CIMMYT scientist, Kindie Tesfaye, emphasizes the importance of user-centered climate information services and agricultural extension. These tools enable farmers to make informed decisions, manage risks, and increase productivity, contributing to food security.
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In a visit to 5 model sites for maize marketing in midwestern Nepal, 30 federal, provincial and local agricultural authorities were impressed with the coordination and capacity development among market actors, improved supply chain management and leveraging of government support, all of which are benefiting farmers and grain buyers.
Following visits to commercial maize fields and hearing stakeholdersâ perceptions of progress and key lessons, the authorities proposed additional funding for irrigation, machinery, grain grading and crop insurance, among other support, and promised to help expand activities of the model sites, which were established as part of the Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project.
Led by CIMMYT with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and in its second-last year of operation, the project is working to raise crop productivity, incomes and household food and nutrition security across 20 districts of Nepal, including 5 that were severely affected by the catastrophic 2015 earthquake and aftershocks which killed nearly 9,000 and left hundreds of thousands homeless.
The visitors included officials and experts from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD); the Department of Agriculture (DoA); the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoLMAC); the Agriculture Development Directorates (ADD) for Lumbini and Sudurpaschim provinces; the Agriculture Knowledge Centres (AKC) of Banke, Kailali, Kanchanpur, Dang, and Kapilvastu districts; the Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project (PMAMP) offices of Dang and Bardiya; and the National Maize Research Program; the Department of Livestock Services; along with NSAF project team members.
The participants interacted with farmers, cooperative leaders, traders, rural municipality officials and elected representatives, and feed mill representatives. Sharing their experiences of behavioral change in maize production, farmers emphasized the benefits of their strengthened relationships with grain buyers and their dreams to expand spring maize cultivation.
Shanta Karki, deputy director the General of Department of the DoA lauded CIMMYT efforts for agriculture growth, improved soil fertility and sustainable agriculture development through NSAF.
Madan Singh Dhami, secretary, MoLMAC in Sudurpaschim Province, emphasized the importance of irrigation, building farmersâ capacities and interactions with buyers, and applying digital innovations to catalyze extension.
CIMMYT scientists have been based in CIMMYTâs office in Nepal and worked with Nepali colleagues for more than three decades to boost the productivity, profitability and ecological efficiency of maize- and wheat-based cropping systems and thus improve rural communitiesâ food security and livelihoods.
Smallholder mechanization out scaling depends upon the availability of skilled mechanics who are fully oriented with machinery operation. However, this crucial skillset is often identified as a missing link. In many instances, lack of care or regular checks and the absence of readily available mechanics has led to the failure of mechanization projects in sub-Saharan Africa, with frequent machine breakdowns and equipment left sitting idle long after a project intervention. Across smallholder farming communities, this phenomenon can be seen through the presence of obsolete and abandoned machinery often serving as breeding grounds for birds.
The Feed the Future Zimbabwe Mechanization and Extension Activity, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to break this vicious cycle by improving the skillset of local mechanics and helping them stay in tune with evolving innovations in farm machinery. Implemented by CIMMYT, this activity targets existing mechanics across ten districts in Zimbabwe, offering specialized maintenance services to providers who own machinery. Through investing in their training, local capacity to troubleshoot, service and repair machinery will increase.
Gaining practical experience
 The program approaches training through full immersion and a deep dive into the individual components of key equipment. Workstations are set up to include a diesel engineâwhich forms the core of most of the machineryâa two-wheel tractor and post-harvest machines such as the multi-crop thresher, feed-chopper grinder and peanut butter machine.  For most of the participants, the workshop presents them with first-hand experience of handling such machinery.
 Andy Chagudhuma and Tendai Machonesaâfrom Bikita and Chiredzi, respectivelyâwere among the first ten mechanics to participate in the five-day training. âI learned about all the machines here,â says Chagudhuma, âbreaking them apart and fixing them. We worked through different scenarios while perfecting our knowledge on the operation of all the machinery.â With new skills gained, they eagerly await the opportunity to offer their expertise to service providers in their local areas, and a newfound confidence fuels their commitment to providing support through repair and maintenance work.
