Skip to main content

Location: Mozambique

African maize farmers get support to mitigate impact of poor soils

Written by on . Posted in Features.

8291994814_d75e7ce9ca_o_d53b26d3743a026b6dc969f7e5efbc7d

NAIROBI, Kenya (CIMMYT) – As the global community marks World Soil Day, African smallholder farmers are contending with low yields due to low-fertility soils prevalent in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa. This situation has affected the food security of over 300 million people in the region who depend on maize as their staple food.

For the majority of these smallholder farmers, access to inputs like fertilizers to boost soil productivity has been restricted due to their high cost. The reality is that in Africa fertilizers cost up to six times more than in any other continent.

As a result, nearly three quarters (about 70 percent) of eastern and southern Africa’s maize is grown without fertilizers. As the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and partners work to give farmers a partial solution to this enor

mous challenge, efforts must be intensified to protect and maintain soil resources for sustainable development in Africa and the globe.

The Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) Project addresses the problem of low nitrogen in soils. Smallholder farmers can expect to harvest up to 25 percent more from new maize varieties developed by the IMAS project.

These varieties are nitrogen use efficient (NUE), which means they utilize more efficiently the small amount of fertilizer that farmers can afford to apply (typically less than 20 kilograms per hectare) compared to varieties currently on the market. The IMAS project is a public-private partnership involving CIMMYT, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council and DuPont Pioneer.

In two years – between 2014 and 2015 – 21 NUE hybrids were successfully released in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In addition, IMAS helped to increase seed production and distribution of three existing NUE varieties. According to Michael Olsen, IMAS Project Leader, these varieties are expected to reach approximately 84,000 farmers.

“Giving smallholder farmers practical solutions within their environmental conditions is a sustainable means to not only preserve soil resources but address key challenges in maize farming, which is a major livelihood for millions in Africa,” Olsen said.

Many of the released NUE hybrids carry additional traits that are important in the region, such as tolerance to drought and maize lethal necrosis, a devastating viral disease that is new in the region. Donasiana Limo, a farmer from Olkalili village in northern Tanzania, attests to the good performance of HB513, a drought-tolerant and NUE variety he planted during the main cropping season between January and March 2015.

“I did not do much to prepare my land because the rains came very late and ended early. With no fertilizer and failed rains, I did not expect to harvest the seven bags of 50 kilograms from eight kilograms of HB513 seed,” Donasiana said.

“If I had time to prepare my land and added fertilizer, the harvest would have been so much more.”

Many more farmers from this remote village have benefited immensely from HB513, including Valeria Pantaleo.

Sustainable solutions for African farmers need to be addressed during World Soil Day deliberations. Efforts to facilitate smallholders’ access to inputs like fertilizers are critical. In addition, to help arrest further soil deterioration emphasis must be placed on adopting correct agronomic practices and appropriate crop varieties available on the market that are well suited to different soil management systems.

Policymakers must formulate strategies for adopting universal practices that maintain soil resources and are adapted to farming environments across Africa. Kenya has already set the pace for maize breeding in Africa by including performance in low-nitrogen soils as a special prerequisite for maize variety release, a step that will help enhance healthy soils in Africa if adopted by other regulatory agencies.

Links for more information

For information, please contact: Michael Olsen: IMAS Project Leader| Brenda Wawa: Media Contact

Green manure crop cover reduces need for mineral fertilizer in Africa

Written by on . Posted in Features. 1 Comment on Green manure crop cover reduces need for mineral fertilizer in Africa

Velvet bean planted in rotation with maize increases soil fertility, provides biomass for feed and suppresses weeds in Chipata, Zambia. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT.
Velvet bean planted in rotation with maize increases soil fertility, provides biomass for feed and suppresses weeds in Chipata, Zambia. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT.

It is widely accepted that improved maize germplasm will only express its yield potential under optimum agronomic management such as timely planting, optimal plant/space arrangements, and timely weed and pest control. But perhaps the most important agronomic intervention is adequate fertilization. Although farmers in Europe and America have used mineral fertilizers for generations, these have become available in Africa only relatively recently. However, the excessive use of mineral fertilizer in Europe and America has led to water pollution and eutrophication, and has increased the energy requirements of the fertilizer production process.

In Africa, mineral fertilizer remains a scarce, expensive and risky resource for most smallholder farmers. On average, farmers use less than 10 kg/ha of NPK fertilizer, and many do not apply it at all. The price of fertilizer is 3-5 times higher in Africa than in Europe due to the lack of infrastructure and production facilities, often making it unaffordable for farmers. Fertilizer is primarily applied to higher value and horticulture crops that, unlike maize, give farmers greater return on their investment.

Many farmers in southern Africa plant maize extensively on large areas, harvest less than 1 t/ha on average and mine already depleted nutrients from the soil while trying to become food secure and escape from poverty – an impossible task! But farmers are now being offered a range of solutions that provide a way out of the poverty trap, such as improved drought and stress tolerant maize germplasm, conservation agriculture (CA), improved rotation systems with legumes and green manure cover crops.

The use of CA principles (minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and diversification through rotation and intercropping) hinges on the ability of farmers to retain sufficient surface crop residues to protect the soil from heavy rain, evaporation and sunlight. However, farmers in mixed crop/livestock systems face competing demands for these residues because they also feed them to their animals.

It is against this background that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) involved CIMMYT in a small project aimed at introducing green manures to smallholder farmers in eastern Zambia and central and southern Malawi. Green manures are grown primarily to improve the soil, generate biomass for ground cover and provide fodder; some also produce grain for feed and food.

In Lilongwe District, Malawi, farmer Bikoni Yohane and wife Esnart proudly present their maize-cowpea intercropped field, which will produce grain and leaves for home consumption and im-prove soil fertility. Photo: Christian Thierfelder/CIMMYT.

A range of varieties have been tested by the Global Conservation Agriculture Program over the past five years. Crops such as velvet bean, lablab, cowpea, sunnhemp, jackbean, pigeonpea and groundnuts have been identified as viable options with great potential for smallholders. They provide 5-50 t/ha of extra biomass for groundcover and/or fodder, leave 50-350 kg/ha of residual nitrogen in the soil and do not need extra fertilizer to grow. The new project is testing these species in full rotation or intercropped with maize on farmers’ fields in the three project regions. To increase adoption, the project is using an intensive participatory process to adapt the green manures to smallholder conditions.

