Marco Ferroni – Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture

The Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA) in 2009 developed a two-year public-private partnership between Syngenta and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to rapidly identify and map genetic markers for use in wheat resistance breeding against Ug99 stem rust, a fungal disease which can cause devastating crop losses.

The project, funded by the Foundation, will combine Syngenta’s plant genetic profiling expertise with the strengths of CIMMYT’s extensive field research to develop a genetic map of wheat stem rust resistance. This will culminate in the development of wheat varieties that can better resist the disease. The results from this project will contribute directly to the global efforts to combat stem rust, which are coordinated by the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative coordinated by Cornell University. The marker data arising from the research will be published.

This important collaboration brings together complementary skills and addresses a pressing need of farmers in many developing countries.  Ug99 stem rust, which first emerged in Uganda in 1999, is caused by the fungus Puccinia graminis.  It is currently spreading across Africa, Asia and the Middle East with potential to spread further, posing a serious risk to wheat, the world’s third most important food crop.

Along with rice, wheat is a major food crop and is crucial for global food security – it provides 500 kilocalories of food energy per capita per day in China and India, and can provide up to 50 percent of daily calorie uptake in Central and West Asia or North African countries. Wheat yields need to rise 1.6 percent each year to reach required global production levels by 2020, yet investments in wheat technology have lagged far behind those for other cereals.

The scientific objectives of this project are:

1) To identify, characterize and map Durable Plant Resistance Quantitative Trait Loci conferring tolerance to stem rust resistance in wheat.

2) To identify molecular markers flanking the chromosomal regions containing these durable genes to be subsequently used in marker assisted trait selection.

3) To characterise the Sr2 gene complex and understand how this complex of gene(s) interacts with other important genes in wheat.

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The two sides will promote the development of new-type agriculture, encourage cooperation in agricultural biotechnology industry, and work to set up a long-standing consultative mechanism on agricultural cooperation, said the common initiative produced by the symposium, held first in Shanghai and then Zhejiang.

Both sides are pushing for this to be a shared venture, where information on agriculture passes freely between the mainland and Taiwan. Sharing knowledge is one of the key principles which Farming First supports and this initiative exemplifies how this can be done on a grand scale:

The two sides will also establish a reporting mechanism to share information on the quality and safety of agricultural products, said the initiative.

According to Xinhua, the symposium was co-sponsored by 10 NGOs from both the mainland and Taiwan.

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The interactive map allows viewers to explore case studies of how agricultural research has benefited individual countries and regions.  Each case study identifies key periods of time, target regions, and a more detailed account of each intervention.  It also provides additional links to related case studies from elsewhere.

The range of case studies includes:

• Combating cassava diseases in Nigeria and Ghana: This programme has contributed to 40% yield increases and has benefited 29 million local people
• Introducing zero-tillage agriculture in Argentina: This practice has improved soil fertility, created new agricultural jobs, and helped keep global soybean prices low
• Improving mungbean yields and resilience in south Asia: Introducing new varieties of mungbeans has helped improve yields, shorten maturity times, and increase resilience to pests to the extent that global production increased by 35% over the past 25 years.

There are many more case studies on the site, which helps create a visual cue for understanding agriculture’s advancements since the mid-20th century.

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Urea deep placement (UDP) is a more efficient and environmentally responsible method of fertilization. IFDC pioneered UDP research and helped introduce it in Bangladesh in the 1980s. UDP technology has since been spread to other countries in Asia, including Cambodia, Nepal and Vietnam.

Farmers using UDP place urea briquettes into soil near the rice plants. UDP increases nitrogen use efficiency because most of the urea nitrogen stays in the soil, close to the plant roots where it is absorbed more effectively. The net result is that crop yields are increased while pollution is lessened. Farmers using UDP are increasing yields by more than 20 percent while using 40 percent less urea.

By 2008/09, the Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Extension (with IFDC assistance) spread UDP technology to 500,000 hectares (ha) of rice fields, increasing production by 268,000 metric tons (mt) annually. UDP farmers had additional annual net returns of $188/ha.

UDP use reduced Bangladesh’s urea imports in 2008 by 50,000 mt, saving $22 million in fertilizer imports and $14 million in government subsidies. UDP generated an additional 9.5 days of labor per hectare – almost 4.6 million additional days of labor. More importantly, the additional rice has made 1.5 million more Bangladeshis food-secure.

The Bangladesh Government began expanding UDP technology this year to 2.9 million more farm families on 1.5 million ha. By 2011, rice production is expected to increase by almost 1 million mt, ensuring food security for an additional 4.2 million Bangladeshis.

