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A 4 Degrees Warmer Region: Challenges and Opportunities in the Dry Areas

Aly AbousabaaDirector General

ICARDAScience-based solutions for thriving, resilient livelihoods in the dry areas

Why Discuss a 4oC Warmer World?

• By 2100- 40% chance of exceeding 4oC - 10% chance of exceeding 5oC

(Sources: IEA, 2012; World Bank, 2014)

• 4oC warmer world could affect 70-80% of land area in MENA- rainfall could reduce as much as 60%- population is projected to double by 2050

• Crop yields will reduce drastically - wheat yield will reduce by 60% in Syria- legume and maize will be most affected crops

(Source: Schilling et al., 2012)

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3

WANA Challenges to Sustainable Development

(Source: IPCC, 2001)

• High value and climate resilient crops

• Crop improvements for yield potential and for abiotic and biotic stresses

• Integrated livestock/rangelands/crops production systems

• Intensification and diversification of cropping systems

• Protected agriculture

• Improvements in water availability and management; grey water use

• Added value on dairy products in marginal dry areas

ICARDA Response to a 4 Degree-Warmer Region

Important: Non-Tropical Dryland Agrobiodiversity

Total taxa

Perennial

Cross-pollinated

865

> 100

> 130

% unique accessions 45

% landraces and native

species

65-85

% characterized 78

% safe duplicated 98

% stored in Svalbard 80

Number of Rhizobium

strains

1380

ICARDA’s Germplasm Collection in NumbersCrop No of

accs.

Crop No of

accs.

Barley 30,201 Pisum spp. 6,121

Bread wheat 14,681 Trifolium spp. 5,883

Durum wheat 20,526 Vicia spp. 6,388

Primitive wheat 1,022 Faba bean 10,034

Aegilops spp. 4,843 Chickpea 15,195

Wild Triticum 2,079 Lentil 13,907

Wild Hordeum 2,359 Wild Cicer 547

Not mandate cereals 179 Wild Lens 605

Lathyrus spp. 4,289 Range & Pasture 7,358

Medicago annual 9,120 Others 50

Total 155,387

Crop

genepool

Global

Ranking

% acc.

globally

Barley 2nd 18

Wheat 3rd 11

Chickpea 2nd 15

Faba bean 1st 48

Lentil 1st 51

Lathyrus 1st 36

Medicago 1st 28

Pisum 2nd 15

Trifolium 2nd 11

Vicia 1st 13

Overall 2nd 5.6

(1) Based on GENESYS informationTotal accessions: 3,631,898 in 482 institutions

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FIGS approach links adaptive traits, environments (and associated selection

pressures) with genebank accessions (e.g. landraces and crop wild relatives)

‘focuses in’ on those accessions most likely to possess trait specific

genetic variation.

0 50 100 150

01

02

03

04

05

06

0

Longitude

La

titu

de

Trait (disease score)Environnement FIGS subsetwww.icarda.org/

Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy

If a dependency exits between environmental parameters and the emergence of an adaptive traits within an in-situ population then we can use this relationship to

predict where adaptive traits are likely to occur elsewhere.

Pre-Breeding Activities

Dr Patokar Chetan, recruited on May 2017 to coordinate activities

of GRS project on pre-breeding

Fully operational Fluorescent Microscopy facility established

Barley

329 interspecific crosses

172 F1 hybrids and 56 BC1F1

Wheat

133 interspecific crosses (focusing on Ae. bicornis)

82 F1 hybrids and 73 BC1F1

Grasspea (4 Lathyrus species)

19 interspecific crosses

11 F1 hybrids

Consultancy of Dr Masanori Inagaki and Dr Haddouri Jamal

Morocco…

Ms. Sawsan Tawkaz

Grasspea (4 Lathyrus species)

92 interspecific crosses using

embryorescue techniques

Lebanon…

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Farming with Alternative Pollinators (FAP)

Principle: attract wild pollinators via habitat improvement to reduce cost of farming, promote biodiversity, and increase crop yield (i.e., reduce the distance between nests and fields)

