CIMMYT’s work in Africa helps farmers access new maize and wheat systems-based technologies, information and markets, raising incomes and enhancing crop resilience to drought and climate change. CIMMYT sets priorities in consultation with ministries of agriculture, seed companies, farming communities and other stakeholders in the maize and wheat value chains. Our activities in Africa are wide ranging and include: breeding maize for drought tolerance and low-fertility soils, and for resistance to insect pests, foliar diseases and parasitic weeds; sustainably intensifying production in maize- and wheat-based systems; and investigating opportunities to reduce micronutrient and protein malnutrition among women and young children.
A female farmer using digital agricultural tools. (Credit: C. De Bode/CGIAR)
Research shows that digital innovations can increase small-scale farmers’ incomes, boost the adoption of better practices, and increase resilience to climate shocks while reducing the gender gap and managing food system risks. However, these benefits are not universal. More than 600 million people and 40 percent of small farms are still not covered by mobile internet, especially in those countries most dependent on agricultural production. Across low- and middle-income countries, women are 7 percent less likely than men to own a mobile phone and 15 percent less likely to use mobile internet.
A new CGIAR Research Initiative, Digital Innovation, has been launched to research pathways to bridge this digital divide, improve the quality of information systems, and strengthen local capacities to realize the potential of digital technologies.
Digital innovations can enable an unprecedented transformation of food, land and water systems for greater climate resilience and sustainability. To realize this potential, multidisciplinary expertise across the CGIAR must find solutions to three challenges affecting the Global South:
The digital divide: digital technologies and infrastructure do not meet people’s needs, especially women and rural populations. More than 600 million people live outside the reach of mobile networks, two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
Weak information systems: available information is inadequate or does not reach those who need it most. More than 300 million small-scale producers lack access to digital climate services. Weak information systems prevent evidence-based policy responses and lead to missed opportunities to reduce poverty and increase economic growth.
Limited digital capabilities: digital literacy and skill levels across the Global South remain low, particularly for marginalized and food-insecure individuals and groups such as women.
Objective
The Digital Innovation Initiative aims todevelop and support digital innovationsto stimulate the inclusive, sustainable transformation of food, land and water systems in the areas ofinvestments that policymakers could make to close the digital divide, information delivery systems that allow more people to take action against predicted risks, and ways for partner organizations and marginalized communities to enhance digital capabilities, access resources and opportunities.
This objective will be achieved through:
Generating evidence on impacts of digital innovations and collaborative partnerships to create an enabling environment for digital ecosystems, unlocking local innovators’ access to investments and advanced technologies.
Developing a suite of tools and guidelines to bridge the digital divide, ensuring that gender equality and social inclusion underly the development of digital innovations, research programs and their implementation.
System dynamics modeling to understand complex dynamics in agrifood systems and support natural resource management authorities in equitably allocating water and land resources and managing risks.
Real-time food system monitoring toprovide timely and reliable information to stakeholders by applying AI-driven analytics of satellite remote sensing, internet-connected sensors, and other ground-truthed data from multidisciplinary sources.
Strengthening partners’ capacity to collect real-time data, conduct data analytics and make data-driven decisions to enable equitable digital platforms and services.
Francisco Mayorga joins the CIMMYT Board of Trustees to reflect on MasAgro. (Credit: Francisco Alarcón/CIMMYT)
Between June 20-23, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) hosted its Board of Trustees meeting, with presentations spanning the breadth of its global projects.
One particular project captured the imagination of attendees: MasAgro, which promotes the sustainable intensification of maize- and wheat-based production systems in Mexico. Through implementing collaborative research initiatives, developing improved varieties, and introducing sustainable technologies and farming practices, the program aims to improve livelihoods and production systems for farmers by enhancing their connections with local value chain actors.
Francisco Mayorga, businessman and former Secretary of Agriculture for Mexico, and Lindiwe Sibanda, CIMMYT board member and member of the CGIAR System Board, presented on the creation of CIMMYT’s MasAgro program and its results. Sibanda interviewed Mayorga to learn where the project’s achievements can be scaled and replicated, describing the project as a “gift for Africa” from Mexico.
Farmers load hybrid maize cobs in sacks for horse transportation over the mountains in Chiapas, Mexico. (Credit: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
What’s in it for farmers?
Built on the premise of ‘take it to the farmers’, MasAgro helps farmers understand the broader context of agrifood systems in order to facilitate their successful transition to sustainable farming practices. This is accomplished through innovation hubs: core spaces defined by similar agroecological conditions that promote participatory innovation processes and co-implement functional structures for the validation, adaptation, and scaling of sustainable solutions.
Innovation hubs facilitate mentorship by providing closeness between farmers and value chain actors. A physical and virtual network of research platforms, demonstration modules and extension areas support actors to gain skills and knowledge to achieve common objectives. For example, farmers can learn how about agricultural tools and practices and where best to use them on their land, and they now consider the impact of fertilizers on the soil and ecosystem and seek alternatives.
