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Giving power to African farmers: learning from the Indian experience

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Bhopal-096From 29 April to 10 May, 16 agricultural engineers, agronomists, machinery importers, and machinery manufacturers from Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe took part in a study tour in India organized by CIMMYT, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and the Australian International Food Security Centre (AIFSC). The tour was organized as part of the “Farm Mechanization and Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification” (FACASI) project to identify opportunities for exchange of technologies and expertise between India and Africa and strengthen South-South collaborations in the area of farm mechanization. The project is funded by AIFSC and managed by ACIAR.

India is the world’s largest producer of pulses, and the second largest producer of wheat, rice, potatoes, and groundnuts. But would India’s agricultural performance be that high if the number of tractors in the country was divided by six and the number of draught animals by three? Such a reduction in farm power would bring Indian agriculture close to the current situation of Kenya and Tanzania. In India, most agricultural operations are mechanized, including planting, harvesting, threshing, shelling, and transportation to the market; in Africa, these are generally accomplished manually. Bringing African agriculture closer to the situation in India is the goal of the FACASI project. This tour was designed as the first step in the construction of an enduring trilateral partnership between Africa, India, and Australia, consolidated by CIMMYT, to facilitate exchange of research and development results in the area of farm mechanization.

During his opening speech, S. Ayyapan, ICAR director general, stressed the importance of farm mechanization for agricultural intensification, pointed at the commonalities between the circumstances of Indian and African smallholders, and invited the group to develop concrete country-specific proposals regarding possible partnerships with India. The participants then spent five days at the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering (CIAE) in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh state, where they were exposed to various low-cost gender-friendly technologies for post-harvest operations and weeding; sowing, fertilizing, spraying, and harvesting technologies adapted to animal traction; two-wheel and four-wheel tractors; as well as conservation agriculture based technologies. Through calibration exercises and other field activities, participants gained hands-on experience with these machines. The group also visited the Central Farm Machinery Training and Testing Institute in Budni.

The second part of the study tour took place in the states of Punjab and Haryana, where the group interacted with scientists from the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and the Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA), and was exposed to various Indian innovations including laser land levelers operated by two-wheel tractors, relay direct seeders, multi-crop planters, crop threshers, and rotary weeders. They also participated in a discussion session organized by a farmer cooperative society at Noorpur-Bet focusing on institutional innovations encouraging farmer access to mechanization, and interacted intensively with Indian agribusinesses such as National Agro-Industry, Dashmesh Mechanical Engineering, Amar Agro Industries, and All India Machinery Manufacturers Association.

The study tour was concluded by a visit of the Central Soil and Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI) in Karnal to observe the role of conservation agriculture in reclaiming degraded land, and a visit to the Indian Wheat Research Centre in Karnal.

The lessons learnt in India will be put in practice in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe through the FACASI project. The study tour has generated several ideas for the development of new machines by African engineers and created contacts between Indian manufacturers and African machinery importers which may materialize into business opportunities.

SIMLESA progressing and gearing up for Phase II

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IMG_0883Over 200 researchers, policy makers, donors, seed companies, and NGO representatives from Africa and Australia gathered in Chimoio, Mozambique, during 17-23 March 2013 for the third SIMLESA (Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa) annual regional planning and review meeting to discuss the project’s progress and achievements, share lessons learned throughout the last three years, and deliberate over better ways to design and implement future activities in the SIMLESA target (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique) and spillover countries (Botswana, Uganda, South Sudan, and Zambia).

“SIMLESA had attained a ‘steady flight path’ and is on track to deliver significant impacts,” noted Derek Byerlee, Program Steering Committee (PSC) co-chair, and the Mid-Term Review (MTR) conducted last year supports his words: “The MTR Team has reviewed progress by objectives and the overall execution of the Program, and finds that in general it has made very good progress in its first two years.” Bekele Shiferaw, Program Management Committee chair, then highlighted MTR’s recommendations, including the following: SIMLESA should take concrete steps to overcome current socio-economic research capacity constraints in national agricultural research systems and in the areas of value chains, informal analyses, business management, participatory agronomy, and breeding research; focus on ‘smart’ sequences for testing conservation agriculture technologies with farmers resulting in step-wise adoption; and create representative and effective innovation platforms with clear roles, structures, and functions.

As SIMLESA Phase I is ending next year, participants brainstormed on key issues anticipated in Phase II, concluding that the overall approach should be holistic, flexible in dealing with complex systems, and should aim to devise effective ways to target different group of farmers, as one size does not fit all. Furthermore, it was noted that Phase II should focus on changing the mindset of farmers. “There are so many different technologies bombarding farmers. The real work therefore lies in dealing with the psychological, social, cultural, and environmental factors of the farmer that will determine the adoption of introduced technologies,” noted one of the participating groups during the plenary session. Following the discussion on Phase II, Byerlee shared PSC’s vision: apply a broader approach to system intensification (conservation agriculture elements, soil fertility, pest management, and diversification); be more country specific; create empowering, location-specific, and sustainable innovation platforms; and pay more attention to institutions and policies vis-à-vis technology.

