Most maize production across the globe is rain-fed, and production is set to be negatively impacted as duration and occurrence of droughts increases due to climate change. Development of water-deficit tolerant maize germplasm has been a major focus for most breeding programmes. Here, we sought to assess the genetic gain for grain yield in two maize populations developed for drought tolerance at CIMMYT by evaluating their cycle progeny through hybrid performance.

CONTEXT
Cereal-legume intercropping, a common practice among farmers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), is important for crop diversification, soil fertility improvement, household nutrition and climate adaptation. However, cereals often outcompete the intercropped legumes for growth resources resulting in low legume yields.
OBJECTIVE

Context
Crop productivity in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be substantially improved without simultaneously addressing short-term crop nutrient demand and long-term soil fertility. Integrated soil fertility management tackles both by the combined application of mineral fertilizers and organic resource inputs but few studies examined its‘ long-term effectiveness.
Objective

Farmers commonly split large, undulating crop fields, even those at similar elevation range or contour, into a patchwork of small sub-plots in plane areas of Nepal. Specifically, to ensure irrigation or rainwater throughout their cultivated rice or wheat growing areas, structures like bunds, dikes, and ditches are commonly built. These structures not only require significant labor hours to build but also incur loss of some portion of productive crop areas.

The water-energy-food-ecosystem (WEFE) nexus is a cross-sectoral concept offering a holistic perspective of the interconnections among agriculture, energy production, water resources, and ecosystem health. However, most emerging nexus approaches have been narrowly focused on resource efficiency and technocratic ‘fixes’ that don’t adequately consider the impacts of resource use and development on diverse groups of resource users and managers.

The goals for an Agri stack for Uttar Pradesh should include:

Legumes play a significant role in food and nutritional security and contribute to environmental sustainability. Although legumes are highly beneficial crops, it has not yet been possible to enhance their yield and production to a satisfactory level. Amid a rising population and low yield levels, per capita average legume consumption in India has fallen by 71% over the last 50 years, and this has led to protein-related malnutrition in a large segment of the Indian population, especially women and children.

To assess the efficiency of genetic improvement programs, it is essential to assess the genetic trend in long-term data. The present study estimates the genetic trends for grain yield of rice varieties released between 1970 and 2020 by the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute. The yield of the varieties was assessed from 2001–2002 to 2020–2021 in multi-locations trials. In such a series of trials, yield may increase over time due to (i) genetic improvement (genetic trend) and (ii) improved management or favorable climate change (agronomic/non-genetic trend).