Useful information is provided via multiple communication tools, including mobile messaging, to enable effective knowledge sharing and innovation between actors. The network has led to farmers independently adapting and adopting new practices after learning from others.
The selling point for farmers is understanding why sustainable agriculture creates opportunities for their livelihoods and lives – with improved practices, they can establish a successful long-term setup to increase their yield and income. These opportunities will appeal to smallholders worldwide.
Silvia Suarez Moreno harvests maize in Chiapas, Mexico. (Credit: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
Benefits for the public and private sector
What also differentiates MasAgro is the emphasis on public and private sector partnerships. CIMMYT collaborated with partners to develop the MasAgro mindset and build their capacity to deliver seed to small- and medium-sized farms. Sibanda praised the use of CIMMYT’s presence in Mexico for developing these connections.
Mayorga highlighted the importance of securing funding and support from the Ministry of Agriculture in the project’s success. He said he initially persuaded colleagues to invest by emphasizing MasAgro’s holistic approach, which considers all elements of farming, rather than dealing with them as individual elements.
Using the different government instruments to support the theory of change towards the impact of MasAgro is part of the success. For example, for businesses, the Mexican government provided funding for laboratory equipment and training needs after identifying seed company partners to support through their research programs and regional markets. Mayorga also celebrated partnerships with small and medium enterprises (SMEs), who were supported by CIMMYT engineers to design more effective machinery and think around scale-appropriate business models. This created additional businesses in the agricultural sector.
Through these partnerships, private sector organizations have invested in agricultural research and development that will benefit smallholders, prevent food insecurity, and support a shift to sustainable farming. Countries in Africa can benefit from similar investment, which could be achieved through exporting and recreating the MasAgro model.
Tzeltal farmer harvests beans in her maize field. (Credit: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
Flexible government support
Practical support and policy change from the Mexican government further encouraged farmers to adopt sustainable practices. Mayorga explained how a subsidy for farmers’ fuel was replaced with alternative financial support for equipment. Sibanda described this initiative as “visionary” and “a triple win” – farmers could purchase a machine at a subsidized rate, use less labor, and cause less damage to the environment.
To incentivize large companies in Mexico that buy a lot of wheat, Mayorga tapped into their desire “to encourage an economic behavior in the farmer” and introduce a more entrepreneurial approach to agriculture. They encouraged businesses to buy grains from farmers at a better price and learn more about the MasAgro approach.
“You don’t stay with an idea as a policy advisor and politician – you popularize it, look for new champions, walk the talk and put money into it,” summarized Sibanda. “I think that’s a legacy.”
In analysis of why the Ukraine crisis is heavily impacting Africa, the report’s introduction from Bill Gates delves into reasons behind reliance on crop imports. Most farmers in Africa are smallholders with small plots of land and have limited capacity to use fertilizers or have access to irrigation. This means that any shock to the food system, such as the disruption to the global supply chain caused by the Ukraine conflict, hugely impacts the yield levels, threatening food and nutritional security.
Conflict is not the only risk to food systems in Africa. Climate change is the most prominent challenge that the continent’s smallholder farmers continue to face.
Developed through support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, DroughtTego, a CIMMYT-derived hybrid maize with increased resistance to hotter, drier climates, produces an average of 66% more grain per acre in Kenya. Scaled through public-private partnerships, DroughtTego seeds can increase farmer income by providing more than enough to feed a family of six for an entire year, enabling them to invest the additional money in sending their children to school or building new homes.
CIMMYT and CGIAR scientists have also been using predictive modeling to speed up plant breeding and develop new varieties that can perform well even in drought stress-prone environments of Africa. Artificial intelligence helps in processing the genomic information of crops alongside the environmental data, such as soil samples and satellite imagery. The results create a vision of what farms will need to look like in the future, enabling scientists to determine which type of crop varieties can better succeed in specific locations.
Predictive epidemiological modeling can highlight where plant diseases, such as wheat rust, may possibly spread. An early warning system, developed by a partnership between CIMMYT, the University of Cambridge, the UK Met Office, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EIAR), the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) and the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, successfully alerted farmers in Ethiopia to an outbreak of the disease so that they could take preventive measures. The resulting outcome was the country’s largest wheat harvest ever recorded, instead of a devastating rust epidemic.
A LinkedIn post from Bill Gates also emphasized CIMMYT’s research, asking which crop accounts for around 30% of calorie intake for people in sub-Saharan Africa — the answer being “maize”.
Inclusion in this report highlights the global impact of CIMMYT’s work on farmers and world food systems, which is only possible through successful partnerships with organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Cover photo: A farmer in Zaka District, Zimbabwe, experiences a drought that could affect crop yields. (Photo: Johnson Siamachira/CIMMYT)
Most agricultural production in the Global South takes place in mixed farming systems, which allow farmers to diversify risk from single crop production, use labor efficiently, access cash and add value to products. Key drivers — climate change, population pressure, urbanization, water scarcity, changing diets, volatile food prices — mean that flexible and accelerated changes in mixed farming systems will be needed to achieve global targets such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Sustainable intensification, or the production of more food on the same piece of land while reducing the negative environmental impact, is a viable avenue.
