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Posts Tagged 'Afghanistan'
Scientists use DNA fingerprinting to gauge the spread of modern wheat in Afghanistan
Written by mmacneil on August 22, 2019 . Posted in Article, News
New study finds that wheat farmers often do not accurately identify their varieties.
Wheat is Afghanistan's number-one staple crop, but the country does not grow enough and must import millions of tons of grain each year to satisfy domestic demand.
Despite the severe social and political unrest that constrain agriculture in Afghanistan, many farmers are growing high-yielding, disease resistant varieties developed through international, science-based breeding and made available to farmers as part of partnerships with national wheat experts and seed producers.
These and other findings have emerged from the first-ever large-scale use of DNA fingerprinting to assess Afghanistan farmers' adoption of improved wheat varieties, which are replacing less productive local varieties and landraces, according to a paper published yesterday in the science journal BMC Genomics.
The study is part of an activity supported between 2003 and 2018 by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through which the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) introduced, tested, and released improved wheat varieties.
"As part of our study, we established a 'reference library' of released varieties, elite breeding lines, and Afghan wheat landraces, confirming the genetic diversity of the landraces and their value as a genetic resource," said Susanne Dreisigacker, wheat molecular breeder at CIMMYT and lead author of the new paper.
"We then compared wheat collected on farmers' fields with the reference library. Of the 560 wheat samples collected in 4 provinces during 2015-16, farmers misidentified more than 40%, saying they were of a different variety from that which our DNA analyses later identified."
Wheat is the most important staple crop in Afghanistan — more than 20 million of the country's rural inhabitants depend on it — but wheat production is unstable and Afghanistan has been importing between 2 and 3 million tons of grain each year to meet demand.
Over half of the population lives below the poverty line, with high rates of malnutrition. A key development aim in Afghanistan is to foster improved agronomic practices and the use of high quality seed of improved wheat varieties, which together can raise yields by over 50%.
"Fungal diseases, particularly yellow rust and stem rust, pose grave threats to wheat in the country," said Eric Huttner, research program manager for crops at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) and co-author of the present paper. "It's crucial to know which wheat varieties are being grown where, in order to replace the susceptible ones with high-performing, disease resistant varieties."
Varietal adoption studies typically rely on questionnaires completed by breeders, extension services, seed producers, seed suppliers, and farmers, but such surveys are complicated, expensive, and often inaccurate.
"DNA fingerprinting resolves uncertainties regarding adoption and improves related socioeconomic research and farm policies," Huttner explained, adding that for plant breeding this technology has been used mostly to protect intellectual property, such as registered breeding lines and varieties in more developed economies.
This new study was commissioned by ACIAR as a response to a request from the Government of Afghanistan for assistance in characterizing the Afghan wheat gene bank, according to Huttner.
"This provided the reference library against which farmers' samples could be compared," he explained. "Accurately identifying the varieties that farmers grow is key evidence on the impact of introducing improved varieties and will shape our future research
Joint research and development efforts involving CIMMYT, ACIAR, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the International Centre of Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), French Cooperation, and Afghanistan's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and Agricultural Research Institute (ARIA) have introduced more than 400 modern, disease-resistant wheat varieties over the last two decades. Nearly 75% of the wheat grown in the areas surveyed for this study comes from these improved varieties.
"New gene sequencing technologies are increasingly affordable and their cost will continue to fall," said Dreisigacker. "Expanded use of DNA fingerprinting can easily and accurately identify the wheat cultivars in farmers' fields, thus helping to target breeding, agronomy, and development efforts for better food security and farmer livelihoods."
For more information, or to arrange interviews with the researchers, please contact:
Marcia MacNeil, Wheat Communications Officer, CIMMYT
M.MacNeil@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004, ext. 2070
Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT
r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004, ext. 1167
About CIMMYT
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of CGIAR and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat, and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies.
About ACIAR
As Australia's specialist international agricultural research for development agency, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) brokers and funds research partnerships between Australian scientists and their counterparts in developing countries. Since 1982, ACIAR has supported research projects in eastern and southern Africa, East Asia, South and West Asia and the Pacific, focusing on crops, agribusiness, horticulture, forestry, livestock, fisheries, water and climate, social sciences, and soil and land management. ACIAR has commissioned and managed more than 1,500 research projects in 36 countries, partnering with 150 institutions along with more than 50 Australian research organizations.
