Eloise Phipps

‘Jurassic’ genes make tricky soils a walk in the park for crop cousins

Africa, Comparative genomics in cereals, Genomics, Latin America, Maize, Rice, Sorghum No Responses »

Dec 042014

By Eloise Phipps

Think of something acid.

What came to mind… vinegar? Lemon juice? An acid remark? Chances are that you did not think of soil – the humble sods and clods we rely on to produce our food – unless, perhaps, you grow or breed crops.

It is a cruel and surprising fact that acid soils cover almost half the land that the world uses to grow food. They can be a natural result of rainfall and soil type, but are also made worse by overuse of nitrogen fertilisers. The negative impact of acid soils on annual global harvests is second only to that of drought.

We’re getting down to earth in celebration of World Soil Day, the 5^th of December – and looking forward to 2015, the International Year of Soils – as we get our teeth into this Diplodocus-sized problem, and examine how research into genes shared between different species is helping plant breeders provide farmers with crops that thrive even as the pH drops.

More than half of the world’s potential crop-growing land is highly acidic. Map courtesy of Leon Kochian.

Cretaceous crop split leaves common heritage – helping plants pass the acid test when soil dosages get dramatic

Did Triceratops, just like us, enjoy its daily morning breakfast cereal?

The cereal crops that we rely on for our staple foods are relative newcomers in evolutionary terms – just like humans ourselves. The species that are now maize, rice and sorghum all belong to the Poaceae family, or true grasses. They separated out and began to take their own evolutionary pathways roughly 65 million years ago – around the time the dinosaurs were going extinct. Before this, they had a single common ancestor, getting munched on by hungry Triceratops.

Because of this family relationship, maize, rice and sorghum still have many similar genes in common, often carrying out the same or similar functions in the different crops. And some of these functions can help plants do well when faced with the acid test.

The trouble with acid soils is not so much the pH itself, but the way it affects the availability of important nutrients. As acidity increases, aluminium becomes more soluble, giving plants an overdose that causes aluminium toxicity. One of the symptoms is stunted root growth – making it even harder for plants to reach other nutrients. Meanwhile, nutrients such as phosphorus become less available, stuck in forms that plants can’t absorb, making phosphorus deficiency another huge issue.

The consequences of subpar soils are far-reaching. A new report from the Montpellier Panel, ‘No Ordinary Matter: Conserving, Restoring and Enhancing Africa’s Soils’, finds that soil degradation affects two-thirds of arable land in Africa, and that without action it is likely to lock the continent into cycles of food insecurity for generations to come, and hamper both agricultural and economic development. Widespread soil acidity and its effect on nutrient availability are a key piece of the jigsaw; as the report observes, “In the more humid lowland areas [of Africa], soils are typically highly weathered, acidic and nutrient deficient.”

A Kenyan farmer prepares her maize plot for planting. Acid soils cover almost 90 percent of Kenya’s maize-growing area, and can more than halve yields.

Collaboration and gene comparison for crops that thrive when pH dives

Fortunately, our scientists are no dinosaurs. Since 2004, crop researchers and plant breeders across the world – collaborating in several GCP projects within the Comparative Genomics Research Initiative – have been using genetic knowledge at the cutting edge of science to develop local varieties of maize, rice and sorghum which can withstand acid soils’ topsy-turvy nutrient levels. Explore our comparative genomics-themed blogposts to meet our heroes Claudia, Eva, Jura, Leon, Matthias, Rajeev, Sam, and others.

Left to right (foreground): Leon Kochian, Jurandir Magalhães (both EMBRAPA) and Sam Gudu (Moi University) examine crosses between Kenyan and Brazilian maize, at the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Kitale, in May 2010.

What is the advantage for breeders of knowing about a gene like PSTOL1 (in the locus Pup1), which helps rice do well under low-phosphorus conditions by encouraging it to grow longer roots? Simple. Unlike the scientists in Jurassic Park, our breeders don’t need to resurrect long-dead species to get their kicks (and fortunately, they are at lower risk of being eaten by their work!). The crops they are interested already have all kinds of useful genes hidden within them, but, as with all living things, each species is tremendously varied and diverse.

This is where genomics comes in. Instead of growing many thousands of seeds to see which plants thrive, breeders can use genetic markers to look inside the seeds to see which ones have, say, Pup1. Then they only need to grow those seeds, in order to cross-pollinate them with plants with other useful traits, making the breeding process much faster and more efficient.

Screening for phosphorus-efficient rice, able to make the best of low levels of available phosphorus, on an International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) experimental plot in the Philippines. Some types of rice have visibly done much better than others.

Women farmers in India bring home their sorghum harvest.

And what makes the Comparative Genomics Research Initiative even more powerful is that it looks across related crops. Once researchers have found an acid-beating gene in one crop, they can look for similar genes in the others – turning knowledge of a single gene into multi-impact dino-mite. For example, the discovery of the SbMATE gene, behind aluminium tolerance in sorghum, spurred researchers to seek and find a similar gene in maize – which they named ZmMATE. This knowledge is now being used to breed aluminium-tolerant varieties of both sorghum and maize for Africa – and is being applied to rice too.

Maize trials in the field at our partners EMBRAPA, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation. The maize plants on the left are aluminium-tolerant while those on the right are not.

There are many more examples of the power of comparative genomics, but the real proof will be soon to come in farmers’ fields as these new, anti-acid varieties are tested and released. The world’s poorest farmers generally cannot afford other approaches to dealing with soil acidity, such as treating soil with lime or applying extra phosphorus to their fields, so the comparative approach to cousin crops promises to be a king (or should that be Tyrannosaurus rex?) among soil solutions.

A boy rides his bicycle next to a rice field in the Philippines. With acid soils affecting half the world’s arable fields, acid-beating crop varieties will help farmers feed their families – and the world – into the future.

