chair of the MAIZE Independent Steering Committee, Michael Robinson (right), present Samjhana Khanal with the 2018 MAIZE-Asia Youth Innovator Award in the category of Change Agent. (Photo: Manjit Singh/Punjab Agricultural University)
TEXCOCO, Mexico (CIMMYT) â Food security is heavily dependent on seed security. Sustainable seed systems ensure that a variety of quality seeds are available to farming communities at affordable prices. In many developing countries, however, farmers still lack access to the right seeds at the right time.
In the past, governments played a major role in getting improved seed to poor farmers. These days, however, the private sector plays a leading role, often with strong support from governments and NGOs.
âInterventions in formal seed systems in maize have tended to focus on improving the capacity of seed producing companies, which are often locally owned small-scale operations, to produce and distribute quality germplasm,â says Jason Donovan, Senior Economist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). âThese local seed companies are expected to maintain, reproduce and sell seed to underserved farmers. Thatâs a pretty tall order, especially because private seed businesses themselves are a fairly new thing in many countries.â
Prior to the early 2000s, Donovan explains, many seed businesses were partially or wholly state-owned. In Mexico, for example, the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, AgrĂcolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) produced seed and supplied it to a market-oriented entity which was responsible for distribution. âWhat weâre seeing now is locally owned private seed businesses carving out their space in the maize seed market, sometimes in direct competition with multinational seed companies,â he says. In Mexico, around 80 locally owned maize seed producing businesses currently exist, most of which have been involved in CIMMYTâs MasAgro Maize project. These are mostly small businesses selling between 150,000 and 500,000 kg of hybrid maize per year.
In the following Q&A, Donovan discusses new directions in research on value chains, the challenges facing private seed companies, and how new studies could help understand their capacities and needs.
How does research on markets and value chains contribute to CIMMYTâs mission?
Weâre interested in the people, businesses and organizations that influence improved maize and wheat seed adoption, production, and the availability and quality of maize and wheat-based foods. This focus perfectly complements the efforts of those in CIMMYT and elsewhere working to improve seed quality and increase maize and wheat productivity in the developing world.
We are also interested in the nutrition and diets of urban and rural consumers. Much of the work around improved diets has centered on understanding fruit and vegetable consumption and options to stimulate greater consumption of these foods. While there are good reasons to include those food groups, the reality is that those arenât the segments of the food market that are immediately available to or able to feed the masses. Processed maize and wheat, however, are rapidly growing in popularity in both rural and urban areas because thatâs what people want and need to eat first. So the question becomes, how can governments, NGOs and others promote the consumption of healthier processed wheat and maize products in places where incomes are growing and tastes are changing?
This year, CIMMYT started a new area of research in collaboration with A4NH, looking at the availability of processed maize and wheat products in Mexico City â one of the worldâs largest cities. Weâre working in collaboration with researchers form the National Institute of Public Health to find out what types of wheat- and maize-based products the food industry is selling, to whom, and at what cost. At the end of the day, we want to better understand the variation in access to healthier wheat- and maize-based foods across differences in purchasing power. Part of that involves looking at what processed products are available in different neighborhoods and thinking about the dietary implications of that.
Your team has also recently started looking at formal seed systems in various locations. What direction is the research taking so far?
Our teamâs current priority is to advance learning around the private sectorâs role in scaling improved maize varieties. We are engaged with three large projects: MasAgro Maize in Mexico, Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) and the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project (NSFP). We are looking to shed light on the productive and marketing capacities of the privately owned seed producing businesses and their ability to get more seed to more farmers at a lower cost. This implies a better understanding of options to better link seed demand and supply, and the business models that link seed companies with agro-dealers, seed producing farmers, and seed consumers.
We are also looking at the role of agro-dealers â shops that sell agricultural inputs and services (including seed) to farmers â in scaling improved maize seed.
At the end of the day, we want to provide evidence-based recommendations for future interventions in seed sectors that achieve even more impact with fewer resources.
Farmers purchase seed from an agro-dealer in Machakos, Kenya. (Photo: Market Matters Inc.)
This research is still in its initial stages, but do you already have an idea of what some of the key limiting factors are?
I think one of the main challenges facing small-scale seed producing businesses is the considerable expense entailed in simultaneously building their productive capacities and their market share. Many businesses simply donât have a lot of capital. Thereâs also a lack of access to specialized business support.
In Mexico, for example, a lot of people in the industry are actually ex-breeders from government agencies, so theyâre very familiar with the seed production process, but less so with options for building viable businesses and growing markets for new varieties of seed.
This is a critical issue if we expect locally owned seed businesses to be the primary vehicle by which improved seeds are delivered to farmers at scale. Weâre currently in the assessment phase, examining what the challenges and capacities are, and hopefully this information will feed into new approaches to designing our interventions.
Is the study being replicated in other regions as well?
Yes, in East Africa, under the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) project. Weâre working with seed producing businesses and agro-dealers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to understand their strategies, capacities, and needs in terms of providing improved seed to more farmers. Weâre using the same basic research design in Mexico, and there is also ongoing work in the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer Project. Given that we are a fairly small team within CIMMYT, comparable cross-regional research is one way to punch above our weight.
Why is this research timely or important?
The research is critical as CIMMYTâs impact relies, in part, on partnerships. In the case of improved maize seed, that revolves around viable seed businesses.
Although critical, no one else is actually engaged in this type of seed sector research. There have been a number of studies on seed production, seed systems and the adoption of improved seed by poor farmers. A few have focused on the emergence of the private sector in formal seed systems and the implications for seed systems development, but most have been pretty broad, examining the overall business environment in which these companies operate but not much beyond that. Weâre trying to deepen the discussion. While we donât expect to have all the answers at the end of this study, we hope we can shift the conversation about options for better support to seed companies and agro-dealers.
