Since 2005, IPMS has helped to create in its pilot areas an enabling environment in which the public sector, smallholder farmers and private-sector agents are empowered to increase the production and productivity of crops and livestock through participatory, market-oriented development. The successes resulted from applying innovation systems approaches to identify and exploit opportunities in commodity value chains.

LIVES will not only build on these lessons but also introduce new approaches and interventions, and will scale up and out, focusing on a more limited number of value chains, and emphasizing the development of sustained capacity that will continue to have impact beyond the life of the project.

Goal

To contribute to enhanced income and gender equitable wealth creation for smallholders and other value chain actors through increased and sustained market offtake of high-value livestock and irrigated crop commodities.

Purpose

To improve competitiveness, sustainability and equity in value chains for selected high-value livestock and irrigated crop commodities in target areas of four regions of Ethiopia.

Objectives

• To facilitate the identification, targeting and promotion of improved technologies and organizational and institutional innovations to develop the value chains of selected high-value livestock and irrigated crop commodities;
• To improve the capacity of the value chain actors and the support services at the different administrative levels (from kebele [neighbourhood] to national level) to develop the selected value chains and respond to emerging challenges and opportunities;
• To improve generation, access, flow and use of knowledge relevant to the value chains within and amongst the different administrative levels (from kebele to national level);
• To generate knowledge through action-oriented research on and synthesis of lessons learnt about value-chain development; and
• To facilitate the promotion and dissemination of principles and good practices for the development of value chains.

Funding: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

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:

1. 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.
2. 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

This aim will be achieved through the following objectives:

1. Develop and apply efficient methods to characterise the Cabulig (Misamis Oriental), Inabanga (Bohol) and Billabong watersheds (NSW) to include biophysical and socio-economic information, with particular emphasis on mapping land and soil attributes using digital technology.

2. Develop improved approaches to analysing the suitability of sloping land for agricultural intensification within a watershed context.

3. Inform and enhance local land use planning processes at both the watershed and community scales in Cabulig and Inabanga watersheds.

4. Design and implement on-going monitoring programs in the Philippine watersheds that allows critical assessment of the adoption and impacts of land use planning.

To be able to do this the proposed action will have eight specific components directly addressing the three themes indicated above namely:
1: Understanding material transfers from watersheds and reducing ‘downstream’ effects of agriculture and forestry on coastal aquatic ecosystems
2: Addressing non-optimal use of resources through valuation and “environmental payments”
3: Identifying, mapping and strengthening management of critical coastal habitats
4: Understanding the factors determining livelihoods for poor coastal people and facilitate the application of ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF)
5: Restoring production from capture fisheries
6: Developing technologies for alternative or supplementary livelihoods for coastal people
7: Resource mapping (Biodiversity Information System) for effective resource management and monitoring
8: Capacity Building in Biodiversity Conservation and Natural Resources Management

The primary aim of the project is to quantify the economic benefits and identify other socio-cultural benefits from farmer managed natural regeneration process in the Sahel. The specific research questions to be answered are:
1. Economic benefits: what is the level of economic benefits that communities and households obtain from FMNR?
2. Variations in benefits: how do these benefits differ across different contexts, such as aridity, access to markets and dominant system and across different communities and household types?
3. Constraints to expansion: In the presence of FMNR transformation, why is FMNR not found in some neighboring communities and village territories?

Additionally and in relation to the conference titled “Linking knowledge to Policy and Action for Food and Livelihoods”, ICRAF will organise a field trip (as member of the Local Planning Committee), producing promotional material, arranging interpretation from and to Spanish, organising a GFRAS cocktail for participants and other duties as may be required.

Aim of the project:
The present project aims at improving the technique of root cuttings for Detarium microcarpum by enhancing sprouting efficiency and new root formation of root segments from mature and juvenile plants.

The specific objectives are:
1. To examine the effect of season on the sprouting ability of root segments from mature trees,
2. To determine the effects of fertilizers on root development of seedlings and their sprouting ability, and
3. To determine the effects of plant growth regulators; cytokinin on sprouting and new root formation from root segments from juvenile plants and auxin on the rooting ability of new sprouts in four experiments.

Project  2. Impacts of organic and conservation farming practices on soil fauna and weed dynamics in Chongwe District, Zambia
Goal: To contribute to the understanding of soil macrofauna and weed dynamics in organic and conservation farming systems in Zambia
Objective are as follows:

1 : Evaluate the effect of organic and conservation farming practices on the soil macrofauna

2: Determine the effect of green fertilizer cover crops on weed infestation

Objectives are as follows:
1.Scientific evidence is provided to stakeholders to assist with negotiations, reduce conflict and assist with compliance with Indonesia’s legal and sustainability criteria and international biofuel sustainability initiatives (EU Renewable Energy Sources Directive, US Energy Directive, Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil).

2.Existing information is analysed to identify land allocations to oil palm plantations at the expense of local communities’ agriculture and agroforestry, specifically, information from the local taskforce on land conflict at district level (TP4K Sanggau) and the participatory spatial planning units of each district.

3. Ways are identified of incorporating community mapping into participatory spatial zoning to ensure that local communities’ histories and agency in mapping are respected and their participation in planning decision-making is enhanced.

4. A manual is published on how to incorporate community mapping into participatory spatial planning.

5. Local stakeholders in Sekadau district are supported to adopt the lessons from Sanggau district.

The objective of project 2 is to enhance MPs and other stakeholders’ dialogue through meetings at local and national levels and o capitalize on their understanding of the importance of community rights through a white paper on land and forest tenure advocating for land and forest tenure’s inclusion in the upcoming forestry and land laws.

The objective of project 3 is to advocate for the active involvement of the Cameroon coalition members in Cameroon’s REDD-RPP to ensure that issues of tenure and rights are mainstreamed into REDD and climate change mechanisms while empowering local stakeholders via meetings on REDD concepts and processes to benefit the poor.

The review will cover all five natural regions of Colombia and, while focusing on research with trees that Corpoica has done, is doing and plans to do, will place this within a national context, including consideration of key expertise and ongoing research by other organizations.

The subject focus will include all Corpoica research with trees – from non-timber forest products, timber tree and perennial tree crop plantations through to trees on pastures and in agricultural fields and landscapes for productive and environmentally protective purposes.

Among other activities, ICRAF will:
1. Describe and assess past climate change modelling initiatives for Kenya and their relevance, if any for the project site.
2. Screen climate data sources available for the pilot sites as well as available agriculture information and access relevant data.
3. Compare suitable climate change models and select relevant ones for the modelling and down scaling.
4. Undertake climate- crop model coupling to synchronize agronomic practices with climate variability.
5. Develop weather trigger benchmarks for particular crops/if possible varieties.
6. Carry out analysis
7. Based on the scenarios, develop adaptation options.
8. Communicate the findings from the local climate change model to relevant stakeholder through a workshop.
9. Cover climate change information, models and scenarios relevant to the agricultural sector in Busia and Homabay countries.

Project outputs are as follows:
1. A detailed report including analysis results of historical deforestation and driver identification, future land use change via scenario analysis, carbon in land uses, carbon credit process, opportunity cost of a REDD program and flow of REDD program funds.
2. A full compilation of primary and secondary data used in the analysis
3. A full description of the protocol used in the analysis for independent replication by third parties

Specific objectives are as follows:
1. To conduct integrated mapping of selected landscapes
2. To assess the resource investment required for landscape level natural resource development

2.Explore adaptive livestock management options to sequester and avoid emissions of carbon from rangelands through collaborative research with local livestock keeping communities in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso.

3. Assess the effects of changes in livestock and rangeland management on GHG emissions and land surface albedo.

4. Synthesize the research, combining the impact of livestock and rangeland management practices aimed at sequestration and avoidance of carbon emissions while taking taking into account the combined radiative forcing of GHG emissions and albedo, and assess the potential of PES scenarios to diversify pastoral livelihoods.

The aim of these Carbon studies is to collect information on soil and land surface characteristics for experimental sites and larger areas in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso. This work will be done so as to

i) Assess the impact of grazing and fire on soil Carbon stocks, and

ii) Sample soil Carbon and land surface characteristics to allow production of maps revealing spatial variation on soil Carbon across a larger area.

The aim of this project is to investigate the feasibility of using inactivated mycoplasma for the induction of protective responses against a challenge with CBPP. Therefore we will use a two-step approach. The project team will first establish a robust and reproducible challenge model. Afterwards they will immunize cattle with bacterins from a African Mmm outbreak strain followed by a challenge trial. The immunisations will be carried out using different adjuvants and routes of immunization to compare the rate of the protection achieved.
Project goal and purpose

A better vaccine to CBPP is the major stepping-stone for a successful eradication policy. Many attempts to improve the current live vaccine or to find protective antigens have failed. The main goal of this proposal is to deliver proof of concept for an inactivated vaccine.

If successful, future research will be geared towards improving a practical delivery package and towards acquiring solid scientific data on protective immune responses and to generate knowledge, which can be applied to other mycoplasma infections in the veterinary field.
Expected outputs

• Develop a uniform challenge model for CBPP
• Confirm induction of protection by inactivated mycoplasma

The project is a partnership with BecA and CSIRO

This project places feed in a broader context and acknowledges that enhancing feed supply has both technical and institutional dimensions. The project tackles feed scarcity from a value chain perspective and employs innovation system principles. The emphasis on value chain and innovation approaches will necessarily involve consideration of issues beyond feed including enhancing breed quality and health status of dairy cows.

The overall goal of the project is to contribute to improved dairy-derived livelihoods in India and Tanzania via intensification of smallholder production focusing on enhancement of feeds and feeding using innovation and value chain approaches.

The objectives of the project are three-fold:

1. Institutional strengthening: To strengthen use of value chain and innovation approaches among dairy stakeholders to improve feeding strategies for dairy cows.
2. Productivity enhancement: To develop options for improved feeding strategies leading to yield enhancement with potential income benefits.
3. Knowledge sharing: To strengthen knowledge sharing mechanisms on feed development strategies at local, regional and international levels

The project is embedded in the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish.

A second phase of the project, if funded, would focus on piloting interventions designed around research findings (e.g. environmental hotspots, institutional design principles) and policy realities (e.g. political and economic viability of alternatives) in an action research mode. In addition to generating “proof of concept”, this experience would aid in crystallizing the contextual factors and actions required for solutions to be effective.

The main aim of the project is to develop groundnut varieties with high yield, high oil content and enhanced O/L ratio to increase oil production in rainfed, drought-prone environments and oil stability (shelf life) of groundnut using both, conventional and molecular tools.

 The  project is significant as it aims to boost production of high quality groundnut oil in India, which is a net importer of edible oils. With enhanced oil content and O/L ratio in new groundnut varieties, the proposed project envisages increase in health benefits to consumers and a reduction in the importation of edible oil thus reducing the burden on India’s exchequer. In addition, the high oil recovery from new groundnut varieties will catalyze oil processing industry and as a consequence bring in additional incomes to poor groundnut farmers of the SAT regions in the country.

1. To identify best-bet crop management options (soil, crop and water management) including improved varieties to enhance productivity of the selected crops in targeted seven districts by 25%.
2. To undertake representative soil sampling (stratified sampling method forfarmers in villages in a district) to prepare GIS-based soil maps depicting micro- and macro- nutrient status of the soils.
3. To assess the likely impacts of climate change in the target seven districts and identify suitable adaptation strategies to cope with the climate change
4. To build capacity of the stakeholders (farmers and consortium partners) in sustainable management of natural resources, enhancing crop productivity in dryland areas and adaptation strategies to cope with climate change.

The specific objectives of this project are:

1.  To consolidate the science-led farmer-centric community watershed approach at nucleus benchmark watersheds for enhancing productivity and reducing land degradation in three districts, and to use these sites as sites of learning for scaling-out benefits in the three target districts;
2. To scale-out the benefits of productivity enhancement and community watershed management with technical backstopping in the target agro-ecoregion of M.P. (10+2 districts) and Rajasthan (9+1 districts); and
3. Capacity building of lead farmers, development workers, and consortium partners in the target region and provide technical support to development agencies in the area of Community Watersheds through establishment of a national support group for community watershed development (NSGCWD).

Project G5 is the “Coordination and Change-Enabling” project for the Ganges Basin Development Challenge. The Project G5 objective is “To enhance impacts in Bangladesh and India through stakeholder participation, policy dialogue and effective coordination among other Government, NGO’s, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and donors sponsored projects and programs in the Ganges Basin Develpment Challange (BDC)  research Program” There are two major, inter-related activities: (i) coordination with our partners in Project G1-G4; and (ii) enabling change.

Project G5 is responsible for maintaining the coherence, integration and focus with our partners leading Projects G1 to G4, through active leadership and ensuring effective communication among projects. Building upon the Ganges BDC impact pathways, Project G5 will lead and coordinate monitoring and evaluation of project progress and integration, with close attention to the quality of implementation, and research products emerging from individual projects.

Project G5 will utilize tools of Results Based Management (RBM) to ensure that Projects 1-4 are well integrated into a program of research that ultimately delivers change – development outcomes and impacts. RBM is an approach to adaptive management that strongly emphasizes participation and learning. Learning depends on good information and feedback that will be derived from and delivered by an effective Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system. G5 connects the research under each project across topics and scales, from household agriculture-aquaculture farming systems to community polder water management through to broader land use planning. The project is also an interface between the program and a variety of existing and potential stakeholders and works towards scaling out of research results to multiple stakeholders with common interest in achieving the BDC.

Project G5 outputs are knowledge sharing products such as: (i) policy briefs and other interventions tailored for policy makers; (ii) capacity building tools; (iii) demonstrated approaches for scaling out; (iv) scenarios for climate and hydrological change; and (v) outputs from innovation research. These will be achieved in various ways through activities involving coordination, identifying and enabling partnerships for change; innovation research; development and implementation of a communications strategy; operation of an adaptive management system; support to capacity building; and more generally serving in a leadership and team building role for the Ganges BDC. Impacts will include reduced poverty, improved food security and strengthened livelihood resilience for people in coastal Bangladesh and India.

Given the complexity of issues, we will adopt a three phase research approach. In Phase I, we will conduct situation analysis in six selected polders. This will enable us to understand the different uses of water in polders, the conflicting interests arising thereof and the different governance mechanisms that are in place to manage these conflicts and their comparative advantage and disadvantages. In Phase II, we will zoom into community governance issues of two polders and do a detailed study on pros and cons of community management of polders. Phase III will run concurrently with Phase I and Phase II and we will do training and capacity activities in this phase. The main output of the project will be generation of knowledge aimed at sustaining high levels of polder governance through community participation.