Links

Explore our Comparative Genomics Research Initiative
Meet our partners and their projects in our Comparative Genomics-themed blogposts
Get your info straight from the horse’s (definitely not dinosaur’s!) mouth with presentations galore on SlideShare:

GRM 2013: Marker-assisted breeding for improving phosphorus-use efficiency and tolerance to aluminum toxicity in maize — S Gudu from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

GRM 2013: Validation of ZmMATEs as Genes Underlying Major Al Tolerance QTLs in Maize — C Guimarães (redacted) from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

GRM 2013: Cloning, characterization and validation of PUP1/P efficiency in maize — L Kochian from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

GRM 2013: Cloning, characterization and validation of AltSB/Al tolerance in rice — L Kochian from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

GRM 2013: Status of maize projects in the Comparative Genomics Research Initiative: Products and the future — L Kochian from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

GRM2013: Establishing a molecular breeding program based on the aluminum tolerance gene AltSB and the P efficiency QTL Pup-1, for increasing sorghum production in Sub-Saharan Africa — F Rattunde from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

‘Dosing’ the digital divide: A tablet for that field-to-desk headache

Uncategorized No Responses »

Dec 032014

The latest – and most readily available – tools for breeders are often intangible things, such as ideas, approaches and even software. But they also include new physical tools, such as electronic tablets to make data collection more efficient. Read on to discover how structured user testing paved a path from pioneer to perfection.

This article was first published on the Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP) website on the 17^th of October 2011, and is republished here as a complement to our last blogpost on the Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course (IB–MYC), illustrating yet another facet of our multi-pronged approach to capacity building.

From small and sweet to bigger and better, this ‘cure’ might just do the trick… After initial testing of small electronic handheld devices for field data collection, followed by extensive testing of alternative options on the market, an appropriate digital tablet was identified. Last month (September 2011), 20 tablets were distributed to IBP users from research programmes in Africa and Asia for pre-test. Should this user evaluation be positive, the plan is to distribute more of these tablets in the future, to a total ‘dosage’ of between 100–200 tablets in all, in the course of the next 12 months.

Flashback to February 2011: Pioneer handheld devices

The road behind us

We initially started by piloting smaller handheld devices (Honeywell and HP iPaq) among a small set of selected users, to get feedback from them, and collectively see what would work best to meet their needs. The smaller, handheld devices were piloted in late 2009 into early 2010 for evaluation by users.

Significantly, some institutes such as AfricaRice and IITA even procured additional units at their own cost – an act which speaks for itself. Most of our users reported finding the devices easy to use, simple and straight forward. Plus, they reported that it increases efficiency, saves time and minimises data error because data are recorded in a ready-for-use format. But it wasn’t all a bed of roses and there a few thorns as well: users encountered difficulties in synchronisation between the handheld and their computer due to configuration conflicts. The small screen and keyboard and short battery life also brought no joy, and data collection for multiple samples was a problem.

But enough from us on the pros and cons! Here is what some of the users from the rice and sorghum Research Initiatives (RIs) had to say way back in February 2011. As you will see, almost all of them got incurably ‘digitally infected’ despite the cons reported with the small portable devices.

In their own words: Users speak

Akinwale Gbenga of AfricaRice, Ibadan, Nigeria, pictured in the field recording data using the handheld device

Q: What has been your experience with the handheld device?

Akinwale: This device was very timely for us because we were already exploring and experiment with ways to improve the way data were being collected. The handheld device has greatly improved our efficiency. Previously, we’d collect data in a physical workbook then the data would be transferred manually to the computer. The handheld device saves time, guarantees accurate entries with no proofreading required, and safeguards the data: there is no risk of datasheets being lost or misplaced. With this device, what is recorded in the field is what is transferred into the computer without any errors. Whereas when deciphering handwriting, it’s very easy to confuse 3 for 8, 7 for 9, and so on, even when it is your own writing. Also, when working in the lowlands, mud smears and water smudges on the paper sometimes mean that handwritten data cannot be read. In a timed exercise to compare this new method and the usual methods, it took me 35 minutes to enter one trait and the job was fully done. With the usual methods, it would have taken me double the time since I would have had to manually collect and enter data then proofread entries.

Q: What drawbacks or concerns might you have observed about the device, and what would you advise?

Akinwale: The battery lasts four hours, so it is important to ensure it is fully charged before going to the field. Data collection is best done in the morning to avoid reflection and glare from the screen. I’m not sure how long the device will last, but I have no doubt that it is good value for money. Some programming work will also be needed to cater for traits that need multiple measurements.

Ibonou Dieng, a biometrician, AfricaRice, commented, “The only dataset that is complete at this time is for the station that had the handheld device. This underscores the efficiency of the handheld device. We therefore plan to disseminate the handheld device to all our rice RI partners in Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria. Significantly, management at AfricaRice has committed to buy the device for other projects as well for use in recording dry-season data in March.” Ibnou is one of the Joint Co-ordinators of the of the Data Managers Community of Practice with specific responsibility for Africa.

Bashir Mohamed, a researcher and data manager at Nigeria’s National Cereal Research Institute at Badeggi, was impatiently waiting for the handheld device and observed, “Manual data collection and entry is extremely laborious. It generally involves three people – a field technician to do the counting, a data manager to do the recording and the breeder. With the handheld device, this job can be done by the data manager singlehandedly.”

Aboubacar Diarra, an Assistant Rice Breeder at l’Institut d’economie rurale in Mail noted, “The handheld device promises many advantages, and eases the task of data collection. Generally, it is rare to collect, enter and verify data all on the same day, meaning that should anomalies be noted at verification, the reality in the field may have significantly changed by the time one returns to the site to take a new reading. By easing the job, the handheld device makes it possible to do all three steps in a single day, and therefore to return to the field if need be for verification in good time.”

