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‘Milking’ cowpeas in Mozambique for protein and profit… plus a pox upon pests!

Africa, Capacity building, Cowpeas, Crop breeding, Genomics, Legumes No Responses »

May 302014

Rogério Chiulele

Today, we travel the Milky Way on a voyage to Mozambique. Our man along the Milky Way is Rogério Marcos Chiulele (pictured), a lecturer at Mozambique’s Universidade Eduardo Mondlane’s Crop Science Department. He is also the lead scientist for cowpea research in Mozambique for the Tropical Legumes I (TLI) project. This gives Rogério a crucial tri-focal down-to-earth and away-from-the-clouds perspective on cowpea pedagogy, research and development. It is through this pragmatic triple-lens prism that Rogerio speaks to us today, once he’s captained us safely back from the stars to Planet Earth, Southeast Africa. After the protein and profit, next stop for him and team is ridding cowpeas of pod-sucking pests, among other things slated for the future. But back from the future to the present and its rooted realities…Problems, yes, but also lots of good scores, plus a deft sleight of hand that are bound to have you starry-eyed, we bet.

…cowpeas rank fourth as the most cultivated crop…”

Q: Tell us about Mozambique and cowpeas: are they important?

The devastating effects of nematodes on cowpea roots.

In Mozambique, cowpeas are an important source of food, for both protein and profit, particularly for the resource-poor households that benefit from cowpea income and nutrition. In terms of cultivation, cowpeas rank fourth as the most cultivated crop after maize, cassava and groundnuts, accounting for about 9 percent of the total cultivated area, and estimated at nearly four million hectares of smallholder farms. The crop is produced for grain and leaves, mostly for household consumption but it is becoming increasingly important as a supplement for household income.

But while its potential for food, protein and income is recognised, the realisation of such potential is still limited by drought due to irregular and insufficient rain; affliction by pests such as aphids, flower thrips and nematodes; diseases such as cowpea aphid mosaic virus and cowpea golden mosaic virus; and cultivation of low-yielding and non-improved varieties.

…we backcross to varieties with traits that farmers prefer…”

Q: And on cowpea research and breeding?
Since 2008, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane [UEM] established a cowpea-breeding programme for addressing some of the limiting constraints affecting cowpea production and productivity. This has been possible through collaboration with different funding institutions such as the Generation Challenge Programme.

2008: Screening of the 300 genotypes.

That same year [2008], a UEM research team that I coordinate qualified for a GCP capacity-building à la carte grant. In this project, we screened 300 Mozambican cowpea lines for drought tolerance. From these, we identified 84 genotypes that were either high-yielding or drought-tolerant. We further evaluated the 84 genotypes for another three seasons in two locations. From the 84, we identified six genotypes that not only had the two sought-after traits, but were also adapted to different environments.

In 2010, the UEM team joined the TLI project. For the six pre-identified genotypes, the UEM breeding programme is using marker-assisted recurrent selection [MARS] and marker-assisted backcrossing [MABC], combining drought tolerance and resistance to major biotic stresses occurring in Mozambique. In MABC, we are conducting a backcross to varieties with traits that farmers prefer, which includes aspects such as large seeds, early maturity and high leaf production.

…we conducted a farmers’ participatory varietal selection to glean farmers’ perceptions and preferences on cowpea varieties and traits…”

Q: What is the main focus in your work, and how and when do farmers come in?
The breeding work conducted by UEM is targeting all Mozambican agroecologies, but with particular focus on southern Mozambique which is drought-prone. In addition to drought, the area is plagued by many pests such as aphids, flower thrips, nematodes and pod-sucking pests. So, in addition to drought tolerance, we are conducting screening and selection for resistance to aphids, flower thrips and nematodes. In the near future, we will start screening for resistance to pod-sucking pests.

2009: field screening of the 84 genotypes in diff locations.

2009: Rogério during field screening of the 84 genotypes in different locations.

In 2009, we conducted a farmers’ participatory varietal selection to glean farmers’ perceptions and preferences on cowpea varieties and traits. From the study, six of the lines passed participatory variety selection with farmers, as they were large-seeded with good leaf production which provides additional food.

we hope to release three varieties in 2015…Our involvement with GCP has not only increased our exposure, but also brought along tangible benefits… I firmly believe black-eyed peas can really make a difference.”

Q: To what would you attribute the successes your team is scoring, and what are your goals for the future, besides screening for pod-sucking pests?
The success of the work that the Eduardo Mondlane team is doing is partly due to the collaboration and partnership with USA’s University of California, Riverside [UCR]. UCR sent us 60 lines from the GCP cowpea reference set* [Editorial note: see explanation at the bottom], which we evaluated for drought tolerance for four seasons in two locations – one with average rainfall and the other drought-prone. As these lines were already drought-tolerant, we tested them for adaptation to the local environment, and for high yield. From the set, we hope to release three varieties in 2015. In addition, for evaluating the different varieties, we also crossed the local varieties with black-eyed peas, which have a huge market appeal: local varieties fetch roughly half a US dollar per kilo, compared to black-eyed peas whose price is in the region of four to five US dollars.

