Theme: Nutrition, health and food security

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.

Bill Gates and Carlos Slim Partner to Support Innovation for Farmers

Written by on February 13, 2013. Posted in Features.

Daimoniz Miondo is one of 800 farmers in Chipeni, Mvera Extension Planning Area, Dowa District, Malawi, who has adopted conservation agriculture practices in recent years with joint support from Malawi’s Department of Agricultural Extension Services, the NGO Total LandCare, and CIMMYT. “I’m harvesting between 30 and 40 bags of maize now per acre, where I used to get only 15 or 20 bags,” says Miondo, who farms to support a household of seven. “Before conservation agriculture, there was a lot of erosion and the rain would wash away the fertilizer and affect the yields.” Conservation agriculture practices cut labor and other farm costs, as well as helping to capture and hold rainfall, thus salvaging harvests when drought hits. Photo credit: Trevor Samson/CIMMYT

Originally posted on the Impatient Optimists blog (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) on 13 February 2013.

We are extremely pleased to welcome Bill Gates and Carlos Slim Helú to CIMMYT headquarters near Mexico City today. They have come to inaugurate major infrastructure improvements for CIMMYT supported by their respective foundations. The nearly 20,000 square meters of construction include badly-needed advanced laboratories, greenhouses, and training facilities. They will be used for cutting-edge research by CIMMYT to help speed the access of developing country farmers to the benefits of science and innovation.

Where are we now and what have we learned?

The repeated food price hikes of recent years most sorely affect the poor, who spend as much as three-quarters of their daily income simply to eat. We know that 0.8 billion human beings are not eating enough.

We’ve not seen the last of food price crises. Widespread, severe droughts of 2012 have devastated global grain harvests, further reduced food stocks, made export markets skittish. Because the world relies heavily on a few, high-production “bread basket” countries, low stocks superimposed on financial speculation will surely bring further, seismic shocks to global food markets.

From the 2007-08 food price peaks, which fueled food riots in more than 30 countries, it should be clear that global food security is everyone’s concern, in both developed and developing countries.

Not all is gloom and doom: Innovation can support more precise and productive science and farming.

There is hope, and more bountiful harvests and sustainable agriculture are key parts of the solution. In many developing countries farming continues to employ large segments of the populace and plays a central role in national economies. There is enormous potential for farmers to boost productivity, reduce reliance on destructive practices, move beyond subsistence, and power development at large. Best of all, new, exciting science is available to adapt to small-scale farmers’ needs, and these farmers are actually looking to policymakers and research and extension organizations to support them.

CIMMYT partners with those actors and others worldwide to offer farmers improved options: better seed and knowhow, improved cropping systems, more secure crop storage methods. Progressive farmers begin to view their daily occupation as an enterprise, rather than mere subsistence, so the focus shifts onto science and innovation to gain precision. Several examples:

DNA analysis to home in on high-value maize and wheat traits for better yields, disease resistance, heat and drought tolerance.
Doubled haploids to speed the creation of genetically pure inbred lines and new maize hybrids.
Conservation and precision agriculture, including more targeted application of irrigation water and fertilizer to boost system output while saving resources and the environment.
Cell phone services so farmers can access precise, locally-tailored information on weather, markets, recommended crops and practices for their fields.

An extraordinary initiative funded by and co-coordinated with Mexico—known as MasAgro, the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture—is taking these and other innovations directly to Mexican farmers and sequencing the DNA of CIMMYT’s vast maize and wheat seed collections. Similarly innovative partnerships in Africa and Asia feature cropping systems approaches to increase yields and the resilience of the resource base, while supporting farmers’ direct involvement to test and promote new practices. Millions of smallholder farmers and consumers in sub-Saharan Africa are benefiting from the adoption of drought tolerant maize varieties developed using advanced breeding techniques.

The work of all these partners, including CIMMYT, would not be possible without the support of other key partners: national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public and private agencies, including the CGIAR Consortium, who represent the political will and commitment of their constituents through their donations and engagement. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provides not only momentous funding for our work, but invaluable technical guidance and political support.

Returning to today’s inauguration, thanks to the generous support of the Carlos Slim Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we have effectively doubled our research capacity here in Mexico.

We can accelerate our efforts to unlock the tremendous potential of wheat and maize using modern information and communications technology, combined with the improved and more sustainable agricultural practices. The very personal and proactive engagement in CIMMYT’s mission of visionary personalities such as Mr. Slim Helú and Mr. Gates, and the on-going support of their respective foundations for our relatively little-known research institute, send a strong signal to the world that something important must be going on here. Indeed there is.

