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Page 1: The Asian Maize Biotechnology Networkufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/07/74/62/00001/ambionet2006.pdf · Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to produce high-yielding, disease
Page 2: The Asian Maize Biotechnology Networkufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/00/07/74/62/00001/ambionet2006.pdf · Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to produce high-yielding, disease

The Asian Maize Biotechnology Network

(AMBIONET):A Model for Strengthening National

Agricultural Research Systems

Carl E. PrayDepartment of Agricultural, Food & Resource Economics

Rutgers UniversityCook Office Building

55 Dudley RoadNew Brunswick NJ 08901

USA

AcknowledgmentsEditing: Mike Listman.

Layout/design: Eliot Sánchez.

This study was generously supported by USAID, through linkage funding.

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CIMMYT® (www.cimmyt.org) is an international, not-for-profit organization that conducts research andtraining related to maize and wheat throughout the developing world. Drawing on strong science andeffective partnerships, CIMMYT works to create, share, and use knowledge and technology to increasefood security, improve the productivity and profitability of farming systems, and sustain naturalresources. CIMMYT is one of 15 Future Harvest Centers of the Consultative Group on InternationalAgricultural Research (CGIAR) (www.cgiar.org). Financial support for CIMMYT’s work comes from themembers of the CGIAR, national governments, foundations, development banks, and other public andprivate agencies.

© International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) 2006. All rights reserved. Thedesignations employed in the presentation of materials in this publication do not imply the expression ofany opinion whatsoever on the part of CIMMYT or its contributory organizations concerning the legalstatus of any country, territory, city, or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of itsfrontiers or boundaries. CIMMYT encourages fair use of this material. Proper citation is requested.

Correct citation: Pray, C. 2006. The Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET): A model forstrengthening national agricultural research systems. Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT.

Abstract: This report reviews the impacts of the Asian Maize Biotechnology Network (AMBIONET),organized by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) with funding from theAsian Development Bank to strengthen the capacity of public maize research institutions in China, India,Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to produce high-yielding, disease resistant, stress tolerantmaize cultivars. It was found that, during its lifetime (1998-2005), AMBIONET clearly benefitedresearchers and institutions in participating countries, as well as CIMMYT. In addition, there was goodprogress toward developing improved cultivars. Asian farmers are just beginning to gain from the work,but their future benefits will likely pay for AMBIONET’s relatively modest expenditures many times over.

ISBN: 970-648-138-9AGROVOC descriptors: Zea mays; Plant breeding; Biotechnology; Breeding methods; Research methods;

Disease resistance; Yield increases; Research institutions; China; India;Indonesia; Philippines; Thailand; Viet Nam; Asia

AGRIS category codes: F30 Plant Genetics and BreedingF01 Crop Husbandry

Additional Keywords: AMBIONETDewey decimal classification: 633.15950

Printed in Mexico.

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Contents

1. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................... 1

2. History and Structure of AMBIONET ........................................................................... 3

History .................................................................................................................................. 3

The structure of AMBIONET ............................................................................................ 4

3. Framework for Impact Assessment .............................................................................. 10

Conventional breeding .................................................................................................... 10

Breeding with molecular tools ........................................................................................ 11

Pathways to farmers ......................................................................................................... 13

Methods of impact analysis ............................................................................................ 14

4. Impact on Asian Maize Research Capacity ................................................................ 17

Asian maize research before AMBIONET .................................................................... 17

Impact of AMBIONET on NARSs’ research priorities ................................................ 18

Financial resources ........................................................................................................... 19

Human capital ................................................................................................................... 21

Strength through the network ........................................................................................ 23

Impact on research capacity outside AMBIONET partner institutions .................... 23

5. Impact on Research Output and Productivity ........................................................... 26

Progress toward improved cultivars ............................................................................. 26

Increasing knowledge, improving research tools ........................................................ 28

Research productivity ...................................................................................................... 29

6. Impact on farmers ............................................................................................................ 31

Potential value of new varieties from AMBIONET ..................................................... 31

Actual and potential impact of AMBIONET activities ............................................... 32

Will the technology reach the poor? .............................................................................. 34

Research priorities ............................................................................................................ 36

7. Conclusions: Impacts and the Future .......................................................................... 38

References .............................................................................................................................. 41

Appendix table 1. .................................................................................................................. 42

Appendix table 2. .................................................................................................................. 43

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Tables and Figures

Table 1. Summary of AMBIONET research activities, 1998-2003. ............................................................... 6

Table 2. ADB AMBIONET budget categories. ................................................................................................ 7

Table 3. Research inputs from AMBIONET. ................................................................................................... 8

Table 4. Steps in marker-assisted breeding for disease resistance in maize,with examples from India and China. ............................................................................................ 12

Table 5. Public and private-sector maize research institutes and scientists, 1997/98. ........................... 17

Table 6. Direction of research funding and competitive grants in AMBIONET. ..................................... 19

Table 7. Scientists and technicians in the AMBIONET teams before andafter joining AMBIONET. ................................................................................................................. 21

Table 8. Participants in training programs by country. ............................................................................... 22

Table 9. Thesis research and short-term training supported by AMBIONET teams. ............................. 24

Table 10. Pathways from AMBIONET research to improved cultivars. ..................................................... 26

Table 11. Numbers of journal articles published by AMBIONET partners. .............................................. 28

Table 12. Number of maize varieties developed and marketed in Asia bypublic and private sector, 1990-98. .................................................................................................. 32

Table 13. Estimates of losses from downy mildew and sugarcane mosaic virus. ..................................... 32

Table 14. Area planted to maize, by maize type, based on estimates of nationalpublic-sector researchers (adjusted using FAO area data), selectedAsian countries and region, 1997. .................................................................................................... 35

Figure 1. Pathways for marketing germplasm. .............................................................................................. 13

Figure 2. Hypothetical example of costs and benefits from molecular breeding. .................................... 14

Figure 3. Research productivity: journal articles per scientist. .................................................................... 29

Figure 4. Costs and potential benefits of disease resistance research conductedas part of AMBIONET. ...................................................................................................................... 33

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1. Executive Summary

The primary method to answer these questionswas through interviews conducted over November2003-August 2004 with many NARSs andCIMMYT scientists involved in AMBIONET andwith public sector scientists and officials in privatefirms outside the network. We also developed aquestionnaire that was completed by theAMBIONET coordinator for each country. Finally,we reviewed the reports and some publishedpapers of the AMBIONET team and of othernetworks.

The main findings are:

1. Although AMBIONET was developed andexpanded in two projects funded by the AsianDevelopment Bank; the resources provided toAMBIONET by ADB and CIMMYT in the twoprojects were quite small: US$2.4 million fromADB and about US$1.3 million in kind fromCIMMYT.

2. Despite the limited resources invested, maizeresearch in Asia was strengthened, particularlyat the institutes participating in AMBIONET inChina, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.AMBIONET also strengthened the research ofindividual scientists in the Philippines andThailand, even though it was less successful atbuilding research institutions.

3. Much of AMBIONET’s research focused on theproblems of small farmers. Good progress wasmade toward developing improved, diseaseresistant lines that can be used in breedingprograms. It is too early to tell whether thebreeding priorities pursued were the best toobtain maximum social benefits.

Supported by the Asian Development Bank, theAsian Maize Biotechnology Network(AMBIONET) included molecular biologists andmaize scientists and was organized in 1998 byCIMMYT and the national agricultural researchsystems (NARSs) of China, India, Indonesia,Philippines, and Thailand. Vietnam joined duringthe second phase of the project, which started in2002. The network ended in 2005.

The objective of AMBIONET was to strengthen thecapacity of key public maize research institutionsin Asia to produce maize cultivars that would behigher yielding, resistant to diseases, and tolerantto abiotic stresses. The research capacity buildingcomponent focused on the use of molecularmarkers and molecular breeding.

The major research question of this study was: in aclimate of shrinking funding for the CGIARcenters, were these AMBIONET projects a gooduse of CIMMYT’s limited resources? To answerthis question we looked at three components:

1. Is the Asian maize breeding capacity strongerthan it would have been in the absence ofAMBIONET?

2. Are the research programs that are part ofAMBIONET likely to develop technology thatwill improve the income and well-being ofresource-poor farmers in Asia?

3. Is CIMMYT’s research program stronger becauseof AMBIONET?

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4. Farmers are just starting to benefit fromAMBIONET research. The size of future benefitsis difficult to predict, but the benefits willprobably cover the costs of AMBIONETexpenditures many times over.

5. CIMMYT has also benefited from this program.It has gained knowledge about Asian maizegermplasm and knowledge and molecularmarkers relating to drought and importantdiseases. AMBIONET has helped CIMMYTmove toward its goals of stronger maize researchprograms and improved technology for the poorin developing countries.

This report is organized as follows. Section 2 is ahistory of AMBIONET and the research inputs thatit provided. Section 3 develops a framework forimpact assessment based on the biotechnologiesand their possible impact. Section 4 examines theimpact of AMBIONET on Asian research capacity.Section 5 presents an analysis of the impact ofAMBIONET on research outputs and productivity.Section 6 describes the way increased researchoutputs and productivity could benefit farmersand the possible level of potential benefits fromAMBIONET research. Section 7 reviews theevidence on the impact of AMBIONET and looksat some alternative futures for the network.

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HistoryThe AMBIONET project built on two previousAsian biotechnology networks. The first was theRockefeller Foundation Rice BiotechnologyProgram. This program started in 1984 as acomprehensive research, capacity building, andtechnology transfer program that included theentire spectrum from fundamental research toplant breeding and socio-economic evaluation ofpotential benefits. Between 1984 and 1999 theRockefeller Foundation allocated almost US$100million to this program. Part of the money wentto laboratories in high-income countries todevelop techniques and knowledge that could beused for the molecular biology, geneticengineering, and molecular breeding of rice. Theother large part of the money went to fundcapacity-building and research at institutes indeveloping countries, primarily in Asia. Inaddition networking activities like annualmeetings of participants and a rice biotechnologynewsletter were developed to improvecommunication among participating scientists.

This program was a major success in terms ofcapacity building. The 1999 evaluation of thisprogram stated (Mohan et al. 1999):

“As far as the capacity building in ricebiotechnology capacity in low income countries(LICs) is concerned, the impact of the RiceBiotechnology Program has been profound,often with spin-off benefits to other crops.Many individuals have benefited from bothformal training and research grants while weestimate the combination has had potentially amajor impact in about 46% of the RiceBiotechnology Program supported LICs

institutions. However, we believe that majorchallenges still exist in many institutions inensuring that such individual and institutionalbiotechnology capacity results in usefulcontributions to final products, the primaryproblem being of forging effective interactivelinkages with rice breeders and developmentoriented agencies.”

The program was less successful at developing“products” in the form of new technology forfarmers. The impact as of 1999 was an impressivelist of intermediate products including animmense amount of knowledge about ricegenetics, many new research tools, and improvedlines of rice. According to Mohan et al. (1999):“…as a result, work on the rice genome hasbecome a model for other cereal crops.” Manytransgenic rice varieties and hybrids withresistance to insects, disease, herbicides, andimproved nutritional qualities have beendeveloped by scientists, but no transgenic ricelines have been commercialized, primarilybecause of biosafety regulatory procedures, whichare driven in part by consumer concerns about thesafety of genetically modified products. Somedisease resistant, non-transgenic rice varietiesdeveloped using marker assisted selection (MAS)were being tested for commercial release when theRockefeller Program was evaluated in 1999.

The second program upon which AMBIONETbuilt was the Asian Rice Biotechnology Network(ARBN). International Rice Research Institute(IRRI) scientists, with funding from the AsianDevelopment Bank and German foreign aid, setup the ARBN in 1993. It grew with a second phasewhich started in 1997 and a third phase which

2. History and Structure of AMBIONET

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lasted from January 1999 to 2002. The initialproject aimed to address the fact that many biotechresearch centers were started with well-trainedpeople, lots of equipment, and funding from Asiangovernments and the Rockefeller Foundation, butfew of these centers did much research and orproduced new knowledge or technology. IRRIscientists and their NARSs colleagues felt thatsome type of on-going relationship with IRRIbiotech scientists and other research centers wasneeded; that NARSs scientists should be able notonly to take training courses, but also to use thetechniques learned while working alongside anIRRI scientist. The latter would providesubsequent trouble-shooting assistance for thenational program researchers, once they returnedtheir home institutions. The ARBN also providedenzymes or facilitated repairs for advancedequipment, when such products or services wereunavailable locally, and helped the nationalscientists to keep current with the literature andmaintain contact with colleagues.

The first ARBN project was funded by ADB andconcentrated on strengthening selected publicresearch labs, biotech scientists, and rice breedersin India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Laterprojects expanded the program to 10 institutes in 6countries. The research focused on biotic stresses;specifically, bacterial blight, tungro, blast, and gallmidge. ARBN had a full-time scientist/managerand scientists at IRRI who backstopped themanager. The first phase of the project wasprimarily capacity building. The second phasecomprised collaborative research and somecapacity building with newer partners. The thirdphase was mainly networking and maintenance ofresearch. Approximately US$100,000 was investedin the labs of each of the early partners. The projectsponsored many training courses and financed

research projects at the collaborating institutes. Alab at IRRI received network partners for extendedperiods of research. The IRRI lab also furnishedaccess to expensive, sophisticated equipment thatpartners needed only occasionally.

AMBIONET was modeled fairly closely on ARBN.CIMMYT had a long history of training andsupporting maize breeders and other maizescientists from the center’s regional office inBangkok. In the mid-1990s CIMMYT closed thatoffice, but tried to continue to support maizebreeders in the region by proposing an Asianmaize network to be funded by ADB. The agencydeclined to fund that network, so in 1997 CIMMYTput together the proposal for AMBIONET. LikeARBN the aim was to strengthen public maizebreeding through applied biotechnology. To joinAMBIONET, countries had to have some biotechresearch capacity, as well as be clients of ADB. Theinstitutes in each country were selected to ensurethat the biotechnologists and plant breedersworked closely together on applied researchproblems. In each country a biologist and a plantbreeder were selected as joint team leaders. On theadvice of Rockefeller and ADB and due, in part, tothe limited budget, the project did not include alarge central laboratory for AMBIONET. The Bankalso decided not to fund genetic engineeringresearch, because of concerns in the agency aboutpotential health hazards. AMBIONET wasaccepted and the project started in early 1998.

