CIMMYT Annual Report 2004-2005: A solid future

ContentsA Reason to Be the Best (message from the Director General) ............................ 2

Drought: Gr im Reaper of Harvests and Lives ................................................................. 4

Conservation Agriculture and Drought ................................................................. 7

An Innovative Tool and Maize Map Chart a Novel Course for

Molecular Breeding ........................................................................................................ 10

CIMMYT in Africa

Kenyan Researchers Sow First Field of Transgenic Maize ...................................... 14

What is an Open-quarantine Site? ......................................................................... 16

CIMMYT Maize Shines at World’s First Millennium Village .................................... 16

An Extra Coat Helps Maize Seed Fight Pernicious Weed ....................................... 19

CIMMYT in Latin America

Colombians Take Maize With Their Coffee .................................................................... 22

Making the Plow Passé in Mexico ..................................................................................... 26

Clarion Call to Conservation in El Bajío ................................................................ 28

Reflected Rays Tell When to Feed Crops and Starve Sea Algae .......................... 30

A Maize Variety for Farmers on the Edge....................................................................... 32

CIMMYT in Asia

I Have Farmed Forever ............................................................................................................ 38

The Call for Maize Mounts in Asia ........................................................................... 39

Helping to Reinvigorate Agriculture in Afghanistan ............................................... 40

Islands of Residue: Fighting Erosion and Fostering Wheat

Productivity in Kazakhstan ......................................................................................... 42

Kazakhstan: View From the Ground Level ..................................................................... 46

Good (and Useful) Things Can Come in Small Packages ....................................... 48

World Wheat Crop under Threat from New Strain of Old Disease .................... 50

CIMMYT Financial Overview ................................................................................................ 52

Trustees and Principal Staff .................................................................................................. 54

CIMMYT Contact Information ............................................................................................. 57

CREDITS

Writing/editing/creative direc tion:

G. Michael Listman, David Poland, David Mowbray, Daisy Ouya, Jillian Baker,

Alma McNab, María Conc epción Castro.

Design/production/creative direction:

Miguel Mellado E., Wenceslao Almazán R., Antonio Luna A., Marcelo Ortiz S.,

Eliot Sánchez P.

Photography:

Ana María Sánchez, G. Michael Listman, David Poland, Mikkel Grum, Daisy Ouya,

David Mowbray, Julien de Meyer, Jillian Bak er, Michael Kazakor.

CIMMYT® (www.cimmyt.org) is aninternationally funded, not-for-profitorganization that conducts research andtraining related to maize and wheatthroughout the developing world.Drawing on strong science and effectivepartnerships, CIMMYT works to create,share, and use knowledge andtechnology to increase food security,improve the productivity andprofitability of farming systems, andsustain natural resources. CIMMYT is oneof 15 Future Harvest Centers of theConsultative Group on InternationalAgricultural Research (CGIAR)(www.cgiar.org). Financial support forCIMMYT’s work comes from themembers of the CGIAR, nationalgovernments, foundations, developmentbanks, and other public and privateagencies.

© International Maize and WheatImprovement Center (CIMMY T) 2005. Allrights reserved. The designationsemployed in the presentation ofmaterials in this public ation do notimply the expression of any opinionwhatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or itscontributory organizations concerningthe legal status of any country, territory,city, or area, or of its authorities, orconcerning the delimitation of itsfrontiers or boundaries. CIMMYTencourages fair use of this material.Proper citation is requested.

Correct citation: A Solid Future: CIMMYTAnnual Report 2004-2005. Mexico, D.F.:CIMMYT.ISSN: 0188-9214.AGROVOC Descriptors: Maize;Wheat;Plant breeding; Genetic resources;Innov ation adoption; Plantbiotechnology; S eed production; Foodsecurity ; Sustainability ; Research policies;Economic analysis; Cropping systems;Agricultural research; Organization ofresearch; Developing countries.Additional Keywords: CIMMYT .AGRIS category codes : A50 AgriculturalResearch; A01 Agriculture—GeneralAspects.Dewey decimal classification: 630.

Printed in Mexico.

A Reason to Be the BestMEETING THE UNITED NATIONS FIRST MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOAL—TO

ERADICATE EXTREME POVERTY AND HUNGER—WILL DEPEND ON A RANGE OF

ACTIONS IN AREAS WHERE POVERTY IS ENDEMIC AND CRIPPLING.

cope. A major priority is findingways that maize and wheat cancontinue to produce high, stableyields with less available water. Weare working both at the breedinglevel to develop plants that usewater more efficiently and at theplot level to help farmers toconserve and better use whatmoisture they have. In the reportsthat follow, you will find accountsof progress by CIMMYT and itspartners. For example CIMMYT hasdevised a “smart crossing”approach to produce wheatvarieties with better droughttolerance, and uses a decentralizedglobal shuttle breeding system—anextension of its time proven methodin Mexico—to test and adaptdrought tolerant varieties to diverseconditions around the world.Another trend to note is theadoption of conservationagriculture practices that savefarmers soil, water, money, andtime, in addition to bringingenvironmental benefits. This isglobal science for local impact.

FROM VISION TO

BUSINESS PLANThis year CIMMYT has continuedto implement its strategic visionwhile pursuing a sound financialmanagement plan that includes

building the reserve fund to meetCGIAR targets. Despite severefinancial constraints that haveresulted in downsizing ofinternationally and nationallyrecruited staff the past three years,CIMMYT has continued to deliverto its prime beneficiaries—maizeand wheat farmers and consumersin the developing world.

CIMMYT’s fifth External Programand Management Review (EPMR)produced a detailed, comprehensivereport concluding that “…the casefor the continued support ofCIMMYT in developing germplasmwith multiple stress resistancespecifically targeted at resourcepoor farmers was strong and clear.Such improved germplasm that wasnot only accessible to resource poorfarmers but specifically targeted totheir needs was essential if theywere to benefit from the ongoingscientific advances in genetics,genomics, and breeding.” TheCenter has already begun to addressweaknesses identified in the EPMR.A key recommendation of the panel,and one which CIMMYTwholeheartedly endorsed, was thatthe center write a business plan toindicate how the vision described inour strategic plan “Seeds of

Most people in thedeveloping worlddepend directly or

indirectly on agriculture for theirlivelihoods. Maize and wheat aloneprovide nearly half the food byweight and a quarter of the caloriesfor the 4.9 billion people of thedeveloping world. In much ofAfrica the land—which has toproduce the food, sustain thefarming systems for production,and nurture the crops that farmersgrow—cannot keep up withdemand, even when conditions ofclimate and politics are stable. Morethan half a billion people depend onwheat or maize but have little or noaccess to agricultural inputs, farmon degraded soils, or have to makedo in marginal climates.

With a continuously growingpopulation, less good land foragriculture, and climate and waterconstraints that seem to grow moresevere each year, yesterday’ssolutions are not sufficient for today.In this annual report for 2004-2005we focus on one of the most severeconstraints to production in wheatand maize farming systems—drought—and the approachesCIMMYT is taking to help farmers

2 Annual Report 2004-2005

Innovation” would actually bedelivered. CIMMYT took thechallenge and has produced “ASolid Future for CIMMYT andThose It Serves,” a plan to guideCIMMYT over the next five years.

CIMMYT: THEDEVELOPING WORLD’SMAIZE AND WHEATCENTERAgricultural research has achievedwhat looked like miracles in thepast, developing ways to enhancethe productivity of farming systemsin both the developed and the lessdeveloped world. CIMMYT wasbuilt on the accomplishments of theresearchers who created the “greenrevolution” of the 1960s. The high-yielding wheat varieties developedby Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr.Norman Borlaug, in Mexico anddelivered to India and Pakistan,brought the Indian Subcontinentfood self-sufficiency at a time whenit was facing mass famine.

Three lessons from the time of thegreen revolution stand out forpolicymakers in all countries, rich orpoor. First, agricultural research is afundamental building block forprogress in food production andglobal food security. Second, rapidtransmission to farmers of advancesfrom the research labs andexperimental fields depends on the

effective functioning of manyactors along the “research impactpathway,” from researchers andpolicymakers to farmers. Third,the farmer is king: in the end, thedecisions of millions or hundredsof millions of farmers across theworld determine whether the newvarieties and technologies areadopted, impacts registered and,in the end, poverty reduced andlivelihoods improved.

CIMMYT will continue to deliversolutions through enhancedgermplasm, efficient deliverypathways to adoption, andpartnerships with those who havecomplementary strengths andskills. We are the developingworld’s maize and wheat center.The marginalized of thedeveloping world deserve no lessthan our best.

Masa IwanagaDirector General

A SOLID FUTURE


Drought: Grim Reaperof Harvests and Lives

meager harvests. A BBC Newsreport of 3 October mentionedchildren dying of hunger-relatedillnesses in Malawi and said theUnited Nations World FoodProgramme (WFP) estimated thatsome 12 million people would needinternational help. Throughout thedeveloping world, drought issecond only to soil infertility as aconstraint to maize production, andprobably reduces yields worldwideby more than 15% yearly,representing annual losses in excessof 20 million tons of grain. Nearlyone-third of the area planted tobread wheat and about three-fourths of the area planted todurum wheat suffer from severedrought stress during the growingseason. If predictions are right,global warming, urbanization, anddeforestation will increase thefrequency and severity of droughtand general scarcity of water inmany parts of the developingworld. By the same token,developing countries will need anadditional 368 million tons of maizeand wheat by 2020 (today, they needabout 700 million tons) for food, andstudies suggest that harvests frommarginal lands—including areasprone to drought—will be key tomeeting this increased demand.

In keeping with its mission,CIMMYT and partners are helpingaddress the needs of oft-forgottenfarmers in droughty areas, offeringthem hardy maize and wheatvarieties that survive and give grainin drier seasons, with no yieldpenalty in wet years, as well ascropping practices to capture andtake fullest advantage of availablemoisture.

The complexity of a plant’sresponses when faced withinsufficient moisture—varying byspecies, cultivar, and plant growthstage—renders quick solutions orbreeding breakthroughs elusive.

WHEAT: MANY WAYSTO ATTACK DROUGHTHistorically, water deficit is morecommon than water sufficiency forcultivated wheat. Under humanmanagement, 36 million hectares—or roughly one-third—of all wheatsown in developing countriesreceive adequate water viairrigation. The remainder is grownon precipitation or residualmoisture. Of this, at least 40 millionhectares are regularly subject to

1 Dilley, M., R.S. Chen, U. Deichmann,A.L. Lerner-Lam, and M. Arnold. 2005.Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global RiskAnalysis. Washington, D.C.: The WorldBank.

Actually, mention of the world’smost life-threateningnatural phenomenon—

drought—rarely makes theheadlines. But according to a recentstudy1 by the Columbia UniversityCenter for Hazards and RiskResearch and the World Bank,drought caused nearly as manydeaths during 1980–2000 as all othernatural disasters combined.

Drought’s despoilment falls heavilyupon the rural poor in developingcountries, and has been particularlyonerous in Africa. In 2005, paltryrains plus diverse other factors ledto southern Africa’s worst harvestof maize—the region’s staplefood—in a decade typified by

WHEN ONE THINKS OF

DEADLY NATURAL DISASTERS,

WHAT GENERALLY COMES TO

MIND ARE STORMS, FLOODS,

EARTHQUAKES, OR

VOLCANOES.

drought at some point in the cropcycle. CIMMYT wheat researchershave worked extensively at theCenter’s Ciudad Obregón researchstation in the northern Mexicandesert, where water regimes aresubject to tight control. This hasallowed them to “dissect” the effectsof drought on wheat productivity atthe various crop developmentstages. In this regard, wheat’s lifecycle may be broken down into fourstages: emergence-establishment,establishment-flowering, flowering,and grain filling.

Very dry conditions are mostdetrimental to wheat duringemergence-establishment. “If aplantlet lacks sufficient moisture toemerge or the ground is drying as itcomes up, a yield penalty is paidregardless of conditions that follow,”says CIMMYT wheat breederRichard Trethowan. “Farmers oftendelay sowing until they see there issufficient moisture, but the delayitself also reduces yield.”

Dry conditions at establishment-flowering can retard root andcanopy development.Underdeveloped root systems areless able to extract moisture from thesoil, and yields plummet should dryconditions persist. Fewer or smallerleaves and a thinner canopy createless shade, resulting in moreevaporation from the soil andgreater competition from weeds formoisture and nutrients.Photosynthetic activity may alsosuffer. Finally, a weak root systemand canopy leave the plant withlower nutrient reserves to draw onat later development stages.

Lack of water at flowering canproduce male sterility and fewerand more poorly formed seeds.Even if the plant gets adequatewater afterwards, the dearth offertile kernels will reduce yields.Again, stored resources maysupport pollination and seed setting.

Severe dryness at grain filling canreduce photosynthesis and thus thesupply of carbohydrates needed for

plump kernels. Yield losses may bereduced if the plant can call oncarbohydrate reserves. ForCIMMYT and partners, droughtstress during grain filling is aresearch priority because of itsprevalence in many of the wheatenvironments where we work.

WATER-PRODUCTIVE

WHEAT: “SMART

CROSSING” FOR SPECIFIC

TRAITS

CIMMYT recently devised a “smartcrossing” approach to producewheat varieties better able to accessand use soil water. The approachworks in tandem with a global“shuttle breeding” system thatallows researchers to test and adaptdrought tolerant varieties in diverseconditions around the world. Acentral precept is that droughttolerance should entail no yieldpenalty—that is, when rains orirrigation are adequate, the yields

of drought tolerant varieties shouldequal or exceed those of normalcultivars. Breeders are alsobeginning to develop varieties thatcomplement conservationagriculture practices gainingacceptance in developing countries(see “Conservation Agriculture andDrought,” p. 7).

In the past, breeders simply crossedparents that produced high yieldsunder drought and then screenedthe progeny for improvedperformance. “The ‘smart crossing’approach breaks down droughttolerance into bite-size pieces—namely, the key adaptive traits atspecific plant stages—andincorporates them into the plant in away that creates synergies amongtraits,” says Matthew Reynolds,CIMMYT wheat physiologist (seefigure). Parents with strong traitsfrom diverse groups are crossedand their offspring screened for thedesired characteristics.

Breeders, physiologists, andmolecular geneticists work togetherto endow experimental wheat linesand varieties with some or all of thetraits. “The breeders send me theircrossing blocks—experimental linesand varieties—and I advise them onwhich lines would make goodcomplementary crosses based ontheir expression profile for drought-adaptive traits,” says Reynolds.“We’ve been doing this for almostfive years now and already lines arebeing earmarked as candidates forinternational distribution.”

Traits for pre-flowering growth:Seedling emergence and plantestablishment. “We want seeds thatcan be sown deep to access availablemoisture, but then get out of theground fast and grow vigorously,especially lateral growth,” saysTrethowan. Large seeds andembryos appear to help, as well as along coleoptile—the first leaf abovethe ground that forms a protectivesheath around the stem tip. Thelatter allows for deep planting anduse of residual soil moisture, whileprotecting seedlings from high soiltemperatures or rapid drying.Finally, a quick-growing canopywith wide, thin leaves providesgood ground cover, reducingevaporation and suppressing weedsthat compete for water.

Once the plant is established,storage of nutritional reservesbecomes increasingly important forlater growth stages. Assimilates instems can be used for grain filling, iflack of water at that phase slowsphotosynthesis. This means thatthicker, longer stem internodes mayhelp. Directing assimilates to theroots increases the plant’s ability todraw on water deep in the soil.

Traits for accessing availablemoisture. A deep and vigorous rootsystem that can efficiently extractwater helps plants under drought,although devoting excessiveresources to the roots may detractfrom other tolerance traits.

Leaf morphology:-pale color-wax/pubescence-posture/rolling

Low 13C discriminationSpike/awn photosynthesisHigh harvest index

Pr e-anthesis biomass:-stem carbohydrate reserves-early vigor/ground cover

Anti-oxidants

Large seed

Long coleoptile

Groups of drought-adaptive traits

High rela tive leaf water contentLow canopy temperatureOsmotic adjustment

Deep root systemwith good accessto water


Water use efficiency Photo protection

Pre-flowering growth Access to water

Traits for water use efficiency.Essentially, this means more cropper drop due to traits that promoteefficient use and distribution of theplant’s internal water resources forcooling, metabolic functions andphotosynthesis. For example, undersevere stress after flowering, thephotosynthetic capacity of thewheat spike itself can help fill thegrain, and scientists can breed forspikes that stay green later into theseason.

