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McNab, A.

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McNab
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McNab, A.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 17
  • Sanidad de semillas: reglas y normas para el desplazamiento seguro de germoplasma
    (CIMMYT, 2001) Mezzalama, M.; Gilchrist-Saavedra, L.; McNab, A.
    EI 18 de julio de 1989, el gobierno mexicano reconoció al CIMMYT como un centro internacional con privilegios diplomáticos. No obstante 10 anterior, el CIMMYT no esta exento de la aplicación de las leyes fitosanitarias relativas a la importación de semill
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  • Administración de empresas productoras de semilla en África
    (CIMMYT, 2014) MacRobert, J.; McNab, A.
    Las empresas productoras de semillas representan una forma empresarial que está emergiendo de manera vertiginosa en África. El sector de semillas africano ha visto el surgimiento y, en ocasiones, la desaparición, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, de empresas semilleras, industrias paraestatales de semillas y esquemas comunitarios de producción de semillas. No obstante, existen empresarios que han mantenido y hecho crecer empresas semilleras con base en la semilla del maíz, en particular en aquellos países donde el sector agrícola es dinámico y tiene orientación comercial. En años recientes, un gran número de empresarios han ingresado en el sector semilla en todo el continente africano, pues se han dado cuenta de que suministrar semilla de variedades mejoradas a los agricultores constituye una gran oportunidad comercial. Este hecho ha sido impulsado por una serie de factores tales como el aumento en el número de esquemas de distribución de semillas de organizaciones gubernamentales y no-gubernamentales; las actividades de entidades que impulsan el desarrollo del sector semilla; y las fuerzas económicas que han generado oportunidades en la producción de cultivos y, por ende, en la provisión de semillas. Aunque las nuevas empresas semilleras varían en tamaño, área de operación y en las semillas que producen, se les puede encontrar en la mayoría de los estados africanos y las caracterizan su empeño y su visión. La pregunta que muchos se plantean es cómo ayudar a estas empresas incipientes y crecientes a volverse rentables y sustentables. Este libro tiene por objeto ayudar a encontrar la respuesta a esta pregunta proporcionando a los empresarios de semillas información acerca de la administración de la producción de semillas y, en particular, en relación con el mercado de semilla de maíz. En el primer capítulo del libro se examinan temas clave para el desarrollo del sector de semillas africano. Por un lado, en las empresas semilleras existen operaciones internas que tienen que funcionar bien, en particular, el establecimiento de una cartera de productos apropiada para el mercado en cuestión, el desarrollo de una unidad de producción de semillas que genere semilla para el mercado y la creación de una red de distribución para suministrar semilla al comprador. Por otra parte, existen factores externos que son esenciales para el desarrollo del sector semillero; por ejemplo, es necesario instituir normas de semillas nacionales que faciliten el establecimiento de empresas semilleras, agilicen el registro de variedades y aseguren la calidad de la semilla. El mercado de las empresas semilleras en África está compuesto por agricultores cuya productividad y rentabilidad generalmente han sido bajas. Esto tiene que cambiar para que la semilla certificada de variedades mejoradas se convierta en un insumo que los agricultores acostumbren comprar. Por último, el mercado de granos de muchos cultivos en África está subdesarrollado y da pocos incentivos para que los agricultores inviertan en la producción. La creación de mercados viables que fomenten la demanda de productos de cultivo, dará a los agricultores incentivos para invertir en sus parcelas, y comprar semillas mejoradas, fertilizantes y otros insumos. Los siguientes capítulos están organizados de acuerdo con un modelo de administración de empresas en el que primero se establece la visión de la empresa y luego se formulan e implementan las estrategias de mercadeo, producción y finanzas que permitirán a la empresa avanzar hacia la realización de su visión. En este libro se considera que la visión de una empresa es el bien que ésta pretende alcanzar gracias a su actividad comercial. Por tanto, es abierta y progresista, a la vez que toma en cuenta el ámbito empresarial tanto interno como externo. Los tres componentes estratégicos que sustentan la visión están interrelacionados y son interdependientes, aunque la primera estrategia que hay que formular es la del mercadeo, ya que sin un mercado una empresa no es sustentable. Vinculado con la estrategia de mercadeo está el desarrollo de productos apropiados para el mercado. La segunda estrategia que se plantea es el plan de producción de semillas. Aquí la planificación a futuro es fundamental, ya que para aumentar la producción de semillas se pueden requerir muchas temporadas. Además, lograr una buena producción de semillas depende del medio ambiente, del desempeño del productor contratado y del cumplimiento con las normas en materia de semilla, y es por ello que esta estrategia, aunque compleja, es esencial para alcanzar la visión. Una vez que se produce semilla de calidad garantizada, ésta debe procesarse para que sea adecuada para el mercado. La tercera estrategia, la financiera, conjunta las estrategias de mercadeo y de producción, y determina la rentabilidad y sustentabilidad de la empresa. Si bien la visión y estas tres estrategias son necesarias para el éxito de la empresa, ésta debe administrarse a diario de manera tal que los planes se implementen, los resultados se evalúen y el desempeño mejore. Para lograr esto, es necesario supervisar al personal en el desempeño de sus tareas y, por ello, los dos últimos capítulos se centran en los recursos humanos y la administración general. Los gerentes deben ser buenos líderes y realizar una administración eficiente para que la empresa se establezca sobre una base de integridad, entregue productos cada vez de mejor calidad, y sea rentable y sustentable. Los empresarios de semilla necesitan tener esta pasión para alcanzar el éxito, generar riqueza y lograr el bienestar común, y por tanto, deben estar dispuestos a aprender, a promover el desarrollo de sus empleados y a mejorar la vida de sus clientes, en especial de los pequeños agricultores africanos. Por ende, este libro pretende brindar a los empresarios de semillas información expresada en el contexto de una ética que contribuirá a alcanzar estos nobles objetivos.
