Through conservation agriculture, scientists aim to improve rural incomes and livelihoods through sustainable management of agro-ecosystem productivity and diversity, while minimizing unfavorable environmental impacts.
Water plays a major role in smallholder farmer crop production, and CARE Internationalâs Graduation with Resilience to Achieve Sustainable Development (GRAD) program aims to sustain food security for food insecure households in rural Ethiopia.
In this picture from CARE taken by Josh Estey, shows Desta Seba, 28, and his wife Hana Eliyas, 25. They have four children. The family farms 1 hectare (2.5 acres) of land, cultivating bananas, chat, coffee, haricot bean, inset, maize and teff.
They have three goats, eight chickens and four cows. They only eat meat once a year. Before GRAD the family would eat two meals a day consisting of inset and maize. Through GRAD they have been able to save money for the first time in their lives and they can now buy such essential items for their family as salt, soap and baby food.
GRAD aims to graduate 50,000 thousand food insecure households from the Ethiopian governmentâs productive safety net in 16 targeted woredas (villages) and increase each household income by $365 dollars a year.
For more information, follow CARE on Twitter @CAREintuk
Water plays a vital role in crop production, but flooding in vulnerable regions also ruins crops and hinders aid agenciesâ efforts to reach people affected by crisis.
In this picture from the World Food Programme (WFP) taken by Amjad Jamal in 2012, vehicles laden with emergency supplies motor through floodwaters to deliver food aid to around 20,000 people stranded in Pakistanâs Sindh Province.
This third successive year of flooding caused the deaths of around 400 people and destroyed homes and agricultural livelihoods. WFP provided one-month food rations, including fortified wheat flour, pulses, vegetable oil, iodized salt and high energy biscuits.
For more information, follow WFP on Twitter @WFP
The World Food Programme (WFP) provides support to the Ethiopian governmentâs Growth and Transformation Plan, a development agenda which addresses food security. WFP School Meals and Managing Environmental Resources to Enable Transition (MERET) programs support sustainable land and water management to improve productivity in food-insecure communities.
In this picture, taken by WFP staffer Kiyori Ueno, children are eating porridge made of maize and haricot beans produced by local farmers at the Udassa Repi Elementary School in Butajira, a project supported by Dubai Cares.
Through the School Meals program, WFP provides a daily hot meal to almost 700,000 school children to promote increased attendance and enrollment, reducing drop outs in food insecure areas. The program also supports formal education by developing schools into community resource centers that promote good nutrition and environmental awareness.
For more information, follow WFP on Twitter @WFP
Daniella Van Leggelo Padilla took this picture to show the quality of the certified maize seeds that were being sold at a subsidized price thanks to the World Bank West Africa Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP/PPAAO).
Due to a late — and poor — rainfall in 2014, farmers lost their crops, putting them in a precarious position for the fall harvest.
The WAAPP program was able to shore up this loss by providing Senegalese farmers with short cycle, drought-resistant seeds to help them salvage the seasonâs crops.
Learn More: Seeding hope for smallholder farmers in Senegal
For more information, follow World Bank Water on Twitter @WorldBankWater
Farmers face a range of challenges related to crop production. Nguse Adhane, a smallholder farmer who lives in a small village in Ethiopia, collects his water from a spring source, which runs dry for months at a time.
Charity WaterAid and its partner Development Inter Church Aid Commission are building a gravity flow scheme, which will mean the 875 village residents will not have to depend on an unreliable water source.
Adhane, shown in this picture taken by Guilhem Alandry, has cattle and grows tomatoes, pepper, maize, teff, wheat, lentils and onions on his small farm.
âWhen I collect water from here for my crops, the roots become dry,â he said.
âThere are worms in the water and this impacts on the crops. The cattle become distended after they drink the water as there are worms in it.
âBecause there is no water, we cannot water our crops. We have a shortage of water. Our irrigations have been dry for a month now. The rains start in June.â
âIf we have water, we will be very happy,â he said.
For more information, follow @WaterAid on Twitter
KULUMSA, Ethiopia (CIMMYT) — An irrigation reservoir at the Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center in Ethiopiaâs highlands captures water from a nearby beer distillery about 168 km (105 miles) southeast of the capital Addis Ababa.
Before the irrigation project was constructed, the industrial runoff poured into the nearby river and had a negative effect on the health of local residents. Now it nourishes crops growing in neighboring fields during the dry season or in periods of drought. It can store up to 38,195m3 of water.
