WASHINGTON, DC —The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) has announced the appointment of Dr. Ren Wang as director of its global network of 15 research Centers. Dr. Wang has served for the last seven years as Deputy Director General for Research at the CGIAR-supported International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, where he developed new collaborative initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia and managed IRRI programs in 14 countries.
“We’re fortunate to have as our new director someone with such extensive experience as both a scientist and a manager of ambitious agricultural research initiatives in developing countries,” said Katherine Sierra, Chair of CGIAR and Vice President of the World Bank’s Sustainable Development Network. “Dr. Wang has a deep understanding of the strategic contribution of the CGIAR’s scientific expertise in helping rural communities, governments, civil society and the private sector to achieve sustainable growth in agricultural productivity.”
“For a scientist committed to seeing agricultural science improve the lives of the world’s poorest people, it’s hard to imagine a higher honor than serving as CGIAR Director,” Dr. Wang said. “I look forward to supporting our thousands of scientists and staff in their efforts to enhance food production around the world in the face of immense global challenges.”
In addition to his work with IRRI, Dr. Wang has made important contributions in shaping China’s internationally renowned agriculture research services. He was Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), where he was the point person for China’s partnership with the CGIAR. Dr. Wang also helped foster an unprecedented level of cooperation with Japan in agriculture through the establishment of the Sino-Japan Center for Sustainable Agriculture at CAAS.
“There is an unfortunate perception that food security and agricultural productivity are no longer important issues in countries like China and Indonesia, which have witnessed strong economic growth,” said Wang. “Yet, even in these countries, there are still concerns because of continued population growth and the prospect of climate change and increased competition between food and fuel uses of crops.”
Dr. Wang is an entomologist by training and holds a PhD in entomology from Virginia Polytechnic and State University. As a researcher, he pioneered a program for biological control of exotic pests in China and later promoted integrated pest management initiatives internationally from various posts, including Deputy Director of the International Institute of Biological Control (IIBC) of CAB International in the UK.
Dr. Wang was selected as Director of CGIAR following an extensive international search, carried out by a committee of representatives from CGIAR co-sponsors, with support from an independent search firm as well as a strong advisory group, consisting of CGIAR Members and one CGIAR Center representative.
“The CGIAR is well positioned to help deal with the consequences of climate change for developing country agriculture and will be making this a high priority,” he said.
In December 2007, Dr. Wang will report on recent contributions of the CGIAR’s scientific expertise in helping rural communities achieve sustainable growth in agricultural productivity at the CGIAR Annual General Meeting in Beijing, China.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
New Chickpea Variety Survives Drought in Turkey
A new kabuli chickpea variety, Gokce, developed by the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in collaboration with Turkish national scientists, has withstood severe drought in Turkey and produced an impressive yield in adverse weather conditions.
Gokce is not only drought tolerant but also has moderate tolerance to Ascochyta blight, a disease that devastates chickpea crop. It has survived the acute drought in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey that has wreaked havoc for farmers. In most areas where wheat, barley, and other crops have failed, Gokce’s yield is high.
Turkish newspapers have quoted the Turkish Union of Agricultural Chambers (TZOB) as claiming that the loss from the drought is estimated to be about 5 billion Turkish Lira or US$ 4 billion. The government has allocated YTL 514 million (US$411 million) for compensation to farmers.
However, farmers cultivating Gokce in the Central Anatolia region say that the yield is expected to be around one-and-a-half tons per hectare, while other crops have been badly hit by the current drought.
“Work on developing this variety began in 1984/85 as part of an international yield trial,” says Dr R. S. Malhotra, senior chickpea breeder at ICARDA. “Gokce was released for field trials in Turkey in 1991.”
ICARDA, based in Aleppo, Syria, is a non-profit international agricultural research center in a worldwide consortium of 15 centers, supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Based on the success of the field trials, the Exporters’ Union Seed and Research Company (ITAS), a non-profit organization set up by agricultural exporters of Turkey, introduced Gokce into the country in 1997. “The results of field trials were excellent and we got the variety registered,” says Ismail Kusmenoglu, general manager of ITAS.
ITAS initiated an Integrated Technology Transfer Project in 1997 and planted 1400 kg of foundation seed in Konya in the Central Anatolia region in the spring of 1998. The seed was then distributed to growers in 2000. Since then, 100-150 tons of certified seed has been provided to farmers for cultivation.