Guest post: Partnering to Empower Poor Farming Families and Ensure Global Food Security

Written by on February 13, 2013. Posted in Features.

Originally posted on the Impatient Optimists blog (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation) on February 8, 2013. By David Bergvinson – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Mexican scientist and CIMMYT collaborator J. Arahón Hernández Guzmán examines a maize ear in Jala, Mexico. Photo courtesy of Eloise Phipps/CIMMYT

There is an African proverb that captures the importance of partnerships in the work we do at the Gates Foundation: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.”

Nowhere are partnerships more important than in efforts to help poor farming families around the world to increase their agricultural productivity. Helping farmers grow and sell more crops in a sustainable and equitable way is a catalyst for rural employment that helps address poverty, nutrition, and food security.

One of our partners in this effort is the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (the Spanish acronym is CIMMYT). CIMMYT was the birth place of the first Green Revolution, which resulted from breakthroughs in the development of high yielding wheat varieties that first enabled Mexico to become self-sufficient in wheat production in the 1960s. This was then shared with farmers in India and Pakistan to avert mass starvation.

This success was made possible by bringing together innovation, strong partnerships between nations, and a clear end goal to address an urgent need – global food security.

Next week, we will see another tremendous step towards addressing this urgent need. Bill Gates and Mexican businessman and philanthropist Carlos Slim will inaugurate a new research complex at CIMMYT that will address the complex challenges facing maize and wheat farmers around the globe. How?

The new facilities will enable CIMMYT and its international partners to utilize the power of technology to store information on genetic makeup of plants to improve seed varieties for the benefit of millions. CIMMYT’s maize and wheat gene banks hold the keys that – through better seed varieties – can help farmers address the challenges posed by climate change, increase the efficiency of crops in the use of fertilizer and limited water resources, and improve the nutritional quality of staple crops.

This important work – to make better use of natural crop diversity – is the largest international effort of its kind. The project is supported by the Government of Mexico under the MasAgro project, and will benefit not only farmers in Mexico, but farmers around the globe, through a network of dedicated researchers – many of whom have been trained at CIMMYT over the past decades.

Information and genetic resources generated by MasAgro will be shared freely with the global maize and wheat community, and serve as a model for other crops that are vital to smallholder farm families. Generating these global public goods is a unique role that CIMMYT plays in the agricultural development ecosystem.

In Bill Gates’ Annual Letter, he emphasized the importance that innovation, goals, and measurement have played in enabling the world to work toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – including the goal of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.

The donation made by Carlos Slim to modernize CIMMYT’s research facility will help ensure its continued contribution to develop and delivering farmer-preferred solutions that increase productivity in a sustainable manner. Providing resources for agricultural innovation, building strong partnerships, and setting clear goals for productivity gives us good reason to be optimistic about the future of food security and increased farm productivity to help lift rural families out of poverty.

Zhonghu He received the China Agriculture Elite Award

Written by on February 13, 2013. Posted in News.

Zhonghu He, CIMMYT distinguished scientist and country liaison officer for China, received the China Agriculture Elite Award from the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) in December 2012. The award, presented to 10 Chinese agricultural scientists every 2 years, was created by the MOA in 2006 to recognize individual scientists for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of agricultural science and technology and to the development of agriculture and rural economy in China.

CIMMYT supports Pakistan’s agricultural machinery modernization

Written by on February 12, 2013. Posted in News.

On 22 December 2012, two agricultural research organizations in Pakistan — National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, and Wheat Research Institute (WRI) Faisalabad, Punjab — received new Wintersteiger combine harvester and seeding machines from the Wheat Production Enhancement Program for Pakistan (WPEP) funded by USDA and implemented by CIMMYT in an effort to upgrade Pakistan’s wheat research infrastructure. Until now, the institutes were relying on old harvesting and planting machines which could no longer satisfy their research needs. Makhdoom Hussain, WRI Faisalabad director, expressed his gratitude regarding the purchase: “The replacement of old irreparable machines was much needed. It will build the Institute’s capacity to precisely design and conduct experiments.”

Second Class of National Science and Technology Award to Fan Xingming and his team

Written by on February 7, 2013. Posted in News.

