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.
A yield gap refers to the difference between how much food a farm actually produces and how much food it would be capable of producing if appropriate practices, inputs, technologies and knowledge were applied.
The Global Yield Gap and Water Productivity Atlas seeks to provide the best available estimate of the worldâs exploitable yield gap to better inform major crop-producing countries in creating solutions and investing in technologies to close these gaps.
Access atlas data here or click the poster to the right to view relative yield gaps for maize and wheat globally.
Participants from four south Asian countries attended CSISAâs annual review meeting at Karnal, India. Photo: Bal Kishan Bhonsle
The growing interest of national agriculture research system (NARS) of South Asia in genetic gains and seed dissemination work in Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) objective 4 (wheat breeding), 50 scientists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal assembled at Karnal, India on September 2-3, 2015 for the 7th Wheat Breeding Review Meeting of this project. The meeting was organized by CIMMYTâs Kathmandu office with support from CIMMYT-Delhi/Karnal office and led by Dr. Arun Joshi. Dr. Ravish Chatrath, IIWBR provided strong support as local organizer.
The other CIMMYT participants were Etienne Duveiller, Uttam Kumar and Alistair Pask. Participants included representatives of: the Wheat Research Centre of Bangladesh (Dinajpur); Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute (BARI), Ghazipur; Indiaâs Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR), Karnal and Shimla; the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Delhi and Indore; Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi; the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad; Uttarbanga Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Coochbehar, West Bengal; Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Jabalpur and Powarkheda; Govind Vallabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar; Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, Mohanpur, Distt. Nadia, W. Bengal; Nepalâs National Wheat Research Program (NWRP), Bhairahwa; Nepal Agricultural Research Institute (NARI); Khumaltar of Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and Renewable Natural Resources (RNR), Research and Development Centre (RDC), Bajo, Bhutan.
The CSISA meeting began with remarks by the chief guest, Dr. Indu Sharma, Director, IIWBR, Karnal along with Dr. Md. Rafiqul Islam Mondal, Director General, BARI; Etienne Duveiller, CIMMYT, Delhi and Arun Joshi, CIMMYT, Kathmandu. Within a wider framework of discussing issues concerning wheat improvement, the CSISA meeting reviewed the progress of the 2014-15 cycle, and established work plans for the coming crop cycle. Arun Joshi presented a summary of the achievements in wheat breeding over last 6 years and highlighted the impressive results obtained in varietal release, seed dissemination and impact in farmer fields. Dr. Etienne informed he challenges of climate change and the ways our program should be shaped to handle these issues. Dr. Mondal expressed his happiness that CSISA wheat breeding has been very successful in contributing to enhancement of wheat production and producitity in Bangladesh and other countries through a vigourous wheat breeding and seed dissemination with strong linkage with national centres.
Dr. Indu Sharma highlighted the significance of collaborative research with a regional perspective and told the audience about the successes being achieved by CSISA in wheat research especially in handling rust resistance and heat tolerance in south Asia. She expressed his appreciation for new research efforts under CSISA and said that âthe South Asia-CIMMYT collaboration is paramount to the food security and livelihood of the farmers.â She also said that seeing new challenges there is much more need for such collaborative research efforts for the economic prosperity and good health of agriculture sector in south Asia.
Four review sessions were conducted, chaired by NARS colleagues Dr. Indu Sharma, Dr. Mondal, Dr. Ravi Pratap Singh and Dr. S.P. Khatiwada. Three sessions were used to present review reports and work plans from the 10 research centers, while two other sessions discussed progress in physiology, spot blotch and strengthening linkage of wheat breeding with seed dissemination and capacity building in South Asia. A major discussion was held to devise strategies to strengthen research to handle future threats to wheat such as yellow rust, early and late heat stress, water scarcity and to enable environment for fast track release of varieties so that new seed can reach to farmers as soon as possible.
Arun Joshi also highlighted major achievements in CSISA wheat breeding through very able collaboration by national centres in South Asia. He emphasized that breeding for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance gained momentum through CSISA by developing varieties with faster grain filling and flexibility to adapt to a range of sowing dates. Not only these new varieties were developed, improved networking with public and private sector seed hubs enabled fast track inclusion of these varieties in seed dissemination chain. The increase germplasm flow from CIMMYT, Mexico enriched Indian gene bank with a large reservoir of diverse set of genotypes for current and future used. The continued inclusion of resistance to Ug99 and other rusts in wheat lines kept diseases at bay and safeguarded farmers. There is increased use of physiological tools for heat and drought tolerance and stronger links were established between breeders, seed producers and farmers. Another significant achievement was strengthened capacity building in the region.
A talk on wheat research as Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) was delivered by Uttam Kumar, CIMMYT. Likewise progress on CRP project on spot blotch was presented by Shree Pandey and Ramesh Chand, India. A talk on wheat breeding at Bhutan was presented by Sangay Tshewang. He was happy to inform that through this networking and collaboration with CIMMYT, Bhutan was able to release three new wheat varieties after a gap of 20 years.