Two types of hurdles must be overcome to adequately meet the challenge at farming systems level. One hurdle is to ensure efficient coordination, integration and transfer of innovations, information, tools and standardized methodologies. A second hurdle is to integrate multiple biophysical and socio-economic thematic-level outputs and identify strategies that minimize trade-offs and maximize synergies, resulting in multiple impacts at scale.
Objective
This Initiative aims to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agro-ecologies and socio-economic settings.
Activities
This objective will be achieved through:
Analyzing status, trends and future dynamics of mixed farming systems to identify entry points for equitable sustainable intensification, to mitigate negative impacts of change and seize emerging opportunities for livelihoods.
Building methods and tools for sustainable intensification of mixed farming systems to support decisions on what kind of sustainable intensification might work where, and for whom, in specific contexts.
Participatory co-design of mixed farming systems with evidence-based, validated sustainable intensification innovation packages that are responsive to improving efficiency, equity and resilience, in regions where mixed farming systems dominate the landscape.
Advancing and supporting scaling of innovations, through strategic partnerships and building the capacity of relevant actors in scaling approaches — a gender-transformative approach will be central to all innovation and scaling design to enhance equity.
Capacity-building for mixed farming system design and analyses, to support long-term impact on university and college students, scientists, extension agents, farmers, private sector, policy makers and development actors.
Outcomes
Proposed 3-year outcomes include:
Smallholder farmers use resource-efficient and climate-smart technologies and practices to enhance their livelihoods, environmental health and biodiversity.
Research and scaling organizations enhance their capabilities to develop and disseminate innovations.
Smallholder farmers implement new practices that mitigate risks associated with extreme climate change and environmental conditions and achieve more resilient livelihoods.
Women are youth are empowered to be more active in decision-making in food, land and water systems.
National and local governments utilize enhanced capacity to assess and apply research evidence and data in policymaking processes.
Agricultural mechanization engineer Subash Adhikari adjusts a maize shelling machine on a farmer´s verandah in Rambasti, Kanchanpur, Nepal. (Credit: P. Lowe/CIMMYT)
The adoption of climate-smart agricultural production processes and technologies is a vital strategy in attempts to mitigate the global impacts of climate change without compromising on food security. However, supporting farmers to permanently implement new technologies and approaches requires a deep understanding of their needs, robust training, and effective transfer of knowledge.
At the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), projects across the Global South aim to embed agrifood systems that are sustainable for all.
To share how CIMMYT empowers farmers and develops new technologies, Director General Bram Govaerts attended a panel event hosted by the Business Council for International Understanding (BICU) on September 19. For an audience of foreign government officials, multilaterals, and private sector executives, panelists introduced new perspectives to support global food security efforts and inspire greater collaboration.
Partnership approach
Panelists were asked to explain the technologies that can be unlocked by agricultural financial mechanisms, referencing how research and development is keeping pace with the quick adaptations needed by farmers to address climate change.
Examples from CIMMYT’s participation in the AgriLAC Resiliente CGIAR Initiative, a project for sustainable agricultural development in Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighted the innovative partnerships that are pushing forward research and development in the sector, enabling food systems and actors to act quickly to meet food security needs, mitigate climate hazards, stabilize communities and reduce forced migration.
Scientists are conscious of ensuring that solutions to one challenge are not the cause of new problems elsewhere; co-development is essential to this, ensuring the views of all actors are represented. Using the Integrated Agri-food System Initiative (IASI) methodology, created by CIMMYT in partnership with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), projects can develop strategies and actions with a significant likelihood of supportive public and private investment that will transform food systems.
Expertise from farmers
Even the best agricultural technology in the world is only effective if it is used. When discussing barriers to the implementation of technology, Govaerts emphasized CIMMYT’s mechanization prototyping, co-creation, and experimentation work that bridges the gap between farmers and scientists and encourages adoption of new methods and tools.
Having farming influencers onboard has proved priceless, as these people co-create prototypes and experiments that demonstrate results and offer assured testimony to reluctant stakeholders.
Innovations can transform livelihoods, giving farmers a way to increase income and provide stability and better opportunities for their families – which is the most appealing reason for adoption.
Training programs are also fundamental, ensuring skills and knowledge around new technologies are freely available to farmers, technicians, and researchers. CIMMYT projects such as MasAgro in Mexico, has trained more than 3,000 producers and 400 technicians in sustainable agriculture, with more than 70,000 producers participating in educational events during the pandemic.
Hunger and climate change – a dual problem?
Conversation also centered on whether the development of new technologies is aiming to confront world hunger and climate change as separate issues, or whether solutions can be suitable for both challenges.
Essential actions to mitigate the food crisis require a global perspective, acknowledging that unexpected crises will always arise. For example, Russia and Ukraine account for 28% of the world’s wheat exports, so high prices are linked to supply chain disruption. More than 2.5 billion people worldwide consume wheat-based products, so the effects of these disruptions could mean significant hunger and potential civil unrest. Nations already in crisis, such as Yemen, Sudan and Ethiopia, may be worse hit, but other countries with high dependency on imports like Egypt are also affected.