âThe irrigation project has been a key investment â itâs very instrumental for accelerating seed multiplication of improved high-yielding rust resistant varieties for local wheat projects,â said Bekele Abeyo, a senior scientist and wheat breeder working for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
âIt allows us to advance wheat germplasm and seed multiplication of elite lines twice a year, which we couldnât do previously. This cuts the time by half from the currently required eight to 10 years to four to five years for the development and release of new varieties through conventional breeding.
An additional pond with the capacity to capture 27,069m3 of natural water from the river, generates the capacity to irrigate more than 30 ha of land during the off season. The project resulted from the joint investment of the East Africa Agricultural Productivity Program, the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat Project and CIMMYT.
The construction of the ponds began in April 2012. Sprinkler irrigation was completed in 2014 and management of the project was handed over to the Kulumsa Agricultural Research Center.
Water plays a vital role in irrigation and food production, accounting for 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, according to U.N. Water. Additionally, statistics show that water consumption for agricultural use is projected to increase by about 20 percent by 2050.
Global efforts to protectively boost sustainable water use are reflected in proposed global anti-poverty development goals due to replace the current U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire at the end of 2015.
The inclusion of water in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to âensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for allâ will mark a significant shift from the current development framework, which only included water as a subordinate target within the environment MDG 7.
World Water Day, which falls on March 22, offers an opportunity to celebrate the role this indispensable resource plays in agricultural production, food security and distribution.
At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) we asked members of our online community to share pictures illustrating some of the ways they use water.
Their contributions can be seen on our special coverage page.
Twitter followers are also asked to share pictures via the #WaterIs hashtag and by mentioning @CIMMYT.
Water plays a vital role in irrigation and food production, accounting for 70 percent of global freshwater withdrawals, according to U.N. Water. Additionally, statistics show that water consumption for agricultural use will increase by about 20 percent by 2050.
Global efforts to protectively boost sustainable water use are reflected in proposed global anti-poverty development goals due to replace the current U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which expire at the end of 2015.
The inclusion of water in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to âensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for allâ will mark a significant shift from the current framework, which included water as a subordinate target within the MDG 7 environment target.
World Water Day on 22 March offers an opportunity to celebrate the role this indispensable resource plays in agricultural production, food security and distribution.
At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) we asked members of our online community to share pictures illustrating some of the ways they use water.
Their contributions can be seen on our special coverage page.
Twitter followers are also asked to share pictures via the #WaterIs hashtag and by mentioning @CIMMYT.
To see the contributions, please click here.
During 9-11 March, scientists from 90 countries gathered at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture in Abu Dhabi to discuss the looming topic of feeding nine billion people by the year 2050.
Global Forums for Innovation in Agriculture (GFIA) logoPopulation is rising and natural resources are fading. Innovations in agriculture that use less of the worldâs natural resources and address global warming, improve nutrition, ensure global food security and reduce poverty are critical, according to Jon Hellin, value chain and poverty specialist for CIMMYTâs Socioeconomics Program. Hellin presented his research on crop index insurance and its effect on farmersâ adoption of climate-smart agricultural technologies.
A study published early this month in the Journal of Nutrition shows that biofortified maize can meet zinc requirements and provide an effective dietary alternative to regular maize for children in vulnerable areas of rural Zambia.
âThis adds to the growing body of evidence supporting the efforts of HarvestPlus, a CGIAR global effort to end hidden hunger and to which CIMMYT contributes through the development of maize and wheat with enhanced levels of vitamin A, zinc, and iron,â said Natalia Palacios, CIMMYT Maize Nutrition Quality Specialist and co-author in the study. âMaize is an important staple food for 900 million people living on less than $2 each day, but a diet rich in maize cannot always provide the nutrients needed by the body.â
Zinc plays important roles in human health, and zinc deficiencies are associated with stunting and a weak immunological system, making the malnourished more susceptible to common infections. More than 17 percent of the global population is at risk of zinc deficiency.
The study found that when the biofortified maize provided by CIMMYT was fed as a staple to Zambian children, their zinc intake was more than sufficient for their dietary needs.
The higher zinc level (34 ”g zinc per gram, versus 21 ”g) meant that the biofortified maize greatly outperformed the control diet, while biofortified grain was shown to be more efficient than Zn-enriched flour at getting the nutrient absorbed into the body.