 However, one remaining challenge is the notable absence of female participants in the training. While the field of mechanics is often male-dominated, the Mechanization Activity seeks to promote a gender-inclusive environment for local mechanics and service providers through awareness meetings and skills training. In the future, more machinery and technical trainings will be targeted specifically towards women as a way to redress this imbalance.
Overall, the benefits of the training echo far beyond the workshop itself. Through the skills acquired, opportunities for additional income generation increase, and the participation of rural youths in mechanization-oriented businesses and a thriving local economy are possible. By empowering local mechanics, the Mechanization Activity not only breathes life into their communities and the machinery sector but also paves the way for one of the projectâs key objectivesâthe establishment of successful and entrepreneurial service providers.
After years of struggles, a group of women farmers in a remote rural area of Tanzania are finally profiting and forging an enterprise based on local farmersâ high demand for certified seed of sorghum, a dryland crop first domesticated in Africa and used in food and drink, livestock feed and even building materials.
Based in Usoche village, Momba District, Songwe Region, Tanzania, the Jitegemee womens group formed in 2018 to improve their livelihoods through sorghum production. In 2022 the group produced and marketed over 3 tons of certified seed, benefiting from access to foundation and certified seed with support from project partnerships and linkages to global and local initiatives.
“Through us, many women are now educated and motivated to engage in seed production,â said Rodha Daudi Tuja, a representative of the Jitegemee group. âI think in the next season we are going to have many women seed entrepreneurs.â
Based on seed companiesâ inability to fully satisfy farmersâ high demand for quality seed of sorghum, the social and behavior change interventions component of the Dryland Crops program of CIMMYT, an international research organization with longstanding partnerships and impacts in eastern and southern Africa, worked with Tanzaniaâs Centre for Behaviour Change and Communication (CBCC) to encourage youth and women to engage in the seed business, including marketing. Banking on previous experience, the initiative helped the women raise awareness among farmers about the value of quality, improved seed, using fliers, posters, t-shirts and caps.
âThe CIMMYT behavior change interventions and CBCC reached us through youth champions who trained us on the features and benefits of improved sorghum seed,â explained Tuja.
Especially important was training the women received to grow âquality declared seedâ (QDS) at an event for 18 women and youth in Mbozi district conducted by The Tanzania Official Seed Certification Institute (TOSCI). QDS offers reliable quality in seed at an affordable price to farmers but is not formally inspected by official seed certification systems.
Immediately after the training, the group purchased 12 kilograms of foundation seedâgenetically uniform seed that, when grown under controlled results, produces seed of ensured genetic purity and varietal identityâof the popular Macia sorghum variety from the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI) at Hombolo. They multiplied that seed following meticulous quality protocols on a leased, 1.6-hectare farm.
A previous arrangement to grow seed for a local company had fallen through after one cropping season, and the Jitegemee group ended up recycling the seed and growing it for grain for sale. Still, the group realized that selling seed could be a lucrative business, if they could only gain access to foundation seed or certified seed. As part of growing pains during that period, the group lost half its members.
âBefore our contact with the CIMMYT project we had a lot of challenges,â Tuja said. âFirst, we did not know about improved seed, we couldnât access information about new farming technologies, and we were doing subsistence agriculture. However, after the project we were able to access seed and information at the Youth Quality Centres and through radio programs.â
âI advise youth and my fellow women to join us because, before, we had no hope in sorghum production but now we are prospering. The demand for sorghum seed is very high, a lot of farmers are now demanding improved seeds, and our group alone cannot meet the growing demand for seed.â
We gratefully acknowledge Florian Ndyamukama, Centre for Behaviour Change and Communication (CBCC), Tanzania, for contributing this story.Â
It is a winter morning in Ward 12 of Mutare Rural district in Zimbabwe. Farmers brave the cold weather to gather around several tents lined with a range of new agricultural machinery. The number of farmers increases, and the excited chatter gets louder as they attempt to identify the different machines on display. âThat is a tractor, but it just has two wheels,â says one farmer. With enthusiasm, another identifies a multi-crop thresher and peanut butter machine and asks for the prices.
The scene typifies one of several settings for an awareness meeting conducted under the Feed the Future Zimbabwe Mechanization and Extension (Mechanization) Activity, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project operates in Zimbabweâs Manicaland and Masvingo provinces and addresses the pressing need to improve farm power and machinery access for smallholder farmers in ten districts: Buhera, Chimanimani, Chipinge, Mutare rural, Bikita, Chiredzi, Chivi, Masvingo rural, Mwenezi and Zaka.
