• 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.

The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Improved Nutrition and Health is developing an impact pathway by which agriculture can enhance nutrition and mitigate health risks through value chain research. This requires new tools and approaches to prioritize which can be applied to informal markets in which quality and safety are diverse and where there can be trade-offs between income, employment, nutritional benefits and disease risks.

For these informal and emerging value chains, market access and income are as much an objective as the quality and safety of foods produced and consumed. Key questions to be answered include:

• Among the wide range of potential hazards associated with animal source foods products in informal systems, which are likely to have the greatest risks to human health?
• Which have the most impact in terms of limiting the availability of food critical to the nutritional security of the poor and constraining development of the value chain, particularly livelihood opportunities of the poor who produce or handle those products?
• What are the key constraints to supply and demand of safe and nutritious foods?
• What are the potential health and nutrition benefits of research that seeks to overcome these risks and constraints?

Research objectives

1. Development of tools and approaches for assessing value chains in relation to nutrition and health
2. Assessment of food quality and safety research priorities in value chains with high potential for pro-poor transformation and of interest to the CGIAR and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR).

The value chains have been chosen for their ability to generate information to inform research and development. They are pig meat in Vietnam, dairy in Tanzania and fish in Egypt, together comprising one third of the value chains targeted by the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

Research partners

• Central Laboratory for Aquaculture Research, Egypt
• Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
• Vietnam School of Public Health

Funding

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

The ultimate goal of this project is to improve the nutritional status of the rural and urban poor, particularly children and lactating women, in target regions of Latin America. To achieve this, agronomic superior, micronutrient-dense beans and rice, Quality Protein Maize (QPM), and high vitamin A cassava and sweet-potato will be developed and deployed.

The Project’s objectives shall include the following:
(a) Baseline study- To establish current; agricultural production systems, , policy framework, and on-going programmes. The study will be the benchmark upon which the Evergreen Agriculture investment project will be evaluated;
(b) Establishing sustainable tree seed/seedling supply systems by using the ‘Rural Resource Center’s approach;
(c) Build the capacity of smallholder farmers and partners for effective adoption of Evergreen Agriculture practices;
(d) Development of knowledge and information sharing products.

Project activities include the following:
1. Perform participatory priority species settings for fertilizer and high-value trees together with farmers, extension officers, marketing experts and other key informants at each of the research sites.
2. Compile information about present and potentially suitable tree species for each of the
sites with the help of information available from ICRAF Agroforestry databases, among
other sources.
3. Select a set of at least 5 suitable fertilizer and 10 high-value tree species for each of the sites based on the ecological range of the species now and in the future, as well as on the most recent knowledge on species propagation and husbandry techniques, economic value, marketing potential, value adding possibilities and land health benefits of the species.
4. Assess the domestication status and potential improvement of each of the selected tree species by using a combination of measures such as literature review, provenance trials and participatory domestication techniques.
5. Establishment of RRCs and satellite community nurseries.
6. Establishment of field genebanks and motherblocks at each of the sites for providing and maintaining high quality propagation material of the target species
7. Perform a literature research on available knowledge about genetic diversity, G x E
interactions and agronomy of the target species to help select suitable planting material
for selected sites.
8. Document existing knowledge (including traditional one) of fertilizer tree seed sources
and propagation techniques.
9. Test and improve propagation techniques in RRCs and satellite nurseries
10. Evaluate performance of seedlings in the nurseries and select the best provenances for propagation and dissemination.
11. Publish technical guidelines for fertilizer tree propagation.
12. Train trainers in nursery management (both technical and economical) and vegetative propagation; and use existing networks to disseminate technologies through farmer-tofarmer training.
13. Support for the establishment and strengthening of functional institutional and community based partnerships in target sites.
14. Develop and strengthen an iterative action research process that provides a framework for development of knowledge needed for scaling out/up Evergreen agriculture innovations as well as a participatory monitoring and evaluation process.
15. Establish partnerships for scaling up of Evergreen Agriculture practises.
16. Develop and operationalize knowledge management and communication strategy for
CAWT.
17. Develop appropriate Knowledge and Information Sharing Products (KISP) for different stakeholder groups.
18. Conduct mid and end of project conferences to share results.
19. Prepare bulletins for different electronic media.
20. Establish a web page within the ICRAF and other partner organizations websites.

