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TAFSSA stakeholder mapping: Climate change adaptation policy and awareness in Bangladesh
No full textBuilding on insights from the network mapping workshop, this analysis provides a comprehensive perspective on Bangladesh's climate adaptation network within the agrifood system, including the crop, livestock, and aquaculture sectors. The study presents a high-level understanding of the diverse stakeholders—organizations, institutions, and individuals from both the public and private sectors—who play critical roles in the stewardship of land and water resources and the promotion of climate adaptation strategies. The central research question guiding this mapping exercise is: Who are the primary organizations, institutions, and individuals in the public and private sectors that influence land and water resources conservation and climate change adaptation, with a focus on agricultural production, marketing and consumption systems in Bangladesh? Through this analysis, we aim to explain the interconnected patterns that emerge within the climate adaptation sub-system, identifying the pivotal drivers, persistent barriers, and systemic gaps that shape stakeholder interactions. These insights are critical to identifying actionable intervention points that can lead to meaningful and sustained transformation across the agrifood system, ultimately supporting enhanced resilience, nutritional outcomes, and adaptive capacity in the face of climate change.18 page
Hedging eroding slopes in Malawi – Can the integration of contour bunds and perennial forages improve Malawian mixed farming system productivity?
No full text22 page
Spatial and temporal distribution of optimal maize sowing dates in Nigeria
No full textClimate change and inter-annual variability cause variation in rainfall commencement and cessation which has consequences for the maize growing season length and thus impact yields. This study therefore sought to determine the spatially explicit optimum maize sowing dates to enable site specific recommendations in Nigeria. Gridded weather and soil data, crop management and cultivar were used to simulate maize yield from 1981–2019 at a scale of 0.5°. A total of 37 potential sowing dates between 1 March and 7 November at an interval of 7 days for each year were evaluated. The optimum sowing date was the date which maximizes yield at harvest, keeping all other management factors constant. The results show that optimum sowing dates significantly vary across the country with northern Nigeria having notably delayed sowing dates compared to southern Nigeria which has earlier planting dates. The long-term optimal sowing dates significantly (p<0.05), shifted between the 1980s (1981–1990), and current (2011–2019), for most of the country. The most optimum planting dates of southern Nigeria shifted to later sowing dates while most optimum sowing dates of central and northern Nigeria shifted to earlier sowing dates. There was more variation in optimum sowing dates in the wetter than the drier agro-ecologies. Changes in climate explain changes in sowing dates in wetter agro-ecologies compared to drier agro-ecologies. The study concludes that the optimum sowing dates derived from this study and the corresponding methodology used to generate them can be used to improve cropping calendars in maize farming in Nigeria
Socially inclusive decision support tool for smallholder sustainable intensification and soil health
No full text8 page
Crop production diversity or market access?: Welfare outcomes among sorghum-growing households in rural Kenya and Uganda
No full textIn market-constrained environments such as those found in dryland agroecologies, farm families face the decision to self-provision for diet diversity through crop diversification or to specialize in a few crop (non-agriculture) enterprises based on market exchange. However, the latter strategy is constrained by the usual market access problems prevalent in rural Africa (especially in dryland geolocations). This study contributes to the ongoing development discourse and research by examining the welfare effects of greater market access and participation compared to farm production diversity in rural Kenya and Uganda. Using crosssectional data from 2,398 households and three novel instrumental variables to isolate empirical correlates between market access and production diversity (as LHS variables) and diet diversity and food security, we find that both market participation and production diversity positively impact food security and welfare. One unit increase in farm production diversiy is associated with a 20.8% increase in the value of food consumed from farm. In contrast, in villages with stronger market links, farm diversity significantly affects the value of food purchases. A 10% increase in sorghum market participation is associated with a small increase in household diet diversity (2.02%), the value of food purchases only in villages where there are limited grain market opportunities. A 10% market participation of sorghum is though associated with a 15% increases farm expenditure in villages with weak market links. However, in villages with stronger market links, market participation negatively affects food purchases. Promoting market participation alone may heighten inequality if market infrastructure is weak
Genetic dissection of value-added quality traits and agronomic parameters through genome-wide association mapping in bread wheat (T. aestivum L.)
