3.1 Natural Resources Group
3.2 Economics
3.3 Applied Biotechnology Centre
3.4 Genetic Resources
3.5 Programme Linkages
3.6 Regional Programmes and Networks
3.1.1 Background
3.1.2 Achievements, Impact, and Quality of Science
3.1.3 Future Challenges and Opportunities
3.1.4. Conclusions
The 1993 Interim External Programme Review recommended formation of a natural resources research unit at CIMMYT. This proposal was justified by concerns about: (i) the strong association between rural poverty and impoverished soils; (ii) evidence of soil degradation in several major maize- and wheat-based production systems; and (iii) the dependence of future increases in productivity on the preservation and improvement of soil quality. Since the 1993 review, there has been increased documentation of soil degradation linked to management practices employed in maize and wheat systems. CIMMYT's regional projects have contributed to increased awareness of these problems, particularly in the rice-wheat systems of Asia and in maize-based systems of sub-Saharan Africa, and Central South America.
In 1994, CIMMYT established a Natural Resource Group (NRG), which was elevated to "research programme" status in 1996. The goals and objectives of the NRG were incorporated into the 1998-2000+ MTP. The EPMR Panel commends CIMMYT's establishment of a natural resources research group, and concurs with its mandate to address the challenge of sustaining productivity gains while preserving or improving natural resources and environmental quality in maize- and wheat-based cropping systems.
Senior scientific staff assigned to the NRG include three IRS positions at Headquarters (an economist, a crop physiologist, and a soil scientist), a fourth IRS with a 100% time commitment to the NRG (agronomy soils) in Nepal, and a fifth IRS in Honduras (agronomy-soils) with a 20% time commitment to the NRG. Another five IRS have "associate" status in the NRG although their "home base" is in another programme and they report to their home base programme director. These associate IRS work more than half time on natural resource issues, but only two have active collaborations with NRG staff within CIMMYT projects. The active NRG associates include an agronomist in the Maize Programme who is posted in Southern Africa, and another agronomist in the Wheat Programme posted in Bolivia. A third IRS in the Economics Programme is a recent hire and is expected to be an active NRG associate. Two other associate IRS, a soil scientist-agronomist in Bangladesh and an economist in Costa Rica, have yet to establish active collaborations with NRG Programme activities.
Because of the relatively small number of IRS formally assigned to the NRG, the programme relies heavily on visiting scientists, collaboration with ARIs, and consultants to help implement its research. At present, the NRG has two visiting scientists who are seconded to CIMMYT from ARIs in Europe and has formed strategic alliances with ARIs in Europe, Australia, and the USA to develop collaborative projects and backstop several strategic research initiatives. In addition, the NRG currently employs several consultants who work at CIMMYT Headquarters on short-term projects.
Outputs from CIMMYT's programmes have had a positive impact on conservation of natural resources despite the lack of a formal natural resource research programme before September 1996. Much of this impact is the result of indirect effects of germplasm improvement. Increased genetic resistance of wheat and maize germplasm to diseases has contributed to reduced need for agrochemicals that are potentially damaging to the environment. Greater yield and yield stability of wheat and maize germplasm in combination with appropriate production practices have spared millions of hectares of non-agricultural land from cultivation, land that is either marginal or presently in forests, grasslands, and wetlands. Although these contributions result from indirect effects, they are no less important and are recognized by the Panel. The scientific quality of CIMMYT's plant genetics, breeding, agronomy, physiology, and plant pathology research responsible for these land-sparing technologies are discussed in the Wheat and Maize Programme sections of this report.
CIMMYT's applied research on natural resource management includes a portfolio of ventures on conservation tillage, soil fertility, green manure cover crops and improved fallow systems, and crop rotation. About two-thirds of this total effort, including both CIMMYT's own research and its collaboration with NARS in regional projects, has focused on the development of conservation tillage, residue management, and related husbandry practices that reduce soil degradation and increase productivity. Resource-conserving minimum tillage, residue management, and sowing methods have been identified for hillside maize in Central America, Bolivia, highland maize in East Africa, irrigated wheat in Mexico, and for rice-wheat systems of South Asia. In several regional projects, the suitability of these conservation practices is currently being tested in on-farm research and research networks in collaboration with NARS. In fact, conservation tillage, residue management, and related agronomic practices provide a unifying theme for much of CIMMYT's natural resource and sustainability research on wheat- and maize-based cropping systems. Moreover, conservation tillage systems can provide an entry point for addressing a range of other related natural resource constraints such as soil fertility and quality, water and nutrient use efficiency, and greater cropping system diversity.
CIMMYT's agronomic research on conservation tillage systems has largely addressed issues concerning the short-term influence of component technologies on yield and input use efficiency. This work has documented consistent benefits of these management practices in maize and wheat cropping systems in a wide range of agroecological zones and ecoregions. The causes and effects that link system performance to soil properties and crop response have received less attention, as have the longer-term issues of soil quality and yield stability. At several of the regional projects and in the Rice-Wheat Systemwide Programme, however, longer-term research experiments and farm monitoring studies have been established and initial results are expected in the next few years. The addition to the NRG of newly hired IRS with crop physiology and soil science expertise has strengthened capabilities in these strategic research areas. The Panel commends CIMMYT for making this critical investment.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, CIMMYT economists and agronomists were leaders in developing a conceptual framework for conducting farming systems research and in the development of NARS capacity to conduct this type of research. Outputs have been of high quality: natural resource constraints to sustained productivity in maize and wheat systems were identified using diagnostic survey methods, and the conditions that favour farmer adoption or rejection of technologies that preserve or enhance natural resources were documented. In recent years, CIMMYT has greatly reduced its efforts in farming systems research although the NRG plans to continue work on farmer participatory research approaches.
The establishment of the NRG, recent changes in IRS staffing, and CIMMYT's new project structure demonstrate an increased commitment to interdisciplinary research on natural resource protection and the long-term sustainability of maize- and wheat-based cropping systems. Two of the three HQ-based IRS in the NRG were hired within the past two years and one Associate Scientist within the past six months. They bring needed expertise in crop physiology, soil science, simulation modeling, GIS, and human ecology. In addition, there is a good mix of expertise in agronomy, soil science, and economics among the NRG IRS staff stationed in regional projects and the NRG Programme Associates, although only three of the five associate IRS are presently active in research collaboration with the NRG.
Despite this increase in resources allocated to the NRG, it should be noted that the NRG is the smallest of the five CIMMYT research programmes, with 5-6% of the projected operating research budget in the 1998-2000+ MTP. Additional operating funds are allocated to NRG Associate IRS for research on natural resource issues, and these funds are included in the budgets of other programmes. Given the relatively small size, success of NRG programmes will depend on tightly focused objectives and outputs, strategic research capabilities in the regional projects, and strong linkages with, and increased commitment of, scientific resources from the Wheat, Maize, and Economics Programmes.
Focus and Outputs of the NRG
Although NRG staff contribute to a wide range of MTP Projects, the Frontier Project 7, Learning to More Effectively Confront Problems of Resource Degradation in Maize and Wheat Systems, is the only project under direct supervision of the NRG. This project embodies many of the goals and objectives of the NRG Programme. Research outputs from this project described in the 1998-2000+ MTP are:
· a framework for research on natural resource management, acceptable to a wide range of stakeholders, and featuring improved research methods;· dissemination of productivity-enhancing, resource-conserving sustainable maize and wheat systems; and
· documentation of regional consequences of resource degradation and the effect of technical change on resource quality and system productivity.
These are broad over-arching goals and there is a need to rapidly develop a more specific research agenda. The draft project document provided to the EPMR Panel indicates little additional focus. A more detailed work plan and timeframe for accomplishing meaningful research outputs is urgently needed.
The following considerations could help determine what this focus should be within the unifying theme provided by conservation tillage, residue management, and related agronomic practices, which presently represent a major emphasis of CIMMYT's work on natural resource conservation and productivity enhancement.
· Conservation tillage systems (i.e. various combinations of no-till, minimum till, ridge-till, fixed beds, residue cover, and stubble mulch) can increase soil water retention, reduce erosion, maintain soil organic matter, increase yields and yield stability. These benefits appear to have broad applicability as indicated by results from applied research conducted by CIMMYT and NARS collaborators in Mexico and at regional project sites - in both maize and wheat systems, under irrigated and rainfed conditions, and in a large number of agroecological zones and ecoregions. Such wide applicability is consistent with experiences in the USA and Brazil, where conservation tillage practices have been widely adopted, and where direct benefits to both productivity and natural resource conservation have been thoroughly documented.· Most maize and wheat production in developing countries occurs in systems without conservation tillage practices, which indicates a tremendous potential impact area.
