On 13 February 2013, CIMMYT inaugurated a new US$ 25 million research complex at its headquarters in El Batán. The new advanced bioscience research facilities, 45 kilometers (20 miles) from Mexico City, marked its grand opening to a crowd of more than 100 invited guests.

The event was attended by Bill Gates, Carlos Slim, Lic. Enrique Martínez y Martínez, Mexican Secretary of Agriculture and leader of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), and Dr. Eruviel Ávila Villegas, Governor of the State of Mexico.

A Striga infested maize field in Tororo, Uganda.

In Tororo, Uganda, farmers have been losing most of their maize crop to witchweed. However, they now feel that there is hope as research by CIMMYT and its partners is providing a solution. During a recent field day in Tororo, farmers Selina and Charles Emoit hosted their peers at an on-farm demonstration of 15 improved maize varieties. Farmers had the opportunity to observe the trial and select the best performing varieties.

Having planted the maize coated with the chemical imazapyr, Selina said she had seen wonderful results on her farm. Previously, the couple would get almost nothing from the farm as a result of Striga infestation. “What used to be seen from my farm is not what is seen today,” said Selina expressing her joy at being able to save her crop. To ensure that the experiment was successful, Selina explained that they had a different person planting each plot to avoid mix-ups; after germination, some variations were observed on the crops in the field. “Despite all the variations, each one of them has a cob which is better than what I used to get,” said Selina urging fellow farmers to collaborate with researchers to ensure good yields. Selina thanked all the Striga project collaborators who had collectively made it possible to fight the weed on her farm.

The field day was attended by James Ogwang, director of National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) at Namulonge; Godfrey Asea, maize breeder and head of the Cereals Program; Pearl and NASECO seed companies representatives; Sammy Waruingi from BASF; and CIMMYT maize breeder Dan Makumbi and research assistant Edna Mageto. Ogwang urged the

farmers to plant only certified seed and move beyond border issues to work together in Striga management. Asea thanked the government and farmers for their support in the fight against Striga. He said the farmers had become good project ambassadors.

“Striga is a big challenge to maize production,” said Eva Musenero, District Production Officer, thanking the partners for the efforts towards eliminating the pest. She also urged farmers to embrace new weed management technologies. The farmers who participated in the field day were keen to know how they could access the best performing varieties.

The community based seed production (CBSP) program is one of the most successful interventions of the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP) Phase IV in Nepal. Through this program, the project has significantly contributed to the increase in maize seed replacement rate, maize productivity, and income of smallholder and resource-poor farmers in the hills of the country. To observe the successes achieved so far, teams from USAID-Nepal, CIMMYT-Mexico, and HMRP visited a community-managed seed company in the Thumpahkar Village of Sindupalchowk district, located about 100 km north-east of Kathmandu, on 12 October 2012. The USAID team comprised of John Stamm (General Development Office director, USAID-Nepal), Luis Guzman (Feed the Future team leader, USAID-Nepal), Shanker Khagi (South Asia Regional Initiative for Energy country coordinator), and Lindsey Moore (USAID-Bangladesh). CIMMYT’s Thomas Short (deputy director general for Corporate Services), Nellooli P. Rajasekharan (International Human Resources director), G. Ortiz Ferrara (HMRP team leader), Nirmal Gadal (HMRP agronomist), and Dilli KC (HMRP seed value chain and marketing expert) were also present, along with about 35 seed growers, including the management team of the company.

The meeting was chaired by Gunda Bahadur Dhami, chairperson of Sindhu-Tuki Seed Production Cooperative Ltd. During a brief presentation, the company’s coordinator D.B. Bhandari summarized the institutional graduation of the farmers’ groups to a cooperative and later to a private seed company. Starting in 2005, the cooperative developed into a private seed company in 2010 with the technical support from HMRP. It currently works with 300 members organized in 14 CBSP groups. Bhandari also discussed the company’s current activities, future plan, operational model, membership policy, marketing activities, and approaches to gender and sustainability.

