Bio

Sabrina Rose is a Science Officer with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT. She coordinates the UK-CGIAR Centre’s iSPARK project and the CGIAR Research Initiative on Climate Resilience, ClimBeR, collaborating across research areas spanning climate policy and agricultural risk management in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Her research focuses on climate and agricultural policy in the Global South and has covered topics such as climate finance, climate adaptation, and agroecology. She holds a master’s degree in climate policy and development economics from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Q. What is your academic and professional background and how has it shaped your current thinking?

I have an interdisciplinary background in engineering and policy. My undergraduate degree is in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and my master’s degree is in climate policy and development economics from The Fletcher School at Tufts University. I appreciate the systems thinking principles that I learned in my undergraduate years. My time at Fletcher allowed me to apply a systems thinking lens to the issues that I am passionate about—climate change and development, particularly in the agricultural sector.  

After graduating undergrad, I worked as a consultant for several years at ICF in Washington, DC on climate and sustainability projects for the US government. This experience helped me understand climate mitigation priorities from a developed country perspective. However, it was my experience in graduate school and at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (a member of CGIAR) that helped me better understand the challenges and solutions in climate change and development concerning smallholder farmers around the world.

Q. When did you first become interested in climate change?

I’ve been interested in climate change since I was a sophomore in high school. I vividly remember my Physics teacher showing our class Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Ever since, I’ve been curious about climate change and what I could do to help address one of the greatest challenges of our time. The issue seemed too urgent and all-encompassing for me to ignore even at that age.

My interest in climate change’s impact on the agricultural sector and vice versa began several years later at my first job at ICF. I had the opportunity to support greenhouse gas emissions inventories in the agriculture sector for the US Environmental Protection Agency. It was fascinating to learn how the food system contributes to climate change, but at the same time it is extremely vulnerable to climate change.

Q. Developing climate change adaptation and mitigation policies that don’t compromise food security in low- and middle-income countries is often seen as a difficult balancing act. Where do you see the major gaps in current policy thinking and practices related to this issue?

Current practice focuses much on developing sound climate adaptation and mitigation policies but less so on implementation, and monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and the interventions they promote. Low- and middle-income countries still need significantly more funds to implement policies and to track the impact of policies over time. Only 4 percent of climate finance is directed towards agrifood systems, and less than 1 percent of climate finance flows to small-scale agrifood systems, including smallholder farmers.

iSPARK helps to create the evidence base around the impact of agricultural interventions over time and across geographies. Specifically, iSPARK seeks to understand which agricultural practices improve sustainability, resilience, and adaptation outcomes in the short term and long term for farmers and at a national level. This information can help build the investment case for specific solutions and mobilize resources for implementation.

Q. You’ll be working as part of the aforementioned UK-CGIAR Centre project iSPARK. How do you see your knowledge of climate change policy feeding into this project?

As part of the iSPARK management team, I help to steer our research towards impact. We manage the project strategically so that we can achieve our goals of providing improved advisories to thousands of farmers, informing policies, and shaping investment plans based on the best science. My background in climate policy gives me the language to communicate our project’s objectives and results to diverse audiences. It also helps me to manage the project adaptively and collaboratively, since policy influence is a complex (messy) process. My background in systems engineering gives me the technical perspective to understand some of the more complex topics that our research team is exploring. I’m grateful we have a very interdisciplinary team.

Q. How do you see this project evolving over the next few years?

Our first year laid the groundwork for future activities. We focused on defining our collaboration with organizations such as iShamba and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, which will have key roles in iSPARK moving forward. Next year, we’ll work together to select the innovations that we plan to evaluate to understand their contributions to sustainability, resilience, and adaptation. Next year will also be a key moment to define emerging opportunities for policy influence. By the third year, we expect to have already defined pathways towards impact through policies, investments, and improved advisories for farmers. We will also implement monitoring and evaluation studies to measure our impact.

The post Interview: Sabrina Rose appeared first on CABI.org.

UPDATE: CGIAR Science Week has been postponed.

The UK-CGIAR Centre will convene a high-level panel at CGIAR’s upcoming inaugural Science Week. Entitled Leveraging science excellence and development impact through partnerships, the side event will explore best practices when forging, sustaining and evaluating international development collaborations and discuss the work being undertaken to develop diverse, equitable, transparent, and impactful partnerships.    

Date and time: July 4, 2024. 10-11:30am (EAT)

Location: Conference Room 2, UN Office Nairobi

Information on all the sessions at Science Week and how to register can be found here. 

Presenters and panelists

• Chair of the UK-CGIAR Centre Board (side-event moderator): Dr Janny Vos 
• FCDO Head of Food & Agriculture Research and Evidence Team: Dr Rachel Lambert
• Director of the UK-CGIAR Centre: Dr Richard Shaw 
• Netherlands – CGIAR research collaboration programme: Ms Marielle Karssenberg
• CGIAR MD: Dr Ismahane Elouafi 
• CABI DG: Dr Dennis Rangi
• Member of UK-CGIAR SIAG committee (tbc)
• A senior representative from KALRO (tbc)
• A representative of NL Ministry of Foreign Affairs (tbc)

Synopsis

Nearly 350 million people worldwide are affected by extreme hunger. Many of the 500 million small-scale farmers, who provide nearly a third of the world’s food, live in regions especially affected by climate change. Partnerships are pivotal to improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers while easing the global food crisis. CGIAR identifies partnerships as fundamental to its ability to deliver outcomes that drive food, land, and water systems transformation. UN Sustainable Development Goal 17 aims to revitalise global partnerships for sustainable development. 