· The combination of simulation modeling of crop growth and soil processes coupled with GIS databases represents a strategic research thrust that can improve the efficiency and extrapolation of applied field research currently in progress. Adoption of conservation tillage and improved residue management will alter nutrient cycling rates and processes, water relations, weed species, and disease and insect pressure. The magnitude of these changes and their interactions in tropical and subtropical environments, however, will be fundamentally different from those found in temperate regions. Strategic research is required to better understand these processes. This knowledge will facilitate applied and adaptive research by identifying key parameters to measure and appropriate environments for conducting on-farm research, and opportunities for modifying other management practices to fully exploit the benefits of conservation tillage systems.
· As CIMMYT moves to project-based management, a focus on conservation tillage provides an opportunity for the NRG to play a catalytic role in strengthening linkages among the Maize, Wheat, and Economics Programmes. There will be a need for maize and wheat germplasm adapted to the changes in soil and pest pressures that result from adoption of conservation tillage systems, improved nutrient and water management practices, and impact assessment of conservation tillage technologies. The conservation tillage focus of the NRG and its strength in strategic research on this topic also provides opportunities for collaboration with NARS and other CGIAR Centres (e.g. CIAT, ICRISAT, ICARDA) that conduct conservation tillage research on other cropping systems.
Based on the above considerations the EPMR Panel recommends that:
conservation tillage and related soil and crop management practices should be the primary research focus of the NRG, with the goal of quantifying the effects of conservation tillage on water and nutrient use efficiency, soil quality, and productivity of maize- and wheat-based systems.
Balance of Short- and Medium-Term Research
The Panel encourages the NRG to carefully consider the balance between short- (one to two years) and medium-term (three to five years) objectives in formulating their research agenda. It should be possible to identify several useful outputs that can be accomplished in the short term. One example is the use of results from field research at regional project sites, simulation modeling, and GIS databases to produce surface maps of maize and wheat production areas that indicate regions where conservation tillage would have the greatest benefits. This information would help regional projects and networks direct on-farm research to areas of greatest potential impact. Another short-term output would be surface maps showing areas where certain diseases would be expected to become more severe because of changes in tillage and residue management. This work would utilize knowledge of pathogen epidemiology and climate to identify potential hotspots where disease-resistant germplasm might be needed.
The NRG has made a project commitment to refine maize and wheat mega-environments using a GIS approach. The objective is to utilize soil and climate databases for more accurately delineating MEs in relation to crop-specific performance indices. This short-term project will provide a framework to identify sub-zones within MEs that are more discriminate with regard to climate, soil properties, and stresses that influence GxExM interactions. These refinements will aid breeding efforts and help predict where new technologies developed by CIMMYT programmes, including the NRG, would be most beneficial. The EPMR Panel views this effort as a building block to a more focused programme on natural resource issues related to conservation tillage.
Longer-term objectives should centre on gaining new understanding of the processes that control the effects of conservation tillage practices on crop response, nutrient and water use efficiency, yield, and yield stability. The goal of this research is to develop the capability to better predict the longer-term impact of these management practices on soil quality and cropping system performance in diverse environments. This effort will require data from field research conducted at CIMMYT research stations in Mexico and at regional project sites. The need for direct collaboration with agronomists, soil scientists, and breeders who work at these locations will help strengthen the overall research capacity at these outreach sites and provide a broader synthesis and extrapolation of the research findings.
On-farm participatory research will be needed to identify the conditions that favour adoption of conservation tillage and related practices, and to tap farmer knowledge about modifications and innovations concerning these practices. Conservation tillage practices interact with livestock enterprises, mechanization, nutrient management, and cropping patterns. Hence the development of appropriate technologies and adoption by farmers depends on site-specific knowledge of these interactions. The NRG presently has expertise in farmer participatory research and plans collaborative efforts with regional projects and NARS. The Panel believes that the goal of this effort should be to develop NARS capacity to conduct on-farm participatory research while avoiding a large investment in the development of methodologies. The new training course under development (see below) appears to be an appropriate strategy for developing this NARS capacity.
Service and Training
The relatively small size of the NRG will require strategic decisions about the balance among research, service, and training activities. Already, the NRG has provided surface climate maps and GIS software to a CIMMYT scientist in Southern Africa to facilitate her research on selection methods for drought and low-N tolerance in tropical maize germplasm. Although selection criteria were identified in research conducted in Mexico, the Mexican germplasm is not suitable for Southern Africa, where drought and poor soil fertility are major constraints to maize productivity. This service permitted a more rapid initiation of this research project by helping to identify appropriate experimental sites for selection nurseries.
While such services are extremely useful, the Panel anticipates that the potential demand for such services by other programmes and regional projects could easily exceed staff resources in the NRG. Providing GIS training of CIMMYT staff from other programmes is one option. Contracting out such GIS training of CIMMYT personnel to other CGIAR Centres, ARIs, or consultants should be considered to minimize the time commitment of NRG staff. Obtaining good quality data on climate and soils is also required. The NRG will need strong support from CIMMYT's regional project, research field stations, and the Soil and Plant Analysis Laboratory to insure the acquisition and quality of these data.
Presently, the NRG plans to play a leadership role in developing a course entitled The Principles and Practices of Sustainable Maize and Wheat Cropping Systems, which is the central activity of Global Project 8. This course will emphasize farmer participatory research methods. An initial project proposal has been developed and a donor has been identified. The course will require a substantial effort, although the proposal appears to have sufficient resources to hire adequate training and support positions. This training activity is a worthwhile effort, but care must be taken to ensure that it does not distract from accomplishing the NRG research objectives.
Critical Mass and Collaboration with Other Programmes
Ensuring a critical mass for the new NRG Programme and coordinated research efforts on natural resource management constraints are key issues for the success of CIMMYT's investment in protecting the environment while sustaining productivity gains of maize- and wheat systems. The NRG Programme represents only 5-6% of CIMMYT's operating research budget and has only 4.2 full time equivalent IRS. These resources are not sufficient to establish an effective NRG Programme. Although five IRS have NRG Associate status, only two are actively involved in collaboration with the NRG, and a third Associate IRS, hired within the past six months, is expected to develop an active collaboration with the NRG. Clearly there is an opportunity to develop more active collaboration between the NRG and the other two Associate IRS, and the Panel strongly encourages this action. In fact, we expect that the Associate category will disappear as CIMMYT continues to move towards full implementation of its project management approach.
There is also a need to allocate more time to coordinated efforts on natural resource management research that includes both applied and strategic components. Under the present projects in the MTP 1998-2000+, and excluding contributions from projects with purely a genetics or economics approach, 44% of CIMMYT's research on protecting the environment occurs in the Global Projects (GP) on increasing the productivity and sustainability of maize and wheat systems in stressed environments (GP 4 and 5), 51% in the regional projects in SSA, Latin America, Asia, and WANA (RP 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), and 4% on frontier project F7, which is the single project under the NRG.
The Panel recommends that:
CIMMYT establish a critical mass of scientific expertise in Frontier Project 7 to improve research efficiency and the complementation of strategic and applied research on conservation tillage systems.
One option to accomplish this recommendation would be to transfer IRS time and supporting research budgets into Frontier Project 7 from global and regional projects that presently have conservation tillage research efforts. While this action may not require a change in short-term plans of the affected IRS, it would improve the synergism between strategic and applied research on this topic and increase overall research efficiency.
The EPMR strongly supports the establishment of the NRG and sees tremendous opportunities for the NRG to serve a catalytic role in strengthening internal linkages among CIMMYT's research programmes and regional projects, and external linkages among NARS and other international agricultural research centres (IARCs). Given the small size of the NRG, however, success will depend on a tightly focused research agenda, strategic alliances with ARIs, and a proper balance between research, service, and training commitments. The Panel recommends that the NRG have a primary focus on conservation tillage and associated soil and crop management practices that enhance productivity and protect natural resources in maize- and wheat-based cropping systems. The Panel further recommends reallocation of some IRS time and associated budgets to a coordinated effort on strategic and applied research on conservation tillage systems within the FP 7 project to provide a critical mass to this effort.
3.2.1 Staffing and Budget
3.2.2 Review of Programme Activities
3.2.3 CCERs
3.2.4 Future Challenges
3.2.5 Assessment and Conclusion
CIMMYT's Economics Programme (EP) provides valuable services to its internal partners and undertakes disciplinary research that is highly regarded by external collaborators. This assessment is based on the excellent documentation provided by the programme, discussions with its staff as well as staff of other programmes, internal reviews undertaken by the EP, and the report of the Centre-Commissioned External Review (CCER) undertaken in June 1997.
Currently, the EP has nine internationally recruited staff (IRS) members, one Rockefeller fellow, three associated scientists, six national staff, and a number of research associates and assistants. All IRS members except one are economists, many with undergraduate or supplementary training in other social sciences; and about half began their post-doctoral careers in CIMMYT. They are a highly productive group, as evidenced by the number of high-quality publications. Most have also worked in CIMMYT's outreach programmes and/or with the regional programmes. The group, therefore, is attuned to field-level conditions in developing countries.