The Project’s outputs are as follows:
(a) Baseline information on conservation agriculture and agroforestry in target areas
established.
(b) Sustainable tree seed and seedling supply systems developed and promoted.
(c) Capacity of smallholder farmers and partners for effective adoption of Evergreen
Agriculture practices built.
(d) Iterative knowledge management and communication systems needed for scaling out/up of evergreen agriculture innovations developed, documented and disseminated.

The project objectives are to:

• evaluate the importance of animal source foods as sources of energy, high quality protein and bioavailable micronutrients in infants and young children consuming complementary foods in a sample of Ethiopian households; and
• characterize the animal source foods available in the same households, and the pathways by which livestock keeping influences their availability.

The field work was carried out by PhD students from Switzerland (ETH) and Ethiopia (Humboldt University, Germany).

Program components

IMPROVED QUALITY AND RANGE OF AVAILABLE VARIETIES

The focus of this component is on breeding a wide range of varieties with the combinations of traits suited to agro-ecological conditions and to consumer and producer demands. The point is to create an integrated breeding system akin to the one that exists for cereal breeding, but focused on the producer and consumer preferences of resource-poor women and children.

BREEDING WEEVIL-RESISTANT SWEETPOTATOES

This component draws on biotechnology to develop weevil-resistant sweetpotato varieties for Sub-Saharan Africa. Sweetpotato weevils are the most important sweetpotato pest in the world – responsible for crop losses ranging from 60 to nearly 100% during pronounced drought. This situation may be critical during dry periods when sweetpotato is sometimes the only food available. With climate change predictions of an expanding dry season in Sub-Saharan Africa, the urgency of developing resistance to weevils will likely intensify.

DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE SEED SYSTEMS

The access to and maintenance of quality planting material is a struggle for smallholder farmers. This component involves developing and testing strategies to ensure effective multiplication, dissemination, and exchange of disease-free vines from which new plants will be propagated. It involves strategies to more efficiently link farmers with public sector distribution programs and integrate those with for-profit nurseries. It will examine which strategies assure women the best access to vines and whether women are as successful as men at commercially-oriented vine production.

PROOF-OF-CONCEPT PROJECTS

This series of projects will examine broader institutional or market level issues affecting crop production, markets, potential market expansion (e.g., use of sweetpotato as animal feed), and scalable approaches for improving nutrition with sweetpotato. These projects will evaluate options that influence the capacity to scale up and achieve the outcomes on poverty and nutrition that are planned for the years following SASHA, in the longer, ten-year initiative.

The aim of this project is to launch a food-based intervention against micronutrient deficiencies in the humid forest and mid-altitude regions of sub-Saharan Africa, through a combined strategy of improved productivity to assure food security, improved nutritional quality using genetically-enriched plantain and banana, and improved processing options to conserve nutritional quality. This work is funded by HarvestPlus, a body formed from the CG Challenge Program and funded by the Gates Foundation. The work has included:

• Identifying the best varieties with high micronutrient content from the existing elite and adapted germplasm for immediate multiplication and distribution to farmers,
• Carrying out wide scale screening of Musa germplasm to identify useful genes from within the Musa gene-pool for use in genetic improvement programmes;
• Incorporating identified genes (Musa and non-Musa) for nutrient enhancement into existing genetic engineering programmes for banana and plantain,
• Identifying and promoting post-harvest processing options that do not alter the bio-availability of micronutrients.
• Determining the inheritance of micronutrients to support a deliberate effort for genetic fortification of most productive varieties through conventional cross-breeding supported by marker-assisted selection,
• Refining technology packages by determining genotype x process interaction effects on micronutrient stability using the best genotypes,
• Disseminating genetically-fortified varieties and micronutrient-conserving processing options.

Research activities for phase 2 (2010-2011) are focused on optimising mechanisms through a proof-of-concept of fast-tracking high-vitA cultivars of different subgroups in East and Central Africa, and identifying the mechanisms underlying vitA accumulation in Musa fruits.

All findings and tools will continue to be disseminated through the regional banana and plantain research networks in East and Southern Africa, West and Central Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Asia and the Pacific, through the Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA) and through Bioversity-coordinated initiatives such as ProMusa, the global programme for Musa improvement.

IFPRI’s role in the project is to lead impact and process evaluation activities in the three focus countries. In Bangladesh and Viet Nam, the evaluation research uses cluster-randomized designs with detailed process/operations research. In Ethiopia, the evaluation research will use a before-after design, with a nested cohort study and detailed process/operations research.  In all three countries, the evaluation work includes prospective studies of the policy processes related to nutrition and infant and young child feeding policies and institutions.  