As Gokce cultivation expanded, the average yield of chickpea increased noticeably from 861 kg per hectare in 2000 to 1071 kg per hectare in 2006. Chickpea is now grown in some 600,000 hectares in Turkey, of which nearly two-thirds is in the Central Anatolia region.
This year Gokce has been planted in almost 85 % of the chickpea production area such as Gaziantep and Adiyaman in Southeast Anatolia, Ankara, Eskisehir, Konya, Karaman, Isparta, Corum, Kirsehir, Yozgat and Sivas in Central Anatolia.
Turkey is one of the largest exporters of kabuli chickpea in the world and Turkish farmers have quickly adopted Gokce because of its large seed size and tolerance to drought and Ascochyta blight.
For more information-contact: Dr R. S. Malhotra (r.malhotra@cgiar.org)
Gokce is not only drought tolerant but also has moderate tolerance to Ascochyta blight, a disease that devastates chickpea crop. It has survived the acute drought in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey that has wreaked havoc for farmers. In most areas where wheat, barley, and other crops have failed, Gokce’s yield is high.
Turkish newspapers have quoted the Turkish Union of Agricultural Chambers (TZOB) as claiming that the loss from the drought is estimated to be about 5 billion Turkish Lira or US$ 4 billion. The government has allocated YTL 514 million (US$411 million) for compensation to farmers.
However, farmers cultivating Gokce in the Central Anatolia region say that the yield is expected to be around one-and-a-half tons per hectare, while other crops have been badly hit by the current drought.
“Work on developing this variety began in 1984/85 as part of an international yield trial,” says Dr R. S. Malhotra, senior chickpea breeder at ICARDA. “Gokce was released for field trials in Turkey in 1991.”
ICARDA, based in Aleppo, Syria, is a non-profit international agricultural research center in a worldwide consortium of 15 centers, supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).
Based on the success of the field trials, the Exporters’ Union Seed and Research Company (ITAS), a non-profit organization set up by agricultural exporters of Turkey, introduced Gokce into the country in 1997. “The results of field trials were excellent and we got the variety registered,” says Ismail Kusmenoglu, general manager of ITAS.
ITAS initiated an Integrated Technology Transfer Project in 1997 and planted 1400 kg of foundation seed in Konya in the Central Anatolia region in the spring of 1998. The seed was then distributed to growers in 2000. Since then, 100-150 tons of certified seed has been provided to farmers for cultivation.
As Gokce cultivation expanded, the average yield of chickpea increased noticeably from 861 kg per hectare in 2000 to 1071 kg per hectare in 2006. Chickpea is now grown in some 600,000 hectares in Turkey, of which nearly two-thirds is in the Central Anatolia region.
This year Gokce has been planted in almost 85 % of the chickpea production area such as Gaziantep and Adiyaman in Southeast Anatolia, Ankara, Eskisehir, Konya, Karaman, Isparta, Corum, Kirsehir, Yozgat and Sivas in Central Anatolia.
Turkey is one of the largest exporters of kabuli chickpea in the world and Turkish farmers have quickly adopted Gokce because of its large seed size and tolerance to drought and Ascochyta blight.
For more information-contact: Dr R. S. Malhotra (r.malhotra@cgiar.org)
Monday, August 20, 2007
Controlling basal stem rot disease in palm oil
TrichoGreen is a Trichoderma-infused compost which is also an effective biological control agent against the basal stem rot disease for palm oil. The production process is entirely organic, eliminates the need for burning, and is an excellent form of environmentally-friendly waste management.
Trichogreen, the Biocontrol Agent and Growth Enhancer for the Oil Palm Industry
Faridah Abdullah
TrichoGreen is a Trichoderma-infused compost which has proven to be effective as a biological control
agent against the basal stem rot disease based on repeated trials using oil palm seedlings as a disease model.
The production of TrichoGreen is a recycling process, turning agricultural waste into useful products. The production process is entirely organic, eliminates the need for burning, and is an excellent form of environmentally-friendly waste management. The industry is sustainable and can generate downstream activities.
The product was later found to be a good plant growth enhancer as well. The biocontrol property of Trichoderma is isolate-specific and from extensive in vitro screening, isolate FA 1132 (T. harzianum) was selected as the best candidate for biocontrol purposes. From nursery trials, TrichoGreen can save as much as 95% of plants if treatment is given simultaneously to the infected seedlings; the success rate decreases with increased severity of tissue damage caused to the palm.