In recent years, farmers in the region have faced a decline in cattle populations due to tick-borne diseasesâthe devastating âJanuary diseaseâ (Theileriosis) hitting hardestâcausing significant draft power losses. In addition, on-farm and off-farm activities have notoriously been identified as labor-intensive, time consuming and back-breaking due to the level of effort required to execute certain tasks. Activities such as post-harvest processing have also been traditionally carried out by women, who are thus disproportionally affected by drudgery. Collectively, these challenges have affected not only food production and the quality of farm yields, but also drastically impacted farming familiesâ potential to realize sufficient household food and income security.
âFinding the best model of extension of appropriate machinery and developing financing mechanisms for smallholder farmers has been the work of previous projects on appropriate-scale mechanization,â says Christian Thierfelder, research director for the Mechanization Activity. âIn this activity, we are implementing a service provider model in Zimbabwe and are aiming to reach 150 service providers and 22,500 users of these machines in the next two years.â
Despite previous successes under initiatives such as FACASI and R4/ZAMBUKO, there remains a huge demand for affordable machines that improve farm labor and generate income for smallholder farmers. âWe already see hundreds of farmers demanding to mechanize agricultural activities in our intervention areas,â explains Leon Jamann, chief of party for the project. âThat is why our activity aims to collaborate with banks and microfinance institutions to bank these farmers at fair rates so that they can buy the machinery that they need and want.â
A launchpad for success
The awareness meetings have served as launchpads to acquaint farmers with appropriate machinery right at the âfarm gateâ while affording them a chance to explore the full range on offer. Since its inception, the Mechanization Activity has showcased through live demonstrations the operation and performance of machinery including the two-wheel tractor and trailer, ripper, basin digger, boom sprayer, multi-crop thresher, feed chopper-grinder, groundnut sheller and peanut butter machine. Each machine harmonizes with on-farm and off-farm activities, easing the labor burden and improving efficiency in land preparation, harvesting and post-harvest tasks. The aim is to create demand for and trigger business interest in the machinery through a service provision model.
The model centers on the service provider, typically an individual who owns machinery and extends their services to others for a fee. In some cases, organized Internal Savings and Lending (ISAL) and Production, Productivity Lending and Savings (PPL) groups have expressed, through the awareness meetings, interest in procuring a machine for use within the group. This symbiotic relationship empowers service providers economically, while granting communities access to crucial services that improve their land and labor productivity.
In the next step, service providers are then linked with banks to finance their machinery. This ensures a sustainable approach, as the mechanization solutions are locally produced, financed and used. Enhancing these local capacities and linkages is at the core of the activity and ensures impact beyond the project life cycle.
From awareness to demand
So far, a total of 32 awareness meetings have been held across three operational hubs in Masvingo and Manicaland provinces reaching 1,637 farmersâ843 females and 794 males. The impact is evident, with 475 service providers identified across 20 implementation wards.
232 participants are keen to acquire a two-wheel tractor, with a further 191 opting for trailers, 63 for rippers, 125 for multi-crop threshers, 166 for chopper grinders, 178 for peanut butter machines and 31 for groundnut shellers. Among the prospective service providers are those opting to purchase a single unit while others are choosing two, three or more units from the machinery on offer.
Beyond the numbers, the Mechanization and Extension Activity continues to appeal to women and youth through sustainable and climate-smart intensification of crop production using conservation agriculture practices, opportunities for employment creation and enhancing profitability.
âI enjoyed learning about the service provider approach and learning about the machinery on display,â reflected Nyarai Mutsetse, a female farmer from Ward 12. âOther women even got the chance to try out the two-wheel tractor. From now on, we are going to save money in our groups and purchase some of these machines.â
Echoing the same sentiments, Patience Chadambuka was fascinated by the two-wheel tractor demonstration, and impressed that it could serve multiple purposes. âI can use it for different tasksâferrying wood, land preparation and it can also help us raise money to take our children to school through service provision,â she said. âWe are beginning to save the money, together with my husband because we would like to purchase the tractor and use it for our business.â
The Mechanization Activity awareness meetings paint a vivid picture of collaboration with other Feed the Future Zimbabwe Activities such as the Fostering Agribusiness for Resilient Markets (FARM), Resilience Anchors and Farmer to Farmer, among others. The activity harmonizes smallholder farmers with private sector enterprises, including machinery manufacturers, local mechanics, financial institutions and the Government of Zimbabwe. This collective cooperation is pivotal in helping smallholder farmers realize their mechanization business goals.