Alexis Traore, Institut de l’environnement et de recherche agricole (INERA), Burkina Faso, said, “Data management is indispensable for molecular breeding, and therefore an understanding of data management is absolutely essential. We need training in data management and on new tools such as the handheld device that can help us manage data better. That way, we not only learn but we’ll also train other scientists as well as students who come to our institutes.”

Marie-Noëlle Ndjiondjop of AfricaRice, and the Rice Research Initiative Principal Investigator, summed it up thus:“Our riceproject has and will continue to produce a lot of data. The time to think about data management is now. We will ensure that all our rice RI partners receive the handheld device, and we are glad to note that the management at AfricaRice is actively promoting the device and recommending it for all breeding programmes at the Centre.”

But not all the users were complimentary, convinced and converted…

Niaba Teme, a sorghum breeder at L’Institut d’économie rurale, Mali, complained, “The handheld device is difficult to use. For traits like flowering which occurs at different times, you have to scroll to find the plot and flower which is time-consuming. It’s also difficult to work with it outdoors in the sunshine. Pen and paper are easier to use.” Niaba Teme is co-PI for the BCNAM project of the Sorghum Research Initiative.

On balance though, the concept of electronic data collection was clearly appreciated and was creating a ‘positive epidemic’, but clearly, a better tool was needed. Users recommended that IBP explore alternative mobile devices such as the tablet, to address the cons and drawbacks reported by Niaba and others on the small handheld devices. We listened and acted…

Fastforward to September 2011

Taking into account the comprehensive feedback received from users, the IBP team, led by Arllet Portugal, the Informatics Coordinator, set out to identify an appropriate handheld device that would meet the needs of users. They settled on a Samsung Galaxy 10.1-inch digital tablet (pictured) because it uses a common and open Honeycomb Android operating system specially designed for tablets, it has a large clear screen for easy viewing, good battery life and is lightweight and relatively robust. It can also communicate with a bar-code reader.

The 20 partners who received the tablet in September 2011 appeared very pleased with it, and committed to provide systematic and structured feedback over a one-year test period. Terms and conditions apply for this receipt: tablet recipients signed formal contracts whereby they will have to demonstrate that they indeed used the tablet to capture field data. Once preliminary feedback is received from this pioneer set of tablet users and analysed, the circle of evaluators will be expanded by contacting other users interested in trying out digital data-collection devices. And to maximise benefit and mutual learning, the IBP team will organise a forum for tablet users – probably around the next IBP annual meeting – to share experiences and tips, including a data clinic, should there be need.

We shall be following their experience with the tablet, so please watch this space to stay with the story, and travel with our users on what we trust will be a very momentous road ahead!

Finish line for the Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course (IB–MYC)

Capacity building, Integrated Breeding Platform 4 Responses »

Nov 132014

Long legs: our longest running capacity-building marathon’s end is in sight and a new breed of breeders is ready and set to go

As we ‘speak’, the Integrated Breeding Multiyear Course (IB–MYC) is in its final session, reaching its close after three intensive years. This last gathering runs from 3rd to 14th November 2014, and as always is hosted by our partners IAMZ–CIHEAM (the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza, Spain). IB–MYC is unusual in its approach, but by taking a risk and investing in long-term in-depth training, GCP has shown that IB–MYC is a powerful model for capacity building with profound impact. Congratulations to our marathon runners as they approach the finish line… and all the best for an ‘integrated breeding’ future!

Breeders develop new varieties of crop through several methods. IBP has developed new varieties of breeders through the IB-MYC programme.”
— Johnson Adedayo Adetumbi: IB–MYC participant, research fellow at the Institute of Agricultural Research & Training (IAR&T), Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, and breeder working on cowpeas, kenaf, maize and soya beans

IB–MYC: integrated, intensive, incomparable

IB–MYC differed from most other courses in two important ways, both reflected in its name: its ‘integrated breeding’ curriculum and its ‘multiyear’ timescale. Implemented by GCP’s Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP), the course aimed to empower breeders in developing countries to adopt molecular-breeding techniques. The ‘integrated’ approach to making this happen meant equipping students not only with the latest knowhow on molecular breeding itself, but also hands-on training in and effective tools for data management and analysis.

Course participant Samuel Adelowo Olakojo, Head of the Cereals Improvement Programme at IAR&T and maize breeder, is an enthusiast of IBP’s Breeding Management System (BMS). “My perception about data management is that it helps the breeder to plan their work very easily without stress. The time you take in thinking how to fashion out the design of the trials – you can actually get that done very quickly, very precisely,” he says. “Secondly… after you have produced your output, with minimal editing you can transfer your data to the preparation platform for publishing it. You don’t have to sit down writing everything again,” he adds. “The presentation that comes out of it now seems more graphical. And when you present reports in a graphical, pictorial form… people are enlightened, quickly.”

Since IB–MYC began in August 2012, the participants have each received two weeks of intensive face-to-face training per year. The participants were divided between three annual training sessions, broadly reflecting the three target regions for the course of Eastern and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa, and South and Southeast Asia. In between these sessions they were expected to work on assignments and project, with ongoing in-depth support including online resources from IBP. While well-supported, it was a demanding course, with students expected to pass each year and complete their assignments as a precondition to proceeding to the next year.

More than forty participants came together in November 2014 for the final IB–MYC training session, hosted by IAMZ. For more photos, see the IAMZ Facebook page.

Taking the slow train to knowledge that sticks

Just as for the participants, this three-year course was also a major commitment for GCP, and – being unlike anything that had gone before – a risky investment of funds and efforts. However, this long-distance marathon has had some special advantages over the quick sprints of more conventional training courses, whose length is normally measured in weeks.

