News
USAID’s Feed the Future initiative highlights CIMMYT heat tolerant maize breeding
Climate adaptation and mitigation
The Feed the Future initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) featured CIMMYT’s Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project in a recent newsletter, highlighting it as an exemplary public-private partnership. Launched in 2013, the project is developing heat-resilient hybrid maize for resource-poor smallholder farmers in South Asia whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change.
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.
Prioritize food security, not conflict, wheat scientist advises
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Heat and drought are a major cause of wheat yield losses worldwide, problems that scientists predict will worsen due to climate change.
DTMA launches new project to improve seed scaling in Eastern Africa
Climate adaptation and mitigation
Born out of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Initiative and other CIMMYT-Africa maize projects, the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) project will improve the demand for and availability of high-quality, affordable, certified seed of drought-tolerant maize varieties for small-scale farmers across eastern and southern Africa.
Chief Minister of Bihar assures support to BISA
Climate adaptation and mitigation
The Chief Minister of Bihar, India, Shri Jitan Ram Manjhi, affirmed his support for the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) and its efforts to ensure food security, in a meeting with Thomas A. Lumpkin, director general of CIMMYT, and with government, BISA and CIMMYT representatives on 3 February.
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).
Spreading innovation: new partnerships drive change in Odisha
Capacity development
The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) has collaborated with Digital Green (DG), the Department of Agriculture (DOA), Government of Odisha, Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology (OUAT) for a pilot project integrating information and communication technology (ICT)-based video-led dissemination models in 20 villages of Puri district in Odisha, India.
Myanmar and CIMMYT assess needs and joint maize and wheat research
Innovations
Officials of Myanmar’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and CIMMYT representatives met to strengthen collaboration, with a focus on increasing farm productivity and training a new generation of Myanmar scientists.
CIMMYT formally welcomes four local workshops to the machinery and equipment innovation group
Capacity development
In 2014, the work of The Machinery and Equipment Innovation Group begun activities after signing of four contracts with four Mexican workshops.
“No burning in Chiapas” GCAP campaign
Climate adaptation and mitigation
“To increase my production, I don’t burn residues; I use them. I practice conservation agriculture.” This slogan was promoted by CIMMYT’s Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) from March to May 2015 through a communications campaign in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. The campaign aimed to inform farmers and agronomists of the devastating effects of residue burning and its potential risks. It also focused on topics such as the benefits of residue retention, sustainable alternatives to conventional practices, and how burning contributes to global warming.
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.