Jason Donovan joined CIMMYT in 2017 and leads CIMMYTâs research team on markets and value chains, based in Mexico. He has some 15 years of experience working and living in Latin America. Prior to joining CIMMYT he worked at the Peru office of the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF), where his research focused on business development, rural livelihoods, gender equity and certification. He has a PhD in development economics from the University of Londonâs School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).
The Mexican Academy of Sciences is an independent and not-for-profit association formed by acknowledged scientists working in both Mexican and international organizations. Its main objective is to offer expert advice to address the most pressing issues and challenges confronting Mexicoâs government and civil society.
CIMMYT scientist Matthew Reynolds has been appointed a member of the Mexican Academy of Science.
Reynolds is a Wheat Physiologist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). His leadership of the Wheat component of the MasAgro project strengthened his nomination to the Academy. In this capacity, he has overseen the publication of 32 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals that account for the progress achieved in the development of new high-yielding and resilient wheat varieties for Mexico and for other wheat-growing regions in the developing world.
Since 2011, MasAgro Trigo has characterized 71 thousand wheat lines in field trials designed to test yield potential under severe stress caused by heat and drought conditions. As a result, Reynolds and his team have formed the Wheat Yield Collaboration Yield Trial and the Stress Adaptive Traits Yield Nursery, two panels of elite lines that yield more grain in high temperatures and under limited water supply. Mexicoâs agricultural research system INIFAP has recently incorporated 42 elite lines from these nurseries into its wheat-breeding program.
Reynolds has also mentored 12 Mexican students who have undertaken postgraduate studies under the supervision of renowned wheat scientists in American, Australian, British, Chilean and Spanish universities. Eight students have already achieved a PhD degree in different areas of wheat research. This new generation of scientists will further contribute to promote science and research in Mexico, one of the Academyâs main objectives.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (CIMMYT) â Ethiopiaâs leading agriculture and policy specialists will craft a new strategy to dramatically raise national wheat production and achieve self-sufficiency for the crop by 2022, at a special conference organized by the Government of Ethiopia and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for November 23, 2018.
Annual imports to satisfy Ethiopiaâs demand for wheat â one of the countryâs four key food crops â now cost more than $600 million and expose national food security to capricious global price shifts for grain, according to Mandefro Nigussie, Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture (EIAR).
âEthiopians now consume some 6.5 million tons per year but the countryâs 4.2 million households grow only 4.6 million tons on 1.7 million hectares and demand for the crop is rising, as more people move to cities and change in life style,â Nigussie explained.
National wheat yields are steadily climbing but still average only 2.7 tons per hectare; well below global standards, according to Bekele Abeyo, CIMMYT wheat scientist and Ethiopia country representative.
âThereâs great potential to expand irrigated wheat production, especially in the lowlands along the major river basins,â Nigussie said. âIn the Ethiopian highlands, wheatâs traditional environment, more farmers need to use high-yielding, disease resistant seed and modern farming practices. Even modest levels of technology adoption can provide yields as high as 4 tons per hectare.â Wheat yield can also be increased significantly by treating acidic soils and by making broad-beds in vertisol soil areas.
Called âWheat Self-Sufficiency in Ethiopia: Challenges and Opportunities,â the consultative workshop builds on recent successes and lessons in Ethiopia of the Wheat Initiative, an international partnership of private and public organizations that conducts wheat research for food security and to help wheat farmers in diverse environments to improve and stabilize their yields.
To be held in the Hiruy Meeting Hall at the headquarters of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Addis Ababa, the event will draw some 70 participants, including representatives of Ethiopiaâs ministries of agriculture, EIAR, regional agricultural research institutes, the Ethiopian Seed Enterprise, Oromia Seed Enterprise, and the Agricultural Transformation Agency. Adding their experience and ideas will be experts on wheat trade, irrigation and energy, finance and economic cooperation, along with representatives from the Regional Bureau of Agriculture, millers associations, funding agencies, and global organizations including the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
âAims will include strengthening wheat research and development partnerships, tapping into policies that foster competitive and profitable wheat farming, and supporting national efforts both to reduce imports and end poverty and food insecurity,â Abeyo explained. Kristie Drucza, Gender and Development Specialist at CIMMYT, also notes that, âWe see striking opportunities to raise productivity by empowering women in wheat farming, fostering their access to knowledge, technology, and financial resources and their voice in decision making.â
Ethiopia and CIMMYT. Since 1970, Ethiopian farmers have had access to more than 100 high-yielding bread and durum wheat varieties developed and spread through collaboration among EIAR, Ethiopiaâs regional agricultural research institutes, and CIMMYT, whose work has contributed to 70 percent of Ethiopiaâs wheat varietal development. Use of these high-yielding, disease resistant varieties, along with supportive government policies and better cropping practices, have caused Ethiopiaâs average annual wheat production to grow more than double since the early 2000s.
KATHMANDU, Nepal (CIMMYT) â Clear and consistent communication is important in any work, and no less so when you are collaborating to improve farmer livelihoods. CIMMYT and partners in South Asia are therefore facilitating Farm Economic Analysis workshops to ensure that stakeholders from a variety of professions are on the same page when it comes to the terminology of agricultural economics. Fay Rola-Rubzen and Roy Murray-Prior from the University of Western Australia presented the first full day workshop at the National Agricultural Research Council (NARC) campus in Kathmandu on November 1, 2018. Deepak Bhandari and Yuga Nath Ghimire of NARC officiated the event. More than thirty participants from CIMMYT, the Department of Agriculture and NARC attended the training, which included agronomists, agricultural economists, extension officers and research associates.
The workshop series is part of CIMMYTâs Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) project, which aims to reduce poverty in the Eastern Gangetic Plains of Nepal, India and Bangladesh by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the environment and involving women.