2013: multilocation trials.

Our involvement with GCP has not only increased our exposure, but also brought along tangible benefits. For example, previously, nothing was being done on drought tolerance for cowpeas. But now we receive and exchange material, for example, the black-eyed peas from UCR that we received through GCP, which are set to boost production and markets, thereby improving lives and livelihoods. Amongst the varieties we are proposing to release is one black-eye type. I firmly believe black-eyed peas can really make a difference.

In addition, besides funding a PhD for one of our researchers, Arsenio Ndeve, who is currently at UCR, the Generation Challenge Programme, contributed to improvement on storage and irrigation facilities. We purchased five deep freezers for seed storage and one irrigation pump. Presently, we have adequate storage facilities and we conduct trials even during the off-season, thanks to the irrigation pump provided by GCP.

****

And on that upbeat note even as the challenge ahead is immense, today’s chat with Rogério ends here. To both pod-sucking pests and all manner of plagues on cowpeas, beware, as thy days are numbered: it would seem that Rogério and team firmly say: “A pox on both your houses!”

*A ‘reference set’ is a sub-sample of existing germplasm collections that facilitates and enables access to existing crop diversity for desired traits, such as drought tolerance or resistance to disease or pests

Links

REPORT on Rogério’s groundbreaking cowpea research capacity-building project on pp 130–132 in this PDF. Excerpt: “This project was the first of this nature in the country.”
BLOGPOST: Cowpeas – uncowed and unbowed: believing that what could be can be, in breeding
BLOGPOST: Profile on Jeff Ehlers, previously TLI cowpea research leader, he talks of his past but also his TLI work in this post
Cowpea research | research products | blogposts
Legumes Research initiative | InfoCentre | blogposts
Capacity building

Cowpeas – uncowed and unbowed: believing that what could be can be, in breeding

Africa, Cowpeas, Legumes No Responses »

Apr 042014

Phil Roberts

Like its legume relatives, cowpeas belong to a cluster of crops that are still referred to in some spheres of the crop-breeding world as ‘orphan crops’. This, because they have largely been bypassed by the unprecedented advances that have propelled ‘bigger’ crops into the world of molecular breeding, endowed as they are with the genomic resources necessary. But as we shall hear from Phil Roberts (pictured), of the University of California–Riverside, USA, and also the cowpea research leader for the Tropical Legumes I Project (TLI), despite the prefix in the name, this ‘little kid’ in the ‘breeding block’ called cowpeas is uncowed and unbowed, confidently striding into the world of modern crop breeding, right alongside the ‘big boys’! What more on this new kid on the block of modern molecular breeding? Phil’s at hand to fill us in…

Vigna the VIP that shrinks with the violets
But is no shrinking violet, by any means, as we shall see. Also known as niébé in francophone Africa, and in USA as black-eyed peas (no relation to the musical group, however, hence no capitals!), this drought-tolerant ancient crop (Vigna unguiculata [L] Walp) originated in West Africa. It is highly efficient in fixing nitrogen in the unforgiving and dry sandy soils of the drier tropics. And that is not all. This modest VIP is not addicted to the limelight and is in fact outright lowly and ultra-social: like their fetching African counterpart in the flower family, the African violet, cowpeas will contentedly thrive under the canopy of others, blooming in the shade and growing alongside various cereal and root crops, without going suicidal for lack of limelight and being in the crowd. With such an easy-going personality, added to their adaptability, cowpeas have sprinted ahead to become the most important grain legume in sub-Saharan Africa for both subsistence and cash. But – as always – there are two sides to every story, and sadly, not all about cowpeas is stellar…

Improved varieties are urgently needed to narrow the gap between actual and potential yields… modern breeding techniques… can play a vital role”

A cowpea experimental plot at IITA.

What could be, and what molecular breeding has to do with it
Yields are low, only reaching a mere 10 to 30 percent of their potential, primarily because of insect- and disease-attack, sometimes further compounded by chronic drought in the desiccated drylands cowpeas generally call home. “Improved varieties are urgently needed to narrow the gap between actual and potential yields,” says Phil. The cowpea project he leads in TLI is implemented through GCP’s Legume Research Initiative. Phil adds, “Such varieties are particularly valuable on small farms, where costly agricultural inputs are not an option. Modern breeding techniques, resulting from the genomics revolution, can play a vital role in improving cowpea materials.”