This initiative is not the only one where CIMMYT has been involved with green manure cover crops: in northern Mozambique, a collaboration with CARE International reports that yield increased from 4 t/ha to 13 t/ha by only using lab-lab and improved germplasm in cassava-based CA systems. The ACIAR-funded ZimCLIFFS project in Zimbabwe was also very successful in growing lablab and velvet beans to generate supplementary fodder for livestock during the dry winter period.

Through innovative approaches, CIMMYT will further explore new ways of integrating green manures into smallholder farming systems so they become the status quo, not just an option!

SIMLESA-Mozambique learns more about conservation agriculture technologies in Brazil

Written by on . Posted in News.

Three agriculturalists from the Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA)–Mozambique made a training visit to Brazil on 3-13 June 2015.

The objective of the visit was for the three researchers to acquire conservation agriculture (CA) skills, with a special focus on soil health and climate change. The training sessions were also expected to give participants the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with their Brazilian counterparts at Brazilian Corporation of Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) sites.

“By visiting and interacting with farmers, observing trials and having discussions with CA advisors, researchers, policy makers and agriculture industry representatives, we gained new knowledge of CA technologies,” said team leader Domingos Dias, SIMLESA-Mozambique National Coordinator.

During the 11-day visit, participants were presented with real-life CA challenges so they could solve them interactively. Having learned the required theory and facts through demonstrations, question-and-answer sessions and multimedia presentations, they are now expected to apply these technologies in their respective countries.

Smallholder farmers in Mozambique are affected by the poor farming methods they practice, such as late weeding and inefficient residue application, and the lack of farm mechanization. The participants learned to use and maintain agro-machinery, such as direct seeders and rippers, as well as when to plant forage crops such as Brachiaria, which produces much biomass and whose deep root system plays a critical role in improving soil properties.

“We learned very useful practices and will test some of them under our conditions. The training in Brazil presented alternative uses of residues and rotations based on soil properties suitable for Southern African countries,” said SIMLESA-Mozambique participant Custodio Jorge.

Both farmers and extension staff who participated in the first phase of SIMLESA (2010-2014) lacked basic skills and knowledge of CA farming systems. The second phase of the project (2014-2018) is focused on filling this gap through training.

 

SIMLESA-Mozambique National Coordinator Domingos Dias observes Brachiaria ssp., an African grass that is rotated and intercropped with soybean, maize and wheat under conservation agriculture at EMBRAPA, Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul. Photo: Custodio Jorge

“In Mozambique, you cannot talk about food security without talking about maize”

Written by on . Posted in Features.

IIAM's site for confined field trials at Chokwe.
IIAM’s site for confined field trials at Chokwe.

Good news from Africa! Policy breakthroughs on transgenic research in Mozambique and Tanzania have led to approval of confined field trials (CFTs) and a more research-friendly regulatory framework, respectively.

Mozambique’s CFTs will be at the Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM; Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique) research station at Chokwe, some 200 kilometers north of the country’s capital, Maputo.

Next door in Tanzania, an erstwhile stringent policy that was prohibitive in terms of the onerous liability it placed on researchers has been favorably revised. What all this means is that the two countries – which have been somewhat lagging behind on account of policy constraints – can now more substantively engage in the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) project to a fuller extent, and be more in step with other WEMA partners.

images_research_gmp_projects_WEMA_Inacio_Maposse_w These momentous breakthroughs were revealed at the 7th WEMA Project Review and Planning Meeting in Maputo, Mozambique, which took place February 8–12, 2015. In his opening remarks, Dr. Inacio Mapossé (pictured left), IIAM’s Director General, said that Mozambique’s Ministry of Agriculture had been renamed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. This, he emphasized, was not just an exercise in words, but also underscored the importance of projects such as WEMA. In his words, “In Mozambique, you cannot talk about food security without talking about maize.” True. Statistics show that nearly all (95 percent) of Mozambique’s smallholders grow maize (report forthcoming), and that maize covers nearly half (40 percent) of the land devoted to annual crops. Hence, the ministry could well have been renamed to ‘The Ministry of Maize’ and the cap would have fitted!

But back to policy and regulatory frameworks, despite the recent breakthroughs, more remains to be done. In Kenya, the 2012 ban on importation of genetically modified organisms is still in force. And while there has been remarkable progress in Tanzania and the policy is less stringent on transgenic research, there is still more ground to be covered. Uganda is yet to pass the Biosafety Bill.

The CIMMYT team at the WEMA meeting. Back row, left to right: Yoseph Beyene, Kassa Semagn, Lewis Machida, Jarett Abramson, Mosisa Regasa, Tadele Tefera, Bruce Anani and Amsal Tarekegne. Front row, left to right: Vongai Kandiwa, B.M. Prasanna, Stephen Mugo and James Gethi.
The CIMMYT team at the WEMA meeting. Back row, left to right: Yoseph Beyene, Kassa Semagn, Lewis Machida, Jarett Abramson, Mosisa Regasa, Tadele Tefera, Bruce Anani and Amsal Tarekegne. Front row, left to right: Vongai Kandiwa, B.M. Prasanna, Stephen Mugo and James Gethi.

The menace posed the maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease was high and hot on the agenda, given its threat to Africa’s food security. MLN diagnostics and management call for concerted action by all players in the maize value chain, with regulatory frameworks playing a key role. CIMMYT has an open call for MLN screening for the cropping season starting at the end of this month.

CIMMYT participants at the WEMA annual meeting included, among others, Dr. B.M. Prasanna, CIMMYT’s Director of the Global Maize Program and a member of WEMA Executive and Advisory Board, and Dr. Stephen Mugo, Coordinator of CIMMYT activities in WEMA.

Led by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, the WEMA project is now in its second phase, which will end in 2017. Aside from WEMA, CIMMYT has had a long and fruitful engagement with Mozambique, as this brief dating back to 2008 attests.

Maize lethal necrosis: a serious threat to food security in eastern Africa and beyond

Written by on . Posted in Features.

MLN_WS_participants_w
Participants are shown how to inspect maize fields for MLN symptoms and how to collect samples for laboratory analysis.

Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) has rapidly emerged as one of the deadliest maize diseases in eastern Africa capable of causing complete yield loss under heavy disease pressure. This means that Kenya and neighboring countries which largely depend on maize as their main staple food and source of income are on the verge of a looming food and economic crisis.

The disease is difficult to control for two reasons: firstly, it is caused by a combination of viruses; secondly, it can be spread through seed and by insect vectors that may be carried by wind over long distances. Affected crops suffer various symptoms such as severe stunting, tassel abnormality, small ears with poor seed set, chlorotic leaf mottling, leaf necrosis and premature plant death.

Much more than CIMMYT and East Africa

Sixty phytosanitary regulators and seed industry scientists from 11 countries in eastern and southern Africa attended an MLN diagnostics and screening workshop from March 17–19, 2015, in Naivasha, Kenya. The objective of the workshop was to train scientists on the latest MLN diagnostics and screening methods and to share knowledge on how to control the spread of MLN. Besides DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania where the disease has been reported, other participants were from South Sudan and southern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe) that have no confirmed cases of MLN, but where maize is an important crop.

CIMMYT organized the workshop in response to the high demand for development of appropriate diagnostics methods and harmonization of regional protocols. Hence, facilitation by agencies like the Food and Agricultural Organization provided a much-needed regional overview of the MLN threat, in addition to perspectives from the International Centre of Insect Physiology Ecology and the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS) on MLN insect vectors and diagnostics methods respectively.

The workshop was conducted at the MLN screening facility in Naivasha, the largest of its kind established in response to the MLN outbreak in eastern Africa in 2013. It supports countries in the sub-Saharan region to screen seeds under artificial inoculation. The facility is managed jointly by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and CIMMYT, and was established with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Sygenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture. Biswanath Das, a maize breeder at CIMMYT, noted that “the site has evaluated more than 20,000 accessions since its inception in 2013 from over 15 multinational and national seed companies and national research programs.” This, he added, “has become a primary resource in the fight against MLN regionally.”

Collective pre-emptive actions for prevention: seeds of hope
Participants received hands-on training to identify symptoms of MLN-causing viruses and how to score disease severity by screening germplasm at the site. For some participants, this was a first. “This is my first time to see an MLN-infected plant. Now I understand the impact of MLN on maize production and the need to set up a seed regulatory facility. South Sudan has no laboratory to test planting materials. My first step will be to talk to my counterparts in the ministry to set up one,” said Taban James, a regulator from the Ministry of Agriculture in South Sudan.

DAS-ELISA_demo_w.jpg
CIMMYT staff demonstrate DAS–ELISA method used for detecting MLN-causing viruses.

The tragic reality is that almost all commercial maize varieties in East Africa are highly susceptible to MLN, based on evaluations done at the screening facility. Therefore, stronger diagnostic and sampling capacity at common border-points was agreed to be a key step towards controlling inadvertent introduction of MLN through contaminated seeds. This was particularly important for participants from southern Africa countries who noted an urgent need for surveillance at seed import ports and border areas to contain the spread.

Currently, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe are the only countries that require imported seed to be certified as free of MLN-causing viruses. KEPHIS and CIMMYT have worked closely to restrict movement of germplasm from Kenya to countries in East Africa with reported MLN cases. Seed production fields are inspected thrice by KEPHIS, in addition to analysis of final seed lots. Plans are underway for CIMMYT in collaboration with the ministries of agriculture in Mexico and Zimbabwe to establish quarantine sites to ease germplasm movement in and out of these countries. Speaking on KEPHIS’ role, Francis Mwatuni, the officer-in-charge of Plant Quarantine and Biosecurity Station said, “We ensure all seed fields are inspected and samples tested for MLN resistance including local and imported seed lots from seed companies, to ensure that farmers get MLN-free seeds.”

The latest trends and options for diagnostics on MLN-causing viruses were covered as well, giving participants hands-on training using ELISA diagnostics systems. They were also briefed on polymerase chain reaction based diagnostics and the latest lateral flow diagnostic kits that are under development that will enable researchers to obtain diagnostic results in the field in minutes.

What next for MLN?
The rapid multiplication of the disease coupled with uncertainties over its spread is the biggest hurdle that scientists and other stakeholders are grappling with. KALRO Chief Researcher, Anne Wangai, who played a key role in discovering the disease in Kenya in 2011 observes that “The uncertainties over the transmission of MLN is a worrying phenomenon that requires stakeholders to urgently find a control point to manage and ensure seeds being given to farmers are MLN-free.”

Breeding remains a key component in the search for long-term solution for MLN, and several milestones have been covered to develop MLN-resistant varieties in East Africa. “CIMMYT has developed five hybrids with good MLN tolerance under artificial inoculation, which have either been released or recommended for release in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Thirteen hybrids are currently under national performance trials in the three countries,” noted Mosisa Regasa, a maize seed system specialist at CIMMYT. He further added that it is critical for the MLN-tolerant hybrids to also have other traits important to farmers, so farmers accept these new hybrids.

Open information sharing forums like the diagnostics workshop are an important step to raise awareness and seek solutions to manage the disease. Sharing best practice and lessons learnt in managing the disease are major steps towards curbing MLN. In pursuit of this end, a major international conference on MLN opens next week.

Links: Slides from the workshop | Workshop announcement |Open call for MLN screening – May 2015

Mother-baby trials promote conservation agriculture in Manica, Mozambique

Written by on . Posted in Features.

A testament to increased climate variability and risk for farming systems already operating on the razor’s edge, the 2014-15 cropping season will be recognized as a sad write-off by most farmers in Central Mozambique. The rains started six weeks late and most of the rainfall fell in only two months (normally it’s distributed over four), followed by a long drought and some few showers at the end.

But with funds from the CGIAR Research Program on Maize, partners from the Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique (IIAM) and CIMMYT are working with farmers in Manica Province, Mozambique, to test and promote conservation agriculture practices that better capture and retain precious precipitation, among other advantages.

As part of this, they have revived “mother-baby” trials, a participatory methodology pioneered over a decade ago by CIMMYT for testing drought tolerant maize in Africa and which was subsequently adapted for diverse agronomic practices and is used by researchers worldwide.