Traits that protect the plant fromintense sunlight. Reduced leafchlorophyll, leaf rolling, and waxy,hairy, erect leaves all protect againstradiation and the drying effects ofintense sunlight. Antioxidantsystems can protect plant cells fromthe damaging biochemical effects ofexcess radiation, but more researchis needed to use this for breedingpurposes.

GOING GLOBAL, SEEKING

NEW DIVERSITY

CIMMYT breeders have made goodprogress through “smart crossing,”according to Reynolds. “Theresulting lines have been screenedfor disease resistance and a numberare being tested in preliminary yieldtrials for possible inclusion ininternational nurseries.” In themeantime, wheat researchers arelooking far and wide for newsources of drought tolerance traits.CIMMYT’s wheat germplasm bankalone has more than 160,000 uniqueseed samples of wild, farmer-developed, and scientifically bred

In recent decades, CIMMYT has workedwith partners to develop and promote newcropping methods that save time, money,soil, and water, among other resources. Asdescribed in articles further ahead, manymaize and wheat farmers in developingcountries are beginning to test and adopt so-called “conservation agriculture” practices,which include reducing or eliminatingtillage, seeding directly into residues fromprevious crops, and using more diverse croprotations. In most settings, the practices cancapture, retain, or make better use of waterthan farming methods based on extensivecultivation and residue removal. Often, theymay make the difference between anacceptable harvest and crop failure in dryyears.

Research and farmer experience have shownthat keeping crop residues on the soil surfaceprotects the soil from heavy rainfall andhelps capture and channel water, avoidingrunoff and stemming soil erosion. Surfaceresidues also shield the soil from sunlightand dry air, reducing evaporation. As surfaceresidues rot, the soil gains organic matterand porosity, aiding infiltration. When stalksand roots left in unplowed soil decompose,the space they occupied becomes a networkof tunnels through which water can enterand permeate the plot. With support fromCIMMYT and partners, wheat farmers inCentral Asia who formerly plowed awayresidues are discovering the benefits ofletting them lie (see “Islands of Residue:Fighting Erosion and Fostering WheatProductivity in Kazakhstan,” p. 44).

Direct seeding into residues from a previouscrop cycle allows the following crop to takeadvantage of any moisture left over. Wetsoils normally complicate tillage operations;with no tillage and in the presence ofresidues, residual moisture is a boon. Also,the time gained by avoiding extensive

tillage—as much as two weeks—allows thecrop to develop more fully and, often,mature in time to avoid late-season droughtor high temperatures. These principles arepart of the reason why, over the last fouryears, with help from CIMMYT and the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-GangeticPlains, farmers on nearly two millionhectares in South Asia have begun sowingwheat directly into rice paddies at or justafter rice harvest. Previous land preparationpractices for wheat required as many asseven tractor passes.

Farmers in irrigated settings are quicklybecoming aware of the advantages ofcropping on raised beds. Those who sow onthe flat normally flood their fields, aninefficient way to distribute the water. Withraised beds that measure from 0.6 to 0.9meters in width from furrow to furrow, thewater flow is channeled more effectively andpenetrates the beds evenly from the sides.Irrigation is faster and the water savings areeven more dramatic than those from directseeding (see “Clarion Call to Conservation inEl Bajío,” p. 30). Combining permanentraised beds with direct seeding and a residuecover brings all of the benefits mentioned inthis section.

Breeding strategies at CIMMYT are evolvingto reflect the needs and challenges associatedwith conservation agriculture. On one hand,this will involve developing and selectingnew varieties for raised beds or for zero-tillage. In addition, experience and researchsuggest that conservation agriculture bringswith it a new spectrum of diseases and pests.The effects of some can be addressedthrough management practices such asrotations, but it will also be useful forbreeders to endow new varieties withresistance to such constraints.

Conservation Agricultureand Drought

varieties from around the world.Researchers have also been workingfor a decade uncovering andaccessing useful traits—includingimproved productivity underdrought stress—from the vast poolof genetic diversity in a type ofbread wheat called “synthetics,”created by crossing durum wheatwith wild grasses.

Finally, genetic engineering offersthe possibility of using droughttolerance genes from other plantspecies. CIMMYT has transformedwheat varieties with a gene calledDREB provided by the JapanInternational Center for AgriculturalSciences. From the commonflowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana,the gene is of interest because itconveys certain drought tolerancetraits. In the first ever transgenicwheat field trials in Mexico,preliminary results showed thatDREB wheat plants had coolercanopy temperatures and betterdeveloped roots, and stayed greenlonger under drought stress thancontrol plants. However, grainyields of DREB and normal plantswere roughly equal under drought,further indicating the complexity ofdrought’s effects on productivity.

HOPPING ON THE

SHUTTLE

Experimental, drought tolerantwheat lines and varieties must betested under diverse soil andclimate conditions, pest and diseasepressures, to verify the expression oftolerance. Each year CIMMYT shipsdozens of trials of experimental

lines and varieties of maize andwheat to hundreds of partnersworldwide for testing under localconditions. Participants return datato CIMMYT and incorporate usefulmaterials into their breedingprograms. Drought tolerantvarieties are tested this way.

Another practice for developing andtesting varieties is “shuttlebreeding,” pioneered by NobelLaureate Norman E. Borlaug andhis CIMMYT colleagues in the1960s. They developed new wheatsquickly by running two breedingcycles per year instead of one: awinter cycle in the northern desertof Sonora and a summer crop in thecentral Mexican highlands. This notonly fast-forwarded selection, butalso exposed test varieties toradically different day lengths,temperatures, altitudes, anddiseases.

Shuttle breeding continues todaywithin Mexico and betweenCIMMYT and partners in places likeChina and Central Asia. Theapproach is particularly appropriatefor drought tolerance, given theweighty influence of environmenton the expression of specific planttraits. At CIMMYT’s CiudadObregón station in northern Mexico,researchers use controlled irrigationto create artificial droughts of thetypes found in the world’s majorwheat growing areas. Wheat linesthat perform well under stress atObregón are screened in the coolhighlands of central Mexico underwell-watered conditions andexposure to foliar diseases.

Promising lines are selected againunder diverse drought regimes atObregón, and later shuttled backand forth between Mexico andlocations in Asia and Latin America.

“We’ve found that screening underdrought at Obregón links up withmost environments around theworld,” observes Trethowan.“Where it doesn’t, we go back andlook for variables in our stressregimes that may influence targetenvironments. Environments whereconventional screening in Mexicodoesn’t work effectively are a highpriority for shuttle breeding.”

In many wheat zones, otherconstraints—soil-borne diseases andpests, infertile or saline soils—heighten drought’s effects andcomplicate the development oftolerant varieties. With supportfrom Australia’s CSIRO and theMolecular Plant BreedingCooperative Research Center,CIMMYT and partners are usingmolecular markers to identify genesfor resistance to soil-borne diseasesand to pests such as nematodes.

The recent successes in developingdrought tolerant wheats atCIMMYT have built on significantprogress made by former breeders.“Recent improvements inproductivity under stress areattributable to combining the bestmaterials from earlier work withnew and different sources of geneticvariation for drought tolerance,”Trethowan says.


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MAIZE: KEEPING SILKSAND TASSELS ON TIMEMaize in the developing world isalmost exclusively rainfed, oftensown by smallholders using fewinputs and minimal management.Drought can strike maizethroughout the growing season, butextensive research has shown thecrop to be most sensitive to lack ofmoisture at flowering time. Themale and female flowers—thetassels and the silks—are physicallyseparated on the maize plant. Theymust develop more or less insynchrony for ovules to bepollinated and form grain. Parchedplants may suffer desiccated silksand pollen. Worse yet, they maydelay or forego silking; the longerthe delay, the less grain develops.

During the early 1990s, withgenerous support from the UnitedNations Development Programme,a team of CIMMYT maizephysiologists perfected themeasurement of floweringsynchrony as a simple yardstick toidentify and improve droughttolerance in tropical maize. In thissystem, researchers methodicallystress experimental maize crops,depriving them of water, and thenselect the plants whose silksdevelop soon after tassels appear.Plant types that pass this testthrough several seasons can yield asmuch as 50% more than normalmaize under harsh, mid-to-lateseason drought. The plants are alsotested under well-watered

conditions. In the end, only thosethat do well in both stressed andfavorable settings are used todevelop varieties for farmers, thusensuring superior harvests in bothgood years and bad. The approach isrelatively easy and does not requirespecial equipment, making it idealfor use in developing countries. Asan added bonus, the method alsoimproves the performance of maizein nitrogen-poor soils.

MAIZE STRESS BREEDING:APPLICATIONS AND

IMPACTS

Field-based screening and selectionfor drought tolerance have becomekey components in most CIMMYTmaize breeding efforts. Breeders tryto “pyramid” multiple traits—including drought tolerance—intovarieties destined for stress-proneecologies in Africa, Asia, and LatinAmerica. The overall approach is to:• Test experimental lines and

varieties under prevalent stressesin the target environment,carefully applying abiotic stressessuch as drought and using natural“hot spots” or artificialinoculation/infestation to selectfor resistance to pests anddiseases.

• Work with partners to recycle andtest elite, stress-tolerant lines.

• Develop new experimentalvarieties that carry the desiredcombinations of traits forperformance under stress-proneconditions and are acceptable toclients and farmers.

Compared to traditional breedingapproaches, this has resulted indramatic progress in drought-proneenvironments, and has so far led tothe production of over 45,000 tonsof seed of stress tolerant maizevarieties in Africa alone, in responseto demand. Using this breedingapproach for only three to five yearsresulted in an average breedingprogress of 15-20% under randomstress conditions across eastern andsouthern Africa and at yield levelsequivalent to those of drought-affected farmers’ fields (see figure).“We feel that we’ve only justscratched the surface of exploitinggenetic variation for droughttolerance in maize,” says MarianneBänziger, Director of CIMMYT’sAfrican Livelihoods Program.

Average yield advantage of CIMMYT drought toleranthybrids over conventionally selected commercialhybrid checks, when evaluated under random stressconditions across 36-64 locations in eastern andsouthern Africa, 2000-2002. The further to the left thebar, the more extreme the stress—that is, the first barindicates that yields of CIMMYT hybrids were onaverage 13% better than those of hybrid checks in atr ial where drought and other stresses were so severethat all yields averaged 1 ton per hectare or less.

Over the last decade, CIMMYTresearchers have been using molecularand phenotypic data gathered acrossdiverse maize populations, years, andenvironments to identify genes andchromosomal regions related todrought tolerance traits such as stresstolerance at flowering. The challengewas to map the position of the regionson the chromosomes and determinewhether those identified indicated acommon tolerance mechanism acrossmaize populations and environments.A tool to visualize all the data easilywould help identify the chromosomeregions of interest and facilitate theiruse in breeding programs.

“To address biological questions morefully and to extract more informationfrom our wealth of data, researchersneeded tools to integrate data setsdynamically and analyze them in abiologically meaningful framework.This is what we set out to do,” saysMark Sawkins, CIMMYT moleculargeneticist.

An InnovativeTool andGenetic MapChart a NovelCourse toDroughtTolerant Maize

Examples of on-going CIMMYTefforts where drought tolerance inmaize is a priority trait include:• In eastern Africa, CIMMYT and

partners are developing early-maturing maize that tolerates orresists several key constraints:drought, the parasitic weed Striga,stem borers, and maize streakvirus. High-yielding, locally-adapted varieties from this workare being adopted by farmers innumerous settings (see “CIMMYTVarieties Shine at World’s FirstMillennium Village,” p. 17). Aparticular focus is quality proteinmaize (QPM), which containsenhanced levels of the essentialamino-acids lysine andtryptophan. Efforts have beenfunded by UNDP, the SwedishAgency for InternationalDevelopment Cooperation, theRockefeller Foundation, BMZ-Germany, IFAD, and the OPECFund for InternationalDevelopment.

• Projects in southern Africa focuson tolerance to drought and poorsoils, while developing anddisseminating locally-adaptedQPM for the midaltitudes ofeastern and southern Africa.These efforts have beensupported by the Swiss Agencyfor International Development,the Rockefeller Foundation, andthe Nippon Foundation.


• With support from the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB), as of2005 CIMMYT is helping nationalresearch programs to develop anddeliver high-yielding varieties fordrought-prone areas in southernChina, Indonesia, the Philippines,Thailand, and Vietnam. Thisinitiative builds on theachievements of the ADB-fundedAsian Maize BiotechnologyNetwork (AMBIONET), and willalso focus on stem borers andacid soils.

• With support from CIDA-Canada, CIMMYT and partnersare developing QPM varietiesthat tolerate drought, poor soils,diseases, and insect pests for thelowland tropics of Central andSouth America.

Several projects involve research toidentify and apply molecularmarkers in selection for droughttolerance (see “An Innovative Tooland Maize Map Chart a NovelCourse to Drought ToleranceMaize,” this page). Center staff arealso assessing the potential ofgenetic engineering to enhancedrought tolerance in maize,according to Bänziger: “Our initialimpression is that transgenically-based tolerance is not superior tothat achieved through conventionalselection, but a combination ofconventional plus transgenictolerance may hold promise.”

For more information: [email protected] or [email protected]

CIMMYT assembled genotypic andphenotypic data from six maizepopulations and multipleenvironments ranging fromZimbabwe to the high plateaus ofMexico. “Making sense of this data inthe format produced by the analysissoftware was a daunting prospect,”comments Sawkins.

In 2001, CIMMYT, the US NationalCenter for Genome Resources(NCGR), and three sister CGIARcenters got the ball rolling with a pilotproject that assembled a rudimentarytool to compare genetic maps. Fromthis starting point, and with supportfrom the Rockefeller Foundation, theUSAID Cereals ComparativeGenomics Initiative, and, later, theGeneration Challenge Programme,*CIMMYT and UNCR developed thetremendously flexible and functionalComparative Map TV, whichintegrates and displays complex dataand maps for drought tolerance andother traits.

“The CMTV provides a powerful toolfor accessing data such as that foundon the maize drought consensusmap,” says Sawkins. “At the click ofthe mouse button, users can displayon a screen a broad array of trait dataaligned onto a genetic map,manipulate these in any manner theychoose, and easily link these data toadditional data from either their ownwork or from a multitude of publicdatabases.”

This figure replicates the actual view from CMTV of complete quantitative trait loci (QTL)results across multiple experiments and traits for maize chromosome 2. Notated line on theleft indicates marker locations on the chromosome. On the bars, red indicates that a regionthat is above a particular significance level or “hot” or high for a particular trait; yellow thecor relation is still high but below the level of significance; and green, where the correlationis somewhat “cooler.” Both yellow and green indicate a strong “tendency” that the genomicregion is of importance. Blue indicates that the area is “cold” and insignificant.

* The Generation Challenge Programme(www.generationcp.org) is aninternational consortium that unitescenters of the CGIAR, advanced researchinstitutes, and national agriculturalresearch systems to develop and usegenetic tools and resources to meet theneeds of resource-poor farmers indeveloping countries.

Genetic data can be retrieved basedon numerous parameters andcomparisons drawn through the useof “heat strips,” a visualrepresentation developedspecifically for the CMTV. The heatstrips indicate the correlation ofchromosomal regions with theselected traits or other criteriathrough colors on the respectivebars, thus providing users with aquick way to look for potentialregions of interest over traits,environments, and geneticbackgrounds.

“CIMMYT was uniquely positionedto develop and implement this‘drought consensus’ map, and with it,the CMTV tool,” says Jean-MarcelRibaut, who formerly worked on theproject and now heads the GenerationChallenge Programme. “No otherpublic institution has the same, largegenetic data sets on segregatingpopulations for drought tolerancetraits by environment and crop. Wenot only advanced CIMMYT’s effortsto apply molecular research to maizebreeding, but we helped develop atool that will benefit agriculturalresearchers across all crops and allregions.”

AFRICA:

HOME OF THE WORLD’S

DEEPEST POVERTY, WHERE THE

NUMBER OF POOR PEOPLE HAS

DOUBLED—TO 314 MILLION—

AND THE AMOUNT OF FOOD

PER PERSON HAS FALLEN OVER

THE LAST 20 YEARS. MAIZE IS

A PRIMARY STAPLE FOOD AND

AN OCCASIONAL CASH CROP

THROUGHOUT THE REGION.

FARMERS MUST USE THEIR

VERY LIMITED SOIL AND

WATER RESOURCES WITH THE

GREATEST EFFICIENCY TO

IMPROVE AGRICULTURE,

NUTRITION, AND INCOMES.

