Dr. Yubak Dhoj GC, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Nepal, introducing the ‘Development of Balanced Nutrient Management Innovations in South Asia’ workshop implemented by the USAID/Washington supported Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and USAID/Nepal supported Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) projects. Over the last few decades, deteriorating soil fertility has been linked to decreasing agricultural yields in South Asia, a region marked by inequities in food and nutritional ...

Farmers around the world face consistent threat from crop pests, such as wheat blast disease that attacks maturing grains causing them to shrivel and reduce farmers’ yields. But new advances in technology and modeling are making it easier to identify, prevent and control these diseases. Outbreaks of wheat blast in South Asia – a region where people consume over 100 million tons of wheat each year – have an enhanced ...

Seminar delegates observing combine harvesters with farmers in Rupandehi, Nepal. Photo: V. Dakshinamurthy/CIMMYT CSISA in Nepal organized a three-day traveling seminar on “Scale-appropriate machinery for cereal crop harvesting in South Asia” on March 25–29, 2019. In Nepal, the adoption of agricultural mechanization has increased slowly over time. While small, regional markets for combine harvesters have existed in Nepal for the last 20 years, the major rise in sales has occurred in the last 10 years, both ...

Scientists, in collaboration with CSISA, help farmers practice integrated disease management with the help of the weather-based Stempedia model. Stemphylium blight is one of the most damaging diseases that plagues lentil fields in South Asia, causing plants to shed leaves and loose twigs, ultimately leading to grain loss. In severe cases, yield losses as high as 90% have been reported in Bangladesh and other countries. Lentil production is an integral part ...

Wheat blast is a fast-acting and devastating fungal disease that threatens food safety and security in the Americas and South Asia. First officially identified in Brazil in 1984, the disease is widespread in South American wheat fields, affecting as much as 3 million hectares in the early 1990s. In 2016, it crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and Bangladesh suffered a severe outbreak. Bangladesh released a blast-resistant wheat variety—developed with breeding ...