The side-event will offer an opportunity to discuss questions around best practice mechanisms for partnership identification, engagement and monitoring of success. The discussion will be informed by key lessons learned and aims to identify success factors in partnering for science excellence and development impact.

Two case studies of CGIAR collaborations will be presented: the UK-CGIAR Centre and the Netherlands (NL) – CGIAR Research Programme. These organisations have been created to improve access to cutting-edge science so that it benefits all parties and improves impact on the ground.

The case studies will be followed by an interactive panel debate among CGIAR and its partners to encourage critical self-reflection on how the formation, implementation, and delivery of equitable partnerships can help achieve excellent science while delivering development impact.

The event will be streamed live by CGIAR. 

The post Upcoming event: UK-CGIAR Centre to convene high-level panel at CGIAR Science Week appeared first on CABI.org.

Bio

Chris Jones is program leader for feed and forage development, a multidisciplinary research program involving a team of plant molecular biologists, physiologists and geneticists, and animal nutrition scientists. His work is directed towards accelerating the genetic improvement of feed and forage species in support of livestock production in developing countries. He has a PhD from the University of Dundee and has researched all aspects of plant biotechnology from academic to highly commercially driven projects. He Joined ILRI in July 2015 from the New Zealand Crown Research Institute, AgResearch.

Q. What is your academic and professional background and how has it shaped your current thinking?

I’m a plant biotechnologist with a passion for discovering how we can use a broad range of modern biotechnologies to create new feed options that help improve how we feed livestock in low- and middle-income countries. My goal is to build strong partnerships and expand our scientific knowledge in a way that not only elevates livestock farming in these regions, but also significantly reduces its impact on climate and the environment.

Q. You’ll be one of the lead researchers on the UK-CGIAR Centre project “Defining new phenotypes for forage and crop by-products improvement based on rumen function and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions”. How will ILRI’s previous work on the topic contribute to this project?

ILRI has a long history of research in animal nutrition and how this contributes to more sustainable livestock production in Sub-Saharan Africa. We have rich genetic resources, held in our forage genebank, and considerable experience working in collaboration with forage and crop breeding programs on livestock nutrition traits. All this will help us take the research to the next level of selection towards the development of new varieties for feeding livestock in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Q. What are the major obstacles preventing farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa from maximizing yields from their livestock?

Smallholder farmers in Africa face a range of challenges such as diseases, lack of access to productive and adaptive animal breeds and climate change, but the biggest productivity obstacle they face is what and how to feed their animals. Many lack access to affordable, reliable, and acceptable (in terms of quantity and quality) feed. The choice of feeds and feeding strategies also has major implications for natural resource use and GHG emissions.

The primary aim of our research is to help farmers optimize animal nutrition through improved feeding and to enhance livestock profitability by reducing feed costs relative to income. Our approach is to increase feed resources from forages and crops residues, and to improve the quality of these resources. Improving the efficiency of feed utilization will also enable farmers to keep fewer, more productive, animals thereby reducing GHG emissions.

Q. How will collaboration between ILRI and SRUC help advance the goals of the project?

The collaboration between ILRI and SRUC brings together complementary strengths that are key to advancing the goals of this project. ILRI brings experience in ruminant nutrition and knowledge of genetic resources of forages and food/feed crops, particularly those relevant to Sub-Saharan Africa. This pairs perfectly with SRUC’s expertise in rumen microbiology and their advanced high-throughput screening capabilities.

Q. How do you see this project with the UK-CGIAR Centre evolving over the next few years?

Working with other CGIAR centres and partners, we will use what we’ve learned from this project to identify new feed sources for livestock to make farming more efficient and sustainable in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Global South. We’ll be able to better understand how we can improve the quality of forages and crop residues for ruminant production systems in these regions.

The post Interview: Chris Jones appeared first on CABI.org.

Bio

Anna Backhaus is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at ICARDA. She is working on pre-breeding for cereals at ICARDA. Her work focuses on accelerating the identification and introgression of useful gene bank material. Anna also focuses on using the diversity in the more distal crop wild relatives of wheat and barley. She holds a PhD from the John Innes Centre.

Q. What, or who, first inspired you to pursue a career in plant science?  

I was born in Bonn (Germany), which happens to be a hub of UN agencies. And in 2008, I was able to participate in a youth conference on biodiversity through my local school. I presented our final demands at COP9, which was held the same year in Bonn. At that time, I was 12 years old, and COP was not quite as prestigious as it is today, but it was nonetheless an impressive experience for me. I learned about the key role of agriculture for a sustainable future. If we want to safeguard biodiversity, while improving livelihoods, and battling the negative consequences of climate change, we need agricultural innovation. The agricultural sector is hugely affected by climate change, but at the same time it is a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. A diverse set of approaches and sciences are needed to improve today’s agricultural practices. A summer internship at Purdue University Burkhard Schulz taught me the basics of plant sciences. And the idea that we can make plants more efficient and resilient through genetic principles fascinated me.

Q. Why did you decide to focus your research on wheat genetics?

Plant science is beautiful, because of the excitement and fulfilment it gives you when you discover something new about the world which can, at the same time, be used to improve livelihoods. I am driven to use my education, that I was fortunate to receive, to contribute something that is useful to this world. And if a scientific finding is free and available to everyone that is interested, then even better. So, without knowing, I aligned myself very early on in my career to the principles that are also at the core of CGIAR.