CIMMYT targets some of the worldâs most pressing problems: ending poverty, ensuring food for the future, mitigating climate change and improving the lives of farmers and consumers (especially women). CIMMYT is a CGIAR Research Center and has long been the worldâs leading center for research on maize and wheat. This research capacity is being harnessed to achieve the crucial goals of climate resilience, and food and nutrition security.
Most of the worldâs people depend on annual grain crops for their survival. Yet some of the worldâs poorest men and women produce cereals. Annual grain farming has exacerbated climate change. The worldâs great challenges of achieving climate resilience and nutrition security are being addressed by focusing CIMMYTâs research and development (R&D) on maize, and wheat, as well as on underutilized grain and legume crops.
Highlights from the 2022 Annual Report:
Annual cereal farming tends to release carbon into the atmosphere, while degrading the soil. Improving the soil takes years, and the high annual variation in weather demands long-term experiments. Field trials by CIMMYT over many years show that farmers can return carbon to the soil by using minimum tillage, rotating cereals with legumes, and by applying animal manure and strategic amounts of nitrogen fertilizer. As soil fertility improves, so do farmersâ yields.
Eleven million farmers in India alone produce maize, usually without irrigation, exposing families to climate-related disaster. Twenty new hybrids bred by CIMMYT out-perform commercial maize, even in drought years. One thousand tons of this heat-tolerant maize seed have now been distributed to farmers across South Asia.
Some wheat is rich in zinc and iron, which prevent anemia, especially in children. Yet naturally-occurring phytic acid in wheat blocks the bodyâs absorption of these minerals. A technique developed by CIMMYT lowers the cost of assaying phytic acid, so plant breeders in developing countries can identify promising lines of wheat faster. CIMMYT is also helping to reduce food imports by learning how other crops, like cassava and sorghum, can be blended with wheat to make flours that consumers will accept.
Some wheat hotspots are warm, dry, and subject to plant diseases. CIMMYT collaborates with plant breeders worldwide through the International Wheat Improvement Network (IWIN) to test promising new wheat lines in these tough environments. As more places become warmer and drier with climate change, CIMMYT and allies are developing wheat varieties that will thrive there.
Harvesting more maize in the future will depend on higher yields, not on planting more land. In plant breeding programs in Africa, South Asia and Latin America, CIMMYT and partners are already developing maize varieties and hybrids that will be released in just a few years. A review of these efforts reveals that annual yield increases will be about twice the rate achieved from 1973 to 2012.
Sorghum, millets, pigeon pea, chickpea and groundnuts have been favorite food crops in Africa for centuries. They are already adapted to warm, dry climates. CIMMYT is now working with national research programs to ensure that new crop varieties have the traits that male and female farmers need. Seed systems are being organized to produce more of Africaâs preferred crops.
Researchers can only breed new crop varieties if someone saves the old ones from extinction. CIMMYT does that with its world-class collection of wheat and maize seed. In 2022, CIMMYTâs two separate wheat and maize germplasm banks were combined into one. Modern techniques, such as vacuum-sealed seed packets and QR codes, allow rapid response to requests for seed from plant breeders around the world.
CIMMYT is helping Nepali farmers to plant maize in the lowlands, in the spring, when most land lies fallow. In 2022, CIMMYT provided training and investment to 2,260 farmers (35% women), who earned, on average, an additional $367 in one year. The added income allowed these farmers to invest in health care and schooling for their children.
Mexican farmers are saving money, harvesting more and selling their grain more easily. Some 4,000 farmers are now selling on contract to food manufacturing companies. The farmers lower production costs by using CIMMYT innovations in irrigation, fertilizer application and ecological pest control. Yields increase, the soil improves, and farmers find a ready market for their harvest.
The stories we have highlighted in this article are just some of the ones included in the Annual Report. See the full text of all the stories in âHarvesting Successâ to learn how CIMMYT scientists are doing some of the most important research, for some of the worldâs best causes.