Stamm acknowledged the project team and congratulated farmers on the impact achieved so far. “USAID-Nepal considers HMRP a very successful project, and your seed company is a model for economic development of rural areas,” he said. Rajasekharan then thanked the HMRP team for organizing the field visit and expressed CIMMYT’s commitment to support the project staff in their work aiming to improve food security among Nepalese maize farmers. Short added: “I echo Raj’s words in congratulating the members of this seed company, but I also take the opportunity to thank the two donors of HMRP, USAID and SDC, for their financial and technical support given to the project.” Ortiz Ferrara stressed that “sustainability is the prime concern of HMRP, and the entire project activities are built on the clearly defined roles and responsibilities of the multiple stakeholders.

This small seed company is now operating on its own resources, and this is only one of the 195 CBSP groups coordinated by HMRP in 20 hill districts.” Responding to a question raised by Khagi regarding the competitiveness of improved maize seed, a female maize seed grower said: “The new maize varieties are high yielding, disease and lodging tolerant, have good taste, and the grain can be stored for a longer time.” Dhami followed: “We are just learning to walk and there is still a lot to do to help small farmers in our hill area to achieve food security and increase their income.” He thanked the guests for their valuable time and their continuing collaboration with the recently established seed company. At the end of the discussion, the team observed the seed processing plant, seed store house, and the community seed bank.

To strengthen the modern technology-driven maize breeding in China, “CIMMYT-CAAS-Seed Industry Interface on Rapid-cycle Maize Breeding” was held on June 9, 2012 in CIMMYT-CAAS Joint International Research Center based in Beijing. Co-sponsored by CIMMYT, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), and the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), the workshop was attended by 52 scientists and managers from 23 seed companies and public sector institutions in China. Their aim was to establish a dynamic interface between the CIMMYT-CAAS maize team and the seed industry to begin rapid-cycle, genomic selection-based maize breeding, under an initiative titled “Eight + One”—that is, eight seed companies plus the CAAS institute of crop sciences—as an industryinstitution collaboration platform for commercial maize breeding.

Senior managers addressing participants included David Bergvinson, senior program officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; GCP director Jean-Marcel Ribaut; Shumin Wang, deputy director, CAAS-ICS; and from CIMMYT, Gary Atlin, associate director of the CIMMYT global maize program, and Kevin Pixley, director of the genetic resources program.

Scientists presented on CIMMYT work in genomic selection (concept and CIMMYT activities, Xuecai Zhang), double haploid approaches in maize breeding (Daniel Jeffers), marker-assisted selection in maize breeding (Yunbi Xu), modeling and simulation in plant breeding (Jiankang Wang), bioinformatics and computing needs for genomic selection (Gary Atlin), and our breeding pipeline and examples from lowland tropical maize breeding (Xuecai Zhang). BGI-Shenzhen’s Gengyun Zhang described the company’s genotyping platforms and service. A group discussion addressed rapid-cycle maize breeding through industry-institution collaboration, such as the molecular breeding network in China, coordinated genotyping and phenotyping, use of temperate and tropical DH inducers, environmental data collection, and standardization of maize trials.

Participants also attended an “Open Day for Chinese Breeders,” a concurrent session of the 3rd Annual Meeting of Integrated Breeding Platform Project organized by GCP and CAAS, were introduced to IB FieldBook and IBP Analysis Tools. “(This workshop) came at a right time and brought us right information and knowledge for accelerating maize commercial breeding,” said Zanyong Sun, Vice president of Beijing Denong Seed Co. The workshop’s chief organizer, maize molecular breeder Yunbi Xu, sees it as an important first step for industry institution initiatives. “We’ll establish a common genotyping and MAS platform to serve the Chinese maize breeding community,” he said.

During the week of 15-20 April 2012, 36 maize technicians participated in a training session in Lusaka, Zambia. The participants were selected from seven seed companies in Zambia, national agricultural research organizations, and NGOs involved in agricultural research and extension in the eastern province of Zambia. The objective of the course was to update maize technical staff on implementing on-station and on-farm trials, seed production, and the use of secondary traits in selecting superior genotypes under low nitrogen, heat and drought trials, and it combined both lectures and field work.