The project has five specific objectives, and each will produce an output contributing to the above overall objectives:

validate new germplasm suitable for various agricultural cropping systems and establish seed distribution networks in target zones;

develop and disseminate more productive, profitable, resilient, and diversified rice-based cropping systems (including rice-aquaculture);

enhance the productivity of homestead production systems;

develop novel brackish-water aquatic production systems for zones too saline for agricultural crops; and

produce technology and policy recommendations for up- and out-scaling.

The project maintains strong linkages with other projects in the Ganges BDC, builds on the success of the Phase 1Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) projects in the Ganges, notably PN 10 and PN 7, and will leverage the ongoing work of other projects in the coastal zones of Bangladesh and India, especially Stress Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA), USAID-Cereals Systems Initiative for South Asia (USAID-CSISA), and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)’s agricultural program.

It will use two complementary approaches:

farmer participatory validation/demonstration of promising crops, cropping patterns, homestead farming, and aquacultural technologies; and

in-depth process analysis of new crop/aquaculture systems—using on-station experiments and simulation modeling.

The expected outcomes of the project include

decision-makers/policymakers endorse the use of modern varieties, technologies, and homestead and cropping systems and provide policies/support that enable widespread adaptation of research findings;

seed producers will produce adequate validated varieties for farmers; and

large-scale adaptation of the more productive, profitable, and stable cropping systems in fields and in homesteads.

Before a technology can be disseminated beyond the study site where it is developed, it is important to identify its “extrapolation domain.” This requires matching the resource profile of an area with the resource requirements of a technology. The goals of these technologies—increased resilience, improved livelihoods, increased production—also require an understanding of how can the land in the coastal zones best be zoned and used to meet different goals and objectives? And, how should land use change for anticipated hydrological change scenarios? This project aims to answer the question of “what works where” now and under climate change scenarios.

The G1 project has four activities, each with one output.

Compilation of a geodatabase covering all spatial information related to the project.

Characterization of the test sites and study areas from projects G2 and G3.

Mapping extrapolation domains for each technology from G2.

Development of future land-use plans based on historical land-use trends, assumed changes, constraints, and interventions from future scenarios.

The likely impacts of G1 are

Better targeting information for local government and extension services, which in turn leads to a higher likelihood of adoption of new crop intensification and water governance strategies.

Better decision making at the local government level due to improved awareness of land-use options.

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. Develop a framework with concrete response pathways for collective, supply chain inclusive adaptation to progressive climate change.
2.  Produce a set of methodologies and tools that will enable Oxfam and partners to scale-out the approach across projects globally.
3.  Determine specific results for three different supply chains.

Donor: Oxfam Great Britain

Water valuation means expressing the value of water-related goods and services so as to inform sharing and allocation decisions. It covers both use and non-use values, extractive and in situ use values, and consumptive and non-consumptive use values. It features quantitative and qualitative approaches and considers relationships between interconnected and interdependent water uses. Project outputs will take the form of valuation estimates that reflect the distribution of costs and benefits: across uses and users (considering gender differentiation), across scales (in the reservoir and across the catchment area considering other WSI).

Valuation is seen as essential to well-informed water resource management. Valuation will support a structured mechanism of multi-stakeholder dialogues, helping stakeholders to express their values and perceptions on the use and management of water resources. Assessing and communicating these values is the basis on which stakeholders will seek well-informed decisions in multi-stakeholder platforms.

This project will explore ways in which riparian communities can improve their livelihoods by taking advantage of agricultural, fisheries and other opportunities afforded by WSI development. Suitable strategies will broaden the uses of reservoir water to support livelihoods, benefit riparian and downstream communities alike, increase the lifespan of reservoirs, and maintain hydropower generating capacity. Research will also seek to minimize negative down-stream impacts.

Research on water use and livelihoods will take account of different needs (agriculture, fisheries, hydropower, and the environment – for example, wetlands preservation) for different user groups (including gender differentiation). These needs can be direct or indirect (for example, health related issues), or for consumptive or non-consumptive use of water (for example, fisheries). In addition, water requirements may vary seasonally, annually or in the long-term (e.g. under the effects of global drivers such as climate change).

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

The objectives of this research are to: 

1. To elucidate the molecular genetic basis of phenotypic variation for symbiotic nitrogen fixation efficiency in Cicer spp, including C. ariteinum (cultivated chickpea) and C. reticulatum (the wild progenitor).

2. To quantify the impact of domestication on symbiotic nitrogen fixation in chickpea.

3. To initiate purpose-driven populations and association genetics to examine genetic potential for efficient nitrogen fixation in elite genotypes of chickpea.

 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.

Benefits are many. Landowners increased their income with these profitable land uses, while CVS recovered their initial investment in helping to establish the land use systems. The payments for environmental services enabled these benefits. The BioCarbon Fund of the World Bank acted as a broker for the certified Carbon Emission Reductions (CERs). More farmers can benefit from expanded environmental conservation efforts.

Since 2006, the project has met numerous stringent requirements of the CERs negotiation and certification process. This was the first reforestation project negotiated in Colombia with the BioCarbon Fund.

Donor: The World Bank through Corporación Autónoma Regional de los Valles del Sinú y del San Jorge (CVS)

(i)       Diagnosis of the current and future agricultural sector.

(ii)     Identification of adaptation and mitigation measures for the agricultural sector.

(iii)    Evaluation of investment and finance flows.

(iv)    Synthesis of previous activities and establishment of the necessary agenda for facilitating the implementation of the proposed measures.
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Spanish Version:

Evaluación de Flujos de Inversion y Financiamiento para Acciones de Mitigacion y Adaptacion en el Sector Agropecuario

Específicamente, proponemos 4 actividades dentro de las cuales tratamos todos los temas requeridos en los términos de referencia:

• Actividad 1: Diagnóstico del sector actual y futuro.
• Actividad 2: Identificación de medidas de adaptación y mitigación para el sector agropecuario.
• Actividad 3: Evaluación de flujos de inversión y financiamiento.
• Actividad 4: Síntesis de actividades anteriores y establecimiento de agenda requerida para facilitar la implementación de las medidas propuestas.

Donor: Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD)

• Create a map of agroecological zones using climate data and soil analysis results from the Agustin Codazzi Geographic Institute (IGAC) of Colombia.
• Perform an exploratory assisted selection analysis of varieties by agroecological zone.
• Determine the phreatic level throughout the zone in order to establish improved criteria for the design of drainage systems.
• Conduct exploratory prognostic analyses of Black Sigatoka attacks and its effects on production.

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Spanish Version:

Hacia un sistema de información geográfica de fincas bananeras en Urabá para monitoreo, control y optimización de la producción.

• Crear un mapa de zonas agroecológicas usando datos climáticos y resultados de análisis de suelos del IGAC.
• Realizar un análisis exploratorio de selección asistida de variedades por zona agroecológica.
• Determinar el nivel freático a traves de la zona para establecimiento de mejor criterio para diseño de sistemas de drenaje.
• Análisis exploratorio de pronóstico de ataque de Sigatoka Negra y sus posibles efectos en la producción.

Partner: Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi (IGAC)

Donor: Unión de Bananeros de Urabá – UNIBAN

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Spanish Version:

Cuencas de Medellin

Identificar zonas prioritarias para la conservacion en las cuencas de los embalses La Fe, Rio Grande II y Piedras Blancas en el departamento de Antioquia de acuerdo a criterios de calidad de agua, rendimiento de agua y retencion de sedimentos.

Donor: The Nature Conservancy

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Spanish Version:

Desarrollar un análisis de vulnerabilidad frente a escenarios de cambio climático de cuatro cuencas involucradas en el fondo agua por la Vida, que sirva como insumo para desarrollar estrategias de adaptación de cambio climático para las 9 cuencas de influencia de Agua por la Vida: Tuluá-Morales, Nima, Amaime, Bolo, Desbaratado,Frayle, Guabas, Palo y Zabaletas.

Donor: The Nature Conservancy

1. To finalize and implement a Java-based algorithm to cross-check coordinates of IABIN’s terrestrial biodiversity data.
2. To finalize and implement Java-based algorithm to add value to non-georeferenced records within the IABIN network.
3. To assess all the primary data using the algorithms in (1) and (2) and provide IABIN with a detailed evaluation of all its primary biodiversity data.
4. To finalize and implement a Java-based algorithm for the training of niche models (using a maximum entropy approach) and apply it to plant taxa with enough data located in South America.
5. To overlay the developed geographic distributions with ecosystem threat, and protected areas layers, generate analysis metrics to provide the necessary background data for scenario assessment and policy making for South America.
6. The development of an interactive Google maps-based interface to navigate through the biodiversity data and the modeling and overlaying results.
7. To generate the appropriate documentation and reports on the developed tools.

For more information, visit http://code.google.com/p/iabin-threats/
Donor: The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States

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Spanish Version:

RENATA aplicada en la generacion de soluciones de informacion ambiental, coberturas vegetales y cambio de uso de suelo para Colombia, accediendo a bases de datos especiales distribuidas y su manejo con aplicativos remotos.

Desarrollar una metodología integrando RENATA con una herramienta de informática que permita el acceso en forma remota tanto a bases de datos distribuidos espaciales geográficos como también a aplicativos de modelación espacial, para la comunidad científica y al pueblo en general, para generar información actualizada y permanente en los temas de coberturas vegetales y cambio de uso del suelo e información ambiental para Colombia, con base en datos MODIS y GOES y con procesos de modelación climática y ambiental.

Donor: Colciencias

Donor: Wageningen Agricultural University

Donor: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

1. A business portfolio alighned with the Climate , Community and Biodiversity standards (CCBS)
2. Conduct an Environmental Service (ES) market fair/ES Buyers forum organized in Manila, the Philippines promoting the Kalahan people’s potential for inclusion in a carbon-offset scheme as well as other ES such as water and agro-biodiversity
3. Build local capacities in negotiation and facilitate the negotiations with potential buyers of environmental services

Key project outputs are:

Project outputs are as follows:
1. A forestry and environmental services voluntary carbon market business portfolio alighed with the CLimate, Community and Biodiversity Standards (CCBS), Carbon Fix Standard (CFS) and Voluntary Carbon Standards (VCS). The portfolio should include scientific data of professional standards on carbon sequestration, biodiversity, watershed, and the socioeconomic conditions of the Kalahan forest reserve and the peoples within.
2. Both secondary and primary data on community benefit to be derived from afforestation/reaforestation (A/R) efforts in addition to possible payments from the Voluntary Carbon Market.
3. A written report on the conducted environmental service market fair and awareness building forum

The project aims to demonstrate a successful model for up and out scaling the sweet sorghum cultivation for ethanol production to increase the farmers’ incomes, without compromising the food or fodder needs of farmers. This paves way for most efficient whole plant utilization of sweet sorghum, a promising crop for the tropics particularly in the light of climate change. The project aims to increase the area of sweet sorghum from negligible area at present to 1500 ha by the end of the project directly benefiting at least 2000 farmers in each participating country (India, Thailand and China) through centralized model (within 50 km radius) and additional 200 ha each in India and Thailand through decentralized model (beyond 50 km radius) benefiting 200 farmers additionally in each country.

The overall goal of this project is to enhance food and nutritional security and income generation for the under privileged farmers of rainfed areas of Orissa

Objectives

• To evaluate and identify newly developed high yielding disease resistant varieties and hybrids of pigeonpea for further introduction and expansion
•  Promote cultivation of high yielding pigeonpea varieties in the marginal soils.
• To develop village-level seed systems to achieve self-sufficiency in seed of farmer-preferred improved varieties of pigeonpea.
• Capacity building of farmers, NGOs, and Self Help Groups in sustainable pigeonpea production technology components.
• Enhance profitability by linking production with dal processing and marketing.
• To provide research backstopping for refinement and research on pigeonpea components as identified by researchers and farmers in the target area

The proposed strategy will address specific supply-and-demand problems in the groundnut sub-sector in the Eastern Province of Zambia that may provide lessons for other provinces in which this crop is produced.

The project will utilize the products of crop improvement to increase productivity and to endow groundnuts with market-acceptable traits and with better quality to tap into regional and international markets. The project will promote marketing innovations that emphasize efficiency and reduce transaction costs. Grain marketing will be improved by the strengthening of farmer organizations to establish rural collection points to enhance collective marketing and serve as mechanisms for grain assembly and grading. The gains in market efficiency and reduced transactions costs will be translated into higher grain prices for producers, and will result in increased incomes for rural households.

Project activities involving training will strengthen the capacity of national agricultural research systems (NARES) and the University of Zambia in demand-driven technology development. The capacity of farmer organizations and entrepreneurs in collective marketing, enterprise development and negotiation will also be strengthened. The combination of increased productivity and better linkages to markets will strengthen the competitive position of farmer organizations and traders.

 The specific objectives are as follows: 

1. To form a multi-institution consortium comprising ICRISAT, AVDRC,  NGOs, private sector industries, University of Horticulture, SAUs, and Department of Horticulture to implement e Suvarna Bhoomi Yojane in 25 selected districts.
2. To understand input and output market value chains and identify market linkages for high-volume fruits and vegetable crops for farmers under SBY.
3. To implement a  science-based strategy for sustainable production of high-value crops
4. To build capacity of the consortium partners to manage  the  SBY project and undertake capacity building of stakeholders  in the value chain, especially farmers.
5. To monitor, evaluate and document progress, impacts  and lessons learnt on consortium formation and  functionfor strengthening the SBY.

• Participatory assessment of Rift Valley fever (RVF) surveillance and rapid response activities
• Economic impact assessment and identification of cost-effective mitigation measures

The first component is aimed at assessing the 2007 outbreak of RVF in Kenya in order to identify key lessons on how to better predict, detect and respond to RVF. This will also provide information on how to better engage decision-makers to act promptly and appropriately in response to future outbreaks of the disease.

The second component of the project will leverage the information generated from the participatory assessment towards developing tools that improve risk management and decision making for future RVF outbreaks. This will facilitate planning of governmental and non-governmental preparedness, develop better contingency plans and better inform public policy in case of subsequent outbreaks in terms of the impact of uncontrolled disease and cost-effectiveness of measures.

