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.
NEW DELHI (CIMMYT) — Ram Kanwar Malik, senior agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has received the 2015 Derek Tribe Award from the Crawford Fund, for his “outstanding contributions to making a food secure world by improving and sustaining the productivity of the rice-wheat system of the northwestern and eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains.”
The award recognizes Malik’s more than 30 years of work in agricultural research and development dedicated to improving the livelihoods of millions of small and marginal farmers in India. He led the development of a management solution for herbicide resistant Phalaris minor, a major wheat weed. This pioneering research is estimated to have prevented farmers from losing nearly 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of wheat and to have raised wheat productivity in the grain basket states of Haryana and Punjab, between 1992 and 2000.
“For developing countries like India where farmers are smallholders and marginalized and investment in research is low, the development of new technologies and the process of delivery are inseparable,” said Malik, highlighting his life-long passion for understanding the need for farmer participation in research. “In fact, a top-down approach could put up barriers to the adoption of new technologies. Listening to farmers and tailoring technologies to serve their needs thus become paramount.”
Malik’s collaborative work with national and international partners and farmer participatory approaches has also led to achievements in the adoption and spread of climate-resilient technologies such as zero-tillage, laser land leveling and direct-seeded rice, as well as policy changes at the government level.
Recently, Malik played an instrumental role in advocating for the early sowing of wheat in Bihar, which can double a farmer’s yield and avoid crop failure caused by higher temperatures and an early summer. Malik’s team has created a network of more than 2,000 service providers to provide easy access for smallholder farmers to machinery and modern farming technologies.
To learn more about the Crawford Fund and Derek Tribe award read the full press release here.
Traditional maize storage in Tete province in Mozambique, April 27, 2015. CIMMYT/Tsedeke Abate
NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – At least 40 million smallholder farmers throughout sub-Saharan Africa are profiting from more than 200 new drought-tolerant varieties of maize produced as part of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project, according to scientists at the Center for International Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT).
The project, underway between 2007 and 2015, led to the development of varieties with traits preferred by farmers that have successfully made smallholders in 13 countries more resilient to the erratic effects of climate change on growing conditions.
“Smallholder farmers in this region plant maize varieties that are obsolete and end up getting poor harvests, but that’s changing now thanks to the gallant efforts of the DTMA team that has released and commercialized a large number of modern varieties,” said Tsedeke Abate, the CIMMYT scientist who led the project. “Thanks to the new drought-tolerant varieties, many families have managed to overcome harsh growing conditions and boost yields substantially.”
“The adoption of the improved drought tolerant seed varied from one country to another and each county had unique challenges that made it difficult for some farmers to take up the new varieties. Some farmers were not aware of the availability of the seed in their markets, for some the seed was not available or the price was high,” Abate said. “We worked with national seed companies in these countries to increase production of certified seed so that many more farmers can buy the seed at an affordable price as well as demonstrating the benefits of the new varieties.”
Anthony Mwega, a farmer and leader in Olkalili village, in Hai district a semi-arid area in northern Tanzania about 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the capital Dar es Salaam, beat the price constraint by mobilizing 66 farmers from his village and neighboring villages Makiwaru and Ngaikati to pool resources and buy 5 metric tons of HB513 – a drought-tolerant and nitrogen-use efficient variety – at a very affordable price from Meru Agro Tours and Consultant Seed Company.
“The overall purchasing price we bought the seed for was about 50 percent less than the market price because we bought it in bulk,” said Mwega. “I saw how good the maize performed in demonstrations organized by Meru Agro during the 2014 planting season with extremely low rains, and knew this is a variety that my people would definitely benefit from.”
Scientists project that millions more farmers will gain access to and plant the new varieties due to collaborations with more than 100 national seed companies, which continue to make a significant contribution to the improvement of seed systems in Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
“Collaboration with CIMMYT through the DTMA project has been extremely instrumental in facilitating me to release my own varieties,” said Zubeda Mduruma of Aminata Seed Company in Tanga, Tanzania who has collaborated with CIMMYT both in maize breeding and production work since 1976.
“I was able to get some of the best germplasm, evaluate them through on-farm and on-station trials, and successfully released three of the best drought tolerant varieties in the market, including one quality protein DT variety that is very popular among women because of its nutritional value. With the quality of maize we get from CIMMYT, it’s very possible to release new improved varieties every year with much better yield compared to popular commercial varieties in our shops.”
The story of this success is told through a series of pictures and profiles of DTMA target countries. Each country profile illustrates the context of national maize production and the changes underway thanks to released drought-tolerant varieties.
The DTMA project will continue, first as the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) initiative. Under the project, which is funded by USAID, CIMMYT scientists aim to facilitate the production of close to 12,000 metric tons of certified seed for use by about 2.5 million people, in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
In partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture who partnered with CIMMYT in DTMA work, the new Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa project will also carry forward the success and invaluable lessons from DTMA and CIMMYT’s Improved Maize for Africa Soils project, to develop new stress tolerant varieties to help farmers mitigate multiple stresses that occur concurrently in farmers’ fields.
Scientist Sukhwinder Singh (L) hosts a discussion in the wheat fields at the CIMMYT research station in Obregon, Mexico. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins
OBREGON, Mexico (CIMMYT) — For hundreds of international agricultural development experts, an annual gathering in northern Mexico provides a vital platform for sharing and debating the latest wheat breeding news and research.