On the 2nd day, a visit to IIWBR was organized. Dr. Indu Sharma and her team of scientists led by Dr. Ravish Chatrath facilitated this visit. The participants were taken to different laboratories and current research activities were explained. The participants from Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan expressed desire for increased exchange visits among research institutions of countries in south Asia.
The review meeting enabled CSISA wheat researchers to measure their achievements compared to the challenges being encountered and enabled an environment to discuss future strategies to augment research activities better tuned to future targets in the region. The participants were of the view that strong linkage and coordination between the national research program, the CIMMYT team and other stakeholders especially those in seed business is needed to achieve comprehensive progress towards increasing food availability and better livelihood of masses.
âI got over three bags of 50 kilograms each this season [despite drought] from my one-and-quarter-acre farm. This is amazing! I have never harvested anything beyond one-and-a-half bags in the past.â
Sarahâs smile is due to KDV4 drought-tolerant maize. Her first-time âdrought insuranceâ venture has paid off, and sheâs harvested more despite the drought than she normally does even in good years. Photo credit: B. Wawa/CIMMYT
Drought is one of the biggest challenges that rain-dependent farmers in Africa face. As a result, millions of smallholders and their families become increasingly vulnerable to crop failure that leads to hunger and deeper poverty. What options do smallholders have in the face of drought?
For Mrs. Sarah Nyamai, a farmer from Kalimoni Village in Machakos County, Kenya, maize farming was not a priority until three years ago. She did not take maize farming very seriously â despite the fact that maize has been a staple food in her home for a long time â largely because of very poor yields often blamed on the unforgiving climate that characterizes eastern Kenya.
However, harsh climate is not the only problem that Sarah and hundreds of other farmers in her locality are grappling with. Poor-quality seed makes a bad situation much worse. This means that the likelihood of harvesting enough for the family table is very low. And this, despite the considerable time and resources farmers invest in working the land.
The pain when there is no gain⌠and the “insurance” DT maize offers in bad years
âThere is nothing as bad as buying food when you can grow it in your farm. Money needs to be used to buy other necessities but not food. Not when you can grow and harvest to feed your family,â Sarah observes.
The planting season in Kalimoni Village falls during the MarchâMay long rains. This year, the rainfall was not only very low but also poorly distributed, spelling doom for any good harvest.
Despite this bleak outlook, there is hope for farmers who took preventive measures. Sarahâs face lights up as she harvests a healthy maize cob on her one-and-a-quarter-acre farm. She planted â for the first time â a drought-tolerant (DT) maize variety called KDV4. Her âdrought insuranceâ venture paid off, and she has much to smile about. âI got over three bags of 50 kilograms each this season from my one-and-quarter-acre farm. This is amazing! I have never harvested anything beyond one-and-a-half bags in the past. This is very good seed! And it tastes better too!â Sarah enthuses.
A picture of robust health and vitality: like most other improved DT maize varieties, KDV4 truly comes into its own in drought, and does even better when there is no drought. Photo credit: B. Wawa/CIMMYT
KDV4 is one of the DT varieties sold in Kenyaâs eastern drylands alongside other improved varieties, developed by the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Project in close partnership with public and private partners including local seed companies in Kenya.
Sarah purchased a three-kilogram packet of the KDV4 variety from Dryland Seeds Limited (DSL), the main supplier of DT maize seed in the eastern region. Besides KDV4 maize â an open pollinated variety â DSL also stocks a number of hybrid varieties tailored especially for this region. One such hybrid is DSLH103, locally known as Sawa, a Kiswahili name that loosely translates into âthe good oneâ.
Mr. Joseph Mulei is one of the farmers who has planted Sawa. âSawa has very good yield. I like it particularly because it matures early. If we get good rains in the first two weeks, I am assured of very good harvest from Sawa,â explains Mulei.
Sawa statistics, the story is spreading, but much more remains to be done
Statistics too stand by and reaffirm the Sawa label. On average, hybrids like Sawa give farmers up to 49 percent more grain than open pollinated varieties, and 15 percent more than hybrids currently on the market.
Both Joseph and Sarah have taken the initiative to educate their fellow farmers on the benefits of certified DT seed. Mulei has been particularly influential in his capacity as a leader of 25 farmers in the area. They both concur that it is important for more farmers to plant the improved varieties since they are a guarantee to improving food security.
Yet despite this assurance, improved varieties in the eastern region are still not widespread according to Mr. Ngila Kimotho, the Managing Director of DSL. âMore collaborative effort is needed to create awareness on the improved DT varieties, and more importantly, to ensure that the seeds are available for the farmers,â adds Ngila. The company has conducted several awareness campaigns including field demonstrations and radio programs in a bid to reach as many farmers as possible.
