Jill Cairns

Interestingly, using a survey of national #maize breeding programs in Eastern and Southern #Africa, we confirmed the continuing #gender gap in agricultural researchers.

There are many publications on tools and technologies to improve #geneticgain within public sector breeding, but many overlook the real world constraints these programs face.

We found simple changes in a breeding scheme (within a fixed budget) could increase genetic gain per year by 43%.

Frontiers | More bang for your buck: potential gains through optimizing maize breeding schemes in sub-Saharan Africa Increasing the rate of genetic gain in breeding programs is a critical component of crop genetic improvement strategies to increase yields in smallholder far...

‼️New publication‼️

We demonstrate the power of a simple deterministic model, combined with outputs of a costing tool, to optimize pipelines within resource constrained breeding programs

Led by the Crop Breeding Institute of #Zimbabwe, with @cimmyt.bsky.social & @cgiar.org

tinyurl.com/mvp28s7p

Met the world’s loneliest plant - Encephalartos woodii. One of the few male cycads of its species left in the world, with no known females for a next generation

#Zimbabwe #botany #cycad

www.huntington.org/news/saving-...

Thank you for your wishes! It was car accident. I was stationary and hit at speed (>100 kph) by another car. Desperate to get back on my bike 😀

After 10 wasted weeks, where simple tasks you take for granted completely broke me, it feels like maybe I’m slowly starting to get my life back. I’ve missed it.

#concussion #recovery #roadsafety

Narrowing the ecological yield gap to sustain crop yields with less inputs Sustainable production of sufficient and healthy food requires efficient use of agricultural inputs. In many regions of the world with intensive agric…

In a new paper, we propose the 'ecological yield gap' as a framework to strengthen collaboration between agronomists and ecologists in our quest to enhance on-farm ecosystem services in ways that effectively sustain crop yields while minimising input use:
doi.org/10.1016/j.gf...
🧪🌱🌾🧑‍🌾🐞💚🤎

Impact of climate change on arsenic concentrations in paddy rice and the associated dietary health risks in Asia: an experimental and modelling study Inorganic arsenic exposure and the associated health consequences might increase in rice grain grown in flooded systems with mid-century climate projections. The current assessment reinforces the urge...

Climate change will lead to higher rice grain Arsenic levels
😥

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Could drought and poor soil undermine the performance of intercropping ?

Our study in semi-arid Zimbabwe found that the benefits of intercropping are maintained even with water and N stress.

doi.org/10.1016/j.fc...

Congrats Illiana Kwenda - A nice combination of field experiments and modelling

Day 2 of #CGIARScienceWeek is in full swing in Nairobi!
Can’t be with us in person? You can still catch all the action online. Each session has a livestream! events.cgiar.org/scienceweek

Explore the full schedule of Day 2 side events:
events.cgiar.org/scienceweek#...

#OneCGIAR #WithScienceWeCan

An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write - Nature Biotechnology Nature Biotechnology - An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write

Lots of excellent advice in this piece. The core message - only through writing do you really think and order your thoughts into logical sense. Makes a case for not using AI for 1st draft because you bypass the thinking step
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@naturebiotech.bsky.social
#PlantScience

🌍Kicking off #CGIARScienceWeek, join us for the side event: Gathering for Growth: A Unified Vision for Adapted Crops & Soils (VACS Opportunity Crops & Soils). 🌱Discover how we drive resilient #AgSystems through collective action!
🔗 events.cgiar.org/gatheringfor...
@cgiar.org @fao.org

🌱 Join us for the #InnovationShowcase sessions this #CGIARScienceWeek! From digital platforms to genome editing, we’ll be exploring key innovative solutions that are driving #AgResilience. Be part of the conversation!💡💭 @cgiar.org

A few aerial pictures from some of our on-farm experiments and demo plots in Murehwa & Mutoko districts, 🇿🇼. Beautiful landscape as always in 🇿🇼 🤩! #intercropping #mulch #manure #fertilizers #RAIZ_project @cirad.bsky.social @cimmyt.bsky.social @gatienfalconnier.bsky.social @kelvinchipoyi.bsky.social

Validating a novel genetic technology for hybrid maize seed production under management practices associated with resource‐poor farmers in Zimbabwe A hybrid maize seed production technology has the potential to reduce the complexity of hybrid seed production and increase seed quality. Here, we investigate the potential impact of this technology ...