At the heart of the recent Oppenheimer movie is the question of how far scientists are responsible for the consequences of their discoveries on the world. The same topic was explored earlier in Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s 1962  play “Die Physiker” (The Physicists), in which the main character, an atomic physicist, exclaims “We have to take back our knowledge… Our science has become terrible, our research dangerous, our knowledge deadly”.  Well, in my research field I never have this dilemma; wheat research is for the benefit of society and helps tackle global challenges. My work contributes to the advancing the SDGs – that is, if I do it well. Wheat is one of the most important and widely grown crops on this planet; its evolutionary history is deeply entwined with our own. But commercially it isn’t very valuable, meaning that the private sector is not as invested in it as it is in other crops, such as maize. Wheat is, however, an extremely valuable crop for small-hold farmers because it is a stable source of calories and protein (for humans and animals). It is a key crop for food sovereignty, something we need to focus on more as global markets continue to be destabilized as a result of natural disasters and war.

Q. How did your PhD research at the John Innes Centre shape your current thinking?

I was at ICARDA for a summer internship just before joining the John Innes Centre (JIC). The internship and my previous exposure at COP9 meant I was already very determined to work on cereals and find out more about their complex genetics. So, my aims were clear, but JIC was where I learned everything else. During my PhD, I was fortunate enough to work with the most advanced and cutting-edge tools in genetics. But even more important was being surrounded by excellent scientists, mentors, role models, and fellow students. The timing of my PhD was especially interesting as the first wheat genome sequence was released (in 2018) just before I started. This, of course, drastically changed the methodologies we could suddenly access and the possibilities for research. And this taught me to think about what might be possible tomorrow, and prepare for this, rather than focus only on the challenges of today. My time at JIC and ICARDA also helped me to see where, when, and to what extend fundamental research can be leveraged to solve global agronomic problems. Thus, I am very excited about the UK-CGIAR Centre which is helping to build bridges in an area I was also envisioning to work on when I joined ICARDA. Lastly, JIC has shaped my current thinking on how a healthy, inclusive, and open scientific research environment can be fostered. I was always encouraged to collaborate openly, help others, and take leadership. I believe this kind of research culture is equally important for a successful project, as is technical knowledge.

Q. You’ll be one of the lead researchers on the project “Leveraging genetic innovations for accelerated breeding of climate resilient and nutritious crops”. What roles will you and ICARDA be playing as part of this project?

I see my role as a connecting point between JIC, ICARDA and the other partners. I personally know both sides well and will have an overview of research activities. This was already important during the project development phase where we needed to understand what the new technologies are capable of, as well as what is and isn’t possible in the field. We are a diverse project team – ranging from molecular biologist to gender specialists ­­– so naturally there are hurdles. I hope to continue finding more opportunities to connect and collaborate during the project so we can develop further as a team. Furthermore, I will also be actively conducting some of the research, so my knowledge and previous work with next generation sequencing data and field trials will contribute to this project. ICARDA’s extensive experience in bioinformatics, gene bank management, field research, and especially its long-established networks with farmers in the Global South will be important to this project. ICARDA already engages in many of the non-research aspects of the project, such as meeting with policymakers and training. Together with CIMMYT, we can thus play an important role in trialling the new technologies (gene editing and new genomic data) and communicating the outcomes in clear guidelines.

Q. How well do you think women are represented in science? What steps can be taken to improve gender equality in science?

I don’t think I can give a global answer to this; representation varies tremendously between countries, organizations, and scientific fields. I also don’t belong to another marginalized group, reducing the heavy effects of double discrimination other women experience. But looking at the numbers, things don’t look too good (less than 30 of the winners of Nobel Prizes in scientific fields have been female), and we still have a substantial lack of women in senior and leadership positions. It cannot be denied that unconscious gender bias and discrimination are driving women out of science, something that I believe can only be tackled by targeted training and incentives for senior management across all organizations to change the status quo. For this, training and stringent implementation of gender equality guidelines will be necessary. It’s time to move away from focusing on training only women to solve this issue.

But having worked in a very inclusive and diverse workplace at JIC, I do believe the UK is well positioned to be a global leader of promoting gender equality, especially if gender equality is part of proposal evaluation and funding dispersal. This project is a positive example of how things are moving ahead: six of the work package leaders are female because we made a conscious effort to think about gender balance and representation on all levels – from proposal development to the project activities, – of our research activities.

Q. How do you see this project evolving over the next few years?

I hope this pilot project will develop two things: 1) future collaboration between UK research institutes and the CGIAR, and 2) the use of the new breeding tools we are testing. I am really looking forward to the new ideas that we will certainly come up with when the partners from the different centres meet and work together more closely.

More practically, we will test two very new tools for the first time in CGIAR. The greatest hope for this work is that it ensures the Global South is not left behind with this new technology and provides countries with the necessary tools and knowledge to decide for themselves how to regulate gene editing. It would be good to see discussions of gene editing regulation – that are happening in Mexico, the UK and Europe – take place in Egypt, Pakistan and Kenya. I hope we can help these discussions to evolve. Scientists working in the CGIAR will be using high-power computational platforms to handle the new types of sequencing data. This will hopefully lead to the development of novel capacities available to everyone in the CGIAR. DNA, and thus sequencing data, is the same in all crops and therefore this part of the project will be easy to scale to all CGIAR crops.

The post Interview: Anna Backhaus appeared first on CABI.org.

