Press release: Rust-resistant bread wheat varieties widely adopted in Ethiopia, study shows
Researchers used DNA fingerprinting to track adoption in Ethiopia. Investments and innovative policy decisions are increasing farmer incomes and national wheat productivity. Varieties originating from CIMMYT have made a significant contribution.
Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), November 9, 2020.
A state-of-the-art study of plant DNA provides strong evidence that farmers in Ethiopia have widely adopted new, improved rust-resistant bread wheat varieties since 2014.
The results obtained from 4,000 plots, published in Nature Scientific Reports, found that nearly half (47%) of the area sampled was grown to varieties 10 years old or younger and the majority (61%) of these were released after 2005.
Four of the top varieties sown were recently-released rust-resistant varieties developed through the breeding programs of the Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
This is the first nationally representative, large-scale wheat DNA fingerprinting study undertaken in Ethiopia. The study was led by scientists at CIMMYT in partnership with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and Diversity Array Technologies (DArT).
“These results validate years of international investment and national policies that have worked to promote, distribute and fast-track the release of wheat varieties with the traits that farmers have asked for — particularly resistance to crop-destroying wheat rust disease,” said CIMMYT Principal Scientist Dave Hodson, the lead author of the study.
Ethiopia is the largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa. The Ethiopian government recently announced a goal to become self-sufficient in wheat, and increasing domestic wheat production is a national priority.
Widespread adoption of these improved varieties, demonstrated by DNA fingerprinting, has clearly had a positive impact on both economic returns and national wheat production gains. Initial estimates show that farmers gained an additional 225,500 ton of extra production – valued at $50 million — by using varieties released after 2005.
The results validate investments in wheat improvement made by international donor agencies, notably the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO, formerly DFID), the World Bank, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ethiopian government. Their success in speeding up variety release and seed multiplication in Ethiopia is considered a model for other countries.
“This is good news for Ethiopian farmers, who are seeing better incomes from higher yielding, disease-resistant wheat, and for the Ethiopian government, which has put a high national priority on increasing domestic wheat production and reducing dependence on imports,” said EIAR Deputy Director General Chilot Yirga.
This study also confirmed the substantial contribution of CGIAR to national breeding efforts, with 90% of the area sampled containing wheat varieties released by Ethiopian wheat breeding programs derived from CIMMYT and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) germplasm.
Varieties developed using germplasm received from CIMMYT covered 87% of the wheat area surveyed.
Adoption studies provide a fundamental measure of the success and effectiveness of agricultural research and investment. However, obtaining accurate information on the diffusion of crop varieties remains a challenging endeavor.
DNA fingerprinting enables researchers to identify the variety present in samples or plots, based on a comprehensive reference library of the genotypes of known varieties. In Ethiopia, over 94% of plots could be matched with known varieties. This provides data that is vastly more accurate than traditional farmer-recall surveys.
“When we compared DNA fingerprinting results with the results from a survey of farmers’ memory of the same plots, we saw that only 28% of farmers correctly named wheat varieties grown,” explained Hodson.
The resulting data helps national breeding programs adjust their seed production to meet demand, and national extension agents focus on areas that need better access to seed. It also helps scientists, policymakers, donors and organizations such as CIMMYT track their impact and prioritize funding, support, and the direction of future research.
“This research demonstrates that DNA fingerprinting can be applied at scale, and is likely to transform future crop varietal adoption studies. Additional DNA fingerprinting studies are now also well advanced for maize in Ethiopia” concluded CIMMYT Senior Scientist Kindie Tesfaye, co-author of the study and lead of the associated BMGF funded project.
The study authors greatly acknowledge the support of partnering institutions and financial support from the Mainstreaming the use and application of DNA Fingerprinting in Ethiopia for tracking crop varieties project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Grant number OPP1118996).
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RELATED RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS:
Ethiopia’s Transforming Wheat Landscape: Tracking Variety Use through DNA Fingerprinting
INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
Dave Hodson – Principal Scientist, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
Chilot Yirga – Deputy Director General, Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)
FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT THE MEDIA TEAM:
Geneviève Renard, Head of Communications, CIMMYT. g.renard@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 2019.
Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT. r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1167.
Chilot Yirga – Deputy Director General, Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), cyirga.tizale@gmail.com
ABOUT CIMMYT:
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit www.cimmyt.org.
ABOUT EIAR
As a national research institute, the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) aspires to see improved livelihood of all Ethiopians engaged in agriculture, agro-pastoralism, and pastoralism through market-competitive agricultural technologies.
This research is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CGIAR Fund Donors.