Murray-Prior and Rola-Rubzen pose for a group photo with SRFSI training participants in Kathmandu, Nepal.
“The main objective [of the workshops] is to make sure we have the same language and understanding of what we are measuring,” said Rola-Rubzen. “When we go to the field, usually, it may not be the economists gathering the data. It is critical for both economists and non-economists to understand what we are talking about so that we are comparing apples with apples, not apples with oranges.”
Rola-Rubzen and Murray-Prior facilitated a highly specific and tailored training, including engaging the participants in the practical analysis of data collected by SRFSI in the Sunsari district in the eastern Terai of Nepal. Topics covered in the training included gross margin, net revenue and sensitivity analyses, as well as matching analyses to data types.
The workshop was well-received by participants, and will also be conducted in India and Bangladesh to ensure further consistency in communication and to facilitate the cross-country analysis and comparison of data “When we work with economists, it will be easier to understand how they are analyzing their data and making their arguments,” said Sofina Maharjan, assistant research associate for the SRFSI project.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) â Through pure coincidence, Susanne Dreisigacker fell into the world of agricultural science and landed in Mexico. Her interest in genetics and biology solidified when she arrived at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) through the University of Hohenheim in Germany to pursue her PhD work. Impressed by CIMMYTâs scientific endeavors and its mission, she found herself permanently back at the institution in 2005 as a resident scientist. Now, as the head of CIMMYTâs Wheat Molecular Breeding Lab, Dreisigacker ensures that wheat breeders use the appropriate wheat material to conduct gene profiling and genome sequencing.
Dreisigacker works to discover and validate molecular markers, or DNA segments, for traits of interest. This information helps breeders to develop improved crop varieties that feature those traits.
At its core, her position centers on defining best practices for genomic tool application in the wheat breeding program. These genomic tools serve as ââŠindirect selection criteria to ultimately assist breeders select improved outputs at the molecular level, such as disease resistance and enhanced nutritional quality in wheat,â explains Dreisigacker. Furthermore, her research amasses data on grain yield and its corresponding components â such as grain weight and other difficult traits to tackle in the wheat breeding world â to help breeders stabilize high yield rates.
On average, over 40,000 wheat lines a year are analyzed on behalf of breeders under Dreisigackerâs direction. The ultimate challenge is organizing this massive data outcome to effectively support the breeders.
Zooming out from the molecular level
Dreisigacker works to discover and validate molecular markers, or DNA segments, for traits of interest. (Photo: Darell Sison)
Working in an environment with interdisciplinary characteristics such as a breeding program, it can be difficult to prioritize which traits merit the bulk of her time. Dreisigacker stresses that teamwork is paramount, from breeders to pathologists to quality specialists, as they all share mutual goals, so their efforts âneed to intersect in order to be beneficial.â Dreisigacker enjoys interacting among the disciplines and sharing her work with the international wheat community.
Progress in the application of genomic tools and the push for their usefulness inspires Dreisigacker to continue her work with wheat at CIMMYT. Her work in the laboratory is the backbone of the transmission of better quality germplasm from breeders to farmers. âThere is a need to more efficiently integrate gene profiling and genome sequencing into breeding. The transition from upstream genomic research to the processes of application and adaptability are overlooked,â says Dreisigacker.
When she is not looking at wheat at the molecular level, you can find her spending time with her husband and young daughter or teaching exercise classes in CIMMYTâs gymnasium.
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) â Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa lose up to a third of their grain after harvest because they often use poor grain storage technologies and ineffective drying practices. Staples like maize stored on-farm are exposed to infestation by insects and fungi. These can lead to contamination with mycotoxins, in particular aflatoxins, poisonous food toxins produced by Aspergillus fungi.
At high doses, aflatoxins can kill. Prolonged exposure to aflatoxins can impact consumersâ health, suppressing immune systems, hindering child growth and even causing liver cancer. Kenya is a particular hotspot for aflatoxins, as regular studies show widespread contamination along the food chain, from maize grain to milk and meat.
Preliminary findings of a study by USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling (FPL) suggest that innovative low-cost grain drying and storage technologies such as hermetic bags and hygrometers could prevent post-harvest crop losses and harmful aflatoxin contamination.
The initial results were shared at a workshop in Nairobi on October 25, 2018, as part of the FPL project, which aims to develop and disseminate affordable and effective post-harvest technologies suited to the African smallholder farmer. This project is a collaboration between the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and Purdue University.
A study conducted between May 2017 and May 2018 in Kiboko, Kenya, compared the performance of various hermetic storage containers and bags by different manufacturers with farmersâ usual storage practices. Researchers measured maize grain quality parameters such as grain damage, weight loss in storage, fungal growth and mycotoxins, food quality and seed germination. The results showed hermetic bags were highly effective in averting grain loss for up to one year.
âIf these bags are sealed properly, oxygen cannot get in or out. This creates an anaerobic environment that suffocates grain-damaging insects and prevents fungi from growingâ says CIMMYT economist Hugo De Groote.
Making hermetic storage more accessible
The Africa Technical Research Center (ATRC) is involved in the development of some of the hermetic bags that were tested during the study. ATRC director Johnson Odera noted that most of the insect infestations start in the field. âWhen the farmer harvests and transports the maize home, the grain is already infested,â Odera explained. âThe damage can be extensive depending on the level of infestation. One of the ways to minimize the losses, while keeping the food safe for consumption is to use hermetic bagsâ.
These bags, however, remain largely unavailable to smallholder farmers, according to the study. This is mainly due to farmersâ low awareness levels and the high cost of hermetic bags. Unlike normal storage bags that cost about $0.7 each, hermetic bags retail for $2 to $2.5.