Objectives

Component 1

1. To describe the symptoms of Rift Valley fever (RVF) in livestock and people, and assess the socio-cultural and economic determinants of knowledge and effectiveness of interventions as perceived by stakeholders in order to develop better surveillance and response systems.
2. To assess stakeholders’ perceptions on the impact of RVF at the household to the local market level.
3. To evaluate the local and national response capacity using key informant interviews and data collection in governmental and non-governmental organizations.
4. To foster communication between public health and livestock professionals and between professionals and the communities.

Component 2

1. To assess the economic impact of RVF at local and national levels.
2. To assess and prioritize the cost-effectiveness of disease control options from a multi-sectoral perspective.
3. To analyze intervention scenarios and provide recommendations that identify preferred strategies and steps needed to create institutional change to enhance the capacity to mitigate future outbreaks.

Funding: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The review considers eight themes:

• Transmission routes and wildlife
• Pathogen recombination
• Risk factors for transmission
• Drivers influencing interaction
• Historical changes and trends
• Livestock production systems
• Socio-economic, institutional and political factors
• Risk management and control

Develop a sector model for Syrian Agriculture (Agro-Syria Model)
• Apply the developed model for analysis of selected policy scenarios
In achieving these objectives ICARDA will invite the relevant experts from the University of Naples, Italy to participate in the various research activities and cover their costs.Conduct a study on agricultural risk management utilizing the outcomes of
the following side studies:
- Study on the rural funding institutions
- Study on the institutions working in the rural areas in Syria and their role in development
- Study on the social security network

CIAT is colaborating YPARD through the following activities:

• Developing content for the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) section on www.ypard.net
• Identifying potential new members.
• Promoting YPARD when attending workshops and events in the course of ongoing work.
• Exploring and actively seeking funding at the regional level.
• Engaging in a brainstorming process with regional and national representatives and YPARD LAC members on areas of focus and ways ahead for the region.
• Ensuring YPARD representation at the regional FORAGRO meeting to discuss about YPARD and distribute promotional materials.
• Facilitating YPARD LAC relevant participation in virtual and face-to-face regional events.
• Designing and publications of a printed media regarding the YPARD LAC experience

Donor: Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

• Construct a database of soils, climate and land use for the watershed of Corpoguavio, for the purpose of hydrological modeling with SWAT.
• Develop the hydrological baseline for the watersheds that form part of the Corpoguavio jurisdiction using hydrological modeling with SWAT.
• Calibrate and validate the SWAT model using available depth-measuring data (and where possible, sediments).
• Prioritize the most important areas for their water yield and for their potential for improving the flow of hydrological environmental services to the jurisdiction.
• Recommend what type of information should currently be improved in order to strengthen hydrological modeling in the future.
• Carry out meetings for exchanging experiences between institutions about the design and implementation of financial or economic mechanisms for the provision of environmental services, in order to generate recommendations for decision makers working in the area of study at the national level.

Donor: Patrimonio Natural

1. Downscaled global and regional climate models to local levels (increased resolution).
2. Predicted impact of climate change on the maize and bean production systems in Central America including yield, quality, pests and diseases, and their interactions.
3. Quantified impacts on maize-bean production systems and their consequences on socio-economic indicators such as farmers’ livelihoods, income and gender and also on food safety, migration patterns, human health and water/land conflicts.
4. Adaptation hot spots identified.
5. Local adaptation and mitigation strategies developed using participatory methods.
6. To achieve the above outputs we plan to work along two main activity lines: A) the analyses of climate change impact and B) the targeting of future interventions.

Donor: Howard Buffet Foundation

Donor: Fontagro (through INIA, Chile)

Donor: German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ-BMZ)

Researchers will analyze the state of the art conceptual approaches to participation, intervention strategies and institutional arrangements that encourage or limit the development of market-led participatory methodologies, as well as the extent to which these have contributed to the social inclusion of smallholder farmers.

The project will also analyze and describe the role and the processes carried out by the support organizations (private and public) in each one of the selected cases to influence more socially inclusive results in development projects when applying market-led participatory methodologies.

Finally we will determine the successful factors, the obstacles, and lessons learnt in the application of the market-led participatory approaches used in the selected case studies and suggest strategies and methodologies that permit social inclusion of smallholder and marginalized actors (women and indigenous people) in Bolivia.

Donor: The McKnight Foundation

Donor: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Spatial analyses, based on geographical information systems (GIS), are used as tools to identify taxonomic, geographic and environmental gaps in ex situ collections, easing the process of taxon prioritization (based in identified gaps and threats to biodiversity) and producing information for guiding future collecting missions. These analyses require environmental variables and known presence registers as inputs, they also use modeling algorithms where reliability and performance will depend on the amount of data available and its quality. Despite the global effort to make biological information publicly available (i.e. GBIF), information is still lacking for some CWR taxon, leading to low performance models unsuitable for the gap analysis.

Under the current project, three different stages are planned:

1. Gathering data from alternative sources to ensure robust and reliable models
2. Improving gap analysis methodology, including threat assessment, and
3. Making final results available for final users (NARS) through a website.

Donor: Global Crop Diversity Trust

1. Hydrological modeling to simulate the effects of conservation agriculture on the environmental services provided by the hydrological basin, based on existing information.
2. Install plots with prioritized livestock and farming systems.
3. Determine soil loss using USLE, rainfall simulators, and runoff plots.
4. Measurement of soil characteristics in plots with and without conservation agriculture and with different types of coverage.
5. Conduct socio-economic surveys of producers in the Fuquene basin to assess impacts on income and poverty.
6. Hydrological modeling to simulate effects of conservation agriculture on the environmental services provided by the hydrological basin, based on new information gathered in the field.
7. Determine environmental indicators for monitoring soil and water resources.
8. Design a benefit distribution system that puts value on the environmental services that the well-managed areas in the basin provide.

Donor: Corporacion Autonoma de Cundinamarca (CAR)

Local and regional governance will also benefit because resources and efforts can be redirected to other urgent problems. Social organization will become more inclusive and focused to deal with peoples’ demands in closer contact with policy-makers at local scales.

Finally, downstream water users will have a more abundant and reliable supply of clean water while upstream communities will benefit from investments that improve the productivity of their agroecosystems. In return, upstream communities should agree to cease the unsustainable exploitation of catchment areas that are key to downstream water supply.

Donor: Challenge Program on Water and Food (through King’s College London)

Donor: National University of Engineering, Nicaragua

Donor: European Commission (through Macaulay Land Use Research Institute)

Objectives include:

1. To measure project performance according to the project aims, and to evaluate the impact of activities on the target population, identifying the catalysts and obstacles to supporting timely decision making.
2. To support the development and strengthening of local capacity for monitoring their own conditions and situation, and making decisions consistent with their objectives of improving the quality and standard of living.

Donor: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

Donor: Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

• Predict the future suitability and distribution of GMCR coffee sourcing areas.
• Evaluate possible impacts of climate change on coffee quality and quantity.
• Identify alternative crops suitable under predicted climate change scenarios for key regions.
• Evaluate the implications of changes in coffee quality and quantity in three case study sites on social parameters (income, poverty, equity etc).
• Accompany farmer organizations and engage with supply chain actors to design adequate adaptation scenarios.

Donor: Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR)

Donor: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Donor: Ford Foundation

1. The innovation of agricultural production systems for food security for the benefit of participants of the project.
2. Productive diversication strategies oriented towards markets, facilitation with business and organization building for rural businesses and organizations, and support in marketing strategies.
3. Soil quality and fertility analysis.
4. Economic analysis.
5. Capacity building regarding all themes of CIAT’s work.

Donor: Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)

Donor: Catholic Relief Services

Donor: Generation Challenge Program

Local and regional governance will also benefit from this project because resources and efforts can be redirected to other urgent problems. Social organization will become more inclusive and focused to deal with peoples’ demands in closer contact with policy-makers at local scales. Finally, downstream water users will have a more abundant and reliable supply of clean water while upstream communities will benefit from investments that improve the productivity of their agroecosystems. In return, upstream communities will agree to cease the unsustainable exploitation of catchment areas key to downstream water supply.

Donor: CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food

1. Technically characterize two successful organic production systems with economic potential for each participating country.
2. Identify and recommend critical points and success factors of  organic production and management technologies.
3. Develop proposals for economically viable technologies for the production of agricultural goods for the organic market.
4. Disseminate proposals tending to the incorporation of new areas of organic production.

Donor: Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) Chile
___________________________
Spanish Version:

Identificación y validación de sistemas productivos orgánicos exitosos con potencial de adopción en la agricultura familiar en países del Cono Sur.

Identificar, sistematizar y validar procesos productivos hortícolas y frutícolas orgánicos exitosos y que tengan potencial de mercado. Objetivos ESPECÍFICOS:

1. Caracterizar técnicamente dos sistemas productivos orgánicao exitosos en rubros agrícolas con potencial económico por cada país participante.
2. Identificar puntos críticos y factores de éxito de las tecnologías de producción orgánica y gestión, más recomendable.
3. Elaborar propuestas tecnologías económicamente viables para la producción de bienes agrícolas orientados a mercados de productos orgánicos.
4. Difundir las propuestas desarrolladas propendiendo la incorporación de nueva superficie a la producción orgánica.

Donor:

• Fondo Nacional de Fomento Hortofrutícola (FNFH)
• Association of Fruit and Vegetable Growers in Colombia (ASOHOFRUCOL)

1) To develop a set of business models that support sustainable smallholder and rural laborer inclusion in high-value, formal export, and domestic markets in four distinct product clusters.

2) To apply these new business models (through value chain analysis and upgrading) in sub-Saharan Africa.

3) To expand these validated business models through existing and new supply chain partnerships that provide direct benefits to 158,000 smallholders and 301,000 laborers while using project results to influence existing standards.

CIAT specifically helped to establish a fine flavor cocoa supply chain in Ghana, which will help to increase income and improve smallholders’ livelihoods.

Donor: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (through the Rainforest Alliance)

• poor economies of scale
• inadequate productive and post-harvest infrastructure
• inadequate technologies
• lack of access to market intelligence, and
• weak organizational structures of cooperatives.

This will be achieved through the establishment and strengthening of 85 worker-based cooperatives and six second-level cooperative societies, and the development of production and value chains.

Donor: Catholic Relief Services

Specific activities to be undertaken are as follows:
1. Collect and analyse “information on Agroforestry Policy and Decision Making” in general for Africa and Asia, specifically in Brazil, Cameroon, China, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Philippines, Tanzania and Zambia

2.Carry out and report on “Intervoes” among at least 10 policy and decsion making specialists related to agroforestry in India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malawi, Peru and Zambia

3. Carry out at least 4 “National Case Studies” in India, Indonesia, Kenya and Malawi and if possible, China and Brazil too

4. Provide advice to FAO for the 2 National Case Studies in Tanzania and Zambia
5. “Peer review the draft guidelines” to be formulated by the international consultant in line with the peer review process

6. Produce 2 policy briefs on the case studies realized to be distributed by ICRAF and FAO through existing research and development newsletters, journals and networks

7. Participate in the Institutional collaborative task force through virtual communications, when needed and when requested by FAO

In this project, ICRAF will undertake the following activities:
1. Support the secretarial services of the Forum
2. Hire a consultant for the drafting of policy briefs and policy recommendations
3. Organization of seminars

Project outputs are as follows:
1. Policy recommendations and policy briefs
2. Seminar reports
3. Increased awareness on how to achieve competitiveness, profitability and sustainability of smallholder agriculture in East Africa

Project objectives are:
(a) Understand the interactions between crops and livestock in target farming communities and identify opportunities to overcome the constraints to farm productivity in maize-based mixed crop-livestock farming systems in eastern Africa;
(b) Develop and demonstrate efficient, lower risk and more productive farming systems based on the principles of conservation agriculture (CA) that combine increased grain production and the production of sufficient animal feed with improved quality;
(e) Explore, evaluate and demonstrate options for the incorporation of trees and shrubs into smallholder CA-based systems through participatory research in target communities;
(d) Evaluate the benefits of more intensive and diverse farming systems based on the principles of CA on farm family food security, income and livelihoods, and on labour requirements, disaggregated by gender and wealth groups;
(e) Disseminate and scale out Subproject II results to farmers, extension agents and researchers through targeted activities and publications; and
(f) Maintain Subproject 11 Subproject 11 titled “Enhancing total farm productivity in smallholder conservation agriculture based systems in eastern Africa” efficiency and dynamism through capacity building and constant monitoring, evaluation, and reorientation of Subproject 11 activities and outputs.

Project outputs are as follows:
1. Report on the baseline survey findings
2. Annual report on vine retention by farmers and quality of material
3. Evaluation report on the overall efficiency of the two value chains (factory vs. farmer organization based)
4. Evaluation report on the income and equity benefits to farmers from participating in both chains (compared to controlled group)

The project aims to train staff from government agencies (Agricultural research and Rural Extension), but also include selected staff from other relevant local institutions through the conduction in participatory workshops in Mozambique. Further, this project  will develop a network between Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), ICRAF and agricultural professionals from Mozambique for long-term collaborative research.

Drawing on emerging lessons from initiatives currently underway both within and outside of UNDP, the project will:
i) Build on and expand ongoing efforts of helping African governments and institutions to
effectively participate in the international climate negotiations in particular, enhancing their understanding of the crucial Ball Road Map discussions, currently underway and their economic and policy implications within the context of the Convention,

ii) Act as vehicle to create awareness among regional and national partners of the development benefits of and the interface between sustainable development and
Payments for Ecosystem Services and Clean Development Mechanism, and

iii) Contribute to efforts aimed at establishing enabling institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks required for accessing environmental and related carbon finance, needed to sustainably restore and manage natural resources.

This project seeks to better understand the reasons for the limited adoption of CA in Africa. A better understanding of the extent and in which techno-institutional conditions CA strengthens the socio-economic position of landholders, is a pre-requisite to know where and how to promote large-scale CA adoption. The goal is, therefore, to examine the agro-ecological, socioeconomic and institutional conditions that determine success or failure of CA. This knowledge will contribute significantly to successful (re)design of CA practices to better adapt them to African farming systems and their context. The project brings together the major research players involved with CA in Africa to share, assess and learn together with practitioners from past and ongoing experiences on CA in five regions across the continent. With the five regions the project covers the major agro-ecological zones and farming systems of Africa. It will draw on a number of selected case studies from these regions to identify lessons and priorities for future research, practice and policy on CA in Africa. The integrated assessment of these case studies will be done mostly through the use of carefully selected bio-physical, socio-economic and innovation systems models.