He and his research team are therefore developing genomic resources that country-based breeding programmes can use. Target-country partners are Institut de l’Environnement et de Recherches Agricoles (INERA) in Burkina Faso; Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique; and Institut Sénégalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) in Senegal. Other partners are the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) headquartered in Nigeria and USA’s Feed the Future Innovation Labs for Collaborative Research on Grain Legumes and for Climate Resilient Cowpeas.

It’s a lot easier and quicker, and certainly less hit-or-miss than traditional methods!… By eliminating some phenotyping steps and identifying plants carrying positive-trait alleles for use in crossing, they will also shorten the time needed to breed better-adapted cowpea varieties preferred by farmers and markets.”

Cowpea seller at Bodija Market, Ibadan, Nigeria.

On target, and multiplying the score
[First, a rapid lesson on plant-genetics jargon so we can continue our story uninterrupted: ‘QTLs’ stands for quantitative trait loci, a technical term in quantitative genetics to describe the locations where genetic variation is associated with variation in a quantitative trait. QTL analysis estimates how many genes control a particular trait. ‘Allele’ means an alternative form of a the same gene. Continuing with the story…]

The curved shape means that these cowpea pods are mature and ready for harvesting.

Culinary curves and curls: the curved shape means that these cowpea pods are mature and ripe for harvesting.

“We first verified 30 cowpea lines as sources of drought tolerance and pest resistance,” Phil recalls. “Using molecular markers, we can identify the genomic regions of the QTLs that are responsible for the desired target phenotype, and stack those QTLs to improve germplasm resistance to drought or pests. It’s a lot easier and quicker, and certainly less hit-or-miss than traditional methods! However, standing alone, QTLs are not the silver bullet in plant breeding. What happens is that QTL information complements visual selection. Moreover, QTL discovery must be based on accurate phenotyping information, which is the starting point, providing pointers on where to look within the cowpea genome. Molecular breeding can improve varieties for several traits in tandem,” suggests Phil. “Hence, farmers can expect a more rapid delivery of cowpea varieties that are not only higher-yielding, but also resistant to several stresses at once.”

And what are Phil and team doing to contribute to making this happen?

“The genomic resources from Phase I – especially genotyping platforms and QTL knowledge – are being used in Phase II of the TLI Project to establish breeding paradigms, using molecular breeding approaches,” Phil reveals. He adds that these approaches include marker-assisted recurrent selection (MARS) and marker assisted back-crossing (MABC). “These paradigms were tested in the cowpea target countries in Africa,” Phil continues. “By eliminating some phenotyping steps and identifying plants carrying positive-trait alleles for use in crossing, they will also shorten the time needed to breed better-adapted cowpea varieties preferred by farmers and markets.”

… best-yielding lines will be released as improved varieties… others will be used…as elite parents…”

Future work
What of the future? Phil fills us in: “The advanced breeding lines developed in TLI Phase II are now entering multi-location performance testing in the target African countries. It is expected that best-yielding lines will be released as improved varieties, while others will be used in the breeding programmes as elite parents for generating new breeding lines for cowpeas.”

Clearly then, the job is not yet done, as the ultimate goal is to deliver better cowpeas to farmers. But while this goal is yet to be attained and – realistically – can only be some more years down the road, it is also equally clear that Phil and his team have already chalked up remarkable achievements in the quest to improve cowpeas. They hope to continue pressing onwards and upwards in the proposed Tropical Legumes III Project, the anticipated successor to TLI and its twin project TLII – Tropical Legumes II.

Links

Cowpea research | research products | blogposts
Legumes Research initiative | InfoCentre | blogposts
BLOGPOST: Profile on Jeff Ehlers, previously TLI cowpea research leader, he talks of his past but also his TLI work in this post
SLIDES: below…

GRM 2013: Improve cowpea productivity for marginal environments in sub-Saharan Africa — P Roberts from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

PAG XXII 2014 – Genomic resources applied to marker-assisted breeding in cowpeas – BL Huynh from CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme

California’s ‘Constant Gardener’, cowpea crusader and catapult constructor

Africa, Capacity building, Cowpeas, Genetics, Genomics, Legumes, Researchers 2 Responses »

Mar 202014

Jeff Ehlers

Our guest today is Jeff Ehlers (pictured), Programme Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jeff’s an old friend of GCP, most familiar to the GCP community in his immediate past stomping grounds at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), USA, leading our research to improve cowpea production in the tropics, for which sunny California offers a perfect spot for effective phenotyping. Even then, Jeff was not new to CGIAR, as we’ll see from his career crossings. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves in narrating Jeff’s tale. First, what would high-end cowpea research have to do with crusading and catapults? Only Jeff can tell us, so please do read on!

The GCP model was a very important way of doing business for CGIAR and the broader development community, enabling partnerships between international research institutes, country programmes and CGIAR. This is particularly important as the possibilities of genomics-led breeding become even greater…If anything, we need to see more of this collaborative model.”

