CIMMYT Annual Report 1972: On maize and wheat improvement

Abstract

The year 1972 was a period of continued progress for CIMMYT and its network of collaborators. To summarize: significant scientific gains are described in this annual report for each branch of CIMMYT'scrop research. In-service trainees at CIMMYT reached an all-time high for one year (82). CIMMYT staff scientists were in residence in nine countries outside Mexico to assist wheat and maize production programs. CIMMYT donors under leadership of the World Bank provided the Center with financing which totalled $6.4 million, more than in any previous year. This continued growth required a more careful program review, and CIMMYT responded by holding two program reviews and one administrative review during the year (see below). In research, one significant breakthrough in 1972 came from the maize staff, which harvested a new opaque-2 line containing higher lysine levels and higher tryptophan levels combined with the hard endosperm (inner kernel) preferred by most of the world's maize eaters. This maize with higher quality protein was undergoing field trials in 16 countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America at the end of 1972. Other significant improvements for cereals are reported in the following pages: for example, for the bread wheats, progress in crossing winter-spring wheats; for the durulllS, which now are dwarfed and rapidly improving in yield potential; for triticale, the rnanmade wheat-rye cross, in which the problem of shrivelled grain was substantially solved in 1972; for barley, a program resumed in 1972 after an interval of 10 years; for short, lodging-resistant tropical maize lines, now reduced in height by more than one meter; and for cold-tolerant sorghum, which sets seed at elevations above 2,000 meters in the tropics. The CIMMYT scientists report each of these developments. Training programs at CIMMYT are considered an index of progress because the trainees returning home strengthen the capacity of their governments to conduct local research under climatic conditions faced by local farmers. The number of in-service trainees at CIMMYT has increased each year during the last three years: 1970, 42 trainees from 18 countries; 1971, 67 trainees from 20 countries; and 1972, 82 trainees from 35 countries. Pressure to accept a larger number of trainees continues to increase, but the CIMMYT scientific staff believes that the number of trainees should not exceed the number that can be given individual attention-- which may already be close. In 1972 CIMMYT stationed members of its scientific staff in two new national production programs (Zaire and Nepal), both for maize. These new assignments were in addition to earlier programs still continuing. The older programs are: for wheat production, in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey; and for maize production, in Colombia, Egypt and Pakistan. CIMMYT's financing, it now appears, has become more stable and more adequate after the organizing of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research in November 1971. This body consists of 27 members interested in supporting the international research centers. Members of the Group include governments, international agencies, and private foundations. CIMMYT received assistance in 1972 from eight of these donors: from the Governments of Canada, Denmark and the United States; from three international o;ganizations.-the Inter-American Development Bank, the U.N. Development Fund, and the World Bank; and from the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation.