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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"765f18d5bc314cf79cf7baef0488197c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c45cf2c9-362d-4d7e-831a-7490bd938fab/retrieve","id":"1250301729"},"keywords":["Ethiopia","market-preferred traits","participatory rural appraisal","production constraints","Sesamum indicum"],"sieverID":"2f208cb7-5cab-4326-889f-37d3a062dea9","pagecount":"17","content":"Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important oilseed crop with well-developed value chains. It is Ethiopia's most valuable export commodity after coffee (Coffea arabica L.), contributing to socioeconomic development. The productivity of the crop is low and stagnant in Ethiopia and other major sesame growing regions in sub-Saharan Africa (<0.6 t/ha) due to a multitude of production constraints. The objective of this study was to document sesame production opportunities and constraints, as well as farmer-and market-preferred varieties and traits, in eastern and southwestern Ethiopia as a guide for large-scale production and breeding. A participatory rural appraisal (PRA) study was conducted in two selected sesame growing regions and four districts in Ethiopia. Data were collected from 160 and 46 sesame farmers through semistructured questionnaires and focus group discussions. Sesame is grown by all respondent farmers in the study areas for food and as a source of cash. Most respondent farmers (56%) reported cultivating sesame using seeds of unknown varieties often sourced from the informal seed sector. About 83% of the respondents reported lack of access to improved seeds as the most important production constraint, followed by low yield gains from cultivating the existing varieties (reported by 73.8% of respondents), diseases (69.4%), and low market price (68.8%). Other production constraints included insect pests (59.4%), lack of market information (55%), and high cost of seed (50%). The above constraints were attributed to the absence of a dedicated breeding programme, lack of a formal seed sector, poor extension services, and underdeveloped pre-and postharvest infrastructures. The most important market-preferred traits of sesame included true-to-type seed (reported by 36.3% of respondents), white seed colour (28.8%), and high seed oil content (23.8%). The vital farmer-preferred attributes included reasonable market price (reported by 11.3% of respondents), resistance to crop diseases (10.9%), drought tolerance (10.3%), resistance to crop insect pests (9.2%), higher seed yield (8.9%), higher thousand-seed weight (7.2%), higher oil content (6.3%), white seed colour (6.1%), early maturity (6.1%), and good oil qualities such as aroma and taste (5.7%). Therefore, there is a need for a dedicated sesame genetic improvement programme by integrating the above key production constraints and market-and farmer-preferred traits to develop and deploy new generation varieties to enhance the production, productivity, and adoption of sesame cultivars in Ethiopia.Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is an important oilseed crop valued in the food, feed, and cosmetics industries. The seed oil content of sesame is the highest (60%) when compared to other oilseed crops such as soybean (~20%), rapeseed (~40%), sunflower (~45%), and groundnut (45-56%) [1][2][3][4][5]. The seed oil is a rich source of protein (~24%), carbohydrate (~13.5%), vitamins (e.g., A and E), lignans (sesamin and sesamolin), and lipids [4,[6][7][8]. Sesame seed has essential nutritional benefits to human health, including antioxidant, antiaging, antihypertensive, anticancer, and cholesterol-lowering properties. Further, the sesame oil seedcake contains about 32% crude protein (CP) and 8-10% oil serving as an essential feed for livestock and poultry [9]. The sesame biomass is used for animal feed, soap production, compost manure, and the production of potash, a cooking ingredient widely used in West African countries [10]. These and other benefits make sesame a highly valued industrial crop globally [11].Sesame is Ethiopia's second most crucial export crop after coffee (Coffea arabica). In 2020, the area allocated for sesame production was 375,119.95 ha, 45.7% of the estimated area under oil crop production [12]. It is an eminent crop and a significant contributor to the gross domestic product in Ethiopia [13]. Globally, a total of 2,211,339 tons of sesame grain was traded with a monetary value of 3.4 trillion USD in 2019 [14]. In 2019, sub-Saharan African countries exported about 1,465,493 tons of unprocessed sesame with a cash value of 1.9 trillion USD [14]. In 2019, Ethiopia's sesame export share was 8.96% of global exports, valuing 307 million USD [14]. In terms of global total sesame production, Ethiopia ranked ninth in 2019 with an annual production of 262,654 tons, after Sudan (1,210,000 tons), Myanmar (744,498 tons), India (689,310 tons), Tanzania (680,000 tons), Nigeria (480,000 tons), China (469,104 tons) and China Mainland (467,000 tons) [14].In Ethiopia, sesame is mainly produced for household food and as a source of cash. It is predominantly grown by smallholders (95.5%) and medium-to-large commercial farmers (0.5%) under rainfed conditions. Sesame production is primarily localized in the lowland areas of the country, where drought and heat stresses are common episodes. According to the Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (CSA), during the 2019/2020 production seasons, the total area and volume of sesame production under medium-to-large commercial farming conditions was the highest in Tigray (56.42%), followed by Amhara (32.03%), Benishangul-Gumuz (7.25%), and Oromia (3.17%), whereas the total area and volume of production under smallholder farming systems was the highest in Amhara (51.82%), followed by Tigray (30.88%), Oromia (9.41%), and Benishangul-Gumuz (7.34%) [15].The productivity of sesame is low and stagnant in Ethiopia and other major sesame growing regions in sub-Saharan Africa (<0.6 t/ha) because of many production constraints. The low yield of sesame is attributable to a lack of high-yielding and well-adapted varieties, susceptibility to capsule shattering, the prevalence of biotic and abiotic stresses, and a lack of modern production technologies such as optimal agronomic managing practices, row planters, harvesters, and storage facilities [6,10,[16][17][18][19]. Furthermore, Ethiopian farmers use landrace varieties of the crop that are inherently low yielders and prone to capsule shattering, leading to reduced productivity and low income. However, landraces are highly valued for having farmer-preferred attributes such as unique taste, aroma, and adaptation to grow under low-input farming systems and marginal agricultural lands. Consequently, these production constraints have yet to be systematically studied, prioritized, and documented in Ethiopia to guide research and development of the crop.The sesame breeding research in Ethiopia was started in the late 1960s by the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Institute (EIAR) based at the Melka Werer Agricultural Research Centre (WARC) [20]. From 1960 to 1979, some introduced landrace collections were used to initiate the sesame breeding programme in the country. The local sesame breeding programme has mainly focused on characterization and mass selection of landrace collections for desirable traits for direct recommendation and large-scale production, marketing, and breeding. For instance, a total of 32 improved sesame verities were developed and released by the EIAR through mass selection from among the local germplasm collections [21]. The sesame varieties designated as Humera-1 and Setit-1 were released by the Humera Agricultural Research Centre (HuARC) in 2010. These varieties are widely grown by farmers for their early maturity, better yield response, and broad adaptability. The yield response of these varieties is low (<1.00 ton/ha), below the reportedly attainable yields of the crop at 2.53 and 1.62 tons/ha in Israel and China, respectively [14]. Therefore, sesame breeding programmes are required to select and identify desirable genotypes for practical breeding, genetic analyses, gene discovery, and developing high-performing and framer-preferred varieties. Sesame genetic improvement programmes should be guided by the prevalent production constraints of the growers as well as farmer-and market-preferred traits. These conditions will enable the development and deployment of new varieties according to the needs and preferences of the value chain, including participants such as farmers, traders, oil processors, and consumers.Farmers are the main actors in agriculture enterprises, with a wealth of indigenous knowledge about their crops, farming systems, and constraints, and they have the means to adopt a technology [22]. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) is a multidisciplinary research approach that aims to incorporate knowledge and opinions of farmers in the planning and management of research development projects and programmes [23]. PRA studies have been conducted in Senegal and Mali to initiate sesame research programmes and develop policies that optimized sesame production and improved farmers' livelihoods [10]. Through a PRA study, Dossa et al. [10] identified a lack of marketing, a decline in soil fertility, limited access to land, drought stress, backward agricultural implements, a lack of extension service, and limited access to agricultural inputs as most essential constraints on sesame production in Senegal and Mali. Myint et al. [24] reported insect pests, postharvest loss, drought, and salinity stresses as the overriding sesame production constraints in Myanmar. In Ethiopia, Abady et al. [25] used PRA tools. They reported drought stress, poor soil fertility, poor supply of improved seed, preharvest diseases (e.g., root rots and leaf spots), low-yielding varieties, poor access to extension services, poor access to credit, and limited availability of improved varieties as key challenges for groundnut production.Additionally, in Ethiopia, Sori [26] reported limited access to credit and scarcity of land as affecting the magnitude of groundnut supply to the marketplace. In Ethiopia, no recent study has documented farmers' perceptions of the production constraints on sesame and the preferred traits that farmers, market, and the value chain require in a new sesame variety. Therefore, the objective of this study was to document sesame production opportunities and constraints and farmer-and market-preferred varieties and traits in eastern and southwestern Ethiopia as a guide for large-scale production and breeding. Consequently, this will serve as market research to guide variety design and development and to develop a successful marketing strategy.The study was conducted in 2021 in two regions in Ethiopia: the Oromia region, in the Babile and Gursum districts in eastern Ethiopia, and in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' (SNNP) region in Melekoza and Basketo districts. The study areas are among Ethiopia's major sesame growing belts (Table 1 and Figure 1). Babile and Gursum have a predominantly well-drained sandy loam soil that is ideal for sesame production. The rainfall distribution of the areas is bimodal, with the main rain (locally referred to as Meher rain) received during July to October and short rain (locally known as Belg rain) during March to May [27]. The mean annual maximum and minimum temperatures are 28.1 • C and 15.5 • C, respectively, with the total annual rainfall ranging from 507 to 984 mm in the Babile district. The Gursum district receives an annual rainfall between 600 and 900 mm, with average temperatures varying between 25 and 33.5 • C. The predominant soil types of the Melekoza and Basketo districts are sandy soil with clay textures, ideal for sesame production. The rainfall distribution of the areas is bimodal, with the main rain received during July to October and short rain during March to May. The annual average rainfall is 750-1500 mm and 1000-1400 mm in the Melekoza and Basketo districts, respectively, during the primary cropping season (June to August) [28]. During the study, the minimum and maximum temperatures in Melekoza district were 15.1 to 27.5 • C, while those in Basketo were 15 and 27 • C, respectively [28].   A semistructured questionnaire and focused group discussions (FGDs) were used to collect data in the study areas. Data collected from FGDs were used to support and validate the information obtained from the semistructured questionnaire. A purposive sampling procedure was employed to select two sesame-growing regions, i.e., Oromia and SNNP, in Ethiopia. Figure 2 presents the sampling method, showing the selected regions, zones, districts, and villages for the study. From the Oromia region, two districts were selected from the east Hararghe zone (Babile and Gursum districts). In each district, two villages, locally referred to as 'kebeles', were subsampled, i.e., Eibada Gemechu and Ramata Salama in the Babile district and Abadir and Oda Oromia in the Gursum district. From the SNNP region, two districts were selected (Melokoza district from Gofa zone and Basketo district).The Basketo district is a special district that is locally referred to as 'special wereda', and it does not have a zonal classification. In each district, two villages, i.e., Salaysh Mender 01 and Salaysh Mender 03 (Melekoza district) and Angela 03 and Angela 04 (Basketo district), were selected (Table 1). A random sampling method was used to select farmers from each village for interviews. Farmers were selected irrespective of wealth status and age group.pling procedure was employed to select two sesame-growing regions, i.e., Oromia and SNNP, in Ethiopia. Figure 2 presents the sampling method, showing the selected regions, zones, districts, and villages for the study. From the Oromia region, two districts were selected from the east Hararghe zone (Babile and Gursum districts). In each district, two villages, locally referred to as 'kebeles', were subsampled, i.e., Eibada Gemechu and Ramata Salama in the Babile district and Abadir and Oda Oromia in the Gursum district. From the SNNP region, two districts were selected (Melokoza district from Gofa zone and Basketo district). The Basketo district is a special district that is locally referred to as 'special wereda', and it does not have a zonal classification. In each district, two villages, i.e., Salaysh Mender 01 and Salaysh Mender 03 (Melekoza district) and Angela 03 and Angela 04 (Basketo district), were selected (Table 1). A random sampling method was used to select farmers from each village for interviews. Farmers were selected irrespective of wealth status and age group. The farmers were selected with the assistance of the agricultural extension offices of the districts and villages. Based on the degree of homogeneity of the population, sesame production, and time and resource availability, 20 households from every eight villages were randomly sampled, providing a total of 160 respondents, of which only 14 (9%) were The farmers were selected with the assistance of the agricultural extension offices of the districts and villages. Based on the degree of homogeneity of the population, sesame production, and time and resource availability, 20 households from every eight villages were randomly sampled, providing a total of 160 respondents, of which only 14 (9%) were women-headed households (Table 2). FGDs were used to support and validate the interview data obtained from the semistructured questionnaire. The data collected from the FGDs included information on improved varieties, seed sources, seed and grain price, market information and challenges, and production constraints. The FGDs were held in four groups in six villages with 7 to 10 farmers per group across the four districts, except for Eibada Gemechu and Angela 03 villages in Babile and Basketo districts, respectively (Figure 3).    Both primary and secondary data were collected. Primary data were collected through interviews using a semistructured questionnaire and focus group discussions. The responses of the selected farmers were based on their 2020 sesame farming experience. Enumerators were well-trained, and the questionnaires were pretested to ensure that enumerators understood the subject area, to create a clear awareness among the interviewees, and to improve the clarity of questions for proper data collection. Data were collected through the semistructured questionnaire on demographic characteristics of the households, farm sizes, the farming systems used, the sesame area cultivated and the productivity status thereof, seed systems, production constraints, important crop traits preferred by farmers, and market accessibility. Secondary data, such as area coverage, production, and productivity of the crop, were collected from the respective districts of agricultural offices used in the study.Both quantitative and qualitative data were coded and subjected to analysis using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20 [29]. The quan-titative data were coded before analysis. Descriptive statistics, such as frequencies and percentages, were calculated. In addition, chi-square and t-tests were performed using the cross-tabulation procedure of SPSS.One hundred sixty smallholder farmers were interviewed individually using semistructured questionnaires; of these, 46 participated in focus group discussions. Table 2 shows the demographic characteristics of the participants. Of the 160 smallholder farmers interviewed, 91% and 9% were males and females, respectively. Gursum district had a relatively higher number of male respondents (97.5%), followed by Babile and Melokoza districts (92.5% each), while Basketo district had 82.5% male participants.Seventy percent of the households had a family size of 6 to 10 individuals, while 24% had 2 to 5 individuals. Polygamy is a common culture in the study areas and is linked with the high population growth rate in the rural areas. The majority (73%) of the households were between 30 and 50 years of age, indicating that the middle-aged adult farmers were highly engaged in sesame production in the study areas. Nineteen percent of the participants ranged from 18 to 29 years of age, while eight percent were between 51 and 65 years of age. About 49% of the respondents had attended primary school, while 30% of the participants could not read and write. The rest of the respondents were able to read and write (16%) or had attended secondary school (4%) and college (0.6%) (n = 160).Off-Farm Income Sources of Farmers Table 3 presents the off-farm income sources of the respondent farmers. The result showed that about 4% of the respondents earned off-farm income, most frequently through a daily labourer wage and trading, followed by carpentry, serving in churches, construction sectors, and pensions. The majority (88%) of the households did not have off-farm income sources except for crop production and livestock rearing. About 62% of the farmers had information regarding improved sesame varieties. Framers received information about the new varieties via development agents (34%) and local radio programmes (25%). About 38% of participant farmers were not aware of the improved varieties (Table 4). The following sesame varieties were known and cultivated in the study areas: Humera-1, Abasena, Wollega, Adi, and unnamed. There was a highly significant difference (p < 0.00; χ 2 = 158.71) in the sesame varieties cultivated among the four districts. The majority (56%) of the farmers cultivated sesame using unnamed varieties. About 38% of respondent farmers sourced sesame seeds from neighbours through farmer-to-farmer exchange and farm-saved seeds, while 19% of respondents sourced from local markets and 6% from nongovernment organizations such as Self Help, the Hararghe Catholic Secretariats (HCS), and the Catholic Relief Service (CRS) (Table 4). There were no government-linked sesame seed enterprises or cooperative seed production in the study areas. Also, there were no formal seed systems to support sesame production in the study areas except those provided by nongovernment organizations, which provided seeds for demonstration purposes some long years ago. In Melokoza and Basketo districts, 30% of the respondent farmers reported using sesame variety Humera-1, acquired through farmerto-farmer exchange, farm saving, or the local market. During the FGDs, participants stated that Humera-1 was their chosen variety for its white seed colour, high oil content, and yield potential, fetching reasonable market price compared to other cultivars in the study areas. Sixty percent of the respondent farmers reported participating in technology transfer activities. About 38%, 14%, and 8% of farmers participated in farmer training centres (FTC), on-farm trials, and farmers' field days, respectively, and thereby received technical backstopping in sesame production (Table 5). About 38% of the respondent farmers reported that FTCs were the main sources of information and technology transfer methods.Sesame cropping systems and perceptions of production trends in the four districts are summarized in Table 5. There was a highly significant difference (p < 0.00; χ 2 = 108.542) in sesame cropping systems among the four districts. Sixty percent of the farmers cultivated sesame as a sole crop, while 40% intercropped sesame with sorghum (37.5%), groundnut (8.75%), or maize (3.75%) (n = 160) (Figure 4). Most of the respondent farmers (41.88%) in the study areas practiced crop rotation of sesame with maize, followed by mung bean (18.75%), haricot bean (17.50%), and groundnut (9.38%). Crops and their areas of production in the study areas are summarized in Figure 5. Sesame had the most significant area coverage, followed by maize and sorghum (Figure 5). During the FGDs, the majority (46%) of the households reported the trend that sesame production areas had decreased, while 34% and 19% reported increasing and constant trends, respectively, for the last five years. The decreased area of sesame production was mainly attributed to a lack of improved varieties, abiotic and biotic stresses, and a lack of extension services and market linkage.    Farmers identified the major abiotic, biotic, and market constraints affecting sesame production in the study areas (Table 6). There was a highly significant difference (p < 0.00; χ 2 = 30.204) among districts' access to improved seeds. Farmers' perceptions in regard to the assessed production constraints were further explored through FGDs. About 83% of households reported that lack of access to improved seeds was ranked as a leading constraint of sesame production. This was mainly attributed to the lack of governmentlinked sesame seed enterprises and cooperative seed production in the study areas. About 87.5 to 90% of the households reported low yield gains by the existing varieties as the second most crucial yield-limiting factor in the study areas.     * df, degrees of freedomFarmers identified white seed colour, increased seed size, true-to-type seed, high oil content, and increased thousand-seed weight as the most critical sesame market-preferred traits in the study areas (Table 7). Farmers in all the districts ranked true-to-type seed as the first market-preferred trait, followed by white seed colour and high oil content (n = 160). During the FGDs, farmers stated that the middlemen and district trade offices mysteriously engaged in market price fixing without farmers involvement. This indicates that there are no price regulations favouring the framer's involvement in sesame market systems in the study areas. Therefore, it is essential for the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) through the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) to strengthen sesame marketing regulations and to avail farmers of market information. In the present study, farmers selected sesame cultivars for production based on reasonable market price, resistance to diseases, drought tolerance, resistance to insect pests, high yield, increased 1000 seed weight, high oil content, and white seed colour, in that order (Table 8). During the FGDs, farmers described reasonable market price, high oil content, white seed colour, and high thousand-seed weight as market-preferred traits. These attributes attracted premium prices for sesame farmers. The participation of male (91%) farmers was higher than female (9%) farmers in sesame production in the study areas (Table 2). The disparity indicates that male households dominated sesame production. In agreement with this finding, Dossa et al. [10] reported that more male than female farmers were involved in sesame production in Senegal and Mali. Gender imbalance also occurred in the findings of Abady et al. [25] on groundnut production in similar study areas of Ethiopia.Most of the households had a family size of 6 to 10 individuals (Table 2). Mendola [30] suggested that the household is a significant source of labour in smallholder farming communities, suggesting that the larger the household size, the greater the labour force available to operate farming activities and minimize the cost of production.The majority of the households were between 30 and 50 years of age (Table 2). It is believed that this active age group plays a crucial role in decision-making, improving the local economy, adopting improved technologies, and conducting farm operations. Previously, these demographic groups were reported in the sesame production areas in Senegal and Mali [10].About 49% of the respondents had attended primary school, followed by 30% who were unable to read and write. A household's education level has a great impact on the management of the family's livelihood and active participation in decision making, adoption of technologies, and farm operations [31]. Farmers with no formal education are unwilling to adopt improved technologies and extension services and rely on traditional farming practices in Burkina Faso [32]. Therefore, enrolling children in the local schools is most vital to help households adopt improved technologies, extension services, and access to information that will improve the production and productivity of the crop, thereby improving the livelihood of the family. Further, developmental agents or any service providers need to use vernacular language during the implementation of technology transfer activities. Local language would improve the level of understanding of illiterate households towards adopting improved technologies in the study areas.Off-Farm Income Sources of Farmers Most of the studied households did not have off-farm income sources (Table 3). Typically, the income sources of households in developing countries are dependent on agriculture, as favoured by the agricultural-led industrialization policies of said countries. Abady et al. [25] and Daudi et al. [33] reported that most of groundnut farmers' livelihoods were derived from agriculture in Ethiopia and Tanzania, even more so in the former. Different sources of income for farmers can help ensure their livelihoods. Therefore, it is essential to design and introduce projects to diversify farmer's portfolios of income sources in the study areas to mitigate the impacts of crop failure and livestock death due to abiotic and biotic stresses.The study showed that most farmers had information about improved varieties through development agents (extension workers at village level), radio programmes, and farmer-to-farmer information exchange in the study areas (Table 4). Even though the farmers had information, they cultivated varieties often sourced from the informal sector in the study areas. The farmers cultivated improved sesame varieties, but there were no government-linked sesame seed enterprises or cooperative seed production in the study areas. Thirty percent of the respondents in Melokoza and Basketo districts adopted the Humera-1 variety, developed and released by Humera Agricultural Research Centre (HuARC) in 2010. This variety was developed through mass selection from among local germplasm collections. Most farmers in Ethiopia and Tanzania used seed of groundnut landraces for multiple benefits such as good oil quality, grain yield, adaptability to environmental stresses, drought tolerance, seed availability, and the ability to adapt to adverse climatic conditions and to retain seeds for the next cycle of planting [25,33]. The study areas' farmers classified Humera-1 and Adi as early-maturing cultivars and Abasena and Wollega as medium-maturing cultivars with relatively better bacterial blight resistance. High thousand-seed weight, high oil content, and white seed colour are among the most essential traits considered in the export standards of sesame [34]. The findings of this study show the need to design and introduce government-assisted sesame seed enterprises and cooperative seed production and to strengthen the extension service delivery system to enhance the dissemination and adoption of improved sesame agricultural technologies and enhance the livelihoods of the farmers in the study areas.Most of the respondent farmers (60%) participated in technology transfer activities in the study areas. Chi-square analysis revealed the presence of highly significant differences among the four districts in methods of technology transfer (p < 0.000; χ 2 = 67.323) (Table 5). The majority of the farmers reported that FTCs were among the main information and technology dissemination centres through demonstrations of methods to the farmers. Therefore, demonstrating improved varieties with the full package of agronomic practices through on-farm trials and FTCs, strengthening the extension services, and increasing availability of sesame seeds through engaging government seed enterprises and private seed producers would boost sesame production and productivity in the study areas.Most respondent farmers in the study areas grew sesame as a sole crop (Table 5). Farmers in Babile and Gursum districts intercropped sesame with sorghum, maize, and groundnut crops to diversify their cash income and mitigate the adverse effects of crop failure associated with growing sesame as a sole crop. In line with the current findings, Mesfin et al. [35] reported sesame intercropping with sorghum and millet in the study areas. Some farmers practiced sesame intercropping with sorghum and millet crops in Senegal and Mali [10]. Furthermore, Mkamilo [36] reported sesame intercropping with maize in southeast Tanzania.The present study revealed that most of the farmers practiced sesame rotation with maize, mung bean, haricot bean, and groundnut, mainly to restore of soil fertility and reduce pest pressure in the four districts (Table 5). Conversely, most interviewees practiced the monoculture of sesame in Senegal and Mali [10]. The majority of the farmers explained that the trend of sesame production in the study areas was decreasing, mainly attributing this trend to a lack of improved varieties, abiotic and biotic stresses, a lack of better agronomic practices, and poor extension services and market linkages in the study areas. This result corroborated the findings of Abady et al. [25] in regard to groundnut production in the same study areas in Ethiopia.Farmers identified lack of access to improved varieties, high cost of seeds, low quality of seeds, low yield, climate change, insect pests, diseases, weeds, lack of market information, and low market price as the most critical constraints affecting sesame production (Table 6). Most households reported a lack of access to improved seeds as the most crucial constraint on sesame production due to the lack of a formal seed sector. The majority of the farmers identified low yield as the second most important constraint in sesame production in the study areas, suggesting that farmers grow unimproved varieties often sourced from the informal sector. Similarly, Teklu et al. [37] reported that the low productivity of sesame was due to a lack of improved and high-yielding varieties, traditional production technologies, and abiotic and biotic stresses, among other constraints. The authors also reported that landrace varieties were the primary sources of seed for cultivating the crop in Ethiopia. The low yield of sesame in SSA is mainly attributable to a lack of high-yielding, well-adapted varieties and shattering-tolerant cultivars, the prevalence of biotic and abiotic stresses, and the use of traditional production and harvesting systems [6,10,[16][17][18][19]37,38]. The respondent farmers also identified low-quality and expensive sesame seeds sourced from the local market as one of the important production constraints. For instance, farmers in Basketo and Melokoza districts bought 1 kg of improved seed with a monetary value of 60 Birr (1.30 USD). Farmers expressed poor seed systems and lack of quality seed producers as a bottleneck in sesame production.Climate change and insect pests are among the most essential yield-limiting factors mentioned by the sesame growers in the study areas (Table 6). Insect pests primarily cause yield reduction. A mean yield loss of 25% has been reported due to insect pest attacks [39]. Similarly, Myint et al. [24] reported that drought and insect pests were among the major sesame production constraints in Myanmar. Therefore, the development and introduction of drought-tolerant and insect pest-resistant varieties to the seed system is crucial to minimize the risk of crop failure due to abiotic and biotic stresses and increase the crop's productivity.Furthermore, farmers in the study areas mentioned a lack of market information and low market price as among the most critical challenges in sesame production. In the study areas, there were no market infrastructures or market information delivery systems, and the growers were forced to sell their produce at a lower price. The market value chain is not well-developed, which often highly discourages farmers from producing the crop. For instance, farmers in Basketo and Melokoza districts sold 100 kg of their products with 1000-3000 Birr (about 22.3-67 USD) at farm gate price but at 3000-3500 Birr (about 67-78 USD) during the study period. The lack of an encouraging production environment in the study areas highly affected farmers and discouraged them from producing the crop in a larger quantity and with better quality. In agreement with the current findings, Myint et al. [24] reported that lower production and productivity in some areas of Myanmar was due to a lack of market for the farmers. There is a need to improve the sesame value chain through incorporating improved and high-yielding varieties into the formal seed system, more expansive use of the best agronomic practices, strengthening the extension services, and developing market infrastructure and on-time market information delivery. These attributes can motivate farmers to produce higher quantities of better-quality seed to the market.Sesame is an important oilseed crop serving various value chains globally. In the present study, farmers identified white seed colour, higher seed size, true-to-type seed, higher oil content, and increased thousand-seed weight as the most crucial sesame marketpreferred traits (Table 7). Farmers ranked true-to-type seed as the first most crucial market-preferred trait, followed by white seed colour and higher oil content. Higher thousand-seed weight, higher oil content, and white seed colour are among the most critical traits considered in the export standards of sesame [34]. Therefore, introducing improved, higher-yielding, higher-thousand-seed weight, higher-oil content, and whiteseeded sesame varieties is considerably important to increasing the crop's market value.Farmers identified reasonable market price, resistance to disease, drought tolerance, resistance to insect pests, high yield, high 1000-seed weight, high oil content, and white seed colour as the most important traits in the study areas (Table 8). Most of the respondent farmers ranked reasonable market price as the most important trait, followed by resistance to diseases, drought tolerance, and resistance to insect pests. The ultimate goal of farmers when engaging in crop production is to increase productivity and obtain better income from the market, thereby improving their livelihood. Farmers in the study areas suggested that varieties with high yield, drought tolerance, and insect pest and disease resistance were highly preferred. These varieties avert the risks of crop failure due to abiotic and biotic stresses.Farmers identified limited access to improved seeds as the most critical production constraint, followed by low yield gains, diseases, and low market price. Other production constraints included insect pests, lack of market information, and high cost of seed. These constraints were attributable to the absence of a dedicated breeding programme, lack of a formal seed sector, poor extension services, and underdeveloped pre-and postharvest infrastructures. The essential market-preferred traits of sesame included true-to-type seed, white seed colour, and high seed oil content. The vital farmer-preferred attributes included reasonable market price, resistance to crop diseases, drought tolerance, resistance to crop insect pests, high seed yield, high thousand-seed weight, high oil content, white seed colour, early maturity, and good oil quality in areas such as aroma and taste. Therefore, there is a need for a dedicated sesame genetic improvement programme that would integrate the above key production constraints and market-and farmer-preferred traits to develop and deploy new-generation varieties to enhance stable production, productivity, and adoption of sesame cultivars in Ethiopia.","tokenCount":"5571"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c30ca73bfea2080d09e80c1c3c5b7e18","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/66b59d5e-db8f-4a45-8ddf-e4855a60cfbf/retrieve","id":"1715996900"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"41822dd0-ee0d-48e7-8411-fffd564c74ee","pagecount":"2","content":"Project Title: P1578 -AfricaRice contribution to RICE Flagship Project 3 Description of the innovation: A two-step, spatially explicit approach that is based on i) machine learning models, namely Random Forest (RF) and Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) deployed in ecological niche modeling to assess the land suitability for irrigated rice cultivation and ii) the climatic suitability for alternate wetting and drying (AWD), an irrigation management method for saving water in rice cultivation in irrigated systems using a simple water balance model. The approach was successfully validated in Burkina Faso. • Burkina FasoThe evaluation metrics such as the area under the curve and percentage correctly classified showed values higher than 80% for both RF and MaxEnt. The modeling approach is validated for Burkina Faso and can be applied to the whole West African region. ","tokenCount":"131"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"11ae4450cede07a726a817250beba795","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/8fea400a-0796-4cfe-860e-91dbea004b51/retrieve","id":"1545195125"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"31ecca4f-fba5-4833-842a-a66d4039f336","pagecount":"3","content":"Référence exacte : Garrett, K.A.; Xing, Y. 2024. Fiche descriptive de l'outil Modèle de santé des semences, faisant partie de l'approche intégrée de la santé des semences. Lima (Pérou). Programme de recherche du CGIAR sur les racines, tubercules et bananes (RTB).1. Objectif : Évaluer le risque de dégénérescence des semences à un endroit ou à un ensemble d'endroits, en tenant compte de facteurs tels que les conditions météorologiques, la résistance aux maladies des cultures et les taux de réussite d'interventions telles que la sélection positive et l'épuration. Par ailleurs, ce modèle évalue également le meilleur moment pour accéder à des semences propres afin de maintenir des rendements acceptables.2. Niveau : de la ferme au village, puis au continent.3. Utilisateurs de l'outil : les scientifiques et les analystes qui conçoivent, appliquent ou évaluent les systèmes semenciers. Les utilisateurs n'ayant aucune expérience de la programmation peuvent utiliser la version interactive en ligne du modèle (lien sur le site garrettlab.com/seedhealth) mais peuvent avoir besoin de conseils sur l'estimation des paramètres. Les personnes de différents niveaux d'expérience en matière de programmation peuvent utiliser le modèle dans R. L'équipe de l'Université de Floride peut fournir un code personnalisé pour des applications particulières.4. Résultats de l'outil : la production du modèle comprend des estimations de la vitesse de dégénérescence des semences, en fonction des paramètres décrivant le système. Le modèle évalue également le moment opportun pour acquérir des semences de haute qualité afin de maintenir le rendement dans des limites acceptables.5. Participants aux productions : La même communauté de scientifiques et d'analystes, ainsi que le personnel de vulgarisation et d'information, les décideurs et les bailleurs de fonds.6. Taille minimale de l'échantillon : on peut ajuster l'analyse à la quantité de données disponibles, avec moins de données donnant lieu à une analyse plus spéculative et plus de données permettant une analyse plus précise.7. Ressources : a. Nombre de personnes : au moins 2 b. Matériels : les données pertinentes, un ordinateur ayant accès à l'application en ligne ou sur lequel sont installés l'environnement de programmation R gratuit et le paquet R seedHealth gratuit c. Expertise : au moins un membre de l'équipe ayant une expérience en R, et au moins un membre ayant une expérience dans le système semencier sous étude. On peut recourir à l'élicitation d'experts pour obtenir des données pour le modèle, en s'appuyant sur l'expérience et les connaissances d'une équipe d'experts.8. Calendrier : applicable avant, pendant et après une nouvelle étude ou la mise en place d'un nouveau système semencier. 9. Échéance : dès que les données sont organisées, une analyse préliminaire peut durer une semaine seulement, alors qu'une analyse complète simple et standard prendrait quelques mois. Mettre en place une nouvelle analyse personnalisée en vue de sa publication peut prendre un an, y compris plusieurs cycles de discussion entre les collaborateurs.10. Étapes : a. Recueillir des données relatives à la dégénérescence des semences. Lorsque l'on dispose de plus de données (par exemple, sur la propension de l'environnement à la maladie et les niveaux de résistance à la maladie), l'évaluation des risques peut explorer davantage de scénarios. b. Après une estimation des paramètres du modèle à partir des données, vous pouvez évaluer le risque de dégénérescence des semences et le moment le plus propice pour acquérir des semences de qualité. c. Analyse de scénario. Ce modèle vous permet d'évaluer le risque à des endroits particuliers et d'incorporer le risque dans l'analyse du réseau de semences et dans les études de cartographie des performances de gestion.11. Quelles méthodes peut-on associer à l'outil : l'on peut utiliser tous les outils (revue de la littérature quantitative, nouvelles expériences, élicitation d'experts, etc.) afin de fournir des données et des questions pour l'application du modèle. Si les données disponibles sont minimales, les résultats des analyses seront spéculatifs ; lorsque des données étendues sont disponibles, les analyses seront plus précises et auront plus de chances de fournir des recommandations exploitables pour des endroits spécifiques.12. Genre : Les facteurs sociaux, tels que la disponibilité de la main-d'oeuvre pour la sélection positive et le rognage, ou l'argent pour les intrants tels que les semences de haute qualité, influencent en partie le risque de dégénérescence des semences. Si les écarts en matière de disponibilité des ressources sont considérés comme une fonction du sexe ou d'autres aspects sociaux, le risque de dégénérescence des semences peut également être évalué en conséquence (Niveau 1 de parité : le genre représente un facteur important dans cet outil, mais ce n'est pas la principale raison de l'utiliser).13. Guide de l'utilisateur : User guide to the seedHealth model as part of the integrated seed health approach. Lima (Peru). Programme de recherche du CGIAR sur les racines, tubercules et bananes (RTB) Guide de l'utilisateur RTB No. 2021-5. https://doi.org/10.4160/9789290605782 14. Document de recherche : Thomas-Sharma, S., Abdurahman, A., Ali, S., Andrade-Piedra, J., Bao, S., Charkowski, A., Crook, D., Kadian, M., Kromann, P., Struik, P., Torrance, L., Garrett, K. A., & Forbes, G. A. (2016) ","tokenCount":"823"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6a0e417294d99a61db0e499ff13eb915","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/34514f5e-81ee-45c7-9b1b-28f598e41916/content","id":"-300914030"},"keywords":["Mexico","Sonora","Cultivo: Plantación","Producción vegetal"],"sieverID":"412d67a4-2ecc-4b57-b2a0-ffd9b2fa8517","pagecount":"55","content":"CIMMYT) es una organizacion internacional, sin fines de lucro, que se dedica a la investigacion científica y la capacitacion Tiene su sede en México y colabora con instituciones de investigación agrícola de todo el mundo para mejorar la productividad y la sostenibilidad de los sistemas de maíz y trigo para los agricultores de escasos recursos en los países en desarrollo El CIMMYT es uno de los 16 centros que cuentan con el apoyo del Grupo Consultivo sobre la lnvestigacion Agncola Internacional (CGIAR) El CGIAR está compuesto por unos 50 donadores, entre los que figuran organizaciones tanto internacionales como regionales y fundaciones privadas El CGIAREl análisis de la información de la encuesta para el ciclo 0-1 1993/94 describe las prácticas agronómicas generales que llevan a cabo los productores de trigo en el Valle del Yaqui, así como los factores agronómicos que influyen en el rendimiento del trigo Entre éstos se encuentran el control de malezas, la densidad del cultivo, la fecha de siembra, las aplicaciones de fósforo y la infestación de malezas de generaciones posteriores al control.El control de malezas es el factor más significativo dentro de la función de rendimiento. Dentro del control de malezas, la realización de cultivos es función del método de siembra en surcos, el cual ha cobrado importancia en cuanto al número de agricultores que lo practican a partir de 1980. Los resultados del trabajo confirman que esta tecnología, comparada con los métodos tradicionales de siembra en corrugaciones y en melgas, permite un mejor control de malezas y emplea una menor cantidad de insumas tales como fertilizantes, pesticidas, semilla yagua, lo que permite una reducción en los costos de cultivo. La combinación de ambos factores origina una diferencia significativa de utilidades en favor de la siembra en surcos. La tecnología se utiliza con mayor frecuencia en los suelos de barrial, en donde además se obtienen las utilidades más altas; sin embargo, resulta redituable tambíén en los suelos de aluvión. Una de las posibles limitantes de la tecnologia es la falta de maquinaria e implementos adecuados para llevar a cabo esta práctica y el tiempo requerido para ello. Las características mencionadas (que redundan también en la conservación del medio ambiente al reducir la cantidad de agroquimicos y el manejo y conservación de los recursos suelo yagua a través de la reducción del volumen del agua de riego y su mejor manejo) hacen preveer un crecimiento en el porcentaje de agricultores que adopten la tecnología. Para esto se requerirá una mayor participación de los agentes encargados de la asistencia técnica en la difusión de las ventajas agronómicas y económicas de la siembra en surcos.El autor desea agradecer a Víctor Hernández su apoyo en computación, a Dagoberto Flores el haber realizado el trabajo de campo en que se basa este trabajo y a Elizabeth Rice, su asistencia con la versión en inglés de este documento. Asimismo, expresa su reconocimiento a Larry Harrington, Ken Sayre y Tony Fischer por sus útiles comentarios, ya Kelly Cassaday y Alma McNab por su asistencia editorial.Figura 2.1 Temperaturas máximas y minimas ciclo 1993/94 y periodo 1969-92 ')Figura 2.2 Precipitación promedio mensual ciclo 1993/94 y período 1969-92 3Figura 5.1 Difusión real y proyectada del método de siembra en surcos.. ... 28El entorno económico de los paises en desarrollo y su efecto en el sector agrícola, así como la búsqueda de sistemas agrícolas sustentables en los últimos años, ha traído consigo cambios en el patrón de cultivos y en las prácticas de los agricultores, que tienen como objetivo incrementar la productividad y hacer un mejor uso de los recursos naturales En este entorno se hace necesario analizar tales cambios para estar en condiciones de evaluar los procesos de transferencia de tecnología y adopción, e implementar programas de investigación agrícola acordes al nuevo escenario en que se desenvuelven los productores El análisis de innovaciones tecnológicas que contribuyan a incrementar la productividad, resulten redituables al agricultor y viables respecto al medio agroclimático en el que se llevan a cabo, debe realizarse de manera constante a fin de monitorear la eficiencia de los programas de investigación y extensión agrícola del sector público.Los cambios en la política sectorial, tales como la apertura comercial, restricción de crédito, eliminación de precios de garantía, reducción de subsidios en insumas estratégicos para los procesos de producción como las semillas, los fertilizantes y el agua de riego, así como la necesidad de conservar el medio ambiente, han alterado las condiciones en que se desenvuelven los productores agrícolas de México y, en particular, los del Valle del Yaqui. Esto ocasionará que los productores busquen opciones tecnológicas que les permitan mantener o incrementar su productividad y, al mismo tiempo, reducir costos y contar con sistemas de producción sostenibles. Así pues, resulta interesante analizar la importancia que tiene el manejo del cultivo y, en particular, el método de siembra en surcos dentro del nuevo marco socioeconómico que se presenta en esta región agrícola.Dentro de este marco, el Programa de Economía del CIMMYT lleva a cabo el seguimiento de las prácticas agronómicas del cultivo del trigo en la región agrícola del Valle del Yaqui en México, con el fin de monitorear el patrón de adopción de tecnología. Dichas encuestas se han llevado a cabo en 1981, 1982, 1987, 1989 Y 1991. En el presente trabajo se analiza la información correspondiente a la encuesta levantada en el ciclo 0-1 1993/1994. El tamaño de la muestra fue de 85 casos, habiéndose llevado a cabo entrevistas directas en los campos de cultivo que fueron la unidad de análisis; en todos los casos, los agricultores contaban con el cultivo de trigo establecido.A partir de las premisas anteriores, los objetivos del presente trabajo son los siguientes 1. Describir las prácticas de cultivo realizadas por los productores.2. Determinar los factores agronómicos y características socioeconómicas del productor que influyen en el rendimiento de trigo.3 Elaborar un análisis comparativo, incluyendo los factores mencionados, de los métodos de siembra (surcos, corrugaciones y melgas)4. Analizar los factores que influyen en la adopción del método de siembra en surcos.Factores agroclímaticos y socioeconómicos Importancia del trigo en el Valle del YaquiDurante el ciclo 0-1 93/94 se sembraron en el Valle del Yaqui un total de 223,296 ha, de las cuales 152,751 correspondieron al cultivo del trigo, con una producción de 823,399 t. Esto representa alrededor del 22% de la producción nacional que fue de 3,81 1,091 t durante el mismo período; asimismo, el valor de la producción representó el 55% del valor total de la producción agrícola en el valle. Los datos anteriores confirman la importancia del cultivo del trigo a nivel regional y nacional.La información meteorológica nos muestra que el clima en cuanto a temperaturas máximas y mínimas durante el ciclo 0-1 93/94 se comportó de manera similar al promedio de los años anteriores (Figura 2.1), con excepción de los meses de abril y mayo que tuvieron temperaturas más altas. En cuanto a la precipitación, ésta ocurrió sólo en Jos meses de noviembre y diciembre, presentándose la mayor cantidad en los primeros dias de noviembre (Figura 22) En algunos casos, la presencia de estas lluvias sustituyó al riego presiembra; en otros, apresuró una demanda extraordinaria del servicio del riego a un mismo tiempo lo que pudo ocasionar las siembras que se realizaron en fecha tardía) De acuerdo con la clasificación de suelos hecha por el Centro de Investigación Regional del Noroeste (CIRNO), la distribución de los productores por tipo de suelo se muestra en el Cuadro 2.1. Resulta clara la importancia de los suelos de aluvión pesado y barrial profundo en cuanto a la superficie que ocupan en el Valle del Yaqui. Para fines del presente estudio se utilizará una clasificación más general, es decir, sólo dos categorías: suelos de aluvión y suelos de barrial.Cuadro 2.1 Tipos de suelo de los agricultores encuestados. 8.22.4Resulta imponante hacer algunas consideraciones sobre los métodos de siembra que se utilizan para el cultivo del trigo en el Valle del Yaqui. De acuerdo con el personal técnico del Campo Experimental del Valle del Yaqui (CEVY), el trigo se siembra bajo dos esquemas el tradicional, en la que se cubre totalmente el terreno con plantas, con lo cual se logra una posición ventajosa en el sistema de producción, en lo que se refiere a competencia con malezas por agua, espacio, luz y nutrimentos. En contraste, el segundo esquema, la siembra de trigo en surcos, tiene como objetivo central dejar espacIos por donde hombres y máquinas puedan introducirse al terreno.Esto permite llevar a cabo operaciones imponantes para el desarrollo del cultivo; la más imponante es la eliminación de malezas mediante labores de cultivo (escardas o deshierbes manuales)A continuación se presentan las características principales de los diferentes métodos de siembra que practican los productores de trigo en el Valle del Yaqui l. Melgas. En este método la siembra puede realizarse en dos modalidades, al voleo con la posterior incorporación de la semilla (generalmente con rastra) o con sembradora para granos pequeños, la cual deposita la semilla a \"chorrillo\" en hileras; posteriormente se levantan los bordos para formar las melgas, cuyo tamaño y forma dependen de lo bien nivelado que esté el terreno, por lo que este método puede subdividirse en melgas rectas en terrenos nivelados o siguiendo el contorno (curvas de nivel)2. Corrugaciones Este tipo de siembra se lleva a cabo de manera similar al anterior, al voleo o con sembradora de granos pequeños, sólo que en lugar de levantar bordos se traza un surcado poco profundo para conducir el agua de riego 3. Siembra en surcos. Se considera un método no tradicional, el cual tiene como objetivo principal permitir la entrada de maquinaria, implementos y trabajadores para realizar cultivos mecánicos (escardas) y deshierbes manuales con facilidad, así como obtener un mejor manejo y aprovechamiento del riego. La metodología original presenta dos alternativas uso de surco angosto (50-60 cm) con una hilera en el lomo del surco, y la de surco ancho (80-100 cm) con dos hileras en el lomo. Sin embargo el productor ha adaptado la metodología utilizando tres y hasta cuatro hileras en el lomo del surco, lo cual reduce la eficacia del control mecánico de las malezas al imposibilitar la entrada de los implementos entre las hileras.4. Una adaptación o variante a la técnica anterior es la siembra de una hilera adicional en el fondo del surco, práctica que realiza el productor con la finalidad de prevenir con altas poblaciones la competencia de las malezas por agua, nutrientes y luz, pero con lo que se pierde el objetivo primordial de la siembra en surcos.Conjuntando las diferentes características de los tipos de siembra, el esquema de la clasificación anterior se muestra en el Cuadro 2.2, el número de hileras de la siembra en surcos (método no tradicional) corresponde a la recomendación técnica del CEVY; cabe señalar que los agricultores utilizan variantes de las prácticas descritas, adaptándolas a sus objetivos o necesidades.Para contar con el número de observaciones pertinente y realizar las comparaciones estadísticas, se agruparon los métodos de siembra en melgas, corrugaciones 1 e hileras sobre el surco, siendo estas modalidades las más representativas en el área de estudio. En este trabajo, cuando hablemos de siembra en hileras o siembra en surcos, nos estaremos refiriendo a la tecnología de interés, que es la siembra en hileras sobre el surco. De igual forma, cuando mencionamos la realización de cultivos, nos referimos a las escardas o cultivos mecánicos.Del total de la muestra de agricultores, el 31 % fueron ejidatarios, el 28% pequeños propietarios y el 41 % restante correspondió a arrendatarios en ambas modalidades ( Cuadro 2.3). El porcentaje relativamente alto de agricultores que rentan la tierra pudiera ser efecto de las modificaciones al Artículo 27 constitucional y su respectiva ley agraria, la cual permite este tipo de operaciones de manera legal a partir de 1992. Como resultado, los arrendatarios y arrendadores son ahora menos renuentes a manifestar este tipo de situaciones. En las encuestas anteriores, el porcentaje de arrendatarios siempre fue menor al 9% de acuerdo a las respuestas de los productores, aunque era conocido que se practicaba la renta de terrenos en este período.1Se incluye aquí la variante que utiliza tres hileras en el lomo del surco v una en el fondo. debido a que el manejo agronómico se acerca más al método de siembra por corrugaciones. es decir. se utiliza el surco principalmente para conducir el agua de riego y no para realizar cultivos mecánicos.Cuadro 2.3 Tipo de tenencia de la tierra de los agricultores encuestados. Cabe señalar que el 100% de los productores encuestados cuentan con crédito, siendo tres las principales fuentes de financiamiento Unión de Crédito (45%), Banca Pnvada (42%) y el BANRURAL (13%) La Unión de Crédito y la Banca Privada acreditaron en conjunto al 100% de los arrendatarios y al 96% de los pequeños propietarios. Para el caso de los ejidatarios, éstos fueron atendidos en mayor porcentaje por BANRURAL, con un 38% (Cuadro 2.4) La menor panicipación de BANRURAL en el otorgamiento de crédito a los agricultores es reflejo de sus nuevas políticas crediticias. Estas enfocan la atención hacia los productores de bajos ingresos con potencial productivo, con el objetivo de que el crédito de fomento y el subsidio que éste implica dejen de otorgarse en forma indiscriminada. Con este fin, a panir de 1990 se iniciaron las acciones para transferir a la banca privada a los productores de ingresos elevados que ya no justificaran el uso del crédito preferencial.Cuadro 2.4 Porcentaje de agricultores acreditados por entidad financiera. El 69% del total de productores cuenta con asistencia técnica 2 , los porcentajes de agricultores que recibieron el servicio de acuerdo a la institución habilitadora son los siguientes Unión de Crédito (51%), banca privada (35%) y en menor proporción el BANRURAL (14%) El sector ejidal fue el mayor receptor del servicio, ya que el 85% de este tipo de productores recibieron atención, asi como el 69% de los arrendatarios y el 54% de los pequeños propietarios. En general los agricultores financiados por las uniones de crédito en forma individual o como asociación contratan la cobertura del seguro agrícola con los Fondas de Aseguramiento los cuales a su vez les otorgan la asistencia técnica, esto explica porque se presenta aquí la mayor proporción de productores con asistencía técnica. Por otro lado los productores a través del crédito de avío (BANRURAL y Banca Comercial) reciben una cuota para contratar los servicios de asistencia técnica, quedando bajo su responsabilidad la contratación del personal técnico. Las casas distribuidoras de agroquímicos constituyen otra modalidad de asistencia técnica a través de su personal técnico. En algunos casos los productores son ingenieros agrónomos por lo que ellos mismos supervisan técnicamente sus cultivos.De acuerdo con los tipos de tenencia de la tierra clasificados, tenemos que un 80% de los productores encuestados cuenta con maquinaria propia y el 20% restante la maquila para poder llevar a cabo las labores culturales correspondientes, los pequeños propietarios y los arrendatarios poseen maquinaria en la misma proporción (83%), mientras que de los ejidatarios el 73% cuenta con maquinaria propia (Cuadro 2.5).Cuadro 2.5 Propiedad de la maquinaria (% de productores). 3.Dentro de las prácticas de preparación del suelo para el ciclo 1993-94 se tiene que el 35% de los productores realizaron el subsoleo y 26% practicaron el barbecho~de la misma manera realizaron la nivelación el 19~'ó de los agricultores con Jand plane y el 60~''Ó con tablón (tipo de nivelación hecha con maderos)La siembra del trigo se lleva a cabo bajo condiciones de humedad (riego de presiembra) casi en su totalidad, el 94% de los agricultores realizaron esta práctica, la cual tiene como objetivo eliminar gran cantidad de maleza de las primeras generaciones por medio de las labores de preparación de la cama de siembra, sólo un 6% de productores sembraron en seco. El método de siembra más utilizado fue el de hileras en surcos (55%), al método por corrugaciones correspondió el 25% y a las melgas el 20% (Cuadro 3.1) Para el primer caso la distancia promedio entre surcos resultó de 76 cm y entre hileras de 21 cm, el número promedio de hileras en el surco fue de 3, lo que nos indica que el productor utiliza variantes de las recomendaciones técnicas', en este caso las distancias entre surcos y entre hileras están por debajo de las recomendadas y el número de hileras por encima del óptimo, lo que no permite un control de las malezas de forma eficiente a través de los cultivos mecánicos y pudiera ocasionar una reducción del rendimiento potencial.Cuadro 3.1 Distribución de agricultores de acuerdo al método de siembra utilizado. Existe una relación entre la elección del método de siembra y el tipo de suelo. la siembra en surcos fue llevada a cabo principalmente en suelos de barrial (72%) igual que la siembra en corrugaciones (52%), mientras que la siembra en melgas fue hecha en su mayor parte en suelos de aluvión (82%) como se muestra en el Cuadro 3.2 Para el primer tipo de suelos se requiere un mayor volumen de agua y la siembra en surcos permite un mejor manejo y ahorro del líquido Cuadro 3.2 Método de siembra utilizado de acuerdo al tipo de suelo (O,/¡l de agricultores). Para el ciclo 1993-94 el 66% de agricultores sembró dentro del período comprendido del 15 de noviembre al 15 de diciembre que es la fecha óptima recomendada, el 34 % restante sembró en fecha posterior, teniendo como fecha más tardía el 5 de enero. Las siembras tardías son función de las condiciones climatológicas en particular de la precipitación, ya que si hay presencia de lluvias durante dicho período las condiciones de alta humedad de los terrenos no permite la entrada de la maquinaria para llevar a cabo la siembra, en contraparte cuando no hay presencia de lluvias la demanda por el riego es muy alta lo que ocasiona retraso de las siembras. La mediana de la fecha de siembra correspondió al 10 de diciembre.Los resultados de la encuesta muestran que en general la cantidad de semilla requerida fue menor en la siembra en surcos que cuando se sembró en corrugaciones y melgas (Cuadro 3.3), el promedio general fue de 134 kglha. No obstante, las cantidades de semilla utilizadas fueron mayores en todos los casos, ya que las recomendaciones del CIRNü indican que la densidad de siembra en los métodos convencionales (corrugaciones y melgas) debe ser de 100-120 kg/ha y para las siembras en surcos de 50-60 kglha. En lo que se refiere a los suelos de aluvión la cantidad de semilla utilizada en el método de siembra en surcos también fue menor que la usada en los métodos tradicionales, y la diferencia significativa se dio entre el sistema en surcos y el de melgas (Cuadro 35) Cuadro 3.5 Cantidad de semilla utilizada en suelos de aluvión por método de siembra. Los resultados indican que la densidad de cultivo -entendida ésta como la cobertura de las plantas sobre el terreno-no está relacionada directamente con la cantidad de semilla sembrada, así tenemos que las densidades clasificadas como buenas se obtuvieron con menores volúmenes de semilla y por el contrario con cantidades mayores se obtuvieron majas densidades, éste último grupo difiere significativamente en cuanto a cantidad de semilla utilizada con los grupos de densidades buena y regular (Cuadro 3.6). De acuerdo con las observaciones agronómicas de campo que reportó personal que condujo la encuesta, el 87% de los agricultores que sembraron en hileras obtuvieron buena población, así como el 67% de los productores que sembraron en corrugaciones y un 56% de los que sembraron en melgas obtuvieron una buena densidad de cultivo (Cuadro 3 7) Cuadro 3.7 Densidad del cultivo obtenida en el cultivo de trigo. En los suelos de barrial la mayor parte de productores que sembraron en surcos (94%) obtuvieron una buena población de cultivo a diferencia de los que sembraron en corrugaciones quienes obtuvieron una buena población en el 64% de los casos y de las siembras en melgas de los cuales el 67% tuvieron una buena población, evidenciándose que se obtiene una mejor cobertura del área cultivada sembrando el trigo en hileras sobre el surco (Cuadro 39).Cuadro 3.9 Densidad del cultivo en suelos de barrial por método de siembra.Densidad del cultivo en suelos de barrial Buena Regular Mala Hileras Corrugaciones Melgas 93.9 63.6 66.7 6 1En suelos de aluvión el porcentaje de agricultores que obtuvo una buena densidad fue similar en las siembras en surcos (692) y corrugaciones (70%), en tanto que para las siembras en melgas el porcentaje fue menor (54%) (Cuadro 3 10) Cuadro 3.10 Densidad del cultivo en suelos de aluvión por método de siembra.Densidad Las variedades más utilizadas fueron Rayón (33%), Altar (28%), Aconchi ( 15%) YTepoca (11 %); en menor proporción y en orden decreciente las variedades Oasis, Cucurpe, Bacanora, Opata y Pápago las cuales en conjunto fueron usadas por el 13°/ó de los productores (Cuadro 3.12). Para este ciclo el 58% de los productores sembraron variedades de trigos harineros, el otro 42% establecieron variedades de trigos duros. El ciclo de las variedades utilizadas fue intermedio y tardío principalmente, con un 46% cada una de ellas, las variedades de ciclo precoz sólo fueron utilizadas por el 8~ó de los productores Los trigos duros corresponden principalmente a variedades de ciclo tardío (97%) y los harineros a variedades de ciclo intermedio (80%) Cabe señalar que el 61 % del total de los productores sembró más de una variedad de semilla de trigo, siendo 2 el promedio La semilla fue adquirida principalmente en las casas comerciales particulares (41%) y en la unión de crédito (24%), otras organizaciones de productores, además de PRONASE y agricultores que producen su propia semilla constituyen el 35% restante.Cuadro 3.12 Porcentaje de agricultores por variedad utilizada en el Valle del Yaqui. Se aplicaron 5.3 riegos en promedio entre los productores encuestados para este ciclo; la mayoría de agricultores deriva el agua a través de canales, la limpieza de éstos se hizo en promedio dos veces durante el ciclo de cultivo y la realizaron principalmente con métodos manuales (29%), mecánicos (22%), químicos (12%) Ycombinaciones de los tres; sólo un 2~/o de los agricultores utilizan el riego por bombeo. El método de riego más utilizado fue a través de surcos siguiéndole en importancia las melgas con un 79% y 18% respectivamente (Cuadro 3.13).Cuadro 3.13 Proporción de agricultores en relación al método de riego.Método de riego Num. de agricultores En suelos de barrial el promedio de número de riegos fue menor en las siembras realizadas en surcos; sin embargo, esta diferencia sólo fue significativa entre este método y el de melgas, lo que indicaría un uso menor de agua para el primer método (Cuadro 3.14) Cuadro 3.14 Número de riegos (promedio) en suelos de barrial por método de siembra.Num de agricultores . . Como se puede observar, el número de riegos con el método de siembra en surcos es igual en ambos tipos de suelo. Esto nos indicaría que se obtiene una reducción en la cantidad de agua utilizada para el riego en los suelos de barrial, que de hecho requieren de un volumen mayor del líquidoEl nivel promedio de aplicación de nitrógeno fue de 251 kg/ha en el Valle, aunque el rango de aplicación varió de 140 a 382 kg/ha Los métodos de aplicación del nitrógeno fueron inyección al suelo, líquido a través del agua de riego y aplicación de granulados en la plantación. El gas fue usado por un 84% de los productores, mientras que la urea resultó el fertilizante sólido más utilizado, con un 42%. La aplicación total de nitrógeno resultó mayor (aunque no de manera significativa) en las siembras convencionales; en promedio se aplicaron 24 kg más en las siembras por corrugaciones y 18 kg en las melgas, con respecto a las siembras en surcos (Cuadro 3 16).El 66% de los agricultores aplicó fósforo, la cantidad promedio por hectárea aplicada fue de 35 kg de P205 incluidos los productores que no aplicaron; sin embargo, el rango de aplicación fluctuó entre 20 y 156 kg/ha. Las principales fuentes del nutriente fueron el superfosfato de calcio triple y el fosfato diamónico (ambos con el 46% de P205) utilizados por el 39% del total de los productores, así como el fósforo liquido por el 14% de ellos. Respecto a los métodos de siembra no hubo diferencia significativa entre los convencionales y el de surcos en cuanto a la aplicación total de fósforo (Cuadro 3.17).Cuadro 3.16 Total de unidades de nitrógeno aplicadas por hectárea. La cantidad de nitrógeno aplicado se encuentra por arriba de la dosis recomendada por el CIRNO, ya que la mayor dosis de fertilización corresponde a los suelos de barnal profundo con 160 kg/ha (para suelos de barrial pedregoso y compactado 85 kg/ha y lIS kg/ha respectivamente), por lo que toca a suelos de aluvión ligero la dosis de fertilización recomendada es de 130 kg/ha y para suelos de aluvión pesado de 175 kg/ha.Cuadro 3.18 Total de unidades de N/ha aplicadas en suelos de barrial. A pesar de que el 32% de los productores tuvieron infestaciones de malezas de hoja angosta y un 22% de ellos con malezas de hoja ancha, se observa que no hay una generalización en el uso de agroquímicos para su control, habiendo hecho uso de éstos el 11~/o del total de agricultores para el primer caso, el 7% para el segundo y un 3% para el control de ambos tipos de maleza. Sin embargo, por otro lado tenemos que el 71 % de los encuestados realizó deshierbes manuales y un 38% realizó al menos un cultivo. En el caso de los jornales ocupados para el deshierbe manual resultó en promedio de 1.8 jornales/ha incluyendo a los que no llevaron a cabo dicha práctica, aunque el rango varió de 0.2 a 16 jornales/ha.Las infestaciones de maleza fueron más acentuadas en los suelos de aluvión ya que aquí los porcentajes de productores con este problema, fueron de 36% con maleza de hoja ancha y 42% con maleza de hoja angosta, contra 11% Y25% respectivamente en los suelos de barrial (Cuadro 3.23 y Cuadro 3.24) Las aplicaciones de herbicidas fueron hechas en ambos tIpOS de suelo en proporciones similares de productores. 21 % en suelos de barrial y 22% en suelos de aluvión.Se observa que en los métodos de siembra tradicionales el 38% de productores tuvieron infestaciones de maleza de hoja angosta y el 30% con maleza de hoja ancha, mientras que los que sembraron bajo hileras en surco tuvieron este tipo de problema en un 28% y 15%, respectivamente.Los campos sembrados con trigo se encuentran libres de malezas de hoja ancha en general cuando el cultivo en rotación es la soya (Cuadro 3 25)Cuadro 3.23 Nivel de infestación por malezas de hoja angosta según el tipo de suelo. Por lo que respecta a las infestaciones por malezas de hoja angosta que son las de mayor importancia en el Valle por la magnitud de daños que pueden causar, los porcentajes de infestación de este tipo de malezas cuando se realizan o no cultivos mecánicos son similares (Cuadro 326); en cuanto a deshierbes manuales se observó que cuando estos se realizaron se obtuvo una menor proporción de infestaciones fuertes que cuando no se llevaron a cabo (Cuadro 327); cuando se utilizaron herbicidas la proporción de infestaciones fuertes fue mayor y se obtuvo un porcentaje menor de campos libres de maleza (Cuadro 328) Estos resultados de la encuesta nos indicarían que los deshierbes manuales y los cultivos mecánicos son complementarios y se obtendrían mejores resultados en el control de este tipo de malezas combinando ambos métodos en comparación con la aplicación de herbicidas.Cuadro 3.26 Nivel de infestación por malezas de hoja angosta respecto a la realización de cultivos mecánicos. El uso de insecticidas en general es muy bajo debido a que la mayoría de las plagas que atacan al trigo en esta región se presentan de manera estacional, causando daños en los períodos en que se presentan; sin embargo, en condiciones normales el control biológico natural es suficiente para controlar a las plagas, principalmente los pulgones; debido a que en este ciclo no hubo presencia importante de plagas sólo el 2% de los agricultores realizaron alguna aplicaciónPor otro lado, las aplicaciones de fungicidas de hecho sólo las realizan en el valle los agricultores que producen grano para semilla, el control de enfermedades en general es preventivo a través del mejoramiento genético del cultivo De acuerdo con la encuesta, para el ciclo 93-94 no se detectó infestación del carbón parcial el cual a pesar de no ocasionar mermas en el rendimiento disminuye la calidad del grano originando descuentos en el precio pagado al productorLa paja resultante después de la cosecha del ciclo 1992-1993 fue quemada por el 95% de los agricultores, esta práctíca se encuentra muy arraigada, ya que al preguntárseles qué manejo le darían a la paja de este ciclo el 94% contestó que continuarían quemándola La mayoría de los informantes (75%) manifestó que lleva a cabo esta práctica debido al corto tiempo con que se cuenta para preparar el terreno y establecer el cultivo siguiente (ciclo primavera-verano).El 37% de los encuestados cuentan con combinada propia para llevar a cabo la cosecha del trigo, de acuerdo con lo anotado en el inciso anterior, una vez realizada la cosecha se procede a la quema de la paja o a su incorporación para establecer el cultivo siguiente que por lo general es la soya, como se puede observar en el porcentaje referente al cultivo previo (83%) que correspondió a esta leguminosa (Cuadro 3.29).Cuadro 3.29 Rotación del cultivo anterior (% de agricultores). Por lo que toca al rendimiento en grano, éste fue en promedio de 5,\"+66 kg/ha, la superficie cosechada correspondiente a dicho promedio fue de 2,149 ha, habiéndose obtenido una producción total neta de JJ ,968 ton. Aunque el rendimiento promedio esperado por el productor fue menor que el obtenido, éstos no difieren significativamente (Cuadro 330) esto debido a que el productor conoce las condiciones que enfrenta con un buen grado de aproximación. Respecto a los incentivos a la producción tenemos que el 99% de los agricultores recibieron bonificaciones en el cultivo del trigo bajo dos modalidades, apoyo directo (por peso específico) en efectivo por parte del gobierno estatal (81 %) Ypor calidad del grano (contenido de proteína) de parte de las industrias que compraron el producto (18%) El hecho de ser propietario de la maquinaria observa una tendencia a incrementar el rendimiento, ésto podría ser debido a que los propietarios de la maquinaria pueden hacer a tiempo las labores de cultivo para un mejor desarrollo de la planta; sin embargo, la diferencia no resulta significativa (Cuadro 3.32) Cuadro 3.32 Rendimiento obtenido en relación a la propiedad de la maquinaria. Por otro lado, la aplicación de fósforo tuvo un efecto positivo en el rendimiento ya que los rendimientos resultaron mayores comparados con los de los productores que no aplicaron este nutriente Cuadro 335). El rendimiento promedio fue mayor en las parcelas que estuvieron libres de malezas de hoja ancha, aunque la diferencia sólo resultó significativa entre estos predios y los que estuvieron infestados en grado medio por éste tipo de malezas, los terrenos con infestaciones leves no mostraron diferencias en rendimiento al compararlos con las otras dos categorías (Cuadro 3.36).Cuadro 3.36 Rendimientos obtenidos en relación al nivel de infestación por malezas de hoja ancha.Nivel Por otro lado, el rendimiento obtenido dentro de la superficie ejidal es menor que el obtenido en la pequeña propiedad y en la superficie rentada, aunque una diferencia significativa sólo se da entre los dos primeros grupos (Cuadro 3.39). Los mayores rendimientos logrados por los propietarios se deban probablemente a que la mayor proporción de este tipo de productores se ubican en suelos de barrial profundo, en este tipo de suelos es donde se obtienen mayores rendimientos~sin embargo, otros factores pueden estar influyendo en la diferencia en rendimientos, entre estos factores se cuentan. los recursos financieros, ya que una buena parte de ejidatarios trabaja con BANRURAL y esta institución ha reducido sus cuotas de crédito por lo que los productores han adecuado sus prácticas de cultivo a dichas cuotas, el otro factor puede ser la menor disponibilidad de maquinaria por parte de los ejidatarios para llevar a cabo las labores de cultivo a tiempo; esta situación se puede inferir porque la distribución de suelos es similar a la de los arrendatarios, pero estos últimos obtienen mayores rendimientos. 4.De acuerdo con las relaciones encontradas en la sección anterior se elaboró una función de rendimiento utilizando la técnica de la regresión lineal múltiple y el método stepwise, al considerar las variables agronómicas tales como los niveles de infestación por malezas de hoja ancha y angosta, el tipo de trigo sembrado, las cantidades de nitrógeno y de fósforo utilizados, el período de siembra, la densidad del cultivo, el número de riegos, los problemas de salinidad y el control de malezas entre otras, se obtuvo la siguiente ecuación Cuadro 4. Los números entre paréntesis son los valores t calculados **, *** indican una diferencia significativa a los niveles de 0.05 y 0.01 respectivamente MALEZA = infestación por malezas de hoja ancha y angosta (libre a leve = 0, medio a fuerte= 1) CONTMLZ = control de maleza (no controla = 0, controla = 1) DENSITY2 = variable dummy para densidad del cultivo (buena y regular = 0, mala = 1) DTPL2 = período de siembra (fuera = O, óptimo = 1) P = total de unidades de fósforo por hectárea La ecuación anterior muestra que el rendimiento disminuye con la presencia de malezas de hoja ancha y angosta, el coeficiente obtenido coincide con la experiencia de los productores, quienes consideran que las pérdidas de grano por infestaciones de malezas pueden llegar hasta 500kg/ha En contraparte al realizar el control de malezas a través de deshierbes manuales, cultivos, aplicación de herbicidas o combinaciones de estos métodos tiene un efecto positIvo en el rendimiento, cabe señalar que las prácticas de control que se llevan a cabo con mayor frecuencia son los deshierbes manuales y los cultivos.El hecho de que aparezcan las variables infestación de malezas y el control de malezas en el modelo es debido a que a pesar de que se había realizado control de malezas al momento de levantar la encuesta, se reportaban en ese momento infestaciones por generaciones posteriores de malas hierbas que también tienen efecto sobre el rendimiento Cuando la densidad del cultivo (cobertura de plantas en el terreno) que se obtiene es mala el rendimiento se ve afectado en forma negativa, en general el agricultor tiende a prevenir esta situación usando altas cantidades de semilla en la siembra; sin embargo, información agronómica indica que una mayor cantidad de semilla puede originar menor ahijamiento en la planta y por lo tanto menos población, así como un sistema radicular poco profundo que puede causar acame del cultivo con la presencia de vientos fuertes en los períodos de riego, siendo causantes ambos factores de pérdidas en el rendimiento.Los factores de la densidad del cultivo mencionados se confirman con el coeficiente obtenido para el período de siembra, como se observa en el Cuadro 4.1 resulta importante dentro del rendimiento la fecha de siembra, ya que cuando ésta se realiza dentro del penado óptimo recomendado se obtienen incrementos en el rendimiento, esto de acuerdo a resultados de investigación agronómica es debido a que en el período marcado como óptimo se obtiene en el cultivo del trigo un mayor porcentaje de amacollamiento por lo que el resultado es un mayor número de espigas y grano y por lo tanto un incremento en el rendimiento. La fertilización con fósforo resulta importante ya que la dosis promedio de 35 kg/ha que aplicaron los productores encuestados proporcionaría un incremento de 217 kg/ha en rendimiento; sin embargo, la dosis de aplicación del nutriente debe estar sustentada por un análisis de suelo ya que la metodología para determinar la cantidad de P20S por aplicar está bien definida e indica que tal cantidad debería ser de 9 kilogramos de P20S por cada kilogramo de P20S abajo de un valor crítico de 1SDe los factores agronómicos que influyen en el rendimiento, el control de malezas resultó el más significativo, de los componentes de dicho control, la realizacíón de cultivos es la variable que podemos explicar en función de las características del productor o de las prácticas culturales que realiza, así tenemos que el método de siembra en hileras resulta muy significativo e influye de manera positiva en la realización de los cultivos, ya que esta práctica sólo puede realizarse en este tipo de siembras (Cuadro 4.2) Otro factor que influye de manera importante en la decisión de llevar a cabo los cultivos es el tipo de suelo, en este caso cuando el agricultor establece su cultivo en suelos de aluvión el efecto es negativo, es decir, disminuye la probabilidad de que el agricultor realice los cultivos mecánicos a que en este tipo de suelos se practican las siembras tradicionales con mayor frecuencia.Un efecto similar tiene el hecho de que el agricultor tenga que alquilar la maquinaria para llevar a cabo sus labores culturales, el no contar con maquinaria propia reduce la posibilidad de hacer los cultivos en los predios Por otro lado cuando el agricultor recibe el crédito por parte de la Banca Privada también la probabilidad de hacer los cultivos disminuye, esto debido a que esta institución acredita en mayor proporción siembras en suelos de barrial, en donde los problemas de malezas son menos acentuados y además se complementan los deshierbes manuales con los cultivos, por lo que a pesar de que en este tipo de suelos se practica en mayor proporción la siembra en surcos, se realizan menos cultivos.Signifi De acuerdo con Traxler y Byerlee (1993), la práctica de la siembra en surcos se ha incrementado en cuanto al número de agricultores que la practican a partir de 1980 Para elaborar una curva de adopción de la siembra en surcos se tomaron los datos propocionados por los agricultores encuestados que llevaron a cabo este tipo de siembra a través de la pregunta retrospectiva de los años que llevaban sembrando en surcos. La ecuación ajustada que se obtuvo fue la siguiente lag ((PtIlO-Pt)) = -4.0214+ 0.34089t donde Pt = Porcentaje de agricultores que sembraron en surcos en el año t l. O = Tope supuesto de adopción (100%) Se puede observar en la Figura 5.1 que los niveles de adopción en los primeros años, en especial a partir de 1984 se incrementaron de forma acelerada aun por encima de los niveles proyectados, para que a partir de 1990, este crecimiento se ubicara por debajo de la proyección debido quizá al retiro por parte del Estado de los servicios de asistencia técnica, hecho que desacelera el paso de la transferencia de tecnología hacía los productores; sin embargo, de acuerdo con la curva se estima un repunte en la adopción en los próxímos años, que pudíera ser mayor si se refuerzan los aspectos de divulgación y extensión. Factores que influyen en el proceso de adopción de la siembra en surcos De acuerdo con los resultados reportados en la tercera sección de este trabajo se encontró que el método de siembra está relacionado con el tipo de suelo, la propiedad de la maquinaria y la institución financiera, por Jo que se procedió a analizar si estos factores o caracteristicas del productor influyen en la adopción de la tecnología bajo estudio, es necesario mencionar que se incluyeron otras variables como la asistencia técnica y tenencia de la tierra (renta), la primera para analizar el efecto de la asistencia técnica en la adopción de la tecnología y la segunda porque mostró una mayor frecuencia en cuanto al uso de la siembra en surcos, habiendo resultado significativa una de ellas (agricultor con superficie rentada) Al desarrollar un modelo de regresión logística cuyos resultados se muestran en el Cuadro 6 1, los coeficientes obtenidos nos indican que dos factores fundamentales para la adopción de la siembra en surcos son el tipo de suelo de los terrenos del agricultor y si posee o no maquinaria.Cuando los predios del agricultor corresponden a suelos de barrial se incrementa la probabilidad de que siembre en hileras sobre el surco, este hecho puede estar relacionado a que este tipo de suelos permite una mejor formación y preservación de las camas de siembra que los suelos de aluvión, y al ahorro del agua de riego que se obtiene al utilizar la siembra en surcos por un mejor manejo y control de los riegos.De igual importancia resulta que el agricultor sea propietario de la maquinaria lo cual también influye de forma positiva en la decisión del método de siembra a utilizar por parte del productor, esto debido a que la siembra en surcos requiere de la disponibilidad en tiempo de la maquinaria, así como implementos adecuados para poder llevar a cabo la preparación del terreno y las prácticas culturales que implica la tecnología Otro factor que aumenta la probabilidad de adopción es si el agricultor es arrendatario, bajo estas condiciones el productor trata de reducir los costos en los campos que no son de su propiedad, de igual manera si renta en el ciclo subsecuente y la rotación es con soya, este hecho conlleva la reducción de labranza ya que bajo estas condiciones sólo se tiene que revestir el surco y sembrar nuevamente, lo cual implica una reducción de costos desde el punto de vista económico y la reducción de pasos de labranza desde una perspectiva de la conservación de suelos Cuando la institución financiera es la Unión de Crédito se tiene un efecto negativo, es decir, se reduce la probabilidad de adopción de la siembra en surcos; esto está ligado a que del total de agricultores encuestados que la institución acredita, alrededor de un 53% tienen sus campos en suelos de aluvión La asistencia técnica tiene un efecto positivo aunque reducido en la adopción de la tecnologia, esta mínima aportación se debe a que el servicio es entendido o utilizado la mayor parte de las veces como recomendaciones fitosanitarias 4 dejando de lado otro tipo de recomendaciones o difusión de innovaciones técnicas como es el caso que nos ocupa. Cuadro 6.1 Factores que influyen en la adopción de la siembrn en surcos.Signifi Por lo que respecta al promedio total de los costos de producción por hectárea, así como los ingresos por ventas y la utilidad neta para el total de productores encuestados, se presenta la información obtenida en el Cuadro 7 1, en los rubros de control de malezas, fertilizantes e insecticidas se incluye el costo del producto y su aplicación, además de los deshierbes para el primer caso; de manera específica el costo promedio del herbicida (incluyendo su aplicación) fue de N$ 44.64/ha y el de los deshierbes de N$ 36.29/ha; los gastos diversos son una estimación de las inversiones realizadas en permiso de siembra, análisis de suelo, costo de agua, seguro agrícola, servicios de asistencia técnica, intereses, seguro social, impuestos y cuotas varias. El flete que se anota es el correspondiente al del transporte de la cosecha para su comercialización. El precio del trigo fluctuó entre N$ 600 Y N$ 660 por tonelada, dependiendo de las bonificaciones o descuentos aplicados, siendo de N$ 61745/ton el precio promedio recibido por el productor Del cuadro anterior se observa que la mayor proporción de los costos de producción (alrededor del 16%) provienen de las compras de fertilizante, seguidos de los gastos originados por la preparación del terreno que representan aproximadamente el 14% de los costos totales de producción; los gastos en el control de malezas y semilla representan el 3% y 9% respectivamente Sobre estos conceptos tiene influencia el método de siembra en surcos en cuanto a la redUCCIón en la intensidad de su uso, lo que implica la reducción de los costos de producción. Los gastos diversos incluyen varios conceptos, por lo que no se comparan 8.La tecnología de la siembra en surcos se empezó a difundir en 1980, presentándola como una alternativa para realizar un mejor control de las malezas y evitar pérdidas en rendimiento y calidad del grano, así como para reducir la aplicación de agroquímicos que contaminaban el ambiente En la actualidad los productores consideran a la tecnología como una alternativa que reduce los costos de producción. Es así que el uso de este método de siembra ha tenido un incremento a partir de su aparición como innovación tecnológica, por lo que con los datos obtenidos de la encuesta se hace un análisis de sus ventajas desde el punto de vista económico Al elaborar un presupuesto parcial por hectárea para comparar los costos de cada tecnología, se observa que la siembra en surcos ofrece una ventaja global en costo de N$ 71/ha respecto a las siembras en corrugaciones y de N$ 94/ha respecto a las melgas En el Cuadro 8 1 se presenta el presupuesto parcial con los costos de las labores e insumas que entre las tecnologías analizadas.Los costos de preparación del terreno son menores para preparar las melgas, estos costos se incrementan en los métodos de surcos y corrugaciones debido al trazado de los surcos en el terreno, los costos para los surcos son mayores N$ 32/ha que los costos de las melgas.La menor cantidad de semilla utilizada en las siembras de hileras sobre el surco se refleja en la reducción de los gastos por este insumo, ya que este monto es sensiblemente menor para este tipo de siembras respecto a los métodos convencionales, la diferencia con las melgas es de aproximadamente N$ 68/ha y con las corrugaciones de N$ 32/ha.La realización de cultivos mecánicos mostraría un incremento de los costos de producción al utilizar los surcos; sin embargo, al considerar este concepto agregado a los otros dos métodos de control (aplicación de herbicidas y deshierbes manuales) se observa que los gastos para controlar las malezas de hecho son iguales (N$ 95/ha)en las tres tecnologias de siembra, aunque se obtiene un mejor control en los surcos cuando se pueden combinar los métodos de control.Los gastos en fertilizante también son menores para el método de siembra en surcos debido a la menor cantidad de unidades de nitrógeno que se aplicaron en este tipo de siembras Los costos de fertilizante mayores correspondieron a las siembras en melgas (N$ 59/ha más altos que en surcos), las corrugaciones presentaron costos intermedios (N$ 34/ha mayores que en los surcos) A pesar de que no hay diferencias notables entre los tipos de siembra, los costos totales más bajos correspondieron a las siembras en surcos, fueron menores en alrededor de N$ t 09/ha en relación a la tecnología de melgas y en N$ 78/ha respecto a la de corrugaciones, esto debido al menor uso de la cantidad de semilla y de nitrógeno en el cultivo en los surcos, como se analizó arriba.El ingreso mayor lo obtuvieron los productores que sembraron en hileras sobre el surco, el hecho de obtener un rendimiento mayor tiene un efecto positivo para esta tecnología sobre las dos tecnologías de siembra convencionales, esta diferencia es más marcada al comparar los surcos con las melgas (el ingreso es alrededor de 15% mayor).La combinación de menores costos y mayores ingresos por ventas otorgan al metodo de siembra en surcos una utilidad neta mayor que los métodos de siembra en corrugaciones y melgas, esta utílidad es mayor en 14% y 53% respectivamente.Al desglosar el análisis por tipo de suelo (Cuadro 83) se observa que la tecnología de siembra en surcos resulta redituable tanto en Jos suelos de barrial como en los suelos de aluvión. En los suelos de barrial la utilidad neta obtenida en los surcos fue mayor que la correspondiente a las corrugaciones y las melgas (N$ 136/ha y N$ 655/ha respectivamente). Por otro lado aun en los suelos de aluvión en los cuales se lleva a cabo la mayor proporción de las siembras en melgas, la siembra en surcos resultó más redituable que los métodos en corrugaciones y melgas (N$ 73/ha y N$ 376/ha respectivamente).Cuadro 8.3 Ingreso neto de acuerdo al método de siembra y tipo de suelo (Nuevos pesoslha). El uso del método de siembra en surcos presenta ventajas respecto de los métodos convencionales de siembra, estas ventajas son más evidentes al compararlo con la siembra en melgas El potencial de la tecnología se presenta desde tres puntos de vista: el productivo, reducción de los costos de producción y la conservación del medio ambiente.Desde la perspectiva de la producción y de acuerdo al análisis de la encuesta, el rendimiento del cultivo de trigo en el Valle del Yaqui es influenciado por varios factores~los más significativos fueron la fecha de siembra, la aplicación de fósforo, la infestación por malezas y su control en los campos de cultivo, la densidad o cobertura del cultivo.Aunque el período óptimo de siembra se encuentra bien definido (del 15 de noviembre al 15 de diciembre), está supeditado a las condiciones meteorológicas ya la disponibilidad del agua de riego. Una situación frecuente es la presencia de lluvias dentro de este período, lo que provoca excesiva humedad en el suelo y ocasiona la realización de la siembra en forma tardia debido a que se imposibilita la entrada al terreno de los implementos agrícolas Las siembras que se realizaron dentro de la fecha mencionada resultaron con mejores rendimientos.En cuanto la aplicación de fertilizantes en general, debe estar supeditada a la realización de un análisis de suelo. De acuerdo con la encuesta, las aplicaciones de fósforo tienen un impacto positivo en el rendimiento; sin embargo, esta aplicación la llevaron a cabo dos tercios de los productores encuestados, y sólo el 25% del total manifestaron contar con un análisis de suelo para el presente ciclo de cultivo (1993/94) La aplicación de nitrógeno no resultó releva_nte en cuanto a los rendimientos obtenidos. Cabe señalar que la preferencia por el uso de fertilizantes líquidos en el Valle del Yaqui es debido a que el manejo de fertilizantes sólidos como la urea, el superfosfato de calcio triple y el fosfato diamónico, entre otros, implica manejo de volúmenes más altos del insumo; además, es frecuente la maja calidad de los productos por excesiva compactación, lo que ocasiona pérdida de tiempo y gastos de manejo que incrementan los costos de producción.El control de malezas a través de labores como cultivos mecánicos y deshierbes manuales reduce sensiblemente los riesgos de daños causados por las malezas. Cuando no se llevó a cabo este control, las infestaciones se presentaron en grado fuerte, ocasionando una disminución significativa de los rendimientos.Una buena densidad de población se obtiene con la siembra de cantidades de semilla menores a las que actualmente están sembrando los productores, porque permite un mejor amacollamiento del trigo. Esto, aunado a la siembra en el período óptimo y una menor competencia por malezas, permite una buena cobertura de plantas en el terreno Resulta evidente el potencial de la metodología de siembra en hileras sobre el surco, ya que aquí se utilizó menos semilla que en los metodos convencionales. Aunque la diferencia sólo es significativa al comparar esta práctica con la siembra en melgas, la diferencia con las corrugaciones es menor (no significativa). Es necesario apuntar que los agricultores en general siembran altas cantidades de semilla con el fin de contrarrestar la competencia por malezas y obtener mayores rendimientos, o cuando se los exige el seguro agrícola debido a que han sembrado en fecha tardía.La tecnología de surcos permitió un mejor control de las malezas (mecánico y manual) No obstante que se tuvo en los surcos una proporción menor de infestaciones fuertes, existen ciertas restricciones para poder llevar a cabo de manera más eficiente el control de malas hierbas, entre otras, las adaptaciones que el agricultor hace a la tecnología en cuanto a la distancia entre surcos. Esta generalmente es menor a la recomendada. También altera el número de hileras y utiliza un número mayor Ninguna de estas dos modificaciones permite la entrada de implementos como la cultivadora entre las hileras.Fue en este tipo de siembras donde se aplicó una cantidad mayor de fósforo, aunque no resultó significativa la diferencia. La aplicación de nitrógeno no tuvo impacto en el rendimiento, aunque fue menor en los surcos (no significativamente) En general es alta para todas las tecnologías. La idea de que cuanto mayor es la cantidad de fertilizante que se aplica, mayores rendimientos se obtienen, ocasiona aplicaciones excesivas de los nutrientes sin que se cumplan los objetivos de obtener altos rendimientos. Como lo muestran los resultados de la encuesta, los rendimientos no variaron en forma significativa entre los productores que incrementaron las dosis de fertilización, los que las mantuvieron constantes y los que las disminuyeron en los últimos cinco años; de igual forma se obtuvo en la siembra en surcos una proporción mayor de predios con buena densidad de población.La incidencia de los factores descritos en las siembras hechas en surcos mostró ventajas que dieron como resultado un rendimiento por hectárea mayor que el de las tecnologias de corrugaciones y melgas, aunque la diferencia mayor (significativa) se dio entre los surcos y las melgas.Por lo que respecta a la conservación de los recursos, el uso de los surcos para la siembra del trigo se presenta principalmente en los suelós de barrial. Como ya se mencionó, este hecho puede estar relacionado con que las características fisicas de este tipo de suelo permiten una mejor formación y preservación de la cama de siembra, en contraste con los suelos de aluvión donde la cama de siembra se \"baja\" cuando se aplican los riegos De acuerdo con la información técnica disponible, los suelos de barrial requieren de un mayor volumen de agua de riego en comparación con los suelos de aluvión No obstante, el número de riegos aplicados fue significativamente menor en las siembras en hileras que cuando se hicieron de forma tradicional en los suelos de barrial, aunque resultó incluso el número de riegos igual que en los suelos de aluvión cuando se utilizaron las hileras Esto nos indica un ahorro del líquido por el mejoramiento de la eficiencia de la aplicación de los riegos en los suelos de barrialPor otro lado, en el Valle del Yaqui se ha hecho un uso indiscriminado de agroquímicos, como es el caso en varias regiones con agricultura comercial en México; sin embargo, en los últimos años, el costo de los agroquímicos en general y de los herbicidas en particular se ha incrementado notablemente. Por ello, los agricultores están tomando en consideración la alternativa de sembrar en surcos, pues esto les permitiría realizar el control mecánico y deshierbes manuales de menor costo que los productos químicos y su aplicación Con esta medida se lograria un uso más racional de los agroquímicos, cuyo uso irracional en la actualidad es considerado un problema de salud pública en la zona.Es importante señalar que desde la perspectiva de la conservación de los recursos, la tecnología de siembra en hileras sobre el surco presenta otros aspectos que todavía no han sido objeto de análisis detallado, como el aprovechamiento del surco para el siguiente cultivo en rotación. Generalmente el cultivo en rotación es la soya El agricultor elimina algunas labores como el rastreo al utilizar la siembra en surcos, ya que posterior a la cosecha del trigo el surco sólo se reviste y se utiliza nuevamente en el nuevo cultivo. Otro aspecto a considerar es el manejo de los residuos de la cosecha del trigo, los cuales son quemados como consecuencia del corto periodo que resulta entre la cosecha del trigo que puede extenderse hasta mayo En ese mes se siembra la soya, por lo que los productores prefieren la opción más rápida, que es la quema del rastrojo En virtud de lo anterior se hace necesaria la búsqueda de nuevas alternativas técnicas para el manejo de residuos y/o en su caso difundir las que ya se han generado.Los resultados de la encuesta muestran que los costos de producción son menores en los surcos por el ahorro en insumas como la semilla y el fertilizante. Estos en conjunto representan el 25% de los costos en general, como resultado de las cantidades menores de insumas aplicados en este tipo de siembras. El ahorro en estos insumas supera el incremento que se presenta en la preparación del terreno al sembrar en surcos. Por otro lado, aunque pareceria que habria un incremento a través de el uso de maquinaria y jornales para llevar a cabo el control de malezas en los surcos, esto no es así, ya que dicho control resultó con un costo igual que cuando se realiza la siembra con los métodos convencionales.La tecnología de surcos se lleva a cabo en mayor proporción en suelos de barrial y es aquí donde se obtienen también las mayores utilidades de estas siembras con las de melgas y corrugaciones; sin embargo, en los suelos de aluvión se presentaron ganancias atractivas para los productores. En ambos casos, las diferencias en utilidades netas son muy marcadas con respecto a las melgas. Por lo explicado aquí, podemos considerar que la tecnologia en cuestión es recomendable en la zona de cultivo de manera general. La actual situación económica de México hace atractiva esta tecnología desde la óptica del productor, pues le permitiría mejorar su ingreso al tiempo de reducir sus costos y obtener mayores rendimientos.Una vez analizados los factores productivos, de conservación de los recursos y factores económicos del método de siembra, se hace necesario analizar las condiciones o característícas del productor que están limitando o influyendo en la adopción de la tecnología Uno de los factores que tiene mayor influencia en la decisión de adoptar el método es el tipo de suelo en que siembra el agricultor Por las características ya señaladas, cuando el agricultor siembra en suelos de barrial, aumenta la probabilidad de sembrar en surcos.La posesión de maquinaria influye en tal decisión. Como ya se dijo, la implementación del método requiere de maquinaria adecuada y disponible, por lo que además de las acciones que desempeña el sector público en cuanto a generación de tecnología, también es necesaria la participación del sector privado, en este caso a través del diseño y fabricación de los implementos adecuados a un precio que esté al alcance del productor agrícola.Se encontró un efecto negativo en la adopción de los surcos cuando la institución habilitadora fue la Unión de Crédito. Se considera que esto se debe a la proporción de terrenos de aluvión que trabajan con este tipo de institución, y es en este tipo de suelos donde se siembra en surcos en menor proporción.Debido a los cambios de la legislación agraria en México se ha incrementado el número de arrendatarios en la región, que ahora representan poco más del 40% de la muestra. Cuando el productor pertenece a esta categoría de tenencia de la tierra, se incrementa la probabilidad de que éste sea un adoptador. Este hecho puede ser reacción a la reducción de costos que permite el método, así como a la reducción de labranza en los cultivos en rotación, lo que implica que el arrendatario trata de no realizar inversiones o mejoras en predios que no son de su propiedad En cuanto a la variable asistencia técnica, a pesar de que tiene un efecto positivo en la adopción, no resultó significativa en el modelo. Esto se considera un efecto relacionado con la nueva política hacia el sector, en particular el retiro por parte de la Secretaría de Agricultura y Recursos Hidr��ulicos (SARH) del servicio de asistencia técnica. A partir de 1990, el Gobierno Federal implementó la creación de despachos particulares para brindar el servicio, cobrándolo como cualquier servicio profesional Esta situación creó una disminución de la superficie bajo supervisión técnica debido a la reticencia del agricultor a pagar a los extensionistas, sobre todo en casos en los que los productores son nuevos dueños. Cabe destacar que actualmente la asistencia técnica es visualizada por el productor como asistencia fitosanitaria en su mayor parte, pues les hace exigible el Seguro Agrícola la recomendación escrita en este campo por parte de un técnico autorizado. Por esta razón, la mayor parte de los productores manifiestan que sí cuentan con asistencia técnica.Los factores descritos deterioraron el mecanismo establecido en años anteriores que permitía comunicar los resultados de la investigación a los agricultores por medio del servicio de extensión. Esta situación se puede relacionar con nuestra curva de adopción de tecnología, donde se observa de 1980 a 1989 una considerable expansión de la tecnología y a partir de 1990 el porcentaje acumulado de adoptadores se ubica por debajo del proyectado Los cambios mencionados en la política sectorial respecto a factores económicos y ambientales, lejos de relajarse, tenderán a establecerse Por eso se considera que la tecnología de la siembra en surcos tiene posibilidades de seguirse expandiendo debido a las ventajas de rentabilidad y de conservación de recursos como el agua y el medio ambiente como consecuencia de la reducción de la cantidad de agroquímicos aplicados Sin embargo, es importante la participación de los diferentes agentes que actúan en el campo para poder extender ésta y otras innovaciones que son generadas por los centros de investigación También es fundamental la retrolimentación no sólo respecto a la adopción sino también a las adaptaciones que han hecho los agricultores a la tecnologia Esto se logrará en gran parte al restablecerse el enlace entre los agricultores y los centros de investigación mediante mecanismos que refuerzen la acción de los programas de asistencia técnica.Los mecanismos mencionados pueden estar dirigidos a asegurar tanto el pago a los extensionistas como el acceso de la mayor parte de los productores a este tipo de servicio a través de apoyos económicos por parte de los productores y de los diferentes niveles de Gobierno; el nivel comercial de la agricultura en la zona requiere de este tipo de esquema","tokenCount":"10257"}

data/part_3/0060323221.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"22e9840e214f9b79dbecd177b3737c47","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/766c9872-260a-4149-a221-0f59c194871f/retrieve","id":"103539621"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"7158c78f-735e-47e8-b8b9-6ba82f18c967","pagecount":"26","content":"This was the first training that involved farmers , extensionofficers and researchers. During the training farmers were given the opportunity to contribute because of their knowledge and experience with problems in their production systams.Lushoto district covers the western part of Tanzania's north-eastern Usambara mountains in Tanga region.The altitude for Lushoto ranges from 400 to 2200 metres aboye sea level, with undulating high slopes whose valley bolloms are at the lower altitude. The district is characterised by steep hillsides and high human population density. The soils are highly eroded and poor in plant nutrients. Farmers own small farm plots (0.2 -O.4ha) and beans are one of the major legume food and cash crops that most farmers (particularly the rural women) grow. These farmers grow a variety 01 crops including temperate fruits , Irish potatoes, wheat, maize, beans, different vegetables, tea, coffee, bananas, sweet potato, cassava, ri ce, collon and sisal.      Adult bean stem maggot is a small . black tly with clear wings that retlect metallic blue in bright sunlight. The wings do not fold over but form a 'V' shape when the fly is settled. There are two common species of beanfly.Ophiomyia phaseoli and O. spencerella . The two species can be differentiated by the colour of the pupa. o. Random sampling: There is no fixed approach or prolocol Ihal is suilable for all crops and field slze or shape.However, for guidance, a farmer could Iry one of Ihe following and selecl Ihe mosl suilable scouling palhway for his field or crop. ","tokenCount":"252"}

data/part_3/0074091228.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"6da4bdc4c144f1141b00986dc1352991","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3545f1ad-5f6d-4b14-9cf0-c3c433e0686c/content","id":"-774327349"},"keywords":["polyploidy","synthetic hexaploid wheat","diploidization","additive variance","heritability"],"sieverID":"adaf8df0-e70c-4dc9-81aa-9ee0d4c88028","pagecount":"10","content":"Whole genome duplication (WGD) is an evolutionary phenomenon, which causes significant changes to genomic structure and trait architecture. In recent years, a number of studies decomposed the additive genetic variance explained by different sets of variants. However, they investigated diploid populations only and none of the studies examined any polyploid organism. In this research, we extended the application of this approach to polyploids, to differentiate the additive variance explained by the three subgenomes and seven sets of homoeologous chromosomes in synthetic allohexaploid wheat (SHW) to gain a better understanding of trait evolution after WGD. Our SHW population was generated by crossing improved durum parents (Triticum turgidum; 2n = 4x = 28, AABB subgenomes) with the progenitor species Aegilops tauschii (syn Ae. squarrosa, T. tauschii; 2n = 2x = 14, DD subgenome). The population was phenotyped for 10 fungal/nematode resistance traits as well as two abiotic stresses. We showed that the wild D subgenome dominated the additive effect and this dominance affected the A more than the B subgenome. We provide evidence that this dominance was not inflated by population structure, relatedness among individuals or by longer linkage disequilibrium blocks observed in the D subgenome within the population used for this study. The cumulative size of the three homoeologs of the seven chromosomal groups showed a weak but significant positive correlation with their cumulative explained additive variance. Furthermore, an average of 69% for each chromosomal group's cumulative additive variance came from one homoeolog that had the highest explained variance within the group across all 12 traits. We hypothesize that structural and functional changes during diploidization may explain chromosomal group relations as allopolyploids keep balanced dosage for many genes. Our results contribute to a better understanding of trait evolution mechanisms in polyploidy, which will facilitate the effective utilization of wheat wild relatives in breeding.Polyploidization, whole genome duplication (WGD), is a natural process in which a single genome can be duplicated to form autopolyploids with more than two homologs for each chromosome, or multiple genomes are duplicated following hybridization between two or more species to form allopolyploids with multiple pairs of homologs derived from different ancestral genomes, termed homoeologs. Following WGD, multiple copies of duplicated genes may be lost, diverge in function, or silenced through a phenomenon called \"diploidization\" in which balanced dosages for many genes can be retrieved (Ohno, 1970;Lynch and Conery, 2000;Tate et al., 2009;Conant et al., 2014). Rapid genomic rearrangements and epigenetic changes have been observed directly after WGD (Ozkan et al., 2001;Shaked et al., 2001;Kashkush et al., 2002;Hegarty et al., 2008) which can cause changes in the architecture of different traits (Weiss-Schneeweiss et al., 2013).WGD can be induced in laboratories to generate new taxa such as triticale (Stace, 1987), or to introduce new variation into known taxa such as bread wheat (Triticum aestivum, 2n = 6x = 42, AABBDD) which suffered a severe genetic bottleneck during its origin (Yang et al., 2009). Synthetic hexaploid wheat (SHW) can be generated by crossing Triticum turgidum (2n = 4x = 28, AABB) with Aegilops tauschii (2n = 2x = 14, DD), mimicking the natural evolutionary origin of bread wheat. SHW germplasm is a proven source of genetic diversity to improve yield (Gororo et al., 2002;Dreccer et al., 2007;Ogbonnaya et al., 2007Ogbonnaya et al., , 2013)), soil-borne pathogen (Mulki et al., 2013), insect (El-Bouhssini et al., 2013;Joukhadar et al., 2013), and fungal disease resistance (Zegeye et al., 2014;Jighly et al., 2016), as well as boron (Emebiri and Ogbonnaya, 2015) and salinity tolerance (Dreccer et al., 2004;Ogbonnaya et al., 2008a). However, it remains uncertain how the three subgenomes (A, B, and D) of bread wheat contribute to observed phenotypes or whether the wild Aegilops parent makes a considerable contribution to the additive genetic variance for different traits especially when crossed with an improved or elite durum wheat parent. This can be investigated by partitioning the total additive trait variance into different chromosomes in a SHW population.Recently, a number of studies partitioned the additive variance of different traits captured by multiple sets of markers in both human and animal quantitative genetics studies. Applications varied from differentiating the variance captured by different chromosomes (Robinson et al., 2013), genotyped, and imputed variants (Lee et al., 2012), genic, and intergenic variants (Yang et al., 2011b), different SNP chips (Chen et al., 2014), to differentiating the variance of common and rare variants (Lee et al., 2013;Yang et al., 2015). In general, almost all studies reported a medium to high correlation between chromosome size and its explained additive variance for the studied traits. Yet, this approach has not been applied to any plant population, particularly among polyploid species such as wheat, where considerable efforts have gone into exploiting valuable sources of new genes from its progenitor species for cultivated wheat improvement (Ogbonnaya et al., 2013). Applying this approach to allopolyploids can provide a better understanding and a new way for differentiating the additive effects captured by different subgenomes.In this research, we used a SHW population to investigate the contribution of each subgenome to trait variation. The SHW population was derived from crosses between wild Ae. tauschii parents and improved durum cultivars and was phenotyped for resistance to 10 different diseases and tolerance to two abiotic stresses. The same dataset was previously characterized in multiple genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for major genes associated with these different stresses (Mulki et al., 2013;Emebiri and Ogbonnaya, 2015;Jighly et al., 2016). However, the GWAS approach does not adequately provide the precise contribution of each chromosome/subgenome to the total heritability as genes identified through GWAS represent only a small proportion of the total heritability (Goldstein, 2009;Yang et al., 2017). Such information is critical to understanding trait evolution in newly synthesized allopolyploids and to efficiently utilize wild relatives in wheat breeding. In the present paper, we investigated this by partitioning the additive variance into each of the 21 SHW chromosomes. The relation between partitioned additive variance and chromosome, subgenome and chromosomal group size was also investigated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to use this approach in polyploid or plant populations.The SHW population consists of 173 crosses between different A. tauschii accessions and elite durum cultivars (Table S1).The population was genotyped with DArTSeq-a genotyping by sequencing, (GBS) approach, developed by Diversity Array Technology, DArT, http://www.diversityarrays.com/. The full method is described in Sehgal et al. (2015). In brief, restriction enzymes were used first to reduce the complexity of the wheat genome and the Pst1-RE adapters were tagged with 96 barcodes. This strategy allows for multiplexing 96 samples in a single Illumina HiSeq2500 lane to generate around 0.5 million of 77 bp reads per sample. The generated FASTQ files were trimmed at Phred score 30 and further filtering steps and SNP calling were conducted using designed scripts developed by DArT P/L. Only SNPs with <20% missing data and >5% minor allele frequency were used in subsequent analyses. The SNP dataset used for the current study was previously published as a supplement in Jighly et al. (2016).The SHW population was phenotyped for aluminum (Al) and boron (Br) tolerance, stem (Sr), yellow (Yr) and leaf (Lr) rusts, crown rot (Cr), yellow leaf spot (YLS), septoria nodorum leaf blotch (SNL) and septoria nodorum glume blotch (SNG), root lesion nematodes [Pratylenchus neglectus (Pn) and Pratylenchus thornei (Pt)] and cereal cyst nematode (CCN) resistance. Experimental details were previously described in (Ogbonnaya et al., 2008b;Emebiri and Ogbonnaya, 2015;Jighly et al., 2016). Briefly, the germplasm was screened in three replicates for the three rust diseases under field conditions. The most commercially important fungal pathotypes used for infection were 104-1,2,3,(6), (7), 11, 13 (accession number 200347) for Lr; 98-1,2,3,5,6 (accession number 781219) for Sr; and 134 E16A (021510) for Yr. Four different isolates (WAC 4302,WAC 4305,WAC 4306,and WAC 4309) were used in four replicates under greenhouse conditions for SNG and SNL. YLS was also screened in a controlled environment against isolates 03-0148, 03-0152, and 03-0053. For CCN, plants were considered resistant if they had less than five cysts per plant root while plants were considered susceptible if they had more than 30 cysts. Plants with 5-30 cysts were considered moderately resistant to moderately susceptible. The severity of Pn and the number of Pt nematodes per plant were used to infer the score of resistance by comparing the plant response to resistant and susceptible checks. Br tolerance was phenotyped by measuring root growth at the seedling stage on a filter paper soaked with boron while Al tolerance was measured using the hematoxylin staining of root apices method (Raman et al., 2010).We estimated 21 genetic relatedness matrices (GRMs) from SNPs located on each one of the SHW chromosomes following the method described in (Yang et al., 2010(Yang et al., , 2011a)). The variance explained by each chromosome was estimated using the genomic-relatedness-based restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) analysis by fitting all 21 GRMs simultaneously in the mixed linear model (Lee et al., 2012;Lee and van der Werf, 2016):Where y is a vector of phenotypes, n is the number of chromosomes (21 in our case), β is a vector of fixed effects, X is an incidence matrix that relates individuals to fixed effects and ε is a vector of random errors. g i is a vector of random additive genetic effect attribute to chromosome i. The variance structure of phenotype is equal to:Where A i is the GRM for chromosome i, σ 2 g i is the additive genetic variance captured by SNPs on chromosome i, I is an identity matrix and σ 2 e is the error variance. We ran the analysis twice, with and without including the first 10 principal components (PCs) as fixed effects. Including a number of PCs in the model can control for population structure in the germplasm; thus, the effect of population structure will be minimal if the model that fits PCs revealed similar results to the model that does not include PCs (Lee et al., 2012). The first 10 PCs were calculated using PLINK 1.9 (http://www. cog-genomics.org/plink/1.9/). To further investigate the effect of the correlation between different chromosomes due to shared structure among chromosomes (Lee et al., 2012;Yang et al., 2017), we calculated the conditional effect for each one based on the other 20 chromosomes. This was done by fitting 21 different models that each excluded one different GRM from the joint analysis. If the SNPs located on the excluded chromosome were correlated with SNPs on the other 20 chromosomes, the conditional effect analysis will overestimate the additive variance for the 20 chromosomes. Subtracting the conditional additive variance from the overall additive variance inferred from the full model is equal to the proportion of additive variance of the excluded chromosome that is not correlated with other chromosomes. This value can be used to investigate dependency among chromosomes and to confirm differences among subgenomes.The D subgenome in our germplasm had very large LD blocks compared to the A and B subgenomes (Jighly et al., 2016) which may overestimate the heritability for the D subgenome (Speed et al., 2012). Thus, we repeated the analysis after randomly omitting 20% of the whole SNP dataset, omitting 20% of SNPs located on A and B subgenomes only, or omitting 50% of SNPs located on D subgenome. The three analyses showed similar results thus only results of the first analysis is presented in the present paper. The idea is that if we do not have enough SNP density to cover all LD blocks in both A and B subgenomes, omitting a considerable proportion of the SNPs will mask the variance captured by the deleted SNPs while keeping the D subgenome unaffected. Obtaining the same results from the original and the masked analyses suggests that each LD block is covered with adequate number of SNPs and as such, the majority of its variance can be captured with the available SNPs.Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to determine significant differences among the three subgenomes considering (1) the subgenome size as a covariate or (2) the chromosome size as a covariate. The fitted model for the first ANCOVA analysis was: Additive Effect ∼ subgenome + subgenome size. For the second analysis, we fitted the model twice, with and without including the interaction between chromosome size and subgenome. Thus, the models were: Additive Effect ∼ subgenome + chromosome size; and Additive Effect ∼ subgenome * chromosome size.For each trait, a Chi-square test was performed to test whether the actual additive variance explained by the three subgenomes lies within the expected range for their values. The genome size for A, B and D subgenomes is 5727, 6274, and 4945 Mb, respectively. Thus, the expected contribution for each subgenome to the additive variance was calculated as the proportion of the subgenome size to the whole genome size, which was 33.8, 37, and 29.2% for A, B, and D subgenomes, respectively.To further confirm that the differences among subgenomes are true and have not been inflated because of relatedness among individuals, we ran 100 replicates of the GREML analysis using randomly sampled phenotypes from the normal distribution N (0, 1). This analysis allows us to compare our findings to the null hypothesis given our data. True differences among subgenomes/chromosomal groups should be detected when using our empirical phenotypes and not simulated ones.Finally, the reliability of the GREML analysis was estimated by running a 100 replicates of the analysis in which we omitted one random individual for each replicate (reduced model). Pearson correlation coefficients between additive variances of both models (full and reduced) for all chromosomes across all traits were computed. The reliability was estimated as the square of the average Pearson correlation coefficient over the 100 replicates. The reliability was used to calculate the \"attenuated correlation\" for all our correlation analyses following Charles (2005) implemented in Fisher (2014). Calculating the attenuated correlation avoids overestimating the significance of the correlation analysis by adjusting its value according to the standard deviation of our additive variance estimation.The SHW dataset included 6,176 GBS based SNPs with missing data <20% and minor allele frequency >5%. The total heritability values ranged from 44.8 to 60.5% for resistance to Sr and SNG, respectively, (Table 1) with an average value of 50.4%. All estimated heritabilities were significantly higher than the heritability obtained under the null model with simulated phenotypes, which had an average of 22 and 95% confidence interval between 16.3 and 27.7%. However, it is worth noting that these values should be less than the actual heritabilities as they depend on the genotyped SNPs only (Manolio et al., 2009). The numbers presented in Table 1 represent the proportion of the total additive variance explained by each chromosome, which sum to 100 for each trait, in which negative values were recorded as zeroes (Plotted in Figure 1). The original estimations and their standard deviations can be found in Table S2. The average standard deviation across chromosomes and traits was equal   to 0.077 while the reliability of the GREML analysis given the standard deviation was equal to 0.45 (0.67 2 ). The considerably low reliability is a result of small population size and relatedness among individuals.For the 21 chromosomes across all traits, we found no correlation between chromosome sizes and their explained additive variance (Figure 1A; Table 2). However, for individual traits, only Sr resistance showed a significant correlation between all 21 chromosomes and their fractional contribution to the additive variance with p-value = 0.04 and r = 0.45 (Table 2; Figure S1). The median r value between chromosome size and fractional additive variance for all traits was equal to 0.005. When chromosomes within each subgenome were considered, only the additive variance explained by the B subgenome chromosomes showed a significant but weak correlation with chromosome size (p-value = 0.02 and r = 0.25; Figure 1A; Table 2). Neither the Sr correlation nor the B subgenome correlation were significant after adjusting them for attenuation following Charles (2005).A significant correlation was evident between the cumulative size for each chromosomal group and the fractional additive variance explained by the group with p-value = 0.01 and r = 0.27 (Figure 1B, Table 2). Removing two outliers (the contribution of group 4 for Cr and Pt resistance which are highlighted in yellow, Figure 1B) strengthened this correlation with p-value = 0.001 and r = 0.34. However, when correcting the correlation for attenuation, it was significant only after removing the two outliers with p-value = 0.037 and r = 0.23. A single chromosome with the highest contribution within each group can explain about 69% of the total group additive variance on average across all traits. The relationship between fractional additive variance and the chromosomal group cumulative size for individual traits had a median value of 0.43 (Table 2) and is plotted in Figure S2.The cumulative fractional additive variance significantly varied between the three subgenomes. The median values for the percentage of additive variance contributed by A, B, and D subgenomes were 23.7, 33, and 38.7%; respectively (Figure 1C). These values changed to 23.8, 31.8, and 41.3%, respectively, after omitting stem rust resistance, an outlier compared to other traits. ANCOVA analysis that considered the genome size as a covariate confirmed the significant differences among the three subgenomes across all 12 traits with p-values = 0.01. This was the only significant component in the model. The ANCOVA analysis that considered the size of chromosomes as a covariate had a p-value of 0.006 (same value with and without including the interaction between genome and chromosome size in the model) which was the only significant component in both models.For individual traits, Chi-square tests showed significant differences between the actual and the expected subgenome contribution to all traits except for Br, Lr, and SNG. For Al, CCN, Cr, Pt, and Yr, only the contribution of the D subgenome was higher than expected, while the contributions of the B and D subgenomes were higher than expected for Pn, SNL, and YLS (Table 1). Br, Lr, and SNG resistances were not significantly different from the expected contribution, but the actual contribution of the D subgenome for all of them was slightly higher than expected (Table 1).Population structure, linkage disequilibrium, and relatedness among individuals did not have an effect on our results. The inclusion of the first 10 principal components as covariates in the model did not have a large effect on heritability estimates (data not shown) which means that population structure has minimal effect on the heritability estimations. Similarly, further analysis with a randomly chosen subset of SNPs did not affect the results either (Table S3), indicating that the extended linkage disequilibrium observed in the D subgenome in this population did not overestimate the contribution of the D subgenome. Furthermore, under the null hypothesis using simulated phenotypes, the cumulative additive variance was 0.0698 (±0.026), 0.0735 (±0.027) and 0.0766 (±0.029) for the A, B, and D subgenomes, respectively, indicating true differences among subgenomes observed with empirical phenotypes that are not affected by relatedness among individuals.Estimating the conditional effect for each chromosome based on the other 20 chromosomes showed considerable correlation among chromosomes (Table 3; Table S2). On average for all chromosomes across all traits, 46% of chromosome additive variance can be explained by other chromosomes. This value ranged from 20.6% for Yr resistance to 57.3% for Br tolerance (Inferred from Table 3). Interestingly, even for the conditional analysis after excluding correlated additive variances, our conclusion that the D genome had the highest contribution to the total heritability did not change with 22.3, 31.9, and 44.8% of the total additive variance attributed to the A, B, and D subgenomes, respectively. Removing Sr increased the D subgenome contribution to 45.7% and reduced the B subgenome contribution to 30.1%. The correlation among all 21 GRMs also support these results (Figure 2). All GRMs for the A and B subgenome chromosomes clustered together while GRMs for D subgenome chromosomes formed another cluster. Thus, the correlated additive variance can be explained by the same ancestor supporting the superiority of the D subgenome regardless of the low reliability of the GREML analysis.Decomposing additive genetic variance based on different set of SNPs has become a commonly used method in quantitative genetics in recent years (Yang et al., 2010(Yang et al., , 2011a(Yang et al., ,b, 2015;;Lee et al., 2012). Researchers usually remove related individuals to ensure that they are capturing SNP-based heritability only (Yang et al., 2017). Although this is possible in human genetics and some animal populations that have large effective population size, it is impossible to have such optimal populations containing distinctly related individuals in species such as bread wheat with extremely small effective population sizes (Joukhadar et al., 2017). For this reason, the heritability estimated with this method in populations of species such as bread wheat will be a mixture of SNP-based heritability from phenotypic correlation due to unrelated individuals and pedigree-based heritability from phenotypic correlation due to relatedness (Yang et al., 2017). One advantage of using related individuals is that the analysis requires smaller populations to obtain an acceptable standard error (SE), because SE is negatively correlated with the average relatedness among individuals. Yang et al. (2017) pointed out that the SE can be further decreased if rare SNPs are excluded from the analysis.Linkage disequilibrium (LD) can cause a huge bias for decomposing additive variance analysis as the variance estimation depends on the LD between the causal variant and the closest genotyped SNPs (Speed et al., 2012). The D subgenome in our population showed large LD blocks (Jighly et al., 2016) but this did not result in over estimating its contribution because there were sufficient SNPs to capture most additive variance in the A and B subgenomes (Table S3). This is not unexpected for populations with small effective population size like SHW. For example, randomly selecting 10K out of 354K SNPs reduced the captured additive variance by only 1% for different traits in chickens (Abdollahi-Arpanahi et al., 2014). Population structure also did not affect the estimation as the estimations were very similar to the model that involved the first 10 PCs as covariates (Lee et al., 2012), although considerable correlation between different chromosomes was observed in this germplasm (Table 3; Table S2). On the other hand, this correlation did not affect our conclusion that the D subgenome had a higher contribution to the total additive variance relative to the A and B subgenomes (Table 3; Table S2), and especially that GRMs of the D subgenome chromosomes were clustered together and were not correlated with any of the 14 GRMs of the A and B subgenome chromosomes (Figure 2). Almost all studies that have partitioned additive variance have shown a significant correlation exists between chromosome size and variance (e.g., Yang et al., 2011b;Lee et al., 2012;Robinson et al., 2013). In the present study using SHW, however, chromosome size was not correlated with explained additive variance for any trait, although a weak correlation was observed for chromosomes within the B subgenome. The significant correlation for Sr (Table 2) cannot be attributed to chromosome size directly, but rather to differences in size between D and B subgenomes, which explained 13.8 and 66.8% of the additive variance, respectively (Figure S1; Table 1). The previous two correlations became non-significant after correcting for attenuation.In contrast to what we found for all individual chromosomes, a significant but weak correlation was found between the cumulative sizes and cumulative additive variances for each chromosomal group (Figure 1B). In polyploids, the balanced dosage hypothesis, which involves gene loss, functional divergence and epigenetic changes in newly synthesized polyploids, has been widely discussed and has been proven for many gene families (Ohno, 1970;Lynch and Conery, 2000;Tate et al., 2009;Buggs et al., 2010Buggs et al., , 2012;;Xiong et al., 2011;Feldman and Levy, 2012;Conant et al., 2014;Dodsworth et al., 2016). We hypothesize that these structural and functional changes during diploidization keep a single functional copy for each gene in one homoeolog and thus, larger chromosomes may not necessarily have higher contribution to the additive variance if functional copies are not distributed equally in the three homoeologs. Instead, when considering the three homoeologs together, all genes will have functional copies. Thus, larger chromosomal groups may have higher contribution to the additive variance. This may explain the correlation between group size and effect. Another important finding is that one homoeolog can dominate the group additive effect within each chromosomal group with an average of 69% of the total group additive variance (Inferred from Table 1). Future research using larger populations should consider the relation between variance and chromosome size in both SHWs and their progenitors to further confirm this finding and to better understand underlying mechanisms that allow one homoeolog to dominate the group additive effect. Pont et al. (2013) showed that the D subgenome generally dominated the tetraploid A and B subgenomes in hexaploid wheat by analyzing synteny and conserved orthologous gene data. Our results also showed this for stress resistance traits and that the dominance effect of the D subgenome was greater with regard to the A than the B subgenome with the median percentage of additive variance across all traits for A subgenome being 23.7% (Figure 1C). However, this cannot be generalized for all traits. For instance, the A subgenome contributed 9.6% more than the D subgenome to Lr resistance, whereas the B subgenome dominated the A and D subgenomes for Sr resistance (Table 1). Lagudah et al. (1993) showed that transferring Sr and Lr resistance form Ae. tauschii to hexaploid wheat is partially or fully suppressed by unknown mechanisms while Kerber and Green (1980) reported a suppressor for A and B subgenome Sr resistance in chromosome 7D. Later studies have indicated that suppression of the resistance of one subgenome of bread wheat by the other subgenomes is affected by SHW parents and pathogen isolates (Kema et al., 1995;Badebo et al., 1997;Ogbonnaya et al., 2013). Thus, efficient implementation of SHW in breeding programs should combine superior chromosomes within each chromosomal group for each trait independently, although the general trend showed that the D subgenome had a higher contribution to the additive variance. Future research should investigate suppression mechanisms and whether the general D subgenome superior additive contribution is a result of suppressing A and B subgenomes resistance to different biotic and abiotic stresses. The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene. 2018.00027/full#supplementary-material  Table S1 | Pedigree and passport information for the SHW population.Table S2 | The first line for each chromosome contains information about the estimated additive variance for different traits and their standard deviations, between brackets, using the full model (the model that fits 21 GRMs). The second line for each chromosome is the heritability estimation using the conditional effect model (excluding the GRM of one chromosome). Values between brackets describes the additive variance inferred from the full model (the first row in the table) minus the conditional total additive variance. The second line is exactly the same as Table 3 in the paper but was repeated here for easier comparisons between the full and the conditional models.Table S3 | The additive variance for different traits and its partitioning (as percentage of the total heritability) into different chromosomes, chromosomal groups and subgenomes for subset of the whole data set that includes 80% of our SNPs.","tokenCount":"4519"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"472fb6e803a6f202ae623fee6b981b29","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/40cb74af-ff9e-41b1-ad16-e52bcac6eec9/retrieve","id":"-65235837"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"a862c36e-e01a-415d-b3b5-8759ff75b13a","pagecount":"7","content":"CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. CGIAR science is dedicated to transforming food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. Its research is carried out by 13 CGIAR Centers/Alliances in close collaboration with hundreds of partners, including national and regional research institutes, civil society organizations, academia, development organizations and the private sector. www.cgiar.orgWe would like to thank all funders who support this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund: www.cgiar.org/funders.The business incubation/acceleration of the pig agripreneurs program, started in 2023 in Uganda to address challenges regarding (a) market inefficiencies including weak linkages between pig farmers, pig aggregators and input and service providers (b) poor business practices by Artificial Insemination (AI) technicians/animal health service providers, and (c) limited networks to enable optimal business operations.With support from the CGIAR Sustainable Animal Productivity (SAPLING) Initiative, and the E4Impact foundation the business incubation/accelerator partner, the agripreneurs and farmer groups underwent a series of business trainings, coaching and mentorship sessions.By the end of 2023, 30 pig agripreneurs (15 pig aggregators and 15 AI service providers) in Masaka district had taken part in a series of business skilling trainings. As part of the light touch collective action awareness campaign intervention, a training was organized with 20 different pig farmer groups located in the sub-counties of Kyesiiga, Kyanamukaka, Buwunga and Masaka City. A total of 321 participants (177 females and 143 males) took part in the training. This has led to the streamlining of business processes and catalysed linkages between pig farmers and incubated pig agripreneurs producers.SAPLING identified E4Impact to empower pig agripreneurs involved in pig aggregation and artificial insemination (AI) businesses through a business incubation and mentorship intervention that is client-focused and delivers outcomes that strengthen linkages with farmers and other business development services. The selected provider, E4Impact is providing business incubation/acceleration for pig agripreneurs (pig aggregators and businesses involving pig AI) as well as a collective action-oriented sensitization effort to increase the awareness of pig farmers in the SAPLING project areas.Pig production provides income to more than 2 million Ugandan households. Pigs are mainly raised by small farmers; three-quarters of them are women. Uganda has the highest per capita pork consumption in East Africa, consuming an estimated 3.4 kilograms per person per year (FAO statistics). The demand for pork products is increasing and the number of pigs in Uganda is increasing rapidly -from 200,000 to 4.1 million pigs from 1980 to 2018 (UBOS, 2020). A decade of livestock-specific research and development  from the Livestock CRP and its academic, public and private sector partners is helping pig producers meet this need, but producers still face low productivity and low uptake of technology and best husbandry practices. There are market inefficiencies, poor business practices, weak linkages between pork value chain participants for optimal commercial operations, and low entrepreneurial skills and entrepreneurial capabilities among market participants.It is against this background that SAPLING in partnership with E4Impact launched a business incubation/acceleration of pig agripreneurs program in SAPLING Uganda. This program is associated with Work Package 4 of the SAPLING project, which aims to generate evidence about the institutional arrangements and technical approaches that are necessary to transition to more profitable, inclusive, and sustainable livestock chains of production.Through the business skilling program, most AI service providers who did not have any businesses running, have now developed and polished their business plans following the business model canvas (BMC). The business model canvas is a single-page template used to outline the goals and objectives of a business. As a strategic management tool, a BMC can help business owners and other stakeholders develop new business models or evaluate existing models. Several agripreneurs have appreciated the training elements.\"I have benefited from the training; I have learnt a lot. I now record all the transactions of the business. I have also learnt not to eat the capital of the business.\"Female AI service \"It has been good. It has changed our mindset. We added new knowledge. We are now doing things better.\"-Male AI service provider \"We have learnt how to handle customers and take proper business records. Even if it is 1 kilogram, I record it. I loved it so much. We have even started our association. All I need now is more capital.\"-Female AggregatorThe pig aggregators have streamlined their business processes better and created their own village savings and loans association (VSLA). They have drafted a constitution for the VSLA, and it is still under review by E4Impact for further guidance on the next steps.\"Initially, we did not know ourselves but we have now built business relations. We have even registered our organization. The training really opened our eyes. We hope to continue having more of these trainings as promised\" -The farmers in the trained farmer groups expressed gratitude for the links created between them and the pig agripreneurs (aggregators and AI technicians) within the pig value chain.• Organize subsequent boot camps/coaching and mentoring sessions for the pig agripreneurs.• Organize further sensitization meetings of pig farmer groups with a focus on piggery for business to catalyze demand for input and services from incubated agripreneurs.• Development of bankable agribusiness plans with agripreneurs that require financing and facilitating pitch presentation sessions with finance institutions.• Facilitate an online networking platform where the incubated input and service providers can share information even with the different farmer groups.","tokenCount":"885"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"69ea809a3accdde98b77c7916cd8d05c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/466c36d6-09d7-4bd3-8213-2bd2595b993f/retrieve","id":"1890381620"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"00723d52-9ebd-4442-bdd8-92718b75dbe0","pagecount":"12","content":"As we mark the second anniversary of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health, economic, and social disruptions associated with this global crisis continue to evolve. The impacts of the pandemic are prolonged and likely to endure for years to come. Poor, marginalized, and vulnerable groups have been disproportionately affected, with informal and migrant workers, refugees and displaced persons, and women and children particularly vulnerable and adversely impacted.The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the interrelationships between disease emergence and spread, different actors and segments of the agrifood system, and the multifaceted effects of the crisis. These complexities require policy responses grounded in solid evidence and supported by systemic research. Increased constraints on fiscal resources -in part a consequence of the continuing crisis -demand that such policies be informed, smart, and effective, contributing to agrifood system resilience and protecting the most vulnerable. Responses must be coordinated, linking health, environmental, social, and financial objectives, and their implementation should minimize unintended harms. In addition to emergency response measures such as income support programs, policies focused on the most vulnerable groups must target their basic needs, including sanitation and nutrition, to improve their ability to cope.Our previous book, COVID-19 & Global Food Security (Swinnen and McDermott 2020), focused on the multiple disruptions and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic during the first six months of 2020. Key messages demonstrated how fears of poor health and a global recession, movement control, and other health measures had major impacts on households, particularly on poor and vulnerable people. We also found that disruptions occurred across all sectors -health, economic, food, social programs, and education. However, food production, supply, and trade were relatively protected from shocks, as they were considered essential and production was concentrated in less population-dense areas. In this book, we focus on the lessons learned in the subsequent months that have direct implications for food security and food system resilience.Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, both the impacts of the crisis and responses to it have evolved substantially. As the timeline of major COVID-19 events and summary figures of cumulative cases and deaths illustrate, the pandemic is truly global in nature and carries a reported mortality rate of approximately 2 percent. However, these figures cannot demonstrate the dynamic nature of the pandemic, with its multiple waves and the emergence of new variants. These waves reflect the exponential nature of transmission as outbreaks shift to different regions and countries. The evolving nature of COVID-19 and lagging rates of vaccination have led to a recognition that the disease will persist, unlike the original SARS that was eliminated in 2003. The current expectation is that we will transition to endemic COVID-19, with ongoing waves and managed mortality and morbidity similar to influenza.In many countries, one of the major challenges of the evolving pandemic has been that control efforts are retroactively implemented in response to the exponential growth of infections and the deaths that lag two to three weeks behind. Even in many rich countries, health systems have struggled to monitor infections and SARS-CoV-2 variants and to proactively implement disease control measures. In lower-income countries, health systems are much weaker and can be overwhelmed by waves of COVID-19. The difficulty of confirming COVID-19 cases and deaths reflects these challenges. In general, deaths are the easiest health statistic to measure, but counting COVID-19-associated deaths has been complicated. Comparing COVID-19 reported deaths with all deaths in a specific time period is one way to enhance evidence on mortality. \"Excess\" deaths associated with COVID-19 are estimated to be approximately 3-4 times the reported number of COVID-19 deaths (Economist 2021). The largest discrepancies between total deaths and reported deaths come from South Asia and Africa. In South Asia, a very high-mortality wave of COVID-19 overwhelmed health systems in March and April 2021. In remote areas of Africa, confirmation of COVID-19 has been challenging and not all deaths are recorded. Despite underreporting, COVID-19 has been less impactful overall in much of Africa, probably due to younger and less-dense populations.The most extraordinary technical innovation for controlling COVID-19 has been the rapid production and deployment of several highly efficacious vaccines. Developed at an unprecedent speed, these vaccines provide the main opportunity for effectively managing COVID-19. Figure 1 shows vaccine coverage in different regions of the world over time. Achieving sufficient vaccination coverage for the global population is an enormous challenge of short-to medium-term (and perhaps long-term) scale. In late 2020 and early 2021, the supply and equitable distribution of vaccines to low-income countries was a major global problem. As of December 2021, more than 55 percent of the world's population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Israel has already started to provide a fourth dose of the vaccine, a step which many other developed countries are also considering. However, as vaccine supply to low-income countries improves in 2022 and 2023, longstanding challenges of distributing vaccines in communities with constrained cold chains and weak health systems, as well as strong vaccine hesitancy, will persist unless approaches and groups that have supported control measures for other infectious diseases, such as HIV, are mobilized.The COVID-19 pandemic has led to social and economic disruptions globally, involving multiple sectors in a manner that is unprecedented in recent times. As noted in our previous volume (Swinnen and McDermott 2020), global GDP initially experienced a dramatic decline that varied across regions. Despite that sharp contraction, the global economy expanded by an estimated 5.9 percent in 2021, based on steady but unequal vaccine coverage (World Bank 2021;IMF 2022). The global recovery remains uneven (Figure 2), with important medium-term implications. While economic output is forecast to exceed pre-pandemic medium-term projections in advanced economies, persistent output losses are anticipated for the emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) group due to slower vaccine rollouts and less robust policy support (IMF 2021). In many poorer countries, per capita income catch-up with advanced economies is expected to slow or even reverse as a result. The  While our previous book focused on the pandemic's many disruptions to food security during the first half of 2020, this book addresses lessons learned in the subsequent 18 months that carry significance for food security and food system resilience.Since the onset of COVID-19, researchers have rapidly gathered evidence and conducted analyses to determine the impacts of the pandemic and related policies. COVID-19 not only affected the world and the systems studied by IFPRI and colleagues but also the act of conducting research itself. Much of IFPRI's research relies on in-field scientific techniques such as household surveys and field experiments. Obviously these methods of data collection, measurement, and analysis have been constrained by the pandemic. Researchers have had to overcome significant barriers due to public health measures and the risk of infection, which inhibited data collection from in-person surveys and experiments especially.Researchers have adopted different methodologies for studying the impact of COVID-19 within these constraints, each with its own strengths and weaknesses (Swinnen and Vos 2021). First, a major source of insight has been scenario modeling. This method initially relied heavily on assumptions based on pre-pandemic experiences. Over time, more data have become available, and researchers have been able to improve their results by adjusting their strategies and assumptions. Second, information on policy actions and related data have been easier to collect for analysis than, for example, rural household-level data. For example, the IFPRI Food Trade Policy Tracker, which compiles data on COVID-related trade restrictions, has provided critical macroeconomic insights on food supply. A third approach has been the use of phone surveys to address limitations on researchers in collecting household-and firm-level data. These surveys could be conducted safely and in alignment with social Given these strengths and weaknesses, researchers have worked to improve their methodologies and to address specific limitations. Based on increasingly accurate insights and broader coverage of studies, and the combination of different methodologies, this research area has yielded a rich set of insights, on which we draw in this volume.In the first section on food security and poverty, we present country-level modeling analyses of food systems, poverty, and diets in 30 countries (Pauw and Thurlow). As we reflect on the last two years, we find that the experience of the pandemic provides many valuable lessons for food security and the transition to more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems. Some key findings are summarized here, based on the chapters in this book and other new studies.As was clearly documented in our earlier book -and has since been confirmed by a number of studies -COVID-19 has had significant negative impacts on food security and poverty. However, there is considerable variation among impacts on different social groups. The pandemic disproportionately affected disadvantaged groups such as women, low-skilled workers, and informal workers. The impacts of COVID-19 on income loss differed significantly between sectors and between rural and urban areas. There were more severe employment and income effects for non-agricultural sectors and urban households. However, as rural households are typically poorer than urban households, income loss posed a significant risk for the food security of these households as well. One study estimates the median increase in poverty rates to be between 8 and 9 percentage points, with substantial variation across countries. It suggests that about 65 percent of the increase in poverty has occurred in rural areas (Pauw, Smart, and Thurlow 2021).The level of disruption to supply chains and trade has varied significantly, depending on the nature of production processes as well as the degree of value chain modernization (Laborde, Martin, and Vos 2020;Ramsey et al. 2021). For example, labor intensity, farm size, and integration of supply chains were found to be critical to the resilience of the food supply (Laborde, Martin, and Vos 2020;Reardon and Vos 2021). Advice to avoid trade restrictions (Glauber et al. 2020) has largely been followed, which has helped to avoid the supply and price crises experienced in 2007-2009, but trade and market restrictions have adversely affected the food supply. Although global markets for staple crops were well stocked prior to COVID-19, trade restrictions and fears of rising prices negatively affected global prices for these foods as well as markets for perishable foods.Income loss and supply disruptions have also affected dietary choices, increasing global malnutrition (Headey et al. 2020). Low-income and lower-middle-income households have switched to cheaper and less nutritious foods and reduced their consumption of perishable foods, such as fruits and vegetables. In turn, these shifts have limited their dietary diversity and increased the risk of negative health consequences (Laborde, Martin, and Vos 2020;Ceballos, Hernández, and Paz 2021;Abate, de Brauw, and Hirvonen 2020). One study estimates that an additional 141 million individuals from low-and middle-income countries could not afford a healthy diet in 2020 as a result of COVID-19, and projected that an additional 95 million will not be able to afford it in 2021 amid a slow global economic recovery (Laborde et al. 2021). Limited testing and challenges in the attribution of the cause of death mean that the number of confirmed deaths may not be an accurate count of the true number of deaths from COVID-19. Moving forward: Smarter policies for food system resilience COVID-19 has starkly illustrated the trade-offs between saving lives and supporting livelihoods. Given that increasing food insecurity largely resulted from declines in income, social safety net policies and additional social protection measures should be used to help secure income and access to food. Evidence suggests that cash transfers have important benefits and can induce dietary changes toward more nutritious foods. Due to the limited availability of resources, targeted support is critical to guaranteeing those most in need will benefit. High-income countries and international organizations must provide financial support to poor countries to ensure they can provide adequate safety net programs to their populations.Disruptions caused by the pandemic have also highlighted the importance of supply chains. As COVID-19 continues to evolve, it is critical that agricultural inputs, food processing, and distribution are not interrupted and can continue with adequate health protocols in place. To protect access to food, incentives and support should be provided to ensure the smooth functioning of food transport and agricultural input markets. In addition, governments should avoid policies that cause further disruption, such as trade restrictions.The greatest policy successes have resulted from emergency response interventions that build on high-quality existing policies (McDermott, Resnick, and Naylor 2021), highlighting the potential role of existing supportive policy environments for food system resilience. Another major lesson has been the importance of implementing a whole-of-country response -with contributions from a range of public and private sector actors -to address the immediate impacts of the pandemic (see Pauw and Thurlow, in this book). This coordination of food system actors will likewise be needed to foster the resilience of food systems.The impacts of the pandemic are likely to be felt well into the future, particularly in places where access to health services and vaccination rates are low and new variants are emerging. The pandemic's prolonged and widespread persistence and the continuous evolution of globally important variants such as Delta and Omicron have exposed gaps in our understanding of how to manage longer-term pandemics. The hopeful earlier prediction of linear progress from emergency to recovery and then to resilience-building must be reconsidered. As one critical pivot, countries must address ongoing and emerging development challenges beyond COVID-19 as they seek to manage a transition from epidemic to endemic COVID.As the world begins to address the broader implications of the pandemic and its coexistence with other challenges -such as environment, climate change, inequity, and conflict -smarter policies and investments will be needed to steer the recovery toward a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive development path. The short-term environmental implications of the pandemic were initially positive and associated with decreased economic activity (OECD 2021). However, longer-term environmental implications of COVID-19 need further monitoring and assessment, as strong linkages exist between socioeconomic and natural systems (OECD 2021; European Environmental Agency 2021). Ensuring environmental health and sustainable development will be critical to minimize the emergence of new diseases and to protect people and economies.New ways of thinking and behavior will be required going forward. Smart, efficient, and cross-cutting policies that link health, environmental, social, and financial objectives and contribute to food system transformation are central to a revised approach to food system resilience. Food system transformation and resilience-building cannot be considered in isolation, but must instead intersect with policies that foster economic growth, debt sustainability, inclusiveness, gender mainstreaming, the health of humans and animals, and environmental protection. In recognizing the need for a more systemic approach to food systems, the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit provided meaningful opportunities for countries to make progress on transformation by applying lessons learned from COVID-19.Food system resilience must include efforts to prevent and reduce the impacts of future health, climate, and conflict shocks, among others, that can impact the functioning of food systems. Resilience requires the ability to adapt to the rapidly changing contexts within which food systems operate, including increasing urbanization, income changes, complex supply chains, and natural resource and equity constraints. Adaptive food system monitoring systems are also needed as part of the resilience-building pathway.Both state and non-state actors have a role in building food system resilience. Policies must therefore be inclusive of all actors by enabling and providing them with space to contribute to food system resilience and transformation. Governments need to develop efficient monitoring and response systems, taking advantage of the advances in digital and communication technologies, whose use has accelerated during the pandemic. These developments can enable them to quickly and effectively intervene when future shocks occur. Efforts must also be made to support the capacity of local actors to implement and benefit from such systems. Given the profound impacts of the pandemic on the poor and vulnerable (Kumar et al. 2021), we expect that funders will initially emphasize inclusive approaches to investing in human capabilities through the social development, health, and education sectors. These human capabilities will be critical investments in building future food system resilience.","tokenCount":"2661"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"2708473cca10b69175681ae1214c65fc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/815edd76-0aa3-4f9d-ac4d-a9e886ca77fc/retrieve","id":"-766304917"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"89ea5179-8583-4da1-abe4-95fe7eca5f4a","pagecount":"32","content":"Wan lucoo buk man wapwoyo kony me lim ki bot dul ma konyo dongo pur onyo International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) ma owok ki bot ki ii dul me Bioversity International. Wan bene wapwoyo jang tic ma neno lok me pit ( Nutrition Division) i gang kal me Yotkom me Uganda, pi tic me ngiyo coc man atika.Macalo lucoc wapwoyo yee me tic ki cal ma jang tic pa dul me USAID community connector project (Integrated nutrition and agriculture project 2014), ki pa lutic me SWICHI project ma ticgi omedo rwom me pit pa mege ki lutino I mwaka 2016 , medo ki Gang Kal me Yotkom i Uganda.Buk ma tidi me kwena man ki yubu ki gen ni bibedo ki adwogi madit pien pwonyo bitime ki i ot. Man aye diro ma ki tiyo kwede me kubu kin yo mapatpat i tute man. Pwony man ocung ikom tyen lok ma pire tek angwen; 1. Tim mapatpat me medo rwom me pit ki me pur.2. Yo mapatpat ma ki nyuto mupore me pit.3. Tic ki lim me wilo gin acama ki pit mupore.Dong tyen lok magi acel acel tye ki yo ma mite me timo jami ki kit ma myero kwo pa jo moni omyero oloke kwede kun lube ki gin ma dongo ma kicimo botgi i kwena kacel ki bene jami mogo ma myero gutim. Ngat ma telo pwonye man omyero onyut adwogi mabeco ma kwena magi kelo bot jo moni ma lok man makogi wek gubed ki kero me ketogi itic.Mite ni lador pwony mo aye otii kwede i yo me; 1. Laro lok i dul matino tino 2. Laro lok acel 3. Leyo tam i kin dano acel acel NEN NI: Kare ducu me cako laro lok ikom gin manyen, kong ki kipoyo wic ikom jami ma kiloko pire i laro lok mukato.Gin me aluba kore ki kore pi ngat ma telo pwonye: Me Acel:Kwanyo kit yo moni acel me timo jami pi guti acel ka ki medo ikom gin ma laro lok tye ikome.Me Aryo: Nyuto adwogi mabeco ma aa ki i keto kwena ma pire tek i tic ki kwano botgi kit ma myero gutim kwede jami.Me Adek: Penyo dul moni kace ngat mo ma i kingi dong tye ka timo jami i yo ma kit enno.Me Angwen: Penyo dano ma gitye ka timo jami kit moni ni me tito ki jo mukene ni kit ma gin tye ka timone kwede.Me Abic: Penyo dano ma gitye ka timo kit moni ni me nyuto adwogi mabeco ma gunongo ki ikom tim meno.Me Abicel: Yenyo ki bot dano ma pe ka timo kit mite pi tyen lok ma gengogi timo kitenno.Me Abiro: Cwalo kwena kacel ki gin ma myero kitim bot jo ma pud gipeke katimo kit ma mite kun ki medde ki nyutu adwogi mabeco ma aa ki ikom timo gin mamite.Coyo ma cego cego jami ducu ma ki pwonyo ikare moni.Me Abongwen: Penyo lumemba me cike ikom gin ma gibitimo pi oyot mapat inge pwony ki konyogi me coyo piny gin atima.Me Apar: Ngiyo odoco gin atima ma dano ocike me timo ka ki rwate i pwony ma lubu man.Adwogi ma Mite 1: Coo ki mon me paco moni gimoko kacel kit me tic ki jami me pur .Jo ma lok kemogi:• Atikane: Coo ki mon ma i paco moni• Jo ma juru dano: Luloc me kin paco ki ludito dini Kwena ma dongo:• Tam mo keken pire tek.Mon bene gitye ki tam mabeco me pur coo bene kumeno, kadi ilok ma mako yub me kelo lim ii ot.• Lumemba ducu me ot, mon ki coo, omyero gular lok ka gumok yub me pur ki jami apura.• Lumemba me ot ma gitiyo kacel mok meggi beco loyo pa jo ma pe gitimo kit meno.• Laro lok ikin lumemba me ot, miyo kare bot coo ki mon me tic kacel pi ber me paco moni.• Gwoke ki mato kongo arege mukato laco pien twero gengi laro lok me paco ma pire tek.• Dako, bed ki tek cwiny. Lar lok ki mii tam kacel ikom pur ki jami me apura pi kelo ribbe ii ot.• Lutela pa lwak ki ludito dini , wucuk cwing coo ki mon wek gular ki gutii kacel pi ribbo otgi.Adwogi madit: Kace coo ki mon ginywako tamgi ikom pur ki jami apura, ci rwom me ribbe i ot medde atika.Tim mapatpat ma medo rwom pit i dog ot Adwogi ma Mite 2: Dog odi aryo giromo byeko jami ma gimito ki bene keto lim muromo pi cam, gwoko yotkom ki pwonye.Dano ma lok kemogi:• Coo ki mon• Lutela me kin paco ki ludito dini Kwena ma dongo:• Lu ot moni myero guyub yub ma mako miti calo cam, yotkom ki pwonye me otgi kacel.• Lu ot moni omyero guket lim me wilo cam ma pe ki puru paco pi medo rwom me pit i ot.• Lu ot moni omyero guket lim mu romo me puru gin acama calo pot dek, nyig yen ki mukene me acama paco.• Gin gutii ki yo me pur mupore calo pito wit kodi ma cek mabub.• Lamemba me ot acel acel omyero onywak cinge i puru cam wek jami acama obed mu romo i ot.• Yubu yub kacel pi jami ma mite atika i ot calo cam, gwoko yotkom, pwonye ki yo me tic ki ngom matye pi puru cam mu romo , ma ikine obedo pot dek, nyig yen ki wit cam mogo calo muranga, ngor, pul me ot.• Nong tam mupore ikom pur ki bot lupur kacel ki lutic pa lwak ma i kin dano.Adwogi Madit: Ot ma yubu yub kacel twero bedo ki rwom kwo maber.Adwogi ma Mite 3: Coo, gimiwu kare madwong pi tic me paco ki gikonyo kor mon ki lutino Dano ma lok kemugi:• Coo ki Mon• Awobe ki Anyira• Lupwonye ki jo Oce Kwena ma dongo:• Coo kikome nyutu gwok megi ki konyo mongi ki lutinogi.• Coo ma ginywako cingi itic me ot cwingi tek, gin lugwok dok ki worogi bene. Gubedo lanen mupore bot lutinogi. Gin giweko mongi bedo ma toco wa ki teko mu romo me nywalo lutino ma komgi yot.• Uwek lutino gucak tiyo tic me ot ma nongo pud gitino ci gibi bedo lutic matek ikare me anyim.• Lupwonye, wucuk cwiny lutino me timo tic me ot ka gitye kabedo nono.• Coo wukony i tic me ot calo lwoko ki pito lutino.• Cit kacel ki dakoni ka nongo kony me yotkom.• Kony tic me tero gin apura me ot i cuk ka catone.• Mon, wunong yo me cuku cwiny cogwu me nywako cingi i tic me ot.• Mon omyero gunyut yomcwiny ka coggi tye ka nywako cingi i tic me ot ma pol kare pe gimaro timone.• Lutela ma coo wubed lanen mupore ki timo tic ot.Adwogi Madit: Kace ikonyo kor dakoni i timo tic me ot, ibibedo lacoo ma lamar, lagwok ki lagenneYo mapatpat me pit mupore Adwogi ma Mite 1: Lutino me dwe 0-6 ki pitogi ki cak kor KEKEN Dano ma lok kemogi:• Lunyodo ki lupidi pa lutino me dwe 0-6, mon ma guyac kacel ki lunyodogi • Pregnant women and their spouses • Mon ma guyac ki luotgi.• Ma peya dwe abicel oromo yii latin nongo pud pe otegi me jolo cam mukene. Mii latini cak kor keken.• Mege omyero gucak miyo lutino cak i caa mukwongo inge nywal. Man gido tunu wek cak ocak bino.• Dot konyo pen me poto oyot.• Cak kor gwoko lutino ki inongo two cado.• Me doto cak maber latin omyero obed agonya ma otenne ikom mine. Dok bene obed ma okemme maber ki tunu. Mite ni lunyodo gupeny kony ma niang kit me dot maber ki bot lukony kor lutic me yotkom ma gitye ikin lwak.• Cak kor keken aye tye ki moc cam ma latin mito ikare meno. Dok bene tye ki cam wa ki pii ma romo yengo latin maber pi dwe abicel me kwone.• Latin omyero kidot kadi bed nongo mine tamo ni cak tye manok onyo peke. Pien mede ki dot aye kelo cak.• Mege ma gidot omyero gucam mabub dok wite mapol nino ducu wek cak obin madwong• Mege omyero gumii lutinogi cak kor keken teki ki nywalogi ki bene gumede kwede wang ma latin oromo dwe 6, ka lacen cam mogo ma yom yom kibi cakone mot mot.Adwogi Madit: Mege giromo nongo kony ki bot lukony kor lutic me yotkom ma gitye ikin lwak ma guteere me nyutu ki gin yo me doto lutino mupore. Miyo cak kor KEKEN pi dwe abicel mukwongo konyo me weko latin dongo maber ma kome yot.Adwogi ma Mite 2: Ka dwe abicel oromo, cak miyo cam mupore ki latin ki bene mede ki dot. Dit pa camme, caa me miyone ki moce myero obed kit ma mite Dano ma lok kemogi: Mege, wege kacel ki lupidi pa lutino me dwe 6-24.• Pito lutino maber miyogi kare me bedo ki yotkom, dongo ki doko dano mupore.• I kine me dwe 6 ki 9 me tegi omyero ki pit latin ki cak kor mukwongo ka dong kicako pitogi ki cam ma yom yom ma moce dwong mubedo nyuka nyuka. Iromo medo odii pul i cam pa latin, ki cam mogo calo papayi onyo okono.• Lutino matino me kine dwe 9-24 mite ni kipitgi tyen adek onyo angwen nino acel me neno ni gunongo cam mu romo pien komgi nok.• Lutino mite ni gucam cam ma nok nok en ikine me cam tyen adek onyo angwen ni.• Lwoko cingi ma peya icako yubu onyo miyo cam ki latin gengo two cado.• Medde ki dot wang ma latin oromo dwe 24.Gin ma kitwero timo:• Yubu cam ma moce dwong pi latin me dwe 6 kun ki mede bene ki dot.• Mar kwo me lengo, tic ki coron ki lwoko cing pi gengo nyaa pa two calo cado.• Mar tim me lengo ikare me yubu cam pi lutino.Adwogi Madit: Miyo lutino cam ma moce dwong konyogi me dongo maber. Man weko latin cako cung, wot ki lok ikare mupore.Dano ma lok kemogi:• Atikane :Coo,mon ki lutino• Jo ma juru dano: lupwony dano ki lutic mapatpat ma ikin lwak.• Yub ngom ma romo puru jami me acama ki me acata .• Coo ducu ma komgi yot, mon ki lutino ma dongo ma i ot omyero gunen ni kipito cam, kidoyo ki dong ki kayo ikare ne ki kome.• Puru cam calo gwana, obato, layata, lapena ki okono, ma girii i poto olo pi kare mogo dwoko piny peko me cam manok.• Dog ot moni pud bene romo puru kwayi cam mapol i ngom ma tidi mo.Tye dano mogo ikin lwak ma giromo nyutu botwu yo me timone.• Wu lar lok lok ka wuwinye calo lu ot moni wek kinong ngom muromo me puru cam.• Wu pit wit cam ma weko jami bedo tye calo gwana, layata, okono, ma rii i poto pi kare mogo.• Tii ki ngom matye me pito jami acama ki gin ma kelo lim Adwogi Madit: Puru wit cam mapol i Paco konyo ot me bedo ki cam mupore ma weko gibedo ma komgi tek dok ki yotkom.Dano ma lok kemogi:• Lu ot moni ducuKwena ma dongo:• Puru kwayi cam mapol weko ot bedo ki moc cam mapatpat i camgi.• Ot myero gubed ki ngom me pito wit cam aryo ma ki maro camogi, pot dek ki nyig yadi.• Tim me puru jami mapatpat i poto acel weko ki bedo ki wit cam mapol i ot.• Pito gweni ki lee matino me paco konyo me medo moc ngom pi ceko cam mabub.• Pur poto me pot dek wek ot obed ki pot dek mu romo pi cam mupore.• Pit olo tyen papayi angwen, avocado, matunda ki okono wek okony ot me bedo ki cam ma mit, atikane pi lutino ki mon ma guyac.• Nyam lok ki lu ot meri pi weko ngom mu romo me pito cam ma ki maro camogi, pot dek ki nyig yen mapatpat.• Pit kwayi cam mapatpat ma gitye ki kony madit i ot.• Lim poto ka ma ki pwonyo iye dano wek ipwony kit me puru kwayi cam mapatpat.• Lim jirani meri ma pito cam mapatpat wek ipwony kit me pito wit cam mapol.Adwogi madit: Producing different foods at home helps the family to have balanced diet that helps them to tay strong and healthy.Dano ma lok kemogi: Jo me dog ot ducu Kwena ma dongo:• Cam kidek onyo ma kato i nino acel konyo lu ot moni me bedo ki tek kom, yotkom ki gengo gorokom ma adwogi me nok pa moc cam.• Leyo tic me ot i kin dano me ot acel konyo ngat ma tye ka yubu cam me tedo dek ma mit.• Timo tic mukene me ot ma iwoto ki pur bene, lwoko bongi, kun ineno ni dek pe owang.• Yubu gin ateda con konyo me tedo cam con kit ma mite.• Calo ot omyero wapoo wii ngat acel acel me cam olo kidek nino ducu, atikane lutino, mege ma gidot ki mon ma guyac.• Calo ot myero wayub anga ma bitedo cam ki nongo kare me tedo cam.• Wakonye i kinwa i tic me ot wek wabed ki kare muromo me tedo cam. Gwoko cam i gin mo maber onyo boyone i pot labolo.• Lyeto onyo muru cam ma peya ki camo.Adwogi Madit: Ot ma camo olo kidek nino ducu romo bedo ki tek kom, yotkom ki nongo two kicel kicel.Adwogi ma Mite 6: Nen ni kinongo cam mu romo ki ikom jami acama ma ki puru i ot.• Coo• Juru lwak: Lutale pa lwak ki ludito dini Kwena ma dongo:• Cato cam ataa weko cam ma mite bedo nok. Ka icato cam me ot, ci lacen ibiwilo cam odoco i wel ma kato.• Bed ki tim me coko cam ma mite pi ot ma romo oo wa i kac manyen. Kare ducu gwok cam ma mite i ot. Pe icat cam liweng.• Gwok lee matino calo gweni, dyegi, rommi,opego. Itwero cato magi ka lim mite, kawang cato cam ma mite me acama i ot.• Tii ki lim ma nonge i yo mukene ni me wilo cam ma medo yotkom calo lawanjiri, tongweno, rec, pi acama i ot. Cako gin atima mo ma kelo lim konyi me nongo lim me wilo cam ma mite.Gin ma kitwero timo:• Yub cam ma mite i ot naka wa i kare me kac manyen.• Ged ka ma ki gwoko iye cam me ot.Adwogi Madit: Kace itye ki cam ma ipuru ki komi, ci peko me nok cam pe diyo odi tutwal.Adwogi ma Mite 1: Ki gwoko cam me ot muromo pi mwaka kulu Dano ma lok kemogi:• Atikane: Dog ot• Juru lwak: Lwak kacel ki ludito dini Kwena ma dongo:• Kaa cam cut teki oromo akaya wek cam pe olanye.• Cam ma kikayo omyero kitwo maber ma peya ki gwoko.• Tye yo me mapol me kwaro me gwoko cam ma kitiyo kwede ikin lwak meri.Ikine obedo puyu kabedo ma kiyaro iye cam me atwoya ki lyero cam ki i dan ot jokon.• Kaa kal ki jami mukene ikarene kikome ka iwek otwoo maber ma peya i gwoko.• Gwok cam calo lawanyjiri, pul, ki pot dek me acama i ot ka wel cam omede.• Ged kagwoko cam mupore calo dero. Dok wek obed cok ki ot madit ma nongo itwero roto oyot pi gwoke ki anyai ki kwo cam.• Pit cam ma rii i poto calo gwana, okono, obato , layata ma konyi ki peko me gwok tutwal.Adwogi Madit: Kace igwoko cam ka ma opore calo ii dero, lu odi gibedo ki cam mu romoAdwogi ma Mite 3: Lumemba me ot man gitye ki paco maleng, gitiyo ki coron wa ki bur yugi.Jo me ot ducu medi iye lutino ma gikwano kacel ki lutela me kin paco.• Bedo ki coron kacel ki bur yugi ilo rwom me paco i dwe lwak.Obedo lanyut me bedo lumemba mupore i kin lwak.• Tii ki coron me bolo cet ki lac, yub lawum dog coron me gengo lwangi ki bol konye ducu, wa pa lutino i coron.• Wek paco obed maleng. Gwoko paco maleng weko ki wori i kin lwak.• Lutela pa lwak omyero guket nying paco ma gitye ki coron ki bur yugi lamal atika. Omyero gutii ki lanen man calo rwom me yero dano me bedo i tic mo keken ma lwak oyubu.• Ged ot coron olo obed mita 30 ki ot madit.• Kwiny bur yugi obed olo mita 10 ki ot madit.• Ket obed ma calo cik pi lwak me bedo ki coron ki bur yugi i paco meggi.• Lutela pa lwak omyero gulwong nying paco ma gitye ki coron ki bur yugi i kacoke me kin paco ki i yub pa lwak wek obed lanen mupore me aluba.Adwogi Madit: Kace lwak gugedo ki gutiyo ki coron wa ki bur yugi, gigengo two mapatpat ma cilo kelo Adwogi ma Mite 4: I ot ki camo cam mupore ki mato pii maleng Dano ma lok kemogi:• Mege, lutino ma dongo ki lu ot mukene Kwena ma dongo:• Camo cam ma ngwee onyo nen obale romo kelo two marac calo cam ma ki wolo.• Cam ma ki gwoko me acama lacen omyero obed i gin maleng ma ki wumo wiye.• Ma peya ki toko cam mudong, kong myero ki lyet pi neko kwidi ma kelo two.• Kace poto tye bor, ted cami ka icam ki i poto kunu ma pud lyet. Cam me ot bene ki romo tedone i odiko ka ki weko iwi keno wek obed ma lyet wa i kare me camone.• Ted pii amata owali onyo ket iye yat pii calo Aqua• Safe onyo Waterguard we gengo two calo cado. Pii amata ducu omyero ki ted ma owali pi neko kwidi mapatpat.• Gwok pii amata i gin maleng ki tii ki kikopo maleng me twomone. Man weko pii bedo maleng labongo kwidi ma kelo two.• Wum wii cam ma ki tedo ducu wa cam pa latin ki jami amata ne cal cak, nyuka, gin amata ducu ma pige ma kibiyu ki i nyig yen.• Mur cam mudong ducu ma peya icamo Adwogi Madit: Kace ilubu yo me gwoko cam ki lengo wa i pii me ot, ci ot bene gwoke ki ikom two mapatpatAdwogi ma Mite 6: Ter latini ka gwerone, ka lwoko kwidi ma ii iye ki medo moc cam i kome Dano ma lok kemogi:• Atikane: lunyodo/lupidi pa lutino me mwaka 5 odok piny• Juru lwak: Lutela pa lwak ki ludito dini, lukong kor lutic me yotkom ma gitiyo ikin dano.• Kony me agwera,lwoko ic ki medo moc cam ki timo me nono i ot yat pa gamente ki i Nino Yotkom Lutino.• Cinong karatac me gamo yat pa lutino, Child Health Card.• Jo ma gijuru lwak, calo konyo lunyodo onyo lupidi, lutic me yotkom ma gineno kit ma lutino dongo kwede, me neno ni latin ki gwero kit ma mite, kimedo moc cam ikome ki kilwoko kwidi ki ii iye.• Agwera gwoko latin ki i two calo aona owiyo, aona ma tungu lutino, two odec ki anyoo ma twero neko latin oyot atika.• Cito ka ma lutino nongo iye yat konyi me neno dongo pa latin kace peko mo tye wek ki mii kony mupore con.• Nong karatac pa latin me yotkom matye ki lok ducu ma mite ikom agwera, moc cam ki lwoko kwidi ki ii ic.• Cit i ot yot pa lutino wek inong kony me ma mako gwoko yotkom lutino.• Peny latic me yotkom onyo lapwony lutino i kin lwak ki lutela mukene i lok ma mako nino me yotkom lutino pi neno ni ibedo iye ki bene nongo kony ma ki miyo.Adwogi Madit: Kace itero latini me agwera, ka lwoko kwidi ki ii iye ki ki medo moc cam i kome ikare ma mite, itwero bedo ki latin ma tek wa ma kome yot dok ma bikwan maber. Ibigwoko lim ma konyo cobo miti mo ma pire tek.Adwogi ma Mite 7: Mon ma guyac gicito olo tyen angwen ka nongo pwonye ikom gin atima ki kit me kwo wek gunywal lutino ma komgi yot.Dano ma lok kemogi:• Mon yacu ki luotgi, lutic me yotkom.• Juru lwak: Lutela pa lwak ki ludito dini, lukong kor lutic me yotkom ma gitiyo ikin lwak.Kwena ma dongo:• Cito olo tyen angwen ka nongo pwonye con manongo yacu pud ocake acaka weko kimiyogi tam, lok ma mako kwo ki yacu meggi.Man konyo yotkom latin ki mine.• Coo ma gicuku cwiny mongi ki gilwokogi ka cito i pwonye me yacu gin lugwok atika ikom yotkom mongi ki lotinogi.• Cito i pwonye konyo me niang con peko me romo time i anyim me yacu.• Coo ma gikonyo mongi ma guyac ki tic ot gubedo lugwok matek.Man konyo mongi me bedo ma gitek ikare ducu me yacu.• Mon ma guyac ma gicamo jam mapol ma gitye ki moc cam ma patpat calo dodo,boo,rungi ,pot dek ki mukene pe gibedo ki peko me nok pa remo.• Mon ma guyac ma gibutu i tandarua onyo net ma yat tye ikome two malaria pe yelogi tutwal. Man bene konyo ki ikom peke me nok pa remo ki gwoko yotkom lutinogi.• Cak cito i pwonye me yacu teki inongo wek inong ngec me kwo ikare me yacu.• Coo ki lutino ma dongo myero gukony mon ma guyac ki tic ot ki me poto wek gunong kare muromo me yweyo.• Cam olo tyen angwen i nino acel , cam jami matino tino ikene pi nongo moc cam mapatpat ma mite i kom.Adwogi Madit: Kace mon ma guyac gunonongo pwonye, ginongo kare me yweyo, gicamo ki gimato jami ma kelo yotkom,ki gibutu i tandarua ma yat tye ikome, ci gibedo matek, ki yotkom wa ginywalo lutino ma komgi bene yot.Adwogi ma Mite 8: Lutino ma gitwo ki miyogi yat cut.• Lunyodo ki lupidi pa lutinon• Juru lwak: Lutela pa lwak ki ludito dini, lukony kor lutic me yotkom ma gitiyo ikin lwak.• Ter lutino ka nongo yat ki kony mukene oyot oyot ma peya two omedde.Tii ki giwot ma twero konyo me aruya.• Bed ki lim mo olo kare ducu me wilo yat ki konyo lok me yotkom. Itwero bene gwoko gweni, lee ma paco ma twero cate pi oyot me konyo peko ma poto atura calo two.• Lutino ma pe gimito dot onyo cam (pi madong gicamo) komgi romo bedo lit atika ber ki lar ki ot yat me oyot.• Yat bene omyero ki mii kit ma latic me yotkom ocimo ki pe omyero kipok bot dano mukene ma bene nyo gitwo.• Lok ki lu oti pi lanyut mo marac wek ki lar latin ki ot yat pi oyot.• Gwok paket me kado aruba onyo Oral Re-hydration Salts (ORS) i ot ki ipwony kit me rubune pi latin ka tye ki cado.• Kace lyeto kom latin tye malo tutwal, tii ki latam madyak ento ter latin cut i ot yat.• Gwoko gweni, ki lee ma paco ki yubu jami ki cing ma catogi yot pi nongo lim me konyo peko ma poto atura.• Medde ki miyo latin ma two gin acama ki amata ma en maro ma nok nok. Ket komi mot ka itye ka pito lutino ma kit man.Adwogi Madit: Kace imiyo yat ki latini cut, en bicang oyot ki nongo ikonyo kwone, dok bene nongo ilare ki ikom two mogo ma tero lim madwong me cango gi.Adwogi Madit 1: Dog odi mapol gitye ka tute me gwoko lim ki cwiny me keto but lim ma ginongo me medo tye pa cam i ot.• Mon ki coo ma i ot moni.• Dano ki odi ma gigwoko lim cwingi tek pien gingeyo ni lim tye me konyo peko me atura.Gin bene nyayo lonyo ki wilo jami mogo ma konyogi tic ki medo rwom kwogi kun gitiyo ki lim ma gugwoko.• Coo ma gikonyo mongi wek gunywak cingi i tic me nyayo lonyo gin maro dongo kwo ki gimito neno otgi tye ka medde anyim. Mon romo doro tic me nyayo lonyo kace ki miyogi diro mupore ki kony pa lu otgi.• Konye i kin lu ot moni i tic me ot kadi i tic me poto , tedo, ki lwoko bongo wa jami cam ki me tedo, yweyo ot ki yubu paco ki gwoko lutino, ducu weko mon nongo kare me timo tic mogo i kin lwak ma twero konyo ot bene.• Paco ma pito gweni ki gwoko lee ma paco ginongo lim ma konyo ot oyot ka gucato jami magi.• Bed ki cwiny matir me yube pi kano lim.• Dony i grup mo ma kano lim wek inong pwony ki bot jo ma dong gikano lim.• Cak tic mapatpat ma kelo lim calo pito gweni ki gwoko lee ma paco.Adwogi Madit: Kace dako mo odonyo i grup me kano lim, biweko lacoo ki dako ducu gikonyo otgi kacel. Kace gwoko lim me ot omedde, ci rwom me kwogi ki nongo jami ma mite i ot bene mede.Adwogi ma Mite 3: Odi twero nongo kony me deno lim me wilo jami tic ma konygi dwong ki mogo ma pe me pur keken.Dano ma lok kemo gi:• Coo, Mon, bulu, grup mogo ma ikin lwak ki dul me cako onyo SACCOs Kwena ma dongo:• Nongo lim den onyo banya ma kimiyo i yo mupore obedo yo ma yot me cako tic ma kelo lim. Lim den ber me gamone pi tic ma kelo lim i ot.• Niang lok ducu ma mako den ki bot dul ma miyo den bikonyi me moko matir pi gamo den mo keken.• Bedo ki tam matir ikom gin ma imito timone ki lim den konyi me naing kace imito adaa ki bene kit me culone. Dul mogo ma gimiyo den gikonyi me ngiyo odoco ki gimii tam kit ma gineno kwede.• Laro lok wek wuwinye wun ki lu oti ikom lim den pi ngeyo kit me tic kwede maber ki bene yub me culone.• Dony i grup me kin lwak pa jo ma gene ma giromo konyi ka imito nongo lim den.• Cit bot jo ma gimiyo den wek inian lok ma mako deno lim.• Tam ikom gin atima ma matwero kelo lim wek inong lim pi ot ki bene yo me culo lim ma ideno Adwogi Madit: Kace odi gupenyo pi lok ma mako kit me tic ki lim den, gibi medo diro meggi i tic me nyayo lim.Kace coo ki mon gumeddeo tic ki lim den kakare gitwero cako nongo lim me konyo nyayo tic wa lim ma bino i cing gi.","tokenCount":"4401"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"184e00dad3768aad675584b5f6976cc8","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/897477e8-1147-43a8-a2d7-78a3c7e4c7f1/retrieve","id":"216429610"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"77b6b340-a043-41b0-aeab-34116ec8bd64","pagecount":"10","content":"Background: Genomic selection (GS) promises to accelerate genetic gain in plant breeding programs especially for crop species such as cassava that have long breeding cycles. Practically, to implement GS in cassava breeding, it is necessary to evaluate different GS models and to develop suitable models for an optimized breeding pipeline. In this paper, we compared (1) prediction accuracies from a single-trait (uT) and a multi-trait (MT) mixed model for a singleenvironment genetic evaluation (Scenario 1), and (2) accuracies from a compound symmetric multi-environment model (uE) parameterized as a univariate multi-kernel model to a multivariate (ME) multi-environment mixed model that accounts for genotype-by-environment interaction for multi-environment genetic evaluation (Scenario 2). For these analyses, we used 16 years of public cassava breeding data for six target cassava traits and a fivefold cross-validation scheme with 10-repeat cycles to assess model prediction accuracies.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) [1] is a staple food for over 700 million people in Africa, South America and Asia [2]. Cassava also has immense industrial potential. White cassava starch is easy to extract and contains low levels of fat (~ 1.5%), protein (~ 0.6%) and phosphorus (~ 4%), which are desirable features for the food industry [3,4]. Given the issues of climate change and fast-growing populations in countries that rely heavily on cassava, the need for rapid genetic improvement of cassava is critical. To enable this, genetic evaluation protocols based on best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) analysis [5,6] and selection on a merit index [7,8] have been recommended to maximize gain from selection [9].Genomic selection (GS) [10] offers crop species such as cassava a tremendous opportunity for accelerated genetic gains [11] by using whole-genome single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) scored with methods such as genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) [12]. These whole-genome SNPs could be sufficiently dense to be in linkage disequilibrium with most quantitative trait loci (QTL) that affect traits of interest. Using GS, selection is imposed at these QTL without actually identifying the QTL or the functional polymorphisms [10]. In addition, these SNPs will help to better track relatedness due to Mendelian sampling [13], which leads to improved selection accuracies especially when pedigree records are not available [14].Genetic evaluation [9] starts by accurately estimating the genetic value of an individual for a wide range of traits using its own performance records, progeny performance records, records from relatives, or a combination of the three [15]. Usually this estimation is carried out by using the univariate single environment one-step (uT) BLUP model [16] to obtain estimated breeding values (EBV) for one trait at a time. In plant and animal breeding, breeders usually select multiple traits at the same time that are often genetically correlated, with correlations that can range from weak to strong. The uT model for traits that are measured in a single environment assumes zero genetic and residual covariances between these traits such that information from other traits is not used when obtaining EBV of the evaluated individuals for the traits in the analysis. However, the optimal estimation procedure is to combine information from multiple trait records and obtain EBV using the multi-trait single environment one-step BLUP model (MT) [17,18]. The MT model does not assume zero genetic and residual covariances but provides an estimate for these and also uses this information when obtaining individual EBV for the traits in the analysis. The MT model has several advantages over the uT model including:1. Higher prediction accuracies for individual traits in the model because of more information (direct or indirect) and better connectedness of the data [19], especially when traits with varying heritabilities are analyzed jointly. This is true if the genetic correlations in the model are significant or substantial with low error correlations. 2. Simplified index selection because optimal weight factors for the total merit index are the economic weights [19]. 3. Procedures for obtaining genetic and residual covariances and incorporating these in EBV estimates for across-location, -country or -region evaluations [20][21][22].While MT models have clear advantages over uT models, they require the estimation of additional parameters (i.e., genetic and error covariances), which will affect accuracies of EBV. The number of additional parameters increases as the number of traits increases. For large models, many additional parameters can lead to convergence problems in the analysis. Lastly, an appreciable amount of data is required to get good estimates of these additional parameters.In most plant breeding programs, genotypes are evaluated in multi-environment trials (MET) usually at advanced stages of breeding. The goal is to sample the influence on selection candidates of the range of environments for which varieties will be targeted. Addressing the problem of the analysis of MET brings into focus another potential use for MT models [23]. Here, phenotypes of the same trait, but measured at different locations are parameterized as different traits in the MT model [24], producing what we call a multivariate single-trait multienvironment BLUP (ME) model. Like the MT model, the ME model estimates genetic covariances of the same trait measured in multiple environments, which may lead to more accurate estimates of individual EBV for the trait in all the environments in which data are recorded. For the ME models used for modelling MET data, residual covariances are set to zero reflecting the assumption that no mechanism generates error covariances of a trait measured in different environments [20]. In contrast, the typical univariate BLUP model for modelling MET data, termed the univariate multi-environment one-step model (uE), fits a multi-kernel mixed model with the genotypic effect as one kernel and the genotype-by-environment (GxE) effect as the second kernel and maybe environment as the third kernel [25]. This model yields a GxE variance for a MET and individuals can be ranked on their performance in different locations. Different variants of the ME model have been used for modeling environment covariance structures in plant [26][27][28][29] and in animal breeding [30,31]. Genetic covariances from the ME model offer a convenient tool to assess the impact of GxE on a trait and relate directly to the extent of GxE at all locations in the analysis. A low genetic correlation between EBV for a trait at different locations from the ME model indicates a high GxE impact on that trait [9,[32][33][34][35].To select the GS model for a practical cassava breeding program, it is necessary to compare models that will be efficient at various stages of cassava breeding with MET data. Finally, fitting multivariate BLUP models is not trivial. Even with software that, in principle, can fit these models, model convergence is not guaranteed and may require several attempts [36][37][38] and univariate models may be more practical if the benefits of the multivariate models are not substantial.The objectives of this paper are to (1) compare multitrait (MT) and single trait (uT) mixed models for single environment data using cross-validation, and (2) compare the multivariate multi-environment (ME) model to a single-trait multi-environment (uE) model using crossvalidation and assessing the GxE impact on the traits analyzed via genetic covariances from the ME model fit.We used historical phenotype data from different trials that were conducted for the cassava breeding program at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria. The genetic gain population represents a collection of clones selected from the 1970s to 2007 within this program [39,40]. Some of these clones are West African landraces and some are of East African origin. Clones in the genetic gain population have gone through advanced stages of the cassava breeding process up to on-farm variety testing trials. The data used in our analysis include data that were collected on clonal evaluation trials (CET), which are augmented design trials with typically two known checks and unreplicated plots with five plants. These data were collected from three target locations in Nigeria: Ibadan (7.40°N, 3.90°E), Mokwa (9.3°N, 5.0°E), and Ubiaja (6.66°N, 6.38°E). These locations represent regions, which encompass about 35% of the cassava production in Nigeria. Datasets were collected from 2000 to 2015 and included trials with most of the 739 clones of the genetic gain population. Six target agronomic traits were used in the analysis including seedling vigor (VIGOR), number of storage roots per plot at harvest (RTNO), fresh weight of harvested roots expressed in tons per hectare (T/ha) (FYLD), percent dry matter (DM) of storage roots, which measures root dry weight as the % of the root fresh weight, plot mean cassava mosaic disease severity (MCMDS), which is rated on a scale from 1 (no symptoms) to 5 (extremely severe), and plot mean cassava green mite (MCGM) severity, which is rated on a scale from 1 (no symptoms) to 5 (extremely severe). Cassava mosaic disease is caused by a Begomovirus that belongs to the Geminiviridae family, and is carried and transmitted by the whitefly Bemisia tabaci. The cassava green mite is Mononychellus tanajoa [41]. These traits are target traits used in the selection index for selection decisions in the IITA cassava breeding program. Phenotype data metrics are in Table 1. All trait records were plot averages for both clonal accessions and checks. All checks were included in the analysis.DNA from 739 clones from the 2013 genetic gain trial at IITA was extracted by using DNeasy Plant Mini kits (Qiagen) and was quantified using PicoGreen. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was used for genotyping [12] these clones. Six 95-plex and one 75-plex ApeKI libraries were constructed and sequenced on Illumina HiSeq, one lane per library. SNPs were called from the sequence data using the TASSEL pipeline version 4.0 [42], using an alignment to the Manihot esculenta version 6 reference genome [43]. Average sequencing depth for polymorphic loci was 5×. Individuals with more than 80% and SNPs with more than 60% missing calls were removed. SNP genotyping data were converted to numeric genotypes (0, 1, 2) and missing genotyping data were imputed using a LASSO regression method (Ariel Chan, personal communication, 2014) that was implemented using the R glmnet package [44]. The resulting dataset was rounded to obtain numerical genotypes (0, 1, 2) and consisted of 183,201 SNPs scored in 739 clones.We structured the cassava phenotype data described above into two types of data that are commonly used in most plant breeding programs. The first set was achieved by pooling data from multiple years at specific locations (multi-year trials data). We termed this scenario the single-environment genetic evaluation (Scenario 1). The resulting prediction accuracies from this dataset were assessed for the three locations. The second scenario was achieved by using data from multiple locations and years (MET) but, in this case, location-specific information was extracted by modeling GxE interactions. We termed this scenario the multi-environment genetic evaluation (Scenario 2) and its goal was to assess the impact of GxE and determine the best way to fit it while also using information from correlated environments.To validate the models in this study, first we defined a univariate single-trait mixed model for each trait at each location separately (to preserve the variation embedded in each location) using an identity covariance matrix among clone effects, which assumes no relationship among the clones. The univariate mixed model was as follows:with u ∼ N 0, σ 2 u I and e ∼ N 0, σ 2 I , where y is a vector of observations, b is a vector of fixed effects with the design matrix X (relating observations to fixed effects, in this case including grand mean and a nested effect of trial-within-year and the ratio of plants harvested to number planted); u is a vector of clonal genetic effects with the design matrix Z (relating observations to (1) clones). This model was fit using the lmer function in the R lme4 package [45] and resulting BLUP values (û), which we refer to as estimated genotypic values (EGV), were used as pseudo-true genetic effects to compute prediction accuracy, as commonly used in the plant breeding literature [41,46,47].We defined two mixed models that were fitted as follows.with u ∼ N 0, σ 2 u K and e ∼ N 0, σ 2 I , where y is the response vector of a trait for a given location, β is the vector of fixed effects with the design matrix X (with components as in Model 1 above for each location and trait); u is the vector of random additive genomic effects with the design matrix Z (relating trait values to clones) and K is the additive genomic relationship matrix generated from SNPs as in method 1 of VanRaden [48] implemented in preGSf90 [49].′ , and y is the response vector of d traits (six core traits described above), X is a design matrix for fixed effects β (with components as in Model 1 above for each location and trait) and Z is a design matrix for random genetic effects u. Following a multivariate normal distribution (N m ), the marginal density of y is:The matrices G and R are d × d symmetric unstructured genomic and error covariance matrices respectively, K remains the additive genomic relationship matrix for n clones generated from SNPs as above, I is an identity matrix. Models ( 2) and (3) were fitted separately for each location Ubiaja, Mokwa and Ibadan, respectively, allowing the error (co)variances associated with these locations to be distinct. Note also that, in these models, genotypeby-location effects are confounded with the main genotype effects such that variance components may change between locations. The effects of years and trials were fixed because emphasis was on location effects since these locations represented different production regions and we sought to capture consistent effects of these locations. In contrast, year effects are variable and by definition not consistent. Also following practice in cassava (2) breeding [46,47], multiple observations of one clone were not considered as repeated measures. Although these subjects were clones, data were collected from distinct individuals and thus they are independent. Hence, these measurements were treated as samples of clones and should lead to better precision in the prediction of breeding values.We also defined two mixed models with the aim of modeling genotype-by-environment interaction effects as follows.Here, we describe the uE model, first how it is fit and then we show its compound symmetry structure. The model is as follows:where y is the vector of a trait at locations a, b and c (corresponding to Ubiaja, Mokwa and Ibadan), β is the vector of fixed effects with the design matrix X (relating observations to fixed effects as in Model 1); u is the vector of random additive genomic effects with the design matrix Z 1 (relating trait values to clones), w is the vector of random clone-by-location interaction effects with the design matrix Z 2 , which is diag(Z a , Z b , Z c ) that relates records to clones in locations a, b and c, respectively. For the cth location, a column of Z c may be all 0s if the clone represented by the column was not evaluated in that location. σ 2 u K is the additive genomic relationship matrix generated from SNPs as above, I is an identity matrix and I 3 is a 3 × 3 identity matrix. In this model, the genomic value of a clone for the cth location was estimated as û + w c . A more complete account of the error terms would have included clone-by-year and clone-by-location-by-year terms in the model. While such a model would have characterized the error in more detail, we believe that the obtained improvement of within-location estimation would have been marginal. Model 5 implies a compound symmetry structure [50] as described below.Using the same symbols as above, we defined the uE model with a CS covariance structure as:The genomic effect from this CS model for the cth location w c is equal to ⌢ u + w c from the uE model. The Z 2 matrix is the same as in the uE model. Compared to the ME model described below, which replaces with an unstructured covariance matrix with nine parameters (six for genetic and three for error (co)variances, respectively), the CS model has three parameters including σ 2 u+w (equivalent to σ 2 u + σ 2 w in the uE model), σ 2 e and ρ. For any trait for which the CS covariance structure best fits the data, it is expected that model uE will provide more accurate GEBV than the ME model, which will overfit the data. Furthermore, the uE model defined here assumes a homogeneous variance across locations a , b and c. Although a CS model with heterogeneous variances can be fit, this was not the case for the uE model. This assumption is incorrect if there are significant heterogeneous variances across these locations. In such a case, the ME model should provide more accurate breeding values.We fit the ME model in a single-step procedure using the following model:′ and e = (e ′ a , e ′ b , e ′ c ), where y is the vector of a trait in locations a, b and c (corresponding to Ubiaja, Mokwa and Ibadan) recorded for n clones, the X and Z design matrices are block diagonal matrices represented as diag(X a , X b , X c ) and diag(Z a , Z b , Z c ), respectively allowing for missing clones and observations. X is a design matrix for fixed effects β (with components as in Model 1) and Z is a design matrix for random genomic effects u . Following a multivariate normal distribution (N m ), the marginal density of y is:Given that d is the number of locations being analyzed, G is a d × d symmetric and unstructured genomic covariance matrix, while R is a d-dimensional diagonal error covariance matrix, K remains the additive genomic(6) y = Xβ + Zu + e, (7) (y|β, R, G) ∼ N m (Xβ, V), relationship matrix for n clones generated from SNPs as above, and I is an identity matrix. In this model, the error covariance matrix R is diagonal, thus allowing heterogeneous variances for a trait at different locations but the covariances are fixed to zero following the assumption that no mechanism generates error covariances of a trait measured in multiple environments.Estimation of the parameters in Models ( 2), ( 3), ( 5) and (6) were performed using the average information (AI) REML procedure implemented in the airemlf90 program [49] from which the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) of fixed effects and the BLUP of random effects were obtained by solving the mixed model equations (MME) [5,6]. Custom R-scripts were used for cross-validation.We used a fivefold cross-validation scheme with 10 repeats for comparisons between the univariate and multivariate models. We used the same folds for the models in each scenario. Hereafter, we refer to predicted BLUP or genomic effects from these models as genomic EBV (GEBV). Prediction accuracies were calculated as a correlation of the validation fold GEBV to their corresponding EGV.In Scenario 1, we observed that the prediction accuracies of the MT model were higher than those of the uT models for most traits and locations in our analysis (Table 2). On average (across traits and locations), the MT model yielded prediction accuracies that were 59% higher for VIGOR, 43% for RTNO, 27% for DM, 40% for MCMDS, 55% for FYLD and 18% for MCGM compared to the uT model. Averaged across traits and locations, the MT models were 40% more accurate than the uT models.In Scenario 2, we observed different patterns of prediction accuracies of the uE and ME models. The ME model yielded higher prediction accuracies for DM and MCMDS at all locations. On average (across locations), the uE model resulted in prediction accuracies that were 2% better for VIGOR and 1% for RTNO, while the ME model resulted in prediction accuracies that were 32% better for DM, 24% for MCMDS, 5% for FYLD, and 4% for MCGM. Prediction accuracy of the ME model was 12% higher than that of the uE model averaged across all traits and locations in the model. Trait correlations from the ME model representing the expected correlated responses to selection ranged from 0.21 to 0.66 for VIGOR, 0.36 to 0.54 for RTNO, 0.57 to 0.81 for DM, 0.68Prediction accuracies for MT and uT models (GS Scenario 1) and for ME and uE models (GS Scenario 2)The numbers in brackets are standard deviations for cross-validation repeat cycles VIGOR seedling vigor, RTNO number of storage roots per plot at harvest, FYLD fresh weight of harvested roots in tons per hectare, DM percentage dry matter of storage roots, MCMDS plot mean cassava mosaic disease severity, MCGM plot mean cassava green mites severityMulti-trait (MT) to 0.87 for MCMDS, 0.31 to 0.52 for FYLD and 0.24 to 0.53 for MCGM. Thus, genetic effects for MCMDS and DM were more consistent across locations than those for the other traits.Some studies reported comparisons between MT and uT genomic prediction models using simulated data or real datasets [51][52][53]. Based on simulated datasets, Guo et al. [53] and Calus et al. [52] reported similar accuracies between MT and uT models with accuracies of the MT models for lowly heritable traits being slightly higher when the genomic correlations between the traits increased. Using Holstein and Jersey breed datasets from the US Dairy National evaluation program, VanRaden et al. [51] also reported similar accuracies between MT and uT models for all the traits analyzed. However, for several traits, they obtained accuracies that were slightly higher with the uT model than with the MT model. For highly heritable traits and especially if complete phenotypic data are available for these, accuracies obtained by the MT model are not clearly better than those obtained by the uT model [53]. Improvement in prediction accuracies with the MT model is accrued mostly for lowly heritable traits when they are analyzed jointly with highly heritable traits that have medium to high genetic correlations and low residual correlations [52,53]. Our results were consistent with those of other studies [52,53] since, in our analysis, our MT model yielded higher accuracies for most traits and locations and resulted from the joint analysis of low and high heritability traits. Most of the genetic correlations between traits at all locations in the MT models were significant (substantial) with low error correlations (not shown). These contributed to the increased prediction accuracies observed for the MT models compared to those of the uT models. Substantial increases in prediction accuracies of the MT models were observed for VIGOR, RTNO and FYLD, which had mostly moderate to high genetic correlations with other traits at all locations although their heritabilities were mostly low. For parental selections in specific locations, we recommend the use of MT models but to confirm this conclusion, further studies on the selection gains obtained by applying these models are necessary.Comparisons between different ME and uE genomic prediction models have been reported in plant breeding literature [54][55][56]. Burgueno et al. [29] conducted extensive modeling for multi-environment trials using pedigree and genomic markers and incorporated many covariance structures including diagonal, factor analytic (FA), identity and unstructured covariances for both the genomic and error components in their models. They observed that prediction accuracies of a genomic ME model with a diagonal genomic covariance structure and a diagonal error covariance structure (ME D-D ) were higher than that of a genomic ME model with a FA genomic covariance structure and diagonal error covariance (ME FA-D ) for most of the locations measured in their analysis based on a cross-validation scheme (CV1) [29]. This ME D-D is a univariate model with fewer parameters but it can be compared to our uE model. Although the uE model in our study assumed identical genomic and error variances for all locations analyzed, total phenotypic variance was partitioned into direct clonal genomic, clone-by-location interaction and error variance components. Hence, effects due to clones and clone-by-location interaction were combined to generate location-specific GEBV, which can be compared to location-specific GEBV obtained in the ME D-D model. Our results were in line with this study for the traits VIGOR and RTNO at all locations with the uE model yielding higher prediction accuracies than the ME models and differed for the traits DM and MCMDS at all locations with the ME models yielding higher prediction accuracies. However, on average across locations and traits, prediction accuracies of the ME models were higher.To further understand the strength of the impact of GxE interaction on the cassava core traits analyzed in our study, we used information from the proportion of total variation explained by clone and clone-by-location effects from the uE model (Table 3). From the total variation explained by SNPs, the effect of clone-by-location interaction was approximately 30% for VIGOR, 48% for RTNO, 12% for DM, 15% for MCMDS, 56% for FYLD and 46% for MCGM. These proportions show strong clone-by-location interactions for FYLD, RTNO, MCGM and VIGOR but weak interactions for DM and MCMDS. In addition, the genetic correlations between the three locations for DM and MCMDS were relatively high ranging from 57 to 81 and 68 to 87%, respectively (Table 4), supporting our findings. These high correlations revealed that cassava DM and MCMDS were repeatable across the locations in our study, which suggests that genotypes selected for these traits will perform comparably across locations. From the genetic correlations in Table 4, improvement for RTNO and FYLD at Ubiaja will result in a correlated response of about 50% for these traits at Mokwa and about 35% at Ibadan. The low predicted correlated responses confirm that the environment had a higher impact on RTNO, FYLD, VIGOR and MCGM, thus improving these traits is more challenging. This makes a case for decentralized breeding especially for yield component traits. Breeding for good varieties that combine these core traits may be targeted towards specific locations or groups of locations with specific genotypes selected for these locations.The ME model exploits the positive genomic correlations captured in its G matrix for prediction. The major difference between the prediction accuracies obtained by the ME and uE models were mainly due to the fact that the ME model accounted for genetic covariances when generating GEBV since genetic variances from both models were similar. Genetic covariances from the ME models are a reflection of the GxE interactions for the trait of interest and ME breeding values capture both additive  genotypic and additive genotype-by-environment effects.However, the lack of information from between-trait correlations (which are captured by MT models) in ME breeding values represents a challenge when selection decisions based on information from the interconnection between multiple trait and multiple location data are required. The interconnection between these data may be useful for understanding GxE and for selection on traits that are highly influenced by the environment. Therefore, there is an opportunity for interconnection between information from a valuable single environment and MET data which are readily available in plant breeding programs.Another potential use of the ME models is for clustering environments into target populations of environments (TPE). If correlated responses to selection of target traits are similar for certain locations based on genetic correlations from the ME model, then these locations can be grouped into a TPE. Regional breeding can begin within this TPE and all multi-location trials are carried out within this TPE. For example, for the traits VIGOR, DM and MCMDS that have correlated responses to selection ranging from 66 to 87% (Table 4), Ubiaja and Ibadan can belong to same TPE.The estimates of genomic correlations and heritabilities in Table 5 have interesting implications for cassava genetic improvement. Genetic correlations between RTNO and FYLD estimated with the MT model were high and positive for all locations (ranging from 0.65 to 0.8), whereas those between RTNO and DM and between FYLD and DM were close to zero (ranging from − 0.02 to 0.20). The genetic correlations for these core production traits (DM, RTNO and FYLD) indicate that concurrent improvement of these traits is achievable. However, more replication in trials targeting these production traits will help reduce error variances and improve the accuracy of parental selections given the low heritabilities for FYLD and RTNO. VIGOR can also be improved concurrently with these production traits since it is mostly positively correlated with these (Table 5). The disease trait (MCMDS) showed moderate to strong negative genomic correlations with VIGOR and the production traits, which is favorable for cassava breeding in Africa especially where the cassava mosaic disease (CMD) pressure is high. Consequently, cassava breeders have selected for CMD resistance genes over time [57,58]. With the favorable genetic correlations between these target traits in mind, thePlot-based heritabilities on the diagonal, genetic correlations from the MT model on the off-diagonal (standard error of estimates in brackets) VIGOR seedling vigor, RTNO number of storage roots per plot at harvest, FYLD fresh weight of harvested roots in tons per hectare, DM percentage dry matter of storage roots, MCMDS plot mean cassava mosaic disease severity, MCGM plot mean cassava green mites severity We would like to make it clear here that fitting MT and ME models are computationally expensive since, in our case, they required the estimation of 90 and 36 additional covariance parameters for the MT and ME models, respectively, compared to the uT and uE models. We had a few thousand records to estimate these parameters accurately for our target traits as shown by the standard errors of these estimates in Tables 4 and 5. When these correlations are not significant, breeding values from univariate models are sufficient because MT models are not expected to result in improved prediction accuracies [59].The effectiveness of a breeding program is evaluated by its ability to provide adapted and productive varieties to the farming community in the target environments it serves. To achieve this goal for the cassava breeding program at IITA, we recommend a decentralized breeding strategy for the different agro-ecological zones in Nigeria using total merit indices based on MT breeding values. Further studies should be conducted to understand how much selection gain can be achieved by using this strategy. ME models provided less improvement in prediction accuracy but were useful for understanding GxE interactions.","tokenCount":"4990"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a35bc96bc59cd25a557ce79b127682fc","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/7bca58e9-8cb8-4b7c-9e0d-42ff24e70b35/retrieve","id":"-2059428128"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"35768096-a57f-4da8-9078-117b92a8ae66","pagecount":"2","content":" By 2025 a global coffee shortage equivalent to 1.4 times the current production of Vietnam -the world's largest Robusta coffee producer -is expected. On a parallel scale coffee production is under pressure because of the looming effects of climate change causing more profound water scarcity.  A joint Nestlé/NESCAFÉ-SDC funded project implemented by the Foundation Hanns R. Neumann Stiftung / Embden, Drishaus and Epping Consulting (EDE) in collaboration with the University of Neuchâtel -Centre of Hydrogeology and Geothermics (CHYN), Hanoi University of Science and other partners, is currently underway to \"produce more coffee with less water\" otherwise expressed as to \"reduce the blue water footprint in coffee production\". This project receives full support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the People's Committee and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the five Central Highland Provinces.The project aims to ensure equitable and sufficient water availability for water users in the Central Highlands and obtain much-needed water savings through improved irrigation demand management in the coffee sector reaching out to benefit 50,000 poorer, more marginalized farmers across the 5 main coffeeproducing provinces of Vietnam's Central Highlands.The profitability of smallholder coffee farming in the Central Highlands of Vietnam is greatly supported by irrigation, most of which is derived from groundwater.Owing to a large increase in groundwater withdrawals for coffee production, critical parts of the basaltic plateau in Dak Lak province have shown dramatic signs of stress expressed as groundwater shortages in the latter stages of the dry season.Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) has been proposed as a means by which farmers can be pro-active in overcoming seasonal water shortages by converting their irrigation wells for both recharge and pumping and making use of available excess runoff to boost their groundwater storage.  MAR pilot trials are being setup at multiple sites in close collaboration with the local farmers who will also be the primary beneficiaries of the intervention.A rigorous site selection process is followed to identify MAR sites along with sites that would serve as controls.The MAR system harvests and collects runoff from the local fields and allows this water to drain via gravity through a sand filter chamber and finally into the farmer's well.Each trial is being carefully monitored and evaluated in terms of the volumes of water stored and recovered, groundwater level response, water quality impacts, frequency of site maintenance, cost-benefits, community perceptions and policy dimensions.  PROJECT CONTACT: Dr. Dave D'Haeze ([email protected])","tokenCount":"404"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a658ff3f9be87de816bf1b516f31b41b","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d0f61741-2511-4d75-8fd4-97d5c4c24b00/retrieve","id":"1170148790"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"82f56eec-a702-4578-9608-02b060afd932","pagecount":"12","content":"1. IUCEA Mandate to Promote Harmonisation and Quality of Curriculum ❖The harmonization of higher education curriculum in East Africa has been a gradual process.❖The hallmark of this process has been the enactment of legal instruments, adoption of relevant policies, establishment of QA institutions/agencies and capacity building programme.Key Legal Instruments   1. As guiding tools by higher education institutions for curriculum design and review.2. As reference tools by National Regulatory Agencies (QAA) to assess the quality of academic programmes for accreditation.3. For promotion of harmonisation of academic programme in the region.4. For enhancing staff and student mobility across the region.5. As reference tool by employers to assess the competencies of graduates.➢ The following questions are considered critical in the development of programme benchmarks:i. How can the design and delivery of programmes in East Africa be harmonised to enhance the quality, comparability and mobility of students and graduates across the region?ii. Which quality aspects can be identified from the design and delivery of programmes in each of the partner state?iii. What should be the minimum curriculum content in the programmes designed in East Africa?iv. What competencies should a graduate of a programme of a university in East Africa have?v. How can faculty staff be empowered to be more innovative in delivery and assessment of programmes in universities in East Africa?vi. How can the key stakeholders in the discipline be involved in improving quality of programs in East African Universities? ","tokenCount":"236"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"242189d7c437c708edf4764e006db041","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9bfa6dfe-8806-4131-89d3-30b3a9150ddf/retrieve","id":"-52621463"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"25e44189-5ae0-4e71-949f-d32a998c0484","pagecount":"43","content":"The current phase (2010)(2011)(2012)(2013) of the Challenge Program on Water and Food (CPWF) research is addressing the Volta Basin Development Challenge (VBDC) which has been defined as \"integrated management of rainwater and small reservoirs for multiple purposes\". The research-for-development program is designed to explore the institutional, socio-economic and technical aspects of small reservoir development and maintenance within a wider rainwater management system in the Volta Basin to maximize water for food and ecosystem services. The purpose of the inception workshop was to review and assess all VBDC projects for coherence and integration towards achieving the overall goal. Secondly it provided an opportunity to launch the research agenda, share our plans and approaches with a wider, relevant stakeholder group, and to obtain important feedback which can be fed into the research process.The key question to address during the workshop was: \"what are the lessons learned in the inception phase of VBDC research and how would these lessons shape project implementation in the next phase?\". It was expected that the workshop would contribute to ensuring relevance of the research agenda, as well as strengthening the integration of the five VBDC projects and their teams.The meeting aimed at addressing the following specific objectives:1. Reflect on the overall VBDC research program and individual research progress towards achieving the expected outcomes; 2. Strengthen project linkages and research integration across project sites 3. Inform stakeholders about the VBDC research-4-development program and obtain their feedback Expected outputs included: 1. Common understanding and clarity across all VBDC projects and how, together, they form one program. This understanding should result in revised milestone plans 2. Feedback messages from the stakeholders 2 Workshop proceedingsObjective: Participants should know each other and have better understanding of the CPWF approach 1. Welcoming words Dr Charles Biney: Dr Biney welcomed the participants on behalf of the Volta Basin Authority. He gave a brief overview of the five projects that comprise the Volta Basin Development Challenge, namely: V1: Targeting and Scaling Out V2: Integrated management of rainwater for crop-livestock agroecosystems V3: Integrated management of small reservoirs for multiple uses V4: Sub-basin management and governance of rainwater and small reservoirs V5: Coordination and Change Dr Biney stressed that whilst the Volta Basin Authority was the lead agency for coordination, that the basin challenge required all other partners to form a big team. He stressed the need to integrate activities across the basin with a focus to finally contribute to improving people's livelihoods.2. Welcome by the Basin Leader, Dr Olufunke Cofie: Dr Cofie welcomed the participants on behalf of the Coordination project and expressed her hope that the workshop would be an opportunity to reflect on activities, update each other and achieve greater understanding amongst each other. She explained in detail the agenda for the following three days and the objectives of the sessions.3. Introductions of participants: Participants were requested to share their name, affiliation & role/interest in Volta BDC; their expectation for the workshop and to share a personal hobby. Key expectations were expressed on greater linkages amongst projects, more synergies, learning and exchange for the newer members, discussions on research methodology and forging one strong team. The team's hobbies are mainly active sports (football, swimming, hiking etc.), family and friends, relaxing while listening to music, watching films and TV and reading.4. Welcome by Dr Larry Harrington: Dr Harrington provided a brief overview of CPWF Phase 2 and explained that it works in six basins (apart from the Volta in the Mekong, Andes, Nile, Limpopo and Ganges) and that each basin has the same approach although there are different challenges in each. There are some common threads across the basins, for example resilience and improved livelihoods. CPWF always works with existing institutions and initiatives to build upon strong foundations. There are opportunities for links between basins where projects look at similar issues (e.g. innovation platforms, rainwater/green water harvesting, coordination & change). Dr Harrington stressed that the research program in the Volta Basin work could be seen as prototype for similar approaches of integrated research across the reformed CGIAR. He concluded by saying that the Management Team of the CPWF will provide enthusiastic support to the basin activities. An update of recent activities since January 2011 was provided; plans for the immediate present/future include:• Follow up on the involvement of V1 in the Resilience Topic Working Group;• Assembly of basin-scale biophysical information layers has been completed, domain check of field sites of projects V2, V3, V4 is still required; • Review on policy setting and development targets (Burkina Faso and Ghana); • Participation in the 3 rd International Forum on Water and Food;• Facilitator training on data collection methodology;• Field assessments of identified cases have started. Some topics for exploration during the workshop were also listed, specifically with respect to data sharing and synchronization of activities.Clarifications were given on the added value of this project over existing similar projects. One thing that is different is the consideration of adoption rate and the incorporation of human and social capitals into the Bayesian model being developed. Other cases so documented by similar projects did not consider the degree of adoption.Dr Augustine Ayantunde provided the update of this project which is led by ILRI in collaboration with IWMI, CSIR, INERA, SNV and Wageningen University. The objective of the project is to identify, evaluate, adapt, and disseminate best-fit integrated rainwater management strategies, targeted to different biophysical and socio-economic domains.The three research questions the project aims to address are: 1. What integrated RMS work best where, how, and under which enabling institutional and policy conditions? (output 1: Baseline characterization and inventory of RMS) 2. What are the effects of best-fit integrated RMS on different aspects of farm productivity and profitability, gender-specific livelihoods, equity, hydrology, ecosystem services, and vulnerability of people and the environment? And what tools, frameworks, criteria and indicators do we need to assess these effects and combine them in an integrated analysis to come up with targeted solutions? (outputs 2: Targeted recommendations for different actors and contexts of best integrated RM, and 3: Tools, framework for integrated analysis) 3. How can we foster the adoption, scaling out and scaling up of improved rainwater management practices in mixed crop-livestock agro-ecosystems? Which institutional and policy environments and links to the value chain are needed to ensure adoption by farmers? (outputs 4: Dissemination and communication of project outputs, and 5: Capacity building)The methodology includes reviewing and evaluating rainwater management lessons from the past, baseline studies, an innovations system approach, participatory action research and modeling. Two sites in Northern Ghana (Tolon-Kumbungu District and Lawra District) and Burkina Faso (Koubri District and Ouahigouya District) had been chosen. Within each district 4 communities (villages) were chosen.A table provided information about links to other VBDC projects (better elaborated under project linkages) and a graph illustrated links to other projects through the activity on institutional and policy analysis: Discussions following this presentation focused on linkages with project V1 and the similarities with LBDC project L3 which is using a similar approach of Innovation Platforms in their analysis.The following emerging issues were brought to the attention of the group: 1. Linking rainwater management to identified value chains at innovation platforms (IP) (maintaining focus on rainwater management) 2. Assessing the impact of IPs on livelihood of household and community (process versus product) 3. Data quality from participatory action research (maintaining good science while ensuring farmers' participation in on-farm experiments) 4. Delay in fund disbursement by CPWF and implications for field activities in the coming wet season V3: Integrated management of small reservoirs for multiple uses Dr Philippe Cecchi provided an overview of the project, giving a brief historical flashback of the emergence of the Volta BDC in general and this project in particular from CPWF Phase 1 research. Having provided the background and pertaining problems, the V3 project sets out to develop integrated management options to enhance productivity and ensure equitable allocation of water resources; to identify uses and users, assess their needs, clarify social and ecological determinants, control health consequences. It will focus on individual small reservoirs considered within their biophysical contexts and their economical dynamics.Integrated reservoir management requires knowledge on processes:• at the adequate scales • in their dynamics • in their contexts Stakeholder's perceptions and expectations need to be considered.The project is led by CIRAD and partners with GEau, TU Delft, INERA, WRI and CSIR-SARI. Site selection has already been completed. Four clusters of reservoirs have been selected for various activities. Two clusters will serve as core sites (V3 labs) while the other two will be satellite sites for further documentation (Figure 2). • There is need for clarification of the expectations by various stakeholders;• The importance of participative approaches and modeling (through shared innovation platforms) needs to be verified;• An assessment of the relevance of the measured externalities is required (consensus forming among the stakeholders) • Implementation of \"pilot\" operations (what methodology?) • Up and out scaling and sharing of information.A critical issue that came out during the discussion session following this presentation was the lack of reference to local institutions that will help to sustain small reservoirs in the communities. How will V3 work with them and ensure sustainability of the research results? One way that was suggested is through the participatory modeling and also through the link to V4 in one of the sites.The project was jointly presented by Dr Katherine Snyder and Dr Fred Kizito. The overall objective of the project is to \"identify socially acceptable land and water governance options and identify their livelihoods, health and environmental impacts, including spatial and temporal trade-offs at the watershed level\". The approach is to support on-going IWRM policy initiatives through participatory processes based on companion modeling. The project has identified two project sites. In Burkina Faso it will support an existing platform at Bougouriba 7 (Mouhoun/Black Volta river basin) and in Ghana it will create a local platform in the \"Zebilla\" Area (White Volta) in Bawku West and Bawku Municipal Districts (UER). Progress to date includes: • Protocol for detailed case studies (at secondary sites) completed;• Preliminary site visits in the two pilot watersheds carried out;• Identification of experts (éclaireurs) to act as a 'visionary panel' in both countries (role: give direction and feedback on project implementation strategy); • First meeting held with the visionary panel in Ghana;• Continuous stakeholder engagement with and beyond project partners ongoing. Next steps include:• Detailed case study (in secondary sites) to be finalized (by August)• Biophysical modeling to be finalized for the two pilot watersheds (by August 2010) • Meeting with visionary panel to be held in Burkina Faso (in September) • Platform to be designed for use in local stakeholder consultation (by last quarter of 2011) • Draft Institutional and Political Analysis developed (by last quarter of 2011) Following this presentation, there was a discussion on how to link on-going V4 work to other VBDC projects 1 . It was suggested that estimating the cost of the policy processes being studied will enable making of sound recommendations.Dr Olufunke Cofie presented the update of this project, which has the objective to \"ensure coherence amongst the VBDC Projects and align BDC research to stakeholders need, so as to contribute to poverty reduction and improved livelihood resilience in the Basin\". The key questions the project aims to respond to are whether the VBDC research implementation is relevant to the issue on the ground, whether the projects are being implemented in perspectives and whether they are delivering on agreed outputs and outcomes. She first presented the project's theory of change as illustrated in the outcome pathway. A diagram showing the interconnectivity amongst the Volta Basin projects was shown (Figure 3) as well as the current sites for VBDC research (Figure 4). 1 With respect to the governance study as clarified by the V4 Project Leader, it should be noted that V4 is not addressing the governance component of technological interventions being studied in the VBDC. Project V4 focuses only on the specific case of IWRM i.e looking at the governance dynamics that shape IWRM policies and implementation at the watershed level. While some of the research by V4 (e.g policy and institutional analysis) could inform the other projects in terms of governance, V4 cannot provide information on the governance dynamics of technologies being studied in the other projects. These are to varying degrees addressed for defined technologies by respective projects. Nevertheless linking up with other projects will be useful Project V5 is combining different strategies to achieve the stated objectives. These include research coordination, fostering change through multi-stakeholder processes, innovation research, as well as applying the principles of adaptive management in monitoring and evaluation.Ensuring effective communication is a core activity of V5 and steps are being taken to develop a sound communications strategy. A first step has been a communications audit and the establishment of an internal working platform (wiki). A website is under development.• A late start of V5, officially in March 2011, several months after the other projects started; • A wrong perception of V5 roles and its contribution to VBDC by project teams;• Tendency of research team towards conventional research process which does not promote the research-for-development approach; • Seemingly complex CPWF concepts and processes;• Socio-cultural and institutional differences in the basin.Dr Cofie ended with the hope that this workshop would provide an opportunity to thrash these challenges and break barriers.The discussion following this presentation centred around: project linkages, research at different scales, selection of sites (and opportunities for linkages), usefulness of expected outcomes for users at different levels, interactive website.These meetings were organized as short sessions of bilateral meetings, sandwiched between meetings within the teams, firstly to clarify any needs from other projects, and later to update their workplans, if necessary, following the discussions (Session 4).Discussion points for the bilateral meetings were:• What do you need from one another to achieve your objectives?• What are the opportunities for linkages/joint actions?• What are the interdependencies between projects?• How can we improve/ensure integration & linkages through communication?The schedule was as follows:Objectives: To capture the new information from Session 3 and ensure the planned activities will be carried out.Feedback was provided the next morning but is reported here for greater clarity. Annex 3 tabulates the information for better clarity.The team identified areas of crosscutting interest and/or requirements for interchange with the other Vs:• With V2,V3,V4: share V1 stakeholder consultation output (draft protocol; criteria for success; map with cases). • With V2, V4: a list of interventions that V1 will look at was identified, including which technologies have been identified for targeting & scaling out. • V2,V3,V4: a characterization of sites, current & possibly historical.• With V5: need to determine how and when to share database. The team reported that they were now more conscious of the need to communicate better with other teams and provided a list of links with other teams and joint activities that were identified.• With V1: the review of success stories of rainwater management and small reservoirs in the Volta basin is similar to the activity \"learning from the past\" from V2. So to be done together. There is also the need to work on common scenarios. First to review, then we decide. • With V3: need to enhance interactions:-Data and protocols sharing: a lot was done in Koubri, data is available on CD. V2 will also do economic assessment and share protocols, especially with SNV who is looking at market opportunities; -V3 interested in all what is agricultural intensification impact on ecosystems, so in documenting very local processes, V2 might be aware of potentially harmful practices (e.g intensive uses of agricultural inputs) that might disturb aquatic ecosystems. Such information will be shared with V3.-Adaptive management: in 10 months we will gather and share and adapt what need to be adapted • With V4: V2 and V4 work on different sites at different scales but still something can be done together:-V4 need to get from V2 the ground information, the understanding at local context/ constraints / perception… through PAR, HH Survey reports -No connection from biophysical point of view but rather on policy / institutional point of view modeling aspects that are similar in V2 and V4, but aspects /scenarios. -V2 and V4 need to make sure they add to each other and must communicate a lot (through wiki?) -Near future: SNV will invite V4 people to IP as observers.V2 reported that the discussion with other projects did not in principle change anything in their activities, but rather that they now had a better understanding and consciousness of what was going on in other projects and that they are better aware of the need to share and communicate, and that also the timing of data sharing is important.The team gave a recap of the agreement of project linkages at the time of the proposal development in April 2010 and then proceeded to give an update on issues discussed in the bilateral meetings and they were therefore reporting on progress and any deviations identified. The key linkages the team identified are with V1, V2 and V4.• With V1, V2, V4: Site selection. There has been agreement with V4 for one of V3s core sites (Zebilla / Upper East Ghana) and shared satellite sites have been identified with V4 (Bougouriba) and V2 (Upper West Ghana and Nariarlé). • With V4: Management and Governance, where V3 depends on V4 for regional assessments to contextualize its local observations. This is in progress through a number of PhD projects and the agreement on common sites. Still to be managed is the synchronization of the activities internally and with V4 through a joint calendar.• With V1: V3 depends on V1 for synoptic indications. There was agreement that V1 will provide core biophysical characterization by the end of the rainy season (available in less than 4 months) but the meeting clarified that V1 will not be in a position to provide an historical evolution of these characters. V3 provided to V1 the coordinates of core sites during the workshop and it will provide to V1 the characterization of its pilot-sites (as far as produced & validated). V3 will provide V1 with \"indicators\" (success-stories) which V3 is currently clarifying with V2 and will share with V1 by the end of June. The WEAP fine resolution is available from V1, possibly for the Zebilla site and will be shared with V3. • With V2 on multiple use systems. V3 & V2 recognized that they had not interacted sufficiently thus far, in particular because of site selection issues. They will need to intensify exchange and communication, for example by exchanging their mailing lists and facilitate interactions. V3 will provide available data related to the Nariarlé Basin (as already done with V1; layers) and the teams will look into sharing websites. V3 and V2 agreed to use the Adaptive Management opportunity open by the CWPF to collaborate on specific issues / sites identified before 2012 (already scheduled).V4 was hampered by the absence of its team leader and felt that they could not commit to new activities without consulting with him. However, linkages were identified as follows:• With V1: The team found it relatively difficult to identify linkages with V1 and where input could be provided. Nevertheless, the team offered to look at the V1 protocol for case studies when it is ready and to advise (where possible) on what are good social proxies (e.g. organization of the community, access to information etc.) that are important for adoption of agricultural water management (AWM) interventions.• With V3: Data analysis for policy and governance. They recognized that there is need for more communication and open data sharing between the teams. • With V2 and V3: V4 could provide input at local level, through stakeholder platforms, to these teams and feed policy, institutional and governance analysis to provide understanding of how these factors shape local context and choices. Continual communication and data sharing were also highlighted to avoid duplication; • With V5: it was suggested that V5 could provide help by illustrating the work schedules and aim at synchronization of activities.Capacity building was identified as a gap and the question raised in which project and how capacity building for farmers will be addressed. The suggestion was made that each project could identify ways in which they are building capacity of farmers in different ways (e.g. innovation platforms, participatory action research, etc.).Representatives of the V5 team were present at each of the bilateral meetings. The team will ensure better coordination and synchronization of activities. They will meet more regularly henceforth to follow up on the coordination task. However, they request the other Vs to provide information on who does what and when. Outputs from some projects may not be directly useable by end users; V5 will provide the support to interpret the results to make them useable at that levelThe discussion following these presentations focused on:• The need to have a systematic way to capture the research processes resulting from the 'consciousness' for better links and communication that the teams reported and to systematically document changes that affect the research for development (e.g. through process documentation/analysis). Apart from the research processes, the stakeholder engagement processes are equally important.As many projects integrate this approach in their work, it will be good to analyze how it is affecting the research and how together, these are leading to development outcomes. • How to capture innovation processes arising from the BDC, i.e. both the internal research and external engagement processes. A framework to do this was suggested with a request to V5 to support the teams in using it, and in accepting that this additional work load could lead to delays in research activities. V3 reported that they have a person on board who will 'catch' innovation and progress (through a journal) with their participatory modeling component. • Sharing data was discussed controversially, with suggestions reaching from an open door policy within the VBDC and to provide data on request, to putting data onto a central repository. Who has access to what kind of data (raw data, meta data) was debated. The issue was raised that data generated by one partner might not be useful for another because the need for the additional use is not defined up front. A suggestion was put forward to establish a Core Group with members of each team to reflect on consistency of data formats. The issue of IPR was also raised. The possibility of each data generator keeping raw data and V5 holding meta data with information on where data on which subject might be found was raised and it seems that this was finally agreed as a workable solution.• Emerging topics from this discussion were participatory modeling and learning alliances.• Communication was also another issue of concern raised at this point but discussed in depth during Day 3.The reception provided an opportunity to relax and get to know one another better.After the facilitator provided a quick feedback on sessions 1 and 2 from the previous day, the projects each reported back from their bilateral meetings and outcomes from the consecutive discussions (see above for details).Objectives: To learn from other basins and capitalize on other ongoing activities to which we can contribute.This was organized as an Open Space session with four consecutive stations in the four corners of the room. Participants were split into four groups and spent about 20 minutes at each station before moving on to the next. There are only 3 sites, all in Ethiopia, and all projects are led by either IWMI or ILRI with the other Centre's interaction. This setup facilitates interaction among project teams and the integration of research across projects. The lessons from the NBDC can be drawn from the aspects of science, communication and partnership. The scientific research at the NBDC is beyond water but also covering market, technical, social and institutional dimensions.The initial phase of Nile work carried out projects in all the countries in the Nile Basin. However, the projects had little connection to one another and there was a feeling that they did not add up to a cohesive whole. So, for the second phase, it was decided that for better coordination of the research and for greater impact, the Nile project should focus on the Blue Nile and the Ethiopian highlands. The N4 project will then deal with the effects of RWM on the entire basin through modeling.We engage with national partners at a variety of levels (from local to national) and in a variety of ways (through on-the-ground research to innovation platforms to integrating our work into national policy and development initiatives). National partners include government departments, universities and national research institutes.Nile uses wiki, a blog, and yammer (internet based tools) and also tries to have monthly meetings. Those who are not able to attend as they reside outside of Ethiopia are connected to the meetings through Webex. While Nile still struggles with communication, most members are now using the tools and communication has improved. It must be noted however that people were 'forced' into it especially the use of the wiki, as they were constantly (daily) compelled to visit the wiki site if they wanted any information on the program. We also have the advantage that most of us are in one office in Ethiopia.We interact through our baseline studies and through innovation platforms. Also, we will be starting a participatory video activity in each site in which communities will be engaged to make their own videos about their concerns and constraints with regards to water management. These videos will be used in the innovation platforms and for various communication activities throughout the project.The sites in the NBDC were chosen to represent a continuum of land-use/farming systems in the Ethiopian highlands as well as different levels of land degradation.Again, as we are all more or less located in one office, interaction is pretty easy and the monthly meetings help. In addition, the NBDC project was conceived first as a whole and unified project with a common agenda and then divided up in 5 component projects. This is a bit different from the Volta basin.The Limpopo BDC is similar to Volta BDC in that it started roughly at the same time and is also designed around 5 similar projects. There are six sites in four countries (South Africa, Zimbabawe, Mozambique and Botswana). No one project is alone in a site. At least two projects take place in any one site, thus data sharing is not a prominent problem in this BDC, rather project teams are working together, in development of research protocols, engaging stakeholders, site visits and other outreach activities. The L2 and L3 link the LBDC to national partners and to the private sector (e.g. the fertilizer company through the innovation platform of L3). The coordination & change project L5 is building upon a well-established policy network of FANRPAN with GWP and WaterNet (and their networks) as key partners. One achievement is the contribution of high level delegates (head of SADC water division, Provincial heads of Agriculture in the four countries) into the LBDC research design, site selection and the research processes. This has not only shaped the research direction but has enhanced the commitment (in terms of human and financial) of policy makers in the on-going research.The questions by participants centred around similar issues as for the Nile above: communication of project partners and external audiences, data and information sharing, cross-project linkages & integration, how innovation platforms work in L3 and linkages with decision makers, which the Limpopo Coordination project tries to develop as proactively as possible.There are 6 basins and several cross-cutting working groups on specific topics of common interest; Can include past research or emerging messages. Important that the topic is relevant to the Basin Challenge.There will be teams from the six basins (about 20-25 persons), leaders of the Topic Working Groups, CP Secretariat, key players at the global level and media. Expected are about 250 participants. The Team leaders will coordinate participation; each team has funds available in their budget for the participation of several members.This is at the discretion of the Basin Leader/Coordination & Change project. There will be one Basin representative on the Policy Panel.There was a brief introduction by the facilitator which was further expanded by the Basin Leader. The researchers were encouraged to revisit their 'theory of change' to ensure that the pathways initially designed are still valid having gone through the inception phase. The activity took place in the five project teams. Teams were encouraged to work in three steps and to use elements of their existing milestone plans and workplans so as to avoid to create an entirely new document: when? (resource implications)A quick round of feedback revealed the following progress:The team has had a head start on this exercise as the leader had done a similar exercise earlier and came with a draft plan..Following the instructions given and earlier comments on a draft outcome target indicator and baseline plan, they focused on two outcome pathways, learning alliances with policy makers and action research with farmers and traders and defined SMART indicators, as well as methods and time line for tracking changes.By the end of the allocated time, the team was still at Step 1 but profited from clarifications by the Basin Leader. They would therefore continue to work on the OLM and aim to translate expected changes into what can be tracked.Indicators and monitoring approaches have been developed in the OITB spreadsheet of the inception report. The team reviewed this and noted that the indicators will allow monitoring the progress made during implementation of the companion modeling approach\".The team is planning to reduce its output pathways from 4 to 3 and processed 2 during the discussion. They will continue to work on the OLMs during a meeting following the inception workshop.The Basin Leader reminded the participants that the outcomes of the revised outcome pathways would have to be incorporated into the pending revisions of the inception reports. There was the suggestion that each project team designates a person as a focal point for tracking changes but no conclusions were reached on this.Objective: To summarize and share the achievements of the day.The facilitator provided a brief recap of the day's activities and discussions and informed the delegates of the plans for the following day. This led to a discussion about consecutive working groups (based on burning issues) for the next afternoon session. The following topics were sdiscussed:• Internal and external communications need further discussion following the presentations by the communications team planned for tomorrow. • Several projects manage different kinds of innovation platforms at different scales.There is need to discuss the links and opportunities further. • Several projects are using scenarios at different scale. A working group was suggested to look into how to harmonize the 'story lines'. • The suggestion was made to allow for space to continue some of the bilateral meetings from the previous day. This was then expanded to include links to other basins as well.• The day would also provide a forum for in-country discussions following the official launch.Objective: Launching the Volta BDC and creating awareness of its activities to a wide range of stakeholders.Following the introduction, the Basin Leader Dr Olufunke Cofie gave a brief introduction to the Challenge Program Water and Food and explained that it had been operating in its First Phase 2003-2008 in ten basins with a large number of projects.After evaluating the outcomes from this approach and the research results, Phase 2 was designed building upon the lessons from the previous work. Phase 2 has fewer projects, operates in only six basins and aims at better integration across basins and with other initiatives. It has an integrated strategy, combining policy, environment, institutions and technologies. Moving on Dr Cofie provided an overview of the Volta Basin, straddling the countries of Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, Benin, and highlighted some of its pertinent challenges which center around inefficient rainwater and small reservoir management. Therefore the goal of the Volta Basin Development Challenge is to \"Improve rainwater and small reservoir management in Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana to contribute to poverty reduction and improved livelihoods resilience while taking account of downstream and upstream water users including ecosystem services.\" The presentation concluded in the hope that the successful Volta Basin Development Challenge would have achieved the development of a decision support system and recommendations for appropriate management of water resources in the basin.Dr Salifou then addressed the participants, stating that CSIR is very interested in the upcoming research program, having been actively involved in its Phase 1. He said that CSIR, and the DG personally, would do their best to support the activities and that he was looking forward to further exchange with colleagues in Burkina Faso, as Ghana could learn a lot from its neighbours on water harvesting and water management.Dr Koanda in his address mentioned the importance of a strong monitoring and evaluation system and information sharing. He stressed the importance of good communication amongst the team and assured the program of the support of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources.Mr Fiangor, speaking on behalf of the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Ghana, congratulated everyone on their work so far. He encouraged the researchers to carry out work that is really relevant to the end users, farmers. He also encouraged the researchers to develop constant dialogue with policy makers so that there will be joint agreement on the research direction. He ended by wishing the participants and delegates a fruitful launch of the programme.Dr Traoré spoke on behalf of the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation. He stated the big issues still concerning Burkina Faso's agriculture but mentioned that there are also big opportunities for development. Some recent accomplishments included assessments of water needs for staple crops millet, sorghum and maize, redistribution of water downstream and spatial characterization of water use in Burkina Faso. INERA is the organization in Burkina Faso responsible for agricultural research, and it was well represented in the Volta BDC, including several scientists who had been active in CPWF's Phase 1. Dr Traoré expressed the Minister's gratitude to donors and funders of the research and assured the delegates that the Ministry will provide the necessary support to the projects and to INERA. He wished all success to the projects in their aim to contribute to the improvement of the livelihoods of people in the Volta Basin.Finally, Mr Tabi spoke on behalf of the Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Ghana. He stated that the research provides an opportunity for researchers in Ghana and the basin neighbours to collaborate on important issues and forge new partnerships. The research and CPWF's agenda were in line with the government's development strategies to increase agricultural productivity and to reach food security in an environmentally sustainable way. Therefore the launch of the Volta BDC came at exactly the right time. He assured the delegates of the Minister's wish to provide all necessary support that this research will make an impact on the improvement of the lives of our people.Having said that, Mr Tabi officially declared the Volta Basin Development Challenge launched.Objective: To discuss strategic issues about opportunities and challenges in the Volta BDC countries and at regional level.Participants broke into three groups, discussing opportunities and prevailing gaps for Burkina Faso, Ghana and the regional level.The participants from Burkina Faso compared the Poverty Reduction Development Plan (PRDP) with the strategy of VBDC and found that there is a core compliance in: poverty reduction, improved resilience and sustainable development. They then compared the Specific Objectives with the VBDC strategy and listed which projects aligned to these and at the same time identified a few gaps: The group listed that the activities of the Volta BDC added value to ongoing initiatives by providing and contributing to platforms for information exchange and data sharing with other basins and also with additional partners within and beyond the Volta Basin, such as the ABN (Niger Basin Authority). VBDC is also providing important support to the capacity strengthening of partners. Therefore, Burkina Faso is interested in contributing to the VBDC as good synergies were identified.The Ghana group listed the key development challenges for the country and agreed that rainwater harvesting and management of small reservoirs were key issues, thus there was a clear link to the VBDC. They identified as development goals: poverty reduction, food security and wealth creation. The VBDC provided opportunities in developing a decision support that could be translated to reach farmers, for example on topics such as:• Effective rain water harvesting, • Good conservation strategies, • Capacity building for the people in the grass root.The hope was expressed that with the help of V5, the information could be 'translated' to influence policy by informing policy makers and especially the National Planning Commission of Ghana, which was seen as a key partner agency. The VBDC provided a good opportunity for Learning Alliances.Links between large and small reservoirs were identified as gaps that should be addressed as well as testing management systems under different climate scenarios. Some partners that should be included closer into the activities were listed: Lastly, value could be added to ongoing initiatives by networking and harmonizing activities coupled with periodic auditing.The regional group reported back by stating that some broad issues were now receiving greater attention, for example Climate Change, thus it was necessary to continuously pay attention to opportunities. The group listed a large number of regional players which could play roles in VBDC, such as: • ECOWAS -this was a particularly important group as they also had increasing visibility in the region It was important to link to the private sector and technical sectors such as the energy sector.The group also identified an important external driver for change in the increasing foreign direct investment in land. Such private land deals are often made without a concern on the water resources and can have negative implications to water access by small-holders but also to the rice, cocoa and cassava sectors. Local private sector act as intermediaries. It was highlighted that CPWF research should be mindful of these developments and contribute research results that will inform decisions on these issues. Such large land use will have implications for water access and availability by small holders. We need to understand what the thresholds and tradeoffs are for such large land leasing for foreign investors. Some of the problems are compounded by lack of multi-sectoral planning so perhaps VBDC or VBA platforms can constitute avenues through which some of these issues can be addressed. It was discussed that the VBDC need to be up to date with:• ongoing or new regional initiatives;• what donors want and interested in now;• other water competitors that can affect water availability and access;• private sector involvement in the value chain and possible contribution to microcredit;• ecological services at different scale, which are important, not only the productive use of water which has dominated the VBDC so far.Objective: To achieve a common understanding of how to communicate within the team and with other stakeholders and to achieve common understanding of other key issues: data sharing, scenarios at different levels and opportunities and needs for intra-and inter-basin links.The session started with a couple of presentations about the CPWF Communications Strategy and its direct implication on the Volta BDC and on the communications audit recently carried out by V5.Mr Michael Victor, CPWF Communications Coordinator, highlighted the differences between conventional communications (to inform, a more passive way of passing information, one-way, publications in journals and usually at the end of the research process) and R4D communication (aiming to change perceptions, a continuous and iterative two-way dialogue, from the start of the research processes). He pointed out the different roles of communication at program, basin and project levels and that there were different target groups at different levels.Some guidelines were presented that CPWF is suggesting to the BDCs:• The second presentation by Mr Mahamoudou Sawadogo and Mr Sidi Coulibaly focused on the communications audit. The objectives of this audit were to make sure that communication objectives and tools to be used in projects are linked to project objectives; to be able to develop a basin-wide communication strategy and to allow for an exchange on operational issues related to the Volta Basin communications strategy with project teams. The audit was based on the communication plans as presented in the five project documents. The key outputs of the audit related to five areas:• Target groups, which are in 6 key clusters -farmers and communities; extension agents; researchers and academics; policy makers; donors and investors; NGOs; • Communication goals, which included data sharing, dissemination of findings, awareness raising on water management issues; • Communication tools: needed are various forms such as website, wiki, email, central database, audiovisual and printed materials; • Plans to share project outputs/printed materials and publications include multistakeholder platforms, networking, participatory and action research are the approaches favoured for carrying out outreach activities. Output material would be made freely available at various events and opportunities (field days, forum, TWG, etc.); • Resources -only a few teams have made adequate human and financial resources available for the communication they plan; the range was from 7-18% of budget.A few issues were then highlighted to be discussed in the following working groups.The next steps following from this audit now include;• Initially two distinct groups were planned for internal and external communication but these were then combined.Objective: To identify the information needs, identify key target groups and reach agreement on common communication tools and their use.etc); • Learning Alliance at the Regional/District Level to enhance stakeholder capacity V3• Participatory Model at the Regional/District Level; Opportunities include to plan to engage common platforms at the same time.Objective: To follow up on the bilateral meetings; to identify opportunities to link with other basins and suggest mechanisms for exchange and learning.The group noted that the mechanics for achieving linkages were already available and included CPWF Yammer and project wiki. It however agreed that, although V5 started later than the other V projects, it was necessary to continue to develop and refine a common vision amongst the projects and suggested that there should be an outcome pathway at Basin Level. The group also noted that there has been continuous interaction between the various projects since the beginning of the Volta BDC, notably through speed dating. As a follow up, the highlights identified during such interaction should put into practice by the various projects as part implementation activities on the field.The group recognized that whilst the Volta BDC is already linking to other basins (viz. the participation of Limpopo and Nile basin representatives) there is much more that could be done. There is the need to sign up to other initiatives such as Topic Working Groups, the proposed African Platform, African Network of Basin Organizations and International Network of Basin Organizations. It would also be useful to develop or strengthen exchanges across basins with respect to the common projects in the BDCs. The group agreed that V5 will take the lead in developing story lines, because V5 has the overview and interacts with high level officials (who probably have important visions on the storylines). This could also be part of activity 'learning from the past' that is taking place through V2. V5 will allocate a person for 1-3 months to work on this story line development.There is an urgent need for these storylines so that projects are aligned. An overview of pending activities reliant on story lines was provided: • V2: will set up IP's within a month and start planning on-farm experiments.• V3: within a month is planning an important workshop with all kinds of different stakeholders. • V4: will have a stakeholder platform in September 2010.The facilitator gave a brief recap of all the outcomes from the day's sessions and then the Basin Leader wrapped up the workshop by providing a list of next steps, including:• Workshop report circulated by 15 June; • revised inception reports submitted by 7 June;• Abstract for IFWF3 submitted by 15 July but need to be submitted to V5 earlier (by 20 June); • Basin-wide field tour -suggested for 2012 as most have used up their travel budget for 2011; • IFWF3, in South Africa 15-17 November 2011. Delegates to be determined;• Communications system in place by end of June; • Website operational by July.It is important that all basin team members have access to the VBDC wiki site in order to stay connected. A sheet was put up for everyone to put their names and emails down in case they were not yet connected to the site.For end of workshop evaluation, participants were given green and red cards and asked to provide a few words on each on issues they particularly liked and particularly disliked, respectively.  ","tokenCount":"7467"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"35bfd2c303a8ec68ca15a514675bae08","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c56a4bdb-b467-4c98-ba51-364a53b6ee17/retrieve","id":"1825051150"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"0c18ab3b-d9a2-4cf9-9309-08b84d606866","pagecount":"22","content":"• Aquaculture is gendered not only in terms of roles, but also in terms of enabling and constraining factors and multi-faceted costs and benefits • The gendered nature of participation in and the benefits women/men derive from aquaculture affects development outcomes • These gendered patterns need further examination and elucidation within and across contexts• To identify the gendered patterns of access to and benefits from small-scale fish aquaculture within and across the WorldFish focal countries  • Qualitative analysis was done using predefined categories. • New categories that emerged were used as analytical categories • Literature seems to address gender as representing men and women's roles and responsibilities and differences • Few studies went further to discuss the underlying reason for these gendered roles and responsibilities within the context of study and/or use theories to explain their findings.Continuing and completing analysis • Revise or add additional categories or angle of analysisPhoto by Karolina KwasekParting thoughts/Feedback on the way forward?• Work in progress • Any thoughts on whether these categories seems to work?• If there are any other priority angles or categories to break these down further?  By authors?  North vs South  Other suggestions?Thank You","tokenCount":"196"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"274c11d8f50329d176e9f176b1fbace0","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2b9a8eb4-2ecf-4d84-bc19-86ccc0274e50/retrieve","id":"-1768413825"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"e437d729-f8d6-4c17-9ddf-c6916a9f1080","pagecount":"10","content":"Conservation agriculture is an approach to agricultural management based on three principles:Combining no-till with residue retention increases the potential for carbon sequestration by increasing biomass inputs to the soil. Permanent soil cover with crop residues or mulch provides a constant source of fresh organic material, some of which is converted into stable carbon fractions that remain in the soil for millennia. Residue cover also protects the soil from erosion by wind and water. Rotating with a leguminous crop helps balance the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio of crop residues, which allows nitrogen from decaying surface residues to be released slowly and serve as a source for the following crop.Soil texture, mineralogy, temperature, and moisture interact with management practices to determine the rate of soil carbon accumulation, which makes it difficult to provide general guidelines on potential soil carbon stock changes with CA practices. Computer models such as Rothamsted C and Century, once validated for a specific place or farm system, can be useful in predicting how management practices will affect soil carbon.Increasing soil carbon only mitigates climate change if it represents an additional net transfer of carbon from atmosphere to land. In the case of adding crop residues, this balance depends on the alternate fate of the residue material. For example, if crop residues would otherwise be used as animal bedding that would be composted and applied to fields, an increase in SOC from crop residues does not necessarily imply a mitigation benefit over the alternative. Where crop residues are often burned, such as in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, residue retention presents a mitigation opportunity.Other changes associated with uptake of CA, such as reduced machinery use and direct seeding of rice instead of continuous flooding, also represent mitigation opportunities.Further reading: Verhulst et al.2012, Powlson et al. 2011, Powlson et al. 2014 longest experience with CA, where the principles have been practiced since the 1970s and CA now covers over 25 million hectares. CA spread from Brazil to other South American countries, and is widely practiced in Paraguay and Uruguay as well (Table 1). African farmers have adopted CA in the last 15 years, but at slower rates. Little data is available on adoption in Asian countries.Stable yields. The water-and soil-conserving effects of CA help to stabilize yields against weather extremes. Often, CA increases average yields in the long term.Drought buffering. CA increases soil water content by increasing infiltration and reducing runoff and evaporation. Increased infiltration improves water use efficiency and buffers crops against drought. Mulch cover also buffers the soil against temperature extremes. For example, in rainfed semi-arid highlands of Mexico, soil water content during dry periods was 10-20 mm higher in maize fields under CA than in those with conventional tillage and residue removal. Infiltration was on average 24-38 mm per ha greater on CA fields in southern Africa as compared to conventionally tilled plots.  Program and FAOSTAT, 2014.) Reduced field preparation costs. CA reduces costs associated with tillage, whether manual or by machinery. In mechanized rice-wheat systems in India, field operational costs were 15% lower under CA. In manual maize systems in Malawi, CA fields required 20% less labor than conventional ridge and furrow fields. The reduction in field preparations with CA also allows timelier planting, which supports successful harvests.Reduced soil erosion: Reducing tillage and maintaining soil cover with crop residues can reduce erosion by up to 80%. CA also generally increases soil organic matter in topsoil, as well as soil biological activity and biodiversity.Climate change mitigation. CA can mitigate climate change by accumulating carbon in soil, though this benefit may not be as large on a global level as has been hoped. Climate change mitigation should not be the only policy driver for the promotion of CA.Though CA practices can provide multiple benefits, experience shows several common constraints to its adoption.Wetlands and soils that have poor drainage are generally challenging for CA. Heavy mulch can slow drying and cause disease problems, and increased water infiltration can exacerbate drainage problems.Sufficient availability of crop residues or other mulch. If crop yields are very low (i.e. areas of less than 500 mm rainfall in Africa), there may be insufficient quantity of residues to effectively practice CA. The need for crop residues as livestock feed is also a common constraint to CA practice. See Making more milk and leaving more residues below.Affordable access to fertilizer and herbicides. In some cases, appropriate use of fertilizers as a complement to legume residues is necessary when initiating CA to increase crop yields and available quantity of crop residues. Nitrogen inputs also help avoid yield penalties with CA, as large carbon inputs to the soil in the form of mulch can promote nitrogen immobilization by microorganisms, making it unavailable for crops.Weed control. Weeds are a major challenge in smallholder cropping systems. Eliminating tillage sometimes increases weed pressure in the early years of CA adoption, but weeds decrease over time if controlled well. Many adaptations of CA use herbicides to control weeds. Delayed yield benefits. While CA sometimes increases yields in the long term, farmers may need to wait 3 to 7 years to see yield increases. It takes time for farmers to gain experience with CA, and the improvement of soil structure and fertility is a slow process. More immediate benefits are likely to be related to savings in labor or other costs. As with other long-term investments in sustainability, insecure land tenure presents an additional challenge for practicing CA. Researchers at CIMMYT have conducted long-term rain-fed experiments with CA at their research station in El Batán, located in the semi-arid, subtropical highlands of Central Mexico. This CA research involved a maizewheat rotation with no tillage and retention of all residues, in contrast to the conventional practice of continuous wheat or maize with heavy tillage before planting and removal of all crop residues for fodder. Appropriate herbicides and fertilizers were used in all treatments at the same level (Figure 2). All field operations were mechanized.Average maize grain yields from1997 to 2009 were 50% greater under CA than under continuous maize with conventional tillage and residue removal: an average yield benefit of 1.8 tons per ha. Yields were also more stable: the drought-buffering benefit of CA was particularly apparent in 2009, an unusually dry year (Figure 2). Yield benefits became apparent only after about 5 years. This long-term trial also demonstrates the importance of the crop rotation and residue retention principles of CA. In semi-arid environments, zerotillage can have the counterintuitive effect of degrading soils and reducing yields when residues are not retained.Carbon stocks in the 0-60 cm soil layer were 70% higher (48 Mg per ha) after 18 years under CA than those under continuous maize with conventional tillage and residue removal (Figure 3). There was no significant difference in CH 4 and N 2 O emissions between CA and the conventional treatment.  Govaerts et al. 2012.) india: faster planting, less fuelThe most common cropping system in the Ingo-Gangetic Plain of India is a rice-wheat rotation, which generally requires intensive tillage before rice is planted. However, farmers in the Northwest Indo-Gangetic Plain have begun adopting a zero-tillage system for the wheat crop. Wheat planting is done with a tractor-drawn zero-till seed drill that plants seeds directly into unplowed fields, sometimes applying fertilizer at the same time, which eliminates the need for multiple tractor passes. Zero-till thus reduces the turnaround time between rice and wheat crops and allows timelier planting of wheat. On-farm trials have shown yield gains between 1% and 15% (0.05 and 0.63 tons per ha), due to timelier planting and decreased emergence of an herbicide-resistant weed that is a particular problem in the area, even though other weeds were more abundant.Long-term effects of zero-till on soil carbon have not yet been evaluated in the Ingo-Gangetic Plains, and soil carbon gains are unlikely, as the rice crop is still intensively tilled, and crop residues-an essential component of CA for maintaining soil carbon-are generally burned or fed to animals. Researchers are working on options to reduce the need for intensive land preparation for rice, thereby bringing both rice and wheat under zero-tillage.Further reading: Erenstein and Laxmi 2008, Jat et al. 2014, Saharawat et al. 2010 malawi: positive yield trends While manually dug planting basins have been promoted in rainfed maize systems of Malawi, farmers prefer the use of a pointed stick for planting maize directly into crop residues. This method is closer to the traditional method of planting with hand hoes. Because most farmers do not have enough land for crop rotations, some use an edible grain legume intercrop between the maize rows.In on-farm experiments with rainfed maize at four sites in Malawi, CA out-yielded the conventional ridge and furrow system (Figure 4). Over the seven years of the experiments, the yield benefits of the two CA treatments were initially variable and occasionally negative, but the long-term trend was toward positive and increasing yield benefits, likely due to higher water infiltration rates and greater water conservation under CA. The legume intercrop did not seem to provide an additional yield benefit, but neither did there seem to be competition with the maize crop.Unlike the expriments at research stations in Mexico and Zambia, researchers found no differences in carbon stocks between the CA and farmer practice treatments in Malawi.Further reading: Thierfelder et al. 2013, Ngwira et al. 2012 ZamBia: larger yields, But diffiCulties with interCropping A variety of CA methods are practiced in Zambia. Smallholder farmers often dig permanent, narrow planting basins with a specialized hoe, reducing soil disturbance to 10% of the field. Farmers also use animal traction rippers and in some cases animal traction direct seeders, originally imported from Brazil. In other areas, farmers plant seeds into crop residues by hand with pointed sticks. Maize is mostly rotated or intercropped with grain legumes or cotton under CA. In a multi-site, multi-practice comparison of CA with conventional farming practices in Zambia, the yield benefits of CA emerged only after several years. In on-farm experiments, animal-traction CA methods with legume rotation had 75-91% higher maize yields (a yield benefit of over 3 tons per ha) after six cropping seasons. However, intercropping was not as successful as crop rotation: maize yields in the maize-cowpea intercrop were significantly lower than the maize-cowpea rotation because the intercrop made control On-station showed that CA treatments increased water infiltration and soil moisture as well as soil carbon to the 30 cm level. The CA treatment with maize-cotton rotation had 32 Mg C per ha after 6 years, compared to 23 Mg C per ha in the conventional ploughed treatment. There was no difference in soil carbon in on-farm experiments, likely due to farmers' difficulty retaining adequate residues in the field.Further reading : Thierfelder, Mwila, Rusinamhodzi 2013 OvercOming challenges tO ca adOptiOn Existing CA technologies are not universally applicable, but innovative thinking in the promotion of CA can help expand the conditions where CA is possible. Two case studies provide examples.Though challenges still exist to full CA adoption in the Indo-Gangetic Plain of South Asia, the area is benefitting from substantial adoption of zero-till wheat production. As of a 2004 study, 34.5% of surveyed rice-wheat farmers in India's Haryana state were practicing zero tillage in their wheat crop. This success is due largely to the emergence of local innovation systems involving researchers, innovative farmers, state and local government and commercial firms.Impetus for zero-till originally came from concern over accelerating soil erosion. However, adoption depended on the availability of adequate planting equipment. In the early 1990s, member organizations of the Rice-Wheat Consortium for the Indo-Gangetic Plain introduced the zero-till seed drill originally developed in Australia: a tractor-mounted implement that allows farmers to plant seeds and apply fertilizer directly into untilled soil. After several years of participatory research with farmers, farmer demand for the implements grew. The private sector saw market opportunities, and several manufacturers became involved. As more seed drills were manufactured, state and local governments provided subsidies for their purchase and helped set up village demonstration stations.Several factors were critical to adoption of zero-till in Haryana.Most importantly, the practice provided immediate demonstrable benefits for farmers: shorter turnaround time between rice and wheat crops, reduced pressure from a persistent, herbicideresistant weed and savings in fuel and labor. Institutional support, in the forms of equipment subsidies and research and extension activities, also helped facilitate adoption. Village demonstration systems, established by government researchers, were critical to overcoming initial skepticism about the possibility of growing wheat without intensive tillage.Participants in a CIMMYT workshop in India examine a zero tillage seeder. The left-hand tank contains small-grain seed, and the right-hand tank contains fertilizer, which is applied in the same pass as the seed.Challenges remain in terms of the equitability of zero-till technology. Adoption of zero-till has been higher among larger, more commercial farmers. While the technology is theoretically available to smallholders via zero-till service providers, they have been slower adopt CA. This may be due to lack of knowledge or differential benefits for small and large farmers, and it highlights the importance of considering intra-community differences when adapting CA in a region.Further reading: Erenstein et al. 2012, Erenstein andFarooq 2009 making more milk and leaving more residuesLeaving crop residues in the field is one of the best opportunities for sub-Saharan African farmers to maintain land in a productive state, as other organic materials (such as manure) are often scarce or too bulky to transport to fields. However, competition between using crop residues as mulch and feeding them to livestock is a major cause for the slow adoption of CA in sub-Saharan Africa.There is a potential solution: to reduce livestock demand for crop residues by promoting use of more energy-dense feed rations for animals. An analysis of mixed crop-livestock farms in Western Kenya and Ethiopia's Rift Valley showed that by closing the maize yield gap and replacing some maize residues with napier grass, soya bean meal,and molasses in the diets of dairy cattle, most farmers would be able to retain at least 1 t per ha of crop residues in their fields. A second benefit would be increased livestock productivity.Intensifying livestock productivity in this manner is most appropriate for market-oriented farmers who can afford to pay for the inputs and have incentives for higher productivity. In western Kenya, for example, there is a strong market for milk products, providing farmers an incentive to increase productivity and profitability by shifting to high-yielding breeds that are fed high-energy fodders and feed supplements.This example highlights the need to focus on farming systems rather than single practices when promoting CA, especially where there are competing demands for crop residues. It also demonstrates that factors at multiple scales-such as farm-level economics and regional markets-will determine the success of CA. Making CA practices possible may depend on first addressing infrastructural issues.Further reading: Baudron et al. 2013 less labor for whom? Understanding gender dimensions of Ca CA can reduce labor and drudgery on the farm. However, some changes associated with a shift to CA practices affect men and women differently, and consideration of these is necessary to avoid adverse impacts from CA adoption.Experiences from Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia have shown that CA generally decreases labor requirements for land preparation and weeding, especially when herbicides are used. This is a benefit for women and children, who are generally responsible for mid-season weeding. However, as farmers often hire off-farm labor for this activity, it can also eliminate an income source for landless women and men.Significant changes in crop rotations also have genderrelated impacts. Cash crops such as cotton are generally the domain of men, and adding these to a crop rotation may increase men's control over farming income. In contrast, leguminous crops such as groundnuts and beans are often cultivated by women, whose crops and corresponding incomes have been shown to contribute more to household food security than men's.A recent analysis by socio-economists at CIMMYT provides guidance for considering the differing impacts on men and women associated with adoption of CA.The analysis suggests that a sound gender analysis is necessary at the planning and design phase of any policy or intervention. Table 2 provides examples of questions specific to CA that can help illuminate how experiences might be different for women and men.In the implementation phase, learning and extension should take a gender-transformative approach that addresses gender relations within meetings and field demonstrations. Such approaches can have positive effects, not only for the uptake of CA but also on the relationships between men and women, their roles, and access to resources.Further reading: Beuchelt andBadstue 2013, Milder et al. 2011 Table 2. Examples of guiding questions to explore potential effects of CA on women and men in smallholder agricultural systems. (Selection from Beuchelt & Badstue 2013.) implicatiOns fOr climate-smart agriculture initiatives Mitigation-adaptation synergies are possible. CA has been shown to increase water productivity in dry areas, and can help buffer against the decreasing and more erratic rainfall likely under future climate change. Contributions to climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration are also possible, and depend on increasing inputs of organic matter to the soil.Anticipate delayed benefits. In most cases, yield benefits with CA can take several years to emerge. Farmers are more likely to adopt CA-and continue the practices-when they can see other benefits such as reduced fuel or labor. Pairing CA promotion with fertilizer can help provide an immediate yield benefit and increase crop residues as long as it does not become a \"payment\" for continued practice of CA.Consider capacities, resources and regional contexts. Targeting CA promotion effectively requires examining factors at multiple scales: farm, village and region. Capacities and resources of farmers, village land tenure patterns and regional infrastructure such as roads and markets can all determine the success of CA.Be flexible. CA practices are a means to an end, not the end in themselves. The particular technologies involved in CA differ markedly between countries, and even regions within a country. Sometimes a particular practice (e.g. crop rotation) may be dropped altogether. Policies to scale up CA should not be overly prescriptive, as local adaptation by farmers is necessary and desired.Look beyond the crops. Some opportunities-such as associating support for CA with efforts to increase livestock productivity-are not immediately obvious. Adaptation to climate change often requires shifts in entire farming systems, and CA practices may be just one piece of the puzzle.