Well-managed experiments provide the foundation of all research towards germplasm improvement. Technicians are responsible for many day-today field activities and much agronomic management, making their training crucial in strengthening the capacity of national programs. The course was organized by three CIMMYT projects—Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for the Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA) and Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS.—in collaboration with the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI). It was designed to give technicians greater insight into key processes within germplasm development, variety testing and release, and seed production. Emphasis was given to the importance of trial uniformity, good agronomic management practices, and standardizing measurements.

Each project contributed specialized content to the course: under DTMA the focus was on how to select genotypes under managed drought and heat stress, develop a seed production strategy using seed road maps and maintain trial uniformity. The SIMLEZA project emphasized on-farm testing using the Mother-Baby Trial approach while under IMAS the emphasis was on developing low nitrogen sites and important traits to select for production under low nitrogen. CIMMYT thanks the course organizers and resource persons, Kambambe Mwansa and Franscico Miti of the Zambian Agricultural Research Institute, and CIMMYT’s Peter Setimela, Jill Cairns, Biswanath Das and Sebastian Mawere.

Ensuring a market for maize seed produced using community based seed production (CBSP) in the value chain system, and enhancing management and marketing competencies of local partners are among the strategic activities in Phase IV of the Hill Maize Research Project (HMRP), supported by SDC and USAID. The HMRP, in collaboration with the National Maize Research Program (NMRP), completed a 20-day training course on maize seed production technologies (15 days) and seed business plan development and marketing (5 days). The course took place at NMRPRampur, Chitwan, from 27 March to 16 April 2012. A total of 31 participants (11 women) attended the course; they were selected from CBSP groups collaborating with HMRP and are expected to work as community seed promoters in their respective groups afterwards.

The first course component on maize seed production technologies covered diverse topics, such as agronomic practices in maize seed production, farmers’ practices in maize varietal development, source seed production technologies, crop management technology (including insect pest management), improved seed production through CBSP, quality control, and truthful labelling. The second component covered HMRP seed marketing strategies, agricultural marketing, seed production costs, maize seed value-chain analysis, seed business plan development, bookkeeping at the CBSP group level, potential sourcing of local state funds by CBSP groups, the importance of gender equity and social inclusion in the CBSP approach, an introduction to cooperatives and private companies, and the basic legal requirements to establish them.

Each trainee developed a comprehensive action plan and presented it on the last day of the course. Participants were evaluated before and after each course component and the first-ranked candidate was recognized. Speaking at the closing session, Dr. K.B. Koirala, NMRP National Coordinator, expressed his appreciation to the HMRP and emphasized the importance of this type of training for empowering local communities. Dr. G. Ortiz-Ferrara, HMRP Team Leader, thanked the course participants, training coordinator, and resource persons for their help and cooperation in making the course a success. Finally, Dr. Koirala and Dr. Ortiz-Ferrara jointly distributed certificates and training kits to all participants.

All of us who work at CIMMYT have noticed its recent growth—new faces, new projects, and new facilities being constructed at El Batán and elsewhere. All of this means more research is getting done, and, inparticular, the global maize program is using and producing more breeding materials.

Until recently, the question for the maize program was, where to put them? “The old system just didn’t havethe capacity to store any more seed,” says Efrén Rodríguez, head of data processing and seed distribution.

In a smart solution to the space problem, between 07 February and 16 March 2012 a new system of movable shelving units was installed in the genetic resources center. These can be moved sideways using a winding handle, eliminating the need for a permanent passage between each set of shelves.

The previous fixed shelving had a capacity of 2,880 boxes,whereas the new storage system can hold 4,104—an increase in capacity of more than 40%, with further space available on topof the units if needed. It also takes up slightly less space.

Thanks to Gary Atlin, Félix San Vicente, and Natalia Palacios for their support to this project.

The new storage system is an essential step in supporting the Maize Improvement Consortium for Latin America (IMIC-LA),which is a component of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) initiative. Improvements will also be made in on other places such as a second drying room and storage space for Seeds of Discovery materials.

Low soil fertility: Problems and progress

Tunga Silvar grows maize to feed his wife and fourgrandchildren on about 0.5 hectares of land in Mawanga, Zimbabwe, a hilly area some 45 kilometers northeast of Harare. Like otherfarmers in the region, he is acutely aware of the value of nitrogen fertilizer, continually juggles his limited household financesto get it, and is poorer and hungrier when he can’t. “We used to sell maize, but in the last five years we haven’t been able to do so,” saysSilvar. “I had to pay school fees for my grandchildren, so I couldn’t buy fertilizer. Fertilizer is very important, especially in our type of soil. If you don’t apply it, youcan barely harvest anything.”