This research joins another study in Zambia that revealed orange maize to be an effective way of reducing vitamin A deficiency in young children, which globally causes 500,000 to go blind each year. HarvestPlus has supplied 10,000 farming households in Zambia with orange maize, supported by government recognition of the value of biofortification in its National Food and Nutrition Strategic plan.
Over the last week, MAIZE and WHEAT CRP investigators from the global cross-CRP study on gender in agricultural innovation met at El BatĂĄn from 26 Feb to 1 March to take stock of progress so far and plan the next steps in the implementation of this unique research initiative.
The study will draw on interviews and focus groups with men and women engaged in small-scale farming around the world, to hear in their words how they practice and innovate in agriculture, and what factors, especially gender relations, they feel have influenced their success and failures. Through rigorous analysis both of the broader patterns in the data and delving deep into the case studies, the aim is to develop strategic research publications as well as practical observations and tools to integrate gender-sensitivity into agricultural research and development.
The appetite for more knowledge about the role of gender was clear at Gender and Development Specialist Paula Kantorâs well-attended brown bag lunch on Friday, introducing the GIZ-funded project on gender constraints to wheat R4D in Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Pakistan.
As CIMMYT Gender Specialist Lone Badstue opened the workshop, she reflected on how quickly gender research has advanced since the CRPs were set up in 2011. From less than one full-time gender-specialist on staff, there are now the equivalent of eight full-time staff working with the CRPs on gender and 20 large projects with gender-integration.
At the workshop, the gender specialists shared their experiences of the 19 case studies conducted under MAIZE and WHEAT so far, before settling down to discuss data quality control and coding.
CGIAR gender specialists met at CIMMYT El BatĂĄn last week, 26 February – 1 March, to discuss the next steps in the global comparative field study of gender norms, agency and agricultural innovation. This team of principal investigators from MAIZE and WHEAT will conduct more than 70 cases globally by the close of 2015.
Gender specialists Dina Najjar (DN) of ICARDA, Amare Tegbaru (AT) of IITA and Anuprita Shukla (AS) of Glasgow Caledonian University discuss the cross-CRP gender study, International Womenâs Day and womenâs rights in the field and the work place.
Why do you think we still celebrate International Womenâs Day today, and why do you think that it is still relevant?
AT: International womenâs day is one of the greatest milestonesâitâs a cry for justice, for fairness, for equality (as we articulate it), endorsed by the United Nations member states. The celebration is not only to show solidarity but also to remind us to renew our commitmentsâto make relevant the work and research we are doing in science to women, who are in fact constitute over 75% of the labor force in agriculture. Itâs a way of questioning ourselves and what weâve done so far and what we need to do in the future.
What obstacles do you see for women in the field in agriculture?
AS: I havenât started field work yet, but from my previous experiences in Southeast Asia it is an extremely patriarchal society. The structural discrimination of women will be the hardest problem to address and it might take some time for women to internalize they have a right to the same products and services as men. This is why it is important we create enough opportunity of space for dialogue. Women have been restricted as a whole in society. If there is an opportunity to have dialogue, they will demand their rights.
Is gender just about the women?
DN: It is very important to target both men and women when studying gender. Men hold the social approvals in these communities; if you hold a training for women and their husbands do not allow them to go, then you have a problem. In many of the regions we work in, men hold the power and are the decision makers. You have to involve the men in empowering the women. It is not enough to only target any woman as it depends on the generation and social class of the woman. A woman who is divorced has completely different needs and aspirations than a woman who has children or a woman who is single or has a child in school or a child with no education. Itâs not that simple, itâs not just about a woman.
Have you seen a change in women entering the field of science or agriculture?
AS: There are many factors explaining why women didnât go into these programs but now do. Before, there were no quotas, no incentive for women to join. Speaking from the developing nation perspective, globalization has had a liberalizing effect. It is a gradual change but it is taking place, and hopefully it will become the norm that women are joining science and agriculture programs in equal number to men.
Who is your maize or wheat Superwoman?
DN: My wheat superwoman is a woman named Nafisa from Upper Egypt. She gained land after she was widowed, leaving her with two sons. She cultivates the wheat and manages the land all on her own. Through this land ownership she was selected to serve on committees and became a decision maker in her community. She took on an entirely new role in her community, which was for a female to manage a farm.
