Sustainable agrifood systems
Researchers define and measure “sustainability”
Capacity development
Leading specialists on the sustainable intensification of agriculture tried to hammer out indicators for assessing “sustainability,” a development term that refers roughly to the health and longevity of a system, at a 13 February workshop in San Jose, California.
Extension bulletins raise awareness of conservation agriculture in Malawi
Innovations
CIMMYT, Washington State University and Total Land Care (TLC) recently published a series of extension bulletins to spread awareness of the potential benefits of conservation agriculture (CA) techniques for farmers in Malawi.
Crop model gives scientists a window on future farming in the Eastern Gangetic Plains
Capacity development
In work to help farmers in South Asia tackle changing climates and markets through resilient and productive cropping systems, scientists are now using a leading and longstanding model, the Agricultural Production System Simulator (APSIM).
Two-wheel tractors to increase smallholder farm power in Ethiopia
Capacity development
For Ethiopian smallholder farmers who have for millennia used the traditional animal-drawn maresha plow, two-wheel tractors could increase their productivity while reducing labor.
Index insurance to safeguard farmers from climate change
Climate adaptation and mitigation
“We’ve got the germplasm and improved varieties, but what can we do to overcome the hurdle of farmer adoption of these technologies?” Jon Hellin, value chain and poverty specialist for CIMMYT’s Socioeconomics Program presented this challenge and how crop-index insurance may be part of the solution, at a high-level Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) webcast event Wednesday, 28 January in London.
Highlights of the 12th Asian Maize Conference
Capacity development
The 12th Asian Maize Conference and Expert Consultation on “Maize for Food, Feed, Nutrition and Environmental Security” convened in Bangkok, Thailand from 31 October to 1 November 2014.
Research on climate-resilient wheat keeps Green Revolution on track
Climate adaptation and mitigation
As the global population grows from a current 7 billion to a projected 9.6 billion by 2050, wheat breeders involved in the battle to ensure food security face many challenges.
12th Asian Maize Conference
Nutrition, health and food security
The 12th Asian Maize Conference is taking place in Bangkok from 30 October to 1 November, bringing together more than 350 leading agricultural researchers, policy-makers, farmers and service providers from across the public and private sectors.
CIMMYT prepares to launch second phase of SIMLESA in Kenya and Tanzania
Innovations
Representatives from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Queensland Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation (QAAFI), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), the national agricultural research systems (NARS) of Kenya and Tanzania, and CIMMYT scientists from Ethiopia, Kenya and Zimbabwe met between 14-17 October in Arusha, Tanzania, to finalize activities to meet the objectives of the second phase of CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project.
Gender matters in farm power
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion
The goals of the Farm Power and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification (FACASI) project are to address the issues of declining farm power in eastern and southern Africa, and to reduce the labor burden that comes with low farm mechanization, by promoting small-scale mechanization based on two-wheel tractors.
Scale-appropriate mechanization: the intercontinental connection
Capacity development
CIMMYT aims to improve the livelihoods of poor farmers in the developing world by providing practical solutions for more efficient and sustainable farming. Among the options to improve efficiency, scale-appropriate and precise planting machinery is a crucial yet rarely satisfied need