The Structure of AMBIONETThe first AMBIONET project included China,India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.The Asian Development Bank project that fundedit was called “Application of Biotechnology toMaize Improvement in Asia.” The objectives andscope of the first project were (CIMMYT 2001):

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The AMBIONET was funded by a three-waypartnership among the Asian Development Bank,CIMMYT, and national partners. The first projectwas funded primarily by ADB, which contributedUS $1.4 million over four years, and by CIMMYT,which made an in-kind contribution of scientificadvice and training of about US $400,000. Thenational partners were budgeted to contributeabout US $200,000. In the second project ADBprovided US $1 million over three years.CIMMYT was to contribute in-kind services ofabout US $900,000. The national partners werebudgeted to contribute US $720,000 in in-kindresources, and it was hoped that the privatesector would contribute US $180,000 over thethree years of the project.

Research capacity building was to be achievedthrough a combination of collaborative researchprojects, training, networking, and in some casesthe provision of equipment or assistance inidentifying suppliers. Varietal developmentresearch was done by national programs incollaboration with CIMMYT, which contributedtraining, information, DNA markers, germplasm,and other scientific and technical backstopping.AMBIONET provided the research focus andfacilitated collaboration. Molecular markers wereused in (1) fingerprinting, particularlycharacterizing maize germplasm in geneticdiversity studies; (2) mapping, which is theidentification and characterization of genomicregions involved in the expression of target traits;and, ultimately, (3) marker-assisted selection(MAS), also know as molecular breeding, whichis maize improvement using selection forgenomic regions associated with target traits.

The AMBIONET research agenda was developedby the national breeders and biologists workingwith CIMMYT biotechnology scientists (Table 1).

“To build and support the capacity of nationalmaize improvement programs in five Asiancountries to apply biotechnology for varietyimprovement, with the goal of increasing maizeproductivity through the development of highyielding cultivars that are resistant to diseaseand tolerant to abiotic stresses. The scope of theproject includes training, collaborative research,and information sharing through the AsianMaize Biotechnology Network.

The project focused on the application ofmolecular markers to develop improved maizevarieties that have high yield, resistance againstdiseases, and tolerance to abiotic stresses.Primary research areas were the geneticcharacterization of maize lines, and mappingand marker-assisted selection for resistance todowny mildew, sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV),and maize rough dwarf virus (MRDV), inaddition to tolerance to drought and lownitrogen conditions.”

David Hoisington, head of the AppliedBiotechnology Center at CIMMYT, was thescientific advisor and administrator of the project.Luz George, who had worked for the Asian RiceBiotechnology Network, was hired in late 1998 asAMBIONET coordinator in Asia, located at IRRI inthe Philippines, with chief responsibility forproject implementation. A maize breeder and amolecular biologist from public research instituteswere identified as team leaders in each projectcountry. In 2000 a sixth team located at theSichuan Agricultural University in southern Chinawas added.

The objectives and scope of the second project(2002-05) added enhanced nutritional qualitiesand banded leaf and sheath blight (BLSB) asresearch areas. At this time institutes in Vietnamjoined AMBIONET.

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Table 1. Summary of AMBIONET research activities, 1998-2003 (x = started in phase I; xx = started in phase II).Participating institutes are listed below.

Maize Downy Banded leaf Drought Low nitrogen QualityCountry NARSs diversity Virus mildew and sheath blight tolerance tolerance protein maize

China-North CAAS x x x xxChina-South SAU x xx xIndia IARI x x xx xIndonesia ICERI/IABGGRI x x xx xx xxPhilippines USM xx x xx xxThailand DOA x x x x xxVietnam NMRI/AGI xx xx xx

CAAS: Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesSAU: Sichuan Agricultural UniversityIARI: Indian Agricultural Research InstituteICERI: Indonesian Cereal Research InstituteIABGRRI: Indonesian Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research InstituteUSM: University of Southern MindanaoDOA: Department of AgricultureNMRI: National Maize Research InstituteAGI: Agricultural Genetics InstituteSource: CIMMYT 2001

Projects focused on the improvement of locally-adapted lines for country-relevant traits.Components on diversity and downy mildew,which were relevant to all or most of thecountries, were pursued through a sub-networkof research projects.

Priorities were set primarily according to supply-side considerations: how difficult the problemwas to solve and the capacity of NARSresearchers. AMBIONET scientists chose researchprojects that they believed had prospects for quicksuccess, both to encourage NARS partnerscientists and to show other scientists andfunding agencies the value of biotechnology tools.For example, diversity studies in hybrid breedingpopulations—classifying them into groups fromwhich breeders could choose lines to develophigher-yielding hybrids—constitute a relativelystraightforward use of genetic fingerprinting. Allpartner institutions had the scientists andequipment needed to accomplish them, and theinformation generated could be useful toconventional plant breeders.

Developing markers for disease resistance andusing them in MAS is more complicated andwould take longer to produce results. Participantsstarted working on diseases about which muchwas known and for which resistance wascontrolled by a small number of genes. It wasexpected that they would make progress by theend of the first project and they did.

The last target was drought tolerance. This wasthought to be the most important problemthroughout Asia (and elsewhere), particularly forsmall-scale farmers who lack irrigation. Droughttolerance is genetically much more complicatedthan resistance to most diseases. Many traitscontribute to drought tolerance at different stagesof plant growth, and most of these traits arecontrolled by many genes. As a result theAMBIONET team decided that larger, moreadvanced research programs, such as those ofChina and India, would start working on droughtimmediately. The others would wait until theyhad built up their biotech capacity through workon diversity and diseases.

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The major budget categories of the ADB money arefound in Table 2. A major component of the projectand one of the keys to its success was theappointment of the project coordinator, LuzGeorge. Her duties included:• Act as the communication node among the

network participants.• Monitor the progress of country teams and assist

in troubleshooting.• Plan and organize annual meetings, workshops,

and training activities.• Facilitate the procurement and distribution of

equipments/supplies.• Supervise the AMBIONET service lab.• Conduct training and research of relevance to

the network and publish papers.• Produce technical progress reports and grants

proposals.• Publish the network newsletter.• Design, development, and maintain the

network’s web site.

In addition to these tasks, she led network researchprograms on genetic diversity and downy mildewin collaboration with CIMMYT and NARSs, andpublished several high-quality journal articles.

The biggest category was initially for NARS. Thisdeclined during the second phase, partly becausemost NARS labs had the equipment they neededby then. Funding to each individual program wasquite limited (Table 3). In interviews, NARS teamleaders emphasized the importance ofAMBIONET’s flexibility, which offered differenttypes of assistance to different institutes. Forexample, in India, B.M. Prasanna, of the IndianAgricultural Research Institute, emphasized theimportance of being able to buy equipment for hislab. In contrast, for Shihuang Zhang, head of the

Table 2. ADB AMBIONET budget categories.

Phase I: 1998-2001 Phase II:Categories (revised budget) 2002-2005

Project coordinator 210,000 210,000Travel 140,000 80,000Research work, equipment

and materials 420,000 190,000Training NARSs scientists 230,000 140,000Disseminating results and

technical support 215,000 175,000Administrative support 185,000 110,000Contingencies 0 95,000Total 1,400,000 1,000,000

Source: CIMMYT 2001.

During the second project, quality protein maize(QPM)1 was added as a target trait, becauseCIMMYT had good markers for protein qualityand good lines of maize with this characteristic.The AMBIONET scientists thought it would berelative easy to add QPM to good, local maizelines. In addition, as success was achieved inproducing markers and resistant lines for downymildew and viruses, the network moved on toBLSB, which was a more important disease thandowny mildew or viruses.

Not every country worked on every project,because in some countries a particular disease wasnot a problem or researchers had not developedthe capacity required.

Research priorities could have been improved byconsidering the economic significance of theproblem, the time and difficulty of delivering thescience-based solutions to the poor, and theavailability of alternative technologies foraddressing the problems. However, given theshort period of ADB funding and the need toprovide some initial results which could be usedto justify a second phase of the project, thepriorities chosen may have been the best.

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1 QPM looks, tastes, and grows like normal maize, but its grain contains nearly twice the levels of lysineand tryptophan, essential amino acids for protein synthesis in humans and many farm animals.

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Chinese group, one of the most important uses ofthe money was to hire post-doctoral fellows withexperience using molecular marker techniques. InIndonesia, access to some of the key chemicals wasa major constraint, and AMBIONET funds andassistance addressed those needs and enabledresearchers there to progress.

The research programs were also supported by theAMBIONET service lab, located at IRRI. The labpurchased and delivered equipment and suppliesin the region, and conducted research to fill gapsand benefit the whole network. In a 25 August2004 email, George gave several examples of therole the lab played:

“….in our network-wide research to identifyQTLs for DM resistance, we consolidated andanalyzed the individual country data, conductedadditional work to locate linked markers in thestrongest QTL [which happened to be expressedin all locations] which the countries can then usein marker assisted selection. Another example ofwork in the service lab is the development ofstandard alleles and kits which we distributed tothe network countries. By using the standardalleles and standardized protocols, the differentcountries could combine their genetic diversitydata. The importance of this is that, by mergingdatasets, there is no duplication of effort (ifteams want to see the relationship of their inbred

lines with those of another country or CIMMYT,there is no need to fingerprint the lines of othersanymore, one can simply combine the specificcountry data with others).”

Training programs were another large componentof the budget. The first of these training programswas designed by CIMMYT and aimed to put theparticipating breeders on equal footing with themolecular biologists with whom they would serveas joint team leaders for country programs. Itprovided an overview of molecular markers andrelated techniques, and particularly their role inplant breeding. The course also described how toassemble a molecular marker laboratory for maizebreeding and detailed associated costs.

Other training programs responded to specificNARS needs and enabled them to carry out theirpart of the project research agenda. A list of allcourses is found in Appendix Table 1. This listincludes workshops and country trainingprograms on maize and downy mildewfingerprinting, QTL mapping, functionalgenomics, and genetic diversity. The last regionalworkshop was on grant writing. The skills thatscientists gained were utilized in their researchprograms. As a result of this and other networkcontributions, participants used similar techniquesand research protocols, facilitating region-widecollaboration and sharing of results.

Table 3. Research inputs from AMBIONET.

China- China-North South India Indonesia Philippines Thailand Vietnam

Research funding for national programs 80 20 80 80 80 80 0Phase I (US$‘000)Research funding for national programs 27 27 27 27 27 27 27Phase II (US$‘000)AMBIONET training programs 17 47 14 21 23 19 3(number attending)AMBIONET annual meetings 20 9 9 25 25 24 7(number attending)On-site visits by CIMMYT staff 6 7 12 to 14 11 11 13 4

Source: Survey by author and CIMMYT 2004.

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Annual meetings comprised an integral part of thecapacity building process. There participantsassessed and reinforced new skills when theyreported their results, with questions andsuggestions from other teams and the CIMMYTstaff. CIMMYT staff and the project coordinatorspent time for each country team for more detailedfeedback. Presentations by CIMMYT scientistscovered new techniques and advances inknowledge on genetic diversity, biotic stressessuch as downy mildew and viruses, abioticstresses such as drought and low nitrogen, andgrain quality. Future plans and collaborativeresearch were discussed.

Visits by the project coordinator and CIMMYTstaff provided additional support. In the initialstages of each institute’s participation, George andHoisington visited and helped identify the bestequipment, chemicals, and training programsneeded. Visits from other experts were arranged tosolve specific problems. For example, the CIMMYTmaize pathologist might be sent to help the localcollaborators identify a pathogen or set up therelated experiments.

Finally, scientists from one country spent timeworking in the labs of other AMBIONETpartners. Several Indonesian scientists receivedtraining at the University of the Philippines, LosBanos (UPLB), in the first phase of project. InPhase II, Indonesian scientists spent a monthworking and learning in Prasanna’s lab in India.

This project did not provide money for degreetraining, but supported the thesis research ofAMBIONET participants, such as MarciaPabendon and M. Azrai (Indonesia, MSc theses)and Dedi Ruswandi (UPLB, the Philippines,PhD thesis).

International teams collaborating in researchprojects on downy mildew resistance andgenetic diversity took advantage of the networkand the diversity of research locations availablethrough it to do work that could not have beendone in any single country, as well as benefitingfrom the scrutiny and advice of other scientistson their work.

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3. Framework for Impact Assessment

research? Is it easier to get scientific informationand short-term training, now that they aremembers?

To understand the potential impacts, a briefdescription of conventional and molecularbreeding is necessary.

Conventional breedingPlant breeders define and characterize their targetenvironment. Next they identify the characteristicsthat farmers need in crop varieties to improvetheir incomes and well-being. These crop traitsmay include higher yield, improved resistance topests or diseases, or improved nutritionalcharacteristics. They may also have differingrequirements for cultivar or variety types; say, forexample, hybrids vs. open pollinated varieties(OPVs).2 They then collect sources of geneticvariation for these characteristics, conductrecurrent selection or other breeding methods toimprove the populations collected, cross them ifnecessary, and select the genotypes—inbred linesor subsets of the population—that possess thedesired characteristics. The selected genotypes areused to produce hybrid varieties or OPVs. Thesevarieties are tested for several years to eliminategenotypes with undesirable traits, and seed of theselected genotypes is produced and marketed tofarmers. OPVs are constructed by any of variousapproaches, including selection of a sub-set ofplants or families from a source population, or

The major goal of AMBIONET was to increase thecapacity of maize research in Asia to produceimproved maize varieties for the poor. The majorfocus of AMBIONET’s capacity building wasmolecular breeding. To assess the impact ofAMBIONET, this study first had to determinewhether collaborating maize breeders in thesecountries improved their capacity to developuseful cultivars over what that capacity wouldhave been without AMBIONET. Is their capacityand skill greater than it was in the past? If so, thenhas it improved the maize varieties and theireconomic value?