In the words of Inacio Maposse, Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM) director general and PSC member, Phase II is not necessary only because Phase I is ending but also “because we want to add another dimension to the program, and perhaps a different philosophy, one that will lead us to success. And for me, success means to get farmers smile sustainably. Smile because they are better off. For this to happen, we have to design Phase II with heart and wisdom. We need Phase II because we are yet to produce significant adoption and impact on the farming communities.” John Dixon (senior advisor for cropping systems and economics and principal regional coordinator for Africa and South Asia, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research) added another reason for why to continue with SIMLESA: “Where resources are limited, sustainable intensification is the only option to feed the extra two billion people by 2050.”

Mellissa Wood, Australian International Food Security Centre (AIFSC) director, then explained some of the reasons behind the close cooperation between Australia and Africa: “Australia and Africa share many common agricultural challenges, including limiting soils, highly variable climates, pests, and diseases.” Consequently, AIFSC aims to accelerate adoption; bridge the gap between research and development; find new ways to support African agricultural growth through adoption, policy, scale-out, improved market access, diversification, and nutrition.

In her closing remarks, Marianne BĂ€nziger (CIMMYT deputy director general for research and partnerships) called on the Phase II planners to design holistic packages that entail success and ensure SIMLESA provides farmers in the five target countries with diverse opportunities for improving their livelihoods. “Farmers should be able to get incomes not only from maize and legumes but also from other farm enterprises. You should come up with possible and realistic interventions in realistic time frames,” BĂ€nziger concluded.

Throughout the meeting, implementing partners, researchers, and seed companies showcased their achievements and products at the ‘SIMLESA poster village.’ Participants learned about farmers’ perspectives and practices through field visits to Sussudenga maize breeding and exploratory trial sites, participatory variety trials in Vanduzi and Polytechnic Institute of Manica, and conservation agriculture and innovation platforms scaling out sites in Makate.

ZimCLIFS integrates crop and livestock production research in Zimbabwe

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DSCN4727 In 2012, three CG centers—the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), CIMMYT, and International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT)—launched a joint project called Integrating Crops and Livestock for Improved Food Security and Livelihoods in Zimbabwe (ZimCLIFS). The goal of the project is to develop ways to increase agricultural production, improve household food security, alleviate poverty, and thereby reduce food-aid dependency in rural Zimbabwe through better integration of crop and livestock production and market participation. The inception workshop, held 17–19 October 2012, was attended by international project managers and local stakeholders, including research, extension, private-sector, and NGO personnel, and farmers, totaling 41 participants.

The project objectives are as follows:

  • Increase productivity of smallholder crop and livestock farming systems in four districts in two contrasting agro-ecological regions of Zimbabwe by identifying and adapting appropriate technologies and management practices.
  • Improve farmers’ access to resources, technologies, information, and markets by characterizing and strengthening value chains for crops (maize, sorghum, and legumes) and livestock (goats and cattle).
  • Increase the knowledge and skills of research, extension, and agribusiness staff, enabling the first two groups to design and implement integrated farming systems and value chain research, and the latter to apply knowledge generated by the project elsewhere in Zimbabwe.

Since its launch, the project has established field trials on 102 farm sites at a time when the cropping season had already started in the high-potential subhumid Murehwa and Goromonzi districts of Mashonaland East Province, where CIMMYT leads the agronomic activities including conservation agriculture as well as socio-economic components of the project. To support work on these trials, project partners including extension and NGO personnel convened on 16 January 2013 for a data collection training workshop facilitated by staff from ILRI and CIMMYT. The workshop sought to orient partners to the project’s objectives, activities, and operational framework; create awareness of the different types of agronomic experiments implemented in the 2012–13 season; train participants on data collection tools and expectations for the different types of agronomic experiments; and review trial implementation progress. Presentations covered topics such as ethics in agricultural research and the various ZimCLIFS activities and their data collection needs. “We thank the ZimCLIFS team for organizing this meeting, as it has helped to clarify our roles in this project and the direction it is taking,” remarked an extension officer from the Murehwa District in her closing remarks.

On 25 and 26 January 2013, two representatives of the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research, project manager John Dixon and consultant George Mburathi, visited ZimCLIFS staff at the CIMMYT office in Harare and project sites in Goromonzi to see how far the project had progressed. They witnessed conservation agriculture trials in which maize is grown along with livestock-palatable and unpalatable legume species, with the palatable species used to feed livestock and the unpalatable species used to generate biomass for soil cover in the subsequent season, given that livestock graze communally in the area. For example, mucuna (Mucuna pruriens) would be used to feed livestock, while residues from fish-poison-bean (Tephrosia vogelii) or dry sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) would be used to provide soil cover in the subsequent season as a new approach to managing residue cover provision in crop-livestock environments. They also visited a site where maize (Zea mays), soybean (Glycine max), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), and mucuna rotation and intercropping were being tested with a view to intensifying maize-legume production. Other agronomic trials established by the project address the issues of residue types and residue rates in conservation agriculture systems where livestock competition exists. The visitors also witnessed cowpea screening and forage production trials that seek to demonstrate hay and silage making from legume sources such as cowpea and hyacinth bean (Dolichos lablab). Dixon also visited a local abattoir and a goat market as part of appreciating the value chain in livestock production.

Within its first season, ZimCLIFS has established trials in high- and low-potential sites with 303 farmers, about 63% of the targeted 480 households, an impressive start according to Dixon. The project runs until July 2015. Dry season activities will focus on livestock feeding, value chain studies, and establishment of innovation platforms as vehicles for dissemination and increased productivity.