Of the 13 senior staff (IRS, Associate Scientists, and Post-Doctorals), eight are based at El Batan, and five at various field locations. This contrasts with the situation about 10 years ago, when 11 of the 15 senior staff were based in outreach programmes, and devoted much of their time to research on, and training for, national agricultural research systems. Irrespective of the location of the staff, the proper balance between support to regional activities and Headquarters-oriented work needs to be monitored constantly.
The staff of the EP, as of many other CIMMYT programmes, is concerned about being overloaded, partly due to what they perceive as an increase in administrative, coordinating, and reporting activities, many of which are unavoidable. What this strongly suggests is a need for better priority setting and time management, both by the staff and their managers. In this context, the Panel notes that a majority of the EP staff are engaged in more than three projects; and the Programme Director is involved in six projects. Some rationalization of workloads is clearly possible and desirable, especially in view of CIMMYT's emerging priorities.
The Panel also notes that some of the current pressure of work is to be expected in a group that has set high expectations of itself and wishes to maintain its excellent professional reputation, especially since the position of Programme Director was not filled for nearly two years following the funding crisis in 1994. The current Director was appointed in 1996, has made a good start in leading the programme, using a collegial approach in planning and execution of programme activities.
In terms of its financial resources, the 1997 budget of the EP is US$ 2.2 million, up from US$ 1.13 million in 1993. During 1998, this budget is likely to increase to US$ 3.0 million. Two noteworthy features in this regard are a more or less constant share of the Centre's unrestricted funding (ranging from 3-5%) and a corresponding increase in self-generated resources, mainly through special project funding. The share of the latter sources of funding has gone up from 20% of the EP's budget in the early 1990s to about 60% in 1997, and is expected to increase further to 72% in 1998.
In general, CIMMYT's Economics Programme seeks to improve the economic benefits resulting from the scientific work of the Centre, and also addresses external constraints to the adoption of improved technologies and efficient utilization of agricultural resources in different crops and regions. The first group of considerations has led to substantial work on priority setting, while the second has led to impact assessment activities. Two other considerations have been taken into account while designing the work programme, i.e., ex ante evaluation of technologies with high potential, and second, the role of the private sector in the extension and use of new technologies.
In the early 1990s, these considerations resulted in a research portfolio that - besides continuing the long-standing work on demand and supply projections for wheat and maize - comprised mainly impact assessment; resource allocation and priority setting; ex ante technology assessment; and policy studies, especially in regard to the seed industry. Following funding cutbacks, the on-farm research (OFR) work was considerably reduced, as the methodologies were standardized and several NARS were considered competent to work on these aspects. (Some OFR work was continued by economists at outreach locations in Africa and Central America.) The research on natural resources was hived off as a separate unit, as the concern for sustainability became widespread after increasing evidence of resource degradation (see the section on NRG). The EP continues to be involved in research on social and economic aspects of NRG work.
Service to CIMMYT Management. The EP strives to serve several internal and external partners - mainly CIMMYT management, the commodity programmes, and NARS. From all indications, the EP has served CIMMYT's management well: it assists the Director General in reporting on the Centre's achievements and impact, and in taking a lead role in such CGIAR-wide discussions as IPR.
Through impact assessment studies, the EP has helped highlight the impressive global spread of CIMMYT's wheat and maize varieties. The programme is currently contributing to new Systemwide initiatives, including the one on participatory research and gender analysis. In all these areas, the Programme's contributions are well appreciated, and rightly so. The EP also has overall responsibility for producing CIMMYT's Wheat and Maize Facts and Trends series, which is an extremely useful contribution. There is, however, a need to incorporate more analytical content in this publication.
Support to Commodity Programmes. The Economics Programme has had a long history of supporting the commodity programmes in the areas of technology design and impact assessment. It needs to take a more proactive role in priority setting in the commodity programmes, which are looking for more detailed guidelines, as well as a clearer basis for assigning relative weights to different research objectives, such as breeding maize for food or feed. The issue of popularizing hybrid versus open-pollinated maize, say, in Africa, also needs specific answers. The Panel considers that the findings of the impact studies should also feed back into the appropriate programmes, and result in suitable changes, in the design of commodity research projects. For example, the Panel is convinced that the EP's findings on the socioeconomic reasons for the non-adoption of improved varieties of maize in over 40% of the target area should directly contribute to the collaborative work between the two programmes on this important issue. (See also Section 2.2.4.)
Another example of the desirability of greater inter-programme collaboration is the frontier project FP6, Priority Setting and Technological Forecasting for Increased Research Efficiency, which is proposed to be carried out almost exclusively by economists from the EP. It is clear to the Panel that greater concerted efforts by staff of the EP as well as other programmes are needed to further integrate the commodity programmes into this type of research project.
In this context, the Panel is aware that there are other important initiatives in which the EP is collaborating with CIMMYT's commodity programmes in a meaningful way. The project on Economics of Genetic Diversity is one such example. This study examines the relationship between biodiversity and productivity; and the relevant scientific staff of CIMMYT are involved in the design and implementation of the study. Other similar examples, such as the economics of biotechnology, can also be cited; so it seems to the Panel that it is mainly in the priority-setting area that increased collaboration between staff of the EP and other programmes would be mutually beneficial. In this respect, collaboration with IPGRI and IFPRI would also be helpful.
Strengthening NARS Capacity. EP staff in the outreach programmes perform a variety of very valuable functions. For instance, they organize training programmes, mainly in the form of short-term workshops. The themes selected for such workshops in recent years include natural resource policy, economic analysis, and seed production and supply policy. Currently, training programmes on these topics are organized in Africa and Central America, and the staff are involved in collaborative training programmes with the commodity programmes and NARS. It is expected that staff of the EP will also make significant contributions to the proposed training course on sustainable systems. However, no such training programme is presently conducted in Asia.
The EP's current research support to NARS is planned under a global project, Building Partnership through Human Resource Development, and two regional projects, Improving Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa and Enhancing Maize and Wheat Production Systems. These projects are at present at a preparatory stage. However, from the documentation and presentations given to the Panel, it appears that three ongoing projects, two in Eastern Africa and one in Latin America, provide good backstopping to national research systems as well as to the regional programmes of CIMMYT. They also provide good examples of inter-centre collaboration. However, the EP's contribution to these projects gives an impression of multiple and fragmented activities. A clearer strategy for enhancing human resource capacity in NARS through the EP's efforts in research, networking and training, is suggested.
The Panel is also concerned that there is hardly any EP project located in Asia, the largest wheat- and maize-producing region of the world. There is a proposal to have "affiliate economists" in the region; but it is not clear what these affiliates are expected to do, in which activities they would be involved, and what their responsibility and accountability would be. In any case "affiliate economists" are no substitute for CIMMYT's core staff, more so when there are few ongoing EP activities in research, training, and networking in the region. This gap in the EP's work programme in Asia needs to be closed urgently.
Over the last few years, CIMMYT has commissioned two external reviews (in 1994 and 1997) to assess the Economics Programme. Each review was led by Jock Anderson, who was assisted by two other eminent economists, of whom one was a member (or Chair) of the Board serving as a resource person. The Panel has commented on the participation of Board members in CCERs in Section 6.6.
The reviews made favourable comments on the EP and also provided some useful ideas for its future direction. The review team was explicitly asked to comment on the quality of work, as well as on quality control mechanisms, support furnished to the main users within and outside the Centre, and the relationship between the present activities and the objectives defined for the programme. The reviews made constructive suggestions and influenced the functioning of the programme. The 1994 review, for example, encouraged the Centre to advance its work on private sector activities in maize research, commended CIMMYT's research on priority setting, and advised a greater focus on impact assessment research. The 1997 review advised the EP to give more attention to the macro policy issues in key wheat and maize countries. It also suggested that consumption and poverty-related issues deserved greater attention. The reviews were of assistance in providing guidance to the programme for its agenda setting. The EPMR Panel benefited from the CCER reports in the process of formulation of its own views on the programme.
The main themes of the EP identified in the MTP are, in the Panel's view, relevant and appropriate. However, because of significant changes taking place in CIMMYT's external and internal environment, a gradual shift in emphasis and orientation of the EP's work would be called for in the coming years, as programme staff have already recognized. Some key features of such external and internal changes and their implications for each of the EP's main research areas are highlighted below.
Impact Assessment. In the years following the food crisis of the mid 1960s, the major goal of agricultural research in and for developing countries was to increase food production, mainly by land-saving, productivity-enhancing technologies. CIMMYT played an important part in enabling a number of developing countries to achieve this goal. The need for increasing food production is, and will continue to be, an important objective. However, there are other objectives which now need to be included as components of agricultural development. Chief among these are poverty alleviation, gender equity, and environmental sustainability. This multiplicity of goals makes impact assessment difficult, more so when some of these goals conflict with each other, at least in the short term. The EP, which has a major role in the impact assessment activities of the Centre, now needs to systematically explore and develop new methodologies and approaches that take account of multiple objectives.