©FAO/D. Hayduk","tokenCount":"3043"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e709436cb37126e72b937c4bffeccb20","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/9ddaab8a-5d4a-4fef-9875-45e053a95b24/retrieve","id":"-96508062"},"keywords":["Border Carbon Adjustment","Carbon tax","Consumption tax","Greenhouse gas","Global warming","VAT","WTO"],"sieverID":"b0521365-db28-43c0-ad91-6416ce719343","pagecount":"23","content":"Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) may play an important role in lowering the economic costs of greenhouse gas mitigation and in overcoming political-economy constraints on use of carbon taxes or equivalent measures. A carbon tax plus a full BCA could deal with the competitiveness challenges arising from carbon taxes by using the WTO's National Treatment principle to apply equal levies on domestic production and on imports, and by symmetrically rebating the carbon tax on exports in the manner of a value-added tax (VAT) export rebate. This approach would shift the base for carbon taxation from production to demand and potentially achieve substantial reductions in the cost of cutting emissions. It would avoid the massive measurement and compliance problems associated with BCAs based on foreign emission intensities. By contrast, import-only BCAs distort prices of importables relative to exportables; create divisive trade conflicts and deterioration in the terms of trade for developing countries; and likely require development of complex sets of import preferences.Now that current European Commission proposals are being implemented, the world is on the verge of introducing a new trade measure of border carbon adjustments (BCAs) on a large scale (European Commission (EC) 2020, 2021). These measures, which combine environmental and trade policies by levying border adjustments based on the estimated social costs of greenhouse gas emissions, could have enormous implications for both economic and environmental outcomes in both developed and developing countries. The tax rates involved would likely dwarf current tariffs.An extensive literature has examined potential proposals for BCAs to accompany carbon taxes, or equivalents such as emission trading schemes (ETS), in Energy Intensive and Trade Exposed (EITE) industries (see, for example, Böhringer, Balistreri and Rutherford 2012) in a situation where some countries introduce carbon taxes but others are unwilling to do so. This literature has generated important insights into the potential impacts of these measures. In particular, it suggests that BCAs frequently can reduce the cost of cutting emissions relative to use of carbon taxes (or emission trading systems) alone, although the reasons why this might be so do not seem to have been spelled out.Interpretations based on this literature tend to suggest that import barrier mechanisms are much more important than export rebate mechanisms although, as noted by Cosbey et al (2019), this is partly because the industries on which attention has focused are import competing in the richer countries for which they have been analyzed most intensively. Given that a system of carbon taxes would likely need to be expanded, and the rates applied to increase over time if sufficient abatement is to be achieved, it seems dangerous to rely on insights from a subset of products in today's industrial countries. As the coverage of carbon taxes is expanded either geographically or by commodity, they must increasingly include cases in which emission-intensive products are export oriented.The extensive literature on BCAs includes important discussions of implementation issues (see, for example, Cosbey et al 2019); analyses of the compatibility, or otherwise, of BCAs with WTO rules (eg Hillman 2013); and model-based studies of the potential impacts of BCAs on global emissions. This paper builds on this literature in several ways including: (i) providing a simple explanation of how a BCA can fundamentally change the incentives created by a system of carbon taxes from taxing the supply of emission-intensive goods to taxing demand for these goods; (ii) showing how simple differences between elasticities of supply and of demand can make such a demand-based system a more efficient and perhaps more politically acceptable approach to reducing global emissions. (iii) providing some insights into when a system of BCAs might have a better chance of being found compatible with WTO rules. Section 2 of this paper considers the goals leading policy makers to introduce BCA systems and their potential implications. Section 3 provides a graphical explanation of the relationship between carbon taxes (CTs) and BCAs, and particularly the way a complete system of BCAs converts a carbon tax from a tax on production of emissions to one on demand. Section 4 uses a simple, global general equilibrium model to identify differences between demand and supply elasticities as a potential reason to prefer taxing demand over taxing supply. Section 5 deals with key policy choices such as the choice between taxing goods and taxing carbon; dealing with indirect emissions; implications of import only CTBAs; carbon clubs; and compatibility with trade rules. Section 6 concludes.It is vitally important to spell out the goals of any BCA proposal because these goals may dramatically affect the nature of the desired measures. Hillman (2013) offers three long term motivations for BCAs: (i) competitiveness concerns following introduction of carbon taxes or equivalent measures (CTs), (ii) to reduce \"leakage\" where production in the country imposing such a CT is replaced by production from countries not imposing a CT, and (iii) to create incentives for other countries to adopt CTs. The first two of these are applicable in both small and large countries, while the third is relevant only for large countries or groups of countries.The competitiveness goal clearly has both an equity/fairness and an efficiency dimension. Producers are likely to feel that it is unfair that competitors who do not face a carbon tax are able to undercut them and take away market share. The efficiency concern arises when domestic output is replaced by imported goods of equal or greater emission intensity that have not faced a carbon tax, or when exports lose market share to more emission-intensive competitors who do not pay a carbon tax. It is vitally important to separate the fairness and efficiency aspects of any competitiveness goal as they can have very different policy implications. The equity/fairness argument may help generate strong political resistance to carbon taxes.The \"leakage\" goal might appear to be more of an economic efficiency argument. If a carbon tax reduces output and domestic firms lose market share to more carbon-intensive firms not facing a carbon tax, the resulting economic outcome may be less efficient (considering both costs internal and external to the firm) than in the absence of trade. However, as pointed out by Kortum and Weisbach (2017), simply reducing leakage is not an economically coherent goal. What matters is the extent to which policies increase economic welfare, considering both the costs resulting from emissions and the costs associated with reducing those emissions. A goal of reducing leakage that takes no account of the costs when determining the optimal level of intervention, or whether any given reduction in emissions is achieved at the lowest possible cost, is an inadequate guide to policy.The third goal of creating incentives for other countries to join, is relevant only for countries or groups of countries that are collectively large. One approach to this is \"carbon club\" proposals where a group of countries agrees on a set of standards and imposes substantial barriers against imports from non-member countries (Nordhaus 2019).For any industry, a carbon abatement policy such as a carbon tax or an emissions trading system on emissions from fuel combustion in producing a product affects emissions through two channels: (i) changes in technique, and (ii) changes in output. This distinction is important because BCAs on output operate only through the output effect. As shown in the Working Paper version of this study, the effect of a carbon tax, at any given output price, on emissions is given by:where \uD835\uDC52\uD835\uDC52̂ is the proportional change in use of a fuel and the associated emissions; \uD835\uDF02\uD835\uDF02 \uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC53 is the elasticity of demand for fuel at constant output of the product; \uD835\uDF02\uD835\uDF02 \uD835\uDC60\uD835\uDC60 is the elasticity of output supply for the product ; \uD835\uDC60\uD835\uDC60 is the share of fuel in production costs; and \uD835\uDF0F\uD835\uDF0F \uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC53 is the proportional change in the power of the tax (equal to one plus the proportional tax on fuel) on fuel use.If the elasticity parameters from the CGE models widely used to assess the impacts of BCAS provide any guide, the output effect is likely larger than the change of technique effect. This is because, for individual non-resource-based commodities, the partial equilibrium supply elasticities used in most of the general equilibrium models used to analyze this question are almost infinite. By contrast, the opportunities to reduce emissions by changing the input mix captured in the \uD835\uDF02\uD835\uDF02 \uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC53 elasticity are likely much smaller.Consistent with this, Bellora and Fontagé (2020) and many other studies using the GTAP-E model use an elasticity of substitution of 0.5 between energy and capital, which accommodates some, limited substitution between energy (assumed to be the primary source of GHG emissions) and other inputs. McKibbin et al (2018), by contrast, use elasticities of substitution between energy and other inputs, and between different energy sources, that are strongly differentiated by sector and, in some cases, considerably above 0.5. The meta-analysis by Stern (2012) finds many elasticities of substitution between different fuels as high as two, but even this yields elasticities that are likely small relative to the output effects.Figure 1 uses a very simple diagram to show the effect of a carbon tax that raises marginal costs of production for a commodity, and hence its supply curve, from S0 to S1. The resulting reduction in output, from Q0 to Q1, is larger the greater is the supply elasticity.Adding an import BCA at the same rate as the cost increase created by a carbon tax, ie at a rate \uD835\uDF0F\uD835\uDF0F \uD835\uDC54\uD835\uDC54 = \uD835\uDC60\uD835\uDC60\uD835\uDF0F\uD835\uDF0F \uD835\uDC53\uD835\uDC53 for the finished good, raises the domestic price of the good. This case is shown, for an importable good, in A BCA can also be applied on exports. Following the example of a VAT, this would likely take the form of an export rebate at the common rate of the CTBA. The effects on output and demand are similar to those for an importable. Because export sales yield pw plus a rebate of (p2 -pw), the domestic consumer price of the good is increased from pw to p2 as producers equate their net returns from both markets. Producers are compensated for the increase in their costs associated with the carbon tax and so maintain their original level of output. Consumers face the higher price p2 and so reduce their consumption from its pre-carbon tax level, D0 to D1. The competitiveness concerns of producers have been dealt with, while the reduction in consumer demand for the emission-intensive good contributes to global emission reduction. A full CTBA (ie one with an import levy and an export rebate) is thus a tax on demand for emission intensive goods, while a CT alone is a tax on their production. This parallels the distinction between destination-based taxes such as a Value-Added Tax and origin-based taxes such income taxes. An important feature of the change from a CT to a CTBA is that the CT element of the CTBA continues to create incentives to move to less emission-intensive approaches to production.For simplicity, the discussion of Figures 1 to 3 has considered a specific commodity-such as fertilizercovered by a BCA applied at the same rate per unit of the commodity as the domestic carbon tax. If, however, policy makers should choose to base the BCA on the emissions actually generated in production of goods crossing the border, then the same diagrams could be used for a \"virtual\" commodity, the carbon embodied in the domestic and imported goods. While the emission intensity of imported goods might differ from that for domestic goods, the BCA rate on the embodied carbon would be the same for the carbon embodied in domestic and foreign goods. An export BCA based on the emission intensity of domestic goods would likewise eliminate the impacts of the CT on exports of embodied carbon.pw A CTBA on an imported good generates two sources of government revenue-one from the carbon tax and one from the BCA on imports. The export rebate requires governments to pay out some of their revenue from the carbon tax and the import BCA. With balanced trade, there would be no net revenue from a full BCA. Governments would, however, still receive full revenues from the carbon tax.A central question for this paper is whether conventional carbon taxes should be accompanied by full BCAs that convert them into taxes on demand for emission-intensive products. If all countries adopt a uniform CT without a BCA, the global impact comes about because the tax reduces the prices received by producers relative to consumers. If all countries introduce CTBAs, the global impacts come about because the tax raises prices to users (not just final consumers but users of intermediate inputs as well) relative to producer prices. In this situation, it does not matter whether the tax is on demand or on supply making the choice of a CT or a CTBA irrelevant (Gruber 2019). But the central problem under consideration arises only when some countries are willing to impose a CT while others are not.The CT and the CTBA bring about their global impacts quite differently. A carbon tax directly reduces supply in the countries that impose it. If the set of countries is collectively large, this effect is offset by an increase in the world market price of the good which, in turn, results in higher output in non-participating countries-and leakage from the CT countries to their trading partners. By contrast, a full CTBA on a good in a collectively large set of countries reduces its world price and the incentive to produce in both taxing and non-taxing countries. In this case, leakage arises because the lower world price stimulates demand in non-participating countries.The vast array of work examining the impacts of potential BCAs using CGE models has incorporated a great deal of important and useful detail on key parameters such as elasticities and emission intensities.However, the large number of parameters involved makes it very difficult to examine the sensitivity of the results to key, simple parameter differences such as those between the slopes of the supply and demand curves in Figures 2 and 3.In the rest of this section, a very simple general equilibrium model is used to examine the importance of these elasticities in a model where market shares can change. This model, presented in the Appendix, includes two countries (Home and Foreign), two commodities (emission-intensive (E) and a clean numeraire). Initially both allocate 50 percent of their resources to production of E and spend 50 percent of their income on that good. Under the policy experiments, only the Home country imposes a tax-whether on production or consumption. In the base case, demand elasticities are determined using a Constant-elasticity of substitution model with an elasticity of substitution of 0.3, while supply elasticities are determined using a Constant Elasticity of Transformation function with an elasticity of transformation of 2.Because these key parameters are readily changed in this model, it is very easy to assess the sensitivity of the results to changing them.Because the fundamental hypothesis tested using this model is that differences between elasticities of supply and demand are critical for determining whether taxing production or consumption of emissions is more efficient, it is important to examine the evidence on differences between these parameters. As noted earlier, the partial elasticities of supply of manufacturing and services in CGE models are close to infinite because they have no fixed factors and can draw in capital and labor from the rest of the economy. By contrast, elasticities of final demand are invariably below unity in absolute value (Hertel 1997). Elasticities of demand for intermediate inputs are generally also low because, in default mode, intermediate inputs are assumed to be demanded in fixed proportion to output.Empirical estimates of supply elasticities for manufactures and services are scarce because they are challenging to estimate given that major, sustained changes in their prices are rarely observed. One study that addresses this problem by examining output responses to price booms (Edgerton 2010) finds average elasticities of supply for machinery of 5. Roberts andSchlenker (2013, p2278) find even short run supply elasticities for food between two and three times as high in absolute value as demand elasticities. The hypothesis that supply elasticities exceed the absolute values of demand elasticities appears to be well supported in the literature.The results in Table 1 highlight the importance of the elasticity of supply relative to demand. Under the assumptions of the base case, the full CTBA is much more cost effective in reducing output of the emission intensive good than a carbon tax on production. At a 10 percent tax rate, the CTBA is almost 4 times as cost effective as the carbon tax. The cost effectiveness of both measures declines slowly as the tax rates go up, because the costs of these distortions rise as the square of their rate. But the cost effectiveness of the CTBA is still over three times greater with a CTBA than with a CT at a tax rate of 50 percent.These findings appear to be quite sensitive to the difference between the demand and supply elasticities.With the standard (0.3, 2.0) assumptions, the CTBA is almost four times as cost-effective as the CT. But if we reduce supply elasticities by specifying an elasticity of transformation of 0.9 instead of 2.0, that ratio drops to just over two.In the carbon tax case, the taxing country generally suffers real income losses that are more than twice as large as those suffered by the world as a whole. It goes from being self-sufficient in the emission intensive good to an importer and drives up the price substantially, compounding its losses from the deadweight cost of the tax and making the partner country slightly better off through its terms of trade. With a CTBA, the home country's loss as a share of GDP is generally closer to half the global loss. It becomes an exporter of the taxed good but faces a much smaller decline in the price of that good. σ=0.9, σT =0.9 20 -4.9 -0.55 -1.2 5.1 9.0 -4.0 -0.41 -0.9 -4.5 9.8Note: Reported emission changes reflect only output changes, ignoring incentives to change production methods resulting from the Carbon Tax.The analysis to this point has used simple, stylized models with a uniform carbon tax and BCA to generate some key insights. Formulating practical BCAs requires considering several key issues: (i) taxing goods vs taxing carbon, (ii) indirect emissions, (iii) challenges with import only BCAs, (iv) carbon clubs, and (v) likely WTO compatibility.Many proposals for CTBAs involve differentiated rates depending on the emission intensity of production in the exporting country, or whether CTs have been applied to that production. Clearly, the rate at which a carbon tax based on, say, fuel use is applied on domestic industries will differ depending on the efficiency of the individual firm, with low fuel use and low emission firms facing a lighter burden from the carbon tax.Ideally, this type of differentiation would be carried over into BCAs, with BCAs taxing demand for emissions, rather than production. As previously noted, Figures 1 to 3 remain relevant, but with embodied emissions, rather than goods, on the horizontal axis and the same tax rate applied on domestic and imported carbon. More emission-intensive goods would be subject to higher BCAs than domestic goods, and vice versa.Lower emission firms, facing lower costs from the carbon tax, would receive smaller rebates on their exports, which might reduce their incentive to invest in reducing their emissions. There would be a tendency for imports to shift from high-intensity suppliers to low intensity suppliers, which would be helpful, although highemission intensity suppliers might respond by shuffling their exports between markets without necessarily reducing overall emissions.A major practical problem with BCAs based on emission intensities of production by supplier, is the enormous information costs and risk for malfeasance in estimating these rates. How would authorities in the importing markets assess the emission intensity of production in foreign markets? How accurate would the resulting measures be? Would the process become captured by domestic lobbies and result in disproportionately high barriers? To avoid this risk, perhaps estimation of these intensities might be put in the hands of a neutral certification body. But that way lies a potential risk of a different form of capture, where foreign producers might convince the assessment body that their CT regime is strict when it is in fact toothless 1 .These problems become even more intense once the need to deal with indirect emissions is recognized.Given all these problems, there might well be a case for using BCAs based on the average emission intensity of domestic firms. This would require only information from domestic sources, avoiding the near impossible challenging of setting different rates by product and firm. It would need updating as the average emission intensity of domestic production declined but firms' export rebates would not decline with reductions in their emission intensities.Another key question is whether a BCA should be based only on direct emissions from production of a good or should account for indirect emissions from production of intermediate inputs? If BCAs are calculated based on domestic emission intensities, the cost of inputs covered by an import or export BCA is increased, and this cost increase should be included in calculating the BCA along with the increase in costs associated with the CT on direct emissions.When BCAs are based on the emission content of imported goods, accounting for indirect emissions is even more challenging than for direct emissions. Where emissions generated by individual firms supplying inputs to foreign producers are covered by a CT in the importing country, the BCA should include a tax as though at the rate applied by the importing country. The need to incorporate estimates of emissions from input suppliers as well as from the firms directly supplying exports will greatly increase the tasks involved in calculating the BCA rates to be applied.Import only BCAs without export rebates are frequently recommended (eg EC 2021). This approach clearly reduces concerns about competitiveness among import-oriented producers. Some also advocate this approach because an export rebate system is seen as \"subsidizing\" exports of emission-intensive goods (eg BlandfordThere are several concerns with these arguments. First, an export BCA would only be applied on industries where a carbon tax has been levied to reduce emissions so there is no subsidy to emission-intensive goods, only relief from the burden of the carbon tax. Second, the absence of a BCA on these commodities removes the incentive to reduce domestic demand for this product. Third, import only CTBAs appear to be very costly.Import only CTBAs raise the cost of producing exports both through input-output linkages and through increases in the prices of nontraded goods, shrinking exports and reducing the range of products that can profitably be exported just as traditional protectionist policies did (Dornbusch et al 1977). Both production and consumption decisions are distorted because importable commodities receive support from BCAs while exportables do not. Model based analysis suggests that import only BCAs would be an inefficient approach to reducing emissions (Mattoo et al 2009). If imposed primarily by developed countries, import-only BCAs would have very adverse implications for the exports of developing countries, damage that would be undone by moving to full CTBAs (Mattoo et al 2012).Where BCAs are based on the costs imposed on domestic producers by the carbon tax, any adjustments for indirect emissions depend on whether the input is exportable or importable. Prices of importable inputs rise and this cost increase should be included in the BCAs for goods in which they are incorporated. Prices of exportable inputs do not rise and so should not enter the calculation of the BCA. This further complicates calculation of BCA rates.Import only CTBAs also create a potentially serious problem of double taxation, with exports subject to a carbon tax at home and a BCA on entry into the partner markets. Many proposals for import only BCAs seem to envisage reducing or waiving the BCA on products that have been produced subject to a carbon tax or equivalent measure. But this raises many questions, like what constitutes an emission regime comparable enough to the domestic CT for the duty to be waived? And is an ETS with free allocations of emission quotas comparable to a carbon tax? Relying on partners for relief from the burden of your own carbon taxes seems likely to be a formula for serious trade conflicts. Countries wanting to avoid their exports being double taxed can do this unilaterally by implementing their own export BCAs.In terms of political economy, there are also important questions about import only BCAs. Exporters are worse off under import only BCAs than under CTs alone. Not only do they have to pay carbon taxes on their own emissions, but they also face higher prices for inputs produced by import-competing firms. Opposition from organized exporter interests may block adoption of import only CTBAs. Perhaps for this reason theEuropean Commission now appears to be examining options for adding export rebates to its proposed BCA system (Blanchard et al 2022).Carbon clubs are an extension of the import only CTBA approach, where a set of countries set a common standard of carbon abatement, waive BCAs on club members and impose them on countries outside the club (Nordhaus 2019;Meyer and Tucker 2021). If imposed by a group of large countries, it would certainly create incentives for some countries to join. But this approach is only one, uncooperative, approach to dealing with the international externalities associated with climate change.If the rules of the trading system allow one group of countries to introduce BCAs that discriminate against non-members of their club, then presumably other countries could similarly impose barriers against them. The result of such a system might involve some non-members adopting carbon taxes and joining the club but would likely result in others imposing retaliatory BCAs. As shown by Staiger (2022 p148), the resulting competitive equilibrium would result in carbon taxes that are too low and tariffs that are too high relative to an efficient outcome.Identifying a common standard for a carbon club seems likely to be difficult. Such proposals also seem likely to result in very serious political conflicts with developing countries unable or unwilling to be included when, as noted by Lester (2021), it is today's industrial countries that are responsible for most of the stock of greenhouse gases driving the world's worsening climate crisis. These conflicts could become very serious if the implications for developing countries' opportunities for industrial development are as dire as depicted by Mattoo et al (2012).Much of the support for carbon club proposals seems to arise from concerns that CTs are not politically feasible. But are full CTBAs really infeasible? Have they ever been tried? Surely it would be worth considering approaches like full CTBAs that can be implemented by individual countries without requiring international destination-based rebates have withstood concerns about consistency with WTO rules, it seems reasonably likely that WTO compatibility would not be a binding constraint for inclusion of an export rebate in a BCA.Most import-only BCA proposals seek to avoid double taxation of goods produced subject to CTs in other countries by providing some concessional treatment for those goods on the import side. This feature of these schemes seems likely to create serious WTO challenges. Important questions will certainly arise about the nature of this concessional treatment. Should commodities produced subject to environmentally-friendly regulations be given concessional treatment, along with imports from countries imposing a carbon tax? What rate of carbon tax must be applied in order to trigger these concessions, and should it be applied to all emissions or only those generated directly in production of the good?Many current proposals for Border Carbon Adjustments (BCAs) would focus only on import measures, would involve sharply different border adjustments by country and by product and could generate serious economic costs and risks of conflict between countries. Does this mean that the idea of using BCAs as a complement to carbon taxes or similar measures should be rejected? Not necessarily.To see how BCAs might be designed in ways that avoid these problems, it is important to begin with a clear goal. Are they designed to deal with the competitiveness concerns of producers or to deal with \"leakage\"? It is clear that producers' concerns about competitiveness-and unequal treatment where they must pay a carbon tax not paid by foreign competitors-are a serious obstacle to implementation of carbon taxes and other measures to mitigate emissions. By contrast, as argued by Kortum and Weisbach (2017), leakage reduction is only very weakly related to fundamental economic concerns such as the cost of achieving mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. There seems to be a strong case for focusing instead on the contributions of BCAs to reducing the costs of lowering emissions and lowering the political-economy barriers to reform.This paper compares traditional production-based carbon taxes with carbon taxes buttressed by BCAs. It shows that, while the former are clearly taxes on production, the latter are taxes on demand for carbon-intensive commodities. There are clear parallels with comparisons of origin-based taxes, such as income taxes, and destination-based taxes such as traditional VATs, with the important differences that CTBAs would involve different rates between commodities based on carbon intensity and would tax intermediate use as well as final demand. The approach would involve using full BCAs, applied through import charges and export rebates, to complement carbon taxes without requiring discrimination between trading partners. It would minimize both carbon leakage and the cost of reducing emissions by shifting the burden of the tax from supply to demand.This paper uses simple diagrams to show that a combination of a carbon tax and a BCA, or a CTBA for short, increases the cost to users of products purchased domestically while allaying producers' concerns about competitiveness by relieving them of the cost burden imposed by the tax, and leaving in place the incentives for producers to change their production techniques in ways that reduce emission intensities. While productionbased carbon taxes have proved extremely difficult to implement because of concerns about competitiveness, a CTBA may be able to solve those problems at national level and allow introduction of CTs with measures that deal with these direct competitiveness concerns. This approach would deal with the competitiveness concerns of producers in both importable and exportable sectors by setting BCAs based on the WTO's NationalTreatment principle of securing equal treatment for domestic and foreign goods.A simple modeling exercise suggests that a full CTBA could substantially lower the cost of achieving any given level of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when only some countries impose carbon taxes. This is because elasticities of demand for individual goods are generally lower than their elasticities of supply. In this situation, a consumption-based tax is being imposed on the less elastic side of the market that is less vulnerable to \"slippage\" where the impact of the tax in one market on global demand declines because the share of that market shrinks as the tax rate rises.While, in principle, CTBAMs could be based on carbon content of products by firm, this would involve likely prohibitive problems of obtaining enormous volumes of reliable firm and process specific data. This challenge would be compounded if information on indirect emissions from inputs into the production process were also included.Import only BCAs are frequently advocated but create major economic distortions. Because they disadvantage exporters more than a carbon tax alone, they are likely to encounter strong resistance from organized exporters. Attempts to reduce double taxation of imports by providing concessional import access are likely to create conflicts both with trading partners and with international law.An approach focused on taxing consumption rather than production of carbon could potentially avoid having to deal with the acute economic and international law challenges associated with having different border tax rates by country. With a competitiveness-focused approach any BCAs are based on the cost of compliance with domestic measures, there is no risk of discriminating between suppliers, and the measures are likely to comply with existing WTO rules (Hillman 2013).Much uncertainty-and many important questions for future research-remain in this area, with three particular areas standing out. Better estimates of elasticities of supply and demand for products to be subjected to border carbon adjustments are needed to more accurately assess the relative costs of traditional carbon taxes and carbon taxes plus border adjustments. Another key question is whether the power of organized export interests will be enough to compel governments to adopt lower cost policies that apply border adjustments symmetrically on both imports and exports, rather than solely on imports. The questions related to compatibility with WTO rules will also generate an enormous literature, with the questions changing as policies change and jurisprudence accumulates.","tokenCount":"5419"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"7d40413fc9d5e513823c3293f641d485","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/eb88a3f6-699c-4372-9bc4-2587efad7f3b/content","id":"292177719"},"keywords":["Drought","glycine betaine","maize","proline","trehalose","trehalose-6-phosphate"],"sieverID":"33bea565-aadf-45ba-b09e-b8e4c592128d","pagecount":"12","content":"Drought is one of the most limiting factors in agricultural production worldwide. The aim of this work was to evaluate the per se response to drought stress of three maize (Zea mays L.) semi-inbred lines (CHIH, COAH, and ARZM) during the anthesis and grain filling stages. These semi-inbred lines (BC1S1) are S1 offspring of crosses between drought-tolerant maize and a high-yield line bred by the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT). Materials were evaluated during a 15-d controlled drought and post-drought irrigation reestablishment period. The photosynthetic rate decreased by 50% in CHIH during drought and it recovered after stress was removed. Proline levels increased 2.3 times in COAH during stress and nonsignificant increases were observed in ARZM or CHIH. However, glycine betaine accumulated at 1061-1133 ng mg -1 fresh weight (FW) before stress, but decreased to 879-1000 ng mg -1 FW during drought stress. The trehalose concentration increased 1.8 times in ARZM (5.60 ng mg -1 FW) under drought stress and remained at similar levels in CHIH (6.48 ng mg -1 FW) and COAH (8.63 ng mg -1 FW) before and during drought stress. In contrast, trehalose-6-phosphate decreased 33% to 38% under drought stress in all three BC1S1 entries and recovered its initial levels after irrigation. Grain biomass loss under drought stress was 54% for ARZM, 48.2% for COAH, and only 26.5% for CHIH. These results showed that CHIH, COAH, and ARZM are drought-tolerant and suggest that osmoprotectant accumulation might play a key role in their physiological performance and grain biomass trait.Drought is one of the most widespread abiotic limitations in agriculture. The frequency and severity of drought events are increasing, and the overall availability of water is decreasing in many areas due to climate change (Mishra and Singh, 2010). The responses to water stress events are further exacerbated by a greater demand for agricultural products and increased competition for water resources needed for non-agricultural purposes. Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops worldwide; it is used as feedstock, as food in some countries, and as a bioenergy source. The crop is extremely sensitive to drought during the flowering stage, which causes an impact on both kernel set and grain filling. Drought stress affects growth rates during the vegetative stage of maize by lowering the active photosynthetic leaf area of the crop canopy; this causes a loss in yield at maturity because it extends the anthesis-silking interval (ASI) and limits grain weight (Almeida et al., 2014).The development of improved maize varieties that are able to withstand drought stress with a minor loss in grain yield is very important; however, the high cost of molecular and genomic techniques are beyond the reach of developing countries. Therefore, interdisciplinary research is essential to develop low-cost techniques and transfer them to small farmers. A successful example is the selection of a shorter ASI together with higher yield under drought stress in Africa (Maiti and Satya, 2014).The first response to stress is turgor loss that decreases the growth rate, stem elongation, foliar expansion, and stomatal opening; water deficit therefore alters the sink-source relationship and affects the translocation of photosynthates to fruits (Bhargava and Sawant, 2013). The fastest response to water deficit is stomatal closure to protect the plant from water loss. Water deficit produces abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis, which triggers stomatal closure and causes a decrease in intracellular CO2 concentration and photosynthesis inhibition (Chaves et al., 2009). The lack of intracellular CO2 due to prolonged stomatal closure causes the accumulation of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species and damages the photosynthetic apparatus (Laxa et al., 2019). There are antioxidant enzymes, such as superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and glutathione reductase, in cellular organelles and the cytoplasm that play an important role in the detoxification of these reactive species. It has been observed under drought conditions that a myriad of genes are expressed, which are involved in osmolytes synthesis, late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins, aquaporins, signaling molecules, and transcription factors (Shanker et al., 2014).Osmotic adjustment is one of the most efficient processes to protect plant cells from damage caused by abiotic stress and is correlated with higher grain yield under drought stress (Blum, 2017). Polyols such as mannitol, quaternary ammonium salts such as glycine betaine, amino acids such as proline, and sugars such as trehalose, are solutes that are compatible with a metabolism that can accumulate and play an important role in maintaining cellular turgor and protect membranes and proteins from irreversible damage caused by water loss (Dos Reis et al., 2012). Trehalose disaccharide is an osmoprotectant that has been widely studied for its key role in drought tolerance of anhydrobiotic organisms such as resurrection plants, yeasts, many bacterial species, and some invertebrates, which are able to survive months or years in a dehydrated state and revive in a few hours when they are in contact with water again (Iturriaga et al., 2009). It has also been found in many plants, although at relatively low levels, and the genes for trehalose biosynthesis are present in most species. There are five routes of trehalose biosynthesis and the trehalose-6-phosphate synthase-trehalose-6-P phosphatase (TPS-TPP) pathway is the most common in plants, some bacteria, and certain fungi (Figueroa and Lunn, 2016). Trehalose is synthesized in two steps: first, trehalose-6-phosphate (T6P) is synthesized from glucose 6-phosphate and uridine diphosphate-glucose (UDP-glucose) by the TPS enzyme; second, T6P is dephosphorylated by TPP that leads to active trehalose. Trehalose is degraded by trehalase, producing two glucose molecules. It has been reported that genes that encode for the TPS-TPP pathway confer drought tolerance when they are expressed by transgenesis in various crops, including maize (Nuccio et al., 2015).Previous results have shown that osmoprotectant accumulation in seedlings of a drought-tolerant maize line mainly consists of proline and sugars such as sucrose and trehalose (Velázquez-Márquez et al., 2015). However, drought has an impact on crop yield, mainly at the silking and post-silking stages of flowering grain fill, and especially in the semi-arid regions of the world that depend on the rainy season. In Mexico, drought stress causes significant losses in grain yield and the selection of drought-tolerant maize materials is therefore critical. The Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT) has conducted a long-term program in several countries to select and breed drought tolerance in maize. Researchers at the CIMMYT have recently developed breeding lines that display drought tolerance in field tests. These materials were produced by first crossing an open-pollinated landrace to an inbred line, the F 1 was backcrossed to the same inbred line that formed BC1, which formed S1 by selfing. As an S1, these are semi-inbred lines (BC1S1). The aim of the present study was to explore the physiological and biochemical responses of some of these maize BC1S1 entries reported in field tests as drought-tolerant, and treating adult plants at the silking and post-silking stages under irrigation and controlled drought conditions.The BC1S1 entries were bred at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y Trigo (CIMMYT). Using the methodology described by Ruiz Corral et al. (2013) to identify drought-tolerant landraces, 326 subtropical accessions were selected from the CIMMYT Maize Germplasm Bank and the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales Agrícolas y Pecuarias (INIFAP) Germplasm Bank for phenotypic evaluation under drought conditions. Briefly, accessions were selected that had the geographical coordinates of field-based collection sites. These coordinates were used to extract data on moisture availability (aridity index; precipitation/potential evapotranspiration) at these sites during the 6 mo of maize cultivation at the relevant sites. Accessions were selected in which the determined aridity index was less than 0.5. The working hypothesis of this selection method is that over generations of cultivation in locations subjected to long-term growing seasons under semi-arid conditions, accessions from these locations will accumulate favorable alleles that confer drought tolerance and/or avoidance. The frequency of such allelic variants should be higher in these accessions due to positive environmental selection compared with materials from more favorable environments (Ruiz Corral et al., 2013).The landrace accessions were evaluated in the winter season at two locations in western Mexico in 2014 (INIFAP experimental stations at Los Mochis in Sinaloa and Santiago Ixcuintla in Nayarit) and at three locations in 2015 (INIFAP experimental stations at Los Mochis and Santiago Ixcuintla and the CIMMYT experimental station at Ciudad Obregon, Sonora) under managed drought conditions. There was also a normal irrigation treatment in 2015 to compare drought and full irrigation performance. The winter season was selected because there is no rain from October to May in most years. Drip irrigation was used for precise water management and the drought treatment consisted of interrupting irrigation 2 wk before flowering and reestablishing irrigation 2 wk after flowering. The 20 best performing accessions over 2 yr were selected for the drought tolerance breeding project of the CIMMYT Genetic Resource Program. The three selected accessions for the study were CHIH338 (Chihuahua, Mexico), COAH117 (Coahuila, Mexico), and ARZM12236 (Catamarca, Argentina); they were three of the best performing landraces from the evaluations. To develop breeding lines, accessions were crossed and backcrossed to the elite CIMMYT line CML376, followed by one selfing event, and then crossed to the tester CML373. The testcross hybrids were evaluated at three locations in western Mexico in the winter of 2016 (INIFAP experimental stations at Los Mochis and Santiago Ixcuintla and the CIMMYT experimental station at Tlaltizapán, Morelos) under both drought and normal irrigation treatments. At this point in the breeding process, the three semi-inbred lines were selected for phenological and biochemical analyses in the present study. Each evaluated BC1S1 semi-inbred line was assigned an abbreviated name: CML376<2(CHIH338)-1-1 (CHIH), CML376<2(COAH117)-1-1 (COAH), and CML376<2(ARZM12236)-1-1 (ARZM). Plants were grown in a greenhouse in 30 L pots with a homogeneous mixture of sterile sand and peat moss (4:1) with an N (12%), P (11%), and K (18%) mixture. Experimental units (10 plants plot -1 ) were distributed in split plots (irrigated or drought-stressed treatments) in a randomized complete block design with three replicates of two independent experiments. Irrigation was applied with 1 L distilled water every other day under greenhouse conditions at 30 ± 2 °C, 40% RH, and 16:8 h photoperiod. Adult maize plants at the silking stage were subjected to a drought treatment by interrupting watering for 15 d before a final irrigation event was applied 2 d after providing 2 L distilled water to each plant. Flag leaves were used to measure the photosynthesis rate, relative water content (RWC), and osmoprotectant quantification.The RWC is a measure of relative turgidity, and has been widely accepted as a reproducible and meaningful index of plant water status. It was determined following a reported protocol (Soltys-Kalina et al., 2016) that measures in triplicate before, during, and after drought stress according to the following formula:An infrared thermometer was used to measure the temperature at the center and both ends of the leaf blade to obtain a mean temperature of the flag leaf in triplicate every day at noon before, during, and after drought stress.× 100 (fresh weight -dry weight) (turgid weight -dry weight)This variable was determined as the QY value, which is the quantum yield of photosystem II (PSII); it is the parameter most used to determine chlorophyll fluorescence. The photosynthetic rate was measured with a photosynthetic fluorescence meter (FlourPen FP100, Photon Systems Instruments, Drasov, Czech Republic); it recorded the QY value, which is equivalent to PSII efficiency. The fluorometer determines the quantum efficiency of PSII (QY = Fv/Fm) where Fv is variable fluorescence and Fm is maximum fluorescence when applying continuous actinic light. It was measured on the flag leaf of each plant in triplicate.Proline was determined according to Ábrahám et al. (2010) using a ninhydrin-acetic acid mixture and ethanol; samples were analyzed with a spectrophotometer at 520 nm using maize flag leaves previously frozen with liquid nitrogen from plants treated under drought, irrigation, and recovery conditions for each plant. Glycine betaine was measured according to a reported protocol using potassium iodine and sulfuric acid with a spectrophotometer at 365 nm (Islam et al., 2009). Quantification was carried out during drought, irrigation, and irrigation reestablishment treatments for each population in triplicate.The technique is based on a protocol for trehalose extraction from plant tissues (Velázquez-Márquez et al., 2015). Briefly, the extract was heated to 95 °C and passed through an ion exchange mini-column eluted with deionized water. The eluate was analyzed with a high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system (Agilent/HP 1050 HPLC System, Agilent Technologies, Waldbronn, Germany) and the chromatography column was an Aminex HPX-87H (Bio-Rad, Hercules, California, USA). An infrared (IR) detector was used and analysis conditions were 60 ºC, 0.6 mL min -1 flow, and sulfuric acid 0.05 M mobile phase. The trehalose and T6P standards were from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, Missouri, USA). For T6P extraction, the same procedure and HPLC conditions were applied, except for quantification that was determined according to the equation y = 120x + 5.13 where y is the area under the curve and x is the T6P concentration.All maize ears from the experimental units were collected and kernels per row, ear length, ear width, kernels per ear, and ear weight were determined. Once kernels were shelled from the cob, they were weighed every week during 1 mo to obtain the final weight and assuming that weight remains constant when kernels contain 14% moisture. At this point, grain weight per plant and mean per BC1S1 were determined.The statistical analysis was performed with the SAS-University-Edition program (SAS Institute, 2012), which consisted of ANOVA for experimental units (10 plants plot -1 ) distributed in split plots (irrigated or drought-stressed treatments) in a randomized complete block design. Experimental units (10 plants plot -1 ) were distributed in split plots (irrigated or drought-stressed treatments) in a randomized complete block design with three replicates of two independent experiments, and comparison of means was determined by Tukey's test (P ≤ 0.05).The water status was measured by the RWC test. There were nonsignificant differences (P < 0.05) among CHI, COAH, and ARZM BC1S1 entries before applying stress, during drought stress, or after reestablishing irrigation (Figure 1). However, there were significant differences (P < 0.05) between values obtained before applying drought stress (86% to 88%) and during drought stress (33% to 40%), but not between the RWC values before drought stress and after reestablishing irrigation (78% to 87%); plants recovered their water content at similar levels after applying stress, suggesting that there is no irreversible wilting or cell damage.The effect of drought on leaf temperature of the three maize lines before drought stress (30-31.2 ºC), during stress (32.8-33.4 ºC), and after reestablishing irrigation (31.3-32.1 ºC) was then evaluated. In Figure 2, a significant increase in leaf temperature is observed in CHIH, COAH, and ARZM during drought stress. After reestablishing irrigation, leaf temperature of the three lines did not return to its original value.Drought stress affects QY of PSII, which is equivalent to Fv/Fm, and is a parameter used to measure chlorophyll fluorescence (Wang et al., 2012). Light energy used in photosynthesis is lost as fluorescence and mainly from the PSII reaction. Drought decreases fluorescence emission, which makes it a potentially useful tool to detect drought effects on plants (Guo and Tan, 2015). Therefore, we measured the QY of each maize semi-inbred line to determine the change in photosynthesis during drought stress and after reestablishing irrigation. The QY was similar for CHIH, COAH, and ARZM before applying stress (Figure 3) and ranged from 0.60 to 0.68. In contrast, there were significant differences (P < 0.05) in QY of the three maize semi-inbred lines during drought stress; CHIH was the most affected (0.30), whereas COAH and ARZM were the least affected and had a value of 0.48 QY (Figure 3). After reestablishing irrigation, nonsignificant difference was observed among the three semi-inbred lines, which varied from 0.51 to 0.64 QY. This suggests that photosynthesis for CHIH was mostly affected by drought stress, but it was restored after reestablishing irrigation as it occurred for CHIH and ARZM. These results indicate that CHIH, COAH, and ARZM maize BC1S1 entries are drought tolerant.  We measured three osmotic active compounds commonly present in drought-tolerant plants: proline, glycine betaine, and trehalose. First, the proline concentration of the three lines was measured before and during drought stress and after reestablishing irrigation. Proline levels before stress, were 160-210 ng mg -1 fresh weight (FW), and they were similar in CHIH, COAH, and ARZM (Figure 4). However, the proline concentration during drought stress increased 2.3 times in COAH and 1.75 times in CHIH; however, it did not vary in ARZM. This suggests that drought stress induced proline biosynthesis; proline levels returned to the normal concentration when stress ceased and the plant regained its water content. The ARZM proline levels did not vary significantly before or during drought stress or after reestablishing irrigation (200, 220, and 170 ng mg -1 FW, respectively), suggesting that drought did not induce proline biosynthesis in this maize semi-inbred line.The trehalose concentration was determined in the three BC1S1 at anthesis before and during drought stress and after reestablishing irrigation. Trehalose was present before stress at 6.43, 7.47, and 2.81 ng mg -1 FW in CHIH, COAH, and ARZM, respectively, and there was significantly less disaccharide in ARZM. A significant increase (P < 0.05) during drought stress in ARZM (5.60 ng mg -1 FW) was observed (1.8 times), whereas nonsignificant increase was detected in CHIH (6.48 ng mg -1 FW) and COAH (8.63 ng mg -1 FW) after drought stress (Figure 5). As expected, trehalose levels decreased after irrigation; however, they decreased to levels lower than the control conditions in CHIH (3.51 ng mg -1 FW) and COAH (2.40 ng mg -1 FW).  In addition, we measured the T6P concentration of CHIH, COAH, and ARZM maize lines before and during drought stress and after reestablishing irrigation (Figure 6). The T6P levels in CHIH (1.34 ng mg -1 FW) and COAH (1.38 ng mg -1 FW) were similar before stress, but the level was significantly lower in ARZM (1.10 ng mg -1 FW). During drought stress, the three BC1S1 entries showed a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in T6P concentration, which was more pronounced in ARZM (0.68 ng mg -1 FW) and to a significant lesser extent in CHIH (0.90 ng mg -1 FW) and COAH (0.85 ng mg -1 FW) (Figure 6). The CHIH (1.17 ng mg -1 FW), COAH (1.18 ng mg -1 FW), and ARZM lines (1.21 ng mg -1 FW) recovered their T6P concentration after reestablishing irrigation to similar levels compared with the control conditions (Figure 6).Glycine betaine accumulation has been reported as an effective and efficient osmoprotectant in various crops, including maize (Wani et al., 2013). Therefore, in the present study the glycine betaine concentration of the BC1S1 entries was determined before and during drought stress and after reestablishing irrigation. Before drought stress, glycine betaine varied from 1061 to 1133 ng mg -1 FW in the three lines and represented nonsignificant differences (P < 0.05) (Figure 7). No increase in glycine betaine was found during drought stress. On the contrary, the glycine betaine concentration decreased to 879-1000 ng mg -1 FW and further decreased to 680-720 ng mg -1 FW when irrigation was reestablished; this suggests that drought stress did not induce biosynthesis of this osmoprotectant in the maize lines analyzed in this study.  The values represent the mean ± SE (n = 10). Different letters indicate significant differences between treatments and semi-inbred lines (Tukey's test, P ≤ 0.05).The values represent the mean ± SE (n = 10). Different letters indicate significant differences between treatments and semi-inbred lines (Tukey's test, P ≤ 0.05).We determined the grain biomass of CHIH, COAH, and ARZM maize lines under drought stress and compared them with the irrigated control. Table 1 shows ear traits obtained under drought and irrigation conditions for the three maize BC1S1 entries. After drought, ear rows decreased 16.7% in COAH and ARZM, but remained constant in CHIH; kernels per row decreased 14.3% in CHIH, 23.8% in ARZM, and 26.1% in COAH. Ear length decreased only 6.7% in CHIH, 26.7% in COAH, and 31.2% in ARZM; it remained constant in CHIH but decreased 25% in the two other BC1S1 entries. There was also a significant reduction in kernels per ear in COAH (37.5%) and ARZM (53.8%), while CHIH only decreased by 13.2%. Finally, ear weight decreased in all three lines, but significantly more in COAH (50%) and ARZM (61.9%) than in CHIH (26.3%) (Table 1). All these results clearly show that yield components were significantly less affected in CHIH than in the other two maize materials.Estimated grain biomass per plant was 44.16, 25.09, and 29.98 g under drought conditions and 60.08, 48.44, and 65.16 g under irrigation for CHIH, COAH, and ARZM, respectively (Table 2). These results show that drought affected the physiological performance of the three evaluated BC1S1 entries. However, under drought conditions, CHIH was the least affected by drought with a decrease in grain biomass of 26.50%, followed by COAH with 48.20% and ARZM, which exhibited the highest decrease (53.99%) (Table 2). The values represent the mean ± SE (n = 10). Different letters indicate significant differences between treatments and semi-inbred lines (Tukey's test, P ≤ 0.05).  Drought stress severely limits agricultural production because crop productivity is largely dependent on water availability. We used novel maize materials, namely, three BC1S1 semi-inbred lines (CHIH, COAH, and ARZM) previously developed from landraces with the highest performing phenotypic evaluation under drought conditions and crossed with the CML376 elite line (CIMMYT). Previous work allowed the selection of a series of accessions with higher performance under drought in the field using the approach described by Ruiz Corral et al. (2013). These materials were crossed to appropriate CIMMYT maize lines with a heterotic pattern and then backcrossed to the same line. The BC1S1 used in the experiment were subjected to further multi-location field experiments with appropriate controls, and the most drought-tolerant materials were selected. The materials evaluated in the present study were three of the most droughttolerant materials; their tolerance was defined through field evaluation rather than in a greenhouse study. For greenhouse experiments and since our materials were drought tolerant, we measured the relative stress tolerance between them using the RWC test, which showed a significant recovery of turgor after dramatic water loss (Figure 1). It is well known that RWC indicates water status in plants, reflecting the balance between water supply to the leaf tissue and the transpiration rate (Lugojan and Ciulca, 2011). We showed that adult flowering maize plants can recover from severe wilting (33% to 40% RWC) without apparent cell damage. To our knowledge, the current work is the first study to report this phenomenon of total RWC recovery after drought stress in flowering maize plants. These results agree with Chen et al. (2016), who evaluated the RWC of 10 maize lines at the seedling stage and found a significant decrease in RWC (44.8% to 64.3%) of all seedlings that were subjected to drought compared with the controls, and all lines had a significant recovery after rewatering plants.Analysis of leaf temperature in the maize semi-inbred lines showed an increase under drought stress that did not recover the original temperature, but it was within a range that is not harmful to plants. It is known that temperatures greater than 35 °C significantly decrease the activity of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase (RuBisCO), thus limiting photosynthesis and respiration (Yamori et al., 2014). In chloroplasts, high temperatures reduce the photochemical efficiency of PSII, which is the photosynthesis component most sensitive to high temperatures.The photosynthesis rate also decreased from 50% to 70% during drought stress, but it was recovered after reestablishing irrigation, indicating that the CHIH, COAH, and ARZM maize lines are drought tolerant. Photosynthesis is affected under drought stress, but tolerant plants manage to restore this process after stress ends. Hayano-Kanashiro et al. (2009) measured the photosynthesis rate of three Mexican maize landraces; Michoacán21 and Cajete were both drought tolerant and recovered after severe stress, whereas 85-2 did not recover because it was drought sensitive.Osmoprotectant accumulation is a key biochemical trait in plants that are tolerant to abiotic stress (Dos Reis et al., 2012;Wani et al., 2013), and there is clear evidence that osmotic adjustment sustains crop yield under drought stress (Blum, 2017). Therefore, we measured two common osmoprotectants that accumulate in drought-tolerant crops, that is, proline and glycine betaine, as well as trehalose that is rarely present in crops. Under drought stress, proline accumulated in the COAH and CHIH lines but not in ARZM. Drought stress causes changes in amino acid metabolism. It has been shown that proline accumulation is correlated with osmoprotection and its biosynthesis is an important factor in drought tolerance in Mexican maize landraces such as Michoacán21 and Cajete (Hayano-Kanashiro et al., 2009). In contrast, drought stress did not induce glycine betaine accumulation; however, its concentration before and after drought stress was at levels comparable with osmotic-tolerant maize lines that accumulate glycine betaine (Peel et al., 2010). Therefore, it appears that glycine betaine is accumulated constitutively in the CHIH, COAH, and ARZM lines and can contribute to their drought-tolerant phenotype.In the present study, trehalose was found to accumulate in ARZM at significant levels in adult plants at the reproductive stage; however, it was also found in CHIH and COAH before and after drought stress with similar concentrations. Thus, together with proline and glycine betaine, trehalose accumulation might be responsible for the recovery of turgor and drought tolerance. In a recent study, trehalose accumulation occurred in maize seedlings of a VS-22 drought-tolerant line, but not in the AMCCG-2 drought-sensitive line (Velázquez-Márquez et al., 2015). To our knowledge, the present study is the first case in which trehalose was accumulated in adult maize plants at the flowering stage (silking and postsilking). It is well established that trehalose accumulation in several anhydrobiotic organisms, including 'resurrection plants', confers drought tolerance (Iturriaga et al., 2009). Genomic studies have shown the trehalose biosynthesis gene family in several crops, including maize; however, the presence of trehalose was not reported (Henry et al., 2014). Transgenic maize overexpressing trehalose biosynthetic enzymes exhibited improvements in drought tolerance and yield (Nuccio et al., 2015).Drought, after silking and until the maturity stages, affects grain weight and severely decreases maize grain biomass (Maiti and Satya, 2014). Regarding yield components, it is worth mentioning that ears from the three BC1S1 entries displayed important differences under drought stress. Grain biomass of each maize BC1S1 was estimated under drought and irrigation conditions. Under drought conditions, ears exhibited incomplete development, whereas they were fully developed under constant watering. The CHIH maintained the number of rows and constant ear width and had a relatively small decrease in kernels per row (14.3%), kernels per ear (13.2%), and a 26.3% decrease in ear weight; all yield components decreased significantly in COAH and ARZM (Table 1). Similarly, CHIH grain biomass loss under drought conditions was 26.50% compared with COAH (48.20%) and ARZM (53.99%) grain loss (Table 2). This reduction in the yield components was correlated with the observed lower water content and photosynthetic activity under drought stress (Figures 1 and 2). It has already been shown in other maize landraces and hybrids that drought stress led to a lower number of kernels per row, reduced the number of kernels per ear, and reduced grain biomass (Mazvimbakupa et al., 2015).We also tried to establish a correlation between osmoprotectant concentration and yield components. It has been reported that during drought stress, T6P levels decrease and recover after stress ceases (Lawlor and Paul, 2014). A similar pattern was found in the T6P concentration of the three maize BC1S1 entries before and during drought stress and after reestablishing irrigation (Figure 6). In addition to being an intermediary in trehalose biosynthesis, T6P has played a key role in plants as a signal molecule by integrating the use of sucrose with growth and development related to environmental conditions, thus providing a major contribution in maintaining the energy balance. Anabolism dominates catabolism during the day due to the inhibition of the SnRK1protein kinase by T6P, while inhibition ceases during photorespiration at night and catabolism predominates (Nunes et al., 2013). The relationship between T6P and grain yield in wheat under drought is also clearly established. Genetic manipulation of T6P levels in meristems and freshly fertilized wheat grains potentially increases grain size by improving crop yield both under irrigation and drought conditions, although it is lower in the latter (Paul et al., 2018). The ARZM, which had the lowest grain biomass under drought stress, showed the lowest accumulation of trehalose and T6P and similar levels of proline and glycine betaine compared with CHIH and COAH; this suggests that trehalose and T6P are important to promote yield components under stress conditions. It has recently been shown that genes involved in the biosynthesis of trehalose, raffinose, and proline are induced by drought stress in the ear leaf (Wang et al., 2019). The CHIH had the highest yield components and lower grain loss under drought stress; however, it accumulated similar concentrations of trehalose and T6P compared with COAH, which had 1.8 times less grain biomass under stress than CHIH. A transcriptomic analysis could probably shed light on which other molecules and genes are involved in the higher performance and yield of CHIH under drought stress.The study results indicate that maize CHIH, COAH, and ARZM semi-inbred lines exhibit a drought-tolerant phenotype. In all three maize BC1S1 entries, the photosynthetic apparatus and water content recovers after drought stress and leaf temperature remains within a normal range. This study demonstrated that trehalose, proline, and glycine betaine accumulate in adult maize plants at the silking and post-silking stages. They presumably help to alleviate drought stress in this crop and, together with trehalose-6-phosphate, might be responsible for the reduction of grain biomass loss during stress.","tokenCount":"4949"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"77928f322bd7f1413ede9d7107fd8272","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/0b1b7ce4-bbd4-4027-aaeb-551331a7f5dd/retrieve","id":"-1529826360"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"9671e975-6431-457a-a869-878d049aa67f","pagecount":"1","content":"Cattle production contributes with nearly 9.5% to the global anthropogenic green house gas (GHG) emissions• Climate change mitigation and reduction of the environmental footprint in cattle production can be achieved through the adoption of improved forages and the implementation of sustainable agricultural practices• Social Networks are an important strategy in helping people to cope with challenging conditions such as a lack of basic services or inputs. In many cases they are replacing formal services and input providers, relying on the delivery of informal financial services, extension services and problem solving assistance• For the adoption of improved forages social networks might be an influential factorUCINET 6.620 was used for social network analysis and Netdraw 2.160 for obtaining the social network figure. Collaboration between producers, in terms of information and resources, was employed to obtain the centrality variablePearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the influence of the centrality variable on the access to information, technical knowledge and adoption level. The Mann-Whitney U test was applied for the analysis of mean differences in the adoption level between regular and board members of associationsCorrelation analysis• The investigated network is undirected and shows a density of 0.75%• Cattle producers with a higher centrality degree show a higher adoption level of improved forages• Producers with a higher centrality degree have more access to information, which increases their technical knowledge and this results having influence on the adoption level of improved foragesThe role of producers in associations (regular member vs board members) has influence on the adoption of improved forages. In general, producers who belong to an association showed a higher adoption rate. Directive members showed higher adoption rate than regular members (p<0.005)  • Network actors with a higher degree of centrality could play an important role in the dissemination of scientific findings and technologies facilitating up-and out-scaling processes• Members of associations are key actors in the social network for promoting the adoption of agricultural technologies in their community  ","tokenCount":"323"}

data/part_3/0235745428.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"f0888a6de18e4f52f015906c7691682d","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/14697dd3-5ca3-4739-922b-ce0c7f7b93b8/retrieve","id":"-2069148706"},"keywords":["BLAST, Basic Local Alignment Search Tool","BLUP, Best Linear Unbiased Prediction","CET, Clonal Evaluation Trial","GWAS, Genome-Wide Association Study","HPLC, High-Performance Liquid Chromatography","IITA, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture","KASP, Kompetitive Allele-Specific PCR","MAE, Mean Absolute Error","MAS, Marker-Assisted Selection","PCR, Polymerase Chain Reaction","PSY2, Phytoene Synthase 2","QTL, Quantitative Trait Loci","REML, Restricted Maximum Likelihood","RMSE, Root Mean Square Error","SD, Standard Deviation","SN, Seedling Nursery","SNP, Single Nucleotide Polymorphism"],"sieverID":"f17a5f05-a16a-44bd-bcb7-9e7cde1294d7","pagecount":"17","content":"Provitamin A biofortification and increased dry matter content are important breeding targets in cassava improvement programs worldwide. Biofortified varieties contribute to the alleviation of provitamin A deficiency, a leading cause of preventable blindness common among pre-school children and pregnant women in developing countries particularly Africa. Dry matter content is a major component of dry yield and thus underlies overall variety performance and acceptability by growers, processors, and consumers. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers linked to these traits have recently been discovered through several genome-wide association studies but have not been deployed for routine marker-assisted selection (MAS). This is due to the lack of useful information on markers' performances in diverse genetic backgrounds. To overcome this bottleneck, technical and biological validation of the loci associated with increased carotenoid content and dry matter content were carried out using populations independent of the marker discovery population. In the present study, seven previously identified markers for these traits were converted to a robust set of uniplex allele-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays and validated in two independent pre-breeding and breeding populations. These assays were efficient in discriminating marker genotypic classes and had an average call rate greater than 98%. A high correlation was observed between the predicted and observed carotenoid content as inferred by root yellowness intensity in the breeding (r = 0.92) and pre-breeding (r = 0.95) populations. On the other hand, Frontiers in Plant Science frontiersin.org 01Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a principal starchy root crop for both the rural and urban populations in the tropics, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The continent accounts for more than half of the total world's production of 303 million tonnes (FAOSTAT, 2020). Due to its ability to grow with few agricultural inputs in marginal environments characterized by poor soils and water stress, the crop takes on the crucial role of being a key food security crop in sub-Saharan Africa (Burns et al., 2010). In Africa, cassava roots are usually consumed fresh after short boiling and are also processed into various fermented products such as gari and fufu or unfermented products such as flour and starch. Besides its role as food, cassava is increasingly relied upon globally as an industrial raw material for the production of paper, textiles, plywood, glue, biofuel, animal feed and beverages (Balagopalan, 2002).Among the major staple sources of carbohydrates, cassava has one of the longest breeding cycles, ranging from five to eight years (Ceballos et al., 2004;Ceballos et al., 2012). This is due to its long growth cycle of 12 -18 months; clonal propagation, which results in low multiplication rates of planting propagules; its high levels of heterozygosity; and difficulty in making crosses due to poor and asynchronous flowering as well as low seed set per cross (Jennings and Iglesias, 2002;Ceballos et al., 2012). These challenges notwithstanding, breeding programs around the world have developed improved varieties that address various production constraints, including biotic and abiotic stresses, improved yield and dry matter content (Kawano, 2003;Okechukwu and Dixon, 2008), as well as enhanced micronutrient content, particularly of provitamin A carotenoid (Ilona et al., 2017;Andersson et al., 2017). However, as the demand for cassava for food, feed, and industrial raw materials continues to grow due to an increase in the population (Anyanwu et al., 2015;Parmar et al., 2017), breeding programs need to adopt modern breeding technologies and tools such as marker-assisted selection or genomic selection to increase the rate of genetic gain to meet the demands in an ecologically sustainable manner (Ceballos et al., 2015).Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) is one of the most important applications of molecular marker technology in plant breeding (Collard and Mackill, 2008). It facilitates the indirect selection of new plants based on the presence of a favorable allele at a marker that is closely linked to a trait of interest (Collard and Mackill, 2008). In cassava, MAS can be used at the early stages of the breeding scheme to select individuals with favorable alleles for storage-root traits that would otherwise only be phenotypically evaluated at maturity. This has several advantages, namely: 1) reduction in the time it takes to decide to advance a clone to the next stage of testing; 2) reduction in the number of clones to be advanced to larger plot trials, thereby saving scarce phenotyping resources, and 3) in some cases, the cost of marker assay is lower than those that are usually expended on the actual trait phenotyping. A good example is carotenoid quantification using the spectrophotometry method and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) which can be many-fold more expensive than a SNP assay (Semagn et al., 2014;Andersson et al., 2017). Therefore, the adoption of MAS can increase the efficiency of selection, leading to a more rapid rate of genetic gain, and fewer cycles of phenotypic evaluation, thus, reducing the time for varietal development (Collard and Mackill, 2008).The prerequisite for the application of MAS is the identification of major genes or genomic regions associated with a trait of interest. Over the last 15 years, quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping studies of different traits in cassava have been published (Fregene et al., 2001;Akano et al., 2002;Balyejusa et al., 2007;Okogbenin et al., 2012;Morillo et al., 2013;Rabbi et al., 2014). Most of these studies used segregating populations developed from either selfed or bi-parental crosses between parents with contrasting trait levels (Rabbi et al., 2014). More recently, association or linkage disequilibrium mapping using a genome-wide association study (GWAS) has become an approach for unraveling the molecular genetic basis underlying the natural phenotypic variation (Davey et al., 2011). The advantages of GWAS over QTL mapping are the higher mapping resolution and the identification of a broader set of alleles in large and diverse germplasm (Yu and Buckler, 2006). Several GWAS have been conducted on key cassava traits, including cassava mosaic disease resistance (Wolfe et al., 2016;Rabbi et al., 2020), carotenoids content (Esuma et al., 2016;Rabbi et al., 2017;Ikeogu et al., 2019;Rabbi et al., 2020), and dry matter content (Rabbi et al., 2020) in diverse cassava populations to discover significant loci. Despite this progress, the output from discovery research has not been translated into assays that breeders can easily use to support selection decisions (Chagneé t al., 2019). To overcome this bottleneck and bridge the gap between discovery and routine usage, new trait-linked markers must be technically and biologically validated, preferably using independent populations (Platten et al., 2019;Ige et al., 2021). This process informs the breeder whether the expected allelic phenotypic effects are reproducible in different genetic backgrounds from the one in which the marker-trait association was originally identified (Li et al., 2013).Cassava is very efficient in carbohydrate production, but its starchy roots lack essential micronutrients, including provitamin A carotenoid (Sayre et al., 2011;Ceballos et al., 2017). Vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in more than half of all countries, especially in Africa and South-East Asia (WHO, 2022). This deficiency often leads to several severe health and economic consequences, including increased incidence of night blindness; suppressed immunity, leading to an increased mortality rate, especially among pregnant women and young children as well as reduced productivity (Sayre et al., 2011;WHO, 2022). Dry matter content is a crucial yield component and is a key determinant of variety acceptance by growers, processors, and consumers (Sańchez et al., 2014;Bechoff et al., 2018). Varieties with low dry matter content (less than 30%) are often less preferred than those with moderate to high dry matter content. Like carotenoid content, dry matter content can only be assessed on mature storage roots at the end of the growing season. Marker-assisted selection is expected to provide breeders with the ability, for example, to screen either for genotypes with high levels of these traits or eliminate those with undesirable levels at the early stages of testing, thereby allocating their limited field plots to high-value genotypes. The objective of the study was, therefore, to convert and validate SNP markers associated with increased provitamin A carotenoid biofortification and dry matter content; two important traits under active improvement in many breeding programs in the world.2 Materials and methods 2.1 Retrieving significant loci linked to increased carotenoid and dry matter contentsThe marker discovery, development, and validation workflow used in the present study is presented in Figure 1. The SNP markers linked to increased carotenoid and dry matter contents validated in the present study (Table 1) were derived from (Udoh et al., 2017;Rabbi et al., 2020). Sequencing of four carotenoid pathway candidate genes in 167 cassava accessions from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria, uncovered two important SNPs on phytoene synthase 2 (PSY2) (Udoh et al., 2017). The most significant SNP on PSY2 (position 572) is a causal mutation resulting in a nonsynonymous amino acid substitution (Welsch et al., 2010). This marker was converted to a Kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) assay and renamed as per its chromosomal position on the version 6.1 reference genome to S1_24155522. Additional markers associated with the study traits were obtained from a recent GWAS that used a large panel of 5130 diverse clones developed at IITA in Nigeria (Rabbi et al., 2020). The population was genotyped at more than 100K genome-wide SNP markers via genotyping-by-sequencing. For carotenoid content, a major locus on chromosome 1 tagged by three markers (S1_24159583, S1_24636113, and S1_30543962) as well as five new genomic regions associated with this trait on chromosomes 5, 8, 15, and 16 were identified. Of these, three (S1_30543962, S5_3387558, and S8_25598183) were selected for KASP conversion and validation in the present study. The markers associated with dry matter content were S1_24197219, S6_20589894, and S12_5524524.Fifty nucleotide bases flanking the target SNP on each side were obtained from the cassava (Manihot esculenta) reference genome (version 6.1) available at https://phytozome-next.jgi. doe.gov/info/Mesculenta_v6_1. Then, a nucleotide-nucleotide Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) was used to check for locus-specificity of the assays to minimize the possibility of cross-amplification of the marker in non-target regions of the genome. Primers were designed using a proprietary Kraken ™ software system from LGC Biosearch Technologies, UK, with the default parameters.Assay technical validation was carried out using a panel of 188 genetically diverse cassava genotypes that are known to segregate at the SNP assays. A no-template control was included in the SNP genotyping. The robustness of the assays was assessed under four DNA concentrations (Dilution 1 = 10X, Dilution 2 = 100X, Dilution 3 = 24X, Dilution 4 = 240X) using metrics such as ease of scoring the three expected genotype classes, tightness, and distinctiveness of the genotypic classes on cluster plots, percentage call rate, and percentage clarity.The KASP assays' performances were assessed in two independent populations from IITA, Nigeria. These populations, consisting of breeding and pre-breeding germplasm, were different from the panel used for GWAS marker discovery.The breeding population is part of IITA's regular recurrent selection pipeline and was derived from controlled crosses among elite genotypes carried out in 2017. Yield, multiple stress tolerance, and dry matter content are the major traits for improvement in this population. The cohort was evaluated initially at the seedling nursery (SN) stage consisting of 22,420 progenies from 563 families (mean family size of 40, ranging from 1 to 220) in 2018 in Ibadan, Nigeria (7°24′ N, 3°54′ E; 200 m above sea level). The SN trial was planted at a spacing of 1 m × 0.25 m and harvested 12 months after planting; a selection of 1599 genotypes based on disease resistance, plant vigor, plant architecture, and root yield was advanced to clonal evaluation trial (CET) at Ikenne, Nigeria (6°52′ N 3°42′ E; 61 m above sea level).The pre-breeding population was developed using a polycross hybridization between twenty-three (23) IITA and nineteen ( 19) CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) parental clones. To ensure safe germplasm exchange between Africa and Latin America, the hybridization   Genotypes at the first CET were used for the validation study. A CET was preferred because of the large size (typically several hundred) and diversity of most of the traits. The trials were laid out in an augmented design to accommodate a large number of entries. Each genotype was planted at a spacing of 1 m between rows and 0.5 m within rows. For the breeding population, the experiment comprised of 58 to 60 plots per 30 sub-blocks with five checks (IITA-TMS-IBA00070, IITA-TMS-IBA30572, TMEB419, IITA-TMS-IBA982101, IITA-TMS-IBA980581) randomly assigned to each sub-block. This trial was planted in June 2018 and harvested in June 2019. The prebreeding population trial carried out between October 2018 and October 2019 consisted of 900 plots (50 plots per 18 sub-blocks) with four checks (TMEB419, IITA-TMS-IBA30572, IITA-TMS-IBA070593, and IITA-TMS-IBA000070) in each block. All field management practices were performed according to the technical recommendations and standard agricultural practices for cassava (Abass et al., 2014;Atser et al., 2017).Direct estimation of total carotenoid content using laboratory extraction followed by spectrophotometry and HPLC is not only expensive but also has low throughput for routine germplasm screening, particularly at the early stages of breeding selection. Due to a large number of genotypes in this study, we used two color-based methods to assess the variation among the cassava genotypes for carotenoid content. Utilization of color intensity as a proxy for the carotenoids content in cassava is justified because of the well-established linear relationship between root yellowness and total carotenoids content (Pearson's coefficient, r, ranges from 0.81 to 0.84) (Iglesias et al., 1997;Chavez et al., 2005;Marıń Colorado et al., 2009;Sańchez et al., 2014;Esuma et al., 2016) as well as with total beta-carotene (Udoh et al., 2017). Moreover, 80 to 90% of total carotenoid content in cassava is provitamin A compared to other crops, making color-based assessment a good proxy for estimating not only total carotenoids content but also total bcarotene content (Wong et al., 2004;Ceballos et al., 2017;Jaramillo et al., 2018). In maize, kernel color is not correlated with the primary carotenoid of interest, that is, b-carotene, which has the highest pro-vitamin A activity due to the presence of other carotenoids such as b-cryptoxanthin, zeaxanthin, and lutein (Wong et al., 2004).The first method is a standard visual assessment of the yellowness of root parenchyma using a color chart with a scale ranging from 1 (white root) to 7 (orange root) (Supplementary Figure 1). The second method is a surface color measurement using a CR-410 chromameter (Konica Minolta). The chromameter's three-dimensional color space defined by l*, a*, and b* coordinates provides a more objective and precise assessment of surface color and its intensity. The Commission Internationale de l'E ́clairage (CIELAB) l* coordinate value represents sample lightness ranging from 0 (black) to 100 (diffuse white). The a* values represent either red (positive coordinate values) or green (negative coordinate values). Of importance in our study is the b* coordinate, whose positive values measure the degree of yellowness and therefore provide an indirect estimate of carotenoid content.For the chromameter color measurements, eight roots per plot were peeled, washed, grated, and thoroughly mixed. A subsample was transferred into a transparent sampling bag (Whirl-Pak ™ ) and scanned at four independent positions. The CR-410 chromameter was calibrated each day using a white ceramic and illuminant D65 was used as a source of light.Root dry matter content was assessed using the oven-drying method. Eight fully developed roots were randomly selected from each plot, peeled, washed, grated, and thoroughly mixed. For each sample, 100 g was weighed and oven-dried for 72 h at 80°C. The dry samples were then weighed, and the dry matter content was expressed as the percentage of dry weight relative to fresh weight.Young leaves were sampled three months after planting from the evaluation plots. Three 6mm diameter leaf discs were obtained from each genotype into 96-well plates on ice, and freeze-dried for at least 72 hours. The samples were shipped to a genotyping service provider (Intertek, Sweden) for automated DNA extraction and SNP genotyping using four markers linked to increased carotenoid content and three markers linked to increased dry matter content (Table 1) using the KASP assay. Two blank c ontrols were included in e ach plate during genotyping.The KASP assay protocol is provided in the KASP manual (LGC Genomics, 2013). In brief, genotyping was carried out using the high-throughput PCR SNPline workflow using 1 mL reaction volume in 1536-well PCR plates. The KASP genotyping reaction mix is comprised of three components: (i) sample DNA (10 ng); (ii) marker assay mix consisting of target-specific primers; and (iii) KASP-TF ™ Master Mix containing two universal fluorescence resonant energy transfer cassettes (FAM and HEX), passive reference dye (ROX ™ ), Taq polymerase, free nucleotides, and MgCl 2 in an optimized buffer solution. The SNP assay mix is specific to each marker and consists of two kompetitive allele-specific forward primers and one common reverse primer (Table 1). After PCR, the plates were fluorescently read, and allele calls were made using KRAKEN ™ software.A linear mixed model was implemented using restricted maximum likelihood (REML) to estimate the best linear unbiased predictions (BLUPs) for each genotype in the CETs of breeding and pre-breeding populations. The model was fitted using the asreml package (Butler, 2020) in R software version 4.0.3 (R Development Core Team, 2020). The mathematical model used for the incomplete block design analysis is represented as follows:where Y ijk is the vector of phenotype data of the i th genotype of the j th block nested into the k th replication, m is the overall mean, G i is the effect of the i th genotype, R k is the effect of the k th replication, B jk is the effect of the j th block nested into the k th replication, and e ijk is the residual, modeled as a sum of measurement error and a spatially dependent random process. A first-order auto-regressive process in both row and column directions was used for the spatial trend (Gilmour et al). All effects except m were assumed to be random.Broad-sense heritability was calculated as:where H 2 is the broad-sense heritability; s 2 g and s 2 e are the variance components for the genotype effect and the residual error, respectively.Pairwise correlation analysis of the traits using the BLUP estimates was determined using the corr.test function in the psych package (R Development Core Team, 2020).Technical performance metrics used to assess the robustness of markers include SNP call rate and call clarity. Call rate is the proportion of samples with non-missing genotype calls. Call clarity is defined by the ease of assigning samples to a genotype class based on their position on a fluorescence cluster Cartesian plot. The tighter and more distinct the cluster, the easier and more consistent it is to call the respective genotype class, namely homozygous for either allele 1 or 2 or heterozygous in the case of biallelic SNPs and a diploid genome.Biological validation of the converted markers was assessed using three complementary approaches. First, the allele substitution effect was visualized using boxplots, and the difference in carotenoid and dry matter content BLUP values among the genotypic classes at each marker locus was assessed using a pairwise t-test. Second, the predictive ability of the SNP markers was estimated using a multiple linear regression model. As shown in the linear model below, marker alleles and the observed phenotypes were considered as the independent and response variables, respectively.where: Y = phenotypic observations of traits, μ = overall mean of the population, m 1 , m 2 , m n = marker effects, e = residual value.Bootstrap resampling was carried out to obtain robust estimates of model parameters, specifically the magnitude and confidence intervals of the allele-substitution effects for the markers associated with the two traits (Davison and Hinkley, 1997). The reg_intervals function in the tidymodels R package (Kuhn and Wickham, 2020) was used to generate 1000 bootstrap resamples and fit the multiple linear regression model on each one.Finally, a 5-fold cross-validation analysis repeated 10 times was carried out to obtain marker performance metrics including predictive accuracy (R 2 ), root mean square error (RMSE, the square root of the mean squared difference between observed and predicted trait values), and mean absolute error (MAE, the average absolute difference between the predictions made by the model and the actual observations). To achieve this, the breeding and pre-breeding population data were partitioned into training and testing sets in a 3:1 ratio with a stratification based on the target traits (chromameter b* value or dry matter content). The regression model developed in the training set was used to predict the trait values in the hold-out testing set. All model training and cross-validation analyses were implemented in the R caret package (Kuhn, 2008).Out of the evaluated clones, 81% of the breeding population and 52% of the pre-breeding population had white storage roots, while the remaining showed a range of yellow color (visual score of between 2 and 5), suggesting varying levels of carotenoid content (Figure 2). The average visual score of root yellowness was 1.30 (standard deviation (sd) = 0.72) in the breeding population and 1.74 (sd = 0.95) in the pre-breeding population. The chromameter b* values showed a bi-modal distribution in the two populations (Figure 2). The first peak (b*values from 11 to 22) is associated with clones that produced white roots, while the second peak (b* values from 22 to 50) is associated with the variations among clones with yellow roots. The average chromameter measures of yellow color intensity were 21.0 (sd = 6.12) and 26.2 (sd = 8.82) for breeding and prebreeding populations, respectively. The dry matter content of the clones evaluated in the two populations was normally distributed (Figure 2), ranging from 11.2 to 47.4, with averages of 31.5 (sd = 5.92) in the pre-breeding population and 35.1 (sd = 4.80) in the breeding population.The broad-sense heritability of the visual assessment from the color chart and chromameter values were 0.87 and 0.88, respectively, for the breeding population, and 0.81 and 0.93, respectively for the pre-breeding population (Table 2). The heritability estimate for dry matter content in the pre-breeding population (0.61) was lower than that of the breeding population (0.70) (Table 2).The two measures of root yellowness intensity; visual assessment and chromameter b* value were significantly and positively correlated (~0.90) in the two populations suggesting that visual scoring is a good proxy for yellow-color intensity. Significant negative correlations ranging from -0.27 to -0.20 were observed between root yellowness and dry matter content in the two populations. However, a lower magnitude of correlation coefficient was observed between visual assessment and dry matter content (-0.20) as well as between chromameter b* value and dry matter content (-0.23) in the pre-breeding population.All markers were successfully converted to allele-specific KASP assays. The call rate and clarity were high for a wide range of DNA dilution levels tested during marker development, indicating that the assays are robust and suitable for routine use (Supplementary Figure 2). The overall call rate was above 98% for all the markers in the two populations genotyped (mean = 99%, sd = 0.53) (Supplementary Table 1). As expected, three distinct clusters were observed for all the SNPs except for marker S5_3387558 where the frequency of cluster TT was very low (Supplementary Figure 3).Allelic and genotypic frequencies of the markers are presented in Supplementary Figures 4, 5, respectively. The favorable alleles across all the carotenoid-linked markers were more common in the pre-breeding population (ranging from 11 to 34%) compared to the breeding population (ranging from 3 to 11%) (Supplementary Figure 4). The favorable allele A at marker S1_24155522 had a frequency of 34% and 11% in the pre-breeding and breeding populations, respectively (Supplementary Figure 4). More than 15% of the individuals were homozygous for allele A at this marker in the pre-breeding population (Supplementary Figure 5).  The percentage was much lower in the breeding population with only 2.3% of the individuals fixed for the same allele. In the two populations, between 0.4 to 7.3% of the individuals were fixed for the favorable alleles at the three remaining markers suggesting an opportunity to use these markers to increase their frequencies in the population (Supplementary Figure 5). For dry matter content, the favorable alleles at the linked SNPs occurred at intermediate to high frequencies ranging from 28 to 76% in both populations (Supplementary Figure 4). The percentage of individuals that were fixed for the favorable alleles was higher in the breeding than in the pre-breeding population for this trait (Supplementary Figure 5). About 27 to 53% of the individuals in the pre-breeding population were fixed for the unfavorable alleles (Supplementary Figure 5).3.2.2.1 Allelic substitution effects on carotenoid and dry matter contents Significant pairwise differences between genotypic classes at all the markers associated with carotenoid content were observed (Figure 3). Most of the markers displayed an additive mode of action with individuals carrying two copies of the favorable alleles having a higher intensity of root yellowness (b*) than those with only one copy while those that are fixed for non-favorable alleles had white roots. For instance, the mean b* values for genotype classes AA, CA, and CC for marker S1_24155522 were 38. 53 ± 2.85, 31.64 ± 3.89, and 18.37 ± 2.48, respectively in the pre-breeding population (Figure 3B).The genotype classes at the dry matter content-linked markers were not as differentiated as those for carotenoid content (Figure 4). Nonetheless, significant differences were observed among the genotypes at marker S6_20589894 in the two populations. In the pre-breeding population, there was no significant difference among CC, CT, and TT at marker S12_5524524 (Figure 4).The estimates of marker-trait regression parameters from bootstrap resampling analysis for the two traits are presented in Figures 5 and 6. The regression model with all the four markers for carotenoid variation produced R 2 values of 0.85 in the breeding population and 0.91 in the pre-breeding population. However, in a subset of the breeding and pre-breeding populations consisting of only genotypes with yellow roots, the R 2 values decreased to 0.46 and 0.53, respectively. SNP S1_24155522 had the strongest effect on variation in root yellowness. The effect size of having a single copy of a favorable allele (A) on the increase in root yellowness intensity (chromameter b* value) was 10.8 and 12.1 in the breeding and prebreeding populations, respectively. Having two copies of the sameAllelic substitution effects of the markers associated with increased carotenoid content in the (A) breeding, and (B) pre-breeding populations (For marker S5_3387558, the mean and standard deviation cannot be estimated because one genotype had TT).allele resulted in an even larger effect size of 15.5 and 17.8, respectively, in the two populations. The confidence intervals of these marker genotypes were narrow, indicating higher precision of the marker prediction. After controlling for the major locus (S1_24155522) effect in the two populations, the other three markers had a low to moderate effect on the trait (Supplementary Figure 6). The effect sizes of the minor SNPs were more significant in the breeding compared to the pre-breeding population, particularly for markers S5_3387758 and S8_25598183.The regression model with all three markers for dry matter content produced low R 2 values of 0.06 in the breeding and 0.09 in the pre-breeding population. Having two copies of favorable alleles across all SNPs was associated with an increase in dry matter content percentage from between 1.01 and 2.50 percentage units in the breeding population. A similar direction of effects was observed in the pre-breeding population except for marker S12_5524524 which did not contribute to the multiple regression model. A notable observation is a reversal in the effects of markers S1_24197219 and S6_20589894 across the two populations, suggesting a QTL by genetic background interaction.The predictive accuracy of the carotenoid markers from the cross-validation regression analysis ranged from 0.84 to 0.91 with a mean of 0.87. In the pre-breeding population, the value was higher and approximately 0.90 in the training and testing sets (Table 3, Supplementary Figure 7). However, low predictive accuracy values were obtained for dry matter content-linked markers in the breeding population (0.07 for the training set and 0.05 for the testing set) and pre-breeding population (0.08 for the training set and 0.07 for the testing set) (Table 3, Supplementary Figure 7). In the breeding population, RMSE and MAE values for carotenoid markers were 1.88 and 1.43, respectively, in the training set, and 2.03 and 1.52, respectively, in the testing set (Table 3). The values of RMSE and MAE were 2.31 and 1.71, respectively, in the training set, and 2.35 and 1.68 in the testing set of the pre-breeding population. These values were higher for dry matter content-markers in both populations compared to those of carotenoid content-markers. The use of RMSE and MAE is very common in model evaluation, and they are good measures of prediction accuracy.The present study focused on the development and validation of markers for carotenoids and dry matter contents, two traits that are of primary importance to cassava breeding programs worldwide (Sánchez et al., 2006;Okechukwu and Dixon, 2008;Bouis et al., 2011;Saltzman et al., 2013;Talsma et al., 2013). Similar to our observations, several studies that used diverse cassava germplasm, particularly from Africa have reported that dry matter content and carotenoid content parameters such as totalAllelic substitution effects of the markers associated with increased dry matter content (DMC) in the (A) breeding, and (B) pre-breeding populations.carotenoid content, root yellowness intensity, and visual assessment of storage roots are negatively correlated with rvalues ranging from 0.1 to 0.6 (Marıń Colorado et al., 2009;Akinwale et al., 2010;Njoku et al., 2015;Esuma et al., 2016;Rabbi et al., 2017). On the contrary, these traits are independent in Latin American cassava populations (Ceballos et al., 2013;Sańchez et al., 2014). Although the selection of genotypes based on high intensities of root yellowness at the early stage of the breeding scheme saves time and costs associated with carotenoid quantification, it would indirectly select for lower dry matter content (Sańchez et al., 2014).As part of the breeders' toolbox for MAS, markers validated can be used to select for the study traits simultaneously and are expected to address the challenges associated with vitamin A deficiency and higher demand for varieties with higher dry matter content. Vitamin A deficiency is a widespread nutritional public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa, with women and children being the most affected (Gegios et al., 2010;Stephenson et al., 2010). Breeding of clones with enhanced carotenoid levels is one of the most cost-effective and sustainable approaches to helping the communities burdened by vitamin A deficiency (Pfeiffer and McClafferty, 2007;Bouis et al., 2011;Talsma et al., 2013). While we have explored the performance of the markers in the IITA pre-breeding and breeding populations, these assays should have wide application in other breeding programs where the QTLs are present and are linked to the same SNP alleles. More importantly, these markers can be used for rapid mobilization of the favorable alleles in new populations developed using parents that are known to carry the associated trait alleles.Trait discovery in cassava has been an active area of research with the advent of genome-wide SNP markers from genotypingby-sequencing (Wolfe et al., 2016;Esuma, 2016;Rabbi et al., 2017;Udoh et al., 2017;Ikeogu et al., 2019;Rabbi et al., 2020). However, these trait discoveries have not been translated into deployable assays, obscuring their utility in MAS. Here, we have provided a framework for translating the outputs from genetic mapping to a set of easy-to-use, robust, and predictive allelespecific uniplex assays. The framework includes both technical and biological validation of the assays in a range of diverse germplasm to ascertain the relevance of the markers for predicting the trait values in independent populations. The KASP SNP platform was chosen due to its amenability for genotyping of any combination of individual samples and marker assays, and ease of automation to achieve high- throughput population screening (Semagn et al., 2014;Ogbonna et al., 2020;Ige et al., 2021). The designed SNP assays were found to work under a wide range of DNA concentrations. Even though the tightness of the cluster plots differed between the standard and low DNA concentrations, they were sufficiently distinct to allow for a high genotype call rate and call clarity. This suggests that the assays are expected to work under diverse DNA concentrations and most likely from different sample preparation methods, including fresh, frozen, lyophilized, or oven-dried (Semagn et al., 2014).The best way to measure the predictive ability of a model is to test it on a dataset that is independent of the data used to train the model (Wani et al., 2018). The k-fold cross-validation, where the original dataset is randomly partitioned into equally sized ksubsets (a single subset is retained as the validation data for testing the model, and the remaining k -1 subsets are used as training data), is one of the most commonly used crossvalidation methods (Refaeilzadeh et al., 2009;Mathew et al., 2015). It is routinely used to assess genomic prediction accuracies (Okeke et al., 2017;de Andrade et al., 2019Distribution of the marker allelic effects associated with increased dry matter content in (A) breeding, and (B) pre-breeding populations. Both measures of cross-validation accuracy for this trait suggest that the designed assays can be deployed for routine use in breeding pipelines with carotenoid biofortification as a breeding goal. On the other hand, the predictive accuracy of the dry matter content markers (mean = 0.07) across populations was lower than the values obtained for carotenoid content markers. This could be due to the quantitative nature of dry matter content (Kawano et al., 1987). In the discovery population (Rabbi et al., 2020), also reported low predictive ability (R 2 < 0.11) of these markers. Moreover, for both traits, we used a bootstrapping regression approach to provide robust estimates of allele substitution effects and their confidence intervals (Fox and Weisberg, 2018). The multiple regression analysis of carotenoid content markers revealed that marker S1_24155522 was the main driver in carotenoid accumulation while the other markers played additional but minor roles. This result is consistent with earlier observations that the PSY2 gene, which hosts marker S1_24155522 is a key rate-limiting step in the carotenoid pathway in cassava (Welsch et al., 2010;Rabbi et al., 2020). In a candidate gene-based association study, Udoh et al. (2017) reported that total carotenoid content and b-carotene were significantly associated with this marker, which occurs at position 572 of the PSY2 gene. Indeed, the previously identified SNPs from other candidate genes such as lcyE, lcyB, and crtRB were hardly significantly associated with the trait (Udoh et al., 2017). On the other hand, markers S1_24197219 and S6_20589894 had small but significant effects on dry matter content in both populations, while marker S12_5524524 showed an effect in the pre-breeding population. Marker S6_20589894 was reported to occur close to the gene Manes.06G103600 (Bidirectional sugar transporter Sweet4-Related) which mediates fructose transport across the tonoplast of roots (Rabbi et al., 2020).While we have assessed the performance of selected markers across the two diverse populations, we acknowledge that these markers may be tagging only a subset of major loci underlying the studied traits, particularly dry matter content. Ongoing and future GWAS and biparental QTL mapping studies will likely uncover additional QTLs. Such markers can be validated using the framework provided in this study and incorporated into the breeders' toolset, thus increasing the accuracy of predicting these traits. Moreover, other traits that are of importance for which major associations have recently been reported but not converted to marker assays include cassava green mite (Rabbi et al., 2020), cassava brown streak disease (Kayondo et al., 2018) and root mealiness (Uchendu et al., 2021). A major caveat of our study is the use of single-marker assays to tag each major locus for the two traits. The top SNPs at these loci are expected to be tightly linked to the causal allele based on the large GWAS population used in the discovery, with more than 5000 individuals genotyped at more than 100K genome-wide positions. However, factors such as independent emergence or evolution of favorable alleles at specific genes and nearby SNP can result in non-perfect association, hence resulting in falsepositive and false-negative. This and other limitations of single marker analysis can be addressed by a haplotype-based approach through, for example, amplicon sequencing (AmpSeq) of targeted genomic regions (Yang et al., 2016). Further work is required to establish the viability of Amplicon Sequencing as a platform for haplotype-based MAS in cassava.","tokenCount":"5998"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"fd22c7b91e69697400bc2fcb9896e138","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d632c9bb-67b0-4093-b590-ded7e08b4775/retrieve","id":"-957615951"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"24bd616f-b4d6-4359-a942-194ff1dc57e8","pagecount":"15","content":"The Nile Delta, Egypt Study focus: Shallow groundwater (GW) and soil salinity are major issues for irrigated agriculture, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions, but more research is needed to link both issues with evapotranspiration. Satellite-based evapotranspiration from Landsat images (ET LS ) has the potential to be an efficient method of estimating evapotranspiration (ET), which can integrate ET LS with groundwater and soil salinity, particularly in data-scarce areas. This study examines shallow GW and soil salinity effects on crop water use in the North Nile Delta during the summer season of 2017 and winter season of 2017/2018. New hydrological insights for the region: The ET LS was moderately affected by groundwater depth (GWD), decreasing from 4.3 to 4.0 mm day − 1 when GWD was reduced from 75 to 120 cm, then increasing to 4.4 mm day − 1 when GWD was increased to 140 cm. The study also highlighted a significant negative correlation between ET gw and GWD; which increased with shallower GW (>75 cm) and then decreased with deeper GW. The shallower the GW, the greater the contribution to crop water requirements, with GW contributing 1.6 and 1.7 mm day − 1 for seed melon and cotton, respectively, while GW contributed 0.9 mm day − 1 for sugar beet and 1.3 mm day − 1 for wheat and clover. The study's findings highlight the importance of remote sensing and GIS techniques for quickly and cheaply assessing the impact of shallow GW and soil salinity on evapotranspiration over large geographic areas.Waterlogging and shallow groundwater (GW) have caused many environmental problems in many places worldwide due to poor irrigation and nonfunctional drainage systems, particularly with flood irrigation (Ochoa et al., 2007;Zhang et al., 2021). The groundwater depth (GWD) is often considered an essential factor in controlling ET rates (Devitt et al., 2002). Consequently, higher ET rates commonly occur with the shallowest GW and vice versa (Nichols, 1994). The relationship between ET and GWD, in general, is not straightforward, whereas a range of responses including a strong effect (Lafleur and Roulet, 1992), a moderate effect (Lafleur et al., 2005), or no significant effect of GWD has been observed (Wu et al., 2010), especially in peat-lands (Moore et al., 2013). This relationship is primarily influenced by several key factors, including soil hydraulic properties and soil matric potential at the root zone's long boundary. Furthermore, clay soils are vulnerable to drying and wetting cycles, which can cause cracks in the soil profile and macropore flow paths that rapidly deliver water, nutrients, and pollutants to the water table (Kurtzman and Scanlon, 2011). Although recent studies have explored the integration between remote sensing (RS) and surface and groundwater consumption in humid areas (Peña-arancibia et al., 2016), analysis of arid regions has not been performed yet. In addition to GWD, linear relationships were found between soil salinity and ET (Cemek et al., 2011). For instance, (Ünlükara et al., 2008) observed a decrease in ET of an okra due to soil salinity with a threshold value of 3.48 dS m − 1 . In contrast, the formation of soil salt crusts results in reduced soil evaporation under constant meteorological conditions (Zhang et al., 2013), possibly due to the increase of soil albedo (Fujimaki et al., 2006). Elhaddad et al. (2007) found that ET values correlated well with soil salinity when they used GIS and RS techniques. Nonetheless, the integration of ET, GWD, and soil salinity using RS in arid regions needs more attention.Irrigated agriculture faces several challenges that require special attention, such as natural soil salinity and groundwater (Ding et al., 2020a;Ding et al., 2020b), waterlogging, and water scarcity. The presence of saline groundwater in the North Nile Delta Aquifer as a result of seawater intrusion (Khatib, 1971;Mabrouk et al., 2019 andDing et al., 2020). The injudicious use of poor quality groundwaters in many arid and semi-arid regions for irrigation leads to the build-up of salinity and/or sodicity in soil and deterioration of soil health (Jat et al., 2018). Therefore, (El-Ghannam et al., 2019) and (Ding et al., 2020) observed that the highest soil and groundwater salinity and sodicity values were recorded near the sea due to seawater intrusion. However, to achieve proper groundwater resource management in this region, it is necessary to determine the actual heterogeneity and stratigraphy of the Nile Delta aquifer to understand the patterns of seawater movement and mixing between fresh and saline groundwater (El-Kiki, 2018).Shallow GW has long been recognised for its contribution to plant ET (Shah et al., 2007b). Whereas the decoupling of GW and root zone began at GWD 30-100 cm for deep-rooted vegetation, depending on soil texture (Shah et al., 2007a), and it can be used in-situ through its capillary rise (Dinar et al., 1991), especially as water becomes scarce (Shankar, 2012). With modified irrigation management, GW can cover part of or total crop ET (Logsdon et al., 2009) when it lies near the bottom of the root zone (Ayars et al., 2006). The contribution of GW may reduce or even eliminate irrigation requirements without compromising crop yields (Nosetto et al., 2009). However, the contribution of GW decreases with increasing irrigation applications (Karimov et al., 2014) and decreases by approximately 25% for every 1 m decline in the watertable (Xu et al., 2016). As a result, lowering the GW reduced the annual ET by about 32% and reduced ET gw by about 62% (Cooper et al., 2006). Cordeiro et al. (2015) found that GW contributed 52-81% to crop ET depending on the GW depth; thus, maintaining the GW at a shallow depth was suggested to be desirable to the plants (Shouse et al., 2006). For instance, the contribution of GW within a 40-150 cm depth met more than 65% of seasonal wheat ET (Liu and Luo, 2011) and (Yang et al., 2007) 50% for alfalfa (Ayars et al., 2009), especially with proper irrigation management. Additionally, entire wheat, maize, sorghum ET, and 20% sunflower ET were covered from GW at a depth of 50 cm (Kahlown et al., 2005) due to the hydraulic connection between the unsaturated and saturated zones. Moreover, the capillary rise supplied 29% of wheat ET with a mean GWD of 1.5 m (Huo et al., 2012), 12-30% of soybean ET with 1.5-2.0 m GWD (Videla Mensegue et al., 2015), and 33-50% for corn and wheat with GWD of 0.5 and 2.5 m, respectively (Kang et al., 2001). GW can contribute to crop ET by up to 80% without affecting its yield and soil salinity (Prathapar and Qureshi, 1999a).Plants' groundwater consumption is difficult to measure, although it is a critical factor of the water budget in arid and semi-arid environments (Loheide et al., 2005). Plants transpire water during the daylight hours by utilizing a portion from GW, so its depth decreases. Similarly, when transpiration significantly diminishes or ceases at night, the GW will rise due to lateral and vertical GW flow (McWhorter and Sunada, 1977). Consequently, diurnal GWD fluctuations, produced by diurnal fluctuations in plant ET (during the day and night times), can be used to measure GW contribution to crop ET. Hence, in temperate climates, one of the most important diurnal fluctuation-inducing factors for shallow GW is the water consumption of vegetation (Gribovszki et al., 2010). So, diurnal GW fluctuation methods to calculate ET and GW flow increase interest in ecohydrological studies (Mazur et al., 2014).The ET during night time (ET N ) was 7% for the entire day (ET 24 ) for tall grass vegetation (Sugita and Brutsaert, 1991), 4.1% of ET 24 for a willow tree (Iritz and Lindroth, 1994), and 14% of ET 24 for alfalfa as the wind speed increased (Malek, 1992). Also, the ET N proportion out of ET 24 ranged from 3% for dry-land cotton to 7.2% for irrigated alfalfa (Tolk et al., 2006). On the other hand, Novick et al. (2009) found that plant stomata are closed at night, preventing ET, so ET N averaged 8-9% of mean daytime ET (ET D ) is driven mainly by wind and vapor pressure deficit.Finally, diurnal fluctuations in wetland water levels reflect direct GW uptake by plants, where they draw down water levels during daylight hours, and GW flows continuously, but its elevation mostly recovers at night, as GW flux replenishes the water extracted by ET (Loheide et al., 2009). However, this typical pattern of groundwater fluctuation cannot be applied in some conditions. For example, Cordeiro et al. (2015) determined the redistribution pattern of water in the effective root zone subjected to irrigation and GW contribution. They discovered that during periods of high ET demand, the soil grows drier, and during periods of low ET demand, the soil becomes wetter. Groundwater depth can become deeper and may have a delay in the drying/replenishment cycle during the night in poorly drained soils.Nevertheless, to the best of our knowledge, no existing study has evaluated the effect of salinity and groundwater level on ET in arid regions using RS techniques. Therefore, the main objectives of this research were to 1) estimate ET LS using Landsat satellite data, 2) evaluate the impact of GWD and soil salinity on ET LS , and 3) evaluate the GW contribution to crop water consumption (ET gw ).The study was implemented in 200 ha of commercial fields in North Nile Delta, Egypt, during the summer season of 2017 and winter season of 2017/2018 to assess the impact of GWD on crop water consumption. The main cultivated crops were rice, cotton, maize, and seed melon in the summer growing season and wheat, clover, and sugar beet through the winter season. The area was divided into six parts, as shown in Fig. 1, according to salinity and GWD distribution. All parts in the area of study were planted with the same crops (Supplementary Table 1), and irrigated using fresh water through traditional surface flood irrigation.The area is located between 31 • 14' and 31 • 11'N and 30 • 58' and 31 • 01'E, so it is subjected to the same climate conditions. The mean daily temperature ranges between 4.9 and 35.1 • C, and the average annual precipitation is about 140 mm. The area has a subsurface drainage system installed at 2 m with 25 m lateral spacing. The GW ranged between 0.5 and 1.5 m below the ground surface. The area is generally saltaffected clayey soil, and its EC values vary from 4 to 10 dS m − 1 with low hydraulic conductivity. Soil salinity (EC e ) was estimated using Ground Electro Magnetic Meter (EM 38 ). Soil chemical analysis was carried out to determine pH, water-soluble Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , K + , Na + , Cl -, HCO 3 -, and SO 4. In addition, soil physical analysis was carried out to identify soil particle distribution, water field capacity (FC), infiltration rate (IR), hydraulic conductivity (HC), and soil bulk density (BD). The chemical and physical analyses were carried out following (Black, 1965) and (Jackson, 1967), as shown in supplementary Tables 2 and 3. Soil salinity was evaluated using soil samples as well as the EM 38 survey. According to Aboelsoud and Abdelrahman (2017), the EM 38 -mk2 metre readings (EC a ) were converted to soil electrical conductivity (EC e ) by calibrating with augured soil samples from the same plots. Crop classifications for the two growing seasons were conducted, and the land use was extracted and identified using Landsat 8 satellite imagery (Campbell, 1996).Eddy covariance stations were used in the field for evapotranspiration measurements (ET EC ). It is a simple system and easy-to-use method for calculating ET (Moorhead et al., 2019). The ET EC is a direct method for measuring the exchange between the atmosphere and surface in diverse environments, notwithstanding its flaws, particularly in terms of energy balance closure (Baldocchi, andAubinet et al., 2014, 2012). Thus, it was used to validate remote sensing ET in several previous studies (e.g., Globally (Michel et al., 2016) Asia (Kim et al., 2012); South Africa (Majozi et al., 2017); Europe (Hu et al., 2015); North America (Mu et al., 2011); Europe and the United States (Miralles et al., 2011); the United States (Xu et al., 2019); and China (Li et al., 2018). The instruments were connected to a CR6 data recorder (Campbell Scientific), and measurements were recorded every six seconds. The data was then averaged or summed to provide 30-minute data.Indirect estimation of the crop evapotranspiration from remote sensing using Landsat satellite images (Landsat 8: ET LS ) was achieved using the daily component of the energy balance equation:Where Rn is the net radiation (Wm − 2 ), G is the soil heat flux (Wm − 2 ), H is the sensible heat flux (Wm − 2 ), and λE is the latent heat flux, which is associated with the actual ET (Wm − 2 ). The energy balance can be written as:Where EF is the dimensionless evaporative fraction, and Rn-G the net available energy for ET. G can often be ignored for time scales of 1 day, and thus λE is a function of Rn and EF only (Zwart et al., 2010). TheλE is also defined as the ratio of actual ET to the available energy.The Triangle method (Rasmussen Mads Olander et al., 2014) used in this study equation (Priestley and Taylor, 1972):Where ϕ is the psychometric constant (kPa K − 1 ), and substituted for the P-T parameter; and Δis the slope of saturated vapor pressure at the air temperature (kPa K − 1 ). The P-T parameter is assumed to be 1.26 for wetland surface conditions according to (Jiang andIslam, andTang et al., 1999, 2010); (Arasteh and Tajrishy, 2008;Gan et al., 2020).EF can be rewritten from Eqs. 5, 6 and 7 as follows: (LST) triangle method (Fig. 2) were applied to estimate the psychometric constant parameter. It originated from the parameterization of Jiang and Islam (1999) in a simplified Priestley-Taylor formula. Also, a spectral radiance model and a web-based atmospheric correction model can be used to successfully evaluate LST from thermal bands of Landsat data (Aboelnour and Engel, 2018). Regional ET LS and EF were estimated according to Eq. 6, which depends on remotely sensed data. The accurate interpretation of the scatter plot resulting from remotely sensed LST and NDVI under variances in soil moisture availability, and vegetation cover leads to an accurate estimation of regional ET Ls . The rate of ET is influenced by vegetation and restricted by soil moisture on the dry edge (as AC) of the triangular space, and the value of psychometric constant is the least under the same condition.The Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data from July 2017 to June 2018 developed the triangular space (Table 1). The processed remote sensing data, including the NDVI and LST as radiometric calibration and atmospheric correction, were used as measured data. Statistical analysis was conducted, and the coefficient of determination (R 2 ), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Bias Error (MBE), and Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) statistical parameters were estimated to validate the daily satellite-based ET LS values compared to the ET EC .Groundwater positions were monitored in 18 observation wells (2-inch diameter PVC pipe) from July 2017 to June 2018. Automatic electronic pressure level logger sensors (Solinst Canada LT F30/M10, Model 3001) were installed in nine of these wells for automated recording of GWD at one-hour intervals (S.Fig. 1). Also, the GW diurnal cycle was determined. The fluctuations in GWD for day and night times were used to predict the contribution of GW to crop water use according to the methods described by (McWhorter and Sunada, 1977). Therefore, the average GWD during the daylight time (from sunrise to sunset) and nighttime (from sunset of a specific day to the sunrise of the following day) was calculated for each well. The differences between both were calculated for each month of the study period. The Solinst pressure sensors were submerged in the groundwater at 200 cm depth below the soil surface; therefore, they were not affected by air temperature fluctuations. There were no differences between day and night temperatures recorded by the sensors. For example, air temperature during June was 34 0 C in the daytime and 21 0 C in the nighttime, while the temperature recorded by the pressure sensors at the same time was 21.7 0 C during both day and night. On the other hand, the solinst logger readings were the atmospheric pressure plus the GW pressure on the sensors. A Solinst Baro-logger (Model 3001, CE LT F5/M1.5) was used to estimate the corrected GW by subtracting its reading from the readings of Solinst pressure sensors. Therefore, the effects of the atmospheric pressure fluctuations on sensor readings were removed. To calculate the ET gw value, the drop in GWD measured in the monitoring wells was multiplied by the soil specific yield (~12%), which was calculated as the difference between the porosity and field capacity of the soil (Satchithanantham et al., 2014). The soil-specific yield is \"the volume of water that an unconfined aquifer releases from storage water per surface area unit of aquifer per unit decline in the GWD\" (Freeze, Cherry, 1979). The contribution was calculated as a percent of ET a based on the equivalent depth of water released by the GWD drop. However, these differences represented approximately the contribution of GW to crop ET in the daytime (ET D ) which represents the majority (about 90%) of full-day ET (ET 24 ) according Gribovszki et al. (2010) as follows:The spatial variability of GWD for different parts within the study area was done using Ordinary Kriging, according to (Eberly et al., 2004).The estimated ET LS rate in the study area followed a typical seasonal pattern with a gradual rise in daily ET LS rates from May to August due to the peak of the growing season and crop water requirements. This increase is a result of air temperature in the summer being much higher, while there was a steady decrease in ET LS from September to February. The low frequency of precipitation from mid-November to February created a lower daily ET LS rate. The results obtained from the satellite images indicated that the mean daily ET LS decreased significantly from 6.4 mm day − 1 in July of 2017-1.6 mm day − 1 in January of 2018. This was followed by a gradual increase, from February to May, with ET LS of 5.7 mm day − 1 for June 2018 (Table 2 and Fig. 3). The mean value of ET LS was 5.9 mm day − 1 in the summer season, 3.6 mm day − 1 in the autumn season, and 2.7 mm day − 1 in the winter season, while it was The statistical analysis indicated that the crop evapotranspiration (ET a ) estimated using the climate data (ET ec ) values for different months are close to those estimated using Landsat Satellite (ET LS ) with a coefficient of determination (R 2 ) value of 0.89, as shown in Eq. 3 and Eq. 9. For different parts of the study area, the values of ET ec are correlated to ET LS values, according to R 2 (0.84-0.90), as shown in Table 3 and Fig. 3.< mmEquation id = \"eqn1\"/ > (7)The GWD values varied during the study period according to the location, the planted crops, and the estimation time (a month or the time from irrigation events). The GWD in different parts of the study area ranged from 72.9 to 138.2 cm below the soil surface, with a mean value of 107.4 cm (Table 4). The ET LS values were mainly affected by climatic conditions over the study area, but its values in different parts were moderately affected by GWD (R 2 = 0.55), as shown in Figs. 4-6.Also, there was a correlation between ET LS and GWD. ET LS value decreased from 4.3 to about 4.0 mm day − 1 when GWD increased from 75 cm to about 120 cm, but it increased again to about 4.4 mm day − 1 with an increase in the GWD to about 140 cm. Therefore, the highest ET LS value of 4.46 mm day − 1 was achieved in part 1 with the deepest groundwater (138.2 cm), followed by ET LS of 4.31 mm day − 1 in part 3 with the shallowest groundwater (72.9 cm). On the other hand, the lowest ET a values (4.08, 4.09, and 4.15 mm day − 1 ) were recorded in parts 6, 2, and 5 with GWD of 135.5, 110.5, and 95.3 cm, respectively. The healthy vegetation cover may also impact ET LS value in addition to GWD. Therefore, the highest ET LS value was recorded in part 1 with the deepest GW and good aeration condition in the effective root zone, which led to better vegetation cover. In part 3, shallow GW encourages the ET process, while the relatively high soil salinity level (7.47 dS m − 1 ) restricts this process, so a moderate ET LS value was recorded.The variation in soil salinity (EC e ) in the root zone of different parts of the area is relatively small since its mean values ranged from 4.6 to 7.5 dS m − 1 , as shown in Table 3. It can be observed that ET LS is slightly affected by (EC e ), while it is negatively and significantly affected by GWD as shown in the following polynomial equation:The effect of soil salinity, GWD, and the health of the vegetation cover on ET LS cannot be separated easily. Therefore, the lowest ET LS value, 4.08 mm day − 1, was recorded in part 2 with EC e of 5.68 dS m − 1 and moderate GWD (110.5 cm), while the highest ET LS value of 4.37 mm day − 1 was achieved in part 1 with an EC e value of 4.61 dS m − 1 and the deepest GW (138.2 cm).ET gw is difficult to measure directly, but it could be predicted using the diurnal cycle of GWD caused by ET processes. The GWD varied according to the time of estimation, daylight, or nighttime. Thus, the ET gw value can be calculated based on the diurnal cycle of GWD during the study period. According to Gribovszki et al. (2010), the water consumption of vegetation is the most important factor affecting the diurnal fluctuation of GW in temperate climates. This method assumes that the GW inflow rate is constant for the entire day (Loheide et al., 2005). However, the diurnal fluctuations of GW are due to crop water uptake because the lateral GW flux in day and night are omitted by subtracting the night GW value from its value in the daytime. Therefore, the effect of lateral GW flux on GW contribution to ET LS is avoided. In a typical diurnal cycle in well-drained soils, the GWD declines rapidly during daylight due to ET by plants that extract the moisture from the root zone and utilize a portion of GW, leading to deeper GW. In this case, GWD rebounds again during night hours due to quick lateral and vertical GW flows (Loheide et al., 2009). In the case of the converse diurnal cycle in poorly drained soils, as observed in parts 3, 4, and 5 (Table 4), the low rate of GW flux cannot replenish this utilized moisture completely in the day-time, and therefore, GWD is not affected significantly during the day-time. In this condition, the utilized moisture during daytime   is completely replenished by GW flux, leading to deeper GW in the night (Cordeiro et al., 2015), as shown in Table 5 and Supplementary Figure 2. Moreover, Table 2 shows that the variations of ET gw values in the various months are related to the climate conditions, GWD, and planted crops, deep or shallow-rooted, which influence the GWD and ET. Therefore, the highest ET gw values ranged from 1.32 to 1.72 mm day − 1 during June, July, October, and November, where the GWD was in the range of 60-75 cm. The lowest ET gw values ranged from 0.79 to 1.06 mm day − 1 from December to May, with a GWD range of 75-100 cm. This means that the ET gw value depended on GWD with a strong negative correlation (R 2 = 0.82) as shown in Fig. 7 with a GWD range of 75-100 cm or a very weak negative correlation (R 2 = 0.32) as shown in Fig. 8 with a GWD range of 75-100 cm. Hence, it could be observed from the statistical relationship that the ET gw value was higher with shallower GWD (>75 cm) and then decreased with deeper GWD to 100 cm. Concerning the effect of GWD in different parts of the area under study on ET gw, Table 6 shows that parts 2 and 5, with a GWD range of 102-111 cm, recorded the highest ET gw values (42.1% and 44.9%, respectively). The lowest ET gw value (22.4%) was recorded in part 6 with a GWD of 136 cm. There is a weak statistical correlation between ET gw and GWD with different parts (R 2 = 0.32), as shown in Fig. 8 and Table 7, which indicated that ET gw depends, in addition to GWD, on other factors, i.e., the planted crops and soil hydraulic conductivity.Regardless of the effect of time or location of measurements, the ET gw value was somewhat affected by the planted crops. Table 7 and S.Fig. 3 indicate that summer crops achieved ET gw values higher than winter crops (1.7 and 1.2 mm day − 1 , respectively). The GW covered about 1.6 and 1.7 mm day − 1 (32.0% and 34.0%) of water requirements of seed melon and cotton, respectively, while it contributed about 0.9 mm day − 1 (22.5%) for sugar beet and 1.3 mm day − 1 for clover (28.9%) and wheat (37.1%).Many factors are affecting ET in arid regions, including but not limited to deficit irrigation and limited water resources (Ding, andKheir et al., 2021, 2021) as well as climate change (Ali et al., 2020). However, additional factors of salinity and groundwater and their relationship with ET has received less attention so far, proving the significance of the current investigation. The ET LS rate in this study followed a normal seasonal pattern with a gradual rise in daily ET LS rates through the summer growing season and a steady decrease in ET LS through the winter growing season. The ET LS values were compared versus the ET ec values calculated directly from the data to assess their validity. Therefore, coefficient of determination (R 2 ), simple correlation coefficient (r), and t-test were used. The statistical analysis indicated that the ET LS values are close to those estimated from the climate data through the values of R 2 (0.87), r (0.86), and   p-value is highly significant, as shown in Tables 1 and 2. Also, the ET LS values estimated in this study are similar to previous studies conducted in the same area (El-Mowelhi, andEL-Bialy et al., 1995, 2009). In addition, satellite-based ET is preferable in order to aggregate spatial heterogeneities that can bias interpretation from point measurements.    The GWD values in this study were affected by location and time of estimation ( during the day or at night), and the planted crops (Table 5). The ET LS values were mainly affected by climatic conditions in the area, but ET LS values in various parts were moderately affected by GWD. Also, there was a variable trend between ET LS and GWD; see Figs. 5-7. This non-linear trend may be due to the ET LS value being affected by GWD in addition to factors such as soil, GW salinity, and irrigation frequency, as reported by (Karimov et al., 2014). The healthy vegetation cover may also impact ET LS values in addition to GWD. This phenomenon is similar to that observed by (Prathapar and Qureshi, 1999b), who reported that shallow GW could contribute to ET LS by up to 80% without affecting crop yield and soil salinization. Other studies also reported the variable response of ET LS to GWD under certain conditions. For example, Lafleur and Roulet (1992) found a strong response of ET to GWD, and (Lafleur et al., 2005) found a moderate or threshold type response between them, but no significant effect of GWD on ET LS was observed by (Wu et al., 2010). Also, Moore et al. (2013) reported an insignificant relationship between ET and GWD in peatlands.The variations in ET LS values for different study parts are relatively small, and their values are slightly higher than those estimated by the ET ec method. It can be observed that ET LS is slightly affected by ET a , while it is negatively and significantly affected by GWD, as shown in equation ( 7). Also, the effect of soil salinity, GWD, and the health of the vegetation cover on ET LS cannot be separated easily. Therefore, the low value of ET LS in some locations in the study area may be due to increased water potential in the surface layer and decreased biomass yield due to increases in the energy expended by the plant to extract water from the root zone soil. Other studies used the Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) to estimate atmospheric turbulent fluxes and evaporative fractions by combining satellite earth observation data with meteorological information at appropriate scales with acceptable accuracy (Su, 2002). In comparison to this study, our approach linked ET EC observations with Landsat images ET LS to achieve robust results. These findings agree with those obtained by (Cemek et al., 2011), who reported that the relationships between ET, soil salinity, and yield were generally linear with increasing or decreasing tendencies. Also, Ünlükara et al. (2008) observed a decrease in water consumption of okra due to soil salinity with a threshold value of 3.48 (dS m − 1 ).ET gw could be predicted by the diurnal cycle of GWD caused by ET processes. The GWD varied according to the time of estimation, daylight, or nighttime. In normal soil, the diurnal fluctuations in water levels reflect the uptake of GW by plants, where the drawdown of water levels occurs during daylight hours (Loheide et al., 2009). However, the converse diurnal cycle observed in some parts may be due to poorly drained soils expressed as a low dropdown rate of groundwater level, as shown in Table 7. Therefore, the soil became drier during high ET demand in the daylight and became wetter during low ET in the evening and night (Cordeiro et al., 2015). Consequently, GW became deeper during the night, as shown in Fig. 8.ET gw values affected by the climate conditions, GWD, and the planted crops, deep or shallow-rooted, influence the GWD and ET. The ET gw value depended significantly on GWD with a negative correlation, as shown in Fig. ( 8). The observation of (Chen and Hu, 2004) and (Chimner and Cooper, 2004) confirms these results, who reported that GWD within 2 m of the soil surface might have sufficient capillary rise to supply water to plants. Shah et al. (2007b) recognized the contribution from shallow GW to plant evaporative demand. As a result, the decrease in ET rates may be caused by lowering the GWD concerning plant roots. Additionally, Ayars et al. (2006) observed that the GW near the bottom of the root zone might act as a valuable water source through the capillary rise, which supplies the plant with 50% of the total ET according to its depth. Also, a weak statistical correlation between ET gw and GWD for different parts (Fig. 8) indicated that ET gw depends, in addition to GWD, on other conflicting factors, i.e., the planted crops and soil hydraulic conductivity. The ET gw value was somewhat affected by the planted crops. Summer crops achieved ET gw values higher than those of winter crops. The relatively low value of ET gw with winter crops may be due to the rain events, which replenish a significant part of soil moisture and can be absorbed by plant roots. Also, most winter crops are relatively shallow-rooted, and in addition, the evaporation rate in the winter season is relatively low. Thus, the values of ET gw with the investigated summer crops were relatively high, which may be attributed to 1) cotton is deep-rooted and therefore has greater ability to withdraw shallow GW, and 2) seed melon needs to withdraw part of GW because its irrigation interval is relatively long and it has a dense root system. (Shah et al., 2007a) confirmed that the connecting of GW and root zone depends on the soil texture and begins at GWD between 30 and 100 cm for deep-rooted vegetation.Also, remote sensing estimates of ET LS and the contribution of GW to ET LS are continuously and widely used due to understanding the relationship between the ET spatial variability and groundwater level. They are easy to use and save time and costs, especially with open access databases, although they may be less accurate than direct measurements. However, remote sensing-based methods have some limitations because most parameters cannot be directly observed but must be calculated indirectly from satellite observations via retrieval algorithms. Furthermore, satellite retrievals are bound to contain errors, which will eventually bias the application of remote sensing, necessitating their coupling with actual observations to be validated and improved.ET LS values in the study area were moderately affected by GWD. The ET LS values were decreased when GWD increased up to 120 cm, but its values increased with increasing GWD up to 140 cm. Evapotranspiration was significantly affected by soil salinity and groundwater depth (R 2 =0.87). ET gw values in different months depended mainly on GWD with a negative correlation (R 2 = 0.61), and about 1.2 mm day − 1 of the crop water use was supplied from shallow GW (<90 cm). Statistical analysis demonstrated that shallow GW contributed significantly to various crops' water use with noticeable differences in rates. The summer crops achieved higher values of ET gw than those of winter crops by 29.4%, the GW contributed 1.7 and 1.6 mm day − 1 of cotton and seed melon crop water requirements, respectively, while it contributed 0.9 mm day − 1 for sugar beet and 1.3 mm day − 1 for both wheat and clover. The study also showed that remote sensing and GIS techniques are valuable tools for evaluating the influence of shallow GW and soil salinity on ET LS and ET gw in large geographic areas with relatively low costs. Also, both remote sensing estimates of ET LS and the contribution of GW to ET LS are widely used due to their applicability and relationship representation between ET spatial variability and groundwater level, even though these techniques may be less accurate than direct measurements. Further, the statistical analysis indicated that the ET LS values are correlated to those estimated directly from climate data. The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.","tokenCount":"5835"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"47fa75931c1189623e546fb8c08cf55f","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/2c08bfb9-ef03-4b63-8b76-796ebbb5bca8/retrieve","id":"-1821100463"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"44b26f56-9d9f-4a2f-ae86-d4927aa4df2d","pagecount":"7","content":"On April 9, 2019, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR) coordinated a climatesmart agriculture (CSA) appreciation event and field visits with members of the media. This group of media practitioners are being trained to report on issues concerning the environment (e.g., climate change). The group was led by seasoned investigative journalist, Ms. Ellen Tordesillas of VERA Files.VERA Files is an independent media organization that engages in production of media products and services of various formats. They use intensive research and in-depth reporting to tackle issues of national importance. Their biggest program is fact-checking news and information shared by media (all platforms) and investigating more deeply on major issues. They have also developed guidelines and knowledge materials on specific themes (e.g., reporting on PWDs, how to report on climate change, road safety, etc.) targeted for journalists.These media practitioners are targeting the mainstreaming of environmental reporting to increase awareness of the public on environmental issues and their effects to the society. VERA Files has a portfolio called Earth Files (http://verafiles.org/specials/earth-files), which is a collection of news and feature stories produced by their members.The appreciation event was organized to provide the members of the media with the basic concepts about the effects of climate change to agriculture, and of the contribution of agriculture to climate change; to facilitate collection stories on field-based experiences through interactions with farmers who have adopted practices that helped them adapt to climate risks; and to showcase climate smart agriculture approaches in demo farms, school garden, and farmers field.Through this activity, they can also help IIRR extend its reach and scale-out learnings from various CSA initiatives. Once available, these media products will be collated.To provide the media with a brief overview about the interrelatedness of climate change and agriculture, and their effects on food security and livelihoods;To provide the media with an overview of the various initiatives that IIRR is doing to promote gender-and youth-inclusive sustainable agricultural practices, and to advocate health and nutrition security;To demonstrate on the ground CSA practices through visits to Mang Julian's Integrated Farm, the IIRR Bio-intensive Garden (BIG), and Tinabunan Elementary School;To provide the media venue to interact with farmers who have been successfully implementing CSA practices; andTo provide the media venue to interact with school teachers and administrators who have been successfully integrating bio-intensive gardening, nutrition education and feeding program, in primary school activities.PNEJ -Ellen Tordesillas (VERA Files), Rosal Revalido (VERA Files), Klaire Ting (VERA Files), Zanneth Lago (VERA Files), Vanessa Evangelist (VERA Files), Gian Miguel Roque (VERA Files), Arpee Lazaro (Radyo Pilipinas Dos), Angelica Yang (ABS CBN dot com), Joyce Rocamora (Philippine News Agency), Angela de Leon (Malaya Business Insight), Jhesset Enano (Philippine Daily Inquirer) Farmers -Gloria Macaraig (Guinayangan), Angeloken Flores (Guinayangan), Julian Aguilar (Silang) Tinabunan Elementary School, led by Jesus Bergado (Principal) and Mary Ann Galas (Agriculture Teacher) IIRR -Rene R. Vidallo, Ruvicyn S. Bayot, Ma. Shiela S. Anunciado The participants were indeed 'too green', with very little knowledge about agriculture. Thus, it was challenging to get the CSA knowledge across without having to explain basic agriculture concepts first. One point of discussion was how best to get them appreciate agriculture more so they could also understand what CSA is all about; and most importantly how could we engage them in CSA discussions and actions.There were other topics or potential stories that surfaced during the interactions.• Ms. Ellen Tordesillas pointed out the importance of looking at the value chain aspect to identify markets for native pigs and other farm produce. Stories on this context could be developed to highlight the impact of the interventions on livelihood. • Another point that was raised was the ageing farmers in the Philippines and how to encourage the youth to become farmers. This has an indirect implication to the environment, since the next generation is not interested to till their lands. They sell their lands and pursue other professions. These lands that used to be productive are being converted into industrial, commercial or residential areas. ","tokenCount":"661"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8bb8c10bc6f935031e91e29482dc30a4","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/af94f721-442e-42c3-9378-da63e00f67fa/retrieve","id":"597980440"},"keywords":["Gender","Climate Change","Climate Smart Agriculture","Climate Information","Adaptation"],"sieverID":"9fba50ce-3d4b-4a9a-8814-61fd5496ab94","pagecount":"36","content":"This document is published by the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), which is a strategic partnership of the CGIAR and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP).. Percent of men and women reporting access to different information sources ........Crop and climate models predict, with some degree of certainty, how climate change will impact yields of various crops in different regions. However, the expected regional impacts are not locally specific and cannot anticipate how individuals at the local level will be affected by climate change. Given the complexity and heterogeneity at the local level, and among individuals in certain contexts, it is difficult to predict the impact of climate change on individuals' lives. Nonetheless, previous research about gender and agriculture and about gender and natural disasters provides insight into how different groups and types of people experience the impacts of climate change differently depending on their position in society, which is determined by gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age, etc. (Blaikie et al 1994;Ray-Bennett 2009;and Beuchelt and Badstue 2013).The impact of climate change on individuals, families and communities can vary considerably, depending on local cultural and gender norms regarding who does what and who controls the benefits from different activities (CARE 2010). Therefore, appropriate climate change adaptation strategies, including adoption of CSA 1 practices and use of climate information, will be distinct for different groups of people, including for men and women. This paper highlights some key gender-related findings regarding climate change perceptions, adaptation strategies and information needs across sites in Africa where the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) is working. Although it is often assumed that gender refers only to women, a meaningful gender analysis also considers men and the differences between men and women. Gender is about relationships and power dynamics; it refers to socially constructed differences between men and women and is an acquired identity that is learned, changes over time and varies widely within and across cultures (INSTRAW 2004). Gender informs differences in roles and responsibilities, access to and control over resources, and decision-making power. However, other social factors as race, class, ethnicity, religion, age, etc., also influence a person's position in society, as well as the power dynamics that these imply (Kaijser and Kronsell, 2014;Davis, 2008). While recognizing the importance of these various social factors, this paper primarily focuses on identifying differences between men and women, and when possible discussing other social factors (i.e. by ethnicity and religion). This paper is organized in four main sections. The first describes the survey approach and data as well as the CCAFS sites where the data was collected. The second explores perceptions of climate change and its effects on men and women. The third focuses on gender differences in awareness and adoption of climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices. The fourth section examines gender differences in access to various types and sources of climate information. In the conclusion, we identify areas of further scientific inquiry and ways to link theory to practice through influencing policy and program development.Most of the data presented in this paper comes from the CCAFS gender survey, 2 an intra-household survey that collected information in 2012 from both an adult male and female decision-maker 3 in each of the sampled households in four sites in Africa: Nyando and Wote in Kenya, Rakai in Uganda, and Kaffrine in Senegal. This survey built upon an earlier farm characterization survey (called IMPACT-Lite 4) and thus used the same sample of 200 farm households in each site, which encompass a 10 by 10 km block of land 5 . The sample was chosen to represent the different agricultural production systems in each site (Rufino, et al., 2012). While the sample may not be representative of all of Africa, it does represent diverse sites in terms of climate, agro-ecological zones, production systems, socio-economic, and cultural variability. And, as such, it provides insights about gender differences related to climate change in Africa. The data from the survey is analysed here using descriptive statistics and proportion tests to check for statistically significant differences between men's and women's reporting by site. In addition to the CCAFS gender survey, information from initial site household and village baseline surveys (see CCAFS 2013 and 2014), as well as qualitative research and personal observations by the authors, are also used.Three of the sites (Nyando and Wote, Kenya and Rakai, Uganda) are in East Africa and the Kaffrine site in Senegal is located in West Africa. These sites, in general, have high levels of poverty and population pressure. The sites are comprised mainly of smallholder farmers that rely on rain fed agriculture and most are mixed crop-livestock systems. Annual rainfall varies across the sites. In the West African site of Kaffrine, Senegal there is one short rainy season per year, while in the East African sites there are two 12 rainy seasons but rainfall varies both across and within the sites. In Wote rainfall averages 520 mm per year while Nyando gets 900 to 1200 mm and in Rakai rainfall varies significantly within the site from more than 1400 mm near Lake Victoria to under 1000 mm per year in the western area (Forch et al.Several socio-economic and gender differences also characterize the sites. Several ethnic groups live within most of the sites; there are ten different ethnic groups in Rakai and two in Nyando. Religion also influences gender norms in the sites. In the East African sites, three religious groups are typically found--Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims--whereas in the Kaffrine site in Senegal the predominant religion in Islam. The CCAFS household baseline provides data about who in the household does most of the onand off-farm work (i.e. collecting fuel wood, fruits, fishing, etc. for household consumption or for selling). Across the sites women tend to do most of the fuel wood collection. In other tasks, we find differences across the sites. For example, in Nyando women are reported to do most of the off-farm work in 65% of the households. Whereas in Rakai off-farm work is primarily done by men and in Wote and Kaffrine it is shared by both men and women. Furthermore, on-farm work is primarily done by women in Nyando. In Wote and Kaffrine, on-farm work is shared in most households. And, in Rakai we find that on-farm, men and women share in the food production responsibilities, men are primarily responsible for cash crops and cattle, and women are primarily responsible for fuel wood and manure collection (Kyazze and Kristjanson 2011, Mango et al. 2011, Yacine et al. 2011, and Mwangangi et al. 2012). Furthermore, women's property rights to land vary across the sites. Wote has the highest proportion of women with property rights to land (53%) compared to the other sites (25% in Nyando, 23% in Rakai and 0.4% in Kaffrine). 6Climate change is experienced in the form of climate variability (i.e. changes in weather patterns) and weather-related shocks or disasters at the local level. Thus, the survey asked respondents about their perceptions of both shocks/extreme events (i.e. droughts and floods) that they experienced in the last five years and observed changes in weather patterns over their lifetime (i.e. changes in temperature and precipitation that do not necessarily lead to shocks).Differences in perceptions of climate shocks, such as droughts and floods, experienced during the last five years are mainly seen between sites; however, there are also some gender differences within sites (Table 1). The most common shock reported in the East Africa sites (Nyando, Wote, and Rakai) is drought. In the West Africa site (Kaffrine, Senegal), the most common shocks experienced are storms and floods.In terms of gender disparities, there are no overarching patterns across the sites with respect to perceived changes in weather-related shocks over the last five years, 7 but within sites, we do find some differences.For example, in the Kenyan site of Nyando, more women than men report having experienced floods and storms, while more men than women report dealing with droughts and erratic rainfall. In Rakai, the Ugandan site, droughts are reported by the majority of both men and women, but women are more likely to report them than men. Men, on the other hand, are more likely than women to report storms. Women may be more likely to report droughts since they are responsible for collecting water and for on-farm vegetable production (Kyazze and Kristjanson, 2011).Although few gender differences with respect to perceived climate shocks are noted in Wote (eastern Kenya) and Kaffrine (Senegal), we cannot infer that men and women experience such shocks in the same way. For example, shocks may have different impacts on men's and women's labour or their asset base. Quisumbing et al. (2011) discuss how different kinds of shocks (including weather shocks) impact men's and women's assets. They find negative impacts on men's assets as a result of weather shocks in Bangladesh and on women's assets in Uganda. Similarly we can expect that, although both men and women are experiencing similar extreme climate events, the impact of such changes depends on their roles (CARE 2010).In each site, the majority of respondents (both men and women) reported that they have observed changes in weather patterns over their lifetimes. In all sites, changes in rainfall patterns have been experienced by the vast majority of respondents, and with the exception of Wote, significantly fewer women reported observing such changes. The least likely change observed related to floods, except in Kaffrine, where a change in the occurrence of droughts was perceived by very few respondents. In general, the data suggest that fewer women perceive long-run changes in weather patterns, although more women than men reported changes related to drought and temperatures in Rakai. And in Nyando, significantly more women reported a perceived change in temperatures in their lifetime.  