Farm mechanization & conservation agriculture for sustainable intensification project launched

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If asked “What is the most limiting factor to cereal production in sub-Saharan Africa,” most agronomists would say water, nitrogen, or phosphorus. Could farm power also have a place in this list? From 25 to 30 March 2013, a multidisciplinary group of 40 agronomists, agricultural engineers, economists, anthropologists, and private sector representatives from Kenya, Tanzania, Australia, India, and other countries attended a meeting in Arusha, Tanzania, to officially launch the ‘Farm Mechanization & Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Intensification’ project, supported by the Australian International Food Security Centre (AIFSC) and managed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The meeting focused largely on planning for activities that will take place in Kenya and Tanzania, but the project will eventually explore opportunities to accelerate the delivery and adoption of two-wheel tractors (2WTs) based conservation agriculture (CA) and other 2WT-based technologies (transport, shelling, threshing) by smallholders in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. This project will be implemented over the next four years by CIMMYT and its partners.

Why do these issues matter? In many countries, the number of tractors has declined in the past decades (as a result of structural adjustment plans, for example), and so did the number of draught animals in many parts of the continent (due to biomass shortage, droughts, diseases, etc.). As a result, African agriculture increasingly relies on human muscle power. This problem is compounded by labor shortages arising from an ageing population, rural-urban migration, and HIV/ AIDS. Even in areas where rural population is increasing faster than the cultivated area, labor may be in short supply during critical field operations due to competition with more rewarding sectors, such as construction and mining. One consequence of low farm mechanization is high labor drudgery, which disproportionately affects women, as they play a predominant role in weeding, threshing, shelling, and transport by head-loading, and which makes farming unattractive to the youth. Sustainable intensification in sub-Saharan Africa appears unlikely if the issue of inadequate and declining farm power is not addressed. Power supply could be increased through appropriate and equitable mechanization, while power demand could be reduced through power saving technologies such as CA. Synergies can be exploited between these two avenues: for example, the elimination of soil inversion in CA systems reduces power requirements —typically by a factor of two— making the use of lower powered and more affordable tractors such as 2WTs a viable option. 2WTs are already present in Eastern and Southern Africa, albeit in low numbers and seldom used for CA in most countries. Several CA planters adapted for 2WTs have also been developed recently and are now commercially available. These are both manufactured outside (e.g. China, Brazil) and in the region (e.g. in Kenya and Tanzania).

The first set of the project’s activities will aim at identifying likely farmer demand by defining main sources of unmet power demand and labor drudgery. This will help determine the choice of technologies – from the 2WT-based technologies available for CA (seed drilling, strip tillage, ripping, etc.) and non-CA operations (transport, threshing, shelling) – to evaluate on-station and on farm, with participation of farmers and other stakeholders involved in technology transfer. The second set of activities will aim at identifying and testing site-specific unsubsidized business models – utilizing private sector service providers to support market systems – that will enable efficient and equitable delivery of the most promising 2WT-based technologies to a large number of smallholders; technologies affordable to the resource-poor and women-headed households. The project will also examine the institutional and policy constraints and opportunities that may affect the adoption of 2WT-based technologies in the four countries. Finally, it will create awareness on 2WT-based technologies in the sub-region and share knowledge and information with other regions, thanks to the establishment of a permanent knowledge platform hosted by the African Conservation Tillage network.

Far in the South and seeking food security: East Timor farmers adopt improved maize seed

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CIMMYT photo
Buddhi Kunwar, Informal Seed Production Advisor, Seeds of Life Program, MAF-East Timor (third from right wearing a hat and with sunglasses hanging from shirt) with members of Community Seed Production Group at ‘Sele’ maize harvest ceremony.”

Through five years of on-farm trials supported by the governments of East Timor and Australia using locally-suited crop varieties provided by five centers of the CGIAR-Consortium, small-scale farmers in East Timor learned about and acquired seed of improved varieties of maize and other key food crops, as well as improved cropping practices. The hungry season for the major staple, maize, was significantly reduced among the adopters and, with more recent support from the “Seed of Life” project and East Timor’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, farming communities are producing improved maize seed to satisfy local demand.

A mountainous nation at the very end of the 4,200 kilometer-long Indonesian Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, East Timor has poor soils and limited irrigation that barely support farming of its staple crops, maize and rice. It has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but 80% of East Timor’s working population practices agriculture. The struggles leading up to the country’s independence in 1999 left widespread food insecurity. Rural inhabitants—particularly in the uplands—suffer a several-month-long hungry season, when annual stocks of the staples and of root crops (cassava, sweet potato, taro, arrowroot) run out.

Launched in 2000 with support from the governments of Australia and East Timor, the Seeds of Life initiative organized more than 3,000 on-farm demonstrations in the initial 5 years of the project to raise awareness among farmers about improved varieties and cropping practices for maize, rice, groundnut, sweet potato, and cassava. Through more than 1,000 on-farm trials during 2006-10, East Timor’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) found that an improved open-pollinated maize variety “Sele,” derived from CIMMYT breeding programs, yielded nearly 50% more grain on average than traditional varieties. During 2008-11, nearly 28,000 households obtained seed of Sele and by 2010 more than 70% of those families (up from only 58% in 2006-07) were harvesting enough maize grain for their entire year’s food needs. Overall, Seeds of Life’s efforts to identify, multiply, and distribute seed of higher-yielding, more nutritional varieties of the food crops farmers grow have measurably improved the food security and general welfare of participating households.