Bio

Professor Cristóbal Uauy is a Group Leader in wheat genetics and genomics at the John Innes Centre. His programme focuses on using genetics and genomics to improve both yield and quality components in wheat. His lab uses molecular genetic approaches to identify genes involved in wheat productivity traits and enhance the translation of this knowledge into improved varieties for farmers, industry and citizens. His lab also develops open-access tools and resources to enhance scientific discovery, such as www.wheat-training.com, www.wheat-expression.com and www.crop-haplotypes.com. Cristobal’s work has been widely recognized (e.g. the Society of Experimental Biology President’s Medal (2014), the Royal Agricultural Society of England Research Medal (2017)). He studied Agronomy in the Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of California, Davis.

Q. What is your academic and professional background and how has it shaped your current thinking?

I am a proud Agronomist by training. This provided me with a comprehensive background that has shaped my broad perspective on agricultural systems. My training covered various components, including soils, agricultural machinery, postharvest and all aspects of plant growth. Importantly, all these courses focused on studying plants grown in fields, a perspective I continue to carry with me.

As part of a ‘summer’ internship I secured a place in a plant genetics lab at Cornell University. This was summer in Chile, but deep winter in Cornell! This experience ignited my fascination with the potential of genetics and molecular biology to influence valuable plant traits for the benefit of humanity. Motivated by this interest, I pursued my PhD in Genetics at the University of California, Davis. The program provided a comprehensive two-year coursework covering various aspects of genetics, molecular biology, population genetics, and more, extending beyond the realm of plants. This diverse exposure allowed me to interact with scientists with broad interests.

My doctoral project, centred on wheat genetics, focused on identifying a gene responsible for increasing grain protein content. While rooted in molecular biology, the project included extensive field trials and was linked to a trait of immense value to the global industry. This experience paved the way for me to lead a group at the John Innes Centre, where I started my tenure in 2009. Since then, I have been constantly challenged and motivated by my colleagues who conduct fascinating discovery science while striving for real-world impact in the field.  The new CGIAR project leverages this fundamental knowledge, combining it with innovative strategies to directly influence positive outcomes in the field.

Q. You’ll be Group Leader on the project, “Leveraging genetic innovations for accelerated breeding of climate resilient and nutritious crops”. What are the goals for this project? 

The project aims to expedite the wheat breeding process by incorporating recent discoveries and embracing innovative breeding techniques, such as precision breeding (genome editing) and data-driven sequence-based discovery. The work stems from years of collaboration among the partners and is focused on delivering these innovations in farmer-preferred wheat cultivars.

Specifically, our focus is on developing locally adapted wheat cultivars that exhibit enhanced resistance to wheat rusts and elevated levels of iron—an essential micronutrient for human health. We will also use ‘big genome data’ approaches to accelerate the use of historical diversity within modern breeding programmes. The key to our success lies in strengthening partnerships, enhancing capacities across all collaborators, and gaining a deeper understanding of the translational ecosystem. This ecosystem encompasses policy-makers, farmers, and consumers, whose insights will inform deployment strategies and ensure that the project’s impact is realized effectively.

Q. Why is wheat so important to the world and what are the major challenges facing global wheat production?

Wheat stands as a crucial global food source, contributing to over 20% of our daily caloric intake and nearly 25% of our protein consumption. It serves as a dietary staple for billions of people worldwide, spanning all continents and finding diverse applications, including the production of bread, pasta, noodles, and animal feed. Additionally, wheat holds significant economic importance, acting as a major commodity in international trade. The geopolitical ramifications of wheat production are evident, as exemplified by the current events in Ukraine; for instance, Egypt, the world’s largest wheat-importing country, heavily relies on wheat sources from Ukraine and Russia.

However, global wheat production confronts numerous challenges, many of which are exacerbated by climate change and the genetic susceptibility of modern cultivars. Climate-change-induced disease epidemics have been observed across wheat-growing regions. These challenges arise from the emergence of more aggressive pathogen types or the introduction of new pathogens to regions where they previously could not thrive. The project is committed to addressing these challenges by expanding the genetic diversity of modern cultivars. In doing so, it aims to equip us and our partners with the necessary tools to develop more climate-resilient wheat varieties.

Q. One of the ways this project aims to help address the above challenges is by accelerating the breeding process and delivering higher genetic gain through genome editing. How will the John Innes Centre’s previous research contribute to this project?

The work on iron content and wheat rusts provides two examples of research which will feed into this project.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a global health concern associated with increased mortality rates in women during childbirth, childhood stunting, and a general suppression of economic output. Enhancing the micronutrient content of staple cereal crops through selective breeding is a proposed strategy to address iron and zinc deficiencies, aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goal 2. This strategy has proven successful for zinc, where a high-zinc variety (Zincol) bred by CIMMYT and released in Pakistan has been shown to increase dietary zinc intake.

However, increasing grain iron content has proven particularly challenging due to the lack of natural variation, to the point that efforts have been discontinued. Recent work by JIC has found that with a thorough understanding of iron metabolism in crops, the total amount and the distribution of iron can be manipulated to benefit human nutrition. This has been demonstrated using a cis-genic approach to increase iron levels 4-fold in white wheat flour with no effect on yield in field trials.

Building on these results, we have identified a genome editing approach to target regulatory genes of iron uptake. JIC have generated precise edits in two negative regulators of iron uptake in wheat, rice, and other cereals. In the first-generation genome edited lines we have seen a 3-5 fold increase in total grain iron content, providing for the first time a plausible approach to genetically target this trait. This work was done directly in the high-zinc variety Zincol which means that we can combine both high iron and high zinc. This project will advance high iron genome edited CGIAR germplasm and evaluate their performance in target countries with high levels of IDA.