A main outcome of the project will be a better understanding by stakeholders involved in CA research and development across Africa of the impact and adoption of CA. With such understanding, formal research and development actors in Africa and their international partners will be in a better position to target CA technologies to the diverse African farming systems. This is one of the necessary conditions to have a profound impact on rural livelihoods.

• The importance of livestock in the Lao economy and to the livelihoods of village households, with   specific poverty, gender, and ethnicity implications.
• The limitations of the current village-based systems in terms of feeding regimes and reproductive management for locally bred pigs.
• The potential for village pig production to become a better financial contributor to community well-being.
• Increasing pressure to confine pigs for hygiene, forage delivery, and other management reasons.
• The constant threat of disease incursions, especially classical swine fever (CSF).
• The risk of zoonotic diseases for animals and humans.

Research Themes

Baseline information and site selection
To select sites, collect baseline information, characterize new products, and evaluate data obtained from trials conducted by the private companies.

Screening of new products and technological options
To screen a large number of new products on some key crops such as maize, soybean, cowpea and banana under greenhouse conditions, followed by a field evaluation of effective products and an investigation of their capacity to increase crop yield across target agro-ecozones, land intensification and soil fertility gradients, including fields that are responsive to fertilizer and those are not, as a basis for integrating these into Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) technologies.

Understanding mechanisms and contributions
To unravel mechanisms underlying adaptation and contributions of the two selected products and their combinations to crop performance and yield persistence in various target cropping systems across the target agro-ecozones, land intensification and soil fertility gradients.

Making effective products available at scale
To foster dissemination of effective new agricultural products beyond the experimental sites through a cycle of demonstration and farmer-managed adaptation trials in the target areas. This objective will initiate activities that could potentially be further developed in a Phase II proposal that Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)  may fund at 1.5 – 2 years into the program for expanding commercial scale up, formulations, field development or field dissemination of technologies in different countries. This preliminary activity should be done in accordance with community extension programs associated with development.

Project management, capacity building, and monitoring and evaluation
To operationalize a continuous monitoring and evaluation framework as a basis for ensuring that the desired outputs are produced, and explore and develop pathways for commercialization of effective products. Several students (Master and PhD) will be trained in the field of biological materials, soil inoculants and soil microbiology. Currently, national research capacity is limited but crucial to achieve success. Gender issues will be taken into consideration in the selection of the students for both Master and PhD. This will be done closely in relation with the Project funded by BMGF and coordinated by the Gender & Diversity programme of CGIAR.

1. Explore tropical japonica germplasm searching for maintainers using test crosses.
2. Produce pure seed of rice AB systems from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). 

Preliminary results are very promising and several interesting hybrid combinations have been identified.

• Deliver 60 sets of five to eight fertile interspecific lines derived from crosses between two O. sativa elite lines and 30 O. glaberrima accessions.
• Establish a high-throughput methodology based on SSR and SFP markers for rapid genome scanning of the introgressions.
• Fine map the chromosome 6 S locus, the major gene acting in the interspecific sterility barrier system, to derive a BC1 population from a cross between an O. sativa and an interspecific CSSL.

• Identifying sources of resistance to Ascochyta and promote their use.
• Generate F1 populations from crosses between sources of Asaochyta resistance and commercial bean varieties, Bola Rojo and Cargamento.
• Evaluate segregating populations produced as a result of the above crosses.
• Conduct phenotypic and genotypic assessments of segregating populations in order to identify molecular markers associated with resistance to Ascochyta and Antracnosis.

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.

By their perishable nature, bananas must be sold as quickly as they are mature.  This, coupled with the lack of a reliable source of market information and with limited value-addition capacity, forces individual small scale farmers to sell their banana at any price offered by vendors.    This has resulted into constant loss of income and has significantly contributed to the decline in living conditions and increased poverty in small-scale farming-systems-dependent communities in the great lakes region of east Africa.  A frequently proposed alternative is for farmer organizations to consolidate greater volumes of production, to strengthen local negotiating power and to improve understanding of markets and prices.  The implementation of such strategies is incipient and has often been based specialty crops such as cocoa, essential oils and natural medicinal products. The opportunities for refocusing value-chains for food crops towards greater farmer participation and greater value are abundant, but have not been the focus of most research projects.  In 2009-2010, Bioversity International is undertaking three new research grants with components focused on the marketing of banana biodiversity for increased added value to small-scale farmers and their rural community enterprises. In these new grants the proposed associate expert will work to integrate production technology testing and promoting value-addition and marketing initiatives in banana producing communities in six countries in the region.  The associate expert will have the opportunity to collaborate with Bioversity staff, external consultants and national counterparts in the development of strategies to improve the contribution of banana production and marketing to rural development and to the reduction of rural poverty.  The associate expert will:

- Review relevant methods and experiences on value chain analysis and governance, farmer organization strengthening and market identification and development in east Africa and collaborate with researchers in other regions of the continent;

- Conduct applied research directly and in collaboration with students and collaborators to understand livelihood strategies of banana producing households, to describe current market channels, to identify alternative differentiated and niche markets for banana and banana products, to develop strategies for improving value chain governance mechanisms to the benefit of rural communities and to develop strategies for establishing and strengthening farmer organizations to the benefit of poor households;

- Prepare and carry out training activities based on methods adapted from other projects and incorporating research results in the project directed towards farm households and incipient farmer organizations, actors in value chains and service providers linked to improving chain governance;

- Link project staff and counterparts from national partners to the growing body of experience on value chains, marketing strategies, farmer organizations, entrepreneurship and rural development;

- Participate in other activities contributing to the success of the projects.

 The work plan will address important global questions (food security, income, nutrition), while at the same time contributing to the specific needs of banana farmers in the on-going projects.

The ultimate outcome anticipated from this research project is to develop improved varieties of groundnut and pigeonpea having higher levels of ß-carotene without compromising the yield and other agronomic traits related to farmers and consumers acceptance. This long-term sustainable strategy is expected to prevent/control micronutrient malnutrition in a vast population in the developing countries of the world where these crops are grown, including India, where they form a major component of diet as secondary staple. Such strategies are cost-effective, feasible, and can be sustainably implemented under conditions where supplementation and fortification are currently not practical or economically feasible.

The specific objectives of this project include:

1. Improve women (and men) farmers’ access to seed of new sorghum and pearl millet varieties in targeted regions of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. This project phase will increase women’s involvement in variety evaluation, focusing on traditional and newly formed women’s groups, associations and organizations. Also, women’s engagement in quality seed production and possibly marketing will be initiated. Work on methods and tools for better variety evaluation by farmers and farmer associations, including a reliable assessment of the quantity of food produced per unit area of harvested crop will be pursued. Methods and tools for communicating the results of individual site variety evaluations at an appropriate scale will be developed.
2. Understand and enhance the effectiveness of different activities for enhancing seed availability and knowledge about the new varieties. Monitoring will focus on the variety adoption process, including yearly changes in variety use, and shall contribute to understand farmers’ (female and male) responses to climate variability and other changes in the external environment.

The specific objectives to achieve the above aim are to:

1. Identify and distribute high-yielding chickpea, groundnut and pigeonpea cultivars adapted to the relevant cropping systems ofthe Central Dry Zone of Myanmar, using farmer participatory varietal selection
2. Increase production of high-quality rhizobial inoculants in Myanmar through application of a cost-effective strategy involving equipment and procedural changes, quality assurance, R&D and training
3. Conduct training and extension programs on legume improvement and inoculant technology in order to enhance capacity for research and extension in these disciplines in Myanmar and to facilitate uptake of project outputs.

Objectives:

1. To build, demonstrate and sustain a model agricultural knowledge organization and system in support of extension in India;

1. To develop and manage an online and offline  forum for management of farm level Q&A  and discussions which is integrated with knowledge  generation and organization;

1. To build and demonstrate an online as well as offline multi-modal information delivery arrangement linking online content and expert knowledge  with query services;

1. To build and sustain geospatial data and knowledge organization  systems  to support agricultural research, education  and technology transfer;

1. To build capacity among agricultural experts in the advanced management of highly integrated information services in support of education, research and extension; 

To develop methods for viable integration of back-end digital systems and processes to foster  autonomous, long term  collaboration between the ICT sector and the NARES organizations in India 

Objectives:

1.      To build, demonstrate and sustain a model agricultural knowledge organization and system in support of extension in India;

2.      To develop and manage an online and offline  forum for management of farm level Q&A  and discussions which is integrated with knowledge  generation and organization;

3.      To build and demonstrate an online as well as offline multi-modal information delivery arrangement linking online content and expert knowledge  with query services;

4.      To build and sustain geospatial data and knowledge organization  systems  to support agricultural research, education  and technology transfer;

5.      To build capacity among agricultural experts in the advanced management of highly integrated information services in support of education, research and extension;

To develop methods for viable integration of back-end digital systems and processes to foster  autonomous, long term  collaboration between the ICT sector and the NARES organizations in India

•  To establish a holistic participatory IGNRM model for the convergence of activities in 4 nucleus clusters (five villages in each cluster) encompassing suitable technical, institutional, gender equity, and policy options for enhanced agricultural productivity and crop-livestock management systems to alleviate poverty; and
• To provide technical know-how to farmers, landless rural people in the target districts, and partner NGOs supported by the SRTT in the region through empowerment by bringing together learnings from national and international experience.

1. Assess economic and environmental viability, enabling policies and institutions for promoting cultivation of sweet sorghum for bio-ethanol production and its impact on environment, rural incomes, livelihoods and social capital development.
2. Develop and establish pilot-scale Public Private People Partnership (PPPPs) value chain bio-ethanol enterprise models through “Seed-to-Tank” approach encompassing sweet sorghum production, processing, value addition, marketing and protecting environment.
3. Farmers’ participatory multilocation testing of the improved biomass (stalks and grain) and juice yielding sweet sorghum cultivars under on-farm situations and development of production and seed systems in the targeted area.
4. Fine-tuning of package of practices for increased harvest window, mechanization and development of protocols for by-product utilization.    
5. Capacity building and skill development of all the stakeholders including rural communities in the enhanced sweet sorghum production and value chain for bio-ethanol production.

The main objectives are:

1.  To enhance the productivity and production of legume crops (groundnut, chickpea and pigeonpea) through scaling up of  better adapted  cultivars and crop management technologies in target areas of India and Myanmar;
2.   To evaluate and fine tune the seed production model developed to consolidate the  legume seed requirement of the country; and
3.  To strengthen the capacity of partners (researchers and farmers) to develop, test and disseminate new varieties and crop management technologies that increase crop productivity and production

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. Consolidate and out- and up-scale the gains achieved in IFAD TAG 532-ICRISAT with the required fine-tuning of farmer participatory research outputs for new areas, particularly those covered under the IFAD loan-financed projects

2. Develop seed production, storage and distribution systems to make small and marginal farmers self-reliant and self- sufficient for seed requirements of FPVs of food legumes.

3. Promote forward and backward market linkages and value addition in legumes at local level.

4. Popularize the FPRE approach among NARS, extension officials and farmers, and assess its institutional impact; and

5. Assess the impact of FPVs and integrated crop management technologies (ICM) of grain legumes in rainfed production system on the socio-economic conditions of farmers vis-àvis sustainable increased productivity, food and nutritional security and improved family well being

Legumes form an integral part of rainfed agriculture. Not only do they help in improving the soil fertility and its structure, they also provide food and nutritional security and diversified sources of income for poor farmers and valuable protein-rich fodder to livestock. Legumes bring stability and improvement to rainfed agriculture and to the livelihoods of poor farmers.

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 aim of the project is to gain self sufficiency in chickpea-pulse production through increased productivity by expanding improved pulse production and protection technologies (IPPPT), and establishing village level seed system in the rainfed rice fallow lands (RRFL) of selected regions inIndia.Project objectives include:

•  To enhance capacity at field level for farmer-participatory research and extension (FPRE) in adoption and expansion of improved chickpea-pulse production and protection technologies (IPPPT) in rainfed rice fallow lands
• To multiply and distribute farmer-preferred chickpea varieties along with IPPPT (including IDM, IPM and INM) for sustainable intensification of rainfed rice fallow cropping systems
• Empowerment among farmers and participating local institutions, on FPRE/IPPPT to establish village-based seed system (s) to achieve self-sufficiency in seeds of farmer-preferred, improved varieties of chickpea at the village level
• Research backstopping for further improvement of chickpea varieties for traits and IPPPT components preferred by the farmers and traders in the target area

Nigeria was the first country in Africa to be affected by the H5N1 virus, with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks initially reported in the Kaduna State and confirmed by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development on 8 February 2006. The disease spread rapidly to 97 Local Government Areas in 25 States and the Federal Capital Territory, and some 440,000 birds were culled in the first two months of the outbreak. The country subsequently suffered waves of HPAI outbreaks that peaked twice: in February 2006 and February 2007.

The outbreaks affected 3037 farms causing 1.3 million of the country’s estimated 160 million birds to be destroyed, at a cost of USD 5.4 million paid in compensation by the Government. The last outbreak of the first wave of disease was recorded in the Anambra State in October 2007. The disease was again reported on two farms in July 2008 in Kano and Katsina States, and was quickly brought under control.

The project development objectives were designed to support government efforts to minimize the threat posed by H5N1 to humans and the poultry industry, and prepare the necessary control measures to respond to a possible influenza pandemic.

To achieve these objectives, the project supported three sets of interventions: (1) response and containment, (2) control and prevention and (3) preparedness and planning. The project had four components: (1) animal health, (2) human health, (3) social mobilization and strategic communication, and (4) project management and coordination.

An implementation status and results report prepared in November 2010, and two implementation completion review reports, one by the project and the other by the World Bank, referred to the lack of an end-of-project impact assessment of the success or failure in meeting the intended project outcomes.

It was against this backdrop that an independent impact assessment study was carried out with the objective of understanding better:

1. how and, where possible, how much the project activities and outputs have contributed to the outcomes; and
2. how the outcomes have contributed to the primary impacts of interest, namely, reducing the risk of HPAI to poultry and humans and improving public health preparedness for a pandemic.

districts of Karnataka through increasing average productivity of selected crops by 20% in

four years.