CARE 2010). For example, if women perceive droughts or less rainfall because they walk farther to collect water and have less water for producing subsistence crops while men feel the effects in terms of lower agricultural production of cash crops, programs and policies will have to take all of these impacts into consideration to promote appropriate adaptation strategies that address the various needs of both men and women. By understanding how climate change will impact men and women differently (based on their distinct roles and access to resources), programs and policies can be designed to promote adaptation strategies that address such impacts in a gender equitable manner.Just as men's and women's perceptions and experiences of climate change can differ, so can their responses to it. Adaptation strategies adopted by men and women also depend on their access to and/or control over resources and their participation in decision-making processes. In this section, we first discuss survey results showing whether men and women in each site have made changes in their agricultural practices to adapt to climate change and the most common changes reported (as well as why changes were not made). Next we discuss the findings regarding gendered awareness and adoption of CSA practices.When asked specifically if they had made a change in their agricultural, livestock or livelihood practices in response to climate change, many respondents said that they had done so (Table 1). More differences across sites are noted than differences by gender within the sites. In Wote, nearly all respondents reported making a change in response to climate or weather events (96% of women and 93% of men); it is also the site with the highest number of respondents reporting observed climate changes (99% for both men and women). In Nyando, just over half reported making a change (64% of men and 57% of women). In Rakai, more men (83%) than women (76%) reported making a change. In Kaffrine fewer men and women than in the other sites reported altering their practices as a result of perceived changes in climate;however, statistically more men (46%) than women (33%) reported making a change.As shown in Table 2, the most common changes made by both men and women across the four sites are typically related to crop production adjustments and include implementing soil and water conservation practices, changing crop variety, changing type of crop, changing planting date, and planting trees on farm. 8 It is interesting to observe that both men and women highlight agroforestry practices as an adaptation strategy, as agroforestry has traditionally been an activity where women's participation has been impeded by existing gender norms related to roles, decision-making and access to resources (Kiptot and Franzel 2012).Several gender differences across the sites can be seen. For example, setting up food storage facilities lies within the top five changes made by women in Rakai and men in Kaffrine. Social norms in the sites related to what men and women should do undoubtedly influence the fact that setting up storage facilities is listed by women in one site and men in another. Men in Kaffrine have higher participation in on-farm agricultural production, focusing on food production, than women in the site who have a higher level of participation in off-farm work, including collection of firewood and water (Yacine et al. 2011). This suggests that men are more engaged in decision making around food security for households as the primary producers of food crops. Furthermore, men emphasize that food security is related to food availability (Goudou 2012); so, having food storage facilities could increase food availability for the household throughout the year. Women, on the other hand, view food security in terms of having the ability to purchase food, so food storage facilities would not be valued as much as having cash for purchases. In Rakai, among the Baganda, which comprise 80% of those surveyed according to Kyazze and Kristjanson (2011), men often migrate, meaning that food storage facilities may be more important to the women who are left to care and provide directly for their families while the men who remain are focusing on other adaptation strategies.Similarly, water harvesting is mentioned by women in Nyando and men in Rakai as a practice taken up in response to climate change. In Nyando, individual farmers and farmer groups made up of about 20 members are involved in constructing water pans to store runoff and for use during drier periods. The farmer groups jointly own the water pans in selected farms.Women in Kaffrine report distinct kinds of responses to climate change when compared to men or women in the other sites. These women mention community tree planting, setting up non-farm businesses and changing field locations. The community and non-farm adaptations are quite different from the others that focus on crop production changes. Another difference is noted in Rakai, where both men and women list increasing land used for agricultural production, which is likely not possible in the other sites because of high land pressure.predicted, people are not allowed to plant vegetables that require a lot of water. T his of course will impact the results and has gendered implications in terms of women's participation in such groups that make these decisions.Responses from men in Wote differed somewhat compared to the other groups. They also said not knowing what to do or not having enough money were key reasons, plus they needed to see neighbours implementing the practice before making the change, and that they think the practice might fail and therefore do not want to assume the risk. This may suggest different attitudes about risk; perhaps men in Wote who have not made any changes are more risk averse than in the other sites (or compared to women within the site).  No statistically significant difference More women than men aware of practice More men than women aware of practice For example, women in Nyando seem to be more aware than men of some practices than in the other sites. In Nyando, women, in accordance with traditional labour patterns across gender, participate more in agricultural production when compared to other sites with over half of the households reporting women being primarily responsible for nearly all on-farm agricultural work compared to 7% of women in Kaffrine and 36% in Wote (Mango et al. 2011;Mwangangi et al. 2012;and Yacine et al. 2011). Their high level of engagement in agricultural production is one possible explanation for their higher awareness of CSA practices when compared to other sites. The exception is the case of agroforestry in Nyando where women are less aware of such practices, likely because of gender norms regarding access to and control over trees. Among the Luo in Nyando, women have limited access to products from high value timber trees and limited decision-making over hedgerows, a specific agroforestry practice (Kipot andFranzel 2011: 4-5). No statistically significant difference More women than men adopt practice More men than women adopt practiceNo color-None of the women were aware, so they could not be included in this calculation or traditional knowledge. These sources were also often ranked among the top five most useful sources of information.Overall, as shown in Table 7, many men and women also get information from NGOs, government extension agents, and community meetings. However, these sources are less common in Kaffrine, especially among women, where only 2% of women report having access to extension agents and 8% to NGOs and community meetings. We also see quite a range in access to community meetings and NGOs across gender and sites; in Kenya, there is no statistically significant difference between men's and women's access to agricultural information from NGOs, while men are more likely to have access to such sources of information in Uganda and Senegal. Men are more likely across all sites, except Wote, to report receiving information from community meetings. Across all the sites, very few men and women have access to agricultural or climate information from TV, newspapers/bulletins, schools/teachers, cell phones, internet, or agricultural shows. No statistically significant difference More women than men access source of information More men than women access source of information A closer examination of Kaffrine highlights the way that gender and religion shape access to different sources of information and therefore affect men and women differently in their abilities to adapt to climate change. Similar to the results reported in Table 7, Yacine et al. (2011) report that men in Kaffrine receive most of their information on weather and climate through the radio, television, networks of friends and relatives, NGOs, and development projects. Men also have access to information on soil inputs and fertility management from other farmers, organizations--such as the Regional Directorate for Rural Development (DRDR), and local and national government sources--radio, television, and from local leaders and the mosque. The informal networks of communication are typically exclusionary of women, particularly those related to livestock and human health. This is important to note because while women may have some access to formal channels of information, they are unable to access informal networks structured by men because of cultural norms. Women primarily access information on livestock feed through women's associations, water and forest services, and social networks, suggesting that most of women's access to sources of information comes from institutions oriented specifically around women and their concerns (Goudou et al. 2012: 31).As the case of Kaffrine, described in detail in Box 1, exemplifies it is important to consider not only the type and source of information for different target audiences but also the timing. Access to and use of different types and sources of information is highly related to the gender, ethnicity, and religion of individuals in the CCAFS sites. If development projects and policies ignore how different individuals interact with sources and types of information and other resources, they may unintentionally address the needs of one group while further marginalizing the other. In this section we have identified that types of information, sources of information, dissemination methods, and timing are all important aspects for climate information services to consider when delivering information that both men and women farmers can use to make informed decisions.It is important that climate information providers consider not only the type and source of information for different target audiences but also the timing of such dissemination. In Kaffrine, we found that while men need information regarding when rains start, many women need to know when rains will cease. This is related to the fact that culturally, men prepare their lands and plant first and then their wives can do so (in order of marriage in the polygamous society). Therefore, women cannot choose when to plant their crops. On the other hand, rain cessation information is important because they can better plan when to harvest the crops. Along with the type of information (when rains start or end), men and women in the region have different preferences for sources of information.Access to sources of climate and agricultural related information is largely informed by religious affiliation and gender. At the beginning of a project to reduce the vulnerability of women rural producers to rising hydro-meteorological disasters in Senegal, many experts and community leaders suggested that information be provided by radio, at the mosque, and to community leaders to make it widely accessible. However, later in the project it was found that women often fail to receive the information from the mosque or community leaders (authors' observations and Goudou et al. 2012).And, although they listen to the radio, women often do not hear the forecasts on the radio because they are given at the times of the day when women are the busiest: in the morning and evening when women are cooking or doing other chores. Religious affiliation and whether people are more conservative or liberal in their religious practices and beliefs also seems to affect access to information related to weather variation. The women identified with a more conservative form of Islam were noted as less mobile and more restricted from participation in formal spheres in which sharing of information and access to knowledge and resources took place. In general, the women that identified with a less strict form of Islam were more able to share issues in public and, as a result, to work toward strategies of resolving these issues.In order to cope with problems of limited access to sources of information, researchers began to ensure that information was distributed in spaces occupied by women, such as at local sources of water, through radio programs during the evening when women were able to listen, and by texting children. All of these strategies permitted women to access information that would normally be distributed directly to men through the more formal networks targeting the village leaders and the mosques. These strategies also reveal the importance of attention to gender and religion in research as understanding how these parts of social life are interrelated is integral to inclusion of all individuals of a particular community.","tokenCount":"3783"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"e14d4142c765a0b97938a31a9d4bd00c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c57cf9d6-9ea9-4d7f-a7d3-16283613be70/retrieve","id":"-1799823366"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"dbb3bda8-115c-43d7-92fc-af367046f6a8","pagecount":"100","content":"Le Service International pour la Recherche Agricole N ationale (ISN A R ) a comm encé de fonctionner à son siège à La Haye, Pays-Bas, le 1er septem bre 1980. Il a été fondé par le G roupe C onsultatif sur la Recherche Agricole Internationale (C G IA R ), à la suite des recom m andations proposées par un Groupe de travail international, dans le but d 'assister les gouvernem ents des pays en développement à renforcer leur recherche agricole. L 'IS N A R est une agence autonom e non-commerciale, de caractère international, et apolitique dans sa gestion, son personnel et son fonctionnem ent.Des treize centres du réseau C G IA R , l 'IS N A R est le seul qui se concentre essentiellement sur les problèmes de la recherche agricole nationale. Sur leur demande, il fournit des avis aux gouvernem ents, touchant l'organisation, la planification, le développement de la m ain d 'oeuvre, les besoins du personnel, les exigences financières et d 'infrastructure, et les sujets associés, assurant ainsi une activité complémentaire de celle des autres agences d 'assistance. D e plus, l'IS N A R organise des program m es actifs de form ation et d 'inform ation en coopération avec les program m es nationaux de recherche agricole dans les pays en développement.L 'IS N A R joue également un rôle actif en assistant les program m es nationaux à établir des liaisons avec les centres internationaux de recherche agricole, et avec les donateurs.L 'IS N A R est soutenu par un certain nom bre de mem bres du C G IA R , lequel est un groupe non formalisé de plus de trente donateurs qui copaprend des pays, des banques de développement, des organisations internationales, et des fondations.L 'IS N A R présente son rapport annuel pour l 'année 1984 à un m om ent où, en Afrique, la production agricole ne s'est pas développée au rythm e de la croissance de la population. Ce phénom ène, com biné à la sécheresse, est à l'origine de sévères pénuries alimentaires et de famine dans beaucoup de pays. Il ne semble y avoir aucune solution imm édiate à cette situation, qui est en total contraste avec celle de surproduction céréalière et d 'excédent de l'offre prévalant en Europe et en Am érique du N ord. A court term e, l 'Afrique est fortem ent dépendante de l'aide alimentaire; mais cela ne constitue pas une solution à long term e. L 'Afrique peut et doit augm enter sa production agricole de façon substantielle.Dans le m êm e temps, l'équilibre entre la production alimentaire et une population en rapide augm entation est extrêm em ent fragile dans de nombreuses parties du m onde, et les personnes habitant dans ces régions peuvent se trouver dans une situation de pénurie alimentaire sérieuse lorsque les conditions climatiques sont réellement mauvaises, ne serait-ce que pendant une seule année.A u cours des décennies 80 et 90, nous continuerons à faire face à deux défis im portants: réduire la rapide croissance de la population, qui entraine une très forte pression sur les terres et les autres ressources naturelles, et alléger le pauvreté en stim ulant la production alimentaire et en améliorant la distribution de la nourriture disponible en Afrique, en Asie et en Am érique Latine.Les changements qui peuvent intervenir dans la disponibilité des aliments résultent en dernier ressort d 'un ensemble de facteurs complexes et interdépendants: ressources naturelles, technologies, facteurs politiques, sociaux et économiques, engagement à tous les niveaux de la société. Si beaucoup de pays sont arrivés à com biner ces facteurs et font de réels progrès, d 'autres sont encore à la recherche de la bonne combinaison. Mais il ne paraît m alheureusement pas y avoir, dans un certain nombre d 'entre eux, la volonté politique et les moyens d 'entreprendre les changem ents nécessaires, en dépit des pénuries existantes et de multiples discours sur l'im portance de l'agriculture.Il existe cependant au plan mondial, parmi les responsables de nom breux pays en développement et la com m unauté des donateurs, une connaissance renouvelée et croissante du très grand rôle que l'agriculture peut jouer dans le développement de la plupart des pays du tiersm onde. Il paraît, de plus, y avoir une meilleure prise de conscience du fait que la recherche agricole est un élément essentiel pour assurer une croissance soutenue de l'agriculture et, par suite, il semble y avoir un meilleur soutien de cette recherche.L 'IS N A R a jou é, depuis sa création en 1980, un rôle im portant dans plusieurs pays, en contribuant à développer cette prise de conscience du rôle et de l'importance de la recherche agricole dans le processus de développement. L 'IS N A R travaille, en tant que partenaire, avec plusieurs pays en développement q u 'il aide à m ieuxorganiser, gérer et conduire les recherches susceptibles de contribuer au développement de l'agriculture et à l'amélioration du bien-être des populations rurales, en m êm e temps q u 'à la production des aliments nécessaires pour nourrir une population urbaine en croissance rapide.Le présent R apport A nnuel de 1984 présente quelques-unes des recherches dans lesquelles l'ISN A R s'est engagé, en tant que partenaire, dans plusieurs régions du monde.Au nom du Conseil d 'Adm inistration et du personnel de l 'ISN A R , je suis heureux de présenter ce rapport, qui reflète la confiance et le soutien que beaucoup de pays en développement et de donateurs accordent à l'ISN A R . La m éthode de travail en équipe accroît l'efficacité du personnel multidisciplinaire de l'ISN AR D u fait de son caractère multidisciplinaire, le personnel de l'IS N A R offre un large éventail de formations, d 'expériences professionnelles et d 'expertises.Son haut niveau académique et professionnel permet à l'IS N A R de répondre positivement aux nombreuses et diverses demandes d 'aide q u 'il reçoit des systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole avec lesquels il collabore. U ne telle capacité contribue particulièrem ent à l'efficacité de l'approche du travail en équipe q u 'a adoptée l 'ISN A R , son personnel s'intégrant et m ettant ses connaissances en com m un, tout en s'efforçant de collaborer avec les systèmes de recherches nationaux. C et effort d 'intégration accroît l'efficacité de l'IS N A R de deux façons:(1) l 'expérience et les découvertes des différentes sections contribuent aux activités en cours; (2) l 'expérience acquise de par ces activités augm ente le corps des connaissances dont l'ensemble du personnel peut profiter.Beaucoup de m embres du personnel sont bilingues ou m ultilingues. Les travaux de l'IS N A R sont publiés en anglais, en français et en espagnol; tout récem m ent, l 'arabe a été ajouté com m e langue supplémentaire, renforçant les capacités linguistiques de l'ISN A R dans le dom aine des publications.Les travaux menés par l'ISN A R pour renforcer les systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole sont aussi nécessaires aujourd'hui q u 'ils l'étaient lorsque ces systèmes nationaux ont pris conscience d 'un tel besoin, et demandé q u 'il fût satisfait, lors de la réunion de Bellagio (Italie) en 1977. L 'ISN A R a été créé en 1980 pour aider les systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole à améliorer la planification, l'organisation et la conduite des recherches q u 'ils effectuent pour promouvoir une agriculture effiface et productive.L 'ISN A R procède en aidant les N A R S à identifier et à résoudre leurs problèmes, à formuler des politiques et des stratégies de recherche, à mettre en place des installations, et à gérer les programmes de recherche de façon plus efficace. L T SN A R a deux autres objectifs: aider à améliorer la coopération entre les institutions nationales de recherche agricole et les centres internationaux de recherche agricole, et aider les systèmes nationaux à faire un meilleur usage des ressources mises à leur disposition par les donateurs.Le personnel est réparti en quatre grandes sections1. Etude, analyse, diagnostic, planification et coopération continue avec les N A R S dans les pays en développement; 2. Formation et conférences; 3. Publications et information; 4. Travaux de recherche sur certaines caractéristiques des NARS et sur leurs performances.Ces sections sont fonctionnelles, et le personnel de l'ISN A R travaille dans la pratique en groupes intégrés, les activités des sections se complétant les unes les autres. Les travaux effectués par la section des N A R S avec les systèmes nationaux constituent la pierre angulaire des activités de l'ISNAR. Ceux que l'ISN A R mène avec les systèmes nationaux de recherche sont particulièrement mis en relief dans ce rapport. Des exemples sont donnés sur la façon dont le personnel s'intégre et coopère, sur la manière dont l'ISN A R fonctionne dans son rôle de soutien, et sur les moyens qu'il utilise pour établir des relations continues avec les NARS. A m é lio re r les liaisons e n t r e les c e n tre s i n t e r n a tio n a u x et les in s titu tio n s n a tio n a le s d e re c h e rc h e ag rico leA       La mission de l'ISN A R a travaillé en étroite  Le personnel de l'ISN A R et l'équipe de consultants ont été grandement assistés par dix chercheurs marocains de haut niveau qui avaient été détachés de leurs services pour toute la période de la mission, y compris durant les déplacements de cette dernière. Des fonctionnaires de l'IF A R D , représentant toutes les régions du m onde, se réunissent au siège social de l'IS N A R .Pour répondre aux demandes de formation à la gestion, l'ISNAR a organisé quatre ateliers de travail en Afrique. Les lieux où se sont tenus ces ateliers sont indiqués sur cette carte, ainsi que le nombre des participants provenant des pays situés au Sud du Sahara.   Indiquant un haut degré d 'engagement dans l'effort mené pour rétablir la qualité et la capacité du système zaïrois de recherche agricole, autrefois mondialement renommé, des conseillers de très haut niveau, détachés auprès de hauts fonctionnaires gouvernementaux im portants, ont été impliqués dans la réalisation de l'étude de ce système. Cet arrangement avait une raison: la reconnaissance q u 'un consensus sur la structure du système de recherche constituait une condition nécessaire de sa réorganisation.  U n participant à u n atelier de travail de l'IS N A R sur la form ation à la gestion fait une présentation destinée à élargir l'expérience des autres participants, en leur exposant des idées qui se révéleront utiles dans la vie réelle.A partir de 1984, on a mis plus largement l'accent sur les activités relatives à la formation professionnelle. Des ateliers de travail, portant sur la formation à la gestion de la recherche, ont été organisés. Cela impliquait de préparer des cours et de disposer des équipements nécessaires à une telle formation, étant entendu que cet enseignement sur les divers aspects de la gestion de la recherche s'adresserait à des groupes de chercheurs provenant le plus souvent de pays différents. Les objectifs d 'une formation à la gestion varient suivant le niveau des participants à un séminaire ou à un atelier de travail. Au niveau international, on parle des problèmes généraux de gestion à des hauts fonctionnaires, alors q u 'au niveau national on met l'accent sur des problèmes plus spécifiques, car la gamme des participants est beaucoup plus variée.Le fait que l'ISN A R ait décidé de porter par priorité ses efforts sur la formation à la gestion de la recherche l'a conduit à engager l'ensemble de son personnel dans la préparation des ateliers de travail. L'apport le plus im portant au programme de formation de l'ISN A R à la gestion provient des chercheurs qui s'occupent des études, de la planification et du développement des NARS. La section de la Recherche est également impliquée, tandis que le personnel de la section des Publications étudie comment les documents, qui ont été préparés pour les ateliers et ont obtenu un réel succès, peuvent être transformés en manuels d 'auto enseignement.Il est normal que les responsables de la recherche agricole reçoivent une formation sur les techniques de gestion. La plupart des hauts fonctionnaires appartenant aux N A R S ont d 'excellentes qualifications scientifiques. Cependant, les qualités requises pour gérer la recherche agricole sont tout à fait différentes de celles requises pour la conduire. Ainsi, des chercheurs compétents ayant été promus à des postes de responsabilité peuvent se trouver confrontés à des problèmes tels que le contrôle financier, l'organisation du travail, la répartition des ressources, ou la coordination de leurs activités avec celles d 'autres organisations, alors qu'ils n 'ont pas été formés pour cela.L'ISN A R a mis l'accent sur cette formation dans le but d 'aider les directeurs de recherche agricole à développer leurs aptitudes à la gestion, et à assurer une meilleure utilisation des ressources mises à leur disposition. Grâce aux ateliers de travail, ils apprennent à mieux connaître les questions touchant la gestion, la planification, et une organisation appropriée de leur système. Cela leur permet d 'améliorer leur efficacité.Les études de cas sont utilisées dans les ateliers de travail. Dix-sept ont pu être menées à bien le cadre d 'un projet spécial faisant partie des programmes financés par la Coopération pour le développement en Afrique (CDA) et le P N U D /C IM M Y T . O n prévoit que la préparation de documents pour la formation à la gestion constituera un processus continu reflétant les besoins variables des participants.En 1984, l'ISN A R a organisé le troisième atelier régional de travail sur la gestion de la recherche agricole en Afrique anglophone. Cet atelier a eu lieu à Mananga, Swaziland.Les activités de formation à la gestion ont commencé en Afrique francophone en 1984, lors d 'un atelier qui a eu lieu au Cameroun. Cet atelier a été le premier atelier de formation à la gestion qui se soit tenu à un niveau exclusivement national.L'ISN A R aide ainsi à développer la formation à la gestion afin de contribuer au renforcement des N A R S en Afrique.L'ISN A R a également organisé un séminaire sur les politiques de recherche agricole, en coopération avec l'université du Minnesota. Ce séminaire s'est tenu aux Etats-Unis à Minneapolis, Minnesota, en avril 1984. Son principal objet était d 'apprendre aux participants com ment travailler de façon efficace avec les décideurs politiques, afin que ceux-ci apportent leur soutien aux systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole.L 'ISN A R a aussi coopéré avec l'université agricole de W ageningen, Pays-Bas, à un atelier sur la \" Politique et l'organisation de la recherche agricole dans les petits pays'', qui a eu lieu en septembre 1984.L 'IS N A R aide les pays en d évelop p em en t à am éliorer la gestion de la recherche agricole au m o y e n de conférences, de la form ation à la gestion , et de la planification des ressources hum aines.En ce qui concerne le troisième domaine de ses activités de formation et de conférences, l'ISN A R coopère avec les programmes nationaux lors de l'analyse des différents problèmes concernant les ressources humaines. Ces questions sont exposées de façon détaillée dans les rapports relatant les activités continues de l'ISN A R avec les systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole.Conform ém ent à l'orientation principale de ses activités dans le domaine des ressources humaines, l'ISN A R coopère avec les N A R S en vue:-d 'analyser les caractéristiques professionnelles du personnel de recherche; -de prévoir les besoins futurs de formation et de personnel; -d 'étudier les classifications de postes, les plans de carrière, et les procédures d 'évaluation; -de motiver le personnel de recherche.Par ces différents moyens -conférences, formation sur la gestion, et planification des ressources humaines -l'ISN A R répond au besoin quasiment universel q u 'ont les pays en développement de former leurs directeurs de recherche de façon adéquate.U n atelier de formation sur la gestion de la recherche s'est tenu au Centre de gestion agricole de Mananga, au Swaziland, du 9 juillet au 3 août 1984. Il fournit un bon exemple de la méthode adoptée par l'ISN A R, et de ses vues sur les activités concernant ce type de formation.Les relations existant entre les différentes activités des directeurs de recherche sont indiquées dans le schéma ci-dessus.L'atelier de travail de Mananga a été le premier cours qui se soit étendu sur quatre semaines, la durée des précédents cours de formation à la gestion étant de deux semaines seulement. Les participants, désireux de recevoir une formation plus complète dans des domaines plus variés, avaient demandé que ce cours soit plus long, même si cela devait entraîner la présentation d 'un beaucoup plus grand nombre de documents.A Mananga, la formation à la gestion a été axée autour des trois facettes interdépendantes recouvrant les principales activités des directeurs de recherche. Ces facettes com prennent: le rôle de la recherche agricole, la gestion des organisations, et les outils et techniques q u 'utilisent les directeurs.Lors de l'analyse des problèmes que rencontrent les directeurs de recherche, il est fondamental de considérer la question de la recherche dans la perspective du développement de l'agriculture. Lorsqu'ils doivent prendre des décisions, les directeurs peuvent alors donner la priorité aux sujet les plus importants. O n a demandé aux participants qu'ils considèrent les questions ayant priorité dans leurs recherches; on leur a également demandé quelle est la meilleure façon de répartir leurs ressources, de planifier, mettre en oeuvre, et évaluer les activités de recherche, et de communiquer leurs résultats aux utilisateurs finaux.Pour voir les choses dans une telle perspective, il est nécessaire d 'examiner des études de cas correspondant à des situations réelles et couvrant l'ensemble du monde, puis de les discuter en groupes, dans le cadre de séminaires.Puisque les directeurs de recherche travaillent à l'intérieur d 'organisations, il est im portant q u 'ils apprennent les principes qui assurent le fonctionnement de ces dernières au jour le jour, pour être en mesure d 'atteindre les objectifs de la recherche agricole. Pour cette partie de la formation à la gestion, les participants ont traité de sujets tels que la motivation du personnel, la conduite des réunions, et les manières d 'améliorer l'efficacité des organisations.La méthode utilisée est celle du travail en groupe; les participants étudient les réalités de leur vie de gestionnaire au sein de leurs propres organisations. Dans la mesure où ils provenaient de pays et systèmes différents, ils ont pu donner une certaine ampleur à l'examen de ce sujet. Ce fut l'un des points forts du cours de Mananga. Les expériences vécues ex les problèmes rencontrés par chacun des membres du cours intéressent les autres, ce qui entraîne des discussions stimulantes et intéressantes, qui permettent d 'élargir les perspectives de tous.Utiliser de façon efficace les outils et techniques de gestion pour analyser et résoudre les problèmes dans un ensemble organisé, constitue la troisième des facettes interdépendantes des fonctions d 'un directeur de recherche. Cela englobe la capacité à planifier, préparer, superviser et surveiller les projets, préparer et présenter oralement des programmes et des budgets, et exercer un contrôle budgétaire.Lors de l'atelier de formation à la gestion, les participants ont appris ces techniques en préparant effectivement la planification et l'examen de projets q u 'ils ont présentés aux autres participants. Le program m e de recherche de l'ISNAR doit développer sa propre base de connaissances Le développement du programme de recherche de l'ISN A R s'est déroulé grosso modo sur deux périodes. Au cours de l'année 1983, la section de la Recherche a procédé à la mise en place de ses structures et de son organisation. Ses travaux ont commencé par l'analyse des expériences que l'ISN A R avait faites sur le terrain. 11 est apparu que plusieurs sujets de recherche présentaient une grande importance pour l'ISNAR.En 1984, l'ISN A R a continué de mener des recherches sur les sujets qu'il avait abordés en 1983, tout en m ettant en route plusieurs projets nouveaux, afin d 'améliorer sa base générale de connaissances et de mieux comprendre un certain nombre de problèmes spécifiques. Grâce à ses travaux, la section de la Recherche est de plus en plus capable de répondre aux besoins des programmes de formation et à ceux des missions d 'étude envoyées dans les pays.Le premier objectif du programme de recherche est de compléter les activités de l'ISN A R visant à renforcer les systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole. Cela est réalisé de trois façons: -en améliorant les méthodes de travail et les capacités d 'analyse de l'ISNAR; -en obtenant des données de base et des informations qui puissent être utilisées pour comparer les systèmes nationaux de recherche, et aider les directeurs des N ARS à prendre des décisions dans le domaine de la gestion; -en conduisant des recherches sur la nature et le fonctionnement des N A R S, et en recueillant des informations qui puissent être utilisées directement par les membres du personnel de l'ISN A R lorsqu'ils travaillent avec les systèmes nationaux.La plupart des études portant sur la recherche agricole se sont concentrées sur l'analyse économique du taux de rendement des investissements effectués dans ce secteur. Mais on ne s'est guère intéressé à la façon dont sont organisés les systèmes de recherche, ou à la manière dont ils fonctionnent.Le plus souvent, les concepts utilisés dans le domaine de l'organisation et de la gestion des systèmes de recherche proviennent d 'expériences qui ont été effectuées dans des pays développés. O r, la plupart du temps, de telles expériences ne sont pas directement applicables dans les situations auxquelles se trouvent confrontés les N A R S dans les pays en développement. C 'est pourquoi l'ISN A R cherche à élargir ses connaissances sur la recherche agricole, afin de formuler des concepts qui soient appropriés à l'environnement dans lequel travaillent les NARS.Les résultats obtenus par la section de la Recherche peuvent être utilisés directement, tant par les systèmes nationaux de recherche agricole que par le personnel de l'ISNAR appartenant à la section de la formation et à celles des N A R S, lorsque, en travaillant avec les systèmes nationaux, l'ISN A R utilise ses méthodes de travail en équipe.Le programme de recherche de l'ISN A R ne se limite pas à ce que peut faire son modeste personnel de recherche, et chaque mission que celui-ci effectue est un projet potentiel de recherche. A cet égard, la section de la Recherche essaye de s'assurer que les résultats de ses expériences s'inscrivent dans sa mémoire collective. La bibliothèque de l'ISN A R constitue une base essentielle d 'information pour tous les programmes, aidant ainsi directement le personnel qui travaille au renforcement des N A R S dans les pays en développement. En 1984, le nombre des nouveaux titres acquis chaque mois a été le double de ceux acquis en 1983. Le fonds de la bibliothèque a été ainsi porté à quelques 3000 titres.En 1983, les installations informatiques de la bibliothèque ont été connectées à un système de télécommunications et à un modem qui perm ettent à l'ISN A R d 'avoir accès aux grandes banques de données internationales, telles q u 'Agris (FAO), CAB (Com m onwealth Agricultural Bureaux), et Agricola (Bibliothèque agricole nationale du département américain de l'Agriculture). Cela permet d 'effectuer des recherches documentaires approfondies et de préparer des bibliographies. Le modem permet aussi de transmettre par téléphone aux imprimeurs, depuis les installations de traitement de texte de l'ISN A R, les textes destinés aux publications. Cela permet de réduire les coûts et d 'éliminer les risques d 'erreurs d 'impression.La bibliothèque augmente la distribution effective et l'utilisation des publications de l'ISNAR. Elle contribue, d 'autre part, en coopération avec le service des Publications, à ce que les publications de l'ISN A R soient portées à l'attention des chercheurs agricoles et des décideurs politiques dans l'ensemble du monde. Elle a établi pour cela un réseau de bibliothèques dépositaires: les grandes bibliothèques qui ont accepté de recevoir les publications de l'ISN A R et de les mettre à la disposition de leurs utilisateurs. Il a été également prévu que les publications de l'ISN A R seront indexées et analysées par les grandes banques de données agricoles. L 'ISN A R se préoccupe de trouver ultérieurement les moyens d 'aider directement les directeurs des N A R S, et de répondre à leurs besoins dans le domaine de l'information. Le projet de création d 'un service d 'information sur la gestion de la recherche agricole, qui identifierait, recueillerait et diffuserait la documentation relative à la gestion de la recherche agricole, en est un exemple.L'équipem ent inform atique de l'IS N A R lui perm et d 'accéder aux grandes banques de données internationales pour effectuer des recherches docum entaires très complètes et établir des bibliographies. L 'IS N A R peut aussi transm ettre des textes par téléphone, accélérant les transmissions et améliorant ses liaisons avec l'extérieur.Les activités de l'ISN A R au titre des projets spéciaux se sont substantiellement accrues en 1983 et en 1984, et l'on prévoit que cela va continuer. Cette augm entation est une conséquence directe et naturelle de la croissance des activités principales de l'ISNAR. Après une demi-décennie de travail, il est logique que les programmes principaux de l'ISN A R aient besoin d 'être renforcés par des activités spéciales.Les activités majeures de l'ISN A R, financées sur son budget principal, ont concerné ses travaux avec les systèmes nationaux. Elles seront de plus en plus souvent dirigées vers une coopération continue avec les pays dans lesquels l'ISN A R a travaillé, plutôt que vers l'étude de nouveaux systèmes. U ne coopération continue, destinée à renforcer les systèmes de recherche agricole, implique fréquemment le développement d 'activités nécessitant une aide financière, qui n 'est pas disponible dans le budget principal de l'ISNAR.    Based on our examination, we are of the opinion that these accounts have been properly prepared using accounting principles consistent with those used in the preceding year to give the information required to be shown in accordance with the accounting procedures contained in the instructions issued by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, Washington.March 15, 1985  Les imm obilisations sont évaluées à leur coût, sans provision pour amortissem ent.O n t été pris en com pte les engagem ents pris ju sq u 'au 15 décembre 1984 ainsi que tous ceux qui n 'avaient pas été exécutés au m om ent où les com ptes ont été établis.Celui-ci correspond aux besoins d 'environ 30 jours de dépenses moyennes de fonctionnem ent.L 'IS N A R contribue à un fonds de pension pour l 'ensemble de son personnel, dont les cotisations sont entièrem ent payées chaque année. ","tokenCount":"4470"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"202f0ee5f2979b1d03581295a95813a2","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/d83600b2-615e-499f-9748-9f8193d3282d/retrieve","id":"-786301172"},"keywords":["Stochastic frontier production function","technical inefficiency","smallholders","milk production","Ethiopia JEL codes: C18 Q12 Q13"],"sieverID":"4b6b61b1-1980-4617-b64a-833050a99604","pagecount":"23","content":"Fair dealing and other rights are in no way affected by the above. The parts used must not misrepresent the meaning of the publication. ILRI would appreciate being sent a copy of any materials in which text, photos etc. have been used.Editing, design and layout-Description of the explanatory variables in the stochastic production frontier model It has been well documented that rural poverty reduction is associated with growth in agricultural productivity (de Janvry, A. and Sadoulet, E. 2010; Byerlee, Diao, and Jackson 2009;World Bank. 2007). One way of increasing productivity is through improving efficiency (Ferrell 1957). The efficiency gains thus obtained could lead to resource savings that can be put into alternative uses (Bravo-Ureta and Rieger 1991). The implication is that to bring about desirable changes in agriculture it is important to focus on introducing new technologies as well as increasing efficiency.Dairy plays an important role in the Ethiopian agricultural sector and the national economy (Tegegne et al. 2013).The sector is a source of livelihoods for a vast majority of the rural population in terms of consumption, income and employment. Recent estimates by the nation's Central Statistical Agency (CSA) indicate that there are about 55 million cattle, of which 44.6% are male and 55.4% are female (CSA 2014). The CSA survey further indicates that 2.8 billion liters of milk was produced in 2012-13, out of which 42.3% was used for household consumption. This shows that dairy production is an important agricultural activity in the country and provides livelihood for significant proportion of smallholders.According to FAO statistics (2014), over the period 1993 -2012 total annual milk production have been growing, but at a moderately slow rate (see Figure 1). Mohamed et al (2004) attributed the growth mainly to technological interventions and policy reforms. However, Nathaniel et al (2014) argue that since dairy inputs and services provisions are still at infant stage and the expansion of improved dairy cows is limited in the country, the increase in milk production may have come mainly from increased number of cows rather than increased productivity. In fact, the national estimate shows that average milk yield/ cow per day for indigenous breed is low at about 1.37 liters. This calls for understanding of the efficiency level of the dairy sector and identifying factors associated with inefficiency. The results of such analysis are expected to better inform research, development and policy decisions and also help to prioritize interventions in the sector. Although there exist several studies on efficiency analysis of Ethiopian agriculture (Alene et al. 2005;Haji 2006;Makombe et al. 2011 andNisrane et al. 2011), to the best of our knowledge, there exists no such study on milk production. This study, therefore, tries to contribute to the existing gap in knowledge on efficiency factors in dairy production in Ethiopia.The paper is organized as follows. The next section presents an overview of the different approaches that can be used to measure efficiency, followed in section three by methodology of the study. Sections four and five present and discuss results. The last section concludes the paper.There are at least three different types of efficiency measures in economic theory. These are technical efficiency, allocative efficiency and economic efficiency. Technical efficiency measures the success of a firm in applying the best practice so as to produce the maximum attainable output level from a given input set at a given level of technology while allocative efficiency measures a firm's success in choosing optimal set of inputs consistent with relative factor prices (Farrell 1957). On the other hand, a firm's economic efficiency measures the overall efficiency which is defined as the product of technical and allocative efficiency (Bravo-Ureta and Rieger 1991). This paper exclusively focuses on measuring technical efficiency in milk production in Ethiopia.Much effort has been exerted to develop the best methodology for measuring technical efficiency. Following (Farrell's 1957) seminal paper on efficiency measurement, a number of approaches have been proposed. The two most prominent and widely applied methods are the Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and the Data Envelopment Approach (DEA). The SFA has been independently developed by (Aigner et al 1977) and (Meeusen and van der Broeck 1977). Charnes et al (1978) then proposed the DEA as the main alternative to SFA. These methods have been compared for their strengths and weaknesses and were applied for investigating efficiency under different assumptions in various countries and sectors.SFA is a parametric approach in the sense that it follows a defined production or cost function. The function in the model involves a composite error term that accounts both for the statistical noise in the data as well as the inefficiency in production (Erkoc 2012). Therefore, any deviation from the efficient frontier (ideal output from a given input set) is attributed to both the stochastic disturbances such as errors in measurement, topography, weather and effects of unobserved and uncontrollable variables and to the individual-specific factors that affect the inefficiency (Coelli 1995).Once the individual inefficiency levels are estimated, the major factors causing the inefficiency can easily be identified from the inefficiency model. One of the drawbacks of this method is the imposition of restrictive assumptions about the functional form of the production function and the distribution of random errors. Nonetheless, SFA has been widely applied for analysing agricultural efficiency both in developed and developing countries. Greene (2008) provides a detailed and comprehensive discussion of different variants of SFA models.DEA on the other hand tackles the same question with a non-parametric and non-stochastic method. DEA employs linear programing methodology to construct the efficient frontier based on available information on the firms' inputs and outputs in the data. Thus, it is free from functional form restriction and distributional assumptions which are rather important in SFA. The lack of assumptions about the underlying production technology makes DEA suitable to accommodate problems that may arise from such restrictions (Erkoc 2012).However, the use of linear programing in DEA which does not allow decomposing the stochastic noise from the inefficiency effect is one major deficiency of the approach. Those who are not on the efficient frontier are considered to be inefficient; and such deviations are attributed only to inefficiency. Furthermore, the fact that this method is nonparametric makes it vulnerable to measurement errors and outliers. As a result, it has been argued that DEA is less convenient for applications particularly in developing country agricultural setting where data quality is doubtful and such measurement errors are much pronounced (Erkoc 2012 andCoelli 1995). A book length discussion about DEA can be found in Coelli et al (2005).There is always a trade-off as to whether to choose the stochastic frontier approach which is prone to misspecification bias or the DEA which suffers from measurement errors (Erkoc 2012). However, a bulk of the literature suggests that as long as there is no severe misspecification problem, stochastic production frontier method is more suitable for efficiency analysis in a developing country agriculture setting where there are serious issues with data quality and accuracy (Coelli 1995). Therefore, based on the dominant discourse in the efficiency debate, this study applies the stochastic frontier approach to assess the efficiency level and identify factors that lead to inefficiency of smallholder dairy producers.The stochastic production frontier analysis begins with specifying a log-linear production function both in input and output as follows.Where; Y i represents the natural logarithm of observed output of the i^th household, x i is a vector of the natural logarithms of N inputs for the i^th household and β is the vector of unknown technology parameters. The error term ε i is composed of two components u i and v i . The first component u i is a non-negative random variable measuring the inefficiency. The second error component, v i , on the other hand, is a stochastic disturbance term assumed to be independently and identically distributed as N(0,σ v 2) over the observations.To form the density of Y i in EQ (1), the joint density of ε i needs to be computed. Following Greene (2008), this is given by:Integrating EQ (3) with respect to u i then gives the marginal density of ε i . This measures the contribution of observation i to the log-likelihood (ibid).In the literature, the inefficiency term u i may take exponential (Meeusen and van den Broeck 1977), half-normal (Aigner et al. 1977), truncated-normal (Stevenson 1980) as well as gamma (Greene 2003) distributions. Though half normal is the most commonly used specification in cross-section studies (Coelli 1995;Bravo-Ureta and Pinheiro 1993;Bauer 1990) the assumption of zero mean for u i is unnecessary restriction (Stevenson, 1980). Thus, u i in EQ (4) is assumed to have truncated distribution ofFurthermore, the model assumes heterogeneity in u i and following Kumbhakar et al (1991) and Huang and Liu (1994), exogenous variables that influence efficiency are introduced as follows.Where μ i is variable mode of the truncated normal distribution, z i is a vector of household specific explanatory variables that affect household level inefficiency and η is unknown vector of coefficients to be estimated.Then, the log-likelihood will have the following form (Greene 2008).WhereThe log-likelihood function in EQ (6) can then be estimated using Stata (Belotti, F. et.al, 2013). Once the parameters are estimated the technical efficiency (TE) of individual household is given as TE i =exp(-u i ). Since u i is not directly estimated from EQ(6) the method proposed by Jondrow et al (1982) will be used to extract the estimate of u i which is given by Kumbhakar, S. C. and C. A. K. Lovell. (2000) as;Where μ ĩ= (-)/σ 2 and σ * = σ u σ v /σ. Technical efficiency of farms ranges from 1 to 0. The best practice farm gets a value close to 1 and the least efficient farm gets a value close to zero.The empirical version of the stochastic frontier production model employed in this paper uses semi-log-linear Cobb-Douglas production function as the basis for the analysis.Where; TOTM i = Total annual milk production by the i^th household during the 2012/13 production season 1 in liters; V i = one if the respective cost item is positive and zero otherwise; β i are unknown coefficients to be estimated and ε i is the compound error term as specified in EQ (2). The explanatory variables in EQ (8) and their expected signs are described in Table 1. Total number of lactating cows of the household during the 2012-13 production seasonAs the number of lactating cow increase evidently more milk can be produced (+).Total number of labour available in the household during the 2012-13 production season for herding, milking, feeding, etc., of dairy cowsLabour is a key input in dairy production. If a household has more labour available for herding, milking, feeding, etc., it is expected that the dairy cows can be better managed leading to higher milk production (+)Total grazing land available to the household during the 2012-13 production season in hectaresAs the size of grazing land increase it is expected that pasture grasses available will increase which further contribute to higher milk production (+).Amount of crop residue of household from own production available for livestock during the 2012-13 production season in kilograms Crop residue from own production is another important input in the rural part of the country. Thus, it is expected that keeping other things constant a household with more crop residue will produce more milk. (+)Total cost of purchased supplement for dairy cows of the household during the 2012-13 production season in ETB Supplements like concentrate feeds and industrial by-products are expected to increase milk production as they provide more nutrient to the cow (+)Total cost of purchased forage for dairy cows of the i^th household during the 2012-13 production season in ETBIn addition to the crop residue farmers sometimes purchase forage either to avail more feed to cows or to compensate for shortage of crop residue and pasture grasses. Thus, the effect on milk production can be either positive or negative (+/-).Total health expenditure (drugs and expenses on vet services) the i^th household incurred for dairy cows during the 2012-13 production season in ETBIn the rural setting farmers visit veterinary clinics or buy vet drugs whenever animals are inflicted with disease. If animals are not treated milk yield will decrease.Thus, higher health expenditure could be associated with less or more milk production (+/-)Dummy variable that takes 1 if the household has crossbred cow and 0 otherwiseThe sample households keep both local and crossbred dairy cows. This variable is used to account for yield differential due to genetic factors (+) AEZ i Dummy variable that takes 1 if the agroecology zone is highland and 0 otherwise.In Ethiopia, highlands are more favorable for dairy production than the lowlands partly due to feed, heat and water stresses (+)To capture the possible effects of the exogenous variables that affect technical inefficiency, the following model is specified.μ i =η 0 +η 1 HSEX i +η 2 HAGE i +η 3 HAGESQ i +η 4 HEDUC i +η 5 DWT i +η 6 DDA i +η 7 HWEAL i +ω i (9)Where; η i' s are unknown coefficients of the inefficiency effect to be estimated corresponding to each exogenous variable described in Table 2 and ω i is a stochastic error term that captures the effect of unaccounted household specific variables on technical inefficiency. Following Wang and Schmidt (2002), EQ (8) and EQ (9) are estimated simultaneously. The more educated the household head the more likely that he/she can process information and apply trainings and advises of the extension system more effectively which could lead to low inefficiency (-)DWT i Walking distance to district/woreda town from the household (in minutes)Remote households with respect to major markets and administrative centers would have less access to market and institutions which could be associated with inefficiency (+)DDA i Walking distance to Development Agent's (DA) office (in minutes)As the distance to the DA office increase it is more likely that the household would get less extension service which would lead to higher inefficiency (+) HWEAL i Total wealth of household in ETB We anticipate wealthy households to be less inefficient as they are more likely to adopt new technologies readily than poor households (-)The study is based mainly on a cross-sectional baseline data collected by the LIVES 2 project for the 2012-13 production year. The data was collected from February to April 2014 from randomly selected rural households in four regions of Ethiopia (Amhara, Oromia, SNNPR and Tigray). These four regions jointly constitute the largest share of the nation's crop and livestock productions and cover the major agro-ecologies of the country. From the randomly selected respondents, a total of 1277 milk producers in a mixed crop-livestock agro-ecological setting have been considered for this analysis. The descriptive result show that out of the sampled households only 11.1% (142) are female headed (table 3). In terms of agro-ecology about 22% of the sample households are located in lowland areas while the remaining 78% lives in the highlands where it is relatively favorable for milk production. About 93% (1,188) of the households own only local breed cows. This is consistent with the national estimate where the overwhelming majority of cow population is of the local breed. On the other hand, on average, the sample households own less than two cows and produce about 322 liters of milk during the target production year (table 4). On average a household has 2 members who could readily be engaged in herding, feeding, milking and managing the dairy cows. In the Ethiopian rural setting, it is not uncommon to observe young people, mainly boys, to be involved in herding cows and the female do the milking. Ethiopian smallholder farmers mainly depend on green pasture measured in this paper in terms of size of grazing land per household and residue from own crop production to feed their animals (Tegegne et al. 2013). The implication is that total grazing land and crop residue from own production are the major inputs for dairy production. In this regard, the data shows that on average a household had about 0.15ha of grazing land for his/her dairy cows. The data further reveals that on average a household fed 1396.9 kg of crop residue from own production to dairy cows during the production period.In addition to own crop residue and green pasture, farmers also purchase forage and supplements for dairy cows.As can be seen from Table 4, during the production year farmers on average spent about 163 ETB 3 and 129 ETB on forage and supplements, respectively. Moreover, on average, farmers spent 36.8 ETB on animal health during the year. This amount might seem insignificant but it should be noted that most health related services are provided by the government through the extension system free of cost or in highly subsidized manner.The mean age of the head in the sample households is 46 years and the highest grade completed by the head is 2.5. The average wealth of a household is 47,108.6 ETB, and is highly skewed to the left. Apart from household characteristics, the geographic location with respect to institutions such as agricultural office and markets for inputs and outputs is also expected to have a bearing on the inefficiency in milk production. The data shows that 50% of the sample farmers lie within 162 and 30.8 walking minutes from the district town and development agent's office, respectively.The maximum likelihood estimates of the stochastic production frontier function and the technical inefficiency model are presented in Table 5. All estimated coefficients in the production frontier have the expected signs with the exception of purchased forage. The number of cows owned during the production year, number of labour available for dairy production and management, purchased supplements such as concentrates and industrial by-products, ownership of crossbred cows and the agro-ecological zone have positive and significant effects on the amount of milk production.The five statistically significant variables determine the position of the efficient production frontier of milk production for the producers in the sample. Based on the estimated production frontier, farm level technical efficiency is computed depending on the distance of each farmer from the frontier.The estimated coefficients of the inefficiency effect in EQ (9) are the main interest of this study. The signs of all coefficients in the inefficiency model are consistent with what is theoretically expected. The result in Table 5 indicates that coefficients associated with education, household wealth, and distance to district town (proxy for access to input and output markets and institutions) are statistically significant with expected signs. The log of household wealth was found to be highly significant at 1% level while distance to district town and education level of the household head were found to be significant at 5% and 10% levels, respectively. Our model did not detect statistically significant relationship between technical inefficiency and age, sex, and distance to DA post (proxy for access to extension services). The joint effect of age and age square on technical inefficiency were also found to be insignificant. However, the test of joint significance of all variables in the inefficiency model reveals that these variables are together relevant in explaining the efficiency levels of a households. The model estimates technical efficiency at household level. The result shows that on average dairy producers are only 55% efficient compared with the frontier (Table 6). The result further indicated that 95% of the households lie within 54% and 56% efficiency range. A number of tests were conducted to evaluate the specification of the model and reliability of results. The nonstochastic inefficiency hypothesis with a null hypothesis that the standard deviation of u i equals zero is strongly rejects at 1% level of significance.The joint significance of the coefficient estimates for the variables in the inefficiency model have also been tested by the generalized likelihood ratio test. The null hypothesis that the coefficient estimates for the seven explanatory variables η 1 =η 2 =η 3 =η 4 =η 5 =η 6 =η 7 =0, is rejected at 1% level of significance. The test suggests that the combined effect of all the explanatory variables in the inefficiency model is significant although some variables are found to have individually statistically insignificant effects on technical inefficiency.In general, the results of the above model specification tests suggest that a conventional production function is not an adequate representation of the data and the inclusion of the inefficiency effect in the model is an improvement over the stochastic frontier which does not involve a model for technical inefficiency effect.The results of the stochastic production frontier suggest that total number of lactating cows and ownership of improved cows in the herds have positive contributions to the amount of total annual milk production at household level. In addition, the agro-ecological zone in which household reside determines the level of household milk production. Controlling for other factors, farmers who live in the highlands with more favorable rainfall and climatic conditions for dairy production produce more milk than those living in the low land areas. This could be because the heat and water stress in the dry and hot lowlands reduce milk output.The availability of labour supply and purchased supplements are also found to be important factors for milk production at household level. This means that the higher the number of able workers per household available to manage the cows the higher the milk output by the household. In addition, the more concentrate and other nutritious supplementary feed the household buys for the cows, the more milk output per household.These results are consistent with other studies on dairy (Lachaal et al. 2002 andKimenchu et al. 2014). The estimates of the frontier production function seem to suggest that input use and technology adoption (improved cows) primarily determine the level of milk production at household level. Furthermore, the results clearly show that external factors such as agro-ecology also determine the amount of milk output from a given input set.More importantly, the technical inefficiency model provided important results that are relevant for research, development and policy decisions. The negative coefficients for education and wealth in the inefficiency model imply that the effects of both variables on milk production efficiency are positive. High education level is associated with low inefficiency. This could be because farmers with more years of schooling can better process information and use trainings and advice received through the extension services or other sources more effectively compared to those who have lower education. Similarly, 'wealthier' households are more efficient compared to their poorer counterparts. In addition, the result indicated that access to markets is a very important determinant of technical inefficiency. Those farmers who are further away from district towns are less efficient compared to those who are relatively close, suggesting the importance of market incentives for dairy efficiency.The study used a cross section data collected from 1,277 rural farm households selected from the major four regions of the country to assess the level of technical efficiency and identify factors that are associated with the observed inefficiency in stochastic production frontier framework. The result indicates that input use, adoption of improved technology and agro-ecology determine the amount of milk production at household level. Improving the availability of inputs and the efficiency of input markets are likely to increase milk production in the highlands of Ethiopia. Moreover, milk production in the dairy sector can be increased by promoting improved dairy technologies including improved genetic resources.The result of the inefficiency effect model suggests that there is a room to significantly increase milk production per household by simply improving the technical efficiency. The mean efficiency of 55% implies that considerable gain in milk production is possible using the same amount of resources and technology. Education is an important variable for dairy efficiency. Our results imply that the education system should take into account the basic education needs of farmers whose literacy can be improved through formal and informal education. Targeted trainings and other capacity development activities may also be used to counter the negative effect of low literacy. Another short run remedy is to provide practical training on milk production and dairy management to farmers with no or low education. The current practical-oriented rural adult education programs seem to be appropriate interventions and move in the right direction, perhaps, not only for dairy but to improve agricultural efficiency in general. The need to improve infrastructure for increased access to major markets and institutions should also be a point of attention for policy. ","tokenCount":"4061"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c381ac3723ae50b6b7a9a862d42415ad","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/faca2df1-034f-4e5e-bb1d-7fbe0effbb4d/retrieve","id":"-757997543"},"keywords":["Crop-livestock systems","Herbaceous legume","Forage grass","Soil organic carbon","Livestock productivity","Forage agronomy","Cropping system","Multi-dimensional impacts","Sustainable intensification"],"sieverID":"11c647eb-58bf-49f7-ac7f-2705ed94ca9d","pagecount":"17","content":"Scarcity of quantity and quality feed has been a key constraint to productivity of smallholder crop-livestock systems. Tropical forages include a variety of annual and perennial grasses, herbaceous and dual-purpose legumes, and multipurpose trees and shrubs. They have been promoted in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for increasing livestock productivity and household income through higher quantity and quality of herbage, while contributing to soil improvement and higher food crop yields. For the first time, we quantitatively reviewed 72 experimental studies from across SSA to take stock of geographical distribution and forage technology focus of past research; quantify magnitudes of multidimensional impacts of forage technologies; and present variability in forage agronomy data. Improved forage technologies were classified into four groups: (i) germplasm, (ii) management, (iii) cropping system integration, and (iv) feeding regime. Mean weighted response ratios were calculated from 780 pairs of observations for 13 indicators across the five impact dimensions. Improved forage germplasm had on average 2.6 times higher herbage productivity than local controls, with strongest effect in grasses. Feeding regimes with improved leguminous forages increased milk yield by on average 39%, dry matter intake by 25%, and manure production by 24%. When forage technologies were integrated with food crops, soil loss was almost halved, soil organic carbon increased on average by 10%, and grain and stover yields by 60% and 33%, respectively. This study demonstrates the central role improved forages could play in sustainable intensification of crop-livestock systems in SSA. It highlights the need for multidisciplinary and systems-level approaches and studies to quantify synergies and tradeoffs between impact dimensions. Further research is needed to explain forage agronomic yield variability, unraveling interactions between genotype, on-farm environmental conditions, and management factors. Results from this review can inform development programs, prioritizing technologies proven successful for dissemination and indicating magnitudes of expected impacts.Two-thirds of the global rural population are engaged in mixed crop-livestock systems, and these farmers produce around 50% of the world's cereals, 60% of meat, and 75% of milk. Mixed systems enable farmers to synergize between cropping activities and livestock husbandry through draft power for land cultivation, manure application for crop fertilization, and feeding of crop residues and planted forages (Herrero et al. 2010). Scarcity of quantity and quality livestock feed on a consistent basis is often cited as a major constraint faced by mixed crop-livestock farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), especially during the dry season. Feed is also a major production cost in dairy production (Bebe et al. 2008;Hall et al. 2007). SSA has one of the lowest feed conversions for milk and meat globally, thus, the highest amounts of feed needed to produce a unit livestock product. This is mainly due to low animal productivity and poor livestock diets in smallholder mixed systems, as they rely on crop residues, grazing, collected vegetation, and other opportunistic feed (Herrero et al. 2013). Crop residues are often of low feed quality, and scarce resources on smallholder farms due to their competing uses as soil amendment (Homann Kee-Tui et al. 2014;Tittonell et al. 2015;Valbuena et al. 2012;Tittonell et al. 2015).One of the main approaches for addressing the feed scarcity has been to develop improved feed and forage options, and evaluate them for their yield and quality, and impact on livestock productivity parameters (Ayele et al. 2012;Hall et al. 2007). Improved tropical forages include a wide variety of sown or planted grasses, herbaceous or dual-purpose legumes, and multipurpose trees and shrubs (also mostly legumes) that are integrated in agropastoral, silvopastoral, and intensive or extensive mixed agricultural systems for grazing or cut-andcarry (Rao et al. 2015). Intensification with improved forage technologies can take two forms: simple improvements such as the introduction of new forage varieties on-farm and in the existing feeding regime, or more complex sets of new practices that integrate forages in production systems. Forages need to be integrated into cropping systems, especially with food crops, to not compromise smallholders' food security (Ates et al. 2018;Maass et al. 2015;Rudel et al. 2015). Tropical forages can fulfill various objectives and roles in farming systems, and they can occupy different spatial and temporal niches. In a crop role, herbaceous and dual-purpose legumes can be sown on arable land to meet short-term or seasonal fodder needs; in a niche role, herbaceous and dual-purpose legumes and trees/shrubs can be grown on farm boundaries, fallows, roadsides, and crop under-story, to meet planned and opportunistic fodder needs; or in a companion role, they can be sown as grass-legume pasture to satisfy long-term feed requirements (Lenné and Wood 2004;Peters et al. 2001).Tropical forage biomass is usually an intermediate product primarily aiming at increasing livestock productivity. In addition to increasing milk and meat production, they can also contribute to other production objectives such as reducing risks in the face of feed scarcity, increasing yields of associated food crops through weed suppression, pest and disease reduction (in rotations or as intercrop), and increased manure quantity and quality for crop fertilization (Peters et al. 2001;White et al. 2013). Tropical forage technologies are also reported to have environmental cobenefits, including soil rehabilitation and soil quality improvement. Forage grasses can increase carbon accumulation through their deep-rootedness and perennial nature. Forage legumes can improve soil fertility through nitrogen fixation, and increase water efficiency through deep reaching taproots. Pioneering species such as Stylosanthes spp. have the potential to rehabilitate severely degraded land. Grasses, legumes, and trees/shrubs, when planted as hedgerows, cover crops, or live barriers, can reduce soil erosion and runoff (Rao et al. 2015;Schultze-Kraft et al. 2018). Climate change mitigation can be achieved through increased carbon accumulation particularly in deeper soil layers, reduced methane emission intensity from enteric fermentation through higher nutritional value and digestibility of feed, lower nitrous oxide emissions from soils through biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) capacities of selected grasses, and increase of aboveground carbon through integration of fodder trees in silvopastoral systems (Peters et al. 2013). The potential, multidimensional benefits of improved forages in smallholder systems in SSA are summarized in Fig. 1.Research on tropical forages in SSA has been spread over time and regions. Yet a comprehensive, quantitative overview of forage technologies, as well as ranges and magnitudes of their multidimensional impacts, is currently lacking. This study aims to take stock of the state of forage research in SSA by conducting a systematic, quantitative literature review with the following objectives: (i) provide an overview of geographical distribution and forage technology focus of past research; (ii) quantify magnitudes of impacts of tropical forage technologies on forage productivity and quality, livestock productivity, soil quality, economic performance and food crop productivity at plot, animal and household level; and (iii) present the variability of forage agronomy data.We performed a systematic literature search in June 2016 to compile peer-reviewed articles. We used the scientific search engine Scopus, employing the following search terms: \"livestock\", \"feeds\" OR \"forage\" OR \"fodder\", and \"Africa\". We complemented this search with references cited in the primary literature and unpublished studies obtained from the authors' personal networks. For inclusion into this review, we only selected studies that met the following criteria: (1) The study reported empirically measured, original data on one of the target impact indicators (see section 2.2), excluding simulated data or data cited in reviews or secondary articles; (2) the article examined at least one tropical forage technology (grass, herbaceous or dual-purpose legume, leguminous multipurpose trees, and shrubs hereafter called \"shrubs\") but not cereal crop residues, concentrates or tree products-if the technology was a dual-purpose legume, it was only included if the forage or livestock impact was assessed as well; (3) the article focused on ruminant livestock, excluding monogastrics; (4) the study reported data from experimental, \"improved\" treatments and a control treatment; (5) the reported data was continuous and numerical thus not reported in scores, ranks, percentages or as graphs; (6) the study was written in English; (7) basic experimental information was available in section 2; and (8) the study was conducted in Sub-Sahara Africa. Using these criteria, 72 studies were found suitable to be included in the review (see references of review). These studies were published over 30 years between 1985 and 2015 (Fig. 2a). For each of the 107 experimental sites across the 72 studies, we extracted the reported geographical location. If precise geographical coordinates were not reported in the publication, we chose the center of the lowest-level known administrative unit and added GPS coordinates extracted from Google maps. We mapped the dominant livestock production system of all study locations (Robinson et al. 2011) (Fig. 2b).Forage technologies were classified as follows: (a) Germplasm referring to newly introduced forages (i. grass; ii. herbaceous legume; iii. dual-purpose legume) that were tested in on-station or on-farm trials against a local control forage; (b) Management comprising (i) fertilization regimes (mineral fertilizer and manure) and (ii) planting method such as manure application in planting holes, and compared treatment performance to the farmers' practices; (c) Cropping system integration describing (i) forage grass and/or shrub planted as hedgerow with food crops, (ii) forage grass, legume, and/or shrub intercropped with food crop, or (iii) forage grass intercropped with forage legume; (d) Feeding regime including the supplementation of basal feed like residues or grasses with leguminous forages, fed as either fresh biomass, or vines, haulms, hay or leaf meal-forages can be (i) herbaceous legume, (ii) dual-purpose legume, or (iii) shrub (Table 1). Throughout this study, we are using the scientific names of forages under which the studies were published despite the fact that many important species have recently changed, e.g., all Brachiaria spp. to Urochloa spp., Napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) to Cenchrus purpureus, and Panicum maximum to Megathyrsus maximus, among many more (Cook and Schultze-Kraft 2015).Effects of forage technologies on five impact dimensions were considered, which loosely follow the economic, social, and environmental domains outlined in White et al. (2013) and Rao et al. (2015): (i) forage productivity and qualityherbage dry matter (DM) yield, crude protein (CP), and metabolizable energy (ME) contents; (ii) livestock productivity-milk yield, dry matter intake (DMI), manure production, and nitrogen (N) content in manure; (iii) soil quality-soil loss (SL), soil organic carbon (SOC); (iv) household economics-revenue and benefit; and (v) food crop productivity-grain and stover yields. Data was extracted from the 72 selected papers into a Microsoft Access database. In addition to impacts, we extracted experimental and technology descriptions including type of technology and forage species, cropping system, management, and number of replications (N). Figure 3 summarizes the number of studies and pairs of observations (treatment-control) per impact dimension and indicator (columns) and technology groups (rows) that are reported in this review. Improved germplasm effects on forage productivity and quality, cropping system integration effects on soil quality, household economics, and food crop productivity were shown as overall average impacts as well as by technology subgroup (plain color). The technologies falling under improved management and cropping system integration were considered to be too diverse to be presented as average impact values across all technologies. Effects of improved management and cropping system integration on forage productivity were only shown as average impacts by technology subgroup (striped pattern). Results were calculated from a total of 780 pairs of observations (Fig. 3).We used methods such as weighted response ratios from the field of metaanalysis (Hedges et al. 1999) to quantify magnitudes of effects of tropical forage technologies on forage productivity and quality, livestock productivity, soil quality, economic performance, and food crop productivity. Similar to Delaquis et al. (2018), the breadth of technologies and effects included in the study, and the lack of quality of reported agronomic data (e.g., failure to report variance), resulted in a lack of directly comparable measures, indicators, and variables. Therefore, this study could not take a complete Fig. 2 Cumulative number of studies included in this review per publication year (a), and the 107 experimental study sites from all studies mapped on dominant livestock production systems across SSA (Robinson et al. 2011) (b). The studies were obtained through a systematic search of peer-reviewed literature in 2016, which was complemented with references cited in primary literature and unpublished studies obtained for the authors' personal networks. Using seven selection criteria, 72 studies were found suitable to be included in the review, published since 1985. If geographical coordinates were not reported in the publication, we chose the center of the lowest-level known administrative unit and added GPS coordinates extracted from Google maps. Studies were conducted across 15 countries in SSA, most of which in East Africa (49). Most sites were located in the mixed rainfed croplivestock zones (24 sites humid, 23 sites tropical highlands/temperate), and only five sites in rangeland areas (four arid, one hyperarid) metaanalysis approach fulfilling all the criteria laid out by Philibert et al. (2012), including analyzing the heterogeneity of data with random-effect models, sensitivity analysis, and investigation of publication bias.We quantified the effect of forage technologies on the impact indicators (see section 2.2) calculating response ratios (RR) for individual observations:where X E is the impact indicator value for the forage technology treatment, and X C is the impact indicator value for the control treatment.For most observations in our dataset, the original studies did not report measures of variance. Consequently, we relied on a nonparametric approach to weighing observations instead of using the inverse of the pooled variance. Effect sizes were weighed by replication to assign more weight to wellreplicated studies:where W R is the weighing factor by replication, N C the number of treatments per control, and N E the number of replicates per experimental treatment. If no N was reported for a study, N = 1 was assumed.Multiple observations from the same field site or several treatments with only one control are not independent, and this needs to be accounted for in the weights. To avoid bias, the weighing factor by replication was, thus, further divided by the number of measurements and treatments:where W o is the overall weighing factor per observation, W R is the weighing factor by replication, T the number of treatments per respective control, and M the number of measurements per treatment. This ensured that all experimental comparisons in multifactor and multiyear studies could be included in the data set without dominating the overall effect size.Mean effect sizes for the overall sample and per technology type were estimated as follows:With RR i being the effect size of the ith comparison, and W Oi the overall weighing factor for the ith comparison.Standard errors were calculated. Indicator units differed between studies, but standardization was not considered necessary for computation of response ratios.Analyzing the retrieved studies in terms of their geographical locations, technologies, and impact dimensions aimed to reveal and explain focus of past research. The 72 experimental studies included in the review were published between 1985 and 2015, with a peak in the period from 1999 to 2007 (Fig. 2a). Studies were conducted in 15 countries. Within East Africa (49 studies), most studies reported results from Kenya (29). Nine studies were conducted in West Africa, nine in Southern Africa, and five in Central Africa. Most sites were located in the rainfed mixed crop-livestock zones (24 sites humid/subhumid, 23 sites tropical highlands/temperate), and only five sites in rangeland areas (four arid/semiarid, one hyperarid) (Fig. 2b). Studies included a wide variety of forage grasses, legumes, and shrubs (Table 1).Distinct differences in forage technology research focus per region become apparent. Planted grasses (mainly Pennisetum purpureum and Brachiaria spp.) and multipurpose shrubs (Calliandra spp., Leucaena spp., and to a lesser extent Sesbania) dominate past research in East Africa, including their intercropping with food crops (maize, and to a lesser extent sorghum and millet) and hedgerow cropping of fodder shrubs and grasses with maize and soybean, and wheat and beans. In West Africa, herbaceous legumes (mainly Stylosanthes spp., Desmodium spp., Mucuna pruriens) and dual-purpose legumes (mainly Lablab purpureus and Vigna unguiculata) research has been most prominent. Perennial intercropped herbaceous legumes were undersown or relay-planted, and often allowed to grow throughout the following season(s) as improved fallow. Only a few experimental studies from Southern Africa were identified. Four of the nine total studies were conducted in Botswana, and focused either on leguminous shrubs or forage legumes, with only one study on forage grass-legume association (Brachiaria hybrid cv. Mulato and Arachis pintoi) (Table 1; References of the metaanalysis). Results were calculated from a total of 780 pairs of observations. Colors differentiate impact dimensions: forage productivity and quality (green shades), improved feeding regime on livestock productivity (grey shades), improved cropping system integration on soil quality (red shades), household economics (blue shades), and food crop productivity (brown shades).Germplasm effects on forage productivity and quality, cropping system integration effects on soil quality, household economics, and food crop productivity were shown as overall average impacts (see Fig. 4) as well as by technology subgroup (see Fig. 5) (plain color). Effects of improved management and cropping system integration on forage productivity were only shown as average impacts by technology subgroup (see Fig. 5) (striped pattern)The regional differences in amount of studies and specific species reflect the different production systems, agroecologies as well as presence of research centers. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and regional networks have been leading the international forage research in SSA over the last 30 years, with a focus on breeding and germplasm evaluation. In the national agricultural research systems (NARS), programs were established in the 1960s and 1970s to test and adapt novel forage species and superior genotypes. In the 1990s, a strong movement started towards participatory research to match varietal characteristics with needs and interests of smallholder livestock keepers (Boonman 1993;Hall et al. 2007;Stür et al. 2013). The focus on temperate, humid, and subhumid areas might be explained with higher perceived chances of success of planted forages in mixed croplivestock systems. Pastoral communities, often concentrating in arid and semi-arid regions, are unlikely to invest in new forages for communally grazed pastures until joint grazing management strategies are in place (Nyariki and Ngugi 2002). There tends to be cultural reluctance to grow forages if producers are unfamiliar with the concept of investing labor for planting, management, and harvesting, as well as capital for seeds and land for feed that was previously \"for free\". Such investment is mostly common for food crops but not for feed (Thomas and Sumberg 1995).The advancement of Kenya's dairy industry has been largely based on the wide-spread use of Pennisetum purpureum (Pengelly et al. 2003) which has been extensively researched by ILRI and national partners. Its high biomass production with equally high water and soil fertility requirements made it suitable to sub-humid, high-potential highland systems where land availability is limited due to high population pressure. The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) and partners promoted agroforestry with multipurpose shrubs and trees with a focus on cut-and-carry systems in eastern Africa. Calliandra calothyrsus is most commonly planted as it is fast growing and tolerant to frequent cuttings. However, it is not as nutritious as other species including Leucaena leucocephala and L. trichandra, and Sesbania sesban. Key advantages include that they require little land, and contributions to firewood and erosion control (Place et al. 2009;Franzel et al. 2014).In West Africa, Stylosanthes guianensis and S. hamata (Stylo), Mucuna pruriens (Mucuna), Centrosema pascuorum, and Aeschynomene histrix have been promoted for use in fodder banks and improved fallows by ILRI and its national partners. These technologies aimed to alleviate feed stress of agropastoralists in subhumid zones, especially during the long dry season. For a large part of the dry season, a fodder bank planted with herbaceous legumes close to the homestead can maintain a crude protein content of 9% compared with < 7% of the naturally available pastures during that time. Those legumes can also increase subsequent crop yields on the same plot due to nitrogen fixation and improvement of physical soil quality. Stylo has been introduced and promoted since the late 1970s, and Mucuna since the late 1980s (Elbesha et al. 1999;Tarawali et al. 1999). Dual-purpose cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is another crop that has been developed and promoted for mixed crop-livestock systems in the dry savannah zones of West Africa by ILRI and the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Various dual-purpose cowpea varieties have been developed and tested that can deliver benefits on household food productivity, livestock feed, soil quality, and nutrient cycling. Improved dual-purpose cowpea varieties could replace traditional varieties that have been used to either produce grain or fodder (Kristjanson et al. 2002(Kristjanson et al. , 2005;;Lenné et al. 2003;Tarawali et al. 2003). However, it is important to note that focus on literature published in English has led to a bias against francophone literature from West and Central Africa.Calculating average technology effects on selected indicators aimed to quantify the multidimensional impacts of tropical forages on forage productivity and quality, livestock productivity, soil quality, economic performance, and food crop productivity at plot, animal, and household level.Most studies reported data on only one impact dimension, while it was studies on improved cropping system integration that assessed several dimensions such as forage productivity, soil quality, and food crop productivity (Fig. 3). In a global review of forage impact studies, White et al. ( 2013) also found that only few studies included various impact dimensions and tradeoffs.A total of 233 observations reported impacts of forage technologies on forage productivity and quality (Fig. 3). Average herbage productivity of improved forage germplasm technologies was 2.65 times higher than the local controls, and CP content 18% higher (Fig. 4). When differentiating forage productivity impacts by technology groups, introducing improved forage germplasm had the largest effect. Grass germplasm exhibited on average three times higher herbage yield than the local control, followed by herbaceous legumes with almost doubling herbage productivity, and dual-purpose legumes with 27% higher yield (Fig. 5a). Fertilizer application and planting method increased average herbage productivity by 21% and 7%, respectively (Fig. 5b). Associating a forage grass with a legume increased average total herbage productivity by 49% and almost doubled CP content of the overall forage when compared with a grass only, while ME remained almost equal (Fig. 5c).Impacts of improved feeding regimes with forages livestock productivity were measured and reported by 72 observations, all focusing on legume interventions (Fig. 3). Overall, they improved milk yield by an average of 39%, dry matter intake (DMI) by 25%, nitrogen content of manure by 24%, and manure quantity by 12% when compared with the basal diets (Fig. 4). When separating impacts by technology subgroups, herbaceous legumes had the largest average effect on milk yield, increasing productivity by 47%. Herbaceous legumes also had the largest effect on DMI, higher than dualpurpose legumes or multipurpose trees and shrubs (Fig. 5d).Studies also measured effects of tropical forages on soil quality, household economics, and food crop productivity. A total of 88 observations reported effects of forage integration in cropping systems on soil quality, 85 observations on household economics, and 302 observations on food crop yields (Fig. 3). Integrating planted forages into cropping systems overall almost halved soil loss, and increased SOC by an average of 10%. On average, they almost tripled economic revenue and benefit, and increased crop grain yields by 60% and stover yields by 33% (Fig. 4). When separating impacts by technology subgroups, it becomes apparent that associating a forage grass or legume with a food crop was more profitable than hedgerow cropping, more than tripling economic benefit and resulted in 75% higher food crop yields (Fig. 5c).Improved forage grasses can fill persistent feed gaps in terms of quantity more easily than forage legumes. Overall, forage grasses have been a more important research area than fodder legumes in Africa in the past 100 years (Boonman 1993;Lenné and Wood 2004). However, in many rainfed smallholder farming systems, it is not only the quantity and quality of forage produced that matter, but particularly their seasonality. Especially in drier areas, dry-season feed availability can become more important than overall herbage production (Ates et al. 2018). Relative dry-season feed productivity still remains understudied despite its widely recognized importance.Changes in milk production are an often-measured response to feed improvements. Dairy animals are frequently used to assess improved forage quality as it translates rapidly Fig. 4 Weighed mean response ratios with standard error for overall effects of technologies on indicators across the five impact dimensions. Mean effects of improved germplasm on forage productivity and quality (green shades), improved feeding regime on livestock productivity (grey shades), improved cropping system integration on soil quality (red shades), household economics (blue shades), and food crop productivity (brown shades). The dashed line indicates a response ratio of 1, which is the threshold for increase (> 1) or decrease (< 1) when compared with the control. Number of studies and observations are reported in brackets into higher milk yield as long as the have sufficient genetic potential (Lascano 2001). However, costs of feeding trials involving animals are more resource-intensive to conduct, partly explaining the relatively lower amount of observations on livestock productivity impacts when compared with other impact dimensions. The lower magnitude of Fig. 5 Weighed mean response ratios with standard error for effects of technology subgroups on indicators across the five impact dimensions. Germplasm subtechnology effects on forage productivity and quality (a), management sub-technology effects on forage productivity and quality (b), cropping system integration subtechnology effects on soil quality, household economics and food crop productivity (c), and feeding regime sub-technology effects on livestock productivity (d). Color shades are used to indicate impact dimensions: green for forage productivity and quality, grey for livestock productivity, red for soil quality, blue for household economics and brown for food crop productivity. The dashed line demarcates a response ratio of 1, which is the threshold for increase (> 1) or decrease (< 1) when compared with the control. Number of studies and observations are reported in brackets impacts from livestock feeding regimes when compared with forage points to the fact that higher quantity and quality of feed does not directly translate into livestock productivity response as several other factors such as current nutritional status of the animals, animal health, breed, and management practices might be limiting productivity. A combination of interventions is often necessary, including improved animal breeds, husbandry, and health to reach desired productivity responses (Van De Ven et al. 2003).Forage integration into cropping systems has often been highlighted as key to deliver multiple benefits to farmers, yet there are only few successful and published examples (Maass et al. 2015;Paul et al. 2020). Various studies focused on Desmodium spp. and mostly referred to the push-pull system in which the pest control factor has an additional effect on food crop yields (Hassanali et al. 2008a). Hedgerow cropping with fodder shrubs could lead to competition and lower food crop yields, depending on the exact agronomic arrangement and agroecological conditions. Variability was high in the economic data, which was also reported by Franzel et al. (2014) for fodder shrub hedgerow cropping. Net return in Kenya and Uganda varied widely, depending on the number of trees grown on the farm, the amount of supplementation with leaf meal, and the milk prices, which can vary between locations and seasons and influence profitability. Inconsistent valuation methods and assumptions further complicated the economic comparisons, e.g., full costs are often not reported, which corroborates with findings by White et al. (2013).The analysis suggests that tropical forages can deliver multiple benefits to smallholder farmers, although few studies investigated multiple effects simultaneously. Planted forages are uniquely positioned at a crossroads between various disciplines-agronomy, animal nutrition, and environmental sciences-linking crop, livestock, and soil components of farming systems (Paul et al. 2020). Understanding whole system implications of forage introduction into a farming system is required-e.g., for estimating trade-offs in labor requirement or food security when intensifying livestock production (Ates et al. 2018;Paul et al. 2020). In fact, farmers seem to make decisions based on balancing or satisfying multiple objectives, instead of optimizing one single objective-which has been coined \"satisficing behavior\" (van Kooten et al. 1986;Simon 1957). Farming systems research and wholefarm economic analysis to evaluate benefits and risks, can provide decision support to farmers as well as evidence for researchers and funding agencies to prioritize (research) investments (Pengelly et al. 2003). There is a need for more comprehensive, multidisciplinary studies taking farming system approaches to assess the attractiveness of multiple benefits of forage technologies, depending on specific locations, opportunities, production objectives, and constraints.Lastly, this review aimed to assess and present the variability of forage agronomy data. Absolute forage grass yield figures across studies were highly variable (Table 2). Herbage DM yields for Pennisetum purpureum ranged from 0.25 to 37.3 t/ha with most values around 3-10 t/ha, with the lowest value recorded in a semiarid environment per season. Crude protein contents for Pennisetum purpureum reached as much as 16.3% in an experiment in Kitale, Kenya, while most other figures varied between 5 and 8% (Table 2).The high variability in forage agronomic performance in terms of biomass productivity is remarkable which might be explained by two reasons. Firstly, Napier grass is native to SSA and adapted to a wide range of soil and agroecological conditions from 0 to 2100 m above sea level, as well as annual rainfall between 750 and 2500 mm (Negawo et al. 2017). However, yields can vary widely, depending on the cultivar grown, and its interactions with agroclimatic conditions and management. Globally, some studies have even reported yields of up to 66 t DM/ha/year in Malaysia, 78 t DM/ha/year in Brazil or 90 t DM/ha/year in Zimbabwe (Negawo et al. 2017), which is significantly more than the ranges reported for SSA in this review. Similarly, the CP content of Napier grass is significantly influenced by cutting treatments and intervals, and fertilization (Negawo et al. 2017). The choice of experimental control and fertilization regime might also explain some of the observed variability. Secondly, despite various international efforts (e.g., Tarawali et al. 1995;'t Mannetje 2000), the research field and methods of forage agronomy are not standardized, also due to the comparably less research that has taken place as compared to food crops. Forage biomass productivity is assessed in various ways in terms of establishment time, cutting interval, cutting height, and reporting times (per harvest, season, year). This made results less comparable across sites and studies.There is a need in SSA for implementing both proposed standards in forage agronomy, and capacity building in forage agronomy. However, investment in forage research has been low, with for example only seven forage agronomists out of the 545 agricultural scientists in Kenya (Murithi and Minayo 2011). Further statistical analysis of the heterogeneity of forage productivity data could identify explanatory variables for the observed site-year variability, relying on additional metaanalysis methods such as random-effects models and sensitivity analysis as proposed by Philibert et al. (2012). Moreover, crop yields observed in studies under controlled conditions, such as on-station experimental trials, are likely greater than those obtained in uncontrolled on-farm situations where the interplay of factors determines yields. It is well documented that only a small proportion of farmers will reach the average yield under on-station experimentation, owing to the variability of agro-ecological conditions and management that affect performance. New statistical methods can help to further understand the high on-farm agronomic variability (Vanlauwe et al. 2016).Quantitative reviews are key to summarizing evidence on what is known, synthesizing it for use within or outside of the research domain, and formulating future research priorities. To the best of our knowledge, this review for the first time: (i) takes stock of geographical distribution and forage technologies of past research in SSA; (ii) quantifies the range and magnitude of multidimensional effects of forage technologies including livestock productivity, soil quality, household economics, and food crop productivity; and (iii) presents variability in forage agronomy data.Major findings of this review include the following: (1) Most studies focused on only one impact dimension, most frequently forage and food crop productivity, and only cropping system integration studies reported benefits across dimensions; (2) Improved forage germplasm had on average 2.65 higher herbage production than local controls, with strongest effect in grasses; (3) Crude protein of the overall forage doubled when grasses and legumes were grown in Further research is needed to explore and explain agronomic variability of forage production. Deployment of additional, statistical metaanalysis techniques could assess site-year variability, and identify relevant explanatory variables (Philibert et al. 2012). Further, it is well-known that agronomic performance and effect sizes may differ between on-station and onfarm experimentation, with the former achieving higher yields due to a variety of factors including better soil quality and management. New statistical methods can help to further understand on-farm agronomic variability, and unravel interactions between genotype, management, and environment effects (Vanlauwe et al. 2016). Such understanding is also needed to inform technology dissemination to ensure higher and more stable performance under heterogeneous smallholder production environments.Tropical forages can deliver multiple benefits to smallholder farmers, especially when integrated into cropping systems. Therefore, they can play a central role in sustainably intensifying crop-livestock systems in SSA, which has been suggested before (e.g., Ates et al. 2018). Multidimensional impacts of technologies become increasingly recognized as key, also for integration in farming systems and adoption. For example, in the discussions around Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) and Sustainable Intensification (SI), concepts of synergies and tradeoffs between various objectives become more and more important (Campbell et al. 2014). Satisfying such multidimensional objectives simultaneously is also suggested to be key to farmers' adoption of technologies (van Kooten et al. 1986;Simon et al. 1957). Adoption of tropical forage technologies, and underlying drivers and barriers, and incentives and enabling environment required to achieve impact at scale, deserves accelerated research attention. Tropical forages are an excellent case to explore and demonstrate the crucial need for multidisciplinary research on multidimensional impacts and tradeoffs technologies that are key to advance mixed crop-livestock systems (Paul et al. 2020). There is a need for more comprehensive, multidisciplinary studies taking farming system approaches to assess the attractiveness of multiple benefits of forage technologies, depending on specific locations, opportunities, production objectives, and constraints.Results from this study can guide development priority setting and investments by synthesizing and taking stock of past research. They can inform the design of development programs, prioritizing technologies proven successful for dissemination in the region, and indicating magnitudes of impacts that could be expected from the interventions.Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.","tokenCount":"5816"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"d686863dd3e55615f75a76983477834a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/438f7edb-fd87-4137-851b-653a827259e7/retrieve","id":"-99646120"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2a1f484b-0335-405c-9329-76b0eeb92fde","pagecount":"105","content":"-A la Ora. Ednar Wulff y al Ing. Wilmer Perez par sus orientaciones no solo en lo profesional si no en lo personal.-A la Msc. Maria Olivos par su apoyo en la coordinaci6n con la Universidad Pedro Ruiz Gallo en Lambayeque; par sus orientaciones y su sincera amistad.-Al equipo del area de Patologia: Elvis, Fredy, Pepe, Alicia, Juan, Lorenzo, Soledad, Magnolia, Julita, Wilmer, par su apoyo y companerismo, en especial al senor Elvis por su gran amistad.-Al personal de Huancayo: Emeterio y Miguel, par su ayuda en las tareas de invernadero y campo .          una fuente de ingresos econ6micos para los agricultores (Jaramillo, 1980;Torres, 2002).La enorme diversidad de cultivares que se siembran en el pafs muestran marcadas diferencias entre las distintas regiones (Recharte y Vilca, 1986), dejando al agricultor la facultad de elegir teniendo en consideraci6n la adaptabilidad, rendimiento y calidad culinaria de los cultivares (SEINPA, 1994 ). Lamentablemente hoy en dfa el cultivo de la papa esta limitado por diversos factores bi6ticos y abi6ticos (Gastelo et al., 1996).Entre estos factores adverses podemos citar al tiz6n tardfo o rancha causado por Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary, el cual no solo afecta a cultivos de papa sino tambien a otras solanaceas (Agrios, 1995;Hoecker, 1980).Bajo condiciones favorables para el desarrollo del pat6geno muchos cultivares comerciales son susceptibles al tiz6n tardfo, causando graves estragos a los cultivos y limitando la obtenci6n de una buena producci6n (SEINPA, 1994;Orrego et al., 1999). Para contrarrestar esta problematica se han puesto en practica una serie de medidas denominadas en su conjunto Manejo lntegrado del Tizon Tardio (Fry, 1977;Bain, 1996;Evenhuis et al   A pesar de que los fitomejoradores han logrado obtener variedades resistentes, los fungicidas siguen siendo un soporte indispensable en el control de esta enfermedad (Jaramillo, 1980;Mont Koc, 1993), ya que en condiciones ambientales muy favorables para P. infestans tambien las cultivares resistentes se comportan coma susceptibles (Gonzales, 1976).La falta de conocimiento par parte de los agricultores sabre el uso de fungicidas de acuerdo a la zona de cultivo y al cultivo en sf, ha ocasionado una disminuci6n en el rendimiento debido a la variabilidad del pat6geno, dafios a la salud humana y al media ambiente (Forbes y Jarvis, 1994;Fernandez-Northcote, 2000). En Peru, la aplicaci6n de fungicidas se basa generalmente en la experiencia propia del agricultor o a la informaci6n dada en el envase del producto (Otazu, 1999).En las ultimas afios se ha observado en el mercado local la existencia de mas de 50 productos qufmicos recomendados para controlar el pat6geno (Adrianzen, 2001 ), existiendo una desorientaci6n entre los agricultores que las ha llevado al uso masivo y descontrolado de los mismos en su afan por lograr una producci6n comercialmente aceptable (Ortiz et al., 1999).Surge entonces el interes par tratar de investigar nuevas opciones orientadas al control del tiz6n tardio mediante el cultivo de variedades y clones con diferente grado de resistencia combinada con dosis reducidas de fungicidas, planteandose las siguientes hip6tesis:-Los fungicidas de contacto ejercen un efectivo control de Phytophthora infestans.-Los fungicidas a dosis menores que las recomendadas comercialmente aplicadas en clones y variedades de papa con diferente grado de resistencia horizontal ejercen efectivo control de P. infestans.Para confirmar estas hipotesis, se evaluaron los siguientes objetivos:-Determinar el efecto de las fungicidas de contacto (Mancozeb 80% y Propineb 70%) y los fungicidas sistemico-contacto (Cimoxanil 6% +  -Seleccionar un fungicida que controle con mayor efectividad a Phytophthora infestans.-Reducir la dosis de aplicaci6n del fungicida seleccionado al evaluar las concentraciones al 50%, 75% y 100% de la dos is comercial en clones y variedades de papa con diferente grado de resistencia a P. infestans . La papa ( S. tuberosum) es una de las plantas de mayor divers id ad genetica y su origen esta entre el sur del Peru y el Norte de Bolivia (Egusquiza, 2000;CIP, 2002). Constituye uno de las principales cultivos agrfcolas ocupando el cuarto lugar de consumo a nivel mundial (Valcarcel, 1981;Cahuana y Arcos, 1993;Roman y Hurtado, 2002) .En el pals ocupa el tercer lugar del PBI (Producto Bruto lnterno) agropecuario despues de las aves y el cultivo de arroz (Guerra, 2001citado por Torres, 2002). Ocupa un promedio del 10% de la superficie cultivada a nivel nacional con un rendimiento de 20 t/ha para la costa y 10 t/ha para la sierra (Torres, 2002;Egusquiza, 2000), siendo Huanuco el lugar de mayor producci6n (351,239 tm/ano) seguido de Junin (324,035 tm/ano) (Torres, 2002 ).La papa es una planta herbacea, dicotiled6nea, anual; pertenece a la familia de las solanaceas, junta con otras especies coma la berenjena, tbmate, chile,     (Banse, 1979;Sitio Web lnfoagro, 2002).A. Semilla botanica. Para efectos de producci6n existen 2 clases de semillas: semilla botanica (propiamente dicha) y el tuberculosemilla (tallos subterraneos) (Egusquiza, 2000;Sitio Web lnfoagro, 2002).La verdadera semilla es producida dentro de una baya de color verde, de forma redonda, ovoide o c6nica con un diametro de 3 cm; existiendo un promedio de 200 semillas por baya (Maisson et   al., 1991; Romany Hurtado 2002).Son estructuras originadas por un engrosamiento del extrema de los estolones (pa rte adaptada del tallo ), debido al almacenamiento de sustancias de reserva; son empleados tambien como estructuras de reproducci6n (Rubio et al., 2000;Francis, 1982).Presentan formas variadas que van desde ovalada, redonda, oblonga hasta irregular de acuerdo a la variedad o especie; son acortados, engrosados, provistos de ojos (yemas) con ligeros pliegues que corresponden a las cejas (hojas escamosas) y lenticelas utiles para el intercambio gaseoso (Maisson et al., 1991;Egusquiza, 2000).La floraci6n es sefial de que la papa empieza a emitir los estolones de las axilas de las hojas (parte subterranea del tallo aereo), iniciandose asf la tuberizaci6n, la cual continua despues de que el follaje empieza a decaer alcanzando su maxima desarrollo cuando este ultimo esta seco en un 50 % (Francis, 1982;Roman y Hurtado, 2002).La cantidad de tuberculos que se forman por unidad de superficie (m 2 ) depende del numero de tallos principales comprobandose que a mayor cantidad de tallos aumenta el rendimiento de • tuberculos pequenos y disminuye el rendimiento de tuberculos grandes y viceversa (Banse, 1979;Cahuana y Arcos 1993). El tuberculo una vez cosechado pasa par dos etapas: La dormancia o reposo que viene a ser el periodo comprendido entre la cosecha y la brotaci6n en donde las ojos (yemas) se encuentran sin actividad y la etapa de brotaci6n que ocurre cuando emergen las yemas.Para efecto de siembra se debe utilizar tuberculos con brotaci6n multiple (Mercurio, 1979;Caldiz, 1988).C. Raiz. Las plantas provenientes de semilla botanica desarrollan una raiz principal filiforme a partir de la cual aparecen ramificaciones laterales que forman un sistema fibroso.Las plantas obtenidas de tuberculo-semilla no presentan una rafz principal y en su lugar presentan raices adventicias que pueden penetrar hasta 60 o 90 cm de profundidad (Rubio et al., 2000;Sitio Web lnfoagro, 2002).Tallo. Los tallos de plantas provenientes de semilla botanica son unicos (con ramificaciones laterales en ciertas oportunidades) y con crecimiento inicial lento. Los brotes del tuberculo-semilla emiten tallos herbaceos en mayor cantidad con crecimiento erecto, semirastrero o rastrero las cuales se ramifican; este sistema de tallos consta de tallo propiamente dicho, estolones y tuberculos; la altura de la planta puede variar entre 0.40 m -0.90 m (Mercurio, 1979;Rubio et al., 2000;Romany Hurtado, 2002).E. Hojas. Son compuestas, presentan de 9 a mas foliolos cuyo tamano es mayor cuanto mas alejados estan del nudo de inserci6n; las hojas se distribuyen en espiral presentando un foliolo terminal, peciolo, peciolulos, raquis y hojas pseudoestipulares diferenciandose par su tipo de disecci6n y superficie (Cahuana y Arcos, 1993;Sitio Web lnfoagro, 2002) . Sus estructuras sexuales presentan cinco estambres, un pistilo, ovario supero bilocular con placentaci6n axilar (Maisson et al.,   1991; Romany Hurtado, 2002).Hoy en dia existe una gran cantidad de variedades de papa, cada variedad es un grupo de individuos que se han desarrollado de una sola semilla con una posterior propagaci6n vegetativa, estas variedades difieren unas de otras en morfologia de la planta y en la composici6n quimica del tuberculo (Egusquiza, 2000).El mejoramiento genetico cumple una funci6n importante en la generaci6n de nuevas variedades de papa denominadas papas mejoradas geneticamente, las que se diferencian de las variedades nativas ya que estas ultimas son cultivos de consumo en el cual no ha intervenido el hombre para algun cambio. Este mejoramiento se centra en la obtenci6n de un material mas precoz, de mayor calidad, rendimiento y con resistencia a problemas fitopatol6gicos y ambientales (sequia, heladas y otros) (Ivar y Lindarte, 1995, Alonso, 2000, Grain, 2001 ).Las variedades se dividen teniendo en cuenta su periodo vegetativo (tempranas 60-95 dias, semitardias 95-120 dias y tardias >120 dias); por su origen (silvestres, nativas, mejoradas); por su color (blancas y de colores) y por su uso (amargas en la industria del chuno, dulces en la industria de alimentaci6n) (Egusquiza, 2000).A. Temperatura. La papa es considerada una planta termoperi6dica, es decir, necesita una variaci6n entre la temperatura diurna y nocturna de por lo menos 10° C. La mayor producci6n de follaje se  (Mag, 1991;Rubio et al., 2000).B. Fotoperiodo. La duraci6n del fotoperiodo tiene influencia en la tuberizaci6n yen la duraci6n del ciclo vegetativo ya que dias cortos favorecen la tuberizaci6n y acortan el ciclo vegetativo y los dias largos tienen efecto contrario. Los mejores rendimientos en una region templada se obtiene a temperaturas bajas y con 12 a 16 horas de luz segun la especie cultivada (Fulgueira, 1982citado por Romay Hurtado, 2002;Sitio Web lnfoagro, 2002).Estas condiciones 6ptimas de temperatura y fotoperiodo se dan en las regiones suni, quechua, yunga de la sierra centro y sur del Peru coma Huanuco, Junin y Puno en las cuales se registra la mayor producci6n nacional (Torres, 2002).C. Precipitaci6n. La cantidad de agua requerida esta en un promedio de 600 mm; la cual se distribuye en todo su ciclo vegetativo (Cruz, 1991) y segun Rubio et al. (2000) entre 600 y 1000 mm dependiendo de la temperatura, capacidad de almacenamiento del suelo y la variedad o cultivar que se emplee.En periodos de intensa tuberizaci6n pueden necesitar hasta 80 cm 3 de agua /ha/dia, pero un exceso de esta causa disminuci6n de su riqueza en fecula y favorece enfermedades como el mildiu y la podredumbre (Sitio Web lnfoagro, 2002).Segun Egusquiza (2000) la altitud necesaria para el desarrollo y producci6n de papa varia de acuerdo al lugar de cultivo, asi las campanas de la costa se realizan entre 0 -500 m.s.n.m; yen E. Suelos. Los mejores suelos son los francos (limoso, arcilloso, arenoso) de textura liviana con buen drenaje, un pH de 5.5 -7, un 2% de materia organica y una profundidad efectiva mayor de los 0.50 m que permita el libre crecimiento de los estolones y tuberculos facilitando tambien la cosecha (Francis, 1982;Mag, 1991 ). La presencia de la enfermedad en U.S.A. y Europa se atribuye a la diseminaci6n a partir de papas silvestres enfermas introducidas a traves de Mexico (Niderhauser, 1991;Fry et al., 1992).La primera aparici6n en Europa fue en Belgica en Junia de 1845 y se expandi6 rapidamente afectando pocos meses despues los cultivos de lrlanda ocasionando la muerte de mas de un mill6n de personas (debido al hambre y la desnutrici6n) y la salida de casi dos millones de irlandeses que abandonaron su patria para intentar rehacer su vida en otros paises (Jaramillo y Rojas, 1997;Grain, 2001 ) .Los oomicetes anteriormente pertenecian a los Ficomicetes, en donde la Cmica caracteristica comun con los Zigomicetes era la carencia de septas en el micelio (micelio cenocitico) (Erwin y Ribeiro, 1996).Estos poseen un estado diploide durante la mayor parte de su ciclo de vida a diferencia de los hongos verdaderos que son haploides; presentan una pared celular compuesta de celulosa y P. infestans presenta un micelio cenocitico del cual se extienden esporangioforos ramificados de crecimiento indeterminado en cuyas puntas se forman los esporangios papilados que adquieren la forma de lim6n; los cuales pueden germinar directamente a traves de un tuba germinativo o indirectamente con formaci6n de zoosporas uninucleadas y biflageladas, las cuales rompiendo la papila se diseminan, perdiendo luego los flagelos y enquistandose (Jaramillo, 1980;Agrios, 1995).• Este pat6geno tambien presenta estructuras sexuales llamadas oosporas de pared gruesa formadas por la union de dos gametes morfol6gicamente distintos de diferentes hifas los cuales adoptan el nombre de anteridio (gamete masculine) y oogonio (gamete femenino ); estas esporas germinan a traves de un tubo germinative produciendo luego un esporangio aunque algunas veces la oospora puede formar directamente micelio (Erwin y Ribeiro, 1996).Una de las caracteristicas que distingue a P. infestans es su variabilidad genetica; la recombinaci6n mei6tica dada durante la reproducci6n sexual incrementa dicha variabilidad (Erjefalt et al., 1985;Harrison, 1995).La presencia de diferentes razas son producto del apareamiento de dos grupos conocidos como A 1 y A2 (Sarasola y Rocca, 1975;Fry et al., 1992), los cuales se diferencian en la producci6n de hormonas que se reflejan en la formaci6n de estructuras sexuales, inducidas bajo el estimulo del tipo de apareamiento contrario (Galindo 1962 citado por Sarasola y Rocca 1975;Fry et al., 1992).Andrivon (1996) y Goodwin (1997) afirmaron que las mutaciones (espontaneas o inducidas) y las migraciones del pat6geno son factores que influyen en la evoluci6n de las razas. Perez et al. (2001) caracterizaron poblaciones de P. infestans en Peru observando la presencia de diferentes linajes: EC-1 procedentes de Pasco y Junin; EC-1, US-1 y PE-3 de Cusco; US-1 y PE-3 de Puno, concluyendo que todos los aislamientos evaluados a pesar de pertenecer a A 1 formaban diferentes poblaciones del pat6geno con diferente grado de virulencia y resistencia a Metalaxil.La enfermedad se inicia con uno o varios esporangios, estos penetran a traves de un tubo germinativo por las heridas, aberturas naturales (estomas) o en forma directa a traves de la hoja; y por media de las yemas, lenticelas,• pequef\\as heridas o par pustulas de Spongospora subterranea (rof\\a de la papa) en el caso de tuberculos. El tuba germinative al ingresar crece entre las celulas emitiendo haustorios las cuales penetran al interior de las mismas para obtener sus nutrientes, de tal manera que la celula muere y la lesion empieza a expandirse; al cabo de unos cuantos dias emergen nuevos esporangios a traves de las estomas sirviendo de in6culo para la infecci6n de nuevas plantas (Fig. 1.) (Schuman, 1991;Agrios, 1995;Harrison, 1995).De tres a seis dias despues de la infecci6n bajo condiciones favorables, las esporangios emergen siendo estos mas abundantes en el enves que en el haz de la hoja (Sarasola y Rocca, 1975;Henfling, 1987).Afecta las hojas, tallos y tuberculos de la papa. Provoca en las hojas manchas irregulares de color verde palido a oscuro que en condiciones optimas tienden a crecer rapidamente dando lugar a grandes lesiones necroticas con la aparicion en el enves de un mildiu blanquecino. De igual modo en el tallo se producen lesiones oscuras continuas ubicadas generalmente en el tercio superior media mostrando una consistencia quebradiza al contacto con la fuerza del viento, maquinarias agricolas y el agricultor (Foto 1) (Jaramillo, 1980;Thurston y Schultz, 1981 ).Los tuberculos muestran manchas mas o menos irregulares adoptando un color parduzco, posteriormente la lesion se torna seca siendo vulnerable al ataque de bacterias y microorganismos secundarios que ocasionan una lesion de consistencia blanda, humeda y facil de romper (Sarasola y Rocca, 1975;Agrios, 1995) .\"c::::::.i: ' ' '. . indirecta con formaci6n de zoosporas se presenta entre las temperaturas de 12° -16° C (Henfling, 1987;Harrison, 1995 ).Hay mayor esporulaci6n a una humedad relativa de 100% con temperaturas entre 16-22°C; y un desarrollo de micelio normal entre 17° a 20° C (Agrios, 1995).Este factor tiene poca influencia en la dispersion de la espora pero un gran efecto sabre la sobrevivencia, ya que los esporangios en el aire mueren rapidamente por encima de los 25° C; sin embargo sobreviven a diferentes temperaturas si se encuentran con una humedad relativa alta o establecidos en un tejido; considerandose una temperatura entre 16° y 22,5° C para el desarrollo de las diferentes estructuras de P. infestans (Harrison, 1995) .La humedad relativa entre 90% -100% determina el optimo desarrollo del patogeno y tienen gran efecto en la viabilidad de las esporas; dandole la capacidad de sobrevivir por varios dfas en aire saturado (Calderoni, 1978;Rogoshin y Filippov, 1983)., viento e irradiaci6n. Estos factores tambien influyen en la sobrevivencia y dispersion de las esporas; ya sea a traves de la lluvia con el lavado de las esporas de las hojas y tallos llevandolos al interior del suelo donde causan infeccion de tuberculos; por el transporte de las esporas de un planta a otra por el viento o a traves de la radiacion reduciendo la humedad relativa e incrementando el porcentaje de evaporacion (Harrison, 1995).Para controlar la enfermedad ocasionada por P. infestans se ha puesto en practica una serie de medidas, como el Manejo lntegrado del Tizon Tardio el cual agrupa al control cultural, genetico, qufmico y biologico (Schumann, 1991;Agrios, 1995).De acuerdo con Henfling (1987) y Agrios (1995) el control cultural incluye los siguientes aspectos:-Siembra de tuberculos sanos.-Cosecha inmediatamente despues de que el follaje se ha secado naturalmente y cuando los tuberculos estan maduros.-Almacenamiento s61o de los tuberculos sanos quemando los tuberculos enfermos -Aplicacion de herbicidas -Rotacion de cultivos -Aporques altos y fertilizaci6n balanceadaEl uso de variedades resistentes es el metodo mas practico y econ6mico de controlar la enfermedad. Teniendo en cuenta las practicas culturales; el cultivo de una variedad resistente reduce el uso de fungicidas (Agrios, 1995;Ortiz et al., 1999).• Resistencia vertical, especifica, monogenica, cualitativa.Esta resistencia esta dada por genes mayores (R) identificados en la actualidad en un numero de once (R1,R2,R 3 ... R11), obtenidos de la especie silvestre Solanum demissum (Harrison, 1995;Jaramillo y Rojas, 1997)  2000).Todos estos genes conceden resistencia especifica a una raza particular del pat6geno actuando en la etapa de infecci6n despues de haber ocurrido la penetraci6n (Thurston, 1971citado par Fernandez, 1978;Mone Koc, 1993;Lopez, 1986citado par Trujillo, 1998).Esta resistencia es asociada a la hipersensibilidad celular la cual a su vez se deriva de la infiltraci6n de las celulas susceptibles por compuestos fen61icos, de esta manera la reacci6n de las celulas vecinas al lugar del ataque es rapida produciendo necrosis de la porci6n del tejido invadido y par lo tanto el pat6geno no puede sobrevivir (Van der Plank, 1968;Sarasola y Roca, 1975).Este tipo de resistencia par ser demasiada especifica no es efectiva contra otras razas debido que cada gen R del hospedante posee su correspondiente gen de virulencia par parte de P. infestans de tal manera que en la actualidad las razas del pat6geno estan    Koc, 1993;Harrison, 1995).Conforme el patogeno evoluciona, la planta se hace cada vez mas vulnerable, adaptandose (al cultivar) y rompiendo su resistencia; de esta manera la evolucion del patogeno es mas rapida de lo que deberfa ser en forma natural (Mont Koc 1993;Lopez, 1986citado par Trujillo, 1998).• Resistencia Horizontal, inespecifica, poligenica, cuantitativa o de campo Esta resistencia es generada par genes menores ( r ) las cuales dan una resistencia mucho mas estable que los genes mayores ( R ). La accion conjunta de varios genes ofrecen un control potencial de la enfermedad otorgando no inmunidad frente al patogeno sino retrasando la enfermedad el tiempo suficiente para evitar que el cultivo colapse antes de cumplir su ciclo de vida; de esta manera no esta dirigida a detener el desarrollo de nuevas razas sino a reducir el dafio hecho por las ya existentes. Estos componentes de resistencia varian dependiendo del cultivar (Umaerus, 1970;Mont Koc, 1993;Harrison, 1995) .Segun Sarasola y Roca, (1975); y Abad, (1983); a esta resistencia se le atribuye las siguientes caracteristicas;-Resistencia a la penetracion del hongo -Resistencia al incremento del hongo y a la expansion de la lesion -Reduccion en la capacidad de esporulacionA pesar de que los fitomejoradores han logrado obtener variedades resistentes, los fungicidas siguen siendo un soporte indispensable en el• control de esta enfermedad ya que en condiciones muy favorables, el pat6geno tiende a romper la resistencia de estos cultivares (Jaramillo, 1980).El control qufmico consiste en el tratamiento de las enfermedades mediante el empleo de fungicidas que pueden actuar matando o paralizando el desarrollo del pat6geno, estos abarcan una gran gama de compuestos qufmicos, las cuales se diferencian segun su modo de acci6n; siendo algunos eficaces solo en el area de aplicaci6n del fungicida (de contacto) y otros de acci6n terapeutica ingresando al interior de la planta (sistemicos) (Gonzales, 1976;Mont Koc, 1993;Agrios, 1995).Son productos que al ser aplicados al follaje ingresan a los tejidos de la planta movilizandose en forma translaminar del haz al enves o viceversa y luego desde el punto donde cayeron hacia las partes superiores de la planta (movimiento acropetalo); penetran a traves de la cutfcula pasando a las vasos conductores y de allf par la savia a las diferentes partes de la planta; inhibiendo la esporulaci6n del pat6geno, germinaci6n y motilidad de las zoosporas, el crecimiento micelial y la producci6n de esporas y oosporas (Carmeli, 1988;Agrios, 1995;Tapia y Gamboa, 2000).A pesar de todas las ventajas expuestas anteriormente existen inconvenientes con el uso de este tipo de fungicidas debido a la resistencia por parte del pat6geno (por el uso excesivo y a la especificidad de estos productos); la acumulaci6n de residuos t6xicos en las partes cosechadas (por su persistencia en las plantas) y por sus altos costos de adquisici6n (Mantecon, 1984;Mont Koc, 1993;Fernandez-Northcote y Navfa, 1999).• Metal axil. Producto qui mi co de acci6n sistemica, persistente e hidrosoluble, el cual se transloca rapidamente desde las raices hacia las partes superiores de las plantas, ejerciendo una acci6n especffica e inhibitoria sabre la ARN Polimerasa del pat6geno, bloqueando la sintesis de proteinas y enzimas vitales para su• desarrollo y reproduccion . La penetracion y formacion de haustorios no son afectados ya que el producto solo ataca cuando el patogeno ha ingresado a la planta inhibiendo la esporulacion yen menor grade el crecimiento micelial (Cohen y Gissi, 1966; Agrios,   1995; Egan et al., 1995).• Cimoxanil. Acetamida perteneciente al grupo de los fungicidas sistemicos con movimiento translaminar y de poca persistencia en la planta, actuando sobre el AON del patogeno y en menor grade sobre la sfntesis de ARN; atacando tanto los esporangios y oosporas de patogeno que llegan a la planta como los que salen por el enves de la hojas (Cohen y Samoucha, 1989; Evenhuis et   al., 1996).Estes compuestos ejercen una accion preventiva en la planta actuando unicamente en el lugar donde ha sido aplicado inhibiendo la germinacion, penetracion de las esporas en la planta y tambien los esporangios que salen a traves de los estomas (Jaramillo, 1980). Bruck et al., (1981) observo la inhibicion de la germinacion de esporangios y el retardo de la expansion de la lesion en las plantas de papa en condiciones de laboratorio e invernadero incluso a concentraciones bajas de los fungicidas Mancozeb y Clorotalonil.Una vez que el patogeno ingresa al interior de los tejidos de la planta estos fungicidas son ineficaces (Henfling, 1987;Fernadez-Northcote y Navia, 1999;Tapia y Gamboa, 2000).Una buena cobertura de la planta por parte de estos fungicidas permitira una mayor eficiencia de los mismos sobre el patogeno, por ello se debe aplicar sobre el cultivo antes que aparezca la enfermedad en un total de 8 a 12 aplicaciones por campafia en afios normales; de 25 a 28 aplicaciones en campafias de mayor severidad (Aponte, 1988) y de 16 a 20 aplicaciones en zonas propicias para tiz6n segun Fernandez Northcote y Navfa, (2000).Debido a su baja tenacidad e incapacidad de penetrar en la hoja pueden ser lavados facilmente por las lluvias, por lo cual se sugiere aplicar en condiciones secas o con el empleo de adherentes (Tapia y Gamboa, 2000).+ Mancozeb. Compuesto azufrado de origen organico derivado del acido dithiocarbamico, es el mas eficaz y versatil de todo el grupo de las dithiocarbamatos usados en todo el mundo (Gonzales, 1976;Jauch, 1985).Su toxicidad esta relacionada par la acci6n del isotiocianato (producto de su metabolismo) inactivando las grupos sulfidrilos de las aminoacidos que form an las enzimas, inhibiendo la sf ntesis y funcionamiento de estos compuestos y par ende el crecimiento micelial y la germinaci6n de esporas (Mont Koc, 1993;Agrios, 1995); La adici6n de zinc disminuye la fitotoxicidad del Maneb y mejora sus propiedades fUngicas haciendolo menos contaminante, mas estable (parser poco propenso a la oxidaci6n atmosferica) y mas econ6mico sin desarrollar resistencia par parte de P. infestans (Jaramillo, 1979;Power et al., 1993).Segun Ortiz et al., (1999) Mancozeb es el producto quimico mas usado en Peru (69.2%); seguido de Metalaxil (42.3%) y Propineb (19.4%).• Antracol. Compuesto azufrado de origen organico, el cual se diferencia de Mancozeb par la presencia unica del metal zinc en su estructura quimica, tiene la misma acci6n que este ultimo frente a enzimas con grupos sulfidrilos y al no ser fitot6xicos puede utilizarse en cualquier etapa del desarrollo de la planta. Debido a su baja tenacidad pueden ser lavados par la lluvia, par lo cual no son convenientes para zonas muy tizoneras ya que se debe realizar • mas aplicaciones de este producto en intervalo de frecuencias mas cortos (Jauch, 1985;Mont Koc, 1993).A la fecha la acci6n sinergica entre fungicidas aumenta la acci6n antifungica y reduce la aplicaci6n de estos, siendo mas eficaces que cuando se usaban individualmente (Cohen y Samoucha, 1989;   French et al., 1994; Villaroel, 1996, Fernandez-Northcote et al.,   1999).Entre estos productos tenemos las de combinaci6n sistemica- El empleo de variedades con resistencia al pat6geno permiti6 dar una nueva orientaci6n al uso de fungicidas. Fry (1975)   El uso de microorganismos en el control fitopatol6gico es una nueva alternativa frente a la creciente preocupaci6n del uso excesivo de pesticidas (Bailey et al., 1997). 12° 05' 00\" del Ecuador 75° 57'00\" de Grennwich   Esta variedad proviene de un cruzamiento realizado en el Centro Internacional de la papa en Peru: Naranja x (Kathadin x Mantaro).Son plantas erguidas y compactas de tallo verde oscuro, hojas anchas verde claro ligeramente pubescente. Sus flares son de color lila claro y su floraci6n es escasa (Foto 2A).Presentan tuberculos redondos con ojos superficiales, su piel es de color amarilla palida con manchas rosadas alrededor de los ojos y su came es blanca cremosa (Foto 28). Sus brotes son de color rosado (Foto 2C).Se cultiva en toda la sierra hasta los 3600 m.s.n.m., en costa central ySur. Presenta un periodo vegetativo precoz (110 a 120 dfas), con tuberizaci6n temprana y estolones cortos.Son ligeramente tolerantes a Phytophthora infestans, P. erythroseptica y al nematodo del quiste ( G/obodera pa/Iida). Susceptible a virus, clima calido, heladas, sequfa y exceso de humedad (SEINPA-1994) . Son plantas grandes y erectas de tallo verde con pigmentaci6n morada y hojas verdes oscuras . Sus flares son de color azul celeste, con abundante floraci6n y escasa fructificaci6n (Foto 3A).Presentan tuberculos ovalados y aplanados, con ojos superficiales y piel de color blanca amarillenta con pigmentaci6n morada en cejas y ojos. Su came es blanca cremosa (Foto 38), y posee brotes de color morado (Foto 3C).Se cultiva en la sierra central y sur hasta las 3800 msnm asf coma tambien en la costa central y sur. Su perfodo vegetativo es semi tardfo (120 a 150 dfas) con tuberizaci6n tardia y rapida . Variedad obtenida en Holanda: Populaire x (Bravo x Alpha) .Son plantas medianas de tallo verde oscuro, hojas anchas verde oscuras (Foto 4A). Presentan tuberculos ovalados y oblongos con ojos profundos, piel de color rojizo con manchas amarillas bordeando los ojos y came de color amarillo claro (Fata 48).Se adapta a climas tropicales trios con noches menores a 15°C y presenta un periodo vegetative mayor de 120 dias.Son susceptibles a P. infestans y al virus PLRV (Area de germoplasma CIPno publicado) . Son plantas de tallos altos y medio delgados, ligeramente curvos con hojas verdes oscuras (Foto 5 A) y Flores de color lila claro. Presenta tuberculos redondos con ojos superficiales, piel de color amarilla con ojos rojo purpura y came de color crema con anillo vascular purpura (Foto 5 B).Se adapta a climas tropicales trios con noches frias menores a 15° C y presenta un periodo vegetativo rnenor de 90 dias. Siendo moderadarnente resistente a P. infestans y susceptible a mosca minadora (Area de germoplasma CIP-no publicado).       Se procedi6 segun el manual para trabajos en laboratorio con P. infestans (Forbes, 1997).Los aislamientos de P. infestans fueron recuperados de nitr6geno llquido y propagados en rodajas de papa.Para la propagaci6n se seleccion6 tuberculos de la variedad susceptible Huayro (sin presencia de sfntomas evidentes de alguna enfermedad). Estos fueron previamente lavados con abundante agua corriente y sumergidos en una soluci6n de hipoclorito de sodio (NaCl) al 1.5 % par 3 minutos y enjuagados dos o tres veces con agua desionizada.Luego se cortaron rodajas de aproximadamente 1 cm de ancho (las extremos de las tuberculos fueron descartados) y se colocaron sabre una malla de alambre plastificado dentro de una camara humeda (caja de plastico).Posteriormente se inocularon con una suspension de esporangios (20 µI) con la ayuda de un dispensador.Se coloco otra malla a 5 cm de distancia sabre las rodajas y se cubrieron con papel toalla. La camara fue cerrada hermeticamente e incubada a 18°C por siete dias bajo luz alterna.Para obtener el inoculo se lavo la superficie de las rodajas de papa y la suspension obtenida fue filtrada por unas membranas de nylon de 30 µm y 10 µm (los esporangios de P. infestans quedaron retenidos en esta membrana) colectando los esporangios en un vaso de precipitacion pequefio.Se observo una gota de la suspension obtenida en el microscopio optico para verificar la presencia de esporangios, preparandose luego la concentraci6n deseada para el experimento .Foliolos de papa de la variedad susceptible Revolucion fueron sumergidos en una solucion del fungicida de acuerdo a las concentraciones indicadas: 50%, 75% y 100% de la dosis comercial de Metalaxil + Mancozeb, Cimoxanil + Propineb, Mancozeb 80WP y Propineb 70% por separado (Tabla. 5), mas un control (agua destilada).Una vez embebidos en la soluci6n anterior se dejaron secar a temperatura ambiente y luego se colocaron con el enves hacia arriba en cajas petri (un foliolo por cada placa) conteniendo una delgada capa de agar agua al 1.5%(los foliolos se colocaron en la tapa de la placa).Los foliolos posteriormente fueron inoculados con 20 µI de una suspension de esporangios (3000 esporangios/ml) de los linajes US-1, EC-1 y la mezcla de ambos, en forma independiente.Las placas se incubaron en camaras de crecimiento a una temperatura de 18°C, con un periodo de dace horas de luz y dace horas de oscuridad. Luego  Al igual que en laboratorio, se emplearon tres in6culos: EC-1, US-1 y la mezcla de aislamientos de ambos linajes (Tabla 4 ) .Se utiliz6 el diseno completamente al azar con arreglo factorial; se emplearon 4 fungicidas, 1 control, 4 dosis de ingrediente activo, 3 in6culos y 5 repeticiones. En total se obtuvieron 300 unidades experimentales representadas por plantas sembradas en macetas de la variedad susceptible Revoluci6n (Fig. 3).• . *Las dosis 50%, 75% y 100% presentan un disefio estadistico semejante a la dosis 35% Fig. 3. Diseiio completamente al azar con arreglo factorial 3 x 4 x 5 x 5 para condiciones de invernaderoLos tuberculos previamente brotados fueron sembrados en macetas plasticas de 6 pulgadas y mantenidos en invernadero hasta que las plantas alcanzaron el tamano adecuado (60 cm) para llevar a cabo el ensayo.Despues de 45 dias las plantas fueron trasladadas al invernadero de inoculaci6n donde las condiciones de temperatura (18°C) y humedad (> 90%)fueron las adecuadas para el desarrollo de la enfermedad.Una vez preparadas las plantas en el invernadero; se procedi6 a aplicar el fungicida respectivo a las concentraciones establecidas previamente (Tabla.6), utilizando para ello un aspersor y dejando un tiempo de 15 minutos entre la aplicaci6n del fungicida y la inoculaci6n del pat6geno .Las suspensiones de esporangios (3000 esp/ml) obtenidas por la mezcla de los aislamientos de los linajes US-1, EC-1 y Mezcla (US-1 + EC-1) respectivamente (Tabla 4) fueron inoculadas por el metodo de aspersion. SeProcedi6 luego de 5 dlas a evaluar lo siguiente :-Eficiencia de infecci6n (E.I) Porcentaje de plantas enfermas de un total de total de plantas in6culadas por tratamiento -Grado de severidad (S) Porcentaje de la planta destruida referida a la planta en su totalidad (100%),obtenido por simple observaci6n (No se utiliz6 escalas ).   En la localidad de Mariscal Castilla la temperatura promedio fue de 14.9°C(11.6°C -20.5°C), un promedio de 12.2 horas con 90% de humedad y una cantidad de precipitaci6n total de 519.34 mm (Tabla 7) . La cobertura del suelo tambien se evalu6 con intervalos de cada cinco dias utilizando una grilla ( marco de madera de 0.8x 0.9 m con cuerdas dobles separadas verticalmente 2.5 cm para proveer un punto de alineaci6n suelo-follaje-grilla y entrecruzadas entre si formando grillas de 100 cm 2 (10 x10 cm) (Nicholson, 1991 ), la cual era colocada a una distancia de 20 cm de la planta. Este metodo esta basado en el numero de intersecciones (cuadrados) del marco que coinciden con el follaje verde y es expresado en porcentaje (%). (Burstall yHarris, 1983) (Foto 9). Al igual que en la evaluaci6n del para metro anterior los dates fueron tom ados de las 10 plantas ubicadas en los surcos centrales. Con los datos de severidad se determin6 el AUDPC (\"Area under disease progress curve\" 6 area debajo de la curva de progreso de la enfermedad), para obtener un solo dato util en la comparaci6n estadfstica. Su la unidad es \"proporci6n-dfas\" y para hallarlo se utiliz6 la siguiente formula (Fry, 1978 citado por Andrade, 2002) : A condiciones de invernadero se realiz6 el analisis de varianza y la prueba de Waller y Duncan (comparaci6n multiple de medias) con los datos de AUDPC (invernadero) y a condiciones de campo se evalu6 los resultados tanto de AUDPC coma de rendimiento; donde la comparaci6n multiple de medias se llev6 acabo a traves de la prueba de DLS (Diferencia significativa minima) con un nivel de significancia del 0.05% (Steel y Torrie, 1998).Todos los datos se hicieron con el Programa estadistico : SAS System for Window, Version 5.0.2195 creado por SAS Institute Inc. Carry N.C. USA (Ibanez, et. al. 1998)A nivel de laboratorio los cuatro fungicidas evaluados tanto a dosis comercial (100%) como a dosis reducidas (50% y 75% de la dosis comercial) demostraron un efectivo control frente a los linajes US-1 y EC-1 de Phytophthora infestans logrando un 100% de eficiencia; en relaci6n al control (foliolos tratados con agua destilada) mostr6 el mayor grade de infecci6n (88.88% y 100%).Los linajes correspondientes a US-1, EC-1 y mezcla (EC-1 + US-1) inoculados en las controles presentaron diferencias tanto en el periodo de latencia, eficiencia de infecci6n e intensidad de esporulaci6n (Tabla. 9).Los esporangios del linaje EC-1 y mezcla (US-1 + EC-1) aparecieron 12 horas antes que en el linaje US-1. Tanto EC-1 como la mezcla de ambos (US-1 + EC-1) presentaron una eficiencia de infecci6n del 100% a diferencia del 88.88% observado en el control inoculado con el linaje US-1. Sin embargo, la intensidad de esporulaci6n de este ultimo fue mucho mas alta comparada con el linaje EC-1 y la mezcla (EC-1 + US-1 ).En la Fig. 6 se puede observar que el linaje EC-1 y mezcla (EC1 + US1) fueron mas agresivos que el linaje US-1, puesto que al octavo dfa despues de la inoculaci6n los dos primeros habfan ocasionado entre un 94.2 y 91 .2 % de• necrosis foliar respectivamente a comparaci6n de US-1 que logr6 un 74.9% de necrosis. De esta manera el tiempo en que EC-1 y mezcla lograron el 100% de necrosis foliar fue mas rapido que el tiempo requerido por US-1.Tabla. 9. Periodo de latencia, eficiencia de infecci6n e intensidad de esporulaci6n de los linajes US-1, EC-1 y mezcla (US-1 + EC-1) no tratados con fungicidas Los in6culos del linaje EC-1 y mezcla (US-1 + EC-1) mostraron un 100% de eficiencia de infecci6n en el control a comparaci6n del linaje US-1 en el que solo se obtuvo un 30% de efectividad (Fig. 7), dificultando la obtenci6n de una informaci6n adecuada al momenta de evaluar la acci6n de las diferentes dosis de los fungicidas en este linaje, ya que no se podrfa asegurar si realmente los fungicidas estan cumpliendo su acci6n frente a pat6geno o los datos estarf an influenciados por el poco porcentaje de infecci6n como lo demuestra el control. Por lo tanto las evaluaciones para el analisis estadfstico no tuvieron en cuenta el linaje US-1, por lo que se trabaj6 solo con los datos obtenidos de las evaluaciones del linaje EC-1 y mezcla (EC-1 + US-1 ).•o 120 ~------------~•;::;•;::;. Eficiencia de infecci6n de los linajes EC-1, US-1 y mezcla (EC-1 + US-1) en el control en condiciones de invernadero 2.2 Severidad de la enfermedad Los fungicidas empleados tanto a 100% como a dosis reducidas tuvieron un eficiente control de la enfermedad mostrando valores bajos de AUDPC (Fig . 8), a comparaci6n del testigo que present6 los valores mas altos en este ensayo.Las diferencias entre los tratamientos y el testigo fueron estadfsticamente significativas con un coeficiente de variaci6n de 18.60 (Anexo 3 y 4 ); llevandose a cabo la comparaci6n multiple de medias de acuerdo con la prueba de Waller y Duncan (Ibanez, et. al. 1998).Los tratamientos con Propineb 70 WP al 35% y 50% (dosis reducidas)presentaron un mayor AUDPC (41.75 y 20.50) respectivamente; mientras los tratamientos con Cimoxanil + Propineb (35%, 50%,75% y 100% de la dosis comercial), y Mancozeb 80 WP (100% ,75% y 50%) demostraron mayor efectividad frente a Phytophthora infestans (Fig. 8).Los datos obtenidos determinaron que Cimoxanil + Propineb serfa el fungicida de elecci6n en el ensayo de campo seguido de Mancozeb 80 WP. Sin embargo, debido a los altos costos del primero ($20.08/kg), se trabaj6 con Mancozeb 80 WP cuyo precio es casi tres veces menor ($7.05/kg), ademas se tuvo en consideraci6n que no existi6 diferencias significativas en la eficienciencia frente a P. infestans entre ambos fungicidas, de acuerdo a los ensayos de laboratorio e invernadero.  En la variedad Cruza 148 y el clon 386209.10 (considerados como moderadamente resistentes) se observ6 una ligera diferencia en el porcentaje de infecci6n entre los tratamientos (3.4% y 2.8% respectivamente), aun asf la infecci6n fue menor (con una diferencia de 18.5% y 32.8%) a comparaci6n del control (Fig. 9 Cy D).Las variedades susceptibles Pimpernel y Tomasa presentaron los niveles mas altos de infecci6n tanto en el control como entre los tratamientos (Foto 10); a los 93 dfas despues de la siembra la variedad Tomasa mostr6 un 100% de infecci6n en todos los tratamientos a diferencia de Pimpernel! que mostr6 de 88.33% en el mismo periodo de tiempo (Fig. 9 E y F) .      Los valores con la misma letra no son estadisticamente diferentes de acuerdo a la prueba de DLS para la comparaci6n multiple de medias .   (1987). Sin embargo, bajo las condiciones anteriores todos los fungicidas evaluados tanto a dosis reducidas coma dosis comercial demostraron un efectivo control de P. infestans, en consecuencia este metodo no fue adecuado para evaluar la eficiencia de estos productos, debido posiblemente a la cantidad elevada de fungicidas que recibi6 cada foliolo (entre 3 g/I y 1 g/I) en comparaci6n de las cantidades bajas (5 ug/ml, 100 ug/ml) que utilizan otros investigadores en este tipo de ensayos (Holmes y Channon, 1984;Sozzi y Staub, 1987;Power et. al. 1993), otro inconveniente fue dado par la ausencia de factores que normalmente ocurren en el campo afectando la acci6n del fungicida coma son la precipitaci6n y la presi6n del pat6geno.,• (Bazan de Segura, 1968; Fernandez-Northcote y Navia, 1998;Tapia y Gamboa, 2000).En condiciones de laboratorio e invernadero el linaje EC-1 fue mas agresivo que el linaje US-1 tanto en el periodo de latencia como en la eficiencia de infecci6n. Esto concuerda con lo realizado por Andrade (2000), quien evalu6 aislamientos del linaje EC-1, que mostraron periodos de latencia de 79 horas.Asimismo Crosier (1934)  La relaci6n inversamente proporcional dada entre la severidad y la cobertura en los diferentes cultivos utilizados coincide con Juarez (2002) quien realiz6 estudios con dos variedades de papa Yungay y Amarilis evaluando el efecto de la frecuencia de aplicaci6n del fungicida Clorotalonil y diferentes niveles de fertilizaci6n de nitr6geno en la severidad y la cobertura, observando en ambos cultivos que conforme aumentaba la severidad el porcentaje de cobertura present6 un comportamiento contrario. Asf mismo al aumentar cobertura la planta presentaba un bajo porcentaje de infecci6n, y esta ultima era mas notoria cuanto mas resistente era el cultivo utilizado.De esta manera la dosis de aplicaci6n para controlar la enfermedad esta en funci6n de la resistencia de la variedad o clon con la cual se trabaje (Bain, 1996;Evenhuis et al. 1996) .  • Camara de flujo laminar marca EAC; serie N°9229.• Camara incubadora a 18°C y 92% de humedad.• Camara de eliminaci6n de productos t6xicos; marca LOADSA-lngenieros; modelo REC-30P3; serie N° 0-49.• Filtro MILLIPORE, catalogo N° XX1104700 con membranas de Nylon de 10um y 30 um; catalogo 146506, 146514.• Microscopio OLYMPUS CH-2; modelo CHT; N° OG0189; ocular CWHK 1 Ox/18L; objetivo 1 Ox (0.25-160/-) .   ","tokenCount":"6754"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"5a39ce85d61256ce5c0be330e00aa927","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/968736ad-fbf9-401b-a078-90e98b477553/retrieve","id":"-1665258693"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"ace8ece4-aaa0-4e06-b065-81fba09ab4c5","pagecount":"21","content":"Improving the lives of millions of poor women and men requires healthy ecosystems that support sustainable agricultural development, human well-being and resilient food systems. Many agricultural and pastoral ecosystems, however, have reached or exceeded sustainability thresholds. Rapidly increasing and competing demands for abundant clean water, fertile soils, energy, and other ecosystem services will further accelerate deterioration of the resource base. Significant drivers of change, including rural to urban migration, and extensive land acquisition and resource extraction, will also have long-term, multi-scale impacts on ecosystems. In short, the world is sacrificing the ecological basis upon which food production systems depend, thereby undermining development goals, livelihoods, food security and economic growth.The ). WLE uses an ecosystem service-based approach which emphasizes that people, particularly rural communities, are central to ecosystem services. WLE adds value to the CGIAR Research Programs by providing the evidence base to highlight synergies and negotiate critical trade-offs in landscape-and basin-scale ecosystem-based investments.WLE works with partners on the ground to establish equitable and lasting solutions that promote shared prosperity and human well-being. The program targets specific clients -governments, private sector and regional bodies -charged with making large-scale decisions on resource use and allocations. A long-term investment in WLE advances five interrelated Intermediate Development Outcomes (IDOs) and contributes to the CGIAR System-Level Outcomes (SLOs). Key outcomes to be achieved by WLE by 2017 and in 2025 are provided in Figure 1. Additional details are provided in the Work plan section of this document. These targets will be refined and detailed indicators will be developed through WLE's involvement in the collaborative efforts of CGIAR SLO/IDO Working Groups to develop IDO targets and indicators in June and July 2014. Final targets will be approved by the end of 2014. In WLE regions o 4 key national/regional large-scale investment decisions informed by WLE decision analysis and decision support tools, data, models o Substantive capacity improvements for ecosystem-based decision-makingincluding ecosystems decision analysis and risk assessment -at regional, national and subnational levels developed in 10 partner regional/national partner institutions o At least 6 decision-making analysis tools for improving decisions with ecosystem-based approaches have been tested/pilotedIncreased ability of low-income communities to adapt to environmental and economic variability, demographic shifts, shocks and long-term changesIncreased resilience of communities through enhanced ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes A transition to sustainable agricultural systems requires decision makers at all levelsfrom local to international -to make complex choices among competing uses of, and management strategies for, water, land, ecosystem services, energy and other resources across scales. To achieve its long-term development outcomes, WLE is investing in impact pathways within and across priority regions and at the global level. As shown in Figure 2, WLE supports public, non-profit and private sector decision makers at all levels by: (a) prioritizing their research needs; (b) engaging them in multi-stakeholder platforms that support joint learning and transparent decision making; and (c) jointly developing and applying decision-support tools, data and models. These tools help decision makers and broader stakeholder groups to understand upstream-downstream and transboundary benefits, losses and trade-offs.WLE recognizes that many decision-makers have limited knowledge and capacity to analyze, understand and invest effectively across scales and across institutions in ecosystem service-based strategies. Given that these capacity constraints will likely impede progress towards IDOs and the post-2015 SDGs, WLE's impact pathways incorporate capacity strengthening. This targeted capacity building will expand capabilities to embed complex ecosystem processes and service valuation into future decisions and investments. WLE's flagship on decision analysis and information systems will be critical in these efforts to combine expert knowledge with available data and integrated information systems.WLE's theory of change recognizes that transforming agricultural investments at scale is complex and dynamic, inherently political and frequently contentious. In this decision arena, traditional linear research pathways that deliver technical outputs alone are not effective. WLE's theory of change framework draws from the theories of complex adaptive systems and innovation systems to emphasize interdisciplinary problem-solving within development processes. This is supported by the program's learning and adaptive management approach. To guarantee results, WLE measures performance and integrates feedback mechanisms to improve engagement with research users, design and implementation of research, and capacity strengthening. By the end of 2014, WLE will finalize key regional and global impact pathways, which will form the heart of the program's Results-Based Management (RBM) accountability framework. On this basis, WLE will pilot RBM in 2015 with a focus on measuring progress in relation to impact pathway targets and milestones to demonstrate the contribution to IDOs.WLE's newest flagship, IES, leads the program's national and region/basin-level impact pathways. These impact pathways are grounded in the political economies of selected countries/regions and align WLE research towards addressing large-scale agricultural development issues. In these regions, WLE works primarily with change agents who can re-frame large-scale investments. In 2013, WLE conducted systematic diagnostics of development challenges in regions, in order to prioritize entry points in existing political/economic processes that WLE's sustainability agenda could best support.Building on this foundation, in 2014, the IES flagship will finalize national/regional targets, indicators and theories of change jointly with development partners. The flagships will also integrate research and core themes to achieve these targets. Within this context, national targets under Sustainable Investment Goals (SDG) will provide a framework for WLE to support the monitoring and achievement of national partners' SDG targets.At the global level, WLE's theory of change seeks to bring ecosystem services to the forefront of the global development agenda through three key interrelated avenues. First, by intensifying and leveraging its role in global platforms on biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainable development; for example, WLE's engagement in Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services' (IPBES) will grow over the next few years through field-based collaboration to assess ecosystem services. Second, WLE flagships and core themes will bring essential analyses and solutions, which address priority global risks, to these global platforms and partners. Third, WLE aims to make a significant contribution to SDGs by providing analyses of trade-offs among options that optimize achievement of multiple goals without jeopardizing individual objectives. WLE's expertise is particularly well aligned to the emerging focus areas on ecosystems and biodiversity of the SDGs 4 (in particular, enhancing ecosystem resilience, addressing land degradation and soil erosion, and mitigating the effects of desertification and drought); gender equality and women's empowerment; water and sanitation; and sustainable agriculture, food security and nutrition.As detailed in the annual reports, WLE has advanced its outcome-oriented research portfolio in spite of two critical challenges faced by the program: (i) selected inherited projects were not designed within an outcome-oriented framework; and (ii) there was a shortfall in Windows 1 funding in 2013, which delayed initiation of WLE's flagship. Looking towards 2017 and beyond, WLE's goal of placing ecosystems at the core of sustainable development investments requires significant long-term investments and partner engagement along the entire impact pathway. This is a necessity in order to prove the viability of this alternative development path and to also realize impact at all levels. Uncertainties surrounding the future of CGIAR Research Programs and/or funding discontinuities may disrupt financing along impact pathways and financial commitments made to partners, which would jeopardize the progress made by WLE towards achieving outcomes. In addition, many countries, where WLE supports decision making, are experiencing rapid changes that have profound impacts on water, land and ecosystems. These changes and their projected impacts will be assessed by WLE in 2015 to ensure that the program is well positioned to address the most critical development priorities with the most relevant partners, and to determine the need for further analysis and/or programmatic adjustments.By 2015, WLE will evolve its SRPs into Flagship Projects and crosscutting Core Themes of Gender, Poverty and Institutions, and Ecosystem Services and Resilience (ESS&R), as shown in Figure 3. The important elements of this evolution in WLE's structure include: integration across the irrigated-rainfed continuum in agroecosystems and landscapes; integration of ecosystem service approaches across the program portfolio; definition and inclusion of gender-specific research and targets under each flagship; further alignment of flagships with WLE IDOs and the SDGs; and the introduction of the regional flagship: IES. Efforts to ensure food security and increase agricultural productivity are threatening the resilience of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in many countries. The objective of the LWP flagship is to develop technical, managerial and institutional solutions for managing water and land that: (i) improve productivity in smallholder agricultural systems and in large-scale public irrigation systems; (ii) increase incomes and equitable benefits to women and resource-poor farmers; and (iii) enhance resilience of ecosystems services, including biodiversity and fisheries, and limit negative externalities, e.g., loss of downstream aquatic ecosystems. Solutions include innovations in soil, water and nutrient management; strengthening the role of small-scale farmers in input and output market chains; and reforming existing irrigation system management.LWP fosters impact through outcome-oriented, action research that delivers: (i) science-based research and mapping methodologies to identify and target promising agricultural land and water management solutions for specific ecosystem, social and economic contexts; (ii) assessments of suitability and potential return on investments of various options (e.g., business models for smallholder irrigation; and management, financial and institutional reforms of large-scale irrigation systems) that improve sustainable land and water productivity; and (iii) impact analyses and monitoring frameworks to understand the potential impacts on social structures, and ecosystem services and institutional capacity to manage potential trade-offs.LWP's theory of change (TOC) is founded on the growing demand for effective, scalable and sustainable approaches to agricultural land and water management, and revitalization of irrigation systems from the LWP flagship's development partners: African Development Bank (AfDB), Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), CARE International, iDE, Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), national and regional policy and decision makers, universities and the private sector.The objective of the RDE flagship is to support decision makers to invest in and rebuild ecosystem services from degraded landscapes, which include areas that are strongly eroded, have depleted soil fertility and/or have salinized soils. Responding to the emerging global agenda calling for a 'landdegradation neutral world' (Rio+20), national agendas of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and anticipated SDG targets on land degradation, RDE research aims to restore ecosystem health and services in degraded irrigated, rainfed and pastoral landscapes. RDE further seeks to understand the gendered use of landscapes, and how WLE solutions could benefit smallholder women and men farmers. for investment in natural resources, as well as tools for monitoring of progress towards rehabilitation and resilience. RDE responds to the needs of these investors through research that reveals spatial, temporal and socioeconomic distribution of land management costs, benefits and trade-offs to balance gaps between private and social interest, short-and long-term goals, and on-and off-site impacts. RDE research focuses on: (i) economic valuation, diagnosis and monitoring of land degradation and ecosystem services; (ii) innovative technologies and incentive mechanisms that address constraints to sustainable natural resource management and women's access to resources; and (iii) assessing changes in benchmark sites that serve as 'proof of concept' models for development investors to scale up solutions in other landscapes and basins. RDE further aims to inform the global agenda on land degradation through partnership with the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Global Soil Forum (GSF), Global Environment Facility (GEF), Economics of Land Degradation (ELD), the new international World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT), and conservation nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) (The Nature Conservancy [TNC], International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] and Ecoagriculture Partners).Rapid urbanization in many countries in Africa and Asia is creating major challenges, including increasing numbers of poor at the margins of cities, increasing competition for water, land and energy, and negatively impacted ecosystem service flows. Urbanization also offers new market opportunities that maximize valuable resource flows (e.g., nutrients, water and energy). The objective of the RRR flagship is to capitalize on these opportunities, and reduce the negative urban footprint on ecosystems and human health through innovative market-driven investments in nutrient, water and energy recovery and reuse. RRR creates impact through two lines of outcome-oriented action research: (i) Develop scalable business models that bridge the sanitation and agricultural value chains, and ensure positive social benefits. Specific areas to be addressed include risk assessment, risk perceptions and risk mitigation; and (ii) Support public and private entities in the creation of innovative technologies, and the development of guidelines and policies for safe reuse.The theory of change for RRR is based on (i) the expressed demand of municipalities and investors, including the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) of the World Bank, Gates Foundation, USAID, ADB and AfDB, for innovative business approaches and investment briefs to address waste and resource recovery challenges; and (ii) strategic partnerships around the globe with innovative entrepreneurs and technical competence centers (including the Department of Water and Sanitation in Development Countries [Sandec] at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology [Eawag] and WASTE) and global outreach partners (including the World Health Organization [WHO], FAO, UNEP and United Nations University [UNU]) to develop capacities and guidelines at scale; and with relevant national sector ministries, national institutions, and universities; and (iii) engagement in professional dialogue platforms, as offered, for example, by the International Water Association (IWA), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Sustainable Sanitation Alliance (SuSanA).The MRV flagship focuses on and across landscape and basin scales in WLE regions and globally. The objective of MRV is to assist decision makers to reconcile natural variability, competition among sectors and trade-offs, given the interconnectedness of water, land, energy and other ecosystem services, and the importance of equitably sharing these resources, their services and benefits. The theory of change for the priority action areas of MRV is: (i) mainstreaming the role of biodiversity, and a range of ecosystem services in sustainable agricultural production, into development programs. These services include non-marketed and less visible services such as water quality; (ii) managing the spatial and temporal variability of water to alleviate the negative impacts of floods and droughts on poor men and women. This will be achieved by working with investors and governments to enhance their understanding of, and improve their investments in, innovative structural and policy solutions for conjunctive flood-drought management in a basin-wide context; (iii) scaling up of successful benefitsharing mechanisms for socially and environmentally equitable allocation of water and ecosystem services; and (iv) reducing the costs of trade-offs across the water-food-energy nexus by developing tools, investments and case-specific solutions, and through policy dialogues, that reduce energy pressures and increase overall resource-use efficiency and sustainability. The theory of change is based on the demand for credible scientific information and policy advice from partners, including national basin authorities and national disaster management agencies, international basin organizations, FAO, UNEP, IUCN, World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), Conservation International (CI), Future Earth, and the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS).Development decision makers often struggle to design and implement interventions that meet multiple objectives of productivity, equity and resilience of socio-ecological systems, which is due, in part, to uncertain information and gaps in data. The objectives of the DAI flagship are to: (i) improve intervention decisions that enhance livelihoods and reduce risk while maintaining critical ecosystem services; (ii) improve learning on the performance of interventions through better metric frameworks and measurement methods; and (iii) strengthen the capacity of professionals deploying decision analysis and information systems tools. DAI's theory of change focuses on: (i) supporting participatory, integrated analysis of intervention decisions and risk assessment that emphasizes quantification of traditionally neglected areas (e.g., ecosystem services and social/gender impacts) through further developing a Bayesian Network analytic framework and toolset, supported by a probabilistic database, for combining uncertain data and expert knowledge; and (ii) contributing to shaping policies and programs at basin, national, subnational and international scales through: (a) scaling out cost-effective soil information systems that provide evidence for national and farm-level management decisions; (b) establishing a global water accounting platform that will provide water accounts on a monthly basis for major river basins of the world; and (c) implementation of a global information and knowledge facility for agro-biodiversity in support of agroecosystem health.WLE's IES flagship represents a significant evolution of the program towards effective IDO delivery. Initially focused in four regions (East Africa, West Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia), with additional regions planned 5 , the objectives of IES are to realize IDO targets and contribute to relevant SDG targets in each region. The IES theory of change is to (i) engage and align with public, civil society and private sector partners, in each region, who create or re-frame large-scale water, land and ecosystem investments or implementation strategies; (ii) integrate WLE research to assess the longterm impacts, risks and trade-offs of these large-scale investments and strategies (e.g., through spatial dynamic landscape modeling); (iii) strengthen the capacity of decision makers to effectively apply the knowledge, tools, data and models, and to develop context-specific solutions; and (iv) assess the long-term impacts of these investments and draw out lessons learned on effective modalities for investing in sustainable intensification in other locations.A recent external review of CPWF's ten-year initiative noted, \"there is clear evidence that CPWF's implementation principles and strategies were a key contributory factor in the program being able to translate research outputs into outcomes.\" Through IES, the proof-of-concepts developed by CPWF, CGIAR centers and partners in each region can be scaled up rapidly for further impact.In 2013, WLE made significant progress in the design of the IES flagship. WLE consulted stakeholders to diagnose development challenges and to define the opportunity space for WLE to support sustainable intensification of agriculture in each region. The program also established objectives and criteria (i.e., likelihood of contributing to WLE IDOs, degree of focus on gender, ecosystem services and partnerships) to fund IES initiatives.The research-for-development portfolio of IES will integrate other WLE flagship research to provide context-specific decision support in each region as follows:Nile/East Africa region: Support a sustainability agenda within existing and evolving processes, and investments, in the region to achieve green, resilient and equitable growth through: (i) negotiating trade-offs of planned infrastructure development; (ii) achieving sustainable land management in degradation hot spots; and (iii) strengthening equity and benefits to women and youth during sustainable intensification. Volta/Niger region: (i) Guide sustainable investments in land and water management in the rural north to ensure that farming remains attractive, and contributes to sustainable development and food security; and (ii) guide improved management of ecosystems under demographic pressure, and due to increasing demands on water, food and energy in the fragile north and in growing periurban landscapes of the south. Greater Mekong Subregion: WLE seeks to ensure that development investments and policies across three key issueswater and land, energy, and food and nutritionare sustainable, equitable, and meet national growth and poverty goals. Ganges region: Inform future developments in land, water and energy management through scientifically-defined environmental thresholds in the subregions (highlands, plains and delta).Ensuring that women and marginalized groups have decision-making power over, and increased benefits from, agriculture and natural resources is central to WLE's vision of sustainable agricultural intensification and IDOs. WLE created the Gender, Poverty and Institutions (GPI) Core Theme to drive this agenda through three interrelated avenues: Strategic gender research, integrating gender in WLE flagship outcomes and associated impact pathways, and gender transformative partnerships. WLE's 2013 Gender Strategy articulates the objectives, overarching impact pathway, and entry points for the program to achieve these objectives.WLE's strategic gender research provides analyses to identify where, when and how women influence common-pool resource use (water, land and ecosystems), and how WLE can enhance their role and decision making in this arena. This research guides WLE's investments by providing entry points to investable options for women, and by providing research and data to ensure equitable outcomes.The GPI Core Theme is led by a senior-level Gender Coordinator. The Coordinator is a full member of WLE's Management Committee and Operations Team, and leads the program's GPI Advisory Group. WLE allocates a minimum of 10% of the program's annual research budget (approximately USD 3.4 million in 2015 and 2016) for gender research, and an additional USD 1 million per year to the GPI portfolio for activities and staff costs. The proportion of gender-specific work will increase as the program evolves, particularly through regional investments by WLE's IES flagship and the program's Innovation Fund, which will allocate at least 10% of the budgets to gender research starting in 2014.WLE's Steering Committee is currently comprised of 27% female members; its Management Committee includes 31% female members; and its Operations Team includes 70% female members. WLE's lead center, IWMI, sets the program's human resource policies and operational plans. IWMI's initial successful initiatives towards gender balance will be intensified through its 'Gender in the workplace: Operational agenda'. It is expected that these efforts will result in positive recruitment, retention and career development of female staff in WLE. Key milestones in this Agenda include the following: By July 2014, IWMI will be actively engaged with the CGIAR Human Resources Community of Practice to integrate best practices and targets into the Institute's operational plan.By October 2014, IWMI will establish a gender and diversity performance monitoring committee. By December 2014, IWMI's Management Team will establish gender and diversity initiatives and targets for change, with an action plan agreed by January 2015 and implementation initiated in February 2015. WLE partners with agricultural development donors in order to position ecosystems within the core of their investments. WLE's work with IFAD, for example, includes the Improved Management of Agricultural Water in Eastern and Southern Africa (IMAWESA) program that builds capacity of national agencies and development partners in agricultural water management. WLE also builds on the IFAD-CPWF partnership to strengthen the evidence base in IFAD's water management projects and in national policies in countries where IFAD works. An example of these efforts is strengthening the evidence base for project design and capacity strengthening of the Laos Policy Think Tank in the Mekong.WLE recognizes the critical role of the private sector in unlocking private capital and accelerating market-driven ecosystem-based solutions to poverty. These partnerships include the RRR flagship engagement with entrepreneurs, public-private partnerships (PPPs), business schools, investment banks and the private sector as next-step users of research outputs in resource recovery and reuse. WLE will also scale out PPPs, for example, the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) in East Africa, a multi-stakeholder PPP, for rapid agricultural development. WLE will further strengthen effective CPWF collaborations, for example, with hydropower companies in the Mekong region working on the water-food-energy nexus. These collaborations include partnering with the Theun Hinboun Power Company (THPC) to improve household nutrition in relocation sites of the Theun Hinboun Expansion Project.WLE also partners with ecosystem services and conservation organizations, including the Natural Capital Project, a joint effort of Stanford University, TNC, WWF and the University of Minnesota, to pioneer ecosystem service valuation and decision models. Partnerships with conservation organizations include an active and growing partnership with TNC based on the mutual objective of uniting equitable prosperity and conservation. At both global and regional levels, joint initiatives include collaboration in East Africa to \"Find Smart Planning Solutions in SAGCOT\" and \"make ecosystem services count in the SDGs\" through Science for Nature and People projects. By 2015, WLE and TNC will determine specific TNC roles in relation to governance and/or management structure to strengthen WLE. Partners in management and governance: The recent review of the governance and management of CGIAR Research Programs, carried out by the Independent Evaluation Arrangement (IEA) of CGIAR, noted that WLE was highly rated for independence and inclusiveness of its governance structure. The report noted that WLE already complies with virtually all of the recommendations related to the CGIAR Research Programs that have been endorsed by the Consortium Board. The report noted, in particular, that WLE has a very effective \"independent and balanced governance body\" with \"high external participation.\"Ecosystem services follow natural -rather than political, sectoral or economicboundaries. Therefore, achieving WLE goals requires strong collaboration not only with international, national and sub-national partners, but also with regional partners that span transnational and trans-jurisdictional boundaries. WLE builds on partnerships established by CPWF and CGIAR centers, and also catalyzes new regional collaborations. WLE's newest flagship (IES) and the program's regional coordinators take the lead in defining regional impact pathways, which specify the roles and budget for each partner and address partners' capacity needs. Strategic regional collaborations include the following:Significantly improved global awareness of the role of healthy ecosystems to achieve CGIAR SLOs At least 18 global initiatives, conventions, frameworks or key decision makers/investors use WLE achievements in investmentsIn WLE regions 10 key national/regional large-scale investment decisions informed by WLE decision analysis and support tools, data, or models, resulting in increased returns on investments, gender equity and improved ecosystems services Substantive improvements in capacity for ecosystem-based decision-making, including ecosystems decision analysis and risk assessment capacity developed in 100 regional/national partners Development investments in hydropower, agricultural growth and green growth strategies, valued at more than USD 50 million have been informed by WLE research, resulting in a 20% improvement over baseline scenarios in sustainability, social inclusion, and greater resilience of ecosystems and their servicesAt least 3 global initiatives, conventions, frameworks, targets and/or indicators use WLE recommendations, inclusive of recommendations related to gender, within investments in agricultural/poverty reduction, including: o SDGs targets and indicators that seek to improve the capacity of agricultural landscapes to provide or support ecosystem services o IPBES frameworks include methodologies for evaluating the ecosystem services of agricultural landscapes At least 5 key global decision makers are committed to investing in ecosystem-based approaches to improve food security and reduce poverty4 key national/regional large-scale investment decisions informed by WLE decision analysis and support tools, data, and models Substantive improvements in capacity for ecosystem-based decision-making, including ecosystems decision analysis and risk assessment, at regional, national and sub-national levels developed in 10 regional/national partner institutions At least 6 decision-making analysis tools for improving decisions with ecosystem-based approaches have been tested/piloted funding to be received during the extension phase is expected to be USD 163 million compared to the budgeted value of USD 80 million. This brings the total budget for phase 1 of the program to USD 323 million from 2012 to 2016. Authorization will be required to spend this additional USD 77 million.Budgets will be allocated to the new WLE flagships and their associated activity clusters, as described in this proposal. Funds are also allocated to the management and governance of the program as well as for investment in the core themes of Ecosystem Services and Resilience, and Gender, Poverty and Institutions, and providing support to the leadership of flagships through WLE's 'Program Management and Coordination' (PMEC) budget. WLE's Gender Strategy sets out a minimum target of 10% of the program's annual budget to be allocated for gender-specific research; during the extension phase, the program aims to increase this proportion to at least 12% and 13% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Budgets for each flagship and the estimated allocation of these budgets for genderspecific research are shown in Table 2. These budgets and proportions may be adjusted as the details of activities under each cluster are developed further. The CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE) combines the resources of 11 CGIAR centers, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and numerous national, regional and international partners to provide an integrated approach to natural resource management research. WLE promotes a new approach to sustainable intensification in which a healthy functioning ecosystem is seen as a prerequisite to agricultural development, resilience of food systems and human wellbeing. This program is led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and is supported by CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food secure future.","tokenCount":"4610"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"cbb2ff51dc79a38562b57a55cb7eaad7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/3c3ce524-346d-4184-9851-19aaf9f63919/retrieve","id":"-680528795"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c6fb3b19-2a69-4859-8fe4-552bce31af63","pagecount":"66","content":"Herramientas de apoyo a la toma de decisiones de acuerdo a la resistencia genética de las variedades de papaTiempo transcurrido desde la última aplicación Posibilidades de control de acuerdo a sumatoria de factores predeterminados Hospedante Pérez, W.; Orrego, R.; Ortiz, O.; Forbes, G. A. y J. Andrade-Piedra. 2014. Herramienta de apoyo a la toma de decisiones para el manejo del tizón tardío diseñada para el uso de agricultores de subsistencia.      -Aplicación de fungicidas.-Hay evidencias en niveles de resistencia entre variedades.Roña -Ciclo de la enfermedad -Rotación de cultivos de 3 a 10 años.-Uso de semilla sana.-Siembra en terrenos bien drenados.-El uso de T. harzianum, Mikorhyze y viruta de pino redujeron la incidencia roña en raíces de a menos de 5,10% (Restrepo et. al, 2009).-Fluazinam y Mancozeb fueron efectivos en el control de roña en tratamientos a la semilla (Fallon et al., 1996).W. PérezReportada en Asia, África, Europa, Oceanía, Norteamérica, y Sudamérica (EPPO, 2006;Franc, 2007). Los tumores se incrementan de tamaño a expensas de los tubérculos resultando en perdidas de rendimiento en el rango de 50-100 % (Hampson 1993;Melnik,1998). Las agallas subterráneas son de color blanco a castaño, pero se vuelven negras conforme se van deteriorando.En la base de los tallos se observan crecimiento verrucosos o tumores (Wale, 2008;Hooker, 1981) ","tokenCount":"208"}

data/part_3/0322979285.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"4cd4c9c00fc278b525dc4d7722a91688","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/285484b5-2b75-4081-9565-f7382eedfa3e/retrieve","id":"-1210904822"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"adc8ca8b-6e86-4c2e-87af-cd570a205365","pagecount":"40","content":"This study was conducted under the COVID-19 Hub which is supported by contributors to the CGIAR Trust Fund. We acknowledge the critical support to data collection provided by the following survey team members: Henry Chemjor, Ian Mahinda, Martin Mureithi, Perpetual Nkirote, Shadrack Omondi, Silas Ochieng and Nicholas Outa. We are also thankful to all people who participated in the survey.Potato and fish value chains in Kenya have been severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place by the government to contain it. In Kenya, as in many other countries, lockdowns, curfews, travel restrictions and other restrictive measures were introduced in March 2020, soon after the outbreak of the pandemic. Over time many of these restrictions have be removed, relaxed, reintroduced or strengthen in an attempt to achieve a balance between public health and economic priorities under changing circumstances. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya have been reported among the ones which have been most severely impacted by these restrictions worldwide. This study aimed to assess the impact of the pandemic and investigate the short-and longer-term responses and pivoting strategies deployed by actors in the midstream of the fish and potato value chains in face of COVID-19 restrictions, with a focus on traders and processors.This study utilized longitudinal data collected from traders and processors located in counties which were purposively selected to represent key production and consumption areas in the two value chains. Data were collected from 518 and 419 actors in the potato and fish chain, respectively, resulting in a total sample size of 937 respondents.The main results can be summarized as follow:• Most businesses survived the disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the government of Kenya to limit its spread: at least 15% of businesses in the potato value chain stopped operations during July 2020, with wholesalers most heavily affected, but almost all businesses were operational again in 2021. In the fish value chain, there was no significant change in the number of operating businesses over the observed period.• In 2020, both the number of days per week in which the businesses operate and the average volume handled on a single day showed a dramatic decline in both value chains. The resulting average drop in volumes handled per week was about 70% compared to 2019 levels for actors in the potato value chain, and about 40% for the ones in the fish value chain. For potato actors, a partial recovery was observed in 2021, with weekly volumes rising to about half of the 2019 level. For fish actors, weekly volume declined further in 2021.• Change in prices followed very different trajectories in the two value chains.Potato purchasing prices fell sharply in 2020 relative to 2019, with small traders and wholesalers experiencing the largest drop (33%), suggesting that lower prices at source were not passed on entirely to buyers, perhaps as a result of elevated costs of doing business, particularly related to transport. Prices recovered somewhat in 2021 relative to 2020 but were still well below 2019 rates. Unlike potato, purchasing prices for fish increased sharply in 2020 relative to 2019, with wholesalers experiencing the largest increase (27%), and were even higher in 2021. Fish producers appear not to have benefited that much from higher prices received by midstream actors, possibly due to higher costs of doing business, including higher transport costs. These results suggest that producers were more affected by declining prices (of potatoes), or benefitted less from increasing prices (of fish) than actors further down the chain. The divergent pattern in prices for the two sets of commodities may be explained by differences in seasonality, and by differences in COVID-19 containment measures affecting their respective value chains. The sharp drop in potato prices is likely linked to the coincidence of a seasonal peak in supply that occurs around July, coupled with a combination of more limited market access due to transport and mobility restrictions, and lower consumer demand linked to these restrictions and their income effects. In contrast, in the case of fish, the disruption of both fishing activities and imports of fish from China and Uganda likely contributed to constrained supply, even relative to lower demand, pushing up average fish prices.• In both value chains, despite some variation across value chain nodes and by year, a general trend toward greater concentration was observed in the wake of COVID-19, as compared to the period prior to the pandemic. This might be explained by larger actors possessing advantages (e.g., higher working capital, more diverse supply networks, greater access to transport and digital platforms). which could take on increased significance under a shock like COVID-19, affording businesses in possession of them greater resilience and allowing them to capture a larger market share, even if the total volume of sales made by each business declined. The highest increase in market concentration was observed among potato processors and small fish traders.• In both value chains, there was a tendency for the small traders and wholesalers based in production areas to sell a larger proportion of their products locally (i.e., within the same county) in 2020, as compared to 2019, with the share of product sold locally rising approximately 15% to 30%, suggesting that transport restrictions impacted the ability to access more distant markets.• Actors in all nodes of both value chains consistently reported that accessing transport became more difficult and more expensive in 2020 compared to 2019. The situation improved in 2021 but transport remained less accessible and affordable than prior to the pandemic. This also resulted in a tendency towards using smaller vehicles, consistent with the lower volumes of goods traded, more localized sales, and perhaps more limited access to larger trucks.• Since the emergence of COVID-19, many value chain actors in both chains have pivoted towards an increased use of informal agreements and formal contracts for their business transactions. Their use remains more widespread in the fish than the potato value chain. Short-and medium-term storage has also shown a sharp increase following the onset of the pandemic.• Over the last two years, as response to the pandemic, there was also a significant increase in the use of ICT tools and social media platforms for searching and engaging with business partners, and for processing payments. While this was observed in both chains, their use is still much more frequent in the fish value chain.• With the exception of increased storage, which was primarily a short-term strategy in face of the difficulty to access the market, the vast majority of businesses which have started or increased the adoption of these practices in response to COVID-19 restrictions, indicate that they will continue using them once the pandemic ends. This will likely contribute to enhanced resilience to future supply/demand shocks in both value chains.• In both potato and fish value chains, over 90% of respondents changed their business working hours and almost 40% transported their products over a different or longer route to avoid curfew or travel restrictions. About 70% reduced the number of permanent or seasonal employees in the fish chain, and almost 40% in the potato one. A similar pattern was found with regard to reduction of their salary (60% and 30%, respectively). These results suggest the need to reduce workforce costs in face of smaller business turnover, but also likely challenges in accessing labor.• Mobilization of own savings and assets, and increased use of credit, including value chain financing, for maintaining business operations were far more common in the fish than the potato value chain. We speculate that the higher predisposition to offer and receive cash credit or value chain financing can be explained by underlying long-term relationships and trust within fish value chains, which trade year-round, as compared to the highly seasonal spot market that dominates potato purchases. Another explanation might relate to the characteristics of the primary production, where fishing activities require continual outlay on daily operating costs (e.g., fuel, labor), as compared to faming where costs tend to be lower and concentrated particularly around planting and harvesting time.Potato and fish value chains in Kenya have been severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place by the government to contain it. In Kenya, as in many other countries, lockdowns, curfews, travel restrictions and other restrictive measures were introduced in March 2020, soon after the outbreak of the pandemic. Over time many of these restrictions have be removed, relaxed, reintroduced or strengthen in an attempt to achieve a balance between public health and economic priorities under changing circumstances. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kenya have been reported among the ones which have been most severely impacted by these restrictions worldwide (Nordhagen et al, 2021). Béné et al. (2016) have shown that the impact of a shock depends on both the actor's resilience capacity and the responses they put in place. This study was conducted to assess the impact of the pandemic and investigate the responses deployed by actors in the midstream of the fish and potato value chains, with a focus on traders and processors.Capacities for pivoting in response to shocks are highly heterogenous. Furthermore, Reardon et al. (2021) found that actors seldom act alone in their pivoting strategies but do so in complementary ways with other segments actors (co-pivoting). However, there is a paucity of empirical evidence in literature on how SMEs in Africa have pivoted and co-pivoted in response to the COVID-19 shock. Drawing on recently published theoretical work (Reardon et al, 2021) we address this gap in literature by looking for evidence of 'pivoting' and 'co-pivoting' behavior among potato and fish value chain actors during the COVID-19 pandemic. We seek to understand differences and commonalities in pivoting strategies deployed by firms across the target value chains, and among different types of business (larger-and smaller-scale SMEs) within each chain.Potato is the second most important food crop in Kenya after maize. It is grown largely for commercial purposes and most production is traded domestically over long distances through brokers and traders. There are over 200 companies that process potatoes, ranging from large-scale processors to cottage industries. However, due to the rapid emergence of modern outlets, import of processed products is on the rise. It is projected that 14% of the demand for crisps and 27% of ready-cut frozen chips will be met through imports by 2024 (Andayi, 2020). Nairobi alone has more than 800 restaurants selling chips.In Kenya, the fishery sector provides nutrient-rich food, jobs and income to a large population. Over 80% of supply comes from capture fisheries in Lake Victoria and is traded over long distances. In the lake, intensive fish culture using high-density polyethylene (HDPE) cages is growing rapidly. About a quarter of fish consumed in the country is imported and about 10% of the fish produced locally is exported (primarily as processed frozen fillets). Therefore, processing, logistics and cold storage SMEs play a critical role in the supply chain.Potatoes and fish are perishable commodities characterized by a mix of product forms (fresh, processed, frozen); large volumes of production for domestic markets, plus some imports and exports; bimodal distribution of firms (lots of small-scale producers and SMEs in production, processing and trade, as well as a few larger-scale businesses). This provides an ideal ground for investigating and comparing the diversity of pivoting and co-pivoting strategies (e.g., changes in procurement areas, type of suppliers or use of ICT tools) deployed by the actors to cope with (short-term) and adapt to (long-term/forward-looking) the changing circumstances brought by the pandemic; and how the characteristics of the actor and value chain might have facilitated or hindered the deployment of these strategies (e.g., size of operations, investment capacity, access to credit, portfolio diversity, etc.).Unpacking private sector responses contributes to filling important gaps in literature, which so far has mostly focused on the impact of the pandemic on the production (farm level) and consumption ends of the value chain.<Insert title, document type, e.g. DRAFT>This study utilized longitudinal data collected from actors in the potato and fish value chains located in selected counties of Kenya. The survey was conducted in August-September 2021 and focused on the trading and processing nodes of the value chain. Respondents were divided into 4 categories: (1) small traders (mostly itinerant traders and brokers who operate primarily in rural areas and procure directly from farmers and fisherfolk); (2) wholesalers (typically larger traders who are mainly located in urban settings, procure from other traders and sell across counties); (3) small processors; (4) medium/large processors. In the potato value chain, small processors were defined as having less than one ton of daily processing capacity. In the case of fish, small processors and medium/large processors were aggregated as only one medium-large processor was identified in the sample.The counties were purposively selected to represent three key production areas and two main consumption areas in the two value chains. For the potato value chain, the targeted production counties were Nakuru (2 nd largest potato producing county in Kenya), Meru (because of the presence of some small-scale irrigation -and, hence, off-season production -some large-scale potato farming and a few on-farm storage facilities) and Bomet (because uniquely characterized by widespread contract farming with large processors of potato crisps) (Figure 1). Additional details about these counties can be found in Annex A.For the fish value chain, the targeted production counties were Nakuru (the location of Lake Naivasha, an important capture fishery), Meru (an area with rapidly growing small-scale pond-based aquaculture) and Kisumu (a major hub for fish production and trade, as it borders Lake Victoria). For both potato and fish value chains, Nairobi and Mombasa were chosen, being the two largest cities and consumption centers (Figure 1). In the case of fish, Mombasa doubles as a major production county for marine fish species, and a gateway for imported frozen fish, mostly tilapia from China, while Kisumu is also an important consumption zone in addition to being a site of production.Survey respondents in these counties were identified and randomly selected from several lists. For potato actors, the lists included: list of officially registered wholesalers at county level, list of registered processors from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), list of small traders and informal processors from existing lists available with the National Potato Council of Kenya (NPCK). Actors in the fish value chain were located through lists available with the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI) and Maseno University (MU). During the interviews, respondents were given the opportunity to confirm or change the category to which they had been originally assigned. Data were collected from 518 and 419 actors in the potato and fish value chain, respectively, resulting in a total sample size of 937 respondents.Production zoneThe survey was designed to investigate the short-and longer-term responses and pivoting strategies deployed by these actors in face of COVID-19 restrictions. This required identifying three periods of time: (1) representing the situation prior to the pandemic;(2) characterized by high level of government-imposed restrictions and short-term coping strategies by value chain actors; and (3) characterized by restrictions still largely in place and emergence of longer-term adaptation to the pandemic.The Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker 1 was used to identify the restrictions imposed by the Government of Kenya and their stringency level. An adapted version of the Oxford COVID-19 Stringency Index was developed to focus only on the restrictions most relevant to businesses, namely: workplace closure (Oxford category c2), restrictions on gatherings (c4), public transport closure (c5), stay at home requirements (c6) and restrictions on internal movement (c7). The evolution of the calculated Stringency index and weekly COVID-19 cases in Kenya since February 2020 is shown in Figure 2.Figure 2 Reported COVID-19 cases, stringency of restrictions and surveyed periods Furthermore, we considered the issue of seasonality. Unlike fish, the potato value chain in Kenya is characterized by high seasonality in production and marketing because storage is extremely limited, and the majority of farmers sell their potatoes immediately after harvest. Potato is typically harvested twice a year, with some limited off-season production occurring in swamps, valley bottoms and irrigated areas. July-August and January-February are the main production and marketing seasons (Figure 3). In contrast, seasonality for fish is determined more by demand than supply. Fish is generally available year-round, thanks to aquaculture initiatives, with demand peaking around key holidays and festivals. The best period to investigate the immediate responses of traders and processors to the pandemic was deemed July 2020, when government restrictions were strictly enforced, although below their initial peak, and the first potato season after the COVID-19 emergence was in full swing. In order to limit the effect of other seasonal factors and allow comparability, the same month of the previous year (2019) was considered as base period representing the pre-COVID situation while July 2021 was chosen to explore whether the value chain actors and functions had bounced back from the initial shock and to identify longer-term adaptation strategies. Therefore, the survey focused on three recall periods: July 2019 (Period 1), July 2020 (Period 2), and July 2021 (Period 3).A structured questionnaire consisting of both open-and closed-ended questions was administered to respondents through Computer-Assisted Phone Interviews (CATI). 2 Data were analyzed using the statistical package STATA.Table 1 summarizes characteristics of surveyed (1) small traders; (2) wholesalers; (3) small processors; (4) medium/large processors for both value chains. The fish sample did not contain any medium/large processors. Distinctions between each category of an actor in the potato value chain are well defined, whereas fish value chain actors often combine multiple partially overlapping roles (e.g. serving as both small traders and processors). For example, in the potato value chain, small traders appear to serve primarily as rural collectors in the main potato production zones, whereas in the fish value chain small traders are found in both production and consumption zones, and are often involved in retail sales, alongside other activities.As noted above, the survey was designed to cover three production zones each for fish (Nakuru, Meru, Kisumu) and potato (Nakuru, Meru, Bomet), and two consumption zones, the major cities of Nairobi and Mombasa. Mombasa is also an important supply side location in the fish value chain. In the potato sample, small traders are located exclusively in the three production zones, whereas wholesalers and processors of all sizes are concentrated mostly in urban areas. In the fish value chain, the pattern of the spatial distribution of actors is more variable. Small traders are most concentrated in Mombasa, whereas wholesalers and processors are best represented in production zones.Most actors in the sample are located in either urban or peri-urban areas. As expected, in both value chains, small traders are the most well represented actors in rural areas, but only 29% of small potato traders and 12% of small fish traders operate from a rural base, and the majority have peri-urban trading bases (60% and 51%, respectively). Also as expected, wholesalers tend to be concentrated in urban settings (home to 54% of potato and 73% of fish wholesalers). Medium/large potato processors are also predominantly urban (77%).The two value chains have distinct gender characteristics. The potato value chain is consistently male dominated in all nodes (72% male overall, ranging from 69% to 76% per node). The opposite pattern is apparent in the fish value chain, where 65% of actors are female. It is noteworthy, however, that women are most heavily represented among small traders (79%) and least represented among wholesalers (56%) suggesting somewhat lower relative levels of representation in higher value roles.There are relatively few youths (aged 29 or under) in the midstream of either chain, but the average age of fish value chain actors skews somewhat lower than that of actors in the potato supply chain. Three percent of potato value chain actors are aged 29 or under, as compared, 15% of those in the fish value chain. The most common age bracket in both chains is 40-49, accounting for over one third of all respondents.  Table 2 presents the details of the main product forms traded by small and medium/large-scale potato processors, by year, from 2019-2021. We do not present details of product form traded by small traders and wholesalers as all dealt exclusively in raw, unprocessed potatoes in all years. Smaller processors dealt mainly with fried potato chips (\"French fries\"), whereas larger processors dealt mainly with fried potato crisps. The share of respondents reporting each product form as the main one traded varied little by year, suggesting that switching to new product forms was not widely adopted as a pivoting strategy.Actors in fish value chains traded a wider variety of products than those in the potato value chain, in terms of species, product form, and product source (Table 3). However, like potato value chain actors, there was little change in the main reported product types, forms, and sources over the three survey recall years, suggesting that these decisions are relatively 'locked in' by factors such as local availability of supply, and the embeddedness of actors in existing networks, and are thus rarely subject to pivoting behavior.While the table reveals little temporal variability, it does underline the diversity of fish supply, and important differences between value chain segments. Tilapia (sourced from capture fisheries, farms, and frozen imports) is the most common fish traded across all value chain segments. Marine fishes are most commonly traded by small traders, reflecting the concentration of this group of actors in Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. Small processors are most likely to trade Mukene or Omena (small species harvested from freshwater capture fisheries in the great lakes, that are often dried). Wholesalers and processors are more likely to deal with Nile Perch, a high value species harvested from capture inland fisheries than small traders.Fresh fish are the predominant product form traded by wholesalers (reported by 70% in all years). Wholesalers are also more likely to report trading imported frozen fish (around 20%) than small traders and processors. In contrast, small traders and processors are equally likely to report fresh fish and fried fish as the main product forms traded (a little over 40% each, in each year), with dried/smoked fish the next most important product type (reported as the main product by just over 10%). This points to wholesalers having more access to facilities needed to maintain fresh fish in good condition or deal in frozen fish, whereas small traders and processors are more likely to sell product forms that aid preservation (fried, dried). These figures also point to a significant overlap in roles between small traders and smallprocessors, and a relatively low degree of specialization among these actors. Lake fisheries are by far the most important source of fish for actors of all types, but particularly for wholesalers (reported by >75%), followed by processors (around 70%). Cage farms (typically large enterprises) are the main source of product for a little under 10% of wholesalers and processors, whereas pond farms (typically small enterprises) are the main source for a little over 10% of small traders and processors. Frozen imports are most important for wholesalers (a little over 10%). Marine fisheries are an important source of fish for small traders who are concentrated in Mombasa, as reported by about 25%, and by processors (around 17%).Table 4 presents three sets of indicators of the depth of impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surveyed businesses, by year: the share of businesses operating during July, the mean number of days operated per week, and average volumes traded during those weeks.The following points stand out:First at least 15% of businesses in the potato value chain stopped operations during July 2020, with wholesalers most heavily affected, but almost all businesses were operational again in July 2021. In the fish value chain, there was no significant change from 2019 to 2020 in the number of operational businesses, in part because some businesses started trading only in 2020 or 2021, and significantly more of the small processors in the sample operated in 2021 than in 2020 or 2019. This finding may imply that the fish value chain generally has a higher turnover of entrants than the potato value chain.Second, the number of days operated by businesses in the potato value chain fell by about half in July 2020, compared to 2019. This decline was highly statistically significant, and larger among small traders and wholesalers than processors. The average number of operational days increased significantly in July 2021 for businesses in all potato value chain segments but remained at a lower level than in 2019 (changing from an all-segment average of 5.1 days in 2019 to 2.9 days in 2020, and 3.6 days in 2021). Days of operation for businesses in the fish value chain followed a similar but much less sharply pronounced temporal pattern, dropping from 6 days/week in 2019 to 5.6 days in 2020 (highly significant), and recovering partially to 5.7 days in 2021 (level of significance variable by value chain segment).A possible explanation for these differences is that the fish value chain is relatively aseasonal in terms of supply (fish are available year-round), leading to a high degree of specialization in fish related activities, which become a central element in the livelihood portfolios of those involved, whereas the supply of potatoes is highly seasonal, leading actors in the trading segments to enter and exit opportunistically on a temporary basis.Third, the average quantity of product handled per week during July followed a similar but even more dramatic decline than in the number of operational days per week, indicating that the average quantity traded on an operational day declined alongside the number of operational days. Again, this decline was more acute in the potato value chain than the fish value chain, and more acute among potato traders than among potato processors (Figure 4). The average quantity of potato traded in 2020 across all segments was just 29% of the amount traded in 2019, rising to about half in 2021. More specifically, for small potato traders and wholesalers, the amount traded in 2020 averaged only around 15% of 2019 levels, whereas for processors the reported amount was around 40%.  Actors in the fish value chain experienced an average drop in sales of around 50% in July 2020, relative to July 2019. However, this decline was only weakly statistically significant for wholesalers in 2020. Sales declined further in 2021 for all three actor types. The difference between sales volumes in 2021 and 2019 was highly significant for wholesalers, and weakly significant for small traders, indicating a prolonged deterioration in business conditions.In both value chains a large majority of actors in all segments who reported a change in sales in 2020 relative to 2019, or 2021 relative to 2020, reported that the COVID-19 pandemic was the main reason (around 75%), or a contributing reason (20-25%), while very few reported that the pandemic was not a factor. First, purchase prices for potatoes fell sharply in July 2020 relative to July 2019. Small traders and wholesalers experienced the largest drop in the price of purchased potatoes in 2020 (33%). The relative change in purchase prices reported by processors was somewhat lower than reported by traders (small 28%; medium/large 21%), suggesting that lower prices at source were not passed on entirely to buyers, perhaps as a result of elevated costs of doing business, particularly related to transport. Low purchase prices paid by small traders, which source most of their product directly from farmers, would also equate to low farmgate prices. Prices recovered somewhat in 2021 relative to 2020 but were still well below 2019 ratesa difference of 26% for small traders, and around 10% for both types of processors, with wholesalers intermediate. These results suggest that in 2021 the profit margins of potato wholesalers and processors might have squeezed relative to small traders in an attempt to secure their supplies following the major shock in the previous year. Second, purchase prices for fish increased sharply in July 2020 relative to July 2019 and were even higher in July 2021. This pattern was consistent across almost every species of fish traded, and for value chain actors of all types. Prices paid in 2020 increased most for wholesalers (27%), least for small traders (9%), and at an intermediate level for processors (19%). This scenario may suggest that producers benefitted less from increasing prices (of fish), or were more affected by declining prices (of potatoes), than actors further down the chain. However, while fish producers appear not to have benefited from higher prices received by midstream actors, it is possible that elevated costs of doing business, including higher transport costs, account for much of the apparent disparity.Third, the divergent pattern in prices for the two sets of commodities may be explained by differences in seasonality, and by differences in COVID-19 containment measures affecting their respective value chains. The sharp drop in potato prices is likely linked to the coincidence of a seasonal peak in supply that occurs around July, coupled with a combination of more limited market access due to transport and mobility restrictions, and lower consumer demand linked to these restrictions and their income effects. This combination likely resulted in a temporary surplus of potatoes, perhaps heightened by limited access to cold storage facilities, pushing down prices. In contrast, in the case of fish, curfews prevented fishing activities at night, which is normally the most preferred fishing time, and imports of fish by sea from China were disrupted temporarily (Love et al, 2020). Our survey data also indicate that overland trade from Uganda was also interrupted. These factors most likely contributed to constrained supply, even relative to lower demand, pushing up average fish prices.The Gini coefficient is an index of inequality, with a value ranging from zero (complete equality) to 1 (complete inequality). We calculated the Gini coefficient of the total volume of sales made by actors in each surveyed node in the potato and fish value chains in July 2019, 2020 and 2021, as a proxy for the degree of market concentration, where a higher Gini coefficient value signifies a higher degree of concentration.We hypothesized that sales among actors in each value chain node might become more concentrated following the shock of the pandemic. We assumed that larger actors might possess advantages (e.g., greater working capital, closer connections with the authorities, geographically more diverse supply networks, greater digital literacy and access to transport and digital platforms). Such advantages could take on increased significance under a shock like COVID-19, affording businesses in possession of them greater resilience and allowing them to capture a growing share of the market, even if the total volume of sales made by each business declined. The following points stand out from Table 5:First, fish value chains are much more concentrated (as indicated by the Gini coefficient of sales) than potato value chains, in all surveyed years and nodes. We believe that this finding reflects a higher degree of heterogeneity in the roles of fish value chain actors than is observed in the potato value chain. Fish value chain actors are observed to perform multiple overlapping roles (e.g., processor + wholesaler, or broker + retailer). This may translate into fish value chain actors operating across a wider range of scales per node than actors in the potato value chain, and hence more uniformity and a lower level of market concentration per node among the later.Second, although there is some variation across nodes and by year, the general direction of the trend in both value chains is toward greater concentration in the wake of COVID-19, as compared to the period prior to the pandemic. Considering the average Gini coefficient for 2020 and 2021, three out of four potato value chain nodes became more concentrated over timean average increase of 8%, and two out of three fish value chain nodes became more concentrated, by an average of 4%. The highest rates of market concentration were observed among potato processors and small fish traders. The reasons for these differential trends per node and chain are not known. We hypothesized a variety of pivoting behaviors that businesses might adopt to overcome disruptions to their operations arising from COVID-19. These included: changing the locations to or from which products were sold or sourced; sourcing from or selling to new types of suppliers or buyers; changing the mode of transport used for pickup or delivery; making contracts and selling agreements; and, increasing the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). We discuss findings regarding these and other adaptive behaviors in the subsections below.In this subsection we examine trends in the share of products sourced and sold, by location of purchase or sale.In potato and fish production zones (Bomet, Kisumu, Nakuru, Meru) most businesses sourced most of their product locally (i.e., from the same county the business was based in). This pattern is particularly apparent in the potato value chain, reflecting the highly clustered nature of potato production. In consumption zones (Nairobi, Mombasa) a comparatively greater share of product was procured from non-local sources, consistent with their role as demand centers (Figure 6). In the potato value chain, the locations product was sourced from did not change much between years for most actors, particularly those in production zones. Small potato traders, wholesalers, and processors of all sizes in production zones sourced most of their product locally, in all three years. No small potato traders operated in consumption zones and no medium/large processors in these two large cities procured locally. The share of potatoes sourced locally by small processors in consumption zones dropped sharply from 40% in 2019 to 11% in 2020 and remained below 20% in 2021. The reasons for this pattern are not clear but we can hypothesize a relative increase in direct purchase from production areas and reduced reliance on intermediaries based in Nairobi and Mombasa. In the fish value chain, sourcing locally was also more common in production zones than consumption zones, as expected. However, as in the potato value chain, there was no clear tendency to source greater or lesser shares of product locally.  With regard to the geographical distribution of sales, small traders and processors of fish and potato sold most of their product locally in almost all years (Figure 7). This pattern is particularly clear in consumption zones. In production zones, there was a tendency for small traders and wholesalers in both value chains to have disposed of more product locally in 2020, as compared to 2019, with the share of product sold locally rising approximately 15 and 30 percentage points, suggesting that transport restrictions impacted the ability to access more distant markets. 3   This is confirmed by the responses of actors in all nodes of both value chains, who consistently reported that accessing transport became more difficult and more expensive in 2020 compared to 2019. Accessing transport generally became somewhat easier in 2021 compared to 2020, but was more difficult on average than in 2019, and remained more expensive than in 2019. There was a tendency toward using smaller 3 It is important to note that these results are highly aggregated and do not allow to ascertain whether the change in geography (share of local vs distant procurement/sale) was determined by an actual pivoting of the actors or rather by the fact that actors which had a certain behavior could have been more (or less) impacted by COVID-19 and related restrictions. In other words, an increase in local sales might not be necessarily due to the actors pro-actively changing their strategy towards more local sales but, instead, by actors which were already selling locally being better able to maintain their business operating than other actors. Therefore, while we could identify certain level of pivoting at meso-level, we need additional analyses to reach meaningful conclusions about pivoting at individual level. vehicles in 2020 than 2019, consistent with the lower volumes of goods traded, and perhaps with more limited access to larger vehicles making long distance trips, or more limited need for larger vehicles, given the partial pivot toward more localized sales.Figure 8 underlines the interrelatedness of impacts at each node of the value chain. Between 80% and 100% of businesses in all nodes and both chains reported that their sales had been affected by the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on their clients.Respondents reporting sales reduction due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on clientsWe investigated whether the pandemic has driven an increase in use of informal agreements and formal contracts in the business transactions of actors with their suppliers and customers for procuring and selling potato and fish products, respectively.We found that informal agreements with suppliers and customers are less common in the potato than in the fish value chain. Only 13% and 16% of potato actors have ever had an informal contract committing them to buy or sell potato later in the year (Figure 9). This compares with about 40% in the fish value chain (Figure 10). Among the ones who have adopted this practice, the majority of respondents in both chains (54-62%) indicated that this was not related to COVID-19, implying that they were either already doing it prior to the pandemic or have started/increased this practice during the pandemic but regardless of the pandemic itself. Less than 10% of respondents who reported having used informal agreements had started to do so because of new COVID-19 restrictions, while 30-40% had increased the use of informal agreements because of it. Overall, only a minority of respondents (4-10%) who have started and/or increase the use of informal agreements expect to cease or reduce this practice once the pandemic ends and the COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. With regard to formal contracts signed with suppliers and customers, their use is still largely uncommon: only 4-5% and 12-15% of actors have ever used them in the potato and fish value chain, respectively (Figure 11 and 12). In both chains, the vast majority (67-79%) of the actors who reported the use of formal contracts, have not done it in response to the pandemic. Accordingly, between a quarter and one third of them have either started or increased this practice because of the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions, and among those only 20-33% and 6-11% of potato and fish actors, respectively, believe that they will revert to the pre-COVID-19 situation once the restrictions are removed. These results suggest that COVID-19 restrictions have not been a major driver for wider adoption of either formal or informal agreements among value chain actors as a way to secure future supplies and sales. While most transactions in both chains are likely to retain their spot nature in the years to come, the behavior change reported by the actors who initiated or increased the use of these agreements in face of the new government restrictions is likely to be largely irreversible.Fish, and to a lesser extent potato, are highly perishable commodities and usually storage of fresh products for the market is extremely rare and limited to a few hours to a couple of days. For instance, in the case of potatoes, farmers store only tubers to be used as seed in the next planting season or ware potatoes for household consumption.Long-term storage of ware potato for later sale (and likely higher price) is almost inexistent in the value chain. Due to the disruption in the chain brought by the COVID-19-related restrictions imposed by the government, some actors might have been unable to sell or move their products. Therefore, besides the spatial dimension and change in geographies (described in Section 3.4.1), we investigated changes in the Box 1 -Potato formal contracts: did they help maintain the value chain functional?Contract farming is relatively common only in one of the sampled counties, Bomet, to secure supplies to the local medium-large scale potato crisp processors. While the overall volume sourced by medium-large potato processors dropped by 65% in 2020 and 40% in 2021 compared to 2019 level (see Tab. 4), in the case of Bomet the reduction was less dramatic (35% and 25%, respectively), suggesting that the presence of formal contracts might have helped maintain the access to raw material (for processors) and market (for farmers).temporal dimension of the business transactions. In particular, we looked at possible increases in short-and medium-term storage (defined as the one exceeding 3 days).We found that 38% and 54% of respondents in the potato and fish value chain, respectively, have stored their fresh products for over three days at least once (Figure 13). However, two interesting aspects clearly emerged. First, 36% of potato actors and 62% of fish actors engaged in such storage had either started or increased this practice because of the pandemic. Second, the change in behavior of these actors is likely to be ephemeral because well over half of them (57-65%) indicated that they plan to stop this practice at the end of the pandemic. Therefore, results suggest that the increase in storage is unlikely to be a deliberate strategic choice, but rather a short-term strategy in face of the difficulty to access the market and which, hence, will likely disappear when the situation normalizes. The use of the mobile phones for concluding business transactions by call or text is far more common along the fish than the potato value chain (Figure 14 and 15). In the former, about 90% of respondents indicated to have concluded buying or selling transactions by this means; while in the latter only about a quarter of actors have reported so. Among the ones who have indicated to have used phones for business transactions, the majority (with the exception of potato buyers) have started or increased this practice because of COVID-19 restrictions. Given the far larger prevalence of phone usage among fish actors, it is not surprising that most of them reported an increase in this practice while, in the case of potato sellers, the pandemic seems to have led to starting this new practice. It is noticeable that only a small minority (7-10%) of the respondents who started or reported an increase in mobile phone usage due to the pandemic, indicated that they will likely cease or reduce it at the end of the pandemic. Again, these practices are far more widespread in the fish than in the potato value chain, respectively with about 30% and 5% of actors reporting to make use of these platforms when looking for business partners. In the case of the potato value chain, over 70% of traders who adopted this practice to search for suppliers indicated that this was not related to the pandemic. However, three quarters of the potato adopters indicated to have started and, to a less extent, increased this practice for searching customers because of the challenges brought by COVID-19 restrictions. In the fish value chain, about half of adopters have increased the use of these ICT tools and social media platforms because of the pandemic while some (13-17%) have started this from scratch. Only a minority of the respondents reporting to have started or increased the use of the internet and social media for searching suppliers and customers expect to cease or reduce this practice at the end of the pandemic. We also enquired whether actual transactions with suppliers and customers have ever been concluded through an online platform or website. While these transactions have been reported by a negligible (1%) share of potato actors, about 20% of fish actors have indicated they use them (Figure 18 and 19). In the case of potato value chain, because of the few observations in our sample, we are unable to draw any meaningful conclusion about the role played by the pandemic in driving the decision of traders and processors to adopt this marketing practice and maintain it over time. Conversely, in the case of fish, most adopters (51-60%) have either started or increased this practice because of the pandemic, and over 90% of them do not plan to reduce or abandon it once the pandemic ends. Finally, our findings confirm the penetration of electronic payments, such as the M-Pesa (\"M\" for \"mobile\", \"pesa\" for \"money\") mobile phone-based money transfer service, in the Kenyan market. 4 About 50% and 80% of potato and fish actors, respectively, have used e-payments to send or receive money for finalizing business transactions (Figure 20). Given the spread of e-payments in the country even before the COVID-19 outbreak, it is remarkable that 4% of adopters indicated to have started and 42-65% to have increased the use of these payment methods because of the pandemic. Only a few of them plan to revert to the pre-pandemic situation once the restrictions are completely lifted.The Kenyan government advised the public to embrace mobile money during the period of acute pandemic. This was aided by waiver imposed on transactions cost for mobile money services. There were no commissions for costs below Ksh 1000. This initiative may have contributed to increased use of mobile money platforms during this period.Figure 20 Use of e-payments by potato (left) and fish (right) value chain actorsIn summary, the use of ICT tools and associated social media platforms, spanning from the most basic (phones) to the most sophisticated (online sales), seems far more common in the fish value chain than in the potato one. This might reflect the more fragmented nature of the fish chain, characterized by a large number of small actors involved in small business transactions, the unpredictability of supply of fish from capture fisheries which can fluctuate widely from day to day, the highly perishable and high value nature of the product which elevates the level of risk inherent in each transaction and necessitates rapid sales to avoid spoilage, and the more diverse sources of fish products compared to potatoes. All these aspects likely drive a greater need for spatial and temporal coordination among actors in the fish value chain, compared to the potato chain, and thus the use of ICT as a means of reducing transaction costs.Overall, the pandemic seems to have driven an increase in the breadth and depth of ICT adoption, either by triggering the decision to start (particularly among potato actors) or to increase (particularly among fish actors) the use of these tools, and these changes will not easily revert. While in the long run this might contribute to narrowing the gap between the number of fish and potato adopters, the use of ICT tools will likely remain more extensive among fish traders and processors, at least for the near future.Figure 21 shows other specific responses to COVID-19 disruption by traders and processors. In both potato and fish value chains, over 90% of respondents changed their business working hours and almost 40% transported their products over a different or longer route to avoid curfew or travel restrictions. About 70% reduced the number of permanent or seasonal employees in the fish chain, and almost 40% in the potato one.A similar pattern was found with regard to reduction of their salary (60% and 30%, respectively), while only a few indicated an increase in salary. These results suggest the need to reduce workforce costs in face of smaller business turnover, but also likely challenges in accessing labor as many workers might have migrated back to rural areas.While these responses were largely consistent across the two chains, the mobilization of own savings and assets, and increased use of credit, including value chain financing, for maintaining business operations were far more common in the fish than the potato value chain. We speculate that the higher predisposition to offer and receive cash credit or value chain financing can be explained by underlying long-term relationships and trust within fish value chains, which trade year-round, as compared to the highly seasonal spot market that dominates potato purchases.Another explanation might relate to the characteristics of the primary production, where fishing activities require continual outlay on daily operating costs (e.g., fuel, labor), as compared to farming where costs tend to be lower and expenditures less frequent (i.e., concentrated particularly around planting and harvesting time). It is commonly observed that credit relations between larger traders, smaller traders and producers are pervasive and persistent in capture fisheries value chains, whereas agricultural credit provision from traders to crop farmers tends to be comparatively limited. Very limited support has been provided to value chain actors to help them overcome the COVID-19 challenges. Less than 2% and 4% of respondents received aid from the government in the potato and fish value chain, respectively. However, while no actor in the potato chain reported having received support from other organizations, about 7% of fish respondents indicate so. This support was received primarily from Beach Management Units (fisheries co-management organizations) and chama (informal micro-savings groups).In addition, respondents were asked whether payment of bribes to facilitate transport or business operations has increased due to the pandemic. As shown in Figure 21, bribery was more common for actors in the fish value chain than in the potato value chain (reported by 19% and 7% of respondents in each chain, respectively). Fish value chain actors were also much more likely than those in the potato value chain to report that payment of bribes had started or increased since the onset of the pandemic (as reported by 16% and 45% of respondents in the fish value chain who had paid a bribe, respectively). However, more positively, most respondents who have either started or increased this practice because of the pandemic, believed that this would decline or cease once the pandemic ended (as reported by 67% and 86% of potato and fish value chain actors, respectively). • Most businesses survived the disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions imposed by the government of Kenya to limit its spread: at least 15% of businesses in the potato value chain stopped operations during July 2020, with wholesalers most heavily affected, but almost all businesses were operational again in 2021. In the fish value chain, there was no significant change in the number of operating businesses over the observed period.• In 2020, both the number of days per week in which the businesses operate and the average volume handled on a single day showed a dramatic decline in both value chains. The resulting average drop in volumes handled per week was about 70% compared to 2019 levels for actors in the potato value chain, and about 40% for the ones in the fish value chain. For potato actors, a partial recovery was observed in 2021, with weekly volumes rising to about half of the 2019 level. For fish actors, weekly volume declined further in 2021.• Change in prices followed very different trajectories in the two value chains. Potato purchasing prices fell sharply in 2020 relative to 2019, with small traders and wholesalers experiencing the largest drop (33%), suggesting that lower prices at source were not passed on entirely to buyers, perhaps as a result of elevated costs of doing business, particularly related to transport. Prices recovered somewhat in 2021 relative to 2020 but were still well below 2019 rates. Unlike potato, purchasing prices for fish increased sharply in 2020 relative to 2019, with wholesalers experiencing the largest increase (27%), and were even higher in 2021. Fish producers appear not to have benefited that much from higher prices received by midstream actors, possibly due to higher costs of doing business, including higher transport costs. These results suggest that producers were more affected by declining prices (of potatoes), or benefitted less from increasing prices (of fish) than actors further down the chain. The divergent pattern in prices for the two sets of commodities may be explained by differences in seasonality, and by differences in COVID-19 containment measures affecting their respective value chains. The sharp drop in potato prices is likely linked to the coincidence of a seasonal peak in supply that occurs around July, coupled with a combination of more limited market access due to transport and mobility restrictions, and lower consumer demand linked to these restrictions and their income effects. In contrast, in the case of fish, the disruption of both fishing activities and imports of fish from China and Uganda likely contributed to constrained supply, even relative to lower demand, pushing up average fish prices.• In both value chains, despite some variation across value chain nodes and by year, a general trend toward greater concentration was observed in the wake of COVID-19, as compared to the period prior to the pandemic. This might be explained by larger actors possessing advantages (e.g., higher working capital, more diverse supply networks, greater access to transport and digital platforms). which could take on increased significance under a shock like COVID-19, affording businesses in possession of them greater resilience and allowing them to capture a larger market share, even if the total volume of sales made by each business declined. The highest increase in market concentration was observed among potato processors and small fish traders.• In both value chains, there was a tendency for the small traders and wholesalers based in production areas to sell a larger proportion of their products locally (i.e., within the same county) in 2020, as compared to 2019, with the share of product sold locally rising approximately 15% to 30%, suggesting that transport restrictions impacted the ability to access more distant markets.• Actors in all nodes of both value chains consistently reported that accessing transport became more difficult and more expensive in 2020 compared to 2019. The situation improved in 2021 but transport remained less accessible and affordable than prior to the pandemic. This also resulted in a tendency towards using smaller vehicles, consistent with the lower volumes of goods traded, more localized sales, and perhaps more limited access to larger trucks.• Since the emergence of COVID-19, many value chain actors in both chains have pivoted towards an increased use of informal agreements and formal contracts for their business transactions. Their use remains more widespread in the fish than the potato value chain. Short-and medium-term storage has also shown a sharp increase following the onset of the pandemic.• Over the last two years, as response to the pandemic, there was also a significant increase in the use of ICT tools and social media platforms for searching and engaging with business partners, and for processing payments. While this was observed in both chains, their use is still much more frequent in the fish value chain.• With the exception of increased storage, which was primarily a short-term strategy in face of the difficulty to access the market, the vast majority of businesses which have started or increased the adoption of these practices in response to COVID-19 restrictions, indicate that they will continue using them once the pandemic ends. This will likely contribute to enhanced resilience to future supply/demand shocks in both value chains.• In both potato and fish value chains, over 90% of respondents changed their business working hours and almost 40% transported their products over a different or longer route to avoid curfew or travel restrictions. About 70% reduced the number of permanent or seasonal employees in the fish chain, and almost 40% in the potato one. A similar pattern was found with regard to reduction of their salary (60% and 30%, respectively). These results suggest the need to reduce workforce costs in face of smaller business turnover, but also likely challenges in accessing labor.• Mobilization of own savings and assets, and increased use of credit, including value chain financing, for maintaining business operations were far more common in the fish than the potato value chain. We speculate that the higher predisposition to offer and receive cash credit or value chain financing can be explained by underlying longterm relationships and trust within fish value chains, which trade year-round, as compared to the highly seasonal spot market that dominates potato purchases. Another explanation might relate to the characteristics of the primary production, where fishing activities require continual outlay on daily operating costs (e.g., fuel,","tokenCount":"9275"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"84593a7d8867a4c18daf90ec7d497c69","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5378de0a-fa0e-4130-a96b-5353501ccdd4/retrieve","id":"-1660044946"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d28ac087-5b9a-413d-899a-5b5f9528f48c","pagecount":"21","content":"The Sustainable Intensification of Mixed Farming Systems Initiative aims to provide equitable, transformative pathways for improved livelihoods of actors in mixed farming systems through sustainable intensification within target agroecologies and socio-economic settings. Through action research and development partnerships, the Initiative will improve smallholder farmers' resilience to weatherinduced shocks, provide a more stable income and significant benefits in welfare, and enhance social justice and inclusion for 13 million people by 2030.Activities will be implemented in six focus countries globally representing diverse mixed farming systems as follows: Ghana (cereal-root crop mixed), Ethiopia (highland mixed), Malawi: (maize mixed), Bangladesh (rice mixed), Nepal (highland mixed), and Lao People's Democratic Republic (upland intensive mixed/ highland extensive mixed).Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) is a CGIAR Regional Integrated Initiative that supports actions improving equitable access to sustainable healthy diets, that boosts farmers' livelihoods and resilience, and that conserves land, air, and water resources in a climate crisis.As the global population continues to grow, the urgency of addressing food sovereignty challenges becomes increasingly apparent. Bangladesh, being a densely populated country, encounters significant hurdles in livestock production sectors the high population density leads to a substantial demand for food, resulting in increased resource requirements. This study aimed to explore and analyse new pathways and practices to improve resource use efficiency of smallholder crop-livestock farms in northwest Bangladesh. Specifically, options to improve manure management and green fodder crop technologies were assessed. The study employed a combination of farming systems characterization, detailed surveys, and model-based methods to assess trade-offs and options for improved livestock management practices. Three study sites were selected based on land size and characteristics with the use of new fodder crops and the production of milk as a key aspect of farming systems. The FarmDESIGN model was utilized for analysis, incorporating a comprehensive database to generate outcomes for each farm.A total of 32 decision variables were established for the multi-objective optimization of three farms, enabling the visualization and analysis of trade-offs and synergies. Trade-offs between improving soil organic matter balances and reducing soil nitrogen (N) loss, as well as between maximizing operating profit and improving soil OM balance were identified. Synergies were also identified, primarily between increasing operating profit and reducing soil N loss, and between reducing feed costs and mitigating GHG emissions. Also, the model results provided alternatives with maximum operating profit and lower animal feed costs by incorporating more on-farm grown fodder area, and specifically an opportunity to increase the area of Jara-1 hybrid grass by 67%. Furthermore, new pathways and practices were proposed to enhance the use of green fodder crops and improve manure management. The adoption of Jara hybrid-1 grass as a new hybrid green fodder crop, in combination with 60% chopped rice straw, was recommended for feeding cows in the study locations. These results demonstrate that smallholder farmers in northwest Bangladesh have the potential to enhance sustainability and resource use efficiency in their crop-livestock farm systems by focusing on improved manure management methods and cultivation and utilization of green fodder crops.The study was conducted in Rangpur district, which is in north-west Bangladesh (Figure 1.1). Most farmers in this region are smallholder farmers, with farm sizes between 0.2-1 ha (Anowar et al., 2015). Rangpur has eight Upazilas (an administrative region in Bangladesh, functioning as a sub-unit of a district), including Badarganj, Mithapukur, Gangachara, Kaunia, Rangpur Sadar, Pirgacha, Pirganj, and Taraganj. Three villages were selected within these Upazilas: Badarganj, Mithapukur, and Kaunia (Figure 1). The main cropping patterns observed this area of Bangladesh are winter Boro rice-Fallow-Transplanted (T.) summer rice ('Aman'), Boro-Fallow-Fallow, and Fallow-Fallow-T. Aman (the order of seasons is the main monsoon Kharif-2, rabi, and early monsoon Kharif-1). T. Aman rice is mainly rainfed (Roy et al., 2022), and contributes around 39% of total rice production in Bangladesh. Boro rice is the dry season rice crop (BBS, 2019). Some of the additional crops of interest in Rangpur district are T. Aman, Boro, and also potato, country bean, and a range of species of gourd (Table 1). The most popular cropping pattern in Rangpur district is Boro-Fallow-T. Aman.Bangladesh is confronted with a significant challenge in enhancing its livestock sector. Field observations reveal the prevalence of malnourished cows as a common phenomenon attributed to low-nutrient feedstuff and the economic burden of high feed costs (Figure 2). The widespread practice burning of manure for cooking purposes in Bangladesh (Khanam et al., 2019) contributes to loss of carbon and nutrients and to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Furthermore, a main factor contributing GHG emission in Bangladesh is rice cultivation (Sapkota et al., 2021). While Napier grass serves as the preferred green fodder crop for most households, only a few farmers cultivate it. The majority purchase Napier grass from the local market and mix it with rice straw to feed their livestock (Figure 3).During other seasons without Napier grass, they mainly use rice straw, and some households purchase wheat bran from the local market. . The high cost of  In addition to insufficient manure management and limited utilization of green fodder crops, improper application of synthetic fertilizer by farmers leads to nutrient losses, yielding a scenario of high input and low output, indicative of suboptimal nutrient cycling efficiency (Sapkota et al., 2019).This study employed a four-step methodology. In step 1, an exploratory field visit was conducted in November 2022 to obtain general information for farm characterization in eight Upazilas. Three villages were selected (from three Upazilas) with more diversified cropping systems (shown in Table 1.2). In step 2, 20 farmers were interviewed with a general investigation in each village and categorized them into three land sizes. Then, nine farms from each village were chosen with the feature of having livestock, producing milk and using green fodder crops. In step 3, the selected farms were parameterized in the Farm DESIGN model. Decision variables, constraints, and objectives were set up for multi-objective optimization in Farm DESIGN. Focus groups were used to generate and evaluate new farm system configurations. Lastly, in step 4, an analysis was performed to identify trade-offs resulting from the multi-objective optimization based on data collection and variables observed during field work.Step 1: Farm characterization and village selection A pre-visit was arranged to characterize the farming systems in eight Upazilas.During this phase, we visited one village in each Upazila for a focus group discussion with 8-10households to learn about their farm layout and operations. After this pre-visit investigation, we selected Badarganj, Kaunia, and MithapukurUpazilas as our study sites (Table 2). Farmers in Badarganj Upazila often Jara hybrid-1 grass as their green fodder crop. This crop, as observed in the field and based on farmers' perceptions, tended to produce more biomass than the traditionally used Napier grass (Figure 4).   Step 2: Farm selection Basic farm characterization data were collected from 20 farm households in each of the selected villages, comprising both men and women. The survey encompassed various aspects of the household and farming system, including basic information of household members, cropping patterns, feedstuff utilization, livestock status, and general economic details. We sought to include farms based on two key criteria:1. Level of specialization: specialized systems, focused solely on cultivating major economic crops like rice, and diversified crop-livestock mixed farming systems.Farm size: farms were categorized based on land size into three categories, including small (<0.4 ha), medium (0.4-0.8 ha), and large (>0.8 ha).For each village, nine households that represented the three size categories were selected from the general survey for a further detailed survey. After collecting detailed information on 27 households on their farming systems based on land size, an overview of their data was summarized in Excel. Based on this overview of data, we calculated each parameter's average value. Then, three crop-livestock mixed farms were selected that represented the three size categories, used fodder crops and produced milk. The three farms were selected to further parameterization of Farm DESIGN and assessment of farm sustainability indicators from the model.The Farm DESIGN model can be used to quantify farming system production, nutrient cycles and flows, economic profit, and environmental indicators (Groot et al., 2012;Ditzler et al., 2019). The model requires information about cropping patterns, soil conditions, local factors, costs, profits, labour availability, as well as social and economic aspects. This information was obtained through the detailed survey.The FarmM3 model is capable of conducting simulations and assessments pertaining to the utilization of animal manure We utilized an interface between the FarmM3 model and the Farm DESIGN model, thereby furnishing a comprehensive portrayal of the manure management practices specific to identified farms.FarmM3 was thus used to parameterize manure use, degradation rates, and manure nutrient flows (Qu et al., 2022;2023).Resource use efficiency (RUE) within agricultural systems pertains to the degree to which an agricultural system derives benefits from both internal and external resources. The overarching objective is to enhance the output benefits while simultaneously minimizing the input requirements within the farming system (de Wit, 1992). RUE can be quantified using fertilizer, purchase of input (feedstuff), nitrogen use efficiency, and a range of other parameters (de Wit, 1992, Kansiime et al., 2018). We conducted a comparative analysis between the initial feed cost and enhanced feed cost alternatives, along with a comparison between the original nitrogen use efficiency (NUE, Equation 1) and the improved reconfigured NUE following modeling and nitrogen (N) balance (Equation 2) under conditions aimed at maximizing operating profit. This examination was undertaken to assess the enhancements in RUE in the farming systems of interest. For the formulation of NUE and N balance, we employed the following equations:Step 4: Analysis of trade-offs and synergiesThe were imposed on factors such as land size, feed balance, and feed quantity. We also defined specific objectives, which include maximizing operating profit, maintaining soil organic matter (OM) balance, achieving feed self-sufficiency, and optimizing dietary energy yield. Furthermore, the objectives encompassed minimizing feed costs, soil N losses, and GHG emissions. (Table 3). With the DE algorithm, we generated 1,000 solutions from the optimization, with parameters amplitude of F=0.15 and CR=0.85 cross-over probability. The number of iterations was 500 to stabilize outcomes from the Farm Design model.  The Large farm type demonstrated a greater utilization of manure in comparison to the other two types studied. Interestingly, despite the Medium-sized farm having a cow distribution similar to that of the large farm, has relatively lower manure use (Figure 5). It is worth noting that the majority of farmers opted for a composting practice that spanned approximately six months, with the notable absence of stirring treatment that would likely aerate and increase the processing time of compost. However, a minority of farmers did integrate stirring treatment for a period of roughly one month prior to the manure harvest. We also observed that it is a common practice among households to utilize cattle manure as a fuel source for cooking purposes. In Figure 6, the flows of carbon (C) and organic nitrogen (Norg) in Small, Medium, and Large farms are depicted. The amount of manure was collected from the survey, and other values were simulated by FarmM3 model. After the composting process, model explorations suggested a large amount of carbon lost in the form of CO2 due to manure burning . On the other hand, Norg was predominantly applied to soil, partly distributed to cooking fuel, and some was lost in the form of inorganic nitrogen. Two farms were chosen from the South Ramnathpur Pathan Pata village, representing small and large household sizes, as outlined in Table 4. The Small farm had a smaller land area, yet these farmers dedicated a substantial portion of land to the cultivation of green fodder. Conversely, despite a larger expanse being allocated to green fodder, this farm type exhibited elevated feed costs for a single cow. Moreover, this farm experienced notably high soil nitrogen (N) losses and a diminished organic matter (OM) balance within its farming system.The additional large farm in this village possessed a greater expanse of land, yet it allocated only a small percentage of it to the cultivation of green fodder crops. Furthermore, the farm engaged in the cultivation of Jara hybrid-1 grass. Despite its larger landholding, the large farm type exhibited a lower capacity for self-reliance when compared to the small farm. Notably, farmers applied a higher quantity of animal manure for cultivation purposes, but paradoxically, the model suggested that this resulted in a lower modelled organic matter balance within its farming system. This clearly requires additional analysis and exploration to confirm and identify why lower OM balances are generated in the model. On the other hand, the Medium-sized farm located in the village of Madarpur Balapara featured a larger land size but cultivated fewer green fodder crops compared to the small farm type. This farm type recorded very low operating profits and a diminished dietary energy yield in our modelling outputs. Furthermore, model explorations suggested that it experienced high soil N losses, although it did maintain a high OM balance within its farming system.The exploration of alternative farm reconfigurations for the large farm was a key focus of our analysis. In this report, we present the results obtained from the large farm's evaluation. The selection of alternative optimal options was based on the principles of Pareto ranking theory, where ideal options were chosen from among all the alternative solutions generated through multi-objective optimization in the FarmDESIGN model. An overview of the relationships between various objectives specific to the large farm is depicted in Figure 7. Within this framework, we observed both trade-offs and synergies, underscoring the complex interplay of factors affecting the large farm's performance and sustainability. Compared to the original configuration of the large farm, evident linear relationships were observed, indicating potential synergies between (1) enhancing operating profit and reducing soil N loss, mitigating feed costs, and increasing dietary energy yield (Figure 7 E&C&H), (2) reducing feed costs and mitigating GHG emissions and soil N loss (Figure 7 M&F), (3) minimizing soil N loss and improving dietary energy yield (Figure 7 J). Out model outputs also showed that there were distinct trade-offs between (4) improving soil OM balance and increasing both operating profit and dietary energy yield (Figure 7 A&G), ( 5) enhancing soil OM balance and reducing both GHG emissions and soil N loss (Figure 7 K&D), ( 6) decreasing feed costs and improving both self-supply and dietary energy yield (Figure 7 R&I).The configuration and performance of the improved Large farm involved selecting and analysing the top 10 solutions generated through multi-objective optimization in the modelling environment, which exhibited the best results in terms of operating profit and feed self-reliance, as detailed in Table 2.2.Among these topperforming solutions, those optimized for operating profit (which recorded a 7% increase compared to the original) also demonstrated enhanced feed self-reliance, with an improvement of 9%. These solutions notably featured a larger area allocated to the T. aman-chili-potato cropping pattern, while reducing area under the T. aman-fallow-boro rotation and decreasing the country bean area in the home garden by 0.05 hectares. However, it's important to note that for achieving further improvements in feed self-reliance, with potential gains of up to 40% in the top 10 solutions (Table 5), the operating profit on this farm could experience a decline of 15%. This shift would involve a transition from cash crops to feed crops, and requires additional analysis to confirm the utility of this suggestion among farmers of this typology in Rangpur. Moreover, the utilization of Jara hybrid-1 grass was found to be significantly higher in this optimization analysis, with a 65% increase compared to the original, in both sets of the top 10 solutions, as indicated in Table 5.During the farmer interviews and focus groups conducted in this preliminary study, it became evident that most farmers prioritized the reduction of their feed costs as a key objective. The redesign exploration conducted using the Farm DESIGN model has provisionally opened up numerous possibilities for farmers to achieve significant reductions in feed costs, with potential savings of up to 22%, while simultaneously increasing their profit by 7%. In the context of the Large farm, the multi-objective optimization yielded options that allowed for an increase in the area allocated to Jara hybrid-1 grass and the home garden. These modifications resulted in reduced feed costs and an enhanced ability to self-supply feed resources. However, it is noteworthy that the Large farm did not exhibit any significant change in NUE as a result of these reconfigurations.Why are these results relevant? Firstly, they have economic implications. The reduction in feed costs and the concurrent increase in profits can improve the financial sustainability of farmers, ultimately enhancing livelihoods. Furthermore, the findings are particularly pertinent to milk production. Improved feed quality can directly enhance the health and productivity of dairy animals, leading to increased milk production and overall improved animal well-being. The choice of Jara-1 hybrid grass over Napier grass is a noteworthy aspect. Jara-1 hybrid is associated with substantial greater biomass production, making it a good feed resource for livestock, especially dairy cows. This implies that farmers could potentially benefit from selecting and cultivating this and other superior forage varieties. In the regional context of northwest Bangladesh, where Napier grass is commonly used for livestock feed, the introduction and expansion of Jara-1 hybrid offers an alternative and potentially more beneficial option.According to the modeled farm reconfigurations, there is potential for an increase in the cultivation of green fodder crops, particularly for the Large farm observed in our study. In options emphasizing profitability, the total area allocated to green fodder crops could expand by 37%, and for those prioritizing feed self-reliance, this expansion could be as much as 66%. Additionally, a promising strategy involves integrating legumes with green fodder crops to enhance nitrogen input through symbiotic fixation, as proposed by Orodho (2006). In selecting a suitable legume, local species like country beans could be considered, and these legumes could be effectively cultivated as alley crops, a practice involving planting them in narrow rows between other tall trees or crops, as documented in studies by Wolz and DeLucia (2018) and Garrett et al. (2021).In addition, while rice straw is commonly used as a feed in Bangladesh, it is not ideal from an animal health standpoint. It boasts a high biomass content, a substantial silica content, and an adequate C/N ratio, although it does have a relatively low crude protein content, typically around 3% to 4% (Devendra, 1997;Drake et al., 2002). Elevated crude protein levels can enhance the bacterial digestive process during forage utilization. However, excessively high crude protein levels may result in increased emissions of waste N (Kalscheur et al., 1999). Consequently, a blend consisting of approximately 60% chopped rice straw combined with 40% chopped Jara-1 hybrid grass may be a promising feedstuff combination (Gummert et al., 2020). This composite has the potential to mitigate animal feed costs while concurrently improving milk production (Figure 8). Manure management presents an inherent challenge in dairy farming systems (Chadwick et al., 2011), including in Bangladesh. The prevailing method of manure management in northwest Bangladesh is associated with elevated greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient loss, and adverse effects on human health (Bruce et al., 2015). An alternative approach to using animal manure as cooking fuel is to utilize it as a soil amendment (Snijders et al., 2009). Previous research on manure management has shown that vermicomposting offers advantages over traditional composting techniques for manure. Vermicompost typically exhibits a lower C/N ratio, resulting in a more stable and mature fertilizer (with a C/N ratio <15) and a higher nitrogen content (Font-Palma, 2019). Moreover, research by Duan et al. (2020) suggests that the addition of 0.5% Bacillus subtilis can expedite compost maturation and enhance the quality of compost fertilizer. While previous recommendations have included employing a single deep pit with appropriate coverage and infrequent stirring treatment for six months to effectively implement vermicomposting (Eghball and Lesoing, 2000;Parkinson et al., 2004;Getahun et al., 2012), it is important, however, to consider the labor costs associated with this approach, which can and should be explored in additional modeling simulations. We also explored the use of Farm DESIGN model to quantify human nutrition using the dietary energy yield indicator, which measures the energy content in fresh food. The model's outputs revealed that the original household diets are predominantly composed of cereals, with limited inclusion of fruits and vegetables. Livestock products also constitute a significant portion of their food intake. Notably, the optimized dietary energy yield for the Large farm is sufficient to meet the household's energy needs. However, despite meeting their energy requirements, diet diversity remains unbalanced. In-person observations however indicate that the households under investigation in this study face challenges in accessing a diverse range of foods, as food access is linked to household economic and also cultural circumstances, as discussed by Jia et al. (2023).This study underscores the potential of implementing novel manure management approaches and integrating green fodder crops to enhance resource use efficiency within smallholder crop-livestock mixed farming systems in northwest Bangladesh. Farmers in our study expressed substantial concerns regarding the costs associated with animal feed. The Farm DESIGN model provided a means to explore alternative strategies aimed at reducing feed expenses and concurrently increasing profitability for farmers. Notably, the utilization of Jara hybrid-1 grass, characterized by higher nutrient content, suggests that a 3:2 combination of Napier grass and Jara hybrid-1 grass is a potential approach. However, further research should be conducted to compare various species of green fodder crops with Napier grass and explore the incorporation of leguminous fodder crops.Despite their challenges, this study indicates that smallholder farmers within croplivestock mixed farming systems still have untapped options to enhance resource use efficiency, improve manure management, and expand the utilization of green fodder crops. The Farm DESIGN model can serve as a valuable tool for researchers, farmers, and policymakers, offering optimization strategies to promote sustainable intensification within crop-livestock mixed farming systems.","tokenCount":"3620"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1eeeef077f2d4fcc93b3a7f8f080ad2c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/ab179e39-28a4-413f-aa86-ce982b837ea4/content","id":"-543691904"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"c410c519-d3a2-47db-8073-f7dacf37d96c","pagecount":"22","content":"Sound experimental design underpins successful plant improvement research. Robust experimental designs respect fundamental principles including replication, randomization and blocking, and avoid bias and pseudo-replication. Classical experimental designs seek to mitigate the effects of spatial variability with resolvable block plot structures. Recent developments in experimental design theory and software enable optimal model-based designs tailored to the experimental purpose. Optimal model-based designs anticipate the analytical model and incorporate information previously used only in the analysis. New technologies, such as genomics, rapid cycle breeding and high-throughput phenotyping, require flexible designs solutions which optimize resources whilst upholding fundamental design principles. This chapter describes experimental design principles in the context of classical designs and introduces the burgeoning field of model-based design in the context of plant improvement science. Keywords Model-based • Classical design • Linear mixed model 13.1 Learning Objectives • Understand fundamental experimental design concepts. • Describe the structural differences between classical designs.• Understand the purpose of model-based design and how it can enhance plant improvement experiments.Good experimental design underpins wheat improvement research, whether it is conducted in the field, glasshouse or laboratory. Experimental design theory has developed over the last two decades from the classical designs described in texts like Cochran and Cox [1] to optimal model-based designs introduced in Martin [2] and extended in Butler et al. [3] and Cullis et al. [4]. However, the fundamental design principles of replication, randomisation and controlling for heterogeneity promoted by Fisher [5] remain the same (Sect. 13.3). Typical plant improvement experiments (PIEs) evaluate treatments in replicated experiments which follow one of a few classical experimental design structures (Sect. 13.4). Examples of treatments include genetic entities such as lines, hybrids or varieties in breeding trials; agronomic factors such as fertilizer or irrigation amounts and pathotypes in disease rating trials. Classical designs primarily differ in the way they control for expected heterogeneity in the experiment, that is, their plot, or block structure (Sect. 13.5). These structures are rigid with respect to the number of treatments and/or replication per treatment and can constrain research outcomes.In contrast, model-based designs are flexible and directly link to the data analysis. They are enabled by the development of statistical modelling technology and advances in computational power. Hence, it is now possible to design experiments which optimize resource use and improve treatment prediction accuracy. Importantly, classical designs can be generated in the model-based design paradigm, as demonstrated in Sect. 13.5.It is important to understand that the new technologies of high throughput phenotyping, genomic selection and rapid cycle breeding are as dependent on robust experimental design as older breeding technologies. The success of these technologies will depend on cohesive multi-disciplinary teams which include biometricians. This chapter aims to provide researchers with a good understanding of experimental design concepts and a taste of what is possible in the model-based design paradigm. As such, it is a resource for basic knowledge and a springboard to other resources for out-of-scope topics.The following terms and concepts form the basis for understanding classical and model-based designs in a plant improvement context. These definitions follow two recommended texts: [6,7].Experimental Purpose is the aim of the experiment. Examples include, selecting breeding lines for variety release and testing the hypothesis that two pesticides are equally effective in controlling aphids.Experimental Unit is the smallest unit to which a treatment is applied. For example, in a yield trial a field plot is the experimental unit as a variety (the treatment) is allocated to an entire plot. In an agronomy trial where a herbicide treatment is applied along a row (containing 10 field plots, say) then the experimental unit for herbicide is a row.Treatment Factors are factors of interest imposed by the researcher, each treatment factor describes what can be applied to an experimental unit. The treatment structure is a meaningful way to divide up the set of treatments.Observational Unit is the smallest unit on which a response (trait) is measured. It is often called a plot but it may not reflect an actual field plot. For example, the observational unit (plot) could represent a tiller or grain sample, sampled from within a field plot. In yield trials, the observational unit (plot) is a physical field plot (i.e. the intersection of a row and column in a field layout) and yield is measured on the whole plot. The term field plot is used for clarity.Plot Factors are the non-treatment factors whose structure describes the observational units (plots).Design Function describes how the treatments are allocated to plots. The process of randomization which determines this allocation takes many forms and considers the logistical constraints of the experiment and the experimental purpose.A replicate is a copy of a treatment, such that the number of replicates of a treatment is the number of experimental units to which a treatment is applied [7].A common question from researchers is \"how many replicates do I need?\" The ability to detect a statistically significant difference between treatments, or power, depends on the underlying population variance (σ 2 ) and the sample size (replication, n). The formula for the variance of the sample mean is σ 2 /n. Theoretically, it is clear that increasing n should decrease the variance of the sample mean thereby increasing the power of the experiment but this is not always the case (see [6,7] for further details).Randomization is the process of allocating treatments to experimental units. Randomization minimizes bias in the experiment ensuring representative sampling of each treatment. Bailey [6] describes four types of bias, each illustrated here with a plant improvement example: Systematic: allocating the varieties 1, 2, …, 20 to plots 1, 2, …, 20, i.e., variety 1 to plot 1, variety 2 to plot 2 etc. in the first replicate for all trials in a multienvironment trial series. Selection: compositing the grain samples from the varieties with lower plot yields but not those with higher plot yields. Accidental: measuring a grain quality trait on varieties which reach maturity before others. Cheating: allocating an irrigation treatment to a lower lying part of the field than a non-irrigation treatment.Biologically, individual experimental units (e.g., field plots) vary from one another prior to the application of treatments. Common sources of variability are fertility and moisture gradients in the field; lighting and air conditioning in glasshouse and processing equipment such as mills in laboratories. If this variability is ignored in the design (or analysis) then the measurement error (residual variation) can be inflated which results in less accurate comparisons between the treatments of interest (see Chap. 15). Blocking the experimental units into groups that are considered to be homogeneous attempts to control known (or anticipated) local variation [5], thereby reducing the residual variance and increasing the precision (power) of the experiment. Complete blocks contain an experimental unit for each treatment, incomplete blocks do not. Spatial variability and experimental logistics determine block size, shape and orientation.Pseudo-(or false) replication is when multiple measurements are taken from an experimental unit. Pseudo-replication frequently occurs when treatments are allocated to big blocks. For example, two trials of a double-haploid population are conducted to assess drought tolerance, one in an irrigated block and the other in a non-irrigated block. There is replication of the breeding lines within each trial (block) but there is no replication of the irrigation treatments and is thus not 'real' [6,7].Orthogonality and balance describe the structure of an experiment [7]. Two factors are orthogonal if they can be evaluated independently of each other, i.e. their estimated effects are the same irrespective of the presence (or not) of the other factor in the model [7]. A balanced design (e.g., RCBD) has equal precision on all treatment comparisons [7].Non-orthogonal designs are possible for situations where resources are limited. In non-orthogonal designs treatment factors are deliberately not equally replicated or deliberately confounded with other factors, such as blocks. Identifying which factors in a design are orthogonal (or not) enables appropriate inference about the key factors of interest. Non-orthogonality can occur between any two factors (treatment or plot) in an experiment. For example, in a randomized complete block design (RCBD, Sect. 13.4.2) the treatment and plot factors are orthogonal but if there is a missing data point then they are not.Balanced incomplete block designs are an example where there is nonorthogonality between the block and treatment factors but they are balanced because each pair of treatments occurs equally often within the same blocks [7].A design is resolvable if its blocks (complete or incomplete) can be grouped into sets such that each treatment occurs exactly once in each set, e.g., a RCBD is resolvable (Sect. 13.4.2).Resolvability ensures orthogonality between treatment and block factors. It is not necessary for an optimal design. However, near-optimal designs are achieved when near-resolvability is attained.An optimal design is selected based on a pre-determined criterion. Two common criteria, A− and D−optimality, seek to minimize a variance. A minimizes the average pair-wise variance of treatment differences whilst D minimizes the variance of treatment means. A is common in plant improvement experiments where the treatment comparisons are of equal interest [2,3,8,9]. A lower value indicates greater optimality.We use the notation of Wilkinson and Rogers [10] to describe the relationship between factors in treatment and plot structures. Let A and B be two factors, where their structure can be independent (A + B, main effects), interacting (A:B), crossed (A*B, a factorial) or nested (A/B, where B is nested with A). The latter two expand such that,, andSee Piepho et al. [11] and Welham et al. [7] for further details. Note that the interaction operand \" : \" is not consistent across statistical packages.In this section we describe classical designs commonly used in plant improvement experiments. The number of treatment factors, their levels and structure, together with management practices and logistics influence the plot structure and subsequent experimental design. These designs differ primarily in their plot structures, whereas their treatment structures are often similar. The Design Tableau approach of Smith and Cullis [12] helps define the treatment and plot factors, the design function and the resulting treatment and plot structures. Common treatment structures are single factor, factorial and nested (Sect. 13.4.1). For each design we describe the fundamental principles, the plot structure and assume a single factor treatment structure unless otherwise stated.To assist with reading the text this font is used for treatment and plot factors. The notation for defining factor levels follows John and Williams [13] such that there are \uD835\uDC63 treatments, \uD835\uDC5F replicates, \uD835\uDC60 blocks and \uD835\uDC58 plots within blocks.The treatment underpins the experimental purpose and informs the experimental hypothesis. The treatment structure describes the relationship between all treatment factors and their allocation to experimental units. Three common treatment structures in PIEs are: Single factor: PIEs often aim to evaluate genetic material for selection or commercialization. The genetic material can be breeding lines, hybrids or varieties, which we call Variety, for simplicity. Variety is the treatment factor and the treatment structure is simply: Variety. Factorial: A factorial treatment structure is possible with two or more factors. A full factorial experiment is when all combinations of all treatment factor levels are evaluated. Partial factorial treatment structures are possible [1]. Agronomy experiments frequently employ factorial treatment structures. For example, an experiment to identify optimal seeding (Seeding) and nitrogen rates (Nitrogen) employs a factorial treatment structure written, using the crossed notation (Sect. 13.3.9), as:Seeding Nitrogen Seeding Nitrogen Seeding Nitrogen : .Factorial treatment structures have the following advantages over a series of experiments with single treatment factors:1. the presence of between treatment factor interactions can be tested; 2. the interaction effects are non-zero then the optimal combination of treatments can be identified; 3. there is higher replication for the individual treatment factors.Nested: Nested treatment structures are hierarchical, often due to biology. For example, selecting breeding lines often occurs within families and the treatment structure is written as:Family Line Family Family Line / : .The plot structure describes the relationship between all plot factors (e.g. blocks, columns, rows, machines) and fully defines the observational units. The design function links the treatment and plot structures. Any of the following designs can have any of the treatment structures described in Sect. 13.4.1.RCBDs have the following characteristics: all experimental units (e.g., field plots) within a block are considered homogeneous, i.e. similar in all respects that affect plant growth; each block contains a complete set of treatments so that blocks are resolvable for treatments; within a block the treatments are randomly allocated to the experimental units. The plot structure iswhere Block:Plot defines the observational units and represents the residuals (errors). The treatment structure can be any of those described in Sect. 13.4.1.Blocks are orthogonal to treatments so that the difference between treatments is independent of blocks. Usually, these experiments have a small number of treatments and the block size is not large. RCBDs are not recommended for PIEs with more than 10 treatments because within block homogeneity cannot be assured.The aim of the alpha-design algorithm, introduced by Patterson and Williams [14], is to generate resolvable incomplete block designs for 'any number of varieties v and block size k such that v is a multiplier of k'. This design function determines how v treatments are allocated to k plots within s blocks within r replicates whilst minimizing the concurrence of treatment pairs within a block. An alpha (0,1)-lattice design has zero or one treatment pair concurrences in a block.Alpha-lattice designs are suitable whenever the number of treatments, v, is a multiple of the block size, k and are easily adapted when it is not. A rule of thumb is to choose a block size which is equal to or slightly smaller than the square root of the number of treatments, i.e., k v = . Figure 13.1 presents an alpha-lattice design for v = 30 varieties with r = 2 replicates, s = 6 blocks within each replicate and k = 5 plots within a block arranged as 4 rows by 15 columns. The plot structure for this design is: where Replicate:Block:Plot defines the observational units and represents the residuals (errors).The treatment structure contains a single factor, Variety.Heterogeneity between rows and between columns in PIEs is well known [15,16]. Row-column designs block in both row and column directions to minimize the effect of spatial heterogeneity. They usually employ incomplete blocks -blocks that do not contain all treatments -and are resolvable when rows and/or columns are grouped together to create single replicate blocks. Piepho et al [17] provide a concise review of these designs. Figure 13.2 presents a row-column design for v = 18 varieties with r = 3 replicates arranged as 9 rows by 6 columns. Each row and column is an incomplete block. The design is resolvable in both the row and column directions with 3 rowblocks (RowBlock) and 3 column-blocks (ColBlock). Varieties (treatments) are allocated to field plots such that there is one replicate in each row-and column-block. The plot structure for a row-column design depends on the direction of any resolvable blocks in the design and will contain row and column terms.The plot structure for the design presented in Fig. where Plot is described by RowBlock:Row:ColBlock:Column, defines the observational units and represents the residuals (errors).The treatment structure contains a single factor, Variety.Layouts with evenly distributed treatments are desirable to minimize the event of treatment pairs occurring together and conforms with the concept of blocking to minimize residual variation. The importance of balance and evenness depends on the intended analysis model and a researcher may forego these characteristics in some situations (see Sect. 13.5). Latinized designs extend the concept of Latin Squares (see [6,7]) where each treatment occurs exactly once in each row and each column. The popular mindpuzzle Sudoku is an example of a latinized row-column design. The design in Fig. 13.2 is a resolvable, latinized row-column design. No variety is in the same row or column more than once. 1. There is a factorial treatment structure and the levels of one factor must be applied to large plots (e.g., irrigation, tillage, herbicide application) for practical purposes. 2. There is a factorial treatment structure, but the aim of the experiment is to investigate the treatment factor allocated to the sub-plots and its interaction with the main plot treatment factor; usually because the differences between the levels of the main plot treatment factor are known (e.g., irrigation). 3. A long-term experiment is in progress with treatments applied to the main plots.Another treatment which can be allocated to sub-plots within the main plots is of interest.Figure 13.3 presents a split-plot experiment for evaluating the effect of nitrogen levels (0, 50, 100 kg/ha) on v = 20 varieties with r = 2 replicates and treatment structure,: .The layout of 6 rows by 20 columns is equally divided in the row and column directions into 6 main plots (MainPlot) (Fig. 13.3). The two replicates (Block) contain three MainPlots each, and each MainPlot contains 20 sub-plots (Plot). The plot structure is:where Block:MainPlot:Plot defines the observational units and represents the residuals (errors). Note, that factors which accommodate spatial variability, such as row and column, are not included. We will extend this example in Sect. 13.5 to illustrate how Strip-plots designs are a variation of a split-plot design. They are used when two treatment factors need to be applied to large areas, e.g., investigating the response to micronutrient combinations. Suppose there are two treatment factors (A with \uD835\uDC4E levels and B with b levels), instead of randomizing the B within A as in a split-plot, both factors are arranged in strips across the replicates. The experimental area is divided into horizontal and vertical strips (rows and columns). Each level of factor A is allocated to all the plots in a row, and the levels of B are allocated to all plots in a column. This design provides high precision on the interaction between treatments at the expense of the main effects [1].Augmented designs are widely used in the design of early stage variety trials. Early stage variety trials have large treatment numbers (hundreds to thousands of lines) with minimal seed availability for replication within and across environments. Augmented designs contain a combination of replicated and unreplicated treatments [18]. The replicated treatments (a set of check varieties, say) are allocated to a classical plot structure which accounts for spatial heterogeneity and the unreplicated treatments (usually the treatments of interest, the set of breeding lines, say) augment the replicated design. Each unreplicated treatment is allocated to one (incomplete) block only while each replicated treatment appears in each block at least once. The systematic repetition of the replicated treatments enables estimation of the block effects and residual (error) variance resulting in more precise estimates of the treatment comparisons of interest.An augmented block design for one of twenty-five trials in the preliminary yield trial (PYT) series of the durum wheat breeding program at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) is presented in Fig. 13.4. The PYT series evaluates 4200 breeding lines grouped into 25 sets of 120. Two checks are evaluated in each trial.Each trial contains 128 field plots arranged in 8 rows by 16 columns. The augmented trial is divided into equal sized blocks (4 rows by 8 columns). The two check varieties (C1 and C2) are allocated to one plot each in each block. The 120 breeding lines allocated to this trial are randomly allocated to the remaining plots (Fig. 13.4). The treatment structure, a single factor structure (Section 0), is Variety. The plot structure for the augmented block design described in Fig. 13.4 is:where Block:Plot defines the observational units and represents the residuals (errors). Note this plot structure is dependent on the experimental design of the replicated checks and is specific to this example.Traditionally, each trial in a series is analyzed separately. However, this compromises the selection decisions as the spatial variability within and between trials is large. It is advisable to analyze all trials together and model the spatial variation appropriately, following Gilmour et al. [15], for example. We describe model-based partially replicated trials, which extend these augmented grid designs in Sect. 13.5.Classical designs can constrain comparative experiments resulting in sub-optimal and costly outcomes [6,16]. A model-based approach can generate classical designs whilst accommodating less structured design specifications such that the design is based on the intended analytical model [2][3][4]. Model-based designs uphold the fundamental design concepts described in Sect. 13.3 and can generate and enhance the classical designs described in Sect. 13.4. They can include terms for anticipated peripheral effects such as those induced by trial management practices along row and columns. Furthermore, correlated structures for the treatment and/or residual Fig. 13. 4 Augmented block design for one trial from the CIMMYT durum breeding program preliminary yield trial series. There are 120 breeding lines (labelled 1-120) and 2 check varieties (C1 and C2). The bold black lines delineate the blocks effects are easily incorporated into a model-based design. An optimal (or nearoptimal) design is determined using pre-defined optimality criterion (Sect. 13.3.8).In this section we review two statistical models frequently employed in plant improvement research: analysis of variance (ANOVA) and linear mixed models (LMMs). Next we demonstrate the application of model-based design with two examples: extension of the split plot example to include random row and column terms and introduction of a partially replicated design which models the correlation between residuals and the correlation between breeding lines simultaneously following Cullis et al. [4,9].The method of ANOVA partitions experimental observations into their treatment and plot factors, enabling a test of significance to be performed for the difference between treatment means. For example, each observation from a RCBD experiment (Sect. 13.4.2) can be written as: observation overall mean treatment effect block effect res i idual.This partitioning is summarized in an ANOVA table (see Welham et al. [7] for details).The principle of least-squares, employed in ANOVA, seeks to minimize the residual sum of squares thus obtaining the best estimate of σ 2 . The residuals (≡ errors) are assumed to be independently, identically, normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 . The treatment and block factors are fixed effects and have no distribution.A LMM modifies the linear model of ANOVA to allow terms to be fitted as random or fixed, hence mixed. Each random term is assumed to be independent with effects sampled from a normal distribution with a common variance, called the variance component. The residual maximum likelihood (REML) method provides unbiased estimates of the variance components [19] in a LMM. It is the method implemented in LMM software such as ASReml-R [20], REML in GenStat [21] and PROC MIXED in SAS.Identifying which terms to fit as fixed or random is non-trivial [11,16,22]. A sensible starting point is the randomization-based model where all plot structure factors are fitted as random and all treatment factors are fitted as fixed [6,7]. Smith and Cullis [22] have developed an instructive tool, Design Tableau, to identify the LMM best suited to the design and analysis of an experiment.LMMs have some significant advantages over ANOVA models. They accommodate non-orthogonality and imbalance arising from missing data or complex experimental designs. When terms are modelled with a variance, (i.e., fitted as random) recovery of inter-block information and appropriate modelling of effects representing different sources of variation (e.g., blocks, rows and/or column) are enabled. There are three characteristics of PIEs which can be accommodated in a LMM: extraneous and residual (plot-to-plot) variability, and complex variance structures between treatments.Extraneous variation arises from management practices and is modelled by fitting row and/or column effects as random and estimating their variance components. If extraneous variation is expected, then it can be included in a model-based design.Accurate estimation of the plot-to-plot variability (residual variation) is achieved via spatial modelling, such as the two-dimensional separable auto-regressive models of order 1 (known as AR1⊗AR1) of Gilmour et al. [15]. Spatial models assume that spatial dependence exists between plots, i.e., plots close together are more similar than plots further apart. Accommodating this dependence between field plots in the design [2,9] is logical and particularly important in trials with minimal replication (see Sect. 13.5.2.2).The treatments (breeding lines, varieties or hybrids) in PIEs are often related. Pedigree information, in the form of a numerator relationship matrix, A, captures the genetic similarity between treatments. Inclusion of the A matrix in the analysis enables estimation of additive and non-additive effects [23][24][25]. Using a modelbased design approach it is possible to include the pedigree information using A in the design process [3,4]. Alternatively, if marker data are available then the kinship or genomic relationship matrix can replace the A matrix.These designs were generated using the R library 'od', a freely available optimal design software [26].Consider the split plot design experiment (Sect. 13.4.2.5) within the model-based design paradigm of \"design how it would be modelled\". The LMM for the analysis of this experiment, using randomization-based theory, would include the plot structure terms Block and Block:MainPlot as random effects, i.e. assign a variance to each of them, σ Block 2 and σ BlockMainPlot 2 , say. The term, Block:MainPlot:Plot defines the observational units, i.e. the residuals, which are assumed to be normally distributed with mean zero and variance σ 2 . In addition, extraneous variation introduced by management practices conducted across rows and column is accounted for by including random row and column effects with variances σ Row 2 and σ Column 2 , respectively [15]. Thus, the plot structure for this experiment is now:where Block:MainPlot:Plot defines the observational units and represents the residuals (errors). The layout presented in Fig. 13.3 was generated using this model. The resulting design is latinized (Sect. 13.4.2.4) with respect to rows such that each variety occurs exactly once in each row and no variety is allocated to a column more than once. The A-optimality criterion increased slightly from 0.362 for the classical design to 0.377 for the model-based design. This is considered acceptable.Partially replicated (p-rep) designs are model-based designs which were introduced as an alternative to augmented grid designs (Sect. 13.4.2.6) for early stage variety trials [9]. The key principle is to replace the replicated check lines in an augmented grid design with test lines. This increases the response to selection due to an increased replication of the lines under selection. The theoretical development underpinning this design is described in Cullis et al. [9] and extended in Cullis et al. [4] to include the use of pedigree information.A yield evaluation trial is planned for 504 breeding lines (Varieties), but the field layout is limited to 24 columns by 26 rows, 624 plots. A p-rep trial is designed where 384 varieties are allocated to one field plot and 120 allocated to two field plots, a p-rep of 24%. The trial is blocked in the row direction (Fig. 13.5). Extraneous variation in both the column and row directions is known to exist due to irrigation infrastructure and management practices. Thus, the plot factors are Block with 2 levels, Row with 26 levels, Column with 24 levels and Plots, described by Row:Column, with 624 levels.The plot structure is:Starting values for the variance components of the peripheral random effects, Block, Row and Column were estimated from the previous year's dataset. The term Row:Column specifies the observational units and represents the residuals. An even spread of replicated treatments was achieved using a separable spatial model with an auto-correlation model fitted in the row direction only (written AR1⊗I). Thus, extraneous and spatial variation is captured in this model.Early generation variety trials are often evaluated in multi-environment trial (MET) series (see Chap. 3). Cullis et al. [9] states, '\uD835\uDC5D-rep designs are particularly suited to this setting [MET] since there is potential to balance test line replication across trials'. Near-optimal designs are achieved by aiming for resolvability across locations and can take family, or pedigree, structures into account. It is not necessary to have equal numbers of lines, nor even equal partial-replication at all locations. This is a significant advantage over the classical design approach given the gain in accuracy for prediction of the genetic effects and selection that is achieved by using model-based design methods [4].Plant improvement datasets are costly and time consuming to collect. It is crucial then, that the best statistical methods (design and analysis) be employed to ensure that the return on investment is optimized. The fundamental design principles of replication, randomization and blocking need to be understood and upheld in classical and model-based designs. Classical designs provide a rigorous, systematic structure and are important in plant improvement research. Model-based designs are flexible and tailored to the experimental purpose and constraints. Model-based design theory allows an easing of some design concepts, such as orthogonality and resolvability, whilst maintaining optimality for the experimental purpose and intended analysis. ","tokenCount":"4758"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c03f43a5f4e058a9129206e46f50fbfe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/10ff8ade-e560-4830-b300-d326d4cec665/content","id":"1844163335"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b4c22b95-04b0-4873-a1d7-be625359dc16","pagecount":"55","content":"The Rice-Wheat System is a farming system which utilizes a crop of rice followed by a crop of wheat. The rice is planted and grown during the high-sun period, which in most of South and East Asia corresponds with the monsoon or rainy season, while the wheat is grown during the low-sun period which is almost always the dry season. The rice crop is grown on puddled soils and perhaps as much as seventy percent of its area benefits from some sort of irrigation. The wheat crop utilizes considerable residual moisture left in the soil following the rice crop and, in many of the Himalayan intermontain valleys and on western portions of the range's piedmont, benefits significantly from gentle \"winter\" showers brought by cyclonic disturbances from the Mediterranean. The magnitude of these winter rains in north-western portions of the area and their decreasing volume to the south-east are shown in the table below. In response to this spatial variability of rainfall, wheat is increasingly limited to areas where at least some supplemental irrigation is possible as one moves across the area from west to east. A traverse of Nepal's Kathmandu Valley during the wheat season demonstrates the importance of low winter rainfall quite clearly. Here soils are moderately porous and winter rains significantly less than those at Lahore to the north-west. In this valley, wheat-sometimes alone and sometimes mixed with mustard-is strictly limited to those fields and terraces which have irrigation available. In the vicinity of Lahore by contrast, much of the wheat is produced on quite heavy soils, using residual moisture plus rainfall and without supplemental irrigation. At the eastern end of the South Asian rice-wheat area in Bangladesh a recent and major expansion of tubewell capability provides a majority of the moisture required to successfully produce a wheat crop.In South Asia the rice-wheat system has a long history, especially in the upstream sections of the Ganges Valley in what are now the States of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in India, and the Punjab of Pakistan. Here the system was established well before the emergence of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as modem independent nations. At least as early as 1872 in Almora District of India's UP, a common practice on both the irrigated and the un-irrigated terraces was to sequentially crop maura (ragi) or rice with wheat or barley. In Sitapur at the tum of the century there were some 65,000 ha double cropped to rice followed by wheat, but to accomplish this it was necessary to plant an early maturing rice variety rather than 11 . . . the more valuable late rice.   In what is now India's Punjab, similar trends were evident 80 years ago, but district reports for areas in present day Pakistan make almost no mention of rice. Thus in Amritsar and Ferozepur the rice-wheat system had been established by 1920 and in Ambala it had become important enough that the District Officer reported a \"... tendency to substitute fine rice for the coarse. 11 J owar and bajra, perhaps?To the east, in Bengal, the reports say little on the subject of ricewheat sequential cropping except in J alpaiguri where some lands along the Tista River were so planted, and in the northern portion of Gaya District where rice was planted to 11 1382 square miles, 249 of which were later planted to wheat. 11 Here opium was also a very important cash crop.2.Population pressures on limited land resources, the necessity for increases in irrigation, the need for a shorter growing season rice variety, and the increasing substitution of rice for the coarse grains and the pulses were all mentioned as problems at the tum of the century as they are today. Far more discussion related to the United Provinces than to either the Punjab or Bengal. The U.P. was then, as it is now, the heartland of the rice-wheat cropping system of South Asia.The rice-wheat area in China is probably at least as extensive as that of the lndo-Gangetic region, is concentrated spatially in the basin of the Yangtze River, and perhaps originated earlier than that in South Asia. F.H. King, writing about China in 1905, says that, \" ... possibly as high as seventy-five percent [of the rice area of China] matures at least one other crop the same year and much of this may be wheat or barley, both chiefly consumed as human food.\"3. T.H. Shen is even more specific. He describes the \"Yangtze Rice-Wheat Region\" and suggests that in its 10 1/2 million ha of farmed land the majority is planted to flooded rice which is followed by winter wheat or barley. He further suggests that a similar cropping pattern is common in the \"Szechwan Rice Region\", but that here com, wheat and rape are the common second crops.4.Thus rice and wheat have long been grown sequentially in a few limited areas of the world. Where they have been grown as an annual rotational system the productivity has been high and the populatrion supported by the system has been at least as great as that supported by any other agricultiural system. Between 1960 and 1990 the area planted to rice and wheat sequentially has increased rapidly both in China and in South Asia. This development was made possible by the package of genetic improvements in rice and wheat and the accompanying improved and intensified management stra~egies which all together have been called the Green Revolution. An important contributing factor was the fact that by the latter half of the Twentieth Century, new land for farming was hard to come by. Food for exponentially expanding populations had to come largely from intensification of output from land already under cultivation.For purposes of the maps presented in this report the extent of the Rice-Wheat System is taken as the extent of the smaller of rice area or wheat area (by district). The results of these calculations are shown in the table below.This may possibly exaggerate the area somewhat, but is based on comments such as: \"Almost [the] entire area under rice is covered under [the] rice-wheat cropping sequence.\"6. By contrast, in a report covering 20 districts of western Uttar Pradesh, the authors document that the \"percentage of rice area in wheat\" by district ranges from 50 percent to 95 percent.7 • The Hukes made field observations and had discussions with local farmers and with regional agriculturalists during an extended reconnaisance survey in March of 1992. In Pakistan's Punjab State as well as in both the terai and the mid-hills region of Nepal they found that roughly eighty percent of the wheat was planted to areas that had carried rice during the previous season. If we accept the observations outlined above it must be concluded that about twenty percent of the area planted to the lesser of rice or wheat by district should be excluded from the system. This twenty percent may be (allow because of water or salt problems, it may be planted to a fodder crop, to a green manure crop, to an oil crop such as mustard or it may be devoted to vegetables. Under this assumption the 12. 7 m ha shown in table represents perhaps 10.2 m ha actually planted to a rice-wheat rotation. This figure, in turn, is remarkably close to the 10.3 m ha reported for China.8.Included with the maps of Uttar Pradesh are two which deal with changes in yield of rice. The first of these shows yield change between 1970 and 1988 while the second shows changes between 1960 and 1989.The two maps are strikingly similar both in their spatial aspect as well as in the magnitude of the change. Clearly, the Green Revolution in rice profitted Uttar Pradesh hardly at all in the decade of the sixties but brought major improvements during the seventies and the eighties.The question of what has been happening to rice yields over the period covered by the maps is open to a variety of intrepretations. Frequently one reads that the rice-wheat system is showing signs of fatigue or at least that the northern and western portions of India showed a characteristic decline in yield growth during the eighties. Data designed to allow the reader to make her/his own decision regarding this point is presented as a series of charts related to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the Punjab (India). These graphs, immediately following the introductory text, show the yield of rough rice by five year running means. This method was adopted to smooth out temporary pertibations caused by local climatic catastrophy or by temporary economic conditions such as the sudden rise of fertilizer prices brought about by oil embargos or similar events.In the case of Bihar there has been scant improvement in rice yields over the 36 year period and a study of the net yield change in yield from pentad to pentad shows extreme fluctuation between gains and losses. However, it may be significant that during the the final seven periods of record all show gains over the preceeding period.Data for Uttar Pradesh is treated •in the same manner and shows a rice yield average of 0.8 t/ha, even lower than that for Bihar during the initial pentad. Progress has been almost steadily upward, except for a slight dip in the mid-sixties, and by the 1985-89 pentad, has achieved yields roughly 0.6 t higher than those of Bihar. In addition, for the final ten periods Uttar Pradesh's rice yields have increased consistently. The curve described by the 5 year running means hints of the early stage of an \"S\" shaped adoption curve.•The case of the Punjab is entirely different. Here yields were high at the start of the period and increased remarkably. The \"plateauing\" effect is clear; yields are no longer increasing at the rate they achieved during the seventies and early eighties. The graph of net yield change shows this even more strikingly with major gains from 1966 through 1977. Following that period the gains have been more modest and showed a decline for one period. The Punjab is well known for its adoption of all aspects of the Green Revolution. Seeds, fertilizers, tractors and pest controls were all adopted widely and used effectively. The yield curve is very similar to the expected \"S\" curve and illustrates well the diminishing returns expected from increased inputs at a high level.For each of the seven units mapped, coverage of the Changes in Per Capita Availability of Rice plus Wheat over the period of the data base is included. Total rice production and total wheat production have been added together by district and have been divided by the population of the district for the year concerned. This was done for the first year of the data base and for the final year. The map presented results from subtracting the first year from the final year. In all cases changes in district boundaries between these years has been taken into account. This map is included for all units mapped because analyzing both production change (combining yield with area harvested) and population growth is considered to be of paramount importance. The reader will observe that for some states, Bangladesh, Bihar and Nepal for example, the picture is discouraging as population growth has outstripped some impressive gains in grain output. In other states such as Uttar Pradesh, India's Punjab and Pakistan major gains in per capita production have far outstripped population growth.There is also universal coverage of maps to show Changes in the Rice-Wheat System Area. These show change from the earliest year of data available until the latest, usually 1960 to 1989. Gains in area are shown as solid dots and losses in area as hollow dots. The scale relative to dot size is constant for the entire series of maps at 5000 ha. Thus one can easily recognize, by comparing the respective maps, that the gain in area planted to the rice-wheat system has been far more profound in the U .P. and in Northwest India than has been the case in Bangladesh or Pakistan. Clearly the original core area has grown more rapidly than have more peripheral regions. Dot maps should be used with caution. The number of dots within a district is always a function of unit size chosen for mapping (5000 ha in most cases) with the default that any residual between 2500 ha and 7499 ha will be represented by a single dot. A residual of less that 2500 dots will be ignored. The distribution of dots within a district is random and should not be taken as indicative of most favorable location.Maps are a valuable tool for the analysis of data. Almost any information that can be presented and analyzed in the form of a table gains an additional dimension when presented as a map. With a cartographic presentation, similarities and differences from place to place become immediately obvious -a spatial perspective has made the figures come alive. This was never more clear to the authors than on a recent field trip where we presented a lecture-demonstration of the Atlas*MapMaker software for 14 district and lead center agricultural scientists. On the computer screen we brought up a map showing Rice-Wheat System as a Percent of Net Cropped Area. There was an immediate outbreak of discussion among the observers, clearly a searching for an explanation of the patterns on the screen. One district among a dozen in the same ecosystem stood out as having a markedly lower percentage of rice-wheat than was the case for ANY ONE of the surrounding districts. Why? Several sound explanations were advanced, but finally one scientist, only half in jest, suggested that the map \"proved that we must improve our methods of data collection.\"   ","tokenCount":"2280"}

