The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is offering a new set of improved maize hybrids to partners in South and South East Asia and similar agro-ecological zones, to scale up production for farmers in these areas.
The maize lethal necrosis (MLN) artificial inoculation screening site in Naivasha, Kenya will begin the second interval of its phenotyping (screening/ indexing) cycle of 2019 at the beginning of April 2019. Interested organizations from both the private and public sectors are invited to send maize germplasm for screening.
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore (UAS-Bangalore) have signed a collaboration agreement for establishing a maize doubled haploid (DH) facility at the Agricultural Research Station in Kunigal (ARS-Kunigal), Tumkur district, Karnataka state, India.
by Carolyn Cowan
Biofortification is at the forefront of efforts to address hidden hunger, the consumption of a sufficient number of calories, but still lacking essential nutrients such as vitamin A, iron or zinc. Biofortification increases the amount of vitamins and minerals in a crop through conventional plant breeding or agronomic practices, and can generate measurable health and nutrition improvements in consumer populations. Researchers from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have recently published two studies that comprehensively review current breeding strategies for biofortification of maize with zinc and provitamin A that provide a working outline for maize breeders. The provitamin A study was developed with researchers from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan.