Global schemes to fight climate change may miss their mark by ignoring the fundamental connections in how food is produced, supplied and consumed, scientists say in a new paper published in the journal Nature Food.
Read more here:Â https://news.trust.org/item/20200218223909-imthg
Maize is more than a crop in Mexico. In many cases, it connects families with their past. Landraces are maize varieties that have been cultivated and subjected to selection by farmers for generations, retaining a distinct identity and lacking formal crop improvement. They provide the basis of Mexicoâs maize diversity.
Back in 1966-67, researcher Ăngel Kato from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) collected 93 maize landraces samples from 66 families in Mexicoâs state of Morelos. These seeds were safeguarded in CIMMYTâs Germplasm Bank, which today stores 28,000 samples of maize and its wild relatives from 88 countries.
50 years later, doctoral candidate Denisse McLean-Rodriguez, from the SantâAnna School of Advanced Studies in Italy, and researchers from CIMMYT started a new study to trace the conservation and abandonment of maize landraces over the years.
The study shows that landrace abandonment is common when farming passes from one generation to the next. Older farmers were attached to their landraces and continued cultivating them, even in the face of pressing reasons to change or replace them. When the younger generations take over farm management, these landraces are often abandoned. Nonetheless, young farmers still value the cultural importance of landraces.
Maize landraces can be conserved âin situâ in farmersâ fields and âex situâ in a protected space such as a germplasm bank or community seed bank. The loss of landraces in farmersâ fields over 50 years emphasizes the importance of ex situ conservation. Traits found in landraces can be incorporated into new varieties to address some of the worldâs most pressing agriculture challenges like changing climates, emerging pests and disease, and malnutrition.
This research was supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Maize (MAIZE), the SantâAnna School of Advanced Studies, Wageningen University and the Global Crop Diversity Trust.
Any fifth grader is familiar with the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, which saw dinosaurs â and three quarters of all species alive at that time â disappear from Earth, probably after it was struck by a very large asteroid. However, few people are aware the planet is currently going through a similar event of an equally large magnitude: a recent report from the World Wide Fund for Nature highlighted a 60% decline in the populations of over 4,000 vertebrate species monitored globally since 1970. This time, the culprit is not an asteroid, but human beings. The biggest threat we represent to other species is also the way we meet one of our most fundamental needs: food production.
As a response, scientists, particularly ecologists, have looked for strategies to minimize trade-offs between agriculture and biodiversity. One such strategy is âland sparing,â also known as the âBorlaug effect.â It seeks to segregate production and conservation and to maximize yield on areas as small as possible, sparing land for nature. Another strategy is âland sharingâ or âwildlife-friendly farming,â which seeks to integrate production and conservation in the same land units and make farming as benign as possible to biodiversity. It minimizes the use of external inputs and retains unfarmed patches on farmland.
A heated debate between proponents of land sparing and proponents of land sharing has taken place over the past 15 years. Most studies, however, have found land sparing to lead to better outcomes than land sharing, in a range of contexts. With collaborators from CIFOR, UBC and other organizations, I hypothesized that this belief was biased because researchers assessed farming through a narrow lens, only looking at calories or crop yield.
Many more people today suffer from hidden hunger, or lack of vitamins and minerals in their diets, than lack of calories. Several studies have found more diverse and nutritious diets consumed by people living in or near areas with greater tree cover as trees are a key component of biodiversity. However, most of these studies have not looked at mechanisms explaining this positive association.
Forests for food
Studying seven tropical landscapes in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Zambia, we found evidence that tree cover directly supports diets in four landscapes out of seven. This may be through the harvest of bushmeat, wild fruits, wild vegetables and other forest-sourced foods. The study further found evidence of an agroecological pathway â that forests and trees support diverse crop and livestock production through an array of ecosystem services, ultimately leading to improved diets â in five landscapes out of seven. These results clearly demonstrate that although land sparing may have the best outcomes for biodiversity, it would cut off rural households from forest products such as forest food, firewood and livestock feed. It would also cut off smallholder farms from ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, and smallholders in the tropics tend to depend more on ecosystem services than on external inputs.
In Ethiopia, previous research conducted by some of the same authors has demonstrated that multifunctional landscapes that do not qualify as land sparing nor as land sharing may host high biodiversity whilst being more productive than simpler landscapes. They are more sustainable and resilient, provide more diverse diets and produce cereals with higher nutritional content.