The product has been successfully upscaled using a bioreactor, producing x107 propagules/ml within 96 hours, which was then used to prepare inocula and subsequently in its mass production, using palm pressed fibres (PPF) agrowaste as the feedstock. The PPF were piled into windrows at 50 mt feedstock
per row of 80m x 4m. Together with intermittent supplies of POME (palm oil mill effluents) and scheduled turnovers in a solid substrate fermentation, the final product of 22mt per windrow at x1011 propagules/kg material, was achieved over 12 to 15 weeks. Field trials over 8 weeks’ treatment thus far showed that it significantly enhanced growth of the oil palm, followed only by organic compost and thirdly the routinely-used fertiliser application. Field applications of TrichoGreen on
Ganoderma-infected fields are currently on trial and the results are estimated in 2 to 3 years.
Dr. Nayan KANWAL
Email: ndeeps@admin.upm.edu.my
TrichoGreen is a Trichoderma-infused compost which is also an effective biological control agent against the basal stem rot disease for palm oil. The production process is entirely organic, eliminates the need for burning, and is an excellent form of environmentally-friendly waste management.
Trichogreen, the Biocontrol Agent and Growth Enhancer for the Oil Palm Industry
Faridah Abdullah
TrichoGreen is a Trichoderma-infused compost which has proven to be effective as a biological control
agent against the basal stem rot disease based on repeated trials using oil palm seedlings as a disease model.
The production of TrichoGreen is a recycling process, turning agricultural waste into useful products. The production process is entirely organic, eliminates the need for burning, and is an excellent form of environmentally-friendly waste management. The industry is sustainable and can generate downstream activities.
The product was later found to be a good plant growth enhancer as well. The biocontrol property of Trichoderma is isolate-specific and from extensive in vitro screening, isolate FA 1132 (T. harzianum) was selected as the best candidate for biocontrol purposes. From nursery trials, TrichoGreen can save as much as 95% of plants if treatment is given simultaneously to the infected seedlings; the success rate decreases with increased severity of tissue damage caused to the palm.
The product has been successfully upscaled using a bioreactor, producing x107 propagules/ml within 96 hours, which was then used to prepare inocula and subsequently in its mass production, using palm pressed fibres (PPF) agrowaste as the feedstock. The PPF were piled into windrows at 50 mt feedstock
per row of 80m x 4m. Together with intermittent supplies of POME (palm oil mill effluents) and scheduled turnovers in a solid substrate fermentation, the final product of 22mt per windrow at x1011 propagules/kg material, was achieved over 12 to 15 weeks. Field trials over 8 weeks’ treatment thus far showed that it significantly enhanced growth of the oil palm, followed only by organic compost and thirdly the routinely-used fertiliser application. Field applications of TrichoGreen on
Ganoderma-infected fields are currently on trial and the results are estimated in 2 to 3 years.
Dr. Nayan KANWAL
Email: ndeeps@admin.upm.edu.my
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Putting a STOP to acid stress
A transcription protein called STOP1 helps plants to tolerate aluminum ions and protons
Plant growth can be badly stunted by excess ions in the soil. This effect, called acid soil syndrome, can cause severe agricultural yield losses, especially in areas prone to drought. For this reason, a team of researchers from RIKEN and two Japanese universities are working to identify genes that regulate a plant’s tolerance of ions (1).
Much work has been done on aluminum toxicity in plants, but little is known about the genes that control direct tolerance to acid in the form of hydrogen ions, or protons. The researchers prepared thale cress, Arabidopsis thaliana, from seeds treated with ethyl methanesulfonate to introduce random point mutations in their genome. The seeds were cultivated in an acidic (proton-rich) environment, and the researchers looked for seedlings that failed to grow roots.
“We carried out screening using 25,000 seedlings,” says project leader Satoshi Iuchi from the RIKEN BioResources Center in Tsukuba. “Finally we obtained one mutant that had an acid sensitive phenotype.”
The mutant plant, named stop1 (Sensitive TO Proton), was cloned and subjected to DNA sequencing. The sequencing revealed mutations in a part of the genome that encodes a protein called STOP1, consisting of 499 amino acids. The protein contains four ‘zinc-finger’ domains that regulate DNA transcription in the cell nucleus.