“A major bottleneck for maize has been the shortage of quality seed of improved varieties,” says Buddhi Kunwar, Informal Seed Production Advisor of MAF who has been working in Seeds of Life. “Despite intensive efforts, the supply of MAF-released Sele seed was only 32 tons in 2011 and 89 tons in 2012, far below the nation’s total maize seed requirement. To address this, we have included community-based seed production as a key part of the Seeds of Life’s most recent phase, which began in 2011 and runs through 2016.”

In community-based seed production, organized groups of farmers operating close to their homes produce, store, and market maize seed, initially with training and other backstopping from MAF or non-government organizations (see the list below). Each group eventually operates on its own, once members gain experience in producing quality seed and marketing or distributing it within the group and their community.

During 2011, more than 700 community-based seed production groups were facilitated by MAF and non-government organizations. Of these, 320 were growing Sele, using 5 kilograms of certified seed they received to sow a 2,000 m2 seed plot. That year 289 groups produced a total of 46 tons of seed, which was stored in airtight steel drums and used to meet the seed requirements of group members and, with the seed left over, for barter or sale.

One problem encountered was grazing animals: these consumed the entire maize seed crops of 31 groups. “During the 2012-13 maize cropping season, MAF and NGO extension officers have selected seed plots that are well protected by fencing in most locations,” says Kunwar, “and a few communities have introduced ‘tara bandu’–a traditional social rule to restrain animals–to protect seed plots.”

In 2012-13 Seeds of Life operates in 11 of East Timor’s 13 districts, including 45 sub-districts and 135 villages. There are 680 community-based seed producer groups supported by MAF extension and another 400 groups supported by non-government organizations. According to Kunwar, Phase 3 of Seeds of Life runs from February 2011 through January 2016 and will support more than 1,000 community seed production groups for subsistence seed production and 50 farmer associations for commercial seed production, covering all 13 districts. The groups produce seed of maize as well as seed of improved varieties of rice and peanuts and cuttings of cassava and sweet potato.

For more information: B.M. Prasanna, Director, Global Maize Program, CIMMYT (b.m.prasanna@cgiar.org), or Buddhi Kunwar, Seeds of Life Program, MAF (buddhi.kunwar@seedsoflifetimor.org)

Australian funding for Seeds of Life comes through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and ACIAR; it is managed by ACIAR. The Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) within The University of Western Australia coordinates Australian-funded activities. Adapted lines of food crops for on-farm tests were provided by CIMMYT, IRRI, CIP, ICRISAT, and CIAT. Field work has been led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF), with facilitation by non-government organizations such as CARE-International, Mercy Corps, Hivos, USC-Canada, World Vision International (WVI), and Catholic Relief Services (CRS).

Discussing future research and development in Afghanistan

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Afghanistan1For over 10 years, CIMMYT has been working assiduously with the national agriculture research system of Afghanistan to contribute to the war-torn country’s sustainable agricultural growth and research and development. So far, the joint efforts have led to the release of 12 wheat, 4 maize, and 2 barley varieties. As wheat and maize together account for about 84% of cereal acreage and production in Afghanistan, the work continues. During 5-7 March 2013, CIMMYT director general Thomas Lumpkin visited Afghanistan to observe CIMMYT activities and initiate a dialogue on further cooperation.

During a tour of the Kabul-based research station of the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) at Darulaman, station manager Gul Zaman informed Lumpkin that 70-80% of the field experiments carried out at the station were ARIA-CIMMYT wheat trials. Lumpkin observed that the station was in dire need of reconstruction, as it lacked proper infrastructure and all farm machinery was kept outside. Lumpkin also met with Qasem Obaidi (ARIA director), Abdullahjan Ahmadzai (Agricultural Extension and Development director general), Nasrullah Bakhtani (Policy and Planning director general), Haqiqatpal Rabani (Statistics and Marketing director), and S.D. Pakbin (ARIA technical advisor) to assess the needs of Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL). Ahmadzai updated Lumpkin on the current involvement of CIMMYT-Afghanistan in drafting a longterm R&D strategy document for the country. “CIMMYT could also bring in the latest technologies, such as conservation agriculture, precision agriculture, and the use of cell phones for extension services,” commented Lumpkin. Other areas requiring assistance, according to Obaidi, include a gene bank, soil and pathological laboratories, technical support in basic research, capacity building, and R&D for agricultural machinery.

Abdul Ghani Ghuriani, deputy minister for technical affairs at MAIL, then hosted a dinner reception for Lumpkin and representatives from ICARDA, FAO, USDA, USAID, JICA, private seed enterprises, MAIL officials, and other partners. During the lively dinner discussion, the deputy minister suggested that CIMMYT submits a proposal to establish a permanent facility to provide long term R&D support to the national agriculture research system and other stakeholders in the country. Mir Dad Panjsheri, MAIL chief advisor, then highlighted the issue of sustainability of any intervention brought by development agencies, acknowledged the continued support from CIMMYT, and suggested new collaboration areas: “It is important to carry out multi-crop, interdisciplinary research. We would appreciate CIMMYT’s assistance with diversification of the cropping sequence in farmers’ fields, genetic resource conservation, and support of home-grown breeding programs.”