Vitamin A is an essential nutrient lacking in the diets of poor malnourished populations. Vitamin A deficiency retards growth, increases risk of disease, and can cause reproductive disorders.  Maize exhibits tremendous genetic diversity, and there is naturally occurring germplasm with high levels of provitamin A. Using these varieties to breed high-provitamin A will greatly improve vitamin A status of millions of poor consumers, especially in Africa.

General Objective of  the project:

Develop improved maize germplasm (OPVs and hybrids) with increased levels of provitamin A.

Project Outputs:
Output 1: Experimental maize hybrids and open-pollinated varieties with enhanced concentration of provitamin A, suitable for Zambian and similar mid-altitude, subtropical environments.
Output 2: Source germplasm with enhanced levels of provitamin A and with favorable alleles for use by maize researchers in breeding and developing biofortified maize cultivars.
Output 3: Validated technologies, including phenotyping and marker-assisted selection methods, to facilitate breeding provitamin A biofortified maize.
Output 4: Information about breeding biofortified maize

Output 1: Greater number of cultivar releases of abiotic stress tolerant, nutritionally enhanced maize varieties and hybrids adapted to the most important agro-ecologies of ECA.

Output 2: Accelerated development of new stress tolerant maize cultivars.

Output 3: Increased availability of breeder and foundation seed of stress tolerant, nutritionally enhanced maize varieties and mechanisms for scaling up certified seed production, especially in stress prone-environments.

Output 4: Policy recommendations which increase maize seed availability in stress-prone environments.

The project will be implemented as a targeted initiative using three major scaling up thrusts in 3 districts as follows: 1) Strengthening technical capacities of partners to promote and support agroforestry innovations; 2) Applying integrated agroforestry interventions for generating multiple streams of impact; and 3) Participatory scaling up of proven agroforestry innovations to smallholder farmers.

This approach builds on farmer and partner needs and past success in generating and scaling up proven agroforestry technologies. It is expected that by 2011, participating vulnerable households in the targeted districts in Zimbabwe will achieve year-round food security by reducing the average food gap and improve nutrition and increase income by at least 25% through adoption of agroforestry technologies and related interventions in the project.

The project will refine and apply innovative approaches for more rapid and sustained scaling up. The project covers a period of three years. It builds synergies with several projects implemented by partners in Protracted Relief Programme (PRP) phase I and proposed projects in Phase II.

The following are the project’s specific objectives: 1) Build technical capacity and provide technical guidance to partners implementing agroforestry as an integral part of food security and relief programmes in highly vulnerable districts; 2) Apply integrated agroforestry interventions for generating multiple streams of impact on livelihoods, food security and income of rural communities; and 3) Facilitate joint learning, dissemination and wider scaling up and out of proven agroforestry innovations and practices to smallholder farmers.

The project has the following three outputs: 1. Technical capacity of partner organizations and communities to demand, implement, monitor and evaluate agroforestry technologies built; 2. Options for increasing household food production, nutrition and income available for smallholder farmers; and, 3. Proven agroforestry technologies tested and adopted by smallholder farmers in project sites

This project will be carried out in the frame of the foreseen Challenge programme: ‘ High Value Crops- Fruits and Vegetables’. As part of this programme, the study will contribute to increased smallholder agricultural production, livelihood opportunities, and incomes in Eastern and Southern Africa through the development of intensive fruit-based agroforestry systems.

The above study will compile basic data and knowledge about small-scale fruit based agroforestry systems and selected fruit tree species.

Specific project objectives include the following. 1. To analyze and compare function and characteristics of existing garden-like agroforestry systems in India and Eastern Africa (particularly Kenya and Uganda). 2. To study potential and constraints for intensifying fruit garden systems in different climatic regions of Kenya and Uganda. 3. To gather data on genetic and nutritional variability of selected underutilized fruit tree species and varieties from India.

Expected project outputs are as follows. 1. Knowledge about function and characteristics of existing intensive small-scale fruit garden agroforestry systems in India. 2. Improved data on the practicability and constraints of high intensity fruit garden agroforestry systems in three pilot sites of Eastern Africa including GIS-based maps. 3. Qualitative and genetic characterization of selected fruit tree species and varieties. 4. Capacity building of national agricultural research institutes in the three pilot sites and awareness creation among public and private advisory services in at least five countries of Eastern and Southern Africa.