Bhumi Shara Khadka is a 35-year-old community business facilitator who has made significant strides in agriculture and community development. Her journey began after completing training in sales skill development and technical capacity building for community business facilitators (CBF) organized by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) in June 2022 and April 2023, respectively. This training opened up new opportunities, and she soon secured a job as a CBF. However, her ambitions didn’t stop there.
In February 2022, the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) recognized her potential and recommended her for a role as a community business facilitator with Laxmi Agrovet, a local agribusiness. To prepare for her new position, Ms. Khadka underwent additional training in various areas, including running sales meetings, farm mechanization, post-harvest handling and the fundamentals of sales and marketing. With these tools in hand, she set out to make a difference in the lives of farmers and the broader community.
To date, Khadka has conducted 97 sales meetings with farmer groups where she explains improved production methods, plant protection, post-harvest handling and how to market agriculture products effectively. She also demonstrates and sells Laxmi Agrovet agri-inputs such as seeds, fertilizer and tools. She gets a 20% commission on sales, bringing her an average net monthly income of NPR3,375 (US$26). Her role as community business facilitator also involves linking farmers with the local government agriculture program. As a result of her efforts, three farmers have each acquired a mini power tiller at a 50% subsidy.
Inspired by Khadkaâs example, Chitra Bahadur Rokaya, acting director of the Agricultural Regional Directorate in Surkhet, Nepal, has expressed his desire to visit farmers and learn more about the activities of community business facilitators like Khadka during the technical capacity-building training to CBF in April 2023. Rokaya has expressed gratitude to trainees who attended the IPM training organized by CSISA and would visit the field sites of the trainees, if possible.
Khadka has also used her knowledge as a business facilitator and IPM trainee to establish her commercial vegetable farm, which, with her investment and CSISAâs technical support, now occupies five ropani (0.01 hectares). Her husband helps out and Bhumi sells the produce at local markets in Melkuna and Badichour, Surkhet, with traders often coming to the farm to buy from her directly. Last year, she earned NPR227,000 (US$1,733) of which her net income was NPR63,500 (US$485). Since starting the farm, the familyâs food habits and those of her neighbors have changed for the better. Last year, the family kept a quarter of the vegetables she produced for their consumption, and she gave about 10% to neighbors.
Last year, under Khadkaâs facilitation, 48 farmers cultivated vegetables on an average of 0.02 hectares each, each achieving an average net profit of NPR63,500 (US$485). Khadka also owns a power tiller, which she rents out for others to use, earning NPR35,000 (US$267) last year from this service provision activity.
In addition to her business and professional success, Khadka completed high school in 2014, underlining the significance of her accomplishments. Khadka’s remarkable journey is an inspiring agriculture success story, showcasing the transformative power of women empowerment in rural communities. Her dedication, knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit have improved farmers’ lives and elevated the entire community’s access to nutritious food. Her unwavering commitment to her work has brought her well-deserved recognition, and she is a beacon of hope for others in similar fields of endeavor.
In Nepal, the International Water Management Institute and CIMMYT conducted research on Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming System (SI-MFS) in collaboration with local governments in Gurbakot Municipality of Surkhet and Haleshi Tuwachung Municipality of Khotang.
The research found a noticeable shift in farmers’ interest in farming practices, where successful implementation of innovation and scaling, it’s crucial to have farmers’ interest and ownership in interventions.
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CIMMYT holds the fourth edition of seed and mechanization fairs in Mwenezi and Masvingo rural districts, and introduces a groundbreaking mechanization component thanks to the Feed the Future Zimbabwe Mechanization and Extension Activity.
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Nepal’s traditional farming system faces labor shortages, and climate-induced risks to crop production, infrastructure, investment, and agro-advisory tools. This calls for urgently redesigning agriculture practices and addressing the challenges and a noticeable shift in farmersâ interests in farming practices.
The International Water Management Institute and CIMMYT, in collaboration with local governments in Gurbakot Municipality of Surkhet and Haleshi Tuwachung Municipality of Khotang, conducted research on Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming System (SI-MFS), the research found a noticeable shift in farmersâ interests in farming practices.
Read the full story.