The prestigious Second Class of National Science and Technology Awards was presented to the “Tropical and subtropical high-quality, highyield germplasm: innovation research and application” maize project led by Fan Xingming, a CIMMYT partner from the Institute of Food Crops (IFC) at the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS), on 18 January 2013 in Beijing, China.

The project, coordinated by the national maize innovation team, has achieved great results in tropical and subtropical maize germplasm improvement, combining ability analysis and heterosis classification, establishing new methods to classify heterotic groups, and developing and registering 25 high-yielding maize hybrids, including Yunrui 8, Yunrui 1, and Yunyou 19. This has helped to resolve the long-lasting problem with the lack of tropical and subtropical superior maize hybrids in China. The hybrids have been planted on a cumulative area of 11 million hectares in the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, and Guizhou in southwestern China, and contributed to the provision of resources for poor farmers in the mountainous areas and among minority groups.

Global Maize Program meeting: The old and the new intersect in Kathmandu

Written by on February 5, 2013. Posted in News.

Lone Badstue (CIMMYT gender and monitoring and evaluation specialist; third from left, bottom) talks with four coordinators of community-based seed production groups in Nepal (top, from right). Also present are Katrine Danielsen, Senior Advisor, Social Development and Gender Equity of the Royal Tropical Institute of Denmark (far left), and Kamala Sapkota, intern working in the Hill Maize Research Project (second from left).

Applying advanced technologies and reconciling dramatic growth in funding, staffing, and complex partnerships with the need to speed farmers’ access to options for better food security and incomes were the themes of discussion among more than 60 specialists in maize breeding, agronomy, socioeconomics, and diverse related disciplines who met in Kathmandu, Nepal, during 28-31 January 2013. “This was a great opportunity for old and new staff to get acquainted and help launch the vibrant evolution of our Program to meet clients and stakeholders’ needs,” said GMP director B.M. Prasanna. “The participation of colleagues from other programs and organizations was crucial, allowing us to identify and address logjams and potential synergies and continue our journey toward being an institution, rather than a mere collection of isolated projects.”

Is wheat a perfect, chronic poison?

Written by on January 31, 2013. Posted in Features.

A new book makes a number of controversial claims about wheat. Once you sort through the hyperbole and hysteria, here’s the news flash: Wheat is not a poison. Millions of people eat it every day. However, wheat — like eggs or peanuts — can make you sick. A small percentage of people are unable to eat wheat due to allergy or health reasons.

The publication of The Wheat Belly, by Dr. William Davis, led some people to question the impact of wheat in their diet, and the ways in which this crop has been improved in recent decades.

If you believe Davis’ book, wheat is bad for you and makes you obese. Yet this grain has been a staple of the human diet for thousands of years, and is a vital source of fiber, starch, and antioxidants. In recent years, wheat consumption in the US has decreased, whilst obesity levels have increased. Weight gain is due to a combination of factors (genetics, diet, lifestyle, environment), and according to data from the World Health Organization, there is no correlation between per capita wheat production and obesity.

Responding to Davis’ claims, The National Wheat Improvement Committee (NWIC) sought input from internationally renowned wheat scientists and used peer-reviewed research in seeking to verify the truth about wheat breeding and improvements.

According to the NWIC, “wheat is an essential, safe, healthy, and wholesome source of energy and essential nutrients… it provides an estimated 4.5 billion people in 94 developing countries 20 percent of their protein intake.”

The NWIC highlighted that wheat improvement has been occurring naturally for the last 10,000 years. In the last 70 years, scientists have simply learnt to capitalize on this by combining genes from complementary wheat parents to incorporate favorable traits into offspring, or by introducing genes from ancestral wheats into new varieties. Neither method employs genetic engineering.

In his book, Davis claims that all wheat is the same, but just as one variety may be taller than another, varieties also vary in protein content. We need a high protein content to make breads and pasta, and flour with low protein levels for making cakes and noodles. One of these proteins is called ‘gliadin’, but contrary to Davis’ assertions, this is not a new protein and was actually discovered more than 100 years ago.

So before you cut wheat out of your diet, take a few minutes to read the full NWIC article, and make your decision based on solid science and expert opinions.

Un nuevo libro hace diversas afirmaciones polémicas sobre el trigo. Una vez revisada la hipérbole y superada la histeria que produce, la noticia es la siguiente: el trigo no es un veneno. Millones de personas lo comen todos los días. Sin embargo, el trigo —al igual que los huevos o los cacahuetes— pueden causar problemas de salud. Un pequeño porcentaje de personas no pueden comer trigo porque puede causarles alergia u otros problemas de salud.