CIMMYT IN AFRICA

On 27 May 2005, staff of the Kenya AgriculturalResearch Institute (KARI)

sowed the first insect-resistanttransgenic maize seeds into Kenyansoil, under confined field trialconditions at an open quarantine site(see “What Is an Open QuarantineSite,” p. 16), as part of the InsectResistant Maize for Africa (IRMA)1

project. The first geneticallymodified maize grown in sub-Saharan Africa outside of SouthAfrica, the experiment—and theproject itself—are aimed at helpingKenyan farmers reclaim some of the400,000 tons of maize grain they loseeach year to stem borers.

A KARI-CIMMYT partnershipbegun in 1999, but built on decadesof fruitful collaboration, IRMA usesconventional breeding andbiotechnology to develop and offerlocally-adapted, insect resistantmaize varieties. The controlled fieldtrial contained a maize variety thathad been genetically modified with agene from the common soil

Kenyan ResearchersSow First Field ofTransgenic Maize

1 IRMA is funded by the SyngentaFoundation for Sustainable Agricultureand the Rockefeller Foundation.

ENCOURAGED BY RESULTS OF

LABORATORY AND BIOSAFETY

GREENHOUSE STUDIES, THE

INSECT RESISTANT MAIZE FOR

AFRICA PROJECT BEGAN FIELD

TRIALS WITH TRANSGENIC

MAIZE. EDITORIALS IN THE

NEW YORK TIMES AND THE

INTERNATIONAL HERALD

TRIBUNE CALLED THE PROJECT

“…A CAREFUL ENDEAVOR TO

TEST GENETICALLY MODIFIED

CROPS AND MAKE THEM WORK

FOR THE SMALL FARMER.”

bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).The gene codes for a protein thatimpedes digestion in moth larvae likeborers, and has served as the activeingredient in many organic pesticidessince the mid-1900s. In contrast toSouth Africa, where Bt maize fromprivate companies has been grownfor nearly a decade, in Kenya themaize eventually delivered to farmersthrough IRMA will be free from legalrestraints against planting ordistributing saved seed. “It may seemtrivial, but this type of contrastunderlines the importance of IRMA,which applies cutting-edge science tobenefit smallholders in Africa,” saysIRMA project manager and CIMMYTbreeder Stephen Mugo.

The trial was intended to determinethe effectiveness of different Bt genesand their combinations against fourspecies of Kenyan stem borers underfield conditions and to refine the


adaptation of the experimentalvarieties to Kenyan settings. Theopen quarantine trial site is a one-hectare plot on KARI’s Kibokoresearch station 150 km southwestof Nairobi. Developed in 2003 underIRMA auspices, the facility featuresinternationally accepted biosafetycontrols to ensure that plants andpollen stay within its confines.

WORLDWIDEATTENTION ATTENDSTHE PLANTINGThe worldwide media spotlightshone on the trial planting, withsome of the world’s most influentialand prestigious outlets covering theevent. The BBC science andtechnology radio program Discoveryfeatured interviews with KARIdirector Romano Kiome, Mugo, andKARI scientists Simon Gichuki andCatherine Taracha. Kiboko farmerHarrison Chuma spoke on theprogram about the myriad setbackshe faces to feed his household on hismaize crop, qualifying stem borersas second only to drought instealing yields: “Even when I use

irrigation on my maize, the stemborers stop me from harvestingwhat I should.”

IRMA ARMS FARMERSAGAINST MULTIPLETHREATSIRMA is also working to safeguardthe maize harvests of Chuma andother smallholder farmers in Africaby endowing seed with resistance toanother insect pest—the larger grainborer—that feeds on stored maizeears. Chemical controls for thisinsect are costly and potentiallyharmful to farm families and theenvironment. The associated lab andfield work takes place at KARI’sKiboko, Embu, and Kakamegaresearch stations.

Six IRMA maize varieties developedusing conventional (that is, non-transgenic) sources of insectresistance are being grown in Kenyanational maize performance trials,after successful completion of whichsome or all will be released for useby farmers.

SETBACKS BUT STEADYPROGRESSThe project has not been completelyfree from problems. For example,because of an experimental error—the application of a systemicpesticide to one of the Kiboko testplots in mid-June—that plot had tobe harvested prematurely. AfterKenya’s National BiosafetyCommittee (NBC) and the KenyaPlant Health Inspectorate Service(KEPHIS) granted the requiredpermissions, the trial was replanted.

As the editorial in The New YorkTimes asserts, “The Kenya study is amodel of how to do it and a warningabout how difficult adapting thistechnology for poor farmers will be.”IRMA will only succeed with“...financing and permissions …helpfrom governments and foundations,and cooperation from biotechconcerns.”

For more information: [email protected]

The two signs, two-meter-high chain-link perimeter fencetopped with barbed wire,

locked gate, and round-the-clocksecurity are just some of the manyspecial features that ensure geneticand material confinement within theone-hectare facility, as stipulated bythe Kenya Plant Health InspectorateService (KEPHIS).

The distance of the site from othermaize fields—some 400 meters—isanother important biosafety feature.This, along with the disinfectant-treated stepping mat and drive-through at the single entry point,pits for burning biological residuesfrom the trials, and dustcoats for use

THE TURN-AROUND IN THE

FORTUNES OF THE VILLAGERS OF

BAR SAURI, THE WORLD’S FIRST

MILLENNIUM VILLAGE, MAY

FIGURE AMONG THE MOST

SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT

EFFORTS. CIMMYT MAIZE IS

CONTRIBUTING TO THE VILLAGE’S

NEWFOUND WELLBEING.

What Is an OpenQuarantine Site?

inside, ensures that no pollen, seed,or other plant material can escapethe trial area and that the transgenicmaize will not cross inadvertentlywith maize not included in theexperiments. Excess plant and otherbiological material is gathered,dried in the sun, and burnt, and theash buried in pits on site. Brightyellow basins atop wooden standsare traps to monitor the diversityand numbers of flying insects in thetrials. Plastic tumblers sunk into theground and containing apreservative liquid capture andallow measurement of crawlinginsects. Finally, IRMA providescontinuous training for on-sitepersonnel.


AT FIRST GLANCE, THE KIBOKO OPEN QUARANTINE SITE IS JUST AN

ORDINARY FENCED-OFF FIELD. ON CLOSER INSPECTION, HOWEVER, A

LARGE SIGN IDENTIFIES THE FIELD AS THE KARI/CIMMYT QUARANTINE

FACILITY. ANOTHER SIGN, NEXT TO A LOCKED GATE AT THE ENTRANCE,

INFORMS YOU OF ACCESS RESTRICTIONS TO THE FACILITY, AND SPELLS

OUT SAFETY MEASURES FOR THOSE WITH AUTHORIZED ACCESS.

CIMMYTMaizeShinesat World’sFirstMillenniumVillage

The millennium village concept, the brainchildof Jeffrey D. Sachs, UN

Special Envoy on the MillenniumDevelopment goals (MDGs), is anexperiment designed to show that,for a modest investment andsupport, it is possible to pull peopleout of hunger and poverty and setthem on the road to prosperity.

Just a year ago, the 5,000-oddsmallholders of Bar Sauri in westernKenya were among the poorest inKenya. Hunger, malaria, and HIV-Aids had since the 1980s taken theirtoll on the community, effectivelyarresting any chance the villagershad for development. The normalfarm in Sauri is less than half ahectare and typically supports athree-generation householdnumbering as many as 12 persons.Until 2003, most Sauri farmers grewnyamula, a local maize variety thatyielded at best around 800 kilogramsa hectare—insufficient to see eventhe smaller households through tothe next harvest. Sauri residentswere undernourished, particularlythe women and children, and it wasshowing in consistently low gradesat Sauri’s Nyamnina PrimarySchool. Still, the villagers’ resilienceand will to help themselves led toSauri’s selection as the modelmillennium village in 2004. Thevillage became the beneficiary ofand participant in a five-year projectto show how poverty can beeliminated.

The first hurdle was to overcomehunger, making agriculture theimmediate priority intervention. Inearly 2005 villagers received farminginputs—hybrid maize seed andfertilizers—and training on theproper way to grow their maize.“We were looking for the besthybrid maize varieties available inKenya,” says Pedro Sanchez, Co-chair of the UN Millennium ProjectHunger Task Force, the EarthInstitute, Columbia University, andformer director general of the WorldAgroforestry Center. Sanchezselected two hybrids developed aspart of the Africa Maize Stressproject,1 a joint effort of CIMMYT,the International Institute of TropicalAgriculture, and national researchprograms in West, Central, andEastern Africa. Project leader andCIMMYT maize breeder AlphaDiallo explains how the two hybridscame out on top: “WH502 andWH505 are high yielding, butthey’re also able to tolerate locallyimportant diseases and low nitrogenand drought stress.”Commercialized by the WesternSeed Company just two years ago,they have quickly become the mostpopular hybrid maize varieties inwestern Kenya, and are sown bysome 200,000 farmers onapproximately 50,000 hectares.

By July 2005 the villagers were ableto witness what a combination ofquality seed, proper management,and good rains could do for theircrop, harvesting 4 tons of maize perhectare. “The last time we sawmaize like this was 1970!” saysfarmer Euniah Akinyi Ogola, whoseplants gave cobs the length of herforearm. The unprecedentedbumper crop prompted villagers toorganize a harvest festival markedby drumming, singing, and dancing.“I am thrilled that CIMMYTmaterials met the MDG challenge sobrilliantly!” says Diallo, who tookpart in the festivities along withSachs and dignitaries from aroundthe world.

1 The full name of the project is “Developingand Disseminating Stress Tolerant Maize forSustainable Food Security in West, Centraland East Africa. ” It is funded by IFAD, Sida,BMZ and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Jeffrey D. Sachs

UNICEF Executive Director andformer US Secretary of AgricultureAnn M. Veneman was guest of honor.“The MDGs, with their promise for abetter future, are all about thechildren,” she said in her address.“The world has come to celebrateyour harvest with you!” Hons. Mrs.Charity Ngilu, Kenya’s HealthMinister, remarked that if the Sauriexperience could be replicatedthroughout Kenya, the countrywould have no trouble meeting thefirst Millennium DevelopmentGoal—halving extreme poverty andhunger—by the target of 2015.

Sanchez, a noted agronomist whomthe villagers have fondlynicknamed Odera Kang’o (a famouschief of the Luo people duringKenya’s colonial period), told BarSauri inhabitants they could expectsustained good harvests, thanks tothe Calliandra trees intercroppedwith the maize: “These nitrogen-fixing trees will improve the soil’sfertility, reducing or eliminating theneed for additional mineralfertilizers.”

While the final impact of the MDGproject on Sauri and other villagesremains to be seen, the five-yearpilot phase has alreadystrengthened the school feedingprogram and made a previously

defunct village clinic operational.Sachs said the project would nowwork with the villagers to constructsafe storage facilities for harvestsand start planting higher valuecrops. He also spoke of scaling upthe MDG concept to hundreds ofthousands of villages in Kenya andthroughout the world. AlreadyKoraro village in Ethiopia hasstarted MDG-focused programs.

For Diallo, the challenge remains tocontinue breeding even bettermaize to counter the diverseclimatic and biological stresses indeveloping world ecologies,because, as he says, “…you neverknow where the next Sauri will be.”



Striga sprout when it tries to attach tothe maize seedling. As part of thisresearch, CIMMYT and partners tookadvantage of a natural mutation inmaize to breed locally-adaptedvarieties that withstandimidazolinone-based herbicides.BASF is marketing the seed-and-coatcontrol system under the commercialname Clearfield®.

Farmer field studies show that thepractice restores the 50-100%production otherwise lost to theweed, and is affordable to even thelowest-income groups. For just underUS$ 4 for a 2-kg bag of the seed(enough to sow 0.1 hectares), on-farm trials found a three-fold yieldincrease over Striga-infested maize—at an average value of US$ 53. Thepractice also helps protect futureharvests by depleting the weed’sseed reservoir.

PUTTING STRIGA ON ITSHEELS REGION-WIDEA highly invasive parasite, Strigainfests 400,000 hectares of Kenya’sfarmland. The weed overruns 40% ofthe arable land in Africa’s savannahs,

An Extra Coat Helps MaizeSeed Fight Pernicious Weed

threatening the livelihoods of morethan 100 million people who dependon cereal crops for food and income.Kenyan maize farmers lose at leastUS$ 50 million annually in grain toStriga. The parasite hits hardest in theshallow, depleted, and acidic soilscropped by the poorest farmers.

Three seed companies in Kenya areproducing the new herbicide-coatedhybrid maize under the commonname Ua Kayongo (literally “killStriga”) H1–4. The new controlmethod will be released in Tanzania,Uganda, and, later, 16 other countriesof sub-Saharan Africa, in a processspearheaded by the AfricanAgricultural Technology Foundation(AATF) with DFID support.

CIMMYT agronomist Fred Kanampiusays the technology is not apermanent solution, “...but a stopgapthat buys farmers time and resourcesto apply other control measures. Itwill also allow breeders to developstrong Striga resistance in maize.”

A QUICK AND INEXPENSIVE SOAKING IN HERBICIDE MAKES MAIZE SEED

IMPERVIOUS TO ONE OF ITS WORST ENEMIES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA—

THE PARASITIC FLOWERING PLANT, STRIGA SPP. THE PRACTICE, WHICH

INVOLVES THE USE OF HERBICIDE RESISTANT SEED, WAS DEVELOPED BY

CIMMYT AND PARTNERS. FARMERS IN EASTERN AFRICA MAY ENJOY FAR

BETTER HARVESTS AND FEWER WORRIES.

Yearly, the weed choked thecrop on Zedekiah Onyango’s0.3 hectare plot, stealing half

the harvest. When Western SeedCompany sought farmers to test anew Striga-fighting maize, Onyangowas eager. “Western gave me theseed, and I grew it using my usualfarming techniques on this plot,”says Onyango, near a five-by-five-meter patch of a healthy, Striga-freemaize crop surrounded by Striga-stunted maize.

The technology comes from nineyears of Rockefeller Foundation-funded collaborative research byCIMMYT and multiple partners—“…a classic example ofpartnership,” according to PeterMatlon, director of the RockefellerFoundation’s Africa RegionalProgram. Partners included theKenya Agricultural ResearchInstitute (KARI), the WeizmannInstitute of Science (effort led byJonathan Gressel), BASF, privateseed companies, and local non-governmental organizations. Thepractice is simple: herbicide resistantmaize seed is coated lightly withImazapyr; the herbicide kills the


Starved of nutrients by Striga, infested

maize develops more root hairs than

normal to pull additional sustenance from

the soil—thus the fluffy appearance.

LATIN AMERICA:

MAIZE, BEANS, AND POTATOES—NATIVE

ENDOWMENTS OF THE HEMISPHERE—

ARE FOOD, LIVELIHOOD, AND CULTURE.

MILLIONS OF SMALL-SCALE FARMERS

LACK ACCESS TO THE FRUITS OF

RESEARCH OR EXTENSION, AND HAVE

NOT BENEFITED FROM ECONOMIC

RESTRUCTURING, GLOBAL MARKETS, OR

PRIVATE SECTOR OFFERINGS. POVERTY

STILL FUELS SOCIAL CONFLICTS, AND

WANT OF ALTERNATIVES FORCES RURAL

FAMILIES TO MINE THE ENVIRONMENT

OR FLOCK TO THE CITIES, SWELLING

THE RANKS OF URBAN POOR.

CIMMYT in Latin America

W ith help from CIMMYT and partners, manyColombian coffee growers have lately become convinced that sowing maize is more profitable than fighting weeds. In 2004 they raised 38,000 hectares of high-yielding maize between coffee rows in fields where coffee plants had been pruned. In the bargain, they pocketed good profits and added to the incomes and food security of hundreds of thousands of farm laborers. “A maize crop provides about 50 additional worker-days each growing season,” says Gustavo Rincón, administrator of “La Holanda,” a 160-hectare coffee plantation in Alegrías Valley, Risaralda Department, Colombia.

Rincón figures he gets a profit of US $700 above cost on every hectare of maize he sows.Following recommended practices, he prunes coffee bushes to short stems after several harvests. He also replaces old plants with new ones every five years. During the 18 months or so the new or

pruned coffee plants take to yield beans, the land they occupy is was normally unproductive and hosts vigorous stands of weeds. “Growing maize puts this land to profitable use, controls the weeds, protects plots from erosion, and, if proper care is taken of the soil, does not affect the coffee,” Rincón explains. He sells much of his maize as whole ears for street-corner vendors in cities. The rest goes into feed for his farm animals, or is given away as a bonus to live-in plantation workers or coffee buyers. His peers generally market their output to intermediaries for use in poultry feeds.