Priority Setting. National economies, developed as well as developing, are getting more and more integrated. Institutional mechanisms such as WTO at the global level, and the regional economic groupings at the regional level, are leading towards the opening up of national economies and their agricultural sectors to international competition. Such moves have two important implications for the global agricultural agenda. First, these developments more sharply highlight the question of comparative advantages (or disadvantages) that a country faces in the production of certain commodities. Research priorities have to take into account, in a dynamic and fast-changing setting, the comparative advantage of growing a particular crop in a given region. Second, the opening up of the economies may lead to the "import" of price instability into a country. At the same time it also provides, via the trade routes, an opportunity to stabilize supplies and prices. Thus, a whole range of new policy issues connected with "stability" acquire importance in research of the EP.
Links with the Private Sector. Together with the move towards global economic integration, there is also a pressure to liberalize economies, including their agricultural sector, by removing state interference in the production, pricing, and trade of commodities. A rapid shift to a market orientation is clearly discernible. Often, this is interpreted as withdrawal of the state from activities that can best be managed by the private sector. Agriculture is no exception to this general tendency. While research is still considered a "public good", justifying a major role for the state or state-supported institutions, a whole range of activities, from extension to input supplies and especially marketing, are now considered as the legitimate areas for private sector operations. The EP's study on maize seeds has explored this area; but privatization does not necessarily mean opening the market to large seed companies. The potentialities of the smaller, national companies and the constraints that they are facing, should, in the Panel's view, be a legitimate topic for research. Such research would also need to link up with macro-policy aspects, such as prices and trade policies.
Ex Ante Technology Assessment. In recent years, new frontiers have opened up in two broad areas of science, which are of immediate relevance to the Economics Programme. First, the growing importance of biotechnology, and second, significant developments in the area of information technology. The implication of new thrusts in technologies for the Maize and Wheat Programmes are discussed elsewhere in this report. These developments also have important implications for the Economics Programme. Questions such as the ex ante evaluation of new technologies, priority setting in an unfamiliar environment, forecasting the adoption of largely untested technologies, etc., have thrown up difficult challenges to social scientists. A much closer interaction between the social scientists and biological scientists, as well as with the user systems, has become imperative. The rapid advances in information technology, on the other hand, provide a facilitating environment for dealing with the conventional issues as well as new developments in the social sciences. Such developments require not only the acquisition of new skills, but also a change in the mind-set to comprehend and adapt to the emerging scenarios.
Projection of Demand and Supply for CIMMYT Commodities. With the increase in incomes and the decline in the population growth rate the world over, the rate of growth of demand for cereals, including wheat and maize, is decelerating. Still, there is hunger and poverty in large parts of the world; and the switch-over from coarse cereals (excluding maize), roots, and tubers to superior cereals, i.e., wheat and maize, is taking place in the initial stages of economic growth. Yet the demand for maize and wheat as food is not increasing as rapidly as in the past, while the demand for animal feed and for industrial uses of these cereals is progressively increasing. Even in their food intake, consumers are exercising more product differentiation. These developments have immediate implications for the projection of demand and supply. To be of practical use, CIMMYT's projections now have to be made in terms of specific products of research, rather than for wheat and maize as such.
Internal Developments. Besides these external factors, more recent developments in CIMMYT are also relevant for the design and implementation of the Economics Programme's activities. Of these, the most important internal development is the recent move towards a multidisciplinary project mode. The EP needs to continue to play an essential supportive role within the Centre; and the Panel believes it is essential that existing mechanisms, such as the Research Coordinating Committee (RCC), be fully utilized to assist the EP in defining this role, its commitments in terms of resources, and its accountability to other CIMMYT programmes, in a clearer manner. In other words, the Panel believes that the apparent lack of focus in some activities of the EP, as noted above, is mainly due to this lack of clarity on the expected contributions from it to the other programmes of the Centre. Once this role has been further clarified, it would be useful for the EP to revisit its own priorities for the medium and long term.
The Panel's overall assessment of CIMMYT's Economics Programme is that it is a dynamic group that has made useful contributions to the Centre. Over the years, its reputation has been built on such factors as an able and respected leadership, competent staff, high research productivity, assistance to NARS, and continued professional staff growth. The EP is also involved in scanning and responding to the external environment as it relates to the principal concerns of the Centre.
Judged by any objective criteria, the EP has played an effective role in supporting the work of the Centre. It has assisted the commodity programmes in aspects of priority setting, technology assessment, demand forecasting, impact assessment, and the routine tasks of data collection and analysis. It has also collaborated with the regional programmes by supporting research, training, and networking activities; and it has taken a pioneering role in exploring new areas of concern to the Centre and the CGIAR in general, e.g., work on impact assessment, ex ante technological assessment, gender issues, participatory research and IPR.
There are, however, a few areas where some further thinking is indicated. The external trends towards globalization and privatization, among others, and the shift to a multidisciplinary project mode within CIMMYT, have considerably changed the external and internal environment in which the Economics Programme has to operate. The Panel is of the view that in the future the EP would need to pay more attention to building stronger partnerships with staff of other programmes of the Centre, and to undertake a somewhat more focused work programme at Headquarters and in its outreach locations, as noted above.
The Panel, therefore, recommends that the EP:
1. Determine, in discussions with RCC, the balance of its research activities in institution-wide activities, support to other programmes, support to NARS, and its own frontier research.2. Strengthen its presence in the Asian region through a greater use of affiliate economists working in close collaboration with NARS and ARIs.
3. In view of the increasing importance of macroeconomic policies as they affect maize and wheat, gradually place more emphasis on this aspect of research focusing on a few selected countries.
Some further specific suggestions for further enhancing the quality of this otherwise excellent Programme are as follows:
1. The Panel suggests that in line with the increasing complexity and diversity of its work programme, the EP should now gradually and cautiously move towards establishing itself as a Social Science Programme, rather than as an Economics Programme.2. It would be useful for the EP to conduct a priority-setting exercise for its own work, with the help of CIMMYT's management and other programmes.
3.3.1 Introduction
3.3.2 External Evaluations and Reviews
3.3.3 Achievements
3.3.4 Assessment and Emerging Challenges
The Applied Biotechnology Laboratory was founded in 1990. It was elevated to full research programme status in late 1995 following a recommendation of the 1993 Interim External Review. It was renamed the Applied Biotechnology Centre (ABC) in late 1996 to better reflect, in the words of CIMMYT, its special importance within CIMMYT and its function as a global focal point for developing country maize and wheat biotechnology research. CIMMYT's biotechnology research effort across all programmes in 1997 was the third largest in the CGIAR, after ILRI and IRRI. It has the largest scale of activities in the areas of genetic transformation and marker assisted selection. The ABC currently has only six core-funded international staff, all located in Mexico. However, the ABC, which is growing very rapidly due to its capacity to attract special project funding, has a total staff complement of about 60, of which about half are scientists (including adjuncts, post-doctoral scientists, professional fellows, and graduate students).
About 60% (currently 15 scientists) of the ABC's staff and budget is devoted to studies of molecular maps in maize and wheat and the use of molecular markers in maize and wheat improvement and genetic resources description and use.
A further approximately 18% (currently five scientists) is concerned with genetic engineering (gene transfer and expression) in these crops. The third group or approximately 22% (currently six scientists) is involved in apomixis research in maize. Apomixis, or asexual reproduction through seed, results in progeny genetically identical to the parent plant even in outcrossing species. Apomitic versions of hybrid varieties of maize and wheat would allow farmers to replant seed from their own harvests, rather than purchasing new seed each year. This technology would, often for the first time, make hybrid technology available to poor farmers who cannot afford to buy new seed each year.
Because of the short existence of the ABC, there have been no Centre-Commissioned External Reviews of its operations or performance. However, many of the projects have been reviewed individually. Several of the reports from these reviews were available to the Panel. Further, the Panel was aided in its assessment of this Programme by an independent expert, Dr. Ralph Quatrano, Department of Biology, NCSU, Chapel Hill, N.C., who acted as an external consultant. Dr. Quatrano undertook a three-day review of the ABC scientific programme during Phase I of the review and provided detailed input to the Panel.
During its relatively short existence, given the difficulties in initiating from scratch a sophisticated programme of research in a developing country, the ABC has an impressive list of accomplishments. These include since 1993:
· Development of non-radioactive, safer, and more environmentally friendly molecular (DNA) marker technologies for use in maize and wheat genome analysis and manipulation. These technologies have been successfully used to map a number of important traits in maize (resistance to South-Western Corn Borer, Sugar Cane Stem Borer, Maize Streak Virus, Maize Mosaic Virus and anthesis silking interval - ASI - a major component of drought tolerance in maize) and wheat (components of durable leaf rust resistance).· Completion of the transfer of genes for resistance to South Western Corn Borer into a susceptible tropical maize using, for the first time, molecular markers and the development of large scale molecular marker strategies for marker assisted selection (MAS) for ASI.
