• Increased and gender equitable utilization of improved and marketable bean varieties, new crop management techniques and micro-nutrient rich bean based products
• Increased trade by men and women farmers in an equitable manner
• Increased evidence-based response to bean sector demands and influencing bean policy in a gender equitable manner.

It focuses on four emerging or re-emerging zoonotic diseases in four diverse African ecosystems:

• Henipavirus infection in Ghana
• Rift Valley fever in Kenya
• Lassa fever in Sierra Leone
• Trypanosomiasis in Zambia and Zimbabwe

Its innovative, holistic approach brings together natural and social scientists to build an evidence base designed to inform global and national policy players seeking effective, integrated approaches to control and check disease outbreaks.

The Drivers of Disease Consortium comprises over 30 researchers working in 17 institutes across Africa, Europe and the US and includes researchers in the environmental, biological, social, political, and human and animal health sciences. They will generate new knowledge on:

• Ecosystem change
• How ecology and people’s interactions with ecosystems affect disease emergence
• Disease transmission and exposure

The partner institutes are:

• ESRC STEPS Centre, Brighton, UK
• University of Cambridge, UK
• Institute of Zoology, London
• University of Edinburgh
• University College, London
• Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission, University of Ghana
• International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya
• Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)
• University of Nairobi
• Kenema Government Hospital, Sierra Leone
• Njala University, Sierra Leone
• Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Zambia
• University of Zambia
• Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Zimbabwe
• University of Zimbabwe
• Stockholm Resilience Centre
• Tulane University, USA

Funding: The programme is funded by a £3.2m grant from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).

L3 will define the interplay between market access, crop and livestock technologies, and investment risks in water- and market-scarce environments that lead to technology adoption by farm families, enabling them to enhance food security and incomes through more efficient water use.

Innovation Platforms: The main entry point for the project will be the Innovation Platform (IP), which brings together value chain actors: input suppliers, farmers, traders, processors, etc in a shared forum to explore their challenges and opportunities. From this, the IP proposes site-specific solutions to align production and market requirements around food and cash crop production, dry season feed, animal health, and poor market performance.

Crop and Livestock Modelling: Participatory modelling will be an entry point to develop scenarios based on local knowledge, to be tested with farmers using on-farm participatory trials. Model testing and calibration will be done using on-farm trials then the model will be used to develop scenarios and extrapolate management effects to other soil types and rainfall regimes across time. Technology interventions linked to market development: This project targets private sector, NGO and CBO agents to bring about market-related changes for smallholder farmers. Such initiatives may include contract farming for groundnut production and a voucherbased input (seed and fertilizer) distribution scheme for smallholder farmers.

1.Water efficient farm enterprises and climate risk management

2.Investment choices matched to farmer capacities and climatic risk environment

3. Market-led technologies for smallholder farmers developed and tested

 Objective 1: To enhance market opportunities, policies and partnerships along the legume value chain to increase income and nutritional security of smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and SA.

 Objective 2: To enhance groundnut productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

 Objective 3: To enhance cowpea productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA.

 Objective 4: To enhance common bean productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA.

 Objective 5: To enhance chickpea productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

 Objective 6: To enhance pigeonpea productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

 Objective 7: To enhance soybean productivity and production in drought-prone areas of SSA.

 Objective 8: To develop sustainable seed production and delivery systems for reaching smallholder farmers in drought-prone areas of SSA and SA.

Objective 9: To manage implementation of the project, including periodic meetings, reporting, data management and dissemination, and developing a revised logframe and milestones based on the Foundations’ Strategy.

Water efficient farm enterprises and climate risk management

Innovation Platforms will be established at project sites to bring together all role players necessary to increase investments in farm management strategies to improve productivity of crop and livestock systems through improved fodder production. Outputs of the other two work areas will feed into the innovation platform process. The important outcome here is the development of an understanding that increased investments at farm level will have beneficial returns at the market place that compensate for climate-related production risks.

Investment choices matched to farmer capacities and climatic risk environment

Understanding how the capacity of farmers and their ability to make use of new opportunities is affected by their wealth status, investment priorities and variable climate will assist in the design of new and more target-specific crop-livestock management strategies. Through participatory modeling and scenario analysis we can learn together what the impacts of specific interventions are, which farmers can make use of them, and who may adopt them. On-farm testing will substantiate the efficacy of the technologies and the potential for out-scaling.

