CGIAR Ongoing Research | Makerere University, Uganda

Catalysing the emerging smallholder pig value chains in Uganda to increase rural incomes and assets

Tezira Lore — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:35 +0000

Background
Over the past two decades pig production has become an increasingly important activity in Uganda. In the last 30 years the pig population has increased from 0.19 to 2.3 million, and there are more than 1 million households raising pigs. In 2011, Uganda had the highest per capita consumption of pork in sub-Saharan Africa (3.4 kg/person per year). The majority of pigs are kept by women in smallholder households, as part of the large informal subsector, with limited access to technology information and services. Other value chain actors are also constrained by limited access to information, inputs and services.

Goal
To improve livelihoods, incomes and assets of smallholder pig producers (particularly women) in a sustainable manner through increased productivity, reduced risk and improved market access in pig value chains.

Objectives

To identify market opportunities for pork in Uganda and the multiple factors preventing smallholder pig producers from exploiting those opportunities, with a focus on constraints such as animal diseases, scarce feed resources and poor performance of markets and services.
To develop and pilot test a set of integrated packages for smallholder pig production and market access for specific production systems, resource profiles and market settings in Uganda.
To document, communicate and promote appropriate evidence-based models for sustainable, pro-poor pig value chains.

Safe Food, Fair Food 2: From capacity building to implementation

Tezira Lore — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:55:00 +0000

Millions of small-scale farmers efficiently supply the great majority of the meat, milk and fish market in Africa. Surging demand for livestock products and changing consumer demands (the ‘Livestock Revolution’) provide an opportunity to set poor farmers on pathways out of poverty, but also threaten the continued presence of smallholder farmers in increasingly demanding markets.

While the presence of food safety hazards (such as microbial pathogens and residues) in informally-marketed food is high, the risk to human health is mostly unknown and current food safety management is both ineffective and inequitable. Risk-based approaches for assessing and managing food safety offer a powerful new method for reducing the enormous health burden imposed by food-borne disease, while taking into account other societal goals such as pro-poor agri-food sector development and food and nutritional security.

The ultimate goal of this second phase of the Safe Food, Fair Food project (Safe Food, Fair Food 2) is the improvement of livelihoods of poor producers and consumers by reducing the health risks and increasing the livelihood benefits associated with meat, milk and fish value chains.

Its purpose is furthering research into the practical application of risk analysis and economic and social methods by food safety stakeholders and value chain actors, improving food safety and market participation of the poor in informal markets for livestock products in sub-Saharan Africa.

The project contributes to this with outputs at two scales:

At the level of meat, milk and fish value chains, it will pioneer and test a practical, whole-value-chain application of risk-based approaches to food safety in selected countries which are the focus of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish. It will develop, test and communicate the technologies and methods to improve food safety and enhance smallholder market access.
At regional scale, it will work through the food safety ‘champions’ supported in the completed phase to better incorporate risk analysis and economic valuation methods into food safety policy, commercial practice and veterinary education.

The project will work in four countries (Ethiopia, Mali, Tanzania and Uganda) and with university and research networks and economic communities in East, West and southern Africa. It will build directly on previous work supported by the BMZ-funded Safe Food, Fair Food project that increased capacity and generated evidence for improving food safety in eight African countries, training over 50 food safety stakeholders and supporting 20 post-graduate research projects.

Funding: Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development

Project coordinator: Kristina Roesel

Novel approaches to the improvement of banana production in Eastern Africa: the application of biotechnological methodologies — Phase II

Vincent Johnson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:31:56 +0000

In Uganda, banana remains the single most important staple in terms of consumption, crop acreage, and tonnage of production. Over the past decades, the crop has also gained the status of a cash crop, and in many rural settings it is the only source of income. Despite the crop’s importance, yields have progressively declined, particularly in the major growing areas of Central Uganda where the lifespan of a plantation has declined to 3-5 years compared to 50 years in Southern Uganda. The chief factors responsible for yield declines include the inter-linked problems of nematodes, weevils and poor soil fertility, as well as disease outbreaks (black Sigatoka, banana bacterial wilt) and a host of socio-economic factors.