· The transformation of both maize and wheat using the biolistic-based methodology. This was followed by the successful completion of the first field trial of transgenic maize in Mexico. CIMMYT used the transgenic maize it developed as a model in working with the Host Country authorities to develop appropriate regulations and guidelines for the safe conduct of field trials of transgenic plants. The ABC has also converted existing CIMMYT greenhouses to meet Mexican requirements as a biocontainment facility for work with transgenic wheat and maize.
· The development by CIMMYT-based scientists from the French National Research Institute for Development Cooperation (ORSTOM), working with the ABC and Mexican researchers, of BC4 maize and Tripsacum derivatives that are apomitic, and the mapping of the genomic region in Tripsacum involved in the expression of apomixis.
· The negotiated acquisition of transgenic Bt maize from a private sector company, the first such collaboration for CIMMYT.
· Hosting of a "gene-flow" workshop at CIMMYT-Mexico to address the issue of field trials of transgenic maize in Mexico, a centre of origin for maize, and two training courses in the application of molecular genetics in plant improvement.
Overall this is a well-managed programme implemented by an enthusiastic and dedicated staff and based on good-quality science. However, the Panel noted the following areas of concern arising from the rapid growth of the group over a short period of time and the increasing demand for access to new molecular genetic technologies inside and outside CIMMYT.
Interaction with Maize and Wheat Programmes
The ABC has a range of successful interactions with the Maize Programme and, as seen above, can claim a number of notable successes (see also Section 2.2). However, the Panel has concerns at the level of integration of biotechnology in CIMMYT's maize improvement activities. The majority of breeders in the Maize Programme have training only in conventional breeding. There is an urgent need to correct this deficiency and for the ABC and Maize Programme to expand their collaboration to facilitate the development of biotechnology assisted breeding. The Panel is pleased to note that the ABC has organized for December this year the first internal course (to last eight days) to be offered to 25 CIMMYT staff members to improve their knowledge and skills in biotechnology.
Integration of biotechnology into the Wheat Programme also needs, perhaps to an even greater degree, more focus and commitment, not only from the ABC, but also from the Wheat Programme (see Section 2.1). This is not to say there have not been significant successes in the interaction between the Wheat Programme and the ABC. The successful mapping of the genomic regions responsible for leaf rust resistance and the ongoing programmes seeking to map the aluminum tolerance genes from rye and applying marker assisted selection (MAS) for BYDV resistance are cases in point. However, the status, commitment and priority for a number of other wheat projects (e.g. resistance to Karnal bunt, drought tolerance, Russian wheat aphids and septoria resistance) appear to be poorly defined. In addition, some Wheat Programme staff appear to have developed relationships with ARIs in the area of molecular genetics outside the ABC/Wheat Programme interaction. While this is to be commended, it does raise issues of the roles and responsibilities with respect to wheat breeding and biotechnology in CIMMYT.
The Panel therefore recommends that the ABC:
in collaboration with the Wheat and Maize Programmes develop clear joint research plans with agreed priorities and focus for wheat and maize biotechnology and genetic engineering. Particular emphasis should be given to how these technologies will be incorporated into the CIMMYT wheat and maize breeding activities.
The Panel notes that CIMMYT is a core partner in the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Molecular Plant Breeding headquartered at The University of Adelaide in South Australia. The CRC will provide two postdoctoral persons to be based at CIMMYT to work on priority problems in wheat biotechnology. The Panel commends the ABC for this interaction, which will stimulate wheat biotechnology at CIMMYT. However, involvement of the ABC in the CRC should neither detract from, nor substitute for, the development of a close interaction between the Wheat Programme and the ABC at CIMMYT.
Apomixis Research
Work on the transfer, isolation, and cloning of the DNA segment controlling apomixis from Tripsacum to maize is already a major project in the ABC portfolio (approximately 22% of staff) and has the capacity to quickly grow further if current negotiations for additional funding with transnational hybrid maize companies are successful. This work is undertaken in close collaboration with ORSTOM of France, which has several scientists outposted to CIMMYT.
The apomixis project is an extremely important one, not only for CIMMYT but for world agriculture. Apomixis has the potential to provide a step-up in yield of 10-20% in all major food crops through its capacity to fix heterosis in self-reproducing lines. The Panel commends CIMMYT for this association with ORSTOM and its leadership role in maize apomixis. However, while success is still some way off, and by no means guaranteed, it is clear that this project is raising concerns in a number of areas. One of these is intellectual property rights (IPR), with both the Mexican Government and partner NARS in developing countries. Another is the potential impact of this technology on the hybrid maize seed industry regionally and globally. The Panel recognizes that CIMMYT is responding to these concerns by providing leadership in the CGIAR System with respect to developing policies on IPR issues and also by funding an economic assessment of the likely impact of apomixis on the hybrid seed industry. The Panel urges CIMMYT to move ahead on these issues as quickly as possible.
In view of the potential importance of apomixis to the effective exploitation of heterosis by resource-poor farmers, and the outstanding progress made to date in the apomixis project, the Panel encourages CIMMYT to continue to mobilize all available resources to support the apomixis project to reach two goals: (i) a diploid maize plant that is apomictic and (ii) the isolation and cloning of a fragment of DNA that is required for apomixis.
Relative Emphasis of Genetic Engineering Versus Molecular Genetics
One of the key problems facing the ABC is the relative emphasis to be given in its programme to genetic engineering (generation and testing of genetically transformed plants) and molecular genetics (gene mapping and marker assisted characterization and selection). Currently, about 75% of the staff and resources devoted to these two areas goes to molecular genetics and 25% goes to genetic engineering. While marker-based technologies are of greater interest to the plant breeding programmes in the short term, genetic engineering offers significant benefits in the longer term. Once stable and heritable expression of useful DNA segments from other organisms has been obtained in elite lines of wheat and maize, this material can be incorporated readily and directly in the routine breeding programmes. In other words, technology transfer within CIMMYT and to the NARS with transformants may pose fewer problems than molecular markers In the light of this and the fact that the ABC already has access to an exciting suite of gene constructs (e.g. Bt variants, ribosome inhibitor, glucanase and chitinase genes), the Panel suggests that genetic engineering should remain a priority area of research for the ABC, even though research on molecular markers may be of more immediate interest to many breeders. However, the Panel also wishes to stress that if CIMMYT is to be involved in genetic engineering research and the transfer of transformed plants to NARS, it must be done with a great deal of caution and education on the potential problems and difficulties the national programmes may face. This careful education process should be an integral part of the ABC's outreach activities.
Greenhouse and Field Facilities for Transgenics
The ABC has successfully converted existing greenhouse space to meet Mexican requirements for use as a biocontainment facility. However, as the number of projects involving genetically engineered wheat and maize plants grows, there will be a growing requirement for greenhouse and field space for transgenics. It is clear that the ABC team will soon be required to generate and test large numbers of transformed plants of wheat and maize. This will involve not only physical facilities but a large demand for specialized labour that will require careful coordination and planning. The Panel suggests that the ABC on the basis of a careful analysis of future requirements seek to ensure it has adequate greenhouse facilities to permit the smooth implementation of its funded programme.
Automation of Molecular Marker Analysis
The ABC team has adapted and refined non-radioactive techniques for all their marker detection research. For long-term use, safety, and ease of transfer to other groups in the developing world, this is a noteworthy and important accomplishment and perhaps a standard for other international centres to follow.
However, as the Maize and Wheat Programmes embrace these technologies for use in their breeding programmes, the demand in CIMMYT for rapid and efficient DNA extraction procedures, nucleic acid sequencing, probe development, and PCR analysis will grow rapidly. Parallel to this will be a growing requirement for data storage and manipulation. For example, CIMMYT generates over 5,000 spring wheat crosses each year and from these about 500 progeny/cross. If each F2 plant is analysed for 20 molecular markers, this will generate 50X106 data points/year. This is the sort of marker number and analysis capacity that will be required if marker assisted selection is to replace a substantial fraction of field screening for disease resistances and agronomic traits that are difficult to select.
Clearly the ABC must for the future consider the use of new techniques aimed at the automation of DNA analysis. As a first step towards this end, the ABC should be planning the integration of automatic DNA sequencing facilities and robotic pipetters in their programme in the short term. In the longer term, they need to maintain close contact with groups developing automated protocols for marker probing and scoring techniques. Since this is a rapidly developing field, the Panel suggests the ABC plan for 1998/99 a mini-symposium/workshop at CIMMYT, in which individuals from various companies and universities are invited to present a picture as to where this technology is, where it is going, and possible applications as they relate to CIMMYT.