She is an amazing woman, just the things she had to endure and the resistance she faced from her family and neighbors. No one supported her, but she stood up to that, because of her desire for a better future for her children. If she does not farm the land it will get taken from her, and if she gets married, the land will be taken from her. This is something unheard of in this very conservative community where it is typically too dangerous for a woman to farm land. She is a pioneering, determined and strategic thinking woman. Many would describe her as a warrior; I personally admire her persistence and courage. She is definitely a wheat hero.
Do you think gender will be more on the agenda in CRP phase 2?
AT: Yes, it should. Firstly because there is strong political support, not only because donors are asking for it, demanding it, putting more money for it, but also because now we are not only talking about gender, we have started delivering on gender as well. So there are resultsâthe number of global gender studies which we have collected in over 70 places would tell how this could be integrated into the next phase of the CRP.
âOnly those of us bold enough to try conservation agriculture technologies like zero tillage and intercropping benefited a lot, while all others were left behind.â â Hunegnaw Wubie, farmer, South Achefer District, Amhara Region, North Ethiopia
As the curtain comes down on CIMMYTâs Conservation Agriculture and Smallholder Farmers in East and Southern Africa (CASFESA) pilot project, participating farmers in project demonstration sites have said that conservation agriculture (CA) practices have proven to be a viable means of improving their productivity and livelihoods, and need to be scaled up across the nation.
The farmers made these remarks at a one-day workshop on February 23, 2015, convened to take stock of the CASFESA experience after three years of implementation in South Achefer and Jebitehnan Districts of Amhara Region, Northern Ethiopia. The project began in June 2012 and will end in March 2015. Funded by the European Union through the International Fund for Agricultural Development, CASFESA aimed at increasing food security and incomes of poor smallholder farmers through sustainable intensification of mixed, cereal-based systems.
The project will leave a rich legacy, including:
Attending the project closing workshop at the Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute, Bahir Dar, in northwestern Ethiopia, were Regional Bureau of Agriculture officials; Directors of the Ministry of Agriculture Extension Process and the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agencyâs Climate and Environmental Sustainability Program; agronomists; representatives of relevant governmental and non-governmental and research organizations; and, above all, farmers. Keynote presentations included The Economic and Environmental Benefits of Sustainable Intensification Practices by Dr. Menale Kassie, while Dr. Mulugetta Mekuria and Mr. Yeshitla Merene presented the experience and research results from the Sustainable Intensification of MaizeâLegume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA).
Reaping where you do not harrow
Farmers spoke passionately on how CA technologies proved profitable for them and their families âin beating the oddsâ. Most reported harvests of six or more tonnes per hectare of maize from the CA plots â relatively better harvests than with conventional plowing methods, plus the added benefits of reduced use of oxen and labor, and attendant advantages. They also called upon officials responsible to undertake corresponding measures to ensure that CA technologies are sustainably implemented and adopted on a wider scale.
One of these âfarmer-researchersâ, clergyman Enkuhanhone Alayu, narrated how people at first ridiculed him when, three years ago, he volunteered to demonstrate CA practices on his meagre plot of land. They laughed at him âfor expecting to cultivate crops without plowingâ â a reference to minimum tillage practices that the project advocates as a central element of conservation agriculture.
âBut when they later saw that we were cultivating more quantity of maize per unit of land, they were surprised and people who had called me a fool began calling me even at night seeking advice on how they can replicate CA practices on their plots and gain the benefits,â Alayu said. âZero tillage practices, which require considerably less labor, are even more relevant at this time when oxen are increasingly becoming very expensive and most farmers are not able to afford them.â
Unto the next generationâŠ
Another farmer, Ato Hunegnaw Wubie, said he was so pleased with CA technologies that he also taught his children how to do it on a portion of his land allotted to each of them. âOne of my six children was so successful that this year he was able to reap 66 kilos of maize from a 10 by 10 meter plot. He sold his harvest at the market, and, with some additional money from me, bought a bicycle that he uses for transport to and from school. Only those steadfast enough and willing to learn new things will reap the benefits from such novel practices,â he added with pride.
And the farmers were not alone. Speaking at the workshop, the Deputy Head of Amhara Region Bureau of Agriculture, Dr. Demeke Atilaw, noted that maize production in the region stands at a meagre 3.2 tonnes per hectare, and that one reason for this is that âour agricultural practices didnât include conservation agriculture. This needs to change both at the regional and national levels.â He further pledged that the bureau will work towards sustainably implementing these technologies with a view to increasing maize yields to eight tonnes per hectare.