Our paper on adapting a field testing strategy based on knowledge of how intended beneficiaries might adapt a novel genetic technology designed to simplify hybrid maize seed production is included in this special edition 🌽👩‍🌾

@cimmyt.bsky.social @cgiar.org

doi.org/10.1002/ppp3...

Agricultural biotechnology: Potential, challenges, and debate With a rapidly expanding human population, urbanization, poverty, and threats from climate change, new innovations are needed to achieve global food security and nutrition requirements in a just and ...

Exciting new special issue in @plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social on agricultural biotechnology: potential, challenges and debate.

With a range of papers addressing critical questions on "how agricultural biotechnology is developed and used, and for whom."

nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

What it feels like revising a paper

Study reveals Africa will reach 1.5°C climate change threshold by 2040 even under low emission scenarios New research highlighted in the journal CABI Reviews suggests that all five subregions of Africa will breach the 1.5°C climate change threshold—the limit…

Despite Africa emitting less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, the 1.5°C climate change threshold will be approached by 2040 in all five African subregions, even under low emission scenarios.

www.ilri.org/news/study-r...

Science @cimmyt with partners builds evidence on market, climate shocks, conflict and how farmers respond. A learning agenda, puralistic extension and geotargeting can inform and improve resilience. @luckywinner1.bsky.social @teksapkota.bsky.social

A weekly selection of recent peer-reviewed publications from IFPRI researchers This week’s list includes articles that examine growth monitoring and promotion in children, livelihood diversification patterns in farming systems across the Eastern Gangetic Plains, the impact of di...

Have you seen our 'Weekly Reads from IFPRI' on LinkedIn yet? ✍️
Sign up to get alerts about the weekly selections of recent peer-reviewed publications from IFPRI researchers! @cgiar.org 🧪 #AcademicPublishing

Mapped: How extreme weather is destroying crops around the world
lnkd.in/eR_cfand

#motivation for dark early morning (gym) exercise bike rides during #CIMMYT Science and Innovation week

#Zimbabwe #cycling #outdoors

Profile: John is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and cereal geneticist based at RAGT Seeds Ltd., focusing on the implementation of genomic and genetic solutions to cereal breeding. Head to the link in our bio for the full video and transcript.
https://buff.ly/4aWpLua

The African Animal Breeding Network as a pathway towards genetic improvement of livestock - Nature Genetics This Perspective introduces the African Animal Breeding Network as a platform to develop infrastructure for innovative livestock genetic improvement in Africa and discusses the challenges in implement...

New publication:

The African Animal Breeding Network as a pathway towards genetic improvement of livestock

@ctlgh.bsky.social @srucvets.bsky.social @ilri.org

Read more here: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Adoption of improved crop varieties limited biodiversity losses, terrestrial carbon emissions, and cropland expansion in the tropics | PNAS Research investments in crop improvements, including by national and international agricultural research centers, have made significant contributio...

Historical crop improvement by @cgiar.org has "resulted in less cropland expansion, lower LUC greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and potentially saved thousands of threatened plant and animal species from extinction."

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi increase aleurone layer zinc concentration but reduce overall zinc bioavailability in rice grain Rice is a critical crop for the delivery of calories and essential micronutrients to the human diet. Biofortification of rice with zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) aims to combat the health issues associated ....

New paper! @plantspeopleplanet.bsky.social

AM fungi decreased the bioavailability of micronutrients (Zn + Fe) in rice 🌾

We used Synchrotron XFM to look at micronutrient concentrations in the aleurone layer of +/- AMF rice, and compared them to wholegrain concentrations 🧐

doi.org/10.1002/ppp3...

Postdoc opportunity for someone with good data wrangling and analysis skills to explore the effects of agroecological farming practices using long-term experiment datasets 🌾🌻🌦️🌐📈🤎💚🧪

At SLU in Uppsala, Sweden, with Riccardo Bommarco, Giulia Vico, and me:
www.slu.se/en/about-slu...

“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
― Stephen King

#WritingSky #AcademicSky

Cosmos, Domboshava, Zimbabwe