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  • Seed health: rules and regulations for the safe movement of germplasm
    (CIMMYT, 2001) Mezzalama, M.; Gilchrist-Saavedra, L.; McNab, A.
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  • Increasing wheat production in Central Asia through science and international cooperation
    (CIMMYT, 2005) Morgounov, A.; McNab, A.; Campbell, K.; Paroda, R.S.
    The objective of the First Central Asian Wheat Conference, held on 10-13 June 2003 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, was to assess the current status of wheat research and cooperation in Central Asia, particularly in the areas of wheat breeding, genetics, plant protection, biotechnology, and agronomy. Also evaluated were the achievements of regional cooperation in promoting winter and spring wheat varieties, seed production activities, and the exchange of information among academics and specialists from Central Asia and foreign countries.
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  • Proceedings of the Warren E. Kronstad Symposium
    (CIMMYT, 2001) Rajaram, S.; Reeves, J.; McNab, A.
    On 15-17 of March 2001, CIMMYT held a special symposium in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, in memory of Dr. Warren E. Kronstad, Distinguished Professor at Oregon State University, who died on 21 May 2000, after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Dr. Kronstad was a good friend and an esteemed collaborator of the CIMMYT Wheat Program for many years. Starting in the early 1970s, he collaborated with Dr. Norman Borlaug and this author on making crosses between the winter wheat and spring wheat gene pools. He was also a founder and active participant in the CIMMYT/OSU wheat shuttle breeding program that has so successfully bred wheats for different environments all over the world. I met Warren in the 1970s, and from the beginning I was struck by his dedication to wheat breeding research and plain old hard work. One of the top breeders in the USA, Warren was very successful, as evidenced by the impact of his breeding efforts, not only in the USA, but also in developing countries. Nonetheless, I’m convinced that his biggest contribution was the graduate training program he initiated at Oregon State University. More than 80 MSc and PhD students and visiting scientists, many from developing nations, studied at OSU during Dr. Kronstad’s tenure. He was one of a few agricultural scientists in the USA who had a vision of the developing world. He was deeply committed to eliminating hunger through the increase of the food supply and by mentoring young scientists in sound plant breeding. His contributions to improving wheat production not only in the US, but also in the developing world, will be long remembered.
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  • Breeding barley in the new millenium: proceedings of an International Symposium
    (CIMMYT, 2001) Vivar, H.E.; McNab, A.
    These are the proceedings of an international barley symposium held on 13-14 March 2000 in Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. The primary reason for holding this special seminar was to honor Dr. Hugo E. Vivar, who retired in February 2000 after a long and extraordinarily fruitful career. Barley researchers from Latin America, the USA, and Syria who were closely associated with Dr. Vivar were invited to make presentations at the symposium. Dr. Vivar became the head of the ICARDA/CIMMYT Barley Breeding Program for Latin America in 1984, after working for CIMMYT for nine years. In the course of his long career, Hugo worked on different types of barley for diverse environments and uses, but made a special effort to develop barleys for marginal environments, such as those in the Andean Region of his native South America, where subsistence farmers use barley for food. The higher yields produced by new, disease resistant barleys have significantly improved farm families’ food security all year round. The main focus of the ICARDA/CIMMYT barley breeding program, under CIMMYT leadership, is on Latin America, but the barleys it has developed are also sown in other parts of the world, such as China, Pakistan, and Kenya. One of the reasons they are so widely used is that they possess resistance to multiple diseases such as the three rusts, BYDV, fusarium head blight (FHB), scald, and net blotch. It should be noted that CIMMYT took the lead in introducing FHB resistant varieties into China through the variety Gobernadora. There is no doubt great progress has been achieved in improving barley for food, feed, and forage. The crop has been endowed with traits such as high yield potential, multiple disease resistance, and good grain quality. However, in the future research will also have to focus on improving the quality of malting barley, a cash crop that would provide barley producers in developing countries with a promising option for earning their living. In breeding one always builds on other people’s work, and the exchange of germplasm and information is crucial to developing new varieties.