Assessing the impact of a project on researchcapacity is a difficult task. The research capacity ofa scientist or institution depends on the intellect,skill, and training of scientists, the state ofknowledge in their field, the ability to obtain thetools that are needed for their research, and theavailability of information, germplasm, etc.Indicators of research capacity include tangibleproducts such as multiple plant varieties,molecular markers, research tools, publications,research awards, and patents. Equally importantindicators are scientists’ assessments of their owngrowth in research capacity and their assessmentof their colleagues’ growth due to this program.Has it influenced their research priorities? Whatcan they do now that they could not do before theyjoined AMBIONET? Has AMBIONET made iteasier or less expensive for them to do their

2 Hybrids are produced by crossing carefully selected, highly-inbred lines. With proper management, they can showoutstanding performance in the first generation, but this performance drops off in subsequent filial generations. Farmersmust purchase fresh seed each season from the company that controls the inbred parents, to get the full advantages of ahybrid. Improved OPVs generally perform at a lower level, but farmers who save the seed for sowing in subsequentseasons will not notice such a steep drop-off in performance as with saved seed of hybrids. OPVs may thus be preferable forfarmers who lack the disposable income to invest regularly in hybrids or the inputs that hybrids require to yield their best.

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combining several pure-lines which have usefulcharacteristics. Experimental OPVs also must betested, multiplied and marketed. The entireprocess to produce hybrids or OPVs commonlytakes 8 to 10 years.

Breeding with molecular toolsOne of the major goals of crop biotechnology hasbeen to make plant breeding more efficient.Molecular markers were used in AMBIONET toincrease the efficiency of breeding in two ways.First, genetic fingerprinting was used to assess thegenetic purity of inbred lines, which theoreticallyshould be completely inbred and hence true-breeding. This helped inform breeders whether thelines they were using had become contaminated,and if so, to correct this problem. This helps maketheir program more efficient and really helps otherbreeders or seed companies who use their lines.Second, fingerprinting provides information aboutthe genetic distance between different groups oflines. In general, crossing lines separated by agreater genetic distance will result in morevigorous, higher-yielding hybrids. Experiencedmaize breeders know which genetic stockscombine well, and they perform carefully-plannedtrials to predict which lines will combine toachieve excellent hybrid vigor, but for newerbreeding programs and inexperienced breeders,information about genetic distances among linescan be especially valuable when initiating abreeding program and making preliminary choicesamong dozens or even hundreds of potentialparent lines for hybrid formation. Finally,experienced breeders find this type of informationhelpful for deciding how to efficiently incorporatelines from CIMMYT or other countries into theirbreeding programs.

The second way AMBIONET attempted to increasebreeding efficiency was through marker-assistedselection (Table 4), involving several steps from the

identification of markers to the production infarmers’ fields of new varieties with a desired trait.Examples include resistance to viruses in Chinaand to downy mildew in India—two AMBIONETmolecular-assisted breeding projects that advancedthe most in developing improved varieties.

The first step in marker-assisted selection is toidentify a resistant line that can be crossed with asusceptible one to produce a population of plantsdiffering widely for resistance, from verysusceptible to highly resistant. By studying theDNA of these different lines and using publiclyavailable software, scientists seek to identify DNAsegments that are uniquely present in resistantplants. The next step is to identify molecularmarkers precisely located on the flanks of the DNAsegments associated with resistance. The markersmust then be evaluated for other maizepopulations to confirm or validate that they areassociated with the trait in a wide range of maizegenotypes. This may take some time and if noresistant maize line can be found, it will not bepossible to breed for resistance. In India, it took ayear or two of screening varieties and inbred linesto select a good, downy mildew resistant line foruse in this project. In China, inbreds resistant toSCMV had already been identified by the timeAMBIONET started.

Once markers are identified and validated, theycan be used to accelerate the process of selectingnew and resistant lines among progeny ofresistant-by-susceptible breeding crosses. Markerscan also be used to screen existing breeding linesor other material for additional sources ofresistance. Using molecular markers to select thelines with the desired trait can lead to thedevelopment of breeding lines that are then readyto be used in hybrid breeding programs.

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Next, new OPVs or hybrids are developed. Boththe Chinese and Indian AMBIONET teams choseto develop improved breeding lines and hybrids todemonstrate the value of molecular tools forbreeding. The final stage in most countries istesting in government variety registrationprograms to make sure the hybrid’s performanceis equal or superior to that of currently-usedvarieties, which takes several years. While testingis going on, companies start producing commercialseed, which they market to farmers when theyreceive government approval.

Conventional breeding for disease resistancerequires step 1—identification of lines withresistance (Table 4). Conventional breeding doesnot require step 2, but often does require steps 3through 6—backcrossing, developing hybrids,government testing, and marketing. For certaintraits, molecular markers may cut the time and thecost of steps 3 and 4 (Dreher et al. 2003). If the costsavings are greater than the cost of step 2, then

Table 4. Steps in marker-assisted breeding for disease resistance in maize, with examples from India and China.

YearsActivity required SCMV, Northern China Downy mildew, India

1. Identification of sources of 0 - 2 CAAS team had resistant and susceptible NAI116 and four CIMMYT lines identified byresistance to the disease. lines when program started in 1998, AMBIONET-India team during 1999-2000.

identified Huangzao 4 as SCMV resistant line.

2. Identify QTLs* and molecular 2 CAAS team in 2000 shows that Huangzao 4 AMBIONET-India team identifies QTLs in collaborationmarkers associated with has 2 major QTLs for SCMV resistance. with the CIMMYT and AMBIONET teams in Indonesia,the target trait. CAAS team identifies markers closely linked the Philippines, and Thailand during 2001-2002;

to resistance genes/QTLs in 2001. validates the major QTLs on different mappingpopulations during 2002-2003.

3. Marker-assisted backcrossing 2 – 3 Using Huangzao 4 and a line with good Major QTLs for downy mildew resistance transferredfor transfer of disease resistance combining ability, researchers developed to CM139 from the donor parent NAI116 duringinto elite lines for use in CAR 107, resistant to SCMV, by MAS in 2003. 2003-2004; identified improved lines ofcommercial breeding. CM139 in 2004.

4. Breeders use resistant line(s) 2 – 3 CAAS developing model hybrids – ready for Collaboration with SAUs and other ICAR institutes toto develop new hybrids or commercialization in 2006; 16 other government develop disease resistant hybrids – possible hybridsimproved versions of their institutes have been given resistant lines to use in 2006-2007.best hybrids. in their breeding programs.

5. Government varietal trials and 2 -3 Trials could be complete in 2008. Multi-location All-India Coordinated Maize Trials forseed companies produce seed. approval of the disease resistant hybrids (2007-2009).

6. Seed companies market Possibly by 2008. 2010.the seed with the trait.

* QTL = quantitative trait loci; these are genome regions that contain genes associated with traits of interest.

MAS is clearly superior. If markers are alreadyavailable, then step 2 is eliminated and any costsavings in steps 3 and 4 will be cost savings for theproject.

For improving many economically important traitsof maize, there is no advantage to using moleculartools. Hoisington et al. (1998) suggest twoconditions under which MAS will be more cost-effective than conventional breeding:

1. “If the heritability of the trait being selected foris high but costly field conditions are required toensure its expression…A good example isresistance to certain viruses, which obviouslywill not express in locations where the virus doesnot occur….

2. If environmental effects are high, the trait beingselected for will tend to have low heritability,making classical selection inefficient. In suchcases marker-assisted selection could improveselection efficiency, even though the percentage

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of phenotypic variance controlled by the QTL(quantitative trait loci) would be low. A goodexample is drought tolerance, which appears tobe controlled by several genes and whoseexpression is frequently confounded byenvironmental variables that are difficult tocontrol….”

Molecular-assisted breeding also can helpbreeders to “stack” or “pyramid” multiple genesfor resistance to a disease or pest, therebyreducing the likelihood that the resistance in thatvariety will soon be overcome by the evolvingpest or pathogen.

Pathways to farmersThere are a number of pathways by which thegains in research efficiency from AMBIONETmight be translated into gains for farmers. Theseare shown in Figure 1. First, in step 1 in Table 4

Figure 1 illustrates different paths by whichimproved germplasm can eventually reach farmersand plots some of these pathways in India andChina. The different levels of the AMBIONETcollaborating institutes and the different structuresof the seed industries in these countries alsoillustrate how the paths to commercialization aredifferent in different countries. The AMBIONETteams in North China (CAAS) and in Indiadeveloped commercial hybrids only todemonstrate a new concept. They primarilydevelop techniques and lines for use by plantbreeders in public universities, governmentresearch institutes, and local private companies.They move these products out to breeders throughcollaborative research, training programs, andgermplasm dissemination programs. In contrastthe Indonesia, Thai, and Vietnamese AMBIONETteams already formed part of government maize

Figure 1. Pathways for marketing germplasm. Solid lines show theflow of techniques and technologies and dashes show the flow ofinformation.

Public sector Private sector

ABC CAS, CAAS Local DuPont/CIMMYT China, biotech Pioneer

AMBIONET companies

CIMMYT IARI Indiamaize IPB China

program Local seed Pioneerfirms Hi-Bred

IARI & SAUs (subsidiareisIndia in Asia)

PAAS &universities

China

Govt seedCompanies inIndia, China

FARMERS

Biotechresearch

Germplasmenhancement

Inbred linedevelopmentand hybrid orOPV breeding

Seed productionand marketing

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AMBIONET breeders may identifylines that can be used directly as inbredparents for producing good hybrids.The lines could go to public plantbreeding institutes that develop thehybrids, whose seed is multiplied andsold to farmers. The lines could also godirectly to private companies withbreeding programs, which woulddevelop the hybrids, produce the seed,and sell it to farmers. A line with usefulcharacteristics may also be crossedwith valuable commercial lines and theprogeny used as inbreds by public orprivate seed producers. AMBIONETpartners may also develop their ownhybrids and provide the inbred parentsto public or private seed companies forsale to farmers.

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breeding programs; that is, those countries did nothave different public institutes for germplasmenhancement and breeding. They put thetechniques directly to work in breeding programs;collaboration with other institutes or large trainingprograms were not necessary.

The role of seed companies also varies greatlybetween countries. Most countries have threetypes of companies: government ownedcompanies, multinationals, and local seedcompanies. Government seed companies typicallytake hybrids or OPVs that have been developed bythe public sector, multiply the seed, and sell it.Some local seed companies have small biotechprograms and conventional breeding programsthat use inbred lines developed by the publicsector. Small companies often use finished hybridsfrom the public sector. Large multinationals likeMonsanto and Pioneer may occasionally get someuseful germplasm from CIMMYT or nationalprograms, but often their own stress-tolerancebreeding research is more advanced.

Methods of impact analysisOne possible impact from molecular breeding is toreduce the cost of research. Precise figures on thecosts of conventional breeding versus those for

molecular breeding are very difficult, timeconsuming, and expensive to produce. Obtainingthem was outside the scope of this small project.Other types of impact are the economic benefitsfrom developing varieties more rapidly than in theabsence of AMBIONET, or developing varietieswith more durable resistance to pests and disease.To measure these impacts, we have to compare thevalue of AMBIONET varieties with the value ofsimilar varieties that would have been developedin the absence of AMBIONET.

Figure 2 shows a hypothetical example of the costsand benefits of AMBIONET. The white bars are thecosts of research, which are shown as negativevalues. In this example we assume that the costssavings in some parts of the research process areoffset by cost increases in others. The striped barsrepresent the value of increased net income thatfarmers gain by adopting pest or disease resistantvarieties developed using conventional plantbreeding. The size of these bars would be theeconomic surplus from adoption of the newvarieties calculated using the methods describedby Alston, Norton, and Pardey ( 1995). The benefitsrise as more farmers adopt the technology, butthen they fall after 2013 in this example, becausepests start to evolve around the genetic resistance

Figure 2. Hypothetical example of costs and benefits from molecular breeding.

-200

0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

1,800

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020

US$100,000

R&D Cost

Farm benefits CB

Farm benefits MB

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and yields from this cultivar start to decline. Thesolid bars are the benefits that farmers gain if thesame characteristic was developed three yearsearlier using molecular approaches. They arehigher than the striped bars until 2012, when bothare equal. The solid bars could be higher later ifthe AMBIONET collaborators stacked a number ofdifferent sources of resistance into one cultivar,thus ensuring a longer period of resistance. Thebenefits from AMBIONET calculated in the presentstudy are the differences between the solid andstriped bars—the extra money farmers would earnfrom cultivars produced through AMBIONET, incomparison with what they would have earned ifthey waited for the conventional varieties.

If some of the new maize cultivars developedbased on AMBIONET outputs are now being usedby farmers, it is possible to use the standardmethods of measuring social costs and benefits(Alston, Norton, and Pardey 1995) to calculate thevalue of these cultivars to society. To do this, dataon the yield increases or reductions in crop lossesdue to adoption of stress resistant hybrids areneeded. In addition, data on the area sown to newhybrids are needed, as well as data on the farm-level price of maize. If new cultivars are not yet inthe field but a reasonable estimate could be madeabout potential yield increases or reductions inlosses as well as the area of adaption, the futurebenefits from biotechnology could also becalculated.

AMBIONET could also have had several otherimportant impacts, such as pulling more publicand private money into maize research.Governments and companies respond totechnological opportunities and the new toolsmight have induced added funding for research onthe problems of resource-poor maize farmers,which tend to be neglected. Second, lessons from

AMBIONET may now be finding their way intothe training of graduate students who will be thefuture breeders in their countries. Third, scientistsplay important roles in the development andimplementation of policies and regulationssurrounding biotechnology, biosafety, andintellectual property rights. If scientists from thenetwork subsequently contributed to formulatingor applying those policies, they could bringvaluable perspectives on other countries’activities and what might be done in collaborationwith other research institutes, including those ofthe CGIAR. These impacts are not readilyquantifiable but can be described.