What is CIMMYT doing to spread DT maize?
Through its new project Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS), CIMMYT is working with seed companies like DSL to meet the current demand and improve access to good-quality DT maize. DTMASS plans to produce close to 12,000 metric tonnes of certified seed for approximately 400,000 households â or 2.5 million people â in seven countries in eastern and southern Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia).
DTMASS will make determined efforts to reach as many farmers as possible as an integral part of project goals. Consequently, many more farmers will enjoy the benefits of good yields even in the moderate droughts so common in most of Africaâs maize belt.
New cookbook features your favorite maize and wheat recipes.
Maize and wheat provide vital nutrients and health benefits, making up close to two-thirds of the worldâs food energy intake, and contributing as much as 70 percent of the total calories in the diets of people living in developing countries, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Given the significant role the two food staples play in the human diet, earlier this year, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) asked social media followers to submit their favorite maize and wheat recipes. These contributions are now compiled in the âA Grain a Dayâ recipe book, published to coincide with World Food Day on October 16.
Scientists at CIMMYT are working to ensure the ongoing production of high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties of maize and wheat to improve both the quantity and nutritional quality of these crops.
Globally, an estimated 800 million people do not get enough food to eat and more than 2 billion suffer from micronutrient deficiency, or âhidden hunger,â according to U.N. food agencies.
One in nine people worldwide are chronically undernourished and more than one quarter of children are too short for their age, as a result of nutritional deficiencies, according to a new report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Almost half of all child deaths under age five are due to malnutrition, which kills about 3.1 million children per year, IFPRI reports in the 2015 Global Hunger Index.
Improving the micronutrient content of crops through biofortification can help tackle hidden hunger and improve human health.
Biofortification is method whereby scientists combine conventional plant breeding and lab work to improve the micronutrient content of maize and wheat. At CIMMYT, this process is being used to boost pro-vitamin A and zinc levels in maize and iron and zinc concentrations in wheat.
Share pictures of any recipes you create from the book via the @CIMMYT Twitter feed, using the #GrainaDay hashtag.
Peter Setimela addresses SADC ambassadors. Photo: Masego Forembi/Botswana Embassy.
Peter Setimela, senior seed system specialist at the CIMMYT-Southern Africa Regional Office (CIMMYT-SARO), made a presentation to regional ambassadors on CIMMYTâs work helping to achieve food security in southern Africa, during a meeting organized by the Botswana Embassy on 27 July in Harare, Zimbabwe.
The meeting brought together ambassadors from 13 countries (Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) that make up the Southern African Development Community (SADC). At a time when the SADC region is grappling with acute maize deficits, the ambassadors invited CIMMYT to highlight its work on stress tolerant maize, as well as on maize biofortified with pro-vitamin A and quality protein maize, which could contribute to reducing malnutrition in the region.
Maize production in southern Africa is the lowest in the world, yet its food security is highly dependent on maize. The region has a maize deficit, with only Zambia recording a surplus during the current agricultural season. While all countries had a bumper harvest last season, South Africa recorded a 33% reduction this season, with reports indicating it will import up to 900,000 tonnes of maize to supplement this yearâs harvest. Zambia has been the source market for maize in the past three years, but this year, the country was affected by low rainfall and is expecting reduced maize output, although there is still a surplus.
In his presentation, Setimela highlighted the food security challenges SADC will face in coming years, and recommended urgent action. âWe need to reduce poverty and improve nutrition by promoting climate-resilient and nutritious maize.â He also recommended taking steps to improve farmersâ agricultural practices, such as conservation agriculture, as well as their decision- making in crop production and marketing, and giving them opportunities for value-addition.
He emphasized that CIMMYT is working to help farmers cope with drought and climate change, and pointed out that âdeveloping drought tolerant maize will become more critical, especially now that most countries in the region are being affected by the negative effects of drought or, in some cases, flooding.â Food scarcity and unpredictable changes in food availability in SADC are also due to the scourge of HIV and AIDS.
Setimela ended his presentation by urging the ambassadors to support their national research systems to work in partnership with private seed companies and non-governmental organizations on producing stress and drought tolerant maize varieties.
Over the years, the agricultural sector in SADC has become less attractive to investors and has been relegated behind other economic sectors such as mining and manufacturing. Nonetheless, broad-based agricultural research and development has strong potential to drive economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve food security and nutrition.
EL BATAN, Mexico (CIMMYT) â Rural women play a critical role in enhancing agricultural and rural development, improving food security and eradicating rural poverty.
Women provide innumerable benefits to agricultural systems around the world at all levels of the value chain, but their contributions often go unrecognized. This year, for the U.N. International Day of Rural Women (IDRW) on October 15, the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE) would like to honor the significant contributions that women make to agriculture around the world by sharing photos and stories via our social media channels from our new book: âPortraits of Women Working with Maize in Mexico.â
The book seeks to shine light on the often unseen contributions that rural women make to their families, communities, countries and the world through agriculture.