La publicación de The Wheat Belly (“Barriga triguera”), del doctor William Davis, dio lugar a que algunas personas pusieran en cuestión el efecto de incluir trigo en su alimentación y la manera en que este cultivo se ha mejorado en las últimas décadas.

Según el libro de Davis, el trigo hace mal y produce obesidad. No obstante, este grano ha sido un alimento básico para la humanidad durante miles de años y es una fuente vital de fibra, almidón y antioxidantes. En los últimos años, el consumo de trigo ha disminuido en los Estados Unidos, mientras que la obesidad ha aumentado. El aumento de peso se debe a una combinación de factores (genéticos, alimentarios, de hábitos de vida y medioambientales) y según los datos de la Organización Mundial de la Salud, no existe correlación entre la producción per cápita de trigo y la obesidad.

Para responder a las afirmaciones de Davis, el Comité Estadounidense de Mejoramiento del Trigo (National Wheat Improvement Committee, NWIC) consultó a investigadores de fama internacional especializados en dicha especie, para conocer la verdad sobre su selección y mejoramiento.

Según el NWIC, “el trigo es una fuente fundamental, inocua, saludable y sustanciosa de energía y nutrientes esenciales… proporciona el 20% del aporte proteico a 4,500 millones de personas de 94 países en desarrollo”.

El NWIC subrayó que el mejoramiento del trigo se ha estado produciendo naturalmente durante los últimos 10,000 años. En los últimos 70 años, los investigadores solo han aprehendido a sacar provecho de él combinando genes de progenitores complementarios de trigo para incorporar caracteres favorables a su descendencia o introduciendo genes de trigos ancestrales en las nuevas variedades. Ningún método emplea la ingeniería genética.

En su libro, Davis afirma que todos los trigos son iguales, pero de la misma manera que unas variedades son más altas que otras, pueden variar también en cuanto a contenido proteico. Necesitamos harina de alto contenido proteico para elaborar pan y pasta y de bajo contenido proteico para la pastelería y los fideos. Una de estas proteínas se denomina “gliadina”, pero al contrario de lo que afirma Davis, no es una nueva proteína sino que, en realidad, se ha descubierto hace más de 100 años.

Por lo tanto, antes de eliminar el trigo de su alimentación, dedique unos minutos a leer todo el artículo del NWIC y tome una decisión basada en argumentos científicos sólidos y en las opiniones de los expertos.

Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in Kenya and Tanzania: Facts and actions

Written by on January 29, 2013. Posted in News.

A serious new disease of maize appeared in the farmers’ fields in eastern Africa in 2011. Called maize lethal necrosis (MLN; or corn lethal necrosis, CLN), it can devastate maize crops. The disease is difficult to control for two reasons:

It is caused by a combination of two viruses that are difficult to differentiate individually based on visual symptoms.
The insects that transmit the disease-causing viruses may be carried by wind over long distances.

National and global research and extension organizations, laboratories, and seed companies are working together to control the spread of the disease and to develop and deploy disease-resistant maize varieties for the farmers as soon as possible.

Prestigious INSA fellowship to Arun Joshi

Written by on January 16, 2013. Posted in News.

Arun-Joshi Arun Joshi, CIMMYT senior wheat breeder for South Asia, has been named Fellow of the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) at its annual meeting in Pune, India, during 27-29 December 2012. Joshi has received this award for his contribution in development of popular wheat varieties and for research in management of losses caused by spot blotch pathogen (Bipolaris sorokiniana) and heat stress. He is one of the few scientists who have not only contributed to basic and applied research in wheat, but also carried research to the field, thus directly contributing to food security and improvement of farmers’ livelihoods. “It has been a very satisfying journey for an agricultural scientist,” Joshi stated.

INSA, the leading science academy in India, plays crucial role in promoting, recognizing, and rewarding excellence in science. It was established in 1935 with the objective of promoting science in the country and harnessing scientific knowledge for the cause of humanity and national welfare. This fellowship is a great honor not only for Joshi, but also for CIMMYT and the Institute of Agricultural Sciences at the Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, of which Joshi is the first faculty to receive this award. Congratulations!