The debate on land sparing vs. sharing has largely remained confined to the circles of conservation ecologists and has seldom involved agricultural scientists. As a result, most studies on land sparing vs. sharing have focused on minimizing the negative impact of farming on biodiversity, instead of looking for the best compromises between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation.
To design landscapes that truly balance the needs of people and nature, it is urgent for agronomists, agricultural economists, rural sociologists and crop breeders to participate in the land sparing vs. sharing debate.
Read more:
Testing the Various Pathways Linking Forest Cover to Dietary Diversity in Tropical Landscapes
This study was made possible by funding from the UKâs Department for International Development (DFID), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the project Agrarian Change in Tropical Landscapes, and by the CGIAR Research Programs on MAIZE and WHEAT.
For many years, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) has been working to improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of smallholder agriculture in India through conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification practices. The Sustainable and Resilient Farming Systems Intensification (SRFSI) project began in 2014 in the state of West Bengal, with participatory research in eight farming cooperatives from the cities of Cooch Behar and Malda. Through the SRFSI project, CIMMYT has helped encourage women to participate in agricultural processes, adopt sustainable practices for various crops and utilize new technologies to improve their livelihoods.
Women farmers in West Bengal have demonstrated an interest in part-time agribusiness occupations. Some of them are coming together to form farmer groups and cooperatives that make a profit.
Mooni Bibi and other women from her community founded the Mukta Self Help Group. This organization of female farmers, supported by CIMMYT through the SRFSI project, helped turned rice cultivation into a business opportunity that helps other women. As a result of these efforts, these women now enjoy more financial freedom, can afford healthier food, are able to provide a better education for their children and benefit from an improved social standing within the community.
The Satmile Satish Club O Pathagar (SSCOP), a CIMMYT partner, has been vital in this process. SSCOP is now a resource for technical support and a training hub for conservation agriculture. It is now focused on introducing conservation agriculture practices to more areas, beginning with Sitai, a new neighborhood in Cooch Behar. This area is rich in proactive female farmers, but its agricultural sector is not fully modernized yet.
A group of women in Sitai founded Grambikash Farmers Producer Company, another farming cooperative that aims to increase crop yields and promote sustainability. The company challenges social norms and helps women become more financially and socially independent. This group of entrepreneurs is committed to apply conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification technology on 30 acres of land, beginning in 2020, with continuous support from SSCOP.
Through its work helping farmers in Cooch Behar, SSCOP is now a center of excellence for rural entrepreneurship as well as an advocate for conservation agriculture in West Bengal. They provide technical support and serve as a training hub for conservation agriculture and various associated sectors. Much of the training done by SSCOP is now self-funded.
Since 2014, CIMMYT has been collaborating with SSCOP to reach out to more than 70,000 farmers in Cooch Behar, spreading the benefits of conservation agriculture and sustainable intensification beyond the lifespan of the SRFSI project.
Rezatec, a leading provider of geospatial data analytics, has launched a free smartphone app which acts as a portal for farmers to record their agricultural activities and provides recommendations for optimal sowing and irrigation scheduling. Based on preliminary results from the experimental stations, the app has demonstrated the potential to increase wheat yields by up to 12%.
âYaqui Valley farmers are very experienced farmers; however, they can also benefit by using an app that is designed locally to inform and record their decisions,â explains Francelino Rodrigues, Precision Agriculture Scientist at CIMMYT. âSowing and irrigation timing are well known drivers of yield potential in that region â these are two features of the app weâre about to validate during this next season.â
Read more here:Â https://www.realwire.com/releases/New-mobile-app-helping-Latin-American-farmers-increase-crop-yields-by-12
Plant breeding, genetics, math and software development are all stereotypically male fields. For too long, women have been excluded from these fields for social, religious, cultural and âOh, itâs a boysâ club, I donât feel welcomeâ reasons, thus depriving scientific progress of great female minds and ideas.
In light of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we stopped to ask four scientists and leaders at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) why they chose science. Here are some inspiring highlights.
What made you want to become a scientist?
Margaret Bath, Member of the CIMMYT Board of Trustees: âI love food and I love science and math, so I had the opportunity to combine [âŠ] three things that I love very much and make a great career out of it. Iâm a firm believer in math and science as an enabler for solving complex problems that face our society today.â
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8SFzWyg86c/
Cynthia Ortiz, researcher in CIMMYTâs Genetic Resources Program: âI remember one time when I was watching fireflies. My grandfather approached me and asked me if I understood why they shine and I said âno.â I remember well what he said to me: âThe world is much more than what we see, hear and feel.â In that moment, I knew that I wanted to understand more about the things that surround us.â
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8T52Y7nt_r/
Whatâs the best thing about being a scientist?