âAs part of its emphasis on contributing to gender equality and equity in agricultural research for development, MAIZE has increased investments to expand the evidence base on how gender norms and relations intertwine with agricultural practices and innovation and the implications of this for agricultural research and development,â said Lone Badstue, CIMMYT strategic leader for gender research, who also works on the MAIZE CRP, which is administered by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural research.
âThis documentary initiative expands these efforts, portraying an often overlooked side of maize-based livelihoods in Mexico, through images and testimonies of different women, who describe in their own words, their lives as farmers, food makers, artisans and vendors.â
The goal of assuring the food security and livelihoods of rural women is at the heart of many of MAIZE’s projects and activities.
The cross-CRP gender study “GENNOVATE” launchedin 2014 promises to integrate gender-sensitive approaches across MAIZE work in order to better serve rural women as theyadopt agricultural technology.
In 2014, MAIZE also implemented the âGender Matters in Farm Powerâ project, led by the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), which is investigating opportunities to empower men and women through scale-appropriate mechanization. Other activities included efforts to integrate gender into participatory varietal section, the creation of a gender strategy for maize seed system development and initiatives to integrate gender into advisory services and small-scale entrepreneurship.
The participation of rural women is crucial to the success of the MAIZE CRP.
Their faith in using our new varieties and implementing the agricultural practices recommended by MAIZE makes them beacons in their communities, operating as âsecret scientists.â They complete hands-on, on-the-ground research for MAIZE, experimenting to determine the viability of products and practices to their neighbors and paving the way for smallholder farmers worldwide to successfully use and benefit from them.
Their feedback is essential, as we cannot achieve our goal of sustainably increasing production for the 900 million poor consumers for whom maize is a staple food without first closing the gender gap in agriculture.
According to the U.NÂ Food and Agriculture Organization, if women in agriculture were afforded the same rights and opportunities as men, they could increase their farm yields by an estimated 20 to 30 percent and feed up to 150 million more people worldwide. This makes rural women some of our greatest partners in the fight to eradicate hunger and poverty.
We invite you to share your own photos and stories of rural women with us this week using the hashtag #IDRW, to contribute to a global conversation on the worldâs âsecret scientistsâârecognizing our âbehind the scenesâ partners who are so crucial to the success of our research and projects and work every day to protect and promote global food securityârural women.
HarvestPlus pioneers at the off-season seed production site in Dalang Maidan, Himachal Pradesh, India. Photo: HarvestPlus
Public and private sector partners in HarvestPlusâ biofortified wheat research and dissemination network in South Asia got together at ICRISAT, Hyderabad, on 10-11 September to discuss progress on breeding research, producing seed for target populations, and strategies for accelerating seed production and fast-tracking commercialization of biofortified zinc-rich wheat varieties.
Partners from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan, as well as delegates from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), various state agricultural universities, NGOs, small and medium-size private seed companies, processors, millers, and progressive farmers discussed topics such as critical gaps and opportunities in outreach strategies, priority upscaling interventions, and policy incentives for fast-track adoption of improved high Zn wheat varieties.
ICAR Deputy Director General (Crop Science) J.S. Sandhu inaugurated the workshop with a formal presentation on Indiaâs Consortia Research Platforms (CRP) for improving nutritional quality of major staples and emphasized the extraordinary nutritional challenges that country faces, e.g., some of the highest rates of childhood stunting and malnutrition in the world. Wolfgang Pfeiffer, HarvestPlus Director (Product Development and Deployment), highlighted the success of HarvestPlus partners in disseminating nutrient-dense wheat, reaching 50,000 farm households and providing biofortified wheat to a quarter of a million household members by 2015. Parminder Virk, Product Development Manager at HarvestPlus, urged participants to set up a fast-track commercialization pipeline to enable nutrient rich wheat varieties to reach smallholder farmers fast.
CIMMYT Wheat Breeder Velu Govindan discussed advances in the development of competitive high Zn wheat germplasm at CIMMYT, Mexico, to satisfy the needs of national program partners, while Arun Joshi, Senior Wheat Breeder, CIMMYT-South Asia, emphasized the crucial role of public and private sector partners in ensuring farmers have rapid and long-term access to nutrient rich wheat seed. Ravish Chatrath, IIWBR, summarized the results of a special biofortified wheat trial conducted across locations in India.
HarvestPlus Wheat Biofortification meeting held at ICRISAT, in Patancheru. Photo credit : HarvestPlus.