Growing green, sowing the seed, trading glory for grassroots
Growing up in USA’s Golden State of California, green-fingered Jeff had a passion for cultivating the land rather than laboratory samples, harbouring keen ambitions to become a farmer. This did not change with the years as he transited from childhood to adolescence. The child grew into a youth who was an avid gardener: in his student days, Jeff threw his energy into creating a community garden project ‒ an initiative which promptly caught the eye of his high school counsellor, who suggested Jeff give the Plant Science Department at UCR a go for undergraduate studies.

And thus the seeds of a positively blooming career in crop research were sown. However, remaining true to the mission inspired by his former community-centred stomping grounds, a grassroots focus triumphed over glory-hunting for Jeff, who – no stranger to rolling his sleeves up and getting his fingers into the sod – found himself, when at the University of California, Davis, for his advanced studies, embarking on what was to become a lifelong undertaking, first at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and then at UCR, dedicated to a then under-invested plant species straggler threatening to fall by the research world’s wayside. With a plethora of potential genomic resources and modern breeding tools yet to be tapped into, Jeff’s cowpea crusade had begun in earnest…

GCP’s TLI was essential in opening that door and putting us on the path to increased capability – both for cowpea research enablement and human capacity”

Straggler no more: stardom beckons, and a place at the table for the ‘orphan’
And waiting in the wings to help Jeff along his chosen path was the Generation Challenge Programme (GCP), which, in 2007, commissioned Jeff’s team to tackle the cowpea component of the flagship Tropical Legumes I (TLI) project, implemented by GCP under the Legumes Research Initiative. TLI is mainly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The significance of this project, Jeff explains, was considerable: “The investment came at a very opportune time, and demonstrated great foresight on the part of both GCP and the Foundation.” Prior to this initiative, he further explains, “there had been no investment by anyone else to allow these orphan crops to participate in the feast of technologies and tools suddenly available and that other major crops were aggressively getting into. Before GCP and Gates funding for TLI came along, it was impossible to think about doing any kind of modern breeding in the orphan grain legume crops. GCP’s TLI was essential in opening that door and putting us on the path to increased capability – both for cowpea research enablement and human capacity.”

Flashback: UCR cowpea team in 2009. Left to right: Wellington Muchero, Ndeye Ndack Diop (familiar, right?!), Raymond Fenton, Jeff Ehlers, Philip Roberts and Timothy Close in a greenhouse on the UCR campus, with cowpeas in the background. Ndeye Ndack and Jeff seem to love upstaging each other. She came to UCR as a postdoc working under Jeff, then she moved to GCP, with oversight over the TLI project, thereby becoming Jeff’s boss, then he moved to the Foundation with oversight over TLI. So, what do you think might be our Ndeye Ndack’s next stop once GCP winds up in 2014? One can reasonably speculate….!

Of capacity building, genomics and ‘X-ray’ eyes
This capacity-building cornerstone – which, in the case of the TLI project, is mainly funded by the European Commission – is, says Jeff, a crucial key to unlocking the potential of plant science globally. “The next generation of crop scientists ‒ particularly breeders ‒ need to be educated in the area of genomics and genomics-led breeding.”

While stressing the need for robust conventional breeding efforts, Jeff continues: ”Genomics gives the breeder X-ray eyes into the breeding programme, bringing new insights and precision that were previously unavailable.”

In this regard, Jeff has played a leading role in supporting skill development and organising training for his team members and colleagues across sub-Saharan Africa, meaning that partners from Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Senegal, among others, are now, in Phase II of the TLI project, moving full steam ahead with marker-assisted and backcross legume breeding at national level, thanks to the genotyping platform and genetic fingerprints from Phase I of the project. The genotyping platform, which is now publicly available to anyone looking to undertake marker-assisted breeding for cowpeas, is being widely used by research teams not only in Africa but also in China. Thanks in part then to Jeff and his team, the wheels of the genomics revolution for cowpeas are well and truly in motion.

Undergoing the transition from phenotypic old-school plant breeder to modern breeder with all the skills required was a struggle…it was challenging to teach others the tools when I didn’t know them myself!…without GCP, I would not have been able to grow in this way.”

Talking about a revolution, comrades-in-arms, and a master mastering some more
But as would be expected, the road to revolution has not always been entirely smooth. Reflecting on some of the challenges he encountered in the early TLI days, and highlighting the need to invest not only in new students, but also in upgrading the existing skills of older scientists, Jeff tells of a personal frustration that had him battling it out alongside the best of them: “Undergoing the transition from phenotypic old-school plant breeder to modern breeder with all the skills required was a struggle,” he confides, continuing: “It was challenging to teach others the tools when I didn’t know them myself!”

