India's Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Wheat titan honored posthumously by India
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Sanjaya Rajaram, former CIMMYT Wheat Program Director, has been recognized with the Padma Bhushan Award for his contributions to wheat improvement worldwide.
New publications: Genome-wide breeding to curtail wheat blast
Environmental health and biodiversity
Researchers evaluate the use of genomic selection in wheat breeding against deadly fungal disease.
State-of-the-art maize doubled haploid facility inaugurated in India
Innovations
The facility will offer maize doubled haploid production services to public and private sector partners in South Asia.
Bringing wild wheat’s untapped diversity into elite lines
Environmental health and biodiversity
Researchers hypothesized that many wild wheat accessions in genebanks feature useful traits that can help diversify breeding programs.
Pakistan, India transboundary dialogue imperative to resolve Lahore’s pollution: Amin
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Source: Daily Times (21 Nov 2021)
At COP26, Special Assistant to Pakistan’s Prime Minister on Climate Change said that a transboundary dialogue on mitigating air pollution was imperative to resolve Lahore’s smog.
Less water for better crops
Innovations
Researchers explore how coupling automation with drip irrigation can enhance water use efficiency and productivity, especially in South Asia’s cereal-based systems.
Celebrating 10 years of the Borlaug Institute for South Asia
Capacity development
BISA staff and partners gathered across India and online to mark a decade of excellence in science and partnerships, and to set ambitious goals for the coming years.
Taming wheat blast
Environmental health and biodiversity
Researchers point out the future of the disease, the ways to manage it and prevent it from spreading — within and across continents.
Climate-smart strategy for weed management proves to be extremely effective
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Results of an 8-year study show that weed density and diversity are greatly reduced when zero-tillage, drip-irrigation, and new crops are introduced to rice-wheat systems.
ICAR Organized “State Level Maize Day” in Haryana
Nutrition, health and food security
Source: Krishi Jagran (15 Sep 2021)
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), together with CIMMYT and partners, organized a State Level Maize Day in the state of Haryana to discuss sustainable maize production systems for future generations.
CIMMYT scientists join 60th All India Wheat and Barley Research Workers’ Meet
Innovations
Meeting highlights new varieties, production growth and strengthened collaboration through Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) project.
Seeding happy, cleaning air: Farmers adopting non-burn tech give hope
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Source: Down To Earth (1 Jul 2021)
The Happy Seeder—a machine that cuts and lifts the paddy straw while simultaneously sowing the wheat crop—is not just the least polluting, but also the most scalable solution that can be adopted by farmers ‘en masse’.
A challenge solved
Environmental health and biodiversity
Massive study of breeding lines across environments pinpoints genomic regions associated with yield potential and stress-resilience in bread wheat.
The Green Revolution was built on manipulating genes to breed higher-yielding, disease resistant crops. Here’s an ode to one of its pioneers, Sanjaya Rajaram
Capacity development
Source: Genetic Literacy Project (5 May 2021)
This tribute to the life and work of Sanjaya Rajaram also flags CIMMYT’s contribution to improving livelihoods and fostering more productive sustainable maize and wheat farming.
Scientist boosted global wheat yield with disease-resistant varieties
Capacity development
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald (3 Mar 2021)
Sanjaya Rajaram, a world-renowned wheat breeder and scientist recognized with the World Food Prize, died on February 17 from COVID-19 in Ciudad Obregon, Mexico.
