Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Action needed to adapt maize breeding to climate change, report shows
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Breeding and seed systems must immediately adapt to changing climates if major loss of maize yields is to be avoided, a new report shows.
Seeding the future: Emergency support for drought-affected farmers in Ethiopia
Capacity development
The 2015-2016 El Niño has led to drought leaving 10.2 million people – more than 1 in 10 Ethiopians – in need of emergency food assistance.
Helping Nepalese farmers adapt to climate change
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Cornell University’s Linda McCandless describes some of the agricultural challenges Nepalese farmers face after the devastating 2015 earthquake
Millions of smallholders in Africa benefit from climate resilient drought-tolerant maize
Climate adaptation and mitigation
At least 40 million smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa are profiting from more than 200 new drought-tolerant varieties of maize.
Global wheat community discusses research, partnerships at Obregon pilgrimage
Nutrition, health and food security
For hundreds of international agricultural development experts, an annual gathering in northern Mexico provides a vital platform for sharing and debating the latest wheat breeding news and research.
Tackling challenges to cereal production through cross-crop collaborations
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Cropping systems can become more resilient in the face of climate change through better coordination and standardization.
Combating malnutrition: a new zinc-rich variety of wheat
Nutrition, health and food security
New high-zinc varieties of wheat can help improve diets in some parts of India, scientists V.K. Mishra, Ramash Chand and Arun Joshi write in The Indian Express newspaper.
Cereal systems in South Asia show diverse benefits of conservation agriculture
Capacity development
Conservation agriculture practices are climate-smart, helping farmers adapt to climate change while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions, researchers say.
Drought tolerant maize: Long-run science, investments, and partnerships pay off in Africa
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Before climate change became a hot topic, the U.N. Development Programme provided funding for a team of scientists in Mexico to find a better way to breed resilient maize for farmers in drought-prone tropical areas.
Amidst intense drought, investment in scientific research is key
Climate adaptation and mitigation
El Niño drought-related stress is triggering hunger and food insecurity. Investment in scientific research is key to combating such events.
Reviewing progress and impacts of two core maize projects as they wind up work in sub-Saharan Africa
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia enters Phase III: focus on scalability and strategic partnerships
Nutrition, health and food security
Supporting sustainable and scalable changes in cereal systems in South Asia
Climate adaptation and mitigation
The rates of growth of staple crop yields in South Asia are insufficient to meet the projected demands in the region. With 40 percent of the world’s poor living in South Asia, the area composed of eastern India, Bangladesh and Nepal has the largest concentration of impoverished and food insecure people worldwide.
Yield gap analysis key to meeting future crop demand
Nutrition, health and food security
The Global Yield Gap Atlas (GYGA) can help identify where major crop yields are not increasing fast enough to meet demand on existing farmland, and how farmers might close those gaps.
Changing the pace of maize breeding in Africa through doubled-haploid technology
Capacity development
Two words – accelerated breeding – are synonymous to doubled-haploid (DH) based maize breeding. This was the core message shared with 56 maize breeders from 10 African countries who recently participated in a two-day training workshop organized by CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program (GMP) in Nairobi, Kenya, from September 23–24, 2015. The breeders benefited from the knowledge and experience of resource persons from public and private institutions in France, Germany and USA who have dedicated years of research on the DH technology that is changing the pace of maize breeding.