After water, nitrogen is the single most important input for maize production. In sub-Saharan Africa where fertilizer use is negligible, improved maize with tolerance to low nitrogen (N) conditions could give maize farmers more abundant harvests, greatly improving their food security and livelihoods.

Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS), a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID and conducted jointly with the KenyanAgricultural Research Institute (KARI), South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC), and the DuPont Company Pioneer Hi-Bred, aims to overcome theseproblems by developing hybrids with 25-50 % more yield than current commercial seed in low-N soils. The second annual IMAS meeting in Harare in lateFebruary 2012 drew more than 40 scientists from these organizations and CIMMYT to review progress and develop shared work plans for the following year.

Accomplishments to date include establishment of a low N phenotyping network across eastern and Southern Africa and application of cutting-edgemolecular breeding techniques for low N tolerance. Several recently-identified, low-N tolerant inbred lines from diverse genetic backgrounds are being used in new hybrid combinations and to initiate pedigree breeding. New and existing elite hybrid combinations and synthetics are being evaluated inthe regional low N phenotyping network, which now has access to more than 60,000 rows in N-depleted plots of experiment stations region-wide. Over thepast year CIMMYT maize breeders Bish Das and Amsal Tarekegne have engaged several additional seed companies in work on low-N tolerant maize.As part of this, representatives from 11 companies in eastern and southern Africa attended a field day in Harare to showcase the latest products and highlightnew support from the Foundation to scale-up seed production for existing commercial or advanced hybrids and OPVs that perform well in low N fields.

Strengthening Malawi’s seed sector

Seed companies provide the vital link to get improved maize varieties into farmers’ hands. A major focus of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project has been to strengthen small- and intermediate-scale seed enterprises and thereby speed delivery of drought tolerant varieties. The project has provided training and help to develop business plans (“road maps” for seed delivery), improved drought tolerant hybrids, and assistancein seed production. As one example of the benefits of this approach, three years of support in seed production and business planning have helped theseed company Demeter in Malawi go from strength to strength. The company now produces over 2,000 tons of seed, and its portfolio includes the open pollinated varieties ZM309, ZM523, and ZM721 developed under DTMA.

New companies are also appearing on the scene. One example is Funwe Farm, a company that is starting to grow with support from CIMMYT and the Programme for Africa’s Seeds Systems of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA-PASS). John MacRobert, seed systems specialist for sub-Saharan Africa, andAmsal Tarekegne visited Funwe’s seed production fields to smooth out initial teething problems in the production of foundation seed of a CIMMYT hybridreleased by the Malawi government as MH26. “By supporting companies like Demeter and Funwe we are helping to ensure farmers get access to improvedvarieties,” said MacRobert. “Our partnerships with seed companies are really starting to pay off.”

On-farm performance: the definitive challenge of breeding

Late and erratic rainfall in Zimbabwe has many farmers facing the prospect of poor harvests. The current hardships from drought though may furnish some hopefor farmers. New drought tolerant varieties are being tested in on-farm trials under farmer management. Many of the trials are experiencing drought stress—aperfect opportunity to identify the best varieties for such harsh conditions. A recent visit to on-farm trials in the Murewa District of Zimbabwe showed many new drought tolerant products performing well. Local farmer Sailas Ruswa is growing a trial and was enthusiastic about what he saw: some varieties showedsigns of severe drought stress, but a few were holding up well and were expected to produce good yields.

“Cooperation between the public and private sectors will be crucial to achieve the objectives of the International Maize Improvement Consortium for Latin America (IMIC-LA),” said Marc Rojas, IMIC-LA Leader. As one part of CIMMYT’s MasAgro initiative, IMIC aims to increase maize yields by 85 percent over the next 10 years, through the adoption of improved varieties by farmers, sustainable farming practices, and enhanced efficiency across the entire maize value chain.