This year, more than 200 members of the wheat community from more than 30 countries met in the legendary wheat fields of Ciudad Obregon in Mexico’s state of Sonora to participate in Visitors’ Week, hosted by the Global Wheat Program (GWP) of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
The event coincides with the birthday of Norman Borlaug, the late CIMMYT wheat breeder and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, known as the father of the Green Revolution for his contributions to global food security, many of which were undertaken in Obregon. This year, Visitors’ Week delegates toasted his 102nd birthday at the Norman E. Borlaug Experimental Field research station.
The month of March also marks the peak wheat-growing season in Obregon, and participants attended a field day tour to see old and new wheat varieties, learn about CIMMYT programs and the latest research findings. Additionally, meetings and discussions were held with the goal of contributing to the improvement of wheat research across the globe by identifying key priorities.
INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUES
A brainstorming session between representatives from the British government and CIMMYT included discussions on collaborating on breeding for tolerance to high ambient temperatures, durable disease resistance, nitrogen use efficiency, and quality and nutrition.
Future collaborations between CIMMYT and Australia were explored with the Grains Research and Development Corporation and the CIMMYT-Australia-ICARDA Germplasm Exchange (CAIGE) group. 2Blades, a U.S.-based organization supporting the development of durable disease resistance in crop plants, joined the discussion and expressed the need to use safe, sustainable crop production strategies.
As part of discussions regarding international collaboration, the second meeting of the Expert Working Group on Nutrient Use Efficiency in wheat aimed to improve international coordination on NUE (nitrogen and other nutrients) research among Australia, Britain, France, Mexico, Italy, Spain and Germany.
With the hope of increasing data and information sharing, the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) awarded Mehmet Nazım Dincer of Turkey the IWIN Cooperator Award for contributing data on international nurseries. Through a lottery, Dincer was selected from among researchers who provided data on international seed nurseries to IWIN in 2015. Dincer was awarded a one-week paid visit to Obregón during GWP Visitors’ Week, and was also congratulated for his collaborative efforts during the festivities.
Another lottery will be held in November to select the next winner from among cooperators who return 2016 international nursery data. GWP director Hans Braun joked that he is not aware of other lotteries with so few participants in which the jackpot is a trip to Obregon, encouraging IWIN cooperators to return their data and win.
Visitors’ Week is not only an important time for international collaborations and brainstorming, but also for capacity development and training early career scientists. Coinciding with this year’s Visitors’ Week was the GWP Basic Wheat Improvement Course (BWIC), a three-month training course for young and mid-career scientists focusing on applied breeding techniques in the field. In addition to attending Visitors’ Week events, trainees were offered special courses with guest lecturers.
Joining the BWIC at this time were winners of the 2016 Women in Triticum Award who alongside women trainees attended a “Women in Agriculture” discussion led by Jeannie Borlaug, daughter of Norman Borlaug, to discuss difficulties and successes women face in achieving equality in the science and agriculture sectors.
Severe drought-affected area in Lamego, Mozambique. (Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT)
HARARE (CIMMYT) — In southern Africa close to 50 million people are projected to be affected by droughts caused by the current El Niño, a climate phenomenon that develops in the tropical Pacific Ocean causing extreme weather worldwide — this year, one of the strongest on record. Many of those millions are expected to be on the brink of starvation and dependent on emergency food aid and relief.
However, severe droughts are nothing new to the region. Between 1900 and 2013 droughts have killed close to 1 million people in Africa, with economic damages of about $3 billion affecting over 360 million people. Over the past 50 years, 24 droughts have been caused by El Niño events, according to research by Ilyas Masih. If droughts are so recurrent and known to be a major cause of yield variability and food insecurity in southern Africa, why are we still reacting to this as a one-time emergency instead of a calculated threat?
Unpredictable harvests: Above, yield variability in the world’s top 5 maize producing countries (left) vs. southern Africa (right) Source: FAOSTAT, 2015
Over the past 50 years, donors have focused on the “poorest of the poor” in agriculture – areas where farming is difficult due to low and erratic rainfalls, poor sandy soils and high risk of crop failure. Investments were made in these areas to change farmers’ livelihoods – and yet the numbers of food insecure people are the same or rising in many southern African countries. Once drought hits, most farmers are left with no crops and are forced to sell their available livestock. Due to many farmers flooding the market with poor meat at once, prices for both livestock and meat hit rock bottom. Only when the situation becomes unbearable does the development community act, calling for emergency aid, which kicks in with a stuttering start. Abject poverty and food aid dependency is the inevitable consequence.
A farmer in Zimbabwe explains his challenges with drought and low soil fertility. CIMMYT/Michael Listman
Short-term relief can help millions of farmer families in this current crisis, and emergency solutions will likely be necessary this year. However, emergency relief is not the solution to saving lives and money in a world where extreme weather events are only going to become more frequent.
Proactive, strategic and sustainable response strategies are needed to increase farming system resilience and reduce dependency on food aid during extreme weather events like El Niño. This starts with improving the capacity of local, regional and national governments to make fully informed decisions on how to prepare for these events. Interventions must reach beyond poor performing areas, but also support higher productivity areas and emerging commercial farmers, who have greater potential to produce enough grain on a national scale to support areas hardest hit by droughts and dry-spells.
Groundnuts in rotation with maize under conservation agriculture can provide food and nutrition despite climate variability in Malawi. CIMMYT/Christian Thierfelder
They need to be scaled out to increase resilience to climate variability. This strategy of improved foresight and targeting coupled with adoption of climate-smart agriculture and improved outscaling can lead to increased resilience of smallholder farming systems in southern Africa, reducing year-to-year variability and the need for emergency response.