Hands-on Approach a Boon to WorkersGrowing coffee is an exacting, labor-intensive business. Producers draw on excellent soils and rainfall, good infrastructure and processing equipment, and long experience in agriculture. But no machinery is used for field operations: Andean hillslopes are too steep, and hands-on management is still the best way to get the quality consumers

ColombiansTake Maize with Their Coffee

Disease resistant

maize varieties and

agronomic training

from cimmyt allow

colombian coffee

farmers to diversify

and profit.


demand. The larger plantations employ hundreds of farm workers at harvest. Even farmers with less than 5 hectares of land—95% of all coffee producers—hire many field workers throughout the year, paying them around US $7 per day plus two meals. For maize this guarantees superb crops, with yields for hybrids of 7 tons per hectare. For workers, it means extra income at a time when they would otherwise be idle.

Expresso-strength Partnerships and Support“The relationship with CIMMYT dates back to the 1980s, with training for Colombian researchers and joint development of improved maize varieties,” according to Fabio Polanía Fierro, deputy director of research at the National Federation of Cereal and Legume Producers (FENALCE). “When coffee prices were good a couple decades ago, producers stopped sowing traditional, secondary crops like maize and beans, preferring simply to buy their food,” Polanía says.

This changed with free markets and falling global coffee prices throughout the 1990s, according to Luis Narro, CIMMYT maize specialist in South America. “In 2002, maize was identified as an attractive option to boost coffee producers’ incomes,” Narro explains, “but only if we could come up with new varieties resistant to two locally harmful maize diseases—tar spot and gray leaf spot.” CIMMYT provided hundreds of experimental varieties for testing on experiment stations of the National Federation of Colombian Coffee Growers (FEDERECAFE) in 2002. “We identified two white-grained, disease resistant hybrids that yielded more than 10 tons of grain per hectare,” says Narro. Later that year, FEDERECAFE, FENALCE, and CIMMYT signed an agreement to develop systems for producing maize on coffee plantations.

Meanwhile, with strong support from FEDERECAFE and the government, Colombian coffee growers have been sowing maize for several years, using commercial hybrids and applying

“The relationship

with CIMMYT dates

back to the 1980s,

with training for

Colombian researchers

and joint development

of improved maize

varieties.”

- Fabio Polanía Fierro Deputy Director for

Research, FENALCE


To process maize

harvests, Colombian

coffee growers like

Alejandro Ochoa

Norena take advantage

of much of the same

equipment they use

for sorting, washing,

drying, and bagging

coffee beans, but

occasionally invest in

specialized machinery,

like the maize sheller

shown here.


than a third of this and import the rest from places like Argentina or the USA. Foreign maize is cheaper than home-grown grain, although its quality is often lower.

“There’s a market for Colombian maize—people prefer it for food products—but the demand is much less than for animal feed,” says Alejandro Ochoa Norena, who received the first-prize trophy for maize productivity in 2004 from the hands of President Uribe. Ochoa and his sister Johana manage their father’s coffee plantation near the town of Santuario, Risaralda Department. He says that marketing maize is an increasing challenge, and growers frequently go through middlemen. “This arrangement is often unfavorable for farmers,” says Ochoa. Still, Ochoa and his peers are guardedly optimistic about the prospects for maize in the near term, and feel it offers a solid alternative for diversification.

fungicides for disease control. “The Minister of Agriculture has given both political and financial support; this has been crucial,” says Polanía, “and President Álvaro Uribe got interested and suggested the idea of a contest for the best maize crop.”

Encompassing more than half a million coffee-growing households and 800,000 hectares of coffee lands, FEDERECAFE has also thrown its considerable weight behind the coffee-maize marriage and provided diverse logistical and material support, says Edgar Echeverri Gómez, Technical Manager of the organization. Among other things, its legions of yellow-shirted, blue-capped extension agents are now knowledgeable in maize agronomy.

Demand Driven?A major concern is ensuring markets for locally-grown maize. Colombians consume just over 3 million tons of maize each year as food, feed for poultry and pigs, and industry products. They produce slightly more

C IMMYT’s Toluca station is a centerpiece in wheat improvement, but is located in a mostly maize-growing part of Mexico. Station superintendent Fernando Delgado Ramos has become a pillar of knowledge on conservation agriculture and is changing the way some farmers think about the plow.

Making thePlow Passé in Mexico

wide, as they face water shortages, rising production costs, and low prices for their produce. From the community of San Andrés, Jalisco State, farmer Sergio Vázquez made the trip over 300 kilometers southeast to Toluca in 2004 for a demonstration by Delgado. He was immediately impressed by the savings from eliminating extensive tillage operations. Back home he tried to convince his cousin and partner, José Antonio Aranda, to apply the new methods. Aranda fi rst refused but later relented. “That season it rained a lot and we saw we couldn’t sow or, in some cases, even disk the plowed fi elds, so we tried zero-tillage and were able to plant 90 hectares,” Vázquez explains.

Julián Martínez, one of many farmers who have followed Delgado’s recommendations to reduce tillage, keep residues on the soil, and sow on permanent, raised beds, says his maize yields have nearly doubled, since adopting the practices three years ago on his small farm in the Toluca Valley, southwest of Mexico City.

Drought or Downpours: Zero-Tillage Still WorksDelgado’s initiatives started out small in Central Mexico, but the conservation agriculture practices he promotes have piqued the interest of maize farmers nation-

What started as a money-

saving technique at a wheat

station is now turning

heads for its advances in

conserving resources and

boosting maize yields.

In the last few years Fernando

Delgado, head of a wheat

research station, has helped

maize farmers, who fl ock to

him for advice. He does this

as a sideline, after a full day of

offi ce and fi eld work.


Seeding directly into brush and residues was difficult, according to Vázquez, but not as hard as putting up with the laughter and sarcasm of local acquaintances. “Their comments changed when they saw our crop emerge and the weeds wilt away from the herbicide we’d used, and this led a few friends to try zero-tillage on some of their plots.”

Suffering one of farming’s cruel ironies, in spring 2005 the partners faced exactly the opposite from the previous year’s dilemma: two dry spells of several weeks each, the first coming right at planting time. Vázquez had his soils tested and found enough moisture to germinate maize seeds, so he and Aranda sowed 210 hectares directly into the unplowed fields. Despite the droughts, their maize crop grew strong on the residual moisture. Neighbors using conventional tillage either had severely stressed plants or had to wait for rain and plant late, thereby risking yield losses from frost in the fall. “There are still many aspects we need

to improve,” says Vázquez, “but we’re convinced that zero-tillage is better than traditional tillage for profitable farming.”

The Tide is TurningIn the nearby state of San Luis Potosí, farm-group leader Carlos Rocha Cabrera has been in frequent contact with Delgado in search of ways to lower productions costs for farmers he serves. “Using zero-tillage practices with irrigated maize, we’ve had savings of 40% in water, 80% in herbicide, and 80 and 40% in soil- and leaf-applied insecticides,” says Rocha, who presides over the administrative council of “Agropecuaria y Forestal El Mezquite.” Members of this farmer association are sowing some 350 hectares with no plowing and keeping residues on the soil, and have done experiments comparing the effects on soil moisture of varied amounts of residue. “Change [toward conservation agriculture] is coming from all agriculture sectors, including smallholders, those working former communal lands, and large-scale farmers,” Rocha says, “and government support is growing.”

Economics: The Mother of Invention?Delgado’s movement toward conservation agriculture started as a way to save money in operations at the Toluca station by reducing machinery passes and use of water and fuel. Fifty percent of the station’s land is used for wheat experiments, and the other half is devoted to crop rotations to sustain the land. It was there that Delgado started direct seeding on permanent beds to save money for use on other projects. Conservation agriculture caught his eye after a couple harvests, when yields went from 5-8 tons per hectare to 10.

CIMMYT agronomist Ken Sayre has traveled throughout the developing world, championing cropping diversification and use of permanent, raised beds. He heartily applauds Delgado’s efforts. “People like Fernando still believe that improving crop production directly in farmers’ fields is the most valuable way to achieve impact,” he says. Delgado’s practical initiatives are certainly finding an echo with Mexican farmers and helping many to increase their productivity and profitability in challenging times.


mailto:[email protected]

Clarion Call to Conservation in El Bajío

J oining the growing number of farmers worldwide squeezed by rising input costs, low grain prices, and degrading resources, farmers in Michoacán State, south-central Mexico, are moving toward conservation agriculture, assisted by researchers like Rebeca González Íñiguez. The northern section of the state is part of Mexico’s El Bajío—a large region with rich soils, good rains, and extensive irrigation, but mounting problems relating, among other things, to improper use of agro-chemicals and water. Michoacán farmers enjoy relatively large holdings—as big as 200 hectares—and practice an intensive rotation centered on irrigated wheat or barley in dry winter months and rainfed, summer maize or sorghum.

A cereal scientist at the Mexican National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research, González helped introduce the farmers to cropping on raised beds, a practice many are using to improve irrigation efficiency. “In 1994, we organized a visit by farmers to the CIMMYT research station at Ciudad Obregón, in northern Mexico, to learn about bed planting and better ways of managing irrigation,” she says. “The furrows on either side of the beds speed up irrigation and channel the water so there are no flooded or dry spots in the field.” González also brought them a bed shaping implement provided originally by CIMMYT wheat agronomist Ken Sayre, who encourages and supports González and the Michoacán farmers.

Soon after, to gain time and thus be able to sow more productive, longer-season maize hybrids, most of the farmers began seeding maize directly into residues with no tillage after wheat or barley harvest. “They picked this up from peers in another area of El Bajío, and besides allowing earlier sowing it has saved them the cost of plowing,” says González. From there, it was a short leap to experimenting with year-round zero-tillage on permanent raised beds. Local farmer Moisés Orozco Velázquez began testing the approach with his brothers on part of their 100-hectare holdings in 2004, mainly to lower expenses. At first he didn’t like some of the new ideas—like slashing fertilizer use—suggested by a brother studying agronomy. But he acceded


For more information: [email protected] or [email protected]

and was happily surprised at the results. “We cut our costs in half with savings in fertilizer, tillage operations, and field-hands, and our crop looks as good as or better than that of our neighbors, who used traditional tillage and lots more fertilizer,” says Orozco. “We also had some heavy rains this year, and in lower-lying spots where we’d normally lose part of the crop to waterlogging, the infiltration was excellent.” Now he and the family plan to apply a suite of resource-conserving practices, including year-round zero-tillage, on all their land.

Like other farmers adopting the new practices, Orozco is still struggling with diverse issues,

including optimal seeding and fertilizer rates and, above all, managing residues as plentiful as 15 tons per hectare each year. “We’ve found that if we spray urea on it, by sowing time the straw has begun to decompose,” Orozco says. They also bundle and sell some straw for forage, but still have problems getting seeders to chop through residue and put seed in contact with the soil. González says this points up a major issue to solve: “The future of conservation agriculture in the region depends on farmers’ access to effective, affordable machinery.” Sayre and his associates are working on relevant designs that Mexican machine manufacturers can eventually build and market.

A small-grain cereals

specialist, Rebeca González

Íñiguez says a key part of

her work involves listening

to and learning from the

accumulated wisdom

of Mexican farmers like

Agustín Orozco Velázquez,

pictured here: “They know

what they’re doing and

what they need; I simply

try to provide support and

guidance. If I don’t know

the answer to one of their

questions, I call in an expert

who can help them.”



“I wish I had known about it this season—this will save me money,” says Rubén Luders, a farmer who grows 400 hectares of irrigated wheat in the Yaqui Valley of Mexico’s Sonora State. What Luders and more than 25 other farmers saw in a demonstration was an effective and accurate way to determine both the right amount of nitrogen fertilizer for a wheat crop and the best time to apply it. Traditionally farmers in the region fertilize before they sow and then again at first

irrigation. The new approach, developed in conjunction with Oklahoma State University (OSU), USA, uses an infrared sensor to measure the performance of wheat plants as they grow.

Conducted in the fields of four different farmer-volunteers, the demonstrations showed that farmers could maintain high yields using far less fertilizer. “We used to feed the soil first, before growing the wheat,” says Luders. “Now we know we should feed the wheat.” He and his peers calculated that the nitrogen sensor, which costs about US$ 400, would pay for itself in a single season from savings in fertilizer use on just 80 hectares of wheat.

“I’d long been looking for something to determine nitrogen requirements,” says CIMMYT wheat agronomist, Iván Ortiz-Monasterio. “It has taken time to calibrate it, but now we have a useful tool to determine the nitrogen a wheat plant needs.”

The sensor is held above the growing plants and measures light reflected at two different wavelengths—red and invisible infrared. In technical terms this is called the normalized differential vegetative index (NVDI). After much testing, Ortiz-Monasterio and his colleagues from Oklahoma State found they could get a handheld computer to calculate plant nitrogen requirements from the readings.

Reflected Light Illuminates Soil Status and Nitrate RunoffsCIMMYT research associate and wheat agronomist Bram Govaerts has used the sensor to measure plant performance in a long-term experiment on maize and wheat conservation agriculture at CIMMYT’s El Batán experiment station in south-central Mexico. “Variation of spectral reflectance within plots is a sound indicator

Reflected Rays Tell When to Feed Cropsand Starve Sea AlgaeA new technology from

CIMMYT and Oklahoma

State and Stanford

Universities will help

developing country

maize and wheat farmers

to better target and

regulate fertilizer

applications. Farmer

incomes and the quality

of soils and fisheries

stand to benefit.


of agronomic mismanagement or soil quality problems,” says Govaerts. “Uniform readings suggest that farming practices are sustainable.”

Govaerts and CIMMYT post-doctoral fellow Mirjam Pulleman helped conduct a training course in September 2005 on the use of the sensor. Organized by CIMMYT wheat agronomist Ken Sayre and OSU researcher and former CIMMYT wheat agronomist William Raun and financed by the United States Agency for International Development, the workshop drew 27 participants, including 10 Mexican researchers and extension workers. Rebeca González Íñiguez, of Mexico’s National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research, plans to use what she learned to help farmers adopting conservation agriculture in an intensively cropped area where fertilizer overuse threatens soil quality and incomes (see “Clarion Call to Conservation in El Bajío,” p. 30). In this case, she will calibrate the sensor to fine-tune fertilization of farmers’ rainfed, summer maize crop.

But there is more to this technology than just efficient farming. A recent Stanford University study published by the prestigious science journal Nature showed that excess fertilizer from northern Mexican

farms washes into the nearby Sea of Cortez. The extra nitrogen feeds blooms of algae that deplete sea-water oxygen—an effect that has spoiled fisheries in several parts of the world. Fertilizer-optimizing practices like the sensor help head-off the problem. “As farming systems intensify to feed more people, we need to minimize the environmental impacts,” says Ortiz-Monasterio.

Iván Ortiz-

Monasterio

delivers a sensor

to CIMMYT

partners in

Pakistan.

Just five days before the demonstration with Yaqui Valley farmers, researchers in Pakistan received their first infrared sensor, the result of a USAID linkage grant with CIMMYT and Oklahoma State. In this way, a technology proven in Mexican fields is going to benefit farmers worldwide and help maintain the health of coastal waters.


A MaizeVariety for

Farmers on the Edge

Peruvian farmer

Virgilio Medina

Bautista and his wife

pay for boarding

school for their two

children by growing

maize and coffee on

sections of their 12-

hectare homestead.

After testing other

varieties and hybrids,

he grows Marginal 28

because “…it’s a good

maize and yields well.”


O n a hillside that abuts more than 3,000 kilometers ofAmazonian expanse beginning in Peru and reaching clear across Brazil to the Atlantic, farmer Virgilio Medina Bautista weeds his maize field under the stifling equatorial sun. He and his wife Sabina Bardales typically arise before dawn to cook a meal for their field workers and work all day until bedtime, around 9 p.m. “We come to the field with the food for brunch and ready to work,” Medina says. “It’s a hard life, but there’s no other way, for someone without an education.”

Like 90% of the farmers in this region of Peru—the lowland zones east of the Andes known as the “jungle”—as well as many on the coastal plains or in inter-Andean valleys, Medina sows Marginal 28. This open-pollinated maize variety, developed in the 1980s by Peru and CIMMYT, is popular for its high yields and broad adaptation. It provides two or three times the average yield of the local variety

it replaced, and grows well in diverse environments. “Private companies have been trying to introduce maize hybrids here, but they yield only six tons per hectare,” says Edison Hidalgo, maize researcher from the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) “El Porvenir” experiment station, whose staff help spread productive farming practices throughout the region. “Marginal 28 gives that or more, under similar management, and because it’s an open-pollinated variety, farmers don’t have to purchase new seed every season.”