The country has adopted both conventional and biotechnological approaches to address the productivity challenges, with the overall goals of enhancing sustainable productivity and competitiveness of banana systems. As an important contribution to Uganda’s efforts to achieve these goals, Bioversity International (ex-INIBAP) led a five-year project (Phase I) aiming to begin preparing the materials to deliver transgenic East African Highland Bananas (EAHB) with resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

Funded by the Ugandan Government, this project’s overall objective is to develop East African Highland banana cultivars with resistance to key pest and disease constraints (weevils, nematodes, black sigatoka and Fusarium wilt) using novel biotechnological approaches. The specific objectives of phase 2 are:

Genetic transformation systems for EAHB cultivars that are female-sterile and most valuable to farmers optimized
Novel sources of resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses identified and evaluated
Partnerships and capacity for biotechnology research strengthened

For 2009, significant progress towards the project outputs is summarised below:

Output : Genetic transformation systems for EAHB cultivars that are most valuable to farmers optimized-New focus on a few cultivars as opposed to developing a super media for the entire Lujugira-Mutika group (=Matooke)

Output 2: Genes from technology partners accessed and evaluated- Recombinant proteins Cry6A and CpCYS incorporated into weevil diet, cloned and transformed in the plant expression vector

Output 3: Important genes for improvement of banana isolated cloned and evaluated- Activities for isolation and testing of R-genes against BXW and Foc initiated through two PhD studies

Output 4: Morphological and molecular tools and methods for population characterization and diagnostics developed and applied- 380 accessions were established at Mbarara collection; germplasm characterization studies initiated and disease indexing for the accession in progress

Output 5: Partnerships and capacity for biotechnology research strengthened- 2 MSc students completed studies submitted theses; 2 PhD students initiated their research in partnership with universities of Pretoria and Stellenbosch. Tissue culture lab extended; an irrigation system established at Mbarara Collection

Output 6:Project effectively coordinated and managed- Annual planning and review meetings held and technical and financial reports sent to donor; NARO-Bioversity relationship remains strong.

During 2010 the project has made further significant progress towards its overall objective of developing East African highland banana cultivars with enhanced pest and disease resistance. Novel biotechnological approaches have included use of genetic transformation systems; assessing, isolating and cloning target genes; developing and applying molecular tools and methods for population characterization and diagnostics and further strengthening partnerships and capacity for biotechnology research. The project has also completed the construction of an extension to the tissue culture laboratory at NARL, Kawanda. The extension has added two transfer rooms, two growth rooms and a store. It will reduce congestion and allow space for additional work. A 60 square meter bio-safety screenhouse with four compartments has also been constructed to allow preliminary challenging of the generated transgenic plants before selecting for field trials.

It is hoped this work will continue in a follow-up phase after Dec 31 2010

Growing bananas with trees and livestock: Young farmer business groups improve crop and natural resource health and market links for rural well-being

Vincent Johnson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:31:39 +0000

Rural communities in the Lake Victoria basin from Western Kenya in a broad band following the lake shores through much of Uganda into north-western Tanzania have traditionally depended on their perennial banana gardens for food.They have selected a diversity of East African Highland banana cultivars as a food and beverage crop, adopted exotic cultivars for specific uses and have developed technologies for sustainable production using grass mulch, animal manure and careful management of mat density.

However, the banana system adapted to a slowly-changing, village-based economy is under stress. Throughout the basin, farm size has declined, the area under annual cropping has increased, natural grazing lands have been converted to agriculture and production has become increasingly market-oriented. The result is a decline in soil fertility, particularly for poor-resource households, and nutrient mining. Pest problems have also increased, especially at lower altitudes. This is a serious challenge for future generations of rural households who face, in addition, increasing costs of fossil fuel, increased temperatures and more irregular rainfall due to climate change, on-going impacts of HIV-AIDS and outmigration of youth in search of more interesting career challenges.