Drought-stricken maize: For most farmers around Machipanda village, Manica Province, Mozambique, the situation this season is bleak, auguring complete crop failure or a harvest of a few small maize cobs. Photos: CIMMYT
Drought-stricken maize: For most farmers around Machipanda village, Manica Province, Mozambique, the situation this season is bleak, auguring complete crop failure or a harvest of a few small maize cobs. Photos: CIMMYT

Comprising field experiments grown in farming communities, mother-baby trials feature a centrally-located mother trial that is set up with researchers’ support. Baby trials, which contain subsets of the mother-trial treatments, are grown, managed and evaluated by interested farmers.

Moving from “business as usual” to innovation

In Machipanda, a small village in Manica on the border with Zimbabwe, IIAM maize breeder Dr. David Mariote established three mother trials, each with two conservation agriculture-based systems and a conventional control plot, combined with four maize varieties from the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) project, which is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and a traditional variety, in full rotation with cowpeas.

Farmers then put up the baby trials from a menu of practices that included direct seeding with no tillage, crop rotations, residue retention, herbicide applications, fertilizer use and improved varieties. Interest was high: 54 farmers grew baby trials and some even extended their plots beyond the designated areas, in the excitement of trying something new, according to Mariote.

“Conditions are changing fast; business as usual is no longer an option,” Mariote said. “We have to offer improved technologies that farmers can use to mitigate negative effects from climate change and improve their lives.”

Mariote witnessed first-hand the synergistic benefits of combining conservation agriculture and drought tolerant maize, as part of work in the Platform on Agriculture Research and Technology Innovation (PARTI), a project funded through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) via Feed the Future and implemented by CIMMYT in Central and northern Mozambique.

IIAM researcher David Mariote (right) with farmers of Manica Province, Mozambique.
IIAM researcher David Mariote (right) with farmers of Manica Province, Mozambique.

With training from CIMMYT’s global maize program and technical backstopping from the CIMMYT global conservation agriculture program, Mariote sought new and stronger ways to spread these technologies. That’s when he hit upon mother-baby trials, which had never been used before with drought tolerant maize and conservation agriculture in tandem.

Farmers who grew baby trials unanimously agreed that new ways of farming are needed and that the trials had been eye-openers. In a community meeting, some said: “We often do not have money to buy expensive fertilizers but we have seen that with good agronomic practices and good maize varieties we can already increase our maize yields.”

More farmers in Machipanda have signed up for future baby trials and, as a clear indication of commitment and excitement about conservation agriculture and improved maize, they will use their own inputs to grow them.

USAID Approves USD 17.8 Million Grant for a New Project to Support Seed Scaling in Eastern and Southern Africa

Written by on . Posted in News. 1 Comment on USAID Approves USD 17.8 Million Grant for a New Project to Support Seed Scaling in Eastern and Southern Africa

CIMMYT has received a grant of USD 17.8 million from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to implement a new project dubbed Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS). The three-year project officially started on 15 March 2015.

The project aims to produce and deploy affordable and improved drought-tolerant, stress-resilient and high-yielding maize varieties for 1.8 million smallholder farmers in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique and Zambia by the end of the project. Similarly, DTMASS plans to produce approximately 7,900 metric tons of maize varieties with a strategic goal of improving food security and income for the farmers.

“This is a great achievement for the project team, which worked tirelessly to develop the project proposal that has just been approved for implementation”, remarked Tsedeke Abate, DTMASS project leader. He added that the project will go a long way in supporting farmers to increase their returns from maize farming, while at the same time giving them good-quality maize for consumption. “This is a good day for maize in Africa,” said Tsedeke.

DTMASS will be implemented in close collaboration with USAID’s Feed the Future program, building on experience, successes and lessons from the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa and other complementary CIMMYT maize projects in Africa like Improved Maize for African Soils and Water Efficient Maize for Africa, to strengthen production and delivery of maize seeds to farmers in the seven target countries.

CIMMYT will also work with the respective countries’ extension wings of the ministries of agriculture, public and private seed companies, national agricultural research organizations, community-based organizations and non-governmental organizations. More on DTMASS

CIMMYT–SARO@30

Written by on . Posted in Features.

Targeting increasing farm-level food security and productivity to mitigate the effects of climate risk and change: Through the SIMLESA Project, smallholder farmers practice sustainable intensification principles, such as zero or minimum tillage, maize–legume intercropping, and maize–legume rotations. In the photo, Mr. Ringson Chitsiko (standing), Permanent Secretary (PS), Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, officially opens CIMMYT–SARO's 30th anniversary celebrations. On  the extreme left is the International Livestock Research Institute’s Representative for Southern Africa, Dr. Sikhalazo Dube. To the PS’s left is the Principal Director in the Department of Research and Specialist Services, Mrs. Denisile Hikwa. Dr. Olaf Erenstein (in striped shirt), Director of CIMMYT’s Socioeconomics Program; and partly in the picture is Dr. Eric Craswell, SIMLESA Project Steering Committee Member.
Targeting increasing farm-level food security and productivity to mitigate the effects of climate risk and change: Through the SIMLESA Project, smallholder farmers practice sustainable intensification principles, such as zero or minimum tillage, maize–legume intercropping, and maize–legume rotations. In the photo, Mr. Ringson Chitsiko (standing), Permanent Secretary (PS), Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, officially opens CIMMYT–SARO’s 30th anniversary celebrations. On  the extreme left is the International Livestock Research Institute’s Representative for Southern Africa, Dr. Sikhalazo Dube. To the PS’s left is the Principal Director in the Department of Research and Specialist Services, Mrs. Denisile Hikwa. Dr. Olaf Erenstein (in striped shirt), Director of CIMMYT’s Socioeconomics Program; and partly in the picture is Dr. Eric Craswell, SIMLESA Project Steering Committee Member.

On March 18, CIMMYT Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) celebrated 30 years of agricultural research and development.

The colourful ceremony, held amid pomp and fanfare, was attended by more than 300 people representing donors, non-governmental organizations, research institutions, Zimbabwe government departments, seed companies and farmer associations. The celebration included an on-station tour, with CIMMYT–SARO showcasing its work.

CIMMYT–SARO has been operating in Zimbabwe since March 1985 with the support of the government of Zimbabwe, and other public and private-sector partners, including the University of Zimbabwe and the Department of Research and Specialist Services. In Zimbabwe, CIMMYT conducts experiments at its main station, as well as at Muzarabani and Chiredzi sub- stations. There are also on-farm trials across the country.