To assess the impact of the project, we reviewedinformation in published and unpublisheddocuments about AMBIONET. For an overview ofwhat the project provided and its impact on Asianresearch capacity, we interviewed Hoisington andGeorge. Because the network is relatively recentand because of the inherent difficulty ofmeasuring research capacity, in-depth casestudies were conducted with participatingresearchers in China, India, and Indonesia, priorto the termination of the project. Using a semi-structured questionnaire, we interviewedscientists about AMBIONET impacts on theirresearch agendas, what they received from theproject (inputs), how the project affected theirresearch methods, and whether it increased theirefficiency. The scientists were also asked if theproject was developing new technology forfarmers and when the technology would beavailable. Finally, the scientists were asked aboutthe sustainability of their research—had theproject helped them obtain more resources fromother sources? Colleagues of participatingscientists and research administrators were alsointerviewed to obtain their assessment of theimpact of AMBIONET on the collaboratingscientists.

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Measures of research inputs and outputs weregathered from a questionnaire completed by allcountry collaborators; this was supplemented byinformation from project reports, online databases,and interviews. Research inputs included researchexpenditures and numbers of scientists before andafter AMBIONET, inputs from AMBIONET, andinputs from other sources. Research outputsincluded publications, new molecular markers,new techniques for using those markers, newOPVs and hybrids developed using MAS, andreductions in breeding time due to MAS. The datawere analyzed for indications that AMBIONETincreased maize breeding funding, influencedresearch priorities, or increased research

productivity. To identify the impact of this project,research inputs and outputs in maize breedingbefore and after the beginning of the project werecompared.

Initially, we had hoped also to compare the inputsand outputs of project scientists with non-AMBIONET peers in the same institutes, whichwould have required interviews with the non-network scientists. However, resources werelacking to do this systematically. We were able tospeak to some participants from the Asian RiceBiotech Network in the Philippines, India, andIndonesia, and some wheat biotech scientists inChina. In addition we interviewed private sectormaize scientists in most countries.

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Based on the interviews and survey data, it is clearthat AMBIONET has increased the maize researchcapacity of these countries. This impact is notalways possible to quantify, because in many casesthe increase is not yet visible in numbers ofscientists, budgets, or new varieties. This sectioncombines the numbers that do exist and quotesand comments from the interviews to make thecase that AMBIONET has really done animpressive job making research exciting andproductive for maize scientists in Asia.

Asian maize research before AMBIONETMaize plant breeding research in Asia startedbefore World War II in India, China, and severalother countries. Applied research and technologytransfer by government institutions and privatefirms expanded in the 1950s throughout Asia,when many countries attempted to copy thehybrid maize revolution in US agriculture.Government maize research financed both bynational governments and donors continued toexpand in the 1960s and 1970s but private researchwas very limited. CIMMYT began to play animportant role supporting Asian maize researchprograms (except China) in the 1970s. China wasby far the most successful in introducing andadapting hybrid technology, in part because mostof their maize was grown in temperate regionssimilar to the U.S. In Southeast Asia US hybridscould not survive the diseases and pests –particularly downy mildew. Most national maizeprograms in Asia other than China and Burmaplaced more emphasis on open pollinatedvarieties (OPVs) than hybrids.

In the 1980s and 1990s, public sector maizeresearch continued to grow, but the growth wasslow in most Asian countries. In China, maizebreeding research grew rapidly during the 1990sat the provincial and sub-provincial levels. Incountries such as Thailand, the Philippines, andIndia, private sector research grew very rapidly,as both multinationals and private seedcompanies increased their investments in Asianmaize research.

The structure of maize research in Asia whenAMBIONET started (1998) is shown in Table 5. InIndia and Thailand more scientists worked in theprivate sector than in the public sector. InIndonesia and the Philippines, the private sectorwas closing in on the public sector in numbers ofscientists and probably outstripped the publicsector in annual research investments. Publicresearch dominated only in the transitionaleconomies of Vietnam and China.

4. Impact on Asian Maize Research Capacity

Table 5. Public and private-sector maize research institutesand scientists, 1997/98.

Public sector Private sectorNumber Number of Number Number of

of scientists of scientistsagencies (FTEs) agencies (FTE)*

China-South 65 270 1 naIndia 27 56 28 74Indonesia 1 13 1 11Philippines 12 50 7 34Thailand 4 35 6 40Vietnam 2 68 5 1Asia 116 505 49 166Asia(excluding China) 51 235 48 166

Source: CIMMYT Asia Maize Impact Survey 1998-99.*FTE = full-time equivalent.

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Biotechnology research on maize in Asia startedaround 1990. Chinese government scientists atCAAS have been working to develop Bt maizesince then. Central China Agricultural Universitystarted using molecular markers in the mid-1990s.Basic research on transposans in maize wasconducted at the Central University of Hyderabad,India, since about 1990. Some Indian agriculturaluniversities, general universities, and the IARIconducted research on transgenic maize in the1990s. The Chinese and Indian governmentsinvested heavily in basic research laboratories forplant, animal, and human biotechnology; a smallamount of that went to maize research. Thegovernments of Thailand, the Philippines,Indonesia, and Vietnam started investingsubstantial amounts of money in plant biotechresearch but not much went specifically on maize.

In the late 1990s a number of companies started toinvestigate the potential of transgenic maize inAsia. So far this investment has started to payoffonly in the Philippines, where Bt maize is startingto spread to farmers. Bt maize has been ingovernment field trials in China since 1999, inIndia for the past several years, and in a number ofcountries in Southeast Asia. In addition herbicidetolerant maize is in government field trials in thePhilippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.

Impact of AMBIONET on NARSs’ researchprioritiesOne clear impact of AMBIONET has been toincrease the number of scientists working on maizegermplasm enhancement and breeding. One of theearly criticisms of biotechnology was that it pulledresources away from conventional plant breeding,rather than helping plant breeding become moreeffective. There was concern that biotech researchwas too basic and would not provide technologythat farmers needed. AMBIONET seems to have

increased the resources devoted to enhancingmaize genetic variability in China and India andmaize breeding programs in all of the countries. InChina the number of plant breeding programs wasincreasing in the public and the commercial sector.According to Zhang, the CAAS Institute of PlantBreeding in Beijing did not have a strong programto increase the genetic diversity of maizegermplasm before AMBIONET, and that isprecisely what AMBIONET was able tostrengthen. In Indonesia all crop programs havehad difficulty attracting young people to plantbreeding, but there were many maize scientists inother disciplines. The Indonesian maize programused AMBIONET money to finance research thatattracted bright, young scientists from plantpathology, agronomy, and other disciplines toplant breeding that used molecular tools. In thePhilippines, the breeder at the University ofSouthern Mindanao had been doing rice breedingbefore he joined the AMBIONET team.

The network also led biotech scientists to changetheir focus from basic to applied research. Forexample, Prasanna changed from academicresearch on maize landraces in Northeast India toresearch on the actual disease and droughtproblems of subsistence and commercial maizeproducers. Biotech scientists who usedAMBIONET money to pursue research in isolationfrom plant breeders in the first phase were notasked to join the second phase of AMBIONET.

Perhaps even more important has been the impactof inducing biologists to work on maize. With theexceptions of Li and Prasanna, the biologists onAMBIONET teams were previously not workingon maize. CAAS recruited Tian from the wheatbiotech program, Wanchen Li at SAU in SouthernChina had worked on silkworm genetics, andSutrisno in Bogor worked on rice.

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The project also appears to have changedbreeders’ priorities somewhat from traits likeyield, which are complex and controlled by manygenes, to traits such as resistance to biotic stresses,controlled by a few genes. The Indonesian maizebreeders reported that before AMBIONET theyfocused on yield, acid soils, and resistance to themain pests and diseases. After joiningAMBIONET they focused more specifically “onincreasing genetic resistance of maize to downymildew and the molecular study of geneticdiversity of Indonesian inbred lines.” It is notclear whether this is a more effective use ofresearch resources or not.

Financial resourcesParticipation in AMBIONET is clearly related toincreasing budgets. Before AMBIONET, thebudgets of all the programs except Vietnam’swere decreasing or stable. After joiningAMBIONET, all programs except the maizeprogram of Thailand (which suffered because ofthe Thai fiscal crises) increased their budgets(Table 6). During the same period almost all of thebudgets of their colleagues in similar programsdeclined or were stable.

Part of the increase in collaborators’ budgets wasdue to AMBIONET funds, part of it was due toincreases in institutional funding by theirgovernments, and another part was through

grants from their governments (Table 6). Fundingfor partners’ research came primarily from theirgovernment departments: specifically, ministries ofagriculture or education. Traditionally they hadnot obtained support through competitive grants.Most grants were small, but they were stillsignificant because they were competitive grants.In China and Indonesia grants came from non-traditional sources, specifically the ministries ofscience. This represents a new source of funding,rather than just reorienting existing agriculturalresearch money.

The Chinese and Indian case studies show howmajor programs were built based on AMBIONET.In part this is a result of their governmentsviewing science as an engine for economic growthand designating biotechnology as a major area forinvestment. With the help of AMBIONET,scientists there took advantage of the opportunitiesoffered by the national governments.

In an interview at the AMBIONET annualmeetings in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2003, ShihuangZhang, leader of the Chinese team, said:“AMBIONET came along at the ideal time for us.We were able have some of our young peopletrained and start our lab. Then in 1998 and 1999China changed the way research was funded. Wehad to compete for funds and we were able to getbig projects for molecular breeding.” The Chinese

Table 6. Direction of research funding and competitive grants in AMBIONET.

Survey question China-North China-South India Indonesia Philippines Vietnam Thailand

Before AMBIONET, budget was.... Down Stable Stable Stable Down Up StableYour budget during AMBIONET went.... Up Up Up Up Up Up DownBudget of comparable programs? Stable Stable Down ??? Down Up DownGrants from national/international US$30,000 US$33,735 Yes Yes (some) US$43,000 US$15,000 US$5000/year grants programsSources of grants Natural Natural Indian International Dept. of Ag., Govt. of Thai. Govt.

Science Science Council of Fund for Science Philippines VietnamFoundation, Foundation, Agricultural (Sweden),

MOST Sichuan Research Ministry ofDept. of Ed. Research & Tech.

Source: Survey by author.

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team at CAAS used the initial money, equipment,training, and advice from AMBIONET to start thefingerprinting, mapping, and markers lab.AMBIONET money was used to hire Xinhai Li,PhD in maize genetics and breeding fromNortheastern Agricultural University in Harbinwho had worked as a postdoctoral fellow usingmolecular markers at Central AgriculturalUniversity in Wuhan, and Quinzhen Tian, whohad worked on molecular markers in wheat atCAAS. Under Zhang’s leadership, these scientistsand others converted the Institute of PlantBreeding’s maize program into China’s majormaize molecular breeding and enhancementprogram. This initial combination of breeding andmolecular biology capacity, the early output of thislab, and its links to international scientists atCIMMYT gave it a competitive advantage at atime when the research funding in China waschanging from institutional funding tocompetitive grants.

The China AMBIONET team obtained a series ofincreasingly large competitive grants from thegovernment. They received a small grant from theChinese Natural Science Foundation and theMinistry of Science and Technology (MOST) forUS $24,000 in 2000, for maize germplasmimprovement. The grant was for 4 years and 16institutes. They were then able to obtain US $1.2million to continue their germplasm improvementproject. Some of the research financed by thisgrant used molecular markers. In 2003 MOSTfinanced a much larger project to commercializecrops developed using molecular breeding. Thetotal funding was US $4.9 million, of which thisgroup received US $363,000 to work on maize. Therest is spread between different importantcommodities in China. The last grant—the firstlarge project specifically for molecular breedingand commercialization—seems to reflect a change

in government policy on biotech research;previously, public investments went largely forgenetic engineering. The shift may be due to thesuccess of molecular breeding in maize, wheat,and rice; to effective lobbying by Zhang and hiscolleagues; and to increasing consumer concernsabout genetic engineering.

In India, AMBIONET had similar impacts onPrasanna’s lab and research budget, among otherthings enabling him to be the only person from theGenetics Department of IARI to have a lab atIARI’s Biotechnology Center. He became co-principle investigator for AMBIONET-India withN.N. Singh, also head of IARI’s maize breedingprogram and a long–time CIMMYT partner. WhenPrasanna started working with AMBIONET, hehad a lab and limited, antiquated equipment, butno reliable electricity or modern equipment.Through Singh he obtained money from theDirectorate of Maize Research to redo the electricalsystem. He used US $40,000 from the firstAMBIONET project and US $10,000 from thesecond to buy or update equipment. He alsorecruited IARI grad students to work in his lab.

The capacity of Prasanna’s lab to conductsophisticated research and to do training and shortcourses has enabled the group to win two newprojects approved by the Indian Council ofAgricultural Research (ICAR) in October 2004:1. A molecular breeding project involving a

network of 12 ICAR institutes and a budget ofUS $866,000 for 12 crops. Of this US $55,000 isfor maize research and training at Prasanna’sinstitute.

2. Prasanna’s work with AMBIONET has givenhim functional genomics skills, allowing him toobtain an ICAR-approved grant of US $400,000for maize functional genomics research and thepurchase of the new equipment needed.

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Human capitalThe scientific capacity of research institutesincreases through the addition of new scientists orby increasing the capacity of current scientists, viatraining and/or learning-by-doing. Only theChinese and Philippines labs of AMBIONETreported increases in the number of scientists(Table 7). In Indonesia and Vietnam, the numberof scientists remained the same. The Indian lablost one permanent staff to retirement, while theThai program lost people to administrativepositions. What does not show up in thesenumbers of permanent staff is that in both Indiaand China the actual number of people involvedin research is augmented by graduate students.Both CAAS and IARI give postgraduate degreesin the agricultural sciences. Prasanna at IARI hadIndian, Vietnamese, and Iranian students workingwith him from the beginning of the AMBIONETprogram. Since the start of AMBIONET he hashad five MSc students and five PhD students,three of whom are still working on PhD theses.AMBIONET paid for their research expenses.