Women play a critical role in the future of food security. Female farmers face a significant disadvantage before they ever plow a field or sow a seed. Farming is a challenging profession, and it is even more challenging for women when they perform these functions whilst facing numerous constraints.
Nur-A-Mahajabin Khan, communications officer, showcases how fodder chopper technology is improving the lives of women farmers in rural Bangladesh.
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In 2015, the General Assembly of the African Union committed to retiring the hand hoe to museums and pushing for sustainable agricultural mechanization on the African continent.
Today, approximately 75-82% of smallholder farmers in eastern and southern Africa rely on human or animal draft power for primary tillage operations. Mechanization helps to reduce drudgery, increases productivity, and contributes to food security and increased livelihoods.
What is Feed the Future Mechanization and Extension Activity?
The Feed the Future Mechanization and Extension Activity, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), aims to improve smallholder farmersâ access to farm power and machinery to enhance their land and labor productivity.
This is achieved through three integrated components that stimulate demand for scale-appropriate machinery.
Components:
What are the objectives?
The project sites are located in Zimbabwe’s Manicaland and Masvingo provinces with project presence implemented across 10 districts.
The Mechanization and Extension Activity will directly benefit 150 service providers who in turn will reach up to 22,500 women and men smallholder farmers through provision of mechanized services. In addition, the mechanization activity will identify and build the capacity of 30 rural mechanics and 30 technicians drawn from local farm machinery manufacturing companies and/or small and medium enterprises.
The Livestock Production Systems in Zimbabwe (LIPS-Zim) project implemented by CIMMYT and various research institutions in partnership with the government expects to increase incomes and ensure food security for more than 50,000 rural Zimbabweans.
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Scientists from CIMMYT, founded in Mexico in 1966, have pursued decades of participatory research with Mexicoâs smallholder maize farmers to improve their local varieties for traits like yield and insect resistance, while preserving their special grain quality, as well as testing and promoting zero-tillage and other resource-conserving farming practices.
Smallholder farm operations account for more than 80% of all farms worldwide and produce roughly 35% of the worldâs food, according to FAO census data and follow-up studies.
An estimated two-thirds of the Mexicoâs farmers are smallholders, typically working challenging agroecologies scattered across the countryâs mountainous terrain and applying generations-old subsistence practices to grow low-yielding local maize varieties.
Ancient milpa multicropping systems can lift up the present and future
The milpa intercrop â in which maize is grown together with beans, squash, or other vegetable crops â has a millennial history in the Americas and can furnish a vital supply of food and nutrients for marginalized, resource-poor communities.
One hectare of a milpa comprising maize, common beans, and potatoes can provide the annual carbohydrate needs of more than 13 adults, enough protein for nearly 10 adults, and adequate supplies of many vitamins and minerals, according to a CIMMYT-led study in the western highlands of Guatemala, an isolated and impoverished region, reported in Nature Scientific Reports in 2021.
But milpas are typically grown on much smaller areas than a hectare, so households cannot depend on this intercrop alone to satisfy their needs. A solution? Customized milpas that merge farmersâ age-old wisdom and practices with science-based innovation.
An example is planting fruit trees â guava, avocado, mango, peaches, or lime among others â among milpa crops in lines perpendicular to hill slopes. The practice was tested and promoted in the Los Tuxtlas region of the state of Veracruz by Mexicoâs National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP) and the Colegio de Postgraduados (ColPos) and has been refined by farmers in other areas through CIMMYT-led innovation networks.
In Los Tuxtlas the practice provided added income and nutrition, dramatically reduced erosion, improved land and water-use efficiency by around 50%, and boosted soil health and fertility.
In the state of Puebla and other parts of South and southwestern Mexico, milpa-fruit tree intercrops have worked well on steep hillsides. In the state of Oaxaca, for example, versions of the practice have notably improved farming by indigenous communities in the Mixe and Mazateca regions, supported by outreach of the Mexican Agency for the Sustainable Development of Hillsides (AMDSL), a partner in a CIMMYT research hub in the region.
Research by AMDSL and CIMMYT on smallholder plots in two Oaxaca municipalities where farmers have been combining milpas with peach and avocado production and conservation agriculture practices for more than a decade found that cropping diversification, together with use of zero tillage and keeping crop residues on the soil rather than removing or burning them, raised total yearly crop outputs by as much as 1.7 tons per hectare and reduced farmersâ risk of catastrophic crop losses due to droughts or other climate extremes.