CIMMYT mourns the passing of Twumasi-Afriyie, creator of the quality protein maize Obatanpa

Written by on January 14, 2013. Posted in Features.

Dr-Twumasi On 03 January 2013, 63-year-old Ghanaian-born maize breeder Strafford Twumasi-Afriyie succumbed to cancer, leaving a substantive legacy that includes the creation of the world’s most widely-sown quality protein maize (QPM) variety, Obatanpa. His demise represents a huge loss to family, friends, hundreds of colleagues and collaborators, and many thousands of farmers. A highly-committed and knowledgeable scientist, Twumasi is remembered by all for his kind, gentle demeanor and modesty, as well as for building strong partnerships.

Twumasi worked at the Crops Research Institute (CRI), Ghana, through much of his career. Following the completion of his MSc at the University of Guelph, Canada, in 1981, he returned to Ghana to serve with former CIMMYT maize physiologist Greg Edmeades as Joint Coordinator of the Ghana Grains Development Project funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). It was during this period and under the aegis of the GGDP that he used CIMMYT germplasm during the early 1990s to develop Obatanpa, which by 2005 was sown on more than half of Ghana’s maize area. With support from Sasakawa-Global 2000, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), and CIDA, Obatanpa has been released in numerous countries of Africa, including Uganda where as “Nalongo” it is among the most popular maize varieties.

Twumasi joined CIMMYT in 1997 to develop maize varieties for African highland areas in a project supported initially by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany and later the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), CIMMYT, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), and CIDA. Releases from that effort are still gaining popularity in high-altitude zones of Ethiopia.

As a breeder in CIDAfunded research in Ethiopia beginning in 2003, Twumasi worked with EIAR to develop a QPM version of the hybrid BH660, which accounts for some 60% of seed sales in Ethiopia. These and other superior varieties developed are being promoted through the new “Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia” project that Twumasi was leading. “The National Maize Program recognizes the relentless work of Dr. Twumasi for small-scale farmers of Ethiopia in particular and Africa in general,” says Berhanu Tadesse, Ethiopia’s National Maize Research Coordinator.

Edmeades remembers Twumasi as scrupulously honest, slow to judgment but always fair, and one of nature’s true gentlemen. “He was not afraid to take risks as a scientist and promote QPM when many others declared it a lost cause,” says Edmeades. “As my counterpart in Ghana I very much enjoyed working with him and came to appreciate his wry sense of humor and his lovely smile.”

Twumasi’s mentorship and tutelage helped several maize researchers from the region develop as strong breeders in their own right. His academic background included a BSc in agriculture from the University of Ghana (1975) and a PhD in plant breeding from the University of Missouri, USA (1989).

The CIMMYT family extends its sympathies to Twumasi’s beloved wife, Veronica, his daughters Mame and Truelove, and his son Kwaku in this difficult time.

Climate Change and Agriculture: Building Resilience

Written by on January 7, 2013. Posted in Features.

This article is cross-posted from the Feed the Future blog. Feed the Future is the United States Government’s global hunger and food security initiative. It supports country-driven approaches to address the root causes of hunger and poverty and forge long-term solutions to chronic food insecurity and undernutrition. Drawing upon resources and expertise of agencies across the U.S. Government, this Presidential Initiative is helping countries transform their own agriculture sectors to sustainably grow enough food to feed their people.

Feed the Future strategies for food security are designed not only to accelerate agriculture-led growth and reduce undernutrition, but also to encourage sustainable and equitable management of land, water, fisheries, and other resources. Feed the Future Intern Christopher Chapman asked CIMMYT’s conservation agriculture expert Bruno Gerard (pictured left) how climate change relates to agricultural development.

Tropicalized maize haploid inducers for doubled haploid-based breeding

Written by on December 28, 2012. Posted in Features. 1 Comment on Tropicalized maize haploid inducers for doubled haploid-based breeding

tropicalized-maize-haploid The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

Generating DH lines involves four major steps: (1) In vivohaploid induction; (2) haploid seed identification using morphological markers; (3) chromosome doubling of putative haploids; and (4) generating D1 (DH) seed from D0 seedlings. In vivo haploid induction is achieved by crossing a specially developed maize genetic stock called an “inducer” (as male) with a source population (as female) from which homozygous DH lines are developed.