Aparna Das, Technical Program Manager in the Global Maize Program, CIMMYT: âThe whole idea where I use information, knowledge and technology to generate biological products was very exciting for me. The biggest learning I have had in the 25 years of my career as a plant-breeding scientist […] has been how I can use the vast information, combine it with the present day technological advances and deliver something for the future, which can address the global food crisis problem, which is looming […] in the near future.â
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8Zeau5neHq/
Philomin Juliana, wheat scientist in CIMMYTâs Global Wheat Program: âHow you can use scientific research to answer lots of different questions and how you can solve [âŠ] different problems using math, data analysis. All these are key questions that affect humankind today and how we can design future systems based on our current understanding of systems and also how all these together can help us make a difference in the lives of farmers and the poor.â
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Are you passionate about science and want more women to get involved? join CIMMYTâs #WhyIChoseScience campaign. Take out your phone, click ârecordâ and share what made you want to become a scientist!
A second âGreen Revolutionâ is needed to increase global wheat production by sixty per cent by 2050 when the world population is predicted to be 9.3 billion, global wheat research organisation, âWheat Initiativeâ said in a report.
Read more here:Â https://www.dawn.com/news/1533297/another-green-revolution-needed-for-wheat-says-report
The Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) has warned wheat growing farmers in Pakistan to keep a close eye on the spread of yellow rust disease which might evolve in new forms.
Read more here:Â https://www.dawn.com/news/1532759/growers-issued-yellow-rust-warning
Mechanization is a process of introducing technology or farm equipment to increase field efficiency. CIMMYTâs mechanization work is context-specific, to help farmers have access to the appropriate tools that are new, smart and ideal for their unique farming conditions. Â
Jelle Van Loon, CIMMYT mechanization specialist, explains how his team prototypes innovations that allow precision farming and supports different actors in the value chain from importers to policy-makers to create broader availability of farm equipment. Â
Pakistanâs maize sector achieved a remarkable milestone in 2019 by releasing ten new maize varieties developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) for commercial cultivation. The new varieties were released by two public sector research institutes.
The Maize and Millets Research Institute (MMRI) in Yousafwala, one of the leading and the oldest maize research institutes in Pakistan, released four open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) sourced from CIMMYT. The varieties, named Gohar-19, CIMMYT-PAK, Sahiwal Gold, and Pop-1 are the newest additions to Pakistanâs maize variety list. All the varieties are short-duration, which means they can be harvested quickly to rotate land for the next crop. They can also be grown in the main and off season, which makes them suitable for many different cropping systems.
The Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) in Quetta received approval for six of CIMMYTâs white kernel OPVs from the Provincial Seed Council (PSC), a government body responsible for variety registration in Balochistan. The varieties are named MERAJ-2019, MAHZAIB-2019, NOOR-2019, PAGHUNDA-2019, SILVER-2019, and SAR-SUBZ-2019. They are early-maturing with high yielding potential & drought tolerance. Drought stress is a major challenge for farmers in the Balochistan province, which covers 45% of Pakistanâs territory.
Muhammad Arshad, Director of MMRI, acknowledged CIMMYTâs efforts to deploy the wide range of maize germplasm in the country. Arshad added that the Institute is working with partners to widely distribute these seeds to smallholder farmers at a reasonable price. âWe are able to harvest maize yields from these early maturing varieties by applying 4-6 irrigations, unlike other varieties that require a minimum of ten irrigations per crop cycle,â said Syed Asmatullah Taran, Director of Cereal Crops at the Agricultural Research Institute in Quetta, Balochistan. âThese are the first ever released maize varieties in our province,â he added, applauding CIMMYT for this milestone.
Muhammad Imtiaz, CIMMYT’s Country Representative for Pakistan and leader of the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP), appreciated MMRI and ARI for their dedication and impactful efforts to strengthen the local maize seed system. Imtiaz explained that these new varieties will help cash-strapped smallholder farmers improve their livelihoods.
Through the AIP project, CIMMYT and its partners are helping new seeds reach farmers. âWe expect to see more releases in 2020, as many varieties are in the pipeline,” said CIMMYTâs Seed Systems Specialist for South Asia, AbduRahman Beshir. “What is important is to scale up the seed production and distribution of these varieties so that farmers can get their share from the interventions. Water-efficient maize varieties will not only contribute to climate change adaptation strategy, but will also support the livelihood of marginal farmers.â Beshir also emphasized the importance of private sector engagement for seed delivery.