Market-led technologies for smallholder farmers developed and tested

The project will use market access as the driver of crop and livestock technology uptake. Market development initiatives such as contract farming, voucher-based input distribution schemes for seed and fertilizer and innovative fertilizer marketing strategies will be implemented by project partners, technically supported by research and extension and monitored for impacts across the value chain.

1. Four important crop growing areas in Kenya and Zimbabwe which comprise (i) cool/dry, (ii) cool/wet, (iii) warm/dry and (iv) warm/wet growing conditions and their temperature analogue locations, identified and fully characterized.
2. Through the combined use of long-term daily climate data, crop growth simulation models and participatory surveys with farmers, the implications of both current and future (climate change) production risk at the study locations identified and quantified.
3. Through iterative field research both on station and in farmers’ fields over a 2-year period, potential crop, soil and water management and crop genotype adaptation options evaluated and adaptation strategies formulated for the target locations.
4. Through the wide promotion of the project, dissemination of its activities, results and hands-on capacity building, the strengthened institutional capacity (both in understanding climate change impacts and developing effective adaptation responses) will be ensured.

The specific project objectives are to:

• improve market participation of small-scale goat and cattle keepers in semi-arid regions of Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe;
• evaluate constraints to and opportunities for commercialization of smallholder production of goats and cattle;
• test and evaluate alternative livestock marketing and input delivery systems;
• assess the impact of market-led technology change on household incomes; and
• establish an effective communication strategy to facilitate networking and exchange of information among sector stakeholders.

This project is funded by the European Union (EU) through the ICART project (Implementation and Coordination of Agricultural Research and Training).

Funding: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The aim of this project isto develop the state-of-the-art legume and rhizobial inoculant technologies will be used by African smallholder farmers to triple the inputs of free atmospheric nitrogen by biological nitrogen fixation, thereby improving crop and livestock productivity, human nutrition and farm income, while enhancing soil health.

The expected project outcomes include the Diversification of N₂-fixing legume species that are integrated into smallholder farming systems in sub-Saharan Africa;Expansion in cultivation of grain and forage legumes, greater productivity in legume-based farming systems, and enhanced family incomes; Selection of efficient rhizobial inoculant strains and improved grain legume varieties with enhanced BNF capacities adapted to various environmental stresses; Establishment of a state-of-the-art laboratory and culture collection of elite strains of rhizobia for target legumes; and Establishment of rhizobial inoculant production in countries of West, East and Southern Africa, through partnership with the private sector.

Objectives

1. Improve national, sub-regional and regional capacity for evidence-based risk assessment approaches to enable rapid response for HPAI.
2. Improve national surveillance and reporting capacity.
3. Increase sub-regional cooperation and coordination, with regional support to undertake HPAI investigations, report disease and manage HPAI relevant information.

Summary of activities

The project objectives are addressed through a series of activities for each project location.  While the project activities have been tailored to each location, they contain a number of common elements as follows:

1. Rapidly assess existing HPAI surveillance systems
2. Develop, disseminate and train in the use of effective tools for targeting HPAI surveillance resources
3. Train in HPAI surveillance techniques, tools and approaches, including outbreak reporting and data analysis
4. Develop linkages with sub-regional and regional surveillance, disease investigation and learning networks

Expected outputs

1. HPAI surveillance systems assessed and training needs identified
2. Effective evidence-based tools for targeting HPAI surveillance resources based on risk developed
3. HPAI surveillance practitioners trained in surveillance techniques, tools and approaches
4. Knowledge base with regard to HPAI expanded through regional and sub-regional linkages

Project aims to generate and promote new interventions for managing sustainable crop production with tangible economic benefits for smallholder farmers through on-farm participatory research and validation, designed to test and support adoption by farmers of resource-efficient practices, together with improved post harvest handling and diversification of production systems with high value crops.