V.K. Mishra, Banaras Hindu University, reported that farmer-participatory varietal selection trials have enabled the identification and release of competitive high Zn wheat varieties for fast-track commercialization in the eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India. The new varieties are not only nutritionally superior, but also drought tolerant and resistant to rusts and other foliar diseases. They are being commercialized in India as truthfully-labeled seed under different names by private companies and farmersâ seed production networks.
Martin Kropff made his first official visit to China as CIMMYT Director General from 28 August to 1 September. He was accompanied by his wife and by Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYTâs former DG. Major activities included meeting with Jiayang Li, President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), and visiting the potential site for a new China-CIMMYT center in Tongzhou, located an hourâs drive from CAAS headquarters. Kropff also met with Jiangguo Zhang, Vice-Minister and Administrator of the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA), and officially presented a statue of Norman Borlaug to him in recognition of SAFEA and Jiangguo Zhangâs personal support for the CIMMYT-China collaboration.
The visitors from CIMMYT also had a fruitful discussion with the China Scholarship Council (SCC), which has sponsored 18 visiting scientists at CIMMYT. Liu Jinghui, SCC Secretary General, was very impressed with CIMMYTâs impact both worldwide and in China and agreed to increase the allowance of visiting scientists and postgraduate students from US$ 900 per month to US$ 1400 at CIMMYT HQ and all regional offices. Each year, SCC will offer more than 10 scholarships, ranging from 12 to 24 months, to train at CIMMYT. A memorandum of understanding between CIMMYT and SCC will be signed soon. In addition to these activities, Kropff visited Chinaâs National Nature Science Foundation and met with CIMMYT Board Member Feng Feng.
Kropff also visited the CIMMYT office at CAAS and attended presentations by CIMMYT staff stationed at four locations. He mentioned that he will continue the work Tom Lumpkin did in China, which is the reason they decided to travel together. Maize and wheat are, respectively, the first and third leading crop in China. CIMMYT has worked with China for over 35 years; it opened its China office in 1997 and will continue to expand its collaboration.
Kingbird released in Ethiopia to combat new stem rust threat. Credit: Linda McCandless
Farmers in Ethiopia are banking on Kingbird, the latest variety of wheat to be released by the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR). Kingbird is resistant to Ug99, the devastating race of stem rust first identified and subsequently race-typed as TTKSK in 1999, and TKTTF, a new stem rust race identified in 2012 that raged through so many Ethiopian farmersâ fields in 2013 and 2014.
The scourge of wheat farmers the world over, stem rust can quickly turn a wheat field into black stalks empty of grain when environmental conditions are optimal.
The new variety was evaluated at multiple locations in Ethiopia during the 2014 season and approved for release in 2015. âKingbird offers new hope for resource-poor farmers in stem rust prone areas of Ethiopia,â said Fentahun Mengistu, EIAR Director General. âIt is expected to replace the varieties Hawi and Pavon-76 in lowland areas, and complement Kakaba, Ogolcho, Shorima and a few other mid-altitude varieties.â
As Ronnie Coffman, vice-chair of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), the international network of scientists, breeders and national wheat improvement programs that cooperated on the release of Kingbird, pointed out, crop diseases do not respect international boundaries. âWheat farmers the world over are threatened by outbreaks of new races of yellow and stem rust of wheat on an almost yearly basis. It takes persistent and continually evolving international efforts to protect staple crops like wheat on a global scale.â
âKingbirdâs multi-disease resistance attributes combined with good bread-making quality and good yield performance led to its release in South Africa and Kenya a few years back,â said Ravi Singh, senior wheat scientist at CIMMYT, whose team is instrumental in making the initial crosses for most new wheat introductions in the developing world.
The pipeline for developing varieties such as Kingbird has been directed by the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat (DRRW) project at Cornell University, acting as BGRI secretariat, since 2008. CIMMYT, the international Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), national agricultural research systems, and 22 other institutions assist in the effort. Generous support is provided by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK Department of International Development (DFID).
To read more on Kingbirdâs development and spread and the efforts to protect world wheat production, check out the BGRI blog, âHow Kingbird moved across East Africa.â A poster abstract by Zerihun Tadesse, wheat breeder at the EIAR, may be found here.
CIMMYT wheat breeder Sridhar Bhavani talks about the recently discovered virulence of TKTTF on Robin in Kenya, and Digelu in Ethiopia, and the new Kingbird release here.
Through the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project, 13 maize hybrids were approved for commercial production by relevant authorities in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and South Africa between October 2014 and March 2015. This means that farmers will soon access these hybrids and benefit from higher yields within their specified environments.
WEMA provides farmers with maize varieties that produce higher yields under moderate drought and are protected from insect damage by their pest resistance. As a key player in the WEMA partnership, CIMMYT contributes its technical expertise, particularly in breeding, to the project.
