Innovations
Working with smallholders to understand their needs and build on their knowledge, CIMMYT brings the right seeds and inputs to local markets, raises awareness of more productive cropping practices, and works to bring local mechanization and irrigation services based on conservation agriculture practices. CIMMYT helps scale up farmers’ own innovations, and embraces remote sensing, mobile phones and other information technology. These interventions are gender-inclusive, to ensure equitable impacts for all.
Wheat gene map to help ‘feed the world’
Innovations
Source: BBC News (1 Mar 2019)
CIMMYT’s head of wheat research Ravi Singh commented on the publication of the wheat gene map.
Innovative irrigation promises “more crop per drop” for India’s water-stressed cereals
Climate adaptation and mitigation
A study demonstrates how rice and wheat can be grown using 40 percent less water.
CIMMYT and Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore to establish a maize doubled haploid facility in Karnataka, India
Innovations
Source: SeedQuest (20 Mar 2019)
The maize DH facility, funded by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize, has the potential to accelerate maize breeding and hybrid development in Asia.
Sustainable intensification practices build resilience in Bangladesh’s charlands
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion
By reducing drudgery, irrigation and costs, conservation agriculture enables the soil of the charlands to produce rice and maize yields consecutively.
Is a world without hunger possible, asks Germany’s minister Gerd Müller during his visit to CIMMYT
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion
Minister Müller explored the campus and heard about CIMMYT’s latest innovations in maize and wheat research.
The Molecular Maize Atlas encourages genetic diversity
Environmental health and biodiversity
With so much germplasm to categorize, what’s the best way to label them? Seeds of Discovery is working on the answer.
Digital imaging tools make maize breeding much more efficient
Innovations
These technologies, known as high-throughput phenotyping platforms, replace lengthy paper-based visual observations of crop trials.
New publications: Identifying common genetic bases for yield, biomass and radiation use efficiency in spring wheat
Innovations
The study opens the door for a series of important biological questions about the role of RUE in yield potential and in the ability to increase grain biomass.
Machine learning for smarter seed selection to reduce risks for Mexican maize farmers
Innovations
Source: AgroNews (4 Mar 2019)
CIMMYT and BioSense Institute jointly won the CGIAR Platform for Big Data in Agriculture Inspire Challenge in 2018 for machine learning for smarter seed selection.
New publication: Gender and agricultural innovation in Oromia Region, Ethiopia
Gender equality, youth and social inclusion
Source: Addis Standard (1 Mar 2019)
Drawing on GENNOVATE case studies from two wheat-growing communities, the authors examine how women and men smallholders innovate with improved wheat seed, row planting and the broad bed maker.
Fighting the fungi that destroy wheat
Innovations
Source: Dhaka Tribune (2 Mar 2019)
CIMMYT researchers propose long-term solutions to fighting wheat blast, including a diagnostic tool for wheat blast surveillance and a platform for open data and science to combat the fungus.
Policy forum in Mozambique recommends scaling sustainable agriculture practices
Capacity development
Unsustainable farming practices like monocropping are impacting soil health and reducing the productivity of farms.
Breaking Ground: Fernando H. Toledo researches new models of analysis under simulated scenarios
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Toledo’s research is multidisciplinary — it involves genetics and breeding knowledge, as well as statistics and computer science.