DG's presentation: The dry lands for Japan's seminar (1 february 2017)

1. International Platform for Dryland Research and Education
(IPDRE)
Commemorative Special Seminar for the Tokyo International
Symposium
The Drylands: The challenge
for the 21st Century
Aly Abousabaa, Director
General ICARDA
9th February, 2017
Japan

2. I. Introduction to ICARDA
II. The challenges of the drylands
III.Our work
IV.Concluding remarks
Outline

3. 3
ICARDA
Our focus is on creating vibrant and
prosperous rural communities in the
drylands where men and women
enjoy increased job opportunities
and incomes in agriculture, better
access to nutritious food and good
health, and increased capacity to
innovate, use and manage natural
resources in an equitable and
sustainable way.

4. 4
Global Drylands and CGIAR tropical and non-
tropical drylands
29.33 million
95.52 million
Area (km2)
1.89 billion
2.68 billion
Population
CIMMYT
Texcoco
Mexico
CIAT
Cali
Colombia
CIP
Lima
Peru
IFPRI
Washington D.C.
USA
WARDA
Africa Rice
Bouake
Ivory Coast
IITA
Ibadan
Nigeria World Agroforestry
Nairobi
Kenya
ILRI
Nairobi
Kenya
IWMI
Colombo
Sri Lanka
World Fish
Penang
Malaysia
CIFOR
Bogor
Indonesia
IRRI
Los Banos
Philippines
Bioversity International
Rome
Italy
ICARDA
Aleppo, Syria
Beirut, Lebanon
ICRISAT
Hyderabad
India

5. Where we work countries

6. 6
Globally there are challenges

7. The Challenges facing the Drylands
 Physical water scarcity
 Rapid natural resource
degradation and
desertification
 Groundwater depletion
 Drought
 Salinity
 Climate change
 Poverty high levels of
unemployment.
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 2003 2006
m
Decrease of the Souss
aquifer level in Morocco

8. (compiled by GIS Unit ICARDA, based on partial maps in Christensen et al., 2007)
Relative change in mean annual precipitation
1980/1999 to 2080/2099

9. Decentralizing ICARDA’s GeneBank Activities
Taxon Accessions
held in Syria
Morocco Lebanon Total unique
accessions in 2016
Bread wheat 14,100 3487 5037 14639
Durum wheat 19,635 4312 3655 20496
Primitive wheat 912 459 124 954
Aegilops 4057 120 3953 4774
Wild Triticum 1584 116 2250 2079
Barley 28,465 6007 5136 29981
Wild Hordeum 1989 228 354 2324
Chickpea 14,214 3326 2893 15195
Wild Cicer 270 277 547
Lentil 10,496 4618 335 13907
Wild Lens 587 426 602
Faba bean 9542 3397 10034
Lathyrus 3996 1735 4277
Pisum 6106 149 8893
Medicago 8398 1321 5677
Trifolium 4536 5088 6366
Vicia 6144 637 6115
Range and pasture 5802 2130 7166
Others 219 211 225
Total 141,052 22,673 39,108 154,251
Syria: Active and base collections
Second level Safety duplication at Svalbard
Safety
duplication
Safety
duplication
Lebanon: Collections of faba
bean, Lathyrus, forage and
range species and crop wild
relatives
Morocco: Collections of
cultivated species of
barley, wheat, lentil
and chickpea
Reducing the risk associated with being based in fragile states.

10. 10
Managing the Germplasm – FIGS Approach
• FIGS approach links traits,
environments and associated
selection pressures with genebank
accessions
• ‘Focuses in’ on those accessions
most likely to possess trait specific
genetic variation.
0 50 100 150
0102030405060
Longitude
Latitude
Trait (disease score)Environment FIGS subset
www.icarda.org/
10,000 accessions
200 accessions
Lentil 11876 + 587
Chickpea 15046 + 270
Faba bean 9993
Lathyrus 4165

11. Link environmental
data to collection sites
Adapted from D T F Endresen (NGB)
Choose accessions from
environments where selection
pressure exists for adaptive traits
to stress e.g. drought, heat,
salinity.
For diseases and pests, select
material from environments that
favor high pest populations
FIGS Application
Focusing on the ‘Best Bet’ Accessions