About Afghanistan's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock
The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan works on the development and modernization of agriculture, livestock and horticulture. The ministry launches programs to support the farmers, manage natural resources, and strengthen agricultural economics. Its programs include the promotion and introduction of higher-value economic crops, strengthening traditional products, identifying and publishing farm-tailored land technologies, boosting cooperative programs, agricultural economics, and export with marketing.
Improved wheat helps reduce women's workload in rural Afghanistan
Written by Mike Listman on October 12, 2017 . Posted in Article, Articles, Flagship Project 01, Flagship Projects, News
Afghan women from wheat farming villages in focus-group interviews as part of Gennovate, a global study on gender and agricultural innovation. Photo: CIMMYT archives
by Katelyn Roett, Mike Listman / October 12, 2017
New research shows improved wheat raises the quality of life for men and women across rural communities in Afghanistan.
A recent report from Gennovate, a major study about gender and innovation processes in developing country agriculture, found that improved wheat varieties emerged overwhelmingly among the agricultural technologies most favored by both men and women.
In one striking example from Afghanistan, introducing better wheat varieties alone reduced women's work burden, showing how the uptake of technology – whether seeds or machinery – can improve the quality of life.
"Local varieties are tall and prone to falling, difficult to thresh, and more susceptible to diseases, including smuts and bunts, which requires special cleaning measures, a task normally done by women," said Rajiv Sharma, a senior wheat scientist at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and country liaison officer for CIMMYT in Afghanistan. "Such varieties may comprise mixes of several seed types, including seed of weeds. They also give small harvests for which threshing is typically manual, with wooden rollers and animals, picking up sticks, stones, and even animal excrement that greatly complicates cleaning the grain."
Both women and men spoke favorably about how improved wheat varieties have eased women's wheat cleaning work. "Improved seeds can provide clean wheat," said an 18-year old woman from one of the study's youth focus groups in Panali, Afghanistan. "Before, we were washing wheat grains and we exposed it to the sun until it dried. Machineries have [also] eased women's tasks."
Finally, Sharma noted that bountiful harvests from improved varieties often lead farmers to use mechanical threshing, which further reduces work and ensures cleaner grain for household foods.
Gennovate: A large-scale, qualitative, comparative snapshot
Conceived as a "bottom-up" idea by a small gender research team of CGIAR in 2013, Gennovate involves 11 past and current CGIAR Research Programs. The project collected data from focus groups and interviews involving more than 7,500 rural men and women in 26 countries during 2014-16.
Some 2,500 women and men from 43 rural villages in 8 wheat-producing countries of Africa and Asia participated in community case studies, as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Wheat.
"Across wheat farm settings, both men and women reported a sense of gradual progress," said Lone Badstue, gender specialist at the CIMMYT and Gennovate project leader. "But women still face huge challenges to access information and resources or have a voice in decision making, even about their own lives."
According to estimates of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), if women farmers, who comprise 43 per cent of the farm labor force in developing countries, had the same access to resources as men, agricultural output in 34 developing countries would rise by an estimated average of as high as 4 percent.
"Gender-related restrictions such as limitations on physical mobility or social interactions, as well as reproductive work burden, also constitute key constraints on rural women's capacity to innovate in agriculture," Badstue explained.
Gender equity drives innovation
The Gennovate-wheat report identified six "positive outlier communities" where norms are shifting towards more equitable gender relations and helping to foster inclusiveness and agricultural innovation. In those communities, men and women from all economic scales reported significantly higher empowerment and poverty reductions than in the 37 other locations. Greater acceptance of women's freedom of action, economic activity, and civic and educational participation appears to be a key element.
"In contexts where gender norms are more fluid, new agricultural technologies and practices can become game-changing, increasing economic agency for women and men and rapidly lowering local poverty," Badstue said.
The contributions and presence of CIMMYT in Afghanistan, which include support for breeding research and training for local scientists, date back several decades. In the last five years, the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) of the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (MAIL) has used CIMMYT breeding lines to develop and make available to farmers seed of 15 high-yielding, disease resistant wheat varieties.
Read the full report "Gender and Innovation Processes in Wheat-Based Systems" here.