Learn more about the impacts of El Niño and building resilience in the priority briefing “Combating drought in southern Africa: from relief to resilience” here, and view the special report from FEWS Net illustrating the extent and severity of the 2015-16 drought in southern Africa.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) — Almost half the world’s wheat land is sown to varieties that come directly or indirectly from research by a longstanding, global network of crop scientists, according to a new report by CIMMYT.
Yearly economic benefits of that research ranged from $2.2 to 3.1 billion (in 2010 dollars), and resulted from annual funding of just $30 million, a benefit-cost ratio as high as 103:1, the study shows.
Published to coincide with CIMMYT’s 50th anniversary, the new study tabulates and analyzes the pedigrees of 4,604 wheat varieties released worldwide during 1994-2014, based on survey responses from public and private breeding programs in 66 countries.
Fully 63 percent of the varieties featured genetic contributions from the breeding research of CIMMYT or of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), both members of CGIAR, a publicly-funded agricultural-research-for-development consortium.
“The fourth in a series of wheat impact assessments first published in 1993, the latest report highlights impressive CGIAR contributions in all wheat-growing regions,” Baum said. “In South Asia, for example, which is home to more than 300 million undernourished people and whose inhabitants consume over 100 million tons of wheat a year, 92 percent of the varieties carried CGIAR ancestry.”
FREE SEED, FUNDING CRUCIAL
CIMMYT and ICARDA depend on donor assistance and national partnerships to achieve meaningful farm-level impacts, but national co-investments do not figure in the current study, according to Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s global wheat program. “In 2014 alone, CIMMYT distributed free of charge more than 12 tons of seed of experimental lines for testing and other research by 346 partners in public and private breeding programs of 79 countries,” Braun said. “The partners return performance data to us, but can freely use lines they choose for their own breeding and varietal development efforts.”
“Started in the 1950s by the late Norman Borlaug, this global wheat improvement pipeline has been the main source of new genetic variation for wheat yield increases, adaptation to climate change, and resistance to crop pests and diseases,” Braun added. “The latest impact study attests to its continued worth, but reliable and consistent funding is critical, if global wheat breeding is to satisfy rising demand for the crop in developing countries.”
Led by Borlaug, who won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions and worked at CIMMYT until 1979, wheat breeding advances during the 1960s-70s helped to spark the Green Revolution from which the 15-member CGIAR arose and to keep food prices at historically low levels for decades.
But by 2050 the current global population of 7.3 billion is projected to grow 33 percent to 9.7 billion, according to the United Nations. Demand for food, driven by population, urbanization, and increasing global wealth, will rise more than 60 percent, according to a recent report from the Taskforce on Extreme Weather and Global Food System Resilience.
Experts say that wheat farmers must meet this rising demand from the same or less land area, while confronting more extreme and erratic rainfall and temperatures and using inputs like water and fertilizer much more effectively.
Developing countries received the greatest benefit from CGIAR contributions, particularly in spring bread and spring durum wheat areas, an outcome that aligns with CGIAR’s mandate to help resource-poor farmers and alleviate poverty and malnutrition. Still, adoption of CGIAR-related cultivars was not limited to developing countries and the study highlights significant spill-overs:
In Canada, three-quarters of the wheat area was sown to CGIAR-related cultivars.
In the U.S., nearly 60 percent of the wheat area was sown to CGIAR-related varieties.
In Western Australia, CGIAR-related varieties were used on more than 90 percent of the wheat area.
To view or download a copy of the study, click on the title below:
A farmer feeds harvested wheat crop into a thresher as a woman collects de-husked wheat in a field at Kunwarpur village, Allahabad in India’s Uttar Pradesh website. Credit: Handout
V.K. Mishra and Ramash Chand are professors at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India. Arun Joshi is a wheat breeder at CIMMYT. Any views expressed are their own.
One of the side-effects of the Green Revolution, which began in the 1960s and led to large increases in crop production, has been a change in the cropping patterns in many parts of India.
Farmers have shifted to crops with higher yields. In the Indo-Gangetic plains, for example, rice and wheat have replaced many other crops. This has reduced crop diversity, affected dietary patterns, and led to malnutrition due to a poor supply of proteins, vitamins, iron and zinc.
Wheat is the staple diet in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Farmers in those states typically have very small landholdings and consume about 70 per cent of the food they produce. One essential mineral missing from their diet is zinc. A zinc deficiency leads to malfunctioning of several proteins and enzymes, and manifests itself in a variety of diseases, including diarrhea, skin and respiratory disorders.
One way of making up for this kind of deficiency is to provide fortification by adding missing nutrients to food, but this is complex for several reasons, including price increases, the problem of quality control, and the possibility of adulteration.
We tested the genetic bio-fortification technology for enhancing the zinc content in wheat crops under the HarvestPlus project of CIMMYT and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bio-fortification is a seed-driven technology that enables crops to extract a higher amount of zinc from the soil and store it in the edible parts.
Through cross-breeding, we produced several thousand wheat genotypes and screened them for high zinc content and high yield. In India, a new variety would be unacceptable if it does not deliver a higher yield than the varieties already under cultivation. We isolated several of these cross-bred varieties that had both high zinc and high yield, and put them through field trials. The existing varieties of wheat crop had 29 parts per million (ppm) of zinc and the varieties we selected had 40 to 45 ppm of zinc.