Thus, in collaboration with his cowpea comrades from the global North and South, Jeff braved the steep learning curve before him, and came out on the other side smiling – an accomplishment he is quick to credit to GCP: “It was a very interesting and fruitful experience, and without GCP, I would not have been able to grow in this way,” he reveals. Holding the collaborative efforts facilitated by the broad GCP network particularly dear, Jeff continues: “The GCP model was a very important way of doing business for CGIAR and the broader development community, enabling partnerships between international research institutes, country programmes and CGIAR. This is particularly important as the possibilities of genomics-led breeding become even greater…If anything, we need to see more of this collaborative model.”

GCP’s Integrated Breeding Platform addresses the lack of modern breeding skills in the breeding community as a whole, globally…The Platform provides extremely valuable and much-needed resources for many public peers around the world, especially in Africa…”

One initiative which has proved especially useful in giving researchers a leg up in the mastery of modern breeding tools, Jeff asserts, is GCP’s Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP): “IBP addresses the lack of modern breeding skills in the breeding community as a whole, globally. By providing training in the use of genomic tools that are becoming available, from electronic capture of data through to genotyping, phenotyping, and all the way to selective decision-making and analysis of results, IBP will play a critical role in helping folks to leverage on the genomics revolution that’s currently unfolding,” Jeff enthuses, expanding: “The Platform provides extremely valuable and much-needed resources for many public peers around the world, especially in Africa where such one-off tools that are available commercially would be otherwise out of reach.”

Conqueror caparisoned to catapult: life on the fast lane and aiming higher
Well-versed in conquering the seemingly unobtainable, Jeff shares some pearls of wisdom for young budding crop scientists:”Be motivated by the mission, and the ideas and the science, and not by what’s easy, or by what brings you the most immediate gratification,” he advises, going on to explain: “Cowpeas have been through some really tough times. Yet, my partners and I stuck it out, remained dedicated and kept working.” And the proof of Jeff’s persistence is very much in the pudding, with his team at UCR having become widely acclaimed for their success in catapulting cowpeas into the fast lane of crop research.

It was a success that led him to the hallways of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where, after two decades at UCR, Jeff is currently broadening his legume love affair to also embrace beans, groundnuts, chickpeas, pigeonpeas and soya beans.

February 2014: Jeff donning his new Gates hat (albeit with a literal ICRISAT cap on). Behind him is a field of early maturing pigeonpea experiment at ICRISAT India.

February 2014: Jeff donning his (now-not-so-)new Gates hat and on the road, visiting ICRISAT in India. Behind him is an ICRISAT experimental field of early-maturing pigeonpeas. Here, our conquering crusader is ‘helmeted’ in an ICRISAT cap, even if not horsed and caparisoned for this ‘peacetime’ pigeonpea mission!

On his future professional aspirations, he says: “The funding cut-backs for agriculture which started before 1990 or so gutted a lot of the capacity in the public sector, both in the national programmes in Africa but also beyond. I hope to play a role in rebuilding some of the capacity to ensure that people take full advantage of the technical resources available, and to enable breeding programmes to function at a higher level than they do now.”

Jeff (foreground) inspecting soya bean trials in Kakamega, Kenya, in January 2013. Next to Jeff is Emmanuel Monyo, the coordinator of the Tropical Legumes II (TLII) project – TLI’s twin – whose brief is seed multiplication. TLII is therefore responsible for translating research outputs from TLI into tangible products in the form of improved legume varieties.

Whilst it’s been several years since he donned his wellington boots for the gardening project of his youth, what’s clear in this closing statement is an unremitting and deeply ingrained sense of community spirit – albeit with a global outlook – and a fight for the greater good that remain at the core of Jeff’s professional philosophy today.

No doubt, our cowpea champion and his colleagues have come a long way, with foundations now firmly laid for modern breeding in the crop on a global scale, and – thanks to channels now being established to achieve the same for close relatives of the species – all signs indicate that the best is yet to come!

Links

Cowpea research
Cowpea research products
Legume Research Initiative
Legumes InfoCentre
At the time we published this post, this is where Jeff was
Check out Jeff’s new perch: see more of what he’s been up to – and with whom he’s been hobnobbing – through these thousand-words-worth photos.

A grand gathering: General Research Meeting (GRM) 2013

Closing GCP, Crop breeding, Events No Responses »

Nov 122013

Participants at the 2013 GRM. High-resolution version on Flickr: http://bit.ly/1fxhkmQ

Participants at the 2013 GRM. High-resolution version on our Flickr account.

The General Research Meeting (GRM) is by far the largest and most important event on our calendar. This year’s GRM was held on September 27‒30 2013, with 135 people from 35 countries attending (see list).