A second study, conducted with maize producers and traders in Kakamega, western Kenya, suggests that dropping prices by 20 percent had the potential to increase sales by 88 percent.
This study further suggested that farmers can benefit a lot from using low-cost hygrometers to accurately measure moisture content in maize. Grain is quickly spoiled by fungi contamination if it is not dry enough when stored. One or two percent lower moisture levels can make a big difference in reducing aflatoxin contamination.
âFarmers could put maize grain samples in a plastic bag and insert low-cost hygrometers to read moisture content after temperature is stabilized in 15 minutes,â says Purdue University professor Jacob Ricker-Gilbert. âThey then know if their grain is safe enough for storage or not. However, standard hygrometers cost around $100, which is out of reach for many small farmers.â
Purdue University, CIMMYT and KALRO conducted a market survey in 2017 among maize farmers and traders in Kenya to assess their willingness to buy low-cost hygrometers. The survey found that farmers were willing to pay an average price of $1.21 for a hygrometer, while traders said they would buy at $1.16 each. The project was able to get cheap and reliable hygrometers at less than one dollar, opening the door for possible commercialization. One company, Bell Industries, has started to market the devices as a pilot.
Raising farmers and policymakersâ awareness on appropriate storage and drying technologies is now a priority for scientists working on the FPL project, which will hopefully lead to less maize spoiled and better food safety.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (CIMMYT) â African farmers have lost millions of dollars in earnings since 2016 due to the loss of crops to the voracious fall armyworm.
Since the initial shock, farmers, researchers, extension officers, agribusinesses, governments and donors have reacted quickly to fight the invasive pest in various ways, including with pesticides, agroecological approaches and new seeds.
Yet the situation is far from under control. A more coordinated research-for-development (R4D) action plan is urgently needed to ensure that effective and affordable solutions reach smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa so they can sustainably combat the devastating pest.
Smallholder farm socioeconomics are highly complex, which makes adoption of any new technology or practice a challenge. âWe must look at the big picture to design safer, accessible, effective and sustainable solutions against fall armyworm,â said Martin Kropff, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), which jointly coordinated âFall Armyworm Research for Development: Status and priorities for Africa,â an international conference held from Oct. 29 to 31 at the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Hosted by the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium, the conference was aimed at drawing a science-based roadmap to combat the hungry caterpillar. The partners organizing the conference were the African Union Commission (AUC), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), CIMMYT, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Vulnerable smallholder farmers
African leaders consider the invasive fall armyworm âa big threat for African food security,â said Amira Elfadil, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs, at the opening of the conference.
âFall armyworm has been the fastest pest to expand across the continent,â said Eyasu Abraha, Ethiopiaâs state minister for agriculture development.
The pest is a familiar foe to agricultural experts and farmers in the Americas who have fought against it for several decades. However, the pest has found an ideal environment to flourish in Africa, with diverse agro-ecologies and a warmer climate all year round amplifying its persistent threat.
It has a host range of more than 80 plant species, including maize, a staple food on which millions of people throughout sub-Saharan Africa depend for food and income security. It can cause total crop losses, and at advanced larval development stages can be difficult to control even with synthetic pesticides. The female fall armyworm can lay up to a thousand eggs at a time and produce multiple generations very quickly without pause in tropical environments. The moth can fly 100 km (62 miles) a night, and some moth populations have even been reported to fly distances of up to 1,600 kilometers in 30 hours, according to experts.
Entomologists are trying to fill a knowledge gap on how the fall armyworm behaves and migrates throughout Africa.
Solutions that may work to combat the pest in Brazil or North America may not be applicable for the agricultural context in Africa where most farmers are low-resource smallholders, struggling to access new knowledge and technologies.
The conference organized by the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium attracted the interest of a large group of participants. (Photo: African Union Commission)
High cost of ineffective collaboration
Hans Dreyer, director of FAOâs plant protection division, listed many collaborative initiatives, including national task forces and expert working groups, which contributed to document and inform the current state of knowledge.
There are still many knowledge and technical gaps. Some resourceful information platforms are already available for the farmers and extension workers, including the fall armyworm web portal created by CABI, the mobile farmer Q&A service PlantVillage, or Precision Agriculture for Developmentâs text messaging advisory service MoA-Info.
âThe cost of not collaborating is pretty severe,â said Regina Eddy, who leads the Fall Armyworm Task Force at the USAID Bureau for Food Security. The real gamechanger will be that âall experts in the room agree on a common and concrete research-for-development agenda and how to organize ourselves to implement it effectively,â she added.
During the conference, the experts debated intensely on the technical gaps and the best ways to combat the pest through an integrated pest management strategy, including how to scout the caterpillar in the crop field, establish monitoring and surveillance systems, pest control innovations and appropriate policy support to accelerate introduction of relevant innovations.
Safe, sustainable, farmer-centered solutions
Short-term responses to the pest at present include synthetic pesticide use. However, there are public health and environment concerns over some of the toxic pesticides being used in Africa to control the fall armyworm.
Brian Sobel from Catholic Relief Services recalled witnessing a woman in Malawi who, in an effort to combat the pest, sprayed much more chemical pesticide on her maize than necessary.
The rapid increase of the pesticide market in Africa has led to the circulation of plenty of banned or counterfeit products, some very toxic for the farmer, said Steven Haggblade, a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics at Michigan State University in the United States. Farmers are often not well trained in the use of such chemicals and do not protect themselves during application, he said.
Pesticide use has many negative trade-offs, said Paul Jepson, a professor of environmental and molecular toxicology in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Oregon State University. Natural enemies like parasitic wasps are also often far more vulnerable to pesticides than fall armyworm larvae, which are hard to reach and hide themselves in the maize whorls for instance.