Efficient water and nutrient use in cereal grains systems in market-based Conservation Agriculture systems

Objective 1: Assess the potential for the implementation of the metal silo approach within the ESA maize belt (Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe)

Objective 2: In two countries, select pilot areas for the implementation of metal silo manufacturing to assess scale-out potential of the technology

Objective 3: Identify in-country lead organizations (NGO, private sector) to implement training of instructors/manufacturers and manufacturing of silos in pilot areas

Objective 4 : In collaboration with SDC, support South-South knowledge transfer from Central America to pilot areas

Objective 5: Assess the economics of maize storage and storage pest control measures in pilot areas

Objective 6: Assess micro-economics of metal silo production (among manufacturers) and purchase (among farmers) in pilot areas

Objective 7: Advise on scale-out potential of technology to other areas and countries in ESA

Running from 2009–2013, this phase is funded by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, and will focus on developing and deploying conventional maize that is resistant to field and storage insect pests, for East and Southern Africa (ESA).

Objective 1: Develop insect resistant maize varieties for the major Kenyan production systems and insect pests;
Objective 2: Establish procedures to provide insect resistant maize to resource- poor farmers in Kenya;
Objective 3: Assess the impact of insect resistant maize varieties in Kenyan agricultural systems;
Objective 4: Transfer technologies to and Kenya to develop, evaluate, disseminate, and monitor insect resistant maize varieties; and
Objective 5: Plan, monitor, and document project processes and achievements for dissemination to other developing countries.

The project will concentrate on ESA countries where insect pests have the greatest impact on maize production, food and income security, and livelihoods. It will give a relative greater emphasis of post-harvest pests (70%) over stem borers (30%) and will focus on the major maize producing countries with significant areas in affected zones. Of particular interest are Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These countries have a total population of more than 190 million people, which is projected to rise to 230 million by 2015.

Multiple-use water services (MUS) is an innovative approach to water services. It unlocks new investment opportunities for poverty reduction and gender equity in peri-urban and rural areas. MUS takes people’s multiple water needs as the starting point of planning and design of new systems and upgrades. Universally, water users already use ‘domestic’ systems or ‘irrigation’ systems for multiple purposes, whether legal or not. By planning for these multiple uses, many more benefits from investments in infrastructure can be realized: health, freedom from domestic chores, food and income and gender equity.

The CPWF’s MUS project, supported by the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CP28) pioneered the implementation of MUS and scaling up of MUS at intermediate, national and global levels. Global partners were IWMI International Water Management Institute (lead institution), IRC International Water and Sanitation Centre and IDE International Development Enterprise. Learning alliances were established with 150 governments and other institutions in the basins of the Andes (Bolivia and Colombia), Indus-Ganges (India, Nepal), Limpopo (South Africa and Zimbabwe), Mekong (Thailand), and Nile (Ethiopia). Global advocacy in collaboration with the MUS Group ensured that MUS obtained a place in the policy agendas of professional networks, such as the World Water Forums, and of international governmental and non-governmental water agencies, rural development and financing organizations. Project partners included local water user movements, NGOs, the domestic sub-sector, the irrigation sub-sector, and local government. From these diverse backgrounds, project partners innovated two successful MUS models: homestead-scale MUS and community-scale MUS.

Homestead-scale MUS: 50 – 200 litres per capita per day

Whenever water is available near homes and on adjoining lands, or ‘homesteads’, people use such water for domestic and many productive uses. This empirical relationship between water uses and availability is depicted in the ‘multiple-use water ladder’. The policy recommendation is to enable poor people ‘to climb the water ladder’ and to provide 50-200 liters per capita per day. Out of this, 3-5 liters per capita per day should be safe for drinking. Income generated enable repayment of most multiple-use systems investments within three years. Homestead-scale MUS is especially beneficial for women, who are disproportionately responsible for domestic water supplies and tend to have a stronger say over homestead production. The land-poor, who only have access to homestead land, also benefit.

Community-scale MUS: local-level integrated water resource management

Here MUS takes communities as entry point of water services. It holistically considers their multiple water uses (domestic, irrigation, animal watering, tree-growing, fisheries, enterprises, ceremonies, environment) from multiple water sources (rain, surface water, groundwater, wetlands) at multiple sites (homesteads, fields, open access). This integrated water resource management at the local level is (potentially) considerably more cost-effective and sustainable than single-use water services.

The research was motivated by the dependency of many people on wetlands for their livelihoods. It was therefore founded on the basis that the potential of wetlands to contribute to livelihoods is closely related to their ability to maintain ecosystem functions (such as regulating river flows), which is a consequence of their unique hydrological characteristics. The research aimed to contribute to wetland management and ultimately contribute towards ensuring environmental sustainability (MDG7) through the maintenance of vital ecosystem services provided sustainable agricultural practices (in terms of sound hydrological and pollution management) and balanced exploitation of resources are practised.