Luis Narro, CIMMYT maize researcher in South America and a native of Peru who helped develop Marginal 28, says the cultivar’s adaptation and uses have far outstripped expectations. “This variety is sown most widely in jungle zones—truly marginal, lowland areas characterized by poor soils, heavy weeds, and frequent drought, to name a few constraints,” Narro says. “But I was just at a station in Ayacucho,

at over 2,700 meters in the Andes, and saw seed production fields of Marginal 28 where yields were probably going to hit seven tons per hectare.” Farmers in jungle areas use it chiefly for animal feed or for export to the coast. Coastal farmers grow Marginal 28 because the seed is relatively cheap and yields high-quality forage for their dairy cattle. In the Andes, the grain goes for food and snacks.

Its adaptability may be explained in part by its genetically diverse pedigree, which even includes as a parent an internationally recognized variety from Thailand. “This suggests part of

“This suggests part

of the value of a

global organization

like CIMMYT,

which can combine

contributions from

around the world

to develop a useful

product for small-

scale farmers.”

- Luis Narro, maize breeder, CIMMYT, South America

the value of a global organization like CIMMYT, which can combine contributions from around the world to develop a useful product for small-scale farmers,” Narro says.

Can Poor Farmers Stop Chopping Down Jungles?Despite the clear benefits of Marginal 28, Peruvian farmers are still struggling as markets shift, production costs rise, and maize prices remain low. Farmer Jorge Dávila Dávila, of Fundo San Carlos, Picota Province, in the Amazon region of Peru, grows maize, cotton, banana, and beans on his 10-hectare homestead. Because he is



fertility falls off, and then they move to new land. Dávila has stayed put for eight years on the same fields. “I tell my neighbors not to cut down their jungle,” he says. “I’ve seen that leaving (the brushland) brings me rain.” With support from INIA researchers like Hidalgo, Dávila is testing conservation agriculture practices. For example, on one plot he plans to keep maize residues on the soil surface and seed the next crop directly into the soil without plowing. Research by CIMMYT and others has shown that this practice can cut production costs, trap and conserve moisture, and improve soil quality.

Farmer Jorge Dávila

Dávila believes more

outside assistance will

be needed, if farmers in

the region are to switch

to environmentally

friendly farming: “To

stop cutting down

jungle land, we need a

proposal that lets us live

off our farms.”

relatively far from the trans-Andean highways leading to the coast, where maize is in heavy demand for use in poultry feed, middlemen pay him only US $70 per ton of maize grain—well below world market prices. “Maize is a losing proposition; that’s why so many farmers here are in debt,” he says. “They can’t take their maize to local companies for a better price, because they already owe it to the middlemen who provide inputs.”

Unlike most farmers, Dávila makes ends meet through hard work and what he calls “an orderly approach” to farming. Many in the region slash and burn new brushland, cropping it for two or three seasons until

Asia:

The region with the

largest absolute number of

poor people and a rapidly

rising demand for cereal

grains. Intensive, irrigated,

highly-productive farming

systems feature multiple

crops—including large

areas of maize and wheat—

and face serious problems:

the unsustainable

exploitation of water

and soils, inefficient use

of chemical inputs, and

emerging or worsening

disease and pest problems.

Rainfed agriculture

provides millions

with food but suffers

from poor or erratic

precipitation, infertile

soils, aggressive diseases

and pests, and, sometimes,

extreme temperatures.

CIMMYT IN ASIA

IN ASIA, RISING DEMAND AND

PRICES FOR QUALITY PROTEIN MAIZE

(QPM) FROM CIMMYT BENEFIT

FARMERS AND CHANGE LIVES.

“Ihave farmed forever,” saysYasam Saanim. He worksthe steep slopes of the

mountainous land near the villageof Carin on the Indonesian island ofJava. From childhood his life hasbeen one of hard labor with littlereward. He and his wife struggledto raise seven children on their tinypiece of rented land. With no moneyof his own Yasam has to borrowfrom the landowner every year tobuy fertilizer for his third of ahectare of rice. He also grows a fewbananas, cassava, sweet potatoesand durian, a pungent SoutheastAsian delicacy. In return he pays thelandowner 180 kg of rice at harvest.By his reckoning that representsabout 30% interest. He doesn’t thinkit is a fair deal but says he has nochoice. The family survives butYasam has never had money. It hasbeen that way all his life.

Now, at the age of seventy, hefinally sees some light in the

seemingly endless tunnel ofhopelessness that has been his lotas a tenant farmer.

The landowner has decided toplant maize—in particular, QPM—on 1.2 hectares of land adjacent toYasam’s. Quality protein maize is ahigh lysine, high tryptophan typedeveloped by CIMMYT. Lysineand tryptophan are two of theamino acids required for thesynthesis of protein in the humanbody. This maize can enhance thenutrition of the poor whose dietsdepend heavily on maize and raisethe quality of maize-based pig andpoultry feeds. The landowner’sQPM production is for seed, whichsells locally at five times the valueof “normal” maize grain andreflects Java farmers’ growinginterest in QPM.

To Yasam’s delight, he and somevillage women were hired to weed,fertilize, and harvest the QPM plot.Yasam earns 12,500 Indonesianrupiahs ($1.30) for each half day heworks. The women are paid less(7,500 rupiahs) but in a village withlittle money this new income isvery welcome.

Indonesia has released two open-pollinated QPM varieties, oneyellow and one white. They weredeveloped using experimentalvarieties from CIMMYT byMarsum Dalhan, head of the

Breeding and Germplasm Sectionof the Indonesian Cereal ResearchInstitute. Marsum has benefitedboth from CIMMYT trainingactivities and through support forhis work from the AsianDevelopment Bank.

Virtually no maize is grownaround Carin. That is good newsfor landowners who producemaize seed and, especially, QPMseed. Because the quality proteintrait is “recessive”—that is, bothparents must carry it and pass iton for it to be expressed inoffspring—any plants that arefertilized with pollen from othertypes of maize will producenormal (not quality protein) seed.

The economics look good to thelandowner. He produces twocrops of quality protein seed ayear. Still there is a risk. Themarket for this maize is in itsinfancy in Indonesia, where mostanimal feed is still artificiallyfortified with lysine at the feedmill. But the market is growingfor the nutritionally enhancedmaize. For the village of Carin thebenefits are still small, a trickle-down at best. Still Yasam Saanim,a person who has farmed forever,beams with cautious optimism. “Itlooks like we will have a benefitfrom the maize,” he smiles.


I Have Farmed Forever

For more information:[email protected]

To further develop maizeimprovement recommendations,national workshops and sevenpublications built upon the farmersurveys. Careful planning andappropriate research anddevelopment prioritizationprocedures on the part of scientistsand policy makers will ensure aneasier transition as farmers faceoncoming maize demand. A clearmessage from the study in Vietnam,for example, was the need to helpfarmers apply sustainable practicesto avoid degrading naturalresources—particularly in fragile,marginal settings—as demandintensifies. “The project provided amuch-needed avenue for betterprioritization of maize research anddevelopment in the participatingcountries,” says Roberta Gerpacio,former CIMMYT research associatewho coordinated the effort. “Theactive pursuit of the right priorities,together with a supportive policyenvironment, can help make maize-based farming a more sustainablelivelihood for marginal householdsin the Asian uplands.”

The conclusions, like the one abovefor Vietnam, were drawn fromresults of systematic country-levelprioritization, and drew uponfindings from in-depthparticipatory rural appraisals inmarginal, isolated areas involvingvillage leaders and groups offarmers. Details on the sociological,agro-economical, environmental,

and technological aspects of maizeproduction were assembled in aseries of six publications availablethrough CIMMYT (see“Publications/Maize ProductionSystems” on www.cimmyt.org). Aseventh report on maize in China isalso being developed.

“The third project component onmaize sector policy research closelyreviewed and examined country-level macro- and micro-economicpolicies, relating these to influenceson farm and household-levelconditions,” says Gerpacio. Aseparate volume on details andsynthesis of the seven countrymaize policy studies will be co-published with IFPRI.

Project participants also includedIFPRI, Stanford University, andnational research programs andministries of agriculture in thestudy countries.

The demand for maize is expectedto skyrocket in Asia over the nexttwo decades, driven primarily by itsuse for animal feed. But maize useis also increasing in the uplands ofseven Asian countries. These areasare often cut off from markets andinhabited by resource-poor farmerswho eat much of what they grow.CIMMYT and the InternationalFund for Agricultural Development(IFAD) have recently completed aproject promoting food andlivelihood security for uplandfarmers in Asia who depend onmaize for both food and feed.

The International Food PolicyResearch Institute (IFPRI) estimatesthat by 2020 the demand for maizein all developing countries willsurpass the demand for wheat andrice, with Asia accounting for overhalf of this growth. Responding tothese predictions, teams ofresearchers visited farmers in theuplands of China, India, Indonesia,Nepal, the Philippines, Thailand,and Vietnam to learn about theirmaize production systems.

The Call forMaizeMounts inAsia


Year

Maize production in Indonesia, 1970-2000.

Production (million tons)

12

10

8

6

4

2

070 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 00

Indonesia

Outside Java

Java

RECENT UPDATE FROMTHE FIELDAn important component of acurrent project (“Wheat and MaizeProductivity Improvement inAfghanistan”) is collaborative workwith the Agriculture ReseachInstitute of Afghanistan (ARIA),non-government and internationalorganizations, and farmers to verifyin farmers’ fields the performanceand acceptability of improvedwheat and maize varieties.

The project has also provided non-government organizations withseed of open-pollinated maizevarieties for farmer testing andfeedback, resulting in theidentification of two promisingvarieties, and participants are

CIMMYT has collaboratedwith Afghan researchersfor over three decades,

even during the war. Thanks to theSwedish Committee forAfghanistan and the FAO, Afghanresearchers maintained contact withCIMMYT and the Turkey-CIMMYT-ICARDA International WinterWheat Improvement Program, andcontinued to select the best newwheat lines/varieties frominternational nurseries. “The newseed moved from farmer to farmer;without it, people would havesuffered even more hunger andmalnutrition than they did,” saysHans Braun, Director of CIMMYT’sRainfed Wheat Program.

Helping to ReinvigorateAgriculture in AfghanistanWHEAT IS THE NUMBER-ONE

STAPLE CROP IN AFGHANISTAN,

AND MAIZE IS THE THIRD.

TOGETHER THEY OCCUPY 80% OF

THE AREA PLANTED TO ANNUAL

CROPS IN THE COUNTRY. A

CENTRAL AIM OF CIMMYT IN

AFGHANISTAN IS TO MAKE

IMPROVED, HIGH QUALITY SEED

OF BOTH CROPS AVAILABLE TO

FARMERS, ALONG WITH

APPROPRIATE CROP MANAGEMENT

TECHNOLOGIES.


working to identify earlier-maturing varieties that better fitfarmers’ requirements. Projectmembers are also working withthe ARIA and the FAO, throughthe Improved Seed Enterprise, tooffer breeder’s seed of selectedvarieties to recognized producersof certified seed. To ensure allhave access to quality seed, theyare also linking with informalfarmer-to-farmer distributionsystems. The latter has resulted inas much as a 10-fold increase inthe area under improvedvarieties, in some regions. TheNorwegian Project Office-RuralRehabilitation Association forAfghanistan reported thatfarmers who had planted open-pollinated maize varieties fromthe project in 2003 had barteredand sold more than two tons ofseed in 2004.


Overall, 700 CIMMYT maize and wheatnurseries have been grown and evaluated byresearchers in Afghanistan since 1975.

WHEAT

• 300 tons of quality seed of wheat MH-97distributed to 9,000 farmers in 4 provinces.

• All winter/facultative wheat cultivars inAfghanistan are derived from nurseries of theTurkey-CIMMYT-ICARDA InternationalWinter Wheat Improvement Program.

MAIZE

• Tons of breeder and foundation maize seeddelivered for multiplication and distribution.

TRAINING

• 50 Afghan researchers have taken training atCIMMYT.

• 5 in-country technical workshops since 2002,diverse topics (agricultural developmentpotential and constraints, yellow rust and fieldscoring, research methodologies, varietalevaluation), 70 participants (farmers, NGOworkers, research station officers).

CIMMYT partners in Afghanistaninclude the Future HarvestConsortium to RebuildAgriculture in Afghanistan,funded by the United StatesAgency for InternationalDevelopment and coordinated bythe International Center forAgricultural Research in the DryAreas; AusAID and the AustralianCentre for InternationalAgricultural Research; FAO; theInternational FertilizerDevelopment Center and theUnited States Agency forInternational Development,ACTED, the Aga KhanDevelopment Network, ImprovedSeed Enterprise, the AfghanMinistry of Agriculture, AnimalHusbandry, and Food and, inparticular, the AgriculturalResearch Institute of Afghanistan.

CIMMYT inAfghanistan: ALegacy of Impact

“Plow, plow, plow—that’swhat we were told onthe old state farms,”

says Darynov Auezkhan, farmerand vice-chairman of theKazakhstan Farmers’ Union, thelargest such organization in thecountry. He reflects back on 1988,when official policy mandated theuse of “black fallow,” heavymechanical tillage as early aspermissible in spring to controlsevere infestations of wild oats andother weeds. “By the next springI’d see places where 50 to 60% ofthe soil had been washed away.And then I’d see several ‘islands’ inthe field where the straw had beenretained. There the soil erosion wasmuch, much less.”

Those “islands” illustrate the basisof zero-tillage—retaining rather

than plowing in or burning cropresidues—while demonstrating animportant advantage of thisapproach: dramatically decreasedsoil erosion. But saving soil alone isnot sufficient cause for farmers tochange their ways.

CATCHING ANDKEEPING WATER“Retaining soil moisture is criticalto seed germination, cropestablishment, and, ultimately,yield,” explains CIMMYT scientistMurat Karabayev, who led theKazakhstan/FAO/CIMMYTTechnical Cooperation Project onConservation Agriculture (2002-04).“This is particularly important indroughty northern Kazakhstan,where wheat depends heavily onresidual moisture from the snow

Islands of Residue:Fighting Erosion andFostering WheatProductivity in KazakhstanTHE LANDSCAPE OF NORTHERN

KAZAKHSTAN IS LITTERED WITH

ARTIFACTS OF THE OLD SOVIET

CONTROLLED ECONOMY—VICTIMS

OF THE TRANSITION TO A FREE-

MARKET SYSTEM. OLD CUSTOMS TOO

FALL BY THE WAYSIDE. IN PLACE OF

ONCE-REQUISITE HEAVY PLOWING

TO PREPARE FARMLAND, CIMMYT,

KAZAKH AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

PROGRAMS, FARMERS, AND OTHER

PARTNERS ARE ESTABLISHING

CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE

APPROACHES THAT ARE BOTH

SUSTAINABLE AND WILL HELP

DIVERSIFY THE ECONOMY.


melt.” Retaining resides alsoimproves soil composition andfertility, which is eventuallyreflected in better yields. Throughon-farm trials and demonstrations,the project promoted anddisseminated such resource-conserving practices as directseeding, zero or minimal soil tillage,and chemical fallows (a weed-killing herbicide applicationfollowed by a conventional fallow).There were also training seminars,courses, field days, study tours, andwide promotion of new practicesthrough the mass media. Thedevelopment and offering ofsuitable equipment for directseeding and zero-tillagetechnologies was essential. Finally,project activities were backstoppedby economic analyses of the newpractices.

Zero-tillage plots at the CentralKazakhstan Agricultural ResearchInstitute and the ResearchProduction Center of GrainFarming served as the venues forinitial meetings organized by theMinistry of Agriculture, the FarmersUnion, and CIMMYT to introducethe technology to farmers and selectcandidates for on-farm trials.Maintained under the InternationalCooperation for AgriculturalResearch (ICAR) project in CentralAsia and the Caucasus, the trialsmoved forward with direct seedingplanters imported from Brazil.These were followed by locally-produced kits that could be cheaplyretrofitted to existing planters. Theselected farmers used zero-tillage,with technical support andagronomic analysis from CIMMYTscientists. Two independent

economic analyses were conductedby Kazakh and Americaneconomists. Approximately 500scientists and farmers participatedin workshops and trainingseminars, and another 800 farmersobserved the trials at farmer fielddays. Project activities werehighlighted via newspapers, radio,television, and regular coverage inthe AgroInformation Quarterly, awidely distributed publicationproduced by the Farmers Union.“Given that wheat is Kazakhstan’sforemost crop and the countryranks sixth globally in wheat areaharvested, the potential impact onrural livelihoods and food securityof zero-tillage and direct seedinginto residues cannot be overstated,”Karabayev says.