A scalable approach to protect pollinators worldwide

• Increases income significantly

• Protects wild pollinators without rewarding scheme (as in USA and EU)

• Focuses on cross-sector policy instruments for pollinator protection, which can be adopted even by Low Income Countries

ICARDA is the only CG center working on pollinator protection

One Global Wheat Program

Yield

Heat

Drought

YR, LR

FHS, Sep

YR

Blast

Multiple Disease

Resistance

Heat

Drought

H-Fly

LR-DW

Yield

Ug 99

Rust

Septoria

Sept DW

Yield

WW Heat Drought

Rusts

Yield (IN+PK)

Heat Dry (IN)

Heat Humid (BD)

Drought (IN)

FHS

Yield

Heat

• Operational

• Building up

• Planned

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Field-based phenotyping network

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Support to Agricultural Research for Africa: More Wheat for Africa

Target: 12 countries3 hubs and 9 partner countries

Agro-ecologies: 2 main types• Heat prone (lowlands)• Disease prone (highlands)

Impact:• 50 new varieties released• 4-7t ha-1 2-3 t ha-1

• Up to 400,000 ha increase in wheat surface• Up to 2 Mt production increase

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• To facilitate mechanized farming of lentil

• Evaluated 150 elite lines for erect, tall, high first pod bearing node

• 50 elite lines amenable to machine harvest identified

For a major breakthrough in productivity, revisiting plant architecture

Machine harvestable lentil Tall type High-vigor type All pods far from the ground

Lentil- herbicide tolerance

Imazethapyr Metribuzin

Short-Duration Lentils for Rice Fallow in South Asia

• Intensification of cereal based CS by inclusion of pulses as catch crop

• Diversification of cereal based CS by replacement

• Introduction in Rice-fallows in South Asia

• New niches such as spring planted crop

• Market opportunities

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Malt-barley demonstration in Ethiopia

Barley Research Focus

• Hulled & Naked Barley

• Feed, food and malting, dual purpose

• Resistance to abiotic stresses - Drought

- Cold/Heat

- Salinity

• Resistance to biotic stresses

- Rusts (Stripe and leaf)

- Foliar blights (NB, SB, Scald, SFNB)

- Powdery Mildew

- Aphid

Breeding trials in Marchouch, Morocco

In Northern Africa barley is commonly used for human consumption, especially in

rural and marginal areas

• Line 2Ab09-S06F084-5 identified for very high β-Glucan (15.9%)

• High Fe (54.8 ppm), Zn (37.9 ppm), and β-Glucan (>8%) varieties ‘Chifaa’ and

Assiya released in 2016 in Morocco.

Food barley for North Africa: β-Glucan and micronutrients++

Flattened barley Barley grit Barley flour

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Malt is used for alcoholic and non-alcoholic products, and

it receives a premium price.

Cultivation of high-input malt barley can supply new

income to smallholder farmers

Ethiopia and India have released 8 new malt-type varieties

of ICARDA origin

Poverty reduction via malt barley

Malt-testing equipment available at ICARDA

Malt-barley demonstration in Ethiopia

Non-alcoholic malt

Alcoholic malt

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Varieties Released by Partners

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• Past decade: 250 varieties• 2013: first year of move out of

Aleppo was the best one• To date: 19 releases

0

10

20

30

40

50

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Wheat Barley Faba bean Chick-pea Lentil Grass-pea

73

6025

42

48 2

Number of varieties released

Varieties released by species

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Conclusions

1. Genetic variability (biotic and abiotic stress) exists in Centers of Diversity and Genebanks

2. Beneficial traits are being identified through FIGS and field-based phenotyping

3. Trait introgression is done through pre-breeding/breeding and testing in key locations

4. ICARDA continues to collect agrobiodiversity and to refine algorithms for FIGS

5. For Climate Change (higher temperatures) new traits need to be identified- introgressed

Thank you

Tel Hadya, Aleppo