3.4.1 Evolution
3.4.2 Achievements and Impacts
3.4.3 CCERs
3.4.4 Assessment and Future Challenges
Genetic resources are the cornerstones of both the Wheat and Maize Programmes at CIMMYT. Since their inception in 1966, both programmes have independently funded a range of genetic resource activities.
The original holdings of maize germplasm at CIMMYT were samples of landraces collected from all accessible regions of Mexico by the Office of Special Studies and from other countries in the Americas by a variety of agencies. These were maintained by the Maize Programme at Chapingo as a working collection in support of its breeding activities. With the completion of the new facilities at El Batan in 1971, including suitable facilities for medium-term seed storage, an active genebank was established at CIMMYT Headquarters. The main focus of the genebank's activities was the servicing of breeding programmes not only at CIMMYT but worldwide. While further systematic collection was undertaken, especially after the establishment of IBPGR in 1974, during this period genetic resources conservation was regarded as a secondary priority compared to breeding for increased production.
In the early 1980s, with the growing awareness of, and publicity given to, the issues of genetic conservation and genetic vulnerability, CIMMYT came in for substantial public criticism with respect to the management of the genetic resources under its care. In the mid 1980s, partly in response to this criticism, CIMMYT upgraded its storage facilities and accepted responsibility for the maintenance of a base collection of landraces of maize native to the Western Hemisphere and, later, for germplasm of some of the wild relatives of maize. More recently, maize genebank staff have led the initiative to establish a global network for the conservation and distribution of maize genetic resources.
The history of the wheat germplasm collection at CIMMYT closely parallels that of maize. The original collections were made and maintained as a working collection to support the wheat breeding programme. The need for establishing a global collection at CIMMYT was not felt until the mid 1980s because among cultivated plants, wheat was probably the most widely collected and conserved crop. However, as a result of concerns about the continuing availability of wheat genetic resources to NARS, and criticism of CIMMYT's lack of leadership in this area, CIMMYT's 1988 strategic plan recognized the need for establishing a global germplasm collection. Consequently, in 1989, CIMMYT and ICARDA entered into an agreement whereby CIMMYT assumed responsibility for the maintenance of base collections of hexaploid wheats and triticale and ICARDA assumed responsibility for base collections of tetraploid and diploid wheats and wheat wild relatives. Each centre agreed to provide back-up service to the other so that both collections were safeguarded in two locations. The wheat genebank also interacts with NARS by backing up national collections and responding to germplasm requests. In 1993, CIMMYT along with ICARDA and IPGRI established a Global Wheat Genetic Resources Network to facilitate and promote the greater utilization of wheat genetic resources through free exchange of information and germplasm.
In 1994, CIMMYT as an organization, along with the other CGIAR Centres, signed an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, bringing their collections under the auspices of FAO as part of the international network of ex situ collections. This agreement recognizes that CIMMYT holds and maintains its germplasm collections on behalf of the global community and is committed to the goal of fair and equitable access to germplasm. This agreement underpins CIMMYT's commitment to the Global Plan of Action for Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture sponsored by FAO and the Systemwide Genetic Resources Programme sponsored by the CGIAR.
From 1998, many of the genetic resource activities of the Wheat and Maize Programmes will be integrated under Global Project 1, Conservation and Management of Genetic Resources, to be coordinated by the Director General.
The Collections
Over their 30 year history, the CIMMYT Maize and Wheat Programmes have developed impressive collections of germplasm. In the case of wheat and triticale the number of accessions is about 120,000 and for maize, about 17,000 accessions.
The Genebank
The new Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Centre was inaugurated in September 1996. This Centre, funded in part by the Japanese Government, has a storage capacity of 450,000 seed samples. It also has specially designed seed treatment and packaging installations to support CIMMYT's activities in germplasm collection, conservation, and distribution. Active collections are maintained at -3°C, ensuring seed viability for about 25+ years. The active collections are used to supply seed for CIMMYT's work and to meet the hundreds of requests yearly from researchers worldwide. Base collections are kept at -18°C, ensuring seed viability for 50+ years. The base collections are primarily for long-term conservation.
Information Systems
CIMMYT has developed for both the wheat and maize collections comprehensive databases designed to allow potential users to pinpoint accessions of interest. The Wheat Programme developed the International Wheat Information System (IWIS), which lists passport information, pedigrees, and evaluation data on a wide range of wheat germplasm. A complementary database developed collaboratively by CIMMYT and Australian scientists, and which comes on a diskette for personal computers, the Genetic Resources Information Package (GRIP), allows IWIS users to locate seed samples of wheat germplasm stocks around the world and provides an abbreviated version of the IWIS pedigrees. For maize, the genetic resources sub-programme produced an updated CD-ROM earlier this year containing passport data and preliminary characterization data obtained during the latest round of regeneration for about 17,000 accessions. Further evaluation data is being added as it is generated.
Regeneration
The Maize Programme can claim three significant achievements in terms of regeneration of maize genetic resources. The first is the development of suitable protocols for the regeneration of maize germplasm in collaboration with the Biometrics Unit. The second is the regeneration of samples from CIMMYT's own collection. The Centre has the capacity to regenerate about 350-400 accessions per year and about 1,650 accessions have been regenerated since 1993. The third is the regeneration of about 7,000 accessions held in regional NARS genebanks. This was done under the Phase I of Latin America Maize Regeneration Project (LAMP), started in 1992 with USAID-NSSL funding, and completed in 1996. Regenerated seed is retained in the originating national collection with back-up samples sent to CIMMYT and NSSL for long-term storage.
Wheat genebank scientists recently assembled and regenerated a comprehensive collection of triticale germplasm. Emphasis was placed on North America because three prominent US triticale breeders had retired and the germplasm they had developed and accumulated risked being lost. The project multiplied >3000 accessions and recorded descriptor and evaluation data. This was made available to the US National Programme, CIMMYT and any other interested party.
Collection and Acquisition
The prime targets for collection by the maize genebank are Latin American landraces, particularly those that are poorly represented in the collection or have been lost from NARS collections. One hundred and fifty two (152) new collections from Oaxaca, Mexico, were added to the collection in 1997.
For wheat, emphasis is given to collecting germplasm, in cooperation with ICARDA, and the respective NARS, in areas threatened by "genetic wipeout". Since 1994, particular emphasis has been given to the collection of Mexican landraces in collaboration with CONABIO, the Mexican National Commission for the Study and Use of Biodiversity.
A CCER of the Wheat Genetic Resources Sub-programme was undertaken in September 1992. This covered not only genetic resources conservation, evaluation, and use but a range of other related activities included in the Sub-programme at that time, including wheat biotechnology and genetic engineering. With respect to the content of the present Chapter, the CCER made a number of recommendations. In summary, these were:
i) CIMMYT should develop modern new facilities;ii) CIMMYT should strengthen and broaden its collaboration with other agencies on wheat genetic resources and utilization. It should also provide "black box" back up of NARS collections as needed, take leadership in creating a Wheat Genetic Resources Network, and serve as the global database centre for wheat genetic resources;
iii) all phases of the database management system should be completed and brought into use as quickly as possible; and
iv) the collection of landraces and old and new cultivars from around the world should be continued as aggressively as resources and personnel permitted.
CIMMYT has responded positively to each of these recommendations.
A CCER of the Maize Germplasm Bank (MGB) was carried out in February 1993. Briefly its recommendations were to:
i) consolidate maize (and wheat) genebanks in a modern new facility and preserve MGB's base and active collections under appropriate storage conditions;ii) accelerate the regeneration and characterization of landrace collections not yet in CIMMYT's active and base collections; complete core subsets and assemble racial groupings for all races;
iii) emphasize continued collaborative research seeking greater stress tolerance in tropical maize germplasm; add germplasm enhancement (pre-breeding) activities to make landraces more useful to breeders (for both stress tolerance and yield improvement); and
iv) access appropriate improved germplasm in MGB to ensure preservations.
Again CIMMYT responded positively to these recommendations although progress on (ii) has been slower than would be desirable. Indeed, both CCERs were important in the further internationalization of CIMMYT's genetic resources activities.
The last decade has seen a major change in the philosophies and practice of genetic resources collection, conservation and use. CIMMYT has come to accept a leadership role in this area and has the policies, facilities, and support in place to facilitate that role. The Centre has come to realize that only CIMMYT has the mandate, motivation, and capacity to promote the development of effective global networks for maize and wheat genetic resources. The Panel warmly commends CIMMYT for this change.
Nevertheless, while much has been achieved, further change would be desirable on a number of fronts.