Wheat rusts pose a persistent threat to global wheat production, causing an annual loss of 15 million tons valued at $2.9 billion. The impact of these diseases directly influences production costs, prompting countries to import wheat. This leads to elevated prices and heightened food and nutrition insecurity. Traditionally, resistance to wheat rusts has been achieved by deploying resistant varieties with partial or race-specific resistance genes. However, this often results in “boom-bust cycles” where the pathogen evolves to overcome deployed resistance genes.

An alternative strategy, with potentially greater durability, involves identifying and disrupting host gene products known as susceptibility factors. The disruption of these factors can confer a fundamental loss of host susceptibility, which is exceptionally difficult for the pathogen to overcome. Project partners have recently identified two susceptibility factors against wheat rusts, and wheat mutants generated for both genes displayed a significant reduction in rust infection without observable developmental defects. Leveraging recent advances in genome editing technology, these genes can now be directly disrupted in CGIAR varieties for immediate integration into breeding pipelines. This project aims to test enhanced varieties in countries such as Kenya, Egypt, and Pakistan, where new, durable sources of rust resistance are urgently needed. The goal is to incorporate these disruptions into farmer-preferred varieties to mitigate future devastating rust epidemics in these regions.

Q. You’ll be working with teams in Kenya, Egypt, and Pakistan. Why were these countries chosen as locations for the research?

The project is a culmination of extensive collaborations among various partners, including JIC, ICARDA, and CIMMYT—the latter both CGIAR centres specializing in wheat breeding. Collectively, these institutions provide germplasm that accounts for over two-thirds of the world’s wheat production. The selection of countries for the project is based on longstanding collaborations and strategic considerations.

In Egypt, a nation highly dependent on wheat imports and vulnerable to global market fluctuations, the project addresses a critical need. With a substantial gap of 11.6 million tons between national wheat production and consumption, Egypt is the world’s largest wheat importer. Previous market disruptions, such as the Russian-Ukraine crisis, have led to significant impacts, including a 37% increase in bread prices, affecting 40% of the population living below the poverty line. Rust and mildew diseases annually cause yield losses of 15-20%, necessitating the deployment of genetically resistant cultivars.

However, the emergence of new virulent pathogen races poses challenges, prompting the exploration of alternative strategies. In response to rising Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) rates, Egypt initiated a national program in collaboration with the World Food Programme to fortify wheat flour with iron and folic acid. While effective, fortification is an active intervention strategy, whereas the project aims to implement biofortification, offering a more sustainable solution once introduced and adopted by farmers.

Pakistan’s goal of achieving wheat production self-sufficiency aligns with the project’s objectives. The impact of high iron wheat is particularly relevant in addressing health disparities, as IDA disproportionately affects women and children in impoverished communities.

Kenya, like Egypt and Pakistan, is actively promoting policies to boost local wheat production. With a prevalence of IDA in a significant portion of pre-school children and women, Kenya’s Agricultural and Food Authority’s Wheat Purchase Programme incentivizes millers to prioritize local wheat over imports. The established genome editing guidelines in Kenya provide a clear framework, exempting genome-edited organisms from GMO regulations under the Biosafety Act.

Partnerships with organizations such as AGIS in China have significantly contributed to the project, providing essential support for sequencing and data analysis. Collaborators in Pakistan, Egypt, and Kenya bring extensive experience and capabilities for conducting field trials of wheat, including state-of-the-art facilities for pathology assays. The strategic choice of countries ensures the project’s relevance and impact on a global scale.

Q. Why will collaboration with scientific partners be so important in this project?

ICARDA and CIMMYT have successfully broadened the genetic base of their modern wheat lines through both conventional and genomic approaches. These centres boast exceptional capabilities in genetics, biometrics, and trait introgression. Acting as catalysts, ICARDA and CIMMYT actively deploy innovative technologies and germplasm tailored to specific wheat production environments globally, while fostering strong partnerships with National Agricultural Research and Extension Services (NARES).

Additionally, ICARDA and the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development (NISD) contribute expertise in gender for breeding research, facilitating the realization of impactful outcomes. Both CGIAR and NISD bring extensive experience in monitoring, evaluation, and learning within research projects compliant with Official Development Assistance (ODA) standards.

Partners in Pakistan, Egypt, and Kenya bring extensive experience and capabilities for conducting wheat field trials, including the use of modern glasshouses for pathology assays in Njoro and ARC-Egypt. JIC possesses all the necessary facilities for transformation, molecular biology, and plant growth, along with proven expertise in genome editing, field trials, and genomic approaches. The collaborative efforts among these partners enable the project to push the boundaries of breeding, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and technology, particularly in regions like Egypt, Pakistan, and Kenya, where the impact can be maximized. This collaborative network ensures a comprehensive approach to addressing the challenges in wheat production and advancing the field of breeding.

Q. How do you see this project evolving over the next few years and beyond?

This project anticipates fostering a more aligned collaboration between JIC’s wheat initiatives and the strategic goals of CGIAR, while also establishing stronger connections with National Agricultural Research and Extension Services (NARES) partners. The envisioned outcomes encompass field testing of genome editing targets in CGIAR cultivars, evaluating them for additional traits within NARES partners. The project aims to enhance training and build capacity within NARES, as well as at JIC and among UK partners.