data/part_3/0346534084.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"1e9e1b2a98b307622c7a27f7e71f44c1","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/5bb54c6e-cfbe-43dc-aaab-d120f1b7dbae/retrieve","id":"-710131683"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"8cbc6cb2-806e-4838-9e67-a253e65f4ed5","pagecount":"2","content":"Biosecurity is the protection of the economy, environment, biodiversity and human health from the negative impacts associated with the entry, establishment and spread of organisms including pests, diseases and invasive species.Biosecurity is a relatively new term. It encompasses a broader focus than quarantine, which historically has been concerned with pest and disease control within the context of agriculture. Quarantine is the system of measures used to manage risk associated with the entry and establishment of pests and diseases that threaten animal, plant and human health and that have an impact on agriculture. The International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC) also includes broader environmental impacts. Weeds, for example, have long been considered pests within the plant quarantine/agricultural context, but they may also have an impact on waterways or the sea, or they may displace other species at important biodiversity sites and have toxic effects on humans and animals.Because biosecurity is a broad-based activity, it is necessary to develop links among government agencies in order to guarantee effective and comprehensive application of national policies and strategies.• establishment of an agency with overarching responsibility for the development and implementation of biosecurity policies, practices and procedures;• assessment and management of potential risks (associated with the movement of people and goods) to plant, animal and human health, the environment and national economies;• border control to prevent or manage risks associated with the entry of potential pests via any pathway;• ongoing monitoring and surveillance of pest and disease status within a country and the application of effective eradication or control strategies to deal with new outbreaks;• international cooperation on certification of commodities and pathways to minimise biosecurity risks associated with commercial activities and tourism; and• effective information exchange among trading partners to facilitate trading of goods.Given the importance of effective biosecurity systems for protecting plant, animal and human health, environments and livelihoods, PICTs are urged to review and update all their existing legislation that deals with the protection of livelihoods and the environment by:• developing consolidated, nationally appropriate legislation based on the regional harmonised bill, adapting it where necessary to suit national conditions;• undertaking national consultations and awareness on the content and coverage of the proposals;• ensuring the bill that is developed is assigned priority in the government's legislative timetable.SPC has supported countries in updating their biosecurity legislation with funding from the European Union as part of the Pacific Regional Economic Integration Programme (PACREIP). SPC will continue to support countries in developing and enacting their biosecurity legislation, although funding has not been secured.For further information, contact SPC's Land Resources Division ([email protected]).Prepared by SPC for the Pacific Agricultural and Forestry Policy Network (PAFPNet), with funding assistance from the Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). Biosecurity legislation provides a regulatory framework to protect PICTs from unwanted organisms that could threaten aquatic, agricultural and forestry ecosystems; food security; biodiversity; and livelihoods. It identifies a framework for the assessment of risk associated with potential trade and established pathways. This includes the identification of threat organisms and strategies for their management.At an operational level, such legislation outlines a system of procedures detailing how goods can be moved across borders with minimal risk to the environment. It provides a mechanism for penalising breaches of procedure to discourage future infringements. To better implement and enforce biosecurity provisions, the legislation also provides guidelines for enhanced cooperation among government biosecurity officials; environment, marine, agriculture and forestry officials; the private sector; civil society; and non-governmental organisations and communities.Failure to maintain appropriate and up-to-date biosecurity systems that can deal with the increased quantity and diversity of movement of goods and people can have potentially disastrous and costly consequences. Effective biosecurity systems, on the other hand, provide many social and economic benefits. For example, they protect the health and diversity of ecosystems that underpin livelihoods and community resilience to external shocks. Importing countries have regulations and systems in place to protect their own ecosystems, so maintaining and expanding the export opportunities of PICTs requires adherence to biosecurity measures, including the phytosanitary and zoosanitary examination and certification of goods prior to export.In some of the larger PICTs, these export markets contribute significantly to foreign revenue earnings and livelihoods. For all PICTs, protection of fragile island environments is vital for their survival. The introduction of a pest can result in significant disruption to food production systems, with knock-on effects on livelihoods and human health. Controlling or eradicating the pest may also incur significant costs. For example, cocoa pod borer control measures in Papua New Guinea are estimated to have cost PGK 7 million, fruit fly eradication in Cook Islands cost NZD 2 million and the current termite control measures in Fiji have already incurred costs of FJD 4 million.Where are the gaps in biosecurity related laws in the Pacific?The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), in partnership with national biosecurity (quarantine) services undertook an evaluation of their capacity to deliver SPS services to the standard required under the IPPC. The evaluation of legislative frameworks undertaken in ten Pacific Island countries highlighted significant gaps in the existing laws, resulting in countries' inability to provide a legal framework in which biosecurity services could operate effectively.The main gaps identified included:• limited or no export facilitation laws;• limited or no laws to enable risk analysis as part of the import approval process;• limited laws enabling internal biosecurity measures to be taken to prevent the spread of invasive species, pests and diseases within the country;• in some countries, the absence of a legal mandate for biosecurity (quarantine) services to function. Operations were possible only through administrative arrangements under other quarantine-related laws;• non-compliance with international laws such as the SPS Agreement, IPPC and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) Code in countries that are signatories to these agreements, which could lead to loss of export markets or missed opportunities; and• lack of regional harmonisation of biosecurity processes and procedures, which could pose difficulties in realising regional economic integration and trade as envisioned in the Pacific Island Countries Trade Agreement (PICTA) or the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations (PACER).A review of all existing laws governing quarantine-related functions in PICTs, taking into account their regional and international SPS obligations, was conducted in 2005. Following regional and national consultations, a regional biosecurity bill was developed by SPC in partnership with national biosecurity services and international experts. Frameworks of legislation compliant with international standards have been developed by the FAO Legal Office and by OIE. The CBD has recommendations for the content of legislation that deals with the protection of the environment and biodiversity.The harmonised biosecurity bill provides the necessary enabling legislative framework to ensure effective biosecurity services.The regionally harmonised bill was completed and endorsed by senior technical and legal officers of the participating countries at a regional meeting on the biosecurity bill in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in June 2007. The text provides links to the control of human health quarantine procedures, but legislative control of these matters remains a separate law, in compliance with World Health Organization guidelines. • the establishment of a single biosecurity authority • with legislative links to other agencies with operational responsibilities at points of entry;• the format and process for the identification and analysis of risk and its management• with options to prescribe import conditions • the issuing of permits with these conditions• with identification of risk organisms and their listing in regulations;• identification of biosecurity officers and their functions, including cooperation with other officials such as customs and health officers in matters relating to:• setting of fees for service and retention by the agency • methods for the issuing of permits and inspection on arrival of imported goods ","tokenCount":"1270"}

data/part_3/0346786400.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b674011dd543900235602839b4fc8f20","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/e17890f0-2748-483a-9813-206c431a9ea6/retrieve","id":"-1140957682"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"993f9f79-c397-415d-a8a3-24895ef4654f","pagecount":"2","content":"Description of the innovation: Variety planted in more than 30% of the rice growing area in Bolivia, with extra-long grain and good cooking quality. This variety was released from a CIAT/FLAR line. Variety planted in more than 30% of the rice growing area in Bolivia, with extra-long grain and good cooking quality. This variety was released from a CIAT/FLAR line. A total of 254,071 farmers used the variety in 2019 New Innovation: No Innovation type: Genetic (varieties and breeds) Stage of innovation: Stage 4: uptake by next user (USE) Geographic Scope: National Number of individual improved lines/varieties: 1 Country(ies): • Bolivia Outcome Impact Case Report: <Not Defined> Description of Stage reached: Late cycle (137 days), resistant to rice blast, Helminthosporium, and leaf scalding. Extra-long thin and crystalline with good visual appearance. Yield of whole grain in mill: 59.5% Average irrigation yield with agronomic management 9-10 t.ha-1 In dryland 5-6 t.ha-1 High amylose 31.6%, Low Recommended for irrigation conditionsName of lead organization/entity to take innovation to this stage: CIAT (Alliance) -Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT -Regional Hub (Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical)Names of top five contributing organizations/entities to this stage:• FLAR -Fondo Latinoamericano para Arroz de Riego","tokenCount":"196"}

data/part_3/0353673640.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"447f96277e1e13b28fa17c77ae6bb8fe","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/eaaa8d32-76bc-46ed-a053-a70780ead6fa/retrieve","id":"1775589254"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"2775f128-641f-4ef8-a8ef-8a706c0fe67c","pagecount":"13","content":"The traditional implement -\"Maresha\" Traditional practices followed for growing crops on Vertisols General criteria considered in designing the BBM and attachments The broadbed maker and its evolution BBM attachments and their significance The evaluation of the broadbed makerCrop production on Vertisols is often constrained by their physical and hydrologic properties. The main aim of land preparation is to modify and manipulate the land features and soil properties so as to create a favourable environment for seedling establishment and crop growth. The research and development in this field must take into account the practices used by the farming community and the experiences gained from previous research. This chapter provides a brief description of relevant farmers' practices, the traditional implements used and the experience of the Joint Vertisols Project  in developing simple and low-cost implements for Vertisols in a highland agricultural system.Agriculture in Ethiopia is believed to have started 7000 or more years ago. It is not certain when, during this period, the use of animal-drawn tillage implements began. It has been conjectured that Ethiopians inhabiting the northern cereal growing highland areas of the country were introduced to the ard between 1000 to 400 BC by Semitic-speaking invaders from South Arabia (Goe, 1987). A more recent hypothesis, based on available archaelogical evidence, suggests that the use of the ard may have been developed previous to the Semitic invasion by Cushitic-speaking peoples from an ancient region called Nubia in north-eastern Sudan (Goe, 1987). The use of the maresha might not 'have' been associated with one specific group of people. It may have probably been dependent on the physical environment of a particular region that could support animals capable of pulling the implement. Regardless of who introduced the maresha or its prototype into Ethiopia, the acceptance and utilisation of an implement which was powered by animals has contributed towards developing crop-livestock integration currently existing in the country.There are certain areas in the highlands where hoe-cultivation is still practiced But by and large, cultivations are carried out by oxen, pulling the traditional plough the maresha Again in certain small pockets of the country, horses and mules are occasionally used to pull the maresha, but generally, oxen provide the main tractive force.The traditional plough consists of a metal point or tine, fastened on a wooden arm, to the pole, which in turn is fastened to a wooden neck yoke as shown in Figure 1. At each side of the metal point are two wooden wings which push the soil aside. The traditional plough is a light implement ranging from 17 to 26 kg with the yoke (Goe, 1987) and makes it possible to be transported together to and from the field over different terrain by one person. Except for the metal tine which the farmer has to buy from the blacksmith at about US$ 1.00, the rest is home-made. Depending on the crop types, three to five cultivations are required by the maresha before a field could be ready for planting (Table 1).Each cultivation pass is made perpendicular to the previous one so as to disturb the whole soil. The depth of the first ploughing ranges from 5 to 8 cm while with the last pass up to 20 cm depth could be attained. The time required for land preparation also varies from 100 hrs/ha to 150 hrs/ha for Vertisols and light soils, respectively (Abiye Astatke and Matthews, 1982). The maresha has the advantage of being handled by a pair of indigenous oxen each weighing not more than 300 kg. The power developed by a pair of local zebu oxen pulling the maresha ranges between 050 to 0.90-kw (Abiye Astatke and Matthews, 1980). The power developed is dependent on the soil type, soil moisture, soil compaction status, depth of ploughing and the pulling power of the animals.A serious disadvantage of the maresha is that it is a cultivating implement rather than a plough. The soil is not inverted and there is no cutting action. It will be seen therefore, that whilst the maresha is an ideal cultivating implement, it is of very little use in burying stubble and weeds. It is significant to note that weeding out grass-type weeds from cereal crops is a major activity in the agricultural calendar making it probably the most serious bottleneck.The other problem using the maresha occurs during seed covering. In the traditional cultivation method, all the cereal crops and pulses after being broadcast will be covered by a pass with the maresha. The exception is Eragrostis tef which is broadcast and left. Thus the depth of coverage varies from seeds not covered at all to the maximum depth which the maresha tine penetrates. This might be the reason why farmers tend to double or sometimes triple the seed rates recommended by research institutes, as germination rates would be low otherwise.The development of a suitable mouldboard plough as a replacement for the maresha continued to prove difficult up through 1980, with major obstacles being cost, weight, durability and difficulties in getting repairs made at the artisanal level. Past attempts to modify the maresha have included the \"Jimma plough\" in which the wooden soles and share were substituted with flat iron strips and a vertical knife, the \"Vita plough\" in which the complete ard head of the maresha was replaced with a metal mouldboard assembly, and the \"ARDU plough\" which is a modified version of the \"Vita\" design (ARDU, 1980;Goe, 1987).The Jimma plough was found to function poorly with respect to angle adjustment of the vertical wedge, and because the flat iron strips were stronger than the wooden soles there was a greater tendency for the beam to break at its base. Trials demonstrated that while the Jimma plough provided a better tillage than the maresha on loose soil, it had no advantages when used on fallow plots or clay soils (Goe, 1987). It was also more costly than the maresha.Tests with the \"Vita\" prototype indicated that design changes in the moulboard assembly and angle of the handle were necessary to improve its tillage performance. These and other modifications were subsequently incorporated into what later became known as the 'ARDU plough'. However, this plough was rejected both by farmers and extension agents because it was too heavy to be easily transported to and from the field. The metal frame which was attached to the beam to support the mouldboard assembly did not provide adequate stability and the durability of the share and mouldboard were poor due to the high cost of the plough. It also had a higher draught requirement (10-40%) than the maresha, thereby causing the oxen to become more easily fatigued (ARDU, 1980). Overall, adoption of these three implements has not been successful.During the main growing period, waterlogging is one of the major constraints for crop production in the Ethiopian highland Vertisol areas. The severity of the constraint varies from area to area depending on the clay content of the soil, rainfall (during that period) and the soil temperature which also depends on the moisture content of the soil. Farmers of the Vertisol areas realise the adverse effects of waterlogging on crop productivity and have developed traditional methods for overcoming it.One of the traditional methods practiced for overcoming the waterlogging problem is planting crops late in the season after the excess water has naturally drained away to grow on the residual moisture. The varieties of these crops like wheat, chickpea, rough pea etc have a short growing period of not more than three months. Eragrostis tef which mildly tolerates waterlogging is planted during the middle of the rainy season. Traditional practice does not fully exploit the growing period. Hence crop yields are low averaging 0.8 t/ha (Berhanu Debele, 1985).In the high-altitude areas of Ethiopia, ie. above 2400 m asl, a unique practice called 'guie' is adopted for growing barley on Vertisols after leaving the area fallow from 5-8 years (Tesfaye Tessema and Dagnatchew Yirgou, 1973). The farmers plough the land three to four times during the dry season, heap the soil at irregular spacing and burn it with dry manure, grass and weeds. The soil is then spread back on the fields (Berhanu Debele, 1985). After the onset of the following rains in mid-June, the fields are ploughed again and barley is grown. The planting of barley continues for two to three seasons and the land is then left for fallow. The burning of the soil 'guie' changes the top soil structure producing more coarse texture which facilitate better water movement and drainage.Different cultivation techniques are also practiced using the maresha to minimise the waterlogging problem on Vertisols Flat seedbed preparation is common on gentle slopes except for the fact that outside ditches are sometimes dug to control flooding. This method is common in drier regions and crops such as horse bean, field peas, barley, linseed and sorghum are planted (Abate Tedla and Mohamed-Saleem, 1992).In some parts of the central highlands of Ethiopia (Shewa and Gojam), drainage furrows are made with the maresha on the flat seedbed after planting These furrows are made across the contour at distances ranging from three to seven metres. These drainage furrows have an average of 15 cm and depths of 20 cm. The area taken by the drainage furrows from the crop areas can be 10-15% (Westphal, 1975). In areas with high rainfall, it is common practice in the traditional system to make ridges and furrows using the maresha. The ridges and furrows are made after broadcasting the seeds on the traditionally prepared seedbed. The ridges and furrows are again constructed by the maresha at an interval ranging from 40 to 60 cm. The height of ridges from the bottom of the furrows varies from 10 to 15 cm. The major problem with this traditional system has been that no outside drainage is constructed to take the field water. On very low slopes, this practice does not drain out the water from the field. The water thus forms ponds in the furrows (Fig. 2). On moderate and higher slopes, the flow of water from the fields accelerates erosion.At Inewari which is found in the central highlands of Ethiopia, surface drainage of Vertisols is facilitated with the use of manually formed broadbeds and furrows (Fig. 3). The seedbed is prepared by making 3 -4 passes with the maresha. In the middle of the rainy season, the seeds are broadcast and furrows made with the maresha at an interval of 0.8 to 1 m. Using family labour, the soil is then scooped up from the furrows and dumped on the beds. By using this method, they not only form the broadbed and furrow but they also cover the seeds. In the traditional system, grass drainage channels are also constructed to carry the water coming from the crop fields. This practice of constructing broadbeds and furrows manually involves hard work for the farm family.  General criteria considered in the design of the broadbed maker and attachments are soils, the resources available to the farmer, traditional farming systems and manufacturing and repair facilities locally.Vertisols are comparatively fertile soils found mainly on land with a slope not exceeding 8%. These soils have clay contents between 35 and 80%, which largely determine their physical properties. Due to the high clay content, the water-holding capacity is high, the infiltration rate low, and the internal drainage slow. This often leads to waterlogging during the main rainy season. At low soil-moisture levels, Vertisols shrink forming cracks up to 10 cm wide and become hard whine wet; they also swell and become plastic and cohesive. This characteristic allows only partial exploitation of the potential of these soils by using traditional cropping practices, especially in high rainfall areas.The changes required in the farming system need the tillage to be undertaken earlier when the soils are dry and hard. Shallow, rather than deep, tillage is desirable so as to allow for better weed control on Vertisols (Willcocks, 1984). This will minimise draught and reduce the amount of secondary tillage needed to break down large hard clods. The ability of Vertisols to loosen and regenerate their structure makes deep tillage unnecessary.The Vertisols of the Ethiopian highlands are generally considered to have low available N and P (Asnakew Woldeab, 1988;Desta Beyene, 1988). Vertisols are not abrasive and for items of limited use mild steel should be adequate.The limited cash income estimated at US$ 155 per annum (Gryseels and Anderson, 1983) for subsistence farmers of the Ethiopian high ends will be a major constraint to the dissemination of improved tools and farming methods. Implement designs should aim at low costs in order to be accepted by the majority of farmers. Farm sizes are about 2.5 ha but they split into smaller plots and are often at a great distance from the farmstead (Gryseels and Anderson, 1983). Therefore, implements will need to be light enough to transport and manoeuver easilyThe traditional systems use only the maresha and a pair of oxen for seedbed preparation and seed covering. The ground is left fallow throughout the dry season, providing little grazing for cattle. At the start of the small rains (February/March), the maresha is used to break the land for weed control. It is also used in incorporating trash with severe passes when soil moisture is suitable and until the crop is broadcast late in the main rains (August/September). Most crops are covered by using the maresha again.The major crops grown on Vertisols are wheat, sorghum, teff, faba bean, chickpea, rough pea, lentils, noug, fenugreek and linseed. Weeding is done by hand.Animal power seems to have a direct effect on production in the highlands with farmers who own a pair of oxen producing 62 -82% more than farmers with no oxen (Gryseels, 1988).There also appears to be an effect on the cropping pattern as farmers with no oxen sow more pulses than ox-owning farmers. Pulses grow with lower labour inputs and rougher seedbeds than cereals. They also have lower gross margin and may, therefore, lead to lower income (Gryseels, 1988).Many materials are available but since most of the small rural cooperative workshops or blacksmiths find it more convenient to build the implements, it would be better to design the implements based on materials available there. Wood in the highlands is often scarce and of poor quality. The more sophisticated equipment might be built at a large centralised workshop which could possibly use other materials.It would seem appropriate to use traditional blacksmithing techniques as far as possible in the design of the equipment. This would reduce the need for skilled training and the purchasing of special materials. It could also allow an informal dissemination of the equipment if they prove popular.The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) developed an animal-drawn tool carrier in the mid-1970s for forming broadbeds and furrows to improve surface soil drainage of Vertisols (ICRISAT, 1985). The ICRISAT wheel-tool carrier is effective but there are several drawbacks that can hinder its easy acceptance by farmers. The power requirement of the wheel-tool carrier is higher than a pair of local zebu oxen could produce. It is also expensive as it is beyond what the subsistence farmers, who make up the majority of the farming population in Ethiopia, could afford. The International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), with the collaboration of other national and international institutions started work on developing low-cost land-shaping implements based on local materials in 1986. From the beginning of the implement-development programme, farmers in the on-farm verification were invited to test the implement and their suggestions were incorporated in the design-refinement undertaking.The first land-shaping implement had a wooden wing of mouldboard shape, replacing the traditional flat wings of the maresha. After loosening the soil (3-4 passes with the maresha), the implement was used to shift the soil. The time it took to form raised beds of one metre was equivalent to that of the maresha which took about 40 hrs/ha but the quality of the raised beds depended on the skill of the operators. Better quality bed formation was attained where the shift lines of the soil were close to each other. But where the shift lines of the soil were wide apart, they left depressions on the raised beds allowing water accumulation which reduced crop yields. With this modification it was found that making uniform beds was difficult to attain by farmers working on the on-farm verification. They also rejected the system on the basis that it was time-consuming.The second version was a broadbed maker (REM) made from the mareshas (Fig. 4). The main beams of the mareshas were shortened to about 90 cm and were connected with a simple wooden frame. The two flat wings were replaced by mouldboard-shaped wings, two bigger ones throwing the soil to the centre and two smaller wings throwing it outside. Like its predecessor, this implement could only be used for land-shaping and therefore the field had to be ploughed with the maresha three to four times prior to its use. This implement weighed about 35 kg depending on the type of wood used. The average power consumption of 0.7 kw was about the same as the first ploughing required with the maresha (Jutzi et al, 1986). From on-farm verification trials, farmers found this BBM too heavy and bulky to transport to and from the field. They also expressed difficulty in finding the needed 12 bolts in the rural areas for making the frame of the BBM and the spanners required to tighten the bolts. This led to developing another version of the BBM which is in use today. It was made out of two mareshas connected in a triangular structure (Figure 5). The top ends of the maresha beams are tied together and connected to the yoke as the traditional method. For maintaining the distance of 1.2 m between the maresha tips, a crossbeam was tied between the two poles of the mareshas at around a metre from the lower edges of the poles. A steel wing of mouldboard shape is then attached on each of the inner flat wings of the maresha to push the soil inside and form the broadbed and furrow (BBF). The chain attached at the edge of the metal wings not only shapes the beds evenly but it also covers the seeds as the previous BBM. The power requirement for this new BBM is lower (0.62 kw) than the previous one and can be attributed to the metal wings which have lower frictional force through the soil than wood. The area constructed into BBF in six working hours by a pair of oxen ranges from 0.4 ha to 1.2 ha for this and the previous BBM. The rate of work depends on the number of passes applied to make each BBF, the filth status of the top soil and the condition of the working oxen. On-farm verification with the latest version of the BBM has continued until 1990 and the farmers seem to be satisfied with it. However, the farmers observed greater weed infestation on the BBF plots than on the traditional flat seedbed. The work described in this section, would be the attachments for the BBM designed for reduced tillage, weeding and seeding to allow permanent broadbed system to be developed. The potential benefit of post-harvest cultivation with the aim of reducing tillage requirements is obvious; the seedbed preparation time on broadbed can be reduced drastically. Better control of weeds and stubble incorporation could be possible and it can also partially fill the cracks thus reducing moisture loss which can help for the following crop.The traditional method of planting most crops is broadcasting and covering by using the maresha. This method of covering has been shown to mix 15.3% of broadcast wheat seed to a depth of 10 to 20 cms yet leaving 25.3% within the top 2.5 cm (Tinker, 1989). Due to this variation of coverage depth emergence of crops is lower and might be the main reason why farmers use high seed rates. The Institute of Agricultural Research recommends most sorghum varieties to be planted at a rate of 7-10 kg/ha while farmers use up to 30 kg/ha.The broadcasting method of planting also makes it impossible for mechanical weeders to be used. Hand weeding is probably the most time-consuming operation in the traditional system. The labour requirement for weeding teff was 300 man-hours/ha while for wheat it was half of what was required for teff (Abiye Astatke and Matthews, 1980).The planter attachment developed is similar to the traditional planters used in India and other countries in the region. The attachment is a simple hand-metered seeder that mounts on the BBM (Figure 6).The construction materials consist of sheet metal (1.3 mm thick) which are used for constructing the funnel and steel pipes. They are also used for connecting the funnel to the transparent polythene hose which carries the seeds to the steel pipe thus leading the seeds into the furrows opened by the metal tines. The planter was tested with wheat and maize on half a hectare each. It took 6.5 hrs/ha to plant wheat and 5.3 hrs/ha for maize. The seed rates for wheat and maize using the planter were 74 kg/ha and 31 kg/ha, respectively, while in the traditional system the seed rates being used for wheat range from 85 kg/ha to 110 kg/ha varying from area to area (Getachew Asamenew, 1991). The seed rate for maize in around 45 kg/ha. The tine attachment used for planting can also be used for weeding without causing major soil disturbance. Interrow cultivation of wheat was difficult by the tines because the row spacings were close to each other (10-cm space). For maize, which had row spacing of 50 cm, there was no difficulty in using tines for weeding.A blade harrow consisting of a metal blade 4 mm thick fixed on both sides of the maresha tines (Fig. 7) was tried for post-harvest cultivation. This blade harrow uniformly cuts the soil on the BBF at about 5-8 cm below the surface thus slicing weeds at the rooting level when the soil condition is moist. At this period, the implement drastically reduced power and time required for Vertisol cultivation, enabling long-term use of the BBF without having to do it again every year. However, most traditional crops have a long growing period stretching into December when the Vertisols have become very dry and hard and use of the blade harrow is difficult and not effective. Tests on the possibility of using tine attachments were carried out when soil moisture conditions were dry (Fig. 8). The purpose of the test was to reduce the number of tillage operations in order to enable the use of a broadbed over several seasons. A tine-bar attachment to the BBM enabled breaking up the surface crusts and remould the broadbeds.Field preparations by using this method to uproot stubbles down to about 10 mm depth for half a hectare of broadbed and furrow plot without demolishing the beds took only 25 hrs/ha compared to 80 hrs/ha for the previous method of ploughing and making the BBF's.  The evaluation of the broadbed maker Background Agricultural production could be increased either by direct physical inputs like fertiliser and improved seeds or by increasing the area of land which could be cultivated at any one time. The latter requires improved agricultural implements which enhance labour productivity by reducing drudgery. Improvement on agricultural equipment should be undertaken by taking the target group into account. The majority of the Ethiopian farming sector being the small farmer with small fragments of land, the situation limits us to give priority to hand-tool technology and animal-drawn equipment. In the case of hand tools, the power that could be generated by human labour is low and is limited to light work. The case of land preparation specially on Vertisols requires high draft power and the alternative for smallholders is to use animal power. It was with this understanding that ILCA and institutions that collaborate with it developed the animal-drawn broadbed and furrow maker for Vertisol areas. They have been conducting trial on farmers' fields and modifications have been made based on feedback obtained from farmers.The equipment is now very close to being distributed to the end-user in large numbers. If the implement is to reach the end-user on a wider scale, it has to satisfy two clients simultaneously. One is the direct user, the farmer, and the other is the manufacturer. The manufacturer requires the availability of raw material and the ease of manufacturing to be incorporated in the design process of the equipment. The farmer requires the equipment to meet the purpose it is designed for and that its price is within the range of his economic ability.To confirm this, tests should conducted at representative agroecological sites.To test an equipment, a standard test procedure which is interpretable (no matter where it is conducted) is required. At the moment in Ethiopia there is no standard test procedure.The agricultural implements specification and performance standard which is a cutoff line for certification is not set yet. In the absence of all these, the Agricultural Implements Research and Improvement Center (AIRIC), based on the mandate given to it to test all kinds of agricultural equipment and based on its testing experience, has done a preliminary observation on the ILCA broadbed-and-furrow maker. The objective of the observation was to see its technical feasibility in terms of the construction material and skill requirement as well as the ease in operating it. Another purpose was to examine the agricultural feasibility in terms of meeting the purpose it has been designed for. The test was conducted at Debre Zeit on June 6, 1990 in a 12 x 50 m 2 plot size in four replications with wheat as a test crop. Data on the construction features, draft requirement, bed stability and yields were collected. Table 2 shows the construction features of the BBM while Table 3 shows the soil property and performance of the BBM. Measurements of furrow configuration after 50 and 71 days are shown in Tables 4 and 5, respectively, while the crop performance is given in Table 6.Looking at the specification and construction material of the BBM, the construction material and the skill requirement are within the technical capability of the rural blacksmith who manufactures maresha. It is also within the economic reach of the user.The BBM is very easy to adjust and assemble and it requires almost the same skill as that of the traditional plough. But it takes more time to set up and is less manoeuvrable in the field.Between the flat wooden wings and the metal wing soil flows down to the furrow and this limits the height of the bed. Before working with the BBM the field has to be well prepared. The clod size has to be reduced considerably since bigger clods tend to flow back to the furrow and result in uneven bed configuration.The draught requirement of BBM will be high as shown in Table 2 if the BBM is not used at the proper moisture content. The draught increased with an increase in moisture content. The proper time for using the BBM must be specified.A decrease in the cross-sectional area of the furrow and furrow depth as shown in Tables 3, 4 and S shows that the bed-configuration changes with time during the growth period of the crop. This could be attributed to a build-up of the soil in the furrows caused by erosion of the bed surface.The draught requirement of the BBM was recorded as high as 140 kgf. which is higher than the capability of a pair of local oxen for sustained operation. This could be minimised by using the broadbed maker in a well-pulverised soil at moisture regime.Since a performance level standard for the broadbed maker is not set, it is advisable to make a comparative test against the traditional practice of broadbed-making.  ","tokenCount":"4643"}

data/part_3/0374381461.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"59cad0d60f89f6cdd0cb5f120eab7eb7","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://data.mel.cgiar.org/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=hdl:20.500.11766.1/FK2/IJPUJG/UAI22Y","id":"-1622659610"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"666f603b-4b6e-4b8c-a6b0-8ab0f4374995","pagecount":"10","content":"The number of individuals to whom significant knowledge or skills have been imparted through interactions that are intentional, structured, and purposed for imparting knowledge or skills should be counted. This includes farmers, ranchers, fishers, and other primary sector producers who receive training in a variety of best practices in productivity, post-harvest management, linking to markets, etc. It also includes rural entrepreneurs, processors, managers and traders receiving training in application of new technologies, business management, linking to markets, etc, and training to extension specialists, researchers, policymakers and others who are engaged in the food, feed and fiber system and natural resources and water management. In-country and off-shore training are included. Include training on climate risk analysis, adaptation, mitigation, and vulnerability assessments, as it relates to agriculture. Delivery mechanisms can include a variety of extension methods as well as technical assistance activities. An example is a USDA Cochran Fellow.Training should include food security, water resources management/IWRM, sustainable agriculture, and climate change resilience, but should not include nutrition-related trainings, which should be reported under indicator #3.1.9-1 instead.This indicator is to count individuals receiving training, for which the outcome, i.e. individuals applying new practices, should be reported under #4.5.2-5.Measures enhanced human capacity for increased agriculture productivity, improved food security, policy formulation and/or implementation, which is key to transformational development. There is strong scientific and evidence-based information that stakeholders (in the case of this indicator defined as \"producers\") involved in sectors such as agriculture, livestock, fishing, other areas of natural resources can mitigate the effects of climate change by using appropriate new and tested management practices or implement measures that reduce the risks of climate change impacts. For example, risk-reducing management practices in agriculture and livestock might include changing the exposure or sensitivity of crops (e.g., switching crops, using a greenhouse, or changing the cropping calendar), soil management practices that reduce rainwater run-off and increase infiltration, changing grazing practices, or adjusting the management of other aspects of the system. Risk reducing measures might include applying new technologies like improved seeds or irrigation methods, diversifying into different income-generating activities or into crops that are less susceptible to drought and greater climatic variability. Any adjustment to the management of resources or implementation of an adaptation action that responds to climate-related stresses and increases resilience can be considered.Practices and actions will aim to increase predictability and/or productivity of agriculture under anticipated climate variability and change.While many management practices and technologies exist and can be diffused, others may not be well suited to perform under emerging climate stresses. Improved management and new technologies are available and others are being developed to perform better under climate stresses.Resource management experiences from other parts of the world may be useful as climate conditions shift geographically.Type of Risk reducing practice: -Agriculture -practices and actions will aim to increase predictability and/or productivity of agriculture under anticipated climate variability and change.-Water -practices and actions will aim to improve water quality, supply, and efficient use under anticipated climate variability and change.-Health -practices and actions will aim to prevent or control disease incidence and outcomes under anticipated climate variability and change outcomes.-Disaster Risk Management -practices and actions will aim to reduce the negative impacts of extreme events associated with climate variability and change.-Urban -practices and actions will aim to improve the resilience of urban areas, populations, and infrastructure under anticipated climate variability and change. Sex: Male, Female TYPE: OutcomeHigher is better This indicator measures the total number of farmers, ranchers and other primary sector producers (food and non-food crops, livestock products, wild fisheries, aquaculture, agro-forestry, and natural resource-based products are included), individual processors (not firms), rural entrepreneurs, managers and traders, natural resource managers, etc. that applied new technologies anywhere within the food and fiber system as a result of USG assistance. This includes innovations in efficiency, value-addition, post-harvest management, sustainable land management, forest and water management, managerial practices, input supply delivery. Any technology that was first applied in a previous year and that continues to be applied should be included as 'continuing'. Technologies to be counted here are agriculture-related technologies and innovations including those that address climate change adaptation and mitigation (including, but not limited to, carbon sequestration, clean energy, and energy efficiency as related to agriculture). Relevant technologies could include:• Mechanical and physical: New land preparation, harvesting, processing and product handling technologies, including biodegradable packaging • Biological: New germ plasm (varieties, breeds, etc.) that could be higher-yielding or higher in nutritional content and/or more resilient to climate impacts; affordable food-based nutritional supplementation such as vitamin A-rich sweet potatoes or rice, or high-protein maize, or improved livestock breeds; soil management practices that increase biotic activity and soil organic matter levels; and livestock health services and products such as vaccines;• Chemical: Fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides sustainably and environmentally applied, and soil amendments that increase fertilizeruse efficiencies;• Management and cultural practices: sustainable water management; practices; sustainable land management practices; sustainable fishing practices; information technology, improved/sustainable agricultural production and marketing practices, increased use of climate information for planning disaster risk strategies in place, climate change mitigation and energy efficiency, and natural resource management practices that increase productivity and/or resiliency to climate change. IPM, ISFM, and PHH as related to agriculture should all be included as improved technologies or management practices Significant improvements to existing technologies should be counted. In the case where, for example, a farmer applies more than one innovation as a result of USG assistance, they are still only counted once. Also, if more than one farmer in a household is applying new technologies, count all the farmers in the household who apply.This indicator is to count individuals who applied new technologies, whereas indicator #4.5.2-28 is to count firms, associations, or other group entities applying new technologies.Technological change and its adoption by different actors in the in the agricultural supply change will be critical to increasing agricultural productivity which is the Intermediate Result which this indicator falls under.  This indicator measures the new and continuing area (in hectares) of land under new technology during the current reporting year. Any technology that was first adopted in a previous reporting year and continues to be applied should be marked as \"Continuing\" (see disaggregation notes below).Technologies to be counted here are agriculture-related technologies and innovations including those that address climate change adaptation and mitigation (e.g. carbon sequestration, clean energy, and energy efficiency as related to agriculture). Relevant technologies include:• Mechanical and physical: Irrigation, new land preparation, harvesting, processing and product handling technologies, including biodegradable packaging;• Biological: New germ plasm (varieties, breeds, etc.) that could be higher-yielding or higher in nutritional content and/or more resilient to climate impacts; affordable food-based nutritional supplementation such as vitamin A-rich sweet potatoes or rice, or high-protein maize, or improved livestock breeds; soil management practices that increase biotic activity and soil organic matter levels; and livestock health services and products such as vaccines;• Chemical: Fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides safe storage application and disposal of agricultural chemicals, effluent and wastes, and soil amendments that increase fertilizer-use efficiency (e.g. soil organic matter);• Management and cultural practices: Information technology, conservation agriculture, improved/sustainable agricultural production and marketing practices, increased use of climate information for planning disaster risk strategies in place, climate change mitigation and energy efficiency, and natural resource management practices that increase productivity (e.g. upstream watershed conservation or bio-diesel fueled farm equipment) and/or resilience to climate change including soil and water conservation and management practices (e.g. erosion control, water harvesting, low or no-till); sustainable fishing practices (.e.g. ecological fishery reserves, improved fishing gear, establishment of fishery management plans); Integrated Pest Management (IPM), and Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM), and Post-Harvest Handling (PHH) related to agriculture should all be included as improved technologies or management practices.Significant improvements to existing technologies should be counted.If a hectare is under more than one improved technology type (e.g. improved seed (crop genetics) and IPM (pest management), count the hectare under each technology type (i.e. double-count). In addition, count the hectare under the total w/one or more improved technology category. Since it is very common that more than one improved technology is disseminated and applied, this approach allows FTF to accurate count the uptake of different technology types, and to accurately count the total number of hectares under improved technologies.If a hectare is under more than one improved technology, some of which continue to be applied from the previous year and some of which were newly applied in the reporting year, count the hectare under the relevant technology type as new or continuing, depending on the technology, and under new for the total w/one or more improved technology category (i.e. any new application of an improved technology categorizes a hectare as new, even if other technologies being applied are continuing.)Tracks successful adoption of technologies and management practices in an effort to improve agricultural productivity, agricultural water productivity, sustainability, and resilience to climate impacts.Technology type: crop genetics (including nutritional enhancement), animal genetics, pest management, disease management, soilrelated (fertility and conservation, including tillage), irrigation, water management, post-harvest handling and storage, processing, climate mitigation or adaptation, fishing gear/technique, other, total w/one or more improved technology Duration:--New = this is the first year the hectare came under improved technologies or management practices --Continuing = the hectare being counted continues to be under improved technologies or management practices from the previous year Sex: --male --female --association-applied Technologies to be counted here are agriculture-related technologies and innovations including those that address climate change adaptation and mitigation (including carbon sequestration, clean energy, and energy efficiency as related to agriculture), and may relate to any of the products at any point on the supply chain.Relevant technologies include:• Mechanical and physical: New land preparation, harvesting, processing and product handling technologies, including packaging, sustainable water management practices; sustainable land management practices; sustainable fishing practices;• Biological: New germ plasm (varieties, breeds, etc.) that could be higher-yielding or higher in nutritional content and/or more resilient to climate impacts; biofortified crops such as vitamin A-rich sweet potatoes or rice, or high-protein maize, or improved livestock breeds; soil management practices that increase biotic activity and soil organic matter levels; and livestock health services and products such as vaccines;• Chemical: Fertilizers, insecticides, and pesticides sustainably and environmentally applied, and soil amendments that increase fertilizer-use efficiencies; research plots under controlled conditions. All research should have a target, often expressed in terms of traits to be combined into a specific cultivar or breed. When the research achieves \"proof of concept\" (by accumulating technical information and test results that indicate that the target is achievable), the \"under research\" phase is completed. Note that for crops, much or all of this phase might be conducted outdoors and in soil; these attributes do not make this work \"field testing.\" c. For non-crop research: \"under research\" signifies similarly research conducted under ideal conditions to develop or support the development of the product or process. ¾ …in Phase II: under field testing as a result of USG assistance \"Under field testing\" means that research has moved from focused development to broader testing and this testing is underway under conditions intended to duplicate those encountered by potential users of the new technology. This might be in the actual facilities (fields) of potential users, or it might be in a facility set up to duplicate those conditions. More specifically: a. For biotech crop research: Once a permit has been obtained and the research moves to a confined field, the research is said to be \"under field testing.\" b. For non-biotech crop or fisheries research: During this phase the development of the product or technology continues under end-user conditions in multi-location trails, which might be conducted at a research station or on farmers'/producer's fields/waters or both. Note that for crops, all of this phase would be conducted outdoors and in soil, but this is not what makes this work \"field testing.\" c. For non-crop research: \"under field testing\" signifies similarly research conducted under user conditions to further test the product, process, or practice. In the case of research to improve equipment, the endpoint of field testing could be sales of equipment (when the tester is a commercial entity). In other cases it could be distribution of designs (when the tester is a noncommercial entity) and also distribution of publications or other information (on the force of the good results of field testing). ¾ …in Phase III: made available for transfer as a result of USG assistance.Note that completing a research activity does not in itself constitute having made a technology available. In the case of crop research that developed a new variety, e.g., the variety must have passed through any required approval process, and seed of the new variety should be available for multiplication. The technology should have proven benefits and be as ready for use as it can be as it emerges from the research and testing process. In some cases more than one operating unit may count the same technology. This would occur if the technology were developed, for instance, in collaboration with a U.S. university and passed through regional collaboration to other countries. Technologies made available for transfer should be only those made available in the current reporting year. Any technology made available in a previous year should not be included.This indicator tracks the three stages in research and technology investments and progress toward dissemination. ","tokenCount":"2207"}

data/part_3/0377089272.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"8aa3bc35a23e6cc1c0a3eb8f0adc4908","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/32aa43e5-7801-4d68-b402-2a428910ca46/retrieve","id":"13976360"},"keywords":["Cassava roots","hardness","pasting properties","provitamin A carotenoids","stickiness","viscoelastic"],"sieverID":"699b9785-ae09-40dc-824b-083c9cc3c848","pagecount":"11","content":"We studied the textural and rheological (viscoelastic) properties of fresh lafun dough, a fermented cassava product, and their changes during storage at 45 °C for 5 and 24 h, in order to determine after-cooking storability. Lafun flours were produced from three types of cassava varieties: seven improved white-fleshed varieties, seven improved provitamin A carotenoids (pVAC) varieties and two local white-fleshed varieties; and processed into lafun doughs. Pasting properties of the flours were assessed. Flours from local varieties had pasting profiles with highest viscosities, while pVAC flours had the lowest. The three types of cassava varieties varied significantly in most of their pasting properties. Four promising improved varieties were identified, based on high peak viscosity (55.8-61.5 P) and stiffer texture than local varieties during storage. Undesirable varieties were also found, which softened during storage instead of hardening. Optimum texture of lafun dough was obtained after 5 h of storage.Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions for its starchy roots, whose flesh is white, or less commonly cream to yellow. Increasing interest is oriented to the cassava plant as this crop is more and more used for food and nutritional security purposes and for many industrial applications. It constitutes a staple food for more than 500 million people (El Sharkawy, 2004) and is consumed in various food forms, including traditional and newly designed foods. To meet the requirement of the users, improved varieties with particular properties (fast growth, high yield, low cyanogenic potential, provitamin A biofortified, etc.) have been developed (Teeken et al., 2018). Particularly, as vitamin A deficiency is a widespread public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa, breeders released provitamin A biofortified cassava to enhance this micronutrient intake. As far as micronutrient deficiency in whitefleshed cassava varieties is concerned, cassava consumers can improve their diet with provitamin A enriched derived foods such as gari, fufu, lafun, chickwangue and atti ek e. However, apart from nutritional qualities, consumers expect specific textural characteristics from these foods (firmness, stickiness, chewiness, adhesiveness, extensibility, swelling capacity, etc.), which are often not well known for new genotypes.Several studies have been carried out on pasting and rheological properties of flour and starch derived from cassava. Ojewumi et al. (2019) studied the rheological properties of cassava starch in comparison with corn starch and reported that cassava starch gel had a more pseudo-plastic property. In Ghana, Aryee et al. (2006) evaluated thirty-one cassava varieties for their pasting characteristics. In Nigeria, Omodamiro et al. (2007) processed twenty-eight cassava genotypes into starch and lafun and measured pasting and functional properties. Anggraini et al. (2009) reported that whitefleshed and yellow-fleshed cassava were similar in elasticity, cohesiveness, adhesiveness and hardness of the starch gel. However, Awoyale et al. (2015) found pasting temperature, peak viscosity, breakdown, setback and final viscosities to be higher for yellow-than for white-fleshed cassava varieties. Other properties such as water absorption capacity, swelling power and solubility were shown to be location-and variety-dependent on both yellow-and white-fleshed cassava (Anggraini et al., 2009;Awoyale et al., 2015;Ayetigbo et al., 2018). However, for Ayetigbo et al. (2018), flours from both types of cassava displayed similar textural and rheological properties. Although the whiteand yellow-fleshed cassava varieties have been studied regarding properties of their starches and flours, limited research has been done on the relationship between flour pasting properties and dough texture, and the effect of storage conditions on cassava dough like lafun.Lafun is made by fermenting and drying cassava chunks, which are then milled into flour. To obtain a stiff dough, lafun flour is added to a mixture of boiled water and ogi, a maize starch. Nago et al. (1998) reported starch content in ogi varied from 75% to 77%, while in fermented cassava, it varied from 77% to 85% (Onitilo et al., 2007). Because of the high pasting characteristics of cassava starch (Anggraini et al., 2009;Ojewumi et al., 2019), processors add the ogi during lafun cooking to decrease viscosity and thereby reduce the strength required for kneading the dough. This behaviour was highlighted by Monthe et al. (2019) who reported that cassava flour had high pasting characteristics (due to high starch and low amylose contents), leading the authors to add cereal flour in composite bread preparation. These authors reported that hardness of the derived product seems to be positively correlated with the sorghum proportion and negatively with the cassava proportion.The fermentation process can impact stability of starch granules (Adegunwa et al., 2012). The addition of ogi (maize starch) presumably affects aftercooking stability, and as a result, lafun could show particular texture and rheological properties. Other sources of variability include the fact that after cooking, the dough can be eaten or stored for one to three days, sometimes with a loss of textural quality. There is a lack of information on the texture of lafun dough during storage. This study aims at clarifying textural and rheological properties, and after-cooking storability of lafun from improved cassava varieties, and positioning them against lafun from two control local varieties.Two local cassava varieties and fourteen improved varieties were studied, all of them with low cyanogenic potential (sweet). Local varieties ] have white flesh, and they were selected based on the recognised suitability for lafun production by processors. All the improved varieties were from an experimental plot established for morphological characterisation at the IITA-Benin station during the 2017-2018 cropping season. Among these cassava varieties, seven (I011797, I083724, I011412, I083594, I070593, I090090, I070539) were provitamin A carotenoid (pVAC) with a yellow flesh, and seven [Ina-H (92B/00061), Igb ekokpan (92B/00068), MR-67 (92/0067), RB 89509 (RB or Gb ez e), Ina Premier (92/ 0427), Maniben-03 (Oko-Iyawo), Oba€ ıl e (92B/0057)] had white flesh. Roots were harvested 12 months after planting.Ogi was produced as described by Nago et al. (1998) by boiling whole maize kernels for 10 min, steeping for 1 h, wet-milling and wet-sieving using tap water in the ratio (water: ground product) of 5:1. After settling for 12 h, the supernatant was poured off until 28-30% dry matter content to obtain ogi.The sixteen experimental materials were processed separately by a consortium of skilled processors. Cassava roots (35 kg) were peeled, roughly cut and washed. Cut pieces (7-10 cm length) were soaked in tap water, with each material contained in separate covered plastic containers (100 L), and left to ferment for 48 h at ambient temperature (28-30 °C). Thereafter, the fermented cassava pieces were defibred and crumbled by hand, placed on trays and then sun-dried for three days. Samples were covered overnight and uncovered at sunrise. The temperature in the sun varied from 30 to 45 °C. The dry product was then crushed (Hammer mill, Lister-DMA) to obtain lafun flour.Lafun dough (1 kg) was prepared using a mixture whose proportions were obtained from preliminary tests with processors: boiled water (631 mL), ogi (158 g) and lafun flour (211 g). Ogi was added to boiling water, which was kept on the fire 30 additional seconds before being removed. Thereafter, lafun flour was added and the mixture was kneaded during 3 min using a kitchen kneader (Nasco-HM-990, France).The dry matter content (DMC) was determined on cassava roots, lafun flour and lafun dough by oven drying at 105 °C to constant weight according to AOAC method (1984). Water activity was determined on lafun flour with a thermo-hygrometer recorder C056696 (Rotronic Hygrolab 2, Bassersdorf, Switzerland) according to the method described by Anihouvi et al. (2006). These analyses were repeated three times.The colour parameters were determined on cassava roots, lafun flour and lafun dough using a CR 410 chromameter (Chromameter Konica Minolta Optics, INS, Japan, 2012) calibrated with a reference white ceramic whose colour coordinates are Y = 86.10; x = 0.3194 and y = 0.3369. The L*, a*, b* values were recorded, where L* corresponds to the luminance; a* the saturation in red and b* the saturation in yellow. The thickness of the samples was 1.3 cm. The brown index (100-L*) was calculated as described by Akissoe et al. (2001). This analysis was repeated three times.The pasting properties of the lafun flours were measured using a rheometer (HAAKE, Viscotester iQ-Air, Dielselstrasse 2, Germany) in accordance with AACC method 61-02-01 (2012). A flour-water suspension of 25 mL with 8% (dry basis) of dry matter was subjected to the following temperature profile, under continuous stirring at 160 rpm: holding at 50 °C for 5 min, heating from 50 °C to 95 °C at 6 °C min À1 , holding at 95 °C for 5 min, cooling down to 50 °C at 6 °C min À1 and then holding at 50 °C for 5 min. Fives parameters were measured: temperature at which starch granules begin to swell and gelatinise and defined as an increase of 0.20 P over a period of 20 s (pasting temperature, PT), time to pasting temperature (pasting time, Pt), peak viscosity (PV), time to peak viscosity (tPV), hot paste viscosity at the end of the plateau at 95 °C (holding strength, HS) and cool paste viscosity raising 50 °C (final viscosity, FV). With them, three additional parameters were calculated: breakdown (PV-HS), ease of cooking (tPV-Pt) and setback (FV-HS). The analyses were performed in duplicate, the mean values were calculated and the viscosity parameters were expressed in Poise (P).Textural analysis was performed using a texturometer (model TA-XT plus, Stable Micro Systems, Godalming, UK) equipped with an extrusion cell (OTTAWA cell -A/ OTC; extrusion plates A/WBL) with a 50 kg load cell. Three samples of 150 g were collected from the lafun dough obtained from each variety, for a total of forty-eight samples. Since lafun dough is consumed lukewarm (around 45 °C), the three samples from each variety were wrapped in plastic film and stored in an oven at 45 °C (GFL 3031) for 15 min (0), 5 h (5) and 24 h (24), respectively. The extrusion parameters applied for each sample were extrusion distance of 80 mm and the pre-test, test and post-test speeds of 5, 1 and 10 mm sec À1, respectively. Hardness (N) defined as the peak compression force and stickiness (N.sec), which is the negative force area of the compression, were recorded for the lafun dough characterisation. This experimental design was repeated three times.The rheological behaviour of the lafun dough sample was evaluated using a rheometer (HAAKE Viscotester iQ Air) equipped with parallel planes geometry with a ridged surface to avoid any sliding effect. The measurements were carried out at 25 °C, and the temperature of the sample was controlled by means of a Peltier effect system connected to a refrigerant (ViscothermVT2, Anton Paar GmbH, Graz, Austria). For each variety, samples of 3 9 150 g lafun dough were collected and stored in an oven at 45 °C (GFL 3031) during 15 min (0), 5 h (5) and 24 h (24), respectively. Two sub-samples of 10 g were collected for each storage duration. Each sub-sample was placed between the two plates and allowed to stand for 60 s before the measurements, while the excess of dough was removed. Analysis was carried out at a constant frequency of 1 Hz, while strain amplitude varied between 0.001% and 1000%. The storage modulus (G', a measure of elastic response) and loss modulus (G\", a measure of viscous response) were calculated. The evolution of G' allowed identification of the critical stress sc (Pa) limiting the linear viscoelastic region (LVR). The critical stress was determined when the G' value decreased more than 5% with respect to the previous average value. This critical stress, corresponding to the LVR G', was considered as the viscoelastic response. This experimental design was repeated twice.Data were subjected to descriptive statistics and to analysis of variance (ANOVA), and mean differences compared by the least significant difference (P < 0.05). Pearson's correlations (P < 0.05) were determined where appropriate using XLSTAT (Addinsoft, Paris, France, Version 2019). from 18.1% to 37.7% (wet basis) (Table 1). The mean DMC in the provitamin A Carotenoid (pVAC) varieties (29.5%) was significantly lower than the mean DMC of local white-fleshed varieties (35.9%). There was no significant variation in DMC of lafun flour (89.1-91.0%) or of lafun dough (23.6-25.3%) irrespective of the cassava varieties types. The mean water activity of local variety flour samples (a w = 0.51) was significantly lower than the mean obtained for samples from both improved white-fleshed cassava (a w = 0.59) and from pVAC varieties (a w = 0.60).During processing into lafun, colour of cassava and derivatives was characterised by a yellow index and brown index (Table 1). Both parameters were very similar for local and improved white-fleshed cassava, but lower than those of the pVAC varieties. The brown index of lafun flour differs significantly between the three types of cassava varieties, the lowest being the local white-fleshed varieties and the highest the pVAC varieties. For the yellow index of lafun flour, only the pVAC varieties were significantly different, with a reading of 11.0 compared to 6.1 and 5.4, respectively, for the improved and local white-fleshed varieties. After cooking, no significant difference was observed between the brown indexes of the doughs, but the yellow index showed significant difference between products, with the pVAC varieties having the highest level. The yellow index of pVAC varieties decreased significantly more than 50% during lafun flour production and later increased in lafun dough. For all variety types, the brown index increased significantly both during processing into lafun flour and during cooking into dough.The pasting properties of lafun flours revealed significant differences between the three types of cassava varieties (Table 2 and Figure S1). Only pasting temperatures, related to the beginning of starch gelatinisation during the heating step, were similar for the three types of cassava varieties, ranging between 68.1 and 69.7 °C. Local white-fleshed varieties and pVAC had the highest and lowest average peak viscosity values (62.2 and 51.6 P, respectively); however, inside each variety type, large variations were observed. Most varieties reached peak viscosity at similar times (tPV), between 11.8 and 13.6 min, with four notable exceptions: Local white-fleshed variety Ben-86052 (Ben) and improved white-fleshed varieties Ina-H (92B/00061), Oba€ ıl e (92B/0057) and Maniben-03 (Oko-Iyawo) had much higher peak times, between 20.6 and 29.3 min. Such high peak times indicate a gradual increase in viscosity for these varieties, without a distinct viscosity peak in the pasting profile. Breakdown viscosity was highest in pVAC (24.1 P) and lowest in improved white-fleshed varieties (19.3 P). Final viscosity was significantly highest in local white-fleshed samples (59.8 P), closely followed by improved white-fleshed (50.2 P) and then by pVAC varieties (37.5 P). The three types of cassava varieties had significantly different setback values with 19.7, 13.8 and 10.0 P for local whitefleshed, improved white-fleshed and pVAC varieties, respectively.Hardness of lafun dough was significantly affected by storage period and cassava variety (Table 3). The pVAC I070539 lafun dough liquefied at the onset of storage period (3.8 N), to the point of becoming unsuitable for the texture and viscoelasticity measurements during storage. Among the remaining 15 lafun doughs studied, three groups of hardness behaviour were observed: increase in hardness, decrease in hardness (softness) and no modification (Fig. 1 and Table 3). Indeed after 5 h of storage, six varieties became stiffer (EYEKOFO, Igb ekokpan (92B/00068), MR-67 (92/0067), I090090, Ben-86052 (Ben), and I070593) and two softened (Oba€ ıl e (92B/0057) and I083594). From 5 to 24 h of storage, the six stiffer varieties either continued to harden (EYEKOFO, Igb ekokpan (92B/00068) and MR-67 (92/0067)) or maintained the level of hardness reached at 5 h. Both softening varieties at 5 h of storage (Oba€ ıl e (92B/ 0057) and I083594) continued to soften until 24 h, and two more varieties (Ina-H (92B/00061) and Maniben-03 (Oko-Iyawo)) that were initially stable also started to soften until 24 h. The remaining five varieties did not show any change in hardness during the 24 h of storage. No relation was found between hardness behaviour and the varietal type (pVAC, Improved white or Local white); however, both local white varieties belonged to the increasing hardness group (Table 3).A significant decrease in stickiness was observed during storage for most of the samples (10 out of 15) with no significant effect of cassava groups (Table 3). In addition, no significant correlation (r = 0.38) was observed between hardness and stickiness.For all samples, G' values are higher than G\" values during lafun dough storage (results not shown). The three types of cassava exhibited similar viscoelastic behaviour. However, LVR G' of 5 out of 14 samples decreased during storage duration (Table 3).     Colour is another important criterion that orients the choice of cassava users for specific purposes. The predominant flesh colour of cassava is white, along with most of its derived products (Vimala et al., 2011). However, for pVAC varieties, which have yellow flesh, the colour of the end products must be subject to the consumer acceptance. In this study, two factors were identified that influence colour: Sun-drying during processing of pVAC into lafun flour decreased significantly yellowness, which might indicate loss in carotenoids as observed by Vimala et al. (2011), Maziya-Dixon et al. (2009) and Chavez et al. (2007). The increase in brown index in all lafun dough may be due to the Maillard reaction involving utilisation of available reducing sugars or proteins (Akissoe et al., 2001;Oyedeji et al., 2017).Regarding the pasting (gelatinisation) properties, our results did not show significant differences among the three types of cassava varieties. Pasting temperatures were close to the range of 66.8-70.4 °C reported by Aryee et al. (2006) on cassava flours and lower  heating rate). Starch composition (amylose/amylopectin ratio) with higher amylose content associated with higher pasting and gelatinisation temperatures (Charles et al., 2005). Other studies have found   The three types of cassava varieties differed significantly according to their peak viscosity. Rosenthal et al. (1974) suggested that high peak viscosity contributes to a good texture of paste, which depends on moderately high gel strength. Kaur et al. (2007) reported that peak viscosity increases with the starch granule size, which determines the swelling pattern and viscosity profile during pasting. Overall, the local white-fleshed cassava varieties had high peak viscosity in accordance with the preferences of local processors and consumers for lafun stiff dough. Some of the improved varieties also showed viscosity peaks close to the local white-fleshed varieties, and even higher in some cases (I070593, I090090, Igb ekokpan (92B/ 00068) and RB 89509). These improved varieties with high viscosity peaks belong to the variety type with stiffer behaviour during storage (I070593, I090090, Igb ekokpan (92B/00068)) or to the variety type with no significant change during storage (RB 89509).When starch breakdown occurred during the heating process, pVAC flours had higher breakdown. Kaur et al. (2007) showed that during the breakdown, the swollen starch granules are disrupted and amylose molecules are continuously leaching out. Eliasson (2004) reported that high breakdown is not desirable since it leads to uneven viscosity and results in the cohesive nature of the starch paste. Hence, in this study, the best lafun paste stability was observed with improved white-fleshed varieties, which had the lowest breakdown. The three types of cassava varieties also differed significantly according to their final viscosity and setback, indicating different tendencies towards reassociation of amylose molecules upon cooling. Local white-fleshed varieties in particular had the highest final viscosity and setback. According to Karim et al. (2000), the setback refers to the gelling ability of starch which results from the rearrangement of leached amylose molecules. Sanni et al. (2001) also reported that higher setback during cooling of lafun indicates higher amylose retrogradation. Tappiban et al. (2020) demonstrated that the pasting properties, and in particular the setback, are influenced by the molecular size of amylose and amylopectin. Thus, the larger the amylose and the amylopectin, the higher the value of setback viscosity. Their results showed also that molecular size of amylose and amylopectin is dependent of the cropping environment. Further research is needed to clarify the impact of environmental conditions on the quality of flours and end products. Based on the work reported here, the lower final viscosity and setback observed in lafun from pVAC indicate a weaker network of retrograded amylose in these varieties, possibly reflecting a lower amylose content. In this case and according to Kim et al. (1995), these cassava varieties cannot be used for products in which starch stability is required at low temperatures such as adhesives, fillings and products that require refrigeration. Further research should investigate the behaviour of lafun dough at 4 °C, since currently the product is stored at ambient temperature (28-35 °C) only two to three days. Regardless of flesh colour and variety, the lafun doughs were clustered into three groups according to their hardness behaviour during storage (45 °C for 24 h): either increase, stable or decrease in hardness. In the vast majority of cases, pastes and gels of gelatinised starch tend to increase in hardness during storage, due to starch retrogradation (Karim et al., 2000): firstly by amylose retrogradation within minutes after gelatinisation and cooling (Fechner et al., 2005), and secondly by amylopectin retrogradation within hours or days depending on storage conditions (Tran et al., 2007). In the case of cassava, Rodr ıguez-Sandoval et al. ( 2008) reported an increase in hardness for dough produced from cassava parenchyma cooked and stored at either À5 °C or À20 °C during 24 h. In the current study, the decrease in hardness observed in lafun doughs for some varieties was thus unexpected and points to a concurrent phenomenon of retrogradation. One hypothesis is enzymatic activity (amylases) during storage, which resulted in partial hydrolysis of the starch matrix and consequently decrease in hardness. A total of five varieties out of 16 exhibited reduced hardness after storage: Two pVAC (I070539, I083594) and three improved white (Oba€ ıl e (92B/0057), Maniben-03 (Oko-Iyawo), Ina-H (92/00061)). The I070539 variety in particular softened to such an extent that it became liquid-like and texture measurement was not possible. Interestingly, the three improved white varieties that softened during storage all had high peak times (tPV, Table 2) associated with a gradual increase in viscosity during pasting rather than a distinct viscosity peak. The changes in viscosity observed on the pasting profile reflect the molecular and supramolecular structures of starch and starch granules; therefore, such structures may play a role in the softening during storage of lafun. Softening of lafun dough is an undesirable quality trait, and cassava varieties that behave in this way need to be detected and screened out. The tPV parameter may be relevant for this purpose, given the apparent link between high tPV and the softening during storage of lafun from improved white varieties. This link needs to be confirmed through further study of the influence of cassava variety on the quality of lafun.In the current study, the hardness of lafun doughs after 24 h storage was associated with higher setback as measured by AACC 61-02-01 ( 2012 which indicates that amylose may contribute in determining the hardness after storage. However, no significant correlation was identified (r = 0.52), which can be explained considering that lafun flour and lafun dough are distinct products: In particular, lafun dough contained added cereal starch (ogi) that may also contribute to increasing the hardness after storage. Frederick (2007) reported that high levels of cereal, in a gluten-free bread formulation, led to bread with a high hardness, and Onyango et al. (2011) showed that the firmness of the crumb of sorghum-cassava formulations increased when the concentration of cassava starch decreased. When focusing on the group of varieties that exhibit decreasing hardness during storage of lafun dough, the extent of amylose retrogradation, as indicated by the setback, may play a role in limiting the loss of hardness, as shown by the significant correlation (r = 0.96) between setback and the rate of decrease in hardness between 0 and 24 h. The differences in textural behaviour among the three groups of cassava varieties may also be due to differences in the damage to starch granules and starch molecules during fermentation, sun-drying and/or cooking, depending on the cassava variety. Non-starch polysaccharides present in the lafun, such as cell wall materials, may also influence textural behaviour, either through their quantity or through their mode of degradation caused by hydrolytic enzymes and the lower fermentation pH as reported by Adetunji et al. (2016).A decrease in stickiness was observed during storage for most of the doughs. Addition of maize starch in lafun dough preparation probably affected the stickiness behaviour. As reported by Monthe et al. (2019), adhesiveness, which indicates the sticky character of the crumb, is less pronounced for cereal proportions greater than 12.5% and cassava amount lower than 75%, equivalent to a ratio of 1:6 while in our study the ratio is around 1:4 (dry basis). In addition to ingredients, the storage temperature also influenced the stickiness of lafun dough. Indeed, Hadziyev & Steele (1979) reported that a cooling step at 45 °C promoted retrogradation of both extracellular starch and starch within the unruptured cell, thereby decreasing stickiness.The viscoelastic property is also an indication of lafun dough quality during storage. In comparison to G\", the higher values indicate that lafun doughs experience a lot of mixing and withstand considerable mechanical work (Watanabe et al., 1992). Deformations are essentially elastic or recoverable and can be explained by swelling power of starch granules. Shon & Yoo (2006) reported that swelling power and temperatures govern the viscoelastic properties of gelatinised starch dispersion. As reported by Osundahunsi et al. (2011), a decrease of viscoelastic response (LVR G') during storage may be due to the increased stability of the granular integrity caused by strengthening of bonds in the swollen granules of dough due to temperature and storage duration.Pasting properties of lafun flour and hardness during lafun dough storage strongly discriminate the 14 improved and two local cassava varieties evaluated in this study, resulting in three textural behaviours during storage: stiffening, softening and no modification. Overall, improved varieties showed poor pasting properties. Among them, only four lafun dough samples (Igb ekokpan (92B/00068), MR-67 (92/0067), I090090 and I070593) with high peak viscosity had hardness behaviour close to local varieties ). Softening of lafun dough was observed in five improved varieties and likely related to starch hydrolysis during storage, while stiffening was affected by the addition of cereal starch into lafun. Further research needs to be done to clarify the impact of ogi (maize starch) on the texture of lafun, so that appropriate formulations of ogi-cassava blends can be developed in order to upgrade the use of the improved cassava varieties. Hardness and stickiness change during lafun dough storage, and optimum texture is achieved at around 5 h storage time. The effect of the environmental conditions undergone by the crops and which determine the fine composition of starch and consequently the texture of lafun need to be explored more deeply.","tokenCount":"4439"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b7f90489246341d43f64119551dfa12a","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/f2fb6e22-feab-448d-b85d-0ef7f5f16114/retrieve","id":"2056917539"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f09f3d20-11c0-454c-9e24-812093af305e","pagecount":"26","content":"Climate-smart interventions in agriculture, or climate-resilient agriculture, is increasingly becoming a global climate policy priority. Agriculture is increasingly gaining recognition from climate policy actors for its exposure to climate change impacts and its contribution to climate change. Investment into climate-smart agriculture (CSA) innovations are also receiving increasing attention from investors. The official climate change policy position for all countries of East Africa is to prioritize adaptation, with mitigation expected to be a co-benefit if, when and where possible.Agriculture is a key sector of Tanzania's economy, accounting for about 25 -32 % of Tanzania's GDP and about 33% of Tanzania's exports. It is also a source of livelihood for 75 -80% of the population, about 62% of them living in rural Tanzania. The youth accounts for 65% of the population. Over 90% of the farming population are small-scale subsistence crop producers. The sector also employs 80 percent of its labour force. Information about agriculture and climate change in Tanzania is captured in several official government documents, non-government study reports and the East African Community Climate Change Policy/ strategy/ Master Plan. The EAC policy document in particular emphasizes the need for an integrated, harmonized and multi-sectoral framework for responding to climate change among EACs member States.The major food crops include maize, sorghum, rice, pulses, cassava, and potatoes. The key environmental problem in Tanzania is the degradation of natural resources such as land, forests, water, and biodiversity. Increasingly, however, other problems such as waste, water scarcity and air pollution are growing in importance. Climate change adds to existing stresses and is expected to reduce agricultural productivity both as a result of changes in precipitation patterns but also due to higher temperatures.To address climate risks, especially in agriculture in the last 20 years, Tanzania has developed a diverse set of policy instruments governing various environmental and climate-related issues under the water-energy-food nexus. The Government of Tanzania has developed national policies, laws, strategies, frameworks, action plans and programs to tackle climate change risks to increase crop yields in the country, with emphasis on resilience and adaptation but also embracing mitigation where possible. For the agriculture sector alone, they include: - The main purpose of the workshop was to present the findings of the climate risk assessments on the potato value chain and discuss policy implications of the findings. At the end of the workshop the participants were expected to be able to: - On 7 th and 8 th June 2022, in conjunction with the Climate-Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) Tanzania team, a climate change and policy consultative workshop with potato business partners, value chain actors and government technical experts in Mbeya Region was held. The discussion covered government policy on CSA and potato in Tanzania, and opportunities and barriers to CSA implementation in the potato sub-sector in Tanzania. It also covered ideas to seize identified opportunities and to address identified barriers to improve the potato production system in Tanzania.The workshop started with sensitization by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Wageningen Environmental Research (WEnR) on climate change and its impacts on the potato value chain in Tanzania. Aspects of climate change covered included introduction to climate change and how climate is likely to change in the future in the potato growing areas of Tanzania, touching on temperature, precipitation, droughts/floods, start/length of growing season, etc. The sensitization also touched on potato crop yields, crop quality issues and suitable growing areas arising from the impacts of climate change, including how potato yield, quality and value chain actors are likely to be affected by future climate change in the various potato growing areas of Tanzania. Participants were asked to state: -1. Adaptation strategies currently in use to deal with climate change in the potato value chain in Tanzania. 2. Strategies needed to be better prepared for changes in the potato sub-sector in future. 3. Opportunities and barriers (i.e., hindering and enabling factors) to implementing or to incorporate the strategies in future business plans and/or their implementation potato value chain development strategies.The approach to workshop facilitation included brief PowerPoint presentations followed by groupwork exercises and plenary discussions.The groupwork on adaptation strategies to address climate change in the potato sub sector in Tanzania were done in five groups namely • Famers,• Off-takers,• Government officers,• Private sector and other government agencies,• Service providers.The outputs of this groupwork on adaptation strategies are presented in Annex 2. A groupwork session for one of the groups is presented in Photo-2. To set instruments for the development of an efficient, competitive and profitable agricultural industry that contributes to nation's economic growth and wellbeing of Tanzanians. To improve adaptation measures and deal with the risks involved as well as up-scaling of practices that enhance the carbon storage capacity such as conservation agriculture and agro-forestry. The Policy aims among others at fighting land degradation, favoring organic agriculture and the production of biofuel crop production for increased use as a renewable energy, and more broadly to take adequate measures to improve adaptation to climate change effects. Policy statements include: 1) awareness on sustainable environmental conservation and environmentally friendly crop husbandry practices shall be promoted, 2) Activities that enhance the carbon storage capacity such as conservation agriculture and agro-forestry shall be up-scaled, 3) public awareness on the opportunities of agriculture as potential carbon sink and mechanism to benefit from carbon market shall be established according to international protocols, and 4) efficient use of renewable natural resources shall be strengthened The Tanzania CSA Programme of 2015 is set to guide the country towards an \"Agricultural sector that sustainably increases productivity, enhances climate resilience and food security for the national economic development in line with Tanzania National Development Vision 2025.\" The Programme, therefore, aims to build resilience of agricultural farming systems for enhanced food and nutrition security through six Programmatic Result Areas, namely:1. Improved Productivity and incomes, through a pro-growth and pro-poor development agenda that supports agricultural sustainability and includes better targeting. 2. Building resilience and associated mitigation co-benefits through CSA practices that help reduce vulnerability of Tanzania's agriculture sector, enhancing adaptation and resilience of the farming systems and reducing emissions intensity in the context of achieving food and nutrition security, sustainable development and poverty reduction. 3. Value Chain Integration through holistic approaches that consider input supply, production, agricultural services, traceability, marketing and business support services as necessary building blocks. 4. Research for Development and Innovations -to support innovations that facilitate the transition to climate-smart agriculture by smallholder farmers.5. Improving and Sustaining Agricultural Advisory Services that include climate applications for agriculture to help farmers to better make informed decisions in the face of risks and uncertainties 6. Improved Institutional Coordination for effective discharge of the CSA Programme.On the potato sector, it was explained that the supply of quality potato seed iwa guided by the mandate of the TPRI/TOST which approves the material for use in the farms. Major policy statements, opportunities & barriers identified by Martin on CSA and potato are presented in Table 2. Farmers' education and publicity services shall be strengthened for effective of new technologies and informationAwareness of the opportunities of Agriculture as potential carbon sink and benefits from carbon market shall be established.GMT is creating awareness on benefits from carbon market.Legal framework for enhancing the provision of crop insurance services shall be created.Promotion of crop insurance to CC shock.Activities that enhance carbon storage eg conservation Agriculture and Agro-forest shall be up-scaled.Provision of Agro-forest education to farmers.Mechanisms for collection, analysis and dissemination of Agriculture information and data shall be strengthened MoA has developed a system of Mobile Kilimo to ease access of information eg weather forecust.MoA in collaboration with other SH shall participate in findings and managing Agricultural research.Tolerant and Improved varieties of Potatoes have been released.The outputs of this groupwork on adaptation strategies are presented in Annex 3 Presentations were also made by:• CRDB -on their GCF accreditation.• Reliance Insurance Co. Ltd -on plans to scale up index-based insurance in Tanzania.• WFP Tanzania (FtMA) -on making markets work for the poor.Challenges, gaps and barriers to implementation, as presented by stakeholders Barriers -Farmers awareness on the about the climate change and payment for soil analysis -Mechanism to finance; farmers don't understand the importance of using database/platform -Informal traders (Middlemen) interference • Low awareness about negative impact of climate changes.• Bureaucracy in providing some information.• Low awareness about negative impact of climate changes.• In sufficient allocation of fund for CSA.• Inadequate capacity of information analysis and project design for CSA.• Improper link between faith and CSA. It was concluded that the potato sub sector in Tanzania is facing many challenges, some of which need policy attention.It was agreed that a national policy dialogue on potato be held in October 2022 to bring the policyrelated challenges to the attention of the policymakers. Policy brief on each topical issue under CRAFT, that has been covered in the workshop, and any data that exists within CRAFT Tanzania. Identify relevant multi-stakeholder platforms at all levels of government to present CSA and potato issues for policy consideration.TMA suggested a forum to sit with the relevant stakeholders, identify target clients for the required climate and weather information, do the mapping and produce weather information that is specific and relevant to specific initiatives.Annex 2: Outputs of groupwork on adaptation strategies ","tokenCount":"1536"}

data/part_3/0397164403.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"676725550e1a229ebe622da3d6aa1960","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/4d7cdf3b-c092-4b8a-917e-f74f85aa05cf/retrieve","id":"670452575"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"f168d12a-2a40-4fb7-8be1-7f748ad569be","pagecount":"55","content":"The geographical designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IPGRI or the CGIAR concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Similarly, the views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of these organizations.Mention of a proprietary name does not constitute endorsement of the product and is given only for information.Nepal's policy-makers are presently faced with implementing a myriad of national and international policy obligations that are relevant to the conservation, use and development of agricultural biodiversity. Rapid changes in the recent international policy scenario, the complexity of the emerging biodiversity policy issues, and the diversity of the stakeholders involved in the agrobiodiversity sector require good information by the policy-makers for the development of realistic policy relevant to the needs and goals of the Nepalese agroeconomy. This proceedings is intended to provide a scientific basis for policy recommendation from information generated from empirical research activities carried out by the Nepal component of the global project \"Strengthening the Scientific Basis of In Situ Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity On-farm\" 1 over the past 5 years (1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002). The research findings and their implication for national policy presented here are based on the research done on keystone crops of national importance for local food security and livelihoods in the three representative ecological sites of Nepal. The crops are rice, barley, buckwheat, finger millet, taro, pigeon pea, sponge gourd and cucumber. The three ecological sites are Bara in Terai (lowland), Kaski in Mid-Hills and Jumla in the Mountain (high Hills). These ecosites are selected on the basis of the richness of agrobiodiversity, status of on-farm conservation by farmers and also interest and availability of collaborating institutions. The summarized major findings of the research and their implications for national policy were presented during the policy workshop held on 16 February 2002 in Kathmandu, Nepal on the following key themes of the in situ project: (1) conceptual basis and process to implement on-farm conservation research, (2) assessment of genetic diversity on-farm, (3) processes used to maintain crop genetic diversity on-farm, (4) who maintains genetic diversity onfarm, (5) factors influencing farmers' decision-making in the maintenance of genetic diversity, (6) benefits from conservation of crop genetic diversity on-farm in Nepal, and ( 7) key issues for policy consideration for agrobiodiversity conservation. The reflections of the workshop and the follow-up monitoring of the policy changes after workshop are presented in Annexe 1. Stakeholders and individuals who participated are listed in Annexe 2. The project was implemented in 1997 and is run jointly by a national research institute (Nepal Agricultural Research Council, NARC) and an NGO (Local Initiative for Biodiversity Research and Development, LI-BIRD) in collaboration with the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), Rome, Italy. The project strongly focuses on linking on-farm conservation with development activities. Value addition through market development, participatory plant breeding, community mobilization and policy changes has been the focus of the project since the very beginning. Institutional linkages, policy changes and local capacity-building are the tenets of the project approaches.The role of legislature, policy and agrobiodiversity management on-farmThe importance of conserving agrobiodiversity for future global food security lies in its potential to supply the needs of crop breeders and farmers for achieving sustainable agriculture. In situ conservation of agricultural biological diversity concerns the maintenance and management of diverse local crop varieties in farmers' fields or \"on-farm\". On-farm conservation conserves entire agroecosystems, including cultivated crops as well as their wild and weedy relatives that may be growing in nearby areas. This form of conservation allows for:• the continuation of evolution and adaptation of crops to their environment • the conservation of ecosystem services critical to the functioning of the earth's life support system • the maintenance or improvement of farmers' control over and access to crop genetic resources • the means to improve the livelihood of resource-poor farmers through the use of local crop resources Recognizing these benefits, several major international conventions, statements and institutions-the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Global Plan of Action for the Conservation and Sustainable Utilisation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (GPA) and the International Treaty for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture-call for the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity. Among other things, each of these instruments recognizes: (1) the critical role of the local managers of genetic resources whether they are identified as farmers, indigenous and/or local communities, and (2) the need for national policies to be consistent and supportive of appropriate action at the local level.The multifaceted nature of the conservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity presents challenges to policy analysis and formulation in support of on-farm maintenance of diversity. The importance of a \"ground-up\" approach to biodiversity policy-making is commonly noted in the literature. Yet a truly ground-up approach requires an understanding of the local management and decision-making processes and the factors affecting those processes. In response to this challenge, in 1995 IPGRI and its national partners launched a project \"Strengthening the scientific basis of in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity on farm\" to increase our understanding of the:1. Amount and distribution of genetic diversity maintained by farmers over time and space. 2. Processes used to maintain this diversity on-farm. 3. Identification of who is actually maintaining this diversity on-farm. 4. Factors that influence farmer decision-making to maintain diversity on farm.As the proceedings to this meeting illustrate, IPGRI's on-farm project has created an infrastructure and body of knowledge that presents a unique opportunity for meaningful analysis of the effect of existing laws and policies on in situ agrobiodiversity and, more importantly, the identification of the necessary elements of a supportive legal and policy framework.The global project is currently active in eight partner countries: Burkina Faso, Hungary, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Peru and Vietnam. At present there are institutional multidisciplinary implementing bodies at national and local levels in the participating countries. National frameworks that include government and non-government sectors have ROLE OF LEGISLATURE, POLICY AND AGROBIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT 3 been created and strengthened to implement in situ conservation on-farm. Farmers and communities have been identified to link into national/provincial PGR systems in all participating countries. As the meeting in Nepal demonstrates, the project has created an information base and infrastructure that provides the opportunity for a true understanding of the effect of law and policy and the elements necessary for a supportive legal framework.Countries participating in the project are clearer on who is conserving and making decisions on the conservation and selection of local crop genetic diversity. Knowledge of the extent and distribution of diversity in six countries and 17 agroecological regions has been obtained as well as an understanding of the processes that farmers are using to maintain this diversity. Identification of limiting factors in the maintenance of crop diversity has been carried out in five of the participating countries. It is this that creates an invaluable opportunity to explore the meaningful development and reform of law and policy and for understanding the obstacles to this.What the on-farm project has shown is there are already highly sophisticated and complex systems in place for the management of PGRFA. What we understand less well, however, is how these relate to and are affected by national policies and laws. Laws and regulations need to be closely matched to the physical, socioeconomic and cultural conditions of a particular site. The knowledge needed to establish such laws and regulations is that which is most in touch with this environment. Again, the on-farm project provides us with knowledge heretofore unavailable. Without such knowledge of law and policy-often catalyzed by obligations stemming from international treaties-successful human efforts to solve extremely complex problems may be inadvertently swept aside. In addition, commitment to the law is related to its perceived legitimacy and this corresponds to its relevance to the local situation where it applies. With the on-farm project, we are beginning to get a picture of the status quo (though this itself may be subject to rapid change due to external forces such as those brought to bear by globalization generally) from a scientific perspective. The on-farm project has assembled a range of data, information and interactive processes which can be built upon in developing a framework for legal and policy research, analysis and formulation.As presented in this proceedings the project has identified some policy and legal factorssuch as those influencing the seed supply system-that have an impact on on-farm maintenance of diversity. Each year farmers decide how much seed to plant and where that seed comes from. In addition to the seed selected and stored from their own crop, the farmers may obtain new seed from markets or other farmers. Many factors influence the seed supply system, such as the relative importance of the informal and formal seed supply systems, access to each, wealth, environmental factors, etc. Simply advocating for improvement of the seed supply system without greater understanding of these factors and also a means by which the impact of the policies promoting this strengthening over time is not useful. Improvement of the seed supply system, for example, could increase farmers' access to genetically diverse crop varieties at the same time that it decreases genetic diversity by decreasing differentiation among populations. Similarly, the structure, organization and performance of formal seed systems is controlled by various rules and regulations (e.g. seed certification, seed distribution regulations) that influence the type and quantity of seed that is supplied through formal channels. The impact of these rules and regulations, and their relation to the informal seed system in place, on in situ conservation on-farm needs to be understood with the effect of possible reforms monitored for impact.As the information from Nepal shows, the role that law and policy plays or can potentially play in supporting farming systems maintaining crop diversity needs to be more fully investigated before recommendations can be made. Monitoring of impact is also critical. Another example is the legitimate and understandable call for legal and policy mechanisms aimed at adding economic value to on-farm conservation, which may improve the livelihoods of resource-poor farmers. The impact of such measures may be positive in some aspects and negative in others. The measures might have a negative effect on diversity over time by valuing some local varieties over others. If the maintenance of diversity over time is a national objective (or directed by global international law), a means to bear the cost of such a choice will need also to be considered. If an option to add value to an on-farm crop population is proposed, it will be important to design a mechanism for monitoring its progress and impact.The effect of specific policies on farmers' choices of varieties is not fully understood. For example, at first glance, a national policy subsidizing the use of modern varieties and related fertilizers might reduce the planting of landraces over large areas in certain high-yield environments. However, results from this workshop have shown that in some instances, for some income groups, the increased income from marketing of the improved varieties facilitated those farmers in continuing to maintain preferred varieties on a smaller land area. The changing nature of local systems and farmers' needs infers that policy analysis and formulation will need to allow for evaluation over time of the hypothesis upon which the policies and laws are based. Policy and legal responses must be monitored over time for their genetic, ecological and economic impacts on farming systems to see if they do indeed fulfil the goal of maintaining high levels of diversity on-farm, as well as achieving the benefits of supporting agroecosystem health and improving farmers' livelihoods in different contexts.Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) plays a vital role in the Nepalese economy and food security since more than 80% of the population depends on agriculture for its livelihood. Despite the importance of agriculture and predominance of traditional farming systems, PGRFA so far has not been recognized as a priority issue and agenda item in the national plans and programmes. Understanding of key policy issues with appropriate R&D information and policy analysis will help decision-makers make the most informed choices that will have profound implications on ensuring food security and poverty reduction in Nepal.International and national policies have important influences on the conservation of local crops and landraces. The important policies on PGRFA include economic policies (subsidies, market, credit), institutional policies (research, extension), regulatory framework and intellectual property rights (IPR), access and benefit-sharing, farmers'/community rights, biosafety and bioprospecting.This paper is the outcome of the synthesis of in situ conservation research including review, survey and analysis of recent policy case study conducted on PGRFA in Nepal. The paper also presents the current policy scenario and gaps, and suggests key considerations for the development of appropriate PGRFA policy in the country.At the national level, conservation of agrobiodiversity has not received the same priority as forest biodiversity (Gauchan et al. 2000b). External and internal support for resource mobilization and national capacity-building have been constrained by the lack of recognition of PGRFA conservation as a priority issue in the national plans and policies. As a result, the country lacks overall national policy and action plans on conservation, protection, utilization, access to and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of PGRFA, particularly traditional crops and cultivars. Despite the importance of agriculture in farmer's livelihood, and in national and local food security, the level of awareness and knowledge on international and national policy development on PGRFA is low among many of the important stakeholders.In the present (Ninth) Five Year Plan and the Agricultural Perspective Plan, the policies on credit, subsidy, research and extension including education systems, favoured the spread of modern technologies to boost agricultural production and productivity. However, these policies were not favourable to promotion of PGRFA. Seed regulatory framework and market forces also acted as disincentives for farmers to grow native minor crops and traditional cultivars on-farm (Gauchan et al. 2000a). This is evident in the gradual disappearance of farmers' varieties (landraces) and endogenous breeds from farming communities in favourable environments.The existing Seed Act (1988), Seed Policy (2000) and recent Access and Benefit-Sharing legislation (draft) are chiefly sectoral policies and legislation which inadequately cover the overall policy dimensions of PGRFA including issues of farmers' rights for food security.The policy-makers in Nepal are faced with implementing a myriad of national and international policy obligations that are relevant to the conservation, use and development of PGRFA. His Majesty's Government of Nepal is currently drafting the 10th National Five-Year Plan of national programmes, and Government Ministries are involved in formulating responsive policy and legislation related to biodiversity. Some of the major policy issues facing policy-makers and other stakeholders in Nepal are:• Conservation, utilization and protection of genetic resources • Access and benefit-sharing at the local, national and international levels • Intellectual property rights (farmers/ rights, plant breeders' rights and sui generis rights)• Biosafety and bioprospecting, including biopiracy.Historically, the policy formulation process in Nepal remained in the government sector with no or limited participation of the private sector. Recently, however, there has been increased realization of the need for participation of civil societies in the policy-formulation process; this realization came about after His Majesty's Government opted to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). In addition, most of the institutions and stakeholders involved in the development of PGRFA priorities, action plans and policies are scattered in different ministries and institutes. They lack coordinated mechanisms and holistic action plans covering overall issues in the follow-up and implementation of both international PGRFA agreements and national priority issues.A national commitment for the conservation and sustainable utilization of agrobiodiversity is exhibited by the fact that Nepal is a signatory of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 1992; the instrument of ratification was submitted on 23 November 1993 to the Secretary General of the United Nations and the international agreement into force on 21 February 1994, according to article 36 (3) of the convention. The Ministry of Forestry and Soil Conservation (MOFSC), Nepal is the focal point for implementing the CBD. It is in the process of finalizing a National Biodiversity strategy and implementing a Plan and National Biodiversity Trust Fund. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MOAC), after a series of consultative meetings with the National Planning Commission and other stakeholders, established a National Agrobiodiversity Committee in 2000. With a view to conservation and utilization of agrobiodiversity, MOAC has organized a few meetings of the key decision-makers within the MOAC to include agrobiodiversity as a priority issues in the next Five Year Plan. The government of Nepal is now aware of the complexity of the PGRFA policy problems and issues and is willing to strengthen national capacity to build up efforts for increased competitiveness in the system.Agriculture has been identified as a priority sector in many Five Year Plans of Nepal and it will continue to be so in the forthcoming 10 th Five Year Plan, as well as means of poverty alleviation and food security strategy. Genetic resources of animals and plants are some of the few resources available to resource-poor farmers to ensure sustainable production and improve livelihoods. In this context, conservation and utilization of agrobiodiversity, including traditional crops varieties and breeds, is both a national and global concern. It is the foundation upon which animal and plant breeding depends for the creation of new breeds and varieties and is, therefore, a critical aspect of food security.Crop genetic diversity present in farming systems has been maintained through the combined action of natural and human selection. Crop diversity in agricultural systems, in addition to being affected by population structure (e.g. mutation rates, migration, population size, isolation, breeding systems and genetic drift) and natural selection from the surrounding environment (e.g. soil type, climate, disease, pests and competition), is affected by human selection and management. Crop genetic resources are passed from generation to generation of farmers and are subject to different natural and human selection pressures. Environmental, biological, cultural and socioeconomic factors influence a farmer's decision of whether to select or maintain a particular crop cultivar at any given time (Jarvis et al. 1998;Jarvis and Hodgkin 2000). In the process of planting, managing, selecting, rogueing, harvesting and processing the farmers, in turn, make decisions on their crops that affect the genetic diversity of the crop populations. Over time a farmer may alter the genetic structure of a crop population by selecting for plants with preferred agromorphological or quality characteristics. Thus, crop landraces may be a product of farmer selection as well as farmer breeding (Riley 1996).For the last decades, agricultural scientists have responded to the threat of genetic erosion by developing a worldwide network of genebanks and botanical gardens for conserving the available useful genetic resources ex situ (Bommer 1991). Complementary to ex situ conservation, in situ conservation has the potential to (1) conserve the evolutionary processes of local adaptation of crops to their environments, (2) conserve diversity at all levels-the ecosystem, the species and the genetic diversity within species, (3) conserve ecosystem services critical to the functioning of the earth's life-support system, (4) improve the livelihoods for resource-poor farmers through economic and social development, (5) maintain or increase farmers' control over and access to crop genetic resources, (6) ensure farmers' efforts are an integral part of national PGR systems and involve farmers directly in developing options for adding benefits of local crop diversity, and (7) link farming community to genebank for conservation and utilization (Jarvis et al. 2000a).Genebank facilities do not conserve farmer's traditional knowledge of crop selection, management and maintenance in the development of local cultivars. Nor can they ensure the continued access and use of these resources by farmers. At present, Nepal does not have a national genebank. On-farm conservation enables households with livelihoods based on biodiversity to meet 95% of their basic food and nutrition requirements.The importance of conservation of agrobiodiversity for future of global food security lies in its potential to supply germplasm for the future needs of crop breeders and other users. In Nepal, rapid successes came in those programmes where traditional cultivars were used in crop improvement programmes. The continuing use of Nepalese landraces contributes to IMPLEMENTATION OF ON-FARM CONSERVATION IN NEPAL 9 stable food production and income, especially in marginal environments where impacts of modern varieties are limited or less effective. The concept of in situ conservation encompasses the effort by the scientific community to honour its debt to the legacy of farming peoples who created the biological basis of crop production.It is useful to identify what information is needed to support farmers and local communities in on-farm crop diversity conservation, management and use. Following are four basic research questions, which will provide a scientific basis for designing and planning effective on-farm conservation:• what is the extent and distribution of the genetic diversity maintained by farmers over space and over time? • what are the processes used to maintain the genetic diversity on-farm?• who maintains genetic diversity within farming communities (men, women, young, old, rich, poor, certain ethnic groups)?• what factors (market, non-market, social, environmental) influence farmer decisions on maintaining traditional varieties?How do in situ conservation programmes provide benefits to a community?If crop genetic resources are going to be conserved on-farm, they must be part of farmers' productive (development) activities (Berg 1998). This means conservation must be put into a context of development (farmers' livelihood interest). A major challenge is to develop the framework of knowledge to determine where, when and how in situ conservation will be effective and to develop a broad guideline for research and practice in in situ conservation for national programmes. The project, therefore, is concerned with how in situ conservation can be linked with genetic, socioeconomic and ecological benefits for livelihoods of people (Jarvis et al. 2000b). Benefits that accrue from such efforts could be both monetary and non-monetary. Answering the abovementioned basic questions provides the knowledge needed to (1) support local seed systems, (2) improve participatory plant breeding programmes, (3) develop markets for traditional crops and cultivars, (4) promote appropriate curriculum development, (5) create methodologies for integrating locally adapted crop cultivars and farmer preferences into development and extension projects, and (6) advise on appropriate policies that support the management and use of crop diversity in agroecosystems (IPGRI 2001). Answers to these questions are also needed to develop methods for mainstreaming the use of local crop genetic resources into the agricultural development arena that aims for poverty alleviation and food security.Effective management and conservation of genetic resources on-farm takes places where the resources are valued and used to meet the needs of local communities (Jarvis et al. 2000a). In order for local crop systems to be maintained by farmers, the genetic resources must have some value and/or be competitive with other options a farmer might have. Two options were used in adding benefits: the first, on adding benefits through participatory plant breeding, seed networks and grassroots strengthening, and the second, on adding benefits through public awareness, better processing, marketing, policy incentives and education in the formal sector (Jarvis et al. 1998).The first option is to seek improved quality, disease resistance, high yield, better taste, longer storability and other preferred traits through breeding; seed networks and modified farming systems. The second option includes adding value to crop resources so that the demand for the material or some derived product may be increased. These diverse options 10 NEPAL'S CONTRIBUTION TO A SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS will emerge when community, researchers and developmental institutions are directly involved in monitoring local crop diversity using community biodiversity register and linking with crop improvement, seed and market networks for adding benefits on local resources.The following steps are identified that are essential for effective implementation of an onfarm conservation programme before \"best practices\" can be used for policy reforms (Sthapit et al. 2000):• Locating ecosystem diversity, crops and community • Creating an institutional framework and participatory planning process Understanding the scientific basis of on-farm conservation of crop genetic resources will allow an appreciation of the amount of genetic diversity maintained by a farming community and their genetic, sociocultural, economic and ecological values in order to formulate national research and development policies for poverty alleviation and food security.Figure 1 illustrates the processes by which a community develops its own on-farm conservation strategy that provides benefits to individuals, community, nation and international community. A number of participatory tools have been developed to implement on-farm conservation activities at the local level by a farming community:• Local seed system: Understanding local crop diversity, social networks of germplasm and knowledge flow, and storage methods; identifying technical gaps; strengthening the local seed system. • Diversity fair: Local community can organize this fair for locating diversity and custodians, sensitizing community and policy-makers, and promoting access of information and materials.• Community biodiversity register: Recording inventory of local crop diversity and associated local knowledge and monitoring the increase and decrease of number of landraces and modern varieties and their distribution pattern within households (by area) or between households within community. Such activities will raise awareness on local crop diversity and increase the understanding of the value of local crop diversity. Diversity fair and Community Biodiversity Register are participatory methods that can strengthen local capacity to document taxonomic data and traditional knowledge on crop genetic resources (CGR) with the following specific objectives:• create awareness and develop sense of community ownership on biodiversity • locate unique, rare and culturally significant cultivars and their custodians • enhance access to genetic materials and information on local crop diversity • develop options for adding benefits and support biodiversity-based livelihoods • build local capacity for monitoring diversity in situ and promote on-farm management of local crop diversity • create awareness of and protect economically important biowealth against biopiracy.A challenge of successful implementation of CBR will depend upon how the approach could provide direct benefits to the farming community. One direct benefit is that it may help to network key households, which maintain rare, unique and rich local crop diversity resulting in a network of seed stores to form a decentralized community seed bank.It is important not only to focus on scientific understanding of the project but also to develop institutional capacity to run internally driven on-farm conservation programmes. The value of decentralized CBRs will be clearer when activities such as diversity kits, Participatory Variety Selection and Participatory Plant Breeding (Sthapit et al. 2000;Witcombe et al. 1996) are integrated into community-based informal seed management and exchange programmes. Participatory plant breeding and deployment of diversity kits will strengthen the capacity of farmers to search, select, maintain and exchange genetic resources for obtaining both genetic and socioeconomic benefits for farmers and society. Fig. 1. Strengthening grassroots institutions and informal seed networks through participatory approaches such as diversity fair and CBR and linking with value addition options and ex situ conservation ( Sthapit and Jarvis 1999).All this requires greater collaboration between formal and informal sectors with more benefit-oriented activities. The promising results are emerging from all countries and many methods and approaches have been developed which have been as guidelines for on-farm conservation of agrobiodiversity (Jarvis et al. 2000a). These outputs must be evaluated and monitored in terms of effectiveness and sustainability of PGR conservation and utilization. Crop genetic diversity is one of the few resources available to resource-poor farmers to ensure sustainable production and a biodiversity-based livelihood. Genetic diversity can be measured at three levels: ecosystem, species and genetic. In the context of agricultural biodiversity, it is important to understand how diversity is measured at gene level. Genetic diversity is measured by richness, evenness and distinctiveness. Locating genetic diversity and measuring the amount and distribution of local crop diversity are important as diversity is not distributed evenly in any geographic region. The amount and distribution of local crop diversity on-farm is, however, associated with various social, economic, cultural, agroecological and genetic aspects. In order to understand the farmers' management of diversity and to measure its extent and distribution, various methods and markers were used ranging from participatory rural appraisal (PRA), baseline survey and diversity fairs to morphological variability, allelic richness, level of heterozygosity and polymorphism at DNA level in mandatory crops of the project across three in situ ecosites (Rijal et al. 1998, Paudel et al. 1998, Sherchand et al. 1998). The results are based upon eight traditional crops: rice, fingermillet, buckwheat, barley, pigeon pea, taro, sponge gourd and cucumber.A considerable number of local crop cultivars of many crops continue to be maintained in different farming systems in Nepal (Rana et al. 2000abc). We found that farmers are generally consistent in naming and describing varieties. Farmers use a set of traits to describe a population and give names to characterize and describe these units of crop diversity. A farmer-named cultivar is thus the initial indicator of genetic diversity on-farm.Figure 1 shows the amount of genetic diversity of rice, fingermillet, cucumber, barley, buckwheat, sponge gourd, taro and pigeon pea in terms of the number of farmer units of diversity (FUD) and genetic distinctness (Rana et al. 2000abc). The middle hill ecosystem (Kaski: 600-1400 masl) is rich in numbers of rice, fingermillet and taro cultivars. The Terai (Bara: 80-100 masl) is rich in sponge gourd diversity whereas the high hill (Jumla: 2240-3000 masl) is rich in barley and buckwheat diversity.While most of the information has been collected on the number of cultivars, there are also results on the genetic variation found in three sites, using agromorphological traits, biochemical and molecular markers. In Kaski and Bara sites, genetic DNA marker data have substantially confirmed the richness of rice diversity, whereas in Jumla (a high-altitude site), limited differences in molecular genetic diversity were observed even though 21 rice cultivars were identified by farmers on the basis of agromorphological traits (Bajracharya et al. 2001abcd).To validate the on-farm diversity on a scientific basis, the agromorphological characterization and evaluation of rice, taro, pigeon pea, sponge gourd, barley and buckwheat landraces was carried out in respective crop environments. A range of variation was observed in the morphological traits respective to the crops (Rijal et al. 2001;Baniya et al. 2001;Bajracharya et al. 2000;Gupta et al. 2001;Tiwari et al. 2001ab;Pandey et al. 2001ab;Yadav et al. 2001ab). Analysis of morphological traits revealed variation within the same-named landraces and also between the different-named landraces. Barley varieties exhibited high intra-and interpopulation diversity and have potential for further improvement in terms of economic importance for the benefit of the farming communities. Examining variation at a number of polymorphic isozyme loci assessed genetic variation in taro, barley and bitter buckwheat landraces from Kaski and Jumla. The isozyme studies in barley, bitter buckwheat and taro revealed a considerable level of allelic variability among and within the landraces of these crops (Bajracharya et al. 2001abc). Statistical analysis of the isozyme data indicated the existence of gene diversity within and between populations and the total genetic diversity is due to an intrapopulation component of diversity in barley and buckwheat (Table 1). The variation could possibly be the result of farmers' management, particularly the seed exchange system, and the socioeconomic structure of the ecosite.  Isozymic profiling of UPGMA cluster analyses of the isozyme data in taro indicated the genetic relationships among the different-named landraces (Fig. 2). These cultivars were identifiable with individual zymotype with considerable genetic variation among them but with no correlation with described morphotypes.Microsatellite diversity in 39 microsatellite loci of rice (Oryza sativa L.) landraces was examined in 69 accessions from three ecosites representing a range of agroecological conditions and rice-growing environments. A set of samples from each ecosite comprised 10 different-named landraces with diverse phenotypes and reflected a high ethnobotanical diversity.The study showed that the amount of diversity at microsatellite loci varied among landraces specific to agroecozones. Jumla (high altitude with cold environment) had a relatively a low level of diversity with a narrow genetic base (Bajracharya et al. 2001a). Despite the ethnobotanical diversity in names and phenotypes, the lack of variation in molecular data suggests that rice landraces from Jumla are closely related and could have originated from a similar source. However, the level of genetic diversity in the groups of landraces from Kaski and Bara was high and unique specific to agroecosystems and consistently reflected ethno botanical diversity in names and phenotypes (Table 2).  