Our recent stories

Ganesh Kandi is a 45-year-old marginal farmer from Alasankha Village in Gop Block, Puri District in Odisha. With technical support from the DSR-Odisha/CSISA projects team, he cultivated groundnut on his farm during the 2021-22 Rabi season. Despite the added costs from better seedbed preparation, higher levels of MoP and sulphur fertilizer, and […]

Ravi Ranjan took to farming after the death of his grandfather and, despite his initial apprehension about working in agriculture, has never looked back. Farmer Ravi Ranjan is a progressive and influential farmer with ties to the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) project. Researchers on the CSISA team have been working with […]

Agriculture is always impacted by war. However, Russia’s war in Ukraine – between two big agricultural production players in the setting of globalized agricultural markets – incurs never-before-considered implications for global agriculture and food security. Russia and Ukraine are significant exporters of maize, wheat, fertilizers, edible […]

A series of six field days and three public harvest events on mechanized/precision direct-seeded rice (DSR) in Bargarh district were organized by DSR-Odisha and CSISA projects in collaboration with DAFE, KVK Bargarh, and AJKA NGO. These sites were in Paikmal (Sareikela village), Padampur (Sativata & Kudopali), Bhatli (Nalichuan) and Sohela […]

CIMMYT Program Director for Sustainable Agri-Food Systems, Dr. Sieg Snapp, visited CSISA project sites in Bihar in November (9-10). The CSISA team in Bihar, led by Dr. Shishpal Poonia, apprised Director Snapp about various regional initiatives – eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – with senior members presenting updates on project interventions, […]

Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute (ATARI), Kanpur, organized a “Convergence Platform” (CP) meeting at the Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow, on 7 November 2022. In the meeting, participants from ATARI, the Department of Agriculture (DOA), State Agricultural Universities (SAUs), the Livelihood mission of Uttar […]

By Wangari Ndirangu (11th Nov 2022): Scientists from the East and South African region have mooted a collaborative approach to contain the challenges posed by pests and diseases in food production. The experts who are working on an Integrated Pest and Disease Management packages to address the recent invasion of Fall Army Worms (FAW) menace

On 23 September, Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), and the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) network, hosted their annual meeting for 2022. The meeting organized at NAAS complex, New Delhi, was attended by officials representing over sixty-six KVKs, eleven Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARIs), ten Indian […]

Achievements and next steps discussed at the review meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. October 4, 2022 By Susan Otieno: The Accelerating Genetic Gains in Maize and Wheat (AGG) Project, which is halfway through its implementation, continues to register impressive achievements. At a meeting focusing on the project’s Maize component, held in Nairobi […]

By Dr. Sures,L.M.:  The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin its next phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle 2022 at the beginning of October 2022, interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for screening. In 2013, […]

A Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop for CSISA team members on LDS deployment was conducted by master trainers of CSISA. The new pool of CSISA’s master trainers will support forthcoming LDS by KVKs in the future. Madhulika Singh, Wasim Iftikar, Pardeep Sagwal, Umesh Yadav, and Nima Chodon participated in the training held on 28-30 August

Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia project has initiated a capacity development program for final year students of B.Sc. (Agriculture) of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU). The vision for this initiative is to establish crop diagnostic surveys under Rural Agricultural Work Experience (RAWE) as part of the course […]

Weeds are pernicious and, if left uncontrolled, can lead to significant yield loss and reduce the quality of farm output. In paddy cultivation, weeds are widespread, and a variety of them are found in the fields. These weeds can be controlled by manual weeding by hand or using mechanical implements, or spraying herbicides. While manual

By Dr. Suresh,L.M. (2nd,March, 2022):  The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin its phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle of 2022 at the beginning of April 2022 and in other four intervals, interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize […]

By Dr. Suresh, L.M.: The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin its phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle of 2022 at the beginning of January 2022 and in other four intervals, interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for […]

a). County extension officers and lead farmers visit the regional MLN screening unit at Naivasha: Fourty county extension officers and lead farmers from Uasin Gishu county and Tana River county and 5 KALRO facilitators visited the MLN screening unit at Naivasha on 27th October 2021. They were taken round by Mr. Wilson Njenga and Mr.

Dr. Suresh,L.M. (November, 2021): For a decade, scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have been at the forefront of a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional effort to contain and effectively manage maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in Africa. When the disease was first reported in Kenya 2011 it spread […]

By Dr. Suresh, L.M. (September, 2021) :  The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin the third interval of its phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle of 2021 at the beginning of October 2021. Interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize […]

CGIAR webinar examined the technological, sustainability and social implications of integrated approaches.   By Madeline Dahm March 25, 2021   In our hyper-connected world, it should come as no surprise that recent years have shown a major uptick in the spread of transboundary pests and diseases. Integrated approaches have been effective in […]

By Dr. Suresh, L.M.:  The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin the second interval of its phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle of 2021 at the beginning of April 2021. Interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for screening. […]

Read the latest news from the just concluded Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) initiative. This issue highlights the impact the project has had on farmers in sub-Saharan Africa, how it has helped build resilience of Africa’s smallholder farmers and how the improved maize varieties will enable partners to reach farmers on time to plant

Amondo, E., Simtowe, F., Rahut, D.B., Erenstein, O., 2019. Productivity and production risk effects of adopting drought-tolerant maize varieties in Zambia. International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management 11, 570-591. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCCSM-03-2018-0024 Awata, L. A. O., Ifie, B. E., Tongoona, P., Danquah, E., Jumbo, M. B., […]

Joshua Masinde Over 400 farmers from Manyatta in Embu County were on February 7, 2020, invited to a demonstration farm to witness the performance of various high yielding, early to medium maturing, drought tolerant maize varieties. Such occasions aim to encourage them to adopt varieties whose traits they preferred the most. They were invited by

Read the latest news from the Stress Tolerant Maize for Africa (STMA) initiative. This issue highlights stories on how stress tolerant maize is improving the lives of smallholder farmers in northern Uganda, after a two-decade civil war; why stress tolerant maize varieties are good for Africa and how CIMMYT and its partners are making systems

The Stress Tolerant Maize in Africa (STMA) project team in Nigeria used street theater to drum up messages on how to mitigate stresses affecting maize production in the country. The messages targeted mainly the youth, informing them that with the right stress-resilient seed varieties and the application of recommended agronomic practices, they can […]