Maize is Pakistanâs third most important cereal following wheat and rice, encompassing an area of 1.3 million hectares. Maize productivity is also among the highest in South Asia, with national yields reaching almost 5 tons per hectare.
Despite its growing demand, maize production in Pakistan faces various challenges such as a lack of diverse genotypes suitable for various uses and ecologies, a weak seed delivery system unable to reach marginal farmers, high retail price of seeds and unpredictable weather conditions due to climate changes. Â
To enhance the availability, accessibility and affordability of quality maize seeds, the Agricultural Innovation Program (AIP) for Pakistan, led by CIMMYT and funded by USAID, is working with partners to benefit smallholder farmers across the country. The project focuses on the development and deployment of market-ready maize products sourced from different breeding hubs and systematically testing their adaptation in order to accelerate seed and varietal replacement in Pakistan. In the last six years, AIPâs public and private partners were able to access over 60 finished maize products and more than 150 parental lines from CIMMYT and IITA for further testing, variety registration, demonstration and seed scale up.
Researchers from the Department of Energyâs Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, United States, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Texcoco, Mexico, describe why it is important for technical assistance to build upon indigenous farming knowledge and include women if programs are to succeed in tackling poverty and hunger in rural, Mesoamerican communities. Their findings, describing recent work in the Guatemalan Highlands, are recently published in Nature Sustainability.
According to government figures, 59% of Guatemalans live in poverty, concentrated in indigenous rural areas, such as the Western Highlands. Many factors contribute to pervasive malnutrition and a lack of employment opportunities for people in the Highlands. Recent crop failures associated with atypical weather events have exacerbated food shortages for Highland farm communities.
In early 2019, 90% of recent migrants to the southern border of the United States were from Guatemala, a majority of those from regions such as the Western Highlands. When they are unable to produce or purchase enough food to feed their families, people seek opportunities elsewhere. Historically, sugar cane and coffee industries offered employment but as prices for these commodities fall, fewer options for work are available within the region.
Indigenous peoples in the Highlands have been using a traditional agricultural production system called milpa for thousands of years. The milpa system involves growing maize together with climbing beans, squash, and other crops on a small plot of land. The maize plants support the growth of the climbing beans; the beans enrich soil through biological nitrogen fixation; and squash and other crops protect the soil from erosion, retain water, and prevent weeds.
However, frequent crop failures, declining farm sizes, and other factors result in low household production, forcing families to turn to non-agricultural sources of income or assistance from a family member working abroad. Studies have shown that as household income declines, dietary diversity decreases, which exacerbates undernutrition.
In prior decades, technical assistance for agriculture in Central America focused on larger farms and non-traditional export crops. The researchers recommend inclusion of indigenous communities to enhance milpa systems. Nutrition and employment options can be improved by increasing crop diversity and adopting improved seed varieties that are adapted to the needs of the local communities. This approach requires investments that recognize and advance ancestral knowledge and the role of indigenous women in milpa systems. The Nature Sustainability commentary highlights that technical assistance needs to include women and youth and should increase resilience in production systems to climate change, related weather events, pests, and disease.
âImproving linkages among local farmers, extensionists, students, and researchers is critical to identify and implement opportunities that result in more sustainable agricultural landscapes,â said Keith Kline, senior researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. âFor example, improved bean varieties have been developed that provide high-yields and disease resistance, but if they grow too aggressively, they choke out other milpa crops. And successful adoption of improved varieties also depends on whether flavor and texture meet local preferences.â
Strengthening institutions to improve agricultural development, health care, security, education can help create stronger livelihoods and provide the Western Highlands community with a foundation for healthier families and economic stability. As more reliable options become available to feed oneâs family, fewer Guatemalans will feel pressured to leave home.
PUBLICATION:
âEnhance indigenous agricultural systems to reduce migrationâ
INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES:
Santiago Lopez-Ridaura, Senior Scientist, CIMMYT
FOR MORE INFORMATION, OR TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS, CONTACT THE MEDIA TEAM:
Rodrigo Ordóñez, Communications Manager, CIMMYT.
r.ordonez@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1167.
Ricardo Curiel, Communications Officer, CIMMYT.
r.curiel@cgiar.org, +52 (55) 5804 2004 ext. 1144.