Govaerts highlighted the inextricable links between the causes of food insecurity and climate change. He underscored CIMMYT’s holistic approach to overcoming widespread impacts on the global food system, such as the concurrent challenges of COVID-19, climate change and the Ukraine crisis, by co-developing lasting solutions incorporating these three elements:
Extensive research on climate change adaptation and mitigation in maize and wheat-based production systems across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Climate focused research aims to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate shocks and to raise and maintain yields profitably and sustainably by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Capacity building for stakeholders in the development and application of new technologies.
Many other deep disruptions are on their way. It is time to invest in science, research, innovation, technologies, and start practicing teamwork to allow those investments to translate into a better future for the planet, and for us.
About BICU:
BICU is a leading business-supported non-profit education initiative, established by President Eisenhower of the United States in 1955 for the purpose of facilitating public-private partnerships and high-level business to government dialogue.
Participants of the IMAGE National Advisory Committee launch event in Ethiopia. (Credit: EIAR)
Coordinating the development and deployment of improved seed varieties is a complex task involving many stakeholders, including government agencies, public and private seed sector organizations, and ultimately, farmers and farmer groups. Cooperation among these groups is vital to assess and measure the impact of improved varieties and to guide decision making for future crop breeding efforts.
The Institutionalizing Monitoring of Crop Variety Adoption using Genotyping (IMAGE) project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and managed by Context Global Development, is a five-year program operating in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ethiopia designed to increase the efficacy of variety deployment by establishing, institutionalizing, and scaling up routine monitoring of improved variety adoption and turnover using genotyping technologies, focusing on wheat, maize, teff, and the common bean.
The International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT), in collaboration with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), launched Ethiopia’s IMAGE National Advisory Committee (NAC) February 25, 2022, in Addis Ababa.
Feto Esemo, the Director General of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) officially opened the workshop.
Esemo underscored in his opening remarks the NAC’s mission to promote the application of DNA fingerprinting for an accurate assessment and understanding of the adoption of improved maize and wheat varieties by small-holder farmers in Ethiopia and resolve data discrepancy among researchers.
The NAC is the highest advisory body for IMAGE’s implementation in Ethiopia and comprises seven institutions: Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministry of Planning and Development (MPD), Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), EIAR, Central Statistical Agency (CSA), Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (BI), and the Ethiopian Biotechnology Institute (EBI).
Kindie Tesfaye, CIMMYT senior scientist, emphasized the application of DNA fingerprint data on maize and wheat in Ethiopia and summarized the IMAGE Project.
“IMAGE supports inclusive agricultural transformation by providing insights and evidence for seed sector actors to enhance government agency capacity, improve stakeholder coordination, and lead to better resource allocation for varietal development and commercialization,” said Tesfaye.
He added the IMAGE Project provides the opportunity to leverage past monitoring pilots and cross-country lessons while advancing genetic reference libraries, establishing protocol adoption, and building towards institutionalization over five years.
National maize and wheat genotyping studies in Ethiopia proved the feasibility of using DNA fingerprinting for variety monitoring at scale and CIMMYT and EIAR presented the findings to seed system and policy stakeholders with an emphasis on demonstrating how varietal identity based on genotyping compares with farmers’ elicitation, the area-weighted average age of varieties, germplasm attribution, and varietal performance.
Chilot Yirga, Deputy Director-General, Capacity Building and Administration of EIAR, emphasized the functional and structural roles of the National Advisory Committee (NAC), Country Team (CT), and Technical Working Group (TWG) of the project in the country.
EIAR, the Holetta National Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, CSA, and CIMMYT comprise the Country Team.
Yirga also briefed the participants on the details of the Committee’s mandate and indicated the roles of all stakeholders and policymakers, specifically in DNA fingerprinting.
The workshop concluded by electing a chairperson and vice-chairperson of the committee among its members and co-project leaders from CIMMYT and EIAR.
The Gene Editing for Reducing Aflatoxin in Groundnuts project seeks to advance safer and nutritious groundnut varieties with durable genetic resistance to Aspergilli infection and aflatoxin contamination via gene editing. These new technologies will help address associated health and disease burdens, malnutrition, and trade and economic losses for smallholder farming communities in sub-Saharan Africa and globally. The main output of this project will be gene-edited varieties with reduced levels of aflatoxins.
CGIAR researchers and partners outside the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where the workshop took place. (Credit: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)
The Initiative aims to deliver agronomic gain at scale for millions of smallholder farming households in prioritized farming systems, with emphasis on supporting women and young farmers, to demonstrate measurable impact on food and nutrition security, income, water use, soil health and climate resilience.
Co-creation of agricultural solutions with farmers is integral to the Initiative through the engagement of modern tools, digital technologies, and behavioral science.
At the workshop, participants created a shared understanding of the Initiative’s goals for the region, laid groundwork for in-country planning and implementation, and increased visibility of the Initiative. Attendees agreed on the need to reevaluate beyond the boundaries of traditional agronomic practices and microeconomic challenges, considering policies at national and regional levels.