Rather than simply imparting knowledge that is forgotten as quickly as it is learnt, the practical focus, ongoing support and extended time-frame of IB–MYC ensured that participants were able to test and see the value of what they were learning within their own breeding activities, leading them to adopt useful technologies, tools and practices as an integral part of their work – and, it is hoped, becoming advocates, trainers and mentors themselves. Furthermore, as trainees have got to know each other and build relationships over the years, they have woven true communities of practice, springboards for sharing information and working together into the future.

Of course, not everyone has made it to the finish line. A few participants have dropped out over the years as they have changed jobs and directions, and some have even flunked the course. But the great majority have stayed the distance, and with both trainers and trainees convinced of IB–MYC’s value.

Seeds for the future in IB–MYC’s IAMZ roots

Not least of the relationships that have flourished during the course is GCP’s partnership with IAMZ, which also contains the seeds of one of the ways IB–MYC will live on into the future, after GCP’s planned close in December 2014. “We are working with IAMZ to continue that collaboration through IBP,” says Ndeye Ndack Diop, GCP’s Capacity Building Leader. “IAMZ has decided to include the BMS within… the short training course they provide, and that is of course a big endorsement for us that we appreciate. But beyond that, right now Ignacio [Romagosa], the Director of IAMZ, is working towards developing one project with different partners at the European level, where IBP also will be taking part.” This will use both the training material that IBP has developed in the course of these three years, and also the BMS. Says Ndeye Ndack: “the programme that he’s thinking of will be targeting breeders, in which case we believe BMS will be a good tool for them.”

Watch IAMZ’ interview with Ndeye Ndack below (or on YouTube) for more, including GCP’s approach to capacity building, how the GCP-IAMZ relationship began, and the stellar support that IAMZ has provided.

So even as we come to the finish line of this first IB–MYC marathon with the final training session, many more races are yet to be run and many new pathways are opening up for Johnson’s “new varieties of breeders” – and perhaps a new variety of trainers too. We at GCP would like to take this opportunity to give our special thanks to our friends at IAMZ–CIHEAM, and to thank and congratulate all IB–MYC participants and trainers for their commitment, hard work and fantastic achievements.

Links

For more on the IB–MYC model, IBP and BMS, plus some insights into the issue of brain drain, see our latest presentation on SlideShare, ‘Capacity Building: Gain or Drain?’, presented by GCP Director Jean-Marcel Ribaut at the recent Tropical Soybean for Development Workshop.
Our recently published 2013 Annual Report section on capacity building focussed on IB–MYC, as did the same section in 2012, so follow the links below for more in-depth analyses of our approach, achievements, and lessons learnt.
2013 – read online | 2013 – download PDF | 2012 – read online | 2012 – download PDF
Retooling developing-country crop breeders: IB–MYC 2014 on course (News and Updates, May 2014)
GCP’s capacity-building homepage

Mission possible for ‘Generation Open’: open access and open attitudes for Open Access Week

Africa, Asia, Cassava, Crop breeding, Crop information and data management, Open Access No Responses »

Oct 242014

By Eloise Phipps

Imagine the scene: it is the dead of night, and you are engaged on a dangerous mission. You are tense, alert for any noise. You must complete your task without being seen, or risk the shame and humiliation of failure… but it is not a pleasant undertaking!

Your mission? A critical matter of honour. To dispose of your family’s cassava peelings – not with the rest of your household waste, but smuggled into the murky depths of the pit latrine. Why?

“The stigma about cassava is mostly among the Kikuyu people of central Kenya,” explains Henry Ngugi, Kenyan scientist and former Maize Pathologist for Latin America at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “Traditionally, the Kikuyu are very proud, and self-sufficiency in basic needs such as food is an important factor in this. That is, you cannot be proud if you cannot feed yourself and your family. Now, the other part of the equation regarding cassava is that, traditionally, cassava was eaten during seasons of severe food shortages. It is a hardy and drought-tolerant crop so it would be available when the ‘good food’ was not. This also meant that it was associated with hunger and poverty – inability to feed oneself.”

“Another factor that may have played a role in the way the Kikuyu view cassava is that some of the traditional cultivars produced high levels of cyanide and were toxic [if not properly cooked], so as a crop it was not very highly regarded to start with. Improved cultivars have been bred to remove this problem. But because of these issues, many people would not want their neighbours to know they were so hungry they had to rely on cassava, and would go to great lengths to conceal any evidence!”

The story is not the same everywhere: graceful and strong, this farmer tends her field of cassava, in the village of Tiniu, near Mwanza, northern Tanzania.

Opening up for Open Access Week

This year, 20–26 October is Open Access Week, a global event celebrating, promoting and sharing ideas on open access – that is, making research results, including both publications and data, freely and publicly available for anyone to read, use and build upon. Even more exciting for us, this year’s theme is ‘Generation Open’, reflecting the importance of students and researchers as advocates for open access – a call that falls on fertile ground at the Generation Challenge Programme (video below courtesy of UCMerced on YouTube).

We at GCP have been reflecting this week on different virtues of openness and transparency, and the perils of shame and secrecy. But before we go on, we’re sticking with cassava (carrying over from World Food Week!) but crossing the globe to China to celebrate the latest open-access publication to join the GCP parade. ‘Cassava genome from a wild ancestor to cultivated varieties’ by Wang et al is still practically a newborn, published on the 10th of October 2014.

The article presents draft genome sequences of a wild ancestor and a domesticated variety of cassava, with additional comparative analyses with other lines. It shows, for example, that genes involved in starch accumulation have been positively selected in cultivated cassava, and those involved in cyanogenic (ie, cyanide-producing) glucoside formation have been negatively selected. The authors hope that their results will contribute to better understanding of cassava biology, and provide a platform for marker-assisted breeding of better cassava varieties for farmers.

The research was carried out by a truly international team, led by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agriculture Sciences (CATAS) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Authors Wenquan Wang of CATAS and Bin Liu of CAS are delighted that their publication will be freely available, particularly in a journal with the prestige and high impact of the Nature family. As they observe, the open access to the paper will spread their experience and knowledge quickly to every corner of China and of the world where people have internet connections.