The UDP technology not only improves farmers’ productivity and income, but the need for urea also creates employment opportunities. IFDC engineers developed a simple machine to mold urea into briquettes, and helped establish village-level businesses to manufacture and distribute the machines. Nearly 2,500 urea briquette machines are now in use across Bangladesh.

All farmers seek gains in efficiency and productivity, but nowhere is the need greater than in Africa. Because farmers worldwide face many of the same problems, a group of African farmers, scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs and extension workers visited Bangladesh to see UDP use first-hand. As a result, the UDP technology is being introduced in Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo.

Visiting UDP rice fields in Niger, Chaibou Abdou, Secretary General to Niger’s Minister of Agriculture, said “Spiraling food prices spurred the government decision to boost rice production and reduce costly imports. Niger has 30,000 hectares of land with rice production potential. With UDP this land could supply 30 percent of our needs.”

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Prasert Gosalvitra, Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives’ Rice Department said:

We are developing a number of modern rice strains that will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are generated during rice production.

Traditional rice production practices generate large quantities of methane; a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide.  The Thai ministry is developing strains of rice with smaller food conducting tissues which will assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions during the photosynthesis process. Additionally, the ministry is researching strains to reduce carbon dioxide during the harvesting process.

Gosalvitra commented that in the future he hopes that this innovation in ‘green-rice’ will help Thai farmers gain access to markets with climate-conscious consumers, notably in the EU.

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In India, farmers in rural areas have little access to knowledge about farming practices, rural and agricultural services, crop and land management. IFFCO realized that it could build on its extended distribution network to provide access to expert information through mobile telephony services and thus promote access to ICT in rural India. IFFCO works with more than 40,000 cooperatives across the country, distributing fertilizers and other agro-inputs.

IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Ltd (IKSL) manages the distribution of mobile phones, SIM cards, and information services to small farmers. The main innovation is the use of a sim card, called the green card, with a voice message platform to record content and send information to farmers through voicemail. When signing up to the IKSL service, farmers get access to: five daily messages  in their local language with crop and area specific information, a help line and interactive information services, all free of cost. The messages cover information in relation to agricultural market prices and arrivals, availability of fertilizers, electricity timings, early warning systems on disasters, weather forecast, best farming practices, local crops, education and upcoming training opportunities, plant and veterinary disease prevention, financing and insurance services and government schemes. The information is provided by a large network of partners including: IFFCO’s extension workers and agronomists, state and national research institutes, universities, and extension services.

After only one year, the service is already available across India (except for Jammu & Kashmir and North East). It has now over one and half million green card subscribers (adding more than 200,000 subscribers per month) who listen to five million daily messages and ask about  5000 queries a month.

The company has created direct employment for 1200 people at the national level (retailers, marketers, extension workers). An independent report asserted that farmers have been avoiding losses by reacting quickly to weather and disease information, yields have been increased by the adoption of new seed varieties and cultivation practices. Access to knowledge has provided farmers with a sense of empowerment through the improvement of their practices. For example, in Maharashtra, farmers rely on the IFKSL weather information to adjust their irrigation levels. This new service has also proven to be a great business model as a new revenue channel for the cooperatives that retail the handsets cards and airtime. It has also contributed to bring the digital world within reach for farmers and rural people.

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BBC journalists in 8 world cities — Brussels, Washington DC, Skopje, Moscow, Buenos Aries, Jakarta, Delhi, and Nairobi — have identified 5 staple foods for the area where they are based. On a weekly basis, they then go out and purchase these same five items to determine the changing cost of food over time.

Interestingly, as this graph from the BBC site indicates, the four poorer cities — in Africa, Asia, and South America — have all been facing higher price increases since last autumn than the others, with Washington DC and Brussels seeing the biggest drop in prices over the same time period.

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Only 18 of the 182 experts thought that the climate would rise by less than 2C this century while the remaining 164 respondents forecasted higher changes and more serious repercussions.

Almost half (84 of 182) predicted a 3C-4C change this century, where:

global food production [would be] threatened as breadbaskets in Europe, Asia, and the US suffer drought, and heatwaves outstrip the tolerance of crops.

The poll suggests that continued attention needs to be paid on how to safeguard the world’s natural resources and how to create more innovative solutions for our food supply.

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It takes about 5,000 litres to produce 1 kg of rice. Practices such as seeding pre-germinated rice have saved about 15-20% water compared with the traditional transplanting method.

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The cowpea is an important source of protein for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and South America.  Because its grain consists of about 25% protein, it is beneficial to those not able to afford other forms of animal protein.  It is often grown as both a food and cash crop.

The IITA partnered with the Borno State Agricultural Development Project, Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, Kaduno State Agricultural Development Project, the University of Maiduguri, and the Institute of Agricultural Research – Zaria.

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