GENNOVATE has been supported by generous funding from the World Bank; the CGIAR Gender & Agricultural Research Network; the government of Mexico through MasAgro; Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); numerous CGIAR Research Programs; and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Afghanistan scientists assess achievements of Australia-funded wheat research
Written by Mike Listman on October 4, 2017 . Posted in Article, Articles, CoA 3.1, Flagship Project 03, News
Scientists take readings of rust disease incidence on experimental wheat lines at the Shishambagh research station, Nangarhar, of the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan. Photo: Raqib
With generous funding from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) over the last 15 years, Afghanistan research organizations and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have helped supply Afghan farmers with improved varieties and farming practices to boost production of maize and wheat.
"As of 2012, the start of the most recent phase of ACIAR-funded work, Afghanistan partners have developed and released 12 high-yielding and disease resistant bread wheat varieties, as well as 3 varieties of durum wheat, 2 of barley and 3 of maize," said Rajiv Sharma, a senior wheat scientist at CIMMYT and country liaison officer for CIMMYT in Afghanistan.
Sharma spoke at a workshop, which took place on August 28, with partners from the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) of the country's Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (MAIL). The event was organized to review accomplishments and facilitate MAIL's takeover of all activities, when the project ends in October 2018.
"The pedigrees of all new varieties feature contributions from the breeding research of CIMMYT and the International Winter Wheat Improvement Programme based in Turkey, both responsible for introducing more than 9,000 new wheat and maize lines into the country since 2012," Sharma added. The International Winter Wheat Improvement Programme (IWWIP) is operated by Turkey, CIMMYT, and ICARDA (the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas).
Sharma noted that CIMMYT's presence in Afghanistan, which includes support for breeding research and training for local scientists, dates back several decades and that the latest achievements with ARIA and other partners and ACIAR support include:
The delineation of wheat agro-climatic zones.
Forecasting climate change impacts on the Afghan wheat crop.
Strategizing to raise wheat production.
Characterization of Afghanistan's wheat genetic resource collection.
Training abroad for 64 Afghan researchers and in-country for 4,000.
Launching research on wheat hybridization.
In direct partnership with farmers, more than 1,800 farmer field demonstrations, 80 field days, and introduced machinery like seed drills and mobile seed cleaners.
Shared research on and promotion of conservation agriculture, genomic selection, wheat bio-fortification, quality protein maize, climate change, crop insurance and wheat blast resistance and control.
In good years Afghan farmers harvest upwards of 5 million tons of wheat, the country's number-one food crop, but in some years annual wheat imports exceed 1 million tons to satisfy domestic demand, which exceeds 5.8 million tons.
Multiple partners map avenues to fortify cereal farming
The workshop attracted 45 participants representing ARIA, MAIL, ICARDA, CIMMYT, Michigan State University, ACIAR, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Embassy of Australia, and several provincial Directorates of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (DAIL) of Afghanistan.
Among other participants, Mahboobullah Nang, Director of Seed Certification, and Akbar Waziri, Director of the Cereal Department, both from MAIL, offered the Ministry's support for the continuation of CIMMYT's longstanding efforts in Afghanistan, particularly in breeding and varietal testing and promotion.
Representing ACIAR, Syed Mousawi commended capacity development activities organized by CIMMYT since the 1970s, which have raised the quality of crop research in Afghanistan and provided a vital link to the global science community over the years.
Participants also recommended extending CIMMYT outreach work, offering training in extension, introducing advanced technologies, and support for and training in varietal maintenance, conservation agriculture, experimental designs, research farm management, data analysis and data management.
Scientists in Afghanistan set new program to raise wheat harvests
Written by Mike Listman on February 21, 2017 . Posted in Article, Articles, Media, News
by Rajv Sharma & Zaki Afshar/CIMMYT
KABUL, Afghanistan (February 17,2017)- Inadequate access to new disease-resistant varieties and short supplies of certified seed are holding back wheat output and contributing to rising food insecurity in Afghanistan, according to more than 50 national and international wheat experts.
Wheat scientists and policymakers discussed challenges to the country's most-produced crop during a two-day meeting at Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) headquarters in Kabul, as part of the 5th Annual Wheat Researchers' Workshop in November 2016. They took stock of constraints to the 2017 winter wheat crop, including dry autumn weather and rapidly-evolving strains of the deadly wheat disease known as yellow rust.