No full textBread wheat (T. aestivum) is one of the world's most widely consumed cereals. Since micronutrient deficiencies are becoming more common among people who primarily depend upon cereal-based diets, a need for better-quality wheat varieties has been felt. An association panel of 154 T. aestivum lines was evaluated for the following quality traits: grain appearance (GA) score, grain hardness (GH), phenol reaction (PR) score, protein percent, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) sedimentation value, and test weight (TWt). In addition, the panel was also phenotyped for grain yield and related traits such as days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, and thousand kernel weight for the year 2017-18 at the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) Ludhiana and Jabalpur sites. We performed a genome-wide association analysis on this panel using 18,351 genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) markers to find marker-trait associations for quality and grain yield-related traits. We detected 55 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker trait associations (MTAs) for quality-related traits on chromosomes 7B (10), 1A (9), 2A (8), 3B (6), 2B (5), 7A (4), and 1B (3), with 3A, 4A, and 6D, having two and the rest, 4B, 5A, 5B, and 1D, having one each. Additionally, 20 SNP MTAs were detected for yield-related traits based on a field experiment conducted in Ludhiana on 7D (4) and 4D (3) chromosomes, while 44 SNP MTAs were reported for Jabalpur on chromosomes 2D (6), 7A (5), 2A (4), and 4A (4). Utilizing these loci in marker-assisted selection will benefit from further validation studies for these loci to improve hexaploid wheat for better yield and grain quality
Farmer’s reflection on most promising cropping patterns from the TAFSSA on-station research trial at BWMRI, Dinajpur: Comparing diversified cropping patterns in Dinajpur, Bangladesh
No full textSmallholder farmers in Bangladesh primarily engage in rice cultivation during the kharif season with additional crops like maize, mustard, and vegetables grown in the rabi season. Now a days concern has been raised over the sustainability of this system due to natural resource degradation (tillage practices, high wages of labor and overuses of ground water), reduction in profitability and declining yield growth rates. This research note summarizes the farmers reflections from the farmer’s focus group discussion on agronomic research platform trial after the first complete cropping cycle. The trial was established at the Bangladesh Wheat and Maize Research Institute (BWMRI) in Dinajpur, Bangladesh in August 2022.8 page
Bio-detective: a cutting-edge approach for unveiling Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT) in wheat seeds
No full textTo choose healthy seeds from a seed lot, an experiment was done to determine whether and how much wheat seeds had the blast pathogen. Total 145 wheat seed samples were gathered from three upazilas in Bangladesh’s Meherpur district in the winter of 2019-Meherpur Sadar, Mujibnagar, and Gangni. Seeds were checked for any seed infection using a stereo-binocular microscope while incubated in moist blotter paper at room temperature (25°C±1). Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT) growth was confirmed by pathological analysis for any growth that was visible under stereo-binocular. 35 samples out of 145 were infected with MoT, with severity ranging from 2-16%. A PCR was conducted using the primers MoT3 and Pot2a on fungal isolates from seeds with varying amounts of MoT infection (0, 5, 10, and 20%). Monomorphic bands of 350 bp and 361 bp were obtained by agarose (1.5%) gel electrophoresis. This proved the seed infection was caused by Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum, as seen in the moist blotter. MoT3 and Pot2a primer were used to analyze 12 samples, finding 10 infected wheat samples, 1 seemingly healthy wheat seed sample, and 1 infected rice blast sample. According to the findings, 6 samples-including the one that was sampled and appeared to be in good health-clearly amplified bands of 350 bp by MoT3 primer, and seven samples amplified bands of 361 bp by Pot2a primer. This study’s findings show that the moist blotter technique effectively detects MoT presence in wheat seeds, offering farmers a tool to determine seed suitability for planting.61-6
Variation of the ferulic acid concentration and kernel weight in CIMMYT bread wheat germplasm and selection of lines for functional food production
No full textInvestigating the variation in ferulic acid concentration (FAC) is crucial for developing functional wheat products with potential health benefits. This study examined the variation in FAC of 267 advanced breeding lines from the International Bread Wheat Screening Nursery (IBWSN) across three different environments. The results revealed a wide range of FAC values, with measurements ranging from 590.47 to 943.81 μg/g in Gansu, 497.04–893.47 μg/g in Inner Mongolia, and 435.54–986.43 μg/g in Xinjiang. These FAC values were found to be comparable to those of present wheat varieties. Estimated broad-sense heritability of FAC was 0.68, indicating that genotypic factors play a major role in determining FAC. The correlation between FAC and thousand kernel weight (TKW) was found to be dependent on the specific environment. The study successfully identified 16 advanced breeding lines that exhibited consistently high FAC and TKW across multiple environments. These findings suggest the potential applicability of these lines in production of functional wheat products