Asia
As a fast growing region with increasing challenges for smallholder farmers, Asia is a key target region for CIMMYT. CIMMYT’s work stretches from Central Asia to southern China and incorporates system-wide approaches to improve wheat and maize productivity and deliver quality seed to areas with high rates of child malnutrition. Activities involve national and regional local organizations to facilitate greater adoption of new technologies by farmers and benefit from close partnerships with farmer associations and agricultural extension agents.
Bending gender norms: women’s engagement in agriculture
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion
On International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we spoke to Pragya Timsina about how women’s participation in agriculture is evolving across the Eastern Gangetic Plains and her findings which will be included in a paper coming out later this year: ‘Necessity as a driver of bending agricultural gender norms in South Asia’.
Q&A: Spotlighting gender mainstreaming in agriculture
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion
New research explores how the adoption of Climate-Smart Agricultural Practices can help address environmental issues, reduce out-migration, and ensure household food security.
Plant breeding innovations
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Over millennia, natural selection and humans have systematically adapted the plant species that provide food and other vital products, changing their physical and genetic makeup for enhanced productivity, nutrition and resilience. Plant breeders apply science to continue improving crop varieties, making them more productive and better adapted to climate extremes, insects, drought and diseases.
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.
How interactions among hidden enemies and drought effects grain yield and disease severity in bread wheat
Environmental health and biodiversity
CIMMYT scientists in Turkey investigated the effect of soil borne diseases individually and in combination with drought on morphological and physiological traits in wheat germplasm.
Meet The Indian Researcher Helping To Solve The Deadly Aflatoxin Puzzle
Nutrition, health and food security
Source: Forbes (29 Dec 2022)
Pooja Bhatnagar-Mathur, a Principal Scientist at CIMMYT, says aflatoxin, a toxin produced from soil fungus and found in groundnuts like peanuts, is a serious public health and food safety problem around the globe.
High-yielding staple crops improve health and prosperity in developing countries
Nutrition, health and food security
New research uncovers long-term impacts of Green Revolution era productivity, points out lessons for today.
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.
CIMMYT trains next generation of scientists to tackle soil-borne pathogens
Capacity development
Two new graduates join pool of research leaders focused on finding new sources of resistance against these pathogens.