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  • Application of physiology in wheat breeding
    (CIMMYT, 2001) Reynolds, M.P.; Ortiz-Monasterio, I.; McNab, A.
    How can disciplinary research in physiology complement wheat breeding? This introductory chapter is intended to provide broad guidelines to help breeding programs: 1) assess whether physiological criteria should be included in a breeding strategy; 2) evaluate specific physiological selection traits and determine their usefulness in breeding. The other chapters in this book provide more explicit information on how physiological approaches can be used in breeding work for a variety of environmental conditions. Physiological criteria are commonly though not explicitly used in breeding programs. A good example is selection for reduced height, which improves lodging resistance, partitioning of total biomass to grain yield, and responsiveness to management. Another is differential sensitivity to photoperiod and vernalizing cold, which permit adaptation of varieties to a wide range of latitudes, as well as to winter- and spring-sown habitats. Despite a lack of detailed understanding of how photoperiod and vernalization sensitivity interact with each other and the environment, the relatively simple inheritance of photoperiod (Ppd) and vernalization (Vrn) sensitivity genes and their obvious phenotypic expression (i.e. earliness versus lateness) has permitted them to be modified in many breeding programs. The same is true for the height reduction (Rht) gene. In the future an increased understanding of the genetic basis of these traits may enable breeding programs to exploit them further. Selection for reduced height and improved adaptation to environment has had a profound impact on modern plant breeding, and the improvement in yield potential of spring wheat since the Green Revolution has been shown to be associated with a number of other physiological factors (Reynolds et al., 1999). Nonetheless, most breeding programs do not put much emphasis on selecting physiological traits per se (Rajaram and van Ginkel, 1996). Exceptions would include: 1) the staygreen character, which has been selected for in relation to improved disease resistance and is associated with high chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate in Veery wheats, for example Seri82 (Fischer et al., 1998), and 2) more erect leaf angle, a common trait in many high yielding bread and durum wheat plant types that was introgressed into the CIMMYT germplasm pool in the early 1970s (Fischer, 1996). A recent survey of plant breeders and physiologists addressed the question of how physiological approaches in plant breeding could have greater impact (Jackson et al., 1996). According to the survey, while the impacts of physiological research on breeding programs have been limited in the past, future impacts may arise through: Focusing physiological work on an appropriate range of germplasm (which will depend on the specific breeding objectives); Working with larger populations to enable extrapolation of findings to breeding methods; Identifying traits for use as indirect selection criteria, in addition to those already used in core breeding programs; Identifying traits for use as selection criteria in introgression programs; Conducting selection trials in more representative environments, and Developing tools that could be quickly and easily applied to large numbers of segregating lines. In this and the following chapters, many of these suggestions are incorporated into a research framework for assessing the value of physiological selection traits in a breeding context.
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  • Septoria and stagonospora diseases of cereals: a compilation of global research
    (CIMMYT, 1999) Van Ginkel, M.; McNab, A.; Krupinsky, J.M.
    In the mid-1970s the idea of holding a septoria workshop began to take hold among a small group of scientists in the USA. They were interested in exchanging ideas and finding ways to manage the septoria diseases that affect wheat and other cereals all over the world. The first workshop was organized in a matter of a few months and held in Griffin, Georgia, in 1976. Among the 50 scientists who attended were a few researchers from outside the US. The enthusiasm of that first workshop led to the development of the second, which was a truly international meeting attended by more than 100 scientists from many countries, held in Bozeman, Montana, in 1983. Since then, international septoria workshops have been held about every five years: in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1989; in Radzikow, Poland, in 1994; and this year at CIMMYT in El Batan, Mexico. Each workshop has expanded the network of scientists who share their knowledge and pose the many questions that remain to be solved about these diseases and their management. The Zurich workshop had increased participation by workers from Europe and Africa. The Radzikow workshop brought increased participation from scientists in eastern Europe. The early workshops focused on the biology of the pathogens and breeding strategies, subjects in which there remain many unanswered questions. The 1994 workshop and the current one emphasize molecular approaches to the genetics of the pathogens. The Fifth International Workshop provides another opportunity to focus on the Septoria/Stagonospora diseases, but also to see them in the context of the worldwide programs of CIMMYT, which emphasize collaboration with developing countries with the aim of developing stable high yielding wheat varieties that possess durable resistance to the diseases.