The researchers next investigated whether the stop1 mutant strain was sensitive to other toxic ions. It showed no particular sensitivity to cadmium, copper, sodium, lanthanum or manganese, but was extra sensitive to aluminum ions—stop1 plants showed 80–90% reduced root growth when exposed to aluminum, compared to only 30% in control plants.
Arabidopsis is known to tolerate aluminum by excreting malate, an ionized form of malic acid that is regulated by a gene called AtALMT1. This new study confirmed the link—stop1 mutants failed to express AtALMT1 in the toxic aluminum, and did not excrete any malate.
However, when AtALMT1 was deliberately disrupted in the control plants, the proton sensitivity was not affected. Therefore STOP1 must regulate different genes related to proton sensitivity (Fig. 1).
This work puts STOP1 on the expanding list of transcriptional factors that respond to stress and regulate genes to ensure a plant’s survival. Iuchi believes genetic modification of proteins such as STOP1 is the best way to improve farming efficiency. “Large amounts of chemical fertilizer are used in agriculture, which causes problems,” he says. “If enhanced-tolerance plants can be used, chemical fertilizer usage can be reduced.”
Reference
1. Iuchi, S., Koyama, H., Iuchi, A., Kobayashi, Y., Kitabayashi, S., Kobayashi, Y., Ikka, T., Hirayama, T., Shinozaki, K. & Kobayashi, M. Zinc finger protein STOP1 is critical for proton tolerance in Arabidopsis and coregulates a key gene in aluminum tolerance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104, 9900–9905 (2007).
Plant growth can be badly stunted by excess ions in the soil. This effect, called acid soil syndrome, can cause severe agricultural yield losses, especially in areas prone to drought. For this reason, a team of researchers from RIKEN and two Japanese universities are working to identify genes that regulate a plant’s tolerance of ions (1).
Much work has been done on aluminum toxicity in plants, but little is known about the genes that control direct tolerance to acid in the form of hydrogen ions, or protons. The researchers prepared thale cress, Arabidopsis thaliana, from seeds treated with ethyl methanesulfonate to introduce random point mutations in their genome. The seeds were cultivated in an acidic (proton-rich) environment, and the researchers looked for seedlings that failed to grow roots.
“We carried out screening using 25,000 seedlings,” says project leader Satoshi Iuchi from the RIKEN BioResources Center in Tsukuba. “Finally we obtained one mutant that had an acid sensitive phenotype.”
The mutant plant, named stop1 (Sensitive TO Proton), was cloned and subjected to DNA sequencing. The sequencing revealed mutations in a part of the genome that encodes a protein called STOP1, consisting of 499 amino acids. The protein contains four ‘zinc-finger’ domains that regulate DNA transcription in the cell nucleus.
The researchers next investigated whether the stop1 mutant strain was sensitive to other toxic ions. It showed no particular sensitivity to cadmium, copper, sodium, lanthanum or manganese, but was extra sensitive to aluminum ions—stop1 plants showed 80–90% reduced root growth when exposed to aluminum, compared to only 30% in control plants.
Arabidopsis is known to tolerate aluminum by excreting malate, an ionized form of malic acid that is regulated by a gene called AtALMT1. This new study confirmed the link—stop1 mutants failed to express AtALMT1 in the toxic aluminum, and did not excrete any malate.
However, when AtALMT1 was deliberately disrupted in the control plants, the proton sensitivity was not affected. Therefore STOP1 must regulate different genes related to proton sensitivity (Fig. 1).
This work puts STOP1 on the expanding list of transcriptional factors that respond to stress and regulate genes to ensure a plant’s survival. Iuchi believes genetic modification of proteins such as STOP1 is the best way to improve farming efficiency. “Large amounts of chemical fertilizer are used in agriculture, which causes problems,” he says. “If enhanced-tolerance plants can be used, chemical fertilizer usage can be reduced.”
Reference
1. Iuchi, S., Koyama, H., Iuchi, A., Kobayashi, Y., Kitabayashi, S., Kobayashi, Y., Ikka, T., Hirayama, T., Shinozaki, K. & Kobayashi, M. Zinc finger protein STOP1 is critical for proton tolerance in Arabidopsis and coregulates a key gene in aluminum tolerance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104, 9900–9905 (2007).
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