In North China the lab has gone from no graduatestudents to 18 students who are in CAAS PhDprograms or from other agricultural universitiesaround China. When AMBIONET-China countrycoordinator Shihuang Zhang visited Prasanna’slab he said: “I saw all these young people in hislab and I thought I should take this back to China.Our universities have many graduate studentsbut they do not have enough money to supportresearch. On the other hand, under recent

reforms, my institute is cutting back on paid staff.So we opened our doors and have the studentswork with us, and in turn we help them preparetheir theses. Perhaps this approach is alreadypopular elsewhere, but for China this is very newand very useful.”

Even more important than the number of scientistshas been the growth of maize scientists’knowledge and research skills. The scientists inthese programs have higher degrees in more basicareas of science. This is particularly clear in theChinese case. At the time AMBIONET started, anumber of senior scientists were retiring. Thesescientists had made major contributions to Chineseagricultural development, including theintroduction and development of single-crossmaize hybrids that boosted yields in the 1980s and1990s. They were knowledgeable and skilledbreeders, but few had PhDs or training inmolecular biology. In contrast, four of the youngscientists who have joined the maize section of theInstitute of Plant Breeding with AMBIONETsupport have PhDs in genetics or plant breedingand at least two have post-doctoral researchexperience in molecular markers and mapping.

In Indonesia, both the degree training and researchexperience of scientists have been important. Fouryoung scientists from the maize research system inMaros, Suluwesi, have obtained MSc degrees inplant breeding from Padjadjaran University andone from the University of the Philippines, Los

Table 7. Scientists and technicians in the AMBIONET teams before and after joining AMBIONET.

China-North China-South India Indonesia Philippines Vietnam Thailand

Number of scientists before joining AMBIONET 2 6 2 8 1 30 5Number of scientists after joining AMBIONET 5 8 1 8 4 30 3Number of technicians before joining AMBIONET 1 6 3 No info 0 10 3Number of technicians after joining AMBIONET 5 7 2 No info 3 10 1

Increase in number of scientists 3 2 -1 0 3 0 -2Increase in number of technicians 4 1 -1 No info 3 0 -2

Source: Survey by author.

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Banos (UPLB). The research of the twoPadjadjaran students used molecular markers andwas financed by AMBIONET. They continuedtheir work at the biotechnology laboratories inBogor, while the Indonesian maize program andAMBIONET equipped the labs in Maros. Inaddition, a faculty member from PadjadjaranUniversity, Bandung, West Java, obtained a PhD atUPLB working on an AMBIONET-financedproject in molecular breeding.

The contributions of AMBIONET to the skills ofparticipating scientists through short courses andactual work in advanced labs probably equals orexceeds degree training in importance (Table 8).At the beginning of AMBIONET, Prasanna andDesiree Hautea (Philippine team leader inAMBIONET Phase I) were the only partnerscientists with training in the use of molecularmarkers, knowledge acquired during a course atCIMMYT in the early 1990s. The country teamsassembled the few scientists who had experience,if they could. In China some young scientists withpost-doctoral experience were available. In othercases, scientists trained by Rockefeller or ARBN inthe use of markers for rice helped the program getstarted. Frequently, the institutes hired people andsent them for training. Indonesian scientists who

had worked in ARBN got the project started, whileother scientists went for training in the Philippines.The first researchers sent for training did not staywith AMBIONET, so others trained with Prasanna(see below). In short, almost all scientists whoactually did the work, except a few in China andIndia, had to be trained in AMBIONET mappingand marker training programs.

In addition to formal training, longer trainingprograms, where scientists from one programworked in another AMBIONET lab, wereimportant. The Indonesian team sent two of theiryoung scientists to Prasanna’s laboratory in NewDelhi, India. Indonesian scientist Firdaus Kasimreported this to be extremely useful, particularlyfor his colleagues Marcia Pabendon and M. Azrai,who went for one month to a genomics workshopfor Indian scientists. “Prasanna showed ourscientists how to do downy mildew and geneticdiversity research. He was a very good teacher—strong in genetics and statistics. After they cameback they made a lot of progress.” Prasannaprovided the second set of lines that Pabendonfingerprinted in diversity studies and also 400primers (markers) for downy mildew resistance.The groups remain in close contact through email.

Table 8. Participants in training programs by country.

China ChinaCourse, location, year North South India Indonesia Philippines Vietnam Thailand

Molecular Marker Applications to Plant Breeding, Mexico, (1998) 4 3 2 4 4DNA fingerprinting, Thailand (1999) 2 2 2 2 2Utilization of DNA-based Markers for Crop Improvement and Candidate Genes, Thailand (2000) 10The Master Class in Molecular Plant Breeding, Australia (2000) 1 1QTL Mapping Workshop, Philippines (2001) 3 3 2 5 6 4Genetic Diversity, Thailand (2002) 3 4 4 5Proposal development workshop, Thailand (2003) 3 1 1 3 3 2 4In country training on SSR Protocols 2In country training on Data encoding & analysis 5Molecular marker technologies, Vietnam 10Laboratory exchange visits 3 2 1 3 5 1 1

Total 15 5 13 20 30 13 31

Source: Survey.

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Strength through the networkAll participants interviewed commented on thevalue of collaborative research with other nationalprograms and CIMMYT. Being forced to presentresults to peers from other countries energized theyoung scientists in China and India and the seniorscientists in Indonesia. They received constructivecriticism, learned about how others overcameproblems, and arranged follow-up visits to theirprograms by researchers from CIMMYT or othercountries.

Hautea emphasized the cumulative impact ofresearch that allowed young scientists to shuttlebetween NARS and CIMMYT labs and to developcontacts with other scientists. The first step formost in AMBIONET Phase I was a trainingprogram involving actual research in an advancedlab. This gave participants the confidence that theycould apply the techniques, as well as contacts forcontinuing consultation when they neededassistance. Collegial links and exchange ofinformation and feedback were re-enforced at theannual meetings. Research steps that could not becarried out successfully in national program labscould be done at CIMMYT or in the AMBIONETservice lab at IRRI.

At Bogor, Indonesia government scientists listedseveral other advantages of networks. Techniciansor scientists from CIMMYT could come to Bogor tohelp solve problems. Consumable supplies—particularly imported chemicals—could beordered through the AMBIONET Support Lab atIRRI for much lower prices and with much lesshassle. Machine repairs could often be done atIRRI more quickly than by sending the apparatusto a factory in the US or Europe.

When the Chinese team encountered a technicalproblem, they contacted CIMMYT for assistanceby phone, email, or, on occasion, through direct

visits. Zhang cited an example of the latter, in anincident pertaining to virus resistance. The Chineseresearchers thought they had identified sugarcanemosaic virus (SCMV), but the sample testeddifferently from SCMV elsewhere; some localscientists said it was actually maize dwarf mosaicvirus (MDMV). CIMMYT maize pathologist DanJeffers traveled to China with AMBIONET supportand confirmed that the disease was SCMV. Uponhis return to CIMMYT, he developed a newmethod for inoculating plants with SCMV to testlines and populations for susceptibility. Themethod is still used in China and represented animportant breakthrough in research to developvirus resistant maize.

Impact on research capacity outsideAMBIONET partner institutionsAMBIONET partners are starting to contribute tothe research capacity of other institutions in theircountries, through training and collaborativeresearch. Thesis research funded and numbers ofstudents and scientists who received short-termtraining from AMBIONET teams are shown inTable 9. The Chinese and Indian institutions, whichhave major graduate training programs in theirinstitutes, support PhD and MSc thesis research.The graduates are taking jobs in other universitiesand government research institutes using themolecular marker techniques learned fromAMBIONET partners. The programs also teachthese techniques to graduate students. SichuanAgricultural University reports that about 350students have been introduced to the techniques.The AMBIONET teams are also spreading thetechniques to other breeders, both for maize andother crops, through short-term training programs.The Indian team seems to have done the mostshort-term training. The Chinese institutesprovided training to private sector scientists. TheThai and Indonesian programs have supported afew theses or training courses (they do not belongto institutions with teaching responsibilities).

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The CAAS team has provided training in markeruse to public and private scientists through a seriesof short-term programs. Two scientists fromprivate firms (Denghai Seed Co. and Tunyu SeedCo.) and one scientist from another public institutehave worked in their labs for several weeks, inpreparation for setting up their own labs. TheCAAS team has provided the companies andinstitutes with a list of equipment and chemicalsneeded and have helped them buy equipment andsupplies. Denghai Seed Co now has an operatinggenetic fingerprinting lab which the author visited.PhD and MSc students from all over China areconducting their thesis research in the lab of theCAAS team (four students were from XinjiangAgricultural University, three from ShenyangAgricultural University, and three from theNortheast Agricultural University in Harbin),many with AMBIONET funding.

The Indian government is now establishingnetworks modeled loosely on the AMBIONET,ARBN, and the Rockefeller Foundation RiceBiotechnology Network to reinforce their formaltraining programs. Prasanna is involved in a maizegenomics project that will provide training,backstopping, and a central lab facility for anetwork of government research institutionsworking on maize functional genomics.

Private firms in the AMBIONET countries arebeginning to use molecular breeding technologies.Most interested are local companies whose maizebreeding programs are too small to justify theinvestment in molecular markers. This includescompanies with annual sales as high as US $20-40million, such as MAHYCO in India, the DenghaiSeed Company and Tunyu in China, andDominguez in the Philippines. The multinationalshave their own MAS programs more advancedthan the AMBIONET work.

The Denghai Seed Company was investing in thistechnology to strengthen their control over theinbred parents of their maize hybrids. They werefingerprinting all inbred lines for which they wereobtaining plant variety certificates, to helpestablish their ownership in the courts. Theycurrently have more certificates on maize than anyother company, and they also have taken morelegal action than other companies to enforce theircertificates. Their leader Li Denghai reported inJune 2004 at his headquarters near Qingdao thatstronger property rights through plant breedersrights had allowed him to increase revenues frommaize sales dramatically and augment investmentsin maize breeding from US $2.5 million in 2000 toabout US $12 million in 2004.

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Table 9. Thesis research and short-term training supported by AMBIONET teams.

China-North China-South India Indonesia Philippines Vietnam Thailand

Thesis researchMSc 8 9 5 2 0 3 0PhD 2 3 5 0 0 1 0Short-term training coursesNumber of students 10 350 100 4 100 150 0Number of public sector scientists working on maize 15 20 20 0 3 10 0Number of public sector scientists working on other crops 0 20 30 0 10 15 0Number of private sector scientists 12 3 0 0 0 0 0

Source: Survey by author

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Maize is not a major crop for MAHYCO, but itdoes have a small breeding program to develophybrids for farmers with marginal waterresources. Brent Zehr, head of MAHYCO’sresearch program, said in a 29 July 2004 email:

“The one area where we have used DNAmarkers has been in fingerprinting ourparental lines, so that we can betterunderstand underlying genetic diversity anddevelop heterotic group clusters in order tomake more informed crossing decisions. Thisis well established in hybrid maize programsglobally; and DNA markers in this crop arepublished such that it is relatively easy toperform the tests in-house.”

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In response to the follow-up question: Have youseen the work that Prasanna of IARI has done inthis area and if so, was it helpful to your program?Zehr replied: “Yes, we had seen the work a fewyears back, and had decided to utilize some of thesame markers, as his work included Indian basedgermplasm. So I would say that it helped give ussome direction for initiation of the work. Beyondthat, we have developed further marker profilesand taken directions that are useful for our goalsin breeding of hybrid maize.”

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Table 10. Pathways from AMBIONET research to improved cultivars.

Contribution of AMBIONET to Research institutes using AMBIONET lines Year of approval orbreeding material and names of new hybrids/OPVs Intended impact/benefits expected approval

1. Information about combining South China: hybrids SAU 23 and SAU 27. 2002 (SAU 23).ability leads to new hybrids. Higher yield.Higher yield. 2004 (SAU 27).

2. Lines identified in studies to Thai Department of Agriculture: hybrids NS 72 DM resistance. 2001 (NS 72).develop QTLs. and NSX 982013. DM resistance + higher yield. 2003 (NSX 982013).

India: University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore; DM resistance. Expected 2006.Composite NAC3002. Hybrids under development.

3. Resistant lines identified and Breeders at public research institutes and universities. DM resistance.incorporated into lines with goodcombining ability using markers.

China: CAAS, 16 institutes are using lines. SCMV resistance.

AMBIONET team develops resistant lines that can DM resistance.be used in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. 2011?

4. Hybrids and OPVs developed IARI producing hybrid to demonstrate DM resistance. 2010.using MAS. molecular breeding.

CAAS producing hybrid to demonstrate SCMV resistance. 2008.molecular breeding.

Indonesia maize research program and Stacked DM resistance and QPM. Unknown.Padjadjaran university.

For maize in Asia, the ultimate goal of CIMMYTand the national AMBIONET programs is todevelop new cultivars that improve the well-beingof the poor. Thus, AMBIONET research willhopefully result in new varieties for farmers andconsumers that improve their diets, health, andincomes. Developing a new maize variety typicallytakes at least 8 to 10 years, after which in mostAsian countries it goes through several years ofgovernment testing. Following this, new cultivarstake a while to spread to farmers and increase theirincomes and the availability of food. Even if thisprocess is accelerated a bit through molecularbreeding, it is still early to expect a project thatstarted late in 1998 to have produced new cultivarsor impact on farmers. The project has, however,produced knowledge, research tools, and lines ofmaize that will contribute to the development andspread of new cultivars and the improved well-being of farmers.