Genome editing is expected to become an integral part of the broader breeding approaches employed by CGIAR, facilitating the integration of genomics within their breeding pipelines. The initiative also seeks to establish a clear pathway for the introduction of genebank diversity. Furthermore, the project aims to cultivate closer ties with policymakers in partner countries, providing guidance and examples in the field to inform the regulation of genome editing. Additionally, collaborative efforts will be directed towards working with seed systems to provide training on genome editing, elucidating both the potential benefits and limitations of this technology. This comprehensive approach ensures that the project contributes to advancing genomic research, capacity building, and policy engagement within the broader context of CGIAR and its partnerships.

The post Interview: Cristobal Uauy appeared first on CABI.org.

About

The John Innes Centre (JIC) is a leading interdisciplinary research institute for plant and microbial science. Founded as the John Innes Horticultural Institution in 1910, the Centre was originally based in South London. It moved to Norwich in 1967 and became the John Innes Centre in 1994 after a merger with the Cambridge Laboratory and the Nitrogen Fixation Laboratory.  

JIC has a rich history of making significant scientific discoveries in wheat research. The value of the historic discoveries in wheat made at the JIC were estimated to be worth £4.9bn globally. An independent evaluation found that the work currently being undertaken on wheat by the Centre will contribute an estimated £100m Gross Value Added to the UK and £4.3bn to the rest of the world over the next 25 years.

Recent research into wheat genetics and genomics as part of Professor Cristobal Uauy’s research programme identified genes which control grain size and spike architecture, which could enable scientists, in the long term, to increase yield and improve crop emergence and vigour. JIC is part of the Designing Future Wheat Programme, the UK’s National Wheat Research Programme.

The Centre’s researchers are from 33 countries, of which 64% are from outside the UK. The Centre is currently involved in 137 international collaborations with 39 countries. Between 2007 and 2017, 68% of JIC publications were co-authored with international partners. JIC’s international reach strengthens the science it produces and increases the impact of its work.

What JIC will be working on

Project: Leveraging genetic innovations for accelerated breeding of climate resilient and nutritious crops

Wheat is the most widely cultivated crop in the world. It feeds much of the world’s population: 793 million metric tons of wheat were consumed globally in FY2021-22. Increasing wheat yield is vital to meeting future worldwide food requirements. Given global population growth, wheat production needs to increase 60% by 2050 to meet global demand.

This project aims to help address this challenge by

1. accelerating the breeding process and delivering higher genetic gain by adopting new breeding approaches (genome editing),
2. exploiting novel genetic variation
3. developing data-driven approaches.

JIC will undertake its research activities in collaboration with ICARDA and CIMMYT alongside national partners in Kenya, Egypt, and Pakistan. These countries have all set goals of becoming self-sufficient in wheat production and this project aligns closely with these aims.

Who JIC will be working with

JIC, ICARDA and CIMMYT have long-standing ties with its partners in the countries where the research will be conducted. In Kenya, JIC will be working with CIMMYT and KALRO-Njoro. The JIC worked with these partners through the Wheat Disease Early Warning Advisory System (Wheat DEWAS) project, an FCDO/BMGF funded initiative. JIC have also worked closely with KALRO and wider NARES on Bioinformatics Community of Practice.

In Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU) Islamabad and JIC worked together to develop the high iron genome edited lines. The CGIAR centres and JIC have a long-standing strategic partnership which has included years of germplasm exchange and multiple joint projects, such as the International Wheat Yield Partnership. As a result of this collaboration, JIC can now generate genome edited lines directly in CGIAR wheat varieties, such as Borlaug100, Zincol, and Omrabi5. This unique expertise allows timely editing directly in target country relevant germplasm.

JIC and ARC-Egypt have previously worked together on wheat genetics and provided training on genomics. ICARDA and the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) established the Wheat Improvement Program in 2009 to improve germplasm, enhance crop management, and strengthen Egypt’s national capacity in wheat production. CIMMYT and QAU coordinate work through the university’s Dr. Awais Rasheed, who is also an Associate Researcher with CIMMYT.

JIC will generate transgene-free genome edited lines, evaluate their performance in glasshouse and share the findings with partners. Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes (TILLING) mutants and genome edited lines will be evaluated for wheat rust resistance in Kenya (by KALRO and CIMMYT) and Egypt (by ARC and ICARDA). Genome edited lines for high iron will be tested in Pakistan by QAU and partners in Kenya and Egypt. ICARDA and CIMMYT will work with JIC on big-data analytics and whole-genome analyses. All partners will work together on training and communication.

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The university’s School of Environmental science leads several cross-faculty initiatives, such as:

1. The Global Food and Environment Institute,
2. the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures, 
3. water@leeds, and
4. Geosolutions Leeds.

Leeds also hosts the Climate Impacts Group, a research cluster exploring how climate variability and change affects food security. The university also has a decade-long partnership with CGIAR CCAFS. This collaborationhas been critical in driving innovation in climate smart food systems.

The university’s experts play leading roles in developing climate change policy. Professor Andrew Challinor was Lead Author on the ‘Food Production Systems and Food Security’ chapter of the Fifth Assessment report of the IPCC and Lead Author for the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017. Dr Ahmed Gailani was selected by the Climate Change Committee work on the UK’s industrial decarbonisation efforts and Professor Piers Foster is one of the UK’s official climate change advisers.

What the researchers will be working on

Project: iSPARK: innovation in sustainability, policy, adaptation and resilience in Kenya

In Kenya, environmental degradation and climate change threaten the sustainability and resilience of smallholder farming systems. Farmers need timely and accurate climate information to make informed decisions. Meanwhile, policy makers need evidence to prioritise policy choices and investment decisions that contribute to environmental sustainability, climate resilience, and other sustainable development goals.