âOur main focus is to give farmers durable solutions,â explains Stephen Mugo, CIMMYT Regional Representative for Africa and maize breeder who also coordinates CIMMYTâs work in WEMA. âThese seeds are bred with important traits that meet farmersâ needs, and have the ability to give higher yields within specific environments.â
All hybrids released under the WEMA project will be sold to farmers under the trade name DroughtTEGOâ˘. âTegoâ is Latin for cover, protect or defend. The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), which coordinates the WEMA project, has sub-licensed 22 seed companies in the four countries to produce DroughtTEGO⢠seeds to sell to farmers.View the full story here and read more about WEMA and the newly released hybrids.
In response to the interest expressed by the Seed Entrepreneursâ Association of Nepal (SEAN), CIMMYT-Nepal organized a meeting with SEAN and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) on 29 July 2015 at NARCâs Agriculture Botany Division, Khumaltar, as an activity of the CIMMYT-led Cereal System Initiative for South Asia-Nepal (CSISA-NP).
Following its interaction with the National Seed Association of India (NSAI) and Indian seed businesses during an event organized by CSISA-NP in the first and second week of June, SEAN decided to devise a strategic roadmap and upgrade its organizational strategy. The specific purpose of the July meeting, which was attended by 19 participants from SEAN, 3 from NARC and 4 from CIMMYT-Nepal, was to study SEANâs vision, mission and goal, and how they could be updated in the current era of globalization, technological innovation and deregulation.
Increasing farmersâ access to quality seed is important for enhancing Nepalâs food security. To this end, CSISA-NP has been helping small and medium seed enterprises accelerate their growth in an integrated manner. To facilitate their growth, the current situation of seed enterprises, the challenges they face and their potential for growth were recently documented, and the outcomes will be presented at the National Seed Summit on 14-15 September 2015. In addition, representatives of 15 Nepali seed enterprises visited Indian seed companies in May 2015 to learn from their experience, and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between NSAI and SEAN to foster partnership between them.
Speaking on behalf of SEAN, its president, Laxmi Kanta Dhakal, said that to catalyze the implementation of the MoU between their organization and NSAI, SEAN needs to develop appropriate strategies to address its internal issues as well as reshape partnership modes with potential national and international stakeholders.
Initiated in 1989, SEAN was registered in Nepal in 1991 as a non-profit organization and now comprises 500 members, including seed entrepreneurs engaged in producing, processing and marketing seeds and other agricultural inputs. SEANâs main purpose has been to organize individual entrepreneurs and private companies to foster capacity building, lobbying and advocating on behalf of seed entrepreneurs, thereby strengthening the national seed industry.
At the meeting, Gurbinder Singh Gill gave a lecture on how to develop the strategic roadmap and facilitated the session where SEAN started working on its mission, vision and goal statements. Gill also shared case studies from different countries and organizations to encourage SEANâs leadership team to start working at the organizational level. Once these themes are discussed and detailed by SEAN at the organizational level, CSISA-NP will hold a workshop to decide on the way forward. This should lead to an implementable strategic plan for the next five or ten years.
NARC, SEAN and CIMMYT colleagues engaged in establishing a strategic road map for seed enterprises in Nepal.
Towards the end of the meeting, NARC Director (Crops and Horticulture) Shanbhu Prasad Khatiwada said that strong linkage and coordination between the national research program, SEAN, seed enterprises and the CIMMYT team are needed to achieve comprehensive progress towards solving Nepalâs food security issues. He said that this was the first meeting of its kind in Nepal where SEAN, NARC and CIMMYT came together to reshape the organizational strategy of the only seed association of Nepal.
The event was opened by Arun Joshi, Country Representative of CIMMYT-Nepal, facilitated by CIMMYT consultants Narayan Khanal and Gurbinder Singh, and by K.C. Dilli, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, CIMMYT-Nepal.
Velvet bean planted in rotation with maize increases soil fertility, provides biomass for feed and suppresses weeds in Chipata, Zambia. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT.
It is widely accepted that improved maize germplasm will only express its yield potential under optimum agronomic management such as timely planting, optimal plant/space arrangements, and timely weed and pest control. But perhaps the most important agronomic intervention is adequate fertilization. Although farmers in Europe and America have used mineral fertilizers for generations, these have become available in Africa only relatively recently. However, the excessive use of mineral fertilizer in Europe and America has led to water pollution and eutrophication, and has increased the energy requirements of the fertilizer production process.
In Africa, mineral fertilizer remains a scarce, expensive and risky resource for most smallholder farmers. On average, farmers use less than 10 kg/ha of NPK fertilizer, and many do not apply it at all. The price of fertilizer is 3-5 times higher in Africa than in Europe due to the lack of infrastructure and production facilities, often making it unaffordable for farmers. Fertilizer is primarily applied to higher value and horticulture crops that, unlike maize, give farmers greater return on their investment.