Various presentations were made on progress and next steps on research in GCP projects, including for GCP’s Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP). Focus was on GCP’s nine focus crops in Phase II – beans, cassava, chickpeas, cowpeas, groundnuts, maize, rice, sorghum and wheat, with the poster sessions adding a couple more (see ‘sixty posters’ below). You can view the presentations made on our website (to see them in the context of the overall agenda), or on SlideShare (all gathered in one place). We have uploaded all but one presentation, where we’re still waiting for the presenter’s permission to publish. A comprehensive update on all GCP projects is here (PDF). The meeting was a blend of plenary sessions on core topics and research updates, and ‘drill-down’ breakouts on crops, data management and capacity building (the last two, in the context of IBP’s proposed Phase II, which had its own dedicated one-day stakeholder meeting after GRM, on 1st October).

Social were we…but we also did some heavy lifting
We didn’t just talk to ourselves: we made a bit of noise on social media to also bring in other voices into the GRM discourse and chit-chat, using the hashtag #GRM13, creating a good buzz of conversations. Also linking in to GRM were our LinkedIn followers. And neither was it all business, science and rigid structure: there was free-flow too, with an open afternoon where participants could take a relaxing break, organise their own meetings, or take a tour to Lisbon. Some of the scenes from the tour are posted on Flickr, as are other snapshots from the meeting. We’ve since gathered up some of the social media posts on Storify.

GRM was far from its grim-sounding abbreviation and hashtag on social media: exemplifying the best of the ‘GCP spirit’, the sessions were engaging, relaxed, conversational and spiced with humour and a light touch, despite the ‘heavy’ topics under discussion (see agenda). But the topic at hand was grim, since the situation is dire – drought affects almost all crops and all regions worldwide. As drought tolerance is our key focus since inception, most of the discussions naturally centred on this topic. Equally important is the scourge wrought by pests and disease, which afflict some crops more than others. For example, under most circumstance, cassava is naturally very drought-tolerant, but what good will this do if cassava survives drought only to succumb to the deadly pests and diseases that stalk this drought champion?

Sunset and ‘moon-rise’
GRM was also a time for both stocktaking and mapping the future given GCP’s sunset in 2014. A central and recurring theme was GCP’s transition strategy, and how – and where – to embed GCP-initiated projects that will extend beyond the Programme’s lifetime. For this, the CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) are a natural first choice. GRM enjoyed a very good representation of the CRPs, with all six crop CRPs represented, some at the highest level.

A few members of our Executive Board also attended. Board Chair, Andrew Bennett, set the right tone for the meeting. In his remarks at the opening session, he emphasised that this was not a time for sadness, swan songs and moping as GCP approaches sunset. Rather, it was a time to appreciate the beauty of sunsets, in the sure knowledge that sunsets give rise to moon-rise!

A section of Poster Session II presenters. IN the foreground, Andrew Bennett, Chair, GCP Excecutive Board.

A section of Poster Session II presenters. In the foreground, Andrew Bennett, Chair, GCP Executive Board.

“Say it succinctly in sixty seconds!”
The poster session was as lively as always, with a record of… (hold your breath!) 60 posters presented, surpassing the previous GRM in 2011 which attracted 53 posters.

Perfection! Sixty posters for sixty seconds
Sixty was a PERFECT number for the 60-second sizzle, where each poster presenter had a maximum of 60 seconds (and not a second more!) to present at plenary, devising whichever means necessary to attract the audience to their poster. It was easy to discern the brash ‘old hands’ who had perfected their art after several GRMs; the tricksters and various reincarnations of The Artful Dodger amongst them, trying to beat the clock; new and slightly jittery presenters who were more than just a little bewildered but still proved their mettle; and the new, sassy and confident. This beautiful blend apart, the poster session brought in not only new faces to add to the familiar ones, but also refreshing new tastes to diversify and sweeten our Staple of Nine crops. To our diet of cereals, legumes and tubers, poster presenters from The Philippines added eggplants, rounded off with bananas for dessert.

“Definitely time for dessert, and do not disturb!” they seem to be saying. Jean-Christophe Glaszmann (left) and Hei Leung (right), who played ace roles on a multi-partner GCP project on bananas.

♫ Welcome to the Hotel California! ♫…
As always, GRM was a mingling of old and new friends, a time for some paths to meet and for new forks to branch out, a season to reflectively look back and progressively face forwards. In keeping with Andrew’s continuity of sunsets giving way to moonrise, we said a group goodbye to Rajeev Varshney, former Genomics Theme Leader, who left the GCP Management Team in August. And we were happy to once again welcome, embrace and recognise two old friends – Jean Christophe Glaszmann (CIRAD) and Hei Leung (IRRI), who were, respectively ex-Subprogramme Leaders for genetic diversity and genomics in GCP Phase I, and continue to be involved with GCP as researchers, as will Rajeev.