12. 12
Our Work: A climate smart crop for the future

13. 13
Biofortified lentils – reducing micronutrient deficiencies
• Five short duration varieties with
high Fe, Zn and yield released in
Bangladesh
• BARI M8 is released this year with
high Fe and Zn content
• 186,000 ton micronutrient dense
lentil produced from 145,600 ha

14. Parent Variety Yield t/ha
% recurrent
parent
Cham 6*2/SW2 1.6 147
Cham 6*2/SW2 1.5 138
Cham-6 1.10 100
Attila-7 1.3 -
Breeding Crops for Drought Tolerance and WUE
Example: Synthetic Wheat, tolerance to excessive drought
Yield of “synthetic derivatives” compared to parents
under drought stress. (Tel Hadya -- 211 mm)

15. Indigenous breeds of
small ruminants are
highly adaptable to
changes in the
environment
15

16. Genetic diversity and structure of Ethiopian indigenous goat
populations
Chinese goats Ethiopian indigenous goats
• 14 goat populations genotyped with 50K SNP Chip
• High genetic diversity (Expected and observed heterozygosity > 0.3)
• Ethiopian goats differ genetically from Chinese goats
Most genetically distinct populations
(Kaffa and Abergelle)Getinet et al (under preparation)

17. 17
Meat and milk depend on reproduction
 Need to increase reproductive efficiency
… but using Clean, Green and Non Invasive practices
Ultrasound diagnosis as tool to manage sheep and goat
reproduction
Reproduction technologies to increase reproductive efficiency of
sheep and goats

18. Ultrasound Pregnancy Diagnosis
Screening
for the number
of fetuses
Calculation
of the age
of the fetuses
Culling of
Sterile
Animals
Timely planning of conditions of birth and rational use of feed resources
Reproduction technologies for higher reproductive efficiency have
these advantages

19. 19
Raised bed combination planter and furrow maker
 Reduce applied water by 30%
 Increase yields by 25%
 Reduce seed rate by 50%
 Increase WUE by 72%
 70,000 feddan adoption in Egypt (2yrs)
Managing severe water scarcity at the farm

20. FP: furrows irrigation FlP: flat bed irrigation RBP: raised bed irrigation

21. Supplemental irrigation (SI): Water productive
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Rainfed Full
irrigation
Supp.
Irrigation
WPKgwheatgrain/m3H2O
3.1
5.3
5.9
6.2
4.4
2
0.8 1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
rainfed Sowing SI Deficit SI Full SI
Grain yield (t/ha) Water productivity (Kg/m3)
• Limited water application to
predominantly rain fed crops
alleviates impact of drought
spells
• Achieve high yields and water
productivity especially with
deficit irrigation
• Allow early sowing to avoid
drought and frost and mitigate
climate change impacts

22. The Vallerani for Rangelands (‘badia’) Rehabilitation
 Rainwater harvesting
using mechanized laser
guided contouring to re-
establish shrubs
 Water stored in soils and
aquifers
 Improved grazing
management
Rehabilitating Rangelands in the MENA Region
Improves productivity and combats
desertification

23. Water Harvesting Techniques: improve significantly seedlings establishment and biomass
and forage production
23

24. 2. Rehabilitation: Reseeding native species
24

25. Attribute Outside the
Musawar
Inside the
Musawar
(10 years)
Inside the Musawar
(2 years)
Total plant cover 12.67 77.33 47
Contribution of perennials 5.26 15.09 78.72
Contribution of annuals 94.74 84.91 21.28
Total plant cover (%) and contribution of perennials and annuals species (%)
inside and outside the musawar (fenced area) in Qatar.
25
Fences are key in rehabilitating degraded.

26. Scarification + Direct Seeding
26

27. 27
Potential collaborative areas: ICARDA and Tottori University
 Germplasm: pre breading -
evaluation
 Ecosystems restoration:
Experiences between Asia and
the Middle east
 Water management:
Modernizing systems - scarcity
management
 Watershed management:
Complementarities in Ethiopia
 Capacity building: MSC & JICA
programs
 Joint appointments: Already
implemented .. Expanding

28. • The challenges facing the
drylands are significant and
require an integrated approach
in addressing them;
• Climate change will be the
driver of change – agriculture
may not be possible in certain
areas in the future;
• We can no longer neglect the
drylands;
• There are clear opportunities
where ICARDA and Tottori
University can bring together
their strengths to meet these
challenges.
Concluding Remarks

29. THANK YOU
29