Prior to his departure, Lumpkin held a series of discussions with Kabul-based USAID, USDA, AusAID, and ACIAR officials. Both USAID and AusAID welcomed the idea of a BISA-type facility in Afghanistan, as it could act as a platform for other CG centers, in-country partners, and foreign universities to address Afghanistan’s R&D gaps programmatically and sustainably.Afghanistan2

Achieving food security through seed security in Timor-Leste

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Timor-Leste-CBSP-Maize-PhotoIn Timor-Leste, maize is the main staple crop grown by 88% of farming households. However, availability of quality seed of improved maize varieties is a major bottleneck for enhancing crop production and productivity. Experiences gained through the Seeds of Life program within the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) indicated that there was a significant yield advantage of MAF-released maize varieties over the local varieties under farmer management practices. The MAF recommended an improved open-pollinated maize variety Sele, originally LYDMR (Late, Yellow, Downy Mildew Resistant) introduced by the CIMMYT Asian Regional Maize Program, whose yield is 47% higher than that of traditional maize varieties (average result from 1,091 on-farm demonstrations trials during 2006-10).

Annually, Timor-Leste pays at least US$ 1.5 million to service its national maize seed requirements, a large expense for such a small nation. Despite intensive efforts, the supply of MAF-released Sele seed was only 32 tons in 2011 and 89 tons in 2012, which is far below the nation’s total maize seed requirements. To address the maize seed insecurity, the MAF, with support from the Australian Government through the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), included community-based seed production (CBSP) in the third phase of the Seeds of Life (SoL3) program. The Centre for Legumes in Mediterranean Agriculture (CLIMA) within the University of Western Australia (UWA) is commissioned to coordinate the Australian-funded activities.

CBSP is a decentralized system of production, storage, and marketing of seeds by organized groups of farmers operating close to their homes as community groups or farmers associations. At the initial stage, the groups or associations received training on seed production, storage, and marketing from extension staff of MAF or NGOs. After gaining experience, these groups continue seed production activities on their own with little or no extension support. The CBSP groups follow basic seed production procedures, produce quality seed for use by group members, and sell or barter any surplus to others in the local community. The SoL3 program currently operates in 11 of the 13 districts of Timor-Leste (45 sub-districts and 135 sucos) through 680 CBSP groups with support from the MAFSoL extension program. Four hundred more CBSP groups are facilitated through collaboration with international NGOs, such as CARE, World Vision, Mercy Corps, Hivos, Catholic Relief Services, and USC Canada. The program not only supports maize seed production by community groups, but also seed production of other major food grains, such as rice and peanuts, as well as plots of improved varieties of cassava and sweet potato.

During the initial year of SoL3, nearly 726 CBSP groups were facilitated by MAF and NGOs. Of these, 320 (99 groups by MAF-SoL and 221 groups by NGOs) were growing Sele maize variety. Each participating group was composed of an average of 15 members, and each group was provided with 5 kg of certified Sele seed, sufficient to plant a 2,000 m2 seed plot. In the initial year of implementation, 289 CBSP groups produced an average of 159 kg of quality Sele seed (totaling 46 tons), while 31 groups suffered total crop failure due to grazing animals. This locally produced seed, stored in airtight 200-liter steel drums, was sufficient to meet the seed requirements of all group members and still leave extra seed for local barter or sale.

CBSP in Timor-Leste has proved to be a cost-effective and sustainable method of achieving local seed security. With further planning and effective implementation, each village, sub-district, and district in Timor- Leste could potentially achieve local seed security, a necessary prerequisite for maize food security of Timor-Leste.

Gender integration and data analysis: a better way to move forward

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Data-analysisGender mainstreaming in agricultural development is on the agenda of national governments and the international development community (for more information on CIMMYT and gender mainstreaming see “Integrating gender into WHEAT and MAIZE CRPs: A leap forward”). Building upon the 2012 World Development Report: Gender Equality and Development warning that the failure to recognize the roles, differences, and inequities between men and women could pose a serious threat to the effectiveness of agricultural development strategies, the Australian International Food Security Center (AIFSC) approved the Adoption Pathways project in Eastern and Southern Africa. The project aims to collect gender disaggregated data to achieve better understanding of technology adoption, agricultural productivity, and food security in the regions.

To contribute to the objective, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) facilitated a training on gender integration and analytical tools in agricultural research and gender disaggregated survey instruments design. The training took place during 08-12 January 2013 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and was attended by over 20 participants from 5 countries (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania) involved in the Adoption Pathways project and the SIMLESA (Sustainable Intensification of Maize and Legume Cropping Systems in Southern and Eastern Africa) initiative. The training materials were based on case studies from IFPRI projects such as the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project (GAAP), and the training itself focused on the concepts of gender; gender in agricultural research; gender livelihood conceptual framework; qualitative methods; the relationship between gender, agriculture, and assets; Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI); and the need for gender disaggregated surveys. The training also provided concrete advice and feedback on how to analyze gender disaggregated data and covered the needs and opportunities for dissemination and outreach, including ways to share results and plans to synthesize lessons learned. Finally, it enabled participants to identify plans for next steps, including updating and refining the SIMLESA survey instrument with gender component.