D enis Yushenko, senior scientist at the Central Kazakhstan Agricultural Research Institute and CIMMYT

z ero-till research collaborator, surveys gully erosion under conventional tillage and fallow. According to his

measuremen ts, erosion-prone slopes under conventional tillage lost 2 t/ha of topsoil to such gullies (not

including general erosion across the field), while zero-till fields showed negligible gully erosion.

FROM 100 HECTARESTO 100 PERCENT:FARMERS’ EXPERIENCESAlthough Meiram Sagymbayev’sfarm in Alemola Province is of“intermediate” scale—3,000hectares on the high steppes ofnorthern Kazakhstan is indeedintermediate—he is not youraverage Kazakh farmer. Hisbackground includes stints as aresearch scientist and agronomist inthe Soviet era, and, on the other sideof the historic divide, he received anaward in 2002 as the bestbusinessman in the province. Hehas instituted profit-sharing withhis farm hands, and rather thanreward extra work with vodka, hegives bonuses to his staff for notdrinking during planting andharvest.

Sagymbayev recounts puttingtogether the first rudiments of abusiness plan while shovelingmanure and starting to implementhis ideas after Kazakhindependence in 1991. It is nosurprise then that this innovator isleading the way in zero-till farming,

and that his neighbors and othersconsulting with him are following. .. in a big way.

As one of the conservationagriculture project’s fourparticipating farmers, Sagymbayevsowed 100 hectares in the secondwheat season of 2004 using zero-tillage. Results had been moderatelyencouraging the first season, but2004 shaped up to be a very dryyear in Akmola, which does not getmuch precipitation even in anaverage year, and Sagymbayev wasconcerned. To his surprise, the zero-tillage plot gave the highest yield inthe county, and he surmised that itwas time to go beyondexperimentation to putting thissystem to work. In 2005, 100% of hiswheat is planted using directseeding and zero-tillage. He hopesover the long term to stabilize yieldsduring both normal and dry yearsthrough zero-tillage improvementof the soil profile. His neighbor,seeing the 2004 results, sowed 2,500of his 11,000 hectares using zero-tillage, and many more peers arewatching intently—among them thecounty’s small-scale farmers.

On an FAO-sponsored trip to theUnited States, Sagymbayev wasimpressed by how farmers therewere independent yet workedcooperatively and in associations toacquire inputs and technicalknowledge. Today, he is encouragedto see Kazakhstan and its farmerstake fledgling steps to createcooperatives that will provide creditfor purchasing fertilizer. Thesharing of equipment and labormay not be far behind. In lieu of aformal extension service, hevoluntarily advises neighbors ondiverse farm issues, including zero-tillage. “In Kazakhstan’s transitionperiod, most farmers didn’t knowwhat to do,” he observes. “Thingsare moving forward step-by-stepand may even be accelerating, butwe still have a ways to go.”

Wheat farmer Viktor Surayev comesfrom a different place—not just onthe map but in the circumstances hefaces and the land he farms.Viktor’s home is in Mishurinovillage, which prospered under theSoviet system but has since fallenon hard times, with the livestockindustry declining significantly,



infrastructure deteriorating, andmany people migrating from thearea. Surayev was a farm engineerin those pre-independence days,and he earned degrees in agronomyand land management andmechanization. But large, soil-cakedhands and an affable, down-to-earth demeanor quickly dispel anypreconceptions about his being anivory-tower academic. “Differencebetween farming now and duringSoviet times?” he shrugs, wrylygrins. “Still laboring with soil,planting seeds, fixingequipment…the hard work in thefields stays the same.”

Unlike Sagymbayev, Surayev’s landis relatively hilly and subject tosevere water and wind erosion,which he blames for the low soilfertility in many of his fields. Thus itis no surprise that he sees thecreation of humus and increasedsoil fertility as a major benefit ofconservation agriculture systems,followed by better soil moistureretention. After the dry 2004 season,when he saw zero-tillage fieldsyield 40% more than theirconventional counterparts, he

increased his area under thetechnology from 100 to 800 hectares.Even under more favorableconditions in 2003, he found thatyields under zero-tillage reached 1.8tons per hectare, versus 1.6 tonswith conventional practices.

His profits increased, not justthrough higher yields but due toreduced fuel, labor, and machineryrepair costs. Under zero-tillage, atleast three fewer tractor passes overthe fields are required—a reductionof 60%—and plows, harrows, andother cultivation implements arenot needed. The actual wear andtear on his aging tractors isminimized, because pulling asprayer or zero-tillage seeder exertsfar less resistance than drawing soil-turning equipment.

Surayev acknowledges increasedherbicide costs under the newsystem, but is not overly concerned,as he believes that those costs willdecrease as the weed seeds in thesoil are killed off, and demand forherbicide lowers per-unit cost.These converging factors, he thinks,together with what farmers see

when they visit Surayev andcolleagues’ on-farm trials, bode wellfor zero-tillage farming in the wheatbelt of Kazakhstan.

Auezhkan of the Farmers’ Union islikewise optimistic. “It will takeabout five years to have conclusiveresults from these experiments,” hesays, “but I think beyond a doubtthat they will prove the technologyis effective. I believe mygrandchildren will be proud of myparticipation in this research—that Iwas one of the pioneers of what willbecome a widely spread andaccepted way of farming.” Heconcludes, “I thank CIMMYT forthis too, because without them,we’d be far behind and simply notknow about these technologies.”

Having seen the benefits of zero-till farming,

whea t farmer Meiram Sagymbayev now plants

100% of his crop with this system.

Kazakhstan: Viewfrom the Ground Level

A drive outside of Astana,north across the steppestoward Siberia, bears out

Morgounov’s observation. Take aturn off the main highway and ontoa deeply rutted, village dirt roadand those Mercedes of the cities arequickly replaced by rickety horse-drawn carts, the occasional tractorfrom a bygone era chugging alongaccompanied by a black cloud ofdiesel soot, and old men and youngboys in tattered clothes shepherdingflocks of 10 to 20 sheep.

“Government studies show that 25-30% of the population in northernKazakhstan lives on a dollar a dayor less,” Morgounov continues,“and contrary to popular wisdom,poverty is equally severe in thenorth as in the south, where thefarms are typically much smaller. Arecent FAO publication* indicatesthat agriculture offers ‘moderate’potential for alleviating poverty inthe region and that intensification(increased productivity) is a majorroute to that end. It’s not just theproduct we’re talking about. It’s theeconomic activity farming cangenerate in rural areas,” addsMorgounov.

A case in point is the farm operationof Vyacheslav Cherezdanov, one ofthe zero-till project farmers. Whenhe got into farming 13 years ago, itwas with a business orientation. Hisgoal was to produce food products,but he wanted to grow his own rawmaterial: grain, principally wheat.In December 2002, after many longseasons of building up the farmoperation, he realized his visionwith the opening of a bakery. Hewas greatly encouraged when thebreads, rolls, and pastries itproduced consistently sold out inneighboring villages and theregional city center. Hisentrepreneurial instincts whetted, in2005 he expanded his product lineto pelemenis (akin to ravioli orperrogis), meat pies, personal-sizedpizzas, and other delights.

Today, Cherezdanov employsconsiderably more people in hisfood processing business (39 in all),than on the farm, which employs 12—and the economic spinoffscontinue, he says. Many of the rawingredients he uses—includingmilk, eggs, cheese, and honey (andsoon, certified meat)—arepurchased from local farmers. Sugaris bought from a nearby wholesaleshop. And there is room for thespinoffs to grow as he intends toexpand his product line and

* Farming Systems and Poverty: ImprovingFarmers’ Livelihood in a Changing World;by J. Dixon, A. Gulliver and D. Gibbon.Published by FAO in 2001.

“KAZAKHSTAN IS NOT POOR. LOOK

AT THE FANCY NEW CARS IN

ALMATY, A CITY REMINISCENT OF

THOSE IN OLD EUROPE, OR THE

CAPITAL, ASTANA, GLEAMING WITH

NEW ARCHITECTURAL WONDERS.

THESE ARE NOT CIMMYT CLIENTS.

THEY ARE DOING FINE. THIS IS

THE ARGUMENT I OFTEN HEAR,”

SAYS ALEXEI MORGOUNOV,

CIMMYT SCIENTIST AND

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE TO

CENTRAL ASIA. “BUT GO OUTSIDE

THE CITIES AND YOU WILL SEE

ANOTHER STORY.”


markets and broaden sales to morepopulated areas. Thanks to the zero-tilltechnology and input from CIMMYT,he is now growing winter rye andtriticale. The rye will be used forbakery products and seed sales and thetriticale will be bartered with localcereal and livestock producers.

His mother, Galina Cherezdanova, ishappy to see her son’s business successand its positive impact on thecommunity. A trained economist, sheconducted studies for the oblast(province) indicating that of all the“profit” generated in their county, 70%comes from agriculture and 30% fromsmall business. Most of the province’sproducts are sent out as raw materials,she explains, but there is a big potentialfor small business here. She says thatpast calculations made on a veryconservative basis showed that one tonof raw grain generated US$ 75 ineconomic activity compared to $150, ordouble that, for the finished product.“With 56 grain elevators here,” declaresCherezdanova, “we need to do more toboost revenue for the rural people.”


Small grants and projects cango a long way. They can bebundled together to

achieve more formidable goals, andthey can serve as pilot projects forproof of concept, or to get the ballrolling in an area of study. Or theycan serve as a bridge in timebetween larger-scale projects. Inshort, small projects can lead tobigger and better things.

Two noteworthy examples are theInternational Cooperation forAgricultural Research in CentralAsia and the Caucasus (ICAR) andthe Regional Network for WheatVariety and Seed Production, both atwork in Kazakhstan and the region.

ICAR: MANYDISCIPLINES ANDMANY NATIONSICAR is a USDA project managedthrough Washington StateUniversity (WSU), CIMMYT, andSouth Dakota State University, withan annual budget of $400,000,currently divided among a set of on-farm demonstrations, on-stationtraining and trials, collaborativeresearch mini-projects, andorganization of regional fora.Initiated in 2002, the project extendsthrough 2007 and includespartnerships with eight countriesfrom the former Soviet Union in

Central Asia and the Caucasus(CAC). Grants average US$ 10,000-20,000, much less for on-farm trials.

“The research partnershipscontribute to enhanced foodsecurity, preserve threatenedbiodiversity, support democraticand market reforms, and developmutual understanding andappreciation in our institutions,citizens, and nations,” says KimGarland Campbell, Co-director ofICAR (also Adjunct Professor atWSU and Research Geneticist withUSDA-ARS). “The project is truly awin-win scenario for all of us.”

Good (and Useful)Things Can Come inSmall Packages


The overarching goals of the projectare to:• Rebuild capacity in the region’s

research institutions foragricultural education, research,and technology transfer.

• Use improved sustainabletechnologies, practices, andpolicies to improve food sectorperformance.

• Support agricultural policyreform to improve economicproductivity and sustain thenatural resource base.

• Expand the access of the ruralpoor to technologies and practicesthat improve food security.

Says Alexei Morgounov, CIMMYTregional representative, “We arelooking to strengthen ties betweenworld-class institutions andscientists in the United States andthe CAC. When one considers thatthe winter wheat now grown in theUSA came from the Ukraine, we cansee it really is a two-way street.Another less obvious but veryimportant goal is to introduce theyounger generation of scientistsfrom the USA and CAC to theworld of international agricultureand to one another. Agriculturetoday is global in terms of trade andeconomics. We need to make surethat our agricultural researchers areprepared to work globally as well.”

ICAR’s mandate is matched by thebreadth of its activities in the field,ranging from trekking through themountains of Kazakhstan to collectgenetic diversity, to high-techmolecular analysis of planttolerance and resistance to diseases.

SEED MONEY FOREXTENSION SOWS NEWPOSSIBILITIES FORFARMERSIn the absence of fully functioningextension systems, delivering bettervarieties and technologies tofarmers requires innovation andexperimentation—and here again,relatively small investments infocused efforts can lead the way.The extension component of theRegional Network for WheatVariety Promotion and SeedProduction, a collaboration betweenCIMMYT and the German Agencyfor Technical Cooperation (GTZ),illustrates this point.

The overall goal of the project is toidentify, multiply, and promote highyielding and disease resistant wheatvarieties. After a significant outlayof funds for start-up, the project hasused budget allotments ofapproximately US $150,000–200,000per year to support major meetingsand smaller fora among scientists

from the region and theirinternational counterparts; hold fielddays to demonstrate improvedvarieties and crop managementsystems; send about 40 scientistsfrom Central Asia for training inbreeding and agronomy at CIMMYT-Mexico, and, as noted, support aunique pilot effort to deliver usefultechnologies to farmers.

Agrosemconsult was establishedthrough the project as a privatecompany to conduct on-farm andparticipatory trials and supporttechnology transfer to farmers. Threemobile groups, consisting of anagronomist, mechanic or machinerytechnician, with backup from a wheatbreeder, have been established byAgrosemconsult in southernKazakhstan, with mirrorarrangements in Uzbekistan andTajikistan. Each group works directlywith 5-10 farmers, who try the newapproaches and serve as models fortheir neighbors. Aside fromdissemineting improved varieties,provided largely by the CIMMYT-Turkey-ICARDA Winter WheatImprovement Program, the companyhas led the way in promoting bedplanting for wheat and barley in theregion, with technical support fromCIMMYT, notably crop managementspecialist Ken Sayre, and backing forparticular components from theICAR project.


REPRESENTATIVES OF MAJOR

DONOR COUNTRIES AND

ORGANIZATIONS, TOGETHER

WITH WHEAT SPECIALISTS FROM

AROUND THE WORLD, AGREE

THAT UG99, A NEW STRAIN OF

WHEAT STEM RUST, IS A MAJOR

THREAT TO WHEAT

PRODUCTION WORLDWIDE. AT

A MEETING IN KENYA IN

SEPTEMBER TO HEAR A REPORT

ON THE DISEASE STRAIN BY AN

EXPERT PANEL, THEY SOUNDED

THE ALARM TO THE

INTERNATIONAL MEDIA AND

LAUNCHED A GLOBAL INITIATIVE

TO CONTROL THE DISEASE.

World Wheat Cropunder Threat from NewStrain of Old Disease

“Nobody’s seen anepidemic for 50 years,nobody in this room

except myself,” said Norman E.Borlaug, Nobel Peace Laureate andformer CIMMYT wheat breeder.“Maybe we got too complacent.”

The new wheat stem rust strainUg99 was first observed in Uganda,but its spores are spreading on thewind and damaging wheat crops inEthiopia and Kenya. The greatestdanger is that the new strain will hitthe large expanses of wheat in Asia,according to a report by a panel ofinternational experts: “It is only amatter of time until Ug99 reachesacross the Saudi Arabian peninsulaand into the Middle East, SouthAsia, and eventually, East Asia andthe Americas….the current crisis isa wake-up call about the continuingand potentially devastating impactthat the rust pathogens can have ona staple food like wheat.”

WHAT’S AT STAKE?Wheat is grown on more than 200million hectares worldwide and is asource of food and livelihoods forhundreds of millions in developingcountries. If Ug99 spreadsunchecked, it would reduce worldwheat production at least 10%—aloss of 60 million tons of grainworth US$9 billion or more—andseriously jeopardize regional foodsecurity. “Until the advent ofscience-based agriculture, worldwheat harvests suffered periodicattacks by evolving fungalpathogens,” says CIMMYT wheatpathologist Ravi Singh. “Among themost damaging were the rusts.”Modern breeding, combined withthe free international exchange ofexperimental wheat lines, resultedin the development and widedispersion of wheat varieties able toresist the rusts for several decades.“These resistant varieties haveespecially safeguarded food securityin developing countries, wheremany farmers simply cannot affordfungicides,” says Singh. Butpathogens evolve and, as isoccurring now, new strains emergethat break down the defenses ofresistant varieties.