Coordination of Wheat and Maize Genetic Resources Activities
Up until the present time, the Wheat and Maize Programmes have maintained separate genetic resources/genebank activities. This had the obvious advantage that the genetic resources activities were tightly linked to the individual crop programmes and in particular to their germplasm improvement activities. However, this system also has a number of disadvantages. One has been the lack of coordination and, up until quite recently, substantial duplication of some activities of wheat and maize genebanks. A prime example is the development of parallel information storage and retrieval systems. A second has been the almost total focus on genetic resources evaluation and utilization by both programmes. Other genetic resources activities such as collection, conservation, and documentation of genetic resources, and the broad issues of genebank management, have been regarded as much lower priority.
The new project structure if proactively implemented should significantly improve coordination and cooperation between the maize and wheat genetic resources activities and allow CIMMYT to have a true institution-wide programme and policies in this important area. The Panel endorses this change. However, given that the Centre still does not have a single curator with overall responsibility for the continuing proper functioning of its new genebank, the Panel still has concerns about the commitment of CIMMYT to the development of the genetic resources group as a unified and cohesive scientific entity. The Panel commends the Director General for assuming the role of coordinator of Global Project 1 and the commitment this demonstrates to genetic resources and the development in CIMMYT of a cohesive, unified, and efficient genetic resources programme. However, the Panel questions whether Professor Reeves will be able to devote 15-20% of his time to the task of project coordinator, a commitment he expects from the other project coordinators, and hence whether an alternative strategy may not have been preferable.
Regeneration of Maize Landraces
From 1992 to 1996, CIMMYT's Maize Genetic Resources Programme has focused strongly on the regeneration of maize landraces held in its own and NARS genebanks. Substantial progress has been made, but much remains to be done. The Panel understands that over 9,000 unique accessions, often of irreplaceable maize landraces, remain to be regenerated. It also understands up to 2000 of these are under significant threat of loss. The Panel is concerned at the lack of progress towards, and apparent low priority given to, the completion of the regeneration of all threatened maize accessions. Failure to act decisively on this issue, given the high priority assigned to genetic conservation in CIMMYT documentation, has the potential to damage the credibility of the whole of the genetic resources programme.
Research Priorities in Genetic Resources
Globally, the knowledge base and research effort on collections to support conservation, evaluation, and utilization is limited and inadequate. The project preschedule for Global Project 1, Conservation and Management of Genetic Resources, outlines for CIMMYT an exciting programme of research on many aspects of wheat and maize genetic resources, from conservation, including in situ conservation, through to use. The Panel commends CIMMYT on this proposed programme. Nevertheless, much more could be done, particularly in the areas of:
i) germplasm management and genebank management, including ecogeographic studies of biodiversity of largest crops and wild relatives (especially in wheat), collection and regeneration protocols (especially in maize) and the role of molecular markers in facilitating the conservation and use of maize and wheat genetic resources;ii) in situ and ex situ conservation of the wild relatives of maize. Much more is being done globally with respect to the conservation and use of the wild relatives of wheat compared to maize. CIMMYT has both the opportunity and responsibility to redress this imbalance, particularly in light of the increasing threat of genetic wipeout of teosinte and Tripsacum genepools.
Consequently, the Panel is of a view that there are exciting opportunities for CIMMYT to further expand its genetic resources research, especially through collaborative projects with other CGIAR Centres and partner NARS, and suggests CIMMYT pursue these opportunities.
CIMMYT's organization was historically centered around the two commodity programmes for wheat and maize. Both programmes were essentially self-sufficient with regard to scientific expertise and disciplines as well as field and laboratory facilities. CIMMYT has now moved towards integrated projects (global, regional and frontier), most of which require multidisciplinary inputs from a number of programmes. The resulting project portfolio is quite different from the earlier commodity-driven programme structure, and has resulted in a qualitatively different approach and corresponding output expectations.
Regional projects, particularly, require the delivery of multiprogramme and multidisciplinary outputs targeted at specific agroecological area-based research needs. The outreach staff, though "housed" in particular programmes, nevertheless work closely with scientists from other CIMMYT programmes. Such projects would not work well in the absence of close linkages within CIMMYT. These linkages are being fostered through the RCC and team-based approach to project implementation. This approach is commended and needs to be encouraged further.
The Panel sees a number of opportunities where further strengthening of the linkages between programmes will enhance implementation of the integrated projects in the MTP. Several examples are given below.
Maize. Wheat and Biotechnology
The Maize Programme (MP) and the Applied Biotechnology Centre (ABC) have developed strong collaborative interactions both in terms of the development of molecular markers for disease resistance and agronomically important traits that are difficult to select for in the field, and genetic engineering protocols and their use in the production of transformants. These collaborative efforts have been successful in generating significant outputs (see Chapter 2 and earlier sections in this Chapter). Further, there appears to have been good collaborative effort in the development of protocols for the use of molecular markers in the maize breeding programmes. However, these have seen little application in the actual breeding programme to date. There seems little point in developing molecular markers for particular traits and developing experimental protocols for their use, if they are not then used, even in CIMMYT's own programmes. If CIMMYT has difficulty with respect to the transfer of this technology to applied breeding, it is unlikely to be successful in its transfer to the NARS.
Two major factors inhibiting the uptake of molecular marker technologies by the Maize Programme appear to be:
i) the lack of appropriate and timely training of Maize Programme breeders in the necessary technologies. Further, it would appear that the Maize Programme is seeking to solve this problem by hiring new staff already possessing the necessary skills. This at best serves only as a partial solution to the technology transfer problem.ii) a lack of clarity within CIMMYT on the role and responsibility of the ABC in servicing the breeding programmes. In particular, what level of service, if any, will the ABC provide for the breeding programmes?
The Wheat Programme (WP) and the ABC have also developed useful collaborative interactions. However, such interactions have been less numerous and less well developed than those between the MP and the ABC. This is partly due to a slower rate of progress in wheat biotechnology both globally and at CIMMYT. However, it also appears to be partly due to the fact that wheat biotechnology was not regarded as a priority area by the WP in the past.
As with the MP, planning for the effective incorporation of molecular marker technologies in wheat improvement at CIMMYT is in its infancy. This is despite the fact that molecular markers have been developed for traits of direct importance to CIMMYT breeders either by the ABC or ARIs (e.g., durable resistance to both leaf and stem rust) which could have immediate application in the wheat breeding programme. As with the MP, the problem with the transfer of this technology from the ABC to the WP appears to be due in part to lack of training of wheat staff in molecular marker techniques and a lack of clarity in the respective roles of the ABC and the WP in its implementation.
Genetic Resources Centre
The Maize and Wheat Programmes have to date operated largely independent genetic resource subprogrammes. While the MP and WP have shared joint facilities and some equipment since 1972, there was very little interaction between the two. Indeed, they often ran parallel systems in, for example, seed exchange and information technology. Although the completion of the new Wellhausen-Anderson Plant Genetic Resources Centre, shared by both the Maize and Wheat Programmes, has led to greater coordination than in the past, both groups have argued strongly for the status quo of independent funding and minimum integration. The implementation of the new project structure should lead to a closer integration and coordination of the activities of the maize and wheat genetic resources activities from 1998.
Because the maize and wheat genetic resources staff and activities were firmly embedded in their respective programmes, they have had only limited opportunity to independently develop linkages with the other three programmes, Natural Resources Group (NRG), Economics (EP), and the Applied Biotechnology Centre. Any linkages were of necessity developed through the respective programme leaders. Therefore, while some linkages have been developed between the Genetic Resources Centre (GRC) and the crosscutting programmes, for example between the MP and GRC on in situ conservation and participatory plant breeding in Oaxaca, these have been limited. The further development of these interactions is likely to be an area of great importance to CIMMYT in the future in building up its profile in genetic resources. Of particular importance will be the interaction between GRC and EP in prioritizing GRC activities, between NRG and GRC in further developing in situ conservation projects, and between ABC and GRC in the use of molecular markers in characterizing germplasm.
Economics, Maize, and Wheat
The new project-based management structure provides increased opportunities for the Economics Programme (EP) to play an integrative role at CIMMYT, particularly in its research on impact assessment, feedback, and priority setting. The multidisciplinary character of the projects in the MTP will allow EP scientists to contribute to global, regional, and frontier projects. In addition to project objectives specified in the MTP, the Panel sees the need for collaborative efforts between the EP and other programmes on several key issues that appear to be critical for guiding CIMMYT's future research strategy. Topics that require EP input include:
i) The reasons for lack of adoption of improved maize varieties on over 40% of maize area in developing countries.ii) Lack of uptake of hybrid maize varieties in many areas despite their apparent yield advantage, and the relative importance of smaller regional seed companies versus large multinationals in diffusion of hybrid maize in these areas.
iii) The effect of increasing demand for wheat varieties with improved end-use quality on the future impact of CIMMYT's wheat breeding programme.