These field trials were conducted at 70 different locations. Two specific varieties of wheat were then distributed to about 5,000 farmers for cultivation.
The next stage is national trials, which will be conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The first thing that ICAR does is to put the recommended varieties to disease trial. The ICAR tests take about three years. One of the varieties, BHU-35, has recently cleared the disease-testing stage and is ready to be released in Uttar Pradesh for cultivation, after a few more regulatory clearances.
Seven other varieties are currently undergoing disease testing, and in the next few years, many other zinc-rich wheat crops will be ready for cultivation.
Conservation agriculture (field at right) protects wheat from damage due to water stagnation experienced in a conventional field, visible in the blackening of the wheat (left field). CIMMYT/Tek Sapkota
Julianna White is program manager for low emissions agriculture at the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security. Tek Sapkota is a scientist with the International Maize and Wheat Improvment Center and lead author of the study. Any opinions expressed are their own.
Research shows conservation agriculture increases the income of farmers, moderates canopy temperatures, improves irrigation productivity and reduces greenhouse gas emissions in cereal systems in the Indo-Gangetic plains.
In an August 2015 article in the Journal of Integrative Agriculture, researchers report that a comprehensive literature review and evidence collected from on-farm trials showed that conservation agriculture – defined as minimal soil disturbance and permanent soil cover combined with appropriate rotations – improved farmers’ income, helped crops sustain or adapt to heat and water stresses, and reduced agriculture’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions in cereal systems in South Asia.
Farmer Ram Shubagh Chaudhary in his wheat fields, in the village of Pokhar Binda, Maharajganj district, Uttar Pradesh, India. He alternates wheat and rice, and has achieved a bumper wheat crop by retaining crop residues and employing zero tillage. CIMMYT/Petr Kosina
Farmers reap economic benefits
Conservation agriculture recommends minimal soil disturbance, most commonly tillage. Farmers who practiced zero tillage saved 23 percent in production costs by avoiding preparatory tillage and reducing the number of times fields were irrigated, while reaping the same or slightly higher yields.
Minimizing heat stress
High temperatures during the maturity stage cause wheat to decrease grain size, lowering overall yields, a phenomenon known as “terminal heat effect.” Farmers who practice conservation agriculture avoid this heat stress because residues left on the surface of the field conserve soil moisture, enhancing transpiration and creating a cooling effect – thus avoiding reduced yields caused by terminal heat effect.
Efficient use of water resources
Researchers found multiple examples that the zero tillage component of conservation agriculture led to significant water savings in both rice and wheat systems. Water savings accrued across systems. In rice-wheat systems, retention of wheat residues reduces water use in rice, and retention of rice residues causes reduced water use in wheat. Non-requirement of preparatory tillage advances the planting times thereby increasing rainwater-use efficiency and utilizing residual moisture from the previous crop.
Decrease in greenhouse gas emissions
Minimizing soil disturbance allows for soil carbon to accumulate, causing a net soil carbon gain. Although scientists are still debating the extent of soil carbon sequestered through conservation agriculture, indirect emissions reductions are numerous: less power and fuel consumption due to decreased tillage in conservation agriculture, decreased labor from machines and humans, and slower depreciation of equipment.
Business-as-usual production practices such as conventional tillage and farmers’ nutrient and irrigation management systems are greenhouse gas-intensive, while zero tillage reduces energy consumption in land preparation and crop establishment and efficient use of water resources reduces energy needs from pumping. Leaving residues in the field increases soil health and fertility, thereby reducing the need for chemical fertilizers.
Researchers found that, on average, farmers could save 36 liters of diesel per hectare, equivalent to a reduction in 93 kg CO2 emission per hectare per year by practicing zero tillage for land preparation and crop establishment in the rice-wheat system typical on the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Given that 13.5 million hectares are under rice-wheat system cultivation in the region, this represents a reduction of 12.6 megatons of CO2 equivalent.
New technologies increase uptake of conservation agriculture
Despite excellent productivity, economic gains and environmental benefits, adoption of conservation agriculture in South Asia is still relatively slow, most likely due to various technological and socio-economic factors. It takes years and ample evidence for farmers to change the entrenched habit of tillage with planting. And it is a process.
For example, some farmers have adopted zero-tillage in wheat production, primarily to facilitate early planting, lower production costs and increase yields (and therefore profitabilitiy). However, these same farmers still prefer to practice tillage and puddling (wet-tillage) in their rice crops for weed control and reduction in percolation loss of water/nutrient. Also, farmers tend to burn crop residues to facilitate planting with the zero-tillage drill. To realize the full potential of conservation agriculture, all crops in rotation have to be brought under zero tillage, and crop residues will have to be used as soil surface mulch.
Due to the recent development of the “Turbo Happy Seeder,” which can drill seed and fertilizer directly through loose and anchored crop residues, farmers are gradually moving towards zero tillage across the agriculture system.
Farmers who practice conservation agriculture also must adjust their nutrient management systems in order to maximize crop productivity decrease costs. Conventional fertilizer recommendations have been calibrated based on tillage-based systems are thus not necessarily appropriate for conservation agriculture systems, including nutrient stewardship (applying the right source of fertilizer at the right time in right place using right method).
Crop residue management is essential for continuous coil cover, an important component of conservation agriculture, but farmers are faced with competing uses of crop residue as livestock feed, fuel, mulch and compost. Local adaptive research is needed to address strategic residue and nutrient management, weed control and scale-appropriate machinery development.