The work incorporated and partially built upon previous work mapping the cassava genome, which was funded by GCP in our project on Development of genomic resources for molecular breeding of drought tolerance in cassava (G3007.03), led by Pablo Rabinowicz, then with the University of Maryland, USA. This provides a perfect example of the kind of constructive collaboration and continuation that open access and sharing of research results can facilitate: by building on what has already been done, rather than re-inventing the wheel or working in isolation, we share, disseminate and amplify knowledge more rapidly and efficiently, with win–win outcomes for all involved.

Cassava farmers in Vietnam.

One thing that makes the latest research even more special is that it was published in Nature Communications, which marked Open Access Week by going 100 percent open access from the 20th of October, making it an open-access flagship within the Nature Publishing Group – a clear indicator of the ever-increasing demand for and credibility of open-access publishing. We congratulate all of our open-access authors for making their work publicly available, and Nature Communications for its bold decision!

A matter of perspective: turning shame to pride and fears to opportunities

No shame here: a little girl clutches a cassava root in Kenya.

Of course, human beings worrying about their social status is old as humanity itself and nothing new. Food has never been an exception as an indicator. Back in mediaeval Europe, food was a hugely important status symbol: the poor ate barley, oats and rye, while only the rich enjoyed expensive and prestigious wheat. Although our ideas about what is luxurious have changed – for example, sugar was considered a spice thanks to its high cost – rare imported foods were something to boast about just as they might be today.

But why are we ashamed of eating the ‘wrong foods’ – like cassava – when we could take pride in successfully feeding our families? Many of the things we tend to try to hide are really nothing to be ashamed of, and a simple change in perspective can turn what at first seem like weaknesses into sources of pride (and there are two sides to the cassava saga, as we shall see later).

Throughout its existence, GCP has been characterised by its openness and transparency. We have worked hard to be honest about our mistakes as well as our successes, so that both we and others can learn from them. The rewards of this clear-eyed approach are clearly noted in our Final External Review: “GCP has taken an open and pro-active attitude towards external reviews – commissioning their own independent reviews (the case of the current one) as well as welcoming a number of donor reviews. There have been clear benefits, such as the major governance and research reforms that followed the EPMR [External Programme and Management Review] and EC [European Commission] Reviews of 2008. These changes sharply increased the efficiency of GCP in delivering benefits to the poor.”

Transparent decision-making processes for determining choices of methods have also improved the quality of our science, while open, mutually respectful relationships – including open data-sharing – have underpinned our rich network of partnerships.

One aspect of this open approach is, of course, our commitment to open access. All of our own publications are released under Creative Commons licences, and we encourage all GCP grant recipients to do the same, or to pursue other open-access options. When exploring our research publications you will note that many are directly available to download. Our website will act as an archive for the future, ensuring that GCP publications remain online in one place after GCP’s closure in December this year. See our Global Access Policy and our policy on data-sharing.

“Open access journals are just terrific,” says Jean-Marcel Ribault, Director of GCP. “It’s great to enable access to publications, and it’s important to promote sharing of data and open up analysis too. The next big challenge is data management, and assuring the quality of that data. At the end of the day, the quality of the information that we share with others is fundamental.”

Proud in pink and polka dots: a farmer shows off a healthy cassava leaf in a plantation in Kampong Cham, Cambodia.

That’s a challenge that many other organisations are also grappling with. Richard Fulss, Head of Knowledge Management at our host CIMMYT is currently working on standards and approaches for the quality and structure of data, with the aim of implementing open access to all data within five years, meeting guidelines being put in place across CGIAR. “The issues to resolve are threefold,” he explains. “You have a licence issue, a technology issue – including building the right platform – and a cultural issue, where you need to build a culture of knowledge sharing and make open access publishing the norm rather than the exception.”

Our partners at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) already have a strong open-access policy, and are debunking some cherished open-access myths.

It’s good to talk: saying no to secrecy

Back to cassava, and of course not everyone feels the same way about the same crop, as there are many sides to any story. In China, demand for cassava is soaring – for food, for animal feed and most of all as a raw material for starch and biofuel production – making breeding of resilient, productive cassava varieties even more important. Even within Kenya, there are those who are quicker to see the crop’s virtues. The Luhya people of western Kenya often mix cassava with finger millet or sorghum to make flour for ugali (a stiff porridge or dough eaten as a staple food in vast swathes of Eastern and Southern Africa). As Henry explains “one reason was that such ugali ‘stayed longer in the stomach’ in literal translation from local parlance meaning it kept you full for longer – which is scientifically sound because cassava has a crude starch that takes longer to digest, and lots of fibre!”

Meanwhile, watch the delightful Chiedozie Egesi, Nigerian plant breeder and molecular geneticist, in the video below to hear all about the high potential of cassava, both as a food in itself and as a raw material to make flour and other products – something some farmers have already spotted. “Cassava can really sustain a nation… we’ve seen that it can,” he says. “You have in Nigeria now some of the Zimbabwean farmers who left Zimbabwe, got to Nigeria, and they changed from corn [maize] to cassava, because they see the potential that it has.”

The power of openness is already showing itself in the case of cassava, as well as other root, tuber and banana crops. Check out RTBMaps, an online atlas developed by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB), using ‘scientific crowdsourcing’ to combine data on a wide range of variables, shared by many researchers, in a single map. Putting all that information together can help people make better decisions, for example on how to target breeding, or where disease threats are likely to be strongest. And for a sweet serving, here’s our humble contribution from Phase I to a world-favourite dessert!