Progress toward improved cultivarsInterviews and questionnaires have revealed that,despite the short life of the project, each step ofmolecular breeding has produced new lines orhybrids, and that there is substantial progresstoward developing disease resistant and QPMcultivars using MAS. Most partners haveestablished a program that can be the basis fordeveloping higher-yielding hybrids and droughttolerant cultivars in the future. There is evidenceof improved research tools, such as useful newmolecular markers, and additions to knowledgeabout maize in the form of refereed journalarticles. Both will help increase the efficiency offuture research.

AMBIONET programs contributed to thedevelopment of improved OPVs and hybrids forfarmers through four pathways (Table 10). Thefirst pathway leads directly from genetic diversitystudies. Information developed in those studies

5. Impact on Research Output and Productivity

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was used to choose parents of hybrids with bettercombining ability. The other three pathways comefrom molecular breeding programs. The secondpathway was the identification of lines for use inresearch to produce molecular markers. Theselines and combinations of lines could be used inconventional breeding programs to producecommercial hybrids. The third pathway used linesidentified by AMBIONET teams as having diseaseresistance using molecular markers and thenbackcrossing the lines identified to other lines withgood combining ability. The resulting progeny aregiven to breeders to produce finished hybrids. Thefourth pathway is when the AMBIONET teamsproduce finished hybrids or OPVs developedthrough backcrossing and MAS programs andprovide these to seed companies.

The only technologies related to this program thathave reached farmers were developed through thefirst two pathways. Chinese scientists from SAU inSichuan developed two new hybrids, SAU 23 andSAU 27, based on their studies of genetic diversity.SAU scientists took advantage of the informationabout genetic distance based on the fingerprintingdata of their lines and the lines of other maizeprograms in China to identify and cross inbredsthat were the greatest genetic distance apart. Thisallowed them to obtain greater hybrid vigor andhigher yields. The Vietnamese team has identifiedtwo hybrids that resist lodging and possessdrought tolerance; they are refining them, basedon information from the diversity studies.

The Thai hybrids were developed from linesidentified at the beginning of the research to locateQTLs for downy mildew resistance. Whilescreening for resistant and susceptible parents tomake a mapping population for resistance QTLs,they found a line—NEI 9202—that had goodresistance and other good commercial

characteristics. This line was probably based ondowny mildew resistance screening programscarried out by earlier generations of Thai breederswith CIMMYT assistance. The current breederswere able to use this line as a parent of twocommercial hybrids: NS 72, released in 2001; andNSX 982013, grown by farmers for the first time in2003. Seed of the NSX hybrid was multiplied andmarketed by government agencies and sown onabout 5,000 hectares this year (Pichet email). Itreplaced NS 72 and other hybrids because it yields10% more than NS 72.

One of the Indian research stations that iscollaborating with the Indian AMBIONET teamhas used the downy mildew resistant line, NAI 116,which the Indian AMBIONET team identified as aparent for a molecular mapping population, todevelop improved hybrids and OPVs. TheUniversity of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore’sRegional Research Station at Mandya, and theAgricultural Research Station at Nagenahallideveloped a downy mildew resistant compositeNAC3002 using NAI116 as a parental line. They arealso developing hybrids using this line. NAC3002is being tested in advanced field trials and willprobably will be released in the next few years(Prasanna email, 02 September 2004).

The two groups of cultivars under developmentusing pathways three and four (backcrossing andMAS) that are closest to being commercialized aredowny mildew resistant cultivars in South andSoutheast Asia and SCMV resistant cultivars inChina. Table 4 shows the progress that the Chineseand Indian programs have made towardsdeveloping commercial cultivars. Several years agothey identified disease resistant lines and reportedtheir names—NAI 116 and Huangzao 4—andsources in journals, so that public and privatesector breeders could use them.

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The lines had serious limitations—NAI 116 willonly pollinate at cool temperatures and Huangzao4 had poor combining ability—so AMBIONETteams backcrossed them with better inbreds forcommercial uses. As part of this, they usedmolecular markers they had developed to screenthe segregating material for resistance. They madethe selected material available to other publicsector breeders in India and to public and privatesector breeders in China. In India the lines werebeing used by AMBIONET partners. As of June2004, 16 government research institutes and noprivate institutes had requested SCMV resistantlines from the AMBIONET-China lab.

The CAAS and Indian AMBIONET teams are alsoproducing disease resistant hybrids using MAS.CAAS plans to have SCMV resistant hybrids readyfor commercialization in 2006 and IARI plans tohave downy mildew resistant hybrids ready in2006 or 2007. These hybrids will then be tested forseveral years in multi-location trials for yield andpest and disease resistance, before they can be soldto farmers. Thus, at the earliest these hybridswould be available to farmers in 2008 in China and2010 in India.

The Indonesian, Philippine, and VietnameseAMBIONET teams worked on downy mildewresistant hybrids and OPVs using the lines andmolecular markers developed in AMBIONET. Inaddition, the Indonesian AMBIONET team was

close to releasing a QPM line, originally fromCIMMYT, that they had selected and tested inIndonesia.

Many teams produced considerable data abouttheir own inbred lines and the genetic relationshipof those lines to other maize lines from CIMMYTand Asia. Interviews with Asian and CIMMYTbreeders showed this information was influencingAsian breeders’ thinking and making theirprograms more effective.

Increasing knowledge,improving research toolsThe other important AMBIONET output isknowledge about maize and maize breeding. Thisknowledge takes tangible form in research tools,presentations at meetings, and publication inacademic journals, but much of it is intangible.One of the few quantitative measures ofknowledge in a research program is the number ofarticles published in refereed academic journals.Table 11 shows that the number of articles innational journals published by AMBIONETpartners increased or stayed the same in allcountries, except Thailand and Vietnam. Inaddition, only a few of the AMBIONET scientistshad previously published articles in internationaljournals, but now all but the two newestprograms, Vietnam and the new Philippines teamat the University of Southern Mindanao, haveinternational publications.

Table 11. Numbers of journal articles published by AMBIONET partners.

China-North China-South India Indonesia Philippines Vietnam Thailand

National journals for 5 years before AMBIONET 8 10 5 3 3 10 4National journals after joining AMBIONET 15 35 5 3 3 7 0 (adjusted for 5 years*) (58.3*) (7.5*) (17.5*)International journals for 5 years before AMBIONET 0 0 3 0 1 0 0International journals after joining AMBIONET 5 3 13 1 0 0 2 (adjusted for 5 years*) (5)

* We adjust publications by assuming the output per year will be the same throughout the period of time after joining AMBIONET and then multiply output peryear by five. When the survey was done the founding teams had been on board for 5 years, south China for 3 years and the new Philippines team and Vietnam for2 years.

Source: Survey by author.

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With leadership from Luz George and DavidHoisington, AMBIONET partners publishedarticles on downy mildew resistance in Theoretical

and Applied Biotechnology (George et al. 2003) andEuphytica (George et al. 2003). The team used a setof common markers, common researchprocedures, and a common set of maize lines, andconducted multilocation field research to identifyQTLs and DNA markers for downy mildewresistance. Similar studies on maize geneticdiversity were published in Theoretical and

Applied Biotechnology (George et al. 2004)

In developing disease resistant cultivars, theAMBIONET teams have generated a set of toolsthat will be useful to maize breeders whereverdowny mildew and SCMV are a problem(CIMMYT 2004):

“Teams used molecular data from a crosspreviously mapped by CIMMYT, combinedwith phenotypic data produced in five locationsin India, Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand,to identify genes for downy mildew resistance.Five quantitative trait loci (QTL) thatsignificantly influence downy mildewresistance were identified, three of whichexplain up to 50% of the phenotypic variancefor reaction to downy mildew disease. With

Research productivityWas the increase in output of publications duemainly to the increase in scientists and resourcespreviously described, or did the scientists producemore per person? Figure 3 shows that in mostcountries research productivity, as measured inpublications per scientists, has increased. Threeprograms—those of South China, India, andIndonesia—raised their publication productivityafter joining AMBIONET. North China increasedpublished output substantially from 8 to 20, andthe number of articles in international journalswent from 0 to 5, but the number of scientists alsoexpanded rapidly from 2 to 5, so productivityappears to be constant. If international journals areweighted more heavily than national journals, thenthe productivity of the North China program alsowent up. If we use the productivity measuresadjusted for the number of years in AMBIONET,Vietnam’s productivity also goes up. In thePhilippines, productivity goes down despite theincrease in articles, due to the fact that the numberof scientists in the new team at USM grew fromone to four. The Thailand team has only publicplant breeders at the moment, and their job is toproduce varieties rather than journal articles. So, itis not too surprising that Thai productivitydeclined slightly.

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Figure 3. Research productivity: journal articles per scientist.Note: National and international journal articles from Table 12 were added together andthen divided by the number of scientists reported in Table 7.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Before AMBIONET

After AMBIONET

After AMBIONET Adjusted

China China (2) India Indonesia Philippines Vietnam Thailand

genetic linkage maps constructed inthe AMBIONET-China lab andphenotypic data from Beijing,researchers identified five QTLsconferring resistance to sugarcanemosaic virus, explaining up to 27%of the phenotypic variance.”

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As formerly mentioned, comparing the resultsbetween countries is misleading because differenttypes of institutes have different research goalsand different methods of measuring scientists’numbers, and were members of AMBIONET fordifferent lenghts of time. For example, the Indianprogram had only two permanent scientists in thelab when AMBIONET started and one scientistduring the second phase. These scientists workedwith a number of other scientists in otherinstitutions and with a number of graduatestudents to produce the journal articles. In contrastalmost all of the maize scientists in Indonesia work

in the collaborating lab and so cannot collaboratewith many scientists outside of their labs. Thus,the differences in productivity between Indonesiaand India are not as great as they would appear,judging from the graph. Programs in SouthChina, Vietnam, and the Philippines did not havea full five years to produce articles, so Figure 3presents adjusted productivity measures forthose countries. The unshaded bar showsadjusted productivity measured in output/scientist, assuming that their output per yearafter AMBIONET continued at the current level,and multiplies output per year times five (seeTable 11 above).

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Will the technologies developed by AMBIONETpartners improve the well-being of the poor? Thischapter argues that it is likely. When the newcultivars are marketed, they are likely to providesubstantial benefits and rapidly pay off theinvestments of Asian governments, ADB, andCIMMYT in AMBIONET.

Potential value of new varieties fromAMBIONETThe potential social benefits of higher-yielding,downy mildew and virus resistant, droughttolerant cultivars are significant. Measuring theincrease in yield due to new, higher-yielding,stress-resistant hybrids is relativelystraightforward conceptually: one simplymeasures the value of increased yield per hectaredue to use of a new hybrid or OPV and multipliesthat by the number of hectares sown. The first dataon the increased yields of a hybrid due to betterchoices of inbred lines or stress resistance will beexperiment station yield comparisons, but is it ispossible to make a rough estimate of the size ofsome of the benefits. The starting point formeasuring the potential yield increases fromdisease resistance or stress tolerance is the value ofthe losses that now occur from these stresses. It isdifficult to measure the extent of losses or theirfrequency, but we have two sources of information.The first is government agriculturalists andscientists who have studied past disease anddrought incidence. The second source is thefarmers who are affected. The estimates of lossesreported by Dalmacio (2000) and Zhang (1998)have been gathered in Appendix Table 2. Estimatesfrom farmers are available from a recent researchpriority setting exercise conducted by CIMMYT(IFAD-CIMMYT study).

The next challenge is to estimate how much ofthis loss could be averted using the improvedlines from AMBIONET and when these savingswill take place. These estimates requireassumptions about:

1. What cultivars these characteristics will bebred into, who will do the breeding, and when.

2. Who will produce and market the seed of thenew varieties and when.

3. How rapidly farmers will adopt these varieties.4. How much of the loss will be averted and what

the value of that quantity will be.

The simplest set of assumptions is that thegovernment institutes of the AMBIONET teamswill develop new cultivars and pass then throughthe variety registration process. Then governmentor private seed companies will multiply andmarket the seed, and farmers will buy the seedbecause of the obvious benefits to them.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), the world is morecomplicated than that. As Table 12 shows, almostall maize hybrids outside the transitionaleconomies of China and Vietnam were developedby the private sector, and even in China hybridsfrom private firms are popular in the north. Asdiscussed above, lines with the new traits arelikely to go to local seed companies with breedingprograms, after the traits have been bred intolines with good combining ability that arerelatively easy to use in the private breedingprogram. Or, small seed companies with limitedbreeding capacity could wait until thegovernment institute has actually developedresistant hybrids through MAS and then startmultiplying and selling the seed.

6. Impact on Farmers

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Actual and potential impact of AMBIONETactivitiesCIMMYT scientists recently went through anexercise where they interviewed farmers inrepresentative villages about their average yieldlosses from various constraints (IFAD-CIMMYTstudy). These estimates were reviewed by NARSand CIMMYT scientists to assess how realisticfarmers’ estimates were, to provide information onhow widespread the losses were, to calculate thevalue of the losses, and then to discuss maizeresearch priorities. In these studies downy mildewwas identified as a serious problem in only a fewregions (Table 13). At the bottom of the table thelosses from SCMV were estimated. In India andVietnam the farmers who were interviewed didnot experience large losses from downy mildew.

These losses seem very consistent with thosereported by the private sector and in academicstudies. Geekay Bhatia, a scientist from Pioneer Hi-Bred in India, said in an email (June 2004): “…theprivate sector (Pioneer, Cargill) introduced hybridswith good tolerance to DM and later other privatecompanies came up with DM tolerant products.

Over time, with the widespread planting ofresistant hybrids, mainly in Karnataka andAndhra, incidence of DM was restricted to someparts of southern Karnataka and Tamil Nadu andthat to late-planted crops only.” In addition, seedsof most commercial crops is treated with thefungicide metalaxyl, which provides furtherprotection from downy mildew. Sam Dalmacio,plant pathologist for Pioneer Hi-Bred in thePhilippines, said in June 2004: “I believe downymildew is still a problem in some places inMindanao where farmers save their seeds from F1hybrids. And recently there were reports ofdowny mildew outbreaks in Cotabato where F1hybrids have been infected….There have beensevere incidences of downy mildew in SouthSumatra, Indonesia, in the past, particularly inLampung area.”