TIME TO ACT—NOW!The report says that plantbreeders and pathologists stillhave time to screen for resistantgenotypes and to get themmultiplied and into farmers’fields. With this aim, delegatesat the meeting in Kenyaendorsed the creation of theGlobal Rust Initiative tomonitor the spread of thedisease and to work on long-term solutions—including new,locally-adapted, resistant wheatvarieties and a global testingand distribution system—notjust for Ug99 but for other,potentially dangerous wheatrust pathogens. Lead membersof the consortium developingthe initiative are CIMMYT,ICARDA, the KenyaAgricultural Research Institute(KARI), and the EthiopianAgricultural ResearchOrganization (EARO). Severalmajor donors have expressedinterest in participating. Themeeting in Kenya wassponsored by the RockefellerFoundation. A news conferenceheld as part of the event wasattended by more than 30media representatives andresulted in reports beingpublished in dozens of outletsworldwide, including a story inthe “Science” section of TheNew York Times on 9 September2005.

An initial analysis of global wind patterns and environmental factors conducted by CIMMYT’sGeographic Information Systems unit confirms there is a high potential for the fungal spores t ospread from eastern Africa into the Arabian peninsula, Iran, and the expansive wheat growingregions of Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. The expert panel report confirmed that many of thewheat varieties grown in these regions are susceptible to the new strain of the fungus. Thisgraphic shows a conservative scenario; in the worst-case scenario, Ug99 could ruin as much as70% of the wheat harvest.


CIMMYT has beenscreening materials inits gene bank forsources of resistance tothe new rust strain andhas identified promisingcandidates. KARI and EAROare also screening thousands ofwheat lines from all over the worldat stations that are known hotspotsfor wheat rusts.

T (M) = millions of tons of wheat production$ (M) = millions of US dollars (value of wheat)

TABLE 1. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS, 2004

As of December 31, 2004 and 2003 (Thousands of US Dollars)

ASSETS 2004 2003

Current AssetsCash and cash equivalents 14,119 7,426

Accounts receivable: Donor - Net 6,480 9,019 Other 1,141 1,071

Inventory and supplies 109 129Prepaid expenses 15

Total current assets 21,853 17,660

Non-Current AssetsProperty, plant and equipment, net 15,307 15,302Other assets 62 62

Total non-current assets 15,369 15,364

TOTAL ASSETS 37,222 33,024

LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS

Current LiabilitesFinancial institutions - 3,000Due to related parties - 390Current portion of capital leases 79 222Accounts Payable: Donors 14,453 9,771 Other 1,331 46Accruals and provisions 774 605

Total current liabilities 16,637 14,034

Non-Current LiabilitiesSeniority premiums 417 513Capital leases - 79

Total non-current liabilities 417 592

Total liabilities 17,054 14,626

Net AssetsUnrestricted: Designated 15,307 15,347 Undesignated 4,861 3,051

Total unrestricted net assets 20,168 18,398

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND NET ASSETS 37,222 33,024

STATEMENTS OF ACTIVITIES, 2004 AND 2003

For the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2003 (Thousands of US Dollars)

2004 2003

Revenue and Gains

Grants / Revenue 37,400 35,785Other revenue and gains 1,320 2,019

Total revenue and gains 38,720 37,804

Expenses and Losses

Program related expenses 31,965 29,292Management and general expenses 7,271 9,561Other losses and expenses 862 1,346

Sub-total expenses and losses 40,098 40,199

Indirect cost recovery (2,778) (3,117)

Total expenses and losses 37,320 37,082

NET SURPLUS 1,400 722

Expenses by natural classification

Personnel costs 16,870 18,003Supplies and services 13,531 13,449Collaborators / partnership costs 5,742 4,652Operational travel 1,858 1,199Depreciation 2,097 2,896

Total 40,098 40,199

2004 FINANCIALSTATEMENTSA summary of the 2004 combinedstatements of activities and changesin net assets and combinedstatements of financial position forCIMMYT, Int., and CIMMYT, A.C., isset out in Table 1.

The major highlight of the year 2004has been the increased operatingsurplus of US $ 1.4 million,approximately double that of 2003.This surplus has allowed CIMMYTto continue rebuilding its net asset

base back to levels that will providethe operational and institutionalsecurity required to support itsresearch agenda.

CIMMYT Financial Overview

operating surplus of US $ 1.4 millionand a positive movement in reservesof US $ 370,000.

2004 FUNDINGOVERVIEWTotal funding for 2004 was US $ 38.72million (2003 US $ 37.80), includingother income and overhead recoveryof US $ 2.78 million (2003 US $ 2.02million). Grant income amountedto US $ 37.40 million, comprisingUS $ 13.71 million in unrestrictedgrants and US $ 23.69 million inrestricted grants (Table 2).


Total revenues for 2004 of US $ 38.72million represented an increase ofUS $ 0.9 million (2.4%) over 2003revenues.

Total net assets increased byUS $ 1.77 million to US $ 20.17million (2003 US $ 18.39 million).Unappropriated, unrestricted netassets increased to US $ 4.86 million,due to a combination of the

TABLE 2. CIMMYT SOURCES OF INCOME FROMGRANTS BY COUNTRY/ENTITY, 2004 AND 2003

For the years ended December 31, 2004 and 2003 (Thousands of US Dollars)

2004 2003Donors Grant Grant

UnrestrictedAustralia 454 377Belgium 204 86Canada 1,798 1,263China 140 150Denmark 463 598Germany 309 286India 113 113Japan 1,503 1,359Korea 50 50Mexico 25 90New Zealand 50 -Norway 294 208Peru 30 20Philippines 7 7Sweden 385 324Switzerland 312 292Thailand 21 9United States 4,232 4,900United Kingdom 1,540 -World Bank 1,800 2,500

Subtotal - Unrestricted 13,710 12,632

RestrictedADB (Asian Development Bank) 390 566Australia

AusAID 501 424Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research 85 125CRC Molecular Plant Breeding 393 320Grains Research and Development Corporation 1,138 654

Belgium 448 345Bolivia (AGRICOM- Seeds, S.A) 1 10Brazil 2 -Canada

Agriculture and Agri-Food 15 1Canadian International Development Agency 919 621

CGIARCentro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical 55 31International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics 4 -International Food Policy Research Institute 684 147International Plant Genetic Resources Institute - 2International Water Management Institute 75 39Standing Panel on Impact Assessment 15 9

ChinaCAAS 300 300Lamsoo Milling Company - (8)

ColombiaFENALCE (Federación de Cultivadores de Cereales y Leguminosas) 103 41Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development 105 112

Denmark 69 151European Commission 2,754 2,676FAO 46 53France

DRIC (Delegation aux Relations Internationales et a la cooperation) 480 844Club Cinq 90 56

GermanyEiselen Foundation - 37Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development 945 667

IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) 10 6IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) - 9IFAD (International Fund For Agricultural Development) 165 152

2004 2003Donors Grant Grant

RestrictedIndia

Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Co. Ltd. - 19Iran, Islamic Republic of 215 297Japan

APN (Asian Pacific Network for Global Change Reseach) - 1Economic Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs 779 644Nippon Foundation 584 691Sasakawa Global 2000 - 6

Korea, Republic ofRural Development Administration 85 100

MexicoCODEPAP (Consejo de Desarrollo de la Cuenca de Papaloapan) 17 44CONACYT (Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia) 88 7SAGARPA (Secretaria de Agricultura, Ganaderia, 1,033 294 Desarrollo Rural y Pesca)Fundacion Guanajuato Produce A.C. 40 9Fundacion Hidalgo - 6Fundacion Sonora 194 50ICAMEX 35 69Grupo Industrial Bimbo (Industrial quality in wheat) - 45Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico 6 -

Miscellaneous Research Grants 54 116Netherlands

Ministry of Foreign Affairs 432 466New Zealand 21 114Norway 30 30OPEC Fund for International Development 74 26Other 211 560Paraguay (Camara Paraguya de Exportadores de 6 24 Cereales y Oleaginosas)Peru 30 40Rockefeller Foundation 2,383 1,993SCOPE - 9South Africa

Agricultural Research Council - 9National Department of Agriculture 64 47

SpainAgrovegetal, S.A. 63 90Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación 188 262

Syngenta Foundation 647 1,097Sweden 17 19Switzerland

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation 909 875United Kingdom 464 1,417UNDP (Africa Bureau) 23 -Uruguay 2 130USA

Cornell University 58 47Monsanto Fund 6 214National Center for Genome Resources (NCGR) 18 -Oklahoma State University 3 35Pioneer Hi-Bred International 9 33Stanford University 76 146United States Agency for International Development 3,089 2,967United States Department of Agriculture 313 289Washington State University 178 91

World Bank 1,476 834

Generation Challenge Programme - 501

Subtotal - Restricted 23,690 23,153

Total Donors Unrestricted and Restricted 37,400 35,785

PRINCIPAL STAFFAs of September 2005

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTORGENERALMasa Iwanaga (Japan), Director GeneralJohn Dodds (USA), Deputy Director General

ResearchPilar Junco (Mexico), Executive Assistant to the

Director GeneralAgustín Muñoz (Mexico), Senior AuditorPeter Ninnes (Australia), Executive Officer,

Research ManagementShawn Sullivan (USA), Intellectual Property

Manager and Counsel1Martin Van Weerdenburg (Australia), Director,

Corporate Services

CONSULTANTSNorman E. Borlaug (USA)Thomas George (Philippines)Gregorio Martínez (Mexico)

CORPORATECOMMUNICATIONSDavid Mowbray (Canada), Head2

G. Michael Listman (USA), Senior Writer/Editor

Alma McNab (Honduras), Senior Writer/Editorand Translations Coordinator1

Miguel Mellado (Mexico), Head, GraphicDesign and Production

David Poland (USA), Senior Writer/Editor

CONSULTANTSEd Brandon (Canada)2

Jillian Baker (Canada)2Gretchen Reuthling (USA)1

CORPORATE SERVICESMartin van Weerdenburg (Australia), DirectorLinda Ainsworth (USA) Manager, Visitors,

Conference and Training Service1

CONSULTANTCoenraad Kramer (Netherlands)

EXPERIMENT STATIONFrancisco Magallanes (Mexico), Field

Superintendent, El Batán

ADMINISTRATIONHugo Álvarez (Mexico), Administration

ManagerMartín Cárdenas (Mexico), Head, Vehicle

Workshop1

Eduardo De la Rosa (Mexico), Head, BuildingMaintenance

Joaquín Díaz (Mexico), Head, PurchasingMaría Garay (Mexico), Head, Food and

Housing1

Juan Carlos González (Mexico), Supervisor,Food and Housing2

Eduardo Mejía (Mexico), Head, Security andDrivers

FINANCE OFFICEJosé de Jesús Montoya (Mexico), ManagerAdela Espejel (México), Head, Payroll and

Taxes2

Salvador Fragoso (Mexico), Head, Payroll andTaxes1

Nicolás González (Mexico), AccountingManager

TRUSTEES

Alexander McCalla (Canada), Chair, Board of Trustees,and Chair, Executive Committee; Emeritus Professor,Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics,University of California, Davis, USA

Sebastián Acosta-Núñez (Mexico),* Director General,Agricultural Research, National Institute of Forestry,Agriculture, and Livestock Research, Mexico

Hisao Azuma (Japan), President, Agricultural andFishery Savings Insurance Corporation, Japan

Julio Antonio Berdegué (Mexico), President, RIMISP,Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural,Chile

Pedro Brajcich (Mexico),* Director General, NationalInstitute of Forestry, Agriculture, and LivestockResearch, Mexico

Ismail Cakmak (Turkey), Faculty of Engineering andNatural Sciences, Sabanci University, Turkey

Tini Colijn-Hooymans (Netherlands), Chair, Financeand Administration Committee; Member of theBoard of Management, TNO, The Netherlands

Edwina Cornish (Australia), Deputy Vice-Chancellorand Vice-President (Research), Monash University,Australia

Robert M. Goodman (USA), Vice-Chair, Board ofTrustees; Executive Dean for Agricultural andNatural Resources, Rutgers Cook College, USA

Masa Iwanaga (Japan),* Director General, CIMMYT

Romano M. Kiome (Kenya), Director, KenyaAgricultural Research Institute, Kenya

Lene Lange (Denmark), Science Director, MolecularBiotechnology, Novozymes A/S, Denmark

Mangala Rai (India), Director General, Indian Councilof Agricultural Research, India

Uraivan Tan-Kim-Yong (Thailand), Chair, AuditCommittee; Chairperson, Graduate Program in Manand Environment Management (Chiang Rai),Mekung Environment and Resource Institute,Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Javier Usabiaga (Mexico),* Secretary of Agriculture,Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries, and Food,Mexico

John Witcombe (UK), Chair, Program Committee,Centre for Arid Zones Studies, University of Wales,UK

* Ex officio position.

Jesús Nava (Mexico), Projects and BudgetControl Head

Guillermo Quesada (Mexico), Head, TreasuryGermán Tapia (Mexico), Warehouse

Supervisor

HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICEMarisa De la O (Mexico), ManagerGeorgina Becerra (Mexico), Human Resources

Specialist1

Ma. de Lourdes Espejel (Mexico), Teacher,Childcare Center2

Carmen Espinosa (Mexico), Head, LegalTransactions

Gerardo Hurtado (Mexico), Human ResourcesSpecialist2

Cuauhtémoc Márquez (Mexico), MedicalService

Ma. del Carmen Padilla (Mexico), Teacher,Childcare Center1

Fernando Sánchez (Mexico), Head, NationalStaff

INFORMATION ANDCOMMUNICATIONTECHNOLOGIESCarlos López (Mexico), Interim Manager2

Ed Brandon (Canada), Head, ICT1

Enrique Martínez (Mexico), Head,Development and Implementation of NewProjects

Salustia Mendoza (Mexico), Help DeskSupervisor

Marcos Páez (Mexico), Network AdministratorFermín Segura (Mexico), Network

Infrastructure SupervisorJesús Vargas (Mexico), Systems and

Operations Manager, Systems andComputer Services1

Leopoldo Velázquez (Mexico), High-EndSupport

Fatin Zaklouta (Germany) Intern1

LIBRARYFernando García (Mexico), Librarian and

Electronic Information Manager1

John Woolston (Canada), Visiting Scientist

GENETIC RESOURCESPROGRAMJonathan Crouch (UK), Director2

Juan Carlos Alarcón (Mexico), Project LeaderChristelle Bencivenni (France), Research

AssociateGuy Davenport (UK), Scientist, Bioinformatics

SpecialistDavid Hoisington (USA), Principal Scientist1

Scott McLean (USA), Scientist, Breeder/Geneticist1

Abdul-Mujeeb Kazi (USA) DistinguishedScientist, Head, Wheat Wide Crosses1

Jesper Norgaard (Denmark), Project LeaderThomas S. Payne (USA), Senior Scientist,

Head, Wheat Germplasm BankAlessandro Pellegrineschi (Italy), Scientist,

Cell Biologist1Enrico Perotti (Italy), Scientist, Molecular

Biologist (based in Australia)Jean-Marcel Ribaut (Switzerland), Senior

Scientist, Molecular Geneticist1Jens Riis-Jacobsen (Denmark), Scientist, Crop

Information SpecialistMaría Luisa Rodríguez (Mexico), Program

Administrator

Trustees and Principal Staff

1 Left during 2004-2005.2 Appointed during 2004-2005.


Mark Sawkins (UK), AssociateScientist, Molecular Geneticist

Suketoshi Taba (Japan), PrincipalScientist, Head, MaizeGermplasm Bank

Martin Van Ginkel (Netherlands),Principal Scientist, Head WheatGermplasm Bank1

Jiankang Wang (China), AssociateScientist, QuantitativeGeneticist/ Breeder (based inChina)1

Marilyn Warburton (USA), SeniorScientist, Molecular Geneticist

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSSusanne Dreisigacker (Germany),

Molecular Biologist2

Masahiro Kishii (Japan), WheatCytogeneticist

EXPERIMENT STATIONNarciso Vergara (Mexico),

Superintendent, TlaltizapánExperimental Station

BIOMETRICS ANDSTATISTICSJosé Crossa (Uruguay), Principal

Scientist and Head

SEED INSPECTION ANDDISTRIBUTION UNITMónica Mezzalama (Italy),

Scientist, HeadEfrén Rodríguez (Mexico), Head,

Seed Distribution andInternational Nurseries DataAnalysis

Noemí Valencia (Mexico),Supervisor, Seed HealthLaboratory

ADJUNCT SCIENTISTSTomohiro Ban (Japan), Senior

Scientist, Geneticist/BreederMorten Lillemo (Norway),

Postdoctoral Fellow, WheatBreeder1

Hiro Nakamura (Japan), Scientist,Wheat Grain Quality MolecularBreeder2

Antonio Serratos (Mexico),INIFAP/Mexico, Scientist,Molecular Biologist1

Sae-Jung Suh (Korea), SeniorScientist, Breeder

Axel Tiessen (Germany), Scientist,Molecular Biologist2

CONSULTANTSGregorio Alvarado (Mexico)Claudia Bedoya (Colombia)Kyle Braak (Canada)2Juan Burgueño (Uruguay)Jorge Franco (Uruguay)2