The specific objectives are:

1. To identify and scale-up best-bet options (soil, crop and water management) including

improved cultivars to enhance productivity of the selected crops in selected 20 districts

by 20%.

2. To train DoA staff in stratified soil sampling at villages, analysis of micronutrients,

preparation of GIS-based soil maps, and guide DoA to establish high-quality Soil

Analysis Laboratory at Bangalore.

3. To build capacity of the stake holders (farmers and consortium partners) in the

sustainable management of natural resources and enhancing productivity in dryland

areas.

The specific objectives are:

1. To establish four Model  community watershed Sites of Learning in three target rainfall zones (<700 mm and 700  to 1100 mm, and > 1100 mm rainfall per annum) for demonstrating the potential of rainfed areas by adopting integrated water resource management approach;  and
2. To disseminate best watershed management practices in the areas of integrated watershed management for developing capacity of different stakeholders.

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.

Project objectives are as follows:
(a) to enhance the capacity of grass-roots institutions and support the harnessing of broader collective action for rural service delivery;

(b) promote environmentally sustainable enterprise development and community-level asset accumulation; and

(c) build a regional institutional change platform for knowledge sharing, scaling-up and
representation or participation in sustainable land management (SLM) policymaking and
development processes in East Africa linked to the IFAD Africa Knowledge Management Network.

This project has three components namely:
a) Enhance the capacity of grass-roots institutions and support the harnessing of broader collective action for rural service delivery;

(b) Promote environmentally sustainable enterprise development and community-level asset accumulation; and

(c) Build a regional institutional change platform for knowledge sharing, scaling up and participation in SLM policymaking and development processes in East Africa.

Project outputs are as follows:
(a) A dynamic model for grass-roots institutional analysis and strengthening and a platform for rural service delivery and engagement in policy process developed and promoted. This output will be achieved by analysing the typology of grass-roots institutions and their engagement in rural service delivery, policy dialogue; training farmers on various SLM technologies; supporting farming system improvement; and conducting small experiments on or testing promising technologies for enterprise development; and facilitating institutional development activities for socio-economic change.

(b) Enterprise development and community-level asset accumulation increased. This output will be realized through the creation of district and national institutional change platforms with formalized rules of engagement in policy processes related to rural service delivery. The platforms will be enhanced by setting performance targets relating to transparency, accountability and participation.

(c) Institutional change platform for knowledge sharing, scaling up and public-policy
participation established. This output will include the development of knowledge products,a grass-roots institutional mobilization literacy programme, cross-site synthesis of grassroots institutions’ engagement in policy processes related to rural service

Among other things, this project will engage in a study to address the resource and technology constraints of the region and further provide guidance on on-farm measurements, surveys, model development with a special focus on analyzing the cultural and institutional setting for acceptance of the stoves by the farmer population.

Objectives

• To review and synthesize literature on livestock and meat supply, consumption and trade in Ethiopia and identify information gaps for further research.
• To identify and map the export livestock supply shades and indicate volume of supply from major production areas.
• To assess current off-take rates for cattle and shoats in the highlands and pastoral lowlands and identify the characteristics of these animals.
• To assess the movement of animals and meat through domestic and export market chains, and how various market factors (price, market structure, marketing practices, transaction costs and market infrastructure) influence the movement of animals between market channels.
• To identify factors which affect the marketing behaviour of producers and other market participants.
• To develop alternative export scenarios for increased off-take through breeding, feeding management, disease control and producers’ marketing behaviour.
• To develop policy recommendations for investment in market development, development of quality and safety standards, extension, technology and dissemination of market information to achieve higher off-take rates and meat exports.

Funding: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Texas A&M University

The two primary impacts expected from this project are:

1. Local people in developing countries are benefiting from sustainable bioenergy development, planned and carried out in such a way that it minimises negative impacts on local livelihoods and the environment, and contributes to local income generation, livelihood improvement and to global climate change mitigation.
2. National governments, civil society organisations and corporations in developing and developed countries having and are using better knowledge, information and tools for designing policies and programmes for sustainable forest-based bioenergy development

The project activities will be carried out by a number of partners with CIFOR taking a lead role. Overall coordination of the project will be carried out by CIFOR. Specifically CIFOR will:
• coordinate the governance and activities of the project;
• lead in the implementation of agreed research activities;
• coordinate participation and inputs of state, private, civil society and local actors;
• coordinate information dissemination;
• prepare overall monitoring and evaluation reports for the project, and coordinate the independent evaluation at the end of the project; and
• provide technical support linked to capacity building activities.

These knowledge and policy inputs will help fill gaps identified in a recent comprehensive study carried out by ILRI and partners, where organized marketing of milk in Assam was found to be relatively insignificant and traditional (or informal) markets for fresh liquid milk and dairy products account for most of the market opportunities for farmers.

Milk and milk products are consumed by most households, both rich and poor, and consumption is increasing; milk sales are an important livelihood strategy for rural households most of which are poor, and 82% of which keep cattle. Milk processing and trading provide a livelihood for large numbers of vendors and processors. Hence, enhancement of the traditional milk value chain can simultaneously improve the welfare of large numbers of poor farmers, intermediaries in the milk chain and consumers. Women have the major role in care of cattle and in making household decisions about purchase and consumption of dairy products; they will be the major beneficiaries of interventions at the start and end of the milk value chain.

The study found that most urban consumers are not satisfied with milk quality and safety, while most producers and milk chain intermediaries are unaware of hygienic milk handling. The high costs of informality and poor linkages between actors further constrain dairy development. Moreover, given increased consumer demand for safer milk combined with potential regulations in the horizon aimed at mandating safety standards, informal sector participants’ livelihoods in the dairy sector are under increased threat.

ANTICIPATED IMPACT
It is anticipated that enhancing dairy quality and capability of supplying milk, while simultaneously improving linkages and decreasing transaction costs, will lead to a demand-driven production system which will further stimulate investment in production technologies (e.g. artificial insemination, feeding, credit and veterinary services) that are available but under-utilized. The initiative aims to overcome the above knowledge, policy and institutional barriers to improving the traditional milk marketing in Assam through two inter-linked strategies clustered around knowledge management (out-scaling) and policy engagement (up-scaling).

The improvement is expected to result in significant livelihood benefits to those engaged in the value chain as more consumers purchase larger quantities of safer and higher quality milk, and farmers and traders see both their markets increase, costs decrease and losses from milk spoilage and wastage go down.

EXPECTED OUTPUTS
Out-scaling: Knowledge management and dissemination outputs
Output 1: Training materials and tools from East Africa adapted to the Assamese context
Output 2: A majority of milk value chain actors have improved skills and incentives for the practice of skills
Output 3: Increased consumer demand for and confidence in milk quality and safety

Up-scaling knowledge to action: Processes, policy and stakeholder engagement outputs
Output 4: Evidence on impact and cost-effectiveness in order to promote continued and extended adoption
Output 5: Attitudes, behaviour and institutions shifted toward pro-poor dairying

PARTNERS

• Department of Dairy Development, Government of Assam
• College of Veterinary Sciences, Assam Agricultural University
• Centre for Humanistic Development
• Fellowship for Agri Resource Management and Entrepreneurship Research (FARMER) – a local NGO
• Brihattar Guwahati Gopalak Sangstha (BGGS) – a dairy producers’ and traders’ association
• Catalyst Management Services – a national-level NGO
• BASICS Limited – a national-level NGO

Funding: UK Department for International Development (DFID)

Fusarium wilt of banana (Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc)) has widely been considered as one of the most devastating diseases in agricultural history, until resistant banana cultivars replaced susceptible ones in Central America. New outbreaks of the disease in Asia, caused by the highly virulent Foc Tropical race 4 (TR4), have raised concerns that the disease is once again threatening global banana production.

Supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), the overall goal of the project is to improve the livelihoods of small-scale banana farmers in Indonesia and the income of banana producers in Australia by improving banana production practices, including the effective management of banana wilts. Best-bet farm management practices and integrated pest management (IPM) strategies are being piloted. Complementary studies to address knowledge gaps in relation to Fusarium wilt, especially TR4, are improving our understanding and ability to manage wilt diseases. Work focuses on Fusarium wilt and banana blood disease (Pseudomonas celebensi), respectively. Foc is devastating smallholder banana farms in Indonesia because of TR4, which overcomes resistance mechanisms demonstrated by Cavendish to other Fusarium races. In Australia Foc race 1 is a serious constraint to the production of Lady Finger, and as a new disease threat to Australian banana producers effective disease management strategies are required in order to avoid major income losses.

 Mitigation of the threat posed by these diseases has also been the subject of two recent Bioversity/ACIAR projects,

The project is coordinated by the Bioversity International Commodities for Livelihoods Program (CfLP) regional office for the Asia Pacific and implemented through national partners in Indonesia and Australia. Intended impacts include filling of knowledge gaps, community collaboration within Indonesian and Australian pilot communities, improved banana productivity and the stimulation of further research and development related to banana wilt diseases.

By mid 2010 the project had clarified farmer practice and needs, selected appropriate pilot sites and farmer-participants, and developed:

• A list of potential IPM/ICM technologies and practices identified from previous researches such as technologies on seed systems, agronomic practices, cultivar options and mechanism of deployment
• A list of farmers’ knowledge and practices on IPM/ICM
• A consolidated report detailing the status of current knowledge regarding socio-demographic information, current status of disease management, and production systems in banana communities affected by Foc and BBD
• a hazard analysis tool and best management practice (BMP) guidelines from previous and current knowledge of banana wilt management
• a report detailing strategic research areas to be investigated by the project
• protocols in conducting research on suppressive soils, soil health and use of biological control agents

The key areas and research questions that this project seeks to address are as follows:

• What are the important sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) requirements, specifications and demands of targeted export markets at different junctures in the meat export supply chain?
• How is current compliance with these SPS requirements or other international standards achieved and, if not, what gaps remain?
• What specific risks and critical control points identified in the supply chain in Ethiopia need to be identified and improved to enhance livestock and livestock product exports?
• What options are available at each stage of the supply chain to facilitate identification, screening, testing, quarantine, vaccination, inspection, monitoring and other priority requirements from specified export markets?
• What are the costs of establishing an SPS certification system for livestock and meat exports?
• Who picks up these costs and along what part of the supply chain?
• How do these costs and the feasibility of establishing an SPS certification system differ by region?
• Could such a program be further scaled up?
• What are the modalities and policy options for funding an SPS certification system?

Funding: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through Texas A&M University

Partner: Texas Agricultural Experiment Station

Funding: The project is principally funded by the Wellcome Trust, with additional support from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The specific objectives are to do the following for each of the five priority diseases at national and agroecological levels:

• assess the direct and indirect financial burden of inaction including costs of death of animals; weight loss; lost milk, eggs and draught power; treatment during illness etc.;
• estimate the costs of targeted interventions including treatment, vaccination, surveillance, vector control and sanitary measures;
• determine the additional benefits, additional costs and net benefits associated with baseline interventions;
• evaluate of the BCRs of targeted interventions based on sensitivity analysis; and
• make recommendations on the feasibility of the targeted interventions given the underlying uncertainties permeating the various scenarios.

Funding: The World Bank

Partner: University of Nigeria, Nsukka

One Health places health issues in the broader developmental and ecological context, and can be defined as the collaborative efforts of multiple disciplines to attain optimal health for people, animals and environment.

The disciplines of public health and veterinary economics are yet to develop a satisfactory way of dealing with the economics of zoonoses to generate the much needed evidence to inform One Health decisions. Required evidence also includes distribution of control benefits and the institutional arrangements.

This study is generating the evidence needed to inform One Health decisions through an intersectoral assessment of the cost-effectiveness and economic benefits of Rift Valley fever control options, by considering both human and animal health economics from a societal perspective. The study is also evaluating feasible operational frameworks based on the One Health approach.

Specific objectives are to:

• identify and analyze stakeholders for prevention and control of zoonoses;
• identify and analyze suitable operational frameworks and coordination mechanisms for intersectoral planning within the One Health approach and their cost implications;
• identify alternate Rift Valley fever prevention and control strategies including One Health approaches;
• estimate the dual burden of Rift Valley fever epidemics in the human and animal health sectors; and
• assess the cost-effectiveness, cost and benefits of the alternate control options and prioritize them from a multisector perspective.

This work is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and is part of doctoral research by the principal investigator.

The project will take a multi-disciplinary approach integrating a variety of methodologies for socio-economic, institutional and silvicultural analysis: • Participatory rapid appraisal (incl. structured/semi-structured key informant interviews); • Socio-economic surveys at the household and village levels; • Quantitative and qualitative surveys of plantation enterprises; • Pro-poor policy analysis; • Economic modeling of plantation cash flows; • Trade, investment, and policy scenario-building; • Forest mensuration and inventory techniques, and statistical analysis; • Application of SILVIA forest management planning system.

The project outputs will include:

• technical measures and management practices that improve forest management and the quantity and quality of gums and resins produced by smallholders
• options to strengthen local gum and resin producer organizations and their ability to secure more favourable markets
• policy recommendations that ensure more secure access to forests, promote responsible gum and resin management, and enhance livelihood outcomes from gum and resin production.

The proposed work focuses on local action for improving communities’ access to and benefit from dry forests. It brings the key issues from such action into the policy debate at regional, state and federal levels, facilitating informed decisions that will benefit poor farmers and women. Planners and policy makers lack field based information on how forestry can underpin poverty alleviation; the project will provide this information, illustrating that forests make a significant contribution to livelihood improvement and can help achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

There are four project objectives:

1) Develop a robust conceptualization of salinization processes in central and
southern Iraq based on information available on salinization at field and basin level
and quantify salt and water fluxes and areas affected by salinity;

2)Determine appropriate strategic approaches to manage salinity that suit local
environmental and socio-economic conditions;

3)Assessment of key productivity limitations and opportunities to wheat-based
irrigated agricultural systems;

4)Develop investment options for ongoing salinity management in Iraq.

• to develop climate change scenarios for selected agro-ecosystems in the participating countries;

• to assess the vulnerability of the selected agro-ecosystems to threat resulting from climate change particularly drought on the basis of the developed climate change scenarios in the study area;

• to develop options and strategies to adapt to climate change so as build climate resilience in development planning in the target countries;

• to strengthen the capacity to conduct socioeconomic and policy research related to sustainable land management in the region.