During 23-25 November 2011, 36 representatives of seed companies and organizations met to discuss the potential contributions of private seed companies to IMIC-LA, and to learn how they can benefit from participating in MasAgro. The representatives came from many different areas of Mexico, and from organizations of varying sizes. “Through collaboration in the consortium, these small companies can become collectively competitive,” said Rojas, “this is vital if we are to achieve IMIC’s target of increasing the average maize production of Mexico’s rain fed areas from 2.2 tons/hectare to 3.7 tons/hectare,” he added.

The first two days of the workshop provided an opportunity for capacity building, specific to seed businesses. John MacRobert, CIMMYT Seed Systems Specialist, gave an overview of IMIC’s activities in Africa and Asia, and introduced the main aspects of the value chain of a seed business. Open communication allowed the group to identify many similarities between Africa and Latin America, and how lessons learnt within other projects could be applied to operations in Latin America. MacRobert also helped participants to pinpoint potential weaknesses in their businesses, and how these could be addressed. “Good seed must come with good planning,” said MacRobert, emphasizing that planning is key, particularly in anticipating the requirement for parent seed, and in ensuring budgeting prevents bottlenecks. Other factors to ensure success, such as production research and quality assurance, were reviewed by Manuel Velázquez, a Mexican seed sector specialist.

The many advantages that IMIC can provide to seed companies were highlighted during the meeting: diverse training, supply of pre-basic seed of identified final products, and collaborative evaluation networks. In return, participants are expected to provide input for market analyses and testing sites and products for the evaluation networks, as well as to produce and market high-quality seed. Ángelo Vera Gómez from the Federation of Maize Producers for the State of Mexico said that he sees MasAgro as a turning point: “It’s what we as producers have been waiting for; we would like that farmers’ experience can be combined with research, to take advantage of both aspects,” he said.

The third day of the workshop welcomed representatives from Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) and the National Service for Seed Inspection and Certification (SNICS). Rojas stressed to participants that whilst IMIC does not provide funding for seed companies, once within the MasAgro program, it becomes easier for them to gain financial support from other government programs. Participants used this final day to plan work activities for the coming year and create a collaboration agreement; by the end of November, around 90 percent of participants are expected to have signed up to the consortium.

The collaborative nature of the Seeds of Discovery (SeeD) initiative was highlighted at a seminar on 12th July, with Hans Braun, director of CIMMYT’s Global Wheat Program, calling for an “open and frank conversation” between associates. The 25 participants, from CIMMYT and the National Institute of Forestry, Agriculture, and Livestock Research (INIFAP) gathered at El Batán for a working meeting coordinated by Carolina Saint-Pierre, Genetic Resource Phenotyping Coordinator, CIMMYT, to discuss the development of collaborative projects for wheat phenotyping within SeeD, one of the four components of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) project.

In the opening session, SeeD coordinator Peter Wenzl highlighted how collaborations within the SeeD initiative will be vital to the success of the project: “CIMMYT is unable to conduct all the work on its own,” says Wenzl. Besides alliances with INIFAP and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), the SeeD initiative will also collaborate with the James Hutton Institute (UK) on data management and DArT P/L (Australia) on molecular characterization of genebank accessions through the establishment of an agricultural genetic-analysis service in Mexico (“Servicio de Análisis Genético para la Agricultura” in Spanish).

The SeeD initiative hopes that by comprehensively studying and classifying the genotypes of seed collections, important information on the global biodiversity of maize and wheat can be made available worldwide. Wenzl says they “want to build a Google for genetic resources”.

Within this context, the ‘phenotypic characterization’ aims to discover how the plants withstand real field conditions. Evaluating plant performance for different traits and in different environments is crucial to understanding the information coded in plant genomes. It also enables further information to be gained regarding the genetic resources that affect the ability of plants to withstand climate change and resource scarcity.

This identification of novel genetic resources for plant breeding will not only benefit Mexico; “this particular project should be a project of Mexico to the world,” says Wenzl. It is an ambitious goal but one that it is hoped can be achieved through collaborators sharing research methodologies and combining their efforts. INIFAP and CIMMYT used the working meeting to begin this process by identifying joint work modules to address the challenges for wheat improvement, such as increasing wheat tolerance to heat, drought, and diseases.