Many farmers in southern Africa plant maize extensively on large areas, harvest less than 1 t/ha on average and mine already depleted nutrients from the soil while trying to become food secure and escape from poverty â an impossible task! But farmers are now being offered a range of solutions that provide a way out of the poverty trap, such as improved drought and stress tolerant maize germplasm, conservation agriculture (CA), improved rotation systems with legumes and green manure cover crops.
The use of CA principles (minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and diversification through rotation and intercropping) hinges on the ability of farmers to retain sufficient surface crop residues to protect the soil from heavy rain, evaporation and sunlight. However, farmers in mixed crop/livestock systems face competing demands for these residues because they also feed them to their animals.
It is against this background that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) involved CIMMYT in a small project aimed at introducing green manures to smallholder farmers in eastern Zambia and central and southern Malawi. Green manures are grown primarily to improve the soil, generate biomass for ground cover and provide fodder; some also produce grain for feed and food.
In Lilongwe District, Malawi, farmer Bikoni Yohane and wife Esnart proudly present their maize-cowpea intercropped field, which will produce grain and leaves for home consumption and im-prove soil fertility. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT.
A range of varieties have been tested by the Global Conservation Agriculture Program over the past five years. Crops such as velvet bean, lablab, cowpea, sunnhemp, jackbean, pigeonpea and groundnuts have been identified as viable options with great potential for smallholders. They provide 5-50 t/ha of extra biomass for groundcover and/or fodder, leave 50-350 kg/ha of residual nitrogen in the soil and do not need extra fertilizer to grow. The new project is testing these species in full rotation or intercropped with maize on farmersâ fields in the three project regions. To increase adoption, the project is using an intensive participatory process to adapt the green manures to smallholder conditions.
This initiative is not the only one where CIMMYT has been involved with green manure cover crops: in northern Mozambique, a collaboration with CARE International reports that yield increased from 4 t/ha to 13 t/ha by only using lab-lab and improved germplasm in cassava-based CA systems. The ACIAR-funded ZimCLIFFS project in Zimbabwe was also very successful in growing lablab and velvet beans to generate supplementary fodder for livestock during the dry winter period.
Through innovative approaches, CIMMYT will further explore new ways of integrating green manures into smallholder farming systems so they become the status quo, not just an option!
CIMMYT is pleased to announce the release of a set of 16 new CIMMYT maize lines (CMLs). These CMLs were developed at various breeding locations of the CIMMYT Global Maize Program by multi-disciplinary teams of scientists in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. These lines are adapted to the tropical and subtropical maize production environments targeted by CIMMYT and partner institutions.
Economist Philip Pardey on the sidelines of the International Wheat Yield Conference in Sydney, Australia. CIMMYT/Julie Mollins
SYDNEY, Australia (CIMMYT) â When storybook character Alice stepped through the looking glass, the Red Queen encouraged her to run as fast as she could. Alice did, but despite her efforts she remained stuck in one place:
âNow, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!â said the Red Queen.
Despite efforts to develop wheat that is resistant to damaging stem, stripe and leaf rusts, the diseases, which have existed for 10,000 years, will continue to thwart scientists, Pardey said, adding that the annual global investment in wheat rust research should be $108 million a year in perpetuity.
Currently, major projects such as the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative, which is directed at completely wiping out Ug99 stem rust, are funded for set periods of time and target specific strains of rust. It is unfeasible to expect a cure to be found, Pardey argued.
âItâs fallacious to think that we can âsolve the stem rust problemâ through funding because the actual solution sows the seeds of its own destruction,â Pardey said, explaining that the fight against rusts is ongoing and must be funded continuously.
RED QUEEN EFFECT
Just as Alice and the Red Queen ran in one spot as hard as they could but got nowhere, rust sexual reproduction and genetic re-combinations fight to survive, allowing wheat rusts to co-evolve and adapt to changes in their environment.
In his study, Pardey determined that global losses from all three rusts average at least 15.04 million tons (552.8 million bushels) per year, equivalent to an average annual loss of about $2.9 billion a year.
He calculated that the economically justifiable investment in wheat rust research and development should be $108 million a year, equivalent to an annual investment of $0.51 per hectare per year across the current 212 million hectares (524 acres) of wheat worldwide.
âThe nature of the intervention is that the very seeds of success of wheat breeders sows their own destruction,â Pardey said. âA co-evolutionary pressure is developed where rust has every incentive to survive, so when fungicides are used or the biology of the plants is altered to resist those fungi, it forces evolutionary pressure on the fungi to evolve around that resistance.â
Almost the entire global wheat crop is at risk of infection from wheat rusts, Pardey said. Globally, only 3.2 percent of the crop is grown in areas not susceptible to â¨infection, while 62.7 percent of the crop is in areas that are vulnerable to all three rusts.
âIâm hopeful Pardeyâs research findings illustrate the importance of ongoing funding for wheat rust research,â said Hans Braun, head of the Global Wheat Program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the Wheat Research Program overseen by the CGIAR consortium of agricultural researchers.