In this picture, we caught up with them at a very appropriate moment: dessert during the Gala Dinner. Take it from us, these two guys are well versed in matters dessert, with a dash of science, as this blast from the past on bananas attests, also summarised in a Facebook photo-story here.

We are indeed a Hotel California of sorts – always open for check-in and checkout. As for leaving…we’re still working on the modalities of that!

And despite the fond farewell, truth is Rajeev is not going anywhere either, as far as GCP is concerned. You only needed to have been at GRM or following the conversations on Facebook and Twitter, especially the photos, to witness this. He was (delightfully!) all over the place, passing on his ‘positive epidemic’ of highly infectious enthusiasm and incredible energy. Here he is in action at the Gala Dinner in the photos below, which really need no caption. We’re sure you’ll be able to easily spot Rajeev, ‘high-fivin’ and ‘rapping’, eclipsing the GCP Director, who however appears quite pleased in his lower perch with Rajeev on the platform. But if you’re truly lost and can’t spot the super-charged high-energy guy in the photos, no worries! Here are some handy clues.

In distinguished company
Rajeev’s energy goes beyond GRM and GCP; this year as in previous ones, he received several awards, among them, the Young Crop Scientist Award by Crop Science Society of America, and the Illumina Agriculture Greater Good Initiative Award.

Hari Upadhyaya

Prior to these recognitions during the Gala Dinner, Jean-Marcel formally honoured ICRISAT’s Hari Upadhyaya (pictured) during plenary for two awards Hari had received in the course of the year, also from the Crop Science Society of America. These awards were for Hari’s notable contributions – at international level – to crop science, and to plant genetic resources.

Hari is a long-term GCP Principal Investigator, working primarily on sorghum. But that is not the only crop he works on. Hari was the lead author of the joint chickpea and pigeonpea chapter in our book on drought phenotyping.

Evaluation
Unlike other GRMs where we’ve requested participants to evaluate the meeting, we did not do so this year, since this is very likely the last meeting of its kind, and the goal of the evaluation is to use participant feedback to improve future meetings. With the help of our participants, we’ve applied the lessons we’ve learnt from them through the years to arrive at what we believe to be a winning combination, balancing the diverse interests of our participants for overall improvement of their GRM experience.

Paradise left… then regained: A lifelong passion for plants, and plant science

Asia, Crop breeding, Genetics, Genomics, Researchers, Rice No Responses »

Jan 232013

Abdelbagi Ismail

I was forever inquisitive as to how things grew, and questioning when they didn’t grow well. I think it’s what got me interested in plant science.”
– Abdelbagi Ismail, Plant Physiologist and Principal Scientist, International Rice Research Institute.

Today, we talk to Abdel. His riveting voyage in plant science starts on the bountiful banks of the Nile, before we sail on to Asia’s ricelands. We’ll make a short stopover in USA for cowpeas and drought in between, then proceed to to our main meal of rice, spiced and seasoned with a strong dash of salt-and-P.

It’s not just about food, but also family: you’ll get to meet a sister Challenge Programme along the way. Intrigued? We hope so, so please do read on!

‘A’ for Abdel and agriculture – an early passion for plants
From a tender age, Abdel was fascinated by agriculture.

Growing up on a small family farm backing onto the banks of the Nile in the Northern State of Sudan, he helped his parents in tilling the land, sowing and harvesting.

Abdel reminisces, “It was a relaxing paradise with all types of fruit growing around you year-round. Working and living on a farm, I was forever inquisitive as to how things grew, and questioning when they didn’t grow well. I think it’s what got me interested in plant science.”

Armed with a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Agricultural Sciences (agronomy, crop production, water relations) from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, Abdel moved to the University of California, Riverside, USA, for a PhD on drought tolerance in cowpeas.

“It was the first time I had ever left Africa, and it was a real eye-opener,” Abdel recalls. “It was a fantastic new page in my career too, as I was working with world-class professors and mentors. I chose to work on cowpeas because it is a hardy crop that can be grown in dry conditions which were – and still are – becoming more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa.” (you can take a sidetrack here, to see our research on cowpeas)

What interests me is how some societies have survived, and, in some cases, flourished because they invested in improving their plants and crops to adapt and adjust to weather adversities.”

Navigating away from the Nile, and discovering his niche
For this native son of the Nile, this move was a watershed. It marked the start of a dedicated – and still ongoing – career quest to understand how plants can adapt to better tolerate extreme environmental stresses such as higher and lower temperatures, too much or too little water, salinity, and nutrient imbalances.

“Abiotic stresses have had, and continue to have, a major impact on human life, with some societies disappearing altogether because of changes in soils or climate,” says Abdel. “What interests me is how some societies have survived, and, in some cases, flourished because they invested in improving their plants and crops to adapt and adjust to weather adversities.”