We leave you with one final thought. It is not just cassava that is plagued with pride and prejudice; many foods attract high or low statuses in different regions – or even just variations of the same food. People in Asia and North America, for example, tend to prefer yellow maize, while Africans like their maize white. In fact, yellow maize still carries a powerful stigma in many parts of Africa, as this was the colour of the maize that arrived as external aid in periods of famine, oftentimes perceived in Africa as animal fodder and not human food in the countries it was sourced from. And thus yellow maize became synonymous with terrible times and the suffering and indignity of being unable to feed oneself and one’s family. Consequently, some of the famine-stricken families would only cook the yellow ‘animal-fodder’ maize in the dead of night, to avoid ‘detection’ and preserve family pride and honour.

This might at first blush appear to be a minor curiosity on colour and coloured thinking, were it not for the fact that when crops – such as sweet potato, cassava, or indeed maize – are bred to be rich in pro-vitamin A, and so provide plenty of the vitamin A that is particularly crucial for young children and pregnant women, they take on a golden yellow-orange hue. When promoting the virtues of this enriched maize in parts of Africa, it’s vital to know that as ‘yellow maize’ it would fall flat on its face, but as ‘orange maize’ or ‘golden maize’ it is a roaring success. A tiny difference in approach and label, perhaps, but one that is a quantum leap in nutritional improvement, and in ‘de-stigmatisation’ and accelerating adoption. Ample proof then that sharing details matters, and that it’s good to talk – even about the things we are a little ashamed of, thereby breathing substance into the spirit of the theme ‘Generation Open’.

Do have some of these uncomfortable but candid conversations this Open Access Week and live its spirit to the fullest every day after that! As for us here at GCP, we shall continue to sow and cultivate the seeds of Generation next for plant breeding into the future, through our Integrated Breeding Platform which will outlive GCP.

A little girl in Zambia gets a valuable dose of vitamin A as she eats her orange maize.

Eyes dancing with past, present or future mischief, two cheeky young chappies from Mozambique enjoy the sweet taste of orange sweet potato enriched with pro-vitamin A.

Links:

Cassava – Research Initiative | InfoCentre | Blogposts | Slides | Videos | Podcasts
Maize – Research Initiative | InfoCentre | Blogposts | Slides

Poverty eradication through crop breeding for abundant harvests

Crop breeding, Drought, GCP, Poverty eradication No Responses »

Oct 152014

In recognition of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, October 17th, we are reflecting on what poverty means, how crop breeding helps eradicate poverty and transform lives, and how we have tried to maximise and measure those impacts.

In the early days of GCP, we were largely on uncharted seas and needed to chart a course to where our efforts would have the greatest impact, a process documented in our Pathways to impact brief No 1: Where in the world do we start? Instead of using a monetary definition of poverty, since this varies so widely between places and contexts, we took a different approach. As an indicator of true poverty, we used data on the number of stunted – ie, severely malnourished – children, overlaying this on maps showing where drought was most likely to occur. Our thinking was clear and simple: poverty + drought = where GCP needed to be.

Whatever else you may think they may lack, these children in Sibi village, Burkina Faso, definitely have verve, and look full of the energy they need to play!

A boy plays with an improvised hoop in Lukolela, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Drought routinely reduces harvests, and can be catastrophic. For example, nearly half (40 percent) of Africa’s maize-lands face occasional drought, reducing yields by between 10 and 25 percent, while a quarter suffers frequent drought, with overall losses of up to half the harvest – and total losses for some individual farmers. With climate change making droughts ever more common, drought was a natural priority for GCP from its inception.

Drought-tolerant crops are therefore the most important focus for the breeders of the GCP family, though not an exclusive one. Other key traits our breeders consider include resistance to pests and diseases and nutritional fortification, depending on the crop and location – and of course all varieties should yield well in good years too. Resilient improved varieties are particularly important for the poorest farmers, as they do not usually have access to measures such as irrigation or pesticides to combat environmental menaces. Typically, the poorest farmers also live in the most drought-prone drylands. Helping poor farmers to reap consistently abundant nutritious harvests means more food for their families and often a surplus to sell –reducing child malnourishment, and poverty in general.

A little girl eats fresh roti at home in the district of Dinajpur, Bangladesh.

A girl eats rice with her family in the Philippines.

Together we stand

The theme of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty 2014 is Leave no one behind: think, decide and act together against extreme poverty, and it is one that echoes beautifully with the ethos of GCP. Collaboration and partnership have always been hallmarks of our approach, particularly in terms of empowering researchers in developing countries to implement – and lead – cutting-edge science. You can find a wealth of posts on our blog about our partnerships and the ‘GCP spirit’.

Collaboration is particularly important in crop breeding because one crop is often faced by all kinds of threats at once – a selection from the world’s least tasty smorgasbord of drought, heat, waterlogging pests, diseases, soil infertility, and much more. It is likely to be of no use breeding a super-crop that goes untouched by disease if it turns up its toes after a few dry days, or if no one likes the taste. That means researchers with different areas of expertise need to work together – and with farmers and extensionists too. Read the case for collective action in our Pathways to impact brief No 2: A call for collective action in agricultural research.

Girls help in the fields in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Eyes dancing with past, present or future mischief, two cheeky young chappies from Mozambique enjoy the sweet taste of orange sweet potato enriched with pro-vitamin A.

Impact by the numbers

GCP believes that using marker-assisted breeding (a range of efficient crop-breeding approaches that use genetic information to work out which plants have useful traits) to create improved varieties faster and more effectively is worth its extra cost, and has a real impact on farmers’ incomes. This cannot be taken for granted however, so get an introduction to the numerical approach in our Pathways to impact brief No 3: Molecular and conventional breeding through an economic lens. Our study found that women in Nigeria reported increased household incomes from growing improved cassava varieties, but also more time spent on cassava-related tasks – emphasising the need for researchers to be aware of the characteristics farmers – in this case predominantly women – value.

Hard at work, a boy helps to peel a mountain of cassava in Nigeria.