âPardeyâs research is critical in highlighting the severity of the threat from all three types of rust, showing that continuous funding in perpetuity is the best way to keep them in check. Consistent funding will make it easier to help farmers and protect food security by controlling the disease.â
GLOBAL RISKS
Through modeling for both seasonal vulnerability and system vulnerability, Pardey determined that losses at any particular location or point in time do not represent the average annual global losses over the longer term.
âIn 1935, the United States lost a fifth of the crop to rust, last year they lost less than half a percent,â Pardey said. âSo, I wouldnât want to take last yearâs loss as being representative of the losses of this disease, nor would I want to take the 1935 loss. Itâs not representative.â
Pardey developed a framework to characterize the probabilistic nature of losses over the century, then conducted a Monte Carlo simulation â which assesses risk impact under all possible outcomes of a given scenario â to determine a loss average estimate.
âIf wheat breeders are successful in getting modern varieties onto all the wheat areas around the world, there is additional value because theyâre at a higher yield level when the disease pulls the yields down,â Pardey said.
âHigh-yield varieties make the value of the rust avoidance go up as the yield goes up. Youâve got a virtuous cycle. The rust resistance becomes more valuable the more extensive the higher yielding varieties are spread. An investment of $108 million a year just allows us to keep up with it â weâre running fast to stand still.â
In a study published last month in Food Security, CIMMYT researchers reported that wheat farmersâ total annual income increased by 6% on average with the introduction of zero tillage (ZT) in Bihar.
While studies done in the past in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP) have shown ZT impacts in field trials or controlled environments, this research is believed to be the first that studied actual impacts in farmersâ fields in eastern India.
ZT allows direct planting of wheat without plowing, sowing seeds directly into residues of the previous crop on the soil surface, thus saving irrigation water, increasing soil organic matter and suppressing weeds.
âWe found that the prevailing ZT practice, without full residue retention, used by farmers in Bihar has led to an average yield gain of 498 kilogram per hectare (19%) over conventional tillage wheat, which is in contrast to the results of a recent global meta-analysisâ says Alwin Keil, Senior Agricultural Economist, CIMMYT and the lead author of this study.
The global meta-analysis published last year compared crop yields in ZT and conventionally tilled production systems across 48 crops in 63 countries. It reported that ZT is only profitable in rainfed systems and when it is combined with full residue retention and crop rotation. âHowever, in Bihar, marginal and resource-poor farmers cannot afford to leave the full residue in the field as they use the rice straw to feed their livestock,â says Keil.
According to Keil, the divergent findings of the meta-analysis may be caused by the fact that most of the reviewed studies were conducted in moderate climatic zones (U.S., Canada, Europe, China) and results were aggregated across various crops.
Bringing a Wheat Revolution to Eastern India
Compared to the prosperous northwestern states, the eastern IGP is characterized by pervasive poverty and high population density, and its resource-poor farmers are more prone to the risks of climate change. Bihar has the lowest wheat yields in the IGP with an average of 2.14 tons per hectare.
To feed a growing wheat-consuming population, Bihar currently imports wheat largely from Punjab, where yields have stagnated over the last five years due to an over-exploitation of resources, especially water.
While ZT is widespread on the mechanized farms of Punjab and Haryana, seat of the first Green Revolution in India, farmers in the eastern IGP are yet to benefit. âThere is also evidence that the positive effect of ZT is larger in areas with low agricultural productivity (generally low yields, such as Bihar) than in areas with higher productivity (such as Punjab, for instance),â remarks Keil.
Increasing Access among Smallholders
The study concludes that ZT users reap substantial benefits, and that this technology could help close the growing yield gap between production and consumption of wheat in Bihar. A 19% yield increase would translate into a production increase of 950,000 MT, which exceeds the total wheat imports into Bihar (868,000 MT in 2011).
However, with low ownership of tractors and ZT drills, large-scale adoption of ZT in eastern India hinges on an expansion of the network of service providers, who can custom-hire these kinds of services to smallholder farmers.
With public and private sector partners, the CIMMYT-led Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) has supported the development of ZT service providers among tractor owners by facilitating the purchase of ZT drills and providing technical trainings and know-how since 2009. Consequently, the number of ZT service providers in Bihar increased from 17 in 2011 to 1,624 in 2014, servicing a total of approximately 44,700 acres.
âFurthermore, we found that only 32% of non-users of ZT in our sample were aware of the technology. Hence, increasing the number of service providers to enhance farmersâ access to ZT has to go hand-in-hand with large-scale information campaigns to raise their awareness of the technology,â says Keil.
A yield gap refers to the difference between how much food a farm actually produces and how much food it would be capable of producing if appropriate practices, inputs, technologies and knowledge were applied.
