Month: April 2015

News

tag icon Nutrition, health and food security
News

tag icon Nutrition, health and food security
News

tag icon Nutrition, health and food security

Artist Katharine McDevitt, creator of a new bronze representation of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Norman Borlaug, is fascinated by sculptures representing pre-Hispanic deities.

Features

tag icon Climate adaptation and mitigation

Martin Kropff, incoming CIMMYT director general, joined the global wheat community at the CIMMYT research station in Ciudad Obregon in Mexico for annual Visitors’ Week.

News

tag icon Innovations

Christian Thierfelder, CIMMYT senior agronomist stationed at Harare, Zimbabwe, was recently profiled by the Canadian Foodgrains Bank for his work promoting conservation agriculture techniques for smallholder farmers in Africa. Conservation agriculture systems are not only better for soils but help make agriculture more ‘climate-smart’, argues Thierfelder. “The conventional system can only make use of the water that is in the ridge and not further down in the soil,” he said. “In conservation agriculture systems, there is access to deeper layers and a lot of water has infiltrated. The maize can actually access the water much better because of an improved root system.”

News

tag icon Climate adaptation and mitigation

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has tasked CIMMYT with a new project to introduce green manure cover crops to smallholder farmers in eastern Zambia and central and southern Malawi.

Features

tag icon Climate adaptation and mitigation

A testament to increased climate variability and risk for farming systems already operating on the razor’s edge, the 2014-15 cropping season will be recognized as a sad write-off by most farmers in Central Mozambique. The rains started six weeks late and most of the rainfall fell in only two months (normally it’s distributed over four), followed by a long drought and some few showers at the end.

News

tag icon Nutrition, health and food security

An irrigation project in Ethiopia uses industrial runoff from a brewery to nourish wheat crops, diverting it from a nearby river and protecting the health of local residents.

News

tag icon Capacity development

Climate-smart agriculture can be “an effective tool to address climate change and climate variability,” according to Kai Sonder, head of CIMMYT’s geographic information systems (GIS) unit, who was one of 754 participants from 75 countries, including 39 CIMMYT representatives, at the third annual Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture, held in Montpellier, France, during 16-18 March.

News

tag icon Capacity development

A new project in Ethiopia aims to improve the livelihoods of wheat farmers by encouraging the development and multiplication of high-yielding, rust-resistant bread and durum wheat varieties.

Features

tag icon Climate adaptation and mitigation

Benefits of three decades of international collaboration in wheat research have added as much as 10.7 million tons of grain – worth US $3.4 billion – to China’s national wheat output.

News

tag icon Nutrition, health and food security

Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and CIMMYT India staff members gathered together at NASC Complex, New Delhi to pay tribute to the late Dr. Norman E. Borlaug on what would have been his 101st Birth Anniversary on 25 March. HS Gupta, director general, BISA, garlanded Borlaug’s statue, in front of the office block at NASC Complex. Staff members offered flowers in respect to the Nobel Laureate. Gupta apprised the staff members about Borlaug’s great contributions, including high-yielding wheat varieties which helped solve hunger around the world and particularly in South Asia. BISA and CIMMYT staff members resolved to work hard and follow Borlaug’s footsteps.

News

tag icon Capacity development

CIMMYT and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) have jointly developed and launched an application for Android called “N Calculator,” to support smallholder farmers using the GreenSeeker, a compact sensor to quickly assess crop vigour and calculate optimal fertilizer dosages. Held in the CIMMYT-CCAFS climate-smart village (CSV) Noorpur Bet of Ludhiana, Punjab, India, the launch was led by John Snape, CIMMYT Board Chair.