Calls to adopt SIMLESA approach in project implementation across Tanzania

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“The Ministry, and specifically the Directorate of Research and Development, immensely commends SIMLESA’s participatory approach and would like to recommend it to other research and development partners both at national and international levels. By any means, this approach won’t ignore or omit farmer participation in variety dissemination, as was the case in the past. This participation exactly addresses the value chain approach that has been over emphasized by the Agricultural Sector Development Program that we are implementing in our country,” stated Fidelis Myaka (director of Research and Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives, Tanzania) in a speech read on his behalf by Ruth B. Madulu, Agricultural Research Institute (ARI)-Mikocheni at the recently concluded Tanzania SIMLESA 2012 Progress Review and 2013 Planning Meeting in Arusha.

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Australia and CIMMYT continue support for wheat and maize research in Afghanistan

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After a decade of successful work in Afghanistan, CIMMYT has begun a new phase of a project supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). The four-year phase entitled “Sustainable Wheat & Maize Production in Afghanistan” began in October 2012 and builds upon research and development and capacity building activities of the previous phases with a greater emphasis on rainfed wheat and hybrid maize.

The livelihoods of approximately 80% of the Afghan population depend on agriculture and related activities. The central crop in Afghanistan is wheat, providing about 60% of daily calorie intake for an average Afghan. Afghanistan’s annual per capita wheat consumption of 180 kilograms places the country among the top wheat consumers worldwide. While wheat constitutes the most important grain crop in Afghanistan, occupying about 80% of all cereals area, maize is a grossly underutilized food and feed option in the country. It ranks third in importance as far as area and production are concerned, but the current production levels are low at about 0.3 million tons (a considerable decrease from about 0.7 million tons in the 1960s and 1970s). This is expected to change with the Government of Afghanistan’s recently renewed emphasis on maize. CIMMYT, with support from AusAID and ACIAR, has been working towards sustainable growth in wheat and maize production and productivity in the war-torn country.

Agriculture in Afghanistan generally faces various constraints and challenges, including severe droughts and great agro-climatic diversity. However, following a decade of concerted efforts on part of researchers, seed producers, and the farming community, wheat production and productivity is now showing a positive trend. Furthermore, the 10 wheat and 4 maize CIMMYT genotypes that were released in Afghanistan in the past 10 years have contributed to the growth of a public-private partnership within the seed industry, which is expected to produce up to 12% of Afghanistan’s wheat certified demand. Nevertheless, serious issues remain, including the absence of an in-country wheat breeding program and the stark fact that more than 80% of certified seed produced in the country is still Ug99 susceptible. There is also a need to initiate agro-climatic zonespecific varietal testing and to reach out to farmers with zone-specific crop management knowledge.

These are some of the issues to be addressed by the new phase of the project. Additionally, the project will create information management hubs in the provinces of Nangarhar, Herat, Balkh, and Kabul. These hubs, led by the Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan (ARIA) and engaging all stakeholders and partners, will undertake baseline and subsequent annual surveys to assess levels of technology adoption. They will also study factors affecting adoption, including the role of children and women in wheat- and maize-based cropping systems, and engage in technology assessment, demonstration, and dissemination.

The current phase aims to empower ARIA to assume a leadership role in all the spheres of technology development and dissemination. To realize this plan, annual workshops will be held to eventually hand over the leadership and coordination role to ARIA and national partners. Implementation of this project in Afghanistan will draw support from in-country partners including, but not limited to, ICARDA-Afghanistan, FAO, the French Agricultural Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency in Kabul, NGOs, seed organizations, farmers, and private sector to ensure sustainable gains.

Conservation agriculture: the future of farming in western Kenya

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A-trial-plot-with-a-well-established-DesmodiumLonger periods of drought and erratic and below-average rainfall in western Kenya have been making farming increasingly difficult over the years. In combination with declining soil fertility and deep-rooted practices of low-farm input application, agricultural productivity in the region has been on steep decline, leaving many farmers desperately staring at famine. However, with introduction of conservation agriculture (CA) via the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) initiative in 2010, Kenyan farmers regained hope.

SIMLESA activities are implemented in western and eastern regions by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) with technical support from CIMMYT and financial assistance from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR). Over the last two years, SIMLESA has been conducting on-farm trials using CA techniques: minimum tillage, crop residue management, intercropping/crop rotation (with maize and beans or desmodium), and participatory variety selection trials. Members of Tumaini Farmers Field School, Bungoma County, western Kenya, have been using these techniques. “We were in a desperate situation. Maize for us is not only our staple crop; it is also a major cash crop. But yields have been dwindling to levels where they could not sustain our food requirements,” stated Geoffrey Wanjala, the group chairman. “However, conservation agriculture has brought fortunes. With soils regaining fertility and farmers adopting good agricultural practices, yields have started increasing.

Conservation agriculture has also come with low farming costs, as we do not have to invest in time consuming, labor intensive, and costly ploughing and weeding activities. We have decided to adopt the conservation agriculture because of these benefits.”