Eric Nurit (France)2

Mateo Vargas (Mexico)Nicholas Zeigler (USA)2

Huanhuan Zhao (China)2

HONORARY FELLOWSMujeeb Kazi (USA)2

Wayne Powell (UK)2

IMPACTS TARGETINGAND ASSESSMENTPROGRAMJohn Dixon (Australia), Director2Lone Badstue (Denmark), Associate

Scientist, Social AnthropologistMauricio Bellon (Mexico), Senior

Scientist, Human Ecologist1

Federico Carrión (Mexico),Database Administrator

Jonathan Hellin (UK), Scientist,Poverty Specialist2

David Hodson (UK), Scientist,Head, Geographic InformationSystems

Petr Kosina (Czech Republic),Associate Scientist, TrainingCoordinator2

Tyler Kruzich (USA), ResearchAssistant2

Roberto La Rovere (Italy), Scientist,Impacts Specialist2

Erika Meng (USA), Scientist,Economist

María Luisa Rodríguez (Mexico),Program Administrator

CONSULTANTS/RESEARCHAFFILIATESPedro Aquino (Mexico), Principal

ResearcherLeslie Cooksy (USA)1Dagoberto Flores (Mexico),

Principal ResearcherRoberta Gerpacio (Philippines)1

Maximina Lantican (Philippines)Janet Lauderdale (USA)1

Eduardo Martínez (Mexico), GISSpecialist

Maxwell Mudhara (Zimbabwe)2Toon Van Goethem (Belgium),

Volunteer Research Intern2

AFRICAN LIVELIHOODSPROGRAMMarianne Bänziger (Switzerland),

Director (based in Kenya)Jedidah Danson (Kenya), Adjunct

Scientist, Molecular Biologist(based in Kenya)

Hugo De Groote (Belgium), SeniorScientist, Economist (based inKenya)

Alpha O. Diallo (Guinea), PrincipalScientist, Breeder (based inKenya)

Dennis Friesen (Canada), IFDC/CIMMYT, Senior Scientist,Agronomist (based in Ethiopia)

Fred Kanampiu (Kenya), Scientist,Agronomist (based in Kenya)

Duncan Kirubi (Kenya), AdjunctScientist, Breeder (based inKenya)

Augustine Langyintuo (Ghana),Economist, Associate Scientist,(based in Zimbabwe)

John MacRobert (Zimbabwe),Senior Scientist, Maize SeedSystem Specialist (based inZimbabwe)

Zubeda Mduruma (Tanzania),ECAMAW/CIMMYT, AdjunctScientist, Breeder (based inEthiopia)

Mulugetta Mekuria (Ethiopia),Senior Scientist, Economist (basedin Zimbabwe)

Stephen Mugo (Kenya), Scientist,Breeder (based in Kenya)

Wilfred M. Mwangi (Kenya),Principal Scientist, Economist(based in Kenya)

Daisy Ouya (Kenya), ScienceWriter/Editor (based in Kenya)2

Shivaji Pandey (India), PrincipalScientist, Breeder1

Marcelo E. Pérez (Mexico), ProgramAdministrator (based in Mexico)

Peter Setimela (Botswana), Breeder,Associate Scientist (based inZimbabwe)

Douglas Tanner (Canada), SeniorScientist, Agronomist, East Africa(based in Ethiopia)1

Christian Thierfelder (Germany),University of Hohenheim/CIMMYT, Post-Doctoral Fellow(based in Zimbabwe)

Strafford Twumasi-Afriyie (Ghana),Senior Scientist, Breeder (based inEthiopia)

Bindiganavile Vivek (India),Scientist, Breeder (based inZimbabwe)

Patrick C. Wall (Ireland), PrincipalScientist, Conservation Tillageand Agriculture Specialist (basedin Zimbabwe)

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSCosmos Magorokosho (Zimbabwe),

Maize Breeder (based inZimbabwe)

CONSULTANTMick S. Mwala (Zambia)

TROPICAL ECOSYSTEMSPROGRAMKevin V. Pixley (USA), DirectorDavid Beck (USA), Principal

Scientist, Breeder/Leader,Highland Maize

David Bergvinson (Canada), SeniorScientist, Entomologist

Hugo Córdova (El Salvador),Principal Scientist, Breeder/Leader of Tropical Maize

María Luz George (Philippines),Senior Scientist, AMBIONETCoordinator (based in thePhilippines)

Daniel Jeffers (USA), SeniorScientist, Pathologist

Jaime López Cesati (Mexico),Manager, Soils and PlantNutrition Laboratory

Luis Narro (Peru), Senior Scientist,Breeder (based in Colombia)

Guillermo Ortiz-Ferrara (Mexico),Principal Scientist, RegionalBreeder (Wheat), South Asia,Country Representative for Nepal(based in Nepal)

Marcelo E. Pérez (Mexico), ProgramAdministrator

Neeranjan Rajbhandari (Nepal),Adjunct Scientist, Agronomist(based in Nepal)1

Carlos Urrea (Colombia), Scientist,Breeder (based in Nepal)1

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSAlan Krivanek (USA), QPM Breeder2

Natalia Palacios (Colombia),Nutritional Quality2

CONSULTANTPhilippe Monneveux (France)1

Hugo Vivar (Ecuador)

EXPERIMENT STATIONRaymundo López (Mexico), Field

Superintendent, Agua Fría

RAINFED WHEATSYSTEMS PROGRAMHans-Joachim Braun (Germany),

Director (based in Turkey)Flavio Capettini (Uruguay),

ICARDA/CIMMYT, AdjunctSenior Scientist, Head, BarleyProgram

Arne Hede (Denmark), Scientist,Facultative and Winter WheatBreeder (based in Turkey)

Muratbek Karabayev (Kazakhstan),Adjunct Senior Scientist, LiaisonOfficer (based in Kazakhstan)1

Alexei Morgounov (Russia), SeniorScientist, Regional RepresentativeWheat Breeder/Agronomist,Central Asia and Caucasus (basedin Kazakhstan)

Rocío Navarro (Mexico), ProgramAdministrator

Julie Nicol (Australia), Scientist,Pathologist (based in Turkey)

Mahmood Osmanzai (Canada),Principal Scientist, CountryCoordinator (based inAfghanistan)

Matthew P. Reynolds (UK), PrincipalScientist, Head, Wheat Physiology

Richard Trethowan (Australia),Principal Scientist, Spring BreadWheat Breeder (MarginalEnvironments)

Jiankang Wang (China), AssociateScientist, Quantitative Geneticist1

Manilal William (Sri Lanka),Scientist, Molecular Geneticist

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSAkmal Akramhanov (Uzbekistan),

Conservation Agriculture (basedin Kazakhstan)2

Rubeena (India), Post-DoctoralFellow, Physiology Breeder1

CONSULTANTSArnoldo Amaya (Mexico), Program

AdministratorDavid Bedoshvili (Georgia)Julien De Meyer (Switzerland)2

Muratbek Karabayev (Kazakhstan)2Man Mohan Kohli (India), Plant

Breeder (Wheat)1

EXPERIMENT STATIONFernando Delgado (Mexico), Field

Superintendent, Toluca

INTENSIVEAGROECOSYSTEMSPROGRAMRodomiro Ortiz (Peru), Director2

Karim Ammar (Tunisia), Scientist,Plant Breeder (Small Grains)

Oscar Bañuelos (Mexico), PrincipalResearcher

Etienne Duveiller (Belgium),Principal Scientist, RegionalPathologist, South Asia (based inNepal)

Olaf Erenstein (Netherlands),Scientist, Agricultural Economist(based in India)

Raj Gupta (India), Senior Scientist,Regional Facilitator, Rice-WheatConsortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plains, CountryRepresentative for India (basedin India)

Larry Harrington (USA), PrincipalScientist, Economist1

Zhong-Hu He (China), PrincipalScientist, Plant Breeder (Wheat),Country Representative forChina (based in China)

Craig A. Meisner (USA), PrincipalScientist, Systems Agronomist,Country Representative forBangladesh (based inBangladesh)1

Rocío Navarro (Mexico), ProgramAdministrator

Iván Ortiz-Monasterio (Mexico),Senior Scientist, Agronomist

Roberto J. Peña (Mexico), PrincipalScientist, Head, Grain Quality

Wolfgang H. Pfeiffer (Germany),Principal Scientist, Head, PlantBreeder (Bread Wheat, DurumWheat)1

Kenneth D. Sayre (USA), PrincipalScientist, Head, CropManagement

Ravi P. Singh (India), PrincipalScientist, Geneticist/Pathologist(Rust)

Ganesan Srinivasan (India),Principal Scientist, Head, PlantBreeder (Maize)1

Carmen Velázquez (Mexico), Head,Laboratory

Narciso Vergara (Mexico), SeniorResearcher

Stephen Waddington (UK),Principal Scientist, RegionalAgronomist, CountryRepresentative for Bangladesh(based in Bangladesh)

VISITING SCIENTISTSArun Joshi (India), Plant Breeder

(Wheat)2

Ram C. Sharma (Nepal), PlantBreeder (Wheat)2

ADJUNCT SCIENTISTSParvesh Chandna (India), GIS and

Remote Sensing Research Fellow(based in India)

Nur-E-Elahi (Bangladesh),Agronomist/Breeder (Maize)(based in Bangladesh)

A.B.S. Hossain (Bangladesh) PlantBreeder (Wheat) (based inBangladesh)1

Julio Huerta (Mexico), AdjunctSenior Scientist, Pathologist (Rust)

Krishna Joshi (Nepal), Plant Breeder(Small Grains) (based in Nepal)1

Sarvesh Paliwal (India), Specialist,Maize Seed Systems (based inIndia)1

G.M. Panaullah (Bangladesh), SoilScientist (based in Bangladesh)

Kamal Paudyal (Nepal), AdjunctScientist, Agricultural Economist(based in Nepal)

H.K. Rai (India), Soil Scientist (basedin India)

M.A. Razzaque (Bangladesh) LiaisonScientist (based in Bangladesh)1

Samar Singh (India), Agronomist(based in India)

S.S. Singh (India), Agronomist(based in India)

Ashish Srivastava (India), PlantBreeder (Maize) (based in India)

Gaurav Yadav (India) SeedProduction Specialist (based inIndia)

CONSULTANTSArnoldo Amaya (Mexico), Program

AdministratorGuillermo Fuentes Dávila (Mexico),

Plant Pathologist (Wheat)Naeem Hashmi (Pakistan), Country

Representative for Pakistan (basedin Pakistan)2

Changrong Yan (China), Facilitator ofYellow River Basin Dryland Project(based in China)

EXPERIMENT STATIONRodrigo Rascón (Mexico), Field

Superintendent, Ciudad Obregón

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSJacob Lage (Denmark), Plant

Breeder2

Jiro Murakami (Japan), WheatPathologist2

Mirjam Pulleman (Netherlands),Conservation Agriculture2

Garry Rosewarne (Australia),Molecular Geneticist (SmallGrains)


PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSBram Govaerts (Belgium), Soil ScientistSybil Herrera (Sweden), Molecular

Breeder (Wheat)Scott Justice (USA), Agricultural

Engineer (based in Nepal)1

GENERATION CHALLENGEPROGRAMMEJean-Marcel Ribaut (Switzerland),

Director2

Kaitlin Lesnick (USA), Consultant2

Jennifer Nelson (USA), Officer/Specialist I, CommunicationsCoordinator

Adriana Santiago (Mexico), ProgramAdministrator

Ibtisam Vincent (USA), Consultant1

Robert Zeigler (USA), Director1

STRATEGIC ADVISORYSERVICES FOR HUMANRESOURCESNellooli Rajasekaran (India), Director1

MANAGEMENTCOMMITTEEMasa Iwanaga, Director GeneralJohn Dodds, Chair, Deputy Director

General ResearchMarianne Bänziger, Director, African

LivelihoodsHans-Joachim Braun, Director, Rainfed

Wheat SystemsJonathan Crouch, Director, Genetic

ResourcesJohn Dixon, Director, Impacts Targeting

and AssessmentRodomiro Ortiz, Director, Intensive

AgroecosystemsKevin Pixley, Director, Tropical

EcosystemsMartin van Weerdenburg, Director,

Corporate Services

VISITING SCIENTISTS(PERIODS OF MORE THANTWO MONTHS)Reshmi Gaju Oorbessy (Mauritania)Sophie Georges (France)Christelle Monier (France)Bukovnik Urska (Slovenia)Sentner Ulrich Martin (Germany)Browne Roy Allen (Ireland)Sandoya Miranda Germán (Ecuador)Tauber Stefanie (Austria)Pablo Aldo Polci Quarchioni

(Argentina)Peter Richard Matthews (Australia)

1 Left during 2004-2005.2 Appointed during 2004-2005.

Mexico (Headquarters) • CIMMYT, Apdo. Postal 6-641, 06600, Mexico, D.F., Mexico• Tel. +52 (55) 5804 2004 • Fax: +52 (55) 5804 7558 • Email: [email protected] • Primary contact:Masa Iwanaga, Director General

Afghanistan• CIMMYT, PO Box 5291, Kabul, Afghanistan • Email: [email protected]• Primary contact: Mahmood Osmanzai

Bangladesh • CIMMYT, PO Box 6057, Gulshan, Dhaka- 1212, Bangladesh• Fax: +880 (2) 882 3516 (send c/o CIMMYT Bangladesh) • Email: [email protected]• Home page: www.cimmyt.org/bangladesh • Primary contact: Stephen Waddington

China • CIMMYT, c/o Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, No. 30 Baishiqiao Road,Beijing 100081, P.R. China • Fax: +86 (10) 689 18547 • Email: [email protected];[email protected] • Primary contact: Zhonghu He

Colombia • CIMMYT, c/o CIAT, Apdo. Aéreo 67-13, Cali, Colombia • Fax: +57 (2) 4450 025• Email: [email protected]; [email protected] • Primary contact: Luis Narro León

Ethiopia • CIMMYT, PO Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia • Fax: +251 (1) 464645• Email: [email protected]; [email protected] • Primary contact: Dennis Friesen

Georgia • CIMMYT, 12 Kipshidze Str., Apt. 54, Tbilisi 380062, Georgia• Email: [email protected] • Primary contact: David Bedoshvili

India • CIMMYT-India, CG Centre Block, National Agricultural Science Centre (NASC)Complex, DP Shastri Marg, Pusa Campus, New Delhi 110012, India • Fax: +91 (11) 582 2938• Email: [email protected] • [email protected] • Primary contact: Raj K. Gupta

Kazakhstan • CIMMYT, PO Box 374, Almaty 480000, Kazakhstan • Fax: +7 (3272) 282551• Email: [email protected] • Primary contact: Alexei Morgounov

Kenya • CIMMYT, PO Box 25171, Nairobi, Kenya • Fax: +254 (2) 522 879• Email: [email protected]; cimmyt-kenya@cgiar,org • Primary contact: Marianne Bänziger

Nepal • CIMMYT, PO Box 5186, Singha Durbar Plaza Marg, Bhadrakali, Kathmandu, Nepal• Fax: +977 (1) 229 804 • Email: [email protected] • Primary contact: Guillermo OrtizFerrara

Pakistan • CIMMYT Country Office • National Agricultural Research Centre (NACAR),Park Road, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan • Fax: +92 (0)51 240909 • Email: [email protected]• Primary contact: Naeem Hashmi

Philippines • CIMMYT c/o IRRI, DAPO Box 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines• Fax : +63 (49) 536 7995 • Email: [email protected] • Primary contact: María Luz George

Turkey • CIMMYT, PK 39 Emek, 06511 Ankara, Turkey • Fax: +90 (312) 287 8955• Email: [email protected] • [email protected] • Primary contact: Hans-Joachim Braun

Zimbabwe • CIMMYT, PO Box MP 163, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe• Fax: +263 (4) 301 327 • Email: [email protected] • [email protected]• Primary contact: Pat Wall

CIMMYT ContactInformation

Documents

CIMMYT Annual Report 2004-2005: A solid future