Officially commemorating CIMMYT–SARO’s 30-year anniversary (SARO@30), Zimbabwe’s Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Dr. Joseph Made, said, ‘’The regional office has been focusing on developing new maize varieties adapted to smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe and the mid-altitude agroecologies in sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, the office has expanded to include development of research technologies for conservation-agriculture systems, sustainable intensification of production of smallholder farms and postharvest research activities.”

Stay on course, but also look beyond yield
In a speech read on his behalf by Mr. Ringson Chitsiko, the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Made applauded CIMMYT’s research work on developing a stock of maize since this was a major staple in the country, and beyond. Although CIMMYT and its partners had introduced various technologies for increasing yields, the Center had to develop more technologies to mitigate the effects of climate change and other challenges.

The minister advised: “CIMMYT needs to work harder and be alert, especially in the face of the ever-growing population, climate change and variability, and new threats through maize diseases and pests. I urge CIMMYT to continue pursuing its mandate for the benefit of the Southern African region.”

In support of this goal and in recognition of CIMMYT’s sustained presence and commitment to the SADC region and Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe government in 2012 renewed the Host Country Agreement, according CIMMYT–SARO diplomatic status. ‘’We are jointly working towards signing a new collaborative agreement to strengthen maize research to combat a new threat in the form of maize lethal necrosis [MLN] disease recently discovered in East Africa and which has a potential to wipe out an entire maize crop if it spreads to Southern Africa,’’ Made said.

MLN caused 100 percent crop loss for some Kenyan farmers between 2011 and 2012, and cases were also reported in Uganda and Tanzania.

Speaking at the same occasion, Dr. Olaf Erenstein, Director of CIMMYT’s Socioeconomics Program who represented Dr. Thomas Lumpkin, CIMMYT Director General, said CIMMYT, since its establishment in Mexico in 1966 currently has 13 representative offices around the world. Its mandate and mission is to sustainably increase the productivity of maize and wheat systems to ensure global food security and reduce poverty. The regional office, he said, is serving its purpose in contributing to increasing food security.

Just one year shy: John Chifamba (foreground, in blue shirt, and cap, facing the camera), receives his long-service certificate. With 29 years of service under his belt, he’s been with CIMMYT–SARO for almost as long as it has existed.

‘Easy Friday’: Reflect, Celebrate, Play, Plan for The Future
As part of the continued celebrations, March 27 was ‘Easy Friday: CIMMYT–SARO hosted a luncheon and sports day for its staff. Thirteen long-serving employees who served for between 15 and 29 years were honored for their commitment. The employees were from administration, finance, Global Maize Program and Conservation Agriculture Program.

Sixty-two year-old Mr. John Chifamba, a recorder who has worked for CIMMYT for 29 years, said, “CIMMYT is my home. I have gained considerable on-the-job experience in maize research. “Any plans of leaving CIMMYT?” To this, Chifamba said an emphatic no. “Very soon, it will be retirement time and I will find a plot to utilize the good agricultural practices I have seen and learned at CIMMYT.“

Joining hands: From Zambia to Afghanistan
Mekuria continued: ‘’Our partnership approach will give us more capacity to meet with our constituents at the highest level, strengthening our relationships with governments as they formulate the most effective agricultural policies for the good of their people and natural resources.”

CIMMYT says ‘Thank You!’ CIMMYT–SARO staff who have served the Center for between 15 and 29 years each received a long-service certificate, which they display here.

CIMMYT–SARO is part of the world’s largest public drought and low nitrogen stress research network. Every year 500,000 envelopes of maize seeds are sent to over 70 institutions worldwide. The demand for CIMMYT–SARO maize germplasm extends from Zambia to Afghanistan.

During the past 10 years, sustainable intensification strategies based on the principles of conservation agriculture (CA) have been successfully promoted in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Making use of the combined benefits of minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention and crop rotation, CA increases yields when compared to conventional agricultural practices after two to five cropping seasons. Trials on farmers’ fields in Malawi, for example, increased yields by 20 to 60 percent. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, yields were increased by almost 60 percent using animal traction CA technologies.

Major highlights during the 30 years existence of CIMMYT in Zimbabwe include the development and release of more than 50 maize hybrids and open pollinated varieties (OPVs) adapted to drought-prone regions. These new varieties are expected to benefit almost 12 million people, helping to enhance food security, increase livelihoods and reduce poverty in Southern Africa.

CIMMYT’s seed system activities and support in training and technical assistance have led to the emergence of smaller domestic seed companies in the various Southern African countries. Farmers’ access to seed has improved. In addition, the Center has trained more than 200 technicians and graduate students through short- and long-term training in their various disciplines. Nearly 30 percent of these trainees are women. Trainees are drawn from southern Africa, the rest of Africa, and beyond.

SIMLESA’s seamlessly integrated solution to a perennial problem, but…

Written by on . Posted in Features.

A maize–legume rotation exploratory trial in Tete Province, Mozambique.
A maize–legume rotation exploratory trial in Tete Province, Mozambique.

And what solution is this? That Southern Africa smallholder farmers can attain food security and more income through sustainable intensification of maize-based farming systems. This was revealed during recent field learning tours in Malawi and Mozambique.

The annual field tours, which ran from February 9–19, 2015, were organized by CIMMYT’s Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Cropping Systems for Food Security in Eastern and Southern Africa (SIMLESA) project. A total of 224 people (147 men and 77 women) visited 11 sites. The objectives of the field tours were twofold: to examine how the new experiments under SIMLESA Phase II were progressing, and to gather farmers’ feedback on some of the sustainable intensification research interventions.

SIMLESA’s farmer-tested improved maize–legume technologies were showcased during the learning tours. Smallholder farmers interacted with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private-sector partners who have shown a great interest in the SIMLESA outscaling approach using lead farmers and learning sites. Some of the sites promote smallholder agriculture development by linking farmers with buyers and agrodealers, and by providing access to credit and technical training.

SIMLESA tours key pointsIn Malawi, the field visits began at Kasungu District, with 16 farmers and technical staff from Mozambique who were on an exchange visit also participating. The group visited outscaling initiatives by the National Association of Smallholder Farmers of Malawi (NASFAM), in which maize–groundnut rotations and maize–pigeonpea systems are being implemented through lead farmers. More than 120 households per field learning site are participating in the demonstrations on each of the five NASFAM sites visited.