Such a paradigm shift in crop management requires a mindset transition among farmers and other value chain actors, including researchers, extension agents, market players and other institutions. Though it is recognized that transition takes time, recent progress and development in weed control and nutrient management systems signal that practice of conservation agriculture is growing across the region, including among different socio-economic groups and farm typologies.
CCAFS and CIMMYT continue research and implementation of low emissions agriculture across the globe. See also the regional focus on conservation and climate-smart agriculture in South Asia.
Pollination of maize. Photo courtesy of aip.cimmyt.org.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director John Groarke presented new varieties of maize seed to Pakistani research organizations and private-sector seed companies on 17 February at the National Agricultural Research Center in Islamabad, according to a U.S. embassy press release.
These varieties were developed by the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), a joint effort led by CIMMYT and supported by USAID, to jump-start the production of quality hybrid maize seed in Pakistan. The varieties distributed are resistant to drought and heat, have enhanced nutritional quality and increased tolerance to insect attacks and low soil nitrogen.
AIP for Pakistan is working to sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes in the agricultural sector through the promotion and dissemination of modern technologies/practices in the livestock, horticulture (fruits and vegetables) and cereals (wheat, maize and rice) sector. The $30 million initiative also collaborates with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC), the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the University of California – Davis and the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC).
Actors celebrating a fruitful harvest thanks to drought-tolerant maize. Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT
KOLA, Kenya (CIMMYT) – A new video aimed at raising awareness among farmers about high-yielding, drought-tolerant maize varieties is set for distribution in eastern Kenya ahead of the long rains that begin in March 2016. In the video, which was made by Michigan State University, farmers discuss the challenges of food scarcity related to poor maize seeds that wither because of moderate drought conditions prevalent in the area. The climate, coupled with poor agronomic practices, results in very low yields that cannot sustain households, the video shows.
“The actors are local farmers who are known and trusted,” said Charles Steinfield, a professor at Michigan State University (MSU), who led the project, which focuses on Kola village in Machakos County, about 62 kilometers East of Nairobi.
“The context of the story is real, therefore, this approach comes out as more engaging, practical and has some entertaining bits to appeal to the audience.”
Additional cast members include a leader, an agro-dealer and an agronomic expert who guides the farmers to use improved drought-tolerant maize varieties and recommended agronomic management practices during land preparation, planting, harvesting and post-harvest.
The video was made in the farmers’ homesteads and farms, as a way of including them in the filming and encouraging them to become part of the process. David Kyule and Winfred Kyule were among the main actors. They said they found the experience exciting; adding that they think the video will encourage farmers to plant improved drought-tolerant seeds.
KDV6, a drought-tolerant maize variety was filmed among improved maize suitable for Kola location, in eastern Kenya. Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT
The videos will be shown to farmers in local meetings called barazas organized by Farm Input Promotions Africa (FIPS), which supports farmers in Kola and the greater eastern Kenya region to access improved farm inputs through a network of village-based advisors and network coordinators. Given the lack of electricity in the targeted areas, some of which are remote, the video will be screened using portable battery-operated projectors.
The plan is to screen the videos just before the farmers start their next planting season in March 2016, Steinfeld said. In addition to sharing information, farmers will be encouraged to engage in discussions about drought-tolerant varieties before and after they see the video. Any change in perception and adoption of these varieties in the coming planting season will be monitored. The screening will target at least 600 farmers in Kola location.
“Our key message in the video is on the benefit of Drought Tolerant varieties and we want farmers to simply try the varieties and see how they perform,” Steinfeld said.
“We are not asking farmers to throw away their local varieties, but giving them a chance to know and experiment the improved drought tolerant varieties that will give them much better yield. All they have to do is try the seeds.”
Through FIPS, the farmers will receive small packets of the drought-tolerant varieties to plant on a small portion of their land to see how it performs.
Plans are underway to air the videos by mid-February 2016 when farmers will be preparing to plant during the March-to-May long rains season.
The main cast of the film (from L to R) Winfred Kyule, Damaris Kyala, Boniface Kyala and David Kyule. Photo: Brenda Wawa/CIMMYT
Soon after the video screening, pre-recorded mobile phone voice messages will be sent to farmers to remind them to buy improved certified drought-tolerant varieties. The messages will be followed up in April by another voice message recommending required agronomic practices that include fertilizer or manure application and weeding. In August, farmers will receive messages including advice on drying and storing the maize harvest.
SEED ACCESS
After raising awareness about the drought-tolerant varieties, demand for the seed is expected to increase. The Drought Tolerant Maize for Seed Scaling project, run by CIMMYT is currently working with seed companies to increase availability of affordable drought-tolerant seed. Some of the varieties, which feature in the video, include DroughtTego, KDV2, KDV4 and KDV6 developed under International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) maize projects – Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa and Water Efficient Maize for Africa.
The participatory farmer video filming project in Kola location, Machakos County in eastern Kenya was developed by Michigan State University and funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development with support from FIPS and CIMMYT.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Scientists battling to increase wheat production by more than 60 percent over the next 35 years to meet projected demand are optimistic that they have begun to unravel the genetic mysteries that will lead to a more productive plant.
A recent study conducted at 26 international sites with a new generation of improved wheat breeding lines crossed and selected for superior physiological traits, resulted in yields that were on average 10 percent higher than other wheat varieties.