Methods to characterize and measure the extent and distribution of diversity were developed based on the average area and number of households growing each landrace (Sthapit et al. 2000). The method classified the existing crop diversity into two groups at variety level: (1) common vs. rare, and (2) widespread vs. localized.Table 3 shows the pattern of distribution of genetic diversity of rice landraces in Kaski relative to the local social and cultural values of named landraces. Landraces were thus distributed in groups of large and small areas and many and few households to suit different cultural and ethnic preferences. Depending upon the socioeconomic context and natural circumstances, the individual households were found to maintain 1-4 landraces on average. The project has developed a few good participatory practices to understand the extent and distribution of local crop diversity and the processes by which farmers maintain their diversity in situ. PPB is considered a strategy to strengthen the process of on-farm conservation by encouraging farmers to continue to search, select and manage local crop populations. Landrace traits such as the valued cold tolerance in Jumli Marshi, the adaptive traits of Mansara or the good eating quality of Jetho Budho could be exploited through participatory plant breeding.The project has now developed institutional capacity at NARC to measure and characterize genetic resources at the DNA marker level. This is the first such facility developed in Nepal, which should be efficiently used to catalogue the most valued and unique genetic diversity in the country.Landraces grown by a limited number of households are in danger of being lost from the habitat. The number of farmer-named cultivars is not only a reliable indicator of richness. In three sites, 54-76% of total rice diversity falls into rare groups. These landraces are grown by few a households and thus the Government should give priority to establishing an ex situ facility to conserve such rare and valuable genetic resources before they are lost from the fields. Also, participatory methods should be developed to allow utilization of these resources by researchers and development agencies.Traditional ethnobotanical knowledge is a main source of understanding diverse local uses and traditional management practices of crop diversity in situ. Such understanding can be created by using participatory methods such as diversity fairs. Such tools can also be used to locate the areas with rich diversity for several economically important crops and recognize them for on-farm conservation.Crop genetic diversity of a given farming system is maintained through the combined action of natural and human-managed processes. Natural processes (environmental, biological) and human-managed (socioeconomic) factors influence a farmer's decision of whether to select or maintain a particular crop cultivar at any given time (Jarvis and Hodgkin 2000). Formal and informal human-managed processes are responsible for conserving, increasing or decreasing and modifying the genetic diversity on-farm. Figure 1 presents formal and informal humanmanaged processes in crop seed management. In the process of planting, managing, selecting, rogueing, harvesting and processing the farmers make decisions about their crops that affect the genetic diversity of the crop population. The way farmers select seed, store and exchange with their social networks influences the local seed management system. Over time a farmer may alter the genetic structure of the crop population by selecting for plants with preferred agromorphological or quality characters (Jarvis and Hodgkin 2000). This study tried to understand the human-managed processes of the informal local seed supply systems of rice, finger millet and taro crops in the three ecosites of the in situ project, Nepal. Farmers in the three ecosites (Jumla, Kaski and Bara) manage local crop diversity through planting, cultivation, seed selection, harvesting and storing the crop seeds. These processes influence the geneflow and change the genetic constituent of a given crop. Two seed systems are broadly recognized-informal and formal systems. Both systems of seed supply were observed in the target crops. However, the informal or farmers' local seed supply system was PROCESSES USED TO MAINTAIN GENETIC DIVERSITY ON FARM 21 the predominant one. The informal system is characterized by farmers' producing and preserving their own seeds for subsequent planting, at times often exchanging with other farmers and or /in the form of gifts, with very little use of monetary transactions (Joshi 2000;Sthapit and Shah 2001). In the informal seed supply system, retention of the farmer's own seed and exchange with neighbours are prominent practices.Tables 1 and 2 present farmers' management of local rice seed supply systems in different ecosites. A large percentage of cultivated area is planted with seed saved from the informal seed supply system; this ranges from 96 to 100% in Bara, Kaski and Jumla. This indicates that informal seed sources are a key element in rural livelihoods. Use of seeds from relatives is comparatively low and few farmers received seed of new varieties from research and development organizations. The most common way to manage seed is by exchanging seed with seed or food grain (Table 2). Again, gifts and purchases from different sources also were significant. Similar results were found in finger millet (Baniya et al. 2001b). In Bara, which is near research stations, about 10% of farmers received rice seed in the form of demonstrations and minikits. This process enhances the seed flow from one place to another. Farmers have the practice of changing the seed lots at certain periods. For example in Kaski, 64% of the farmers replace taro planting materials every 3 years (Baniya et al. 2001c). Most of the farmers follow seed selection before and after harvesting the crop. Some farmers designate a certain patch of land for seed production and use that area as a seed source. Field and plant selections are based on a fixed set of criteria, which vary from crop to crop and farmer to farmer. Mostly farmers keep seed in local containers and structures made with locally available materials. Farmers are very careful to store seed in safe places to maintain high seed quality. Types of storage structure vary with the amount of seed to be stored, its unique value and the local ethnic culture. In addition to seed selection and seed storage, farmers practise many other regular processes to grow a given crop. Few farmers reported that they rogue off-types and maintain isolation distances for preventing mechanical mixing with other grains.Analyses of farmers' networks were carried out at Kaski (Begnas) and Bara (Kachorwa) ecosites of the in situ crop conservation project in Nepal to explore and examine who maintains genetic diversity in the community and how genetic diversity is maintained by such farmers. The study employed a sociometric survey using the snowball-sampling technique. A summary of findings and discussion of their policy implications is presented here.The study found that certain farmers maintain a relatively larger amount of crop diversity than other members of the community. Such farmers are considered to be the \"nodal farmers\" of the community (Subedi et al. 2001). They grow higher numbers of cultivars including important and rare landraces. They constantly look for new cultivars for their variable farm environments, and play an important role in the flow of genetic materials within and outside their community. They are also perceived to be more knowledgeable farmers in matters related to seed and production environments, and are the \"diversityminded\" farmers in the community. However, they belong mainly to the resource-endowed farmers having larger landholdings with higher number of land parcels and livestocks (Rana et al. 1999). Resource-endowed farmers have a higher education level and more frequent/regular participation in the local market (Gauchan et al. 2001). Some nodal farmers are women. These nodal farmers are spatially distributed within the community settlements.The study on the seed systems has empirically revealed that farmers basically depend on their own informal (farmer) system of seed supply (Baniya et al. 2000(Baniya et al. , 2001) ) not only in the situation when seed loss occurs through a random event of natural calamity such as hail in a specific locality but also in normal situations every crop season. This informal system plays an important role in the maintenance of the varietal diversity on-farm. Seed flow occurs basically through farmers' social networks (Subedi et al. 2001), the main means of seed flow being: exchange (60-63%) on a barter basis (bartering either grain for seed or seed for seed but of different cultivars), gift (20-25%), borrowing of either seed or seedlings (10-12%), while a small proportion (<5%) of seed flow occurs through purchase from within or outside the community. Seed flows occur because of: a shortage or need to replace poor-quality seed retained at household level, interest in growing better cultivars as observed in other farmers' fields, interest in testing new cultivars, looking for suitable cultivars to replace the existing one for a specific land parcel, etc. Nodal farmers play an important role in these seed flows through social networks. They give seed to other farmers within and outside the community and are thus the source of seed. They also bring in materials from other farmers within and outside the community. These farmers are creating a dynamic process of delivering diversity on-farm through the germplasm flows. They are also active in selecting seed and testing diverse crop populations. Nodal farmers tend to address the diversity need of the poorer categories of farmers; poor farmers have been found to go to them to obtain seed. In this process of material flow, it was also reported that non-material (knowledge) information like valued traits of the materials, adaptive conditions, management practices or how they would perform in different conditions as well as their uses associated with the genetic materials also WHO MAINTAINS GENETIC DIVERSITY AND HOW? 25 flows. This indicates that nodal farmers play an important role in dissemination of knowledge-based information as well.The network approach is still evolving. Further study on the stability of the networks over time and identification of nodal farmers for different crops is needed. Input of participatory plant breeding (PPB) with nodal farmers needs to be studied. The implications of this farmers' network study on the national policy are outlined below.Nodal farmers can be involved in enhancing farmer-to-farmer dissemination of genetic materials. They can be effectively involved as resource persons for farmer-to-farmer training and source of information on local crop diversity. Their expertise and knowledge can be effectively utilized in the development of training and extension materials on local cultivars and their associated knowledge; and can also be involved in public awareness on agrobiodiversity.Expertise of the nodal farmers in selection and maintenance of genetic materials can be effectively used in PPB, and capacity-building of nodal farmers in participatory plant breeding may enhance diversity in a large scale of crops.A network of nodal farmers can act as conservation farmers and their farms can be used as a \"Field Genebank\". They can very effectively be involved in community biodiversity registers (CBR) and linked to development opportunities.Access to local seed is often reported as a constraint for production. Nodal farmers can be involved in seed production of landraces and distribution thereby strengthening informal seed systems. At the community level, a network of nodal farmers can be a sustainable way of managing local-level seed production and distribution.Network analysis is an effective methodological tool to trace the flow of genetic materials and associated knowledge along with the identification of nodal farmers. This method can be effectively adopted and employed in biodiversity conservation and utilization as well as in other research and development purposes.Farmers make decisions on how many and which varieties of a crop to grow and on what proportion of their land. A farmer's management of these varieties on his or her farm is determined by the farmers' understanding of agroecology of the region, socioeconomic and cultural setting, economic/market forces, and current government policies. Within the project, efforts have been made through interdisciplinary research work to understand farmers' decision-making processes regarding management of plant genetic resources onfarm for developing future strategies for agrobiodiversity conservation and utilization. This paper first outlines the summary of the key findings of the in situ project and then briefly highlights its implications for national policy in the subsequent sections.Agroecology is the major determinant of the species/varieties adaptation in a certain location. Ecogeographic and baseline surveys conducted in three different ecosites-namely Bara (terai), Kaski (mid-hills) and Jumla (high-hills)-revealed that high diversity at the varietal level was positively associated with diverse ecosystems within the ecosite (Table 1). Certain species/varieties were found to be adapted to specific habitats (Jumli Marshi-coldtolerant rice in Jumla, aromatic sponge gourd in Jamal Kuna, Begnas). Some landraces of rice (Thulo/Sano Madhise in Begnas ecosite; Lalka Basmati in Kachorwa ecosite) were as competitive as modern varieties (Mansuli or Sabetri) in specific domains, whereas in marginal growing environments they (Mansara and Kathe Gurdi in Begnas; Bhati in Kachorwa) were the only options available to farmers (Table 2). The studies also concluded that high diversity existed in mid-hills, and unique diversity was present in high-hills. Not all production systems have the same amount of diversity or the same reliance on traditional varieties. At the isolated high-altitude site of Jumla only traditional cultivars of rice are grown whereas at Bara, on the fertile plains of Nepal, only about 17% of the rice cultivated area is occupied by local varieties and the rest of the area is occupied by modern varieties (Fig. 1). Local varieties are required at Jumla because of the difficult and extreme production conditions while at Bara, traditional cultivars continue to be used where they can fulfill special needs or are adapted to local niches (Table 2).  Poudyal et al. 1998;Rijal et al. 1998;Sherchand et al. 1998;Rana et al. 2000a,b,c.  Findings from market surveys, price monitoring at specific market outlets and baseline surveys indicated that many households grew rice landraces (Jetho Budho-30 HHs, 3.21 ha and Pahele-23 HHs, 3.22 ha in Begnas; Basmati-33 HHs, 4.4 ha in Kachorwa) with economically valued traits (aroma, fine type with soft texture after cooking) in large areas. Conversely, landraces (e.g. Battisara and Thapachini-Begnas; Khera and Madhumala -Kachorwa) with less economic value were less likely to be maintained by farmers' on-farm (Fig. 2). The probability that farmers grow landraces only, modern variety only or both is associated with the farmers' participation in market. Farmers who participate in the market are more likely to grow landraces and modern varieties simultaneously (Gauchan et al. 2001b). Market-driven landraces were more uniform and many households tend to grow in large areas. Landraces favoured by market would have the least cost of conservation on-farm (Gauchan 2000). From a conservation point of view, landraces grown in small areas by a limited number of households are better conserved through ex situ means than in situ. Socioeconomic surveys, intensive data plots technique and knowledge acquisition methods were employed to generate information on this aspect. Richer households grow more varieties of different crops than poorer households (Rana et al. 2000a,b,c). Management of landraces at household level was influenced by socioeconomic factors such as wealth category, education status of decision-makers, land holding, land parcels, livestock number and market participation (Table 3).The study concluded that resource-poor rather than resource-endowed households are more dependent on landraces for food security in marginal than in better-off environments. The area planted to rice landraces was greater in Kaski and Jumla, the marginal areas, than in Bara (Fig. 1). Culturally valued landraces were grown by many households but in small areas, e.g. Anadi (99 HHs, 0.02 ha) in Kaski and Sathi (8 HHs, 0.15 ha) in Bara. Unique rice varieties are also maintained by farmers, for example Anga for medicinal value and Sathi for rituals. Communities maintains diverse varieties within a crop to meet their multiple needs and uses. Landraces having multiple uses have better chances of survival on-farm, e.g. Hattipau pidalu (taro) in Begnas. support services and education systems were directed toward modern varieties. In practice access to credit, inputs and subsidies were primarily provided to modern varieties (Gauchan et al. 2001a,b;Sapkota et al. 2001). Seed regulatory framework and market forces acted as disincentive for farmers to grow landraces on-farm (Gauchan et al. 2001a).Diverse germplasm required for diverse environments in Nepalese agroecological setting: Adaptation or competitiveness of varieties is limited to specific domains/environment, thus niche-based variety development (broad genetic base) and promotion should be encouraged.Market promotion of landraces with economically and culturally valued traits:Better market linkages are needed for landraces with economically valued traits, and public awareness on importance of conservation of cultural diversity for agrobiodiversity maintenance on-farm should be increased. These activities would stipulate the demand of landraces and consequently farmers could derive economic benefits by growing them.Landraces grown by a limited number of households are in danger of being lost from the system. These genetic materials need to be collected and conserved ex situ for future use. Hence, there is a need for an integrated conservation approach (in situ and ex situ conservation) as a basic requirement for long-term development of agriculture in Nepal, and specifically to address food security, poverty alleviation and equity issues.In Nepal, plant breeding programmes that use traditional and locally adopted cultivars are more successful than others. Priority should be given by research systems (commodity programmes) to utilize locally adapted diverse landraces while breeding farmer-acceptable varieties for diverse environments.Evaluation and introduction of promising landraces in domains (marginal growing environments) where landraces could compete 'best fit' with modern varieties could be effected through agricultural extension networks. The availability of seed of traditional cultivars is still a constraint.Research, extension, credit, subsidies and seed regulations need to be reformulated so that farmers' access to quality seed of promising landraces can be improved.In Nepal, on-farm management of crop genetic resources plays a vital role in the Nepalese economy and food security since more than 80% of the population depends on agriculture for a livelihood. On-farm management provides an option for future crop improvement and sustainable agriculture development. Sustainable on-farm conservation is possible only when farming communities and the nation perceive benefits in terms of genetic, economic, social and ecological aspects. These benefits accrue at private (farmer) and public (society) levels (Smale et al. 2001) and in different hierarchies (e.g. local, national and global). Benefits can be monetary as well as non-monetary. Important non-monetary benefits include access to more germplasm and materials as well as training opportunities, new technologies and information arising from the use of exchanged material (Raymond and Fowler 2001). Nepal's IPGRI-supported project on in situ conservation of agrobiodiversity on-farm has made efforts to generate information on local crop diversity to enhance benefits in a given social, economic and ecological context. The project experience has shown that adding benefits on local crops and cultivars is one of the practical ways to enhance on-farm conservation by individual farmers and farming communities. The details of each of these strategies for value addition, their field applications in on-farm conservation research and benefits enhancing activities are described elsewhere (see Joshi et al. 2000;Sthapit et al. 2000;Gauchan et al. 2000Gauchan et al. , 2001;;Rijal et al. 2000Rijal et al. , 2001)). The main strategies employed for enhancing benefits to local crop diversity used by the project are two-fold: (1) make local crop diversity competitive to the options available, and (2) increase demand for local genetic resources.This paper presents the perceived benefits of on-farm conservation research activities of Nepal and its implications for national policy. The approach used to assess the underlined benefits of the project is based on the review, participatory field study, and direct field observation and monitoring of the project activities carried over the last 5 years.Farming communities in the project ecosites have received direct economic and social benefits from cultivation of diverse crops and cultivars. The important ones are listed below.Value addition and linking a product of local crop diversity with a market increased the area of production of local crops and enhanced economic benefits to farming communities. For instance, Pratighya Cooperatives of Begnas Ecosite in Kaski has been linked to Shital Agro-Enterprise, supermarkets, hotels, and popular local food culture and ecotourism outlets in Pokhara. Local taro products (Maseura, Tandre, Koreso) are marketed through better processing, packaging and nutrition analysis. The cooperative has benefited from such linkages and earned Rs175,000 (US$2350) in 3 years. The area of rice landrace (Anadi in Kaski) and taro (Pindalu, Karkalo) is increasing by such market linkage and value addition. Developing participatory plant breeding (PPB), seed selection and management programmes including other innovative tools such as CBR, diversity fairs and diversity kits has created improved access to genetic materials. In addition these have directly added genetic value to the local crops by overcoming some key constraints, presented below.The innovative tools such as diversity fairs, diversity kits and CBR have been used to locate unique and valued diversity. They are also good practices to enhance access to genetic materials by the local community. For example the flow and use of unique and local valued genetic material such as aromatic sponge gourd seed, rice (Anadi, Jethobudho, Basmati) and taro (Panchmukhe) planting materials have increased over the years in the communities across the ecosites.Enhancement of desired genetic value of locally valued landraces through selection has been initiated in aromatic rice, e.g. Jethobudho, Kariakamod, Lalka Basmati in Kaski and Begnas ecosites. This has increased the access and maintenance of farmer-valued high-quality local landraces.Participatory plant breeding activities in local rice landraces have been initiated with the active participation of farmers to make them competitive with the modern varieties and to enhance the access to diverse genetic materials in the farming communities. Farmers have been involved right from setting breeding goals to management of these genetic resources in their own crop fields. In this process, a farmer variety is used as one parent. Work is ongoing in more than 6-7 crosses of rice varieties in Kaski and Bara ecosites of which Mansara × Khumal-4, Lajhi × IR 161-2, Pusa basmati × Jethobudho are showing promising results on-farm.Cultivation of diverse traditional crops and local landraces has allowed limited use of chemical inputs and reduced the vulnerability of agroecosystems to pests and other environmental stresses. On-farm conservation linked to low-input or organic farming will be able to conserve sustainable agricultural practices through improved agroecosystem health Meeting was held successfully with the support of MOAC and the other important stakeholders and of some international experts from Asia The meeting agreed that Nepal needs to have appropriate farmers' rights legislation suited to the needs of the country security and alleviating poverty in Nepal. We will certainly initiate the process to include agrobiodiversity as a priority sector in the upcoming Tench Five-Year national plan, which will be implemented in the next fiscal year. Similarly, the complementarities between the long-term Agricultural Perspective Plan (APP) and utilization of agrobiodiversity have to be worked out. 7. Mr Ganesh KC, Joint Secretary and Chief Planning Division, MOAC: Mr Ganesh KC, a key person in the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, informed the workshop participants that Nepal is soon going to be a signatory of the Revised FAO International Undertaking for Plant Genetic Resource for Food and Agriculture which was approved 3 November 2001 in FAO, Rome. This is also a good indicator of our continued support of agrobiodiversity conservation. He believes that the recommendation of today's meeting will be implemented by the government.8. Mr Gyan Prasad Sharma, Under Secretary, National Planning Commission: Mr Sharma a key official involved in the planning and development of policy in Agricultural and Forestry Sector at the National Planning Commission, highlighted the inclusion of the overall biodiversity sector in the approach paper of the 10th National Development Plan.","tokenCount":"9277"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c078f473d046dd2bd15dce56e231bf38","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://dataverse.harvard.edu/api/access/datafile/:persistentId/?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/28944/CUWZRJ","id":"1512964540"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"26434906-61a1-481d-9b24-ebf6eb367f0e","pagecount":"7","content":"The LDSF employs a hierarchical sampling design. Each site is 100 km 2 and contains 16-1 km 2 clusters. Each cluster contains 10-1000 m 2 sampling plots and each plot contains 4-100 m 2 subplots. Figure Two shows the layout of the Yamboyo LDSF site, yellow circles are the 158 sampled plots. This replication of measurements at various spatial scales (subplot, plot, cluster and site) allows for a systematic assessment of variability and spatial dynamics for each metric.Measurements and observations were made at the plot and subplot level. Variables measured at the Plot level variables include: land cover, landform designation, position on topographic sequence, vegetation structure, primary current use, along with an assessment of impact to habitat and occurrence of soil conservation structures. Subplot measurements include: tree and shrub densities, erosion prevalence, root depth restrictions, as well as herbaceous and woody cover ratings. Infiltration capacity is measured using a single ring infiltrometer at 30% of the plots. Field training of technicians was completed in October 2012 in Nairobi, Kenya by Leigh Winowiecki. Field surveys were conducted by partners from Catholic University in Bukavu, DRC and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).The Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape (MLW) in DRC (Figure One) encompasses a wide range of land cover types, including dense moist semi-deciduous alongside smallholder agricultural systems (Figure Two). Regional interventions aimed to increase productivity was conserving natural resources have lacked baseline information on soil and land health for making informed decisions. This initiative aimed to fill gaps related to biophysical constraints in order to inform decisions.An assessment of land and soil health was carried out at the Yamboyo site, in the central eastern region of The Maringa-Lopori-Wamba Landscape (MLW) (Figures One and Two) in June 2012 using the Land Degradation Surveillance Frameworks (LDSF). The LDSF is a spatially stratified, randomized sampling design, developed to provide a biophysical baseline at landscape level and a monitoring and evaluation framework for assessing processes of land degradation and effectiveness of rehabilitation measures, over time. The LDSF was developed by ICRAF scientists and is implemented in projects, globally.This report highlights the sampling methodology and key results of the soil health indicators. Predictions results using MIR are also reported. Preliminary analysis on the effect of land cover on dynamic soil properties are also included. The measured and predicted soil analytical data (among other data files are available in the Yamboyo DropBox Folder. Composite soil samples were collected at each plot at 0-20 cm and 20-50 cm (n=158 topsoil and 158 subsoil samples). Cumulative soil mass samples were also collected to 100 cm at half of the plots (n=305). Soil samples were air-dried and sieved to 2 mm at the laboratory in Bukavu. All processed samples were shipped to Nairobi in March 2013.Sub samples were further ground to <50 μm for spectral analysis. MIR diffuse reflectance was measured on each sample using a mid-infrared spectrometer (Bruker HTS-TX (FTIR)) at the ICRAF Plant and Soil Spectroscopy Laboratory in Nairobi in September 2013 (n=621) according to procedures described in Terhoeven-Urselmans et al. ( 2010). The measured wavebands ranged from 4000 to 601 cm-1 with a resolution of 4 cm-1. Thirty-two reference samples were subjected to wet chemistry analysis at Crop Nutrition Laboratory in Nairobi in July 2013. Nitrogen and Carbon analyses were conducted using dry combustion at ICRAF. Sand content was measured on a Laser Diffraction Particle Size Analyzer (LDPSA) at the ICRAF Soil and Plant Spectroscopy Laboratory. The samples were dispersed in calgon and subjected to ultrasonification for four minutes.The Yamboyo site, while dominated by forest vegetation, does contain cultivated plots. Figure Three highlights the LDSF plots that are cultivated and LDSF plots that have semi-natural vegetation. Modeled average of cultivation across the site, estimates that ~25% of the region is under cultivation.Upslope and downslope measurements were taken at every plot. Figure Four illustrates that the Yamboyo sites is generally level, and has a mean slope of 1.6 degrees.  This report highlights predictions made using MIR and summarizes the results for important indicators of soil health. The measured and predicted soil analytical data, among other data files are available in the Yamboyo DropBox Folder. Figure Five shows the spectral signatures of the top and sub soil at the Yamboyo site. Top and sub soil spectral signatures had similar variation (Figure Five). These spectra were used to make predictions of soil properties.Prediction results generated for the Yamboyo LDSF site were based on models developed using the global ICRAF soil MIR spectral library by the GeoScience Lab (http://gsl.worldagroforestry.org). The figures below show the validation results for these models using independent datasets. SOC was predicted using randomforest ensemble models, with a calibration set of 3791 samples and a validation set of 1625. The R 2 for the independent validation predictions of SOC was 0.93 (Figure Six). Sand content was predicted using randomforest ensemble models, with a calibration set of 3791 samples and a validation set of 1625. The R 2 for the independent validation predictions of sand content was 0.82 (Figure Seven).   SOC and exchangeable bases (ExMg +2 +ExCa +2 +ExK + +ExNa + ) have a strong relationship (Figure Ten). As exchangeable bases increase, so does SOC content. Mean exchangeable bases for topsoil was 5.4 cmol c kg -1 and 4 cmol c kg -1 for subsoil. These exchangeable base contents are considered quite low.Mean sand content for topsoil was 48 % and mean sand content for subsoil was 49 %. No difference in sand content was observed between topographic positions (Figure Eleven).Each subplot was scored according to herbaceous rating categories. These data were used to calculate overall herbaceous cover ratings for the entire plot. Plots with an herbaceous cover rating greater than 40 % are given a score of 1 and plots with less than 40 % herbaceous cover are given a score of 0.      Average tree and shrub densities were modeled using generalized linear mixed effects model, using the tree count data from each of the four subplots per plot, for a total of 632 subplots at the Yamboyo site. Trees are woody vegetation over 3 meters tall. Shrubs are woody vegetation between 1.5 and 3 m tall. Average tree density for the Yamboyo site was 344 ± 193 tree ha -1 . Figure Thirteen illustrates the variation in tree densities in each cluster. Average shrub density for the Yamboyo site was 686 ± 490 tree ha -1 . Figure Fourteen illustrates the variation in shrub densities within and between each cluster.Mapping dynamic soil properties can help guide and target land management strategies across the landscape. An important product of the LDSF is the creation of maps of key indicators of soil condition, such as topsoil organic carbon (SOC). Maps were generated based on ensemble models at a spatial resolution of 30m using Landsat ETM+.   ","tokenCount":"1126"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"c362a854dca30992f08953cc2d327019","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/ae7497c5-6edf-4992-804a-b1fd106bf646/retrieve","id":"-63124420"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"995c8d82-aa80-40fa-b67d-5bdc3138f924","pagecount":"9","content":"Drought, infestation of cereal crops by the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica, and poor soil fertility are the major constraints to maize production by smallholder farmers in the Sudan savannas of northern Nigeria. Four innovation platforms (IPs) were therefore established in 2008 in the Sudan savanna (SS) agroecological zone of northern Nigeria to create a stakeholder forum to address these identified food production challenges in the target areas. e IPs comprised researchers from Bayero University, Kano; Institute for Agricultural Research, Zaria; International Institute of Tropical Agriculture; state and local government extension programs in Kano and Katsina states; input and output dealers; community-based organisations; and media organisations in the two states. e current study reports on the effects of legume integration on maize performance in farmer fields and the adoption of Striga management technologies introduced in the IPs over a four-year period. e deployment of drought-Striga-tolerant and early-maturing maize varieties along with legume rotation reduced Striga infestation by 46-100% when cowpea was rotated with maize, 80-97% when groundnut was rotated with maize, and 59-94% when soybean was rotated with maize. Grain yield of maize increased by 63-88% when cowpea was rotated with maize, 69-128% when groundnut was rotated with maize, and 9-133% when soybean was rotated with maize. Participatory and detailed questionnaire-based adoption surveys showed high adoption of improved maize varieties, five years after program interventions. e maize variety 99EVDT-W-STR C0 was the most popular among all the IPs because it is early maturing, Striga-resistant, and drought-tolerant. e high maize yields and high adoption rates suggest that the IP approach was effective in disseminating maize technologies.Maize is gradually replacing the traditional cereal crops such as Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) and pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) in the dry savannas of West and Central Africa [1]. Although maize is primarily cultivated in the Guinea savannas in northern Nigeria where the length of growing season and rainfall are sufficient to support maize production, maize production is also gradually spreading to the drier Sudan savanna (SS), where the length of growing season is short because of the availability of early maturing and high yielding varieties [2]. Maize production in the SS of West Africa is limited by short growing season, intermittent drought, infestation by the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica, and poor soil fertility [3,4]. ese constraints may occur together in the SS, leading to a yield reduction of 80-100% [5]. To address these constraints, researchers at both national and international research institutes have developed a number of technologies for dissemination among smallholder farmers. ese include varieties that are resistant to both drought and Striga [3,5] and cereal-legume rotation to control Striga and improve soil fertility [5][6][7]. e legumes cause suicidal germination of Striga and fix nitrogen which is made available to succeeding maize. Kamara et al. [5] and Franke et al. [7] reported a significant reduction in Striga infestation and increase in maize grain yield when Striga-resistant maize was grown in rotation with grain legumes in the Nigeria savanna. Despite the availability of technologies to address the effects of drought, poor soil fertility, and Striga infestation, their use is still very minimal in the SS of Nigeria leading to very low productivity of maize in these zones [8]. is may be attributed to the extension methods used in the promotion. Research technology transfer and technology use have been treated as independent activities. Research knowledge consisting of large prescriptive technology packages flows linearly from researchers to farmers through extension agents [9]. In a baseline study carried out in 2008 in the SS of northern Nigeria, Ayanwale [8] reported that access to and use of the extension service was generally low in all the study areas. Consequently, adoption of maize productivity enhancing technology was very low. For example, average adoption of improved maize varieties was 30% with wide variation among local government areas [8].e International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and its partners in recent years have developed new early maturing maize varieties because of the short growing periods prevalent in these areas and the incidence of drought, especially in view of rapid climatic variability. e early maturing maize varieties were disseminated to farmers using innovation platforms (IPs) under the premise of Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) adopted by sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA-CP). e SSA-CP proposed an alternative approach to address underperformance of SSA agriculture due to the traditional agricultural and research development (ARD) approach, which is characterised by organisation of research and development as a linear process [10]. e fundamental structure for this is an \"innovation platform\" (IP) comprising partners with diverse backgrounds who interact to support sustainable agricultural development. Innovation platforms are considered to be promising vehicles for increasing the impact of agricultural research for development (AR4D) [11,12]. For example, the IITA-led Humid Tropics program successfully organised multistakeholder innovation platforms to demonstrate agricultural technologies in Burundi, Rwanda, and Democratic Republic of Congo [13]. In Burkina Faso, Teno and Cadilhon [14] reported that IPs contributed to increase their members' human and social capacity; improved exchange of information and knowledge between different stakeholders; and facilitated the access to agricultural support services. All these improvements led to increased crops and animal production among the project beneficiaries. Using IPs in the maize and cassava value chains, the project \"dissemination of new agricultural technologies in Africa (DONATA)\" significantly increased yields and incomes in maize and cassava and enhanced interactor relationships and behavioural change among the diverse social and economic operators [11]. e sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA-CP) which was initiated in 2004 had proposed an alternative approach that aims to appropriately put agricultural research within a larger system of innovation whereby knowledge from numerous sources (comprising all various actors and stakeholders) is integrated and effectively put into use.e SSA-CP operates a Pilot Learning Site (Kano-Katsina-Maradi PLS) referred to as KKM-PLS within the West African subregion. e Sudan savanna (SS) is one of the taskforces operating within the KKM-PLS with the aims to improve the productivity of farming systems and ensure efficient use of resources through technical, administrative marketing, and management improvements [9] Within the project, maize production technologies were disseminated to a large number of farmers in the platforms, using a participatory research and extension approach (PREA) [15].e main objective of this paper is to illustrate how maize productivity was increased in the IPs using the appropriate technologies such as improved varieties, legumemaize rotation, and a participatory approach. Specifically, the study examined the following:(1) e performance of an integrated maize production package that included the combined use of drought/ Striga-tolerant maize varieties in rotation with grain legumes (cowpea, groundnut, and soybean) on farmers' fields in the Sudan savanna of Nigeria with respect to maize yield, Striga infestation, and Striga damage (2) e adoption of recommended technologies among farmers in order to assess the potential to scale-up technologies through farmer-to-farmer extensionInnovation platforms were set up in 2 local government areas each in Kano and Katsina states. e local government areas lie in the Sudan savannas of Nigeria. e Sudan savanna zone extends between latitudes 9 °30′ and 12 °31′N and longitudes 4 °and 14 °30′E and occupies about 12 million ha -1 . e zone has rainfall ranging between 500 and 800 mm per annum with a growing period of about 100 to 120 days [16]. e process for IP establishment started with the identification of multidisciplinary teams to implement project activities for specific crops.is brought a wider group of stakeholders together for training, agreeing partner roles, and budgets detailed in interinstitutional MoUs. Early in 2008, IP areas and commodity focuses were finalised and the first year's field activities commenced in 20 communities and later covered 40 communities over the 3-year period.e International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, the Centre for Dryland Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano (CDA), and the Institute for Agricultural Research in Zaria (IAR) were identified to support field research activities, while KNARDA, KTARDA, and the agriculture departments in the participating LGAs in the two states provided extension services in order to create awareness and strengthen capacity of farmers to adopt the use of improved agricultural technologies. Policymakers at the state and local government level provided support for subsidized inputs for farmers and capacity building and mobility of extension agents.Approach.e participatory research and extension approach (PREA) used involved a four-stage process. ese were community analysis and mobilisation, action planning, implementation through field experimentation, and sharing of experiences [16,17].e project was implemented in 40 communities across four LGAs in the two states over the three-year period. During the 2008 community analysis, problems were identified and prioritised by each IP, and an action plan was agreed and implemented.is involved the strengthening of existing and creation of new community-based organisations (CBOs) or farmer groups through capacity building and training, resulting in farmer testing of new technologies aimed at addressing the identified problems, linking famers to input and output markets, and ensuring seeds of new crop varieties were readily available in local communities. is involved the establishment of community-based seed production, based on individuals selected by farmer groups, who were provided with the resources for certified seed production and sale within their communities. During 2008 and 2009, mid-and end-of-season participatory evaluations were undertaken, and plans for the next season were agreed. is process was coordinated by KNARDA and KTARDA in conjunction with each LGA IP, with support from researchers from IAR and CDA. Maize was confirmed as one of the major cereals grown in the targeted areas. Other crops that were identified to be important were rice, Sorghum, cowpeas, groundnuts, and soybeans, based on the predominant cropping system and prioritised problems in each community. Striga together with poor soil fertility were identified as the major biophysical constraints for maize production in all the identified communities. As a result of community mobilisation exercise, 200 lead farmers were selected from 88 CBOs to test maize production technologies. In order to make seeds of improved maize available to farmers, 48 maize seed producers were selected to produce and sell seeds at community level. Community seed producers were also identified to produce and make available seeds of improved legume varieties and to enhance legume integration for soil improvement and Striga management. e legume trap crops (cowpea, groundnut, and soybean) stimulate the germination of Striga seeds in the soil without allowing the Striga plants to parasitize their roots thereby leading to the death of the Striga plant. Training was provided for the extension agents (EAs) so that they in turn provided training for farmers not only in crop and Striga management but also in leadership and communication skills. is would enable the farmers to effectively lead their groups and disseminate Striga control and other maize production technologies. e lead farmers were encouraged to share with other members of their groups the skills and knowledge they had acquired during training and field evaluation activities. ey were also encouraged to provide knowledge on Striga and soil fertility management to other farmers in their communities and to lead participation in evaluating the performance of the Striga control methods.ere were two treatments: an improved crop management plot (ICM) and farmer practice (FP) plot. e ICM treatment consisted of a legume crop in the first year followed in the second year by an improved maize variety selected from one of four varieties, based on farmer's choice. In addition, the same maize varieties were also grown as a sole crop alongside the legume crop in the first year to assess their effect on Striga control in comparison with local maize. For the legumes, the farmers selected cowpea, groundnut, or soybean based on their choice to grow in rotation with the maize. Maize varieties selected were either all early or extraearly maturing, which made it possible for them to fit into the short growing season in the Sudan savannas of Nigeria. e varieties were 2000SYN-EE-W-STR, 99EVDT-STR-W, 2004TZE-W-DT-STR-C4, 99TZEE-Y-STR, and FC. All the improved varieties were tolerant or resistant to Striga parasitism. FP comprised a local maize variety in both years. Most local maize varieties were retained seeds of improved varieties that had been acquired many years previously through the state extension agency or from the open market.Farmers with the help of EAs laid out the plots of 20 × 20 m 2 . Farmers were advised to grow all crops on ridges 0.75 m apart and plant maize with an intrarow spacing of 0.50 m apart. Two seeds of maize were planted per plant stand to give a plant population of 53,333 plants ha − 1 . Soybean seeds were drilled at an intrarow distance of 0.05 m; groundnut was planted at 0.20 m distance using one seed per stand while cowpea was planted at a distance of 0.20 m apart using two seeds per plant stand. Farmers were provided with fertilizer to apply on all the plots. For the ICM plot, NPK 15 : 15 : 15 was applied one week after planting (WAP) at the rate of 50 kg N, 50 kg P 2 O 5 , and 50 kg K 2 O ha − 1 using standardised measures. Urea was used for top dressing maize plants with 50 kg N ha − 1 at 4-5 weeks after planting (WAP) to give a total of 100 kg N ha − 1 .e legume plots were International Journal of Agronomy supplied with single superphosphate (SSP) at 40 kg P 2 O 5 ha − 1 at planting. In the FP, lead farmers were asked to apply their own management practices. Fertilizer was provided to apply on the local maize if the farmers wished to do so. Farmers were also asked to bury the fertilizer in the ICM plots to minimise nutrient loss through rainwater run-off and volatilisation. In the FP, lead farmers were asked to apply the management practices as they see fit such as plant population, weeding, and fertilizer application. Many farmers also buried the fertilizer applied in the FP plots, especially in the second year. ey, however, applied less fertilizer on their own plots because they considered the recommended fertilizer rates to be too high.collected data on farmers' field through an observation sheet. Data on Striga count in the maize plot were collected at 10 WAP. In each plot, four 1 m × 1 m quadrants were laid along two intersecting diagonal transects. Two quadrants were pegged out on one diagonal while the remaining two were pegged out on the other diagonal. In each quadrant, emerged Striga plants were counted. Grain yield was determined at physiological maturity at 10 WAP according to Kamara et al. [5]. At maturity, farmers with support from EAs harvested all the maize in a plot, dehusked, shelled, and weighed it.Representative samples of 20 cobs were shelled, and the moisture content was determined using a Dickey-John moisture meter. e moisture content was used to adjust yield to 12% moisture content. Soybean was harvested by cutting plants at ground level and air-dried before threshing. e moisture content of the grain was used to calculate grain yield per ha after adjusting to 12% moisture content. Cowpea pods were picked and air-dried before threshing and weighed to calculate grain yield after adjusting to 12% moisture content. Groundnut was pulled from the ground when fully matured and dried, and pod yield was taken after weighing.Statistical analyses were performed on data collected in the maize plots in year 2 using SAS Statistical Software version 9.1 [18]. Prior to analysis, all plots in sites free of Striga were removed from the data set. Striga count was square root transformed before analysis of variance to improve normality. Variability of means is presented as standard errors between means (s.e.d.) with differences between means considered significant at the level of p < 0.05 using LSD.Technologies. Participatory assessment (PASS) was undertaken towards the end of the cropping season in 2010 in 20 communities across 4 LGAs (Bunkure and Shanono in Kano state; Musawa and Safana in Katsina state) where maize was promoted in the cereal-legume-livestock IPs established. Participatory assessment involved discussions with groups of men and women firstly in undertaking a \"Participatory Crop Varietal Evaluation\" of the new maize varieties tested and grown by farmers. Secondly, the extent to which participating farmers had adopted the new maize varieties and management practices were estimated. It was recognised that adoption rates based on participating farmer discussions would be high. ere was therefore a need for a formal survey to assess the adoption of the improved maize varieties introduced in two of the target LGAs. Participatory varietal evaluations were undertaken by separate groups of men and women. In each group, we confirmed existing and new varieties of each crop grown or tested. Secondly, we identified those criteria considered important in variety comparison, and thirdly, we scored each criterion for each variety on a scale of 1-3, one being poorest performing and three being the best performing. In addition, pairwise ranking was undertaken to directly compare and score the different crop varieties.e most important preharvest production criteria were the ability to provide high yields, early maturing, providing large grain, and being Striga and drought tolerant or resistant.e most important postharvest criteria were the ability to provide good tasting food and a high market value for the grain or the processed crop.Two separate household surveys were undertaken, one each in Bunkure LGA, Kano state and Safana LGA, Katsina state to ascertain the level of adoption of the improved maize varieties introduced in the two LGAs from 2008 to 2011. e surveys were undertaken in April 2013. A multistage sampling technique was used to select respondents for the study. In the first stage, the two LGAs where the IPs were established were purposively selected.e stratified random sampling technique was used to select respondents in each LGA. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire designed to capture information on 300 households across 10 villages in Safana LGA where less maize is produced and 200 households across 5 villages in Bunkure LGA where more farmers produce maize. e pretested questionnaire was administered between March and April 2013. Household data were collected on farm and farmer characteristics, as well as awareness and adoption rates of improved crop technologies. Data collected were analysed using SPSS. Data were analysed according to [19] using descriptive statistics. Frequency counts, percentages, and mean computations were used to describe the variables in the study.3.1. Field Experimentation. Legume rotation generally reduced Striga infestation and increased maize grain yield (Tables 1-3). Mean Striga densities were higher in the farmers' choice of continuous maize plots (FC) than those in plots where maize was rotated with any of the legumes (Tables 1-3).e cultivation of Striga-susceptible maize greatly increased Striga infestation. When grown in rotation with cowpea, Striga population was reduced by 46-100% with a corresponding maize grain yield increases ranging from 63 to 88% (Table 1). Rotation with groundnut reduced Striga population by 80-97% and increased grain yield by 69-128% (Table 2). Similarly, rotation with soybean reduced Striga infestation by 59-94% with a corresponding yield increase ranging from 9 to 133% (Table 3). e extent of reduction appears to be similar among the legume varieties. Franke et al. [7] reported high reductions in Striga seed bank in groundnut-maize (46%) and soybean-maize (50%) rotations. Ellis-Jones et al. [14] reported that maize grown after soybean (1.44 t•ha − 1 ) produced grain yield that was significantly higher than that grown after local maize (0.73 t•ha − 1 ) and Sorghum (0.95 t•ha − 1 ). In comparison, maize grown after cowpea produced an average yield of 1.32 t•ha − 1 . Maize grown after a previous legume trap crop produced an average yield of 1.38 t•ha − 1 but only 0.84 t•ha − 1 when grown after a previous cereal crop. ey also reported that the grain yields (1.32 t•ha − 1 ) of Striga-resistant maize were significantly higher (p < 0.005) than those of local maize. e mean yields of the local maize (0.90 t•ha − 1 ) were 47% less than those of the Striga-resistant maize. ey attributed the increase in maize yields to a reduction in Striga infestation in maize fields following legumes or on Striga-resistant maize. Kamara et al. [5] reported a 39% increase in grain yield of Striga-resistant maize grown after soybean. e reduction in Striga infestation of maize grown in rotation with legumes confirms the importance of growing legumes in the first year to reduce Striga, even when Striga-tolerant or -resistant maize varieties are grown.Technologies. Maize varieties were ranked using pairwise ranking techniques (Table 4). Results show that 99EVDT-W-STR was considered the best maize variety, although 99TZEE-Y STR was also ranked highly in some communities. Kamara et al. [20] used the same approach to assess farmer adoption of improved cowpea varieties in northeast Nigeria. ey confirmed that farmers preferred improved varieties because of high yields.After the maize varietal rankings, participants were asked to indicate who had tried or planted one of the new varieties and used the new management practices. A positive response was taken as a measure of adoption on at least part of his/her farm. Overall results (Table 5) indicate that 39% of the participants had adopted improved maize varieties. Rates of adoption did however vary between LGAs, with the highest rates of adoption being in Bunkure. Bunkure LGA is situated largely within or near the very big Hadejia-Jamaare irrigation scheme, where farmers have more access to market than other LGAs. When participants in Bunkure and Shanono were asked which varieties they intended to plant, the next growing season, many chose to plant the improved maize varieties (Table 6). Eighty-one percent of the participants indicated their intention to plant 99EVDT-W-STR because of tolerance to both drought and Striga, while 47% intended to plant 99TZEE-Y-STR because of its short duration in the field. e results reported in this paper are consistent with those of Ellis-Jones et al. [14], which showed that the IP approach using PREA is likely to enhance technology adoption. e adoption of many of the new management practices was consistently high across communities (Table 5). For fertilizer application, this was 70%, increasing plant populations (62%), and legume-cereal rotations that included mixed and relay cropping of cereals and legumes (58%). Fifty-one percent of participants reported burying of the fertilizer at application. However, as reported by Kamara et al. [5], complaints about the additional labour and the tediousness of the work required for burying the fertilizer and high costs of fertilizer application may limit the area of land over which they are applied. As with adoption of new varieties, adoption of new management practices was highest in Bunkure and Safana and consistently less in Musawa (Table 5). Survey results established that most of the households were male-headed (93% in Bunkure and 88% in Safana). Most of those interviewed belonged to an existing group (69% in Bunkure and 63% in Safana). Seventy-nine percent of the farmers in Bunkure had access to extension agents while 77% had access in Safana. Eighty-nine percent of the respondents in Bunkure were aware of the improved maize varieties and 91% having awareness in Safana LGA. e high percentage of awareness compared to 34.5% in Bunkure and 36% in Safana in the baseline undertaken in 2008 [10] shows that the project was effective in dissemination of information about the improved maize varieties. It also shows that the extension agents and the use of PREA were very effective in providing information about improved maize varieties in the two LGAs. Kudi et al. [21] also reported high level of awareness of improved maize varieties in Kwara state, Nigeria, leading to high adoption of maize varieties. About 69% of the respondents had adopted improved maize varieties in Bunkure LGA (Table 7). In Safana LGA, 45% of the respondents had adopted the improved maize varieties. Results show that the adoption of the variety 99EVDT-W-STR was highest among the varieties across the two LGAs. Adoption of this variety was 61% in Bunkure and 29% in Safana in 2012.e variety 2009EVDT-W-STR was also adopted by 10% of the farmers in Safana LGA. Adoption of the other varieties was very low. e varieties 99EVDT-W-STR and 2009EVDT-W-STR are both tolerant to drought and resistant to the parasitic weed Striga hermonthica in addition to being early in maturity. e variety 99EVDT-W-STR, which was released in Nigeria in 2009 as SAMMAZ 27, was widely promoted among farmers in the study area. Several seed companies and community seed producers were provided with seeds of this variety for production and marketing in the study area. Although 2009EVDT-W-STR is also tolerant to drought and resistant to Striga, it has not been released in Nigeria and was therefore only tested in farmers' fields for the purpose of release by the national seed council. Although the other varieties were tolerant to Striga and early maturing, they were not tolerant to drought. Farmers indicated drought tolerance, Striga resistance, early maturing, and high yield as reasons for adopting improved maize. e two varieties that possessed these qualities were therefore highly preferred by the farmers. Our results clearly showed that the project succeeded in promoting the improved maize varieties in the two LGAs as confirmed by the report of the baseline study carried out in 2008 and reported by Ayanwale et al. [8] who showed a baseline adoption of 38% of the improved maize varieties prior to the interventions by the SS taskforce. e increasing adoption of the early maturing varieties in the two  LGAs contrasts the situation where no innovation platform was set up as reported by Yanguba [22] who found only 13.3% adoption of early maturing varieties in Katsina state. He attributed the low adoption to lack of seed and fertilizer in the absence of any innovation system approach to ensure availability of those inputs to farmers. To increase adoption of the promoted maize varieties, the Sudan savanna taskforce provided training for both extension agents and farmers and link farmers to seed producers and governmentsubsidized fertilizer. Mbavai [23] and Kamara [24] cited lack of seed as the major reason why farmers did not adopt improved cowpea and soybean varieties, respectively, in northern Nigeria.e innovation system approach used to address problems of food production in the Sudan Savannas of Nigeria involved multistakeholders in identifying maize production constraints and providing solutions to increase maize productivity.e deployment of drought-and Striga-tolerant and early-maturing maize varieties along with legume rotation reduced Striga infestation by 46-100% and increased maize grain yield by 9-133% depending on the legume crop used in the rotation. Adoption surveys showed 45-69% adoption of improved maize technologies four years after program interventions.e maize variety 99EVDT-STR-W was the most popular variety among farm households across the LGAs that constituted the IPs. is is due to its drought-tolerant and the parasitic weed Striga resistance characteristics. It is also preferred because it is early maturing and high yielding. e results of this study show that there is a clear benefit in the use of the Striga management technologies in northern Nigeria. A detailed study is needed to determine the impact of the use of these technologies on Striga infestation of maize fields, productivity, food security, income, and poverty in the project areas.","tokenCount":"4504"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"74ef757e43ba46bd5f16c6f997c56c68","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/a31b97b1-83b6-4481-a948-040ca6674237/retrieve","id":"-2139156046"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"58d6358e-676a-4c89-aa31-7d9d3edc8f1c","pagecount":"33","content":"Achieving gender equality in irrigation can result in greater production, income, and job opportunities for both men and women smallholder farmers from diverse social groups, while building climate resilience in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia, national irrigation agencies, donors, and researchers have been assisting project implementers to mainstream gender issues into the planning and implementation of irrigation programs. However, although efforts to close gender gaps in irrigation have been increasing, little is known about how interactions among institutions at different scales may determine the success of gender-mainstreaming strategies. This study presents a qualitative analysis of how the interaction of institutions at multiple levels can shape the success of gender-mainstreaming strategies. Specifically, the study analyzed how institutions' rules, roles, and capacities at state, market, community, and household levels shaped strategies in Ethiopia's nine small-scale and micro irrigation development projects. The findings show that 'rule-based' strategies adopted by small, scheme-based irrigation projects emphasize policies and rules for equal rights and opportunities for equal participation in individuals' and institutions' decision-making and capacity development. 'Role-based'strategies adopted by projects promoting small-scale and micro irrigation technologies focus on challenging social norms to address the imbalance of power and workloads by developing the capacity of all stakeholders. Both strategies focus on women and use participatory approaches to ensure gender equality. Negative stereotypes about women from families, communities, and the private sector often make it difficult for gender mainstreaming to succeed. Furthermore, institutional biases and limited capacities reproduce gender inequality by reinforcing stereotypical gender norms. Transformative gender mainstreaming strategies are critical to holistic approaches that facilitate change at different scales through broad-based partnerships between actors. It calls for 1) enacting policy, creating an institutional environment, and developing governance mechanisms for mainstreaming gender; 2) enhancing the accountability system and adoption of gendertransformative approaches to involve more women farmers in designing, planning, and management; 3) creating a supportive institutional environment at market, community and household level that helps women farmers invest in irrigation; and 4) applying an intersectional lens in gender analysis and mainstreaming.In sub-Saharan Africa, irrigation development has improved food security and reduced rural poverty by increasing production, income, and job opportunities, in addition to building climate resilience (Gebrehiwot et al. 2015;Namara et al. 2010). Yet, gender inequality remains an issue in the sector (Imburgia 2019;Lefore et al. 2019). Designing and implementing an irrigation development project with little or no understanding of gender relations can unintentionally exacerbate gender disparities and even create gender inequalities and new barriers for women (The World Bank, FAO and IFAD 2009;van Koppen 2002). Therefore, understanding gender dynamics in small-scale irrigation is crucial to designing sound technical and policy interventions (Domènech 2015;Theis et al. 2018a). Recognizing this, national irrigation agencies and donors have been helping project implementers formulate gendermainstreaming strategies to support the integration of gender issues in the planning and implementation of irrigation projects.Gender mainstreaming is about removing disparities between men and women regarding their access to resources, inclusion and participation in the public sphere, representation in government, and empowerment (Jamil et al. 2020). However, there is considerable skepticism about the success of this approach in achieving gender equality (Joseph et al. 2011) and whether the visions of transformative gender mainstreaming can ever be realized (Sweetman 2015). The approach is criticized for being technocratic and integrationist (Joseph et al. 2011;Shortall 2015;Sweetman 2015) and for focusing on the development institution rather than the project beneficiaries (Moser and Moser 2005).To incorporate gender into irrigation development, scholars have provided tools like the Gender Integration Strategy (GIS) (Jordans 1998), Gender Performance Indicator for Irrigation (GPII) (van Koppen 2002), Gender in Irrigation Learning and Improvement Tool (GILIT) (Lefore et al. 2017) and Considering Gender when Promoting Small-Scale Irrigation Technologies (CGPSSIT) (Theis et al. 2018b). Although these tools help stakeholders improve the gender performance of irrigation development projects, they rarely aid in holistically understanding multi-level, gender-based opportunities and barriers. Furthermore, despite increased attempts to close gender gaps in irrigation, little is known about how institutional interactions at different scales can influence the success of gender-mainstreaming strategies.Therefore, this study focused on understanding how multi-level institutions and their interactions influenced gender mainstreaming in irrigation development projects in Ethiopia. The following questions are addressed in this paper:1. What gender mainstreaming strategies did the irrigation development projects adopt?2. How did interactions between multi-level institutions determine such strategies?3. How can transformative gender mainstreaming be achieved?This paper discusses the gender-mainstreaming approach and synthesizes other approaches for gender integration into irrigation development. It then presents a multilevel institutional framework and provides case studies and a methodological approach. The results show how interactions among different institutional levels can shape the outcomes of two gender-mainstreaming strategies: rule-driven and role-based. Lastly, we provide a conclusion and practical recommendations for developing a holistic and multi-level view of transformative gender mainstreaming (TGM) to achieve better outcomes on equality in the irrigation sector of Ethiopia.Institutional Gender Mainstreaming in Small-Scale Irrigation: Lessons from Ethiopia Analytical FrameworkGender mainstreaming was designed by feminist development practitioners in the 1970s and mandated by the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action at the United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women (UN Women 1995). It is considered key to advancing women's rights and gender issues in development by governments and development institutions of all sizes, shapes, and scales (de Waal 2006;Joseph et al. 2011;Sweetman 2015) and at different stages of a project cycle (Sweetman 2015). It has been used as a public policy concept to assess the implications for women and men of any planned policy action, law, or program (de Waal 2006).In principle, gender mainstreaming is transformative, challenging the status quo (Cole et al. 2014;Daly 2005;Woodward 2008). Many feminists are skeptical about whether it is an effective strategy for gender equality (Baruah 2005;Chant 2016;Cornwall 2000) and argue that the approach is far from its lauded vision of transformation (Sweetman 2015). They argue that the approach is technocratic and does not focus on transformation in terms of gender equality (Joseph et al. 2011;Shortall 2015;Sweetman 2015). It relies on training, tools, frameworks, experts, and ticking boxes and checklists to ensure gender concerns have been addressed in policies (Joseph et al. 2011;Shortall 2015;Sweetman 2015). It requires long-term commitment, an adequate budget, regular monitoring, management support, staff engagement, and appropriate strategies (Lee-Gosselin et al. 2013).Many development initiatives use an integrationist approach, adding women's concerns to existing policies and projects (Sweetman 2015). This means that existing gender hierarchies within society and in policies that perpetuate gender inequality and their impact on policy actors, policymaking, and implementation remain unchallenged (Daly 2005;Joseph et al. 2011;Shortall 2015;Sweetman 2015;van Eerdewijk and Davids 2014). Blindness to existing structural power relations and dynamics often obscures how gender-mainstreaming policies can help promote gender equality in society (van Eerdewijk and Davids 2014) and makes their impact difficult to measure (Walby 2005).The impacts of gender mainstreaming on gender equality are often evident in development organizations. However, they are usually not felt by project participants or are not reported (Moser and Moser 2005). Social institutions -including the market, state, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that reflect the norms and values of the surrounding society -play a key role in perpetuating or challenging gender inequality (Sweetman 2015). Masculine values and practices, cultural and religious principles, and patriarchal culture at different scales affect how gender mainstreaming is implemented. However, gender-mainstreaming approaches focus on gender units and experts rather than creating a space for women.Despite these drawbacks, many development organizations increasingly adopt a gender-mainstreaming strategy (Arora-Jonsson and Sijapati 2018). For this reason, responding to backlashes in gendermainstreaming practices calls for strategies that focus on social transformation and change (Jamil et al. 2020;Sandler and Rao 2012) and transformational institutions and processes at different levels (van Eerdewijk and Davids 2014). Also, it requires a holistic approach that forms and facilitates a broad-based partnership strategy between different actors at different scales (Cole et al. 2014), including policy, legal arenas (Stern et al. 2018), market, communities and family.In the debate on gender equality in irrigation development (Lefore et al. 2019;Nigussie et al. 2017;Senanayake et al. 2015;Theis et al. 2018b), several tools have been developed for integrating gender into irrigation, including Gender Integration Strategy (GIS), Gender Performance Indicator for Irrigation (GPII), Gender in Irrigation Learning and Improvement Tool (GILIT), and Considering Gender when Promoting Small-Scale Irrigation Technologies (CGPSSIT). The GIS provides strategies for integrating gender into irrigation planning at three levels simultaneously -policy, institution, and implementation -for more equitable, effective, and efficient management of irrigation systems. At a policy level, it addresses the need for international, national, and regional planning and governing institutions to recognize gender issues as legitimate political concerns and to address gender issues as a goal. At an institutional level, this tool emphasizes the need for institutions and service entities to implement gender-sensitive programs, enhance their management capacities, and improve communication between farmers and policymakers. At an implementation level, it highlights the need to involve households, farmers, and communities in the planning and coordinating of irrigation activities to ensure that gender-specific needs are satisfied.The GPII is a generic analytical tool for gender analysis that enables change agents to answer how gender can be considered in scheme-based irrigation and design action for more gender equity. It helps with the empirical analysis of two factors in any scheme: (1) whether the farm decision-makers are predominantly male, female, or mixed; and (2) the inclusion and exclusion processes of female farmer decision-makers. As such, the tools help assess gender performance by investigating gender-based differences in how people access water at the farm level and participate in forums or networks in collective water management arrangements.The GILIT tool helps assess whether an irrigation scheme's current conditions allow both men and women to participate equally. It identifies areas of policy and practice in formal irrigation projects that have been successful or need adjustment to promote gender equity.The tool provides the basis for discussion, reflection, and evaluation across actors and stakeholders to fix weaknesses, share lessons, and realign a project toward gender goals. It outlines questions to help managers design governance and services that meet women's needs by evaluating the following four areas.1. The broader national and subnational regulatory context in which each project operates is essential and a major area of focus.2. Bylaws and other regulations that govern access to scheme resources, i.e., information, land, water, and other inputs, should be examined to determine if they equally provide for men and women.3. The conditions influencing effective participation in scheme membership, leadership, and decisionmaking may determine whether women can participate.4. Certain conditions that may provide access to the scheme benefits, such as access to market information, packaging, and payments from sales or processing, should also be examined.The CGPSSIT is a tool that helps actors identify key gender-related issues that should be considered at the awareness, tryout, and continued adoption of technology stages to effectively integrate gender into project implementation (Lambrecht et al. 2014;Lindner et al. 1982;Theis et al. 2018b). The tool provides questions to guide gender inclusion during small-scale irrigation technology promotion. It helps to avoid unintentionally excluding women during implementation, identify the resources required for, and the benefits of, adopting new technology, and understand the intra-household relations and broader social norms that enable or constrain women's ability to benefit from the technology.The GILIT, GPII, and GIS are all tools that help small-scale irrigation scheme development actors understand the areas that may need adjustment to address gender issues for developing equitable and sustainable irrigation. They specifically help us to tailor services to women's needs and provide equal opportunities to both men and women so that women have better access to and control over scheme resources and can participate fully in formal and informal forums as members and leaders. The GIS tool helps identify gaps in developing gender-sensitive strategies for irrigation planning. However, the GILIT, GPII, and GIS tools rarely address sociocultural landscapes such as intra-household dynamics, cultural norms, informal networks, and other underlying drivers for gendered differences (Akter et al. 2017). In the case of CGPSSIT, the tool provides a checklist of questions and a set of action points and indicators to integrate gender into irrigation interventions.Although these tools guide irrigation development project implementers in mainstreaming gender, they are rarely useful for driving policy and generating a deep understanding of the natural consequences of inequality such as gender-based barriers at multiple levels.In this analysis, a gender-mainstreaming strategy is defined as a process to ensure that men and women have equitable opportunities and capabilities to participate in and benefit from irrigation interventions. This includes the general approaches, operational mechanisms, and specific activities adopted to achieve gender equality. The general approach specifies irrigation projects' and programs' strategies to guide planning and implementation. It refers to a particular way of thinking about or dealing with gender mainstreaming in the project. The governance structure is a set of key operational mechanisms that specific implementers develop using relevant external and internal rules from various institutions at state, market, community, and household levels and different forms of coordination translated from these rules (Baland et al. 2010). It is a process established and followed by the project and its implementing organizations. The activities are simply the tasks carried out by any actors at state, market, community, and household levels to ensure that the gender-specific needs of men and women are met. Figure 1 illustrates an analytical framework for analyzing gender mainstreaming from an institutional perspective.The unit of our analysis is an irrigation development intervention or project. Therefore, each level informs the way(s) that the intervention or project responds to gender issues embedded in different levels of institutions. Institutions are essentially the endogenously emerging equilibrium outcome of roles and rules and the interaction between them (Gagliardi 2008). The rolebased aspect refers to institutions that create order by allocating defined roles and tasks to specified actors at each institutional level. The rule-based aspect refers to formal and informal regulatory arrangements, such as customs or sets of formalized rules like law and policy, that lead to repetition and the emergence of stable, predictive patterns of response and action. The role-rule interaction reflects an actor's ability to play their role under the guidance of the embedded rules. We analyzed what and how role, rule, and the interaction between the two within and across the different levels shape gender-mainstreaming strategies to incorporate gender approaches, governance, and activities in an irrigation project.Inequalities are embedded within institutions at multiple levels and are influenced by historical, social, organizational, and individual factors. The complex, interrelated, multi-level, institutional factors determine gender-mainstreaming strategies' outcomes on Figure 1. Institutional framework for analysis of the impacts of gender mainstreaming strategies. In Ethiopia, irrigation and drainage are the primary drivers of agricultural growth and transformation (MoANR, MoWIE and ATA 2016). They stimulate other activities in the value chain and contribute more to the economy in terms of increased production, income, and job opportunities than rain-fed agriculture. The Government of Ethiopia (GoE) and its development partners have made substantial investments to support small-scale irrigation and have attempted to mainstream gender to ensure gender equality. However, a study by Tsige et al. (2020) indicated that it is impractical to do so in agricultural development in Ethiopia. Among others, some of the drivers involved in gender mainstreaming included a lack of local strategies and guidelines, the adoption of a technocratic approach, and limited human resources to implement gender mainstreaming (Tsige et al. 2020).Initially, the study aimed to understand the processes and approaches that were used to integrate gender into projects that promote farmer-led irrigation development.However, national and regional data are scant because projects supporting small-scale irrigation under the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) are mainly for schemebased irrigation and do not focus on farmer-led irrigation development. As a result, we used a snowball technique to identify nine projects for the analysis (Table 1).Small, scheme-based irrigation projects aim to develop small-scale irrigation infrastructure on less than 100 ha of land to improve smallholder farmers' income, productivity, commercialization, and food security. The MoA implements these projects in selected woredas 1 of targeted regions, which have been chosen for their potential to expand irrigation based primarily on agroecological conditions and market access. The project participants are smallholder farmers living in these areas  Primary and secondary data were collected to identify the institutional rules, roles, and capacities at four levels that influenced gendered outcomes of irrigation interventions, and the approaches, governance mechanisms, and activities adopted by projects to mainstream gender in these interventions (Table 2). Secondary data were collected from relevant documents on policy and projects and from analysis, strategy, and mainstreaming guidelines on gender.Primary data were collected from key informant interviews (KIIs). For scheme-and micro-scale-based irrigation projects, informants were selected from irrigation projects or institutions supporting such development based on their knowledge of the gender-relevant project implementation processes and approaches. However, the method is limited to citing international literature about gender mainstreaming, eight national gender policies and strategies in Ethiopia focusing on agriculture, five gender project guidelines/documents, and 11 key informant interviews.Data were analyzed through the coding and thematic analysis of primary and secondary qualitative data collected. A coding scheme was developed to capture the four-level institution's roles, rules, and capacities in gender-mainstreaming work. During the analysis, we evaluated the adoption of gender mainstreaming in three parts: approach, governance, and activities.Guided by the analytical framework presented, we analyzed how approaches, governance mechanisms, and project activities may interact with multi-level institutions and shape gendered outcomes of irrigation projects. In this section, we share the findings on overall institutional settings in irrigation projects in Ethiopia. Nine institutional setting groups based on the interplay between multi-level institutions are presented in Table 3. \"Since I am from a farming family, I know how decisions are made regarding land. Men used to do anything with the land without their wives' knowledge. They used to rent, or crop share their lands without their wives' knowledge or agreement. However, no one will rent it after the joint certification program, if wives do not sign the land renting agreement with their husbands. This made them participate in decisions made over the land to some extent.\"Agriculture, natural resource and horticulture expert from the Woreda Agriculture OfficeThe purpose is to raise awareness about women's rights, avoid discriminatory laws, and ensure that women can participate as members of land administration committees. MoA is responsible for implementing policies on land administration and use. However, competing customary land tenure systems among households and communities have limited the Ministry's effectiveness in implementing these policies. The result is that girls and women are less likely to inherit land from their parents than boys and men. Furthermore, women landowners with limited access to labor and finances are less likely to benefit from the land they rent, as they contract out for sharecropping, or use it to grow low-value crops. To give women better access to water, state rules require schemes to be simple and user-friendly.Participation in and benefit from development and the public sphere. At the market level, private sector actors assume that men and women benefit equally from any intervention. However, they fail to recognize the many differences that influence the participation of women-differences in status, privilege, access to resources, participation in decision-making, need for irrigation technology, and infrastructure. The actors also assume that women contribute less to designing and constructing irrigation schemes, so they conclude that women should be paid less.Among households, views such as the public sphere is the men's domain, a woman should seek permission from her husband to go out in public, or a girl should marry rather than further her education are commonly and strongly held beliefs. These beliefs restrict women's ability to participate in any project. Yet, another problem is women's lack of time because local norms often limit them to productive and reproductive roles at home. A female participant in the focus group discussion (FGD) expressed her views about women's participation in the public sphere:\"The main challenge is [that]  A gender expert key informant from projects that promote small-scale and micro irrigation Participation in irrigation water user associations (IWUAs). IWUAs and cooperatives in communities are entry points for projects to reach farmers. They provide members with irrigation water, related scheme resources, services, and benefits. Currently, membership is based on household headship and land ownership and is restricted to one person per land certificate. A key informant described this as follows:\"The bylaws of the cooperatives prescribe that only one person from a household, usually the head of the house, can become a cooperative member. However, spouses are normally invited for training and demonstrations. Despite that participation, only the member has the right to vote.\"A gender expert in a small, scheme-based irrigation project However, the criteria for getting a land certificate tend to favor men, as only 25% of household heads in Ethiopia are women. Coupled with the norm of patrilineal inheritance, both rules and capacities among households also limit the ability of women to participate fully as members and in leadership positions of IWUAs and cooperatives.Both authority and responsibility are distributed unfairly, which leaves women with little time for participation.Women and girls are regarded as unfit to network with men and boys, which limits their ability to move around in public. Women also have a much higher illiteracy rate, and many suffer from low self-esteem. Moreover, women have limited knowledge of their roles, rights, and responsibilities as members and leaders. All these factors limit or prevent women from participating in these institutions. The result is that women have limited access to inputs, information, and services, such as training and extension services from these institutions, and limited participation in decision-making processes.Intra-household gender dynamics. Sociocultural norms are the most proximate determinants of men's and women's place and status. In many parts of Ethiopia, men and women assume that men perform the real and more challenging jobs and oversee every privilege in the household. This includes being household heads, being regarded as socially legitimate community figures, and dominating decisions concerning land and high-value resources.In contrast, women in many rural societies are assumed to be primarily mothers and housewives. In line with these assumptions, women are overburdened, which means their contribution to agriculture is less valued, and their participation in decision-making is limited. Women tend to dominate activities based at home, for which they get little support from their spouses. A female participant of the FGD described:\"Women are responsible for almost all domestic activities and support men in farming. Men never support women in domestic work. Sometimes, men fetch water and firewood. Boys often think like their fathers that domestic work is for women and girls. The girl child always supports her mother. It is the role that God assigns to us. We do not see a change in our life.We are always the same and remain the same.\"A female participant of the FGD However, because any productive work women do is considered an extension of their primary function, their contribution usually goes unnoticed. As a result, it is taken for granted that farmers are always men. Women also have limited participation in making decisions for many reasons: their subordinate status, their heavy workload, the lower value given to women's work, the biased view against women's education, and their inexperience in practicing and developing leadership skills. Among women, household heads have more liberty to make decisions. But for those in male-headed households, at best, they are considered joint decision-makers. At the same time, men tend to dominate decisions around highvalue market assets, such as inputs and technologies. However, the private sector actors' ability and intrahousehold gender dynamics are primarily what determine whether men and women farmers take up and use irrigation technologies equitably. Women farmers cannot do so because the private sector's one-size-fitsall model ignores the different needs, priorities, and concerns of men and women.There is limited gender-differentiated data and information on irrigation technology preferences, needs, and practices, so technology suppliers often use a uniform design. For example, women prefer technologies that can save time and labor and provide alternative water sources for homestead farming/backyard gardening. A key informant described it as follows:\"One of the challenges for women to use motor pumps for irrigation is that the pumps are located near water sources far from residential areas. Further, the timing for watering is either in the morning or late afternoon, peak hours for domestic work and not convenient for most women.\"A key informant from a project that promotes small-scale irrigation technologies However, the number and type of technologies that meet women's needs in the market, at farmer training centers, or in the plots managed by model farmers are inadequate. Furthermore, poverty, women's position within the household and the community, and their limited access to natural and financial resources make it difficult for women to access and adopt irrigation technologies equitably.However, even though it is relatively small, backyard cultivation allows women to make decisions, try new technologies, manage their plots, and control the income generated from low-value garden products. Backyard cultivation is considered a woman's domain because it is done at home, and it is easier for them to care for small gardens near their homesteads. Most women learn how to manage their vegetable plots from their mothers and grandmothers. to training that focuses on gender, gender analysis, or gender mainstreaming, they do not know how to provide inclusive extension services. They lack an understanding of the different powers, needs, and interests of men and women farmers and are unable to conduct a gender analysis while developing services and technologies. As such, they use uniform content, access, and methodology, which results in an extension service offering that is less sensitive to the daily reality for most women.A weak accountability system and the limited number of female extension workers only exacerbate the problem. Gender mainstreaming activities are not valued; it is an 'add-on' responsibility for development agents and extension workers, and there is no system to hold them accountable for gender work. Most extension workers are men, so they tend to favor working with male farmers because of the community perception that females should remain in the household and not socialize with boys or men. However, there are attempts to change this perception. Given that there are few female extension workers, cultural restrictions on contact between men and women negatively affect women's access to extension services. The country's Agricultural Extension Strategy (MoANR and ATA 2017) also shows that sociocultural constraints, poor capacity for planning and implementing gender programs, and lack of gender-disaggregated data have created a bottleneck for mainstreaming gender.Access to finance. Financial institutions granting loans for irrigation technologies and farm inputs include farmers' cooperative unions (located in kebeles 2 ), microfinance institutions (MFIs), savings and credit cooperatives, VSLAs and NGOs. Each institution has its procedure for granting loans. Savings and credit cooperatives provide affordable credit for low-income farmers. VSLAs provide a safe space for women to access loans for farming because they are a self-selected, informal, small group that helps them pool their money into a fund from which members can borrow. They also offer women the opportunity to network and develop leadership skills. According to a key informant from Ziway Dugda woreda:\"In villages, there are self-help groups to encourage women to save money and ease access to credit to support engagement in income-generating activities (IGAs). This has a dual benefit as it enhances IGA opportunities and serves as a platform where women come together and discuss their social issues.\"A key informant from the woreda office However, the problems with VSLAs are inadequate loans, short loan periods, and a lack of loans at critical times. Some groups prefer specific financial sources over others, depending on the rules and procedures for granting loans. To promote equitable access to loans and ensure repayment, MFIs have adopted approaches requiring spouses to sign a loan contract for buying irrigation technologies. However, rules and capacities in markets and households often make it difficult for women to do so. At the market level, the rules of MFIs, which require collateral such as land certificates, command high interest rates, demand short return periods, and have a very bureaucratic process, hinder women's access to finance. There are also limited or no women-friendly loan services. Among households, women find it hard to access loans because they are anxious about not being able to meet the criteria and/or pay back the loan. They also have limited access to trusted credit information sources and have smaller plots of land to take out loans against.Access to input and output markets. Women usually buy fertilizers and certified seeds from cooperatives and unions. They also buy seeds for some vegetables and pesticides from agriculture offices. Input suppliers assume a uniform input supply system that serves men and women equally. However, the rules and capacities among households often restrict or prevent women from accessing input and output markets. Women with restrictions on where to go have limited access to input suppliers in big towns. Furthermore, economic poverty, limited capacity to participate in sales decisions, a lack of bargaining power, and restricted access to information on market prices and input quality all lead to low rates of women participating in markets.Small, scheme-based irrigation projects use a ruledriven participation strategy for mainstreaming gender. This strategy emphasizes policies and rules for equal rights and opportunities to participate in development and decision-making and to develop the capacity of both individuals and institutions. In this study, the three projects adopting a rule-driven participation strategy included the Participatory Small-Scale Irrigation Development Program II (PASIDP II) (2016-2024), the Agricultural Growth Program (AGP II), and the Small and Micro Irrigation Support Project (SMIS) (2014-2019). These projects used three governance structures to mainstream gender: internalization, participation, and capacity development.Internalization institutionalizes the state's gender policies and guidelines to show political commitment, guide mainstreaming, and create sensitivity among individuals and organizations to shift gender-related attitudes, values, and cultures. Across the three projects, specific activities were carried out to ensure internalization. The activities entail conducting a gender analysis to understand the causes of gender inequality, develop guidelines, and allocate human and financial resources to gender mainstreaming. To recognize and address gender concerns in all operations and to support nongender experts at all levels, at least one gender expert should be recruited nationally. Capacity development for non-gender experts provides technical support, such as developing gender-inclusive irrigation water management and extension advisory services, gender-sensitive data collection and analysis, and gender-responsive planning, monitoring, and evaluation.Participation reflects the approaches projects use to engage women in small irrigation schemes. Participatory approaches incorporate the concerns and experiences of women and men. The three projects use different mechanisms to ensure the participation of women and men. Project implementers use participatory approaches to incorporate the concerns and experiences of women and men during site identification, studies, and design of small-scale irrigation schemes. They held separate discussions with men and women farmers and gave wage employment priority for landless and unemployed women and youth in the construction of the schemes. Furthermore, they used a quota system so that each group had an optimal ratio of females to males. They tried to ensure that the venue and timing of meetings, training, or other capacity development events suited female farmers.To enhance the participation of women and youth in maleheaded households in training sessions, demonstrations, and demonstration sites, AGP II and PASIDEP II projects adopted gender-responsive approaches such as 'couple's training' or 'family training'.Providing women opportunities to participate in capacity development events without addressing the power imbalance and heavy workload at household levels will not bring change. In recognition, the SMIS project adopted a 'gender family model' -a gender-transformative approach to reshape gender relations in households and communities that hinder women from participating. The 'gender family model' engages all family members to positively influence gender relations by reducing women's workload, enhancing their participation in the public sphere or development, and enhancing their control over assets to improve gender relations. In this approach, men and boys become champions and allies of women to empower them and ensure equitable gender relations between their organizations, partner organizations, and the communities they serve.Capacity development is the investment that projects make to bring about shifts in attitudes, values, and cultures, to create a gender-responsive organizational culture, and to implement and respond to gender gaps in communities. To enhance the participation of women in IWUAs, the three projects trained female IWUA members to build their confidence and raise awareness about the roles and responsibilities of being a member or leader. The SMIS project supported women in establishing special interest groups (or women subcommittees) within the IWUAs to share their needs and concerns in small groups and practice effective leadership. All three projects also trained development agents and extension workers to sensitize them on gender and equip them with the knowledge and skills to work with women farmers.These governance structures show the predominant influence of three institutional groups on the controversial outcomes of the strategy of gender mainstreaming, i.e., new institutional structures that apply gender analysis, the necessary guidelines, tools, and frameworks, and hiring of at least one gender expert to coordinate activities that internalize gender into irrigation projects. However, the limited commitment and knowledge of gender experts, a weak accountability system, the high turnover of extension workers and development agents, and the lack of funds for a gender component all pose major challenges to effectively implementing the guideline.When institutions adopt various methods, such as a quota system and participatory, gender-responsive, and transformative approaches at different levels, women can actively participate in projects and the public sphere and benefit from development. However, without the human and financial capital needed to do so, most projects end up focusing on providing equal opportunities for men and women to participate without addressing the underlying social norms that cause unequal division of labor and power in households and the gender stereotypes that do not allow women to effectively participate in the first place.Finally, women get better leadership training through improved access to extension services and participation in IWUAs. However, providing women with opportunities to participate in such events without addressing the underlying challenges they face every day, such as imbalances in power and workloads in their households, is unlikely to bring about change. Furthermore, insufficient budgets prevent project implementers from following up on changes in gender relations at the household level and addressing the root causes of inequality by encouraging households to share workloads and power equitably.Small-scale irrigation promotion projects use a rolebased strategy to help women participate and receive benefits. This strategy emphasizes gender equality by challenging household norms and encourages men and women to distribute power and work more evenly; it also develops the capacity of extension workers, project partners, and individual farmers. Transformation refers to gender-transformative approaches that address power asymmetries and ensure equitable participation. Specifically, the WSF project applied the social analysis and action (SAA) methodology, where informal channels, such as a coffee ceremony, are used for discussions and exchanging ideas about power and labor imbalances. Furthermore, NSAP, GTN, and SWEEP engaged men and boys to improve gender relations. NSAP developed a comprehensive social and behavior change communication (SBCC) strategy. The GTN project also built networks and solidarity among women to improve their leadership and participation skills and access to information and to encourage them to effectively articulate their social and economic needs.Capacity development refers to investing in developing the ability of men and women farmers and experts to implement gender interventions on the ground. For example, the WSF and GTN projects invest in the capacity development of agricultural extension workers and development agents so that they can promote the agricultural work of women farmers or 'female model farmers'. Promoting these model farmers aims to recognize women's contribution to agriculture, increase their representation in various platforms, and improve their access to technologies. Also, the WSF project trains government partner organizations on SAA tools that help justify and promote women's mobility, participation, access to information, and leadership. In addition, the project trains female farmers, focusing on two areas. The first focuses on raising awareness about their rights in critical laws, such as family law and legislation about gender equality, property rights, and the rights of persons with disabilities. The second focuses on leadership to build self-confidence and women's ability to speak in public.This trio of governance structures shows how various institutional groups influence the controversial outcomes of the role-based strategy of gender mainstreaming. First, participating in and benefiting from development and the public sphere shapes the internalizing of innovative approaches to address household barriers, such as imbalances in power and workload. Few projects have the resources to institutionalize gender by conducting gender analysis, developing a strategy for integrating gender, hiring a gender expert, and documenting changes in gender relations at all levels. In most projects, gender is not institutionalized, so such activities are given less value and priority. Although GoE encourages efforts to generate knowledge on gender and irrigation, the impacts of adopting a specific transformative approach to gender relations are limited.Second, intrahousehold gender dynamics influence the ability of projects to adopt various approaches to transform gender relations within households and achieve equity in all spheres, including taking up and using technology. These approaches include training women on leadership, public speaking, and building networks, which will help them boost their solidarity with other women and their self-confidence. Finally, the investments in equipping extension workers with the knowledge to effectively work with women beyond mere representation will shape access to technologies for women and thus improve their access to extension services. Some projects train extension workers and experts from partner organizations to engage more women. Others provide technologies for resource-poor women or use a quota system to ensure more women can participate in training. However, projects usually do not have enough funding for such investments in extension workers to improve the quality of their work with women stakeholders.Reflecting upon the two strategies shows that when implemented correctly, gender mainstreaming can be transformative. Transformative gender mainstreaming (TGM) can be achieved when the process of transforming social and gender norms (rules) and practices (roles) takes place and yields the outcomes of abilities to continue the changes (capacities). Such gender mainstreaming helps households to share labor and power equitably, raise women's (and men's) awareness of their rights and their ability to exercise their rights, and increase their participation in the public sphere and their voices in decisions. It also changes the common perception of men as farmers by valuing the contribution of women in agriculture, discontinuing discriminatory cooperative bylaws (that favored household heads' participation in the public and development sphere, including IWUAs), and ensuring women farmers have equal access to extension and financial services, and to input and output markets.TGM must address the discriminatory fundamental rules and negative stereotypes that limit women's role in the domestic sphere, which restricts their participation in and benefits from irrigation projects. These include, for example, discriminatory rules that inhibit women from participating in IWUAs and benefitting from equal access to water on farms and to irrigation schemes' benefits (Lefore et al. 2017(Lefore et al. , 2019;;van Koppen 2002). It also includes the community perception that women networking with boys and men from outside of their household is not a culturally acceptable practice. In households and communities, men are usually considered farmers and socially legitimate figures, while women are implicitly assumed to be primarily mothers and wives. The patrilineal customary land tenure system, the bias against women's education, and their limited social networks are challenges to increasing their participation in collective actions as equal members and leaders.TGM must redefine the critical roles essential to driving the transformation process at the grassroots level. These roles include but are not limited to breaking the one-size-fits-all assumption to customize the irrigation interventions to gendered differences and preferences regarding needs and concerns, access to resources, and decision-making power. Male farmers report that theyfavor technologies based on their potential to generate income. In contrast, women prefer multivalent ones, installed at or near the home, that are useful for domestic and productive purposes and are labor-saving (Nigussie et al. 2017;Theis et al. 2018a).The role also facilitates changing IWUA membership criteria, regardless of the contingent on land ownership and household headship and unfavorable borrowing conditions that make it difficult for women to access credit. It is also essential to developing institutional structures for coordinating and monitoring gender mainstreaming, implementing responsive budgeting for gender experts to coordinate gender-related activities, and investing in training staff to raise awareness of the concepts of gender, the environment/agriculture (climate change) and gender mainstreaming in development plans, as well as gender analysis and gender-mainstreaming guidelines.Finally, TGM must address the institutional and individual capacity gaps to continue the transformation process. At the institutional level, these include adopting participatory and gender-responsive approaches to understanding the needs, concerns, and issues women face before designing schemes and transforming the gender power imbalance and gender relationships that hinder women from participating. These also involve accountabilities of the grassroots system to design sound technical, social, and policy interventions, enhance gender information management, monitoring and evaluation, and manage gender-disaggregated data to track progress and inform policymakers and practitioners.At the individual level, these capacities include the ability to jointly make decisions in the household for acquiring new technologies and to have control over land (which constrains their access to irrigation technologies). Project leaders must be gender sensitive and use appropriate gender-related tools and approaches to reach and work with women farmers while addressing the challenges that inhibit them from participating. They need to engage men and boys to positively influence gender relations, raise awareness among women about their rights, build networks and solidarity, and train women in leadership and public speaking. The role-based strategy is employed by projects that promote small-scale irrigation technology to achieve gender equality through increasing women's participation in projects and enhancing the benefits they may receive.In this type of strategy, a gender analysis is carried out to understand the causes of gender inequality in irrigation technology access and use. Projects adopting this strategy use a gender-responsive and gender-transformative approach to balance power and workloads among households to enhance women's access to the benefits of irrigation technologies. In this strategy, investment in the capacity development of agricultural extension workers, development agents, and staff from government partner organizations is often used to tackle issues related to women's mobility, participation, access to information, and leadership.Transformative gender mainstreaming (TGM) is embedded in institutions, and its effectiveness is influenced by historical, social, organizational, and individual factors. Institutions at multiple levels govern the gender division of labor and the gender distribution of resources, responsibilities, agencies, and power. Given these factors' complex and interrelated influences, we argue that using an institutional perspective geared toward TGM is critical. Analyzing rules, roles, and capacities at all levels allows institutions to develop a holistic and multi-level view of gender equality and mainstreaming. Such perspectives provide practitioners with insights about opportunities and barriers to gender equality at each level, the interconnections among barriers and opportunities, and areas where transformation may be needed.The analysis provides several implications for TGM in irrigation development in Ethiopia. First, TGM should enact policy, create an institutional environment, and develop governance mechanisms for mainstreaming gender. This means establishing and maintaining a gender-information management system, which allows policymakers and practitioners to understand the potential impacts of policies and interventions. This requires developing and implementing gendertransformative strategies, guidance, and mechanisms to meaningfully engage diverse women's groups in irrigation and agricultural value chains, supply chains, and governance.Programs focusing on transforming gender relations with precise monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and accountability systems are needed. This also requires engaging and facilitating the existing multi-stakeholder dialogues (MSDs) at multiple levels to bring together private-sector actors, government, community-based organizations, and cooperatives to discuss the factors influencing the barriers to and opportunities for women from diverse social groups. MSDs help all actors to better understand formal and informal rules around irrigation so intervention plans can be improved to begin redressing unequal power dynamics.Partnerships among these actors also help create direct demand and supply links to ensure women from various social groups benefit from markets.Second, TGM should enhance the accountability system and adoption of gender-transformative approaches to involve more women farmers in designing, planning, and management processes. Third, TGM should create a supportive institutional environment at the market, community, and household levels to encourage women farmers to invest in irrigation.There must be sufficient resources to implement gender-transformative mainstreaming to challenge the male-dominated hegemonic social structure and train self-selected households, as well as to follow up on the progress of the implementation and document the processes and changes. Facilitating changes in communities and households requires strengthening female leadership by training in assertiveness, public speaking, conflict management and resolution, and building awareness of women's rights, roles, and responsibilities in IWUAs. It is necessary to mobilize and prioritize female extension workers and women farmers who could act as a 'frontline' technical resource. They would provide policy, technical, institutional, financial and market information, farmer collectives on irrigation, irrigated agricultural value chains, local service providers, and government policies. Addressing financial challenges can only be done by developing tailored and inclusive financial products and services, raising awareness about the various services, and helping women to become financially literate. Innovative financial modalities such as rent-to-own, 3 layaway plans, 4 forward financing with future production, 5 and processing can all help improve access to finance.Finally, TGM should apply an intersectional lens to develop impactful, tailored programs and interventions. This means applying an intersectional lens to understand how multiple layers of identities shape the preferences of farmers in participation, technology, and the benefits they earn from irrigation projects to customize and bundle different interventions, innovations, and services that best serve diverse women's groups and enhance gender equality in access to resources and services. Genderresponsive subsidy programs can improve access for women to climate-resilient irrigation equipment, inputs, information, and financial and market services, and improve their understanding of financial management and the capacity and investment potential of women from diverse social groups.Although this research report focuses on Ethiopia, gender mainstreaming is a global issue, and applying a multi-level institutional lens to understand it in irrigation development is broad. This report calls for further analysis of women's desire to be involved in irrigation. Followup research to assess what worked and did not work in irrigation-related interventions elsewhere in the world would be useful to generate an overview of the main components of TGM approaches across scales.","tokenCount":"7697"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"63c9450a84493701a53d2ce1d4dcd3d3","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/c0ee7b2d-2bab-4bc5-8f14-cab8215cdb2f/retrieve","id":"-1815772924"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"488589b7-4e31-4f0d-8b63-6c2710337e46","pagecount":"2","content":"L e haricot vert, variété du haricot commun, Phaseolus vulgaris L., est une culture de rente cultivée par les grands exploitants, comme par les petits agriculteurs. En Afrique orientale, plus de 90% de la production est destiné aux marchés régional et international. Le haricot vert représente une culture légumière d'exportation majeure au Kenya, en Tanzanie, en Ouganda, en Zambie, au Zimbabwe et en Afrique du Nord, et gagne en importance dans d'autres pays, notamment au Cameroun, en Ethiopie, au Rwanda et au Soudan. A l'est, au centre et au nord du continent africain, les variétés naines sont les plus communes. Les variétés volubiles sont généralement plus productives que les variétés naines et leur récolte s'étale sur une plus longue période, un double avantage susceptible de susciter l'intérêt des petits agriculteurs désirant augmenter les retombées économiques des travaux effectués par la famille. Les variétés volubiles adaptées à l'Afrique orientale restent néanmoins à mettre au point. Les préférences commerciales sur le type et l'apparence de la gousse du haricot varient selon les régions. Les travaux sur l'amélioration du haricot vert en Afrique de l'Est se concentrent sur la mise au point et la production de variétés naines et volubiles qui offrent un rendement élevé de haricots fins et extra-fins par plant, sachant que ce sont les plus rémunérateurs.Pour les petits exploitants, particulièrement au Kenya, en Ouganda, au Soudan et en Tanzanie, le haricot vert est une source de revenu majeure. Le haricot vert est également cultivé par les grandes compagnies commerciales en vue de son exportation vers les supermarchés de l'étranger ou de sa vente au secteur de la conserverie. La haute qualité de sa gousse, l'empaquetage, ainsi que les soins post-récolte que requièrent les produits d'exportation ont conduit les petits agriculteurs à s'organiser en groupements (tels que l'Association des exportateurs de produits frais du Kenya (FPEAK) ou encore à utiliser les services de compagnies privées ou d'organismes semi-publics (comme l'Autorité de mise en valeur de l'horticulture -HCDA-au Kenya).Aujourd'hui, le haricot vert est le pilier de l'exportation de légumes au Kenya, secteur prospère et en plein essor. Au cours des cinq dernières années, le Kenya a exporté 25 000 tonnes de haricots verts par an, représentant une valeur de 60 millions de dollars. On estime que plus d'un million de personnes bénéficient du sous-secteur du haricot vert au Kenya 1. Les chaînes européennes de supermarché, contraintes par les normes européennes relatives au contrôle de la qualité à la source, tendent de plus en plus à s'adresser directement à un nombre restreint de producteurs à grande échelle, entraînant une marginalisation du secteur de la petite agriculture, qui constituait pourtant le pivot de cette industrie.Le rendement du haricot vert dans les petites exploitations varie de 2 à 8 tonnes par hectare, alors que les producteurs à grande échelle peuvent produire plus de 14 tonnes par hectare. La production en petite exploitation est en effet grandement limitée par les attaques de ravageurs (tels que la mouche du haricot) et les maladies (comme la rouille). La nature intensive de cette culture induit un risque élevé d'attaques de parasites et de maladies, rendant l'utilisation des pesticides souvent excessive. Le coût élevé des semences entrave également la production à petite échelle. Les rares variétés développées par les institutions publiques sont souvent très sensibles aux maladies et aux ravageurs. Peu d'efforts ont été fournis en vue de mettre au point des variétés améliorées de haricot vert et de les diffuser gratuitement auprès des petits agriculteurs et du secteur semencier informel (qui fournit plus de 90% des graines de haricot sec semées) dans la région. La demande orientée vers un haricot de haute qualité impose aux petits exploitants de recourir à de grandes quantités de fongicides et d'insecticides pour réduire la perte de production, comme les pertes postrécoltes, causées par les maladies et les ravageurs. Cette pratique est néanmoins vouée à disparaître du fait des limites maximales de résidus récemment instaurées. Toutefois, la politique des grands supermarchés européens, privilégiant un nombre restreint de fournisseurs à la source et l'achat des produits aux grands producteurs, risque fort d'entraîner les petits agriculteurs vers la faillite. C'est pourquoi les grandes associations de petits paysans, telles que la FPEAK, secondent les importateurs dans le traçage de la chaîne d'approvisionnement jusqu'au niveau de l'exploitation individuelle, de manière à garantir la qualité du produit final.Le CIAT et le Réseau centrafricain de recherche sur le haricot (ECABREN), rejoints par l'ASARECA en 2005, appuient un programme régional sur le haricot vert, lancé en 2001, visant à mettre au point, à l'intention des petits producteurs, des variétés améliorées de haricot vert offrant un potentiel de rendement élevé, une bonne résistance aux stress biotiques et une gousse de qualité. Ce programme est régi par quatre institutions : l'Institut de recherche agricole Kawanda en Ouganda; L'Université Moi à Eldoret; le Centre national de recherche en horticulture de l'Institut kenyan de recherche agronomique (KARI) à Thika, au Kenya, et le Département des sciences des plantes et de la protection des cultures de l'Université de Nairobi. Les travaux menés à l'Institut Kawanda se concentrent sur le tri des variétés de haricot vert en collaboration avec les agriculteurs et sur la mise en place de systèmes globaux de production. A l'issue de quatre années d'évaluation en collaboration avec les agriculteurs, quatre lignées ont été sélectionnées. Le programme de l'Université Moi, au Kenya, a pour but de mettre au point des cultivars de haricot vert adaptés aux conditions locales, offrant un meilleur rendement des gousses, une bonne résistance à l'anthracnose et à la rouille, et une gousse répondant aux exigences de qualité du marché. Après avoir obtenu six générations de sélection, 12 lignées ont été identifiées, puis évaluées dans le cadre d'essais nationaux de performance réalisés sur six sites différents, en partenariat avec l'Inspection phytosanitaire du Kenya.Selon les sites, le rendement moyen a varié de 3,1 tonne/hectare1 à Thika à 19.7 tonne/hectare1 à Marigat. Ces lignées ont démontré une bonne capacité d'adaptation et un potentiel de rendement élevé dans des milieux divers. L'observation de la réaction des plants aux agents pathogènes à Marigat, à Lanet et à Njoro, régions où les cultures sont les plus vulnérables aux maladies, a permis d'identifier quatre lignées résistantes à la rouille. Ces lignées possédaient également une gousse de bonne qualité, comparable à celle des cultivars commerciaux. Le rendement moyen obtenu sur les différents sites était de 10 à 13 tonnes/ hectare.Au centre du KARI à Thika, les travaux de recherche ont porté sur la mise en place d'une collection de variétés de haricot vert et de haricot à rames à des fins d'application pratique, ainsi qu'au développement de populations en ségrégation. Quinze accessions de haricot vert et cinq accessions de haricot à rames ont été collectées au centre. Vingt sélections F4 provenant d'un croisement entre une variété commerciale et une variété localement améliorée et résistante à la rouille ('Kutuless') ont été obtenues. Deux lignée de F4, particulièrement prometteuses, ont alors été développées jusqu'à la génération F6.A l'Université de Nairobi, des croisements ont été effectués de manière à transférer les traits de résistance à la rouille à trois variétés sensibles de haricot vert. Des populations en ségrégation ont été mises au point à partir de croisements entre trois cultivars commerciaux de haricot vert sensibles à la rouille et deux lignées résistantes à la rouille. Les semences des lignées mises au point par les quatre institutions sont multipliées en vue de leur évaluation par les agriculteurs et les exportateurs de la région.La consommation croissante dans les centres urbains d'Afrique de l'Est et dans le secteur hôtelier laisse présager un avenir prometteur à la production de haricots verts. La disponibilité de variétés commerciales publiques améliorera l'accès des petits agriculteurs aux semences. Les nouvelles variétés permettront très probablement de réduire les coûts de production grâce à un meilleur accès aux semences et à une moindre dépendance vis-à-vis des fongicides et des pesticides. Et surtout, par un moindre recours aux pesticides, les agriculteurs seront à même de respecter les normes très strictes d'exportation fixant les limites maximales de résidus. Il s'agit là d'une condition essentielle si l'on veut que cette culture continue de fournir travail et revenus en milieu rural. ","tokenCount":"1356"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"a98fe1afc35883bda6a32dc37cb9ee51","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://repository.cimmyt.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/3f1924a9-7255-43ea-b127-be8fa7083f4c/content","id":"1771595923"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"4b5d9960-0695-4095-b8bb-5da8862829ff","pagecount":"22","content":"Project Años Regiones de Enfoque Colaboradores LAMP 1987 -1994 América del Norte, Central y del Sur OGs* en 12 países & Pioneer Hi-Bred GEM Desde 1994 USA OGs, ONGs** & empresas semilleras Seeds of Discovery/ MasAgro Biodiversidad Desde 2011 Mexico, otros países CIMMYT, SAGARPA, OGs, ONGs & empresas semilleras * Organización gubernamental, ** Organización no gubernamental Cronograma de proyectos público-privados en recursos genéticos de maíz• En los 20 anos desde LAMP:no ha habido un proyecto bien financiado dedicado al desarrollo de recursos genéticos de maíz en América Latina. -Tampoco en cualquier proyecto para el desarrollo de los recursos genéticos del maíz en el mundo no templado (entre ~30°N y 30°S). -Sin embargo, muchos países de estas regiones dependen en gran medida de la producción de maíz para el consumo humano y animal.15,384 criollos y datos GIS (Sarah Hearne, et al.)Concepto: Llenar la brecha que existe entre los bancos de germoplasma y los programas de mejoramiento. • Evaluaciones de >400 criollos de ~25 países y >80 razas de maíz.• Incluyendo criollos de: BOL, BRZ, COL, ECU, PER, VEN.• Este invierno, vamos iniciar el proceso de mejoramiento.","tokenCount":"185"}

data/part_3/0478481891.json

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"b5dd904b22eb041ea041436bf938b03c","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/35a00fef-fa86-438f-8a62-1aaaedf3ab87/retrieve","id":"437728780"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"b81b259d-3914-467c-89f1-f6857d78045b","pagecount":"51","content":"en Perú para poner en marcha el proyecto:\"Agroecología para la acción climática: Fortaleciendo la evidencia para una agricultura a pequeña escala resiliente al clima y baja en carbono en América Latina\". https://ccafs.cgiar.org/es/research/projects/agroecologia-para-la-accion-climatica-en-americalatina-fortaleciendo-laComo parte de ese proyecto, este informe ha sido elaborado como producto del paquete 5: Políticas habilitantes y vías de escalamiento agroecológico para la resiliencia climática para Perú Para citar este informe:Valdivia-Díaz, M & Le Coq, JF. ( 2021). Hacia una hoja de ruta para el escalamiento de la Agroecología en Perú: un análisis de las políticas, programas y factores limitantes actuales. Programa de investigación del CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS) y Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical -CIAT, ahora parte de la Alianza Bioversity-CIAT Agradecimientos por sus contribuciones en este reporte:La agroecología se define como una disciplina científica, un conjunto de prácticas y un movimiento social. Como ciencia, estudia cómo los diferentes componentes del agroecosistema interactúan. Como un conjunto de prácticas, busca sistemas agrícolas sostenibles que optimizan y estabilizan la producción. Como movimiento social, persigue papeles multifuncionales para la agricultura, promueve la justicia social, nutre la identidad y la cultura, y refuerza la viabilidad económica de las zonas rurales (Wezel et al.,2009).Particularmente en América Latina, la agroecología ha tenido un impacto tangible y positivo en el rendimiento de los cultivos, la conservación de los recursos, la seguridad y soberanía alimentaria (Altieri &Toledo, 2011). Es importante destacar que la agroecología como alternativa a los sistemas agroalimentarios actuales se ha remontado a su origen como expresión de resistencia a la agricultura industrial y a la revolución verde, una herramienta y un enfoque para lograr la soberanía alimentaria (Val & Rosset, 2020) Mier Y Terán Giménez Cacho et al. (2018) reconocen como factor relevante para el escalamiento de la agroecología es la existencia de prácticas agroecológicas. Llevar esto a la práctica implica una acción colectiva para convertir los principios agroecológicos en estrategias para la gestión del suelo, el agua y la biodiversidad con el fin de mejorar la producción y la resiliencia agrícola. En la década de 1980, se promovieron muchas de estas prácticas agroecológicas en Latinoamérica por medio de las ONG's vinculadas a las organizaciones campesinas (Altieri 1999).Las iniciativas agroecológicas realizadas por las redes de los movimientos y ong's vinculadas a la agroecología demostraron ser valiosos para difundir y ampliar la agroecología, tanto en mayor número de agricultores como a escala geográfica. Sin embargo, las estrategias de escalamiento agroecológico deben complementarse, por supuesto, con políticas favorables que incrementen experiencias exitosas y promuevan la implementación de programas favorables para la agroecología.En objetivo de este estudio se enfoca en identificar las barreras y oportunidades que tiene la agroecología para ser promovida desde las políticas públicas. El resultado final pretende proponer una hoja de ruta, donde los diversos actores vinculados al sistema alimentario y en relación con la agroecología brinden su experiencia y percepción respecto a las barreras, pero sobre todo oportunidades para el escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú.Finalmente, esta propuesta de hoja de ruta pretende demostrar que existen muchos caminos para poder escalar la agroecología, donde si bien es relevante la voluntad política y administrativa para ponerla en marcha; esta hoja de ruta puede ser asumida por los diversos actores involucrados en el sistema alimentario que tienen un interés común en el escalamiento de la agroecología.En base a Parmentier (2014), Nicholls & Altieri (2018), Tittonell (2019), el escalamiento de la agroecología implica no una transición, sino varias transiciones simultáneas, a diferentes escalas, niveles y dimensiones; de índole social, biológica, económica, cultural, institucional, política. Este proceso conduce a ampliar el número de familias involucradas en optimizar sus prácticas de manejo en territorios cada vez más amplio y que esto involucre a más personas a nivel técnico-productivo en el procesamiento, distribución y consumo de alimentos derivados de la agroecología 1 . Además, si consideramos que el escalamiento combina procesos verticales (políticas habilitantes) y horizontales (redes campesino-campesino) (Rosset & Altieri 2017), en nuestro estudio, nos centramos en los procesos verticales, que hacen hincapié en las dimensiones institucionales y políticas como facilitadores de la escalabilidad de la agroecología (Le Coq et al., 2019).Sin embargo, en la dimensión institucional las políticas específicas diseñadas en favor a la agroecología han sido pocas veces reconocidas en Latinoamérica (Sabourin et al.,2017; Le Coq et al, 2020). Por lo tanto, para este estudio, a nivel del marco político evaluamos si algunas de las diversas dimensiones del concepto de la agroecología fueron abordados como objetivo político. Si existieron estos objetivos, cómo fueron implementados. Si, por el contrario, no existieron políticas específicas para la agroecología. Existieron algunos otros instrumentos o programas que tuvieron el potencial de contribuir de forma directa/indirecta a las dimensiones de escalabilidad de la agroecología.El análisis de las políticas públicas tiene como objetivo principal la identificación concreta de los actores que intervienen en un proceso de definición, de decisión y de implementación de una política, y asimismo busca poner a la luz las posiciones, intereses y objetivos de esos actores (Roth, 2006;Fuenmayor, 2017). La visibilidad de una política tiende a crear un compromiso tanto entre los funcionarios y actores de la sociedad civil que tienen que aplicar la política de abajo a arriba, como entre los políticos que tienen que apoyarla de arriba abajo. La apropiación de un programa refleja el compromiso a múltiples niveles, lo que a su vez implica un compromiso tanto administrativo como político (Brynard, 2009).Por lo tanto, comprender las posibilidades de escalamiento de la agroecología implica un análisis profundo de cómo las políticas implementadas tienen un efecto directo o indirecto sobre la misma tanto al nivel macro y micro.Magoro y Brynard (2010) postulan que la política implica teorías; la política se convierte en programas cuando, mediante una acción autorizada, se crean las condiciones iniciales para la implementación. La implementación de políticas abarca las acciones de individuos (o grupos) públicos o privados que se dirigen a la consecución de los objetivos establecidos en las decisiones políticas previas (Van Meter & Van Horn, 1974) citado en (Mukonza R.M. & Mukonza C., 2015).El éxito en la aplicación de las políticas es una acción estratégica adoptada por el gobierno para tomar la decisión política deseada y lograr los resultados previstos. El éxito en términos de aplicación de políticas implica lograr la funcionalidad esperada por una parte interesada identificada (Brynard, 2009).La visibilidad de una política tiende a crear un compromiso tanto entre los funcionarios que tienen que aplicar la política de abajo a arriba, como entre los políticos que tienen que apoyarla de arriba a abajo. Es más probable que la gente se comprometa con un programa de gran visibilidad. La apropiación de un programa refleja el compromiso a múltiples niveles, lo que a su vez implica un compromiso tanto administrativo como político. El compromiso con una política concreta debe llegar al mayor número posible de interesados (Brynard, 2009).El interés por los instrumentos políticos se enmarca en el modelo de análisis que explora los diferentes tipos de políticas que un gobierno selecciona para alcanzar sus fines políticos. Desde esta perspectiva, las políticas públicas son, en sí mismas, instrumentos para el ejercicio efectivo del poder, independientemente de la direccionalidad o intencionalidad con que se ejerza dicho poder.Además de este impulso inicial basado en los diferentes tipos de políticas, el interés por los instrumentos fue alimentado por la relevancia que adquirió en la etapa de implementación de las políticas públicas. Al examinar la etapa de implementación de las políticas, se buscó no sólo entender las razones que llevan a apoyar un instrumento sobre otro, sino también explorar los efectos sobre los factores producidos por esta elección (Sarthou, 2015). 1. Políticas e instrumentos de implementación:-Claridad de los objetivos de la organización -Colaboración de las partes interesadas (múltiples actores y sectores trabajan juntos para lograr el objetivo) -La dotación de recursos alta-media ayuda a la capacidad administrativa -Red entre diferentes actores (públicos, privados, internacionales, locales, ONGs, académicos, etc.) facilita la implementación del programa -Acciones de los gobiernos y de las instituciones internacionales -Ambigüedad de objetivos o limitación de la agroecología -Conflicto de poder e intereses, falta de colaboración -La falta de recursos suele tener poco impacto -La falta de colaboración con otros actores reduce el impacto de la política de aplicación -Relaciones paternalistas, clientelistas y desmovilizadoras 2. Prácticas agroecológicas: Estas prácticas agroecológicas se basan en el mantenimiento de la vida en el suelo, la mejora de la agrobiodiversidad (como la integración de los cultivos, los árboles y el ganado) y el rediseño de las explotaciones y el paisaje (policultivos, conservación del suelo, conservación de los bosques o de las manchas de fauna).-Promover los policultivos y los sistemas agroforestales -Promover prácticas de conservación del suelo y del agua -Fomentar la expansión de la agroindustria y los monocultivos industriales.3. Covid: esta crisis creó oportunidades políticas y contextos propicios para las alternativas al modelo agroindustrial.Políticas que promuevan la agroecología como estrategia contra la inseguridad alimentaria por el COVID y el aumento de los mercados itinerantes agroecológicos.Fomento de la biotecnología y la producción intensiva para hacer frente a la inseguridad alimentaria debida al COVID 4. Acceso a los ecosistemas naturales: La seguridad en la tenencia de la tierra y la reforma agraria, así como el acceso a las semillas y a otros elementos de los ecosistemas naturales han demostrado desde hace tiempo ser de vital importancia para los medios de vida de los pequeños agricultores y para la inversión en agricultura sostenible, incluida la agroecología, aunque estas conexiones son extremadamente contextuales y requieren enfoques específicos de género y de ubicación.El acceso seguro a otros ecosistemas naturales es también un factor clave para la agroecología. El derecho al agua; la tenencia de la tierra, las funciones de los ecosistemas/sinergias entre la biodiversidad silvestre y la cultivada; el suelo y su calidad; los pastizales; la pesca y los bosques. Una gobernanza local empoderada que priorice los derechos consuetudinarios e indígenas-Desigualdad e inseguridad en el acceso y control de la tierra.-Las dinámicas de descalificación en torno al control del agua y otros recursos son bastante similares a las que se dan en torno a la tierra. -Privatización, desplazamiento y despojo de la población local y el control excesivo por parte de intereses privados del agua, las semillas, las razas y otros materiales elementos de diversidad, bloquean las posibilidades de autoorganización comunitaria para la agroecología en estos áreas, disminuyendo la adaptabilidad y la resiliencia. -Políticas públicas que facilitan la concentración y el acaparamiento de tierras-Los procesos de conocimiento que respetan y aprovechan el conocimiento de los agricultores, los pueblos indígenas y otros productores de alimentos y especialmente el conocimiento de las mujeres son esenciales para las transformaciones agroecológicas.-Esfuerzos para mantener y regenerar los sistemas de conocimientos tradicionales -Los programas de investigación agrícola sirven en gran medida a la agricultura intensiva en insumos y tecnología 6. Redes y Alianzas: Las redes de múltiples actores son fundamentales para fortalecer la autoorganización comunitaria en favor de la agroecología. El conocimiento, los mercados, el discurso, la inclusión y las prácticas de producción en la agroecología se desarrollan a través de las redes y la organización social. -Desarrollo de mercados ecológicos locales, regionales e internacionales -Políticas públicas para apoyar a los pequeños agricultores y la producción agroecológica -Sistema de certificaciones -Las instituciones de mercado que tienen el poder del desarrollo agrícola dominante 2 Proceso de investigaciónEl objetivo del estudio se enfocó en identificar los retos y oportunidades para el escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú 2 , y definir los caminos viables para su adopción y escalabilidad de sus prácticas, en el fomento de una agricultura resiliente y adaptada al clima en Perú. Se abordaron las siguientes preguntas: i) ¿Cuáles son las políticas están permitiendo o impidiendo el escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú?, ii) ¿Cuáles son los principales factores limitantes en torno al escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú? y iii) ¿Cuáles son las acciones necesarias desde la experiencia de los diversos actores involucrados para escalar la agroecología en Perú?El entorno político institucional se compone por instrumentos políticos, estrategias, leyes y planes que pueden afectar la agroecología. Usando el concepto de policy-mix (Flanagan et al., 2011) consideramos los diferentes dominios de políticas que pueden afectar el escalamiento de la agroecología: política agrícola, ambiental y de cambio climático, social, y económica. Los objetivos y acciones son detallados en los documentos del marco político. Sin embargo, para entender cómo afecta este marco en el escalamiento de la agroecología, se debe evaluar la implementación de estas políticas (ver Figura 1)Figura 1 Marco analítico propuesto para análisis del escalamiento de la agroecología 2021.Fuente: AutoresLa implementación de estos marcos políticos se traduce en instrumentos, los cuales definen el accionar del gobierno. Los instrumentos son de diferentes tipos, ej. regulatorios, incentivos, (Lambin et al 2014).En la práctica se traducen en programas que constituyen la malla programática de acciones. Estos instrumentos pueden ser implementado por funcionarios públicos, así como también por socios privados de la cooperación.Las políticas habilitantes pueden generar las condiciones que faciliten inicialmente la transición hacia la agroecología en múltiples fases (sustitución por prácticas alternativas y rediseño del agroecosistema), a diversas escalas territoriales y dimensiones como i) recursos productivos, ii) política, iii) mercado, iv) alianzas, v) conocimiento y vi) económica, ( En un entorno político-institucional puede que se esté abordando algunas de los factores favorablemente, así como puede necesitar ajustes o quizás no se están considerando en la política pública. Dependiendo de alguna de esas condiciones, se podrá analizar a nivel político-institucional las barreras y oportunidades que tiene la agroecología para escalar en Perú.Para operacionalizar nuestro marco analítico, realizamos 3 etapas las cuales corresponden a las preguntas de investigación (Ver cuadro 1).Cuadro 1 Enfoque metodológico para el escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú (Abril-Noviembre 2021)La primera consistió en una revisión de documentos de política pública para identificar las políticas, presupuestos y programas que pueden contribuir al escalamiento de la agroecología. La segunda consistió en 20 entrevistas a 8 tipos de actores, representantes de las diversos componentes del sistema alimentario (ver cuadro 2). La tercera consistió en un taller de validación con los actores involucrados en las entrevistas donde se presentaron los resultados del análisis del estudio, y se discutieron de forma transversal las acciones estratégicas identificadas para fomentar el escalamiento de agroecología. Después de casi 10 años de la aprobación de Ley No 2676 (en 2011), una diversidad de instrumentos favorables para la agroecología fueron promulgados entre el 2020 y 2021.Por ejemplo, la ley Nº 31071 (Compras Estatales de la Agricultura Familiar) y la ampliación de la ley Nº 31111 (Extensión de la moratoria al ingreso y producción de organismo vivos). Esta última fue aprobada después de una fuerte campaña de incidencia política por parte de organizaciones de base y la sociedad civil. A finales del 2021, las organizaciones de base y funcionarios públicos se reunieron en varias ocasiones para lograr determinar el reglamento de ley Nº 30983 -que permitirá establecer un Sistema de Garantía Participativo (SPG) a nivel nacional. A pesar de que esto representa un arduo proceso, se espera que se pueda lograr un acuerdo final. El SPG viene siendo impulsado por ANPE, IDMA y ASPEC, con la participación comprometida de los consejos regionales y la participación de más de 150 instituciones públicas y privadas en 15 regiones.Toda esta construcción político-institucional a favor de la agroecología ha sido posible en base a constantes esfuerzos de incidencia política por parte de las asociaciones de productores agroecológicos, movimientos, ONG y sociedad civil (cocineros, academia y consumidores).En el cuadro 3, se presenta los marcos de políticas existentes en Perú, que pueden afectar el escalamiento de la Agroecología. Se evidencia cuatro grandes categorías, las políticas generalistas para agricultura limpia, las políticas de seguridad alimentarias y de apoyo a la agricultura familiar, las políticas ambientales y de cambio climático. Como resultado de la fase 1 (revisión de literatura y fuentes online), se encontraron un total de 19 programas (Cuadro 4) que podrían contribuir a la agroecología en los siguientes sectores i) agricultura, ii) ambiente, iii) producción e iv) inclusión social. Los presupuestos fueron cambiados la moneda de dólares en el mes de abril del 2021 para facilitar la comparación con los otros países del estudio.Ministerios. Del total de programas identificados se observa que los programas con mayor relevancia de sus presupuestos (Ver figura 3):• Sector de Inclusión Social: Programa Nacional de Alimentación Escolar (Qali Warma): 27 % Qali Warma es quizás uno de los programas más representativos del Perú en términos de impactos como de sus presupuestos anuales. En la actualidad no tiene ningún vínculo directo con el fomento de la agroecología y producción de la agricultura familiar; sin embargo, pese a que representa un gran potencial en términos económicos, también es un gran reto ya que los proveedores de este programa requieren pasar por muchas fiscalizaciones de inocuidad y requerimientos administrativos complejos. Por lo tanto, lograr articular las producciones locales familiares a un programa como este va a requerir actores intermedios que logren articular la producción de campo con un proceso de distribución y los requerimientos administrativos del demandante. En este sector ha enfocado sobre todo sus presupuestos sobre la sensibilización de los productores sobre algunas plagas específicas como mosca de la fruta, entre otros, a través de insumos eco amigables, así como la importancia de la inocuidad. Se abrieron espacios de diálogos con los productores desarrollado escuelas de campo con agricultores. El programa del PNIA se fomentó los diálogos entre la academia y los productores para promover innovación tecnológica a nivel de los territorios.Los programas con menor atención en los presupuestos como Agrorural se orientan sobre todo al desarrollo de capacidades, conexión con circuitos cortos de comercialización y gestión de los agroecosistemas. Así como otros programas como mejora de articulación al mercado que permite articular circuitos cortos y agroideas con apoyos en infraestructura o medios de producción.• Sector Ambiente:o Plan Nacional de Gestión de Riesgos y Adaptación al Cambio Climático (PLANGRACC): 28% o Servicios de Compensación de la Agrobiodiversidad (ReSCa): 6% o Gestión Sostenible de la Agrobiodiversidad (SIPAM): 5% Este sector tiene un enfoque innovador que prueba involucrar la conservación y gestión sostenible de la agrobiodiversidad a través de un vínculo justo con los mercados y medios de producción local. Los programas que han recibido principalmente financiamiento de cooperación internacional podrían llegar a escalar con otros sectores, como ReSCa, SIPAM y Aliados por la Conservación. En el periodo 2017-2021 se evidenció que existen para los sectores de agricultura y ambiente una diversidad de programas. Sin embargo, muchos de estos cuentan con presupuestos bajos o son programas como el PNIA y SIPAM de corta duración.Sin embargo, existen programas con grandes presupuestos como Qali Warma (MIDIS) y el plan PLANGRACC 2012-2021 (MINAM) que en sus componentes no han logrado incluir de alguna forma la agroecología pero que representa un potencial. Por ejemplo, a través de las compras públicas de alimentos agroecológicos por parte de Qali Warma; ya que este es un programa que tiene una continuidad en sus presupuestos en todos los periodos. Esta lente centra la atención en los factores estructurales difíciles de cambiar, cuya influencia en la configuración de las instituciones formales e informales suele ignorarse.Las instituciones formales incluyen las leyes (como las normas electorales), los reglamentos, los tratados y los acuerdos escritos que a menudo son aplicados por terceros. Las instituciones informales se refieren a creencias, normas y cultura menos visibles Las instituciones formales e informales son un hecho en las economías desarrolladas y en desarrollo. Comprender la forma en que interactúan ofrece una mejor comprensión de los incentivos políticos y de otro tipo que actúan en un entorno concreto.Se centra en las características de un sector específico o de determinados sectores o de determinados bienes públicos regionales y sus vínculos con las relaciones de gobernanza, presupuestos y rendición de cuentas. Cada sector o subsector tiene diferentes características técnicas y de gobernanza, con distintas implicaciones políticas.Esta perspectiva ayuda a pensar más allá de los \"sospechosos habituales\" en los procesos políticos. A menudo, los obstáculos a estos procesos sólo pueden eliminarse mediante coaliciones de partes interesadas, o mediante intervenciones más coordinadas y por múltiples partes interesadas.No hay que subestimar el poder de las ideas, la ideología, la religión, las experiencias y los sentimientos de pertenencia, ya que estos influyen en las lógicas de decisión, las preferencias y los comportamientos A partir de las entrevistas realizadas en Perú se identificaron los siguientes factores:Cuadro 6 Factores limitantes a nivel del entorno político-institucional en Perú. Fuente: Entrevistas 2021• A pesar de múltiples leyes, planes y tratados internacionales en favor de una producción más sostenible, no se ven acciones en implementación debido a la influencia de grandes multinacionales en contra de una agricultura ecológica familiar y la alimentación saludable. A través de las cámaras de comercio realizan lobbies políticos contando una mayor cuota de participación en mesas técnicas en el poder legislativo y en los ministerios. Por ej. Lentitud en la aprobación de reglamentos o derogación de algunas leyes que permite que puedan ser implementadas.• El CEPLAN tiene una estructura para el desarrollo de Planes (instrumento más relevante), sin embargo, el Ministerio de Economía tiene otro tipo de criterios que son incompatibles, con lo cual dilatan los procesos.