Roundtable discussions between participants highlight priorities and opportunities for the Excellence in Agronomy Initiative in east and southern Africa. (Credit: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)
Combining expertise from across CGIAR research centers, private sector actors and government agriculture departments, the Initiative takes a data-based approach to offer demand-driven solutions. This was of particular appeal to Eyasu Elias, deputy minister at Ethiopia’s Ministry of Agriculture, who described the approach as “truly commendable” in comparison to conventional supply-driven approaches.
Elias, who was represented by a delegate at the event, highlighted Ethiopia’s current three priorities: managing acid soils; managing Vertisols so they utilize their natural productive potentials; and adopting practices that mitigate the formation of salt-affected soils.
“Attaining food security will be a tremendous challenge under current conditions,” explained Elias’ representative. “More than ever, we need innovative agronomic solutions that enhance nutrient use efficiencies; we need solutions that can be crafted from locally available alternatives. Collaborations that allow co-creation, co-design and participatory technology generation along these lines are appreciated from our end.”
Michael Euler is a CIM-integrated expert and joined CIMMYT in June 2021. As Agriculture and Resource Economist, he analyzes the diffusion and impacts of agricultural innovations on smallholder farms. One focus of his work includes the assessment of opportunities and challenges of the use of DNA fingerprinting for varietal adoption and impact studies.
Before joining CIMMYT, Michael was with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the German Institute for Development Evaluation and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
Michael holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics and a Master of Science in Agricultural Sciences from the university of Gottingen, Germany. Results of his research and evaluation work are published in peer-reviewed academic journals and evaluation reports.
Ethiopian wheat farmers will soon benefit from the CRAFT tool. (Credit: Bioversity)
The negative impacts of climate shocks have undermined the food security of millions of people in Ethiopia, where predominantly rain-fed agriculture and cereals comprise 82% of the crop area and are particularly susceptible to extreme climate events like drought or flooding. Predictions that can account for potential climate events can facilitate efforts of governmental agencies to proactively engage in climate mitigation efforts.
The five-day training workshop exposed select national experts involved in data collection and analysis of crop performance to the CRAFT tool, which is expected to improve accuracy, efficiency, and speed of forecasts.
The participants of the training were experts from the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), National Meteorology Agency (NMA), and Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC).
CRAFT has been developed in collaboration with CIMMYT, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), and the University of Florida through the Capacitating African Smallholders with Climate Advisories and Insurance Development (CASCAID-II) program. CRAFT is a flexible and adaptable software platform, relying on a crop engine to run pre-installed crop models and on the Climate Predictability Tool (CPT) to utilize seasonal climate predictions to produce crop yield forecasts. The tool has been calibrated, evaluated, and tested under Ethiopian ecological conditions.
In the opening of the training workshop, Esayas Lemma, Director of the Crop Development Directorate at the MoA, emphasized institutions must be equipped with the necessary analytical and decision support tools to enable decision makers to make critical decisions at the right time due to increasing challenges to food security. He added the training organized by CIMMYT through the AICCRA-Ethiopia project was timely and important for enhancing the capacity of the experts drawn from the three institutions and building national capacity in using modern decision support tools.
Kindie Tesfaye, senior scientist at CIMMYT, stated the training was organized to help experts in national institutions in applying decision support tools to equip decision makers with information to help them minimize costs, save lives, and enhance long-term climate risk management and policy options in Ethiopia. “We hope to bring this technology to other countries following this roll-out in Ethiopia,” Tesfaye said.
“The training is an eye-opener for me, and this is the type of tool that we have been looking for,” said Mss. Berktawit, a trainee from EDRMC.
“The CRAFT tool has several applications in the MoA, and we are lucky to have this training. With some additional training, we at the ministry should be able to use it to support our crop monitoring and early warning works,” said Mr. Zewdu, a trainee from the MoA.
A follow up training session will be organized to certify participants as they continue working with CRAFT. “Feedback from these users will be vital to optimize inputs for CRAFT and to develop an intuitive user interface,” Tesfaye said.
A recent workshop in Ethiopia brought together researchers from the Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the Ministry of Agriculture, the Regional Bureau of Agriculture, alongside partners from regional agricultural research institutes, Universities, and CGIAR centers. (Credit: CGIAR)
In some of Ethiopia’s most vulnerable communities, climate change is having a disastrous effect on agriculture, a critical sector to the livelihood of millions. Droughts, floods, pests, and disease outbreaks are key challenges farmers face in the age of the climate crisis. These climate-related threats have already contributed to reducing agricultural productivity and food insecurity.
In order to minimize agricultural risks from the above challenges and maximize farmers’ resilience, there is a critical need to introduce the technologies, innovations, and practices that underpin ‘climate-smart agriculture. For instance, cascading knowledge on agricultural risk management and promoting conservation agriculture may prove to be sustainable practices that address the limiting factors of food security. This, however, cannot be done in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. In Ethiopia, we’ve seen how climate-smart agriculture (CSA) not only needs to be localized – so it is effective in different environments – it also needs to be inclusive, meeting the needs of women and youth in various communities.