From time immemorial, the communities around the Nile where Abdel spent his childhood are a prime example of this flourishing against adversity.

IRRI beckons, and nurtures
In 2000, Abdel accepted a position at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in The Philippines.

Abdel inspects cyclone-damaged rice in Isladi Village, southern Bangladesh.

“I saw it as an opportunity to convert knowledge and scientific discoveries into resources that could help needy farmers,” explains Abdel.

Abdel confesses that when he joined IRRI, his intention was to stay for a short stint and then move on. But as he became more involved in his work, he felt IRRI offered him the best opportunity to build his career, and to contribute to global food-security issues.

“I’ve been here for 12 years now. IRRI really is a great place to grow as a person and a researcher, and to learn how to become a leader.”

Having GCP provide ongoing funding and support for public institutions to conduct a long-term project has been pivotal to the success of the project. It has given us all the security we need to focus on conducting the complex research required…”

Trailblazing for GCP : a much-needed dash of ‘salt-and-P’
In 2004, Abdel proposed a collaborative project between nine different research organisations, across seven countries, to improve salt tolerance and phosphorus uptake efficiency in rice. The work was funded by a sister CGIAR Challenge Programme on Water and Food (CPWF).

This work caught – and held – GCP’s attention, because it sought to overcome a problem that negatively affects the lives of tens of thousands of rice growers around the world. The two resultant GCP-funded IRRI-led projects involved partners from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Vietnam and USA’s University of California, Davis. Globally, more than 15 million hectares of ricelands are saline, and more than one-third of all ricelands are phosphorus-deficient, hitting poor communities hardest.

In the nine years since, and together with his colleagues and partners, Abdel has developed the proposal into a productive and coherent suite of interconnected projects: he has managed and overseen most of the progress made during the discovery of the genes associated with salinity tolerance (Saltol) and phosphorus uptake (Pup1), and their insertion into well-known rice varieties that farmers in Bangladesh, Indonesia and The Philippines know and trust.

It’s all about rice: salt tolerance (Saltol) ‘meets’ phosphorus uptake (Pup1) in Bangladesh. Abdel is on the extreme right. Next to him is Sigrid Heuer, Principal Investigator of the ‘Pup1’ work.

Keeping the faith, and going where no rice has gone before…
A long-term horizon helps, since, just like art, science cannot be hurried: “Having GCP provide ongoing funding and support for public institutions to conduct a long-term project has been pivotal to the success of the project,” Abdel emphasises.

“It has given us all the security we need to focus on conducting the complex research required to advance our knowledge about these genes, then breed and develop popular varieties containing then. In some cases, we have developed lines with doubled yields, and grown rice in areas where it has never been grown before because the land was too saline.”

For Abdel, such achievements are heartening as they provide farmers with greater food and income security, which in turn improves their and their community’s livelihoods.

“It brings a smile to my face whenever I think about how our work helps to produce higher-yielding crops for poverty-stricken countries whose farmers often can only afford to grow one crop per year,” says Abdel sincerely.

Abdel continues to build upon, and has even employed, partners he has met through the GCP project…”We want to improve their capacity to take up new breeding techniques, such as the use of molecular markers, which can reduce the time it takes to breed new varieties from six to 10 years to two to three years…”

Continually building on the best
So what’s in store for the future?

Having discovered the Saltol gene and developed experimental lines, his team is now training breeders from country breeding programmes on how they can successfully breed for salt tolerance and tolerance of other abiotic stresses using their own popular varieties, thereby fortifying popular varieties with these much-needed tolerance traits.

“We want to improve their capacity to take up new breeding techniques, such as the use of molecular markers, which can reduce the time it takes to breed new varieties from six to 10 years to two to three years,” reveals Abdel. “This will allow them to breed for crops quicker, in response to ever-changing and extreme climate conditions.”

As for his other projects with IRRI, Abdel continues to build upon, and has even employed, partners he has met through the GCP project to help him with his Stress tolerant rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) project.

GCP helped IRRI attract support from other funders…”

Going further, faster, together… five and counting, still learning, and the future looks bright
STRASA is almost five years old and has another five years left to run.

“GCP helped IRRI to attract additional support from other funders, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to start STRASA, which seeks to support the development and distribution of stress-tolerant varieties in Africa and South Asia,” Abdel explains.

Abdel’s parting words? “I’m still committed to understand how plants can be manipulated to adapt to, and better tolerate, extreme environmental stresses, which seems more feasible today than it has ever been before.”

Links

For an early history of Abdel’s work (2005–2006) see pp 36–40 here, and pp 26–28 here
Abdel’s research partners in Bangladesh and Indonesia
Complementary research and findings on improving rice phosphorus uptake