Continental action plan
A key recommendation made by the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium is to develop common methodologies and research protocols to ensure data from various studies across the continent are better used and compared. For example, how best could the true impacts of the fall armyworm on food and seed security, public health and environment be measured? Collaborative research could include multilocation assessment of the relationship between observed crop damages and yield losses, which is key to determine the efficacy of a pest control innovation.
Conference participants also agreed to work on defining economic and action thresholds for fall armyworm interventions, to ensure better recommendations to the farming communities.
Because no one solution can fit all farmers and socioeconomic contexts, advice must include use of environmentally safer pesticides, low-cost agronomic practices and landscape management and fall armyworm-resistant varieties, among other integrated pest management tools.
Enhanced cooperation between countries to access new technologies and manage the transboundary pest is seen as a priority. Consortium experts also urge an integrated pest management approach, initiated based on farmersâ needs. Controlling the fall armyworm in the long run will require important investments into research-for-development for generating and sharing knowledge and addressing technical gaps with farmers.
For more information on fall armyworm, this conference and the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium, please contact B.M. Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and of the CGIAR Research Program on MAIZE, at b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) â As the impact of climate change on food staples becomes more apparent, scientists with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) are beginning to study how increasing temperatures will affect other contributors to the human diet. A new study indicates that the global beer supply will be hard hit. Given how seemingly plentiful beer is, this is difficult news to hear.
The study, âDecreases in global beer supply due to extreme drought and heat,â was simply âborn out of a love for beer and the fear of its potential scarcity,â says Wei Xiong, a senior scientist at the CIMMYT and a key contributor to the research.
Two years ago, Xiong and the other scientists began to design the study to learn more about extreme drought and heat patterns adversely affecting crops around the world. Barley, the primary cereal grain from which beer is brewed, is one of the most heat-sensitive crops, meaning that even short periods of high temperatures can affect grain quality and grain yield.
Despite a number of studies published assessing yield loss of barley and other crops due to global warming, there were no previous studies published connecting the price of beer to barley yield. The study, which the scientists refer to as the âdrinking securityâ project, has garnered world-wide interest from various media outlets given the popularity of beer.
Wanting to connect their research with an interest of the general public, or the price of beer, the studyâs authors saw value in researching the intersection of barley, beer and climate change. As a cross-culturally shared beverage, beer â to some extent â is more popular than rice, wheat and maize as it is recognized as a lifestyle staple. âThis is the reason why we chose barley and beer as the case crop, to raise awareness of climate change and its impacts. The wide interest in the study proved we succeed,â says Xiong.
The study also points out an alternative way to raise the public awareness of climate change for the future, or presenting an issue that has tangible realities for the average person. âConsuming less beer thanks to climate change wonât necessarily affect global health, but having no beer will definitely add insult to injury, particularly when weâre watching sports matches,â says Xiong. âIf you still want a few pints of beer, then the only way to do so is to mitigate climate change.â
In the process of conducting climate and crop model simulations for the study, Xiong improved available data on global barley supply through the introduction of the Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), a program used for simulating crop growth, to develop a global calibration algorithm to allow the model to reproduce historical and projected future barley production.
This was the first endeavor to date using the DSSAT model for single crop analysis on a global scale â a total of 38 barley producing regions were analyzed. Xiong also assisted in the designing of the studyâs extreme warm weather index to identify extreme drought and heat years from climate simulation outputs.
Following the use of DSSAT, CIMMYT-led High Performance Computing (HPC) allowed for the calculation of barely grain yield change due to extreme drought and heat, a fundamental component of the study. CIMMYT is currently establishing the modeling capacity to be able to cover 30 more crops worldwide in addition to barley with multiple HPC models. This will ultimately aid CIMMYT in analyzing agricultural and economic risks associated with maize and wheat.
The study acknowledges its limitations as a result of factors that were kept constant such as the behaviors of barley producers and beer drinkers, global food stock and population growth. âOne shortcoming of the paper that could be improved in cooperation with CIMMYT is looking at the spatial shift of crop area under a warming climate,â Xiong says. âThis area shift, or cultivar shift between regions, has already happened in many countries to help cope with a warming climate, but we are not clear how it happens and its resulting consequences.â
Despite the studyâs findings, there is still space to develop the analysis by further considering the implications of future climate change forecasts. While the fate of beer seems bleak, there is still hope for the beverage in that the study did not consider the worldâs progress in developing heat and drought resistant barley varieties and their adoption by farmers. However, Xiong particularly believes that the study signals the butterfly effect in climate change impacts, meaning that everyone will eventually suffer from the effects of climate change if no action is taken to fight it.
With news of a potential decrease in the worldâs beer supply, climate change seems to have abruptly arrived on beer loversâ doorsteps.
Land acquisitions by foreign and local investor farmers has generated much speculation about the impacts on smallholder households and rural communities.
Jordan Chamberlin, a Spatial Economist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and Thomas Jayne of Michigan State University conducted a study in Tanzania to assess whether medium and large-scale farms generate income spillovers for rural households.
The study looks at inter-district variation in farmland distribution patterns in Tanzania to determine the impact of localized farm structure on rural household incomes. It uses using three rounds of panel data from the Tanzanian National Panel Survey (2009, 2011 and 2013). Because farm structure is a multifaceted concept, five alternative indicators of farm structure are used in the analysis: the Gini coefficient, skewness, coefficient of variation, share of controlled farmland under medium-scale farms, and share of controlled farmland under large farms.
The study highlights four main findings. First, most indicators of farmland concentration are positively associated with rural household incomes, after controlling for other factors. Second, household incomes from farm, agricultural wage and non-farm sources are positively and significantly associated with the share of land in the district controlled by 5-10-hectare farms. Third, these positive spillover benefits are smaller and less statistically significant in districts with a relatively high share of farmland controlled by farms over 10 hectares in size. Fourth, poor rural households are least able to capture the positive spillovers generated by medium-scale farms and by concentrated farmland patterns.