In addition, there appears to be a need for greater inputs from commodity programmes to Frontier Project 6 on priority setting and technology forecasting. The present project is almost entirely staffed by economists. Given the importance of prioritization and forecasting on resource allocation, the Panel believes that this project needs greater direct participation by commodity scientists in the planning, implementation, and analysis of the research.
Natural Resources Group
The Natural Resources Group (NRG) can play a catalytic role in forging linkages across programmes and also contribute to increased research efficiency. A primary focus of the NRG on conservation tillage, residue management, and associated agronomic practices was recommended by the Panel for two reasons. First, this topic provides a unifying theme for much of the current agronomic research in the MP and WP. Second, the adoption of conservation tillage appears to have the potential for a large positive impact on productivity enhancement and natural resource conservation. The use of GIS and modeling can also aid the identification of appropriate environments for conducting selection nurseries in breeding programmes, on-farm research, and demonstrations. These same tools can facilitate the extrapolation of research results from one project to another, and between different regions and cropping systems. Because of the relatively small size of the NRG, success in playing this catalytic role will depend upon commitment of scientific resources from the WP, MP, and EP to a genuine collaborative effort (see the NRG section in this Chapter).
Peer Review by Disciplines
Except for the EP and ABC, the other programmes are composed of IRS from a large number of disciplines. Consequently, while CIMMYT may have a critical mass of plant geneticists and breeders in the MP and WP, they do not have a critical mass of scientists for disciplines such as agronomy, crop physiology, soil science, plant pathology, and entomology in any programme. Therefore, the Panel suggests the formation of "peer review groups" for under-represented disciplines that would cut across programmes. Examples of potential peer groups are Agronomy-Soil Science, Crop Physiology, Entomology, and Plant Pathology.
The purpose of peer groups would be two-fold. First, peer group members would provide direct feedback about the scientific quality and productivity of each IRS in the group based on an annual report of accomplishments prepared by each member. Second, the process of peer evaluation would enhance and insure the flow of information about current research among scientists working in similar disciplines but separated by Programme and Project boundaries. In making this suggestion, it is our assumption that all IRS will be required to prepare an annual accomplishment report for their annual performance evaluation so that the peer group evaluations will not require additional reporting.
3.6.1 Regional Priorities
3.6.2 Programme Emphasis and Approach
3.6.3 Assessment
Over the period from 1993 to 1997, the number of staff posted in outreach increased from 28 to 36 and the proportion of outreach staff to total staff from 25% to 32%. Most of this increase has taken place in SSA and LAC. Nevertheless, Asia and LAC together still accounted for 52% of regional expenditure in 1997 compared with 62.6% in 1993, with SSA accounting for the remainder. Although there has been a slight overall decrease in SSA over the period reviewed, there has been a transfer of resources from WANA to Southern Africa (from 8% to 13.7% of total expenditure, which is itself projected to increase from US$ 2.4 million in 1993 to US$ 6.96 million in 1997). The proportion of the total budget allocated to the NARS in the region in 1997 was 15.2%, two-thirds of this being accounted for by the Maize Programme.
With effect from 1 January 1998, work in regional programmes is being reorganized into five regional projects which are described in the MTP. This document signals the intention of CIMMYT to make further adjustments to the relative expenditure within the regions so that work in SSA is projected to account for 40% of the budget by the year 2000 with a compensating relative decline mostly occurring in LAC and with Asia remaining fairly constant. Work on maize-based systems will dominate the increased effort in SSA. The Panel endorses this broad shift in regional strategy.
A key role for CIMMYT in the programmes visited, in line with current CGIAR philosophy, is that of a facilitator and catalyst for regional networks.
CIMMYT is currently represented in 15 countries but, given the compression of the EPMR's duration and scope, it was possible to visit only the more significant outreach activities as identified in preliminary discussions with TAC and the Centre. Visits were, therefore, made to the regional programmes operating out of Zimbabwe (for SSA), Nepal (for South Asia) and Guatemala (for Central America). One Panel member who was in Thailand for separate reasons also visited the Maize Programme based in Bangkok. Issues arising from CIMMYT's involvement in the Rice-Wheat Consortium coordinated by ICRISAT are discussed elsewhere (see NRG).
In Africa, the Centre is involved in the Maize and Wheat Improvement Research Network (MWIRNET), funded by the EU and undertaken in collaboration with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), and has a coordinating role in the Soil Fertility Network for Maize-based Cropping Systems in Malawi and Zimbabwe, which is supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, with funding going directly to the NARS. The staff member assigned to MWIRNET with responsibilities for wheat reports to the Wheat Programme Director in Mexico for administrative and disciplinary matters and to the Team Leader, CIMMYT-Zimbabwe, on a day-to-day basis for matters relating to MWIRNET. This situation will be perpetuated in the operation of Regional Project 1, due to come into operation on 1 January 1998.
Research activities of CIMMYT-Zimbabwe, as opposed to network facilitation, are largely concentrated on maize and these have been strengthened (since 1996) by the establishment of the Southern African Drought and Low Fertility Project (SADLF), funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). The Panel sub-group visiting Zimbabwe was able to attend a meeting of the steering committee of MWIRNET in Swaziland and to hold discussions with many of the participating NARS representatives.
The Panel was favourably impressed by the way in which CIMMYT is undertaking its role in the SSA programme, particularly with respect to MWIRNET in which its own maize work is integrated with the constituent NARS in full and equal partnership. CIMMYT's role in organizing meetings and workshops, assisting with publications, with training and in facilitating the exchange of germplasm is greatly appreciated within the region. Relations with the Host Country NARS appear to have improved with the stabilization of staffing at CIMMYT-Zimbabwe, under the present leadership. Earlier problems with the MWIRNET donor over centralized budgetary control have apparently been resolved. CIMMYT can take much credit from its representation in SSA.
In Asia, CIMMYT has long had a presence and the programme for South Asia operates out of Nepal where some long-serving outreach staff have recently changed. The reporting line for the agronomist has also changed to the Natural Resources Group from the Wheat Programme. For maize, there is a formally constituted network facilitated by CIMMYT's Asian Regional Maize Programme operating out of Bangkok. Work on wheat is more loosely coordinated and dependent on long-standing interaction between CIMMYT and the NARS within the region.
The Panel concluded that CIMMYT's role in technical support was greatly appreciated by the NARS in southern Asia, both with regard to the outstanding contribution of CIMMYT germplasm and to the development of appropriate production systems for wheat and maize. The relative importance attached locally to other activities reflected the state of development of the NARS concerned so that the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), for example, was more concerned with training than with institutional development, which was of relatively greater significance for the Nepal Council for Agricultural Research (NCAR). The recently funded ADB Asian Maize Biotech Network will further boost the existing move to more specialized training. Participation in regional networks has been seen as a highly cost-effective exercise for CIMMYT, the Asian maize network being a conspicuously successful example. The prevailing impression received is that CIMMYT operates as a true partner to the NARS in the region.
CIMMYT, with IRRI, is a leader in the Rice-Wheat Consortium, which is facilitated by ICRISAT, and is represented on the RW Steering Committee. This activity is further discussed in Chapter 4.
In Central America, a further opportunity to assess a regional network in operation was provided by the visit of the Panel sub-group to Guatemala where the Regional Maize Programme (PRAM) is based. The PRAM is a mature collaborative network resulting from a long and continuous working relationship between NARS research workers in maize within the region and CIMMYT. The Panel was greatly impressed by the operation of the network and by the esteem in which CIMMYT is held by the NARS.
The success of the operation is attributable to a number of factors. The first is the planning process, which comprises a strategic plan and an annual plan from which annual work plans are derived, both of exceptional quality and produced by consensus of the members as to the relevance and quality of research proposals and agreed prioritization. Second, the reporting of results is efficient and timely and CIMMYT provides excellent support. Third, the network has the benefit of strong, long-term funding from the donor (SDC), and this is well managed by CIMMYT, with rapid and effective communication to facilitate interaction between the members of the network. Finally, progress is keenly monitored and continued support is dependent on the achievement of agreed targets. In all, the Panel concludes that the PRAM provides an excellent model for a research network and that CIMMYT is to be warmly congratulated on the success of its operation.
Generalizing from CIMMYT's successful experience, the Panel would like to offer its views on factors contributing to the operational success of networks. These are adduced to be:
i) clarity of focus and the preservation of the identity and independence of the partners;ii) voluntary participation, with shared leadership of the network and coordination of functions;
iii) good communication and cooperation at all levels in the partnership; and
iv) flexibility of operation and adequacy of long-term funding.
Thus, on the basis of its limited observations at first hand, the Panel has concluded that CIMMYT's regional programmes provide good value for money and that networks, if properly conducted, provide an excellent mechanism for CIMMYT (and other centres) to disseminate its products through the NARS and thereby facilitate the achievement of its mission. However, in order to fulfil its catalytic role the Centre must be adequately funded for coordination activities.