The CPWF project aimed to contribute to enhancing food security and improving the livelihoods of wetland-dependent communities by increasing productivity of water and optimizing and maintaining wetland ecosystem services.

Specifically the project aimed to

-          Develop and apply a trade-offs based framework for making decisions about allocations of wetland resources to specific uses, including agriculture.

-          Determine the trade-offs among different agricultural uses of wetland water and the trade-offs between each of the agricultural water uses and environmental use; develop guidelines on acceptable levels of wetland water use for agriculture; and encourage this as best practice.

-          Identify as part of the trade-off analysis who benefits, e.g., poor women and men farmers, herders, fisher folk; local business people; etc.

-          Enhanced capacity of wetland users, researchers, extension officers, natural resource managers, and policy makers.

The most important achievements of the project are the new knowledge and tools captured in the three main outputs of the project – the Framework for inventory, the WETSYS tradeoff model, and the Guidelines for sustainable management – and the partnership and capacity building that resulted from implementation of the project that provide the basis for impact.

The project did an analysis in case study wetlands as presented in various reports and MSc thesis and produced a synthesis, the Guideline for sustainable wetland management and utilization. Various local extension officers and natural resource managers were directly engaged with the project.  New information was disseminated to higher level decision makers, and feedback workshops to the communities that served the purpose of increasing awareness of wetland value, goods and services.

The water management institutions in Volta, Limpopo, and Sao Francisco Basins are being revamped to better serve their constituencies. The CPWF project used this opportunity to collaborate with government officials, stakeholders, and farmers who are actively looking for ways to improve the planning process. The project had a two paired objectives. The basin/watershed level objective was to promote and support the planning, development, and management of small reservoir ensembles. Planning reservoirs at this scale limits conflicts over water, markets, and other resources and minimizes undesirable environmental interactions among the reservoirs. The local/community level objective was to support use of small multi-purpose reservoirs that are properly located, well designed, operated and maintained in sustainable fashion, and economically viable while assuring they improve the livelihoods of the local residents.

The multi-disciplinary project team worked with planners, decision makers and farmers in an iterative, consultative process to develop tools appropriate for the use of the stakeholders. By harmonizing the interests of individuals served by small multi-purpose reservoirs and other people living in the basin they reached their paired goals: 1) to maintain water related ecosystem services, the long-term sustainability of local water supplies, and adequate downstream flows as we make use of small reservoirs and 2) to improve food security at the household level and increase sustainable livelihoods through the provision of those small multi-purpose reservoirs. The small reservoirs team developed a toolkit with tools that fall into four thematic areas: 1) planning, 2) water storage and hydrology, 3) ecosystems and human health, and 4) institutions and economics.

The tools themselves are project outputs. Some of the tools are already being used by people associated with the project. The toolkit is comprehensive, however, as these first tools are used and improved, it is anticipated that new tools applicable to other social and biophysical environments will be added to the toolkit making it of increasing value to more and more stakeholders.

The CPWF’s project goal is to improve food security, incomes and livelihoods of smallholder farmers in the Limpopo Basin. To achieve this goal, the project built on: past and current collaborative research by national programs and the CGIAR on crop-water productivity in drought-prone areas; innovative approaches to participatory technology development and extension; and new institutional arrangements that link the public and private sector with the smallholder farmer in appropriate market chains.

The results from the activities include the following:

• Farmers identified water management technologies that led to higher yield in dry environments through participatory on-farm trials and farmer access to seed of the identified improved cereal and legume varieties that mature early and thus escape terminal drought. Increased yield was observed in water use efficiency trials, variety trials, water harvesting trials and soil fertility (fertilizer use trials)

• Farmers access to an assured market. The case of Progress Milling in the Limpopo Area of South Africa provided a learning point on the market driven technology adoption whereby farmers used fertilizer packs in different sizes on maize. This demonstrated to farmers that there was synergy of the resultant increased production and marketing of the surplus production. This new institutional arrangement led to a linkage of the public and private sector leading to greater uptake of technologies. This ensured sustainability of project outputs, and prevented agricultural resource degradation from nutrient mining and the exploitation of fragile lands.