Research partners to develop new maize hybrid seed production system to help smallholder farmers access modern, high quality maize hybrid seed.
Pretoria, South Africa, 26 October 2018â An initiative launched in 2016 seeks to provide African smallholder farmers with better quality and high yielding hybrid maize seed. The Seed Production Technology for Africa (SPTA) initiative strives to improve seed production systems to ensure that high-quality hybrid maize seed is available to smallholder farmers, as well as to deliver new hybrids with a high yield potential adapted for low fertility areas common in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).
SPTA will utilize a technology provided by Corteva Agriscience, and implemented by the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC) alongside the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO). Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the four-year initiative will cost US$ 6.4 million.
âAs Africa faces significant challenges of low maize yields, climatic extremes and variability, costly farm inputs, threats due to pests and diseases, and growing demand for food, it is critical to provide smallholder farmers with access to high quality and stress resilient modern maize hybrids to allow them to increase yields and incomes,â said Kingstone Mashingaidze, Senior Research Manager at ARC.
The SPTA process will address pressing seed production concerns in the region that include insufficient genetic purity due to pollen contamination resulting from improper or incomplete detasseling practices. As a result, small and medium seed companies are expected to produce greater volume of hybrid maize seed at lower cost. Partner seed companies in the region will access the technology royalty free.
Maize productivity in Africa lags behind other maize producing regions, and through SPTA more smallholders will improve their yield. Average maize yield in much of Africa is approximately 2 metric tons per hectare, which is less than 20 percent of the yield level in more productive parts of the world. Farmers cannot access or afford high quality seed. Only 57 percent of the SSA maize growing area is planted with recently purchased seed; a lot of hybrids grown in the region are obsolete – 15 years or older compared to an average of less than 5 years in highly productive regions. In many situations, seeds of these older varieties are no longer suited for the climate and cropping environments that exist today.
Hybrid maize seed delivered through SPTA will have higher yield in low fertility environments. This will enable resource-constrained farmers to harvest more despite limited inputs like fertilizer. This means stronger livelihoods coupled with improved professionalism in the maize seed value chain for farmers, seed companies, consumers, and governments to deliver a more food-secure future.
SPTA originated from the Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project that concluded in 2015. IMAS focused on developing maize hybrids that could use nitrogen fertilizer more efficiently to deliver higher yields under low fertility conditions prevalent in Africa. The IMAS project was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation together with the United States Agency for International Development.
Issued by Agricultural Research Council
For more information contact:
Agricultural Research Council (South Africa)
Mary James
Tel: +27 (0) 18 299 6100, Cell: +27 84Â 817 2376, Email: JamesM@arc.agric.za
Corteva Agriscience (South Africa)
Barbra Muzata
Tel: +27-11-218-8600, Email: barbra.Muzata@pioneer.com
Notes to editors:
The Agricultural Research Council (ARC), a schedule 3A public entity, is a premier science institution that conducts research with partners, develops human capital and fosters innovation in support of the agricultural sector. The Agricultural Research Council provides diagnostic, laboratory, analytical, agricultural engineering services, post-harvest technology development, agrochemical evaluation, consultation and advisory services, food processing technology services as well as various surveys and training interventions. ARC has successfully collaborated with international partners in the WEMA project. ARC has successful partnerships with local seed companies for deployment of its products to smallholder farmers. For more information, visit the website at www.arc.agric.za
Corteva Agriscienceâą, Agriculture Division of DowDuPont (NYSE: DWDP), is intended to become an independent, publicly traded company when the spinoff is complete by June 2019. The division combines the strengths of DuPont Pioneer, DuPont Crop Protection and Dow AgroSciences. Corteva Agriscienceâą provides growers around the world with the most complete portfolio in the industry â including some of the most recognized brands in agriculture: PioneerÂź, EncircaÂź, the newly launched Brevantâą Seeds, as well as award-winning Crop Protection products â while bringing new products to market through our solid pipeline of active chemistry and technologies. More information can be found at www.corteva.com.
The International Maize and Wheat 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 Research 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.
Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) is a corporate body created under the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Act of 2013 to establish suitable legal and institutional framework for coordination of agricultural research in Kenya with the following goals: Promote, streamline, co-ordinate and regulate research in crops, livestock, genetic resources and biotechnology in Kenya, and expedite equitable access to research information, resources and technology and promote the application of research findings and technology in the field of agriculture.
DES MOINES (Iowa) â Hundreds of food and agriculture leaders from around the world gathered last week in Iowa, USA, for the 2018 edition of the Borlaug Dialogue. Much of the conversation this year was centered on how to âtake it to the farmer,â as Norman Borlaug famously said. Experts discussed how to build sustainable seed systems, grounded on solid science, so improved varieties reach smallholder farmers.
General view of the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue venue. (Photo: World Food Prize)
Louise Sperling, senior technical advisor at Catholic Relief Services, presented a study on the sources of seed for smallholder farmers in Africa. She explained that 52.2 percent of households receive new varieties, but only 2.8 percent of the seed comes through agro-dealers. The biggest source is local markets and own stock, the so-called informal channels.
Quality and variety of seed should be the focus, emphasized Jean Claude Rubyogo, seed systems specialist at CIAT. In his view, we need to integrate formal and informal seed distribution channels, using the competitive advantages of each.