CSA is critical to making Ethiopian farmers and their communities more resilient in the face of climate change. Awareness-raising campaigns and consultations fit an important role in engaging scientists, practitioners, and beneficiaries to understand and implement area-specific climate adaptation mechanisms through CSA-based input. A current challenge is that climate-smart interventions in Ethiopia are limited because of a lack of awareness of the necessary skill set to implement and manage those technologies properly. After all, it is wise to remember that CSA is a knowledge-intensive exercise. For instance, let us look at the Ethiopian highlands, which constitute a substantial amount of the country’s farming population. In the extreme highlands of Ethiopia – generally dubbed as Wurch or mountain zone above 3800m elevation above sea level – CSA implementation is even scarce due to climatic and socio-economic conditions. In fact, those parts of the highlands are often referred to as the “forgotten agroecology” and agricultural research institutions – both in Ethiopia and beyond – must develop and package climate-smart interventions tailored for regions that have these agroecological characteristics.
Despite some practical challenges, it is also wise to note that there are successful cases of CSA implementation and addition across the various parts of the country. This is recognized for the literature review to document CSA experiences in the country and develop a detailed ‘CSA compendium’. These experiences can promote public engagement informed and inspired by the practical experience of climate-smart interventions, both from sites that have similar agroecological characteristics – as well as different – so that farmers and communities can learn from the successes and failures of other ventures. This public engagement should be underpinned by business and financing models that work for resource-poor farmers, so they can access or invest in making their agriculture more climate-smart.
Knowing what works where will be essential to develop strategies that can facilitate targeting and scaling CSA approaches. Developing a CSA compendium, a collection of concise but detailed information on CSA practices can be an entry point to achieve this – which also requires efforts from various experts and collaboration among institutions in the country and beyond.
In line with this understanding, a recent workshop in Ethiopia brought together researchers from the Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and the Ministry of Agriculture, the Regional Bureau of Agriculture, alongside partners from regional agricultural research institutes, Universities, and CGIAR centers.
It aimed to raise awareness among partners on the kinds of climate-smart packages of agricultural technologies and practices that are socially inclusive and responsive to the needs of young people while also being feasible from a socio-economic standpoint and ready to be expanded and delivered on a bigger scale. Key presentations were made about what CSA is and what it is not. In addition, the type and description of indicators used to identify CSA practices that are economically feasible, socially acceptable, and gender-responsive were discussed in-depth. As part of this exercise, experts identified more than 20 potential climate-smart agriculture interventions tested, validated, and implemented effectively in different parts of the country.
Some of the key presentations and discussions at the workshop revealed critical lessons for implementing CSA:
Climate-smart agriculture is not a set of practices that can be universally applied but rather an approach that involves different elements embedded in local contexts.
Climate-smart agriculture relates to actions both on farms and beyond the farm, incorporating technologies, policies, institutions, and investment.”
Climate-smart agriculture is also a continuous process, though we should focus on the big picture and avoid trivial debates about whether CSA is a practice, technology, or an option.
Due consideration should be given to gender sensitiveness and social inclusiveness as a criterion in identifying compelling innovations.
Better indicators should be developed in measuring how climate-smart agriculture is adopted.
The workshop was the first of a series planned to raise awareness of different approaches to climate-smart agriculture while aligning Ethiopian institutions behind common understandings of how climate-smart agriculture can be delivered at both a local and national level.
In closing this first workshop, Ermias Abate, Deputy Director-General of the Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute, stated, “Agriculture wouldn’t move an inch forward if we continued with business as usual and hence the need to be smart to face the new realities of agriculture under climate change.”
The Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research in Africa (AICCRA) workshop was held between December 24 and 25, 2021, in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, and was organized jointly by:
The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
CGIAR Program on Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS)
International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and
Cooperative farmers receive training on operation of a mobile seed cleaner in Oromia, Ethiopia. (Credit: Dessalegn Molla/GIZ)
It’s a familiar problem in international agricultural development – a project with external funding and support has achieved impressive early results, but the money is running out, the time is growing short, and there’s not a clear plan in place to continue and extend the program’s success.
Over the past seven years, the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) established Green Innovation Centers in 13 countries in Africa and two in Asia, partnering with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) to support projects that introduce mechanization in a way that improves long-term food security and prompts economic growth. Now, as the project enters its final two years of funding, GIZ and CIMMYT are focused on ensuring the gains produced by the Green Innovation Centers are not lost.
Like any complex challenge, there’s not just one solution to the sustainability problem – but CIMMYT is working to address a massive question around why pilots fail in agricultural development by implementing a systematic approach to scalability that recognizes the critical importance of context and puts projects on a sustainable path before the money is gone.