Unsustainable agricultural practices cause livelihood insecurity and environmental instability in the rural areas of Uzbekistan, Central Asia. Irrigated agricultural practices are not only at the root of land degradation and water insecurity, but the problems have extended beyond the agricultural sector and affecting overall life. Hence, increasing land and water productivity is a major pathway to sustainable development and poverty eradication. Since agriculture is a major driver of ecosystem change, there is an urgent need to translate research findings on the best land and water- use practices into action and application. 

The ZEF/UNESCO project in Uzbekistan did not view water and land use separately but as integrated and closely linked elements of concern. Water is regarded thus not only as an input in irrigated agriculture, but as a resource for the entire livelihood systems that are part of agro-ecosystems and landscapes. As such, it provides multiple services and has many purposes. The overarching questions of this research for development project were to:

· identify options (socio-economical and institutional innovations) that can sustainably improve land and water productivity to the benefit of peoples’ livelihood and the environment by minimizing or even reversing the loss of ecosystem services;

· identify actions in which soil nutrients and organic matter dynamics lead to restoring soil fertility and link these to potential development options for the region;

· develop adequate monitoring, impact assessment and decision-support methods with the use of modern tools such as GIS and remote sensing (RS);

· improve human and institutional capacity to address these complex issues.

These goals are in compliance with the Millennium Development Goals of eradicating poverty and hunger and achieving food and water security, but also with the United Nations conventions on desertification/land degradation and climate change as well as with the long-term strategic programs of the EU and Germany devised for Central Asia.

Phase I (2002-2004) focused on the establishment of central databases and infrastructure and focused on analyzing data gaps. During Phase II (2004-2007), targeted field surveys and trials on alternative water and land use options, studies to increase the understanding of institutions and processes, and value chains of cotton and wheat underscoring were completed. During Phase III (2007-2011) an integrated concept was tested for restructuring land and water use on a landscape segment made available by the regional authorities. Evaluation and adaptation of innovations with relevant stakeholders (farmers, water managers, policy makers), the so-called Follow-the-Innovation (FTI) process, was an important component of Phase III. The scale of analyses of the project has been field, farm/household, water users association (watershed level) and basin. These levels were linked with GIS/RS tools and mathematical modeling.

The project benefited from the approach of BMBF to commit itself for 10-12 year project duration. This approach allowed promoting an inter- and multi-disciplinary view and approach. The use of GIS, mathematical modeling, new analytical methods, and household surveys offered a spectrum of different solutions, which is more than what isolated projects usually can do. The extended time frame was also conducive for strategic capacity building. Since the onset of the project in 2002, 52 Ph.D. students, about half of them from Uzbekistan, have conducted their research in the framework of the project and 27 have successfully defended of which 11 from Uzbekistan (as of July 2011). Thesis findings were communicated in numerous manuscripts (see http://www.khorezm.zef.de). During field studies and surveys in Khorezm, Ph.D. candidates conducted not only their core research but also have supervised a large number of local M.Sc. (about 100) and B.Sc. students (about 90). However, the capacity building was not limited to people, but also involved institutions. The project works together with educational organizations such as state University of Urgench (UrDU) and contributed hardware (computers, printers, laboratory equipment), helped to develop and disseminate training and teaching materials and thus leveraged investments in capacity building. 

Tasks to be addressed in the proposed final Phase IV (2012-2014) are the strengthening of human and institutional capacity, the transfer of research and management responsibilities to local partners and the completion of ongoing research that will fill existing knowledge gaps. But above all, the project will center on the dissemination of its innovations and translating project findings into action, by introducing them into national agricultural policies and sharing them with educational and research institutions.

2- environmental impact assessment of using marginal-quality water in selected sites;

3- documentation and dissemination of the project -led results.

3) Enhance the cooperation between ARC and ICARDA in the area of sustainable agricultural development for food security in AI-Jamahirya.

2) Enable ARC to benefit through ICARDA from experiences at other CGIAR Centers in priority areas for AI-Jamahirya;

3) Enhance the cooperation between ARC and ICARDA in the area of sustainable agricultural development for food security in AI-Jamahirya.

2) Enable ARC to benefit through ICARDA from experiences at other CGIAR Centers in priority areas for AI-Jamahirya

3) Enhance the cooperation between ARC and ICARDA in the area of sustainable agricultural development for food security in AI-Jamahirya.

Improved livelihoods of resource poor farmers in dry areas.

Sustainable improvement of the welfare of poor people in dry areas.

1. Develop and validate a field-based, low-cost, high throughput phenotyping system to assess crop water status, canopy size and functionality, with the purpose of estimating patterns of crop water use on a seasonal basis, while monitoring other major crop developmental traits.

2. Assess the relative impact of putative key traits on drought adaptation by comparing related lines contrasting in trait value in different drough mega-environments. Target traits will be transpiration efficiency, tillering, stem water soluble carbohydrates (WSC), early vigour, stay green and flowering.

3. Apply findings 1 and 2 to guide characterization of the combination of traits behind ICARDA lines known for their high performance under drought. All project lines will be genotyped using SSR markers from the GCP genetics diversity kit.

4. Build capability in non-invasive phenotyping methods related to drought tolerant traits and the estimated value of different traits

2.Accelerating pre-release seed multiplication of stem rust resistant varieties: Pre-basic see; establish on-farm demonstration trials.

3. Accelerating pre-release seed multiplication 0f stem rust resistant varieties:Basic/foundation; establish on-farm demonstration trials.

4. Accelerating large-scale certified seed multiplication of Stem Rust Resistant Varieties Public or Private sector; establish on-farm demonstration trials.

5. Distributing small seed pack of new rust resistanat wheat varieties to small farmers

Objectives: The project objectives are to undertake applied and participatory adaptive research on selected high yielding food legume varieties, taking into account the biophysical and socio-economic
circumstances in the country, as a basis to then develop appropriate agricultural technological packages for wide dissemination and subsequent adoption by Afghan farmers. The focus shall be on documenting and demonstrating the value of legume production in terms of soil fertilization and of legume consumption in terms of nutritional value.

Goal 2. To build upon this data foundation in order to asses and quantify the the biophysical potential for local food and feed production in Qatar.

Objective: To develop the physical infrastructure at ICARDA that will allow testing of genetically modified stress tolerant plants in the Arab world.

The purpose of the project is to enhance stakeholder uptake of institutional and policy innovations to promote women’s participation, specifically regarding the way in which community forestry-related decisions include women and reflect their particular interests. These innovations will be based on a clear understanding of the obstacles to, and the motivations and conditions for, the emergence of mixed user groups and women in positions of authority over natural resources.

Outputs expected from the project are, techniques standardized for screening chickpea genotypes for reproductive stage heat tolerance, a set of heat tolerant chickpea genotypes identified and selected lines evaluated at farmers’ fields, genetics of heat tolerance worked out and molecular markers identified for heat tolerance gene(s), and breeding material developed by introgressing heat tolerance in locally adopted cultivars.Activities include, standardize techniques for large scale screening of chickpea germplasm for heat stress at reproductive stage, screen a set of genotypes (germplasm, cultivars and breeding lines) at multiple locations for their ability to flower and set pods at high temperatures, study reproductive behavior of heat tolerant and heat sensitive genotypes under normal temperatures and under heat stress, study genetics of heat tolerance, develop RILs for mapping heat tolerance gene(s), identify molecular markers for heat tolerance gene(s) through association mapping and linkage mapping, develop heat tolerant breeding lines with suitable agronomic background, and evaluate selected heat tolerant lines at farmers’ fields.  Expansion of project to involve marker-assisted breeding for heat tolerance planned, if able to identify markers for heat tolerance under the current project, and studies on comparative genomics of legumes for heat tolerance.

Four workshops took place in 2009-2010. The workshops in November 2009 were focused on the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (UNFCCC COP15), while the March 2010 workshops focused on assessing the COP15 outcomes and developing strategies for moving forward. The two workshops in Kenya included participants from 15 African countries, and the two workshops in Vietnam included participants from 8 Asian countries.

The second phase of the project started in January 2011 with a REDD Development Dividend Task Force meeting in Manila, Philippines where 15 experts drawn from Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana and United States explored i) how countries can strengthen the Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) process for REDD and ii) co-benefits derived from the REDD process and effective benefit sharing mechanisms. Read related article

Following up on the REDD taskforce meeting, two training workshops were held in May 2011 in Cameroon and Vietnam. Over 120 government negotiators, land managers, representatives of non-government organizations and climate change scientists enhanced their understanding and skills on technical issues relating to the REDD+ implementation process. Country experiences enriched the training which focused on MRV and safeguards. Read related material

A South-South exchange web platform has been developed for building capacity for REDD+ negotiators and stakeholders in Africa and Asia. All  materials, presentations and other updates rom the meetings and workshops can be accessed on the ASB-ICRAF and IISD platform.

The project is implemented by ASB Partnership for the Tropical Forest Margins in collaboration with the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

The project shall comprise of the following components and activities to be undertaken by the Rubber Institute of Nigeria (RRIN).

Component 1: Production and distribution of planting materials of high yielding rubber clones from the Central Nursery located at (RRIN).

Objective: To produce sufficient quality planting materials of high yielding rubber clones to meet requirements of farmers for replanting and new planting over the next 4 years.

Outputs: Upgraded RRIN central nursery with required infrastructure. Adoption of best agronomic practices; adequate bud stick up production of selected high yielding clones in bud wood gardens to meet production target and reduced cost of production of budded stump through improved efficiency and high productivity.

Component 2: To establish Model Smallholder farms in four traditional rubber growing states of Southern Nigeria and in a non-traditional state with integration of high value economic crops during the immature phase.

Objective: To demonstrate that high value arable crops can be successfully integrated with rubber thus providing sustainable income for the farmer during the immature phase.

Outputs: Model farms established in Edo, Delta, Cross river, Ogun or Akwa/bom states (traditional rubber zone) and Kaduna (non- traditional); schedule of agronomic inputs with regard to fertilization, pest and disease management and pruning practices to be carried out annually in all model farm; harvesting of high value arable crops, records of harvest and income received from sale; annual growth increment data of young rubber trees and model farms as demonstration centres.

Component 3: Enhancing the incomes of rubber smallholders in the traditional rubber growing states of Edo, delta, Cross River, Ogun or Akwa/bom.

Objective: Demonstrate diversification of income base through integration of non-rubber farming activities during mature phase in model farms.

Outputs: Successful integration of shade tolerant medicinal/herbal plants and mini livestock under mature rubber; increased yeild per year from rubber; achievement of better farm gate price for value addition activity and realization of higher income by farmers from diversified activities.

Component 4: Establishing rubber based agro-forestry farming systems in abandoned traditional rubber area (Otua) Nigeria.

Objective: To demonstrate successful integration of high value agro-forestry tree crops and medicinal plants in rubber based farming systems through modified planting system in model farms.

Outputs: Production of planting materials of domesticated high value agro-forestry tree crops; peripheral planting of bush mango (Irvengia gabonesis), bitter cola (Garcinia Kola), Cola nuts (Cola acucuminae), African Plum (Dacryodis edulis) and Allanblackia floribunda; planting of cassava, pineapple, cocoyam, maize and melon in the interrows during the first three years of the immature phase. Model farms as demonstration centres for information dissemination.

Component 5: Training of Extension Officers and participatory training programs for smallholders on various technologies to smallholders.

Objective: To enhance effectiveness of extension officers through capacity building for successful transfer of relevant technology to smallholders.

Outputs: Implementation of training programs on: nursery practices, agronomic practices, during immature phase, management of pests and diseases, exploitation systems and value addition of rubber; agro-forestry crops, cash crops suitable for integration with rubber and high value medicinal/herbal plants; relevant technologies at various sites by extension officers of RRIN and resource persons from the provate sector. Implementation of Workshops on major diseases and rubber effluent management by International experts in respective fields and formation of an industry-RRIN consultative committee and a National trabsfer if technology commitee.

Component 6: Dissemination

Objective: To promote uptake of project results throughout Africa.

Outputs: Reports on best practices and success stories; dissemination workshop and creation of a website where project results and experiences can be accessed.

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).

This programme has four main components. These are as follows.
1. Increase Uptake of Tree Domestication through mechanisms and policies for improved propagation,integration and marketing of agroforestry tree products( AFTPs).
This component seeks to develop and disseminate techniques, mechanisms and policies that allow farmers to improve the propagation, inntegration and marketing of AFTPs.
2. Enable rural actors to adapt and disseminate tree domestication through targeted tools, methods and training.
This component focuses on building human capacities in order to generate and use the knowledge & skills. Its activities will centre on the development of knowledge-based networks for learning and organisational reinforcement of programme partners.
3. Communication and partnerships for dissemination of TD technologies.
This component of the Programme aims at further developing effective communication to bilateral and multilateral institutions, civil society and governmental structures at local, national and intemationallevels.
4. Design and Implement a systematic monitoring and evaluation strategy.
Monitoring & Evaluation is an intrinsic part of this programme because the strategy to be put in place will not only allow to measure Programme progress and steer implementation, but also keep track of the changes tree domestication brings about in farmers’ livelihoods (income, nutrition, health, education,) and at community as well as landscape level (environment, institutions, networks).

The objectives of this programme are as follows.
1.Promote tree domestication in a broadened scope which encourages rural innovation. In continuing to disseminate and support tree domestication processes at grassroots level, the programme will empower stakeholders (and especially the poor) to become agents of change in their society.
2. Enable rural actors to adapt and disseminate tree domestication in order to improve farmers’ livelihoods. This entails the development of knowledge-based networks or partnerships for learning as well as institutional and organisational reinforcement. The challenge is to help grassroots partners acquire technical skills and become active players locally.
3. Effectively communicate the contribution of tree domestication to poverty alleviation.
The communication strategy will continue to target bilateral and multilateral institutions, the civil society and government structures at local, national and international levels. The strategy will seek to transform tree domestication from a mere technical entry point into an effective pro-poor welfare improvement mechanism.
4. Design and implement a monitoring and evaluation strategy that enables to keep track document and provide feedback on programme management, the extent of tree domestication uptake and its impacts at farmer/household, village and landscape levels. Monitoring and evaluation will also allow the programme to assess the strengths and weaknesses of its dissemination approaches.