Blue maize pleases diners and delivers profits
Farmersâ local maize varieties yield less than hybrids but are still grown because they provide ideal grain quality for traditional foods, as well as marketable stalks and leaves to feed farm animals and maize husks for wrapping tamales, to name a few products.
Building on longstanding partnerships with INIFAP and the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh) to improve local varieties and preserve maize genetic diversity in Mexico, CIMMYT breeders have recently developed improved blue maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties.
Sought by restauranteurs worldwide for its flavor and beauty, blue maize grain normally comes from native varieties grown by smallholder farmers on small plots with low yields and variable quality.
The new CIMMYT varieties are derived from traditional Guatemalan, Mexican, and Peruvian landraces and feature higher yields, more consistent grain quality, and enhanced resistance to common maize diseases, offering smallholders and other Mexican farmers a profitable product for the countryâs booming restaurant industry and for export chains.
Parental inbred lines of the new hybrids have been distributed to private and public partners, who are developing their own hybrids and OPVs in Mexico. CIMMYT continues to test the new hybrids under various farming systems to ensure they produce stable yields when grown in farmersâ fields.
Data driven extension
Using cutting-edge data systems, CIMMYT has leveraged information from nearly 200,000 plots representing more than 26,000 hectares across diverse agroecologies to offer Mexican farmers â including smallholders â site-specific recommendations that make their farming systems more productive, resilient, and sustainable. The initiative was supported by MasAgro, an integrated development partnership of Mexico and CIMMYT during 2010-21 and funded by Mexicoâs Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER).
Small-scale farmers in Mexico often adopt conservation agriculture innovations gradually and piecemeal, to fit their diverse agroecological and socioeconomic contexts and risk appetites, according to studies and the on-farm experience of CIMMYT.
Research and extension efforts need to consider this in work with smallholders, said Santiago Lopez-Ridaura, a CIMMYT specialist in agricultural systems and climate change adaptation.
“Farmer practices typically involve heavy tillage before seeding, growing maize as a monocrop, and removing crop residues after harvest for use as forage,â explained Lopez-Ridaura. âFull-on conservation agriculture (CA) is a radical shift, requiring farmers to reduce or eliminate tillage, keep a permanent cover of crop residues on the soil, and diversify the crops they grow. It can support more intense yet environmentally friendly farming, reducing erosion, improving soil fertility and water filtration, boosting crop yields, and saving farmers money. However, it also requires purchasing or contracting specialized sowing implements and fencing fields or agreeing with neighbors to keep livestock from eating all the residues, to name just a few changes.â
Lopez-Ridaura and colleagues published a 2021 analysis involving farmers who grew maize and sorghum and keep a few livestock on small landholdings (less than 4 hectares), with limited mechanization and irrigation, in the state of Guanajuato, Central Mexico.
They found that scenarios involving hybrid maize plus a legume crop with zero-tillage or keeping a residue mulch on the soil provided an average net profit of some US $1,600 (MXP 29,000) per year, in addition to ecological benefits, added forage, and more stable output under climate stress.
âUsing a modeling framework from Australiaâs Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) that combines bioeconomic simulation, risk analysis, adoption theory, and impact assessment, we not only confirmed the worth of conservation agriculture but found that disaggregating CA into smaller component packages and including a more productive crop and variety were likely to increase farmersâ adoption, in riskier settings.â
Advancing more sustainable farming in Mexico
Conservation agriculture can generate substantial economic and environmental benefits under marginal conditions, particularly by enhancing climate change resilience, increasing soil organic matter, and retaining soil moisture. In Central Mexico dryland maize yields rose by 38-48%, after 10 years of implementing CA.
CIMMYT has studied and promoted zero-tillage for maize and other resource-conserving practices in Mexico for more than three decades, but efforts to spread sustainable farming and use of improved maize and wheat varieties redoubled thanks to MasAgro, a research initiative led by the Center and supported by the government of Mexico during 2010-21. Testimonials such abound of Mexican smallholder farmers who have adopted and benefited from CA practices through CIMMYT and national partners’ efforts in MasAgro and other initiatives.