• At the end of the project, the major output has been the improved food security of the direct beneficiaries who reported increased yields and production from the adoption of the various technologies. The project, however, did not make major immediate impacts on non beneficiaries as these would only be achieved through an up-scaling phase of the proven technologies of project.

CIFOR in partnership with ICRAF will undertake this assignment whose aims are to enhance the livelihood security of rural communities and the sustainable management of forests shaped by Chinese investment in Africa, and enhance the contribution of Africa’s forests and raw materials to meaningful economic development.

The project’s purpose is to advance understanding of the social, economic and environmental impacts of Chinese investments in commodities or sectors affecting forests and livelihoods in Africa (e.g. timber, mining, oil palm), and to strengthen the capacity of decision-makers in government, civil society and the private sector to enact reforms to leverage more equitable nd sustainable outcomes.

The project intended outcomes are as follows.

1. Macro-level analysis of Chinese trade and investment trends in commodies affecting the Congo Basin forests and southern African woodlands, and Chinese policies and corporate strategies shaping these activities and associated impacts.

2. Targeted analysis of the implications of identified patterns of forest-related trade and investment for national economic development, local livelihoods and forest condition/sustainability for prioritized countries and commodities.

3. Assessment of the effectiveness of governance instruments at diverse levels in shaping outcomes and of opportunities for leveraging more sustainable and equitable outcomes.

4. Dissemination of findings (trade-offs, governance assessment), policy recommendations and institutional options, with a focus on enhancing the capacity of key decision-makers to make socially, economically and environmentally responsible decisions.

1.       A diverse range of CA tillage and soil fertility management options that protect the gains that were achieved in Phase I developed, promoted and used by farmers

2.       Legumes sustainably integrated in CA systems for diversified diets, soil fertility improvement and income generation

3.       AGRITEX and NGO capacity to implement CA and MD strengthened

4.       CA adoption constraints and opportunities documented and disseminated to stakeholders

5.       Sustainable seed and fertilizer delivery mechanisms evaluated and promoted if market conditions allow

6.       Impact of local level climate forecasting on farmer decision-making with respect to crop and livestock management assessed and documented

Mixed crop-livestock systems are very dynamic and are evolving rapidly in response to external drivers such as demographic pressure, development of urban markets and increased demand for crop and livestock products, climate variability and change. In addition, the recent interest for bio-fuel production exacerbates further the pressure on biomass in production systems.

This study aims at better understanding the tradeoffs in crop residue uses in cereal based systems in four regions: millet, sorghum, maize based systems in West Africa; maize based systems in Eastern and Southern Africa; and wheat/rice based systems in South Asia. The major tradeoff in most systems is the short term benefits of using crop residues to feed livestock versus leaving the crop residues in the field to improve soil productivity (nutrient balance, erosion control, and soil health).

The study focuses on the decision making processes at the farm/household level and will capture the diversity/contrasts and recent changes in CR uses at various scales in order to better target technical, institutional and policy options to improve livelihood without compromising long term system sustainability.

The proposed outcomes are: a)  an effective monitoring and impact assessment system established and operational; b) impacts assessed and published; and c) results from monitoring and impact assessment used to improve SSACP and other research programs  

Proposed Outcomes: Deliver a series of databases, tools, analyses, and syntheses designed to improve strategic investment and policy decisions. “Bottom-line” deliverables are spatially (and socio-economically) explicit estimates of the potential welfare benefits of a range of interventions (e.g., at on-farm, market and national policy scale) aimed at improving the production and profitability of specific crops and cropping systems. These materials (maps, tables, graphs, and text) provide information of direct relevance to agricultural development investors and policymakers.

The overall objective is to sustainably increase the productivity of selected maize-legume systems in eastern and southern Africa by 30% from the 2009 average for each target country by the year 2020.and at the same time reduce seasonal down-side risks by 30%.

The specific objectives are:

Objective 1: To characterize maize-legume production and input and output value chain systems and impact pathways, and identify broad systemic constraints and options for field testing.
Objective 2: To test and develop productive, resilient and sustainable smallholder maize-legume cropping systems and innovation systems for local scaling out.
Objective 3: To increase the range of maize and legume varieties available for smallholders through accelerated breeding, regional testing and release, and availability of performance data.
Objective 4: To support the development of regional and local innovations systems.
Objective 5: Capacity building to increase the efficiency of agricultural research today and in the future.

