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Special Interest Group on Field Crops Thursday, November 21, 10:30 – 12:30 Hall 2, 3rd Floor, Room 3B Chair: Tim Welsh
Co Chair: Rento Mabesa (absent)
Secretary : KV Somani (absent)
Introduction from Chair:
Welcomed eveyrone and asked if anyone would like to add some items in the agenda. Since
no one had any request so the proposed agenda was adopted. Gave a brief Introduction of
the speakers.
Presentation 1
Title: “International Maize Improvement Consortium – Asia: A Public Private Partnership”
IMIC - ASIA
Speaker: Dr. B.S Vivek, Senior Maize Breeder, CIMMYT
Contents:
a. Gave a brief introduction of the IMIC Asia b. Said IMIC – Asia is open for all Indian and Non-Indian seed entities in Asia with
an aim to strengthen the germplasm of seed entities, human resource capacity,
and form public private partnership.
c. With the help of feedback from private seed companies IMIC Asia is getting more
focused on demand based research.
d. This project was started in 1 July 2010, I Phase: 5 years.
e. Sub-project1: Germplasm development and distribution: the aim of this project is
to provide early and advanced generation CIMMYT lines through field days.
f. Focus is mainly on yellow maize, high density tolerance & heat stress tolerance
are some of the important strategic priorities. Since these are difficult
g. Sub Project 2: Training – data management training & group training on breeding.
Other training opportunities are: Seed business management & double haploid.
h. Sub Project 3: Hybrid Testing - coordinate with seed companies, perform trial,
collect data, analyze and summarize the data and give final report to seed
companies.
i. IMIC Asia first field day was held in March 2012 distributed 2000 inbred lines and
second field day would be held in March 2014.
j. Since 2010 till 2013 IMIC Asia has got 32 members.
k. Dr. Vivek then explained the several benefits for joining the consortium along with
terms and condition for becoming member.
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l.
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Said after becoming the member of the consortium they will access to the inbred
lines along with several optional activities such as training, testing, Hybrid rights
etc.
IMIC – Asia steering committee comprised of 5 member committee in which 2
members are from IMIC, 2 members from CIMMYT and 1 non-member, so that
accountability in functioning of IMIC can be ensured.
They have recently inaugurated Mize DH facility for Africa, where they wish to
offer DH service for nominal fee.
Dr. Vivek then explained several challenges that are associated with MCMV virus
that affect in Maize crops predominantly in Eastern Africa.
They have also published a paper on MLN facts and actions.
They have developed several inbred lines with MLN resistance along with MLN
screening facility in Naivasha.
Welcomed members of APSA and new members to join IMIC-Asia.
Q&A/Comments/Discussions
1. Bhupen – Advanta India: The Agronomic: climate change is shifting focus of crops
from late to mid and from mid to early varieties.
Answer by Dr. Vivek: Needs are evolving and once we get such requirement from our
members then we can also shift our focus.
2. Mr. Reddy – Nugenes Pvt Ltd: Are DH inbred lines are available for consortium
members only?
Answer b Dr. Vivek: They are available but with some nominal fees
3. Tim Welsh: The system of doing regional trials for companies that would send
samples from outside India.
Answer by Dr. Vivek: We are currently working on this however companies can send
samples through co-ordination with IMIC India on some international trial station.
The Cahir then asked everyone that if anyone interested in becoming member then
they can leave their contact details so that they can get back to them.
Presentation 2
Title: “New Maize Breeding Technologies and progress in Improving Drought Tolerance and
Aflatoxin Resistance with native genes from exotic germplasm”
Speaker: Dr. Wenwei Xu, Corn Breeder and Associate Professor of Corn Breeding &
Genetics, Texas A&M University
Contents:
a. Said the need of hour is to improve the food production in-order the combat the
rising demand with the rise in population and decrease in Agricultural land area.
b. One of the key requirements is to increase the yield we need to have better
germplasm, adopt transgenic traits. Use Genomics and molecular breeding tools
are helpful in finding the target genes and with the help of molecular markers one
can incorporate the target genes into elite germplasm.
c. Dr. Xu then described how Double Haploid method is used in-order to develop In
bred lines along with some of the details of how genes are transferred and how
we can identify the DH line.
d. High throughput phenotyping methods are also very useful but it very much
depended on trained people and expensive machines.
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e. Dr. Xu then showed the field pic of new equipment’s which would allow breeders
to plant and evaluate genotypes in different environment so that they can collect
more uniform and accurate phenotypic data for selection. Also he showed some
of the latest sophisticated equipment’s used for harvesting.
f. Breeding for Drought tolerance & Aflatoxin resistance drought tolerance is
extremely important in the high plains in the U.S as there is low rainfall, decline in
water level and increase in pumping cost.
g. He then described the strategy for breeding the drought tolerant corn along with
evaluation and improvement of the
h. Drought stress can depend upon the local environmental condition.
i. The best stage to impose draught stress is two weeks after pollen shedding (at
flowering stage).
j. Source of Drought Tolerant genes – CIMMYT material, GEM (Germplasm
Enhancement of Maize), Ex Patent expired proprietary lines (Ex-PVP lines).
k. In order to reduce Aflatoxin contamination risk is to apply non-toxic A.flavus strain
or use resistant hybrid (which are very few in USA)
l. Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) Project: More than 60 collaborators,
two permanent breeding sites (1. Ames, IA for dev. Of 25% tropical and
temperate and 2. Raleigh, NC for development of 50% tropical).
m. Dr. Xu then explained the breeding protocol under GEM
n. He showed data of disease resistance varieties from which it can be proved that
the new developed lines can have good resistance towards Aflatoxin.
o. At present some of their inbred lines are commercial stage.
p. He concluded by saying exotic germplasm can be very useful to improve stress
tolerance & disease resistance, modern mechanical equipment’s are critical for
breeders to evaluate a large number of genotypes.
Q&A/Comments/Discussions
1. Dr. Vivek: In one of the pictures we have seen two rows of green plants and two row
of dry so are have they issue with combine to handle such situations?
Answer by Dr. Xu: You can harvest there can’t be any issue if you have adequate
moisture.
2. Dr. Tim Welsh: How many breeding row you are doing to justify using such high
priced equipment?
Answer by Dr. Xu: We have 500 harvest every day and we try help other farmers
who are in 300 mile range, that way we help each other.
The chair then asked if there are any suggestions or question from the members group
regarding CIMMYT program then they can contact us or leave their contact details so that
they can get back to them.
The Chair then presented memento to the respective speakers.
Meeting was then adjourned.
Minutes of meeting prepared by
Rahul Mishra
21st November 2012