Jill Cairns
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jillec.bsky.social
Jill Cairns
@jillec.bsky.social
250 followers 440 following 36 posts
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 physiologist for CIMMYT based in 🇿🇼 | interested in maize, agriculture, R4D and 🚲

You can find out more about my research here - www.jillcairns.com
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jxbotany.bsky.social
Check out some of expected reviews so far 📝
@jillec.bsky.social
@cimmyt.bsky.social
@sebiology.bsky.social

#PlantScience 🧪 #JXBspecialissues
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Intro paragraph to the special issue: The frequencies and severities of drought events are increasing. Many agricultural systems are already at risk, and some are in crisis conditions due to the impacts of long-term droughts. Solutions are required. The Inter-Drought conference is a global forum for researchers to share their latest findings. The eighth InterDrought conference will be held at La Serena, Chile from Nov 17-21. This special issue provides a synopsis of the meeting highlighting the key drivers of crop productivity and crop improvement strategies required for the 21st Century, our agricultural including topics of how to define the importance of drought in ouragricultural systems, measuring the levels of water availability and severity of drought in controlled environment and field experiments, drought responses at the molecular, organ, plant and crop level, breeding and agronomy solutions to achieve sustainable crop productivity for drought affected agricultural systems.
December 17, 2025 at 11:47 AM
jillec.bsky.social
Im sorry about what happened to you, but thank you for sharing your experience. It did make me feel less alone. Take care
November 5, 2025 at 4:18 PM
jillec.bsky.social
Interestingly, using a survey of national #maize breeding programs in Eastern and Southern #Africa, we confirmed the continuing #gender gap in agricultural researchers.
June 4, 2025 at 5:02 AM
jillec.bsky.social
There are many publications on tools and technologies to improve #geneticgain within public sector breeding, but many overlook the real world constraints these programs face.

We found simple changes in a breeding scheme (within a fixed budget) could increase genetic gain per year by 43%.
June 4, 2025 at 5:02 AM
jillec.bsky.social
Thank you for your wishes! It was car accident. I was stationary and hit at speed (>100 kph) by another car. Desperate to get back on my bike 😀
May 28, 2025 at 8:17 AM
jillec.bsky.social
Our paper on adapting a field testing strategy based on knowledge of how intended beneficiaries might adapt a novel genetic technology designed to simplify hybrid maize seed production is included in this special edition 🌽👩‍🌾

@cimmyt.bsky.social @cgiar.org

doi.org/10.1002/ppp3...
Validating a novel genetic technology for hybrid maize seed production under management practices associated with resource‐poor farmers in Zimbabwe
A hybrid maize seed production technology has the potential to reduce the complexity of hybrid seed production and increase seed quality. Here, we investigate the potential impact of this technology ...
doi.org
April 2, 2025 at 8:46 AM