Field Days
On-farm demonstration of Heat stress resilient hybrids during HTMA Field Day Nepal
In Nepal, CIMMYT’s Heat Stress Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) project held a hybrid maize field day on 16 April 2015 in Dumarvana and Nijgadh villages, Bara district, and on 17 April at the National Maize Research Program (NMRP), Rampur, Chitwan. The event was attended by over 70 participants who scored hybrids by preference and criteria. Field day participants included local maize farmers, Nepali seed companies, agricultural input dealers, government seed system officers, maize researchers from NMRP and other maize research stations, the National Agricultural Research Council, and Belay Mengistu, Agricultural Development Officer from USAID. CIMMYT participants included P.H. Zaidi, senior maize physiologist and HTMA project leader and AR Sadananda (CIMMYT seed Systems Specialist). The participants rated the displayed hybrids, six HTMA varieties with scored higher than the best commercial hybrids. Five of these hybrids were selected by NMRP for Licensing and deployment to different regions ( Read more….)
On-farm demonstration of Heat resilient hybrids during HTMA Field day Bangladesh
The field day on “Heat Tolerant Maize for Asia (HTMA) Hybrid Maize” was jointly organized by Plant Breeding Division, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), and CIMMYT on 20th April, 2015 at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Khoirtola, Jessore. The field day was attended by the representatives from private seed companies viz., Lal Teer Seed Ltd., Supreme Seed Company Ltd., ACI Ltd., Krishibid Group, Monsanto India Ltd., Syngenta (Bangladesh) Ltd., Petrochem (Bangladesh) Ltd.; NGOs viz., Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee(BRAC) and Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB); development institution like Katalyst; public sector seed production agency i.e., Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation(BADC); and the scientists from CIMMYT and BARI. Apart from this, representatives from Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Agrovet people, and maize farmers were also participated in this event. The participants scored the hybrids and selected the best bet hybrids in relation to the performance of the commercial check. A final selection by the breeders lead to the licensing of 6 hybrids to BARI of which two had been sub-licensed by BARI to private seed company (ACI) by BARI for a wider reach and adaptation in Bangladesh.
On-farm demonstration of Heat resilient hybrids during HTMA Field Day Pakistan
The HTMA hybrid field day was organized by MMRI on 4th June, 2015. Participants first visited the hybrid demo planted at MMRI, Sahiwal and then at Zamidara Seeds farm at Depalpur.
Participants from different seed companies showed lot of interest and appreciate this initiative that gave them opportunity to see CIMMYT-HTMA good performing material to national seed sector. Participants walked through the demo, plot-by-plot, selected good performing material of their own interest, and submitted their selection list to Director, MMRI for forwarding to CIMMYT.