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Testimonies
 AMBIONET:
Getting Students into the Lab
(from
CIMMYT Annual Report 2001-2002)
Working at the Indian Agricultural Research
Institute, B.M.Prasanna is called on to teach as well as to
conduct research. In the past, students left with an excellent
theoretical background but little practical experience, but
this has changed. “With AMBIONET support, I’ve
trained a number of students on how to employ markers in their
research” Prasanna says. Students from Vietnam, Iran,
and Ethiopia have worked toward advanced degrees in Prasanna’s
lab. During an exchange visit to the lab, Shihuang Zhang,
AMBIONET-China Country Coordinator, witnessed the effectiveness
of this approach: “I saw all these young people in his
lab and I thought I should take this back to China. Our universities
have many graduate students but they do not have enough money
to support research. On the other hand, under recent reforms,
my institute is cutting back on paid staff. So we opened our
doors and have the students work with us, and in turn we help
them prepare their theses. Perhaps this approach is already
popular elsewhere, but for China this is very new –
and very useful.”
 Two
Week Master Class on Soil-borne Pathogens in Turkey
(from
Annual Report 2002-2003)
Lectures in the classroom were combined
with visits to farmer’s fields and research stations
to observe root rot and nematode damage in a wheat crop. All
lab sessions were highly interactive and hands-on to give
participants the opportunity to try the methodologies themselves.
Zafer Uckun and Zafer Mert from Turkey commented, “During
the course we realized that soil-borne diseases are one of
the most important factors limiting our yields.”. Another
participant from Iraq indicated that back in their own countries
they would “need to convince the breeders of the importance
of these problems and then work closely with them.”
Hussam Abidou, a doctoral student from Syria, pointed out,
“Though all the lectures were full of new information,
one of the best advantages of the course was the beneficial
discussion we had with the scientists.”
Whole Family Training Project for
Maize in Bangladesh
(from
Bangladesh Annual Report 2003-2004)
Whole family training for maize relies on
a system of trainers, usually village extension workers either
from the government or NGO’s. These trainers conduct
short workshops (roughly eight families per workshop, including
husband, wife, and two older or adult children) in selected
communities. Through planning meetings, CIMMYT Bangladesh,
GOB, and NGO partners decided to conduct whole family training
among 3,236 maize farm families (12,944 maize growers) on
 modern
maize cultivation. One hundred percent of the targeted families
were trained throughout the country. The figure shows year-long
achievements of families and trainers trained on modern maize
cultivation practices from 2001-02 to 2003-04 as well as the
proposed number of families and trainers to be trained during
2004-05. For training purposes, 8,000 sets of modern maize
production manuals in Bengali were prepared and distributed
to partners, farmers, NARS institutions, development agencies,
universities, private entrepreneur and seed companies. Winrock
International, DAE , and World fish, have adapted the whole
family training concept in light of their objectives and development
activities in targeted areas.
 Research
Training: Empowering Agronomists in Sub-Saharan Africa
(from
CIMMYT Annual Report 1998)
The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute
(KARI), Egerton University, and CIMMYT launched a regional
crop management research training course that would enable
participants to acquire knowledge rapidly and apply it immediately
upon returning home. This would allow them to fill the gaps
in interdisciplinary approaches and practical skills needed
to design, test, and promote relevant crop management practices
among agronomists and extension workers in eastern, central,
and southern Africa. Zimbabwean agronomist Alexious Makanganise
attended regional crop management in Kenya and studies tillage
and fertility interactions in communal areas and farms back
home. He is extremely positive about his experience in Kenya.
“This was a very fruitful course,” Makanganise
says. ”It is so important to be able to identify the
problems farmers face, propose solutions, and do the research
to develop and test them.”
“The CIMMYT school – a work
ethic where everyone is part of a team and scientists are
there to work, answer questions, follow through, whatever
– is something I’ve not seen anywhere else. When
I look for a young researcher to do a job, that’s the
kind of attitude I want.”
Enrique Aguilar (production agronomist at La Molina Agricultural
University)
“The course provided exactly what
I was looking for, as far as working with my hands and seeing
with my eyes. There’s a lot of art involved with tissue
culture aside from the science. The basic science you can
find everywhere – in books, in papers, on the Internet
– but what I was looking for was the techniques. Based
on what I learned here I’m going to launch completely
new work.”
Sami Reda Saber Sabry, Senior Wheat Researcher at Egypt’s
Field Crops research Institute.
“The visit to CIMMYT was an enlightening
experience, from the words of wisdom and hope from Nobel laureate
Norman Borlaug to the cutting-edge presentation in molecular
biology from Jean-Marcel Ribaut. The experience exposed me
to technical issues as well as made me question the relevance
of my research in the context of global problems in agricultural
research. I have been exposed to a diverse array of methods
used in international agricultural research, which all have
the objective of addressing global problems.
Carlos Messina, graduate student from the University of
Florida who visited CIMMYT-Mexico
Former trainees, in response to a confidential
survey, provided the following feedback on the impact of CIMMYT
training:
- Before training there was no spring
wheat research conducted in my country but this year we
are growing spring wheats from CIMMYT and testing them in
our trials, If it yields favorable results we might spread
some of it in production, too.
- With the techniques learned through
CIMMYT training, we are transforming more normal maize inbred
lines to QPM.
- I am working in a very remote area of
western Nepal, situated in hilly area. The region is popularly
known as dry land. After attending a CIMMYT course, I am
very much interested in screening drought tolerant maize
genotypes for the region. We are also thinking of working
on drought tolerant wheat. Because of poverty, farmers in
this region generally do not apply chemical fertilizers,
and if they do, only nitrogenous fertilizer, i.e. urea.
Almost all crops are grown by using farmyard manures only.
So, my station is also interested in working with low nitrogen
maize.
- We didn’t do much work with maize
drought/low-N tolerance breeding before. Nevertheless, we
think it is necessary to operate such a research program
since these factors are the main abiotic constrains in the
Yunnan province which affect maize production significantly.
Therefore, we have launched such a research program since
last year and what I have learned in my CIMMYT training
course will consequently benefit our program.
- Since my training at CIMMYT, we have
initiated a new area of research on Conservation Agriculture
both in the research station and in farmers’ fields.
Now I try to use my knowledge for arsenic mitigation with
new tillage techniques like bed planting.
- Before I participated in CIMMYT training,
our research mainly focused on the high-yield in the station
field where the water supply was sufficient and other factors
where appropriate for maize growth. We rarely thought of
the conditions of farmer’s fields. Now we have emphasized
the farmers’ direct benefit from the field product
by using a method similar to farmers’ participatory
approach. However, what we have done is just a beginning.
We still need more time to improve agricultural practices.
- I left behind my cultural differences.
My best friend during training was a person from a country
that my country was in a war with a few years ago.
- This was the first time I have participated
in an international scientific activity. Therefore this
activity helped me to improve my English as well as experience
the subject covered. In addition, I have gained self confidence
to work with international researchers.
Did you participate in CIMMYT training courses?
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courses you have participated in?
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you use the knowledge and skills you gained through the course?
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