What are tropicalized haploid inducers?
Adoption of DH technology by public maize breeding programs and small- and mediumscale enterprise (SME) seed companies, especially in developing countries, is limited by the lack of inducers adapted to the tropical/subtropical conditions. The CIMMYT Global Maize Program, in collaboration with the Institute of Plant Breeding, Seed Science and Population Genetics of the University of Hohenheim (UHo) now has tropical haploid inducers for sharing with the interested institutions under the terms outlined below.

The tropically adapted inducer lines (TAILs) developed by CIMMYT and UHo showed high haploid induction capacity (~8-10%) and better agronomic performance than temperate inducers, in trials at two CIMMYT experiment stations in Mexico. A haploid inducer hybrid developed using these TAILs revealed heterosis for plant vigor and pollen production under tropical conditions, while maintaining similar haploid induction rates (~8-10%). CIMMYT and UHo decided to share the seed and grant authorization for use of one of the tropicalized haploid inducer lines (one of the parents of a hybrid inducer) and the hybrid inducer to interested applicants, after signing of the relevant material transfer agreement (MTA) and with restrictions to protect the intellectual property rights of both institutions for the inducer lines.

Process of indenting for the tropicalized haploid inducers
Interested applicants should send a letter of intent or an expression of interest in the tropicalized haploid inducers. CIMMYT may seek more information, if required, and will share the relevant MTA template for signing by applicants. The general guidelines to obtain inducers for research use and commercial use are as follows.

For research use by publicly-funded national agricultural research systems
Publicly-funded institutions interested in access to the haploid inducers for specific purposes (e.g., to develop DH lines for breeding programs) may send a letter of intent or expression of interest to CIMMYT. For eligible institutions, the haploid inducers will be provided free-of-charge by CIMMYT and UHo, after signing of a Research Use MTA. Commercial use of the inducers by institutions or others should be in accordance with a separate license agreement for commercial use (as given below).

For commercial use
Applicants may access the inducers for commercial use pursuant to signing of a Material Transfer and License Agreement with CIMMYT and UHo. Applicants shall pay UHo a one-time licence fee of USD 25,000 for provision of seed of two haploid inducers; these include one of the parents of a tropicalized haploid inducer hybrid and the haploid inducer hybrid itself. If applicants wish to access the other parent of the haploid inducer hybrid, an additional one-time licence fee of $10,000 will be payable to UHo.

Acknowledgments
Generous support for joint research on doubled haploids by CIMMYT and the University of Hohenheim has come from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Howard G. Buffett Foundation; SAGARPA, the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food.; USAID (US Agency for International Development); Dr. Dr. h. c. Herrmann Eiselen and the Foundation fiat panis, Ulm, Germany; the Tiberius Services AG, Stuttgart, Germany; Vilmorin Seed Company; DTMA (Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa) project.;MAIZE CGIAR Research Program; and the International Maize Improvement Consortium (IMIC) project under MasAgro (Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture).

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

Maize Doubled Haploid Facility for Africa (3.17 MB)

The doubled haploid (DH) technology enables rapid development of completely homozygous maize lines and offers significant opportunities for fast-track development and release of elite cultivars. Besides simplified logistics and reduced costs, use of DH lines in conjunction with molecular markers significantly improves genetic gains and breeding efficiency. DH lines also are valuable tools in marker-trait association studies, molecular marker-assisted or genomic selection-based breeding, and functional genomics.

For further details, please contact:

Dr. BM Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or
Dr. Vijay Chaikam, DH Specialist, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT ( v.chaikam@cgiar.org)

Congratulations to Germplasm Bank!

Written by on December 19, 2012. Posted in News.

The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank achieved ISO9001:2008 certification this week, after nearly two years of data gathering, intensive analysis, and assessment of processes and best practices. The ISO standards relate to quality management systems and are designed to help organizations ensure that they meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders, while meeting statutory and regulatory requirements. The CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Germplasm Bank is the first CGIAR germplasm bank to achieve ISO9001 certification, and is now one of only three genebanks globally to achieve certification (and the first outside of Europe). CIMMYT staff and areas involved in this certification included both the germplasm banks, human resources, purchasing, risk management, security, maintenance, and ICT departments. A special thanks is extended to Bibiana Espinosa and Paulina Gonzalez, both of whom sheparded the lengthy process to this noteworthy conclusion.

HarvestPlus wheat varieties fight zinc and iron deficiency in India

Written by on December 10, 2012. Posted in News.