ABOUT CIMMYT:
The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is the global leader in publicly-funded maize and wheat research and related farming systems. Headquartered near Mexico City, CIMMYT works with hundreds of partners throughout the developing world to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat cropping systems, thus improving global food security and reducing poverty. CIMMYT is a member of the CGIAR System and leads the CGIAR Research Programs on Maize and Wheat and the Excellence in Breeding Platform. The Center receives support from national governments, foundations, development banks and other public and private agencies. For more information, visit staging.cimmyt.org.
B.M Prasanna, Director of CIMMYT’s Global Maize Program and the CGIAR Research Program on Maize, says agriculture scientists have set their focus on making cultivation a profitable venture.
New research by an international team of scientists, including International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) agricultural systems and climate change scientist Tek Sapkota, has identified the optimum rates of nitrogen fertilizer application for rice and wheat crops in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India.
By measuring crop yield and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes over two years, Sapkota and his colleagues reported that the optimum rate of N fertilizer for rice is between 120 and 200 kg per hectare, and between 50 and 185 kg per hectare for wheat. The results of the study have the potential to save farmerâs money and minimize dangerous greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining crop productivity.
Nitrous oxide, one of the most important greenhouse gases in the earthâs atmosphere, is responsible for ozone depletion and global climate change, and has a global warming potential 265 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Research has shown that agricultural soils account for around 60% of global nitrous oxide emissions. These emissions are directly related to the application of nitrogen fertilizers to croplands. While these fertilizers help crop yields, studies show that only about one third of the applied nitrogen is actually used by crops. The rest is released as nitrous oxide or seeps into waterways, causing harmful algal blooms.
In India, the total consumption of nitrogen fertilizer is about 17 million tons â expected to rise to 24 million tons by 2030 to feed a growing population. Nitrous oxide emissions will rise along with it if farmers do not minimize their fertilizer use and manage application more efficiently. Whatâs more, farmers receive a higher subsidy for nitrogen fertilizer â a policy that leads farmers to apply more fertilizer than the recommended dose.
Measured methods
The study, led by Sapkota, estimated the rate of nitrogen fertilizer application with the most economically optimum yield and minimum environmental footprint. Applying more fertilizer than this would be a waste of farmerâs money and cause unnecessary harm to the environment.
Researchers measured crop yield and nitrous oxide fluxes for two wheat seasons and one rice season from 2014 to 2016. Â The scientists found that nitrogen fertilization rate clearly influenced daily and cumulative soil nitrous oxide emissions in wheat and rice for both years. Nitrous oxide emissions were higher in both wheat and rice in the nitrogen-fertilized plots than in the control plots.
Using statistical methods, the researchers were able to measure the relationship between crop productivity, nitrogen rate and emissions intensity, in both rice and wheat. This gave them the optimum rate of nitrogen fertilizer application.
This work was carried out by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and implemented as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), with support from the CGIAR Trust Fund and through bilateral funding agreements.
Read the full study:
Identifying optimum rates of fertilizer nitrogen application to maximize economic return and minimize nitrous oxide emission from riceâwheat systems in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of India
See more recent publications by CIMMYT researchers:Â
Members of the Enterprise Breeding System (EBS) advisory committee met on January 17-18, 2019, to review progress on the development of a full-spectrum breeding data management software.
CGIAR plant breeders currently rely on a suite of different software projects to make use of the data that is crucial to developing better varieties. Developed under the CGIAR Excellence in Breeding Platform (EiB), the EBS aims to provide a single solution that links data across new and existing applications so that the entire breeding data workflow â from experiment creation to analytics â can be accessed from a single user-friendly dashboard.
Development of the system is well underway, with the goal of providing a “minimum viable implementation” to pilot users at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in 2020. More advanced functions, institutions and crops will be added to the EBS over the next three years.
Working between breeders and developers to ensure needs are translated into software functions, the EBS team has trained CIMMYT staff and consultants as requirements analysts, five of whom presented to members of the EBS advisory committee the meeting on progress in the five “domains” of breeding software functions.
Sharing bits and bytes
Rosemary Shresthra introduced experiment creation, where users can quickly select the type of experiment they wish to run and automatically set up all the steps needed to complete it in the EBS.
Kate Dreher took the attendees through field implementation, where it is possible to map fields in the system and connect them to a range of plot data collection tools developed by external projects.
Ricardo LeĂłn outlined the germplasm management component of the system, where the seed inventory is kept, and new entries made after trials are harvested to go on to the next stage.