In the mid-altitude agro-ecological region of Malawi, new maize varieties have been introduced under SIMLESA Phase II as well as new groundnut and cowpea varieties, in addition to the previously tested soybean varieties in the core on-farm exploratory trials.

Conservation agriculture (CA) exhibited mixed fortunes and presented more opportunities for learning and information sharing. Due to the excessive rains experienced in January, maize on the conventional ridge and furrow farming systems was generally greener and taller than on the CA plots, although the positive rotation effects in CA were clearly evident from the healthy maize crop following soybeans. Also, some maize varieties under CA were more susceptible to diseases such as leaf rust and suffered more from pests such as white grubs which attacked maize roots.

The next stop in Malawi was Mitundu, Lilongwe District, with new crop establishment trials. Here, various new hand-planting tools were being tested, such as jab planters, the Li seeder or planting hoe and the Oklahoma State University (USA) green seeder – all in comparison to the conventional dibble stick and traditional hoe.

The use of a Li seeder has a lot of advantages, including enabling farmers to work faster and therefore saving time, and it does not strain the back,” said Mr James Segula, a smallholder farmer. The Li seeder simultaneously opens a hole in the ground, drops seed and fertilizer, and covers the hole.

Key lessons for the Mozambique and Malawi groups were timely weeding, right maize–legume crop varieties, correct use of fertilizers, residue application and appropriate and safe use of agrochemicals.

Transforming agriculture through technology: Mrs Grace Chitanje,one of the farmers in Mitundu District, Malawi, demonstrates how to use the Li seeder.
Transforming agriculture through technology: Mrs Grace Chitanje,one of the farmers in Mitundu District, Malawi, demonstrates how to use the Li seeder.

Crossing borders to Mozambique’s Angonia District, the group visited exploratory trials which included farmer-preferred maize varieties and the new maize–soybean intercrop system being tested for the first time. In SIMLESA Phase 1, common beans intercrop failed, hence the switch to soybeans. In the central region, members of the national innovation platform which brings on board NGOs such as Total Land Care, Manica Small-Scale Farmers and the Agência de Desenvolvimento Económico de Manica (ADEM) showcased the importance of partnerships. Innovation platforms are fora for information and knowledge sharing on agricultural development. Interesting differences in the tested maize hybrid and open pollinated varieties (OPV) included better leaf diseases tolerance from the hybrid Pristine, in contrast to early maturity characteristics from the OPV.

SIMLESA’s innovation platform is working with partners such as ADEM to facilitate farmers’ access to inputs, link them to financial institutions to access credit and connect them to markets for their produce. Mr Domingos Dias, SIMLESA–Mozambique National Coordinator, said: “We commend this approach of linking farmers to input suppliers and credit providers. Lessons learned, and experience gained over the years, indicate that training alone without market links is not profitable.”

Links: More on SIMLESA – in slides | project website

Conservation agriculture viable, say Ethiopian farmers, as curtain comes down on CASFESA pilot project

Written by on . Posted in Features.

“Only those of us bold enough to try conservation agriculture technologies like zero tillage and intercropping benefited a lot, while all others were left behind.” – Hunegnaw Wubie, farmer, South Achefer District, Amhara Region, North Ethiopia

As the curtain comes down on CIMMYT’s 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.

A farmer speaks: ‘farmer-researcher’, clergyman Enkuhanhone Alayu, said people laughed at him for expecting to cultivate crops without plowing. Now they call him even at night seeking advice.
A farmer speaks: ‘farmer-researcher’, clergyman Enkuhanhone Alayu, said people laughed at him for expecting to cultivate crops without plowing. Now they call him even at night seeking advice.

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:

  • adaptation and demonstration of CA-based technologies on selected farmer plots;
  • enhancing pro-poor and gender-sensitive targeting of CA-based interventions;
  • improving the delivery of information, including on technologies and market opportunities to smallholders, as well as developing policy options and recommendations that favor these technologies; and,
  • enhancing the capacity of research, and development interventions, for project stakeholders.

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 Agency’s 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 Maize–Legume 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 “in beating the odds”. Most reported harvests of six or more tonnes per hectare of maize from the CA plots – 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 ‘farmer-researchers’, 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 “for expecting to cultivate crops without plowing” – a reference to minimum tillage practices that the project advocates as a central element of conservation agriculture.

“But 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,” Alayu said. “Zero 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.”

Another farmer speaks at the meeting.
Another farmer speaks at the meeting.

Unto the next generation…
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. “One 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,” 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 “our agricultural practices didn’t include conservation agriculture. This needs to change both at the regional and national levels.” 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: “… projects alone cannot bring about significant change…”
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 “the 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 – especially that of agencies at all levels of government.”

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. “Their efforts and dedication have now paid off,” 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.

Participants of the CASFESA closure workshop in Ethiopia.
Participants of the CASFESA closure workshop in Ethiopia.

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 CASFESA’s experience in Amhara Region has shown that conservation agriculture is an ideal way of increasing the productivity of maize in the region, and that “concerted 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.”

Links

DTMA launches new project to improve seed scaling in Eastern Africa

Written by on . Posted in News.

Born out of the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa (DTMA) Initiative and other CIMMYT-Africa maize projects, the Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa Seed Scaling (DTMASS) project will improve the demand for and availability of high-quality, affordable, certified seed of drought-tolerant maize varieties for small-scale farmers across eastern and southern Africa.

“DTMASS aims to produce close to 12,000 tons of certified seed of drought-tolerant maize varieties by the end of its fifth year,” said Tsedeke Abate, DTMA project leader who will also lead DTMASS, speaking at the Uganda launch of the project in Kampala on 4 February. “This will benefit approximately 2.5 million people through the increased production and productivity of maize and the adoption of improved certified seed.”

According to Abate, DTMASS will strengthen the formal seed system, thereby reducing counterfeit seed use, lowering the risk of seed-borne maize diseases and helping to maintain productivity as climates change.

Working in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, DTMASS will encourage cross-country learning and collaboration, Abate explained: “We have the knowledge and technology – what remains is translating knowledge to action.”

DTMASS countries account for 41 percent of maize area and production, and over 252 million people in sub-Saharan Africa.