Training the trainers
As the Green Innovation Centers enter a crucial, final stage, a CIMMYT-led team recently completed training for seven GIZ staff from Ivory Coast, Togo, Ethiopia, and Zambia, who are now certified to facilitate CIMMYT’s Scaling Scan tool and train others to put agricultural innovations in their home countries on a solid path for growth. The training team included CIMMYT scaling advisor Lennart Woltering, CIMMYT mechanization support specialist Leon Jamann, and students from Germany’s University of Hohenheim and Weihenstephan-Triesdorf University.
The Scaling Scan is a practical tool that helps users set a defined growth ambition, analyze their readiness to scale using ten core ingredients, and identify specific areas that need attention in order to reach the scaling ambition.
The GIZ staff learned to use the Scaling Scan by applying it to early stage innovations in their home countries, ranging from commercial fodder production in the Southern Province of Zambia to seed value chains in the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia.
Mohammed, a farmer in Amhara, Ethiopia, with a fistful of wheat on his farm. (Credit: Mulugeta Gebrekidan/GIZ)
What will scale up in Ethiopia?
In Ethiopia, smallholding farmers producing legumes, wheat and maize struggle to increase their yield to a level that can improve food security, generate higher incomes for producers and their families, and promote economic growth and jobs in agricultural communities. To help smallholders develop sustainable solutions, GIZ senior advisor Molla Dessalegn worked with his Green Innovation Center team to brainstorm and launch a range of 20 proposed innovations – from risk mitigation and new contract structures to introduction of new technology – all with the aim of improving agricultural yields.
To date, these innovations have introduced over 200,000 Ethiopian smallholders to new knowledge and practices to improve their output. But with the project exit bearing down, Molla and his team were eager to identify which innovations held the most promise for survival and growth beyond the endpoint. So they put their pilot projects to the test using the Scaling Scan.
The scan involves an intensive, day-long seminar originally designed for in-person delivery, but remote versions have also proved successful as COVID limited global travel. The scan focuses on thorough analysis and scoring of the current state of a pilot project and its potential for growth given the realities of conditions on the ground.
Facilitators lead project managers through evaluation of the ten ingredients required for successful scaling, from finance and collaboration to technology, know-how, and public sector governance. The outcome is a clear data set assessing the scalability of the pilot and directing attention to specific areas where improvement is needed before a project can expect serious growth.
An unexpected outcome
What emerged from the scan surprised Molla. Some of the strategies he saw as most successful in the early stages, such as a contract farming program, scored poorly, whereas the scan identified deployment of mobile seed cleaners as a solution that held particular promise for scalability. These outcomes prompted the team to refocus efforts on this strategy.
About 95 percent of Ethiopian smallholders rely on informal seed systems, either saving and reusing seed or exchanging low quality seed with other farmers. Seed cleaning plays a critical role in helping farmers build a high quality, high yield seed development system. Molla and his team had already worked with smallholder cooperatives in Oromia to distribute three mobile seed cleaners, and they knew these machines were being heavily relied upon by farmers in this region.
The Scaling Scan showed them, among other things, that the successful adoption of the seed cleaners had even more potential – it was an innovation that could be sustained and even expanded by local stakeholders, including the Ministry of Agriculture.
This result prompted Molla to recommend investment in additional mobile seed cleaners – four to serve cooperatives in the Amhara region and a fifth for the West Arsi district in Oromia. These machines are now in operation and helping additional smallholders improve the quality of their seed stock. This initial expansion confirms the Scaling Scan results – and CIMMYT plans to continue supporting this growth with the purchase of another round of seed cleaners.
The Scaling Scan also identified problems with the business model for sustaining the mobile seed cleaners through cooperatives in Ethiopia, and this outcome directed the Green Innovation Centers to partner with a consultant to develop improvements in this area. In this way, one of the most important values of the scan is its ability to guide decision-making.
Scaling up the future
Seed cleaners alone won’t solve every yield problem for Ethiopian farmers, but the scan has now guided the initial implementation – and contextual adaptation – of a new form of agricultural mechanization across two regions of the country, with the promise of more to come.
And there’s more to come from the Scaling Scan as well.
Now that he’s received certification as a trainer, Molla plans to help farmers, officials, and other development workers adopt this rigorous approach to evaluating innovations that show potential. When funding for his project ends in 2024, he will be leaving 300,000 smallholders in Ethiopia with more than machines – he will be leaving them with the knowledge, experience, and practices to make the most of the technological solutions that are improving their yields today and building a more secure future for their communities.
“I am happy with this wheat variety and all the support from the project,” said Agere Worku, a female farmer in Ethiopia working with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). “It is a lot of money that I will earn as a female farmer in my life.”
Participants were given Kingbird seeds, a new wheat variety, to plant in their smallholdings. The project then supported them through capacity building and advice on smart soil, water management, plant protection and agronomic packages.
“We prepared six hectares of land and sowed 1.1 tons of Kingbird seed,” said Yeshiwas Worku, chair of the Melke Yegna Tefsa Association. “There were other wheat varieties, such as Danda’a, adjacent to our experimental plot and the difference in yields was very visible. The other members of the association were eager to get Kingbird seeds, which are very different in terms of quality, yields, maturity, and disease tolerance.”