As we mark this year’s International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we at GCP are proud to be contributing to the eradication of poverty by creating partnerships, expertise, and ultimately crop varieties that promise abundant harvests for the world’s poorest farmers and their families – helping their children grow up big, strong and free from poverty.

At play: children of the Sao Felix community in the Brazilian Amazon.

Enjoy the game, but keep off the plants! Boys play football next to maize fields in Khulungira, central Malawi.

Tribute to cassava: Princess, pauper, mother, orphan, queen

Africa, Cassava, Latin America No Responses »

Oct 142014

Things fall apart… and come together

By Eloise Phipps

Cassava – the tough, gutsy daughter of a poignant confluence of cultures, and the benevolent mother of millions when times get tough – is bursting onto the science scene after years of neglect. For October 15th, the International Day of Rural Women, we crown her the Queen of Crops. Read on to see why …

His mother and sisters worked hard enough, but they grew women’s crops, like coco-yams, beans and cassava. Yam, the king of crops, was a man’s crop.”

So wrote Chinua Achebe in his great novel, Things Fall Apart, set among the Igbo people in southeast Nigeria. His words are a reminder that men’s and women’s experiences, needs, activities and ambitions in the agricultural sphere can often be different – and that women’s contributions are all too often undervalued.

Cassava feeds more than half a billion people in the in the developing world. After rice and maize, it is the third-largest source of carbohydrates for people in the tropics, where it is grown across Africa, Asia and Latin America. Yet tough, unassuming cassava is a bit of an underdog – just like the women who grow it. We are celebrating the International Day of Rural Women by taking a special look at cassava, what it means for women, and the extraordinary things that can happen when Things Come Together!

A bright spot in a sea of green: a farmer in her field of cassava, in the village of Tiniu, near Mwanza, northern Tanzania.

It thrives on poor soils where other plants struggle, and it survives droughts that leave other crops biting the dust. For many rural mothers, cassava is the crop that keeps their families alive…”

“We must sing for you, great cassava…”

Hefty chunks of cassava – full of energy and nutrients – on sale in Kampala, Uganda.

Cassava’s story is one that is inextricably linked to centuries of pain and struggle. It was introduced to Africa in the 16^th century by Portuguese traders who brought it from Brazil – and took Africans back to Brazil as slaves.

Yam, native to Africa, was firmly established as the staple food of the Igbo people. Dominating their farming activities, it thus dominated the very routine of existence. So, control of yam affirmed men’s position at the top of the pinnacle. When cassava arrived, no one thought very much of it. For the Portuguese, it was a cheap source of carbohydrates. For the Igbo, it was a decidedly inferior crop to the long-beloved and much-revered yam.

Since the men were generally not much interested, Igbo women gradually adopted cassava as ‘their’ crop, a process that has been reinforced over the centuries. For example, Nigerian troop conscription during the First World War and the subsequent influenza pandemic caused a serious shortage of labour, particularly manpower. Women needed to grow more food, and cassava – more flexible and less labour-intensive than yam – was the natural choice, being also free from the cultural constraints that made yam the exclusive domain of men.

While no one would call cassava glamorous, plenty of women over the years have turned out to be quite happy that such a valuable crop ended up in their sphere of influence. While cassava is not often much of a cash crop in Africa, it is tough, resilient, and very useful for survival in difficult times. It thrives on poor soils where other plants struggle, and it survives droughts that leave other crops biting the dust. For many rural mothers, cassava is the crop that keeps their families alive.

The hard-working hands of Angelique Ipanga, a teacher and farmer, as she tends her cassava crop in Lukolela, Democratic Republic of Congo.

What better words to sing cassava’s praises than those of Flora Nwapa, Nigeria’s first female novelist, in her Cassava Song? In ancient Igbo tradition, women sing their work, singing it into being and into completion, and her poem is a tribute to those work-songs.

And here, we have another Nigerian to join the chorus of praise – watch Emmanuel Okogbenin, molecular plant breeder, on the importance of cassava:

While our spotlight on Nigeria thus far has been purely coincidental, let’s also not forget that Nigeria is the global cassava giant, being far and away the world’s biggest producer and consumer of cassava. But do buckle up and let’s cross the great ocean, to another part of the planet, for an equally captivating cassava story…

… legend has it that the first cassava was birthed by a human woman…”

Crossing continents: A virgin-born, Amazonian Snow White planted in the earth

Of course, cassava is not exclusively a female province – it is grown by both women and men farmers around the world. But can you blame us for imparting it with a special feminine mystique, when legend has it that the first cassava was birthed by a human woman caught at the confluence of two cultures?

Many centuries before the Europeans arrived, cassava – often known in the New World as manioc – sustained peoples and cultures throughout the tropical lowlands of the Americas. The Tupí people of Brazil tell how, many years ago, the daughter of a chief became pregnant. Although she said that she had not been with a man, her father did not believe her, and threatened to kill her if she did not tell him the name of the child’s father. When he slept, however, he dreamt of a white-skinned warrior who told him that his daughter was telling the truth, and that one day, she would bear a great gift for all his tribe.

The chief’s daughter gave birth to a little girl, Maní, whose skin was as white as the moon and eyes were as dark as the night. She grew into a happy and beautiful baby, but died suddenly after her first birthday. Her mother watered the grave every day, as was the custom, and one day, a strange plant grew there that no one had ever seen before. Later, the earth cracked open, and the Tupí people saw a fruit that was as white as the dead child. They drew it from the ground, peeled and cooked it, and to their surprise found that it was delicious, and even renewed their strength. They called it mandioca or manioca, meaning ‘House of Maní’.

It is a haunting tale, rich with echoes of the cultural upheavals that followed the coming of the Europeans, ancient fears of female impurity, and the realities of infant mortality. But it leaves one thing in no doubt: poor little Maní’s legacy was a precious treasure, not just for the Tupí but for the world.