It is possible to illustrate the potential benefitsfrom the disease resistance research atAMBIONET by making several assumptions. Thelosses from downy mildew and SCMV areassumed to be the losses shown in Table 13 and asa result are only for Indonesia, Thailand, the

Table 13. Estimates of losses from downy mildew (DM) and sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV).

Country Region Disease Average loss (%) Value of loss (US $ millions)

Indonesia Lampung DM 5 10

Philippines South & Central Mindanao DM 10 – 20 21

Thailand Upper North & Northeast DM 10 – 30 11

China NE, N, NW & Yellow River SCMV 0.2 – 2 44

Source: CIMMYT 2004.

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Table 12. Number of maize varieties developed and marketed in Asia by public and private sector, 1990-98.

Public sector Private sectorNational Multinational

Improved OPVs Hybrids Improved OPVs Hybrids Improved OPVs Hybrids

China-South 3 34 na Na 0 0India 20 17 0 73 0 29Indonesia 6 12 na Na 1 22Philippines 33 6 0 18 0 21Thailand 1 8 0 5 0 29Vietnam 5 26 na Na 0 11

Source: Gerpacio.

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Philippines, and China. It is assumed that half ofthese losses can be eliminated by the adoption ofresistant cultivars from the AMBIONET program,new cultivars will be introduced in the yearsshown in Table 10, and that it takes five years aftercultivars’ introduction to reach a 50% level ofcoverage. Figure 4 shows the costs and the returnsto AMBIONET disease research up to the year2015. The costs of the disease resistance researchwere assumed to be about half of AMBIONET’sactual costs, which include ADB funds and in-kindcontributions from CIMMYT and NARSs. This wasabout US $250,000 per year during the first phaseand US $500,000 per year for the second phase.The benefits to farmers will surpass the costs to theprogram around the year 2008 and rapidly reachUS $40 million.

Some gains could presumably have been made inthe absence of AMBIONET; conventional breederswould have identified resistant hybrids at somepoint anyway. However, for illustration purposeswe have assumed that AMBIONET sped thediscovery and development of these traits by fiveyears. The benefits from conventional breeding areshown as the light bar in the figure. The actualbenefit attributable to AMBIONET would be thedifference between the light and striped bars. Thisis still a substantial number: US $15 million in 2010and hitting a maximum of US $27 million in 2012.The internal rates of return from the investment ofin AMBIONET using these projections exceed 40%percent. The Net Present Value of the investmentof a dollar in this project in 1998, assuming aninterest rate of 10%, was US $30, or US $15,assuming 15%. If AMBIONET impacts achieve thelevel projected here, it will have been a very goodinvestment for ADB, CIMMYT, and the NARSs.

To return to reality, it is useful to remember thatbenefits to farmers have actually occurred in twoplaces: Thailand and Southern China. Assuming

that, on average, yields on the 5,000 hectaresscientists report as sown to the improved hybridswould have been reduced 10% by downy mildew,and the value of the new hybrids to farmers wasUS$186,000, one year pays for most of theAMBIONET investment in Thailand. Scientistsfrom South China estimate that their hybrids weregrown on 50,000 to 100,000 hectares in 2004.Assuming a 5% yield increase over previoushybrids, previous yields of 5 t/ha, and prices ofUS$10/kg, the benefits would be between US$1.25 and 2.5 million.

Whether the disease resistant hybrids are actuallyapproved for commercialization will depend onwhether they perform better in terms of yield,insect resistance, and other characteristics, relativeto the check hybrids used in government trials. Ifthe hybrids pass this hurdle and are approved forcommercial use, the next question is how manyfarmers will adopt them. This will depend onfarmers’ perception of the price of the seed, the

Figure 4. Costs and potential benefits of disease resistanceresearch conducted as part of AMBIONET.

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-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

Cost

Million US $

Benefit with AMBIONET

Benefit without AMBIONET

1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015

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yield advantage of the hybrid, the grain quality,and price of grain relative to farmers’ currenthybrids or varieties. It will also depend on howrisk-averse farmers are. Disease resistance isalmost never main criteria farmers’ for choosinghybrids; yields are almost always the main factor.In addition to farmers’ perceptions of benefits andrisks of new hybrids; seed company decisionsabout how much seed to produce and how tomarket a new hybrid will also influence how fast itspreads.

According to surveys with farmers, scientificstudies by scientists, and the perception of theAMBIONET teams, drought generally inflicts thegreatest damage of any biotic or abiotic stress. Toillustrate the large impact of reducing drought, wehave taken the example of India, where mostmaize is grown under inadequate irrigation. Smallfarmers in the CIMMYT survey (2004) estimatedthat drought reduced yield substantially; in mostplaces by one-third. Thus, the benefits ofaddressing this problem could be huge. Even ifdrought tolerant cultivars spread to only one-thirdof maize-growing areas—which is realistic—thebenefits could reach as much as US $100 million.

In addition to increasing production by reducinglosses from disease and drought, AMBIONET willalso hopefully lead to increased yields throughmore efficient conventional plant breeding. Abetter understanding of the genetic diversity ofbreeding lines and their combining ability bypublic plant breeders could increase the efficiencyof current breeding programs and their ability tointegrate new exotic material into current lines.Ensuring that inbred lines are homozygousincreases the efficiency of the public or privateplant breeding programs that make use of thelines. An even 1% increase in annual yield growthcould easily increase benefits to Indian farmers byUS $10 million annually.

Has AMBIONET been a good investment? By theend of the second ADB project, CIMMYT, ADB,and the NARSs will have invested about US $6million in AMBIONET. It is still too early toestimate the size of the payoffs, but the simulatedbenefits from reducing disease and drought-occasioned losses, along with yield increases,would quickly pay off the investment. Payoffs tofarmers are just starting, with some downymildew resistant hybrids in Thailand and higher-yielding hybrids in southern China. These willsoon be followed by downy mildew resistantOPVs in southern India. The first cultivarsdeveloped through MAS will be virus resistantvarieties in China, which should reach farmers inabout 2008, followed by downy mildew resistanthybrids in India in 2010. Increased yields throughimproved conventional breeding programs couldstart to appear fairly soon. Both CIMMYTscientists and I felt that the Indonesianconventional breeding program had benefitedgreatly from the genetic fingerprinting exerciseand that the team’s productivity might haveincreased the most from AMBIONET support.

Will the technology reach the poor?In all AMBIONET countries private firms are themain source of purchased seed and the mostefficient way that new technology spreads tofarmers. However, one potential barrier to therapid spread of AMBIONET hybrids and varietiesto farmers—particularly the resource-poor—is thatthe private sector has to make profits to survive.This means that private firms focus on traitsneeded by commercial farmers and almostexclusively on the development and sale of hybridcultivars. Asian farmers outside of China andThailand primarily plant their own saved seed orOPVs (Table 14). Thus, the AMBIONET teams andother public breeders either have to try todisseminate their improved varieties through

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inefficient government seed companies and hopethat farmers will spread the varieties to otherfarmers, or try to persuade private companies toincorporate the traits into their hybrids. The latterpath does not necessarily exclude small-scalefarmers from the benefits of public research; inChina all farmers are small-scale farmers, and inIndia some local companies like MAHYCOdevelop hybrid maize for farmers with limitedwater resources and many small-scale farmers buythis hybrid maize seed. In addition there isprobably a process similar to the “creolization”described in Mexico by Bellon and Risopoulos(2001), where the useful trait from commercialhybrids and OPVs are bred into local varieties byfarmers and small seed companies.

The problem is even greater in the case of thetraits that AMBIONET partners chose to address— traits that would improve the income ofresource-poor farmers. They succeeded inchoosing traits important to the poor: downymildew is not a problem for most commercialfarmers, who purchase metalaxyl-treated seed.

Nor is drought a concern in the irrigated or goodrainfall areas where wealthier farmers work. Thismeans that the traits are less attractive to seedcompanies targeting commercial farmers.

A further problem in some countries is the weakrelationship between AMBIONET and the privatesector. Government institutes are often reluctant toshare their lines with the private sector andAMBIONET did little to change this situation. Still,most private companies try to monitor the work ofthe public scientists and make use of some oftechnology developed.

In the Philippines there are informal relationshipsbetween public and private scientists. Scientists inboth sectors were trained and worked at UPLB,and public sector scientists are leaving theuniversity for the private sector all the time. InAsia, the closest relationship between the publicand private sectors is in China. There are long-term relationships between public sector breedersand private seed companies that go back to whenthey were all public sector and worked on

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Table 14. Area planted to maize, by maize type, based on estimates of national public-sector researchers (adjustedusing FAO area data), selected Asian countries and region, 1997.

Area planted to improved germplasmTotal maize

Farm-saved seed OPVs Hybrids varieties Total modern area (adjusted FAO)

(000 ha)

China (non-temperate) 41.1 485.4 3,587.1 4,072.6 4,113.7India 3,190.4 1,432.4 1,888.2 3,320.6 6,511.0Indonesia 1,036.9 1,417.1 1,002.4 2,419.5 3,456.4Philippines 1,728.6 324.1 648.2 972.4 2,701.0Thailand 3.9 180.7 1,115.4 1,296.1 1,300.0Vietnam 305.7 101.0 280.3 381.2 686.9Asia 6,595.4 4,305.0 8,670.8 12,975.8 19,571.3

(percentage of maize area)

China (non-temperate) 1.0 11.8 87.2 99.0 100.0India 49.0 22.0 29.0 51.0 100.0Indonesia 30.0 41.0 29.0 70.0 100.0Philippines 64.0 12.0 24.0 36.0 100.0Thailand 0.3 13.9 85.8 99.7 100.0Vietnam 44.5 14.7 40.8 55.5 100.0Asia 33.2 21.8 44.9 66.7 100.0

Source: Gerpacio, R.

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breeding and collaborative testing of new hybridsand other products. As mentioned above, theChinese AMBIONET team has trained scientistsfrom two companies for several weeks in their labon DNA fingerprinting and use of molecularmarkers in breeding. They also assisted in buyingequipment and supplies for the private lab.

AMBIONET research did focus attention onmeeting needs of the poor. However, the real issuein many countries is, if new, superior cultivars aredeveloped for the poor, will the government seedsystem or the private sector make use of them andspread them to the poor? At present, the best thatAMBIONET collaborators can do is to incorporatethe traits they have identified into attractivecommercial cultivars and make them easilyavailable to both public and private seed suppliers.

Research prioritiesTwo sets of research priority decisions influencedthe direction of AMBIONET. Neither was based ona formal study of farmers’ needs. The first wasADB’s decision not to fund research to developtransgenic maize. Given the considerableconsumer resistance to genetically modified maizeand the difficulty in getting permits forcommercialization from the biosafety regulatoryauthorities everywhere in Asia except thePhilippines, this looks like a good decision.

The second decision concerned which non-transgenic research projects to pursue. Choices ofresearch priorities and techniques were essentiallysupply driven—the least expensive projects withthe highest probability of success—and focused ondowny mildew and virus resistance and thendrought and QPM, despite the fact that those traitsmight not be characteristics, like increased yield orimproving drought tolerance, most important toall farmers and most useful to resource-poor

farmers. The sequence of research in each countryand in the region was also supply-driven, fromleast expensive and most likely to be successful tomost expensive/most difficult.

There are potential problems with this method ofpriority setting. To set research priorities so thatthey give the highest social rates of return oninvestment, policy-makers need three types ofinformation: (1) scientists’ best estimates aboutwhat science can do and what it would cost; (2)estimates of social benefits from the technologythat could be developed, if the science weresuccessful; (3) society’s judgment about what isimportant; that is, is it better to maximize totalsocial returns or should improving the income andwelfare of the poor be given extra weight? TheAMBIONET priority-setting process explicitlyused the first information by gathering the bestjudgment of leading maize breeders and biologistsin Asia and CIMMYT. I was not able to find outabout other scientific opportunities they failed totake, such as other available molecular markersthat they did not use.

The second type of information—measurements ofpossible social benefits by social scientists basedon experimental data and farmers’ perceptions oftheir needs—was not collected. This is not toosurprising, given that such studies take resources,the budget for the project was quite small, andsocial scientists from CIMMYT were in the processof conducting a more general study on constraintsto maize production in Asia. There was someimplicit criticism from private sector plantbreeders interviewed about AMBIONET’spriorities. Scientists from companies with majormaize breeding programs in India said that theyno longer had downy mildew as a breedingobjective, since they had already developedresistant lines and could fall back on the

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fungicides. Likewise, Chinese maize breeders didnot believe that the viruses addressed by ChineseAMBIONET teams were economically important.They also had little interest in research on QPM.Most major international companies are placingemphasis on drought tolerance, and so they didagree that this was a major research priority withpotentially high payoffs.

The divergence in private and public prioritiesmay be due to the fact that AMBIONET isexplicitly trying to work on problems of the poor,whereas the private sector targets better-offcommercial farmers. The poor may have less

access to fungicides for protection from downymildew. They may also depend more on maize asa source of protein and would benefit from QPM,if they could get access to it. So, if we put moreweight on the needs of the poor, AMBIONET’spriorities may have the highest payoff. Inaddition, if network research programs providedefficient steps for scientists to learn to usemarkers focused on big economic problems likedrought, they may have been justified. However,the questions of the private companies suggestthat at least some type of economic studyquantifying the possible benefits of the researchprojects might have been useful.

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The goals of AMBIONET were to strengthen theresearch capacity of key public maize researchinstitutions in Asia, and thereby to improve theirability to develop improved maize cultivars forpoor farmers in Asia. Despite the fact thatAMBIONET was a small investment (about US$2.4 million from ADB and US $1.3 million fromCIMMYT), the network was successful inincreasing research capacity, increasing researchoutput, and initiating the development oftechnology that should benefit small farmers andconsumers.

