b"identify breeding targets, drive food security and mitigate mal-nutrition. Education in places where technological capacity (like McGill University) exists and can be taught is critical to creating developmental leaps in their own communities in a context very likely only they understand. People need the training to be able to see the big picture.MZ: What experience have you had working in developing countries? Can you tell us a short story about one of these experiences and why it has stuck with you?VHV: I grew up in the central Andean state of Caldas in Colombia, which is known as the coffee region. Among other areas, CIAT and CIMMYT have focused on the improvement of the agricultural systems in the eastern plains of Colombia. The eastern plains (or llanos) are oxisol soil type savannas high in exchangeable Al. It is a rugged place where only native species are able to growthey suffer from long droughts half of the year and flooding the other half. I decided to visit the home-town of one of the technicians from CIMMYT, a place that is inaccessible for half of the year because the roads are flooded.Hoyos-Villegas back in the day with his first mentor, Idupulapati Rao of CIAT.And the rest of the year, it takes 16 hours to travel only 350 km because there are no roads due to the flooding, and it requires special vehicles to traverse the environment and not everyone isA WORD FROM THE BORLAUG willing to go there.TRAINING FOUNDATIONMZ: It sounds like a totally different world.VHV: Its very remote and disconnected from the rest ofThe Borlaug Training Colombia. Back in the 1970s, CIAT had an experimental stationFoundation is a non-profit there called Carimagua. When I visited, it was a military base,with the mission to develop but it was later reactivated as a research station. This stationplant scientists who fight had been inactive for a long time, yet the impact of its researchhunger.was still palpable among the inhabitants of the region. PeopleJanet Lewis is a board were growing maize, rice and raising cattle with old technol- member of the foundation ogy and varieties lagging behind the rest of the country, butas well as a consortium the impact of the deployment of these varieties and agronomicdeveloper for the Heat and practices helped the economic development of the region; schools were built, electrification was installed and better roadsDrought Wheat Improvement are still being constructed. It made me think. If scientists wereConsortium (HeDWIC) and able to contribute in this way to a region in so much isola- has been a wheat breeder in tion and instability, I cant imagine what the potential couldthe public and private sectors.Janet Lewisbe. Today, that region is undergoing an agricultural boom andTraining others was at despite many problems, it is poised to become a major bread- the heart of Dr. NormanHowever, it takes trained basket for South America. Borlaug's efforts and a criticalpeople around the world MZ: What is the biggest success you have seen ag scientistsfoundation to the successto translate these potential in the developing world have recently? of the Green Revolution.advancements into real-world VHV: I think that the work that the CIAT dry bean programCreating great change inimpact. I'm encouraged by has done in the development of heat and drought tolerance inresponse to urgent needsValerio's response to this common bean is a great example of applied plant breeding torequires a coordinated effort.$10 million question, which solve a big problem through the smart use of germplasm andFrom a distance, cutting-edgehighlights the value, need, and collaboration. HarvestPlus has also done incredible work on theresearch can set in motionopportunity for exponential biofortification of a number of crops while maintaining highamazing advancements.impact through training.yields and disease resistance, such as zinc rice and iron beans. The future of plant breeding in the developing world will further involve the intersection of emerging technologies withHear our podcast episode with Valerio Hoyos-Villegas and Janet Lewis that practical knowledge of plant breeding to deliver many otherreveals more of this story! Visit germination.ca/10-million-dollar-dream/ideas to farmers and consumers. 4GERMINATION.CAINTERNATIONAL EDITION 2020"