The charitable purpose of the project is to decrease hunger and increase food and income security of resource-poor farm families in sub-Saharan Africa through the development and dissemination of drought tolerant, well-adapted maize varieties.

Developing, distributing and cultivating drought tolerant maize varieties is one highly relevant intervention to reduce vulnerability, food insecurity and the damage to local markets accompanying food aid in SSA.

The project pursues nine objectives for maximizing impact from drought tolerant (DT) maize:

Objective 1: Optimized pipeline for identifying new sources of drought tolerance – Identify new DT sources and develop molecular markers for DT genes of major effect.

Objective 2: New tools and methodologies for drought tolerance breeding – Develop and invest in technology-assisted tools and improved breeding methodologies that greatly enhance the speed, cost effectiveness and precision of breeding progress for drought and complementary traits for smallholder conditions.

Objective 3: Focused and effective product development – Generate DT hybrids and open-pollinated varieties (OPVs) adapted to the main drought-affected agro-ecologies and small farmer production conditions in SSA, in particular the mid-altitude and lowland ecologies.

Objective 4: Involvement and capacity building of breeders from NARS and seed companies – Enhance the success of public national agricultural research systems (NARS; particularly those supported by the Gates Foundation through PASS) and private sector breeders for developing their own DT maize varieties with good performance and acceptance under smallholder farmers’ conditions.

Objective 5: Variety testing and release – Improve and accelerate the variety testing and release process for new DT varieties through NARS, seed companies and regulatory agencies.

Objective 6: Scale up seed production – Increase the capacity of local seed companies to disseminate DT maize varieties to a greater number of farmers in SSA.

Objective 7: Advocacy and promotion – Inform policy makers and farmer support groups about new DT varieties, and support interventions which increase smallholder farmers’ learning about and access to DT maize.

Objective 8: Impact assessment and targeting – Assess and draw lessons from past impact and project activities. Inform investors of the payoff of DT maize research and distribution strategies for greatest impact on poverty reduction of smallholder farmers in drought prone zones of Africa, and assess trends and changes in adoptions and livelihood impacts.

Objective 9: Project management and communication – Effectively implement and review project objectives with appropriate stakeholder representation, while keeping stakeholders, the public and policymakers in both south and north informed about project progress.

The project charitable purpose is to improve the lives of subsistence and smallholder farmers on nutritionally deprived soils in Sub-Saharan Africa by developing and deploying improved maize varieties with enhanced nitrogen use efficiency.

The Project has five Objectives:

Objective 1: Improving the efficiency of direct selection for yield in severely N-deficient soils

Objective 2:Identification and deployment of native trait alleles to enhance yield under severe N-depletion in elite varieties adapted to Sub-Saharan Africa

Objective 3:Delivery of transgenic varieties with increased yield under severe N-limitation:  a potential step-change in plant productivity for SSA.

Objective 4:Managing N-efficient varieties for sustainability in African maize cropping systems

Objective 5:Communications and capacity building



 General objectives 

1.      Develop and stimulate the use of maize varieties with increased productivity, nutritional value and acceptance under the stress-prone conditions of resource-poor farmers in southern Africa.

2.      Strengthen stakeholders’ cooperation in the maize seed sector to work towards a more diverse and more stable seed industry that is responsive to resource-poor farmers’ needs.

Project Mission 

NSIMA is a network of multi-stakeholder National Coordinating Units (NCU’s) in SADC working together to strengthen the maize seed value chain so as to contribute to improving the livelihoods of resource-poor small-holder maize farmers. This is achieved through:

1.      Provision of improved germplasm, technical backstopping, training and coordination for the activities of partners through NCU’s.

2.      NCU’s will identify bottlenecks and opportunities in the seed value chain of their respective countries and, together with relevant partners, establish and facilitate activities to overcome constraints and enhance development of the seed sector based on Outcome Challenges.

3.      NCU’s will facilitate capacity building of partners and farmers relevant to the seed value chain.

4.      NCU’s will advocate for appropriate policies, partnerships and promotion activities that enhance the development of the seed value chain.