In the study, scientists identified many useful traits in the wheat plant suited to heat and drought adaptation, including: cooler canopy temperature indicating the ability of the plant to access subsoil water under drought and root proliferation under hot irrigated conditions.
They also discovered the plants have the ability to store sugars in the stem when conditions are good and the capacity to remobilize them to the grain when needed for seed filling if conditions do not permit enough photosynthesis. Leaf wax also plays a role by reflecting excess radiation and reducing evaporation from the leaf surface, lowering the risk of photo-inhibition and dehydration.
Additionally, scientists discovered that total aboveground biomass, a trait, which indicates overall plant fitness and with the right crossing strategy can be converted to produce higher grain yield.
“What we have revealed is a proof of concept – namely that designing crosses on the basis of wheat’s physiology results in a range of novel genotypes with significant improvements in yield and adaptation,” said Matthew Reynolds, a distinguished scientist and wheat physiologist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
“We have a long road ahead, but we hope eventually this work will lead to the discovery of the best combinations of genes suited to specific heat and drought profiles.”
HEAT STRESS
Climate change poses considerable risks to food security and political stability. Wheat is a vital food staple providing 20 percent of the calories and protein consumed by people worldwide.
Projections indicate that it is very likely that rainfall will be more unpredictable and that heat waves will occur more often and last longer throughout the 21st century, according to a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Mean surface temperatures could potentially rise by between 2 to 5 degrees Celsius or more, the report said.
A recent comprehensive modeling exercise, which incorporated data from international heat stress trials led by CIMMYT’s wheat physiology team in the 1990s, shows that for each degree increase in average temperature, there is a 6 percent reduction in wheat yield, so an increase of 5 degrees would lead to a 30 percent reduction or more.
“A 30 percent yield reduction would be very harmful to food security because we know that wheat production must increase by 60 percent just to keep up with population projections,” Reynolds said. “Combined with predicted climate risks, the challenge increases – if this happens, we’ll need to double the yield capacity of our current varieties.”
While demand for wheat is projected to increase at a rate of 1.7 percent a year until 2015, global productivity increases at only 1.1 percent. Conventional breeding approaches achieve less than 1 percent per year, a yield barrier that scientists aim to break.
“If the relative rate of improvement in yields continues at its current pace, there will be a large gap between the amount of available wheat and the amount we need to feed the global population,” Reynolds said.
Under IWYP and HeDWIC scientists will be redesigning the wheat plant for adaptive traits relating to temperature extremes, photoperiod, soil depth, and other environmental factors. Other goals will include attempting to drastically increase radiation-use efficiency, and to understand how plants use signaling to coordinate their activities and respond to environmental fluxes.
Such crops as rice and triticale can be used as potential models for wheat redesign. Rice is similar to wheat in terms of its basic metabolism, but tolerates much higher temperatures, Reynolds said. Triticale could also be used as a model, since it almost never lodges – or falls over – and its spikes have a very high grain number, he added.
Scientists also aim to increase their understanding of the role of roots and their potential to boost yield and ability to adapt to stress.
Because roots are hidden and messy to work with their physiology has been largely ignored in comparison to the parts of the plant above ground, but new technologies are helping to overcome these disadvantages, Reynolds said.
Such challenges are now more feasible to tackle due to a new generation of genomics tools and other biotechnologies which become more powerful each year.
“The revolution in phenomics – work that the Wheat Physiology Group helped pioneer – especially remote sensing for temperature and spectral indices, which indicate specific physiological properties of the plant-, means that we can now evaluate a much larger numbers of lines than in the past,” Reynolds said.
“We’ve already screened 70,000 accessions from the World Wheat Collection in the CIMMYT Genebank, and have identified a veritable powerhouse of novel material to support this work related to breeding and gene discovery for decades to come. So although the challenge is enormous, we remain optimistic.”
John R. Porter on the top floor of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) building in Paris. Porter was honored as a Knight of the Order of Agricultural Merit at a ceremony on 1 March 2016 at the French Embassy in Denmark. Photo: John R. Porter
John R. Porter of The University of Copenhagen, the Natural Research Institute of the University of Greenwich, UK, and member of the WHEAT Independent Steering Committee, was granted Knight of the French Order of Agriculture Merit at a ceremony on 1 March.
The Order of Agricultural Merit is awarded to those that have made extraordinary contributions to agriculture via research or practice. The Order, which was established in 1883 by France’s Ministry of Agriculture, is one of the most important recognitions awarded in the country.
To become a knight, a person must be at least 30 years of age and have dedicated at least 15 years of service to the agricultural community, covering both developed and developing country farming.
“France has had an extremely important role in the development of agriculture and food production in Europe and the world. The production of food serves one of the most basic human needs, and this award and its history recognizes that fact,” said Porter in an acceptance speech at the French Embassy in Denmark. “I was extremely honored and surprised when I learned that I would be bestowed with this honor.”
Porter is best known for his pioneering work in the development of crop simulation models that are now regarded as being central to guiding research identifying new crop phenotypes, the impacts of and adaptation to climate change and carbon mitigation to the benefit of agriculture globally. He has also made major contributions to agriculture via his multi-disciplinary work in the response to arable crops, energy crops and complex agro-ecosystems to their environment with an emphasis on climate change, agronomy and ecosystem services.
Focusing on agriculture in the developing world, Porter took the initiative to bring the secretariat and hub of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), to his university in Copenhagen. He has also collaborated with European pasta manufacturers to develop methods to identify high quality sources of durum wheat prior to harvest by using a combination of models and remote sensing technologies.