âWhen we take good seed, we address all African soil,â said Ruth Oniang’o, board chair at the Sasakawa Africa Foundation. Oniang’o explained access to financing is a major hurdle for smallholders to access better seed and other innovations. In her view, current financial products are inadequate. âWhy should we get a farmer to pay 20 percent interest rates on a small loan?â
B.J. Marttin, member of the managing board of Rabobank Group, recommended financial institutions to partner with farmers through every stage, from production to sale, so they better understand risk and the whole value chain. Simon Winter, executive director of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, captured the main points from the session on financing for agricultural entrepreneurs. âWe have to have the farmer at the center. The farmer is the ultimate customer,â Winter said. âIf we are not serving farmer needs, we are not really solving the problems.â
Research to feed the world
The 2018 Global Agricultural Productivity (GAP) Report, presented at the Borlaug Dialogue, shows the growing gap between future food supply needs and agricultural production, particularly in low-income countries. To meet the projected food needs of nearly 10 billion people in 2050, global agricultural productivity must increase by 1.75 percent annually, the report states, but has only increased 1.51 percent annually since 2010.
A plenary session led by CGIAR explored the role of research in tackling this and other complex challenges. âWe have to talk about food and agriculture research,â said former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman. People need to understand research is not abstract academic knowledge, but rather useful innovation that goes âfrom the farm, to the table and to the stomach,â he explained.
âInnovation, no matter where you are in the world, is key to moving forward,â said Patience Koku, a farmer from Nigeria part of the Global Farmer Network. âI donât think the farmers in Africa or in Nigeria need a lot of convincingâ to adopt innovation, Koku noted. If someone is able to explain what a new technology can do, âfarmers see that science can make their life better and embrace it.â
Rising to the challenge
Agricultural research is also crucial to confront global threats like pests, conflict and climate change.
A session led by CIMMYT presented the latest research and actions against fall armyworm. (Photo: Rodrigo Ordóñez/CIMMYT)
Two separate sessions, hosted by Corteva Agriscience and CIMMYT, shared the latest approaches in the fight against fall armyworm and other pests and diseases. The Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Martin Kropff, explained how organizations are working together to respond to the rapid spread of fall armyworm in Africa and Asia. âWe have to solve the problem based on science, and then develop, validate and deploy integrated pest management approaches,â Kropff said.
As part of the World Food Prize outreach program, Bram Govaerts, director of innovative business strategies at CIMMYT, gave a lecture to students at Brody Middle School about the importance of agriculture and food. “When people can’t grow crops or pay for food to feed their families, desperation turns to conflict.”
At a side event, the Economist Intelligence Unit presented the Global Food Security Index 2018, which ranks food systems in 113 countries based on affordability, availability, and quality and safety. Senior consultant Robert Powell explained that the index now includes an adjustment factor based on each countryâs natural resource risks and resilience to the impacts of a changing climate. âAll countries will experience the impact of climate change,â Powell said.
The pernicious effects of climate change were also evident to the 2018 World Food Prize winners, David Nabarro and Lawrence Haddad, who have led global efforts to curb child malnutrition. âThere is no evidence to me that [this] crisis is going to stop, because climate change is here,â Nabarro declared. âThe foods we choose to grow and eat have a large impact on emissions,â Haddad said. âFood has a lot to offerâ on climate mitigation and âdiversity is the secret sauceâ for climate adaptation. âWe need food systems that are diverse: in crops, locations, organizations involved in themâŠâ
Less biodiversity translates into âless resilience and worse nutrition,â according to the Vice President of Peru, Mercedes ArĂĄoz. Through improved health and nutrition services, the country more than halved malnutrition among children under five, from 28 percent in 2008 to 13.1 percent in 2016.
2018 World Food Prize winners Lawrence Haddad (left) and David Nabarro speak during the award ceremony. (Photo: World Food Prize)
A rallying cry for nutrition
The impact of nutrition on the first 1,000 days of life lasts a lifetime, explained Haddad. âFor young kids, these are permanent shocks.â
âIf a person is not nourished in those very important weeks and months of life, the long-term consequences are likely to be irreversible,â Nabarro added. According to him, nutrition needs to be the target in the 2030 agenda, not only hunger.
âNutrition-based interventions present us a new lens through which to create and assess impact as agricultural researchers,â said Elwyn Grainger-Jones, the executive director of the CGIAR System Organization. âOur future success must come not only from ensuring an adequate supply of calories for the global population, but also the right quality and diversity of foods to tackle hidden hunger as well.â
âWe are not going to resolve the challenges of undernutrition without the ag sector stepping up in a big way and differently,â argued Shawn Baker, director of nutrition at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. âNutrition needs you,â Baker told other participants. âWelcome to the nutrition family.â
DES MOINES (Iowa) â At the plenary of the 2018 Borlaug Dialogue, a global panel of experts gave an overview of the origins of the fall armyworm, how it is spreading around the world, and how governments, farmers and researchers are fighting against this pest.
Pedro Sanchez, research professor in tropical soils at the University of Florida and 2002 World Food Prize Laureate, shared background information on the history of the fall armyworm and the early attempts to neutralize it, decades ago. He pointed out that once-resistant varieties were eventually affected by this pest.
The Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Martin Kropff, shared the most recent developments and explained how organizations are working together to respond to this pest. “We want to have science-based, evidence-based solutions,” Kropff said. “We have to solve the problem based on science, and then to develop and validate and deploy integrated pest management technologies.”
The director general of the Ethiopian Institute of Agriculture, Mandefro Nigussie, reminded that in addition to affecting people and the environment, fall armyworm âis also affecting the future generation,â as children were pulled out of school to pick larvae.
The response against fall armyworm cannot be done by governments alone, panelists agreed. It requires the support of multiple actors: financing the research, producing research, promoting the results of the research and implementing appropriate measures.
Rob Bertram, chief scientist at USAID’s Bureau for Food Security predicted the fall armyworm will continue to be a “serious problem” as it moves and migrates.
The director general and CEO of the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization, Eluid Kireger, emphasized the importance of global collaboration. âWe need to borrow the technologies that are already workingâ.