The programme will deliver the following outputs
1. Increased uptake of participatory tree domestication through: (i) improved access to high quality germplasm at affordable prices; (ii) better tools and methods to assist tree integration decision making; (iii) efficient and timely AFTP market information system run by stakeholders; ( iv) formalised agreements between producers and private sector for
sales and processing of AFTP; and (v) improved measures to accelerate adoption;
2. Adaptable tools, methods and training material to strengthen the capacities of rural actors in tree domestication;
3. Effective and timely communication channels to support tree domestication technology dissemination; and
4. An M&E strategy that keep track of progress made, and provides feedback for enhanced results and impact on target groups at the various levels (farmer, household, village and landscape).

The project targets:

• a broader understanding of the importance of livestock to poverty reduction at the household level and identification of entry points for reducing poverty;
• the identification and analysis of market sheds, in particular ‘hot-spots’ of demand for livestock  products and the identification of opportunities for market participation for smallholders;
• analysis of constraints facing livestock-holding smallholders;
• stakeholder identification of critical data gaps, opportunities for addressing these gaps and the creation of an enabling environment through enhancing data collection and analytical abilities at a local level; and
• effective dissemination of project results with the objective of developing data platforms and national commitment to data collection/analysis.

1. Which form of CAWT with fertilizer trees can improve maize productivity and other benefits?
2. Does a combination of conservation agriculture and fertilizer tree have a synergistic effect on maize productivity?
3. What components of conservation agriculture with trees do smallholder farmers most prefer?

Project objectives include the following:
1. Provide technical backstopping on agroforestry and CAWT related technologies for integration in the smallholder production systems
2. Identify suitable tree species and develop nurseries for seeds and seedlings production
3. Train extension staff and lead farmers in best fit CAWT practices
4. Document and disseminate information widely generated on CAWT.

Specific obligations of ICRAF
• ICRAF will provide technical backstopping on CAWT related technologies for integration in the smallholder production systems
• ICRAF will identify suitable tree species and encourage tree nurseries for seeds and seedlings production
• ICRAF will train extension staff and lead farmers in best fit Conservation Agriculture with Trees practices

Project Outputs
• Knowledge on best-bet CAWT generated and applied;
• Suitable tree species for CAWT identified and germplasm available
• Capacity of extension and partner staff built
• Information on CAWT documented and disseminated

Project Outcome
1. Knowledge of farmers and partners on the practice of CAWT increased
2. Increased availability and use of quality tree germplasm for CAWT
3. Increased capacity of extension staff
4. Evidence-based information on CAWT available

The project will work with specific government departments and decentralized structures to support capacity building activities. It will provide development initiatives with and for the extremely poor population, and work towards the creation of a suitable environment to encourage where possible, private and public investment in agriculture. It will guide target communities to understand how to access basic services and take control of resources to improve their livelihoods in a sustainable manner. The project will focus on the extremely poor and most vulnerable households to ensure interventions are responsive and build on the existing capacities/strengths. It will ensure that women participate fully in all aspects of the project, particularly in terms of problem solving and decision making. A mainstreaming response to HIV and AIDS, gender, equality and disaster risk reduction (DRR) will be undertaken within this programme.

The action will promote interaction between state and non-state actors involved in the programme cycle. It will work with non-state actors/civil society organisations (Community Based Organisations, Farmers’ Associations, Self-Help Groups and Local NGOs among others). These non-state actors will be supported through capacity building initiatives to understand the roles and responsibilities of newly decentralised government structures. They will be empowered to actively participate in development planning and decision making processes at different levels ensuring that the public needs are prioritised and necessary resources allocated accordingly. Non-state actors will also play key role in the monitoring and evaluation of development initiatives.

Using questionnares, this project will obtain qualitative and quantitative data on farmer perceptions of the interventions. This exercise will explore the expectations of the planned interventions as well as try to understand what they would be willing to pay for the interventions. At the end of the two year period, this project will look at a similar set of questions to evaluate the changes in farmer perceptions and their willingness to pay. The expectation is that the value of the interventions can be estimated which is necessary for upscaling and turning them sustainable (from a business perspectIve).

Demand for pork is increasing rapidly in Vietnam due to growth in incomes and urban populations. Pork consumers are also demanding better product quality. A dual market structure is emerging, involving a few large-scale farms using higher yielding technology packages and a large number of smallholders using less sophisticated systems.

Given widespread rural poverty in Vietnam, successful commercial smallholder pig farming alongside the large-scale pig industry may serve as a vehicle for poverty alleviation if pragmatic options can be identified about the technology, institutional arrangements and policy support needed to improve the access of poorer producers to quality inputs and services.

Various formal and informal market arrangements involving input suppliers, marketing and processing firms and pig raisers are evolving. However, it is still unclear which institutional framework is best suited to increase smallholder access to high-value market chains.

Specific objectives

• Establish empirically the level of market demand for commercial and traditional quality attributes of pork in Vietnam, characterize these attributes and validate any associated significant price differentials and their determinants.
• Compare input and output marketing arrangements between smallholder pig-raisers selling into high- and low-priced markets.
• Characterize the structure and conduct of the input- and service-providing firms and pig markets.
• Compare the geographical distribution of and access to inputs and services by different types of pig producers.
• Identify smallholder constraints to entry into higher value market chains.
• Assess the potential impact of selected institutional, technology and policy options for increasing the access of smallholder pig producers to improved inputs and services, and high-value supply chains.
• Promote awareness and uptake of the pro-poor policy, institutional and investment options emerging from the project among stakeholders, decision makers, investors and market actors in the pig industry in Vietnam.

Anticipated outcomes

• Evidence of the extent of demand for pork with better traditional quality attributes.
• Mapped locations of higher-and lower-priced pig value chains and market actors.
• Knowledge about the characteristics of pig producers selling in higher- and lower-priced markets.
• Knowledge about contractual arrangements and marketing systems for inputs and products, and the relative market power of input and service providers.
• Knowledge about the potential impact of policy interventions to improve smallholder market access.
• A strategy for pilot testing of a set of recommended options by development and/or private-sector partners in Vietnam.

Funder: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research

Partners

• Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agricultural and Rural Development (IPSARD)
• International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
• Oxfam
• The University of Queensland

Running until 2012, EcoZD supports all costs related to research studies undertaken in this project. During the project’s preparatory phase (mid-2009), national researchers are working with relevant decision-makers in disease control as well as with local communities.

ILRI and its technical partners support the research teams from the design phase of their studies to their final communications in such formats as policy briefs, conference presentations and peer-reviewed articles.To complement existing projects in the SE Asia region on emerging infectious diseases, EcoZEID may support research into endemic or neglected, as well as emerging, zoonoses if the former are deemed high-priority issues by national decision-makers and local communities.

Partners
EcoZEID links the national research teams in each of its six pilot countries through regular workshops and virtual work spaces and discussion forums. Regional networking is enhanced by close links to the Asian Partnership on Emerging Infectious Diseases Research (APEIR), the Mekong Basin Disease Surveillance network (MBDS) and other relevant bodies and sectors (e.g. agriculture, land use, conservation).

In terms of technical inputs, ILRI is providing expertise in animal health, veterinary public health, risk assessment, geographic information systems, modelling and socioeconomics. MBDS and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (formerly Swiss Tropical Institute) are providing the project with their public health expertise. APEIR researchers are in a position to provide valuable local knowledge in respect to animal health, public health, & socio-economics; Veterinarians Without Borders–Canada is providing expertise in ecohealth approaches.

Expected outputs
Tools, methods, approaches and lessons used or generated and found useful by EcoZD will be disseminated to South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to support development of similar projects in these regions.

Funding: International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

Planned outputs of this project is (i) isolines with key stay-green QTLs having higher drought-adaptation and forage quality and better characterized molecular markers to facilitate MAS breeding; (ii) knowledge of traits related to a more efficient soil water use and their effects on yield, strategic knowledge on their relation to key stay-green QTLs, and assessment of their forecasted economic benefits.

Cameroon- appropriate property rights for customary use zones of local communities and indiginous people in Cameroon.
The objective of this project is to ensure that implementing texts for forestry laws pertaining to forest reserves and parks and forest management units explicitly and/or implicitly recognize or enshrine the rights of local communities and indigenous groups.

Key project activities include the following:
1. Participatory mapping to restitute and secure community rights.
2. Studies to draw up communities for negotiation and advocacy processes.
3. Documentation of claims and propositions of communities in the target area.
4. Capacity building for comunities for negotiation and advocacy processes
5. National workshop: Contact/meetings with local officials and traditional chiefs and mobilization of strategic actors.

With time and among other outcomes, this project expects that this activity in synergy with other coalition members works, the policy makers will start with other policy shapers and opinion leaders on communities practical needs with regards to land and tree tenures.

Mali- Elaboration et diffusion d’un document d’orientation sur les conventions locales.
The objective of this study is to create tools for formulating and omplementing local conventions, to enable better natural resource management in Mali and in the Sahelian subregion.

Miyuki Iiyama (ICRAF) has been collaborating with researchers of ISAR (Institut des Science Agronomique du Rwanda) on Sustainable Land Management (SLM) project in Rwanda, which aims at the national capacity building of disseminating and up-scaling sustainable land management, including radical and progressive terraces.
This training aims at developing capacity of Rwandese researchers
• to design protocols for cost-benefit analysis and valuations of eco-system services
• to apply the tools for data collection, analyses, and compilation
• to develop user-friendly manuals to further disseminate and upscale the system of knowledge to wider national stakeholders.

This project seeks to change this through further development of a scientific approach and comparative analytical assessment of data collected from both arid and semi arid lands (ASAL) of Laikipia district in Kenya and higher potential agricultural land in Kenya’s rift valley province. Field data and samples will be collected from two 100 sq km sentinel sites situated in high agricultural potential areas. The data will be analyzed and compared with existing data and samples taken from two similar sites, situated in the ASAL of Laikipia.

Using satellite technology, undertaking soil carbon stable isotope analyses and examining historical data the analysis will provide detailed assessments of the impacts of land use change on carbon status, and overall soil and ecosystem health of these landscapes. The project will develop a theoretical framework for projecting land use impacts on carbon stock changes and other ecosystem benefits that can be initialized and run from empirical data collected in the field and available satellite imagery. This research will enable credible assessment of existing carbon stocks, provide project developers with reduced monitoring and evaluation costs, provide project financiers with credible and proven carbon/ecosystem resource credits, and offer added value to community implementation in programs to enhance the environment.

Project outputs are as follows:
1. A scientific report giving (i) a theoretical framework for projecting land use impacts on carbon stock changes and other ecosystem benefits that can be initialized and run from empirical data collected in the field and available satellite imagery (ii) illustration of the approach using data from four 100 km2 sentinel sites, two in pastoralist areas and two in agricultural areas.
Geo-referenced databases on carbon stocks and soil health for four sentinel sites in Kenya.

2. Two Kenyan field teams fully trained in the Land Degradation Surveillance framework field protocols. Ten Kenyan scientists trained in data management and statistical analysis techniques for carbon and soil health measurement and monitoring. Training materials in statistical analysis of soil carbon and health data with worked examples.

Studies have shown that the Small and Medium Size Forest Companies (SMFC) involved in the non-timber forest products (NTFP) constitute the main source of income for millions of poor people in the world:

1. 80-90% of companies in developing countries are SMFCs
2. Over 50% of all jobs within the forest sector are provided by SMFCs
3. More than 20 millions people hold direct jobs in SMFCs (140 millions, statistically)
4. Over USD $ 130 billions per year of gross added-value are yield by SMFCs in the world.

This project aims at increasing the rural populations’ revenues, through empowerment in terms of entrepreneurship, and sustainable management of natural resources in a favourable institutional environment.

Project activities are as follows:
1. Business plan of nurseries on the pilot sites
2. Creating and strengthening the nurseries on the pilot sites
3. Developing the integration of improved plants in the existing agroforestry systems
4. Initiating trainings in PFNL domestication on the new pilot sites in the Far-North, the North and the North-West
5. Follow-up of the constructed nurseries
6. Training in domestication and construction of nurseries

The expected outcome is as follows:

1. The empowerment of small and medium size forest production companies is enhanced
2. The priority branches of the non-timber forest products (NTFP) sector is developed
3. The techniques for a sustainable management of NTFP are reinforced, notably those for harvest and domestication
4.The institutional and legal frameworks are adapted to the functioning of NTFP actors in Central Africa.

This action-research project, which is led by the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD), tests and captures lessons for an approach to scale out a promising intensification strategy based on integrated smallholder dairy and vegetable production that will significantly increase smallholder income and improve household food security, and make households more resilient. The action research will focus both at farm level on adapting the production system to the local context, and at market and policy levels on ensuring farmers have access to the inputs and services required to support the mixed production system, as well as to market outlets for their products.

General and specific objectives
The project overall objective is to enhance the contribution of agricultural and natural resources systems to improved livelihoods and quality of the environment in semi-arid areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

The purpose is to build smallholder livelihoods resilience, and sustainability and profitability of smallholders by achieving the following specific objectives:

• Establish an integrated agricultural research for development (IAR4D) process for identifying, testing, adapting and scaling out of integrated smallholder dairy-horticulture systems that enhances livelihood resilience and sustainability in the semi-arid zones of West Africa
• Develop and promote social learning mechanisms for adapting integrated dairy-horticulture production technologies to local conditions appropriate for resource-poor households, gender-sensitive, and that conserve the natural resource base
• Develop and test innovative tools and options for upgrading local dairy and horticulture value chains that offer employment and generate added income for resource-poor market actors, especially women, while conserving the natural resource base
• Identify and formulate pro-poor policy options to support integrated, market-oriented and ecosystem-friendly dairy and vegetable smallholder enterprises
• Strengthen the capacity of researchers and research institutions in responding to the needs expressed by stakeholders along the dairy and vegetable value chains.

The scope of ILRI’s involvement in the project covers training activities on methodologies and approaches related to IAR4D, value chain analysis and business development services, as well as scientific backstopping in the selection of study sites and implementation of baseline surveys. The project is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

1. how to bring about sustainable improvements in livestock health service delivery in the project site and
2. how to translate improved livestock health into increased productivity and incomes.

Based on this, ILRI in collaboration with other research organizations was requested to design a project which would lead to increased uptake and impact of technologies for smallholder farmers and pastoralists in Ethiopia. Following the Ethiopian government’s newly introduced strategy, the project was mandated to focus on market-oriented agricultural development, including private sector involvement. Based on these general directions, the IPMS project was designed as a research-for-development project, to be implemented in four Regional States (Amhara, Oromiya, SNNPR and Tigray) using Pilot Learning Woredas (PLW), aimed at assisting the MoARD to develop a more efficient system to give a fillip to market-oriented agricultural development.