Through its multi-scale approach, iSPARK will bridge the CGIAR Initiatives Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) and Climate Resilience (ClimBeR), to deliver farm-level interventions and the evidence-based policy pathways and investments that are needed to transform food systems. Working in western Kenya iSPARK, will build on a range of previous and ongoing research collaborations and partnerships in integrating work from across CGIAR Initiatives.

Who Leeds will be working with

iSPARK will be led by Julian Ramirez (Alliance, EiA), Andrew Challinor (University of Leeds, ClimBeR), and Medha Devare (IITA, EiA). The CGIAR and University of Leeds have a long history of effective and equitable collaboration stretching back to the inception of CCAFS in 2010. Collaboration between Ramirez and Challinor stretches back almost as far. Ramirez and Devare have been working closely together under EiA’s TRANSFORM Work Package for over three years, including for the development of AgWISE.

EiA partners have worked with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), and developed a Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Impact Assessment framework, along with a mechanism to assess Agronomic KPIs across timescales. In collaboration with Shamba Shape Up, ClimBeR has been working to strengthen the delivery of advisory services and disseminate evidence around sustainable and climate-smart agricultural innovation in Kenya. In addition to work on the ClimBeR project, Leeds will also draw upon several years of experience combining satellite data and machine learning algorithms to develop a prototype early warning system for food security in Kenya as part of the EU-CONFER project.

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About

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) is an internationally recognised research and teaching centre with a focus on food security and developing a sustainable natural economy. Its history stretches back to 1899 with the establishment of the West of Scotland Agricultural College and its current organisation came into being through a merger of smaller institutions.

SRUC is home to one of the largest groups of animal scientists in Europe. It has 1,300 staff who operate from 6 campuses, 8 farms, 25 consulting offices, 6 research centres and 8 veterinary surveillance centres located primarily across Scotland.

The college has received numerous accolades for its high-quality research. It was awarded Queens Anniversary Prize and was ranked first in the UK by the Research Excellence Framework for Agriculture, Veterinary and Food Science.

SRUC’s research on greenhouse gas emissions and farming practices informed Scotland’s Climate Change Plan. The college’s data-driven work on livestock has helped improve the efficiency of UK beef and dairy production, bringing significant economic benefits. 

SRUC research has contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s GHG reporting guidelines and has been adopted by international reporting of GHG emissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

What the researchers will be working on

Project: Defining new phenotypes for forage and crop by-products improvement based on rumen function and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

Livestock is a fast-growing, high-value agricultural subsector, accounting for 15–80% of GDP in low- and middle-income countries. In Africa and Asia, demand for livestock products is expected to grow 200% by 2030. However, it also generates a significant proportion of anthropogenic GHG emissions. The main source of methane in ruminants in the rumen or paunch, which is the largest stomach compartment.

Rumen utilisation has been identified as the key to efficient use of forages and by-products whilst minimising GHG emissions. Although it is possible to measure such properties, the lack of high throughput techniques has limited their use as effective phenotyping to improve plant breeding targets.

The project will address this problem by developing feed stuffs that allow animals to meet their genetic potential whilst providing the tools to identify the genes and genetic signatures to develop feedstuffs that minimise the environmental footprint of ruminant agriculture. This project combines expertise in plant breeding and ruminant nutrition within the partnership to develop and exploit new phenotypes for forages and crop residues in ruminant production systems.

Who SRUC will be working with

For this project the UK-CGIAR Centre is building a new partnership between SRUC and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). ILRI, which is part of CGIAR, works for better lives through livestock in developing countries. ILRI is co-hosted by Kenya and Ethiopia, with 14 offices across Asia and Africa.

The partners will share resources and approaches developed independently to achieve a common goal. As the project progresses, the partners will utilise staff exchanges at all levels to promote exchange of resources, techniques and knowledge.

Colleagues from both partners will spend time in each other’s laboratories, facilitating the transfer of techniques and understanding. Partners in the Global South will be involved in seed and forage production, extension, and farmer training together with established partners in the livestock production sector. Training workshops will be held to engage partners across the Global South in the use of rumen-based phenotypes as a means of improving ruminant production from by-products and forages. This work will aims strengthen capacity in the areas of forage improvement and utilisation and animal nutrition and rumen function.

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Bio

Edward Joy is Assistant Professor in the Nutrition Group at LSHTM. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at Rothamsted Research. His research focuses on improving nutrition outcomes through agriculture and food system interventions. Edward leads LSHTM’s contribution to the MAPS project, which is developing an online tool to improve access to data on micronutrient status of populations and food systems, and enables users to explore the potential effectiveness of different interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. He was co-lead investigator on the GeoNutrition project, informing strategies to alleviate micronutrient deficiencies (MNDs) primarily in Ethiopia and Malawi. Much of his work involves integrating and analysing large-scale spatial datasets. Sometimes his work is field-based, including implementation of the AHHA trial and, in previous projects, conducting agronomic trials and soil/crop sampling.

Q. What is your academic and professional background and how has it shaped your current thinking?

I am interested in identifying and using agricultural innovations and adaptations to improve nutrition outcomes and reduce health inequalities. As this is an inter-disciplinary topic I am fortunate to work with colleagues in my joint role at LSHTM and Rothamsted Research, with expertise spanning the domains of agriculture and public health.