The fall armyworm was also discussed during the Corteva Agriscience Forum side event, on a session on “Crop security for food security”. The Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize, B.M. Prasanna, was optimistic about the efforts to tackle this voracious pest. âIâm 100 percent confident that the pest will be overcome, but it requires very solid synergistic and coordinated actions at the national level, at the regional level and at the continental level.â
CIMMYT is co-leading the Fall Armyworm R4D International Consortium. âFall armyworm is not going to be the only threat now and forever; there will be more insects, pests and pathogens moving around,” Prasanna said. “Global connectedness is exacerbating this kind of problem, but the solution lies also in global connectedness.â
Agricultural research for development has tremendous potential for widespread impact in poverty alleviation and food security. However, achieving real benefits for farmers is challenging and many well-intentioned projects fail to achieve large-scale impact. According to Brendan Brown, a postdoctoral research fellow with CIMMYTâs socioeconomics program in Nepal, this is where his work can help.
âThere have been decades of work trying to improve agricultural livelihoods, but many of these interventions are yet to have tangible impacts for farmers,â Brown said. âMy research seeks to help address this gap, using novel frameworks and applying participatory methods.â
Socioeconomic research at CIMMYT plays a key role at the nexus of agricultural innovations, helping to enhance interventions and initiatives for greater impact. Knowledge from such studies helps to prioritize and target resources, optimizing research capacity and accelerating the uptake of innovations.
âI attempt to understand constraints and opportunities at various scales from farms all the way up to institutional levels,â Brown explained. âI then seek to find pathways to catalyze change that lead to improved farmer livelihoods. Such research is integral to getting agronomic research into farmersâ fields.â
This area of research calls for a mixture of qualitative and quantitative tools and expertise, for which Brown is well suited. He has a bachelorâs degree in Agricultural Science with a major in Soil Science. âHowever, after working in agricultural research and development for a few years, I saw a gap in linking agronomy to the contextual realities of smallholder farming, so I opted to pursue a career that bridges the gap between the physical and social sciences.â
A desire to help
Brown grew up in Australia, between Sydney and a family farm on the south coast of New South Wales. He enjoyed being outdoors, âpreferably barefoot,â participated in hobby farming, and from an early age showed an interest in social justice issues. A career aptitude test taken towards the end of high school revealed he was suited to be one of three things: a ship captain, a nurse or an agricultural scientist. He opted for the latter.
It was at university that Brown gained the insight of applying his agricultural knowledge to helping smallholder farmers. During a backpacking trip from Cape Town to Cairo, which incorporated some agricultural volunteering, he witnessed first-hand the difficulties farmers face in sub-Saharan Africa. Upon returning to his studies, he resolved to pursue a career that would enable him to help smallholders and, at the same time, address some of the worldâs biggest ethical dilemmas.
Research with impact
Newly graduated, Brown worked with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), based in Canberra, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), based in Ghana, where he gained hands-on experience working in agricultural systems in developing countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It also inspired his PhD, which explored the disconnect between development work at research stations and the reality experienced by African farmers.
âDuring my PhD, I collaborated with CIMMYT through the Sustainable Intensification of Maize Legume Systems in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) initiative. I developed a more nuanced approach to what âadoptionâ actually means in terms of uptake and impact assessments. I also studied communitiesâ attitudes to conservation agriculture practices and diagnosed key institutional bottlenecks within research and extension systems.â
Brownâs studies allowed him to develop novel mixed methods and participatory impact pathways to promote new farming practices, such as conservation agriculture, to smallholder farmers in Africa. âMy work with CIMMYT allows me to contribute to solving some of the worldâs biggest issues. Through interacting with smallholders, facilitating conversations and creating new understanding, I hope to contribute to real change.â
Brendan Brown (left) during a field visit.
Moving to Asia
After spending nearly a decade in and out of Africa, he joined the CIMMYT team in Nepal earlier this year and is relishing the opportunity to explore new contexts in South Asia.
âSo much potential exists within the food systems of South Asia given the existence of multiple cropping seasons and diverse markets, as well as exciting developments in the use of mechanization and irrigation that have potential for delivering large-scale benefits, driving improved food security and profits.â However, he points out the integration of such innovations in this part of the world can be challenging due to inherent complex social hierarchies and caste systems. âI still have much to learn within such complex systems.â
Brownâs work in South Asia focusses on understanding the adoption, scaling and impact of sustainable intensification technologies and practices. He is primarily working with the Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) initiative, which aims to reduce poverty by making smallholder agriculture more productive, profitable and sustainable while safeguarding the environment and involving women in agriculture.
By studying the portfolio of CIMMYT-led initiatives in the region, he is also developing his understanding of prevailing sustainable intensification practices and the issues farmers face when implementing them. In addition to his work with SRFSI, Brown is soon to embark on a new ACIAR-funded research project aiming to enhance sustainable mechanization of farming systems in two provinces of Nepal by mobilizing strategic planning and collaboration.
âI look forward to sitting down with local agricultural service providers to understand how they run their businesses and how they structure their livelihoods,â Brown expressed. âThis will then be paired with the perspectives of farmers, as well as extension officers, researchers and policymakers to build theories of change and pathways to maximize the uptake and impact of sustainable intensification practices.â
He highlights how local ownership of change can be fostered by implementing participatory methods during this process. This can result in transformative change, felt from the institutional level all the way to the smallholder farmer. Brown hopes his work in South Asia will deliver widespread impact for smallholder farmers and he welcomes collaboration and sharing of ideas and approaches with others working towards similar objectives.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) â Through pure coincidence, Susanne Dreisigacker fell into the world of agricultural science and landed in Mexico. Her interest in genetics and biology solidified when she arrived at the 