A pillar of the project will be its strong partnerships with private and public seed companies, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations and national extension systems. Fifty-three seed companies have already agreed to produce seed of 71 drought-tolerant varieties.

These partnerships enable increased and improved certified seed to reach small-scale farmers, increase farm production and enhance productivity, according to Dr. Imelda Kashaija, deputy director at Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO). “This project is at the right place at the right time,” she said.

DTMASS launched officially on 17-18 November 2014 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The goal for Uganda in 2015 is to produce 1,800 tons of improved maize seed.

DTMA
Photo: Ngila Kimotho/Dryland Seed Company

Improved maize to boost yields in nitrogen-starved African soils

Written by Mike Listman on . Posted in Features.

Sub-Saharan African farmers typically apply less than 20 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare of cropland — far less than their peers in any other region of the world. In 2014, partners in the Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project developed 41 Africa-adapted maize varieties that respond better to low amounts of nitrogen fertilizer and are up for release in nine African countries through 24 seed companies.

A farmer applies nitrogen fertilizer to her hybrid maize. Photo: CIMMYT/IMAS

After water, nitrogen is the single most important input for maize production; lack of it is the main constraint to cereal yields in Africa, in areas with enough rain to raise a crop. Year after year, infertile soils and high fertilizer prices (in rural areas as much as six times the global average) combine to reduce harvests of maize, sub-Saharan Africa’s number-one cereal crop and chief source of calories and protein for the poor. With funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), an initiative launched in 2010 has made dramatic progress to address this by exploiting natural genetic variation for nutrient-use efficiency in tropical maize. “Partners have been breeding maize varieties that respond better to the small amounts of nitrogen fertilizer African farmers can afford to apply,” said Biswanath Das, CIMMYT maize breeder and coordinator of the Improved Maize for African Soils (IMAS) project. “We’re aiming to raise maize yields by 50 percent and benefit up to 60 million maize farmers in eastern and southern Africa.”

Smallholder Farmer Conditions: A Maize “Reality Check”

A public-private partnership that, along with CIMMYT, involves national research organizations such as the Kenya Agricultural & Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) and South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC), African seed companies and DuPont Pioneer, IMAS has advanced quickly in part because participants share breeding lines and technical knowhow, according to Das.

“But a real key to success – and a significant legacy of the project – is that IMAS has established in eastern and southern Africa the world’s largest low-nitrogen screening network for maize,” Das explained. “There are 25 sites in 10 countries and a total of over 120,000 experimental plots. Partners can test breeding lines and quickly and reliably spot the ones with superior nitrogen-use efficiency under smallholder farmers’ conditions.” According to Das, nearly a quarter of the plots are managed by seed companies, which recognize the value of nitrogen-use efficiency as a key trait for their farmer clients.

In an exciting 2014 development, regulatory agencies in eastern Africa began evaluating maize national performance trials — which varieties must pass as a prerequisite for release — under nitrogen stress in the IMAS network. “This is a clear recognition by policymakers of poor soil fertility as a critical constraint for African maize farmers,” said Das. “To meet farmers’ needs, IMAS varieties are also bred for drought tolerance and resistance to the region’s major maize diseases.”

Also Yielding Under Well Fertilized Conditions

Partners are augmenting conventional breeding with DNA-marker-assisted selection and use of “doubled haploids,” a high-tech shortcut to genetically-uniform maize inbred lines. Experimental breeding stocks thus developed are field tested under low-nitrogen stress through “high-precision phenotyping,” involving careful measurement of key traits in live plants.

Low nitrogen trials in Kiboko, Kenya, where new maize varieties are tested. Photo: CIMMYT/IMAS.

“In this way, we’ve quickly developed maize varieties that yield up to 50 percent more than existing varieties under low-fertility stress, characteristic of smallholder farming systems,” Das explained. “Crucially for farmers, these varieties also perform well under well- fertilized conditions, whilst several carry resistance to maize lethal necrosis, a devastating viral disease spreading through eastern Africa.” In 2014, 41 such varieties were nominated for release in nine countries in Africa, in partnership with 24 seed companies.

This year IMAS also worked with seed companies to support the production and dissemination of 3,000 tons of seed of nitrogen-use efficient maize hybrids in Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, potentially benefitting more than 120,000 smallholder maize farmers and helping to enhance food security for over half a million household members, according to Das. “Close collaboration with the private seed sector has been instrumental to IMAS since its inception,” Das said. “These partners host over a quarter of the regional nitrogen stress screening network and have helped with the quick increase of seed of nitrogen-use efficient varieties and with managing farmer demonstrations and field days to support the fast release of new varieties.”

A December 2014 report by the Montpellier Panel – comprising agricultural, trade and ecology experts from Europe and Africa – details the economic and ecological threats of degrading soils in Africa, and is highlighted in an 04 December BBC feature.

When rural farmers are given a voice: successful farmers share their experience with sustainable intensification

Written by on . Posted in Features.

When traveling from Chimoio to Tete along one of the main roads in central Mozambique, one inevitably passes through Malomue, a small rural village in Báruè District. Since 2008, conservation agriculture (CA) technologies and improved drought-tolerant maize varieties have been promoted to farmers through various donor-funded projects, including a USAID-funded Feed the Future initiative.

In the past, farmers in the area would cultivate their land, clear the surface of all protective cover and burn the residue from the previous cropping season. The main food security crop in the area is maize, and due to lack of access to improved seed, lowyielding landraces were often planted. The introduction of improved agriculture technologies developed and tested by the Platform of Agriculture Research and Innovation (PARTI) and the Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Lab (SANREM) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) implemented in collaboration with the University of Tennessee, have brought significant change to Malomue. Farmers have been exposed to improved seed, fertilizers, improved weed management practices and more sustainable planting techniques based on conservation agriculture principles and practices.

Josè Leuane Dicane, a rural farmer from the community with approximately 15 hectares of cultivated land, said, “The first lesson I learned is that no fire should enter my plots, and I have managed to avoid burning grass from my neighbors.” Dicane also appreciates the reduced labor required when chemical weed control options and direct seeding techniques are used, as well as the increased moisture retention and fertility increases when legume crops are rotated and crop residues are kept on the soil surface. Improved drought-tolerant maize varieties, developed by CIMMYT and extended through Mozambican private seed companies, have further increased the yields on the fields of farmers such as Dicane. Dicane and his large family have become food self-sufficient. He has planted a garden where he produces higher value horticulture crops under small-scale irrigation, and has become an emerging commercial farmer by successfully selling his produce at a profit in the nearby town of Catandica.