Under the hot sun, the work goes on: a farmer tends her cassava crop in Colombia’s southwestern Cauca department.

Proud in pink and polka dots: a farmer shows off a healthy cassava leaf in a plantation in Kampong Cham, Cambodia.

A busy Bea grows her way to cassava glory – with a little help from her friends

Female farmer reloaded: Being a rural woman farmer does not mean you have to have dirt under your fingernails all the time. Here’s Bea looking as elegant and regal as any queen.

Ghanaian cassava researcher Elizabeth Parkes is no puny pushover, but even so she met her match in gutsy and determined farmer Bea. Elizabeth laughs as she remembers how the story began: “She hadn’t planted cassava before in her life, but she wanted to go into cassava production. She came to me – she pestered me actually! I was tired of it, because she didn’t know anything and it was a time when I was finishing my PhD, and I thought no, this lady cannot take this precious time from me.”

When most people think of a farmer, they probably think of a man in a straw hat. But in defiance of this stereotype, women make up 43 percent of the agricultural labour force in developing countries, rising to at least 50 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Asia. These millions of rural women have incredibly diverse lives, but a few things stay surprisingly constant. Female farmers tend to produce less than their male counterparts – not because they are worse at farming, but because they have less access to all kinds of resources and opportunities. These include anything from land itself to improved seed and new technologies, and from education and information to financial credit.

If this gap could be completely sealed, women could increase their harvests by 20 to 30 percent, translating to millions fewer hungry and malnourished people worldwide. Fortunately, with the right kind of support, female farmers can – and do – transform their lives in remarkable ways. Bea’s story came to just such a happy ending: with guidance from Elizabeth, her cassava-growing skills took off like a rocket, and she became so successful that she was recognised as the best farmer in her community. “These are things that make me glad… that at least I have impacted somebody who hadn’t planted cassava before, and it’s amazing,” says Elizabeth. “There are people out there who need us, and when we give them our best, they will give the world their best as well.”

Listen to Elizabeth in the podcast below, and you are bound to pick up her infectious enthusiasm!

When scientists like these come together, with a dash of the right support, marvellous things happen… cassava has been given a voice.”

Things Come Together

Elizabeth Parkes is a woman from Ghana, and Chiedozie Egesi is a man from Nigeria, himself of the Igbo people and a yam breeder in a past life. However, the two have a lot in common. They are dynamic African scientists with a passion for social justice, and for helping the poorest and most disadvantaged rural people through their work on cassava. When scientists like these come together, with a dash of the right support, marvellous things happen.

Read Elizabeth’s story here and more from her here, and catch up with Chiedozie here and here.

Cassava has traditionally been a forgotten ‘orphan’ in crop science research. Humble and unfashionable, it also has some special challenges for breeders, like its long growth cycle and complicated genetics, while its tough and uncomplaining nature meant that many people thought of it as an “anywhere, anyhow” crop – a very misleading myth, if ever there was one (with thanks to myth-buster Joseph Adjebeng, for that memorable cassava quote). Although the idea grew from a kernel of truth, cassava, like any other crop, needs a little love, and yields less when plagued by problems such as diseases or degraded and infertile soils. But, like Harry Potter, in recent years this orphan has come out from the cupboard under the stairs, and the magic has begun.

Wreathed in sunlight and smiles, a cassava farmer inspects her crop in Kratie, Cambodia.

Cassava’s no waif – luckily, as its tuberous roots are packed with staple carbohydrates. Here Ghanaian researcher, Elizabeth Parkes, shows off some huge and healthy cassava. These days Elizabeth is a pro when it comes to things crop-related, but it was not always so. “I remember we used to uproot volunteer cocoyam from a serious, busy lady farmer’s farm and we put it in our garden expecting to have a fast-growing plant overnight,” she admits. “The crops died and the busy woman farmer had to come and warn us never to step in her farm again. That was the first hard lesson learnt.” Elizabeth remains ready to learn, with a healthy respect for the knowledge and skills of the farmers she works with, an attitude she learned early on when she visited cocoa farms near her home town. “I loved the way farmers called colleagues by making unique sounds,” she says. “There are many paths to the farm but everyone knew the many routes to our many farms. This still amazes me.”

The plus side of cassava being neglected for so long is that it only needed a relatively small initial investment in local capacity-building and applying modern breeding methods to make a big impact, and set the ball rolling for serious cassava research. “GCP helped us to build an image for ourselves in Nigeria and in Africa, and this created a confidence in other global actors, who, on seeing our ability to deliver results, are choosing to invest in us,” explains Chiedozie.

His team have released new cassava varieties that are resistant to diseases and rich in pro-vitamin A, providing the vitamin A that is particularly important for small children and childbearing women. He believes that these have the potential to transform the lives of the people – mainly rural women – who grow them. “The food people grow should be nutritious, resistant and high-yielding enough to allow them sell some of it and make money for other things in life, such as building a house, getting a motorbike, or sending their kids to school,” he says.

Elizabeth agrees that a new, “blessed and privileged era” has begun for cassava. “Thanks to funders such as GCP, who recognised that we couldn’t afford to turn a blind eye to the plight of this struggling crop, cassava has been given a voice.”

It seems that things have come together for cassava at last, and for Elizabeth, the personal rewards of being able to make real impacts are great. “I see African communities where poverty and hunger are seemingly huge problems with no way out; I’m fortunate to be working on a crop whereby, if I put in enough effort, I can bring some solutions.”

After all, it seems that being a ‘woman’s crop’ might not be a put-down, but something to celebrate. Cassava has come a long way, from a pale princess lying under the earth, to a steadfast mother keeping the family going in the toughest of times, to a confident and majestic queen with a glorious reign ahead of her.

And so, for October 15th, in honour of the International Day of Rural Women, we crown her the Queen of Crops. Long live Queen Cassava!