Roadmap to national goals: â⊠projects alone cannot bring about significant changeâŠâ
In addition to CASFESA, CA technologies are being implemented in the region by SIMLESA, a CIMMYT project in Ethiopia, as well as in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. Presenting the experience of SIMLESA thus far, project leader, Dr. Mekuria told the participants that âthe experience of both these CIMMYT projects, promising as they are, cannot alone bring about significant change unless they are scaled out using more new varieties of maize and sustained through meaningful institutional involvement â especially that of agencies at all levels of government.â
CIMMYT Agricultural Economist and CASFESA project coordinator, Dr. Moti Jaleta, also said that the experience of CASFESA has demonstrated that CA technologies are economically viable and thus worth pursuing on a wider scale and in a sustainable way. He particularly commended those farmers who volunteered to provide portions of their land as demonstration plots for CA technologies. âTheir efforts and dedication have now paid off,â he noted, adding that project end does not mean that CASFESA will leave precipitously: there are still monitoring and evaluation and other wind-up tasks before project exit.
The Deputy Director General of the Amhara Regional Agricultural Research Institute, Dr. Tilaye Teklewold, summed up the mood of the day when he said that CASFESAâs experience in Amhara Region has shown that conservation agriculture is an ideal way of increasing the productivity of maize in the region, and that âconcerted efforts are needed to raise the awareness and dedication of all actors involved in the region to implement these technologies and ensure lasting food security in the region and beyond.â
Links
Leading specialists on the sustainable intensification of agriculture tried to hammer out indicators for assessing âsustainability,â a development term that refers roughly to the health and longevity of a system, at a 13 February workshop in San Jose, California.
âSustainable intensification seeks to increase farm productivity while conserving social and ecological resources, said Rishi Basak, consultant for CIMMYTâs Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) who took part in the event, held during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting, 12-16 February.
Santiago LĂłpez Ridaura, CIMMYT GCAP Systems Agronomist, also attending the workshop, said âWe are all interested in understanding and quantifying the impact of our research for development activities on the sustainability of agriculture and rural livelihoods. This workshop brought donors and researchers from different disciplines to discuss a common framework, indicators and metrics to do so. I believe it is an important step forward towards a common goal.â
Measuring sustainability remains a challenge, as it involves complex biophysical, environmental and socioeconomic interactions. âThere are no widely-accepted indicators for the various dimensions of neither sustainable intensification, nor thresholds or benchmarks for those indicators,â Basak explained. âLacking unified metrics for comparisons across initiatives, specialists tend to focus on specific practicesâ for example, conservation agriculture or agroforestry â rather than overall outcomes of sustainable intensification.â
The framework developed at the AAAS workshop is intended to provide for standardized methods that can be adapted for large- and small-scale farms. It will facilitate cross-program learning and assessment based on a set of indicators that are widely monitored or can be easily integrated into existing programs, such as âfactor productivityâ and âresilience.â These indicators will be measured by returns to labor and land, and by the variance in gross margin, respectively.
âThinking about key indicators brought us back to basics: what are we trying to achieve when undertaking sustainable intensification projects and how do we know if we are successful?â Basak stated. âWhat data should we collect, how do we tell our success stories, and how can we compare results between projects?â
Workshop participants agreed to begin testing the indicators in the field, broaden consultation on the draft indicators and hire someone to provide intellectual leadership and coordination going forward.
âHaving a set of indicators to assess our progress towards desired goals is very important. These indicators should not only help us in assessing progress, but also capturing main synergies and tradeoffs involved in our interventions,â said Ridaura.
The workshop immediately preceded a special symposium entitled âBeyond Intensification: Measuring the âSustainableâ in Sustainable Intensificationâ on 13 February. The symposium was organized by Jerry Glover, Senior Sustainable Agricultural Systems Advisor, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and included the participation of Tracy K. Powell, USAID Agricultural Research Advisor based in Ethiopia; Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development, Imperial College, London; Sieglinde S. Snapp, cropping systems and soil management specialist, Michigan State University; Peter Thorne, crop-livestock systems scientist, International Livestock Research Institute; Cheryl A. Palm, Senior Research Scientist and Director of Research, Earth Institute, Columbia University; and Bruno Gerard, Director, CIMMYT Global Conservation Agriculture Program.