Reflections of a Wheat Trainee: Zaki Afshar, Afghanistan
Written by Ricardo Lopez on September 10, 2015 . Posted in Articles, News
Zaki Afshar in the field at CIMMYT Afghanistan
Photo Courtesy: Zaki Afshar/ CIMMYT
By Katie Lutz/CIMMYT
CIUDAD OBREGON, Mexico (September 10, 2015)- Zaki Afshar grew up in the small city of Puli Khumri in Northern Afghanistan, visiting his father's seven-hectare (ha) farm every weekend. Growing up in a farming community where the staple crops are wheat and rice, Afshar saw the impact agriculture could have on a community.
"A big part of why I chose agriculture was because I saw how hard the farmers worked and still suffered," said Afshar. "I wanted to know how I could help them. Why were they not using the advanced technologies I saw available in other parts of the world?"
According to The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), 60 percent of Afghan citizens rely on agriculture to sustain their livelihoods and families. Wheat is the chief crop in Afghanistan, covering 2.5 million ha and providing about 60 percent of daily calorie intake for an average Afghan.
"We have a very basic agriculture system," explained Afshar. "You will only see machinery used for plowing and trashing, not for sowing or even harvesting."
Afshar attended Balkh University in Mazari Sharif, receiving a degree in Agricultural Plant Science. He currently works at the CIMMYT Afghanistan office as a project associate as in the Wheat Improvement Program.
WHEAT and CIMMYT Remember Vital Legacy of Gender Specialist Paula Kantor
Written by Mike Listman on May 15, 2015 . Posted in Articles, News
By Mike Listman/CIMMYT
EL BATAN, Mexico (May 15,2015) ‑ CIMMYT is sad to announce the tragic death of our friend and respected colleague, gender and development specialist Paula Kantor.
Paula died on May 13, in the aftermath of an attack on the hotel where she was staying in Kabul, Afghanistan.
"We extend our deepest condolences to her family, friends and colleagues," said Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT's director general.
"Paula's desire to help people and make lasting change in their lives often led her into challenging settings. Her dedication and bravery was much admired by those who knew her and she leaves a lasting legacy upon which future research on gender and food security should build."
Click here to read more about Paula's exciting and valuable life and legacy.
Men's Roles and Attitudes: Key to Gender Progress
Written by Mike Listman on March 3, 2015 . Posted in Articles, News
EL BATAN, Mexico (March 3, 2015)- Gender research and outreach should engage men more effectively, according to Paula Kantor, CIMMYT gender and development specialist who is leading an ambitious new project to empower and improve the livelihoods of women, men and youth in wheat-based systems of Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.
"Farming takes place in socially complex environments, involving individual women and men who are embedded in households, local culture and communities, and value chains — all of which are colored by expectations of women's and men's appropriate behaviors," said Kantor, who gave a brownbag presentation on the project to an audience of more than 100 scientists and other staff and visitors at El Batán on 20 February. "We tend to focus on women in our work and can inadvertently end up alienating men, when they could be supporters if we explained what we're doing and that, in the end, the aim is for everyone to progress and benefit."
Funded by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the new project will include 14 village case studies across the three countries. It is part of a global initiative involving 13 CGIAR research programs (CRPs), including MAIZE and WHEAT. Participants in the global project will carry out 140 case studies in 29 countries; WHEAT and MAIZE together will conduct 70 studies in 13 countries. Kantor and Lone Badstue, CIMMYT's strategic leader for gender research, are members of the Executive Committee coordinating the global initiative, along with Gordon Prain of CIP-led Roots, Tubers and Bananas Program, and Amare Tegbaru of the IITA-led Program on Integrated Systems for the Humid Tropics, with expert advisement from specialist Patti Petesch, who contributed to World Bank studies such as "On Norms and Agency" and "Voices of the Poor."
"The cross-CRP gender research initiative is of unprecedented scope," said Kantor. "For WHEAT, CIMMYT, and partners, understanding more clearly how gendered expectations affect agricultural innovation outcomes and opportunities can give all of our research more 'ooomph', helping social and biophysical scientists to work together better to design and conduct socially and technically robust agricultural R4D, and in the end achieve greater adoption and impact."
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