Porter has published more than 140 papers in reviewed journals and has won three international prizes for his research and teaching. Apart from serving on the WHEAT Independent Steering Committee, he was appointed by the French Ministry of Agriculture and serves as a member of the Science Council of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) and previously served as the president of the European Society for Agronomy.
Most recently, Porter was the lead author of a critically important chapter for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on food production systems and food security for the IPCC 5th Assessment Report, which was the scientific bedrock of the COP21 agreement, signed December 2015.
Congratulations to John R. Porter on this prestigious award!
Sukhwinder Singh at a field of Punjab Agricultural University, India, with Mexican wheat landrace evaluation trial (foreground) and wheat lines derived from the landraces (background). Photo: Mike Listman
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Findings can help to boost wheat’s climate resilience worldwide
For the first time ever, a research team from China, India, Mexico, Uruguay, and the USA has genetically characterized a collection of 8,400 centuries-old Mexican wheat landraces adapted to varied and sometimes extreme conditions, offering a treasure trove of potential genes to combat wheat’s climate-vulnerability.
Published today in Nature Scientific Reports and led by scientists from the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), the study details critical genetic information about Mexican landraces for use in breeding to boost global wheat productivity.
This is essential, given the well-documented climate effects that imperil key wheat-growing areas, according to Sukhwinder Singh, CIMMYT wheat scientist and co-author of the report.
“The landraces, known as Creole wheats, were brought to Mexico as early as the 16th Century,” said Singh, who also credited the study to MasAgro, a long-term rural development project between Mexico and CIMMYT. “Wheat is not native to Mexico, but this gave the Creoles time to toughen in zones where late-season temperatures can hit highs of 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit).”
Heat can wreak havoc with wheat’s ability to produce plump, well-filled grains. Research has shown that wheat yields plummet 6 percent for each 1-degree-Centigrade rise in temperature, and that warming is already holding back yield gains in wheat-growing mega-regions such as South Asia, home to more than 300 million undernourished people and whose inhabitants consume over 100 million tons of wheat each year.
“Typically, massive seed collections constitute ‘black boxes’ that scientists have long believed to harbor useful diversity but whose treasures have remained frustratingly inaccessible,” Singh explained. “New technology is helping to change that. As part of MasAgro’s ‘Seeds of Discovery Component,’ the team used the latest genotyping-by-sequencing technology and created unique sets of the landrace collections that together capture nearly 90 percent of the rare gene variants, known as ‘alleles.’ ”
According to Kevin Pixley, director of CIMMYT’s genetic resources program and an expert crop breeder, wheat scientists will be able to home in on groups of landraces from regions with conditions similar to those they presently target or will target in coming decades. “The next step is for breeders to identify seed samples and genes for their programs; say, alleles common to a set of landraces from a heat-stressed area, providing a valuable starting point to exploit this newly-revealed diversity.”
A pillar for global food security, wheat provides 20 percent of protein and calories consumed worldwide and up to 50% in developing countries. A 2015 World Bank report showed that, without action, climate change would likely spark higher agricultural prices and threaten food security in the world’s poorer regions.
For more information
Mike Listman, CIMMYT communications, email at m.listman@cgiar.org, mobile at +52 1 595 957 3490. Geneviève Renard, head of CIMMYT communications, email at g.renard@cgiar.org, mobile at +52 1 595 114 9880.
About CIMMYT
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), is the global leader in research for development in wheat and maize and wheat- and maize-based farming systems. From its headquarters in Mexico and 14 global offices, CIMMYT works throughout the developing world with hundreds of partners to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems, thus contributing to better food security and livelihoods. CIMMYT is a member of the 15-member CGIAR Consortium and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Wheat and Maize. CIMMYT receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.
Young lady carrying home flour from millers, Salina, Malawi. Photo: Tsedeke Abate/ CIMMYT
The Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project has contributed towards improving seed system in sub-Saharan Africa for almost nine years (2007–2015), through 233 varieties released including about 200 distinct drought-tolerant (DT) maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPV) developed to help farmers cope with drought constraint in maize farming.
The main purpose of DTMA was to increase the food and income security of smallholder farmers through the development and dissemination of drought tolerant, well-adapted DT hybrids and OPV maize varieties. The project was jointly implemented among the National Agricultural Research systems by CIMMYT (eastern and southern Africa) and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in West Africa and concluded at the end of December 2015.
Since its inception, the project has supported production of nearly 54,000 tons of certified DT maize seed benefiting an estimated 5.4 million households – or 43 million people – across the DTMA countries (Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe).
The new DT maize varieties are adapted to the various agro-ecologies in each of the target countries. Most of them have been commercialized or are in the process of being commercialized. These varieties produce the same or better yields as the currently available commercial varieties. All of them are resistant to major diseases. In addition, several of them are tolerant to the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica and nitrogen-use efficient.
Africa’s food security is on a positive trajectory, and DTMA is contributing to this progress. The strong partnership developed with over 90 small – and – medium seed companies currently stocking DT varieties will facilitate continued production and supply of certified DT seed to reach many more smallholders in Africa.
Kenyan farmers to realize full yield potential and harvest better quality maize from Bt maize. Photo: CIMMYT/B.Wawa
NAIROBI – The Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) announced it received official approval from Kenya’s National Biosafety Authority (NBA) to conduct National Performance Trials (NPTs) in Kenya using genetically-transformed, insect resistant maize on Feb. 9.