The success of the trials encouraged KARI and CIMMYT to organize a farmers’ field day to demonstrate the performance of CA technologies. The field day was held in Kanduyi Division, Bungoma South District, Bungoma County, on 17 August 2012, and attracted farmers from other SIMLESA districts in eastern Kenya and over 20 exhibitors, including Kyeni Innovation Learning Platform (ILePs), Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Livestock Development, seed and fertilizer companies, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), agro-dealers, and community-based organizations in agriculture, energy, and health.

John Achieng, KARI-agronomist, reiterated KARI’s and CIMMYT’s commitment to developing resilient farming systems that can guarantee good yields even when faced with vagaries of climate change and degraded soils. “KARI will continue to develop new and improved technologies for enhanced agricultural productivity and improved livelihoods,” said Achieng.

George Ayaga, deputy center director of KARI-Kakamega and SIMLESA western Kenya coordinator, lauded the partnerships in implementing SIMLESA, particularly ILePs, noting that they managed to reduce competition among stakeholders, thus enhancing collaboration and reducing implementation costs for partner organizations. “Together you can approach farmers with holistic packages to agricultural production and ensure competitiveness of the agricultural products,” he added. Ayaga also noted that field days were critical in showcasing the best technologies, taking the technologies from the station to farmers’ fields, and involving farmers in the research process through their feedback. Alponkina Nyagah, Kyeni ILePs chairlady, stated that SIMLESA’s work on CA will be crucial for hunger reduction in Kenya.

SIMLESA achievements and challenges in Southern Africa

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The Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) initiative held its annual review and planning meetings for Southern Africa in Chimoio, Mozambique (3-4 September 2012), and Lilongwe, Malawi (6-7 September 2012).

The meeting in Mozambique was attended by 47 participants from the national agriculture research system (NARS) from Sussundenga, Rutanda, Manica, Angonia, and Gorongossa active in SIMLESA-Mozambique, and researchers from the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), CIMMYT, International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) in association with the Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (QDEEDI), and Agriculture Research Council of South Africa (ARC-SA). It was opened by Feliciano Mazuze on behalf of the director general of Instituto de Investigaçao Agraria Mozambique (IIAM), and praised by John Dixon, ACIAR principal regional coordinator and research program manager, who congratulated the SIMLESA team on the promising achievements to date.

The participants had the opportunity to attend site-specific presentations by NARS partners and discuss new partnerships with the private sector and NGOs willing to join SIMLESA. These new partners include Dengo Commercial, Associação dos Produtores de Oleaginosas (IDEAA-CA), and Instituto Superior Politécnico de Manica (ISPM). They agreed on expanding SIMLESA activities in new communities in line with the SIMLESA target of reaching out to 100,000 farmers within 10 years. The meeting was concluded with presentation of certificates of participation to extension staff and IP members who had participated in the training facilitated by ARC-SA in Chimoio, Mozambique.

The Malawi meeting was attended by 36 NARS officials from Kasungu, Mitundu, Balaka, Ntcheu, Salima, and Mchinji active in SIMLESA-Malawi, and researchers from CIMMYT, QAAFI in association with QDEEDI, International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), ARC-SA, Malawi Agricultural Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp), Bunda College of Agriculture, and CPM Agri-Enterprises. Mackson Banda, program steering committee member, expressed satisfaction with the levels of achievements within SIMLESA-Malawi during his opening speech, as significant improvements have been achieved in program implementation and data generation since the last in-country review and planning meeting. The meeting consisted of presentations on adoption survey findings, on-station trial results, and conservation agriculture. The participants agreed that scaling out the initiatives and the innovation platforms engagement remain to be the key challenges. To address some of the issues, ASWAp agreed to include farmers participating in SIMLESA in the government-initiated subsidy program.

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Partners meet in Ethiopia to launch Adoption Pathways

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The first planning and inception meeting of the ‘Identifying socioeconomic constraints to and incentives for faster technology adoption: Pathways to sustainable intensification in Eastern and Southern Africa’ (Adoption Pathways project) took place at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during 13-15 September 2012. The meeting was attended by over 25 participants from 5 universities and research institutes (Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique), international partner universities (University of Queensland, Australia, and Norwegian University of Life Sciences), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), CIMMYT, Australian International Food Security Center (AIFSC), Australian Center for International Agriculture Research (ACIAR), and resource persons from US universities.

The Adoption Pathways project is a continuation of a fruitful partnership between ACIAR and African researchers which began under the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) initiative led by CIMMYT. It is funded by the newly established AIFSC, which is housed in ACIAR and whose mission is to “accelerate demand-driven research, delivery and adoption of innovations to improve food security.”

The project focuses on the socioeconomic, policy, institutional, risk, and agro-climatic constraints and/or incentives that affect farmers’ technology-adoption behavior. Building on the success of SIMLESA, the Adoption Pathways project will systematically collect and analyze household, plot, and village level data from sentinel villages representing maizelegume based farming systems in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique. Data collected from the sentinel villages will help monitor longterm trends and development changes, and fill the knowledge gaps in designing programs and policies that accelerate technology adoption, stimulate productivity growth, and lead to sustainable agricultural intensification pathways. The planned activities will be implemented in close collaboration with the SIMLESA team to ensure that the knowledge and outputs generated by this project will help bridge the gap between agricultural research and adoption of research outputs. Bronnie Anderson-Smith, AIFSC executive officer, and John Dixon, ACIAR senior adviser/research program manager, highlighted the unique opportunity provided by the project to contribute towards three core strategic focal areas of AIFSC: access to food; education, training, and gender research; and building resilient farming systems.