CIMMYT  

• Provides significant know-how and resources to develop phenotypic data for common products
• Facilitates Pioneer’s access to maize germplasm diversity relevant to smallholder farmers in Africa with particular focus on drought tolerance, N use efficiency, Striga resistance and increase grain protein quality
• Increases germplasm development targeted at smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan with particular emphasis on drought tolerance, N use efficiency, Striga resistance and increase grain protein quality, for deployment by all partners in Africa (not only Pioneer).
• Contributes to seed market development by developing maize varieties and hybrids which are more profitable under smallholder farmers conditions and can be deployed by the private seed sector at large (i.e. not only Pioneer)

Pioneer Hi-Bred

• Co-invests in germplasm development of CIMMYT in Sub-Saharan Africa targeted at smallholder farmers needs, with particular emphasis on drought tolerance, N use efficiency, Striga resistance and increase grain protein quality.
• Works with CIMMYT to place greater emphasis on the use of inbred development and the creation of hybrids which is of particular benefit to private sector development.
• Provides significant know-how and resources to develop genetic data for common products generated under this agreement

The objectives of ICRAF’s input in this study are:

1. Generate data on propagation criteria for pesticidal plant materials that are sought after, rare and/or commonly used by people living in the Caesalpinioid woodland eco-regions;

2. Develop improved harvesting protocols for wild-collected plants at risk of over collection;

3. Carry out cultivation trials for promising pesticidal plants with commercial potential; and4. Develop improved methods of collecting pesticidal plants that optimizes bioactivity. In this project, ICRAF will deliver the following research activities: 1. Acquiring information about indigenous use of pesicidal plant species and determining current diversity of pesticidal plants in Caesalpinioid woodland and particularly the prevalence of uncommon species. Additionally, ICRAF will help prepare a policy document on sustainable economic potential of Caesalpinioid woodlands as a resource for pesticidal plants.

2. Conducting farmer participatory rural appraisal of commonly used pesticidal plant control strategies under farm conditions using standardized comparative methodologies.

3. Collecting data data on propagation criteria, developing improved harvesting protocols that optimize activity and carry out cultivation trials for promising pesticidal plants with commercial potential.

4. Enabling the marketing of pesticidal plants as a cash crop for small-scale farmers living in Caesalpinioid woodland eco-region.

5. Helping to build capacity at NARS to evaluate, develop and promote use of botanical pesticides. This project targets to deliver: guidelines on collecting and cultivating pesticidal plants that are not presently cultivated and are threatened; protocals produced for sustainable harvesting and effective preparation of pesticidal plant material; farmer and NGO workshops to infom the wider farming community about sustainable use of pesticidal plants and their cultivation; policy document on sustainable use of pesticidal plants and conservation of Caesalpinioid woodland habitats across the region.

The project will also build on recent advances in digital soil mapping, infrared spectroscopy, remote sensing, statistics and integrated soil fertility management to improve the way that soils are evaluated, mapped and monitored, while significantly reducing the costs to do so, and to disseminate innovative soil management methods such as the combination of inorganic fertilizers with organic inputs that improve crop yields while enhancing the environment. Dissemination and training will make the project’s outcomes highly accessible to farm communities, public and private extension services, national agricultural research and soil survey organizations, the fertilizer sector, project and local planners, national and regional policymakers, and scientists. The efforts in Africa are part of a wider, global effort to digitally map the world soil resources, and this project will help catalyze the global effort. This project falls under the “Develop and Apply New Technologies” of the Grant making Priori-ties for Agricultural Development.

The project has five objectives as follows. 1. Establish the Global Digital Soil Map Consortium 2. Create data management systems for the Internet-based African Soil Information Service and the Global Soil Information Service by expanding existing Cyberinfrastructure for the global effort 3. Develop digital soil maps and a establish soil health surveillance system in SSA 4. Provide evidence-based, spatially explicit soil management recommendations 5. Build capacity, serve end users, monitoring and evaluation, and management support.

The initiative has established successful collaborations with numerous regional and subregional organizations in Africa as well as Asia, Middle East, and Latin America to facilitate the initiation of national surveys. Since 2001, ASTI has published a broad set of country briefs and regional synthesis reports, which have been cited widely in national and international agricultural research policy documents. See the ASTI website at www.asti.cgiar.org