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  • Spring wheat in Kazakstan: current status and future directions
    (CIMMYT, 1998) Morgounov, A.; Satybaldin, A.; Rajaram, S.; McNab, A.
    The Republic of Kazakstan is an important grain producer. Spring wheat constitutes 90% of total wheat production. The temperature profile, dry climate, and soil conditions in the main grain producing regions favor the production of high quality wheat grain. The quality of durum wheat varieties produced in Kazakstan was once unique in the world. The wheat of Kazakstan is highly valued on both the domestic and international markets for making bread, biscuits, and alcohol. Today the domestic market consumes only one third of Kazakstan's total wheat production; the rest is exported. Kazakstan is a full member of the Grain Trading Committee and has the status of an observer in the International Grain Council's Committee for Food Assistance. This is also the contribution of Kazakstan's agricultural scientists, who developed and released highly productive wheat varieties for the country's different climatic zones, organized seed production, and developed regional cultivation technologies. However, due to the strong competition on the international market, it is necessary to speed up the development and release of high yielding wheat varieties with good grain quality that are well adapted to the harsh soil and climatic conditions, pests, and diseases that prevail in our country. The quality of our bread wheat varieties must meet international standards so that we can sell Kazakstan grain on the international market. It is not possible to solve the problems of wheat production in Kazakstan without utilizing world experience and global plant genetic resources, and without cooperating closely with foreign scientists. This is why I support the development of a collaborative spring wheat research program with CIMMYT, which works under the auspices of the United Nations and cooperates with scientists from countries all over the world.
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  • Helminthosporium blights of wheat: spot blotch and tan spot. Proceedings of an international workshop held at CIMMYT
    (UCL, 1998) Duveiller, E.; Dubin, H.J.; Reeves, J.; McNab, A.
    Over the last 30 ye~rs, in developing countries, the outstanding advances in wheat productivity attained by CIMMYT and its partners have contributed greatly to the well-being of millions of people. As growing numbers of farmers have taken advantage of new, superior wheat varieties, wheat has been introduced into warmer areas where it was not previously planted or has been grown in increasingly complex, intensive farming systems in the developing world's traditional wheat growing areas. These changing circumstances for wheat production have brought new challenges for farmers, including the increased incidence of helminthosporium blights of wheat: spot blotch, caused by Bipolaris sorokiniana, and tan spot, caused by Pyrenophora tritici-repentis. In South Asia's intensive rice-wheat cropping systems, particularly in the heavily populated eastern Gangetic Plains, spot blotch has become the major disease constraint. In reduced tillage cropping systems, tan spot is an increasingly important concern, as the pathogen survives on crop residues and alternate hosts. To complicate matters, these diseases may occur together in the field, where they are often very difficult to distinguish from one another. For this reason,-it is desirable to study their incidence and control together. The complexity of these nontraditional wheat diseases and of the conditions in which they occur makes it essential for us to seek a holistic approach for their control. Such an approach includes breeding for durable disease resistance; developing appropriate crop management practices, including nutrient applications; monitoring pathogen diversity; and applying recent advances in biotechnology to overcome disease losses. In addition, researchers need to develop a better understanding of the cropping systems and the many interactions that can influence the spread of disease. Better protocols for ensuring the production of healthy seed are needed as well. To strengthen research partnerships directed at reducing yield losses to these diseases, and to foster a more holistic view of potential strategies for disease control, CIMMYT organized an international workshop, Helminthosporium Blights of Wheat, at its headquarters in Mexico from 9 to 14 February, 1997. Sponsored by the Belgian Administration for Development Cooperation and CIMMYT, in close collaboration with the University of Louvain, Belgium, this workshop was an important component of a larger,- collaborative research project on nonspecific foliar pathogens of wheat. The meeting assembled key researchers from the national agricultural research systems of developed and developing nations to review recent advances in pathology and breeding for resistance to spot blotch and tan spot of wheat. Fifty-fo~ participants from 21 countries attended the workshop; participants represented most of the wheat-growing areas where tan spot and spot blotch limit yields. The workshop enabled researchers to bring each other up to date on the global incidence of foliar blights caused by B. sorokiniana and P. tritici-repentis, particularly in South Asia's ricewheat system and under reduced tillage. Research results were presented and discussed, future research collaborations defined, and networking activities strengthened, all with the goal of obtaining better disease control. This proceedings documents the results of a unique opportunity for CIMMYT scientists and their colleagues to exchange information on these two important diseases. The papers and workshop discussions presented here should provide a useful record for workshop participants. The proceedings also should prove to be a valuable reference for scientists who could not attend these meetings, researchers who work to reduce grain losses in the warmer production areas of developing countries, and their counterparts in.other parts of the world.
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