The purpose of this grant, funded by the Austrian Development Association (ADA), is to improve food security, income and natural resource quality of resource-poor young households through banana agroforests, associated animal production and carbon accumulation adapted to changing climates and social conditions. Austrian and Ugandan scientists and students in collaboration with Bioversity International have begun an action research partnership with field organizations and rural communities in three pilot sites in Central Uganda with the following outputs:

Methods piloted for strengthening young farmer groups organized for improved production and marketing of bananas, small ruminants and trees;
Prototype for banana agroforests linked to small ruminant production developed and validated by young farmers in collaboration with field technicians and scientists;
Biological interactions identified for designing and managing more efficient, resilient and resistant banana agroforests linked to small ruminant production
Experiences of banana agroforest prototypes reviewed, adapted and extrapolated by farmers, field technicians, scientists and policy-makers

Project stakeholders have ratified issues of common interest, identified scientists and begun to develop partnership approaches for working effectively with local farmer experimentation groups.This was achieved through an initial diagnostic field visit and an inaugural workshop with the participation of over 25 scientists, field technicians and research and development directors. The work has facilitated detailed activity planning for 2010 in all four outputs, which will include: a baseline characterization of household livelihood strategies; a participatory market study; the establishment of farmer experimentation and learning groups with their respective ruminant and fodder modules and banana mother gardens; field studies of soil microbiology and resource partitioning among bananas and trees; a follow-up training and planning workshop, and the design of a grant website.

Evaluation of ecological and economic sustainability of breeding strategies in pastoral systems: The case of Ankole cattle

kensimon munene — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:31:18 +0000

In the formerly extensive and traditionally grazed and managed rangelands of Eastern Africa, especially in South Western Uganda, Western Rwanda and North Western Tanzania, there is an emerging production system where cattle breeders keep two separate herds, a pure bred Ankole herd and a herd of Ankole crossbred (in most cases) with Holstein Friesian. The purebred Ankole herd helps in reducing vulnerability to shocks, during periods of serious drought and times with high disease pressure as well as meeting such traditional non market functions as dowry payments. They are a source of income from live animal sales, while the Friesians (and crosses) are a source of milk, where production systems can support such genotypes. Crosses provide more marketable milk under good climatic conditions and low disease pressure. The stability and sustainability of such a sophisticated system depends on a large number of factors such as herd size, herd management, incidences and severity of droughts, social pressure of a community etc. Interactions between the pastoral systems and other more intensive crop-livestock systems, where crossbreds would be used for milk production are also important. More reliable information on the possible options and appropriate supportive institutional frameworks are therefore needed to design and support a sustainable production.

Integrating informal milk markets into formal value chains in Eastern and Central Africa

Tezira Lore — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:25:01 +0000

The informal dairy industry in the East and Central Africa region plays a dominant role in milk marketing, handling over 80-90% of all milk sold. The sector provides millions of poor consumers with a nutritious, affordable product and employs thousands of traders and service providers.

Evidence shows that formal milk markets will grow only as household incomes increase, and they are therefore expected to predominate for many years to come, given trends in demand. Besides the price advantage, other factors underlying the high demand are the income and relatively high-value employment.

Pro-actively engaging actors in the informal dairy sector to integrate it into the formal dairy value chain requires both appropriate changes in policy (mind-set and/or written), and developing appropriate policy implementation instruments for relevant institutions. This is necessary because whereas concerned institutions may appreciate the change needed, how to go about it is usually a bottleneck.

This project proposes to develop appropriate milk quality assurance standards and institutional approaches towards integrating informal milk markets into the formal value chains. These approaches will be piloted in the East African Community member countries first before adapting them for other countries covered by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa.

The specific approach proposed here involves piloting a training and certification scheme as a dairy business development service. Some countries (e.g. Kenya) have made some progress in this area while others require support to enable them develop and/or adapt such instruments.

The pilot testing is being complemented by dialogue mainly through the East Africa Dairy Regulatory Authorities Council to pursue options for rationalization and harmonization of dairy policies throughout the region, learning symposia to exchange lessons and assessment of impacts of policy changes.