The project has identified him as one of the most visionary and successful farmers in central Mozambique, worthy of sharing his experiences with others in the world. With support from USAID, Dicane and his wife were invited to go to the United States to attend a meeting of SANREM/CRSP. On 16 May, Dicane and his wife Judisse boarded an airplane on their way to the U.S. Neither had ever flown, stayed in a hotel or seen the world outside of Mozambique. This was the experience of a lifetime for them. During the SANREM/CRSP meeting on 20 May, they shared their new farming expertise with other participants and farmers. They spoke as if they had presented to an audience many times. Their very impressive report on the lives of rural farmers from Mozambique made a difference to many of the participants. The farmers from Malomue have been given a voice and the opportunity to describe the gradual changes in their lives. The changes might be small, but viewed through another lens, they are also groundbreaking.

Hidden factors contribute to food insecurity in female-headed households

Written by on . Posted in News.

By Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT

Results of a survey conducted by the Adoption Pathways (AP) project indicate that even when male-headed and female-headed households have the same resources, the latter are still less food-secure. This difference could be attributed to unreported social exclusion, discrimination and access to credit facilities which the researchers will explore further through group discussions and using repeated observations (panel data) with the farmers.

ACIAR donor representatives at Egerton University.

“Equal access to inputs, human capital, resources and institutional services may not close the gender food security gap,” said Menale Kassie, CIMMYT socioeconomist and the AP project leader. “The quality of information extension workers are providing to female farmers could be different.” Kassie presented research results of a survey conducted in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania to donor representatives from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) led by Nick Austin, the chief executive officer, and Mellissa Wood, director of the Australian International Food Security Research Centre (AIFSRC) at Egerton University in Njoro, Kenya.

Farmers who adopt a suite of conservation agriculture (CA) technologies get the best returns. “If farmers combine technologies, the income they generate is much higher,” Kassie said. “Farmers who adopted a combination of sustainable intensification practices (SIPs) such as crop rotation, minimum tillage and improved maize seed had the highest returns.” Survey results from Tanzania also show that adoption of improved varieties improves the food security status of food-insecure households.

The results also shed light on the spill-over effects of SIP adoption, risk of crop failure and the cost of risk reduction. The AP project is compiling detailed gender-disaggregated data to study causes of food insecurity and technology gaps. “This data set is cross-cutting and will be used by stakeholders beyond the project partners,” Kassie said. “We are bringing students on board to increase research productivity.”

From right: Donor representatives ACIAR CEO Nick Austin, AIFSRC director Mellissa Wood and Australian High Commission’s Paul Greener listen to Egerton University

Wilcyster Nyateko, a master’s student at Egerton University using AP data and working under the supervision of Professor Gideon Obare, presented her research proposal “Determinants of diffusion of agro-innovation amongst smallholder farmers in Eastern and Western Kenya” to the donor delegation. “The AP data helped to widen my perspectives,” said Nyateko, who is going to include variables such as plot characteristics, tenure and distance of the plot from the household and market in her analysis based on the feedback she received. Other stakeholders who will have access to the panel data include Egerton University’s policy thinktank, Tegemeo Institute. “This is a fascinating data set,” Austin said after the presentation.

The project has contributed to capacity building of partners and young economists who have participated in data collection. “The project also provided employment opportunities to the enumerators,” Kassie said. The project has produced 15 publications and seven policy briefs and presented research results in various international forums. “Some of the challenges encountered include attrition problems such as spouses working in distant places and who are not able to participate in the survey or families included in the original sample who had migrated to other villages.”

AP plans to produce more empirical outputs using the panel data, build the capacity of partners and share the research outputs with key stakeholders (e.g. policymakers, development partners, researchers and farmers). “The key challenge is taking research products to these stakeholders; doing so requires more resources and time, beyond the project period,” Kassie said. The donors also paid a courtesy call to the Egerton University leadership where they were hosted by Professor Rose Mwonya, the deputy vice chancellor of academic affairs, and Professor John Mwangi, who gave them an overview of the university and its involvement in the AP project.

Adoption Pathways project strengthens partnership with Kenya’s Egerton University

Written by on . Posted in News.

By Florence Sipalla/CIMMYT

CIMMYT and Kenya’s Egerton University have agreed to strengthen their research collaboration, policy formulation and data sharing and to engage more graduate students in data analysis as part of the Adoption Pathways (AP) project. “This will accelerate the use of data sets to quickly produce products,” said Menale Kassie, CIMMYT socioeconomist, who is also the AP project leader.

Through AP, CIMMYT is partnering with universities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania to identify the incentives and constraints to farmers’ adoption of new techniques in maize-legume systems. The project is funded by the Australian International Food Security Research Centre (AIFSRC) and managed by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

CIMMYT and Egerton University have pledged to strengthen their collaboration through capacity building, research, policy advocacy and data sharing, especially through the Adoption Pathways project. Photos: Florence Sipalla

The enhanced collaboration between CIMMYT and Egerton was discussed at a meeting held at the CIMMYT-Nairobi office on 24 April and attended by Professor James Tuitoek, vice chancellor at Egerton; Professor Gideon Obare, the AP national coordinator in Kenya and a lecturer at the university; and Mary Mathenge, director of the Tegemeo Institute of Public Policy and Development, a policy think tank of Egerton University based in Nairobi.

Senior staff from Tegemeo, which specializes in agricultural policy formulation backed by data, will supervise the graduate students in collaboration with CIMMYT, Tuitoek said. The two institutions train young economists pursuing postgraduate degrees, and research on maize is a major component of their socioeconomic studies. “Almost 50 percent of Tegemeo’s research has been on maize policy,” said Mathenge. “It is often difficult to showcase the value of economic research to policymakers because it is an intangible product – it is not like a new seed variety, for example,” said Kassie. Despite that challenge, Kassie is confident that the partnership with Tegemeo will be mutually beneficial. “If we work with Tegemeo, who already have established ways of packaging research outcomes from economics studies, then we can have a far greater impact from the work we do.”