This is the first time Kenyan authorities have approved the environmental release of genetically-transformed maize, meaning the varieties can be grown in non-restricted field conditions like any other variety.
The approval comes as a result of an application submitted to NBA in April 2015 by KALRO and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), as part of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) Project, for field testing of WEMA maize that carries genes from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The genes confer targeted resistance to particular insect species that attack maize in the field, causing annual losses in Kenya’s maize harvest of up to 400,000 tons.
The approval paves the way for the eventual release, registration, and marketing through local seed companies of Bt maize varieties, in the same manner as any other variety.
As part of the approval, WEMA partners are required to conduct environmental and social impact studies, submit a product stewardship management plan, and carry out compositional analyses of Bt maize grain.
Led by the AATF, WEMA includes KALRO and CIMMYT among its partners. The project already has a stewardship plan, is consulting with relevant regulatory institutions to begin the studies required, and would enter at least four maize varieties in NPTs.
Maize with Bt genes has been grown for nearly 20 years in 25 countries worldwide.
For more information about CIMMYT’s work in WEMA: Brenda Wawa, CIMMYT communications officer.
CIMMYT scientist Natalia Palacios pinpoints discrimination as the main hurdle to gender balance in science. Photo: Alfonso Cortés Arredondo/ CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) – Discrimination in the science sector remains a significant challenge to achieving gender balance in education and professional research, said a top maize researcher.
“Unfortunately there is still discrimination, from the education level to the professional environment, and therefore there are still some areas that are largely dominated by men,” said Natalia Palacios, maize nutrition quality specialist at the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Gender balance is essential in science as it provides a range of perspectives that contribute to better solutions, Palacios said. She has been fascinated by nature and its workings since girlhood growing up in a small farming town in Colombia. Putting this fascination into action proved the possibilities a career in science could have, she said.
“I grew up in a very small farming town and I was always exposed to small farmers and agriculture. But it was when I did my undergrad internship at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia that I realized the scope of potential contributing through science and agriculture has.”
However, a U.N. study conducted in 14 countries indicates that woman and girls remain underrepresented in scientific fields. The probability for female students graduating with a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree in a science-related field are 19, 8 and 2 percent respectively, while the percentages of male students are 37, 18 and 6, it said.
In an effort to address gender disparity, in December, U.N. member states adopted a resolution to establish an annual international day to mark the crucial role women and girls play in science and technological communities celebrated for the first time on Feb. 11 this year. The aim of the International Day for Women and Girls in Science is to further the access of women and girls and their participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, training and research activities.
Palacios pursued her passion for science by studying microbiology at Andes University in Bogota, Colombia, continuing with doctoral studies in plant biochemistry at University of East Anglia and the John Innes Center in Norwich, England. She completed two postdoctoral degrees at the University of Dublin and at the Max Planck Institute for molecular plant physiology in Germany.
She has worked as nutritional quality specialist at CIMMYT since 2005 and is currently head of the maize nutritional quality laboratory. Her main focus is the development of maize germplasm with high nutritional quality, including high-quality protein maize, high zinc and high pro-vitamin A maize. This includes assessment of nutritional quality of food products and phenotyping of genetic diversity for nutritional, end-use quality and culinary quality of maize.
She has more than 40 journal articles published, seven book chapters and more than 10 science magazines and brochures.
Palacios shared her views on women and girls in the science sector in the following interview. Q: Why is it important to have more woman and girls studying as well as working in scientific fields?
Having women and girls in science is as equally as important as having men – you can’t have one without the other. We all have the same potential and we all can contribute to solve problems in science. Whether it’s women, men, people from different cultural backgrounds, each have their own unique and different perspective and all of them contribute to creating better solutions when they work together. Q: What challenges do women and girls face with regard to science today?
Unfortunately there is still discrimination, from the education level to the professional environment, and therefore there are still some areas that are largely dominated by men. There are still many pre-conceptual ideas that people uses to generalize the sexes. For example, the perception may be that women have less flexibility or that men are better working in the field. We just have to be open, hold back judgments and refrain from using one-size-fits-all methodologies, you will be surprised how wrong some of those paradigms can be. Let’s not close the doors due to gender before giving people the opportunity to prove themselves. Q. How does your research improve the lives of women and girls in the developing world?
I am part of a team working on developing maize with enhanced nutritional, end-use and culinary quality. I hope this research will lead to better diets and greater opportunities for everyone. However, our research is significantly important for mothers, who are more prone to malnutrition as their diets rely on only staple crops, which has a negative impact on their children. Malnutrition has an impact on their ability to study or work and limits their life opportunities. By ensuring that the end-use and culinary quality of maize is high, we expect to ease the process of cooking or processing it at home and for small-scale enterprises and create new income opportunities. This way, people can save time and money that then can be used for education and other more rewarding activities.
I also try to take any opportunity to encourage youth and women that have a passion for science to follow it and contribute to society based on their passion. Q: What is your advice to young aspiring female scientists?
To follow dreams and aspirations. Keep working hard, believe in yourself and pursue the passion for science. Gender or cultural background should not limit such a passion.
NEW DELHI (CIMMYT) — Ram Kanwar Malik, senior agronomist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), has received the 2015 Derek Tribe Award from the Crawford Fund, for his “outstanding contributions to making a food secure world by improving and sustaining the productivity of the rice-wheat system of the northwestern and eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains.”