ILRI is implementing the project on behalf of the MoARD. A number of international, national, and regional research and development partners collaborate in the implementation of project activities. The Government and people of Canada fund the project through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). An agreement for the use of these funds was signed between ILRI and CIDA which came into effect on 18 June 2004 and expired on 31 March 2010.

A Project Implementation Plan (PIP) was developed in collaboration with the stakeholders and partners and submitted to the MoARD and CIDA in December 2004. Approval of the PIP was obtained in March 2005, and implementation of activities commenced in April 2005.

Project Goal: To contribute to improved agricultural productivity and production through market-oriented agricultural development, as a means for achieving improved and sustainable livelihoods for the rural population.

Project Purpose: To strengthen the effectiveness of the Government’s effort to transform agricultural productivity and production, and rural development in Ethiopia.

A combination of growth and migration is resulting in massive increases in the population of urban and peri-urban zones in Africa. The United Nations has estimated that city populations in Africa will rise from 35% of the total population in 2007 to 51% by 2030. The impacts of this on human welfare, healthcare, sanitation, and other policy-oriented fields has received vast attention, but there has not been a substantive effort to integrate across disciplines, particularly with regard to the impacts of these diverse issues on disease transmission.

The focus is on diseases involving livestock reservoirs, using Nairobi, Kenya as a case study. Urban farming and livestock keeping are significant income generators; urbanization has been identified as one of the main drivers of the emergence of human diseases, though with little specific focus. It has been proposed that the processes leading to the emergence of new diseases are likely to be those that also matter for the re-emergence of endemic zoonotic and food-borne infections. Understanding these as models is a tractable problem; this study will therefore (1) improve our ability to predict the occurrence and burden of new diseases and (2) provide an opportunity to understand the biology and social ecology of existing but neglected diseases.

Funding: Medical Research Council (UK) through the UK Government’s Living With Environmental Change Initiative.

Funding: UNDP, GEF, and the African Development Bank

Partner: International Trypanotolerance Centre, the Gambia

Funding: United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

This study was commissioned by the Government of Nigeria to summarize and generate evidence on the impact of food-borne disease associated with animal source foods. The overall objective of this study is to assess the costs associated with consumption of poor quality meat in Nigeria.

Sub-objectives include assessment of:

• major hazards associated with meat;
• prevalence of meat-borne hazards in livestock, meat and humans;
• knowledge, attitudes and practice of meat value chain actors;
• health burden of meat-borne disease and other burdens;
• appropriate level of protection; and
• recommendation of possible approaches to improving meat safety in Nigeria.

The LBr Potato project was initially started in 2007 at the CIP biotech facilities (Applied Biotechnology Laboratory) in Peru. It is, however, targeting important regions of potato production in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, direct transfer of R genes into African-relevant varieties and subsequent testing has to take place in the targeted countries. We propose to focus on Kenya considering the importance of potato to poor farmers, the operational bio-safety regulation, and the excellent biotechnology facilities at Biosciences east and central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI) Hub.

By their perishable nature, bananas must be sold as quickly as they are mature. This, coupled with the lack of a reliable source of market information and with limited value-addition capacity, forces individual small scale farmers to sell their banana at any price offered by vendors. This has resulted into constant loss of income and has significantly contributed to the decline in living conditions and increased poverty in small-scale farming-systems-dependent communities in the great lakes region of east Africa. A frequently proposed alternative is for farmer organizations to consolidate greater volumes of production, to strengthen local negotiating power and to improve understanding of markets and prices. The implementation of such strategies is incipient and has often been based specialty crops such as cocoa, essential oils and natural medicinal products. The opportunities for refocusing value-chains for food crops towards greater farmer participation and greater value are abundant, but have not been the focus of most research projects. In 2009-2010, Bioversity International is undertaking three new research grants with components focused on the marketing of banana biodiversity for increased added value to small-scale farmers and their rural community enterprises. In these new grants the proposed associate expert will work to integrate production technology testing and promoting value-addition and marketing initiatives in banana producing communities in six countries in the region. The associate expert will have the opportunity to collaborate with Bioversity staff, external consultants and national counterparts in the development of strategies to improve the contribution of banana production and marketing to rural development and to the reduction of rural poverty. The associate expert will:

• Review relevant methods and experiences on value chain analysis and governance, farmer organization strengthening and market identification and development in east Africa and collaborate with researchers in other regions of the continent;
• Conduct applied research directly and in collaboration with students and collaborators to understand livelihood strategies of banana producing households, to describe current market channels, to identify alternative differentiated and niche markets for banana and banana products, to develop strategies for improving value chain governance mechanisms to the benefit of rural communities and to develop strategies for establishing and strengthening farmer organizations to the benefit of poor households;
• Prepare and carry out training activities based on methods adapted from other projects and incorporating research results in the project directed towards farm households and incipient farmer organizations, actors in value chains and service providers linked to improving chain governance;
• Link project staff and counterparts from national partners to the growing body of experience on value chains, marketing strategies, farmer organizations, entrepreneurship and rural development;
• Participate in other activities contributing to the success of the projects.

The work plan will address important global questions (food security, income, nutrition), while at the same time contributing to the specific needs of banana farmers in the on-going projects.



The main objective of this five year action research CPWF project was to test technical and institutional options for floodplain aquaculture, implemented on a collective basis at selected locations in five countries, namely Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Mali and Vietnam. The community-based fish culture model was originally developed in Bangladesh, building on three decades of research in community-based fisheries management and floodplain aquaculture. The project aimed to disseminate the model to other countries with extensive floodplain resources that could potentially generate important benefits for floodplain communities, addressing the following objectives:

1. To develop appropriate technical and institutional options for increasing water productivity at basin level through integration of community-based fish production into existing floodplain and irrigation systems.
2. To identify the most appropriate models of collective action for aquaculture under different socio-ecological contexts.
3. To assess the contribution of collective approaches to aquaculture for sustainable development of floodplain resources and irrigation systems.

In addition to these objectives, the project also aimed to answer two research questions:

1. What is the contribution of collective approaches to aquaculture for sustainable development of floodplain resources and irrigation systems?2. What are the most appropriate models of collective action for aquaculture under different socio-ecological contexts?The project sought to apply a range of alternative approaches to implement, monitor and evaluate the progress and results of the interventions, with the aim of disseminating the model to countries with extensive floodplain resources that could potentially generate important benefits for floodplain communities.”

The project facilitates and helps to build cross-basin and cross-sectoral natural resources management and planning policy for climate change throughout the basin. Researchers also work to improve household and enterprise capacity to adapt.  Through improved forest management and governance, the project will contribute to mitigation of the effects of climate change. The Malawi Government recently approved the National Adaptation Programme of Action for climate change. The efforts of the WorldFish Center and partners would be complimentary to the efforts of the national government.

This was a fellowship grant to foster scientific excellence and build capacity in agriculture and related activities. The project aimed at enhancing the capacity of the proponents in undertaking soil physical studies and have a better understanding of the changes in the soil properties as influenced by tillage operations at field scale.

The WorldFish Center would provide technical support in these efforts, help to identify fisher-folk for the study, support social science research capacity building for work in fishing communities, and liaise with fisheries departments and other policy stakeholders.

Uganda Virus Research Institute is the project coordinator

Project objectives include: 1. Create sustainable Fish PROS training program; 2. Develop affordable, soy-based feed that is produced using appropriate technology and local manufacturing; 3. Improve tilapia fingerling production and distribution; 4. Develop credit systems for C-Fish program participants; 5. Improve tilapia production, market access and transportation to urban and peri-urban markets; and 6. Increase percentage of women fish producers PCI is the lead agency and fiscal agent in the C-FISH project, and will coordinate all project activities and the work of our partners, including WorldFish Center (WFC). PCI will participate in all technical interventions of the C-FISH project, including the training of Fish PROS extentionists, mobilization and coordination of partners, community members, beneficiaries and other stakeholders. PCI will also coordinate the development of related aquaculture value chains, in cooperation with the other project partners, stakeholders and funders. WFC will work with PCI to oversee and coordinate many of the technical aspects of the C-FISH Project, including: assisting private sector partners in the production of fish fingerlings, assisting in the development of the soy-based fish feed; and in the training of for-profit aquaculture extentionsits (Fish PROS).

WorldFish provides important technical services related to fisheries co-management, governance and socio-economic analysis in close collaboration with Ghanaian partners and, where appropriate, local consultants as well as ICFG project staff. The current focus for WorldFish is on three areas, namely (1) creating the conditions for improved fisheries management, (2) capacity development for fisheries management, and (3) value chain analysis & livelihoods.

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.

The main purpose of this project is to enhance uptake and scaling up of knowledge and technologies for soil fertility management to sustained productivity and competitiveness of smallholder farming systems in East and Central Africa (ECA) sub-region.There are barriers to the effective adoption/adaptation and utilization of sound soil and water management technologies. The project team therefore sets out to develop methodologies for resolving these barriers by developing mechanisms of sharing relevant information on promising soil and water management technologies with all stakeholders. Kenyatta University is the Lead institution in the project and the project activities are coordinated and backstopped by the African Network for Soil Biology and Fertility(AFNET).

The goal of this project is to assist farmers in obtaining increased and stable crop yields that allow them to sustainably generate more income through marketing of their produce. The project is screening and evaluating chemical and biological commercial products with an aim of scaling up these products through partnerships with private companies. This effort hopes to increase crop yield by 30% and directly empower about 175,500 households in targeted agroecological zones in Kenya, Ethiopia, Niger and Nigeria.

Weaknesses in veterinary surveillance systems in Africa have been highlighted during recent outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Rift Valley fever and Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. Conventional passive surveillance has proven largely ineffective due to poor capacity and compliance, and many countries are not able to sustain active surveillance activities. As the result, public veterinary services and the commercial livestock sector are unable to detect and respond in a timely fashion to outbreaks of new disease threats, nor to manage successfully the control of transboundary diseases, many of which remain endemic in parts of the continent. This situation not only compromises the development of livestock trade, but also creates a continuing threat to human public health since the majority of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, shared by animals and humans. Strategies are needed to ensure that surveillance systems can meet the challenges posed by emerging infectious diseases, while recognizing the context of resource limitations. Identifying appropriate tools and incentives that encourage the full participation of both public and private actors will be critical.

Approach

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Africa Bureau has identified three specific priority areas for strengthening the capacity of African animal health disease surveillance systems to enhance early detection and reporting of infectious animal disease:

• Providing veterinary professionals a toolkit of equipment, materials and information to aid them in detecting disease in the field and collecting samples, together with developing a business strategy for creating and sustaining internationally accredited laboratory capacity for timely processing of samples from the field;
• Engaging private-sector resources and capacity to enhance disease surveillance through public-private partnerships with commercial actors and with private veterinarians; and
• Developing the capacity of AU-IBAR’s (InterAfrican Bureau of Animal Resources of the African Union) animal disease information system to strengthen national disease surveillance capacities through communication strategies providing information and training.

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) addressed these priorities through a series of activities implemented in close collaboration with AU-IBAR and other African partners from May to September 2009. Several underlying principles inform the design of the activities as stated in the USAID Africa Bureau strategy. These include:

• Ensuring the interventions are demand-driven, responding to the needs of the targeted beneficiaries, by consulting with the intended users during design and implementation;
• Assessing the feasibility and sustainability of proposed interventions based on a combination of analyses using techniques drawn from business planning and institutional economics; the former highlights the need for financial sustainability through cost-recovery where appropriate, whereas the latter focuses on understanding the incentives that motivate the targeted public and private-sector actors to participate in and sustain the interventions;
• Sustaining the knowledge component of surveillance capacity requires establishing mechanisms that provide continuous access for practitioners in the field to the most up-to-date disease information;
• Public-sector capacity will remain inadequate to ensure surveillance so mechanisms must be established to involve complementary private-sector capacity; and
• African experts are capable of providing many short-term training and technical assistance services at substantial savings of project budget.

From October 2009 to September 2011, funds that had not been spent while implementing the first set of activities were allocated to support the development of AU-IBAR’s disease reporting and knowledge base system: ARIS II. It is also supporting a major workshop in March 2011 bringing together Chief Veterinary Officers and other stakeholders from the Horn of Africa and Gulf states to explore the use of a decision support tool for Rift Valley fever control to help stabilize livestock trade.

The record-high levels of today’s food prices are a blessing for some food producers able to increase their production and profits and a curse for millions of poor net food buyers finding it more and more difficult to feed their families. To make high value and staple food markets work for smallholder farmers while providing affordable food for poor consumers, we know we need better markets. We also need incentives that encourage both a pro-poor and a pro-growth Green Revolution for Africa.

To improve markets and market incentives for the poor, this conference was held to discuss practical strategies for lowering the high transaction costs of food marketing and intra-regional trade; determining appropriate, equitable and safe food standards and grades; and helping small-scale entrepreneurs access good market information and add value to food production processes.

The three-day conference — held on 13-15 May 2009 in Nairobi, Kenya — brought together some 150 market practitioners, investors, private actors, policymakers and researchers to determine how agricultural markets can help stimulate a uniquely African Green Revolution. Evidence will be synthesized to guide new market interventions and experiments by development practitioners and investors.

For more information, please visit the conference website, http://agmarketsafrica.wordpress.com.

MEDIA COVERAGE
Knowledge is power for farmers. By Joyce Mulama, Inter Press Service. 16 May 2009.

New markets to reduce waste of produce. By Jackson Okoth, The Standard. 14 May 2009.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal of this project is to help one million people – 179,000 families living on small 1-5 acre farms – lift themselves out of poverty through more profitable production and marketing of milk.

For more information, please visit the project website at http://eadairy.wordpress.com.

The project addresses the problem of cysticercosis (cysts by the tapeworm Taenia solium in pigs and humans ), involving a multidisciplinary coalition of researchers from veterinary, agricultural, human medical and social sciences in Tanzania, Mozambique and Denmark that will address four major obstacles for combating cysticercosis:

• Characterizing the disease and its risk factors and societal impact
• Increasing capacity for identifying and managing cysticercosis cases
• Identifying appropriate and sustainable “best bet” prevention and control strategies
• Promoting collaboration among the various relevant stakeholder groups