Maize research in Asia has been strengthened,particularly at the institutes that took part inAMBIONET in China, India, and Indonesia.AMBIONET has induced more expenditure onmaize research, increased the number of scientistsworking on maize, and strengthened the basic andapplied research skills of Asian scientists. It hasstrengthened the research links between NARSscientists of different countries and betweenNARSs and CIMMYT. The strengthening ofresearch institutes in the Philippines and Thailandhas been less successful, but even in thosecountries individual scientists have had theirresearch programs strengthened by AMBIONET.

We found evidence that AMBIONET is alsostrengthening research capacity beyond thecollaborating institutes. The scientists of othergovernment institutes and universities worked onPhD and MS theses financed and supervised byAMBIONET collaborators. Public sector scientistshave received short-term training. AMBIONET hasalso become a model for some research networksin China and India attempting to do at the nationallevel what AMBIONET did at the regional level. In

addition, the research capacity of private firms inChina and India was strengthened by AMBIONET.

AMBIONET also increased research output, asmeasured by publications, research tools, andimproved lines and hybrids. This is the easiesttype of output to document with quantitativeevidence—in this case, numbers of publications.Most programs were able to publish ininternational journals for the first time, afterjoining AMBIONET. All programs increased thetotal number of papers published, except forThailand’s public plant breeding program, whichin any case emphasizes the development ofvarieties rather than publications.

There was not yet enough evidence to be confidentthat the number or quality of new maize cultivarshas been increased due to AMBIONET, but it wasencouraging to find that a few cultivars based onresearch from this program are being grown byfarmers. These first few cultivars were based oneither the genetic diversity programs in southernChina or on the disease resistant lines that wereidentified in Thailand while developing molecularmarkers (rather than being developed throughmolecular breeding). The second set of cultivarsfrom AMBIONET associates are disease resistantcultivars in the pipeline in China and India. Thesewere developed through molecular breeding andwill be available to farmers in a few years.

Much of the AMBIONET research focused on theproblems of small-scale farmers. AMBIONET hasmade good progress toward developing improved,disease resistant lines that can be used in breedingprograms. Downy mildew is not a problem forcommercial maize producers in most of Asia,

7. Conclusions: Impacts and the Future

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because there are chemical seed treatments andsome genetic resistance. It is a problem, however,for small-scale farmers who do not have access tocommercial seed every year and who likewiseneed drought tolerance, because it is a keyproblem for smallholders in rainfed areas.

Using numbers from farmer surveyssubstantiated by expert opinion and experimentstation data, it was possible to project the benefitsfrom some technologies in a few countries. Theadoption of downy mildew resistant varieties inSoutheast Asia and virus resistant hybrids inChina could easily pay for the costs ofAMBIONET in a few years and give very highrates of return to the investment in research.

Whether the AMBIONET program could havehad higher social benefits if participants had setdifferent priorities is not clear. ADB’s restrictionthat they not work on transgenic cultivars lookssensible in hindsight, given that only thePhilippines has so far approved any transgenicmaize. The emphasis on working on relativelyless challenging problems at first also seemssensible, but much more analysis would have tobe done (based on much speculation) to beconfident that this particular strategy had thehighest benefit-cost ratio.

AMBIONET’s success in strengthening research isprimarily due to the national governments whoprovided most of the funding and the scientists.The programs that have done best by somemeasures—the Chinese and Indian programs—are the ones who had the strongest researchcapacity initially and have rapidly growingfinancial resources for their research. Theirresearch successes with AMBIONET led to morefunding for the future. Both programs will haveaccess to million-dollar grants for molecularbreeding research.

The success of the project was due to a number offactors. The personal commitment andinvolvement in research and all other aspects ofAMBIONET by George, Hoisington, and the otherCIMMYT staff was one important reason forsuccess. They were well trained, experiencedscientists who committed an immense amount oftime to the project. They got to know collaboratingscientists and their institutions well and treatedwith respect the knowledge and skills that theNARSs’ scientists brought to the table. The mix ofdisciplines, skills, and personalities of the Asianscientists in the network was another importantfactor. The CIMMYT leaders built on their contactsin Asia and on the experience of IRRI with theAsian Rice Biotech Network to identify people whowere willing and able to collaborate. In a few casesthey had to change collaborators, but in the end animpressive team of NARS scientists formedAMBIONET. The flexibility of the funding and theability of AMBIONET to move it quickly to whereit was needed was another important factor inmaking this project work.

Beyond the numbers and the questionnaires, theimpressive thing about this project was theenthusiasm of the participants. There wasShihuang Zhang’s quiet enthusiasm for the roleAMBIONET played in introducing the youngscientists in his research program to theinternational research community. Prasanna’senjoyment of competition with the Chinese teamand equal enthusiasm for teaching Indian,Indonesian, Irani, and Vietnamese students aboutthe tools of molecular breeding are worth note.Firdaus Kasim of Indonesia spoke highly of hisresearch collaboration with Dedi Ruswandi andpossible future international collaborations withPichet of Thailand. Perhaps most impressive wasthe excitement of young scientists like Pabendonand Azrai in Indonesia talking about their research.

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AMBIONET’s success in improving the well-being of farmers depends not only on researchoutput but perhaps even more on the ability ofpublic extension to transfer public technology tofarmers or the NARS scientists’ ability to getprivate seed companies to make use of thetechnology they develop. The private sectororganizations interested in AMBIONET and otherpublic research activities are primarily themedium-sized Asian firms, such as MAHYCO inIndia and Domingo in the Philippines. The localbranches of Monsanto and Pioneer had limited orno knowledge of AMBIONET. They do not useMAS in their breeding programs in Asia and thedisease problems that AMBIONET addressed arenot major concerns to them. Drought is animportant problem for them, but research on thisproblem is being conducted by their centralresearch programs and, in the case of Pioneer,with a collaborative research program atCIMMYT’s headquarters.

Another measure of the project’s success wasthe demand for participation. The participantswere unanimous in their desire to continue thesystem, as might be expected. In addition manyother countries were seeking to join and werewilling to pay their own way or find donors tosupport their participation. At the annualmeeting in Chiang Mai in 2003, AMBIONETcollaborators were joined by three scientistseach from Iran, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

The participants unanimously agreed that thenetwork structure was important. The researchprojects provided the focal point for allactivities, with the training programs, theannually meetings, and the technicalbackstopping contributing to the programs’success. The combination of collaboration,cooperation, and competition that I found at theannual meeting and in the interviews wasimpressive. This is the way good, collaborativeresearch is supposed to work.

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Alston, J., G. Norton, and P. Pardey. 1995. Science underScarcity: Principles and Practice for Agricultural ResearchEvaluation and Priority Setting. Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press.

Bellon, M.R., and J. Risopoulos. 2001. Small-scalefarmers expand the benefits of improved maizegermplasm: A case study from Chiapas, Mexico.World Dev 29:799-811.

CIMMYT. 2002. Project Completion Report of the AsianMaize Biotechnology Network RETA 5766:Application of Biotechnology to Maize Improvementin Asia. Submitted to the Asian Development Bank.

CIMMYT. 2004. Achieving Uncommon Things:Biotechnology Network in Asia. http://www.cimmyt.org/whatiscimmyt/recent_ar/D_Foster/achieving.htm. Accessed 12Apr06.

Dalmacio, S. “The importance of and growing concernfor maize diseases in the Asian region.” Presented atPCARRD, Los Banos, the Philippines, 2000.

Dreher, K., M. Khairallah, J-M. Ribaut, and M. Morris.2003. Money matters (I): costs of field and laboratoryprocedures associated with conventional and marker-assisted maize breeding at CIMMYT. MolecularBreeding 11(3): 221-234.

George, M.L.C., W. Li, C. Moju, M. Dahlan, M.Pabendon, E. Regalado, M. Warburton, X.C. Xia, andD. Hoisington. 2004. Molecular characterization ofAsian maize inbred lines by multiple laboratories.Theor Appl Genet 109:80-91.

George M.L.C., B.M. Prasanna, R.S. Rathore, T.A.S. Setty,F. Kasim, M. Azrai, S. Vasal, O. Balla, D. Hautea, A.Canama, E. Regalado, M. Vargas, M. Khairallah, D.Jeffers, and D. Hoisington. 2003. Identification ofQTLs conferring resistance to downyºmildews ofmaize in Asia. Theor Appl Genet 107:544-551.

George, M.L.C., E. Regalado, M. Warburton, S. Vasal,and D. Hoisington. 2003. Genetic Diversity of maizelines in relation to downy mildew. Euphytica 135:145-155.

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References

Gerpacio, R.V. (ed.). 2001. Impact of Public- and Private-Sector Maize Breeding Research in Asia, 1966-1997/98.Mexico, D.F.: International Maize and WheatImprovement Center (CIMMYT).

IFAD-CIMMYT study on maize in Asia. The results ofthe study have been published in the series whosetitles are listed below. All can be accessed, ordered, ordownloaded from CIMMYT’s web page(www.cimmyt.org) in the section “Publications/Maize Production Systems”:

• Joshi, P.K., N.P. Singh, N.N. Singh, R.V. Gerpacio,and P.L. Pingali. 2005. Maize in India: ProductionSystems, Constraints, and Research Priorities. Mexico,D.F.: CIMMYT.

• Swastika, D.K.S., F. Kasim, W. Sudana, R.Hendayana, K. Suhariyanto, R.V. Gerpacio, andP.L. Pingali. 2004. Maize in Indonesia: ProductionSystems, Constraints, and Research Priorities. Mexico,D.F.: CIMMYT.

• Ekasingh, B., P. Gypmantasiri, K. Thong-ngam, andP. Grudloyma. 2004. Maize in Thailand: ProductionSystems, Constraints, and Research Priorities. Mexico,D.F.: CIMMYT.

• Gerpacio, R.V., J.D. Labios, R.V. Labios, and E.I.Diangkinay. 2004. Maize in the Philippines:Production Systems, Constraints, and ResearchPriorities. Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT.

• Thanh Ha, D., T. Dinh Thao, N. Tri Khiem, M. XuanTrieu, R.V. Gerpacio, and P.L. Pingali. 2004. Maize inVietnam: Production Systems, Constraints, andResearch Priorities. Mexico, D.F.: CIMMYT.

• Paudyal, K.R., J.K. Ransom, N.P. Rajbhandari, K.Adhikari, R.V. Gerpacio, and P.L. Pingali. 2001.Maize in Nepal: Production Systems, Constraints, andPriorities for Research. Kathmandu: NARC andCIMMYT.

Zhang, S.H. 1998. “Needs and priorities of maizebreeding program for molecular genetics in China.”Unpublished document, Chinese Academy ofAgricultural Sciences, Beijing, China.

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Appendix table 1. Summary of training courses and workshops.

Date Place Training/Workshop

Training Course9 Nov-4 Dec 1998 CIMMYT, Mexico Training Course on Molecular Marker Applications to Plant Breeding Regional WorkshopsOct 1999 Kamphangsaen, Thailand Regional Workshop on Maize and Downy Mildew FingerprintingMay 2001 IRRI, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines Regional Workshop on QTL MappingMay 2001 IRRI, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines IRRI-CIMMYT Functional Genomics WorkshopAugust 2002 Thailand Genetic DiversityNovember 2003 Thailand Proposal development workshop In-country training6-7 Mar 2000 Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India Molecular Marker Applications to Plant Breeding?? Vietnam Molecular marker technologies Annual Meeting27-30 Apr 1998 Bangkok, Thailand First Annual Meeting27-30 Apr 1999 Beijing, China Second Annual Meeting8-10 Mar 2000 New Delhi, India Third Annual Meeting10-11 May 2001 Los Baños, Philippines Fourth Annual Meeting2002 Indonesia Fifth Annual MeetingNovember 2003 Chiang Mai, Thailand Sixth Annual Meeting

(b) AMBIONET Workshop on ‘QTL Mapping’ at IRRI, Philippines in May 2001(c) AMBIONET Workshop on ‘Diversity Analysis’ at Thailand in August 2002(d) AMBIONET Grant Writing Workshop at Thailand in November 2003

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Appendix table 2. Losses from key diseases and drought in Asia.

Countries where Country of Estimated areaDisease problem example Year of problem Percent loss Source

MRDV China China 1996 400,000 ha 20-30 DalmacioMRDV China China 30-50 DalmacioViruses China China 1975 1,000 ha 50 DalmacioSCMV Philippines Philippines 1990 55-57 DalmacioBacterial rot India, China, Indonesia, Japan, India 80-85 Dalmacio

Malaysia, Thailand, PhilippinesBacterial rot Philippines 1981 40 DalmacioBacterial rot Philippines 1985 20 Dalmacio

Philippines Philippines 1996 21 DalmacioDowny mildew China, India, Indonesia, Japan, 1974-75 8 ? Dalmacio

Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines,Thailand, Vietnam

Downy mildew Indonesia 1977 40 DalmacioJava downy mildew Indonesia 1996 7,665 ha DalmacioBanded leaf and sheath blight India, Philippines, Vietnam, Dalmacio

IndonesiaLeaf blight and rot Philippines Philippines 1984 20 DalmacioLeaf blight and rot Indonesia Indonesia 11 DalmacioFungal root and stalk rot Philippines Philippines 1995 13 DalmacioFungal Root and stalk rot Philippines Philippines 1995 13 DalmacioFoliar diseases Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Dalmacio

Japan, IndonesiaDrought China China 30-40 ZhangStalk rot China China 10–20 ZhangMRDV China China 10-15 ZhangAsian corn borer China China 7 – 20 ZhangTurcicum leaf blight China China 1974 20 Zhang

43

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International Maize and Wheat Improvement CenterApdo. Postal 6-641, 06600 Mexico, D.F., Mexico

www.cimmyt.org

ISBN: 970-648-138-9

The Asian Maize Biotechnology N

etwork (AM

BION

ET): A Model for Strengthening N

ational Agricultural Research Systems Carl E. Pray