• Las políticas agrarias no tienen un enfoque holístico que involucre otros sectores como Ministerio de Inclusión Social, Ministerio de Salud, Ministerio del Ambiente, entre otros. • La promoción de los mercados agroecológicos en las políticas públicas no considera suficientes estrategias en base a la economía social solidaria (dinámicas asociativas, cooperativas, compras públicas y comunitarias) • El gobierno no considera el vínculo de la agroecología con políticas vinculadas a restauración y gestión de ecosistemas Factores político-técnico sectorial• Falta de mayor intersectorialidad y de migrar a una gestión pública de resultados y procesos, más allá de competencias • Falta promover diálogos políticos en grupos multidisciplinarios que involucre diversos actores en la planificación de políticas y planes �� Falta mayores instrumentos que permiten la implementación de políticas por ej.:Planes, Proyectos, Programas, etc. • Falta incrementar el presupuesto en favor de la producción agroecológica a nivel nacional, regional y local • Falta incentivos para que los gobiernos locales y regionales promuevan más decretos en favor a la promoción de la agroecología y certificación SGP • Falta una visión holística de la agroecología, se ve desde el punto más técnico agrícola pero no desde su vínculo con la cultura y paisaje. • Falta aumentar los incentivos por parte de las compras públicas hacia los productos frescos • Falta profesionales técnicos preparados para la implementación por lo cual no se logran las metas Factores de relación de actores• Falta considerar cuotas de participación y representatividad en las invitaciones a diálogos políticos • Falta comprensión sobre la certificación SGP y certificación orgánica por parte de los funcionarios públicos. • Limitados esfuerzos de diálogos y coordinación entre sectores (PCM y ministerios) y niveles de gobierno (local, regional y nacional) • Limitada articulación entre las organizaciones de base con otras y entre ellas mismas con sus miembros en todo el país • Limitado involucramiento a los jóvenes en la incidencia política y con sus aportes técnicos • Limitado conocimiento de las normas y de cómo funciona la estructura política en sus diferentes tipos de gobiernos genera una limitada incidencia por parte de la sociedad civil y organizaciones base • Falta de coordinación entre diversos actores que no estén vinculados a los movimientos o productores agroecológicos para poder hacer sinergias de incidencia política (consumidores, academia, etc.)Se identificaron un total de 55 factores limitantes (Ver Figura 4) que fueron mencionados por los actores entrevistados, estos se clasificaron en seis grupos correspondiendo a las grandes categorías de factores que pueden afectar el escalamiento de la agroecología (adaptación en base a Los entrevistados mencionaron varios factores que limitan el escalamiento de la agroecología. Estos factores se clasificaron y organizaron según el tipo y número de menciones que se hicieron. La priorización que realizó cada grupo de actores consolida sus diversas visiones y experiencias respecto a lo consideran limitante en el escalamiento agroecológico.Los factores relacionados con las siguientes dimensiones fueron priorizados en orden de importancia: i) mercado, ii) conocimiento, iii) alianzas, iv) alianzas, v) recursos productivos, vi) económico y vii) político (Ver Figura 3).Los factores limitantes claves identificados por los actores fueron los siguientes: en la dimensión de conocimiento (falta de acompañamiento en campo, y espacios de co-aprendizaje), en la dimensión de recursos productivos (falta de acceso a semillas y recursos productivos), y en la dimensión económica (falta de créditos viables para la producción agroecológica). los productores agroecológicos, y esto también está vinculado al acceso de sistemas de certificación y trazabilidad; uno de los cuales viene siendo demandando por los productores para comercialización nacional y de circuitos cortos como los SGP. Por otro lado, existen otros factores que son mencionados como barreras que es la falta de sensibilización del consumidor a través de difusión de estrategias de comunicación con respecto a \"que significa un sistema de producción agroecológico\", por lo tanto, se percibe un poca valoración social y ambiental de estos productos en el mercado, o que se confunden con otros sistemas de producción.Sin embargo, para acceder al mercado se han percibido otros factores que limitan como la falta de infraestructura vial y de redes de internet que facilita la comercialización de circuitos cortos, o a nivel de regiones. De igual forma, para poder facilitar estos circuitos cortos se requiere aperturas de espacios físicos a una escala municipal con las facilidades para poder exponer sus productos al menos una vez por semana, y esto también está vinculado a los permisos de formalidad y asociatividad que requieren los productores según las normas públicas. Además, una de las barreras esenciales que se observa está en los canales de distribución y cómo realizar una diversificación de canales, dependiendo del nivel de desarrollo de los productores, y no solo enfocarse en circuitos cortos sino expandir otras opciones.De manera particular se han mencionado algunas preocupaciones como barreras para el escalamiento que son: i) el aumento de precios de los productos, haciéndose inaccesible para cierto grupo de consumidores, en vez de volverse popular y de acceso para todos; ii) la transformación de los productos con un valor agregado, productos frescos que puedan ser perecibles puedan envasarse y alcanzar nuevos nichos de mercado. En Perú, se calcula que sólo el 30% de estos productos se han transformado y que de incentivarse más la transformación podrían llegar a mejores mercados y precios.Para la categor��a conocimiento se ha listado 9 factores que también tienen vínculos de causa-efecto. Se mencionado una especial preocupación por transferir conocimiento y generar un acompañamiento para los jóvenes tanto rurales como estudiantes. En campo se percibe esto por la migración y falta de interés en regresar al campo; mientras que los estudiantes muchas veces no llegan a acceder a conocer el enfoque de la agroecología en su currícula de aprendizaje porque las universidades por lo general tienen un enfoque de producción intensiva. Este problema trae como consecuencia que luego los estudiantes, cuando se convierten en profesionales en diversas áreas, a nivel local tienen un acercamiento diverso con los productores y a nivel de funcionarios públicos no logran comprender como implementarlo.Por otro lado, se ha mencionado como un factor limitante la falta de acompañamiento, transferencia y desarrollo de procesos de aprendizaje en diálogos. Para promover el escalamiento primero se debe reforzar una transición hacia el enfoque agroecológico. Sin embargo, es clave que se desarrollen espacios de diálogos y aprendizaje a través de herramientas como las Escuelas de Campo. Por lo tanto, se mencionó como relevante que estos espacios generen líderes locales que desarrollen faros agroecológicos, y expertos locales que puedan dar un acompañamiento o seguimiento a los demás productores para poder garantizar esa transición especialmente cuando se presentan dificultades para atender como plagas, y mejorar la capacidad de gestión del agroecosistema.Así mismo otro factor que se ha mencionado es el acceso a innovación tecnológica sostenible, y esto puede ser vinculado a su vez en la investigación basada en conocimientos tradicionales. De esta forma vincularlo a los jóvenes, a través de los estudiantes mediante investigaciones y que de alguna forma permita que más jóvenes campesinos puedan acceder a algunas facilidades en campo producto de estas investigaciones.Para la categoría de alianzas se han listado 7 factores, se ha dado especial énfasis en promover más alianzas entre las organizaciones de productores con las organizaciones de base, esto ha sido mencionado como clave para lograr hacer incidencia política en diversos años, especialmente para evitar el ingreso de organismos genéticamente modificados. Es un factor que requiere ser reforzado a través de conectividad y soporte, sobre todo con los productores que se encuentran en lugares aislados y no cuentan con acceso a internet.Se ha mencionado un factor clave que seria las alianzas entre la academia y los productores, ya que a través de la academia se podría llegar a transferir el conocimiento a jóvenes productores rurales para diversos aspectos como mejorar la capacidad del agroecosistema, así como mejorar sistemas de trazabilidad e investigaciones basadas en los conocimientos tradicionales. Este actor también puede brindar directrices en espacios de diálogos políticos entre productores y funcionarios, así como con los consumidores y cooperativas/emprendimientos.La categoría de recursos productivos se ha listado 8 factores, dónde se ha enfatizado que, para lograr la transición y posterior escalamiento de la agroecología, los productores van a requerir acceso a semillas, insumos biológicos y controladores de plagas. A pesar de que los productores han mencionado tener conocimiento sobre cómo elaborar sus propios insumos, han mencionado que muchas veces se tiene escasez de este recurso, así como requieren buscar un lugar donde acceder a un controlado biológico para alguna plaga y consideran que se debería generar bio-fábricas que permita comprar estos recursos a precios accesibles.Además, se han mencionado como factores relevantes el acceso a la tierra, al agua y agrobiodiversidad con sistemas agroforestales.La categoría de económico se ha listado 6 factores, dónde mayoritariamente ha sido percibido un factor necesario para la escalabilidad de la agroecología es el acceso a créditos económicos a través de programas de financiamiento que diferencien los requisitos y promuevan incentivos para una producción más sostenible. Estos recursos económicos pueden también ser percibidos a través de seguros financieros que protejan sus cosechas. Estos créditos económicos pueden permitir cubrir los costos de producción. Sin embargo, al mismo tiempo que se considera indispensable acceder a créditos, se cree necesario que los productores puedan acceder a plataformas de conocimiento para saber cómo calcular la rentabilidad de sus producciones, y de esa forma mejorar su productividad, y poder tener un mejor manejo de sus finanzas para acceder a mayores créditos.La categoría de político se ha listado 6 factores, dónde lo que se requiere es visibilizar la importancia de la agroecología para la economía del país, ya que la canasta familiar es principalmente abastecida de alimentos que provienen de la agricultura familiar (70%). Esto se puede realizar abordando la agroecología desde un enfoque de bienestar y salud pública. De esta forma puede ser considerada por diversos sectores y promover la intersectorialidad. Así como planes y proyectos que puedan ejecutarse a nivel local a través de diversos sectores bajo un enfoque de alimentación y ecosistemas saludables.Aunque se pudo priorizar los grandes tipos de factores que afectan el escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú, se necesita recalcar que los actores tienen diferentes percepciones sobre los factores de importancia (Figura 5).• La mayor cantidad de consenso en mención la tuvo el tipo de factor de mercado, teniendo especial relevancia por los actores vinculados al mercado, funcionarios, los consumidores y productores. • Luego se puede visibilizar el interés particular por cada actor, por ej. la academia, ONG y movimientos se enfocaron más en conocimiento, teniendo este la segunda cantidad de mención como más relevante. Los productores tienen especial interés en factores económicos y de recursos productivos. En el ministerio de agricultura (MIDAGRI), el programa que tiene mayor potencial para el escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú es AGRORURAL, ya que viene abordando diversos factores y además tiene gran representación en varias regiones el país. Sin embargo, este programa no ha recibido mucho presupuesto en los últimos cinco años (Ver figura 1, presupuesto); y tiene problemas para darle continuidad a los proyectos que desarrollan, así como capacidad técnica. Los actores sugieren que en este programa se deben determinar cuotas de participación de sus recursos orientados específicamente bajo un enfoque agroecológico, especialmente para promover espacios de aprendizaje y continuar con sus proyectos de promoción de mercados como \"Mercados Itinerantes\" en más regiones del país.En el ministerio de inclusión social (MIDIS), el programa con un alto potencial para replicarse en otros sectores como agricultura y tener continuidad es Haku Wiñay ya que contribuye en procesos de aprendizaje para mejorar la capacidad de gestión de los agroecosistemas. Por otro lado, si bien actualmente el programa Qali Warma no ha tenido ninguna contribución hacia la agroecología, se considera que podría tener un gran potencial para la promoción de productos agroecológicos a través de las compras públicas de estos productos.En el ministerio de ambiente (MINAM), se encontraron varios proyectos con potencial para ser replicados y escalados a nivel de programas en el mismo sector, así como también, implementados por otros sectores. Estos proyectos pilotos a pesar de tener recursos limitados han sido valorados como satisfactorios por sus contribuciones positivas a los factores de diversificación de canales comerciales, así como mejorar la capacidad de gestión de los agroecosistemas. Estos proyectos son ReSCa, SIPAM, y Aliados por la Conservación tienen un enfoque donde se valora la agroecología desde un enfoque que considera los beneficios ambientales para las personas, buscando conectar con consumidores/empresarios responsables.En el ministerio de cultura (MINCUL), se mencionó a los planes de vida comunales como una herramienta que se podría implementar para poder llevar a cabo espacios de diálogo local para el desarrollo de una comunidad. A nivel municipal han mencionado dos iniciativas Ecobarrio y Escuelas Saludables que vienen sensibilizando a la sociedad civil sobre el bienestar de salud física, y la alimentación. Estas iniciativas presentan un gran potencial para ser replicadas en diversos municipios a nivel nacional.3.3 Propuestas de acciones 3.3.1 Priorización de los factores limitantes considerando el estado actual de la implementación de las políticas públicas e intervenciones Tomando en cuenta la importancia relativa de los factores según los actores entrevistados (sección 3.2.2), y el nivel de atención desde la política (sección 3.2.4), se realizó una priorización de los factores que requieren ser atendidos en la construcción de una hoja de ruta para el escalamiento de la agroecología.Así, se evidenciaron 3 grandes tipos de factores: los factores calificados de \"críticos\" correspondiendo a factores por los cuales no se han identificados programas que los afecten todavía, los factores que requieren \"grandes ajustes\" correspondiendo a factores por los cuales las políticas actuales no contribuyen favorablemente, o no se están implementado, y los factores que requieren pocos \"ajustes\" que corresponden a factores por los cuales ya existen políticas que actúan favorablemente sobre ellos , pero que se podría mejorar (Ver figura 7). • Promover la comercialización de cadenas cortas, vía la implementación de la Ley 28846, \"fortalecimiento de cadenas productivas y conglomerados\". Con esta la ley las entidades públicas deben destinar recursos concursables para apoyar la elaboración de planes de negocios.• Promover la asociatividad para facilitar el acceso y uso de transporte (con el apoyo del proyecto AGROIDEAS), y reducir los costos unitarios de transporte (economía de escala transportando más productos). Involucrar los intermediarios, y transportistas en la reflexión sobre la problemática de transporte y logística. Contar con su punto de vista.• Generar la conversación en el Ministerio de Transporte sobre la necesidad de infraestructura vial en zonas remotas de producción agroecológicas en los Andes.• Aprovechar mejor los transportes disponibles, teniendo en cuenta la demanda de productos diversificados en mercados y ferias, y fomentar alianzas para usar el transporte con un ciclo productivo que dure 12 meses y así, rentabilizar la inversión en medio de transporte promoviendo su utilización durante todo el año. En los andes, en zona seca, la producción agrícola no permite de amortizar el costo de un camión todo el año. Ejemplo de interés: Proyecto en Cajamarca, mejora de los productores, análisis de la cadena del territorio (maíz morado, ajo, alverja).Frecuencia de Nro. de mención/actores Cobertura de factor/programas Acción sugerida por actores Institución/responsable sugerida por actores• Promover la creación centros de acopio. Aquí cobra relevancia la Ley de Mercado de Productores que se encuentra en proceso de reglamentación.• Escalar las organizaciones de productores a cooperativas que permitan generar rentabilidad por medio de volumen de producción y así, poder generar recursos que permitan el financiamiento de las cuestiones de logística. Actualmente ya existe una ley de cooperativismo, las cual está siendo perfeccionada a nivel de dirección en el Ministerio de Agricultura.• Crear centros de distribución y comercialización que funcionen como puntos de almacenamiento de productos frescos, incluyendo cadenas de frío que puedan funcionar para diversos productos. Esto se podría articular a nivel de alcaldía local con municipios más grandes.Poca valoración económica y ambiental de un producto agroecológico (POP)Ajustes/Resca, Aliados por la Conservación(MINAM) Ecobarrio (Municipalidad)• Informar a los hacedores de política y a los consumidores que para la demanda de productos de mercados de la Unión Europea no será suficiente la categoría \"orgánico\", sino que también los productos contribuyan a la salud y que provengas de procesos sostenibles (cambio climático). Ay que informar que los estándares serán mucho más exigentes a través del Tratado Verde. Esta información podría promover más la voluntad política y la sensibilización del consumidor.• Identificar influenciadores o embajadores que están posicionados en sectores de interés (gastronomía, medio ambiente, etc.) para que a través de sus canales puedan hacer la promoción directa y natural de los productos agroecológicos.• Escalar el modelo de Ecobarrios haciendo énfasis en las Agroferias Campesinas. La iniciativa de Ecobarrios tiene un enfoque muy completo que es ejemplo de lo que se debería escalar a nivel municipal. Aquí es necesario enfatizar en que las ferias tienen que ofrecer una gran diversidad de productos, por lo que es urgente solucionar el problema del costo unitario del transporte frente a lo cual no es rentable un subsidio distrital o municipal.Mejorar los sistemas de trazabilidad y certificación (MEY)Ajustes/SENASA:SELLO ORGANICO (MIDAGRI), Aliados por la conservación, Sello del Buen Vivir (MINAM)• Replicar las experiencias de generación de capacidades para la implementación y seguimiento a los sistemas de trazabilidad que actualmente ya ejecuta Prom Perú, quien ya ofrece un acompañamiento presencial a nivel del territorio. Esto ya aborda el tema de interpretación e implementación de las guías de certificación. Huancavelica Orgánico es una experiencia que se puede sistematizar y replicar.• Articular a la academia con las entidades tanto del sector público como del sector privado que ya tienen en marcha sistemas de trazabilidad, para fomentar la replicabilidad de las experiencias exitosas de trazabilidad.• Fomentar la innovación de los sistemas de trazabilidad simplificando el sistema de registro de datos (apps, tablas Excel, etc.), para que los productores puedan ingresar los datos de sus actividades de campo. Este sistema debe ser adaptado según el ciclo productivo del cultivo y requiere el acompañamiento de una persona de al menos un año.• Desarrollar un programa de vigilancia y monitoreo en alianza con la academia en todas las regiones del país, para que mensualmente se haga una evaluación del contenido de agroquímicos en los productos de consumo, e instalar un plan de fiscalización, sanción y asistencia para la mejora.• Crear un sello nacional simplificado para certificar al productor nacional que no tiene la intención de exportar, teniendo en cuenta la importancia de la evaluación de agroquímicos. (Esto era el SGP, pero SENASA lo complico).Productor • Continuar con el fomento de la organización de los productores de forma empresarial y con fines de lucro siguiendo el modelo de cooperativas, frente a las cuales ya existen regímenes tributarios y sistemas de incentivos. Esto ayuda abordar el problema de informalidad. En el Ministerio se creó la Dirección General de Asociatividad, la cual está encargada de este tema.Dirección General de Asociatividad MIDAGRI (SENASA, PNIA)• Promover una ley de productos artesanales, una norma especial para que los productores agroecológicos puedan acceder a los mercados sin tener HACCP y otros requisitos de inocuidad.• Diferenciación de escalas en cuanto a las normas que rigen a los productores.• Compartir el empadronamiento abiertamente, para que el sistema de registro funcione de forma cumulativa y se comparta entre los Ministerios.Promoción de mercados agroecológicos (PRM) Grandes Ajustes/AGRORURAL (MIDAGRI),SIPAM (MINAM)• Definir los planes de implementación de la Ley de Compras Públicas.Funcionarios AGRORURAL PCM y MIDAGRI (Dirección General de Asociatividad)• Convertir los proyectos AGROBIO y RESCA en política pública para que sean asumido por otros sectores. Asimismo, fortalecer el apoyo técnico para incrementar el conocimiento y entendimiento sobre la agroecología.El concepto agroecológico no esta claro para los consumidores (ELL)• Aclarar y posicionar en el ámbito del mercado el concepto \"agroecológico\" para que el consumidor lo entienda y lo sepa diferenciar en un mercado donde se habla de productos \"orgánicos\", \"ecológicos\" y \"agroecológicos\". • Aprovechar los canales digitales para el ampliar el contacto con el consumidor en espacios como las biotiendas.• Conectar a los productores con el mercado mediante empresas que tengan iniciativas ambientales.• Conectar a los hijos de los productores en la fase de comercialización para vincularlos al campo.Espacios físicos fijos para venta de producción agroecológica a una escala municipal (ESE) Grandes Ajustes/AGRORURAL (MIDAGRI), ECOBARRIO (MINAM)• Generar alianzas productor -consumidor para incidir en las municipalidades y fortalecer los espacios de feria de mercado como las \"Agroferias Campesinas\".• Fortalecer el Programa Nacional de Ecoferias y lograr una ecoferia por cada provincia.• Promover mercados permanentes por cada municipio a través de Agrorural y diferenciar a los productores Agroecológicos.Limitada sensibilización del consumidor (SENS) Grandes Ajustes/SIPAM (MINAM)• Educar al consumidor a través de campañas sobre alimentación y salud que se ejecuten por medio de diferentes canales de comunicación.• Educar al sector público sobre las medidas necesarias para adaptar a los productores a las exigencias del Tratado Verde, para el cual la categoría y certificación orgánica no serán suficientes para la comercialización. Aquí la salud y el medio ambiente también influyen.• Promover la recuperación de patrones de consumo por medio de una estrategia de sistemas alimentarios sostenibles y salud pública liderada por el gobierno. • Promover las Zonas de Conservación de la Agrobiodiversidad como zonas de alta importancia para el desarrollo de la Agroecología, caracterizando las 24 regiones del país con base en el proyecto SIPAM (Gestión Sostenible de la Agrobiodiversidad).• Promover el desarrollo de andenerias en zonas alto andinas con riesgo de erosión de suelo por laderas.• Generar incentivos, créditos o cooperativas para acceso a materiales/maquinaria para trabajo en campo.Acceso a control de plagas bio (ACP) Voluntad política (VP) Crítico• Generar compromisos y agendas anuales en el Concejo de Gestión Regional Agrario.Organizaciones base • Hacer incidencia a través del voto durante la aprobación del presupuesto participativo a nivel local • Negociar y establecer compromisos con candidatos políticos en el marco de los ciclos electorales.Participación limitada (presupuestos) de los gobiernos locales en la agroecología (PAL)• Desarrollar un programa de Desarrollo Territorial con un enfoque en la promoción de la biodiversidad y agroecología desde el nivel municipal a través de las Agencias de Desarrollo Rural.• Desarrollar Planes de Desarrollo Territorial a través de la activación de un Concejo Público Privado de Desarrollo Territorial, en base a mesas técnicas de producción agropecuaria, turismo, agua y comunidades.• La aprobación de presupuestos y áreas de intervención se debe hacer en base a una discusión a nivel regional en los Concejos de Gestión Regional Agrario (CEGRA) con diversos actores en las 24 regiones.En la perspectiva de definir una hoja de ruta para escalamiento de la agroecología en Perú, el estudio presentado en este informe presenta la trayectoria de las políticas afines con el escalamiento, propone un diagnóstico de los programas actuales, identifica los factores claves que limitan el escalamiento, y propone una lista de acciones desde la perspectiva de los actores involucrados para solucionar los problemas identificados.Principales conclusiones:• Pese a los factores limitantes relacionados a los entornos político-institucional, Perú ha logrado institucionalizar la agroecología en la política pública en el 2021, evidenciando una larga trayectoria y puesta en agenda en la incidencia política desde 1989, pero sobre todo en el 2009-2011 que se vio favorecida gracias a una mayor valoración de la sociedad civil de su identidad peruana a través de la gastronomía y su agrobiodiversidad, además por medio de la alianza cocinero-campesino que inició en la feria gastronómica Mistura. • Perú cuenta con varios instrumentos normativos y programáticos que pueden potenciarse al implementarse, brindándoles las condiciones de aumento de presupuesto, promover la intersectorialidad con enfoque en resultados y no en competencias; adecuando los requerimientos políticos al enfoque agroecológico, como por ejemplo las compras públicas por medio del programa Qali Warma. • Los factores claves identificados por varios actores como a nivel de recursos productivos (acceso a semillas e insumos biológicos) puede ser potencialmente abordado por el programa de AGRORURAL; a nivel económico (asegurar accesos a créditos para la producción y la rentabilidad) se requieren adaptar nuevos requerimientos que incluyan a la agroecología en las convocatorias de programas como AGROIDEAS, PROCOMPITE e INNOVATE PERU; y a nivel de conocimiento (transferir conocimiento a los más jóvenes en el campo), se podría crear una institución como el Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje (SENA) que desarrolla Colombia desde el Ministerio del Trabajo dónde reconoce formalmente el trabajo del agroecólogo y brinda una curricula de capacitación para jóvenes (Mayor información, ver reporte completo). • El escalamiento de la agroecología puede potenciarse por medio de diálogos intersectoriales con los ministerios de Educación, Salud, Cultura, Ambiente, Inclusión Social, Producción y Agricultura que aborden la agroecología como una política de salud pública y ecosistémica. Para ello se pueden utilizar los instrumentos normativos claves como i) ley Nº 30215 y su reglamento (servicios ecosistémicos) y Decreto Supremo N° 020-2016 (que declara zonas de agrobiodiversidad). A nivel de implementación, es recomendable brindar continuidad técnica, financiamiento y escalabilidad en otros sectores, a los siguientes programas son Haku Wiñay (MIDIS), ReSCa, Aliados por la Conservación y SIPAM (MINAM), programas municipales como Ecobarrio y Escuelas Saludables. • El escalamiento de la agroecología puede llegar de las mismas organizaciones de base y la sociedad civil a través de las campañas de alimentación saludable que valore la agrobiodiversidad de la cocina peruana como parte de la identidad, pero también del buen comer. Se podría aprovechar un espacio posicionado como Mistura y dándole continuidad a la promoción del mercado de productores. ","tokenCount":"7704"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"68c35c3fb53c36757c140e6896fa0330","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/92d34f2b-fb1d-4f92-afcb-d003fab9c42a/retrieve","id":"-963614180"},"keywords":[],"sieverID":"d0336584-3bc4-4330-8e2c-5fe6828c827d","pagecount":"104","content":"This study was aimed at analyzing local poultry value chain in Ahferom district of Tigray region. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data were collected from randamly selcted 150 farmers, 30 traders and 10 consumers. Data were analyzed using descrptive statistics, ANOVA, Probit and tobit models. The value chain analysis result revealed that the main value chain actors are input suppliers, farmers, retailers, rural assemblers, hotels and cafes, private vendors, BoARD and consumers.Retailer govern the whole marketing chain system and have a monopoly power to fix price of poultry over the other chain actors. The result of the tobit regression model indicated that market supply of chicken is significantly affected by number of poultry owned, educational status and sex of the households. Likewise, market supply of egg is significantly affected by sex of the household, number of flock size, price of egg, and total land holding of the houshold. The likelihood of choosing direct consumers outlet is relatively high. Chicken health problem, limited access of feed, lack of organized cooperatives, limited government attention and poor handlinig system were identified as the major constraints to the local poultry value chain development and Marketing and value chain opportunities are Accesses of local market, Flow of marketing information and High local consumer.. Therefore, capacity development on poultry husbandry, marketing and supplementary feeding program of indigenous chicken through extension programs will required to improve the growth, profitability and income opportunities for a large number of farm households who are engaged in indigenous chicken production and other value chain function . Therefore, to improve the exiting chicken and egg value chain, there is a need to consider the findings of this tudy.Keywords: Indigenous chickens, Value chain, Chicken marketing.In Ethiopia livestock have economic and social importance both at the household and national levels. On a national level, livestock contribute a significant amount to export earnings in the formal market (10 percent of all formal export earnings, or US$ 150 million per annum) and the informal market (perhaps US$ 300 million per annum) (Dereket et al., 2010). Livestock contribute 15 to17 percent of GDP and 35 to 49 percent of agricultural GDP, and 37 to 87 percent of the household incomes and the large variations are due directly or indirectly to climatic variation (Sintayehu et al., 2003). At the household level, livestock contribute to the livelihood of approximately 70 percent of Ethiopians (CSA, 2012). The diverse agro-climatic conditions of Ethiopia make it very suitable for the production of different kinds of livestock. Most of the livestock are produced by pastoralists, agropastoralists, and smallholder mixed crop-livestock farmers and sold to private entrepreneurs operating in a marketing chain involving collection, fattening and transportation up to terminal markets (Getachew and Gashew, 2001).In most African countries, the rural chicken population accounts for more than 60% of the total national chicken population. The proportional contribution of poultry to the total animal protein production of the world by the year 2020 is believed to increase to 40%, the major increase being in the developing world (Staven, 2012). In Ethiopia, chickens are widespread and almost every rural family owns chicken, which provide a valuable source of family protein and income (Fisseha et al., 2010).The total poultry population in the country is estimated at 50.38 million (CSA, 2012). Most of the poultry are chicks (38.91 percent), followed by laying hens (32.77 percent). Pullets are estimated to be about 4.86 million in the country. Cocks and cockerels are also estimated separately, and are 5.19 million and 2.69 million, respectively. The others are non-laying hens that make up about 3 percent (1.53 million) of the total poultry population in the country. With regard to breed, 96.9 percent, 0.54 percent and 2.56 percent of the total poultry are reported to be indigenous, hybrid and exotic, respectively (CSA, 2012).Generally, in order for decision makers to address poultry related challenges in production and marketing and to improve marketing linkage and livelihood of rural households by enhancing the benefits from poultry through appropriate production and marketing extension, it is essential to generate appropriate technologies which are socially acceptable, environmentally sound and economically feasible. The main advantages of chicken value chain study are defining the needs and nature of customers and their ability and desire to buy, scanning the business environment, gathering needed information for decision-making, reducing risk, helping in production planning and monitoring and controlling marketing activities (Gondwe, 2004).Access to markets determine the price and transaction costs and is influenced by access to infrastructure and information. The Ethiopian poultry sector is almost exclusively dominated by backyard and small-scale production using limited to no inputs in production and which is targeted for either self-consumption or the market. Unlike other parts of the world, there are relatively few intermediaries operating between producers and consumers in the Ethiopian poultry sector. However, because of increased urban development, there are newly emerging private farms responding to growing consumer demand. Indeed, rising demand for meat products has led to inflationary pressures on prices, with poultry prices increasing fivefold in nominal terms over the past decade (Fisseha et al., 2010).Household based chicken production is commonly practiced in the rural areas of Tigray including the study woreda. The rural chicken production is based on indigenous chicken breeds characterized with low production, poor husbandry practices and high flock death. It provides economic and social benefits to the farm community. There are also people who engaged in poultry related activities such as input delivery, distribution, collection, processing and marketing. Here having tangible and rigorous baseline data on the poultry value chain analyses is very important for better understanding the chain actors and their roles, identifying determinant factors that can influence the value chain and analyze the governance system of the local chicken and eggs value chain. This data is very crucial for improving the production and marketing of indigenous chicken and eggs. Hence, this research was initiated to narrow the information gap in Ahferom woredaThe diverse agro-ecology and agronomic practice prevailing in the country together with the huge population of livestock in general and poultry in particular, could be a promising attribute to increase the sector and increase its contribution to the total agricultural output as well as to improve the living standards and contributes food security, especially women who have small incomes. Poultry production, as one segment of livestock production, has largely contributed to the sector. The rural areas of central Tigray including the study area (Ahferom Woreda) are some of the potential areas for household based poultry production system and almost every household rears chickens for economic and social benefits. In spite of its great importance in the household economy and food security, there is lack of information on the rural poultry marketing linkage and its value chain analysis as the practice is not well characterized in the area. The overall value chain analysis of the chickens and eggs, as commodities, are not yet studied in the study woreda. The linkages amongst the chain actors, the role of each actor, the channel, the available opportunities and constraints in the chain are not clearly understood. For this reason, it has been remained to be difficult to formulate appropriate interventions in relation to chicken and eggs value chain development endeavors in the area. There is no any research attempt carried out in Ahferom woreda that can assess rural chicken value chain analysis as well as the linkage of marketing systems. Therefore, it is imperative to conduct comprehensive studies that can cover the entire the rural value chain analysis of chicken and eggs of marketing and governance management practice to the farm community This research seek to answer the under -mentioned research questions.• What does the local poultry value chain functions map look like?• What does the local poultry value actors and service providers' map looks like?• What are the roles of the different actors and service providers in local chicken and egg value chain process?• What are the key technological, institutional and organizational factors influencing the local chicken and egg value chain development?• How does the local poultry value chain governance function?Rural chicken production in Ethiopia represents a significant part of the national economy in general and the rural economy in particular. Having this in mind the government is still striving to improve poultry production and marketing chain by providing exotic breeds to farmers in the rural areas of the country. With this cognizant, this research was conducted on rural chicken and egg value chain analysis to generate a baseline data to complement the decision making process and ultimately to improve future extension interventions. In addition the study could have significant importance in helping the policy makers by identifying constraints and opportunities of rural chicken value chain analysis systems in the rural areas.It can also offer a scientific input to the poultry production and agricultural development policy of the government in the region. Moreover, it is crucial to determine the current status and prospects of poultry production potential to the local community. In general the findings of this study could have significant importance to various bodies involved in rural poultry production and marketing activities worth mentioning extension workers, researchers, students, policy makers, producers, traders and consumers.Value chain: It is taken to mean a group of companies working together to satisfy market demands. It involves a chain of activities that are associated with adding value to a product through the production and distribution processes of each activity (Schmitz, 2005). An organization's competitive advantage is based on their product's value chain. The goal of the company is to deliver maximum value to the end user for the least possible total cost to the company, thereby maximizing profit (Porter, 1985 andMiller, 1985).A value chain describes the full range of activities that are required to bring a product or service from conception, through the intermediary phases of production (involving a combination of physical transformation and the input of various producer services), delivery to final consumers and final disposal after use (Kaplisnky, 2001;Readman, 2000). It is important to define and understand the following phrases which are related with the concept of value chain.The chain of actors who directly deal with the products, i.e. produce, process, trade and own them.The services provided by various actors who never directly deal with the product, but whose services add value to the product.The regulatory framework, policies, infrastructures, etc. The value chain concept entails the addition of value as the product progresses from input suppliers to producers and consumers. A value chain, therefore, incorporates productive transformation and value addition at each stage of the value chain. At each stage in the value chain, the product changes hands through chain actors, transaction costs are incurred, and generally, some form of value is added. Value addition results from diverse activities including bulking, cleaning, grading, and packaging, transporting, storing and processing (Gebremedhin et al, 2007).Value chains encompass a set of interdependent organizations, and associated institutions, resources, actors and activities involved in input supply, production, processing, and distribution of a commodity. In other words, a value chain can be viewed as a set of actors and activities, and organizations and the rules governing those activities.Value chain management is about creating the added value at each link in the chain and a sustainable competitive advantage for the businesses in the chain. How value is actually created is a major concern for most businesses. Porter (1985) indicates that value can be created by differentiation along every step of the value chain, through activities resulting in products and services that lower buyers' costs or raise buyers' performance. In much of the food production and distribution value chain, the value creation process has focused on commodities with relatively generic characteristics, creating relatively small profit margins.The value chain concept was developed and popularized in 1985 by Michael Porter in \"Competitive Advantage,\" a seminal work on the implementation of competitive strategy to achieve superior business performance (Feller et al., 2006). Porter (1985) suggested that a set of interrelated generic activities (primary and support activities) within the organization add value to the service and product that the organization produces.According to (Baker, 2006), the value chain concept explained as it traces product flows;shows value additions at different stages; identifies key actors and their relationships in the chain; identifies enterprises that contribute to production, services and required institutional support; identifies bottlenecks preventing progress; provides a framework for sector-specific action; identifies strategies to help local enterprises to compete and to improve earning opportunities; identifies relevant stakeholders for program planning (also in distant markets); for good policies and programs, we need to understand how local enterprises fit into the global economy. The activities constituting a value chain can be contained within a single firm or divided among different firms, as well as within a single geographical location or spread over wider areas.Supply chain: It is taken to mean the physical flow of goods that are required for raw materials to be transformed into finished products. Supply chain management is about making the chain as efficient as possible through better flow scheduling and resource use, improving quality control throughout the chain, reducing the risk associated with food safety and contamination, and decreasing the agricultural industry's response to changes in consumer demand for food attributes (Dunne, 2001).Value addition: is a measure for the value created in the economy. It is equivalent to the total value generated by the operators in the chain (chain revenue = final sales price * volume sold). The value added per unit of product is the difference between the price obtained by a value chain operator and the price that the operator has paid for the inputs delivered by operators of the preceding stage of the value chain and the intermediate goods bought in from suppliers of inputs and services who are not regarded as part of the value chain. In short:\"The worth that is added to a good or service at each stage of its production or distribution\" (GTZ, 2007).The concept of production chain, supply chain, market chain and value chain are often used interchangeably, but in fact there are some important differences. In its simplest definition, the terms production chain, supply chain, market chain are synonymously used to describe all participants involved in an economic activity which uses inputs and services to enable a product to be made and delivered to a final consumer. A value chain is understood as a strategic network between a numbers of independent business organizations. According to Hobbs et al. (2000), a value chain is differentiated from a production/supply chain because participants in the value chain have a long-term strategic vision, disposed to work together, oriented by demand and not by supply, shared commitment to control product quality and have a high level of confidence in one another that allows greater security in business and facilitates the development of common goals and objectives.Marketing channel is a business structure of interdependent organizations that reach from the point of product or origin to the consumer with the purpose of moving products to their final consumption or destination (Dawit, 2010). This channel may be short or long depending on kind and quality of the product marketed, available marketing services, and prevailing social and physical environment (Islam et al., 2001).Market chain is the term used to describe the various links that connect all the actors and transactions involved in the movement of agricultural goods from the producer to the consumer (CIAT, 2004). A marketing chain is used to describe the numerous links that connect all actors and transactions involved in the movement of agricultural products from farmer to consumer (Lunndy et al., 2004). Functions conducted in a marketing chain have three things in common; they use up scarce resources, they can be performed better through specialization, and they can be shifted among channel members (FAO, 2005).Producer: It is the first link in the poultry market chain, the producer harvests the products and supplies to the second agent. From the moment he/she decides what to produce, how much to grow and when to grow and sale. In this stage the product is decided to be having limited or unlimited supply for the next market.Consumer: It is the last link in the poultry market chain, the participants and their respective functions often overlap. The most widespread combinations are the following: Traders-whole sellers that collect the commodity and supply it to retailers, whole sellers-retailers (wholesalers' that also sell directly to consumers) and whole sellers-exporters (Porter, 1985 andMiller, 1985).Retailers: Middlemen that include supper market another and large-scale retailer who divides large shipments of produce and sell it to consumers in small units. The basic function they provide is bulk breaking (Lunndy et al., 2004).A market is traditionally defined as a specific area where buyers and sellers meet for exchange of goods (it can be agricultural products or other off farm products) and services.The most common way people obtain goods and services that they do not produce themselves is to buy them from others who specialize in producing them. To make such purchases, buyers look out sellers in markets. Markets are ways in which buyers and sellers can conduct transactions resulting in mutual net gains that otherwise would not be possible (Awol, 2010).Modern definition considers market as an arena for organizing and facilitating business activities and for answering the basic economic questions (Uhl, 1985) described market as how much to produce? What to produce? How to distribute production? A location, a product, a time, a group of consumers, or a level of the marketing system may define it. The choice as to which market definition to use depends on the problem to be analyzed. Market is an institutional and organizational arrangement to facilitate exchange of one thing for another. The most observable features of a market are its pricing and exchange processes (Andargachew, 1990).A marketing system is a collection of channels, intermediaries, and business activities, which facilitate the physical distribution and economic exchange of goods (Uhl, 1985). A channel of distribution may be defined as a path traced in the direct or indirect transfer of the title to a product as it moves from a producer to consumer or industrial users. Every channel of distribution contains one or more of \"transfer points\" at each of which there is always either an institution or a final buyer of the product. In the process of marketing, legal title to the product always changes hands at least once. The concept of marketing system includes both the physical distribution of economic input and products and the mechanism of processor coordinating production and distribution (Uhl, 1985).Livestock value chain can be defined as the complete range of activities required to bring a product (e.g. live animals, meat, milk, eggs, leather, fiber, manure) to final consumers passing through the different phases of production, processing and delivery (Steven, 2012). It can also be defined as a market-focused collaboration among different stakeholders who produce and market value-added products. And to these non-market values, a thriving informal export trade in live animals further emphasizes the significance, though unrecognized by official statistics, of livestock in the Ethiopian economy (Sintayehu et al., 2003).Poultry production in Ethiopia shows a clear distinction between traditional, low input systems and modern, more intensive systems with a relatively improved housing, feeding, breeding, marketing and processing. The traditional system of poultry production, which has come to be known as \"balanced farming\", is characterized by its low input and a corresponding low output. In Ethiopia, the egg laying performance of indigenous chickens is reported to be low under farmers' management conditions and the value chain determination is not well known. However, under improved conditions, a maximum of 100 eggs per chicken per year has been reported (Tadesse et al., 2005). The major constraints that limit poultry productivity are diseases, poor feeding and management practices, and the low genetic potential of indigenous chicken. One way of improving the productivity of indigenous chickens for egg production is through crossbreeding with exotic chickens that are known for higher egg production (Tadesse et al., 2005).Generally, there are four poultry production systems in developing countries. These include the free-range system or traditional village system; the backyard or subsistence system; the semi intensive system and the small-scale intensive system (Sonaiya, 2004). Some of the important characteristics of these poultry production systems in Africa are summarized as follow in the Table 1.The major characteristics of the chicken production systems in Africa Source : Sonaiya, (2004) The impact of village chicken in the national economy of developing countries and its role in improving the nutritional status, income, food security and livelihood of many smallholders is significant due to its low cost of production (Fisseha et al., 2010). Moreki et al. (2001)  (Sonaiya, 2000).Village chicken also play a role of converting household leftovers, wastes and insects into valuable and high quality protein (Aklilu, 2007). There are only few alternative animal protein sources available in the tropics including chicken and eggs (Odunsi, 2003). Therefore poultry provide major opportunities for increased protein production and incomes for smallholder farmers because of short generation interval, high rate of productivity, the ease with which its products can be supplied to different areas, the ease with which its products can be sold due to their relatively low economic values, its minimal association with religious taboos and its complementary role played in relation to other crop-livestock activities (Muchenje et al., 2000).Poultry keeping is the first step on the ladder for poor households to climb out of poverty and is referred to as the 'last resource' to indicate it is the only capital that households have left when declining into poverty, for example, because of droughts. In other words can define as ''Poultry are the seeds you sow to get the fruits, cattle\" (Aklilu, 2007).The greater the distance between producer and consumer, the more complex is the marketing organization required to ensure that eggs reach consumers in the form, place and time desired. Producers may decide to market their produce directly to consumersdirect marketingor may choose from a variety of marketing organizations that make up a marketing channel. Direct marketing includes the following methods of selling: sales from the farm (farm gate); Door-to-door sales; producers' markets; and sales to local retail shops.A typical marketing channel is made up of: collectors; assembly merchants; wholesalers; and retailers (FAO, 2003).Egg producers who are situated a short distance from consumers may be able to practice direct marketing. Before choosing to sell their products directly to consumers, however, they must evaluate two main factors:Time: Producers who choose direct marketing have less time for production activities.Cost: The costs involved in direct marketing (FAO, 2003).Producers may be able to sell eggs directly from the farm (farm gate). This, however, will depend on whether consumers are able and willing to go to the producer's facilities. The main advantage of farm-gate selling is that the producer may be able to obtain a market price for eggs without incurring marketing costs. The main advantage for the consumers is that eggs will be fresh with little or no quality loss (FAO, 2003).Governance is a central concept to value chain analysis. Governance can be defined as nonmarket co-ordination of economic activity (Kaplinsky and Readman, 2000). Within the chain, some actors directly or indirectly influence the organization of small holder production, logistics, and marketing systems. Chains can be driven by producers or buyers, with different structures influencing how the chain itself is organized and production coordinated.In the poultry value chain analysis in Ethiopia and particularly in the study area, there are no specific governance structures established for domestic production and marketing.Furthermore, there is no government regulation to guide processing, nor do biosecurity measures exist in the traditional sector. Some regulations are in place for the importation of inputs and use of foreign exchange permits.In the feed sector, the three major commercial millers (Genesis, ELFORA and Alema) dominate the landscape. These firms play an important role in setting prices that smaller firms must follow. There is an association of feed millers called the Ethiopian Association of Veterinary and Feed Producers that was recently established in January 2009. Although it includes only feed producers, its members are working in the dairy, poultry and related sectors. However, there is no common understanding among association members to influence policy makers due to different vested interests between commercial and smaller millers. The main sources of information in the chain are traders and sometimes hotels and retailers (e.g. grocers or owners of mini-super markets). Traders are also influential in determining prices by transmitting price information to producers, often through collusive, anti-competitive behavior. Consumers often do not have any means of detecting prices except the daily price announcements given over radio or other means of media (Mekonen, 2007)There are a number of empirical studies on factors affecting the market supply of agricultural commodities. Abraham (2013) identified factors affecting the market supply of vegetables by using multiple linear regressions. The results of the study showed a slight difference between total production and market supply; making vegetables a market oriented product. The result of the multiple regression model indicates that marketable supply of tomato is significantly affected by access to market information and quantity of tomato produced; marketable supply of potato was significantly affected by access to extension service, access to market information, vegetable farming experience and quantity of potato produced; and marketable supply of cabbage was significantly affected by non/off farm income, Woreda dummy, distance to the nearest market and quantity of cabbage produced. The result of regression model shows that quantity of potato production significantly affected by access to extension service, access to market information, vegetable farming experience, sex of the household head, age of the household head and quantity of fertilizer application. Therefore, these variables require special attention if marketable supply is to be increased.Heckman two-stage model to analyze the determinants of malt barley marketable supply. Accordingly, the study revealed that marketable supply of malt barley were affected by total output, selling price and access to market information, significantly and positively affect farmers' market supply and whether distance to the market affects negatively.For this study tobit models is better than Heckman-two stage model. Because, not all producers in the study area were supply chicken and egg to the market and there was also censored on the amount of production and supply to the marketCentral Statistical Agency (CSA, 2012) estimated that there are about 50.38 million chickens in the country. About 90% of the poultry is derived from the backyard sector, which supplies around 38 million chickens per year. The remainder comes from the commercial sector and the emerging small-scale intensive farming system that operates in urban and peri-urban settings. ELFORA annually supplies around 420,000 chickens to the markets in Addis Ababa from its various farms located in the country. Other commercial farms around Addis Ababa have a combined capacity of 30,500 layers and 208,000 broilers per annum, with nearly 50% of those broilers supplied by Alema farm (Gezahegn, 2010).Figure 1 maps the national value chain for poultry products, distinguishing flows of the aggregate value of products between the backyard and commercial sectors. The latter are the primary interface for small farmers to obtain improved chickens. The total aggregate volume of production and sales flows from the poultry sector is estimated at 45,000 DOC, 38 million table eggs, 920,000 broilers, and 340,000 pullets. About 60% of these products are directly sold to consumers or restaurants and hotels, mostly in big cities, and traders, and 20% to small-scale farmers. A small portion of production (2-5%) from commercial farms, such as ELFORA and Modjo, is exported to neighboring countries (Gezahegn, 2010).Source: Gezahegn, 2010  Mekonnen ( 2007) in his report explained the highest price was recorded in December due to Christmas market. The price in all age categories declined from December to June with a slight increase in price during March, which was caused by Ethiopian Easter. Both demand and supply during this period was also high and has effect on price similar trends of prices were also reported. The lowest price was recorded in June. This was probably because of planting time and farmers sell out their chicken before the onset of the rainy season as fearing disease outbreak to occur. Unlike the matured male and female, the prices for both growers male and female goes nearly constant. It appears that poultry price is influenced mostly by rising and falling demands during religious festivals and on set of planting seasons (Mekonnen, 2007)..The survey was carried out in Ahferom Woreda in the central zone of Tigray Region, 65 km from Axum, the administrative town of the zone. The Woreda is located situated 14 0 06' 30\" to 14 0 38' 30\" North in latitude and longitudinally from 38 0 56' 30\" to 39 0 18' 00\" East with an elevation of 1000 to 3200 m.a.s.l. It is bordering with Eritrea in the North, Ganta-Afeshum and Gulo-Mekeda_woreda in the East, Worei-Leke Woreda in the south, Adwa and Mereb-Leke woredas in the West (BoARD, 2015).The total area is 1339 km 2 with a total human population of 206993(male 48% and female 52%), and 46395 households. From the total household about 36524 (78.72%) are settled in the rural areas of the woreda and their livelihood is fully and directly engaged with agricultural activities and its production.  , 2015).The average annual precipitation is about 538-700 mm. The annual temperature is 22 -27 0 C (BoARD, 2015).The agricultural production system in the study area is mixed crop-livestock. The crop livestock mixed production system is the predominant system and exists all over the woreda throughout the year. Crop production is the main agricultural activity for the livelihood of the smallholder farmer and livestock farming is considered as subordinate. Teff, wheat, sorghum and maize are mainly grown under rain fed conditions. The greatest proportion of the land is grown with Teff and wheat. In addition to the low and erratic distribution of rainfall, most farmers in the Woreda are significantly constrained by available resources such as draught power and other agricultural inputs. The frequent droughts and high costs of the technologies (improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides) causes that farmers are risk-aversive and reluctant to adopt new technologies developed for rain fed conditions (BoARD, 2015).Livestock production is one of the major economic activities in Ahferom woreda. The estimated livestock population is 310,382 cattle, 110,389 goats and sheep, 3649 equines, 255,794 chickens and 24,163 traditional bee colonies and 4568 modern bee hives. Animals graze along grazing land through cut and carry system and on stubble of harvested crops. Due to low feed availability the output per animal is very low. Due to the shortage of water and feed the livestock productivity is poor (BoARD, 2015).The agricultural potential of the woreda is low and mainly determined by the semi-arid and arid climate. The amount of rainfall is low in amount and distribution in relation to the erratic, late onset or early withdrawal of the rainy season. This has resulted in frequent crop failures. However, the availability of accessible water resources, relatively good infrastructure, suitable soils and proximity to the market (Enticho, Adigrat, and Adwa) provide opportunities for irrigated agriculture development. In the year 2015 the irrigated area was 8528 ha (BoARD, 2015). Both traditional and modern irrigation schemes exist in the woreda with 865 water pumps, 329 drips, 1366 tridle pump and the source water are 5058 shallow water, 8413 ponds, 18 diversions, and 179 check dam ponds (BoARD, 2015).The woreda is wealthy enough in different natural resource like forest resources, water resource (both surface and ground water) and the like but these natural resources have been degraded for many years due to ineffective management, protection and inefficient utilization. The weed's land formation is characterized naturally undulating and it is easily exposed to land degradation which leads to low productivity (BoARD, 2016).From the total area of the woreda 110,545 ha is non-cultivated land, 94,371 ha had been conserved through different physical soil and water conservation practices. (BoARD, 2016).In order to execute the survey multiple stage sampling procedures were employed. In the first stage Tabias were selected using purposive sampling techniques based on the production potential and market access. At the second stage, a total of 150 chicken producers were chosen using simple random sampling technique. The producers were grouped into three categories, based on flock size, as small holders (1-10 chickens), medium holders (11-50 chickens) and large holders (> 50 chickens) to address the value chain processes. In addition to this, about 30 traders (collectors and retailers), cafe or shops, and input suppliers (health service and feeds) were interviewed to gather the required research data. Moreover, formal and informal discussions were held with key informants at Tabias and Woreda level. Census of farmers producing chicken (i.e. population frame) was obtained from Woreda and Tabias office of agriculture and rural development. In the producer's context the marketing value and market participation of the producer was as mainly targeted. Here in considering the gender issue attempts was made to include female chicken producers (nearly 30 %) in the sample frame as women can have special contribution in the value addition of chicken and egg as commodity.The data was collected during March 2015 up to May 2015. A structured and semi-structured questionnaire (for each respondent group) was developed and translated to the local language ('Tigrigna') for the purpose of data collection from the selected respondents. Before the actual implementation of the field survey, pretesting of the semi-structured questionnaire survey was carried out by interviewing of smallholder chicken in proximate Tabias. Based on the responses of the interviewed farmers, the prepared semi-structured questionnaire survey was refined and thereafter interviews were conducted to collect the required data. Secondary data were collected through reviewing documents and using websites. These data were recorded on well-structured data collection formats. Data was gathered on number of chicken, chicken and egg utilization practice, chicken and egg marketing, input supplied, service provided, institutional governance support and other relevant information. In addition to this, focus group discussion were held with key informants (knowledgeable persons including female headed households) to gather additional information on production purpose, labor division and owner ship, marketing system service provided and its constraints. Formal and informal discussions were held with key informants (Woreda experts, Tabias DAs, Tabias administrator, traders and related individuals). Checklist was prepared for the discussion purpose to set as agenda. All the group discussions were moderated /facilitated by the researcher. Full care was taken in the data collection process.The collected data was coded and tabulated to make ready for statistical analysis. This study used different categories of data analysis; namely descriptive, ANOVA, chi-square analysis and econometric analysis.This method of data analysis refers to the use of frequency, percentages, means and standard deviations in the process of examining and describing. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze and explain different characteristics of the sample households and used to clearly describe marketing value and participation chicken and eggs activities along the chain and the role and input providers of chain actors along with the econometric model. Other test statistics were also used to complement significance of results obtained from the model specified. Generally the methodology of this research summarized in the table below.Value chain analysis is the process of breaking a chain into its constituent parts in order to better understand its structure and functioning. The analysis consists of identifying chain actors at each key actor of service supplier and relationships; assessing the role of private and public service providers, or leadership, to facilitate chain formation and strengthening; and identifying value adding activities in the chain and assigning costs and added value to each of those activities (UNIDO, 2009).Stata13 software package was employed to compute serial correlation among dependent variables (market supply of chicken and egg) with explanatory variables.Econometric model was used to identify the factors that affect farmers' marketing supply and marketing participation decision in chicken and eggs. Most recent literatures adopt \"Tobit to identify factors that affect producer's volume of sell in the marketing. Ideally, the OLS model is applicable when all households participate in the market. If the OLS regression is estimated excluding the nonparticipants from the analysis, a sample selectivity bias is introduced into a model. Such a problem can be overcome by following a two-step procedure as suggested by (Heckman, 1979). But here most of the farmers participant in the poultry production and thereby data collection was fuscous only on the participant and accordingly the Tobit model was employed in the data analysis. Tobit model can also be used to address the above mentioned problem; but its assumption that both the participation decision and level of supply determined by the same variable in the same way introduces inconsistency bias into the model.Where:Y1 iis the latent dependent variable, which is not observed The data covered information necessary to make farm level indices of social, economic, institutional and efficiency indicators comparable across different categories of local poultry producers and poultry market traders.Market Participation Decision (MPD): is the dummy variable that represents the market participation of the household in the market that is regressed in the first stage of two stages estimation procedure. For the respondents who participate in market take the value of one whereas it takes the value of zero for the respondent who did not participate in market.It is continuous dependent variable which is measured in value and represents the actual sales of poultry by producer households, which is selected for regression analysis and takes positive value. Sex of the household head (SH): This is dummy variable (takes a value of 0 if the household head is male and 1 otherwise). Study conducted by Gizachew (2005) indicated negative relation between sale volume of poultry and male-headed household. Therefore, in this specific study, male-headed household is expected to affect market participation, value of poultry sales and access to poultry service negatively.Family size (FSz): This variable is a continuous explanatory variable and refers to the total number of family in the household. It is assumed that household with larger family size consume more of what is produced in the house and little will remain to be marketed.However, in this study, family size is expected to affect market participation and value of poultry sales positively because of the fact that the household will share the activities that will be prepared by the household.Land size (LS): this variable is a continuous variable measured in hectare. Land is a major asset in rural Ethiopia. It can be taken as a proxy for wealth level. Household with large landholding has little attention to poultry production. Therefore, this variable is expected to influence market participation, value of poultry sales and access to poultry service negatively.It is continuous variable measured in value terms. This variable is expected to influence value of poultry sales and access to poultry service positively. The number of poultry kept is expected to have positive relation to market marketable surplus. As the poultry owned increases, the probability to sales will increase. Hence, this variable is expected to influence market participation, value of poultry sales and access to poultry service positively.  The household characteristics of interviewed village chicken owners are presented in Table 3.From the total interviewed village chicken owners, the average age of sample households was about 43 years with an average family size of 4.4. Such family size is considered to be slightly higher than the 4.3 average family size for Tigray region reported by (CSA, 2014).An average family size of 6.7 and 4.7 was also reported by Abraham (2013) and CSA (2014),respectively. The survey result with respect to land holding of the total respondents reveals that an average size of land holding per household is 1.93haSex composition is the major demographic features used to characterize the producers. Of the total sample farm households 70% were male-headed and the remaining 30% were female headed indicating that most of the sampled poultry keeper households were male headed.This implies that the participation of women in chicken production is considerable in comparison to the proportion of female-head households in the community.Regarding their marital status, majority of them were married (68%), followed by divorced (20%) and few were single (7.3%) and widow (4.7%). Major of the chicken producers (72.7%) were literate while the rest 27.3% were illiterate who cannot read and write. In the literate group, about 57% can read and write while the 7% and 8% were primary (6-8 grade) and secondary (9-10 grade) school completed, respectively. The survey results in general indicated that, poultry producers in the study area were mainly literate who can read and write; suggesting that with good extension and training program they can use modern poultry equipment and apply science based management and production practices to improve their chick and egg quality and quantity of production and market supply.  Farmers in the study area produce and manage different types of animals for different purposes such as milk production, animal power, meat production, egg production and honey production. The livestock population owned by the sampled household is listed in In addition, livestock are vital sources of food (animal protein), prestige (determination of wealth status of households) and organic manure for soil fertility. Chicken production is among the predominant farming practice in the study woreda and most of the households keep both local and exotic chicken. The most dominant chicken production was local chicken production with the mean flock size of 30 per household per year. Flock size and breed composition of poultry in rural and small scale farmers highly depend on the accessibility of input supply, housing system, disease incident and purpose of chicken keeping among producers (Halima, 2007). The average number of current flock size by age and sex of poultry holding of the total sampled respondents is shown in Table 6. The chick flock is dominated with hens (40.8%) and followed by chicks (18.6%).Cockerels share the least ( In this study it was obtained that most farmers (94.7%) earn their entire income exclusively from agriculture and higher than Awol (2010) finding who reported most farmers in the study area earn their entire income only from agriculture 78 and 88 percent in Alaba and Dale woredas respectively. As per the results presented in Table 7, about 94.7 and 5.3 percent of the sampled households earn their total annual income from agricultural and non-agricultural activities, respectively. The annual revenue from poultry production cannot be undermined. Most farmers (27.33%) replied that they do not have clearly stated purpose regarding the intention of poultry keeping. But the figures presented in Table 7 can prove the contribution of the subsector for the betterment of the livelihood of the rural poor relative to the low financial and labor investment. The major purpose of chicken (48%) and egg (49%) selling is to cover family expenses. Source of income of the households no significance difference among the flock size but as the flock size increases the income of the household depend on animal and its by product (large holder 26% and 34%) and the label of income both animal sell and animal by product were low but since both the smallholder and medium holder had not other animals most of the income depends on poultry (table 7).The people of the study area practice various livelihood and income generating activities.All the studied chicken producers are involved in agricultural activities with 18.7% of them are involved in crop production and 28% in animal by product (Table 7). Animal production plays a major role in income generation in the area. Cereals such as teff, sorghum and wheat are the major crops grown which accounts 51.3% of the total production in the year. Moreover, as an integral part of the mixed farming system, livestock production plays great role in the household income source and agricultural activities.Selling of animals and animal products are an important source of household cash income. The access of chicken producers to different functions is presented in Table 8. This includes access to extension services, credit, input supply and market information.Extension service is assessed by evaluating and measuring the quantity and relevance of the services they get from the experts of the woreda and other stakeholders or relevant experts.In Tigray these services are provided by bureau of agriculture and rural development (BoARD) and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to provide or equip farmers with technological knowhow and information access so that they can better utilize their scarce land and labor resources to improve their productivity and competence. About 64.7 percent of the respondents got extension service for poultry production and marketing in the year 2015. This is more or less differ from Assefa (2009) finding who reported about 83 % of the sample respondents had access to extension service to promote the apiculture sector in Atsbi Wemberta District, Eastern Zone of Tigray National Regional State. Even if extension service is designed to provide new technology to the farmers to maximize the agricultural production; it is believed that this was not sufficient to intended achievements in the village chicken production. Likewise, development agents are trained and assigned at each lower rural administrative level to assist farmers in all aspects of agricultural activities to improve agricultural productivity and their livelihood but the focus given to local poultry production and marketing is limited. In addition to this development agents give attention to those who have more poultry especially for landless youths in producing Exotic chicken but the service also gives less weight for the local poultry production and marketing of village poultry than other exotic chicken and crop production. Besides this the government doesn't consider to the biodiversity of the local breeds Therefore Giving attention for large or small number of local poultry is not considered as mandatory rather than volume of exotic poultry. This result is in line with Awol (2010) finding.Credit access plays a key role in improving poultry keeping activities especially for farmers with limited financial resource. This helps to encourage farmers especially women to undertake poultry keeping activities and earn financial income from poultry production.The credit providers found in the study area were seen to be non-governmental organizations. In Tigray, access to credit is one of the most needed activities that help the rural farmers in their agricultural production activities. As part of the integrated village chicken packages the government has prepared credit access with about 2500 ETB per household for poultry production in the rural area (BoARD, 2015). As the flock size increase the willingness to take credit is high. But majority of the farmers do not use this opportunity. This is due to the low initial investment need for poultry farming when compared to other animal business ventures. In addition to this, they can borrow cash from their relatives to pay back in short period of time. Even though the farmers have full access to credit only 45% of them use the chance to take credit for poultry investment while the remaining 55% were not volunteer/willing to take credit cash and this is because of poultry needs small investment and they can produce using their own capital. Farmers were asked to list and evaluate the type, source, adequacy and efficiency of input supply in the woreda. Table 9 summarizes the farmers' responses for the input usage in the woreda. The input supply includes minimum input types used for the production and marketing of chickens. More households in the woreda have better access for inputs of exotic birds including chicks and pullet for stock establishment along with the credit, feed and veterinary service than farmers with local chicken. This is due to the fact that the extension focuses on introducing exotic chicken breeds to improve productivity and production even if the local chicken has great and comparative advantage to hatch the egg which has been collected from exotic egg (egg from Croiler breed). Source of feed and vaccination are 36%from local market and 14.7% from BoARD. Table 9 summarizes farmers' input supply (feed and vaccination) for the production and marketing of local poultry in the study area. Most farmers in the study woreda do not give attention to buy necessary inputs for their local chicks. This is because of the fact that farmers do not consider village poultry keeping as an independent business and poultry are left aside to fulfill their feed requirements but better performance in surviving harsh environmental condition and disease as a result some farmers are strongly opposing the service of supplying of exotic poultry as the breeds require much more inputs than the local ones with lack of supervision and regular follow up of the chicken distributed to the farmers. The majority of the respondents (52.67%) reported to provide feed adlib whereas all the respondents reported to make drinking water available all the times. Locally made feeding and watering troughs are used by all farmers that adopted the local chickens in study area.This idea more or less same with Meseret (2010) who reported The majority of the respondents (75%) reported to provide feed adlib whereas all the respondents reported to make drinking water available all the times. Locally made feeding and watering troughs are used by all farmers that adopted the exotic chickens in Gomma Wereda under IPMS project.Feed and vaccination has significantly affected for the flock size (see appendix 11). As the number of chickens owned by the farmer increases the use of input (feed and vaccination)is increase. This is because of the fact that farmers have given special attention since He /She covers his / her family expense from poultry. The average distance of respondents to the nearest market and to farmer training center was 13.7 km and 4.93 km, respectively. This is a good opportunity for the farmers' production and marketing decision of chickens and their egg. It is worth noting that understanding of the situation of poultry marketing system and marketing distance in a given study area is fundamental in analyzing the value chain and governance behavior of owners and decision makers of village bird keepers. Most market places in rural areas are often characterized by the nearest distance and considerably short time interval between the producer house and local market. These characteristics of rural marketing system obviously can affect the transaction of goods and services by rural households. About 92 and 96.7 % of the total sample respondents engaged in the marketing of chicken and egg, respectively. Producers sell their poultry and egg at a market mostly once or twice a week.According to the result obtained most poultry owners set price by negotiation that often leads to increasing bargaining power of the buyers depending on the time of sale. About 22% of the chicken producers have access to market information only before they transact their produce and this is lower than of Awol ( 2010) who found that about 31% of the chicken producers have access to market information. Producers often get the market information from both governmental and non-governmental offices. But the information delivered is not formally regulated through legally by the agricultural service provider.In the study area, the marketing system involves a series of producer-sellers and intermediaries. Live birds and eggs are either directly sold to consumers or sold to intermediaries for retail in the larger towns and cities like Adwa, Axum, Adigrat and Mekelle. Although each location has its own local market (neighbors and village markets) where transactions take place, marketed produce finally flows to urban consumers, particularly in the woreda's town (Enticho). In all locations, producers are also consumers as home consumption can be understood as one of the market outlets. Thus, producing households have a double role in the market chain and have to balance competing demands from household consumption and the buyers in the market place. The lengths of the marketing chain vary between locations. The average distance of the market locations from the woreda's town (Enticho) was estimated to be 33.3 km with 21 km from Edaga-Arbi, 35 km Mezbir, 36 km Feres-May and 41 km Gerhu-Sirnay. Saturday is the only fixed market day in Enticho, Feres-May and Gerhu-Sirnay and in Mezbir and Edaga-Arbi Thursday and Wednesday are the weekly market days. Usually marketing is taken place at normal market place but it can be also practiced at farm get (at home), road sides and customer's home like restaurants, hotels and pastries. The price of the chicken and eggs vary with season, holidays and social festivals (Table 10). The minimum and maximum price of mature chicken is 100 and 180 birr/head, respectively.In conformity with the trends in sales and consumption, price of birds increase in the highsale periods like Easter (April) and Christmas (December -January). Periods of low prices also coincide with times of low sales, e.g. the pre-Easter fasting period (February-March).Throughout the observation period, prices are remained to be higher in areas with better market access and lowest in remote areas Aklilu (2007). The highest price is often seen during the Easter (Fasika) around April and May while the lowest is for Meskel and Ashenda around August -October. Likewise, a single egg is sold at 1.5 -2.75 birr with no more variation across the seasons. Egg size greatly determines the price of the egg. Value chain mapping enables to visualize the flow of the product from producer to end consumer through various actors. It also helps to identify the different actors involved in the chicken and egg value chain, and to understand their roles and linkages (Schmitz, 2002). Consequently, the current value chain map function of chicken in the study woreda is presented below (Figure 4). Similarly, the egg value chain is mapped below (Figure 5).As indicated the figure 4 and 5 the value chain map has several actors such as producer, rural assembler, retailer, cafe and hotel and consumer are the major actors that involved in the study woreda. And also the main function of the actors were transporting chicken and egg, processing, production, marketing and consumption are the major. There is much flow of product from consumer to producer compare to other actors.Information communication through the actors were the main basic for their marketing and value chain development. Besides this idea all the identified actors are communicate each other except producer with cafe and hotel in both chicken and egg map.As the figure 4 and 5 indicated that processing Function is belong to only for cafe and hotel but transport is belong to all the remain actors. scavenge for food with very little supplementary feeding being provided especially for those who have more than 50 chickens (large holder).These are traders in assembly markets who collect chicken and egg from farmers in village markets and from farms for the purpose of reselling it to retailers. Chicken and egg traders collect chickens and eggs from producers at farm gets, road sides and different local or urban markets. They use their financial resources and their local knowledge to bulk chicken and eggs from the surrounding area or relatives. They play important role and they do know areas of surplus well. Most chicken & egg traders used the activity as part time work (63.8%) to get additional income. This is almost similar with Alem (2010) who reported most chicken & egg traders used the activity as part time work (66.7%). Collectors are the key actors in the chicken and egg value chain analysis, responsible for the trading of from produce areas to retail markets.Retailers are another important component of the indigenous chicken and egg value chain. It is through them that the majority of the chickens and eggs get to the final consumers. These are usually found in the markets which are scattered around the border and obtain the chickens and eggs either directly from the farms or from rural collector. In domestic market retailers play an important role in poultry marketing business by delivering egg and chicken to the final consumers. The costs involved in procuring chicken and eggs from the producers to the retail markets include the cost of purchasing the chickens, transportation, market fees and others.Hotels, restaurants and cafes are those who are providing services to the customers directly.There are numerous hotels, restaurants and cafes in the study areas especially in the towns of Enticho, Gerhu-Sirnay and Feres-may. About 90% of the owners are females and they prepare fast foods from eggs like sandwiches and chicken for Ethiopian dishes (dero wet).Those in the rural areas within the small towns obtain supplies from the producers and retailers. Urban hotels and cafe mainly in Dibdibo, Feres-may, Mezbirand Gerhu-srnay purchase chicken from producers. As indicated in the above map (Figure 4 and 5) transport productivity still it is less than the regional average yield of egg production (48 egg per year/bird) CSA (2012),The result indicated that flock size has significantly affected the consuming chicken egg in smallholder farmers in the study area. Large chicken holders has significant difference and high consumed chicken than small and medium with 12.16±6.63. Medium holder farmers has also significant difference and consumed high egg (178.37±82.03). Similarly flock size has significantly affected marketing of chicken and egg. This is because of the highest production of the poultry and having special attention to the production and marketing information as shown in Table 11.As mentioned above, most households rear indigenous chickens as part of their livelihood strategy. The survey results show that the main reasons for keeping chickens include income generation and home consumption. Similarly, eggs are produced for sale and home consumption. The cash collected through chicken and egg sell is used for various purposes such as child schooling (5%), food purchase (27%) and household expenditure (48%). Majority of the households (92 and 98%) have the custom of selling chickens and eggs, respectively. This as it is, however, the survey showed that most of the studied producers (93%) consume chickens at home with less for sale. Only 20 % of them sell less than 5 chickens per year and 25% sell less than 150 eggs per year. The marketing system for indigenous poultry is a simple one, involving a number of market intermediaries who take possession of the poultry before passing on the poultry to the retailers or consumers. The prices obtained for the chickens by the fa rm household is also dependent on the channel used.The consumption patter of indigenous chicken can help to analyses the end market preferences. It was observed that households having high income consume more chicken eggs when compared with that of low income households. From the total produced, the average consumed chicken was 7 (23.33%) which is higher than the value 5.9, annual consumption of chickens per household in Southern Ethiopia (Mekonnen, 2007) and the value 4.2 in Lowland and Midland Agro-ecological Zones of Central Tigray Ethiopia (Alem, 2010). Similarly, the average egg consumption was estimated to be 208 (20.97%) eggs/year which is higher than the value 38.4 eggs in Lowland and Midland Agroecological Zones of Central Tigray Ethiopia (Alem, 2010).As shown in Table 13, the average chicken production cost was estimated to be 100.2 ETB per bird. The major cost belongs to feed in chicken production. Producers selling price was127.58 ETB per bird and 2.25 ETB per egg. Marketing cost of producers was estimated at 1 ETB per bird making the producers profitable about 26.38 ETB per bird. Producers added 12.26% and 5.27% of the total value of chicken and egg while traders added 87.74% and 94.73%, respectively. This value addition process was based on the differences in sales price and cost of inputs at each stage of the value chain. Value chain actors added a total value of 188.77 per bird and 4.495 per egg. Marketing margin in chicken and egg was the highest in processer 76.29% and 81.56%, respectively than other actors. As a result, from this farmers are more profitable from selling of egg rather than chicken. This may be resulted from high demand and low production cost in the local market. A marketing channel is a business structure of interdependent organizations that reach from the point of product origin to the consumer with the purpose of moving products to their final consumption target (Kotler and Armstrong, 2003). The analysis of marketing channels is planned to provide a systematic knowledge of the flow of the goods and services from their origin (producer) to the final destination (consumer). Here in this study the marketing channel is analyzed for both chicken and egg commodities.Marketing channels show the flow of produce from the producer to the consumer. In this study six main alternative channels are identified for chicken marketing. This is same with Assefa ( 2009) finding who reported six alternative channels in apiculture sector in Atsbi Wemberta District, Eastern Zone of Tigray National Regional State. Besides this, Dawit (2010) reported four main alternative channels of chicken and egg in Atsbi-wenberta and Alamata Woredas. On the other hand, Awol (2010) reported thirteen main alternative channels of egg in Dale and Alaba 'Special' Woredas of SNNPRS, Ethiopia. It is estimated that about 2022 chickens are marketed in the study area markets in one market day with average market supply of 15 chickens/household/year (Table 11). The main marketing channels identified from the point of production until the product reaches the final consumer through different intermediaries chicken marketing channels are presented as shown below.Channel Six main alternative channels were identified for egg marketing. This result is shorter than Embaye (2010) who reported that eleven channels are identified in the process of butter transaction from producers to consumers Atsbi-Wenberta And Alamata Woredas, Tigray, Ethiopia and longer than Dawit (2010) finding who reported three main alternative channels of egg in Alemata woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia and shorter than Awol (2010)reported Eleven main alternative channels of egg in Dale and Alaba 'Special' Woredas of SNNPRS, Ethiopia. It was estimated that an average of 643 eggs per household per year were marketed (Table 11). The main marketing channels identified from the point of production until the product reaches the final consumers through different intermediaries egg marketing channels are as shown below.Channel  Flock size: influenced farmers' poultry and egg market participation decision positively and statistically significant at (p<0.01) as shown in the independent sample probit regression (Table 14). This is in line with the finding of Awol (2010) who reported that the number of birds kept within the family members highly influences (<1%) the producers decision in favor of participating on bird and egg supply. This could be justified by the fact that producers having more chicken give high attention for both production and marketing.Rural Assembler  All of the selected sample households in the study area keep poultry. Several variables were hypothesized to determine value of poultry sales of the sampled households. About twelve variables including age of the household head, sex of the household head, education status, family size, distance to nearby market, distance to development agent, land owned, poultry owned, other TLU owned, availability of access to extension, price of chicken and egg and credit access were the hypothesized variables for value of chicken and egg volume of sales. Among these variables, two of them influence market value of chicken sales with statistically significant for chicken. And five of them influence market value of egg sales with statistically significant for egg (Table 15).Chicken and egg are produced for market and consumption and are important family income generation in the woreda. According to the result of this study, all sample households were good suppliers of chicken and egg to the market. Analysis of factors affecting farm level marketable supply of chicken and egg was found to be important to identify factors constraining chicken and egg supply to market. The analysis was done separately. The sampled numbers of chicken and egg producing farmers were 150. The result showed that 92 and 98% of the interviewed village chicken and egg producers involved in marketing of live chicken and egg, respectively since sale of chicken and egg as source of income is the major reason for them to keep village local chicken. The sale of live local poultry and egg takes place in various places including: urban market (Feres may, Dibdibo, Edagarebue/mzbir, Edagaarbi and Entichokebeles), local markets which do not participate other retailers and other woredas (Edagaqdam, Sefo,) and around the villages (farm gates). Chickens and eggs supplied to the market are presented in Table 15.The result of tobit regression models is as presented in Table 15, the maximum likelihood estimate of the tobit regression models is significant at less than 1% probability level.Flock size (FS): Flock size in rural and small scale farmers highly depend on the accessibility of input, housing, disease incident and purpose of bird keeping among others.As Sonaiya and Swan (2004) stated that the most common poultry owned of family poultry ranging from 5 to 20 birds seems to be the limit that can be kept by a family without special inputs in terms of feeding, housing and labor. The independent sample Tobit regression showed that flock size affect positively and highly significantly at (p<0.01). This was in line with Awol (2010) who reported that the number of birds kept within the family members highly influences positively (<1%) the producers decision in favor of participating on bird and egg supply. This indicates that farmers having more number of poultry can produce more volume of chicken and egg and can have of better marketable surplus. The coefficient result of Tobit model also indicates that as the flock size increase by one unit the volume of marketing chicken and egg supply increased by 1 and 21, respectively. This is because of the fact that farmers having more poultry can supply more poultry to the market.Sex of the respondent: influenced chicken market supply negatively and in statistically significant manner at (p< 0.10). The result suggests that as being the respondents were a 1 ETB increase in egg price leads to a 563 number increment in the volume of egg sales being other variables held constant.Total land holding of the household (TLHH): the result indicated that total land holding size of head affected egg marketed supply negatively and significantly at (p<0.05). This might be due to the fact that as land holding size increase the farm household is expected to produce more crops and rare small ruminants than supplying eggs to the market. Moreover, as farm house-hold has access to land there is an opportunity to expand fruit trees mainly cash crops. Hence, farm households are discouraged to supply egg to the market. The coefficient of estimation of volume of egg sold with respect to egg price indicated that a 1 unit hectare increase in land holding implies that egg market supply leads to decrease by 109 eggs sales being other variables held constant.Sex of the respondent: influenced negatively egg market supply in statistically significant manner at (p< 0.10) (Table 15). The result suggests that as being the respondent were female headed the volume of egg marketing is low and this might be due to the work load of female household head at home which belong to women and vice versa. As indicated in Tobit regression model estimates of value of poultry sales (Table 15), at the same time the coefficient shows that as egg producers is being female household head results to decrease 159 number in the quantity of egg supplied to the market than male household head being other variables held constant.Other Tropical Livestock Unit owned (OTLU): is a continuous independent variable indicating total livestock holding of the household in Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU), which excludes poultry. OTLU showed negative effect on egg quantity sold with significance level at (p<0.05). with this result as the OTLU increases the attention giving for the poultry is low and this might be because of the hushed may not depend his/her family expense on producing large amount of poultry. Although there is no any regulation regarding to poultry marketing, women and children are the major members of the household involved in marketing of live birds and eggs.According to the interviewed chicken owners selling of live birds are more often practiced when there is a moment need of money in the household, at time of cultural and religious festivals so as to earn good price, and during onset of disease outbreak of the household.  There are a number of constraints as well as opportunities of poultry production, marketing and value chain. A number of constraints, opportunities and entry points for further technological, institutional and organizational innovation for upgrading the value chain in the study area are identified by the different value chain actors. The major constraints and opportunities are briefly discussed below.There are many constraints that tackle for chicken and egg value chain development in the study areas. The constraints are broadly categorized as: production constraints, marketing constraints and value chain constraints (Dawit, 2010).There are factors that hinder the production of chicken and egg products in the study area.The majority of the sampled producers indicated shortage of input supply and diseases as the major constraints of poultry production. The major constraints of poultry production are shown below in Table 16.The most important inputs for poultry production are feed, feeding equipment, watering equipment and other inputs. Among the total sample of respondents, 77.3% replied limited access and supply of inputs as their production problem (Table 16). This is caused mainly due to absence of input distributor cooperative, high input price, inappropriate delivery mechanisms and delayed supply. Delay in input supply happened because of prolonged chain of input supply process especially for concentrate feed, feeding equipment and watering equipment.High frequency of chicken diseases, mainly Newcastle Disease (NCD), is the major and economically important constraint for village chicken production. Dawit (2010) also reported that NCD is one of the major infectious diseases affecting productivity and survival of village chicken in Ethiopia and FAO ( 2004) also reported that more prolonged respiratory disorders are usually caused by diseases such as ND. The major routes of contamination and spread of NCD from village to village are contact between chicken during scavenging and exchange of chicken from a flock where the disease is incubating and during marketing. The availability of vaccines and veterinary drugs for the chicken in the study woreda is generally low compared with other animals. There is less focus for chicken health management from both the producers and the extension people. Lack of awareness about vaccines and vaccination, and lack of attention are also the major reasons for the wide prevalence of NCD. The available vaccines and drugs are relatively expensive bin). Even it is prohibited by law, this still happens illegally in the area. The reason lies in the fact that administrative works in epidemic prevention, slaughterer control, and checkups by veterinarians care not highly valued. In addition, the spread and frequency of disease outbreaks are proof of the poor veterinary system at the grassroots level, particularly with respect to epidemic diagnosis and detection and epidemic prevention.Information and communication technologies like mobile, TV, internet and the like play crucial role in marketing of agricultural commodities. In this study about 48% of the producers were seen to use mobile for communication purpose in marketing chicken and eggs while others yet not use the technology. Farmers prefer to receive cash and are unwilling to use mobile money transfer services in transactions with itinerant buyers with whom they do not have repeated transactions or long standing relationships. Indigenous chickens provide major opportunities for increased protein production and income for smallholders (Halima, 2007). Chickens have a short generation interval and a high rate of productivity. They can also be transported with ease to different areas and are relatively affordable and consumed by the rural people as compared with other farm animals such as cattle and small ruminants. Chickens also play a complementary role in relation to other crop-livestock activities. Indigenous chickens are good scavengers as well as foragers and have high levels of disease tolerance, possess good maternal qualities and are adapted to harsh conditions and poor quality feeds as compared to the exotic breeds. In some communities, village chickens are important in breaking the vicious cycle of poverty, malnutrition and disease (Roberts, 1992).Moreover, the existing suitable agro-ecologies, local market access, and consumer preference could be considered as good opportunities to the poultry value chain development. Other opportunities that can contribute to the local poultry value chain development is that the consumers prefer scavenging local chicken for their better taste and free from exogenous hormones. Rearing local chicken demands less initial investment as compared to other livestock business ventures like dairy and beef farms. There is relatively high number of women engaged in chicken production and to a lesser degree in chicken trading. It can therefore be expected that the development of the chicken sector will benefit and empower a large number of women.The chicken feed is locally available in abundance and at low cost. Even if chicken keepers provide feed in addition to scavenging the costs are still quite low. In comparison to other livestock, chicken can be raised in a relatively short period which allows the households to better plan production. If productivity could be increased, it would create a win-win situation for chicken keepers and traders because the higher sales volumes will increase the total sales of traders even if the price would be lower than the current price. At the same time the higher production volume will increase the income for chicken keepers even if the traders will pay a lower price than the current price.Availability of market demand throughout the year, growing number of buyers, high experience in poultry trade and growing price are some of the opportunities for chicken and egg production development. The survey result shows that 92 and 98% of the producers intended to expand chicken and egg sale due to the above opportunities. There is also a chance to narrow the marketing channels. The marketing channel might be shortened by farmers' that could direct sale poultry to consumers (Aklilu, 2007). Direct linkage of producer to consumer and hotel and cafe could be good opportunity for the value addition of chicken and egg especially for the items of dero wet, firfir, silsi and sandwich prices as a result of buying directly from producers (Aklilu, 2007).Governance is a central concept to value chain analysis and can be defined as non-market coordination of economic activity (Gezahegn, 2010). Within the chain, some actors directly or indirectly influence the organization of global production, logistics, and marketing systems. Chains can be driven by producers or buyers, with different structures influencing how the chain itself is organized and production coordinated. In the poultry value chain in Ethiopia, there are no specific governance structures established for domestic production and marketing. The government also provides encouragement in the form of tax-free marketing of chicken and egg in order to encourage farmers' products (Porter and Miller, 1985).This study showed that there are no production/marketing contracts between indigenous poultry farmers and the buyers in the chain. However, there are trading relationships between the different intermediaries in the marketing of chicken and egg. Trading relationships are mainly based on long-term repeated transactions and are neither dictated by kinship nor family. Some rural assemblers have informal arrangements with urban based traders that involve an agreement on the volume of chicken and egg to be delivered and an average price. The same scenario was reported by Kaplinsky and Readman (2000).Retailers have monopoly on setting price of buying and selling indigenous chickens and egg in these markets. The retailers generally offer about the same buying and selling price indicating presence of collusion. They are also influential in determining prices by transmitting price information to producers, often through collusive, anti-competitive behavior. The rural assemblers have informal arrangements with the Enticho, Adwa and Adigrat based retailers. These rural assemblers bulk and transport chicken and egg to Enticho and Adwa from the four urban market centers (Edaga-rebue, Feres-may, Dibdibo and Edaga-arbi) with Saturday and Wednesday market day.Besides, the value chain faces production and market risks on the supply side, including disease outbreaks. Moreover, it is difficult to produce a stable supply of poultry products with the required quality and quantity or standards. In the study woreda there are no associations that currently govern the structure and operation of the farms interviewed within the chicken and egg marketing governance. Traders are faced with administrative problem to provide their item to sale and purchase in the market center. There is poor marketing infrastructure with no shade and vicinity. The local market administrative body do not encourage the traders hence the price of chicken and egg increase as they participate in the market.CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONSThis study indicated that private vendor, chicken and egg producing farmers, rural assembler, retailers, hotel and cafe, and consumers were the main actors involved in the input supply, production, marketing and consumption activities. Therefore, in order to promote inclusive poultry business there is a need to modernized the existing traditional systems through inculcation of value addition process at each junctions of the poultry value chain functions• Sex of the household head was found to be an important factor in influencing chicken market supply negatively and significantly. The result suggests that as being the respondents were female headed the volume of chicken marketing is low and this might be due to the work load of female household Therefore, there is a need to develop flexible extension approach to encourage poultry production among female-headed households in the community.• Other Tropical Livestock Unit owned was found to be an important factor in influencing chicken market supply negatively and significantly. with this result as the OTLU increases the attention giving for the poultry is low and this might be because of the hushed may not depend his/her family expense on producing poultry. Therefore government and other respective office should encourage to those who have low income and landless youths.• In the study area infectious coraiza and new castle disease were reported the major constraints in poultry production. Therefore, the extension system should promote alternative vaccination and husbandry practices either by promote proper chicken health management programs like biosecurity measures or by training local level vet services providers like school dropout women.• Age of the household head was also found to have negative and significant influence on chicken market participation. Younger farmers were found to be relatively more adopters production and marketing activities. In fact, older households have the ability to manage poultry keeping, they could not participated due to the fact that most of their adult children are married and start to take care of their own family. Therefore, it need to give capacity building on in came generation activities to improving the technical knowledge and skill of the chicken producers and focus extension workers on improved husbandry practices of chicken (feeding, housing, health care etc) and marketing of poultry products.• In this study there is six main alternative channels are identified for chicken and egg marketing channel. Among the six alternative channels 52.9% and 55.8% were found through famer to consumer which is very short. Therefore there is a need of farther Value addition activities works.  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name of the woreda________________ 2.Total number of kebeles_______________, kushet: ___________________ 3.Total number of population of the woreda M ______F________T_____ 4.Total number of households M_________ F__________ T_________ 5.Total area of the woreda in hectares____________________ 6.Average land holding ___________________Ha/HH 7.Types of crops grown in the woreda____________________________________ 8.Land ","tokenCount":"13196"}

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+{"metadata":{"gardian_id":"925d8aebf80bfb08fd95fa55d09963fd","source":"gardian_index","url":"https://cgspace.cgiar.org/rest/bitstreams/161af803-8776-4740-9ad8-b871b6a497f5/retrieve","id":"1457166860"},"keywords":["Adoption","agricultural extension","intensification","scale-up campaigns","publicprivate-partnerships"],"sieverID":"6fd5ebf7-a11f-4e06-8c66-3a753ed554f1","pagecount":"16","content":"Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) practices have been developed with the aim of increasing agricultural productivity. However, most of them are not achieving their potential because of low adoption, linked to limited extension support to make them known and accessible by end-users. This paper reviews the effectiveness of the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC) extension-based campaigns, contributing knowledge for formulating novel and cost-effective extension approaches. Results show that ASHC campaigns achieved scale of farmer reach and spurred adoption of promoted SAI technologies. Adoption levels for a range of practices were at least 20%, which favourably compares with reported adoption rates for the training and visit extension approach; 1-7% and 11-21% for complex and simple practices respectively. In comparison to a single channel, exposure to multiple communication approaches was associated with higher uptake of promoted practices and technologies, and also increased participation of men, women and youth, by addressing inherent differences in access to, proficiency with, and preferences of communication channels. Success factors associated with ASHC campaigns were; the deployment of multiple and complementary information channels; harnessing public-private partnerships to establish sustainable input supply chains; and development of localized content and fit-for-purpose information materials to facilitate information diffusion.The global population is projected to increase by 2 billion people, between 2019 and 2050 from 7.7 billion currently: 52% of those people will be added to the population of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and 25% to Central and South Asia (UN, 2019). To meet the food demand of the increasing global population, agricultural production and productivity must increase with minimal impacts on the environment (Wiebe, 2009). Sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) has emerged with a generally accepted aim of increasing agricultural productivity while maintaining or improving environmental sustainability (Gunton et al., 2016). According to Thompson (2008), intensification occurs when; (i) there is a higher productivity per unit of inputs leading to an increase in the total volume of agricultural production, or (ii) agricultural production is maintained while the use of certain inputs is decreased through better targeting, increased input use efficiency, and mixed or relay cropping on smallholder fields. Sustainable agricultural intensification practices include inputs and practices and the integration of technologies e.g. integrated soil fertility management (ISFM), soil and water conservation, conservation farming, legume intercropping and rotations, new crop varieties, integrated pest management and precision agriculture (Vanlauwe et al., 2010;Xie et al., 2019). Sustainable intensification enhances the productivity and resilience of agricultural production systems using a variety of specific measures in the agricultural production process while conserving the natural resource base (Kassie et al., 2015).While various technologies (SAI practices) have been developed to achieve sustainable intensification, it is widely recognized that many of them are not achieving their full potential because of low adoption (Bentley et al., 2018). This limited adoption is in part attributed to limited agricultural support services to make practices and technologies known and accessible by end-users. There is a missing link to help quantify and communicate farmer demand to inputservice suppliers to create buy-in for (pilot) deliveries or increased supply of the inputs-services. Other operational challenges include; insufficient funds for supporting the public extension, limited involvement of rural farmers and populations in extension processes, lack of appropriate extension methods, and challenges in adapting technology packages to community-specific contexts (IFPRI -World Bank, 2010). There have also been important gender gaps in access to agricultural extension mainly due to the limited participation of female farmers in extensionrelated meetings. The situation is worsened by the critically low number of public extension personnel. For instance, in Tanzania, there are approximately 7,030 extension workers which translates to an extension workerfarmer ratio of 1:831 (Mabaya et al., 2017). In Uganda, by 2016 about 2,000 extension workers were serving a farming population of over 5 million households, and subsequently, only 5% of farmers reported to have accessed extension services in 2016/17 (UBOS, 2018). Similarly, in Ghana, the extension workerfarmer ratio is 1:1850 (MoFA, 2019).Due to limited success in terms of the numbers of farmers reached and technologies transferred and adopted through traditional agricultural extension approaches (Hellin & Dixon, 2008), campaign-based extension approaches are gaining prominence as one of the primary means to accelerate awareness about-and adoption of recommended technologies through targeted information (Ihm et al., 2015), as well as achieving quick, large-scale change in behaviour and practices (Boa et al., 2016). Campaigns harness the ubiquity of mass media and information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the developing world and have the potential to substantially amplify reach even to remote areas that are traditionally under-served by mainstream extension services (Aker, 2011;Saravanan et al., 2015). Furthermore, the deployment of community-based channels such as the use of local FM radio (Hudson et al., 2017), and video-mediated extension (Karubanga et al., 2016), complement traditional extension and facilitate diffusion of information. Bentley et al. (2003) model named 'Going Public' where technical persons interact in face-to-face sessions with people from many areas at once, usually in places they frequent such as market places, has also been documented.Campaign-based approaches have been well integrated within the public health and nutrition sectors where their effectiveness has been documented (Rekhy & McConchie, 2014). Campaigns involve the purposeful application of multiple media and communication support to achieve quick, large-scale change in behaviour and practices. In agriculture, the use of campaign-based approaches is still limited. Existing literature tends to focus on the role of ICTs in agricultural information access for example (Galadima, 2014;Hassan et al., 2010;Ihm et al., 2015;Kansiime et al., 2019;Ortiz-Crespo et al., 2020). These studies provide useful insights on the use of digital platforms in agricultural extension, however, a dearth of knowledge remains on how campaigns work in agriculture and their potential contribution to enhancing farmer knowledge and bringing about behaviour change. In particular, the process and complexities of implementing integrated multi-partner and multi-technology campaigns are less documented.This paper documents experiences and lessons learned in the implementation of extension campaigns by the Africa Soil Health Consortium (ASHC) programme. Specifically, this review paper documents; (1) the process for development and delivery of multi-media campaigns, (2) campaign interventions by the ASHC programme and their effectiveness, and (3) key success factors for campaigns to guide future agricultural extension campaigns. The ASHC scale-up campaigns utilized a variety of media and interpersonal approaches to promote proven (in agronomic and economic terms) SAI practices and technologies for key crops (maize, common bean, soybean, cassava, potato, and banana) in four African countries -Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. The campaign approach enabled the team to test the use of multiple mediaprint, radio, SMS, drama, comics, intermediaries such as agro-dealers and village-based advisors (VBAs), and village-based film screeningsin reaching men, women, and youth within the farming households. VBAs are trained farmers equipped with information materials and small seed packs of improved varieties and other inputs which they share with farmers for free to promote learning through the 'mother and baby' approach.The ASHC campaign approach was premised on a theory of change: that employing improved information design, producing farmer-centric materials, and delivering consistent messages through wellcoordinated multiple media, multi-partner scale-up campaigns would lead to increased awareness of improved technologies and approaches and promote uptake of SAI practices by small-scale farming households. Implementation of ASHC campaigns employed rigorous planning, monitoring, and evaluation activities to ensure the campaign work remained on track to achieve the intended targets. The campaigns were implemented in a multi-partner environment, employing complementary communication approaches. Figure 1 shows the ASHC campaign model.Situational analysis: Each campaign activity commenced with a situation analysis and formative appraisal. This involved focus group discussions (FGDs) with farmers in selected villages or household surveys chosen in a way that is representative of the region(s) where the campaigns were to be held. At this stage, information was gathered on farmer knowledge, practices, and information gaps, communication channels accessible to men, women, and youth, and preferred timing and format of messages. During this phase, the teams also assessed existing initiatives related to the commodity of interest, stakeholders at play, and alignment with local contexts including relevant policies and country development agenda.Convening of partners: The campaigns were participatory and leveraged the distinct but complementary roles of different partners who included: (a) knowledge partners (national research institutions who have the technical knowledge on technologies); (b) delivery partners (active participants in information supply chains through mass media and other extension approaches and have direct contact with farmers); (c) input-output market players (active participants in input and output supply chains); and (d) communication and research partners (partners who worked with the ASHC team to carry out situation analyses and learn lessons around communication and evaluate outcomes).Technical brief and content development: A technical brief is a collation of information related to a particular commodity and its recommended SAI practices, and formed the core reference for developing messages to support the scale-up campaigns. Key content in the brief was jointly agreed upon with partners.Audience segmentation: This entailed development of communication materials that are tailor-made for end-users of different gender and socio-economic differentiation. Farmers and farmer representatives played a key role at this stage in shaping materials to meet their needs. Prototypes of the developed materials were tested for their usability and acceptability (in terms of content and format) with targeted audiences. Outcomes and lessons at this stage were used to improve the design of the scale-up campaign and contributed to the lessons from the programme.Scale-up campaign: This involved delivering messages from the technology brief using a mix of communication approaches. In some cases, pilot campaigns to test approaches in relatively small areas were used to learn lessons and inform campaign activities at a larger scale in terms of partnerships, geographical coverage, and the number of farmers reached. The campaigns leveraged complementarities of various channels aimed at reaching different members of the farming household as units of information diffusion, considering variations in literacy levels, social-cultural dynamics, and interests. The campaigns were implemented to align with the cropping calendars for the respective counties/regions/ states thereby providing timely information to facilitate farmers' decision-making based on the growth stage of planted crops.Monitoring, evaluation, and learning: These activities measured the reach of the messages and changes in knowledge, attitude, and practices about the promoted technologies and also assessed the added value of the campaign approach to conventional extension methods. Reach was estimated based on those who saw or read, listened to any of the campaign messages, or participated in demonstrations, field days, VBA 'mother-baby' trials, etc. Estimation of radio reach was based on radio signal strength, the adult population in coverage areas, and the proportion of those who listened to at least one episode based on farmer surveys (Hudson et al., 2017).Between 2015 and 2018, ASHC delivered 18 campaigns focusing on maize, common bean, soybean, cassava, potato, and banana in four African countries -Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. The ASHC programme leveraged funding from other multi-partner projects; SILT (Scaling Improved Legume Technologies), UPTAKE (Up-scaling Technologies in Agriculture through Knowledge and Extension), and GALA (Gender and the Legume Alliance: Integrating Multimedia Communication Approaches and Input Brokerage). Each campaign was designed with specific key messages, delivery channels, and scale depending on target audience needs and preferences observed during formative appraisals. Primarily, the campaigns employed radio programming, community video screening, short message service (SMS) sent through mobile phones, printed materials, demonstration plots, and the VBA extension model, often in an integrated manner. The aims and strategies of the key campaign programmes are discussed below, and the evaluations of the campaigns are summarized in Table 1. Annex 1 shows the estimation of reach for the 18 campaigns. Considering that some case studies collected more information than others about the number of farmers receiving information from different sources, we report numbers separately for each type of communication to avoid instances of double counting.The ASHC programme delivered a common bean campaign in Northern Tanzania in 2015 named 'Maharage Bingwa' (the winning bean) integrating the use of radio programmes and Shujaaz comics. Comics were particularly targeted to young audiences (15-24 years) and included a 6-page story featuring common bean under the 'Maharage Bingwa' tagline and a follow-up storyline with the 'Hustla' tagline (i.e. someone finding a way to make money, usually outside of formal employment). In 2016, the SILT project, jointly led by Farm Radio International (FRI), CAB International (CABI), Africa Fertiliser and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP) in partnership with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and the Agricultural Seed Agency (ASA), implemented a follow-up common bean campaign in Northern Tanzania and a soybean campaign in the Southern  a) Survey of 1,886 households in project target districts (Hampson et al., 2018;Silvestri et al., 2020). b) Village-based advisors (VBA) case study (Kansiime et al., 2018).a The targets were overall for the UPTAKE project that also focused on cassava, potato, and common bean.Highlands of Tanzania. The SILT campaign employed radio programming, printed materials (extension manuals and posters), demonstration plots, and VBAs. The proven innovation at the core of the campaign was rhizobia inoculation for soybean, which is widely documented to be key to improved legume technologies (Ndakidemi et al., 2006), with some pilots on common bean. This was promoted in conjunction with information on; new legume varieties with wide-ranging benefits (taste, enhanced nutrition, better markets, disease resistance, productivity); enhanced seed quality; good agricultural practices; the soil regenerative role of legumes in intercrops and rotations; the value of blended phosphate and multi-nutrient fertilizers in enhancing legume production; harvesting and post-harvest handling practices, use of Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, and market information.A series of evaluative activities were undertaken to understand the effectiveness of specific campaign components and the overall campaign. Evaluation of the effectiveness of VBAs and the use of extensionsupport materials was done in April 2016 using data gathered through FGDs involving 102 farmers (37% female) in the communities where VBAs operated, and interviews with 11 VBAs (Kansiime et al., 2018). Results showed that VBAs played an important role in reaching a wide audience of farmers with common bean technologies and consequently new production technologies to rural farming communities. At least 90% of the FGD participants mentioned VBAs as their main source of agricultural advice and the primary source of information on common beans. Farmers mentioned that they received from VBAs specific information on; sowing and spacing of common bean, fertilizer application, new bean varieties, and pest and disease management, which was in line with the promoted practices by VBAs. Over 60% of those who had received information from VBAs indicated that they took up one or more of the promoted common bean practices. Extension materials facilitated VBA engagement of farmers even in informal settings, enhancing information flows beyond village boundaries (Kansiime et al., 2018).An outcome evaluation of the entire campaign was undertaken by partner FRI between January and February 2018 using a two-stage cluster sampling procedure to ensure the selection of respondents in areas reached by radio, those that hosted the demonstration plots, and communities that had received Shujaaz comics. In total 1,886 randomly selected households were surveyed in face-to-face interviews (Hampson et al., 2018). Data showed that 14.3%, 8.3%, 3.6%, and 0.4% of the surveyed households had listened to a radio programme, participated in demonstrations, received printed material or comics on common bean respectively. Data further showed a positive influence of the three main project activities radio, demonstration plots, and printed materialson the uptake of improved varieties of common beans, PICS bags, and use of fertilizer. Although used by a high proportion of farmers, practices such as incorporation of residue, following the proper harvest time and the recommended weeding, were not significantly influenced by the project, suggesting that these practices were already relatively well-established among farmers. Given the low response rate for some interventions, it was not possible to look at all the possible combinations of project activities, however, to capture the idea of 'synergy' among the four types of project activities, the study classified the respondents into those exposed to 'none', 'one' or 'two or more' of the project activities, regardless of what they were. Results showed that the proportion of respondents taking up new technologies increased as the number of information sources they were exposed to increased (Figure 2).Two maize campaigns were implemented during the 2016/17 and 2017/18 cropping seasons. The maize campaigns were implemented under the UPTAKE project, in the Eastern zone and Southern Highlands of Tanzania. The campaigns were jointly implemented by FRI, CABI, district agriculture offices, and the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institutes (TARI -Selian, Kibaha and Uyole). Two complementary ICT-based channels (i.e. radio and mobile SMS messages) were used. Short messages were disseminated by Esoko (a commercial agricultural profiling and messaging service), and radio broadcasts through two local FM stations. Disseminated messages included the use of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs), improved seed varieties, scouting, and identification of key crop pests including the fall armyworm, recommended pesticides and judicious application for pest management (including public health and safety measures). Dynamic messages were also sent out to address emerging issues in the cropping season, e.g. pest outbreaks, and changes in weather patterns. During the campaign, about 3.9 million SMS were disseminated to 110,769 maize farmers profiled on Esoko platform. Estimation of radio campaign reach was not done for this project, but estimates on listenership during other projects showed that the rural working-age population (potential reach) in the areas served by five stations (Baraka FM and Ilasi FM for maize) and (Safina FM, Utume FM, and Sauti ya Injili for beans) was approximately 4.6 million people.The campaigns were evaluated through two telephone follow-up surveys which were conducted in 2017 (241 respondents) and 2018 (352 respondents). In addition, 40 FGDs and eight key informant interviews (KIIs) were held in 2018. The findings indicated that 80% of sampled farmers learned something new following the campaigns. Awareness ofand the probability of adopting new technologies were boosted where SMS supported radio campaigns. In terms of cost-effectiveness, radio alone was considered the most cost-effective approach; one dollar spent on the radio campaign resulted in 2.1 farmers that adopted at least one new practice and technology compared with 0.5 farmers for SMS and 0.4 farmers for radio and SMS combined (Silvestri et al., 2020). Karanja et al. (2020) showed that 62% of the farmers who reported receiving SMS had implemented changes in their agricultural practices. The most common changes cited by respondents, which they attributed to receiving SMS, were scouting and monitoring for pests, both in the field and in stored products, improved land preparation, and use of improved seed (Karanja et al., 2020). Input suppliers involved in the campaigns corroborated the result on the use of improved seed indicating that they handled far more inquiries than usual and increased sales of the improved varieties. Four of the five companies that sold the Uyole Hybrid (UH) varieties reported that, for the first time, they had no stocks to carry over to the next planting season.In Nigeria, two soybean campaigns were implemented, linked to public and private sector partners in the legume value chain, including Notore, a Nigerian fertilizer company, the IITA business incubation platform (BIP), and the N2Africa project. The link to the private sector was intended to ensure input availability and that value chain obstacles to support farmer adoption of soybean technologies were addressed. The campaign messages were disseminated by IntrioSynergy Ltd., an agro-input and technology promotion agency. In 2017, soybean posters and manuals were developed and disseminated to at least 30,582 soybean farmers in five states (Benue, Kwara, Niger, Kaduna, and Borno). In 2018, the campaign was expanded to include Nasarawa State, an area where there was no previous exposure to N2Africa initiatives. In addition to printed materials, five radio stations (one per state) were engaged to broadcast soybean messages reaching an estimated 136,031 listeners.The campaign was evaluated through a survey of 250 randomly selected soybean farmers, and 108 key informants (extension workers, radio broadcasters, and agro-dealers). Respondents were drawn from the 6 states where the campaign was implemented. Results showed significant differences in the application of practices before and after receipt of the campaign messages concerning the use of improved seeds, line planting, and how to access markets for selling soybean. The receipt of campaign messages significantly contributed to the increased use of soybean technologies by farmers. The evaluation further showed that farmers' exposure to and understanding of messages was increased by the use of multiple media (Musebe et al., 2019). Messages on inoculants led most extensively to their use compared to other inputs and practices and were motivated by clarity on usage, expected benefits, and ease of access to the inoculants, marketed under the brand name NoduMax TM .The soybean campaign was implemented in Northern Ghana by ASHC and the GALA project. Two campaigns were delivered in 2017 and 2018 in partnership with Countrywise Communications Ghana, a social enterprise, to produce short music films and videos on soybean agronomy that were used during the campaign. In both campaigns, village-based video screenings and music films reached about 70,818 and 44,883 people respectively. Printed materials were distributed during the village screenings. The campaigns were implemented in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions. The film-video formats were supplemented by music videos, featuring two popular local musicians, which advocated growing soybean and explained the key agronomic practices.A Computer-Aided Telephone Interview (CATI) survey was conducted by partner iLogix in September 2018, comprising 3,009 farmers drawn from 35 districts in the campaign regions. The CATI survey targeted households that had been surveyed at the start of the project in 2017 to compare changes in practices that could be attributed to the project activities. Results showed that 46% of the respondents were aware of inoculants; 31% through films (Figure 3). Out of the soybean farmers, 16% used inoculants, half of these from a commercial source, agro-dealer (40%), local market (7%), farmer association (1%), and outgrowing scheme (1%). Before the campaigns, inoculants had not been commercially available to smallholder farmers in the target areas at agro-dealer or local market levels (Green-Ef report 2019). In comparison to households that were interviewed in the baseline, an increase in adoption rate (between 4-16%) was registered for crop rotation, chemical weeding, fertilizer use, manure use, and use of PICS bags. Results further showed that the use of multiple delivery and communication approaches had a positive effect on the uptake of improved practices and technologies, in particular, improved seeds, early planting, and inoculants.A campaign on banana agronomy was carried out with project partners in Uganda -National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO), the lead partner, CABI, Bioversity International, IITA, government extension, and farmer cooperatives. ASHC championed the development of appropriate communication materials to be disseminated via radio and drama film screenings. Practices promoted through the campaign include; pest control, disease management, soil fertility management, and soil and water conservation.The radio programming was interactive, including live shows, call-in by listeners, and poll questions. The radio campaign aired over 12 weeks through five radio stations in central and western Uganda, during February and April 2019. For poll questions, listeners responded by sending a free SMS through the provided toll-free short code indicating their location and gender. The poll questions covered the campaign topics, also, sought to understand the crop farmers considered most important, hindrances to producing marketable banana bunches, challenges faced in applying manure, and soil and water conservation practices and practices used to control banana pests and diseases. At least 20,525 (24.5% female) responses were obtained from the poll questions which also showed that the radio campaign was listened to in 56 districts countrywide. Film screenings comprised 5 episodes of banana drama aired in December 2019 in the local languages of Luganda and Runyankore in central and western Uganda respectively. Each episode lasted about 15 min on average. A total of 15 screenings were carried out in 5 villages. At least 2,266 persons (41.5% male, 33% female, 14.8% teenagers, and 10.7% children) attended the village screenings. Prior, interpersonal extension approaches including; demonstration plots, farmer/ extension staff training, and farmer field days were implemented, along with the distribution of printed materials (December 2018).A project mid-term review done in July 2019, through a survey of 587 farmers (136 from the three-project sites and 451 from sub-counties neighbouring the project sites) showed that over 90% of the respondents in the project sites attested to receiving information on banana agronomy. The most common sources of information were NARO/project staff, demonstration plots, radio programmes, farmer meetings, and extension agents in that order. Adoption of promoted technologies was observed both in the project sites and the neighbouring villages, although there was a significantly higher number of adopters in the project sites compared to those in the neighbourhood across the board. Compared to baseline, uptake of pest control practices and soil fertility management by farmers in the project site increased by 25% and 21% respectively.The broad aim of the campaigns was to deliver information to enable the adoption of proven SAI practices and technologies at scale. The effectiveness of the campaigns was examined using two criteria: (1) the number of farmers reached with information on SAI practices and technologies, and (2) the success of the campaigns in influencing uptake of promoted SAI practices and technologies. It is acknowledged, however, that comparison between the different campaigns discussed above is challenging as each had its own unique set of assumptions, target audience, criteria, and methodology for measuring success. The studies relied on information reported by farmers before and after participation in the campaigns and did not make an actual comparison between those who participated and those that did not (control) which may lead to bias in the reported adoption rates for farmers. On the other hand, the existence of social relations in communities contributes to unofficial communication patterns, which may amplify messages beyond the target areas. Given these scenarios, our estimate of reach may not be accurate but provides a practical approach to reach estimation based on the type of channel used, and subsequently points to the ability of campaigns to reach scale in comparison to conventional extension approaches.Evaluation of the various campaigns shows that they contributed to increased awareness and knowledge about promoted technologies, in some cases leading to significant adoption rates. Hampson et al. (2018) showed that the common bean campaign led to 20% of the farmers reached applying at least one improved technology. This adoption rate compares favourably to reported adoption rates for the training and visits extension approach: 1% to 7% for complex technologies that required the purchase of inputs, and between 11% and 21% for simple technologies that do not require the purchase of inputs (Akpoko & Kudi, 2007). Extension approaches with high adoption rates such as farmer field schools (reported 20% to 60% rate) are criticized for their high cost of administration and limited farmer reach compared to other approaches (Quizon et al., 2001). While costs associated with campaign approaches used were not explicitly examined, some studies have shown that mass media approaches (e.g. mobile, print, and radio) have the lowest per farmer cost and due to the low cost of these programmes, have an associated high reach potential (Harris et al., 2012;Kansiime et al., 2017;Ricker-Gilbert et al., 2008).A multi-channel approach leveraged complementarities of mass media (such as radio, SMS, and social media), one-to-many interpersonal approaches (such as group screenings of videos and demonstration plots), and one-to-one interpersonal approaches (such as VBAs). Although the effectiveness of actual channel combinations was not easily assessed, evaluation results showed that exposure to multiple communication approaches was associated with increased uptake of promoted technologies. Silvestri et al. (2020) showed a higher awareness and adoption of legume practices when SMS was combined with radio programming. Similarly, Musebe et al. (2019) showed a positive contribution of multimedia messages to productivity and diversity in the practices taken up by farmers. Similar results have been reported in other studies, for example (Tambo et al., 2019) showed that exposure to multiple campaign channels yielded significantly higher outcomes than exposure to a single channel, with some evidence of additive effects. In particular, combining radio with video screenings almost doubled the levels of awareness of fall armyworm and its management and doubled the number of practices used by farmers. Karubanga et al. (2016) showed greater potential for integration of video-mediated extension and face-to-face extension approaches as the two are complementary in the various stages of the farmer learningawareness creationknowledge acquisition and retention respectively.The ASHC campaigns differed based on the intensity and clarity of the message, channel used, and technologies being promoted. Some approaches were particularly strong in creating awareness and providing information (e.g. radio) while others in skills development and facilitating uptake of technologies especially complex ones e.g. demonstration plots. Kansiime et al. (2020) showed that demonstration plots and agro-dealers were important information sources in promoting production inputs and more recently introduced practices (such as soil testing, use of inoculants, and PICS bags) that require hands-on skills, while Ragasa et al. (2021) showed that radio programmes helped in promoting the adoption of crop diversification and intensity of adoption of crop residue incorporation only, considerably simple technologies as opposed to technologies that would be seen as complex or too labour-intensive. Also, Ragasa et al. (2021) showed that radio programming had strong positive impacts on technology awareness, but a limited impact on actual adoption. However, modified listening groups linked to radio programmes have been found to enable learning of technical concepts, and offer useful platforms that strengthen social capital and cooperation among listeners (Pasiona et al., 2021;Ragasa et al., 2021). Therefore exposure to multiple sources of information that combine virtual environments and interactive techniques should be promoted to enhance learning and increase knowledge retention as reported elsewhere (Ibrahim & Al-Shara, 2007).The ASHC campaign approach was responsive to the impact of differential access to and utilization of information by different farmer categories, as well as access and control of communication devices and preference of communication channels, by integrating methods that appealed to different gender groups and those that brought families and communities together e.g. video screenings. Men were more likely to listen to radio compared to women, while women tended to rely more on communitybased information sources such as demonstration plots, radio listening groups, and village video screenings. These differences in preference of information sources have been reported elsewhere (Ihm et al., 2015;Irungu et al., 2015), though not analogous due to impacts of other socio-cultural factors like education, workload and social networks (Ragasa et al., 2021;Tata & McNamara, 2018) on the use of technology and extension service delivery. To enhance learning and participation in extension programme for all segments of society, gender responsive extension approaches should be adopted.ASHC campaigns involved multiple stakeholders including the private sector and policymakers, which brought additional benefits for participating farmers. The linkages were also critical for ensuring sustainable access to information, services, and inputs by farmers. In Nigeria, linking the campaign activities to the government's Anchor Borrowers programme (an initiative that aims to improve the availability of inputs to soybean farmers through a concessionary loan scheme), enabled the ASHC team to increase the number of farmers reached in 2018-170,452, up from 30,582 farmers in 2017. In Tanzania, although it was widely known that farmers preferred a common bean variety that could only be obtained in Kenya, the SILT telephone survey interviews provided new insights into the scale of this farmer and market preferred bean variety being cultivated, even though it was not a registered variety in Tanzania. This evidence provided the impetus for a policy change that led to the registration of this preferred variety and to become legally available in Tanzania which is unlikely to have happened without this evidence being provided. In Ghana, the evidence generated by the analysis of the behaviour of farmers around inputs triggered collaboration between YARA Ghana, a fertilizer company, and the N2Africa project focused on Nitrogen fixation, which led to the development of a new fertilizer blend (New YARA Legume). Also, the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture included soybean in their Planting for Food and Jobs scheme and recognized inoculants and Pblended fertilizer for soybean to be effective and part of the key pool of inputs to be subsidized under this scheme.Development of relevant and localized content: The ASHC programme, through multi-partner processes, ensured the development of relevant content and fit-for-purpose information materials, informed by formative appraisals. The materials are freely available for use by stakeholders on the ASHC materials library (https://www.africasoilhealth.org/). The content was validated by stakeholders and then signed off by authorized government agencies before each campaign to ensure harmonized messaging. The need to develop relevant, localized, and scalable content that is user-cantered has been underscored in previous studies (Irungu et al., 2015;Saravanan, 2010;Steinke et al., 2020).Multi-partner approaches: ASHC developed and implemented a successful partnership model that helped mobilize at least 70 different agencies to participate in campaigns. This unique feat was achieved by recognizing and harnessing the different but complementary strengths of partners, which helped to sustain their interest over time and gave the much-needed momentum to deliver different campaigns for more than one season. Notably, the work under the banner of the Legume Alliance was important in bringing together stakeholders in the common bean and soybean value chains in Tanzania, Ghana, and Nigeria, facilitating joint activities, learning, and experience sharing. The model was developed through iterative learning and adjustment cycles working in an action research model and using mixed methods to evaluate and learn lessons. The collaboration also helped to promote a consistent message across all stakeholders and the community and assisted in the creation of a larger pool of funds available for promotional initiatives. The team worked to support scaling in other programmes including the Bill and Melinda Gates (BMGF) Foundation-funded N2 Africa and banana agronomy initiatives; the World Bank-funded Agricultural Technology and Agribusiness Advisory Services (ATAAS) project implemented by NARO in Uganda and the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership in Africa (SSTP) in Tanzania, and the AGRA-funded Optimizing Fertilizer Recommendations in Africa (OFRA), among others.Deployment of innovative information channels targeting different audience categories: the ASHC programme integrated innovative and tailor-made approaches to enhance campaign efficiency. For example, some ASHC campaigns integrated community radio listening groups which facilitated communities outside the radio signal to access recorded radio programmes. The radio listening groups were organized alongside demonstration plots, facilitating knowledge exchange, and learning. Illustrative and fit-for-purpose printed materials also provided reference information for extension workers and community facilitators during face-to-face interactions, as well as farmers. Multi-channel approaches mediate and provide interfaces between human and nonhuman networks and support decision making, learning and innovation (Klerkx, 2021).The evidence emerging from multiple media, multipartner campaigns led by ASHC suggests that this approach offers advantages and benefits compared to other less coordinated approaches for reaching farmers at scale with information on improved practices and technologies in the broad context of sustainable agricultural intensification. The ASHC experience further highlights the effectiveness of campaigns as complements to more conventional extension programmes. This matches evidence from the human health and nutrition fields where these approaches are more common. However, adoption varies based on the nature of the practice or technology being promoted, farmer motivating factors such as access to input and output markets, farmer investment capacity, the value of the crop, etc. It can be argued; these factors generally influence adoption decisions as well and are not necessarily linked to the approach used to disseminate information. The wide array of technological options available and their interactions requires farmers to identify a logical stepwise sequence for adoption that fits their socio-economic circumstances. There is a need to provide more tailored information through a stepwise approach, i.e. presenting farmers with subsequent agronomic options that range from low to high investments and which is tied to farmers' investment capabilities, and demonstratable productivity gains. A stepwise investment can optimize the return on investment for farmers against their financial capacity and encourage them into a positive cycle of on-farm investment, provided the output markets hold up. ","tokenCount":"5954"}