“CIMMYT is a life changer for me,” said Buzayehu Getahun, a farmer in Jeju, in the Oromia region. “I produced 3.7 tons on 0.75 hectares. Interestingly, I earned around 132,000 Ethiopian Birr (US$2,500) from this yield. I plan to build a new house for my mother in my village and will be blessed by her at her old age,” said Getahun.
Female smallholder farmer with a bag of Kingbird seed, which she will use as part of a CIMMYT project pilot. (Credit: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)
The impact on female farmers
After involvement in the pilot, the female farmers produced higher yields than they had experienced before.
“I used to harvest wheat three times in the previous years and earned only 0.66 tons of wheat per 0.75 hectare using seeds of other wheat varieties,” explained Worku. “But now thanks to support from CIMMYT, the yield has increased four times than the previous years; I produced 2.4 tons per 0.75 hectares. I am very happy with the high yield and feel encouraged to reinvest in other agricultural activities.”
A second female farmer, Melishew Tedela, said, “I am happy with this seed and all the support from the project. I can be witness that the other farmers who didn’t get this variety were not happy with their low yields of wheat.”
Female farmers in Ethiopia share their experiences of cultivating Kingbird wheat crops. (Credit: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)
The future of lowland wheat farming
Bekele Geleta Abeyo, wheat breeder and Ethiopia Country Representative at CIMMYT, said, “The Government of Ethiopia is emphasizing increasing irrigated wheat production and productivity in the lowlands to complement the intensification of rainfed wheat production in the highlands in order to achieve self-sufficiency by 2023 and feed the ever-growing population.”
With world wheat prices skyrocketing due to the Ukraine conflict, wheat technology generation and dissemination are key for sustainable agricultural practices.
CIMMYT is working to replace obsolete wheat varieties in Ethiopia that are susceptible to wheat rust, particularly yellow and stem rust, with disease-resistant products. Newer varieties like Kingbird are rust-resistant and therefore produce higher yields.
Farmer in his field of Kingbird wheat in Ethiopia. (Credit: Enawgaw Shibeshi/CIMMYT)
As we respond to this emergency, there is an opportunity—and a need—to strengthen the kind of strategic investments that will make our agrifood systems resilient to tomorrow’s shocks. “We cannot be running crisis to crisis,” says Bram Govaerts, Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, or CIMMYT, in this week’s New Security Broadcast. “We need to look at the underlying elements that are provoking these ripple effects.”
On the episode, ECSP Director Lauren Risi and ECSP Advisor Sharon Burke speak with Govaerts and his colleague Kai Sonder, head of CIMMYT’s Geographic Information System Unit, about how to address the unfolding food crisis as we simultaneously build food system resilience in the medium and long term. Drawing from their newly-published article in Nature Food, Govaerts and Sonder share approaches that governments, civil society, and private actors can take to tackle today’s wheat supply disruptions and food insecurity. They also share past success stories and lay out key challenges moving forward.
Beyond the immediate humanitarian aid needed to boost food security, Govaerts identifies intensified wheat production and greater investments in local cereals as essential short-term priorities. Medium-term investments should focus on agricultural production that is agroecologically suitable, policies that support the adoption of improved crop varieties, and data analysis to target the vulnerabilities of smallholder farmers. And with long term goals in mind, Govaerts says that we need to ask “how can we enhance our ecosystem diversity, resolve the gender disparity [in the agricultural sector] and invest in agrifood transformation from efficiency to resilience?”
Both experts emphasize that these approaches aren’t meant to be taken incrementally. “We’re really saying we need to start today, taking actions with an impact on the short, medium, and long term. It would be a mistake to only focus on the short-term actions that need to be taken,” says Govaerts.
Sonder acknowledges that transforming agricultural systems takes time—and isn’t easy. “You need to invest in breeding systems. You need to build capacity and identify areas where that is easily possible,” he explains. “Bringing out a new variety of wheat or maize or other crop takes up to ten years.”
Introducing new farming technologies can also come with challenges, since it requires making sure those technologies can actually be maintained. “You have to ensure that there are mechanics who can fix [them] quickly, that there’s a supply chain for spare parts,” observes Sonder. And securing sustained large-scale investment for research or program activities can prove difficult, as was the case for a study CIMMYT did on the potential for wheat in Africa. “The ministers were very interested,” Sonder says. “But other crisis come along, and then the funds go somewhere else.”
Despite the hurdles, there are plenty of examples of agrifood interventions with positive impact. For instance, one of CIMMYT’s current areas of work is in developing risk assessment and disease warning systems to allow people to act quickly before a crisis occurs. Sonder describes how his colleagues in Ethiopia had a recent success in identifying a risk of rust epidemic in collaboration with the government and stakeholders on the ground by using weather models. The joint effort allowed the government “to procure and to spread fungicides and to be prepared for that crisis,” he says.
Addressing the challenges that underlie world hunger will take both this kind of strategic medium-term action as well as longer-term transformations—Even as we respond to the current hunger crisis with much-needed short-term efforts, we can also be reshaping our global agricultural systems for a more biodiverse, equitable, and resilient future.