Throughout the meeting, project participants became familiar with methodological innovations in adoption and impact analysis, gender integration in household level data collection, modeling approaches to determine vulnerability and risk management strategies, conducting risk experiments, and developing econometric and economy-wide models to estimate the impact of technology adoption.

During the closing session, Lisa Filipetto, the Australian Ambassador to Ethiopia, emphasized the important role economists play in integrating the elements of marketing, value-chain analysis, and income generation in technology adoption. “Participants should get involved in policy dialogue in their respective countries so that the ‘adoption pathways’ lead to outcomes and impacts,” she said, adding that “this meeting symbolizes the beginning of the start of a pioneering partnership between AIFSC, CIMMYT, and other national and international partners.”

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Expanding SIMLESA to the Kalahari

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With plans to expand to more countries in the region, the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume cropping systems for food security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) program has included Botswana as a spill-over country, reflecting its recognition of the importance of crop-livestock interaction in the farming system. To initiate the spill-over activities, the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) has allocated a research grant to Botswana through the CIMMYT-SIMLESA project.

During 23-25 July 2012, SIMLESA project coordinator Mulugetta Mekuria and cropping systems agronomist Isaiah Nyagumbo visited Gaborone, Botswana, to introduce SIMLESA to the Botswana National Agriculture Research System officials and to develop a work plan for the newly funded Spillover project. The project seeks to draw lessons from five core SIMLESA countries and share these with Botswana, Rwanda, Uganda, and South Sudan. It will also carry farming systems characterization studies on sites to be identified for subsequent SIMLESA activities. In Botswana, the primary activities will include exchange visits by Botswana scientists to core SIMLESA countries, surveys and characterization studies, and capacity building through short-term training.

The meeting was attended by more than 20 participants from different research stations in Botswana. Mekuria highlighted the SIMLESA project rationale, objectives, impact pathways, and partnership modalities, and outlined the linkages and synergies between SIMLESA and other CIMMYT projects and programs, including Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA), New Seed Initiative for Maize in Southern Africa (NSIMA), and Conservation Agriculture (CA). Nyagumbo then facilitated discussions on the anticipated outcomes of the Spillover project, focusing on the following objectives: developing an understanding of SIMLESA in Botswana, identifying kick-start investigatory activities leading to larger action plans linked to the SIMLESA program, and integrating Botswana scientists into SIMLESA capacity building activities.

The group work and plenary discussions resulted in a draft workplan which will be finalized shortly. According to this plan, the project will focus on CA, crop-livestock linkages, fodder crops production, and multiplication of suitable maize varieties for Botswana’s arid to semi-arid environment. The Botswana team showed a high level of interest in the project, and Stephen Chite, Chief Agricultural Research Officer and Head of arable crops research, expressed his appreciation to CIMMYT for its continued support for the national maize research program and to ACIAR for its financial support.

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Training on statistical analysis in agricultural research in Kabul, Afghanistan

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The agricultural research network in Afghanistan has been increasing in size and strength ever since reconstruction activities in the country began. Major disciplines such as crop improvement and agronomy have been developing new crop varieties and production management techniques that help Afghan farmers increase their harvests. Agricultural statistics and, in particular, the statistical analysis of crop research results are areas that have yet to see major infrastructure establishment or capacity building. Research data generated every year need to be properly analyzed and interpreted in order to formulate technical recommendations.

CIMMYT-Afghanistan organized a two-day training course on “Statistical Analysis in Agricultural Research” on June 25-26, 2012, at the CIMMYT office in Kabul under the ACIAR-sponsored project “Sustainable Wheat and Maize Production in Afghanistan.” The course was conducted by Dr. Girish Chandra Mishra, Professor of Agricultural Statistics, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. It was attended by eight researchers from ARIA (Agricultural Research Institute of Afghanistan), two from FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), and one from JDA (Joint Development Associates), an NGO engaged in agricultural research and extension in northern Afghanistan.

The course was inaugurated by Mr. Abdul Latif Rasekh, Acting Director of ARIA, who expressed satisfaction with its timeliness, given that data generated by ARIA research stations need to be analyzed for formulating valid recommendations. Dr. Rajiv Sharma, CIMMYT-Afghanistan CLO, recalled that at the first ARIA-CIMMYT wheat workshop, the need for such training was highlighted by most wheat researchers. He also talked about the need to apply relevant statistical principles not only in data analysis but also when designing experiments.

KABUL1Dr. Mishra began the course by reviewing basic statistical concepts and discussing the statistical tools and concepts needed to design and analyze field experiments that would lead to scientifically valid interpretations. He went on to describe how to choose experimental designs, lay out field experiments, and analyze and interpret the results. He had the participants do useful exercises as well as analyze data for hands-on experience. All the participants were keenly interested and excited to have the opportunity to analyze and interpret data from their own experiments. The general feeling at the end of the two-day event was that it should have lasted at least a week. Upon presenting certificates to course participants, Mr. Qasem Obaidi, ARIA Director, thanked Dr. Mishra and CIMMYT for the capacity building effort and expressed his wish that a follow-up course be held to help consolidate the gains and enable Afghan researchers to learn more about experimental design and analysis.