Pedro Medeiros explained how an analytics request manager will allow EBS users to push their data to different analytics tools that support decision-making and, ultimately, their ability to deliver better varieties that meet farmers’ needs.
Finally, Star Gao, a breeding informatics specialist for the Genomic and Open-Source Breeding Informatics Initiative (GOBii), showed how users will be able to request phytosanitary, genotypic and quality analysis of samples from their trials through the EBS system. The system will provide an overview of the status of all samples submitted for analysis with different service providers, in addition to the ability to connect with various databases.
“We can do all this because all information in the EBS is treated the same way, from experiment creation through implementation,” said EBS coordinator Tom Hagen in summary.
The EBS advisory group, which includes user representatives from CIMMYT and IRRI breeding teams alongside EiB staff, ended the day by discussing and prioritizing new functions that could be added to the EBS over the next three years.
A new small-scale agricultural machinery leasing scheme became operational in Amhara region, Ethiopia, in December 2019. The initiative offers farmers and group of farmers the opportunity to buy agricultural machineries with only 15-20% advance payment and the rest to be paid during a three-year period. Three farmers participated in the pilot phase of the project.
This initiative, led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and the German Development Agency (GIZ), is one more step to expand small-scale agricultural mechanization in Ethiopia. CIMMYT and GIZ have explored this area of work since 2015, in collaboration with government and private partners.
Subsistence modes of production, shortage of quality agricultural inputs and farm machinery services are some of the impediments to expand agricultural productivity and enhance food security in Ethiopia.
Small-scale agricultural mechanization, in the Ethiopian context, improves the quality of field operations. For example, farmers are benefiting from row planting, optimal plant population, more precise seed and fertilizer placement, efficient utilization of soil moisture during planting window. The timing of operations is also very important â delays in planting could have a serious negative impact on yield, and harvesting and threshing must be done at a time when there is no labor shortages. Small-scale mechanization drastically saves time and labor compared to conventional crop establishment systems, and reduces yield loss at the time of harvesting and threshing.
Despite these advantages, the adoption rate has been too low. A survey conducted by IFPRI and Ethiopiaâs Central Statistical Agency in 2015 shows that only 9% of farmers in Ethiopia use machine power to plough their land, harvest their output, or thresh their crops. A significant number of farmers continues to use conventional farming systems, using animal and human labor.
Ephrem Tadesse, small-scale mechanization project agribusiness specialist with CIMMYT, said that most of the land holdings in Ethiopia are small and fragmented, and thus not suitable for large agricultural machineries.
CIMMYT and its partners introduced the two-wheel tractor and tested it in different parts of the country. One of the challenges has been the issue of access to finance to buy tractors and their accessories, because of their relatively high costs for individual farmers to buy with their own cash, noted Ephrem.
CIMMYT and GIZ have been working with selected microfinance institutes to pilot a machinery leasing scheme for small-scale agricultural mechanization. For several years, they have partnered with Waliya Capital Goods Finance Business Share in the Amhara region and with Oromia Capital Goods Lease Finance Business Share Company in the Oromia region. In December 2019, three farmers in the Machakel district of the Amhara region were the first ones to receive their machines through this scheme.
Tesfaw Workneh is the father of one of the beneficiaries. âThis is great opportunity for farmers like my son to access small-scale agricultural machinery,â said Tesfaw. His son only paid 30,000 Ethiopian birr, about $1,000 â that is 20% of the total cost to own the different agricultural implements. Now, he is able to provide service to other farmers and get income, he explained.
Several types of machinery are being considered for this leasing scheme, using the two wheel-tractor as the source of power: planters, harvesters/reapers, threshers/shellers, trailers and water pumps.
For farmers like Alemayew Ewnetu, this kind of machinery is a novelty that makes farming easier. âToday, my eyes have seen miracles. This is my first time seeing such machineries doing everything in a few minutes. We have always relayed on ourselves and the animals. Now I am considering selling some of my animals to buy the implements,â said Alemayew.
Demelsah Ynew, Deputy Director of Waliya Capital Goods Finance Business Share, noted that his company was established six years ago to provide services in the manufacturing sector. However, after a discussion with CIMMYT and GIZ, the company agreed to extend its services to the agriculture sector. When revising our role, he noted, we considered the limitations farmers have in adopting technologies and the vast opportunity presented in the agricultural sector. Demelsah explained that to benefit from the leasing scheme, farmers will have to fulfill a few minimal criteria, including being residents of the area and saving 15-20% of the total cost.