My current thinking – including on the role of research and capacity exchange in tackling malnutrition – has been strongly influenced by the people I’ve worked with (supervisors, colleagues, collaborators, and students). The GeoNutrition (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01268-5) and Micronutrient Action Policy Support (MAPS) projects, with funding from the Gates Foundation and the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, have been particularly formative for me. These projects, which focus on micronutrient malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa, have been very intentional about building and sustaining equitable research partnerships, working in particular depth in Ethiopia and Malawi. It has been rewarding to see these partnerships translate into high impact research.

Q. What are your goals for this project? 

The initial phase of this project focuses on partnership building, primarily between LSHTM, IFPRI and Sokoine University of Agriculture, where the latter two partners lead the FRESH initiative in Tanzania. The goal of the FRESH initiative is to improve nutrition through increased fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption in rural Tanzania, particularly for nutritionally vulnerable population groups. We will use this partnership building phase to conduct preliminary research into underlying barriers to adequate F&V consumption, and to co-design intervention options. We will also work to build the sustainability of the partnership itself, including strengthening finance and administrative capacity.

Q. Why the focus on Tanzania?

Tanzania is one of the focus countries of the FRESH initiative, and this project will build from existing work and partnerships. Tanzania has achieved huge improvements in health and development over recent years, for example infant mortality has more than halved since 2000. However, malnutrition including micronutrient deficiencies remains a problem, with low average consumption of nutrient-dense foods including fruits and vegetables. 65% of households in Tanzania are directly involved in agriculture, mostly smallholder, rainfed crop production (agriculture that relies on rainwater), which is a precarious livelihood even before considering the challenges posed by climate change and price shocks.

Q. How will LSHTM’s previous work on this subject contribute to the project?

LSHTM is at the forefront of research and policy translation on the links between agriculture and nutrition, including through the Agriculture, Nutrition and Health Academy, and a growing collection of projects under the new Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health. The Nutrition Group have relevant expertise in food system and population nutritional assessment (for example the MAPS project), and in the co-design and evaluation of interventions to increase F&V consumption in low-income, rural contexts (for example the UPAVAN project). Recently, we’ve been working with the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre to support food fortification policy decisions through analysis of National Household Panel Survey data, and we look forward to continuing this collaboration.

Q. Why will collaboration between the scientific partners be so important on this project? 

Each partner will bring a unique set of skills, experiences and perspectives to the project. We will devote time and energy to the collaboration process, as we want to build a sustainable and equitable partnership as the basis for future research activities.

Q. How do you see this project evolving over the next few years?

Our ambition is to work with national stakeholders in support of their nutrition and development priorities, particularly around enabling access to nutritious diets through sustainable and resilient agricultural production systems. While F&V consumption is our initial focus, we may in future consider complementary approaches to increase the nutritional quality of diets, including soil management and the use of ‘biofortified’ staple crops.

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About

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world’s leading public health universities. Its mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide by working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice.

Founded in 1899, it has two sites at Keppel Street and Tavistock Place in London, as well as units in The Gambia and Uganda. With an annual research income of over £190 million, LSHTM engages in a multitude of research activities in over 100 countries, as well as training the next generation of health leaders through its postgraduate courses. Staff and students are united in seeking to create a more healthy, sustainable and equitable world for everyone.

LSHTM’s international presence and collaborative approach to research means it is uniquely placed to help shape health policy and translate findings into impact across the globe. It is ranked 1st for the key measure of impact and joint 10th overall of all universities in the UK in tables based on the government’s Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021) published in the Times Higher Education. The REF21 listed LSHTM as one of only three institutions in the UK found to be providing a world-leading environment for public health research.

In 2017, LSHTM received a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in recognition of its work on Ebola, and in 2022 it was awarded the prize for its response to COVID-19. LSHTM was at the forefront of informing the UK and global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, from modelling the spread, control measures and impact of the virus, to tracking attitudes to vaccines. During the pandemic, many clinically-trained staff and students voluntarily returned to work in the NHS. Other LSHTM staff gave their expertise to the UK government for free as members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and its various sub-groups.

What the researchers will be working on

Project: Fruits and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets (FRESH) – Expanded Network with UK Partners (FRESH-EN UP)

Food systems are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The effects on yields and supply chains are likely to make nutritious diets increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible and worsen dietary and health problems. Tanzania represents a notable case study.

The effects of climate change, such as higher temperatures and decreasing rainfall affects, has led to a reduction in Tanzania’s agricultural production. The cost of nutrient dense foods in the country has increased, meaning many Tanzanians lack access to nutritious foods. More than a quarter of the country’s children under the age of five exhibit stunting. Furthermore, reduced crop yields affect the incomes of Tanzania’s small-scale food producers.

This project aims to increase intake of fruits and vegetables in Tanzania, especially among nutritionally at-risk populations such as women of reproductive age and adolescents, through:

1. the promotion of climate-smart agricultural practices,
2. measures to reduce food loss and waste, and
3. food environment and demand-generation interventions.

Who LSHTM will be working with

To undertake this work UK-CGIAR has connected LSHTM with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) to leverage each organisation’s expertise.

Each organisation has experience in conducting program and policy relevant research at the intersection of agriculture, diets, and nutrition. These institutes are also highly adept at identifying, co-developing and testing solutions to improve diet and nutrition outcomes.

All organisations are dedicated to creating equitable partnerships. IFPRI and SUA are cire partners on the CGIAR FRESH Initiative which works in Tanzania and LSHTM has on-going work in the country with the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre. By building on existing work, the project aims to generate evidence to inform initiatives that support increased fruit and vegetable intake as part of healthy and sustainable diets.

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