Year: 2014
Securing our daily bread: boosting Africa’s wheat production
Nutrition, health and food security
Africa’s demand for wheat is being driven by population growth, urbanization, as well as from a growing female work force who prefer fast and easy to make wheat products, like bread or pasta.
Anti-wheat fad diets undermine global food security efforts
Nutrition, health and food security
A discussion paper aims to highlight unsubstantiated nutritional claims about wheat and gluten, while shining a spotlight on the important role of wheat and fiber in human diets.
Pakistan: maize needed for marginal areas
Capacity development
Farmers in the farthest reaches of Pakistan need access to white- grained maize, according to Dr. Iftikhar Ahmad, chairman of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC). “There is a good progress in the productivity of yellow maize varieties in the areas of Punjab and KPK provinces,” Ahmad said, “but we need white maize varieties to reach farmers in the marginal areas of KPK, Sindh, Balochistan and Gilgit Baltistan provinces.”
Training to fill gaps in Ethiopia’s maize seed system
Capacity development
The Nutritious Maize for Ethiopia (NuME) project recently organized a three-day training workshop on quality protein maize (QPM) seed production and quality control, as part of the project’s activities to enhance QPM seed production.
Reaching out to smallholder farmers in Pakistan
Nutrition, health and food security
CIMMYT entered an important new partnership with Pakistan’s National Rural Support Program (NRSP) on 7 November 2014 for wheat varietal evaluation, promotion and deployment, as well as on-farm agronomic interventions and community-based seed production enterprises.
Improved maize to boost yields in nitrogen-starved African soils
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Sub-Saharan African farmers typically apply less than 20 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of cropland — far less than their peers in any other region of the world. In 2014, partners in the Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project developed 41 Africa-adapted maize varieties that respond better to low amounts of nitrogen fertilizer and are up for release in nine African countries through 24 seed companies.
Scientists seal agreement to boost adaptability of wheat to climate change
Climate adaptation and mitigation
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.
Updated Web Wheat Atlas 3.0 prioritizes user experience
Capacity development
Whether you are a scientist, a researcher or simply interested in learning more about the vital staple crop that provides 20 percent of the world’s calories, the Wheat Atlas can help.
Ethiopia’s seed co-ops benefit entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers
Nutrition, health and food security
Government-subsidized farmer-run cooperatives produce high-yielding, disease-resistant wheat seed, accelerating distribution and helping smallholder farmers grow healthy crops.
Maize opportunities and challenges for Asia
Capacity development
Compared with other cereals, maize has recorded the fastest annual growth in Asia at around 4 percent, but consumption is rising faster than yields.
Global wheat-rust research aids Ethiopian farmers
Climate adaptation and mitigation
The 2014 World Food Prize laureate, Sanjaya Rajaram’s adaptable, high-yielding wheat varieties are grown on more than 58 million hectares worldwide.
Q+A: Young scientist wins award for “Taking it to the Farmer”
Innovations
Conservation agriculture is becoming a vital part of the rural landscape throughout Mexico and Latin America, leading to a major World Food Prize Field award for Bram Govaerts.