A series of farmer-scientist interaction meetings to create awareness of HarvestPlus and new biofortified wheat varieties with high zinc and iron content, involve farmers in participatory varietal selection (PVS) of biofortified varieties in the next crop cycle, train farmers on soil sampling for iron and zinc analysis, and discuss seed and wheat production technology, took place in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India, in November 2012. The meetings were held in Bhurkura, Mirzapur district, on 4 November, Sota, Chandouli district, on 10 November, and Pidkhir, Mirzapur district, on 18 November, and were attended by 25, 38, and 30 farmers, respectively. They were jointly organized by the Banaras Hindu University, Mahamana Krishak Samiti farmers’ cooperative, Mirzapur district, and CIMMYT, and supported by a private seed company M/s. Shyam Seed.

Balasubramaniam Arun, Ramesh Chand, and Vinod Kumar Mishra, wheat scientists from the Banaras Hindu University, introduced the HarvestPlus project’s objectives and the importance of biofortified wheat varieties. Chandra Prakash Srivastava explained the role of zinc and iron for human health, while soil scientist Satish Kumar Singh focused on their role and importance in crop production, as well as zinc level distribution in different soil types in the ricewheat growing areas of the region. Each meeting included a hands-on training on HarvestPlus trials sowing, during which farmers learned about experimental design with focus on plot area, number of lines, and amount of seed to be sown, and which included soil samples collection demonstrations. This was followed by a discussion on the use of conventional and zero-till drill for experiment planting, and the farmers’ experience with biofortified varieties, seed purity maintenance, and the use of the progeny row method. Balanced use of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, sulfur, and boron based on soil analysis was also covered.

CIMMYT wheat breeder Arun Joshi described the steps involved in quality seed production and the importance of seed producers’ organizations for small-scale farmers. He also highlighted advantages of the PVS approach, including the increased adoption rate of new varieties within a shorter period of time. Joshi appreciated the keen interest and active participation of farmers in PVS programs and encouraged them to continue their work and facilitate varietal selection to identify and promote agronomically superior biofortified varieties. The participating farmers showed their interest in HarvestPlus experiments and their continuing support for the wheat biofortification program. They expressed their full satisfaction with the interaction meetings, as these help them to build confidence and enhance their knowledge and capacity for understanding new wheat research processes and results. According to the participants, smallholder farmers have achieved significant gains through the participatory research program, an easier access to new varieties being one of them. Sri Hari Kirtan Singh of M/s. Shyam Seed agreed to multiply all lead varieties seeds identified for high zinc and iron content to allow easy access to an even larger number of farmers.

SIMLESA-Kenya: achievements and future goals

Written by on November 29, 2012. Posted in News.

The Kenya Annual Review and Planning Meeting (ARPM) was held during 5-6 November 2012 at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). The meeting was attended by 33 participants from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), KARI, Ministry of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Council (ARC-SA), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), Royal Tropical Institute, Resource Projects Kenya (local NGO), and FRESHCO Seeds (local private seed company). Present were also Stephen Njoka (KARI-Embu) and Francis Muyekho (KARI-Kakamega), who chaired some of the sessions.

Joseph Mureithi, KARI deputy director and SIMLESA program steering committee member for Kenya, welcomed all participants and informed them on the adoption of a new value chain innovation platform, bringing major stakeholders on board to address farmers’ constraints and promote commercialization of agriculture. Ephraim Mukisira then officially opened the meeting by summarizing the outcomes of the KARI Biannual Conference. He discussed the current needs of Kenyan farmers and stressed that “there is need to commercialize the farming business in Kenya in order to empower local farmers.” Besides commercialization, more effort needs to be invested in the SIMLESA initiative. Maize, as the foundation staple in the Kenyan diet, should be promoted together with legumes supplying proteins to the farmers’ families. While the population is rapidly increasing, farm sizes are declining; hence there is a pressing need to increase productivity levels while using the same land area. To realize the program’s impact within the current time constraints, the program aims to assist 50,000 farmers in both Eastern and Western Kenya.

Later on, Mekuria Mulugetta, SIMLESA program leader, provided a detailed background of SIMLESA objectives. He emphasized SIMLESA’s focus on building KARI’s organizational capacity, reminded the participants of the recently published baseline survey report for Kenya, and thanked AusAID for their continuing financial support of the SIMLESA-Ethiopia Expansion program for the next two years. As part of the meeting, the participants travelled to Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia to observe field experiments conducted by SIMLESA, ICRISAT, and national partners.